The Usurpation Of Christianity By The Religious Establishment: Discovering the Real Life that God Offers to the Lost in Christ Jesus

By Melvin A. Zelaya

It has been said that our perceptions are the truth and reality for most of us, and that might just be so. However, Christ Jesus told us that the it's the truth that set us free to perceive our real world. Just as Christ Jesus challenged the Jewish version of Judaism of His time, this book questions with biblical truth, our current version o

• Language: English
• Publisher: Book Vine Press
• Release date: Nov 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781951886097

Melvin A. Zelaya

MELVIN A. ZELAYA launched his career in the mid 60's after graduating from The San Francisco Computer Academy as a System Analyst and later in the 70's, did a seven-year stint with the IBM Corporation. Now retired, he worked the rest of his career as a sales and marketing manager with some of the major corporations in America. He holds a BBA degree business and accounting from the University of Alaska, and an MBA in marketing from the University of Phoenix. Not a theologian by trade, Zelaya found it curious how today's church became so weakened as to be changed by today's culture as compared with a vibrant Book of Acts church who conquered theirs. After four decades of searching, he has found that the problem is not the message itself, but its delivery method. "While churches filled me with head knowledge," he says, "it was only God's '[ חוּר ] (ruwach)' the Spirit that transformed it into a heart knowledge making for a faith that's impossible to be derailed or deceived." He considers himself as a walking question mark and on the premise that God is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever he embarked on a search and discover mission after meeting and receiving Christ Jesus as his Savior in 1975, determined to find out what God has actually said, rather than what the religious establishment has disseminated for the last 1700 years or so, that has made it more of a tradition, than a way of life. However, in order to do this, he had to find out which of the "holy" books out there, are actually Holy. After several years of research he settled for the Bible as the only real supernatural book and the rest, like the saying goes, is history. While some may think these are serious assertions, the compelling evidence is presented in this book. He currently lives with his wife Miriam in the greater Metro Phoenix area living that life within that the Father offers freely, to anyone who comes to His Beloved Son for deliverance from the things about to come.

Book preview

Aragón, M. Alberto Zelaya

BOOK REVIEW

A passionate series of chapter-long reflections on the true nature of the Christian calling.

In his nonfiction debut, Zelaya continues a long Christian tradition that began with the epistles of St. Paul. He transforms a series of Scripture lessons, originally designed for use in prisons, into a handbook for an intense, renewed personal faith, rather than passive fellowship, which he warns is the false premise of too much major-denomination Christianity. The Christian faith, he says, is not, in fact, a religion, but rather a bonafide intimate relationship with the Godhead. In order to experience it, he asserts, the faithful must be willing to exchange the worldly things that hold the affections of life for a straightforward, wholesale life of faith. He deals with the subject of prisoners, who have, in many cases, faced the rock bottom of their lives; to these and other readers, he offers kindly but hard-line testimony about what true, non-dogmatic Christianity requires from those who seek its mercy: total surrender. Let’s get rid of that religious pacifier that has put the body of Christ into a deep sleep…and get the courage to make the choice to return to the true teacher and tutor, the Holy Spirit, he writes. He earnestly calls for Christians to imitate and duplicate the union that Christ Jesus had with his Father, and stresses that all the faithful need to do so is to hold the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit inside their own hearts. To help that process, Zelaya provides a great many learned, readable scriptural analyses throughout this book, including Dispelling Religious Myths about the Kingdom and Removing the Hurdles of Entering the Kingdom." These textual lessons will be valuable to Bible study groups, and Zelaya’s frank, searching account of his own personal interpretations of Christianity’s heart will interest all other believers.

A stern but friendly treatise on the obligations of faith.

The Usurpation of

Christianity

By The Religious Establishment

Melvin A. Zelaya

Copyright © 2019 by Melvin A. Zelaya.

ISBN Softcover 978-1-951886-08-0

Ebook 978-1-951886-09-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

All scripture taken from the Amplified Bible Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Printed in the United States of America.

