As I told you in the last vlog, Jack was very generous.
A lot of people in the area in the 1970s
already knew of Jack's generosity and kindness.
In fact, Jack told me, a lot of the area pastors
would show up to visit Jack -- just before lunchtime.
And they were more than happy to partake of Jack's giving nature
by letting him pay for the bill, for all of them,
all of the time.
And Jack never complained.
He was kind and paid the bill.
Maybe they thought he was rich.
(I'll tell you more about that false assumption
another time.)
Back to the story.
This continued a number of years, until Jack decided to expose
the Roman Catholic system.
Then, Jack didn't see hide nor hair of those... friends.
Two years after Alberto first came out,
one of them called him on the phone.
"Jack -- are you still around?"
Jack said, "I'm around.
Where have you been?"
Jack kept to his task, writing gospel tracts
and telling Alberto's story, even when his own friends
deserted him.
Some folks doubted, when Jack said the Lord told him
to work with Alberto Rivera and publish his story.
So, I've been trying to put together what I can
of Alberto's story.
And I've been thinking about a note Alberto wrote to his father,
on back of an interesting photograph.
This might unlock what happened to Alberto
after he left the Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano.
Would you like to see it?
And would you like to hear what I found?
Hi, I'm David Daniels from Chick Publications.
Alberto Rivera had told Jack, "If you expose the Whore of Babylon,
it may cost you your company, your wife, your daughter,
your friends, everything."
Jack really thought about whether he was going to do this
or not.
He went to his friend, Jim Franklin, who worked here at Chick.
Jack said, "What do you think?
Should I hit the Whore?"
Jim said, "Jack, greater is He that is in you,
than in the whole Roman Catholic institution!"
Jim quoted scripture whenever he could,
which was most of the time.
Well, Jack went into prayer and he asked the Lord.
And the Lord told him, "Yes."
From the very beginning, Jack would send out a letter
and mail it out with his newest Gospel tract.
So he wrote a letter and mailed it out,
saying that he was declaring war on the Whore of Babylon.
One of the largest conservative Catholic newspapers,
Our Sunday Visitor, then wrote in their next issue
that Jack Chick was declaring war on Roman Catholicism.
But Jack didn't say, "Roman Catholicism."
He said, "the Whore of Babylon."
They knew who they were.
So Jack published Alberto's story.
And the rest is history.
So what should I do?
The scripture is clear:
Proverbs 18:13 "He that answereth a matter
before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him."
I don't want to sit here with all these documents
and not even let the papers and pictures tell their own story.
And I certainly don't want to be foolish or shameful.
So here I am today, trying to piece together what I can,
from what I can find of Alberto.
Among the documents that Alberto left behind,
I found a photo of Alberto and some other people.
I wondered, Can I find any of these people today?
I was especially intrigued by what was written on the back
of that photograph.
Here it is, possibly for the first time ever in public:
Look at this picture.
There are a number of different students
of different backgrounds, all at a library,
working at a table.
On the right side, there are two young men.
One has a pen and he's drawing something
on a huge map, while the second man looks on.
Two women and a young man are writing,
and a second young man is typing.
Now look at the two men on the left.
The one on the end with a mustache
has scooted his chair next to the other one.
He's comfortable and smiling and he's looking at
something he's holding.
The other young man with the black jacket and glasses
is also smiling.
His right hand is right next to the end guy.
They are looking at something together.
His head is tilted to his left.
He is relaxed.
Now look at his feet.
They are crossed.
He isn't going anywhere.
He is very comfortable.
So what is happening in this picture?
There are either a number of different projects,
or different aspects of one project, being worked on.
Everyone's papers are on top of the others,
which indicates they are using what they can
of all the documents.
These clearly look like students in a library
doing a joint project.
It reminds me of seminary days at Fuller.
Now look above the two on the left.
There is a pen-written star on top of each of their heads.
Can you figure out who they are?
Now look at the back of the photo.
The handwriting isn't super-clear, but it's to "mi padre," his father,
and someone else, "con todo caliento de Alberto,"
"with all warm affection from Alberto."
Underneath is the location: Golfito.
That's in Costa Rica, about 180 miles
to 188 miles south of the Seminario Latinoamericano
in San Jose.
So now Alberto is in Golfito.
But look at the date: 6/2/58.
6th of February, 1958 is almost 2 years after
Alberto hastily left the Seminario.
And look at what Alberto wrote below:
"Plutarco y yo discutimos un plan misionero,"
"Plutarco and I are discussing a missionary plan."
That is certainly what it looks like.
