Watchman on the Wall

Guest (Male): Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. God is still on the throne, and prayer changes things. Welcome to a brand new week of bringing clarity to the chaos. This week, Josh Davis will reveal the latest headlines from the end times. Dr. Lonnie Shipman will help us honor the 500th anniversary of William Tyndale. In today, Columbus Day, we're going to learn about the real Christopher Columbus from historian Bill Federer. 10 days, that's all that's left before Prophecy in the News Live comes to Bristol, Virginia. And if you haven't registered, now is the time.

October 22nd through the 24th, that's 3 days with 3 distinct themes, apologetics, Bible prophecy, and mysteries of the Bible verse. You'll hear from Josh Davis, Micah Van Huss, Mac Dominic, Mark Lindsted, Larry Stamm, Dr. Kenneth Hill, Dr. Lonnie Shipman, and more. This is our final conference of the year, so don't miss it. Seats are limited. The countdown is on, and we need you to register today. Go to swrc.com right now or call 1-800-652-31144. October 22nd through the 24th at exit 7 in Bristol, Virginia. 10 days to go, so get your tickets now. Today is Columbus Day, but how much of what we think we know about Christopher Columbus is actually true?

Historian and best-selling author Bill Federer joins us today to separate fact from fiction and uncover the faith, motivations, and remarkable story of the real Christopher Columbus. Here's Dr. Larry Spargimino with Bill Federer.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: We're going to start the week with an old friend of this ministry, a dynamic speaker who has been a blessing to the church. His name is Bill Federer. I've read a lot of books, and I've listened to a lot of speakers, but Bill Federer shines. He really does. He has a fantastic memory. Once he gets started talking about God and country, he has just a never-ending flow of information. I want to share with you how Bill Federer has ministered personally to me. Many years ago in the 1990s, Southwest Radio Church aired programs with Dr. Noah Hutchings and Bill Federer.

They were talking about Bill Federer's book, knew at that time, America's God and Country quotations. I was not with Southwest Radio Church at that time, but I was an avid listener to WHCB Radio 91.5 FM in Bristol, Tennessee, the Tri-Cities area. You know, I listened to those programs that Dr. Hutchings did with Bill Federer. What a blessing. That was the time when many were doubting our roots as Americans in the word of God, and I was amazed from Bill Federer's quotations from his knowledge of the word of God and from his knowledge of the founders of America, his impeccable research, his knowledge of the Bible, and what motivated the founders.

It was such a blessing to me. As Americans, we do have Christian roots. Everything that you and I love about America can be traced back to our godly roots into the word of God. I guess we want to get real basic. Who were the pilgrims and what was so treacherous about the 16th century?

Bill Federer: Well, the pilgrims were separatists from the Church of England, and they lived at a time when the government decided what everybody had to believe. I know it's sort of hard for us to imagine that you would have a government tell you what you can and cannot believe, but Anyway, a little background to how they came into being. The Muslims had conquered Greece. They conquered North Africa. Matter of fact, when they conquered Egypt, they destroyed the oldest library in the world. They're in Cairo. They conquered Jerusalem, and then they conquered North Africa, and then they conquered Spain.

Well, as the Muslims were conquering into Greece, the Greek scholars were fleeing west, and they were taking their Greek art and architecture. So this flood of Greek stuff into Europe, we call the Renaissance. And then the scholars fled with their Greek New Testaments. And so now for the first time in a 1,000 years, the Western scholars like Erasmus can translate the Bible not just from Latin, but from Greek. And this reinterest in the original Greek language lays the foundation for the Reformation. And so a little background The Reformation is where Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses or debate questions on the door of the Wittenberg Church.

And some German princes had been wanting to break away from Rome, and so they said, okay, kingdom of mine, you're all now Lutheran and But it began to be this situation mounting in Europe where the Holy Roman Empire was having internal crises, and then the Muslims invade. And so in 1529, 100,000 Muslims surround Vienna, Austria under Suleiman the Magnificent. And the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor is Charles V of Spain. He's now faced with a double dilemma. This Reformation started in 1517 by Martin Luther, and now 1529, 100,000 Muslims surrounding Vienna. He tries for several years to try to stop it, but it gets so serious of an Islamic invasion that he decides to make a deal with the Protestants, with the Lutherans.