Book Vine Press

2516 Highland Dr.

Palatine, IL 60067

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Kingdom’s Nature

The Terms for Experiencing the Kingdom

The Kingdom’s Charter

Identifying The Kingdom’s Enemies

Letting Go of Religious Beliefs in the Kingdom

The Kingdom’s Spirit

Life in the Kingdom

Realizing the Life of the Kingdom

Enjoying the Peace of the Kingdom

Barriers to Entering The Kingdom Life

Settling in God’s Kingdom

Citizenship of the Kingdom

Removing the Barriers of Entering the Kingdom

Abiding in the Kingdom

Afterword

References

Preface

Ibelieve this narrative began on one evening in August 1975, when for the first time, I understood and accepted the Good News message at a meeting hosted by an organization known as the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International in Boise, Idaho. Up to that time, I lived a conformist and worldly life, where everything was relative, meaning I appointed myself as the arbiter and judge of what was right and wrong in my world, unfettered from any divine authority, denomination, or religious sect whom I merely regarded as buffoons and self-appointed representatives of an unknown god or authority who supposedly, was in charge of regulating mankind’s actions. However, this arrogant attitude began to crumble after witnessing the birth of my first daughter in September 1974 when I became mesmerized by the miracle of life which initiated not only a profound sense of wonder, but a serious consideration that what I was witnessing, had all the characteristics of an exquisite work of creation that pointed to a strong possibility of a Creator’s existence. In retrospect, I now consider this event as my very own personal Road to Damascus experience that, given my defiant attitudes, lasted just a few days due to our disposition of out of sight, out of mind.

To this day, I do not remember why or what motivated me eleven months later, to accept the invitation from an associate to attend this particular meeting with this Businessmen’s Fellowship event because the label Full Gospel was a dead giveaway that it had to include some kind of religious pitch and/or pious activities which was anathema to me. What happened next, later that night, was certainly not because I was looking for religion or, that I felt guilty about any of the many things I had done in the past, which I knew were disingenuous if not outright dishonest, or for that matter, feeling the need or the wish to be absolved of anything. I was there for the sake of this person who I considered irreverent. I now believe that it was perhaps due out of curiosity given my experience at the hospital room the previous year that stirred an underlying interest about spiritual things dating back to my own personal supernatural involvements when I was about 7 or 8 years old my native land of Nicaragua when one night, I saw this incandescent orb floating into my room and pausing alongside my bed merely 3 or four feet away emanating some sort of what it felt like a silent but palpable energy waves. Of course, I immediately felt terrified and totally paralyzed wanting to scream but making only a gurgling sound. Recreating that memory, I find it startling that this orb, which was glowing with light didn’t, unlike a flashlight, illuminate, as natural light does, any of the four walls in that room. After just a few seconds that seemed hours for me, it moved along to the foot of the bed and then backtracked past me again and out the door. I know that this was not a bad dream or my imagination because as I lay paralyzed on my bed, I could hear my older 2 brothers who were sleeping outside my room in the big hall getting agitated and even heard one of them say catch it! On a visit while reminiscing out childhood events, he verified to me that what I had seen and heard that particular night did happen and was not my imagination or a nightmare. Subsequently, I did have a few more similar incidents over the years that were just as real and unexplainable as that one. When I emigrated to the U.S. in 1962, it was reinforced again to me when I lived in San Francisco and my girlfriend introduced to me her circle of friends, where I came in contact with a network of people who were very active in the occult, which stirred up once more an interest to explore that unknown world we all instinctively know exists, but choose to keep it locked away in the most recessed corners in our minds. Notwithstanding, for a few months I witnessed the activities of these people and their ability, if not power, to influence other people’s actions to a desired outcome solely for the benefit of the person conjuring the spell by using a personal item or any part of their body such as hair follicles or nail clippings taken surreptitiously from the intended target. No, this wasn’t the movie Eyes Wide Shut, but it might as well be. These experiences substantiated to me, the existence of this invisible world comprised of beings with power over those who are the subjects of the god of this world. Yes, whether you don’t believe or like it, humanity is a part and is ruled by an evil and unseen kingdom. Think about it, why would the Creator offer an extrication plan if this wasn’t for real? Like a child born to slave parents in a plantation and through no fault of your own, you are automatically added to this slave population. This is the very reason why a Just and Merciful God provides a Savior to undo this injustice perpetrated by our original ancestors Adam and Eve.

At that time however, I wasn’t aware that this was the state of affairs and condition for those who close their eyes to the obvious reality that primarily, we are spiritual beings not just another physical animal populating this world. In fact, this is the theme and perspective that Jesus was demonstrating in the Gospels as he liberated people that were oppressed by these things who to me, are not really beings because their nature is not human in any way, shape or form. I never saw this kind of resources in the church I attended off-and-on during my childhood but as I read Christianity’s history, these supernatural occurrences was part and parcel of the first century church. It all started, if you will, in a basement with the fun and games of horrorscopes, Ouija boards, tarot cards, palm reading, etc., and then I progressed to the first floor with the above mentioned witchcraft practices I was observing in these new surroundings. I’m just glad I didn’t advance to the second floor or to the penthouse, for that matter, where only God knows what other heavy duty satanic rituals are practiced. I guess having a conscience is a disqualifier among these people because there was no way that I could justify being part of hurting or manipulating other people. After a short time I started to distance myself away from these people because something inside of me welled up that abhorred the idea of taking advantage of other people without their knowledge and frankly, against their off guard will. In fact, for all I knew, I could have been a target myself just as well since certainly, these people could not be trusted if they wished or wanted something out of anyone in this plantation. Trust me, there’s no defense against it if you don’t have some sort of a supernatural spirit guide/benefactor on your side and even then, these evil entities are in competition with one another and higher ranked spirit guides may trump the one that you trust in. It’s really alarming to consider that the world at large are totally oblivious and ignorant about these spiritual chess games all around them that are no games at all but are deadly serious.

