Columbus

1 Nephi 13:12 says that the Spirit of God “came down and wrought upon the man” and that he crossed the waters and came to the descendants of the Lamanites. We generally tend to think that this scripture is a prophesy relating to the discovery of the America’s by Christopher Columbus. While past scholarship has focused on the “strong working of his vigorous mind” as the reason for his voyage, more modern research has pointed to spiritual reasons as his main motivation.

Pauline Watts’ article in 1985 gives us evidence that the Spirit really did help guide Columbus’ decision to come to the new world. Columbus believed himself to be a fulfiller of biblical prophecy such as in Isaiah 11:11 that those from the “islands of the sea” would be recovered. He also paid particular attention to John 10:16 which says, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold…” This scripture is particularly important to members of the Church, since Christ said it referred to the inhabitants of the America’s when he visited the continent after his resurrection.

We now know that many of these prophecies were indeed fulfilled, at least in part, to the voyage that Columbus started over 500 years ago. The discovery of America opened the doors to the eventual restoration of the gospel that would enable to whole Earth to be of “one fold and one shepherd.”