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- The rise of this republic,
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known as the
United States of America,
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begins not in
Jamestown or Boston,
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or even at Plymouth Rock,
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but in places that
most people don't think of
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when they see the
stars and stripes.
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Still a distinctly
religious country to this day,
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the birth of this
nation is really the product
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of many long
centuries of religious struggle
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here in North America,
back in the old country,
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and even in the
Middle East and Asia.
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More than any other country,
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the story of America is
really the story of our world.
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[gentle music]
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[tense music]
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[tense music continues]
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[tense music continues]
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Chaos theory suggests that
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the mere flap of
a butterfly's wings
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can trigger a series
of consecutive events
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that lead to a major
disturbance like a hurricane
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clear over on the
other side of the planet.
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To really understand
where America comes from,
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who we are as a people,
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and where this
nation is headed next,
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you really have to account
for a lot of butterflies.
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Not that the rise of the
republic is the product of chaos
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or random chance mind you,
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because once you
pick up any number
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of the historical threads
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that lead to the Constitutional
Convention of 1787
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a pattern begins to
emerge that makes you wonder if
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maybe this was on purpose,
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maybe somebody
meant for this to happen.
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Many of the
people who were there
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certainly seemed to think so.
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- [Narrator] "It
becomes us humbly
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to approach the
throne of Almighty God,
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with gratitude and praise
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for the wonders which
is goodness has wrought
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in conducting our forefathers
to this western world;
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for his protection to them,
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and to their posterity
amid difficulties and dangers;
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for raising us, their
children, from deep distress
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to be numbered among
the nations of the earth."
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[gentle music]
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- So what remains to be seen
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is whether or
not they were right.
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Is this nation an accident
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or can we actually
trace the finger of providence
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from some point in
the distant past to now?
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And while we could
probably start our investigation
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at the very
beginning of the world
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because there are elements
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from the very ancient
past that do come into play,
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maybe the best place to start
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is with the fall of Jerusalem
to the Muslim General Saladin
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more than 800 years ago.
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[tense music]
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[tense music continues]
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[footsteps thumping]
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[crowd chattering]
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[tense music]
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This was not the first time
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the Holy City had
fallen to Muslim forces,
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and the first time
it triggered a response
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from Pope Urban II, who
launched the first crusade.
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With an appeal
to the 79th Psalm,
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which bemoans the
capture of Jerusalem
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by the Babylonians,
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crusaders eagerly made
their way to Palestine,
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and by 1099 the city
where Jesus had taught
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was firmly back
in Christian hands.
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[tense music]
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But it was to be a
short-lived victory
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because less than
a hundred years later
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the great Saladin started
picking off crusader settlements
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on his way to the ultimate
prize, the city of Jerusalem.
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And before long it was
again under Muslim control.
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That came as such a shock
to the Christians of the West
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that they were convinced it's
got to be a sign of the times
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and if God had
allowed the Holy City to fall,
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well, then it must
be a judgment for sin.
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That was at least the
opinion of Pope Gregory VIII.
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[tense music]
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- [Narrator] "Having
heard of the severity
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of the terrible judgment
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which the divine hand had
used over the land of Jerusalem,
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both we
ourselves and our brothers
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are so confused with horror
and afflicted with such sorrow,
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that it is not
easy for us to discern
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how we are to act
or what we are to do."
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- Maybe God's people
had been acting badly.
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Maybe the Christian Church
itself had become corrupt.
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Maybe God was using the Muslims
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to teach his church a lesson
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the way he'd used the
Babylonians in the past.
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This sparked a new wave of
preaching in Western Europe
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focused on repentance
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but it also
focused on the possibility
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that they were
witnessing last day events
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that would bring the rise
of antichrist, a final battle,
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and the end of the world.
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To some
people's way of thinking,
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the Muslims seemed like a
prime candidate for antichrist
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and the
Christians, of course, would be
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the last day army
that defeated them
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and ushered in the
second coming of Christ.
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Suddenly Jerusalem
became not just the place
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where Jesus had been
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but the place where Jesus
would return to judge the world,
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if only they could liberate it.
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[tense music]
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The events of the
next three centuries
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underscored the conviction
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that the end of
the world had come.
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They knew from
the words of Jesus
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that one of the key
conditions that had to be met
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before the second coming
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was the preaching of the
gospel to the whole world.
