San Juan Del Obispo

There is a quaint little hamlet a few miles from Antigua up on the slopes of The Volcano of Water, that has a huge church appropriate to a city ten or twenty times the size of little St. John the Bishop's Church. The guide will tell the tourist that the many churches of Antigua and environs were not built because they were needed for having many members, but just for the glory of God and the priest, who was his own architect. For that priest it was the chief outlet for competition. The Indians were forced to labor without any, or with low pay, and if many died there were always more available. Anyway, the kind priest always tried to baptize them before they died so they would go to a happier land and more bountiful Eden than even Guatemala, paradise though it was, for the priests, not for the conquered ones.

It was difficult trying to preach in the open air in this town, but not because they threw rocks or threatened to kill us. Each town or area has its own personality. Though all were hard at first, still they were more readily converted than others.

Some bragged that though Santiago and Alotenango had finally had converts and raised an evangelical meeting house, "We of Cuidad Vieja will never permit it, if we have to kill all the Evangelicos!" They tried to keep that threat a long time. However, San Juan killed us with its indifference.

They neither cat-called nor threw little tomatoes. They just stayed away. We met a family of believers who invited us to have a meeting in their roomy patio. Of all the interesting coincidences! It was at the very back of the cathedral. One could stand to preach with the church wall at his back and realize that perhaps at that same moment the priest was but a few arm lengths away, on the other side of that wall, preaching, a;so, or whatever it is they do. We were, typical of our viewpoints, facing in opposite directions, pointing the worshipers to opposite gods.

Some will say, "All worship the same God." Jesus said it was not true. The church which God Himself had found had changed until they were following another father, the devil. Historically, Rome had substituted so many forms, traditions and worship of saints, they had lost almost entirely sight of the only Mediator that could save and lead the individual soul to know God.

Only within the last few years has the Charismatic Movement brought a wave of reformation within the Roman Catholic Church. At first, the majority of priests and hierarchy fought the Movement, as a nun told me, so many of their people were then just going to evangelical meetings, that the church decided it was better to give permission to have their charismatic meetings in the very church. The nun said she attended regularly and had been born again.

But as the early church had to go through many years of persecution before there was finally an acceptance with official changes, we too, city by city, passed through years of persecution before the Gospel began to show victory.

Periodically I still remind our Antigua evangelists to visit San Juan del Obispo. Their report is that, whereas the towns that were so very hard had finally accepted the Gospel and meeting houses built, San Juan still had no Evangelical church.

Several groups meet in private houses or patios for mid-week service, but they go into Antigua for Sunday services.