Hernando Cortez's Discovery of Aztec Temples

President Anthony W. Ivins relates that when Hernando Cortez arrived in Mexico, he found magnificent temples dedicated to the devil. The natives acknowledged they worshipped the devil out of fear, claiming he appeared to them in bodily form and instructed them. Ivins notes these were temples, but not accepted by the Lord. He contrasts these with a small, flower-adorned building at Tezcoco where no idols or human sacrifices existed, which the natives said was dedicated to their 'Fair God' (Quetzalcoatl) who had visited them and promised to return.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

And yet when Hernando Cortez landed in Mexico he found the most magnificent temples there, dedicated to the worship of the devil, and they acknowledged that they worshipped the devil, not because they loved him, but because they feared him. They said that he appeared to them in bodily form and instructed them regarding their duties; and I believe there was something in it, myself. They were temples, but they were not temples that were accepted by the Lord. There was, down there, one small building at Tezcoco, on the shores of the lake, just out from the City of Mexico, in which there was no idol, in which no human sacrifice was offered, which was adorned with flowers; and when asked to whom the house was erected the natives said it was to their Fair God who had visited them and gone away, but had promised that he would return, and that they were waiting for him; that he was a man who taught them peace and love, to abstain from war, to love peace, and help one another: Just a remaining vestige of the Gospel of Christ which was left among that people, and they are looking for the return of Quetzalcoatl.