Last week, I was given a copy of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand’s Tortured for Christ. It blessed me, shocked me and convicted me. I have so very much to learn from my persecuted brothers and sisters.
Called by many the ‘Voice of the Underground Church’, Richard and his wife, Sabina, spent their lives boldly preaching the gospel of Christ in dangerous and desperate circumstances. In 1945, when Romanian Communists seized power, they witnessed both to Romanians and the Russian soldiers. They were often beaten and threatened but they persevered.
In 1948, Richard was kidnapped by the secret police. In 1950, Sabina was imprisoned. Mihai, their nine-year-old son, was left alone and homeless. It was illegal to help the family of Christian martyrs.
In prison, Richard and Sabina faced unimaginable horrors. To add to it, they often did not know what had come to one another, or their son.
However, when Richard tells of that nightmarish period, he speaks consistently of beauty,
I have seen beautiful things. I myself have been among the weak and insignificant ones in prison, but have had the privilege to be in the same jail with great saints, heroes of faith who equalled the Christians of the first centuries. They went gladly to die for Christ. The spiritual beauty of such saints and heroes of faith can never be described.
Following 14 years of imprisonment, where he very nearly died of torture, Richard was finally released. Convinced by other Underground Church leaders that he could be their voice in the West, he permitted two Christian organizations to pay his $10,000 ransom so his family could leave Romania.
In 1967, the Wumbrands founded Jesus to the Communist World, what we now know as The Voice of the Martyrs.
Though their experiences date back several decades, the lessons taught by them apply just as much today as they did then. Two in particular resonated strongly with me.
Unity in the Essentials, Liberty in the Non-Essentials
In the book, Wurmbrand commented on his arrival in the West. He was discouraged at the strife between Christians and the lukewarm witness he experienced:
We Christians are often half-heartedly on the side of the whole truth. They are wholeheartedly on the side of the lie…To keep liberty for all denominations and all theologies, and to regain it where it has been lost due to widespread religious persecution, is more important than to insist upon one certain theological opinion.
[…]
I tremble because of the sufferings of those persecuted in different lands. I tremble thinking about the eternal destiny of their torturers. I tremble for Western Christians who don’t help their persecuted brethren.
This point was further driven home when he spoke of the martyrs who died for their faith in Christ, never even having had the privilege of reading a Bible or attending church. While I do believe there is inestimable value in theological training, debate and discussion, I am far more sensitive to the place it should take in my own life and how I expend my energies advocating and praying for the persecuted church.
Recognizing The Privilege of Owning a Bible
The book, as much as it is the story of his life, it is also a clarion call to the West; Richard cries out to the church to help its persecuted people. He shares that members of the Underground Church are very willing to face death to share the Gospel – they only ask for support. Often, the support they most desperately require is Scripture – both for themselves and to disseminate. As Richard tells, there are means to smuggle Bibles or tracts into closed countries, but they need the resources to purchase them. He shared one incredible story,
Two very dirty villagers came to my home one day to buy a Bible. They had come from their village to take the job of shovelling the frozen earth all winter long to earn money in the slight hope that they might be able to buy an old, tattered Bible with it and take it back to their village. Because I had received a Bible from America, I was able to hand them a new Bible, not an old tattered one. They could not believe their eyes! They tried to pay me with money they had earned. I refused their money. They rushed back to their village with the Bible. A few days later I received a letter of unrestrained ecstatic joy thanking me for the Scriptures. It was signed by thirty villagers! They had carefully cut the Bible into thirty parts and exchanged the parts with one another!
This book has been around for decades, and I wish it had been put into my hands earlier. Though he explains clearly what he suffered, Richard is not graphic and does not focus on the torture, but rather on the witness of his suffering brethren and the glory of God that shines even in the darkest depths.
Lord Jesus, convict me if I ever again take for granted the freedoms we currently have in Canada, or if I ever forget to pray and support my persecuted brothers and sisters.
To learn more about the persecuted church, visit the EFC website or EFC affiliate, The Voice of the Martyrs Canada