Quetzalcoatl ... LDS Doctrine?


Kawazu
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Hello,

Has anyone seen this Wikipedia entry for the pre-Aztec god Quetzalcoatl?

Quetzalcoatl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Latter-day Saint Movement

Some Mormon scholars believe that Quetzalcoatl, as a white, bearded God who came from the sky and promised to return, was actually Jesus Christ. According to the Book of Mormon, Jesus visited the American natives after his resurrection.[12][opinion needs balancing]

Latter-day Saint Prophet John Taylor wrote:

"The story of the life of the Mexican divinity, Quetzalcoatl, closely resembles that of the Savior; so closely, indeed, that we can come to no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same being. But the history of the former has been handed down to us through an impure Lamanitish source, which has sadly disfigured and perverted the original incidents and teachings of the Savior's life and ministry." (Mediation and Atonement, p. 194.)

Is this an example of a Wikipedia error? Or, is this LDS doctrine?

Thank you.

Regards,

Kawazu

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LDS.org - Ensign Article - The Book of Mormon: A Sacred Ancient Record

Here is an excerpt from that article:

Ancient American literature contains references to a white, bearded god who descended out of the heavens. He is called by many names; one example is Quetzalcoatl. Historians of the sixteenth century, whose texts I have, recorded pre-Hispanic beliefs concerning the white, bearded god who came to the Americas long before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors. The following paragraphs contain examples of these beliefs.

Bernardo de Sahagun (born 1499) wrote: “Quetzalcoatl was esteemed and considered as a god, and was worshipped in older times. He had long hair and was bearded. The people worshipped only the Lord” (Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España, Mexico: Editorial Porrua, S. A., 1985, pp. 195, 598).

Diego Duran (born 1537) wrote: “A great man—a person venerable and religious—bearded, tall, long hair, dignified deportment, heroic acts, miracles—I affirm he could have been one of the blessed apostles” (Historia de las Indias de Nueva España, 1867, first ed., 2 vols., Mexico: Editorial Porrua, S. A., 1967, 1:9).

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I take it to mean that it is a name that the Ancient Aztecs used to describe Jesus Christ or another name for him according to their language.

Edited by pam
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A little off topic...but my high school we were known as the Aztecs. Quetzalcoatl was our mascot and our year book was called the Tonalamatl meaning "book of these days." Because of that we were required to learn a little bit about the Aztec civilization in high school.

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I would stop short of saying it's doctrine. It is not in my scriptures. As a person who believes the scriptures, and sees this history, I believe it is consistent enough to be a match. Doctrine? No, it's not quite at that level, or even close really. What John Taylor said sounds reasonable to me, and that would say more that the history is polluted with time. This does not equate to doctrine.

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I agree RobertP.

The thing about beliefs and evidences like this is they don't have to be doctrine to be true. That's the beautiful thing about the LDS Church. It claims all men can receive their own revelation.

I believed this story of Quetzalcoatl to be true from the first moment I heard it. If I'm not mistaken, and if memory serves, the term means "feathered serpent" in their language? We know Moses used a serpent as a type of Christ, but where does the feathered part come from?

If the first thing this God said to the people was "I will gather [you] as a hen gathereth her chickens" 3 times, I'm thinking the analogy would stick.

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LDS and Mesoamerican scholar Brant Gardner argues strongly against Quetzalcoatl as being an actual historical person. He believes, as well as most other scholars, that Quetzalcoatl is a post-conquistador belief, and thereby, cannot be referring to Christ (unless they were pulling off of ancient traditions).

You can read about it here:

Quetzalcoatl and Jesus Christ - FAIRMormon

Quetzalcoatl Papers

Who knows though?

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Latter-day Saint Prophet John Taylor wrote:

"The story of the life of the Mexican divinity, Quetzalcoatl, closely resembles that of the Savior; so closely, indeed, that we can come to no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same being. But the history of the former has been handed down to us through an impure Lamanitish source, which has sadly disfigured and perverted the original incidents and teachings of the Savior's life and ministry." (Mediation and Atonement, p. 194.)

Interesting !

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LDS and Mesoamerican scholar Brant Gardner argues strongly against Quetzalcoatl as being an actual historical person. He believes, as well as most other scholars, that Quetzalcoatl is a post-conquistador belief, and thereby, cannot be referring to Christ (unless they were pulling off of ancient traditions).

You can read about it here:

Quetzalcoatl and Jesus Christ - FAIRMormon

Quetzalcoatl Papers

Who knows though?

