To:
Judas House Reformed Prison Ministries
Attn.:
Brother James Anguiano
Elder
From:
Marlon Lopez
Redemption Point Prison Ministry
Dear Brother James,
Greetings in the mighty name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My name is Marlon Lopez and I have been a believer and follower of Jesus since 2002; I’ve been incarcerated since 2014 after I’d been on the run for approximately 12 years.
My intention in writing this letter is to address the desperate need for the teaching of sound doctrine that the church of our Lord is experiencing within the prison system in California. As you may very well imagine, both the sinful practices of every sort, and the corruption of false teaching, and false religion are prevalent behind prison walls. However, there also exists “an astonishingly wide diversity of opinions under the umbrella of Christianity” as was correctly stated by our Brother R. C. Sproul in his book “A Field Guide on False Teaching”. Nevertheless, this situation not only exists within the prison system, but we must admit that it is an epidemic that has plagued God’s church since its birth.
But, there is another truth to the above, and that is the fact that there are many of our brothers here amongst us (in prison) who do genuinely seek the Lord while He may be found; including myself in this group, I can sincerely express the profound yearning and hunger that we share for the correct teaching of the Word of God. While I must admit that there are many Christians throughout the prison system, many are limited to a general yet superficial understanding of Scripture, and Theology; many are lacking an ample understanding of the core biblical doctrines of our faith. Furthermore, adding to this very present problem, we also have those individuals who claim to follow Jesus, but also refuse to let go of beliefs that are contrary to biblical teaching.
As I briefly mentioned above, I came into the prison system in 2014; upon my arrival, I was taken under the coverture of two brothers who were leading the Reformist ministry on the yard. In 2016 I was raised to serve as Elder, and in 2018 I was named Teaching Elder. It has been in this capacity that the Holy Spirit has provided me the ability to see the need for His people to receive His unadulterated instruction through sound doctrine.
It has come to my attention that there exists a possibility in the future that your ministry may come into our housing facility. This would be of a great blessing to the continued spiritual growth for those of us who are seeking to know God and His Son Jesus Christ; the presence of your teaching ministry in our yard would also support those of us that faithfully serve Him. I look forward to our fellowship together with great enthusiasm and hopeful expectation.
In the Lord’s service,
Marlon Lopez, Ma. Theo.
Teaching Elder Redemption Point Prison Ministry
