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“A simple but unforgettable celebration. The photos reveal a smiling and happy expression on my face, enchanted by my beautiful bride. I was smiling from ear to ear. From that day on, Esther and I have been one,” recalls the bishop.
Edir Macedo was born in the small town of Rio das Flores – Rio de Janeiro. He was the fourth child of Henry Bezerra and Eugenia de Macedo Bezerra, better known as Mrs. Geninha. In total, this warrior mother had 33 pregnancies, but only seven children survived.
“All of us were raised strictly, under the harsh rule of our father. Discipline was a sacred rule at home. My mother was the protector of the home, the woman who raised us with love and such great zeal, that even as teenagers, we wouldn’t rebel.”
After his encounter with God, the most important decision in Edir Macedo’s life would be to make the right choice of a wife. This was when he met the beautiful young Esther Eunice Rangel, who was different from the rest and came from an evangelical family. The romance was lightning fast. In only eight months, they dated, got engaged and were married. On December 18, 1971 they exchanged vows in the New Life Church in Bonsucesso, Rio de Janeiro.
“A simple but unforgettable celebration. The photos reveal a smiling and happy expression on my face, enchanted by my beautiful bride. I was smiling from ear to ear. From that day on, Esther and I have been one,” recalls the bishop.
The young couple was expecting their second daughter, Viviane. But when he was given the newborn, her appearance would affect him forever. She was extremely thin, had dark circles under her eyes and her face was deformed. She was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate.
“Esther was attempting to wipe away her tears, but her face was soaked. I also cried. Then something exploded inside of me that lifted my mind up to God. My body was possessed with an unfathomable strength. My pain transported me directly to the throne of God. I decided to pray. But it was not a normal prayer. I clenched my fists in anger and threw punches at the bed countless times.
— God, no one is going to stop me now. Not my family, not my wife, not the future, not my feelings, nothing! No one can stop me now! No one! No one! I’ve had enough!
That was the birth of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.”
It all started in a pavilion in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. With a keyboard, microphone and Bible, Edir Macedo went to the Meier neighborhood every Saturday. He walked up the 7 steps of the pavilion and preached to a few people. These were the first steps of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, whose main motivator (and guarantor) was Mrs. Eugenia, the bishop’s mother.
“The people who walked past the pavilion knew something different was happening there. Every once in a while to this day, I meet people, usually elderly, who talk about how they were saved by one word they heard at that filthy, foul-smelling pavilion. Time has erased these messages from my memory, but they changed the lives of many people.”
Young Macedo began working at the lottery office in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 16. He climbed step by step, up to head of treasury, but it was time to give up everything in favor of the Gospel. “A career at the lottery guaranteed comprehensive medical care for me and my family, especially for little Viviane. However, I would have to give up a reasonable salary and stability of 16 years of public service. But as I had declared to God two years earlier, on the day of Viviane’s birth, I would leave everything to preach the Gospel.”
The first Church was opened in a former funeral parlor in the Abolição district in Rio de Janeiro. Bishop Macedo held the first service at this location on July 9, 1977. This was one of the first meetings in the history of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Millions of people would be saved because of this simple evangelistic work.
“The old funeral parlor had space for 225 people in the pews. But some meetings would be packed with more than 400. The lines of people who wanted counseling were enormous and crisscrossed the aisles. At times, I spent hours giving counsel to just one person. I took on the battles of each one, with prayers and guidance by the light of God’s Word.”
No início dos anos 1980, relatei as minhas experiências em um livro polêmico chamado “Orixás, caboclos e guias: deuses ou demônios?”, lançado oficialmente em um evento no Maracanãzinho. A obra foi publicada em português, inglês e espanhol. Em uma das edições mais recentes, a capa trazia a ilustração de uma vela acesa e inchada. Chegamos a veicular propaganda comercial nas principais emissoras de televisão do Brasil.
O livro, que já chegou a ser censurado, apenas traz a verdade cristalina e esmiuçada sobre o efeito nocivo dos espíritos malignos.
The Church grew in the 1980s because of the amount of time bought on radio and TV stations, even without achieving the goal of owning their own station. Then an opportunity came along to make a purchase: Radio Copacabana, one of the most popular and well-known AM stations of Rio de Janeiro at that time.
“To pay for that purchase, I sold a house I had recently built in Petropolis. The station required my frequent presence in its first years of operation, and I viewed this purchase as a milestone in the preaching of the Gospel.”
Moses came into the couple’s life when he was just 14 days old. In an unusual way, a woman brought him to the church and handed him to Esther, asking her and her husband to take care of the baby. It was something extraordinary, but once Bishop Macedo confirmed the woman had a good intention, he did not hesitate to keep the child.
“I looked at the boy, ran my hand over his head, took him from Esther’s arms, lifted the child up over my head and consecrated him to God in prayer with all who were in the Church at that moment.
— Moses of the Universal Church has just been born!”
The next day, the official adoption process began.
The path of expansion of the Universal Church to dozens and dozens of nations began with the United States, when Bishop Macedo traveled to New York, just nine years after opening the first temple in Brazil.