I can’t help but remember how accurate it is the comment of one of the characters in the movie The Usual Suspects when he stated something along the line of: the greatest lie ever perpetrated to humanity by the devil, is to make them believe that he doesn’t exist. This world’s environment was later confirmed when as a Christian, I read Ephesians 6:12: "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places. I know there will be eye rollers, doubters and scoffers but if they choose to ignore this fact, they do so it at their own peril. Thanks be to God who has provided the best guardian and shield you will ever hope to have, but only for those who take it to heart and come to know and accept His Son in the Person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He has freely given to us a way out of this plight by his own sacrifice on behalf of every individual, as well as giving us His Spirit to develop and groom us to a personal and deep relationship with Him. This provision as pointed out in 1 John 4:4: Little children (believers, dear ones), you are of God and you belong to Him and have [already] overcome them [the agents of Satan]; because He who is in you is greater than he (Satan) who is in the world [of sinful mankind]." So, in a way, the road that led me to the best night of my entire life, had already been paved by God.

When the featured speaker, a local businessman who happened to be in the same trade as myself (hence, the reason for being invited), finished his riveting story and personal experience, he asked if anyone in the audience would be interested to receive this kind of positive change in their life. Of course, this required me to come to the front of the room to meet the Giver and receive Him as Savior. After a brief internal and fierce struggle against the feeling of embarrassment of publicly admitting in front of total strangers that I had such a need, I humbled myself to get up and walk towards the podium. Of course, it became tolerable when I managed to blend myself with a few individuals heading for the platform that seemed to be a mile away. For me, it was an uncharacteristic and rare behavior of publicly acknowledging I wasn’t self-sufficient or being the master of my own destiny. I was doing something that, just a few hours earlier on that day, I would have considered it a sign of weakness if not foolishness. This act went totally against the grain and all of the odds of contradicting my intellectualism and my attitude of self-importance, but even more than that, my cynicism towards anything religious. Nonetheless, for some unknown reason I felt touched and drawn to this man named Jesus who had died a horrible death on my behalf 2,000 years before. Intellectually, this was already a challenge to me to understand how that ancient event related to me, but I didn’t care anyway. There was a power within me that appealed to me to keep moving forward. Up to this moment I had considered Him to be just an icon, dead and forgotten and no different than any other of the founders of major religions but to this businessman, He was alive and truly active in his personal life. This time, unlike my early church experiences as a young kid, something inside me had been shaken up and awakened that I could not deny or explain. It was a feeling like that of a chisel chipping away at a marble shell confining, like a molding, my inner being.

It’s all these events that are at the root of this work and its corresponding fruit, is meant for the faithful who have deeply studied God’s Word for years and have come to the conclusion that something is missing from their Christian walk. It’s also for those who never gave a thought to take the profound consideration as to what awaits them after death or, like me, had pursued the things that they thought would bring them happiness, only to discover that once attained they don’t do that at all. Ultimately, the reader of this work who faithfully practices studying the scriptures, will come to clearly understand that all of God’s promises are obtainable not just in the future world, but in the here and now provided that we meet all of His conditions. As for those who again, like me, think that this is all pie in the sky and that we and the planet are flying all alone through an endless universe at ridiculous and imagined speeds, read on for you might be in for the biggest surprise of all time which will reward with an ironclad security not only for the 70 or 80 years you’ll spend on this world, but for all eternity.

Now for those who have bought into the scientific claims about the nature of this universe, humor me and do this exercise in common sense and logic and do what I did when I first came to these conclusions. Take the speed that science has determined the sun is traveling forward in this galaxy which is also traveling at fantastic speeds per second with the rest of the galaxies; then multiply these speeds by 60 seconds, then multiplied by 60 minutes, times 24 hours by 365.4 days per year and them by millenniums we think the earth has been around, etc., etc., and when you reach a number of gigantic proportions, ask yourself: If this planet has traveled these many miles over the last so called five billion years that supposedly has been here then, how come the same stars, constellations and galaxies we know, have been here for at least 6 to 10,000 years and have remained constant and unchanged every single night in our sky? Obviously, you are free to believe whatever you want, but for me, some, or all of these geniuses" either made a mistake somewhere along the way or, they are lying to us. You decide, but for me, I can’t defy or ignore the logic and plain common sense about this conclusion.

