EJ

“I grew up malnourished in Haiti, walked naked as a child, had no father, was expelled from school after school, and put off my suicide every other day — until I read a Bible to impress a girl and God met me in it.”

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What they struggled with

Father wound Shame Loneliness / isolation Suicide attempt Religious trauma Family rejection

False refuges

Drugs Escapism Religion without relationship

What this story reveals about God

Relentless pursuit Father's heart Patience Restorer Faithful to his word Grace

Religious background

Agnostic Seventh-day Adventist

Main testimony theme

Secondary theme

Deepening Faith

How they came to faith

Gradual journey Relational influence

Content advisory

Before you watch

This testimony moves from extreme childhood poverty and fatherlessness in Haiti through suicidal teenage years to a dramatic exit from a works-driven religious system that nearly cost EJ everything. It is heavy in places but ultimately a story of a man who chose conscience over comfort and found Christ was enough.

What this story teaches

People can be deeply religious — preaching, studying, sacrificing — and still be in bondage to a system that keeps them from knowing they are already loved and already saved. The hunger for truth, even when misdirected, is something God can work with.

How God moved

Go Deeper

I certainly hope that those who don't know the Lord as yet will just give him a try when they hear his voice. For those who are believers already and need to be encouraged, I hope they are encouraged. For those who are Adventists who may be having an experience with the Lord where they feel that he's leading them away from what they believe — away from their worldview, away from their lifestyle, away from those convictions — that they'll get the strength to take that step, to begin to explore, to research, and to look into that which is better: Christ, the Gospel, as opposed to what they would have been taught to believe. And I hope that after all is said and done, all of us will be united as God's people, children of faith, children of the gospel, and we all will march to Zion wonderfully together.

People can be deeply religious — preaching, studying, sacrificing — and still be in bondage to a system that keeps them from knowing they are already loved and already saved. The hunger for truth, even when misdirected, is something God can work with.

What you can take from this

If you are performing religiously but feel no peace — no assurance that you are enough — stop this week and read Ephesians 2:8-9 slowly. Ask yourself whether what you believe about salvation is based on what you do or on what Christ has already done.

Religious performance

Even as a preacher bringing people into adventism I felt hopeless — like I can't be saved. Because I have some meat here and there, cheese here and there, because I have to iron on the Sabbath like Friday night to go to church on Saturday. Even as I preached to people and was bringing them into adventism I felt hopeless like I can't be saved.

Self-condemnation cycle

When the pang of lack and hunger hits and the resources aren't coming anymore — did I make the right decision? So many voices in your head, so many doubts creeping up. Should I just humble myself, repent, say I was wrong and just go back to my pristine SDA world where I'm loved and celebrated?

Isolation pattern

Adventism has this thing that many other bearing groups practice — they shun you. It doesn't matter who you were, you leave adventism you're shunned, sabotaged, demonized and systematically destroyed. All of the people I thought were good friends — they're all gone.

Counterfeit spirituality

Adventism is able to remove that suspicious look off of itself because of its way of integrating and using the same verbiage as Christians and presenting itself to be just like any other Protestant church. They are more successful at doing that PR than those other faith groups — they're able to deceive Christians into thinking that we're just like you.

1

As I read the Bible — as bad as that ulterior motive was — God used that as an opportunity to start convicting me of my sin, of my brokenness and dysfunction, and my need for a Saviour.

2

I had requested to be baptized. I remember the first time I'm crying in several years was when I was about to be baptized. I just felt a sense of peace, a sense of brokenness, a sense of newness, of forgiveness.

3

After months of back and forth with them, March 2016 I withdrew from the institution. I left. I shared some of the stuff with my wife, had her read for herself — she too saw that what I was seeing were the actual facts and she left as well.

4

I started to enjoy the liberty that Christ would have given me, the assurance of salvation in the gospel. I believe it and I could preach it and I don't have to worry about who's breathing over my neck.

John 3:16

The passage that first clearly spoke to EJ as he read the Bible and began to understand God's love for him.

Matthew 11:28

Used to show Jesus as the fulfilment of Sabbath rest, undermining Adventist Sabbath theology.

Romans 10:13

Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved — hit EJ like a ton of bricks as he understood grace.

Ephesians 2:8–9

Saved by grace through faith, not of works — central to EJ's liberation from Adventist works-based theology.

Romans 14:5–6

Paul's teaching that each person be convinced in their own mind about days — used to refute Adventist Sabbath theology.

Colossians 2:16–17

Let no one judge you regarding Sabbath — the substance is Christ. Key text EJ used to dismantle Adventist Sabbath and dietary theology.

Psalms 68:5

God as father to the fatherless — this truth melted EJ given his absent father and fatherless upbringing.

EJ lived in hedonistic waste, hit emptiness, and returned to the Father who met him through scripture and restored his identity and calling.

EJ zealously propagated a false system, then was confronted by truth through study and had to leave everything to follow the real Christ.

EJ grew up without a father; reading that God is father to the fatherless was the specific truth that broke him and drew him to faith.

EJ's Christian Walk

Stopped clubbing, fighting, and marijuana use. Began reading voraciously — finished the entire Bible within a month of conversion. Left violent, dysfunctional peer group. Married faithfully. Became an evangelist, then an ordained minister. Built an international ministry reaching former Adventists. Published multiple books. Went from barely graduating high school with no prospects to being co-author in a major apologetics volume.

The word of God just started to change me, to give me a different perspective of life, to make me feel loved and valued and meaningful.

Prayer

The power of Prayer — classmate and friend stood in the gap for EJ.

A calm, disciplined classmate whose character was the total opposite of EJ's drew his attention and friendship. He kept EJ out of fights, reminding him of the consequences of expulsion. When EJ asked why he was so different, he explained he was raised in church and read his Bible. One evening EJ followed him to church — initially to meet a girl — and that single visit began the chain of events that led to his conversion.

Is today your day?

Yes — I'm Ready

Absolutely, He will.

You don't have to figure everything out right now.

You don't need to have all the answers.

If something stirred in your heart while you were watching or reading — that's not nothing.

That is the Holy Spirit gently knocking on the door of your heart.

Stay right here. There's no rush. The Spirit doesn't pressure or hurry.

Watch another video. Read a little more. Take your time.

When you're ready — even if “ready” just means a little curious — Jesus is ready to meet you.

You don't have to clean up your life first.

You don't have to pass any test.

You only need to say a simple “yes” to Him.

He will take care of the rest.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Luke 11:9

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