“I knew that it was the center of the world. It was the right path, the doorway to preach the Gospel internationally. To me, the opportunities that the United States presented for the spreading of the Word of God were evident. I landed alone at JFK Airport and traveled to the island of Manhattan at the invitation of the American pastor Forrest Higginbotham.”
New York was only a port of entry, the beginning of a long journey.
In October 1989, the work of the Universal Church arrived in Argentina. We held our first baptism in water for 20 people in a small church. Right from the start, the Universal Church was massacred in every media form. But the Church needed to show its strength, so we organized a rally of faith held by Bishop Macedo, in the largest stadium in Argentina, the Monumental de Núñez in the city of River Plate.
“Today the Universal Church is a highly respected institution in Argentina. We acquired a magnificent new headquarters on a central avenue of Buenos Aires, Corrientes, in Almagro.”
In a serious financial crisis, Record was on the verge of bankruptcy. The owners at the time, the entrepreneur and TV personality, Silvio Santos, and the Machado de Carvalho family, ran the station under a large debt.
Negotiations progressed rapidly after former congressman Laprovita Vieira, one of our Church officials at the time, announced the interest to purchase Record. The proposal pleased the partners of Record, and they called a meeting at the house of Silvio Santos.
“The representative of Silvio Santos gave a price.
I responded by faith: – Not a problem. The deal’s done.”
Bishop Macedo gave away his eldest daughter, Cristiane, in marriage to young Renato Cardoso. The ceremony took place on Saturday night, at a restaurant in the Indianapolis neighborhood of São Paulo, with around three hundred guests. The bishop officiated the wedding and said to his daughter, “From now on, my love, it will be only you and your husband. No more mommy and daddy.” She was 17 and Renato was 19.
“Before handing Cristiane to Renato, I gave her a big hug, remembering everything we had gone through together. I did not want to let go of my daughter. The tears were impossible to hold back. For me, they will always be my girls.”
The car was surrounded. Machine guns, pistols and many heavy weapons were pointed at Bishop Macedo and his family. The scene seemed more like a kidnapping than a police operation. The bishop received an arrest warrant and was dragged to one of the police vehicles, on charges of charlatanism, being a faith-healer and fraud. He endured 11 days of solitude.
“I begged for light in those moments when the darkness of hell was overwhelming. It was dark. No windows, light or sun. No sky. The air was heavy. It had an overpowering, unpleasant smell. The most revolting thing was to be accused of crimes I had not committed. The Bible was my refuge.”
Viviane also left her parent’s home before the age of 20. After one year and one month of dating, on July 22, 1992, Bishop Macedo walked his youngest daughter to the altar to marry the young assistant pastor Julio Freitas, in the former Universal Church of Santo Amaro.
“I remember that when I made the prayer, I cried.
– My God, when she is going through difficult moments, Lord remember this prayer – I cried into the microphone.
Then I blessed the couple and said, – May you be as happy as Esther and me.”
The entire year of 1995 was punctuated by reports against the Universal Church in the newscasts and programs of Globo Network. The reporter highlighted, ad nauseam, images of various pastors carrying bags full of prayer requests. According to Globo Network, these bags were full of money.
“The hardest thing for Globo, in my opinion, must have been to see the uninterrupted growth of the Universal Church in spite of all their accusations. The stigma of prison did not shut the doors of the Church; on the contrary, it brought even further growth. Churches were overcrowded with new believers united in the fight against the unfair assaults.”
Bishop Macedo performed the inauguration service of the cathedral in Soweto, where 6,000 South Africans filled the seats of the Church and more than 4,000 watched the meeting from the parking lot outside. There was not enough space for the number of people. The meeting was conducted in English with simultaneous translations to Xhosa and Zulu.
“We prayed and gave a message from the Bible, and we danced and sang, side by side with men, women and children, on a Sunday that will never be forgotten. We proved that there is no difference between whites and blacks when we have faith. We are all considered souls in the Universal Church.”
The inaugural event of the Foundation Stone was held on the land where the Temple of Solomon would be built. Thousands of people were present on August 8, 2010. Bishop Macedo made two meetings, which were a mere preview of the future of this great work, designed according to biblical references.
“Since my conversion as a young man, I had always searched for churches that valued the attribute of our relationship with God. This reverence began back in the planning stages of the construction, in July 2010. I monitored the work down to the smallest detail, from the foundation stone to the structural columns, from the illumination to the fabric of the chairs, from the stones on the façade to the design of the Ark of the Covenant.”
Bishop Macedo performed the inauguration service of the first cathedral in Portugal, in the city of Porto. More than 8,000 people attended. It’s one of our most beautiful church buildings in the entire continent of Europe. And that was not the end. In December 2013, in the city of Vila Nova de Gaia, a major city in Portugal, we again opened a lovely new Universal Church.
“I made a point of personally making the first meeting in the new building in Porto, that was exquisitely designed by our team of engineers, a project that lasted two years and four months. It was a memorable Sunday morning.”
