Manariwa

Three main events that occurred in — or developed before and during – the year 1521 must awaken us to the realities that brought about those events which continue to influence and, in fact, to rule over our lives today. Mark these events and the things we see today that may seem ordinary or harmless to many of us and find out how the minds and schemes of well-organized people in the distant past remain as powerful and binding over things we take for granted, from religion to culture to agriculture to education to medicine to economics to politics and even to entertainment.

Five hundred years is the approximate years that it took God to conceive, give birth to and bring about the growth and fruition of His chosen nation Israel in the Promised Land. Here is a summary:

• 430 years, the Hebrews lived in Egypt as exiles and slaves (Ex. 12:40)

• 40 years, they wandered in the wilderness under Moses

That is a total of 470 years. We are missing 30 years.

We can consider the conquest of Canaan extra or unfinished work Joshua had to accomplish to put the finishing touches into making God’s Promised Land livable for Israelites. It was only after that period of conquest that the tribes of Reuben and Gad, including the half-tribe of Manasseh, went back east of the Jordan to claim their inherited lands. Besides, the whole nation was not a mere army but a nation of planters and animal-raisers who must have needed many years to finally get accustomed to their new land. In Joshua 18, even when they had finished building the Tabernacle of Meeting, 7 tribes remained unsettled in their territories.   

In Joshua 14, Caleb claimed he was already 85 years old and that he was 40 when Moses had sent him as one of the 12 spies sent to Canaan. Joshua was one of the spies and he must have been around the same age as Caleb or older by several years. Assuming Joshua was 90 when he settled in Canaan and about 20 when he had served as apprentice to Moses in Medea and had spent 40 years wandering in the desert, he, therefore, spent 30 years conquering the Canaanites. He died 20 years later at 110. All in all then, 30 years passed after they had crossed Jordan. So there, 500 years! Give or take ten years, which is alright because 490 is God’s perfect measuring standard: 70 times 7.

The long history, beginning with Abraham’s calling to settle in Canaan up to the time his promised seeds finally settled in Canaan, is one epic work of divine power never before done or witnessed in world history. To say it is all part of a clever myth or a fluke of generations of monotheists hitting the jackpot, at the very least, makes the bible writers the foremost conspiracy-makers of all history. For that would mean some great human minds thought of orchestrating the events of those 500 years to fit exactly what had been foretold thousands of years ago through Abraham before they finally happened and then also caused to bring about the things that occurred thousands of years in the future through the deeds of Christ and the apostles.

For you cannot have Moses without Abraham; and you cannot have Christ without Moses. That is, you cannot have the present without the past; and you cannot have the future without the present. More so, you cannot have Abraham and Moses without Christ. For, whether we accept it or not, you cannot have the past and the present without the future. There has to be an end to all things and that end is and has always been in Christ. All three make up one continuous thread of human timeline or lifeline which is but a small segment of Eternity.

Mathematically-speaking, the odds of such things happening by human designs must be slimmer than a monkey becoming a man or that man becoming a monkey again. What then are the odds that God made it happen? Easy! It is 1:1. 100%! Those writers were not conspiracy-makers but real fortunetellers – or prophets! For so it was said and done; and so it is told and is. What we aim to prove now is that another period of 500 years parallels the Hebrews’ experience in our times. And it is for exactly the same purposes and reasons as before. In short, it is but a continuing flow in the same process that God ushered in from the very beginning of time. Christ waits at the end of time to receive the eternal fruits of His labors.

We might talk of a millennium or a half-millennium; but God works and thinks in terms of Eternity. He does not change and will keep His promises and His laws as they have been and ever will be. However, He does grant us hints in the finite dimensions of human history, whether in the past or in the present. Knowing and understanding His landmarks will show us His intentions.

A backdrop for the first of 3 events we present will be provided by the Papal Bull of 1493 (Inter Caetera — “among other works”) issued by Pope Alexander VI who divided the entire globe in the then ongoing conquest of the world by Spain and Portugal. It demarcated a line “one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands and assigned Spain the exclusive right to acquire territorial possessions and to trade in all lands west of that line”. Columbus had just staked Spain’s claim over the Americas (New World) the previous year. All other lands east of the line went to Portugal.

The Bull essentially stated that land not inhabited by Christians was considered “discovered” and, thus, “claimed and exploited” by rulers of that religion. The Catholic faith and religion were to be propagated on those lands “discovered”.

We all know that Columbus’ “discovery” of America was a navigational fluke; for he had originally sought to find the “fabled” Land of Gold, Ophir. But do not be so easily diverted by false flags waved by historians that he was searching for Cipunggu (Japan) or China.  Many use those lands to mask the fact that Columbus had his eyes on Ophir and that he had marked those northern lands as mere pointers to reach his ultimate golden destination. He had, in fact, used the so-called “apocryphal” book 2 Esdras (13:39-45) as his primary source for retracing the route back to the way where some of the lost tribes of Israel had migrated to the East, particularly the ancient lands settled in by Ophir and Tarshish. He also set his compass and sails directed on a one-and-a-half year journey westward to Ophir, in contrast to Solomon’s and King Hiram’s easterly course mentioned in I Kings 10:22. In short, Columbus knew his destination, direction and voyage timetable, more or less. He was not sailing like a blind fool, perhaps only a slightly myopic and quite uninformed captain.