And it's called the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. It's the first treaty ever to recognize Protestants. And in this treaty is a little Latin phrase that had enormous repercussions. The phrase was which means who is his the reign, his is the religion. In other words, look, Protestant king kings, believe whatever you want in your kingdoms. Let's just work together against these Muslims who are invading Europe because they want to kill us all. Anyway, it worked. It stopped the Islamic invasion, but in the next century, different kings believed different things. And each country had its own denomination.

You know, where you had the Scotland was Presbyterian, Holland was Dutch Reformed, Northern Germany and Sweden were Lutheran, Switzerland was Calvinist, and Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Poland, Ireland remained Catholic, and England became Anglican. And so the pilgrims were a branch off of the Anglican Church. So that's a a long answer to a short question, but it at least gives a little bit of a setting to where these pilgrims were, the situation that was building up of the Islamic threat on one side, but then these kings wanting you to believe the way they wanted on the other side.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: Well, how did the kings, for example, of Spain, France, and England and the Turkish sultans dominate people's lives? What what do they do? How how do they work that out?

Bill Federer: Well, this is pretty interesting. So the king of Spain, Charles V, was the Holy Roman Emperor, and he's the the most powerful guy in in the world, right? So the king Ferdinand and then Queen Isabella sent Columbus to America. They have a daughter that is Joanna, and she marries the you know, the prince of Austria, Philip. Anyway, but she's considered Joanna the Mad. That's what they named her. And so she sort of deposed Well, their son is Charles V. And so Charles V of Spain sort of unites the Austrian Empire and the Spanish Empire, and then he has all the New World.

He's really really powerful. He's fighting France and actually captures the king of France, Francis I. And so Francis I writes to his mother, I've lost all save honor. And so after keeping him in prison for a while, the king of Spain says, look, if you surrender some of these territories that we've been disputing over and give up some lands here and there, I'll let you go. So Francis I agrees. He gets let go. And what does he do? Now that he 's free, he makes a treaty with Spain's biggest enemy, the Ottoman Empire. So now you have France becoming friends with the Ottoman Turks and helping to upgrade their military and so on.

And so this causes Charles V to have to split his resources. You know, now he's got, you know, more enemies. And so this allows the Muslim sultan to capture all of Hungary and kill the king of Hungary, Lewis, King Lewis of Hungary. And so you begin to see this dissension. It's sort of political, you know. You have maybe Democrats and Republicans, and one party thinks, hey, if I side with the Muslims, that'll help me to have an advantage against this other party, not realizing that Islam has its own agenda, and they'll use you as much as they think they can use you.

Well, so this is the the setting. But kings and sultans decided what was going to be believed in their kingdom. They call it the divine right of kings where the creator gives the power to the king, and he dispenses it to these underlings called subjects. Same thing in the Ottoman Empire, the sultan claimed to be a successor of the messenger of Allah. And so his will was the law, and if you could buck him, you're bucking Allah and you get killed. So the kings determined what was going to be believed in their kingdoms. And now a little bit of background's necessary.

When the Muslims were invading Greece and destroying their libraries and artworks and all the Greek scholars were fleeing west, this started the Renaissance. But in 1453, the Muslims conquered Constantinople. And this ends the land trade routes to get from Europe to India and China. People forget that Marco Polo, 2 centuries earlier, you know the game the kids play around the pool, Marco Polo, he went from Venice, Italy to China in 1271. He brings back to Europe stories of gunpowder, thread from worms, silkworms, China plates. The Chinese invented the process that made the porcelain plates and had a monopoly on the process for 2 centuries.

China invented the wheelbarrow, the compass, the Pony Express, the piñata, and the Chinese invented paper from tree pulp. And what did they print with paper? Currency. So instead of using papyrus reeds from the Nile or where we actually get the word paper comes from papyrus. Instead of that for the source of paper, it was this tree pulp, and it came from China. And China printed currency. And so if you have currency in your wallet, the first paper currency in the world was China. Unfortunately, they printed too much of it, and that helped the the Yuan dynasty to collapse.