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So, in the middle of the 1200s,
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two Franciscan
missionaries made their way
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into the heart of Asia
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where they hoped to
convert the Grand Khan
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and enlist his help
in defeating the Muslims.
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A few years later, a Venetian
merchant named Marco Polo
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made the same journey
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to meet with the grandson
of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan,
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hoping that he would convert,
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and of course he did not.
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Then the signs of the end
really started to pile up.
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[tense music]
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A devastating
famine swept across
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the European continent in 1315,
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quickly followed
by the black plague,
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which wiped out as much
as a third of the population,
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up to 50 million people.
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Then in 1378, there was a
sudden split in the papacy
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when Urban VI moved back to
Rome from Avignon in France,
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and the French
elected a second pope
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to fill his now empty seat.
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It was known as the Great Schism
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and it was yet
another tumultuous sign
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that the end must be near.
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Then came the big
blow that shook the world.
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The sudden disappearance
of the Roman Empire.
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[tense music]
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In the West, the
Empire had long ago collapsed
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back and 476 A.D.,
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when the last
Western emperor was deposed.
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That half of the
empire had been carved up
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among the
various barbarian tribes
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that eventually gave rise to
the nations of Western Europe.
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But in the East, the
glory of Rome continued
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for almost
another thousand years
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headquartered in Constantinople.
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[tense music]
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Over the years,
the Byzantine Empire,
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as the Eastern Empire was known,
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had shrunk to the point
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where the city was
practically the whole thing.
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It was surrounded
by the Ottoman Turks.
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Fortunately, the city had
proven itself unconquerable
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because just
like Babylon of old,
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the walls were
completely undefeatable.
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That is until the
invention of the cannon.
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[tense music]
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In 1453, a young sultan
by the name of Mehmed II
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pulled up outside the city
with a 27-foot monster cannon
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capable of launching 1,500
pound cannon balls up to a mile.
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The Turks laid siege
to the city for 53 days
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and nearly failed.
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But on May 29th,
1453, the city fell.
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So
Constantinople became Istanbul,
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the new capital
of the Ottoman Empire
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and Hagia Sophia, the largest
Christian church in the world,
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now became a mosque.
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[tense music fades]
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And that's the reason
that Christopher Columbus
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set sail for the New World.
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Now, what many of
us were told in school
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was that a superstitious and
ignorant Western Christianity
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mistakenly
believed the Earth was flat
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and Columbus was
trying to prove it was round.
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By that account,
Columbus would be numbered
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with the likes of
Copernicus and Galileo,
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who also rattled the
cosmological view of the church
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a few years later
in the 16th century.
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But that just isn't true.
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There might have been
a few ignorant peasants
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who thought the world
was flat in Columbus' day
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but the truth is
we'd already known
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the Earth was
round for many centuries.
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You see, some 500
years before Christ,
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the Greeks had
already figured out
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that the Earth was a sphere.
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They just didn't know
exactly how big it was
00:10:05.40\00:10:08.00
until the Greek mathematician
by the name of Eratosthenes
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calculated the
circumference in 240 B.C.,
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and he did it by simply
placing a stick in the ground.
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What he'd noticed
was that at 12 noon
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on the summer
solstice in the city of Syene,
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the sun was directly overhead.
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He knew that because
when you looked down a well
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at that precise moment,
00:10:30.53\00:10:32.03
your head completely blocked
the reflection of the sun.
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So on another
solstice again at 12 noon
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he put a stick in the ground
in the city of Alexandria,
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5,000 stadia to the north,
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and of course, the
stick cast a shadow
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because the sun was no
longer directly overhead
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and the angle of that shadow
was seven degrees 12 minutes.
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And seven degrees 12 minutes
is roughly 1/50th of a circle.
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So using that information
00:11:01.96\00:11:03.19
he could calculate the
size of the whole sphere
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and come up with the
circumference of the planet.
00:11:05.96\00:11:09.26
Now, we're not quite sure
00:11:09.26\00:11:10.73
how big his units of
measurement actually were,
00:11:10.73\00:11:13.40
but we do know that he
came very close to the truth.
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In fact, he might've
gotten within 100 miles.
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Then we had the
work of Poseidonius
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who used the stars to
make a similar calculation
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and he got a
nearly identical result.
