A Prophetic History of the United States: 1492

All of the major events in U.S. history have occurred on known biblical time cycles. Knowing these time cycles will help us to understand America itself, our national purpose, and our destiny. As we study this little-known topic, we will obtain a better understanding of where we are today in this progression of prophetic history. That is the purpose of this series of articles.

We must begin this series with a study of the year 1492 and how it relates to biblical history. As most of you know, the year 1492 changed the course of history. It was the year that Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and landed on an island of the Bahamas which he named El Salvador. He then proceeded to discover (and claim for Spain) many other islands of the Caribbean.

The expedition had two purposes: religious and economic. One was to convert the natives to the Roman Church; the other was to find gold for Spanish coffers. The result, whatever the original intent, was the extermination of the vast majority of the natives. In fact it was so bad that a century later, in the struggle between the Jesuits and King Henry IV, Antony Armaud of Paris used this sordid fact to show the true character of the Jesuits. Cormenin's 1850 "History of the Popes," Vol. II, p. 275 records part of the speech:

"It is time that the world had learned to know the Jesuits," exclaimed the eloquent advocate, in the warmth of his discourse; "it is time that the nations were doing justice on these sanguinary vampyres who hover over our heads and are making ready to devour us. People, learn that these execrable props of the pope wish to do in France as they have done in America, where twenty millions of men, women, and children have been polluted, burned, or murdered under the pretext of religion. Learn that their love for gold is as insatiable as their thirst for blood, and that they have depopulated whole islands to assuage their cupidity--forcing men to bury themselves alive in the mines, and contraining women to labour on the land red with the blood of their children.

"Learn that they are the inventors of those new tortures which they have made four thousand men undergo at once, who remained exposed for whole months to all the inclemencies of the seasons, attached to each other by iron chains, entirely naked, and whipped three times a day until they shall point out the place where supposed treasures are concealed; and as these unfortunate men have nothing to discover, they become enraged at them and kill them by blows of clubs; so that these unfortunate Indians, in order to escape the barbarity of the Jesuits, fly to the mountains, where, in despair, they hang themselves in the trees of the forst with their wives and children."

Cormenin himself comments on this: "The Jesuits, unable to free themselves from all these charges, which had been sustained by incontestable witnesses and irresistible proofs, turned towards Rome and besought Clement the Eighth to interfere in the quarrel."

Our question, though, is how 1492 was significant in Bible prophecy. The roots of this date go back to Noah's curse upon Canaan in the year 1660 (years from Adam). This put Canaan on Cursed Time, as I explained in my book, "Secrets of Time," chapter 4. Cursed Time is a period of 414 years (or a multiple of 414). In this case, Canaan was then brought into judgment 2 x 414 years later in the year 2488 (from Adam). This is when Joshua entered Canaan and brought judgment upon those people.

But this did not end the problem, because killing Canaanites did not really bring the solution either. As I have shown in other writings such as "The Laws of Spiritual Warfare," Israel had rejected the spiritual sword when they refused to hear the Holy Spirit at Mount Sinai (Ex. 20:18-21) on that first day of Pentecost. If they had been able to overcome their fear, they would have fulfilled the day of Pentecost as in Acts 2. But they did not, and so Pentecost was delayed another 1500 years, and they were left only with a physical sword with which to conquer Canaan.

In the New Testament, the greater "Joshua" (Yashua, or Jesus) foresaw the day of Pentecost when He told His disciples in Mark 16:15, 16,

"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."

This command runs directly parallel to the Old Testament method of dealing with the Canaanites under the first Joshua. The difference is in the type of weapon used. A physical sword can only separate head from body; a spiritual sword, as described in Heb. 4:12,

"For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, can separate soul and spirit and can discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Now THAT is a sharp sword. As Christians in the New Testament era, we have a much sharper sword than the people did under Joshua.

The problem is, the Church largely lost that Sword through the centuries. They ceased to have the ability to hear the voice of God, and except for some individual believers, the Church itself (the institution and leaders) ceased to be truly led by the Holy Spirit.

The most glaring evidence of this is in the simple fact that they felt it necessary to take up the physical sword to convince men of the "orthodox truth." They were not alone, of course, for many religions and philosophies have done this throughout history. But Christians are without excuse, because their Founder taught no such thing. In fact, He clearly taught the very opposite.

By the time we came to the year 1492, the Roman Church was long settled in their opinion that the force of the sword was necessary when the power of the Spirit was lacking. In my opinion, if the Church had remained as vibrant and alive as in the first century, the physical sword would have been completely unnecessary. People would have been converted by the evidence of divine power, not by force or torture.

Now here is the connection: from Joshua's entry into Canaan to the year 1492 A.D. was ANOTHER 7 x 414 YEARS.

And so in the year 1492 we saw the Church being given opportunity to preach the gospel to all creation, but they had long lost their New Testament swords. Thus, they used their physical swords, which brought massacres instead of genuine conversion by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thus, while the year 1492 had the potential to begin a new era of bringing the Gospel of Peace to the rest of the world, man had largely lost the ability to do that work properly. Years later, when the United States became a nation, they improved somewhat on the Jesuit method of conversion, particularly among the Puritans and Quakers, who were peace-loving people. Unfortunately, the United States government was not as Christian and broke countless treaties with the Indian population. Its generals were usually more skilled with physical swords than with spiritual swords, and blood flowed freely.

Thus, the settlement of this "New World" was a "mixed bag" at best. I believe that this nation had--and still has--a calling, but we will not be able to fulfill this destiny apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe also that no nation can fulfill such a destiny unless it is ruled by the manifested sons of God, for without proper leadership, our efforts will always be in vain.