Hence, having kept his latitude bearing between North 20 to 22 degrees from his take-off point in the Canary Islands, he would have landed on the Marianas Islands (exactly where Magellan would land several years later) had he not been blocked by the Caribbean Islands in the American Continent, which had not yet been drawn on maps during that era. So, Columbus thought he had found the Indies (hence, West Indies) but not the East Indies. His search for gold and glory failed. He had given America to Spain but not the gold of Ophir. Someone else would find that “fabled” gold, leading us to Event 1. Fabled, we say, because it was not a fable back then but an accepted fact of religious, scientific and historical faith. In the same way that Creation was a fact of religious, scientific and historical faith then but which eventually gave way to Evolution later on as a rule of belief.

Hence, until this day, Ophir and its gold remain as fables in the minds of many. What many today accept as fact is that the western explorers went to search for spices, another false flag used to divert us. When we were kids, gold was never mentioned in books or classes. Hercules and Cinderella were more real than Ophir gold! But Event 1 would once and for all prove Ophir is real and factual in all respects.

Magellan had heard of Columbus’ exploits and failures. As a Portuguese sailor, he had been to the Malacca, and perhaps, the Moluccas Spice islands of the East. For him, as well as for Columbus, the records of Solomon, Marco Polo and other 16^th-century explorers, such as Barbosa, held enough solid proof of the gold. The ancient Phoenicians, Greeks, Israelites, Indians, Chinese and Malayans had traded with Ophir for millennia. They Greeks called it Chryse or Aurea Khersonese or the “golden peninsula”. Magellan’s contemporaries called it El Dorado (“the golden one”). What many people do not know is that Magellan had a slave who had lived in Ophir, someone who might have told him how to get there. And get there he did after he had convinced the Spanish crown that disregarding the Papal Bull, for it was within Portugal’s domain, was well worth it.

Magellan could very well be a double traitor: to Portugal and to the Pope. But Spain was willing; and the Pope was all-forgiving. After all, the gold was the primary goal. With gold, conquest, indoctrination and colonization would follow suit.

Thus, on March 16, 1521, after having sailed from Seville on August 10, 1519, Magellan landed on Limasawa Island with his handy slave from Ophir, Enrique, who interpreted for him as well. Event No. 1 was the “discovery” of Ophir. So, did Magellan find gold? He did. Magellan could hardly hold back his elation at having found copious loads of gold in the land, either being worn by the natives, decorating their homes or filling their teeth, bags and treasure chests. But he had orders of tons and tons of spices to bring home; so he held his men from parting with their goods in exchange for gold. His remaining 3 ships could carry only so much cargo. Another voyage with a bigger fleet would be their first golden harvest for Spain since Solomon’s days. Conquest and exploitation of Ophir’s riches, however, got stalled until 1565 because of Event No. 2.

Solomon and Hiram had long bought gold from the Queen of Sheba; hence, Magellan was a mere belated “discoverer” of real gold, not fabled gold as we have been led to believe. Of course, gold raiders will never broadcast their cache and their way to it. They first had to cement their claim and their jurisdiction over it, not for a decade but for centuries, if not a millennium at least. By next year, they will be halfway through. That is, after 500 years it could also be the end of what they had done; for God will surely require a reckoning as He had done before for Israel. (Proof of the gold and how Magellan managed to reach Ophir can be found in another series of article in this link.)

But Magellan’s dream fell short. Event No. 2, Magellan’s death and defeat by Lapu-lapu, came as a reminder then for him and for Spain and the rest of their cohorts that they were not dealing with just one man, one chieftain, one island, one archipelago, but with the lost tribes of Israel; hence, with the One God and Creator. Just as Egypt was not dealing only with Moses, one man, one Hebrew slave, one exiled family of 12 tribes, but with one nation-to-be of Israel’s children; hence, with the One God and Creator. As Joshua then finished God’s work after 500 years, Yahusha will also finish God’s final plan for His Kingdom in 500 years. If God wills it and if we seek His favor, it will be done. So it shall be!

Lapu-lapu was a brave local chieftain on Mactan Island in the middle parts of Ophir who opposed Magellan’s imposition of tribute over the Visayas islands. His strategic defeat of Magellan’s invading force on the island ended up in the Spanish captain-general’s death and the retreat of the foreigners to their boats and ship. Today, many Pilipinos still do not consider Lapu-lapu a hero of national stature but a mere disgruntled local tribal leader who was eager for a fight. But this warrior’s accomplishment goes beyond the limits of any tribal or national scope and, in truth, has global significance worthy of the noble defiance and victory he displayed against a world player who came to disrupt the natives’ way of life and, in retrospect, to possess all they could put their hands on eventually.