Unfortunatly rulers in precolumbian cultures often either took upon themselves the same name as one of their gods or the people imposed that name on the ruler as a result of their actions. We do the same as in the latter possibility, for example "honest Abe" for Abraham Lincoln. It is therefore difficult to seperate legends that speak about the god and those about a real ruler named after the god.

The Popol Vuh clearly designates Kulcucan as one of the creater gods. Kulcucan is a Mayan word that translates to Quetalcoatl in Nahuatl and both mean feathered serpent in English. Brant, however, is probably right in his conclusion that the white bearded god is the result of Spanish influence on the actual indian legends.

I personaly think that the connection goes back to the Jaredites and the creation story and that little or no evidence remains of Christ's visit to the Nephites.

Larry P

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I read once that there is a certain symbolism behind it too. Don't quote me on 'cause I don't remember where I read it - but quetzal(refering to a bird) and coatl(refering to a serpent) make the feathery serpent icon that Quetalcoatl has been known for. I had read that one of those represented death and the other was a symbol for resurrection.

If thats true, its to hard to NOT associate death and resurrection to Jesus Christ.

Although I agree with Justice and Robert that we cant take that as doctrine. I believe that they are the same being, but my faith and testimony are not dependent on that belief.

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The thing about beliefs and evidences like this is they don't have to be doctrine to be true. That's the beautiful thing about the LDS Church. It claims all men can receive their own revelation.

I believed this story of Quetzalcoatl to be true from the first moment I heard it.

I agree about revelation. I received my own personal revelation that the story of Quetalcoatl is not referring to Jesus Christ. However, I did believe the story of Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy from the first moment I heard it. :)

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One of the basic tenants of LDS theology is that all religion converges on one true ancient religion that was lived and practiced by Adam and Eve. In other words that all religion has “some truth” but that G-d maintains only one kingdom in heaven or on earth. All other faiths or religions are counterfeit or apostate deviation. This doctrine disturbs many non-LDS because of misunderstandings of LDS doctrines and teachings concerning the kingdom of G-d. In short LDS do not believe that doctrines or religions have the power to divinely enlighten, redeem or bring eternal salvation to anybody. Therefore, according to LDS doctrine, believers in Jesus Christ can be found among the all deviant religious institutions as well as apostates can be found within the kingdom of G-d. I would also point out that this notion is a common theme in scripture. This is one reason that we send our missionaries everywhere they are allowed as well as sending home teachers and visiting teachers monthly to every member (anyway that is the goal or intent).

One of the criticisms of the Book of Mormon is that there is, what the critics say, no historical evidence of the Book of Mormon or that Christ visited a society in America. The Book of Mormon claims that Jesus appeared among the ancient Americans but the society that kept and maintained the truth of what happened fell into apostasy and become so corrupt that G-d destroyed the entire civilization that had the charge of keeping the truth from being corrupted. Thus the truth was severely corrupted.

So the critics ask if there is any indication that the Book of Mormon could be accurate. Let’s look:

1. Is there any evidence that there were migrations to the America’s from Mediterranean Civilizations? Yes there is – in fact there is a preponderance of evidence.

2. Is there any evidence that G-d the Son, Jesus Christ descended from the sky and taught doctrines of love and compassion? Again the answer is yes and again there is a preponderance of evidence in the ancient legions of Quetzalcoatl, Tacoma, Kachina and others.

3. Is there any evidence of ancient American civilizations with cities advanced developments of math, science, industry, agriculture, education and trade that suddenly disappeared? Again the answer is yes and again there is a preponderance of such evidence.

But like the stories of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, King David, Daniel and even Jesus Christ; even though there is evidence that at one time such characters could have existed there isn’t the proof that everything recorded in scripture concerning these individuals did indeed happen exactly as recorded. Does that mean that there is nothing to be believed?

Let us consider what is historical fact – let us consider something for which the evidence is right under our noses. What is the cause of the current economic crisis? Is it something the Democrats have done? Is it something that the Republicans have done? This is something that happened while we all lived and there already is a wide variance of opinion as to what is the cause. So where is the proof of what is the cause? If we cannot prove what is while we live how can we expect to prove what happened hundreds of years before we were born?

One simple question to those that think they believe in G-d is quite revealing. Did the G-d you believe in ignore the ancient people of America? Did he not send them any prophet, teacher or any scripture to guide them so that they will all be damned forever to hell? If your G-d loved the ancient people of America – where is your proof or even sliver of evidence of such a G-d?

The Traveler

Edited by Traveler
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