00:11:27.35\00:11:30.52
But then his work was revised
00:11:30.52\00:11:32.69
by the famous
astronomer, Ptolemy,
00:11:32.69\00:11:34.66
who made a mistake
00:11:34.66\00:11:36.96
and
underestimated the circumference
00:11:36.96\00:11:38.69
by several thousand miles.
00:11:38.69\00:11:40.60
But the fact remains,
00:11:40.60\00:11:42.13
we have known the Earth is
round for a very long time.
00:11:42.13\00:11:46.77
So Columbus knew that
the Earth was a sphere
00:11:46.77\00:11:49.90
because everybody with an
education already knew that.
00:11:49.90\00:11:53.44
In fact, we think he
had the Ptolemaic numbers,
00:11:53.44\00:11:56.68
which means that he
actually thought the planet was
00:11:56.68\00:11:59.08
a little smaller
than it actually is
00:11:59.08\00:12:01.48
but he knew that it was round
00:12:01.48\00:12:02.98
so that cannot be the
reason he took three ships
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and supposedly sailed
off the edge of the world.
00:12:05.69\00:12:09.19
The reason we believe
that fable is because,
00:12:09.19\00:12:12.56
well, Washington Irving,
the famous American writer,
00:12:12.56\00:12:15.63
slipped that bit of nonsense
into his fictionalized account
00:12:15.63\00:12:18.87
of the life of Columbus in 1828.
00:12:18.87\00:12:22.14
In his version,
before Columbus sailed,
00:12:22.14\00:12:24.84
a panel of scholars at
Salamanca questioned his sanity.
00:12:24.84\00:12:29.04
Let me read it to you.
00:12:29.04\00:12:30.21
"Columbus was assailed
with citations from the Bible
00:12:31.55\00:12:34.65
the Book of
Genesis, the Psalms of David,
00:12:34.65\00:12:37.09
the Prophets, the
epistles, and the gospels.
00:12:37.09\00:12:40.36
To these were
added the expositions
00:12:40.36\00:12:42.32
of various saints and
reverend commentators:
00:12:42.32\00:12:45.06
St. Chrysostome
and St. Augustine,
00:12:45.06\00:12:47.40
St. Jerome and St. Gregory,
00:12:47.40\00:12:49.23
St. Basil and St. Ambrose.
00:12:49.23\00:12:51.73
Doctrinal points were mixed up
00:12:52.80\00:12:54.30
with philosophical discussions,
00:12:54.30\00:12:56.64
and a mathematical demonstration
was allowed no weight,
00:12:56.64\00:13:00.81
if it appeared to clash
with a text of scripture,
00:13:00.81\00:13:03.95
or a commentary of
one of the fathers."
00:13:03.95\00:13:07.12
He kinda makes it sound like
00:13:08.48\00:13:10.82
the inquisition was
cross-examining Columbus
00:13:10.82\00:13:13.49
trying to prove him a heretic.
00:13:13.49\00:13:15.56
And as Columbus
tries to defend himself,
00:13:15.56\00:13:18.23
a member of the
panel starts mocking him.
00:13:18.23\00:13:21.20
"Is there anyone
so foolish," he asks,
00:13:22.26\00:13:24.77
"as to believe that
there are antipodes."
00:13:24.77\00:13:27.47
Now, that's a point on
the other side of a globe.
00:13:27.47\00:13:29.77
"Antipodes with their
feet opposite to ours;
00:13:29.77\00:13:32.71
people who walk
with their heels upward,
00:13:32.71\00:13:34.54
and their heads hanging down?
00:13:34.54\00:13:36.81
That there is a
part of the world
00:13:36.81\00:13:38.88
in which all
things are topsy-turvy:
00:13:38.88\00:13:40.82
where the trees grow
with their branches downward,
00:13:40.82\00:13:43.45
where it rains,
hails and snows upward?
00:13:43.45\00:13:46.55
The idea of the
roundness of the Earth
00:13:46.55\00:13:48.96
was the cause of
inventing this fable."
00:13:48.96\00:13:51.56
The story makes for
great entertainment.
00:13:53.40\00:13:56.30
We love to think
of those old maps
00:13:56.30\00:13:59.53
with the inscription written
right on the edge of the world,
00:13:59.53\00:14:01.77
"Here there be dragons."
00:14:01.77\00:14:04.01
But in the case of
Columbus, it's just not true.
