Evil Spirits Defeated
Sweat poured down 11-year-old Eduardo’s face as he raced his skateboard back and forth on the street outside his house on a hot summer morning. “Eduardo Ferreira dos Santos!” his mother called. “Come in and take a shower before lunch.” Perspiring and panting, Eduardo headed straight for the kitchen, forgetting the shower and thinking only about lunch. Eduardo ignored a stranger seated in the living room, waiting for her nails to be painted. His mother ran her own home business, a beauty salon offering manicures and haircuts. Before Eduardo reached the kitchen, he was stopped by his 12-year-old sister. “Sit down and catch your breath,” she said. Eduardo obediently plopped down onto a chair. Immediately, an unholy shriek escaped his lips. His body began to convulse. His mother rushed to him. A low, distorted voice spoke from Eduardo’s mouth, telling his mother to hand over her son or watch him die. Eduardo’s mother began to cry. “Don’t worry,” the stranger told Eduardo’s mother. “Your son has been chosen to be part of our group. I am a Candomblé leader.” Eduardo’s mother had heard about Candomblé, a religion that arrived in Brazil on slave ships from Africa in the early 19th century. Candomblé teaches that people can be possessed by the spirits of gods. The spirits, however, aren’t gods but fallen angels. Eduardo had been possessed by one of them, an evil spirit from a legion that surrounded the stranger. After some time, the evil spirit left, and Eduardo returned to normal. He didn’t remember the incident, but his mother couldn’t forget, and she took him to the Candomblé temple. The temple priests welcomed Eduardo like a king. “What an honor,” one said. “You have been handpicked,” said another. Only 11, Eduardo was introduced to spiritism and devil worship. Over the next seven years, he spent much time at the temple, learning to be a priest. Evil spirits spoke to him and through him. The most important lesson, they said, was never to leave a job undone. If he started a task, he had to finish it. As an adult, Eduardo became high priest of a temple. He earned money from people who wanted him to curse their enemies. But the evil spirits forbade him from cursing Seventh-day Adventists and other Protestant Christians. “They are protected,” the spirits said, adding that any attempt to curse them would cause Eduardo to lose his powers. The spirits also banned Eduardo from communicating with Adventists and other Protestants. Eduardo found a common-law wife, Sidilene Silva de Oliveira, and they had a son, Eduardo Junior. Life was peaceful until Junior said he wanted to join the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Mother was worried about Junior. The usually cheerful 15-year-old boy had become uptight and hostile in their home in Manaus, Brazil. Against her wishes, he had signed up to learn Capoeira, an African-Brazilian martial art. “Eduardo, I don’t like Junior learning martial arts,” she told her husband. “It’s no problem for me to take him,” he replied. “The classes are just up the street from the Candomblé temple where I work.” “That also bothers me,” Mother said. “I didn’t know whether Capoeira and Candomblé are somehow related, but I don’t want my son doing either.” Father scowled. “Junior told me that some boys are bullying him at school,” he said. “That’s why he decided to take martial arts.” The next day, as Mother waited at school to take Junior home, she poured out her heart to Dilma Araujos dos Santos, the mother of one of Junior’s classmates, Clifferson. “My son doesn’t have any good friends,” she said. A few days later, Clifferson invited Junior to a video gamers club at his house. Mother, pleased that Junior had found a friend, allowed him to go. At Clifferson’s house, Junior found several boys playing a sports video game. After a few minutes, Clifferson turned off the game and invited the boys to sing about Jesus. Then the boys opened Bibles and talked about what Jesus meant to them. “Are you Christians?” Junior asked. “Yes,” Clifferson said. “At our club, we play sports games and talk about Jesus.” Junior liked his new friends; he didn’t miss any meetings after that. One day, Clifferson’s mother invited Junior to go to church with the family. Junior was happy to spend more time with Clifferson, and stopped going to martial arts classes. He didn’t tell Mother he was visiting Alpha Seventh-day Adventist Community Church. He only said he was going out. Mother soon noticed that Junior was eager to leave the house on Saturday, and she asked what he was doing. He showed her the YouTube channel where the church live-streamed its Sabbath services. Mother began to watch. One Sabbath, Junior told Mother that a man had given his heart to Jesus and been baptized at the church. “I want to be baptized,” he said. A few Sabbaths later, Mother accompanied Junior to church. She listened as the Sabbath School teacher taught from the adult Bible study guide. Someone gave her a Bible, and she looked up the verses the teacher read from Revelation. A chill ran down her spine when she read, “ ‘But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death’ ” (Revelation 21:8, NKJV). That’s the destiny of my husband, Mother thought. He will perish in the lake of fire. She began to pray for father.