Despite of all you have read, thought, told, or even imagined, you are an eternal spirit and death is just the door that brings you to the real realm of God’s World. After all, what have you got to lose when compared to all you will gain? If you dare to take a leap of faith, the result might just be that you, as I did, will find great treasure and that missing link that fills that emptiness we all have come to feel deep inside of us that now, in my own experience, know that only Christ can satisfy to an extent that I never thought possible. For those who put into practice the contents herein, it will give you access to an amazing personal and individual relationship with the Godhead as it was meant to be from the very beginning when each believer is united to the Savior. This union is not wishful thinking, imagined, or a merely a feeling but it’s the real thing. This fusion with the Creator is how today, Christ Jesus provides each one of us a tangible, palpable one-on-one teaching, protection, and peace of mind not to mention each and every need in your life where, you will actually meet the most generous, prodigious, and loving Father you’ll ever have. It is nothing like the church life and environment where I found myself only doing external activities in order to feel good and secure. It is the same quality of relationship that very few fortunate people have managed to attain with their earthly father or mother or with both, but on steroids. I venture to say that is also the same experience and surroundings His disciples enjoyed with Him when He walked on this earth. No, I am have not fully arrived there yet, but I absolutely know without a shadow of a doubt, that my walk with Him these days are light years apart since that fateful night in Boise, Idaho. This book avoids repackaging elucidations, teachings, or past writings from the so called biblical experts or scholars instead, it quotes only the raw and unadulterated Word of God with the exceptions of certain facts or news to illustrate a point. It strives to offer proof of an actual life hidden from those who would rather choose and pursue the religious life like those Jews who misunderstood and rejected the Living Word walking among them.

And finally, the motivation behind the writing of this book is the hope that in sharing my journey of discovery with you, that you may experience "All the riches that come from the full assurance of understanding [the joy of salvation], resulting in a true [and more intimate] knowledge of the mystery of God, that is Christ in us, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge [regarding the Word and purposes of God]" (Ephesians 1:2-3).

Acknowledgments

Without any doubt, to my Yahweh Christ Jesus belong my most profound thanks and praise for trusting me with this work. Further, I am grateful for the amazing instruction and understanding He has given me into His Word while writing this book, as well as for opening my mind to a new comprehension about His intended and personal results for me in His redemption plan. For these reasons, to Him alone I fully dedicate this labor because I know that I could never be able to write this on my own. To Him is due all praise, thanksgiving, and glory for the two amazing years of discovery, appreciation, and understanding of my Abba Father, Christ Jesus my Savior, the Holy Spirit my Teacher and Guide, and for their role they desire to play in every individual child of His.

My thanks is also due to the one teacher who truly revolutionized my walk with my Yahweh, Bob George, who single handedly slayed the beast of legalism and wrong thinking that kept me prisoner in the dungeon of religion. I would like to thank, from the bottom of my heart, my dear wife, Miriam, whom God sent my way to teach me patience and unconditional love by example. Thanks for taking no notice of the many hours away from other projects, and doing so without complaint or resentment, and for your words of encouragement and loving support of this work.

To my daughters, Erica, Nereida, and Jesarah, and Kelle, their mom, who observed and bore all the flaws of my early walk in Christ and keep helping me today with their love, patience, and forgiveness. There are no words to express how proud I am for your accomplishments and for being your father and thus, validating Psalm 102:28 in my life. Thanks for accepting, understanding, and loving me, warts and all.

Thanks to Bill and Sharon, Joe and Maxx, Dan and Sophia, and their children, for graciously welcoming and accepting me into their family. Your love and kindness has been a delightful gift, making life enjoyable whether we are together or when apart by distance.

To Sean, Shane, Vincent, and Cooper, for being a part of my family and giving me the same quality of acceptance as my blood family, thanks for the love and support.

To my brothers, sisters, and their children, who have likewise extended the same unconditional love, support, and acceptance, despite all those years of my being away but always welcoming me as if I lived next door. Thanks for that gift of feeling loved and accepted despite the geographical distances between us.

To my brothers and sisters in Christ in Boise, Idaho, too many to name but known to God, thanks for teaching me, as a baby in Christ, that His faith is up close and personal and that Christ Jesus’ love always surfaces in our works. Thanks for your love and fellowship that always will be a part of my walk in Him.

