It occurred to me over the summer while I was taking a required low-level history course on Latin American civilization that what happened to the Aztecs is a picture of what is prophesied to happen to many—even some believers— in the “last days.”

The Aztecs built their capitol city, Tenotchitlan, on top of the previous civilization’s capitol city, out in the middle of a giant lake where now stands the region of Mexico City. Incidentally, the Aztecs also adopted the mythology of the older civilization as well, which included the ideas that, among other things, the following. They were living in the Fifth Sun, that is, the fifth epoch since the foundation of the world, and a time in which the world was said to end; to stave off the end of the world, they liberally sacrificed humans in the temple at Tenochtitlan.

Quetzalcoatl was the benevolent, bearded messiah-king who was to return with his men from across the eastern seas to save and rule his people, and he would be known by the sign of nothing less than the cross (+ or †)! When the handsomely bearded Cortes arrived in 1519 at Tenochtitlan with the Spanish army in tow, brandishing swords, shields, and breastplates marked with bright scarlet crosses and riding these foreign things the Aztecs had never seen (horses, as it turns out), they were allowed into the city gates with a timid Aztecan leader giving them the guided tour. It seems Moctezuma’s realization that Cortes was not the savior of the[ir] known world came only when he was captured by the gold-hungry Spanish.

Interesting what parallels can be drawn to us, who think of ourselves as so much better informed and more sophisticated….

It occurred to me over the summer while I was taking a required low-level history course on Latin American civilization that what happened to the Aztecs is a picture of what is prophesied to happen to many—even some believers— in the “last days.”

The Aztecs built their capitol city, Tenotchitlan, on top of the previous civilization’s capitol city, out in the middle of a giant lake where now stands the region of Mexico City. Incidentally, the Aztecs also adopted the mythology of the older civilization as well, which included the ideas that, among other things, the following. They were living in the Fifth Sun, that is, the fifth epoch since the foundation of the world, and a time in which the world was said to end; to stave off the end of the world, they liberally sacrificed humans in the temple at Tenochtitlan.

Quetzalcoatl was the benevolent, bearded messiah-king who was to return with his men from across the eastern seas to save and rule his people, and he would be known by the sign of nothing less than the cross (+ or †)! When the handsomely bearded Cortes arrived in 1519 at Tenochtitlan with the Spanish army in tow, brandishing swords, shields, and breastplates marked with bright scarlet crosses and riding these foreign things the Aztecs had never seen (horses, as it turns out), they were allowed into the city gates with a timid Aztecan leader giving them the guided tour. It seems Moctezuma’s realization that Cortes was not the savior of the[ir] known world came only when he was captured by the gold-hungry Spanish.

Interesting what parallels can be drawn to us, who think of ourselves as so much better informed and more sophisticated….