00:14:04.01\00:14:07.71
The real reason
that Columbus set sail
00:14:07.71\00:14:09.98
toward the setting sun
00:14:09.98\00:14:11.85
was the conquest
of Constantinople
00:14:11.85\00:14:14.45
and a growing conviction
that he had been called by God
00:14:14.45\00:14:18.32
to hasten the return of Christ.
00:14:18.32\00:14:20.66
You see, Columbus
was of the same mind
00:14:22.19\00:14:24.46
as the rest of Europe.
00:14:24.46\00:14:25.96
Something had to be
done to liberate Jerusalem
00:14:25.96\00:14:28.50
so that Jesus could
come and judge the nations.
00:14:28.50\00:14:31.93
Now, historically that
wasn't quite what Christians
00:14:31.93\00:14:34.30
had always taught but
the rapid spread of Islam
00:14:34.30\00:14:37.64
had made it seem
like good eschatology.
00:14:37.64\00:14:40.64
So what Columbus wanted to do
00:14:40.64\00:14:42.54
like the Franciscan
missionaries and Marco Polo
00:14:42.54\00:14:46.05
was to visit the Grand Khan
00:14:46.05\00:14:47.78
and convince him
to become a Christian.
00:14:47.78\00:14:50.72
Not only would that help
fulfill Jesus' prediction
00:14:50.72\00:14:53.12
that the gospel had to be
preached to the whole world,
00:14:53.12\00:14:56.06
but it would also mean
that the armies of Asia
00:14:56.06\00:14:58.86
could help them
liberate Jerusalem.
00:14:58.86\00:15:01.36
He had heard of
the Khan's fascination
00:15:01.36\00:15:03.23
with Christian belief,
00:15:03.23\00:15:04.37
and from the
writings of Marco Polo
00:15:04.37\00:15:06.37
he also knew that the
Khan was incredibly wealthy.
00:15:06.37\00:15:10.61
But how in the
world could he get there?
00:15:11.74\00:15:13.91
I mean, just look at the map.
00:15:13.91\00:15:17.18
Now that Constantinople
had fallen to the Ottoman Turks
00:15:17.18\00:15:20.78
and overland journey to Asia
seemed completely impossible
00:15:20.78\00:15:24.52
because now the Muslims
owned the whole Middle East.
00:15:24.52\00:15:27.86
And thanks to
the vibrant sea trade
00:15:27.86\00:15:29.56
which took a lot of ships
down the west coast of Africa,
00:15:29.56\00:15:32.39
he did know that you could
sail around the tip of Africa
00:15:32.39\00:15:36.73
and get to Asia like that.
00:15:36.73\00:15:38.90
But it was long,
it was expensive,
00:15:38.90\00:15:41.54
and it was dangerous.
00:15:41.54\00:15:43.24
So that left just one option.
00:15:43.24\00:15:46.07
You could sail to the
west around the planet
00:15:46.07\00:15:48.78
and reach the
Grand Khan that way,
00:15:48.78\00:15:51.08
and due to the fact
that ocean-going vessels
00:15:51.08\00:15:53.05
had been greatly improved
00:15:53.05\00:15:54.35
thanks to the maritime
battles of the Crusades,
00:15:54.35\00:15:57.25
the idea of sailing
right around the whole world
00:15:57.25\00:16:00.32
actually seemed feasible.
00:16:00.32\00:16:02.59
And he suspected that someone
may have already made the trip
00:16:03.99\00:16:07.60
in the opposite direction
00:16:07.60\00:16:09.00
because in 1477 on his way back
00:16:09.00\00:16:12.47
from an excursion to Iceland,
00:16:12.47\00:16:14.90
Columbus stopped in the
city of Galway in Ireland
00:16:14.90\00:16:18.17
where the locals had
made an amazing discovery.
00:16:18.17\00:16:20.84
Two dead bodies had
washed up on the beach
00:16:20.84\00:16:23.58
but they weren't
dead Irish sailors,
00:16:23.58\00:16:25.81
they weren't even European,
00:16:25.81\00:16:27.25
because they
looked distinctly Asian.
00:16:27.25\00:16:30.49
Columbus records his amazement
00:16:30.49\00:16:32.29
in the margin of one
of his favorite books
00:16:32.29\00:16:34.79
- [Narrator] Men of
Cathay have come from the west.
00:16:36.16\00:16:38.93
We have seen many signs.