Father always seemed to be angry after Mother told him that she was going to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Every little thing irritated him. One night, he exploded with rage when Mother arrived home late from a church event. The next morning, Mother arrived at the dental clinic, where she worked as a secretary, in Manaus, Brazil, and learned that she no longer had a job. The clinic had closed. All the way home, she wondered how to tell Father. But he wasn’t at home, and he didn’t answer phone calls. Then Mother noticed that his clothes were missing from the closet. He had left home. Mother didn’t say a word to their son, Junior. The boy, busy at school and the gamers club, only noticed that Father was gone three days later when he received a WhatsApp video message on his cell phone. Father said Adventism and his faith, Candomblé, could not coexist in the same house. Mother also received a WhatsApp message. Father said he had moved to the Candomblé temple, where he worshiped evil spirits as a high priest. “I’m never going to give up my religion,” he said. “You have to accept it.” Mother had never heard about the great controversy between Christ and Satan. But she was worried, and she met with Ricardo Coelho, pastor of Alpha Seventh-day Adventist Community Church. Weeping, she confided that Father worked as a Candomblé high priest and had deserted the family. Pastor Ricardo comforted Mother and, opening his Bible, said kindly, “Let me share some advice with you.” In 1 Corinthians 7:3, he read, “ ‘Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband’ ” (NKJV). In Proverbs 14:1, he read, “ ‘The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands’ ” (NKJV). Looking at Mother, he said, “Be a good wife to your husband, Eduardo, and pray for him.” The Bible verses encouraged Mother, and she decided to pray even more. Weeks passed, and Mother ran out of money. She found strength in the Bible and prayed the promise of Joshua 1:9, which says, “ ‘Be strong and of good courage . . . for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go’ ” (NKJV). When Grandmother, Father’s mother, learned that the family was low on food, she called Father, and he began to deliver groceries. One day, Grandmother told Mother that spirits had summoned her and Junior to the temple. When the pair arrived, Father was possessed by an evil spirit who spoke through him in a low, distorted voice. The spirit said Father could go back home but threatened to kill him if Mother or Junior tried to teach him about their religion or invited him to church. Father returned home that day. He had been gone for two months. Mother prayed even more.
Months passed before Mother and Junior learned why Father had abandoned them for two months and lived in the Candomblé temple in Manaus, Brazil. It was because Junior wanted to become a Seventh-day Adventist. After seeing a man baptized at Alpha Seventh-day Adventist Community Church, Junior told Mother that he also wanted to be baptized. Mother told Father, and Father, at the temple, was ordered by evil spirits to stop the plan. At home, Father tried to convince Junior to reconsider, but the boy stood firm. The evil spirits stepped up their pressure, telling Father that he would be destroyed if he did not stop Junior. Father didn’t understand how Junior’s baptism could destroy him, but he agreed to a plan by the spirits to move out of the house. The spirits said Mother would lose both her husband and her job on the same day, and she would stop taking Junior to church. Father didn’t want to leave home, and he worried about the plan all day. But when Mother arrived home late from a church event that night, he angrily decided to leave. At first, the plan unfolded as predicted. The next day, Father left the house, and Mother lost her job. But the rest of the plan fell through. The spirits had hoped that Mother would run out of money and stop taking Junior to church. But when Mother couldn’t afford to buy gasoline, church members offered rides in their cars. After two months, the spirits declared that they would create a new plan to prevent Junior from being baptized. They told Father to return home. Meanwhile, Junior had started Bible studies in preparation for baptism. He joined Pathfinders, participated in the church’s music program, and helped operate the church’s sound system. Although the evil spirits had promised to stop Junior from being baptized, the boy’s desire only grew. To Father’s chagrin, Mother also started talking about getting baptized. Pastor Ricardo set the date for Junior’s baptism on October 29, a year after the boy had first heard about the Adventist Church at his friend Clifferson’s house. Mother longed to be baptized at the same time. When she told Pastor Ricardo, he gazed at her seriously. “You cannot be baptized because you’re not legally married,” he said. The words hit Mother like a punch. Her common-law marriage was blocking her desire to be baptized with Junior. Pastor Ricardo saw her disappointment. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Ask Eduardo to marry you.” Tears flowed down Mother’s cheeks as she left church. She doubted Father would agree, but she sought him out. “I have a question. No matter how you answer, our relationship won’t change. Will you marry me?” Father pursed his lips into a pouty, puppy-dog expression. Then his face grew serious. “No,” he said. “I’ll never marry you.”