That's why they call their currency the Yuan because it came from the Yuan dynasty. But so the Europeans wanted to trade with India and China because it was technologically superior. And India had teas, dyes, and spices. But when the Muslims conquered Central Asia and sacked Constantinople in 1453, it ends ends the land trade routes, and that's when Columbus set sail looking for a sea route. And so so it's important to understand. So Spain is the one who sent Columbus to America. And so Spain has a monopoly on the New World for a century. And it's all theirs of like, you know, like for 1565, some French Protestants wanted to settle in Florida near Jacksonville, and the Spanish basically butcher them.

And so so no other countries of Europe wanted to set foot on the New World, so they had their monopoly. And And And so it's interesting. In my book, I bring out all these attempts of Spain to settle North America. Now they settled Central and South America primarily because there was gold and silver. The mountain in Peru called the Potosí and that's where they got silver from. But they looked around North America, and they really didn't find any gold or silver. But they did have major settlements that failed. So one was around Paris Island, South Carolina.

600 Spaniards come over. I mean, there was only 102 pilgrims. I mean, this is a major attempt. And they have Indian attacks and malaria and, you know, the real cold winters, and the captain of the expedition dies. 100 of the African slaves they brought over run off and live with the natives. They consider those the first non-American people to assimilate where these 100 Africans that came over. And one story that I just have to throw in here is when there was a Spanish guy named and he was going to settle around Tampa, Florida. And he has among others on his ship a guy named Cabeza de Vaca.

Well, there's hurricanes. Their ships are smashed and land on the coast. And so they end up wandering around. There's 400 of them. They wander around on wild goose chases, and the Indians ambush them and kill a bunch. So now there's 80 of them. And they're back where their ships were, at the wrecks. And they try to rebuild rafts out of the wreckage. They even take deer skins and pieces of wood, and they make bellows where you can blow the air through. And so they blow the fire to make it really hot, and they can melt the iron fashion into nails.

And then they nailed their little rafts together. And there's like a half dozen rafts, and they float along the coast of you know, the Gulf of Mexico, trying to get back to Mexico and eventually Mexico City. And they reached the mouth of the Mississippi River. And they're suddenly swept hundreds of miles out, and none of them were seen again except one. One shipwreck near what is present-day Galveston. And they're arrested and enslaved by the Indians. And 4 of them escape, and 1 of them is Cabeza de Vaca. And guess what? He travels for the next 8 years through Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and so forth.

And he prays for the Indians, and he preaches the gospel. And he not only prays for the Indians, but the reports are that a lot of them got healed. And so he got the reputation as a faith healer, sort of a holy man. And none of the Indians would touch him, and they gave him red carpet carpet treatment. So here he is traveling all around. You know, he finally makes it back to Mexico City in 1536. And later, around 1540, he sent to settle Buenos Aires, Argentina. So fascinating story. I just I had to throw that one in.

But the Spaniards tried to settle America. They had Hernando a de Soto wandering around. He ends up dying, and they bury his body body in the Mississippi River. There's Coronado out west. There is Ponce de León going around Florida looking for the Fountain of Youth. None of these can actually settle North America. And so there is a story that I I throw in. The Spaniards Columbus was a Genoese. He was not Spanish. And so immediately after he comes back after the first voyage with all the reports of the New World in the gold and the Indians being peaceful, the Spaniards get jealous of Columbus.

And so he wanted to do another He he thought he was this close to China and India. He 's wandering around Cuba with a letter from the king of Spain to the grand khan of China. I mean, he thinks he's this close. But instead of exploring the second voyage, he saddled with 17 ships, 2,000 get-rich-quick Spaniards. And his hands are tied. He's like, I want to get out there and and and explore, and now I now they they settle. He's not really good at being an administrator. And with hurricanes and Indian attacks and malaria, the Spaniards get upset at Columbus.

