I don't want this week to be merely "interesting" or "enlightening" or "thought provoking." Rather, I want this week to be convicting and motivating and truly life changing! By God's grace, it will be.
Since we are on the topic of the persecuted church, I will now post a little report I wrote a couple years ago about Richard Wurmbrand, a pastor in Communist Romania. His story is an amazing story of love, pain, suffering, faithfulness and most of all, grace that enabled a man to be solely devoted to God and His kingdom, allowing him to endure some of the most brutal persecution that can be imagined.
Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand
Richard Wurmbrand began his life as a hard atheist. From his earliest years he was fed the Communist's propaganda and soon he was a true believer in atheism. Richard not only did not believe in God, but he hated the very idea of God. He believed that religion was like a plague to society, never helping but always harming. As he grew older, he began to realize that there was something missing inside him however, and that atheism had not lived up to the promises credited to it by the Communists. Around this time of inner struggle in Richard’s life, an old carpenter in a small village in Romania prayed to God that He would reward him for his life of service and dedication by letting him lead a Jew to Christ. He thought that because Jesus was a Jew, there would be no greater prize and joy than to be able to lead a Jew to saving faith in Christ. Well, it just so happened that Richard was a Jew and it also just so happened that for some reason (he didn’t know why) Richard felt led and urged to go to this carpenter’s village. As soon as the carpenter met him and realized that he was an unsaved Jew, he began to “work” on Richard. Richard said in his book that “he courted me as never a beautiful had been courted.” This dedication finally paid off, and soon Richard had confessed his life of sin and disbelief and placed his faith in Jesus. Soon after his own conversion, Richard’s wife was also saved. Quickly, Richard became the pastor of a church (one that he started himself). He felt a great desire to minister and witness to Russians, who were brought up in Communism, learning from a very young age that there was no God, but just physical matter. He felt a great sympathy and love for these people, because he had been just like them.In just a few years the Communists gained complete control in Romania. Right away they began their work on the church, slowly making in-roads and alliances with its top leaders. Soon they created an official church and those who refused to be a part of it were persecuted, though the persecution was rather tame to begin with. This is when the underground church started in Romania. It lasted until the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of Communism.
Pastor Wurmbrand had many encounters with Communist soldiers, leaders and officials etc., many of which he found were eagerly seeking the truths of the Gospel. The Communists were hungry for Christ and the peace that comes with Him. Atheism left them starved and alone. Many Communists repented and believed, becoming vital members of the Underground Church in Romania. Russian soldiers smuggled Bibles into Russia and passed them out to other soldiers. Converts secretly printed and distributed the first Christian “tracts”. Pastor Wurmbrand even began a secret ministry to the Russian soldier’s right in their own barracks, under the guise of purchasing stolen watches from them. Russian Christians were persuaded to join the feared Russian secret police (who were responsible for hunting and silencing Christians) so that they could report on their activities. This was often very hard for them because it meant they would be hated and despised by their own families and other Christians, who could not be allowed to know about their true duties. Pastor Wurmbrand himself was captured and imprisoned by the police on many occasions and during one of his longer incarcerations a fellow Christian doctor actually joined the Secret police just to try to find Richard and make sure that he was still alive. The doctor found out that Richard was alive and soon had told the rest of the Underground Church in Romania, which greatly encouraged and invigorated them all. During the Eisenhower-Khrushchev “thaw” Christians spoke out for the release of Richard and finally got their wish in 1956. The Underground Church did many other extraordinary and often heroic things for the cause of Christ. They loved the Communists and would stop at nothing to reach them with the Gospel, even though it was the Communists who were so terribly persecuting them.
Pastor Wurmbrand was imprisoned many times, and each time he underwent various tor tures. Once, soldiers put him inside a wooden box, one that was just large enough for Richard to stand in. Then they pounded nails in the sides so that they were only centimeters away from Richards flesh. He would have to remain perfectly still for hours and hours on end or else he would be cut and shredded by the razor sharp nails all around him. Handcuffs with razors on the insides were put around their wrists on many occasions. Richard was thrown into a freezing cold “refrigerator” chamber and left in there until the brink of death. Then Communist doctors would rush in and rescue him from the cold and make him very warm again. Then right away they would throw him back into the “refrigerators”. They repeated this cycle countless times each day. Wurmbrand said that many times while the Communists were torturing him and others, they would smile and their faces would shine with “rapturous joy”. They would yell at the Christians, “We are the devil!” while they slowly bore holes into the Christians’ flesh or burned them until their skin peeled.
The communists also tried brainwashing on some prisoners. They would make people sit for sometimes 17 hours a day listening to “Communism is good. Give up!” Pastor Wurmbrand and many other Christians were forced to endure countless hours of horrible , all in the name of Communism and atheism, but they held out, keeping their mind focused on Christ and feeling comforted that they were taking part in His suffering.
During Richard’s longest stay in prison, his wife was also imprisoned. There she was brutally ra ped many times and forced to do hard labor. Their son was left to wander the streets. However, when people found out that he was an orphan because his parents were in prison for being Christians, they would turn him away and not give him even the scraps of food off their tables. It was a crime to help the orphans of imprisoned Christians.
After fourteen years, Pastor Wurmbrand was released for prison. He and his wife started their life over in complete poverty. Word had spread throughout the world of the underground church in the USSR and of Wurmbrand’s imprisonment. Two Christian organizations paid the Communists $10,000 to let Richard leave Romania and go to the West. Before he left, he was told to never speak of the terrible persecution and that he had lived through, or else the Communists would hunt him down wherever he was and drag him back to Romania (they actually did this to some other Romanians who had escaped. They found people as far away as Paris and Italy.) In 1965 Pastor Wurmbrand and his family were finally allowed to leave Communist Romania.
In the West Pastor Wurmbrand led the charge in informing and educating people about the Underground Church that exists all over the world, even today. There are thousands of Christian brothers and sisters that are being persecuted for their faith in Christ. Communism was a tool that Satan used in hopes of stopping Christ from saving His people, but just like every other futile attempt, he failed. However, there is still persecution in non-Communist countries and many of us here in the West, know little (and sometimes care little) for their battles and struggles. We must remember the Underground Church in our prayers and speak out against the horrible persecution of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. This was Pastor Richard Wurmbrand’s wish for us all….remember the Underground Church.
I have never been persecuted on account of my faith. Here in America, the extent of our “persecution” is being made fun of by some fat, smelly kid at school because we go to church and pray before we eat. I have never seen such faithful, longsuffering, determined and joyful dedication to the cause of Christ. Richard Wurmbrand loved his tor turers. He prayed for them. He never hated them. This is a response that could only have come from the Holy Spirit and the power that raised Christ from the grave. It is truly supernatural and superhuman, a product of the enabling grace of God.
I think that the best thing that we can do for our brothers and sisters in the Underground church is to pray for them. Pray that God gives them strength to endure. Pray that they keep Christ as their focus and remember that Heaven is their reward. Pray that God will deliver them from their suffering, either by death or freedom. I think that we forget about our family…we think that they are just faceless bodies walking around on the other side of the world. But they are people; more than that they are family in Christ, and they are being tor tured. They are being tor tured for Christ.
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