The day of Junior’s baptism arrived. Five people, including Junior, were to be baptized at 4:00 p.m. at Alpha Seventh-day Adventist Community Church in Manaus, Brazil. “I won’t go,” Father said. “Drive me to the temple.” On the way to church, Mother wondered out loud whether Father might still show up in his high priestly robes from the Candomblé temple. “I don’t care if Father comes in all his robes,” Junior said. “I’ll accept him.” At the church, Pastor Ricardo announced that Junior would be baptized first and invited him to share his story as he stood near the baptismal pool. Junior shared how he was bullied at school and his classmate Clifferson had invited him to a video gamers club that sang about Jesus and discussed the Bible. When Junior finished, he waded into the baptismal pool and turned around to look at the congregation. At that moment, Father, wearing his high priestly robes, entered the sanctuary. Mother burst into tears. “He’s here,” she said. “He said he wouldn’t come, but he’s here.” Heads turned to look at the back of the hall. Mother prayed silently, and church members familiar with Father’s work also prayed. Others stared in amazement at Father’s flowing robes. Everyone treated him with respect. A church deacon stood beside Father, greeting him. “Welcome, Eduardo!” said the deacon, Roberto Fernandez. “We were waiting for you. Come!” He led Father to the baptismal pool, where Junior was waiting to be baptized. A million thoughts filled Junior’s mind. God planned everything, he thought. No one knew in advance that I would be baptized first, and Father arrived just as I entered the pool. God’s plans are perfect! Each of the five baptisms was supposed to take 10 minutes, but Junior’s lasted an hour. Several friends from the video gamers club stood up to praise God for Junior’s decision and to encourage him to be faithful. Pastor Ricardo asked the Pathfinders to sing, and everyone joined in. As Junior came out of the water, the Pathfinders joyfully waved their yellow scarves. Junior, dripping wet, hugged Father. “Daddy, despite your religion, I love you very much,” he said. Looking at the audience, he added, “I thank you for being here. But most of all I thank my father for being here.” Then Father addressed Junior. “Son, I accept your religion because many supernatural things have happened,” he said. “I have kept you away from my religion this whole time, and I didn’t want you to become involved in any religion. However, I accept your religion because I sense a supernatural energy right now. I only hope that my own path to Jesus isn’t painful.” As the family got into the car afterward, Father said, “This is such a nice place, and the people are so nice.” He was beaming with joy.
Months passed before Junior and Mother found out why Father had changed his mind and went to Junior’s baptism. Evil spirits had forbidden Father from going to the Sabbath afternoon baptism, so he had turned down his son’s invitation to attend. On the day of the baptism, Father felt restless and asked Mother to drive him to the Candomblé temple in Manaus, Brazil. Around 5:00 p.m., spirits at the temple told Father to dress in his high-priestly robes and go to Alpha Seventh-day Adventist Community Church. They promised to possess people in the church to prevent Junior from being baptized. Father donned his robes and hailed a taxi. He could hear an invisible legion of evil spirits swirling around him. At the church’s entrance, the spirits suddenly declared that they could not go in. Father remembered the most important lesson that the spirits had taught him years earlier: Never leave a job undone. If he started a task, he had to finish it. Father boldly entered the church. As he walked into the crowded main hall, a sweet, sanctified energy flowed over him. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced, and it felt good. Later he realized that it must have been the presence of the Holy Spirit. Father’s anger about the baptism vanished. A deacon, Roberto Fernandez, met him at the back, gave him a hug, and led him to the baptismal pool. Father turned around and looked at the congregation, where he saw people with bowed heads. He thought they were frightened but later understood that they were praying. When he saw Junior in the baptismal pool, he realized that the spirits had lied to him. Junior wasn’t being forced to join the Adventist Church. It was his own decision. After a song, Pastor Ricardo raised his arm and said, “As a minister of the gospel, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.” Then he immersed Junior under the water. After the baptism, Junior took the microphone and looked at Father. “Daddy, despite your religion, I love you very much,” he said. He hugged Father and started crying. His words broke Father’s heart. When the ceremony ended, church members showered Father with hugs. He was shocked. He never expected to be treated with such love. “This is such a nice place, and the people are so nice,” he said as he got into the car. Back home, Father called everyone he knew to announce proudly that his son had been baptized. He described the experience as incredible. Mother realized that the Holy Spirit had started to work in his heart. An unbelievable peace filled their home for four days. Then the evil spirits ordered Father to kill Mother and Junior.
Four days after Junior’s baptism, evil spirits ordered Father to kill his family. Otherwise, they warned, Junior and Mother would destroy him because they were praying for him. For the first time, Father mustered up the courage to talk back. “How?” he asked. “Aren’t our prayers more powerful?” The spirits backed down and told Father to leave his home in Manaus, Brazil. They told him to take a boat to one of five cities where Candomblé priests were waiting for him. But when Father sought to buy a boat ticket, none was available to those cities. The only tickets were to Coari. Remembering an uncle in Coari, Father decided to sail there. Uncle Cesario Ferreira was thrilled to see Father, and he organized a family reunion. Father didn’t know the relatives well, but he confided that a spiritual conflict had erupted at home. Ninety-two-year-old Aunt Tereza patted him on the shoulder. “Son, it’s time for you to give up,” she said. “You have been serving evil spirits your whole life. Now it’s time to serve God.” Father looked shocked. “Are you a Protestant Christian?” he asked, remembering that the evil spirits had told him to stay away from them. Aunt Tereza smiled and motioned toward the other relatives, who also were smiling. “Son, we’re all Protestant Christians!” she said. The next day, Father worriedly called a temple priest for advice. Uncle Cesario, who was preparing breakfast, overheard the conversation. After Father hung up, he said, “Son, did you know that Jesus cast out evil spirits?” “How did He do that?” Father asked. For the next three days, Uncle Cesario read Bible stories about how Jesus cast out evil spirits. On the fourth day, he told about the man possessed by a legion of evil spirits in Mark 5:1–19. Father was surprised that the spirits told Jesus, “ ‘My name is Legion; for we are many’ ” (verse 9, NKJV).“That’s true!” he said. “When I went to the church for Junior’s baptism, I went with a legion of evil spirits.” The fifth day, Uncle Cesario didn’t tell any stories. Father was afraid to ask why, and he went for a long walk. That evening, he became upset when a temple priest called him to ask for help securing animals for sacrifices. “Let the spirits be the sacrifice!” he blurted out. “They commanded me to kill my own son. Solve your problems without me!” Father, still upset, sat down at the table for supper. “Son,” Uncle Cesario said, “did you know that the devil killed Job’s own son and other children?” Father had never heard of Job, and he wept as he heard the story from the Bible. At the end, Father said, “I’ve made a decision. I’ll leave Candomblé and get to know the Adventists’ God. Please pray. The devil will try to kill me.” The next day, Father returned home and announced his decision to Mother. “I’m willing to follow your God,” he said.
A week after giving his heart to Jesus, Father started to clear out the temple in Manaus, Brazil. He gathered the images and the stone altars where he had sacrificed animals and bowed to evil spirits. At the spirits’ request, Father shipped the temple paraphernalia to two women in another town. He finished the task on a Friday. As he got into his car, evil spirits growled that they were going to kill him. Suddenly, a dark shadow shaped like a man and comprised of three spirits entered the car. The spirits showed Father a distant light. Out of the light loomed a cross, filled with mud. The spirits sneered that it was the end for Father. “As a dead man, can I make a last statement?” Father asked. Without waiting for a reply, he said, “Jesus, please sit beside me in the car and take me home.” The dark shadow vanished. It was the first time that Father had called on Jesus, and he felt protected. The next morning, Father attended Sabbath worship services for the first time. It was a Communion Sabbath, and he sensed a supernatural energy similar to what he had experienced at Junior’s baptism. As someone washed his feet, Father’s sins passed before his eyes. Tears flowed as he asked God for forgiveness. He felt as though the Holy Spirit was washing him clean. A short time later, Father proposed to Mother, and they officially got married. Mother was especially happy. Now she could be baptized. The day before her baptism, Father and Junior went to Alpha Seventh-day Adventist Community Church to listen as Mother rehearsed with a choir. A ladder, which was being used to decorate the church, suddenly toppled over, and the man standing on it slammed into Father, knocking him to the floor. Father offered assurances that he was fine but, a moment later, began to shriek. Two evil spirits had possessed him. Junior ran to Father. He lay on the ground, his body quivering. A spirit snarled through his mouth that he had wanted to kill Father with the ladder. Junior had heard about the great controversy between Christ and Satan, but he had never witnessed it in real life. He prayed. The choir spontaneously sang, “Jesus Christ, You are the Bridegroom, the Sower, my Father and my Shepherd, the Pearl of Great Price. Christ, You are everything.” Mother grabbed Father’s twisted hands and tried to straighten them. They felt terribly cold. A spirit spewed hatred at her. Then Father spoke in a small and distant voice. “It hurts,” he said. After about an hour of praying and singing, Father returned to normal. Although in pain, Father joined Junior at church for Mother’s baptism on Sabbath morning. With joy, Mother sank into the water.
After Mother’s baptism, Father faced a severe spiritual struggle. Evil spirits possessed him at night, and he struggled to sleep. Whenever he was possessed and saw Mother, the spirits spewed hatred at her. Father and Mother strengthened their faith by praying and studying the Sabbath School lesson every day. Father learned to pray on his knees and to have personal time with God. The couple made it a habit to pray, have personal devotions, and study the Sabbath School lesson daily. Mother trusted God, and she felt His constant care. She found faith and assurance in the Bible, and several verses especially helped her during Father’s struggle with evil spirits. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” she read in James 4:7. “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one,” she read in 2 Thessalonians 3:3. She claimed the promise of Jesus in John 10:10: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” When she found a Bible verse that helped or gave hope, she copied it into a special journal and prayed those verses to God during her 5:00 a.m. prayer time. Mother also wrote a special prayer for Father that she prayed every morning for a year. She prayed, “Lord, I ask You for my husband, Eduardo, and for him to turn to You with all his heart. Help me to love him and to renew my love for him. I surrender to You, Lord, and ask You to bless him as he seeks to honor You. Discipline him when needed. Transform him into a man who will desire to follow You. Help me to encourage him and to respect him. Help me to love him. I pray this in the name of Jesus, amen.” Father, meanwhile, started Bible studies in preparation for baptism. He wanted to be baptized on October 29, exactly a year to the day after Junior’s baptism. As Father studied the Bible, he curiously watched YouTube sermons by preachers from the Adventist Church. He also watched sermons from other Christian denominations, wanting to test their teachings against the Bible. To his shock, evil spirits taunted him as he listened to the other preachers, saying that they would have sent him to one of their churches rather than the Adventist Church if they had known that he was interested in those preachers. Father stopped watching the other sermons. Now I know that I’m in the right church! he thought.