He basically caves and lets them set up the feudal system. So in Europe, you had the system where you had a feudal lord. You had a big plot of land. Whatever peasants were on there, they were tied to the land, and they sort of worked as servants for the feudal lord. And so Columbus let them set this up in America where these Spanish, you know, settlers they get their plot of land. Whatever Indians are on it, they claim are theirs, and they put them to work unfortunately digging for gold. What happens is for about 50 years, the natives are enslaved, treated really bad.

But then there's a guy named Bartolomé de las Casas. He lives at the same time that Martin Luther lives. Martin Luther originally was a Catholic priest, and Bartolomé de las Casas is a Catholic priest. Anyway, Bartolomé de las Casas spends his whole life trying to get the king of Spain to outlaw the enslavement of Native Americans. And when he's finally successful, that's when the greedy guys say, well, gee, if we can enslave Native Americans, where can we get slaves? And someone said Africa. And so that began the African slave trade where the Spaniards and later Portuguese would go to the Muslim slave markets, and they would buy Africans from the Muslims.

You know, there was big Timbuktu was a big slave trading city where the Niger River the river meets the caravan. And And then, you know, all across Africa, there was Khartoum was a big Muslim slave trading city and the Zanzibar coast, Tanzania. Well, there were dozens of these And so the Europeans bought the Africans from the Muslims. And so that's sort of a chapter that's left off and left out. Well, these Arab Europeans in the slave trade Well, they they were bought from Muslims who because Muhammad was a white Arab, and he owned Africans. Anyway, so so the same time that Bartolomé de las Casas is working to free the slaves that who were Native Americans, you have Martin Luther over in Europe beginning the Reformation.

So uh it's sort of interesting. Bartolomé de las Casas was upset at the mass conversions. He says you're you know, we're converting them so much, you know, from the Virgin of Guadalupe picture and so forth, and that you're not adequately explaining the faith to them. And so he actually had debates with other, you know, friars saying, you know, you need to explain the gospel before you baptize them. Another and he was arguing that the Native Americans were inferior humans, so it was okay to enslave them. And so they had these big debates where Bartolomé de las Casas says, no, they're human beings.

And And you read the debates, they're exactly like the pro-life debates today. Well, the babies are not fully human, therefore you can kill them, you know. And And so Anyway, but the Reformation takes place in Europe, and then you have John Wycliffe who wants to translate the Bible into English, but he was before the printing press. John Huss does the same thing in the Czech Republic, but the printing press comes along, and this allows Martin Luther's Reformation to spread. And so I'll pause here, but there's a bunch of stuff in my book on the invention of the printing press.

Guest (Male): We all know the story of the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, or do we? Before Plymouth Rock, there was a dangerous world of powerful kings, religious persecution, global empires, war, and tyranny, a world where simply practicing your faith could cost you your freedom or your life. In the treacherous world of the 16th century and how the pilgrims escaped it, historian Bill Federer takes you back to the incredible events that set the stage for the pilgrims' journey to America. Discover the Reformation, the Spanish Armada, the Ottoman Empire, the rise of the English Bible, the pilgrims' struggle for religious freedom, and the remarkable story of Squanto.

You'll discover that the freedoms we take for granted, speaking freely, participating in government, and worshiping God without fear of persecution, came at an extraordinary price. This isn't just the story of Thanksgiving, it's the prequel to America's freedom. Get Bill Federer's fascinating 200-page book today. Don't wait for Thanksgiving to rediscover this history. Order your copy right now at swrc.com or call 1-800-652-31144. Know the history, appreciate the freedom, and understand how America's story really began. 1-800-652-31144. There's a lot happening in our world right now, and plenty we need to talk about. Pastor Larry is back with Marvin Olasky to break down some of the most important news and bring biblical insight and perspective to the events unfolding around us.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: Do you think that an atheist might endorse Christianity? That's that's amazing. I think, you know, okay, I'm a Christian, I'm a friend of Christianity. I say good things about it. But how about an atheist who doesn't believe in the existence of God? Well, prominent atheist Richard Dawkins gave a wonderful testimony to Christianity. Dawkins is the guy who wrote The God Delusion. He admitted that, quote, there are no Christians as far as I know blowing up buildings. I'm not aware of any Christian suicide bombers. I'm not aware of any major Christian denomination that believes the penalty for apostasy is death.