00:16:38.93\00:16:40.96
And especially in
Galway in Ireland,
00:16:40.96\00:16:43.73
a man and the woman,
00:16:43.73\00:16:45.27
of extraordinary appearance
00:16:45.27\00:16:47.24
have come to land
on two tree trunks."
00:16:47.24\00:16:50.01
- Cathay, of course,
was the name for China
00:16:52.07\00:16:54.51
in the writings of Marco Polo.
00:16:54.51\00:16:57.25
And the odds
that these two bodies
00:16:57.25\00:16:59.15
were actually from
China was pretty remote.
00:16:59.15\00:17:02.72
But what if
they were the remains
00:17:02.72\00:17:03.99
of Inuit from North America
00:17:03.99\00:17:05.35
or even Native
Americans who had somehow
00:17:05.35\00:17:07.89
been delivered to Ireland
by the Atlantic currents?
00:17:07.89\00:17:11.33
We don't really know
00:17:11.33\00:17:12.86
but it was obvious that
someone had made it across
00:17:12.86\00:17:15.86
and that meant there
were obviously currents
00:17:15.86\00:17:18.07
that could take Columbus back
home if he chose to sail west.
00:17:18.07\00:17:22.37
If others had made it,
Columbus could make it.
00:17:22.37\00:17:24.64
He could sail to the
west and reach the Grand Khan.
00:17:24.64\00:17:28.08
There was one
little catch though.
00:17:28.08\00:17:30.51
Columbus had
greatly underestimated
00:17:30.51\00:17:33.15
the circumference of the planet,
00:17:33.15\00:17:35.32
probably thanks to Ptolemy
00:17:35.32\00:17:37.25
and an Arab
scholar named Al-Farghani
00:17:37.25\00:17:39.89
who placed the
distance at 20,000 miles.
00:17:39.89\00:17:44.09
But hidden in the missing
miles was a brand new continent
00:17:44.09\00:17:47.96
just waiting to be discovered.
00:17:47.96\00:17:49.66
Now, in truth, we
know that plenty of people
00:17:51.37\00:17:53.34
had discovered the Americas
00:17:53.34\00:17:54.84
because after all it was
populated when he arrived.
00:17:54.84\00:17:58.31
And we also
know that the Vikings
00:17:58.31\00:18:00.04
had discovered Newfoundland,
or what they called Vinland,
00:18:00.04\00:18:03.21
almost 500
years before Columbus.
00:18:03.21\00:18:06.38
And on top of that,
there's a pretty good chance
00:18:06.38\00:18:08.15
that 500 years
before the Vikings,
00:18:08.15\00:18:10.45
an Irish monk named
Brendan the Navigator
00:18:10.45\00:18:13.09
had also made it
to North America.
00:18:13.09\00:18:16.29
The truth is,
there were lots of people
00:18:16.29\00:18:18.56
who arrived before Columbus
00:18:18.56\00:18:21.20
but the voyage of
Columbus was different
00:18:21.20\00:18:23.53
because he was the
catalyst that opened up
00:18:23.53\00:18:25.30
the New World for
European settlement.
00:18:25.30\00:18:28.27
And you might be tempted to
write that off as coincidence,
00:18:28.27\00:18:30.87
as the product of chance,
00:18:30.87\00:18:32.97
but you would've never
convinced Columbus of that.
00:18:32.97\00:18:35.11
He was convinced that God
had sent him across the ocean
00:18:35.11\00:18:38.78
and almost from the very
moment he started hunting
00:18:38.78\00:18:41.08
for a new path to Asia,
00:18:41.08\00:18:42.92
he started scouring
the prophecies of the Bible
00:18:42.92\00:18:45.65
and any other source
he could get his hands on
00:18:45.65\00:18:48.46
in search of clues,
some kind of evidence
00:18:48.46\00:18:51.49
that what he was
planning would actually hasten
00:18:51.49\00:18:54.56
the coming of Christ.
00:18:54.56\00:18:56.03
And he found it.
00:18:57.53\00:18:58.80
By studying the
writings of Augustine in 1481,
00:18:58.80\00:19:02.60
he stumbled across the idea
00:19:02.60\00:19:04.11
that world history
might only last 7,000 years.
00:19:04.11\00:19:08.51
So beginning in
the Book of Genesis
00:19:08.51\00:19:10.15
he worked his way
through the various
00:19:10.15\00:19:11.61
genealogies and chronologies
00:19:11.61\00:19:13.72
and came to the
conclusion that the world was
00:19:13.72\00:19:15.95
5,241 years old.
