Tezcatlipoca is “omnipotent.” Tezcatlipoca is “supreme.” Tezcatlipoca is “a creator god.”
Who does that remind you of?
Tezcatlipoca is an Aztec deity in a Mesoamerican culture known for its polytheistic mythology. Tezcatlipoca has three brothers and is often set in opposition to one of them, whose name is Quetzalcóatl.
Quetzalcóatl is a lying thief. His name means “Plumed Serpent”; he is also known as “the Morning Star.” Now who does that sound like?
Are the Aztec gods just a version of the great controversy between Christ and Satan? Tezcatlipoca, representing Christ the Creator (Colossians 1:16), is pitted against Quetzalcóatl as Satan, the inventor of lies (John 8:44) and the “serpent of old” (Revelation 12:9; 20:2). Can we trust the Aztec faith to lead us down the same path of righteousness as the Bible?
It is pertinent to add that Tezcatlipoca is Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, for “Smoking Mirror.” He is believed to be “the bringer of both good and evil,” “happiness,” and “sin.” Another of his names is Yaotl, which means “enemy.” The Aztecs used to regularly sacrifice people to him.
In an interesting twist, the Aztecs believed that Quetzalcóatl, not Tezcatlipoca, was also “a creator god” who shaped the human race out of duplicity, by chance, and with his own blood.
Make no mistake—Tezcatlipoca is not the God of the Bible, and neither is Quetzalcóatl. The Bible tells us that “God … cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). He is not a bunch of smoke and mirrors. “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (James 1:13); “every good gift and every perfect gift is from” (v. 17) Him; and “in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Christ is our only Creator (Genesis 2:7); it is He who spilt His blood for us (Hebrews 9:12).
God is not your enemy, but the Bible tells you who is—Satan. Jesus Himself explained, “The enemy … is the devil” (Matthew 13:39). It is “the devil [who] has sinned from the beginning” (1 John 3:8).
These two beings—Christ, divinity in the flesh, and Satan, a fallen angel who wants to overthrow Him—could not be more different. Yet the Aztec belief propagates a creation myth in which the traits of Satan are appropriated to one like God, and vice versa.
Teaching Them to Pray
And now your children may be learning how to pray to these Aztec gods.
If you live in California and have enrolled your child in its public schools, then the new Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, “unanimously approved” in March 2021, has a chapter containing “Affirmations, Chants, and Energizers,” which includes the following statement: “These can be used as energizers to bring the class together, build unity around ethnic studies principles and values, and to reinvigorate the class following a lesson that may be emotionally taxing or even when student engagement may appear to be low.”
Several of these “energizers” are then listed in detail, of note an Aztec prayer called “In Lak Ech Affirmation.” In it “the names of [several gods, including Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcóatl, and their brothers,] are collectively invoked 20 times, four times each.” Here’s one interesting excerpt:
Not just thinkin’ and talkin’ but makin’ things happen,
with agency, resiliency, & a revolutionary spirit …
tap in, to the spark of our universal heart.
In lak ech means “you are my other me.” The goal of in lak ech is “to be part of the whole. We do not exist as separate entities, we exist from our belonging and relationship with the community and with everything that surrounds us.”
Certain parents are not happy about it. On September 3, 2021, three of them, represented by law firm the Thomas More Society, have brought a lawsuit against the California Department of Education.
The official complaint lists the prayer as “a governmental endorsement of religion that is not permissible and violates the free exercise, establishment clause, and no-aid clauses of the California constitution.” It requests that it, as well as another prayer from the Yoruba religion, be removed from the curriculum.
United We Fall
Is the next generation being taught to “[make] things happen” by uniting together under false gods that conflate and confound good and evil?
Students of Bible prophecy have no need to fear. This is a fitting piece in the devil’s strategy for these end times. We know from Scripture what is to occur in the last days: The devil will influence “all the world [to marvel] and [follow] the beast” (Revelation 13:3), his foremost agent. We’ve been hearing terms like “the common good” and “we’re all in this together” trending for some time. And this Aztec prayer is, in tandem, aspiring to a world without boundaries or borders, a world where “we do not exist as separate entities” but as one united conglomerate.
“Come out of [Babylon], my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues” (18:4), the Lord warns us. Do not be one with darkness and deception; “come out from among them and be separate” (2 Corinthians 6:17). Satan is not that “angel of light” (11:14) he seems to be. He who brings you misery is not the one who can save you.
As Pastor Doug Batchelor teaches, there will come a “Judgment on Babylon,” but those who follow the Lamb—not the beast—will be delivered out of it. Those who “worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (Revelation 14:7) will traverse “the path of life,” wherein “is fullness of joy” and “pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).