It's okay God wants me to.                                  

 "Spirit of the Frontier" John Gast 1872 (Wikipedia)

This painting shows "Manifest Destiny" (the religious belief that the United States should expand from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in the name of God.

The first use of the phase "Manifest Destiny" was probably in July 1845 in an editorial by John L. Sullivan writing in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review in his article regarding Texas joining the Union of the United States of America.  Manifest Destiny is the concept that the United States of America was preordained by God to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean and was acquire all the property that was found. The concept that a God had preordained his chosen people to take what they wanted or do a something by using the authority of Devine Design can be found many times in the course of human existence.  The belief that bringing Christianity to any Non-Christian was their God's plan and if there were economic benefits, then that was Gods will also. One man that changed the world because he believed he was divinely chosen by his God to sail the Atlantic Ocean in order to spread Christianity has never been correctly understood in American History.

Christopher Columbus was deeply religious and believed the God had chosen him “to be the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth which before had been hidden.” (Columbus)  In a letter which Columbus wrote to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1502, He says:

Columbus wrote his only book , 'Libro de las Profecias'  a Book of Prophecies, in which he compiled passages selected from the Bible which he believed applied to him.  Columbus believed that he was performing his destiny, the mission God had ordained for his life, when he set sail to West to find a new route to Asia.  Columbus believed he would be the one that brought Christianity to the Great Khan of eastern Asia and prevent the spread of Islam.

As history has recorded, Columbus had his faults, and his discovery of the New World is blamed for the destruction of the cultures of the indigenous people  who occupied America and the genocide of millions. Yet, Columbus believed he was doing what his God had planned and his journeys would help in the restoration of Jerusalem and its future glory and help Christianity gain control of the world. Columbus did not reach Asia, but he had made the discovery of a New World that over the next 300 years would change the entire world forever and help Christianity to become the largest religion in practice today.

Columbus First Sights Land, October 12, 1942

http://the-american-catholic.com/2009/10/12/columbus-catholicism-and-courage/

The American Catholic Website

Columbus, Christopher, Letter to the Doña Juana de Torres.  October1500, translated and edited by R. H. Major, Call number HAN (1870) (Columbus, C. Select letters of Christopher Columbus)

Columbus, Christopher, Book of Prophecies, 1502 Folos 4, 4 rvs., 5 rvs.The 'Libro de las Profecias' translation and commentary by Delno C. West and August Kling. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1991.

Wikipedia contributors, ”Manifest Destiny”, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 5 December 2009 at 03:11, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_Destiny [accessed 12/03/09]