"There are but 155 years left...at which time...the world will come to an end,"

-wrote Christopher Columbus in his book Libro de Las Profecias, composed in 1502 between his 3rd and 4th voyages.



He continued:

"The sign which convinces me that our Lord is hastening the end of the world is the preaching of the Gospel recently in so many lands."



Though his predictions were off, Columbus revealed his motivation for setting sail on his first voyage, AUGUST 3, 1492, with the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria.



Columbus was looking for a sea route to India and China as an alternative to traveling by land through Muslim territories.

In 1498, Vasco da Gama made the first successful voyage from Portugal to India.



Muslims, called "Moors," had invaded Spain in 711AD, with a cavalry of 80,000 wielding scimitar swords and "went through all places like a desolating storm."

The Mozarabic Chronicle, 754AD, recorded that thousands of churches were burned and: "God alone knows the number of the slain."



In 1011, Muslims killed 2,000 in Cordoba, Spain.

In 1066, Muslims massacred every one of the 5,000 Jews in Granada, Spain.

In 1189, Muslims raided Libson, Portugal, and enslaved 3,000 women and children.



In 1191, Muslims attacked Silves, Portugal, enslaving another 3,000.

The Catholic Orders of Montjoie, and Calatrava, were organized to ransom back Christian slaves.



It took over 700 years to drive Muslims out in what was called the re-conquest or "reconquista."

In 1085, the Kingdom of Castile freed Toledo from the Muslims, and in 1119, the Kingdom of Aragon freed the city of Zaragoza from the Muslims.



The Spanish knight Rodrigo Diaz, called "El Cid," drove Muslims out of Valencia in 1094. (Charlton Heston starred in the movie, "El Cid," in 1961).

Columbus wrote in his El Libro de la Primera Navegacion, as recounted by Bartolome' de Las Casas':

"After Your Highnesses had made an end to the war with the Moors who ruled in Europe, and had concluded the war in the very great City of Granada,

where in the present year, on the 2nd day of the month of January, I saw the Royal Standards of Your Highnesses placed by force of arms on the towers of the Alhambra (which is the citadel of the said city),



And I saw the Moorish King come forth to the gates of the city and kiss the Royal Hands of Your Highnesses..."

Columbus continued:

"...and soon after in that same month, through information I had given to your Highnesses concerning the lands of India, and of a Prince who is called Gran Can [Khan], which is to say in our vernacular 'King of Kings,'

how many times he and his predecessors had sent to Rome to seek doctors in our Holy Faith to instruct him therein, and that never had the Holy Father provided them, and thus so many people were lost through lapsing into idolatries and receiving doctrines of perdition;



And Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and Princes devoted to the Holy Christian Faith and the propagators thereof, and enemies of the sect of Mahomet and of all idolatries and heresies,

resolved to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the said regions of India, to see the said princes and peoples and lands and the dispositions of them and of all, and the manner in which may be undertaken their conversion to our Holy Faith..."



Columbus added:

"...And ordained that I should not go by land (the usual way) to the Orient, but by the route of the Occident, by which no one to this day knows for sure that anyone has gone..."

In his Libro de Las Profecias, Columbus wrote:

"I spent seven years in your royal Court arguing the case with so many persons of such authority and learned in all the arts, and in the end they concluded that all was idle nonsense...yet the outcome will be the fulfillment of what our Redeemer Jesus Christ said...

that...all that was written by him and by the prophets to be fulfilled."



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Columbus continued:

"The Holy Scriptures testify...that this world will come to an end...St. Augustine says that the end of this world will occur in the seventh millennium following the Creation."

Columbus ended:

"I have already said that for the execution of the enterprise of the Indies, neither reason, nor mathematics, nor world maps were profitable to me; rather the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled."