Ruse or Revelation

[Smithsonian]

I don’t know if any of you have heard of this before.
These are a rather long read, but I think it worth it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_of_Melchizedek
http://www.melchizedek.com/
http://www.melchizedek.com/mz_bible/bible.htm

The first link is self explanatory.
The second one is this ecclesiastical state’s official website. It explains the nation’s land claims, its history and general facts. *.to links didn’t work for me.
The third link is to the nation’s founder’s translation of certain Biblical Books. This is the really interesting one.
The introduction gives the author’s side of the story found on Wikipedia.
A quote from the Preface:

The Bible speaks of turning things upside down, and that is what those who reason from effect to cause have done. It must be understood that we have body functions because we have life, such as having eyes because we see, not that we see because we have eyes, and so it is that we have legs because we have locomotion, and not that we have locomotion because we have legs, and so forth. This leads to an easy understanding of how it is that our faculties adapt to whatever situation in which they are required to function. Life doesn't reside in the body, but the body is the effect of Life, whose manifestation is omnipresent.

Is this the story of a conman turned convert or just that of a conman building himself a bigger ballpark?

I’m leaning strongly towards the second guess and find this to be a prime and plain example of someone going remarkably out of his way to apply religion in a way that’s useful to himself.