About the Author
Joshua heard the voice of the Lord for the first time at seventeen: “Give me your life!” He ran to his bedside—the only altar he knew—knelt, and said, “Lord, I give You, my life.” Although he did not know the leading of the Spirit, he felt compelled to go to Downtown Park and pass out flyers that read, “Only Jesus Saves,” He was arrested and charged with the “crime” of passing out “Counter-Revolution Propaganda”; this was back in Communist Cuba. While in jail, he started writing encouraging messages to the Church. When he was released six months later, he fled to the U.S. and obtained political asylum. After a few years, a family member came over and said to him, “The churches still read the letters you wrote from jail.”
At the age of twenty-nine, while grappling with his sinful nature, he prayed, “Lord, I am sliding down to hell, and I can’t even repent.” This was the gospel he had known: “repent to be forgiven.” He heard the voice of the Lord for the second time: “Fix your eyes on Christ.” Joshua cried out to Jesus with the same prayer: “Lord Jesus, I am sliding down to hell, and I can’t repent!” At that time, he experienced what he refers to as his “Road to Damascus experience.” He saw the Lord Jesus sitting at a desk as Judge in a courtroom atmosphere. He lifted what appeared to Joshua to be a wooden hammer and, slamming it down on the desk, proclaimed, “Forgiven for time and eternity.”
Being forgiven without being able to repent opened Joshua’s understanding, and in a matter of seconds, he perceived the difference between a gospel based on repentance and a gospel based on faith, as well as the distinction between “forgiven” and “justified.”