In short, Lapu-lapu was as visionary and revolutionary as the early Hebrews had been when they entered Canaan. He triumphed because he was on the side of the true God he called Aba or Abba, as did most of the natives did. They were not Christians or Catholics; but they were followers of the Father of Israel. They were part of the Ten Lost Tribes. Until and unless they or their descendants hear and obey the pure and perfect Gospel of Christ as a nation, they will never be truly found in His Kingdom.     

It took another 44 years, in 1565, for Spain to send another voyage to establish its original claim made by Magellan. Certain events came about which stalled the claim. The Portuguese contested the illegal “discovery” on their part of the globe. Wars between the two nations erupted and kept the Pope busy pacifying both sides. The Portuguese had been so close to the gold but never found it; although ironically, it was a Portuguese who finally did but in the name of Spain. Their sudden show of interest and anger could have not have been merely about jurisdiction but more because of the fact that there was gold.

Perhaps, the Portuguese were forcing Spain to give up her claim for they were already convinced and wanted to stake their own claim over the “fabled” gold. The two nations were clearly fighting over a hidden ancient historical fact that had come out of the shadows. And having been given papal blessings to “discover” and “exploit”, such moral or religious license led them to give in to their natural human passions. And all that they perpetrated to the detriment of those staked formerly-pristine lands and to their own eternal destinies as so-called Christian nations.

Event No. 3 parallels Event No. 2 in the sense that it was also a fervent reaction against subjugation and exploitation but in a non-violent way. It happened between January to May 1521 when Martin Luther appeared at the Diet of Worms to defend his “heretical” views before Charles V, King of Spain and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. This same king was responsible for authorizing Magellan to claim Ophir for Spain, as well as for ratifying the conquest of the Aztec Empire in Mexico by Cortes (1521) and the Incas of Peru by Pizarro (1535), both of whom were also in search of El Dorado. Charles V ruled from 1500 to 1558.

Was it merely coincidental that those colonizers of the Catholic religion and the events they brought about revolved around coveting similar things: gold, resources and conquest of lands and people? Or were they part of an ancient global plan to enslave God’s people as the Egyptians and Babylonians had done before them? If their avowed faith was truly in keeping with the pure Gospel of Christ, why did Events Nos. 2 and 3 explode in the very same year and within the time period that those schemes of global economic domination and violent exploitation came to the fore as well? Is gold separate from the land, and vice versa? Is it worth more than the life and freedom of tribes and nations? We can easily say that the last two events came as a result of Event No. 1 and that its underlying events during the times led Luther to post his objections against Catholicism and its oppressive teachings and ways.

For it is quite significant that Luther’s Thesis #86 should read: “Again, ‘Why does not the pope, whose wealth is today greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build this one basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?’ ” Was the Papal Bull of 1473, in fact, for the very specific purpose of raising funds primarily to finance St. Peter’s Basilica which was began in 1506 by Pope Julius II, although Pope Nicholas V began renovations of the old basilica as early as the late 15^th-century? So, what better way to raise funds for Rome than to raise more Catholics among the “discovered” lands not inhabited by Christians? And, more so, by fast-tracking the discovery of the Land of Gold itself? If Solomon built his Temple for Yahuah with Ophir gold, why not Peter’s Basilica with Ophir gold as well? Was the vainglory of Solomon afflicting those kings and popes as well? Had power and wealth so blinded them to forfeit their avowed moral duties? Were they justified to use God’s name for their wily motives or were they pretenders who had no shame in their lust for power and wealth and no remorse over the carnage and sufferings they had inflicted upon millions of souls?

Are we sowing intrigue or are we merely reading the hearts and souls of those people who put their trust on the crown, the sword and the gold? Remember, the bloodstains on the gold you wrest will remain until the final moment of accounting of all debts and recompense to the real owners. Events No. 2 and 3 (rebellion against colonization and against religious errors and immorality) are so cunningly tied as to their roots and their significance in relation to Event 1 and all other events that caused it to happen as it did and eventually accomplished through subsequent conquests and exploitation of many islands and nations during that whole period of colonization from the 15^th century to the middle of the 20^th century. Thus, we can conclude without any reservation that the primary motivation driving colonialism during that period revolved around essentially four objectives: economic domination, military power, religious supremacy and nationalism. About 400 years of global slavery this time! So, what is new in this world? Perhaps, only global quarantine.

Hence, the classification of haves and have-nots today simply follows the pattern of the have-dominions and have-no-dominions. In short, Egypt and Hebrews: Master and Slaves. Think of your country and, one way or the other, you know what you are. For kings, princes and lords still exist, but with new respectable titles.

Lapu-lapu and Luther would neither be slaves to exploiters nor slaves of errors and corruption. We will deal with possible events in the year 2021 and beyond in the next article as we await the exciting fulfillment of Christ’s perfected Kingdom upon the Earth.

(Mosaic photo above: Photos are courtesy of www.google.com.)