WARNING: Graphic Descriptions of Pagan Sacrifice
Ruins of a Mayan temple in Chichén Itzá
One of the most disturbing falsehoods of modern neo-orthodoxy is the myth of cultural neutrality. Popular evangelical groups predominate which teach that Christians should spread the Gospel to all nations, but not work to see the transformation of other cultures. This is incoherent thinking and poor theology. It is a perversion of the Great Commission which commands that we make disciples of nations “teaching them all things” (Genesis to Revelation) commanded by God.
This remarkable astronomical observatory was built to decipher signs in the stars and calculate days for human sacrifice. It is an amazing hybrid of scientific technology and moral perversion.
Here are the facts: Not all cultures are equal. Historically, some have been virtuous. Others have been barbaric. Some have been predominantly Christian. Others have been distinctively pagan. Some suffer from the technological and social backwardness from years of rejecting the Christian work ethic and the dominion mandate. Others benefit from the cumulative effect of Christian industry and Christ-focused scientific inquiry. Cultures that worship animals and trees or glorify elements of the occult tend to be bloody and barbaric. Those which honor the triune God tend to emphasize law, beauty, and family life.
Every fifty-two years (the Mayan calendar cycle) more columns were added to this warriors’ temple. This is yet another site of human sacrifice.
Christianity is comprehensive. It seeks to transform the whole man. That is why cultural imperialism is inescapable for the Christian evangelist. When we lead men to Christ we must “teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” This is a de facto command to subvert pagan cultures (through spiritual, not physical weapons) in favor of Christian ones.
A scale diorama of the Chichén Itzá
Cultural subversion also means that new believers must stop drinking blood, taking multiple wives, consulting witch doctors, or continuing the practice of any atrocity of pagan culture. Their new faith in Christ must be backed up by a desire to “sin no more” and follow the Cross. They must exchange the wickedness of their past culture for the purity of Christian culture. Men and women, cultures and nations, are not greater or less great because of skin color, height, or nose length, but they must be judged by whether or not they perpetuate the crimes of paganism or embrace the cultural implications of biblical Christianity.
Inside the priests’ chamber on top of the great pyramid of Chichén Itzá
The folly of the myth of cultural neutrality was highlighted in bold for Beall and me during last week’s mission to the ancient city of the Maya. Deep in the jungle interior of the Yucatan Peninsula, the adventurous traveler can still visit the remains of the ancient priestly city of the Maya — a people so barbarous in their atrocities that (along with the Aztecs), they appear to rival the worst of the child-sacrificing nations recorded to us in Holy Scripture.
The well of sacrifice. It is very deep and larger than my photo reveals. Hundreds of bodies and jewels remain submerged within its depths.
Though more than five hundred years have passed since the last boy and girl was sacrificed at the spot pictured above, the experience of standing where unimaginable crimes had been performed on so many children for hundreds of years was overwhelming. On this site, the long-haired, blood-matted, astronomer-priests would sacrifice young boys and girls between the age of four and twelve by taking the living children and strategically cutting open their bellies to allow them to remove their still-beating hearts which they would display to the people and immediately consume. The lifeless, jewel-adorned bodies of the children would then be hurled into the pool of water where most rest to this day. This became an accustomed, welcomed, normal ritual of the Maya culture and persisted for many hundreds of years.
A temple edifice dedicated to the god of water.
Remarkably, many of these children had been born and bred specifically for their sacrifice. Children conceived or born within certain astronomical cycles were deemed pure enough to be raised for ceremonial harvest. Their parents were honored participants in the acts of vivisection and cannibalism by the Maya priests.
The seat of the priests at the Warriors’ Temple where men were eaten alive.
Perhaps a century before the Spaniards arrived to combat and conquer the Aztec nation and Montezuma (a monstrous butcher and pedophile in his own right), the Mayas of Chichén Itzá simply disappeared. Their massive cities were abandoned with jeweled thrones, detailed hieroglyphic displays, and architectural masterpieces intact, exactly as they left them. There these wonders remained for centuries, waiting for an intrepid team of Americans to discover, catalog, and study them in the mid-nineteenth century.
A view of the Warrior’s Temple taken from the top of the great pyramid
Different theories have surfaced to explain the mass-Mayan exodus, but scholars currently believe that the Mayans abandoned their city after large percentages of their population became poisoned by their sacrifice-contaminated water supply. In short, they died from killing their own children. The justice of God is often ironic.
Beall sits in between the ornate doorwells where the priests addressed the people and performed human sacrifice. Bodies were thrown down the stairs so the steps would run red with blood.
The Mayas were brilliant, technologically advanced people, but God “gave them over” to unspeakable purposes. Today their civilization has been wiped off the planet. Only temples of stone remain as haunting reminders of the perversions of their scientist priests and the agony of tens of thousands who were sacrificed alive.
A site for ceremonial dancing. Taken from the summit of the pyramid.
As Americans venture into our own world of twenty-first century bio-ethical horrors (raising tiny babies for stem cell experimentation, cloning for body harvesting, vivisecting our own children through abortion to appease the gods of convenience, using the body parts of aborted children for cosmetics and medicines, etc.), we would be well served to remember that advanced technology, civilization, and bloody savagery can dwell side-by-side. They can feed off of each other.