Father was awakened by invisible hands clutching his throat in Manaus, Brazil. Futilely he tried to pull away the hands. Finally, he gasped, “Lord, please help me!” But the deadly grip tightened. When all hope seemed lost, he heard a soft voice say, “Ask Jesus to help. Say the name of Jesus.” “Jesus, save me!” Father cried. The unseen hands immediately released their grip. Father, gasping, understood the power of Jesus’ name for the first time. Still lying in bed, he exclaimed joyfully, “I am saved by the name of Jesus! I am saved by the blood of Jesus and Jesus’ sacrifice!” From that day, Father called on Jesus’ name whenever evil spirits harassed him. As baptismal studies continued, Father was astonished to learn that God condemns the spiritism that he had practiced in the Candomblé temple. In Deuteronomy 18:9–14, he read, “ ‘There shall not be found among you anyone . . . who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord’ ” (verses 10, 11, NKJV). In the Ten Commandments, he read, “ ‘You shall have no other gods before Me’ ” (Exodus 20:3, NKJV). He thought, I was worshiping other gods. Continuing the chapter, he read, “ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image’ ” (verse 4, NKJV), and told himself, “I have been following everything that God calls an abomination.” When he reached the Fourth Commandment — “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” — he told Mother, “I got the wrong day. The spirits told me to keep another day holy.” In Revelation 21:8, he read, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” It was the same verse that Mother read when she first went to Sabbath School and that had prompted her to start praying for Father. When Father read the verse, he realized that he had been headed for the lake of fire. Father reached a breakthrough when the Bible study focused on the state of the dead. He read that people sleep after death and do not have spirits that fly around. “The body dies, and that’s the end,” he told Mother with surprise. “The gift of life is what goes back to God.” The evil spirits had taught that people’s spirits float around after their bodies die and some of those spirits were among the legion of evil spirits that accompanied Candomblé leaders. The evil spirits continued to annoy Father. But the more they attacked, the more Father called on the name of Jesus. A desire grew in him to lead others to Christ. Instead of teaching people the way of darkness, he thought, I should use my knowledge and own experience to guide people to the light.
Two weeks before Father’s baptism, he inexplicably grew angry after guests left the house following a small-group Bible study in Manaus, Brazil, on Friday evening. He announced that he would sleep in the living room. The night was darker than usual. Electricity went out in the neighborhood, leaving the houses and streets in pitch blackness. About 1:00 a.m., Junior woke up to the sound of a voice shrieking that Father was not going to be baptized. Junior was scared and didn’t know what to do. He stayed in his room to see what would happen. The voice screamed again, saying that Father was not going to be baptized. Junior waited. He heard someone enter his room. “Please, Son, pray with me,” Father said. “The enemy is attacking again.” Another voice spoke. “What are you doing?” It was Mother. When she heard the screams from the living room, she had sunk onto her knees and began to pray. Now she invited Father and Junior to join her in pleading for Jesus to chase away the evil spirits. After some minutes of prayer, Mother suggested that they step outside the house where they would be able to see one another in the dim moonlight. Outside, Father said he was thirsty. Junior volunteered to go back in and fetch a glass of water. In the kitchen, he spotted a mysterious dark spot on the floor. Calling for Mother, he pointed at the spot and asked, “What’s that?” Mother looked closely at the floor. “That’s hair!” she said. Back outside, Junior and Mother took a closer look at Father. Big tufts of hair were missing from his head. It looked as if someone had taken a pair of scissors and chopped off his hair haphazardly. Father put his hands to the top of his head and winced. “I’ll have to shave my head,” he said. “I don’t care if I’m bald.” When the sun rose on Sabbath morning, Father felt terribly tired. He was unusually weak after the nighttime attack by evil spirits, as if he had received a severe beating. He decided to pray at home instead of going to church. After Mother and Junior left, he prayed, “Jesus, don’t let them take over my body. Please be close to me. I don’t want to be possessed anymore.” Opening his Bible, he read in Psalms 37:5, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass” (NKJV). Father understood that Jesus was telling him not to be afraid. Jesus would guide him to his baptism. Sure enough, evil spirits never possessed Father again after that Friday night. But he could still hear them.
