I haven't even been in Costa Rica for more then a week and there has been a recurring theme among the people. And the more I got thinking about it, this goes on in the United States all the time and I think its about time to shed some light on the topic..
Here is some history on the religion that they follow:
The majority of the population in Costa Rica are Roman Catholic. One of the main churches to go to in Costa Rica is called the Basilica which is located in the city of Cartago. Local legends say this all came about when a young girl found a small statue of Mary holding baby Jesus. She then brought it home, but when she awoke, the statue was gone. To her discover, the statue was back on the rock where she found it. The girl then took the statue to a local priest where he locked it up for a night. The next morning, the statue was no longer locked up but it was back on the rock. The Basilica is busiest during the month of August as many local Costa Ricans make the pilgrimage. This pilgrimage consists of a twenty-two kilometer walk during the Romeria. Upon arrival and during their stay, people will visit the rock on which the statue was found upon. It is here where they wash themselves and drink the holy water.
So, like I said, I haven't even been here a week but I want to shed some light on the false beliefs that I have been witnessing from a lot of people here. People are allowed to believe what they want, but when people take false doctrine about my God and make it something that its not, I have to say something….
This is what people are being taught —
*That Jesus is very angry at us for what he had to do on the cross, and since Mary is Jesus's mother, if we pray to her and worship her, she will tell Jesus everything is ok and He wont be mad at us anymore.
*That we can live however we want, it doesn't matter our actions, but if we drink this holy water once a week and pour it over ourselves that our sins are washed clean.
*We are unable to read the Bible ourselves, we will not be able to understand it so we need a priest to tell us what it says
*They teach the ten commandments but leave out the commandment about not having any other idols or false God's
* They teach that if a loved one is dead, you can pray for them to go to heaven
* If you sin bad enough, you will lose your salvation
*Mary needs to be worshiped and praised over Jesus
*The do not teach the trinity…they believe in The Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Mary
Those are just few of the beliefs that I have posted above. The list could go on…and like I said, the more I got thinking about it, we do the same thing back in the United States. It might not be worshiping a rock like people do here. But don't we think that if we do good deeds that will be enough to get us into heaven? Or we put our boyfriend/girlfriend above God. We make so many things idols and we don't even realize we are doing it.
The truth is people, Jesus is the only thing that can wipe us clean from all of our sin. Salvation is a free gift from God. There is nothing we can do or say to change if we go to heaven or not. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. The only way we can experience forgiveness is if God graciously decides to show mercy on us and give us a new heart to understand His love towards us. Jesus deserves our praise and worship. NOTHING can ever pluck us from the hands of God. He will continue a good work in us untill the day Christ comes back! Please if you are confused by any of this, feel free to contact me and ask me questions, I would love to talk more about this…
Check out these verses…
Ephesians 1:1-14, Ephesians 2:1-10, Philippians 1:6, Romans 8:37-39