Especially when you know this is a Methodist school
of some kind.
But let me back up.
I sent this photo to a missionary friend of mine.
He wrote back to me,
"If this is who I think it is, it's Mr. Plutarco Bonilla,
of the United Bible Societies of Costa Rica."
So now I had two questions.
Could this be Plutarco Bonilla?
And if so, what can I find out about him?
I'd love to take you on the whole journey
to finding information, but since this is a vlog,
let me sum up.
I've looked up everything I can about this Plutarco,
Plutarco Bonilla Acosta.
And this is what he said in various interviews,
translated into English, over the years.
He was born December 2nd 1935.
Alberto was born September 19th 1935,
2 1/2 months before Plutarco.
And guess what?
They were both from Las Palmas
of the Grand Canary Islands!
Plutarco was baptized in what seems to have been
the only Evangelical church in the town
when he was 15, about 1951.
Here is a photo of Alberto and Plutarco
from about 1955.
They took a ship to Venezuela, then to Costa Rica,
arriving in Costa Rica in May 1955, just like I had guessed.
In 1957 he married
Marta Fernandez of Chile and had 3 children.
She sadly died in 1963.
He later married Esperanza Rios of Costa Rica.
That's all in here.
Plutarco was a constant traveler.
He studied at Princeton, Athens Greece, Madrid,
and he taught in three different American colleges and seminaries.
He went on to be pastor of the Methodist church in San José
and an advisor for the 1995 revision of the Reina Valera
for the United Bible Societies.
Plutarco earned a Master's of Theology at Princeton
and a degree in Philology, Linguistics and Literature
from the University of Costa Rica.
In 2014 he was honored with an honorary Doctorate of Divinity
by the South Florida Center for Theological Studies.
And after all his travels and work, Plutarco came back to Costa Rica
and became the Rector of the Seminario Bíblico
Latinoamericano.
So was it actually THIS Plutarco that is in Alberto's photo
that he sent to his dad?
It sure looks like the earlier photo of Alberto and Plutarco.
So I put the word out, and a brother sent me
Plutarco's email address.
I asked him some questions.
He was extremely kind.
And he wrote me right back!
He wrote,
"Long time ago, and for very serious reasons,
I decided not to speak to any person about Mr. Rivera."
But he did tell me two things in his letters,
just a couple of days ago:
1.
He and Alberto did come together to the SBL
(the Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano).
So that photo by the boat is a genuine one
of Alberto and Plutarco.
2.
Plutarco wrote, "I cannot remember the exact dates
of my visiting Golfito, but certainly
I didn't go there to study, just to preach
in the Methodist Church during Holy Week.
(In Costa Rica I have studied in the SBL [Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano]
and in the UCR [University of Costa Rica] only)."
So now we know Plutarco did visit
the Methodist group in Golfito, where Alberto was.
We know Alberto is on the end.
So that is indeed Plutarco Bonilla Acosta
right next to him.
There are only two problems.
1. 6th of February isn't "Holy Week."
That was Palm Sunday to Easter, March 30th to April 6th, 1958.
So either a) Alberto was off on the picture
by two months, which would mean
Alberto's school was in session during Holy Week, which isn't likely,
or b) Plutarco came down earlier that year and visited Alberto
on the 6th of February, 1958, like the photo says.
2. If Plutarco wasn't a student, what was he doing,
discussing a missionary plan with Alberto?
Was he just a visitor?
He's just younger than Alberto, so he's not his supervisor.
Now take a look at one more thing.
That same year, 1958, was the 35th Annual Session
of the Provisional Annual Conference of Central America,
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which met in Nuevo Cristobal,
Colon, Panama.
Here are the handouts from that conference.
See that group on the top left?
The guy in the front row, 1 person from the right,
is Alberto Rivera.
See the listing of circuit preachers on the right page?
Listed in "Golfito y Circuito," "Golfito and its circuit,"
under "Puerto Cortés y Circuito," is Alberto Rivera.
This started to really make sense.
With the authority given him as a circuit preacher,
Alberto could quickly affect a number of congregations,
as many as were on his circuit.
He once said he messed up
a good many churches.
As a Methodist circuit preacher, he could enter quickly,
cause havoc, and leave just as quickly
to the next church in the circuit.
I'm not telling anybody what to believe.
I'm just trying to make sense of what Alberto left behind.
And it all started with a photograph.
I think Jack did the right thing, staying polite,
generous, focused on spreading the Gospel,
and printing Alberto's case against the Roman Catholic institution,
the Whore of Babylon of Revelation 17-18.
God bless you, and have a wonderful day.