And last, but certainly never the least, to my fellow prisoners in all those prisons who are free in Christ Jesus and always striving to reach the unreachable not only within the jail walls, but inside their own spirits. Remember to "Lean on, trust in, and be confident in Christ Jesus with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own in sight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Thanks to all of you for being an influential and contributing part of my world that has shaped and molded my life which ultimately, has made this work possible.

Introduction

The first thing I want to clarify before you read one more word or sentence in this book, is the disclaimer that I am not, nor ever will be a theologian, a religious professional, or even a Bible teacher but just a regular Christian believer who, when coming to know my Savior Christ Jesus, took the same highway that millions if not billions of others believers took when they first came to know the Father’s wonderful Grace and Mercy through His amazing Son. Second, this book is a revised edition of my first book published in 2013, " Our Real Life in Christ " and it reflects 6 years of practical experience of what I wrote back then. It’s built on the same foundation and frame but the walls and interior have been updated to reflect this period of practical application of the principles that were outlined back then. While the Our Real Life dealt mainly with the whys and when’s, this book will be more focused on the practical applications that changes the dynamics of our daily lives. It is my sincere and fervent hope that it will point the way to that inexhaustible repository of wisdom and knowledge we have in our Bible and that in some way, however small of great, it will help those who are looking for a vibrant and substantial relationship with our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As I just mentioned, it seems that the road, from that first day after of our salvation, always leads to the door of a building we fondly call it a church. However, after just a few years of practicing what I have now come to see, and understand as practicing churchianity, for lack of a better term to define it, I instinctively felt that something was terribly missing in my life as a Christian. In theory, I was supposed to be living this amazing life that both, the clergy and God’s Word had promised to those who believed, but in practice, it wasn’t matching up to the assurances I heard, and believed. Perhaps it was the result of me, delving into His amazing Book and feeling that what I was reading was generally true, but not to the extent of what our Savior is describing in the Gospels. It was easy to clearly see the inconsistency and disparity between what I had been told and taught in all the churches I had attended, from what Christ Jesus had said in all of those four books recounting His life, as well as what was written afterwards by the apostles in the epistles, after His glorious resurrection. Unlike many of my contemporary believers who, perhaps felt the same as myself and then gave it up in disenchantment, I refused to abandon the faith or considered it bogus or wishful thinking, because I wasn’t focused or had established my faith on any church, pastor, or teacher but instead, like a bulldog chomping on a bone, I kept searching and hoping to find that "Small and narrow gate leading to that path that is difficult to travel but which leads the way to [everlasting] life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:14). It was obvious to me that the gross product of seminaries, divinity schools, and Bible universities, and mainly its traditions," as far as I was concerned, failed miserably in producing what Christ Jesus did in just three years for the last 2000 years. Please take the time to absorb and meditate on this obvious truth, and start considering that the subject of this book is His will for us believers if, we want to experience what He has in mind and planned for us since the foundation of this world. Therefore, the idea of me going to some accredited religious school to find, or even understand, God’s marvelous plan of salvation, didn’t even enter my mind. Just consider that Christ Jesus didn’t seek nor desired anything from that copious wellspring of theologians, rabbis, and teachers burrowed inside the Temple of Jerusalem. Why was this the case? Simply because, as He said in Luke 10:21: "I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things [relating to salvation] from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to infants [the childlike and untaught]. Yes, Father, for this way was [Your gracious will and choice, and was] well-pleasing in Your sight." Instead He chose, by today’s standards, eleven peasants and just through His Word alone, transformed their lives to the point that they would rather die than to betray His commands, and thereafter refused to live the same mundane life they had before they met this amazing God in the flesh. He merely duplicated Himself into this eleven simple, childlike, and untaught men who, like today, were just everyday kind of guys who later turned the Roman world upside down and managed to defeat every known and established false religion, invented by the devil, all around this world for the last 2000 years. Imagine that, the first MLM (Multiple Level Marketing) principle invented and put into action by the most amazing, brilliant mind of this entire known universe. Brothers and sisters, you don’t have to go out there and be a Billy Graham to feel important but just try and duplicate yourself into just one other person by the leading of the Spirit residing inside of you, (think about the parable of the talents and of the faithful/lazy servants) whether it be a relative, son, daughter, friend, stranger, wife, etc., etc. He illustrated this in the Last Supper where He, being the Bread of Life, divided that physical loaf of bread into those twelve pieces of bread eaten by 11 of his true disciples because the 12th had already written Him off as expendable, and said: "Do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:19). He was signaling to them that soon, in the near future, He Himself would be inhabiting each one them, individually, inside of them. That’s what we have to understand and accept it, because it that’s what it really is. As will be discussed later, that bread symbolically, merely migrated from the table to their innermost part of them, their spirits. Do you see the equivalence? He went back to heaven but His Spirit resides inside of us helping us in duplicating ourselves in others through the Good News message.