The first time Edir Macedo was present at one of the releases of his biography was historic. The bishop personally went to the Pinheiros Provisional Detention Center (CDP 3), in São Paulo, to hand out copies of the Nothing to Lose book. The unprecedented event was organized by the Universal Church, which strongly believes in the redemption of outcasts. Approximately 3,000 books were donated.
“I made a point of coming here. It was very important for me. I can’t say that it’s a pleasure to come to a place where there is pain and suffering. Ironically, it is a pleasure because we can be close to those who are suffering the most and like Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”
The national launch of the second volume of the biography of Edir Macedo, “Nothing to Lose 2 – My challenges when facing the impossible” brought together artists, entrepreneurs, officials and journalists on the night of August 28th, at the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro. This work sold more than 3 million copies.
“There were many days that Esther and I spent alone with journalist/writer Douglas Tavolaro, co-author of this book, to recapture this part of our life.”
Bishop Macedo inaugurates a beautiful and spacious cathedral in Los Angeles, California.
For 22 years, we repeatedly attempted to purchase a headquarters church of our own in one of the most important cities of the US.
The building has three separate meeting rooms. The main room has a capacity of 1,600 seats. The church site is centrally located along a well-known avenue in Los Angeles, just a few blocks from the famous Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard.
“I held the first meeting in Spanish, but there are also daily meetings made in English. It was a day of celebration.”
The national launch of the second volume of the biography of Edir Macedo, “Nothing to Lose 2 – My challenges when facing the impossible” brought together artists, entrepreneurs, officials and journalists on the night of August 28th, at the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro. This work sold more than 3 million copies.
“There were many days that Esther and I spent alone with journalist/writer Douglas Tavolaro, co-author of this book, to recapture this part of our life.”
Bishop Macedo inaugurates a beautiful and spacious cathedral in Los Angeles, California.
For 22 years, we repeatedly attempted to purchase a headquarters church of our own in one of the most important cities of the US.
The building has three separate meeting rooms. The main room has a capacity of 1,600 seats. The church site is centrally located along a well-known avenue in Los Angeles, just a few blocks from the famous Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard.
“I held the first meeting in Spanish, but there are also daily meetings made in English. It was a day of celebration.”
After four years of work, the Temple of Solomon was inaugurated on Saturday morning, July 19th, in Brás, which is located in the central region of São Paulo. There were more than 10,000 people in the Sanctuary, which included bishops and pastors from all over the world, Levites, and a small number of entrepreneurs. Thousands of men of God from Brazil were there. Outside, a representative from each country, where our Church is present, raised its flag in faith.
“That was the first time I stepped onto the altar to preach in the Temple sanctuary. I entered prayerfully. White beard, kippah and tallit, the prayer shawl used by the Hebrews. I knelt and made the first prayer in the Temple of Solomon.”
The official opening ceremony, on the last day of July 2014, was a landmark for the Universal Church. All the commitment, dedication and sweat were contemplated with an unforgettable opening ceremony, in the presence of the most renowned authorities and celebrities of Brazil and other countries. Among them was President Dilma Rousseff. Amazed, she said, “It catches people’s attention from far away. It’s very beautiful…”
During the meeting, Bishop Macedo said: “If I leave this world today, I will be happy. I have nothing to lose. I am filled with worries, yes, but not for my life, but for those who are suffering far from God.”
The third volume, “Nothing to Lose 3 – From the Bandstand to the Temple of Solomon: A Faith that Transforms”, recounts stories and life lessons experienced by the bishop as a father and husband. In exciting interviews, Bishop Edir Macedo speaks about his marriage to Mrs. Esther Bezerra, a union that has lasted over 40 years.
“This work is not a simple memoir, nor does it follow the chronological order of a conventional autobiography. My focus is always to share my life experiences and spiritual reflections that underpin the belief of those who follow the Christian faith, and to reach out to those who feel lost.”
On the week of its first anniversary, many distinguished guests visited the Temple of Solomon. One of them was Silvio Santos, accompanied by his wife, Iris, daughter Renata and friend and hairdresser Jassa. The TV host and owner of SBT had a tour of the Memorial, and stepped into the Tabernacle and the Sanctuary. Bishop Macedo and his wife, Ester Bezerra, accompanied him throughout the tour.
Impressed, Silvio declares: “This was Divinely enlightening! It is very well done and surpasses anything we have ever seen. Everything has been done with such excellence! It’s spectacular!”
During their conversation, the bishop was keen to talk about the host’s success: “You were not lucky, you are fruit of the Promise God made to Abraham.”
Hosts, Renato and Cristiane Cardoso, opened the commemoration ceremony, which was marked by several tributes. Among them, more than 100 nations where the Church is present were remembered by entering with their official flags, to the sound of “Universal Perfume”, a song written by Marcelo Crivella.
In the second part of the ceremony, Bishop Macedo stressed the importance of crying out to God to get Him to realize your dreams.
“Faith, along with sacrifice, moves the hand of God. If you turn to God wholeheartedly, your life will never be the same.”=