In an interview with The Times of London, Dawkins even went on to admit he says, quote, I have mixed feelings about the decline of Christianity in so far as Christianity might be a bulwark against something worse, close quote.

Marvin Olasky: Friedrich Nietzsche is a good example of what happens when the bulwark is torn down. Nietzsche saw Christianity as a moral weakness which leads people to believe in equality. He had no place in his thinking for the foolish idea that men and women should be regarded as equals. He was quite insistent that the first step in the advancement of society is the destruction of the physically and mentally handicapped. His writings are replete with the death of God, the importance of moral relativism, Aryan racism, and the coming Hitler Superman who regarded Jews as vermin.

Bill Federer: Well, yeah, Marvin Nietzsche was a wild man. You know, he actually went insane at the end of his life. He went crazy. And I think Nietzsche is a good example of what's happening to our society. Okay, if we start thinking in a corporate sense like Nietzsche, we'll all go mad. Hey, maybe that's why there are so many killings. You ever think of that? But anyhow, that's another story. But Nietzsche is a good lesson for all of us. And take Yuri Gagarin. He lived from 1934 to 1968. He was the first human to journey into outer space.

He was quoted by Nikita Khrushchev, who was making an anti-God speech. Quote, Gagarin flew into space, but he didn't see any God there, Khrushchev approvingly said. Now whether or not Gagarin had actually made that statement has been questioned, but the statement illustrates the impossibility of disproving the existence of God. No human being can prove a universal negative. The way atheists claim to be scientifically oriented and claim that empirical evidence is on their side, atheism is an act of human arrogance, making an insane leap of faith into a dark void. I mean, how can any human being say there's no God anywhere because I've been in every part, in every realm, in every cell?

I mean, you know, maybe the atheist needs a new pair of glasses. If he put the glasses on, he might see God. Friends, you know, there are so many Christians today who are really worried about the atheist. Don't be worried about them. They don't have a lake to stand on. The reason why they are atheist is because they're in a war against God. There's no empirical proof. There's no evidence that God does not exist. In fact, all the evidence is on the side that God does exist. Furthermore, that he sent his only begotten son, who's a lover of the entire world, whatever your color, he loves people.

We have proof.

Marvin Olasky: Americans choose the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific as a testing ground for 67 nuclear detonations from 1946 to 1958 causing human and environmental catastrophes that persist to this day. The Marshall Islands are situated between Hawaii and Australia. Many of them are still uninhabitable at the present time. The largest detonation was Castle Bravo and was more than 1,000 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the Castle Bravo device was detonated, it left a crater 0.9 miles wide and 246 ft deep.

Bill Federer: You know, Marvin Power often concentrates itself in the hands of a few individuals. Benjamin Franklin in his 1787 address to the Constitutional Convention warned, quote, there is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh, get first all the people's money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants forever. I am apprehensive that the government of the states may in future times end in monarchy, close quote.

Marvin Olasky: Pastor Larry, it seems that every Christian must be a person of faith and love. We need to be people who do good. We need to function as salt and light. Hebrews 6:10 says, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. That means God remembers the good things we do. We can provide hope and joy to someone.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: God remembers every time we have witnessed to someone, every time we reach out and bless someone. He remembers every prayer we've prayed for someone, every word of encouragement that we have spoken, every dollar we have sowed into the work of the kingdom. Yes, I want our listeners to remember, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work.

Guest (Male): At Southwest Radio Ministries, there are more ways than ever to stay connected to biblical truth. Listen to Watchman on the Wall every day on the radio, online, or on demand. Watch Prophecy in the News television and living on the front lines and learn with The Prophecy in the News magazine, The Prophetic Observer, articles, books, DVDs, and digital resources designed to take you deeper into God's word. It's all waiting for you at swrc.com. But after you listen, watch, and learn, there's one more thing we're asking you to do. Give. If this ministry is making a difference in your life, please help us make that same difference in someone else's.

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