This is what real Christianity is all about. However, what has organized religion done? To start with, they have bastardized the method and the message into a rocket science project and weaved it into hundreds if not thousands of courses in seminaries, Bible schools, and religious universities making a hodgepodge of what the Father made simple and easy to understand even by a child. My failure to see and comprehend God’s simple design of sanctification (2 Timothy 2:21; and many others) was the vacuum that I felt in my heart and spirit which in turn, was making me neglect, not only His will, but the desire of my heart to live the Christian life that reflected, as much as humanly possible, a personal way of life as described in His Book. By the way, this way of life has nothing to do looking pious or wearing a halo around your head as warned by Christ Jesus in Mark 12:38 and Luke 20:46, for we know how much that’s worth. I knew that our Savior is not a liar and that John 10:10 is a reality, not a figure of speech or a hyperbole as some would have it, simply because they haven’t dug deep enough in that inexhaustible treasure mine we have come to know as the Bible. Having said all this, let’s now begin with an account about my experience of what Christianity is really like and actually, experience-able in your life in the here and now, as promised in John 10:10.

I will start by laying out the groundwork and the reasons as to how this work came to be. As already noted, becoming a Christian in 1975 was not the outcome of being in any kind of crisis, or having a need to feel accepted, nor to enjoy the company of other like-minded people—it was none of that. It actually came about by a personal experience of observing someone I knew and perceived by me, to be an evil person, not because I disliked him, but by his demeanor and the palpable deadness in his eyes and overall presence. I didn’t see too much of him, even though he was the partner in one of my best friend business venture. Eventually, my friend hired me to run one of his retail stores as his general manager and as such, I heard through the grapevine that he had become a Bible Thumper, as the jargon described all the people that were coming to Christ Jesus during that short revival period in the early 70’s known as the Charismatic Movement. When I finally saw him again during the normal process of business, I definitely saw a marked difference in him, as compared to the last time that I saw him which, it was quite a while since he managed the Idaho Falls store and I the Boise locations. I frankly had to admit to myself that he seemed like a totally new and different person, not only physically by his new demeanor and a new sparkle in his eyes, but by his actions and attitude towards other people which is something that I could not deny nor explain and thus kindled that interest I already had in my childhood and at the birth of my first daughter.

One could easily brush aside a change of status such as becoming a catholic, protestant, or the most common in this area, to Mormonism which, in my observations and experience, didn’t change the person’s character by much. In the past, I tried to avoid him but back then even more, since I took this change with a rock of salt and thought that these changes in his personality were most likely temporal, and I saw it as merely the result of getting religion. Nevertheless, before parting ways and disappearing from my life, in a friendly and in a resigned manner, after respectfully brushing off his testimony, he gave me a book to read titled The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Linsday. After reading it sometime later, it certainly caught, not only my attention, but it appealed to my intellect, curiosity, and my attitude of prove it and I’ll research, accept, and then maybe believe it. As a result of reading this book, it led me to read another work titled, Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell and that one, really raised the volume up, and my appetite for finding out even more, which then forced me into looking seriously, not only at the Christian faith, but other religious books as well, such as the Koran, Book of Mormon, etc. Like another author named Lee Strobel, who tried to pooh-pooh his wife’s finding of Christ Jesus, after doing a long research into the origins and all kinds of scientific evidence about the Bible, I finally came to the conclusion that God was real and, from that moment on, I sought earnestly to find Him, but I still didn’t commit to a single religious entity, because I wasn’t really sure which God to look for.

After many Godincidents (I rather use this term, instead of the unapprised term coincidence), I redoubled my efforts in the research of seeking the proof I needed to believe, being that I am the type of person who is averse to believing anything by just taking it on faith. God was kind and gracious to me by leading me to all the right science disciplines such as mathematics, history, and the thousands of manuscripts, as old as a 1000+ years old, which supports our Bible’s integrity over the ages and centuries of time. Being that my mother tongue is Spanish, I knew that languages cannot be translated 100% accurately, due to the fact that words, sentences, and even paragraphs can project a picture, a setting, and even feelings that compliments or completes the writing in a literary work. This led me to look into the original languages of Hebrew and Greek, thanks to the wonder of computers and the marvelous resources found in the internet. Like the famous line from the program X Files stated: The Truth is Out There if you have a real desire to find, research, and embrace it. I can’t explain why or how, but many years ago, I came to the realization that everything I knew, understood, and adopted into my life to form the core of my belief system, it all came from third parties such as my parents, siblings, teachers, professors, books, and the mostly spurious reports from what we now know as the fake media. A lie can be told thousands of different ways but I deduced that there is only one truth. What’s more, I also came to the realization that the god of this world, Satan, runs a tight ship through a real Devil’s Triangle, not in the Bahamas, but in the entire planet through: Governments and their military complex, the Economic System and their banking complex, and finally, the Religious Establishment and their church complex, no matter, like banks, what flavor or color you like. Wait just a minute, someone might think, are you telling me that all these institutions are evil. No, not saying that… Not at all, these are whether of good or evil, all areas of influence, not control where people decide to do the right thing in line with God’s golden rule, or not. We must remember that this whole world is a free will zone, where you are the only one who can control your behavior towards God and man. The fact still remains that Satan, as the god of this world, has the authority over all of it (Daniel 10:20). Thus, I decided to embark on a discovery journey and be, not only comfortable with my belief system, but having an absolute, rock solid knowledge and confidence in its foundation.