00:19:15.95\00:19:18.89
That left 1,759 years
until Jesus would come.
00:19:18.89\00:19:23.96
Which gave him plenty of
time to liberate Jerusalem.
00:19:25.29\00:19:27.96
But then 20 years later,
00:19:27.96\00:19:29.10
after he'd already
been to the New World,
00:19:29.10\00:19:31.03
he did the math again.
00:19:31.03\00:19:32.50
And this time the
numbers came out differently.
00:19:32.50\00:19:35.60
Now there were only
155 years until the end.
00:19:35.60\00:19:39.71
What he had done by
discovering a distant land
00:19:39.71\00:19:42.48
had happened just in time.
00:19:42.48\00:19:45.28
He also discovered the writings
of a 12th century theologian
00:19:45.28\00:19:47.95
from Italy by the
name of Joachim of Flora,
00:19:47.95\00:19:51.35
who dedicated
himself to ferreting out the
00:19:51.35\00:19:53.89
secret meanings of
the Book of Revelation.
00:19:53.89\00:19:56.86
And in those works,
00:19:56.86\00:19:58.13
Columbus discovered an
all important statement.
00:19:58.13\00:20:01.76
It wasn't a biblical statement
00:20:01.76\00:20:03.87
but it had been written by
a famous Christian luminary
00:20:03.87\00:20:07.00
and it almost
took his breath away.
00:20:07.00\00:20:09.50
"Whoever rebuilt the temple
in Jerusalem," Joachim said,
00:20:09.50\00:20:12.94
"was going to come from Spain."
00:20:12.94\00:20:15.94
Could it be a coincidence
00:20:15.94\00:20:18.15
that his
expedition had been financed
00:20:18.15\00:20:20.65
by Ferdinand and Isabella
00:20:20.65\00:20:23.49
and that he had brought them
00:20:23.49\00:20:25.02
incredible wealth
from the New world,
00:20:25.02\00:20:28.12
enough wealth to finance
the liberation of the Holy land?
00:20:28.12\00:20:32.13
This is something we
definitely don't hear about
00:20:35.20\00:20:37.47
when we learn
about Columbus in school.
00:20:37.47\00:20:40.00
In fact, in recent years
00:20:40.00\00:20:41.44
we've painted him as
something of a moral monster
00:20:41.44\00:20:43.54
and people have tried to
wipe him from the history books.
00:20:43.54\00:20:46.84
And we should admit that
it's at least partially true.
00:20:46.84\00:20:50.31
We know that he
was a brutal governor
00:20:50.31\00:20:52.18
to the point where his
New World colonists complained
00:20:52.18\00:20:54.78
and had him taken back
to the old world in chains.
00:20:54.78\00:20:57.79
But at the same
time, we discover a man
00:21:00.62\00:21:02.92
with a profound allegiance
to his Christian faith,
00:21:02.92\00:21:06.29
no matter how misguided
it might've been at times.
00:21:06.29\00:21:09.36
And we also find a
man who had a keen sense
00:21:09.36\00:21:11.83
of prophetic destiny
00:21:11.83\00:21:13.77
and a deep
conviction that God himself
00:21:13.77\00:21:17.11
had compelled him to
sail across the ocean.
00:21:17.11\00:21:20.04
[uplifting music]
00:21:20.04\00:21:22.94
[waves crashing]
00:21:23.91\00:21:25.41
And it's that part of
the story that suggests that
00:21:25.41\00:21:27.52
maybe his discovery of the
New World wasn't an accident.
00:21:27.52\00:21:31.35
He was so
unwavering in his conviction
00:21:31.35\00:21:33.42
that God was telling him to go,
00:21:33.42\00:21:35.62
that some fringe historians
today have even suspected
00:21:35.62\00:21:39.03
that maybe he'd
already been to the New World
00:21:39.03\00:21:41.73
but he needed the authority
of a prince to claim it.
00:21:41.73\00:21:44.90
That's not what
Columbus said, though.
00:21:44.90\00:21:46.94
Most people don't realize this
00:21:46.94\00:21:48.50
but Columbus wrote a
rather extensive commentary
00:21:48.50\00:21:51.11
on the subject of Bible
prophecy after his third voyage
00:21:51.11\00:21:54.71
where he tells us exactly
what motivated him to go.
