Reverend Wurmbrand & Psalm 56:3

Reverend Richard Wurmbrand was a born in Romania on March 24th, 1909 and died in California on February 17, 2001.  Reverend Wurmbrand and his wife Sabina were both of Jewish descent and were atheists before they accepted Jesus in the 1930's.  During the Second World War, Reverend Wurmbrand and his wife were persecuted by the Nazis and the Romanian Fascists due to their Jewish descent.  Most of Sabina's family perished at the hands of the Nazis and the Wurmbrands found themselves subject to numerous arrests and beatings.  Despite being persecuted under Hitler's Final Solution, the Wurmbrand's did their best to assist Jews and other targeted by the Nazis.  Unfortunately, the end of the War did not bring Liberation to the nation of Romania.  In truth, the Nazi Terror was only replaced by the equally demonic Red Terror.

When commenting on the the Red Terror that followed the War, Reverend Wurmbrand stated that"The Nazis did one good thing for the people, they taught them that physical beatings could be endured and that the human spirit, with God’s help can survive horrible tortures."  For Reverend Wurmbrand, this was a good lesson, because they were in for a lot more beatings when the Communists took over the nation.  When the Red Army entered Romania in 1944, the Communist Party of Romania only numbered 10,000 members.  The Red Army forcibly imposed communism on all of Eastern Europe, and the West failed to stop it.  Many of the clergy in the nation made the same mistakes that clergy made under Nazi Germany.  They believed that the teachings of Christianity could coexist with the principles of the dictators.  One by one, the clergy began to submit to the authority of the communists.  Some even hailed Stalin as another savior sent by God.  However, the evil intentions of the Communist leadership was soon unmasked and they revealed their true nature.  All over the country, people who refused to accept the Communist views and beliefs began to disappear.

Despite the dangers, Reverend Wurmbrand remained committed to his faith.  He helped form the Underground Church in Romania and launched a campaign of spiritual resistance against the Red Terror, the only remaining resistance in the country.  Reverend Wurmbrand not only ministered to other Romanians, but also to Red Army soldiers who had been forcibly indoctrinated into the Communist system for much of their lives.  Eventually, Reverend Wurmbrand, with the blessings of his wife, stood up at a meeting of Church leaders that was being broadcast all over the nation and publicly denounced the Communist regime and called on the churches to serve the teachings of Jesus. Shortly after this, Reverend Wurmbrand was captured by the Secret Police, who would imprison and torture him for 14 years.

In his books Tortured for Christ & In God's Underground, Reverend Wurmbrand described the horrific tortures he and his fellow prisoners had to endure.  Reverend Wurmbrand witnessed a fellow Christian pastor, Pastor Florescu, get burned with hot pokers and knives, left in a cell with starving rats, & locked in a standing coffin with nails for two weeks.  The guards nearly broke him when they brought in his son Alexander and began whipping him, but Alexander urged his father not to betray Christ.  The guards eventually beat Alexander to death.  Reverend Wurmbrand had to endure these same tortures and many others.  He was also locked in a refrigerator until he was nearly dead, brought back out, revived, and locked in again.  He and fellow Christians were tied to crosses for days, forced to defecate on themselves.  There were many others that were so horrible, that he could not describe them.  In his book, Reverent Wurmbrand stated that the horrors described in Dante's Inferno could not compare to this.  During his incarceration, Reverend Wurmbrand endured 4 broken vertebra, many broken bones, over a dozen carvings, & 18 holes burned into his body.  His feet were so badly beaten, that he would never walk normally again.  

Mental torture was also used extensively.  Communist authorities often arrested female dissidents and their most inopportune moments, often waiting until their wedding days to do so.  They would subject the female prisoners to years of rape and sexual abuse, often shattering their minds.  Reverend Wurmbrand himself was locked in solitary confinement for three years.  At other times, he was constantly forced to listen to and watch communist propaganda in an effort to make the prisoners defect to the Communist Regime.  In his book, Reverend Wurmbrand explained how the Communist system turned men into monsters.  Communism was a force of evil, he saw it turn men into demons.  In their mindset, they were materialists, people were nothing more than pieces of matter, like wood, to be done with and shaped as they saw fit.  When a man has no faith, there is no reason to be human.  This is the cruelty of atheism.  His torturers often said: “There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment for evil.”  

The Communist Regime not only targeted Spiritual Dissidents in the Underground Church, but their families as well.  In many cases, their relatives were also arrested and imprisoned.  Sabina was also arrested shortly after Reverend Wurmbrand was.  She was sent to a Labor Camp for three years where she was forced to help build the Danube Canal.  She was repeatedly beaten by guards and at times thrown into the freezing water for their amusement.  The regime denied the families of the imprisoned jobs, forcing many to become informants or prostitutes to survive.  Ironically, Reverend Wurmbrand did not stop preaching and shared God with the guards even as they beat him.  A couple guards became so moved by his love and courage that they became Christians too.  Ironically, they would be imprisoned alongside Reverend Wurmbrand.  

After 14 years, Reverend Wurmbrand was finally released.  Human rights organizations outside the Iron Curtain had become aware of the sufferings of the political prisoners and began making efforts to help them.  The Romanian Communist Dictatorship, desperate for funds, agreed to ransom Reverend Wurmbrand and his family for $10,000.  Usually, a prisoner was ransomed was $1,900, but Reverend Wurmbrand was a high value prisoner.  After being released, he was warned by the Romanian Secret Policy to tell nobody about his experience, or they'd send agents to kill them, as they had done with other ransomed prisoners & defectors.  

Despite this warning, Reverend Wurmbrand testified before Congress in May of 1966.  During his testimony, he took off his shirt on live television and showed his scars.  After testifying, Reverend Wurmbrand was determined to help his fellow Christians behind the Iron Curtain.  In April of 1967, armed with only $100 and a typewriter, Reverend Wurmbrand formed the Voice of the Martyrs, which grew to an International Organization dedicated to helping Christians suffering persecution in Communist & Islamic nations.  

Reverend Wurmbrand knew the risks of speaking out.  He knew he would be arrested, and most likely killed, but he was prepared to make that sacrifice.  Prior to his incarceration, Reverend Wurmbrand memorized over 350 Bible verses that deal with putting your faith in God in times of fear, one for each day.  On the day he was arrested, Feb. 29th, 1948, the verse Reverend Wurmbrand had memorized was Psalm 56:3 "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you."  Despite his horrible suffering, Reverend Wurmbrand never professed to hate his tormentors.  In his book he stated: “I hate the communist system but love the men.  I hate the sin, but love the sinner.  I love communists with all of my heart.”  Reverent Wurmbrand believed that only love can change the hearts of communists and terrorists, hatred only causes more suffering and more death.  Jesus taught us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48), but not to forget our brethren who suffer (Hebrews 13:3).  We must use love as our weapon, but cannot ignore the atrocities committed by evil systems.  Ignorance and self-deception only leads to more suffering and death.  

Sources:

Extreme Devotion: Daily Devotional Stories of Ancient to Modern-Day Believers Who Sacrificed Everything for Christ.  Bartlesville, OK: VOM Books, 2013.

Wurmbrand, Reverend.  Tortured for Christ.  Bartlesville, OK: VOM Books, 2013.