After much studies, using simple logic, and just plain common sense, I came to the conclusion that, without any doubt, the only true, and proven supernatural book in this world was the Christian Bible. What do I mean by that? That the Bible is the only book that met all my strict intellectual criterions and requirements for me to accept it as a truly Holy Book because I found it to be mathematically perfect after studying a little known book published in the late 70’s titled Theomatics by Jerry Lucas and mathematician named Del Washburn who, with the aid of one of the first mainframe computers, proved without any doubt, that this Book contains encoded information that was well known to the ancient Rabbis and sages of antiquity, and later rediscovered by brilliant Jewish mathematicians in 1994 when Doron Witztum, Eliyahu Rips, and Yoav Rosenberg published a paper, Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis. It also exhibits a single authorship, if you are familiar with writing stories, even though it was written by more than 40 writers over a period of 1600 years, in three different languages, and continents. But, above all this, it has God’s supernatural trademark known to us as prophecy, that has been 100% accurate from times immemorial as proven in the research of the book I read, Evidence that Demands a Verdict by McDowell, and by all of the Lee Strobel’s books as well. No other book came within a million miles in matching any and all of these attributes that I required for myself to take it seriously. The icing on this cake came after I made the decision to take Christ at His Word, and upon welcoming Him into my heart and life, it was only then, that I came to be experientially acquainted with the supernatural part of the salvation equation. What I mean by this is that as a seeker, I read His Book and to me, it was no different than that of reading any other holy book. However, once I accepted Him into my heart and upon re-reading the Bible as a born again believer, I was able to distinctly discern the difference between the before, and the after. This time, unlike the time when I read it during my research, it had transformed itself into a clear, logical, and coherent message that was hidden from me when I was an unbeliever and now, it was wide open to me so I could understand it. I didn’t quite comprehend how this had happened, or even how this was possible, until I read 1 Corinthians 2:14 where it says: "But the natural [unbelieving] man does not accept the things [the teachings and revelations] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness [absurd and illogical] to him; and he is incapable of understanding them, because they are spiritually discerned and appreciated, [and he is unqualified to judge spiritual matters]."

Fast forward 34 years later when unexpectedly, I found myself ensnared in the instability and ill-fated relationship when a simple misunderstanding, morphed into a homemade dispute that snared me into the Arizona legal system partiality which became the seed that ultimately germinated this book. Then, in the fall of 2009, it mutated itself into the bud that would later blossom into the flower of a total change in my view and experience of life, producing along the way, a prison ministry and finally, this book. It would take too long to illustrate how perfectly synchronized was, the chain of events that led me to a court appearance to defend myself from a false charge regarding the incident between this woman and I. This was my first time to experience, other than traffic court, the weightier matters of the law and its legal dishonest environment that allowed me to discover firsthand, the current practices, at least in my case where, if a man is charged by a woman of anything, with or without any proof, the accused male is guilty until proven innocent. I now know this because I found that even when I presented written evidence that this person had lied in her testimony to the court, it was totally dismissed, if not ignored, and I was still presumed guilty as charged. Perhaps, this was true only for me because I dared to challenge the evident bias of that man wearing the black dress. The whole incident began in the form of two detectives, not just one mind you, or a policemen, who abused their authority by treating, what was just an alleged misdemeanor, as if it were a felony by someone on parole. A year later, as I counseled and ministered prisoners as a lay pastor, I found this to be a common occurrence throughout the legal system in its proceedings, where truth did not matter, but ample funds for a lawyer certainly did. As the tentacles of the Arizona legal apparatchik, actually more like a mafia business, altered my mundane and ordinary daily life, when the inconsistencies and unfairness of this legal system, that is supposed to protect us, progressed into a misuse of judiciary and law enforcement power. This malfeance seems to be the norm in our overall current legal system and is offensive not only to me—but to anyone with a sense of justice, fairness and civility. Although it might be inspiring to highlight the intricacies in a series of more Godincidents about this event, suffice it to say that I became a witness to the veracity of Romans 8:28 later on. Up to that moment, this verse was no different to me than thousands of others that I had read or heard many times while sitting in a congregation. But this time, I was experiencing it for myself.

