Copan

This weekend Mallory and I traveled to Honduras to visit Mayan ruins. Living in Guatemala for the last few weeks has given me the opportunity to learn a little about the Mayan culture by listening to locals share their knowledge of the ancient society. This weekend Mallory and I had a well-spoken guide at the ruins that taught us a lot about the Mayan way of life.
I am not going to focus on all the interesting facts I learned. I do want to point out why I think the society desired to worship God but fell short of the truth we know as Christians. Think about the tidbits of information you know about the Egyptians, the Roman Empire, the Mayans, and or Incan civilization. You might not have visited the Mayan ruins last weekend but you can apply what you know about these civilizations to help you understand my argument. They were all powerful societies in their own time but at different times in history.
The Mayans had a belief in a good god (god of love) vs. bad god (god of war) religious system. It was important to have a dual god system to create balance in their belief system. They had too much rain so they must have done something to make the rain god mad. Luckily there was a sun god they could worship to solve this problem. It was typical for them to sacrifice animals and humans to sway the gods in their favor.
They had a well-divided hierarchy of power within the civilization. Kings ruled and the people followed orders within their field of work. It is important to know the kings believed they were Gods. They were sent back from the world of the Gods,possible the afterlife, to rule the people. Them being Gods added power to their status and people believed their words to be true. In contrast to the Mayans beliefs of their kings, Christians have a king that came to earth to live as a normal person. He was a carpenter. Jesus wasn't interested in political power. This is a big difference in Mayans beliefs and Christians believes but it is really awesome to serve a king that chose to be ordinary to meet us in our status in life.
This weekend it was striking to me the similarities between Mayan culture and Christianity. In the Old Testament, the Israelite's sacrificed animals as an offering for atonement for sins. There is a detailed description of the ceremony entering the holy of holies and the sacrificial process. In comparison, the Mayans sacrificed animals and made human sacrifices to appease the Gods. At the ruins, we looked at several vase shaped structures where the Mayans burned blood from sacrifices. They believed the smoke would rise up to heaven and please the Gods. The bible speaks of sweet aromas and incense.
It blows my mind how Satan confuses our lives, beliefs, customs from the truth to a similar reflection of the truth. First of all these people weren't worshiping the one true God. There practices were similar to Old Testament practices but they misunderstood to whom they were to be worshiping. Secondly, they were not aware of the gospel. The Mayan civilization was after the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. They didn’t know this good news. It is amazing and frightening to realize how Satan can trick an entire society into believing something that resembles the truths of Christ.
I can't point fingers at the Mayan culture and laugh at them for missing the truth or not seeing reality. I misunderstand how to best worship God each day. It is easy for me to not treat the people around me as God desires me to treat them because I have my own ambition (idol/god) I am choosing to please.
All weekend I kept thinking about how many similarities the Mayan culture resembled Christianity but they missed the truth. People today are still amazed by the sophistication and intelligence of the Mayan yet they miss the truth. Many people I have talked to here in Guatemala love studying the Mayan culture. These same people are not Christians. I believe some of them are interested in the culture because it meets a need inside of them. They like that the Mayans were devout worshipers but they don't understand they can worship the living God. The Lord is moving and working in Guatemala. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Lord chooses to bring people to himself by using these peoples’ love for the Mayan Culture.