00:21:54.71\00:21:58.45
And at the
beginning of that volume
00:21:58.45\00:21:59.91
where he lays out
all the prophecies
00:21:59.91\00:22:01.65
he'd been studying in the Bible,
00:22:01.65\00:22:03.65
you find a letter to
Ferdinand and Isabelle
00:22:03.65\00:22:06.32
and this is what he says.
00:22:06.32\00:22:08.52
- [Narrator] "During this time
00:22:10.63\00:22:11.86
I have studied
all kinds of texts.
00:22:11.86\00:22:14.10
Through these writings, the
hand of our Lord opened my mind
00:22:14.10\00:22:17.27
to the possibility
of sailing to the Indies
00:22:17.27\00:22:19.90
and gave me the will
to attempt the voyage.
00:22:19.90\00:22:22.57
With this burning ambition,
I came to your Highnesses.
00:22:22.57\00:22:25.94
Who could doubt that
this flash of understanding
00:22:27.28\00:22:29.14
was the work of the Holy
Spirit, as well as my own?
00:22:29.14\00:22:33.18
The Holy Spirit illuminated
his holy and sacred Scripture,
00:22:33.18\00:22:36.92
encouraging me in a
very strong and clear voice,
00:22:36.92\00:22:40.02
urging me to proceed.
00:22:40.02\00:22:42.29
Continually,
without ceasing a moment,
00:22:42.29\00:22:44.93
they insisted that I go on."
00:22:44.93\00:22:46.86
- In a letter he wrote
to a friend of the queen,
00:22:48.26\00:22:49.90
Columbus said.
00:22:49.90\00:22:50.97
- [Narrator] "God
made me the messenger
00:22:52.13\00:22:53.57
of the new heaven
and the new earth,
00:22:53.57\00:22:55.60
of which we spoke in
the Apocalypse of St. John
00:22:55.60\00:22:58.27
after having spoken of
it by the mouth of Isaiah,
00:22:58.27\00:23:01.14
and he showed me
where to find it."
00:23:01.14\00:23:03.51
- He was convinced
beyond any shadow of doubt
00:23:04.81\00:23:07.72
that God had sent him to
discover these new lands.
00:23:07.72\00:23:11.22
To his way of thinking,
00:23:11.22\00:23:12.49
he'd carried the
gospel to an unentered region
00:23:12.49\00:23:15.19
and he discovered new wealth
00:23:15.19\00:23:16.99
that would finance a new
crusade against the Muslims
00:23:16.99\00:23:20.60
so that Jesus could come.
00:23:20.60\00:23:22.13
The events that took us
out of the medieval period
00:23:23.57\00:23:26.50
down to the time
of the Reformation
00:23:26.50\00:23:28.30
and then onto the
modern age were unquestionably
00:23:28.30\00:23:31.87
a part of the
Bible's prophetic plan.
00:23:31.87\00:23:34.48
From the collapse of the Western
Empire in the fifth century
00:23:34.48\00:23:37.35
to the fall of
Constantinople in the 15th,
00:23:37.35\00:23:40.32
students of the Bible
00:23:40.32\00:23:41.68
by looking back
through the quarters of time
00:23:41.68\00:23:44.15
have been able to see a
steady fulfillment of prophecy
00:23:44.15\00:23:47.56
driving us closer and
closer to the second coming.
00:23:47.56\00:23:51.49
This is one of
Columbus' favorite passages
00:23:51.49\00:23:54.00
from the Prophet Isaiah
00:23:54.00\00:23:55.90
and you can see
why he might like this.
00:23:55.90\00:23:58.33
- [Narrator] "They
shall lift up their voice,
00:23:59.67\00:24:01.77
they shall sing;
00:24:01.77\00:24:03.44
for the majesty of the Lord
00:24:03.44\00:24:05.27
they shall cry
aloud from the sea.
00:24:05.27\00:24:08.21
Therefore glorify the
Lord in the dawning light,
00:24:08.21\00:24:11.55
the name of the
Lord God of Israel
00:24:11.55\00:24:14.08
in the coastlands of the sea.
00:24:14.08\00:24:16.72
From the ends of the
Earth we have heard songs:
00:24:16.72\00:24:20.09
Glory to the righteous!"
00:24:20.09\00:24:22.12
- Careful
students of scripture today
00:24:24.73\00:24:26.96
have no doubt that
the voyages of Columbus
00:24:26.96\00:24:29.26
were a
fulfillment of Bible prophecy,
00:24:29.26\00:24:31.97
but not the way
Columbus thought.