Frankly, I was surprised that these two officers, one male and a female, would come to my home after emailing my estranged girlfriend demanding her to withdraw the false accusation of harassment alleging that, not only that I had stalked her around her home, but also at her work and on her phone. The judge then escalated it to domestic violence when she told him I had pushed her when, in fact, as I broke off from her and tried to leave her home to my new condo she, failing to grab my belt, got hold of one of my jean’s back loops instead, and when it broke off she fell backwards. I presented the court with 3 months’ worth of documentation of all my phone calls in which, not even in one instance, showed her phone number either at her job or home, being on the list of calls, but to no avail. You might think that an honest judge would see this as a legitimate defense premise because if she lied about this, could she possibly have lied on any other part of her testimony? This legal lapse was unacceptable to me not only because she lied that I had pushed her, but because it jeopardized, through background checks, on my ability to find new employment since I had left my previous consulting job, which required me to fly out every week out of town. Since being out of town so much did not sit well with her self-granted supervision duties due to her jealous nature, I had to give it up for both our sakes. Also, the reason why this background check was harmful to me is because in Arizona, if you are charged with domestic violence, they throw at you the Brady Act restriction and your name is then listed in the National Crime Database and eventually will show up in any background check when applying for a job.

At any rate, after presenting the detectives with the same written evidence I showed in court, as well as playing for them saved voicemails displaying her ability to cuss like a sailor, the female officer had, at some point during the interview, decided to arrest me rather than serving me the summons to appear in court and explain how my email did not violate their spurious protection order. This officer, through outright lies and deception, lured me out to the street before she handcuffed me and hauled me to the Phoenix downtown county jail. As I sat that evening in a holding cell for hours on a cold November day without warm clothing because the officer had told me that it was just a formality and that I would be back home in just a couple of hours if I just went with her to fill out these standard forms at the precinct. Thus, I didn’t take a jacket or sweater for the cold nights at that time of the year and, being only 9 a.m. on a sunny day, I didn’t think it necessary to bring any warm clothing. By seven p.m. that evening, my rage was boiling like a cauldron and just thinking how I could get even with that *itch. Sorry, but that was my true feelings and thoughts at the time, but not anymore because that day became the best day for the rest of my natural life. In fact, I heard she was infuriated when I told one of her friends about this fact and that, I was truly grateful to her because the harm intended for me had become the greatest blessing I had ever received in my life.

Then, out of nowhere, I started to calm down as I analyzed the progression of this day’s events and finally, I managed to rein in my fury and stopped asking myself Why me? I thought, wait a minute, how is this all possible? First of all, this policewoman didn’t have to arrest me but simply give the summons, I appear in court and ask the judge how a simple email that could be erased, or marked for the junk folder, violated anything regarding an order against any physical contact with a person that I didn’t even want to see, to begin with? I remembered that when my stepson got the same treatment by his girlfriend, he went to her house and after she refused to open the door for him, in a rage, he kicked the door down and terrorized her and, despite this, was never arrested other than summoned to appear in court and answer for the violation of her restraining order and yet, here I am sitting in a holding cell with a bunch of obvious criminals, gang bangers, and losers," as I saw them for merely sending… an email! As they were asking each other why they were arrested each answered, in a bragging tone, the reason why they were there but when someone asked me looking at me like some fish out of water, they thought I was joking when I told them the reason.

Then, as I continued to rationalize as to how odd it was that the presiding judge at the arraignment, let one guy charged with his third DUI and another with his second, free on their own recognizance but when it came to me, she laid a $4000 bond that I couldn’t post because they took my wallet with all my money and its credit cards. Then it hit me that I didn’t remember any of the phone numbers for any of my family or friends to have, when I would get my mandatory phone call because they were all on speed dial! The only number I could recall was for someone I worked with for 16 years, and who I had fixed him with one of her girlfriends, and found out as well, the nature of these crazy women. However, when I called him, the system required that the call could go through only on land lines, but not cell phones. How convenient is that for their extortion business, heh? Worse than all this, no one I knew or was aware about my situation, or where I was. It was then that an awful feeling short of panic, started to creep inside of me. Let’s make one thing clear, at this point I wasn’t, like many of the inmates I ministered later, thinking that God had put me there to teach me a lesson. I knew I put myself there for not letting go her