John Ramirez said that in 1999, when he was a Satanist, God gave him an out-of-body experience he would never forget: a literal train ride to hell and a meeting with the devil.
But in the 22 years since, Ramirez has been following Christ, he told Faithwire’s Billy Hallowell.
The 57-year-old New Yorker said God sent him to hell after Ramirez challenged the Lord to prove he is more powerful than Satan. Ramirez said he later went into a deep sleep and found himself on a train.
It was moving faster than anything on the planet, he told The Christian Post.
“There also were people on the train and I could see the terror of fear on them, but I couldn’t see their faces,” Ramirez said. “They knew they were going somewhere and they knew they were not coming back.”
“Also, Jezebel was on the train, which is a demon principality, yelling from across the aisle, calling me a traitor in demonic tongues. The train made an explosion right into hell and the doors were opened,” he said.
When Ramirez stepped off the train, he said, the ground was breathing like a human.
He also saw occultists he knew were still alive on Earth.
“God told me sometime later that these individuals were not going to repent,” Ramirez said.
He told Hallowell he walked through hell before eventually encountering the devil.
“[He] said, ‘I have to kill you, because you know all the secrets of my kingdom and you’re going to tell humanity about how I entrap them,” Ramirez said. “I was in the highest level of the shadows of the demonic. I would sit and talk to the devil like I’m talking to you — all night long.”
Ramirez fled the devil before encountering him again, only this time Satan had horns and wings, he said.
But after seeing a cross symbol make contact with Satan, Ramirez said, he was back in his earthly body.
“I came back into my body like a lightning bolt, or like I was in ICU and someone doing these like electrical paddles on my chest,” he said. “I came back alive again, and that’s why I surrendered my life to Jesus.”
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Ramirez had spent 35 years in the occult; he was surrounded by a family heavily involved in it, according to The Christian Post.
When he was just 8 years old, his Puerto Rican parents introduced him to Santeria, an Afro-Cuban religion that blends spirit worship, animal sacrifice and aspects of Roman Catholicism.
“Santeria is an occult, demonic, I would say one of the highest levels of witchcraft in the planet, in the world,” he said. “Santeria means ‘worship of saints,’ but that’s not the reality of it; it’s worship of demons.”
His father, who was killed at a young age, also practiced satanism, he said.
Ramirez later joined a satanic cult, where he attained the highest level of warlock.
“I had no respect for God,” he said. “Satan was god to me — the small ‘G’ — and, to me, God was somewhere in the universe … taking care of the Christian people,” he said.
Ramirez said he would even “haunt” New York bars and clubs to recruit lost souls into the “unholy kingdom.”
He eventually sold his soul to Satan in a “diabolical, blood-soaked ritual,” he said.
“Everyone’s soul belongs to God, and no one truly sells their soul to the devil because their soul will always belong to God, their Creator,” Ramirez said, according to The Christian Post. “But, selling your soul to the devil is another way of saying you are devoting your focus, allegiance and time to the devil. You are making a commitment to something that isn’t worthy, and that is not a good return in the end.”
Ramirez said he now lives a life committed to Jesus Christ.
“The love of Jesus Christ is in my heart, and what he has done in my life is truly supernatural,” he said. “There are a lot of people who have been hurt by witchcraft and demonic forces, and I am here now to set others free because God freed me.”
“I am free in Christ,” Ramirez said. “I know my purpose and my destiny today in Christ.”
He started John Ramirez Ministries, which offers programs, books and courses on spiritual warfare, and he has shared his testimony in regions across the country, according to The Christian Post.
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“The church at large thinks that … Satan is a fantasy,” Ramirez told Hallowell. “They think he’s just a cartoon on Saturday mornings, but Jesus never took the devil lightly. … Jesus confronted the devil, Jesus defeated the devil.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