00:24:31.97\00:24:34.24
And on the day he died in 1506,
00:24:34.24\00:24:36.27
there was no way he
could possibly have known
00:24:36.27\00:24:38.87
what he had just
done to move the world
00:24:38.87\00:24:41.88
that much closer
to its grand climax.
00:24:41.88\00:24:45.05
So, what does that have to do
00:24:45.05\00:24:46.92
with the birth of
the American Republic?
00:24:46.92\00:24:49.25
Buckle your seat belts.
00:24:49.25\00:24:50.72
We're just getting started.
00:24:50.72\00:24:52.22
[tense music]
00:24:53.09\00:24:55.66
[tense music continues]
00:25:00.90\00:25:04.27
[tense music continues]
00:25:08.84\00:25:12.27
[tense music continues]
00:25:16.88\00:25:19.01
- [Announcer] This
has been a broadcast
00:25:19.01\00:25:20.55
of the Voice of Prophecy.
00:25:20.55\00:25:22.68
To learn more about
how you can get a DVD copy
00:25:22.68\00:25:25.49
of "Final Empire" for yourself,
00:25:25.49\00:25:27.69
please visit FinalEmpireDVD.com
00:25:27.69\00:25:31.39
or call toll-free 844-822-2943.
00:25:31.39\00:25:35.63
[gentle dramatic music]
00:25:37.20\00:25:40.60
[gentle
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00:25:45.37\00:25:49.61
[gentle
dramatic music continues]
00:25:53.31\00:25:57.55
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dramatic music continues]
00:26:01.42\00:26:05.69
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00:26:09.36\00:26:13.60
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00:26:19.51\00:26:21.88
- [Announcer] Here at
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00:26:23.21\00:26:24.68
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00:26:24.68\00:26:27.12
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00:26:27.12\00:26:28.55
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00:26:28.55\00:26:31.69
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00:26:31.69\00:26:34.22
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00:26:34.22\00:26:36.52
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00:26:36.52\00:26:39.36
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00:26:42.16\00:26:44.67
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00:26:44.67\00:26:46.84
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00:26:46.84\00:26:50.21
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00:26:50.21\00:26:52.87
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00:26:53.68\00:26:55.68
- [Announcer] Are
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00:26:55.68\00:26:57.05
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00:26:57.05\00:26:59.25
like where is
God when we suffer?
00:26:59.25\00:27:01.48
Can I find real happiness?
00:27:01.48\00:27:03.65
Does my life
really matter to God?
00:27:03.65\00:27:06.19
Or is there any hope
for our chaotic world?
00:27:06.19\00:27:09.36
The Discover Bible Guides
will help you find the answers
00:27:09.36\00:27:12.43
that you're looking for.
00:27:12.43\00:27:14.20
Visit us at BibleStudies.com
00:27:14.20\00:27:16.40
or give us a
call at 888-456-7933
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for your free
Discover Bible Guides.
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Study online on
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or have the free guides
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There is never a
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The Discover Bible
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Find answers and guides
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You'll find
answers to the things
00:27:40.09\00:27:41.59
that matter the most to you.
00:27:41.59\00:27:44.09
Visit BibleStudies.com
and begin your journey today
00:27:44.09\00:27:47.76
to discover answers to
life's deepest questions.
00:27:47.76\00:27:51.27
- [Announcer]
Dragons, [dragon roars] beasts,
00:27:54.74\00:27:57.27
mysterious
horseman, cryptic statues.
00:27:57.27\00:28:00.98
Bible prophecy can be
incredibly vivid and confusing.
00:28:02.21\00:28:05.98
If you've ever
read Daniel a revelation
00:28:07.68\00:28:09.82
and come away scratching
your head, you're not alone.
00:28:09.82\00:28:12.72
Our free Focus On
Prophecy guides are designed
00:28:14.02\00:28:16.86
to help you unlock
the mysteries of the Bible
00:28:16.86\00:28:19.09
and deepen your
understanding of God's plan
00:28:19.09\00:28:21.50
for you and our world.
00:28:21.50\00:28:23.70
Study online or
request them by mail
00:28:23.70\00:28:26.20
and start bringing
prophecy into focus today.
00:28:26.20\00:28:29.47
[gentle music]
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