The day of Father’s baptism finally arrived, and he arrived with Mother and Junior at Manaus Central Seventh-day Adventist Church, a larger church where the baptism would be held, in Manaus, Brazil. About 400 people were seated in the main sanctuary. Pastor Sergio Alan A. Caxeta, president of the Adventist Church’s Central Amazon Conference, whose territory includes Manaus, asked Mother how she felt as she and Junior took a seat on the front row. “We’re fine,” she said, smiling happily. The pastor acknowledged feeling uneasy until that very afternoon. Then he had prayed, “Lord, please help me. I’m not sure about my own strength. I want Your peace so I can have the certainty that Your power is here when I baptize Eduardo.” After the prayer, all doubt had vanished. Ricardo Coelho, pastor of the family’s Alpha Community Church, led Father to the second floor, where seats were reserved for Alpha’s 300 members. Father greeted Dilma Araujos dos Santos and her son Clifferson, who first introduced the family to the Adventist Church, and the others. Then Pastor Ricardo asked Father to return downstairs to don a baptismal gown. As Father descended the stairs, a man suddenly darted up and rushed toward him. Father turned to look at the man and, as their eyes met, the man’s pupils slid up into his head and his eyes went white. Then the man fell down and writhed on the stairs. “I’ve been ordered to kill him!” he shrieked. Concealed in a pocket, the man was carrying a small dagger, the type that Father once had used to sacrifice animals at the temple. But before the man could pull out the dagger, Pastor Ricardo and several other men lifted him up and led him to a back room, where they found the weapon. A short time later, Father waded into the baptismal pool. Alpha church members sang a hymn from the second floor as he went under the water. Afterward, Pastor Ricardo told the congregation about the attempted attack and invited a physician, Luiz, up to the front to speak. Luiz, who had examined the attacker in the back room, was a frequent guest at the church but had never committed his life to Jesus. “I didn’t understand the reality of the great controversy between Christ and Satan until today,” he said, his voice shaking. “I saw it right here. Praise the Lord that nothing bad happened. It was God’s power.” He began to weep. “As a cardiologist, I felt for the attacker’s pulse,” he said. “I have never seen anything so abnormal. His pulse was too fast. No human could have such a high pulse rate and live.” The experience changed Luiz’s life, and he decided to be baptized. The knife attacker, it turned out, had struggled with satanic possession for some time. The evil spirits left when a pastor gave him Bible studies several months later. Through Father’s baptism, at least two souls were led to Jesus.
The evil spirits have fallen silent. Father believes Christ won a victory over Satan with the baptism, and that is why the devil tried so hard to prevent it. Peace has filled the family home. Mother is a church deaconess, and she still sings in the choir. Junior is 17 and finishing high school. Father, who is 43, has shared his incredible story in churches around Brazil, and many of those who have heard it have committed their lives to Jesus. In Coari, where Father decided to follow Jesus, 16 people gave their hearts to Christ after hearing his testimony. Father credits the Holy Spirit, not his story, for changing hearts. “My experience is shocking, but I see the Holy Spirit working in their hearts as they listen,” he said. In addition to sharing his story, Father sells Bibles and has presented them to his mother, his older sister, and his two younger brothers. He is praying for them. His mother stopped worshiping in the Candomblé temple long before his baptism. When she learned that evil spirits were trying to kill him, she resolved to have nothing more to do with them. While Father is rejoicing in his new life in Christ, he remains watchful by praying and reading the Bible every day. He remembers 1 Peter 5:8, which says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (NKJV). He also is mindful of the warning in Matthew 12:43–45, where Jesus said, “ ‘When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first’ ” (NKJV). But Father is not afraid. “Even now, the devil has no power over me,” he said. “That’s what I preach in every church that I visit.” He dreams of the day when he will meet Jesus face to face. “I pray that the Lord will never give up on me. I also pray not to give Him up,” he said. “I pray that I remain faithful and persevere until the end. I have hope that I will see Him. That is my hope.”
The story comes from, Sabbath School Lesson Quarterly
“In the Crucible With Christ” (3rd Quarter 2022). By Andrew McChesney.
