“I Just Wanted to Beat up the Chaplain”
By Guillermo Salazar
Since entering the Christian chapel inside the prison, Marcellus believed he was in charge and his decisions were final, and in spite of the long years he lived in crime and then in prison, he had still not learned to distinguish right from wrong.
He had heard the Gospel, but Jesus was not yet his Lord and Savior. That’s why he tended to twist the Gospel the way he thought it should be. He continued his twisted thoughts and conspired to attack the pastor, the chaplain of the prison.
Marcellus began at an early age to commit different crimes, until he had to go to jail to pay for them. Inside the prison, he heard the Gospel and understood it in his own way through the influence of other evangelical Christian groups in the prison.
When he began to listen to the prison chaplain, he told fellow inmates that he did not understand him, that the pastor did not like them either because he preached so strongly the Gospel that he would raise his voice vehemently, seemingly not out of love. He had seen similar preaching on the streets before prison, and from the mouth of other preachers who eventually entered to preach there too in prison.
Marcellus felt that preaching ought to be with the “strength and power of the Spirit,” which he did not see in this shepherd. His discomfort grew within him to such an extent that he thought of rebuking and beating this preacher. He said to others, “That shepherd makes me want to beat him up because that Word is not of God.” He wanted me to believe his way.
For Marcellus, the Gospel of Christ was still undercover, the “clarity” of the Light of the Word had not come to him, and it was hiding from him (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). But God, in His infinite mercy, revealed Himself to Marcellus through the quiet study of the Scriptures, the Bible studies of Fuente de Luz (Source of Light Chile) and the classes that we gave weekly. Gradually, the veil that prevented him from seeing clearly the Light of Christ began to disappear. The Biblical lessons of Source of Light made him see and understand what the Lord wanted to reveal to him and much more.
For Marcellus, things were not as he had come to believe on his own. It was his practice to resolve conflicts with science, physics, and with violence, all in the flesh. This was why so often he thought to attack the preacher. Thankfully, something held him back. No doubt it was the power of the Holy Ghost.
It was only when Marcellus stopped to pay more attention, to reflect on what he could hear of the preacher that he realized that the pastor did preach the Word of God. And so it was that within a few days he truly converted to Christ, and was able to approach other Christians he trusted to tell them that he had changed his mind about the pastor.
After wrestling with an internal conviction, he mustered up the courage to confess to the chaplain, what he had planned to do in the past. He repented, asked forgiveness from God and from God’s servant. He publicly acknowledged his intentions and declared that he realized that what he was hearing was truly the Word of God. He realized this because he was studying and comparing the preaching with the teachings he heard from the Scriptures.
Soon after conversion, he was released in 1996 and was baptized in 1998 in the river Allipén. He married Norma in 2002 and today they have 2 children. As a family, they serve the Lord and in prison ministry.
His ministry began in 1998 as an assistant pastor and with the ministry of the Prison Center (CECAR) in the city of Temuco, Chile. In 2009, I assigned him as a volunteer chaplain in that prison. Additionally, every Friday he has a radio program (late night) in the city of Temuco where, along with other ex-convicts, he shares testimonies and the preaching of the Word of God.
Inmates of nearby prisons hear his program, and many who leave prison contact him to greet him and tell him about their Christian experience where, like Marcellus they saw the Light of the Word of God.
The Gospel was hidden for Marcellus, but he came to understand it according to 2 Corinthians 4, and now shares it with many people through the various means that the Lord allows him to spread.
Currently Marcellus is 54 years old. Together with his wife, they have a small business selling nuts. He is a pastor and the chaplain of the Nueva Imperial jail.
We thank God that, like Marcellus, there are other former inmates who have known Christ as their personal Savior. Some are now missionaries, others are pastors, or Bible teachers, and others have their Christian homes. To the Lord be the glory. Amen.
