It was 1944, and Russian troops were pouring into Romania by the thousands. The Communists quickly rose to power, and organized a "Congress of Cults," composed of four thousand priests, pastors, and ministers of all denominations.
While leader after leader rose to the podium and promised cooperation with the communists and loyalty to Joseph Stalin, a pastor's wife sitting in the audience turns to her husband and cries,
"Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face."
The pastor looks his wife in the eyes and replies, "If I do so, you lose your husband."
"I don't wish to have a coward as a husband."
With resolution, the pastor rises to address the crowd. No one was prepared for what happened next. Before the crowd of communists and delegates, the pastor declares loyalty not to Stalin, not to the Communists, but to Jesus Christ.
As Romanian citizens huddled around their radios listening to the broadcast of the meeting, they were struck by the different tune of this speaker. This wasn't the same message they had heard over and over.
Citizens across the country witnessed the fact that though evil could overtake a country, Truth could not be suppressed.
While many embraced the ideals of communism and shook hands with evil, here was a man who stood firm for Christ, despite the tremendous personal cost. Richard and Sabina had already counted the cost, and they were not turning back.
On February 29, 1948, Richard was grabbed off the sidewalk and shoved into a vehicle. For the next eight years, no one knew if he was dead or alive.
The Former Atheists
A pastor and pastor's wife was the last thing in the world Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand would have imagined becoming when they married in 1936. While they had grown up in Jewish families, both were atheists and wanted nothing to do with religion or God. The bright, ambitious couple lived a life of fun and entertainment and were not going to let religion hinder them.
Only two years into their marriage, Richard became desperate for peace in his heart that a life pleasure failed to bring. The atheist cried out to God, saying that if He really existed, it was His job to reveal Himself.
During this time, Richard fell ill with tuberculosis and was sent to the mountains to recover. In those remote mountains lived a German man by the name of Christian Wolfkes, who had been praying for God to send him a Jew that he might lead to Christ. No Jews lived near his remote village, and he was too old and sick to seek one out.
God answered his prayers and placed Richard Wurmbrand in his path. Through the faithfulness and availability of this man of God, Richard was introduced to the True Peace he had been looking for. The former devout atheist gave his life to Jesus, followed soon after by Sabina. Richard was ordained as a minister and the couple became the light of Christ to all those around them.
Hand to the Plough
German troops took over Romania at the onset of World War II. Despite the upheaval everywhere, the Wurmbrands continued ministering and preached to Romanians in bomb shelters and even helped smuggle Jewish children out of ghettos. For this, the couple was repeatedly arrested and beaten, and when rescued by friends, they returned to their work despite the warnings and threats.
Even after learning of the deaths of Sabina's entire family to the Holocaust, the couple showed the love and forgiveness of Christ to their enemies by ministering and even aiding the fleeing German soldiers when the Communists rose to power.
The years of torture the couple experienced at the hands of the Nazis was only a prelude of what was to come under the Communists. After Richard's stand at the Congress of Cults, he was a marked man. In order to worship together, the Christians organized secret meetings using codes. This was the beginnings of what is known today as the Underground Church.
The Christians longed for the Russians to know Jesus and secretly preached and shared their faith whenever possible. In his book, Tortured for Christ, Richard says,
"For me, to preach the gospel to the Russians is heaven on earth. I have preached the gospel to men of many nations, but I have never seen a people drink the gospel like the Russians. They have such thirsty souls" (Wurmbrand, 17).
The Christians distributed thousands of Gospels disguised as Communist propaganda to Russians soldiers and even managed to smuggle copies into Russia. At times, they cleverly conducted street preaching. Music would be played on the street as people gathered to listen, then the gospel was delivered. Before the secret police arrived on the scene, the crowd would quickly disperse.
The thriving Romanian church was becoming a great threat to the Communists.
"They knew that if a man believed in Christ, he would never be a mindless, willing subject. They knew they could imprison the physical body, but they couldn't imprison a man's spirit - his faith in God. And so they fought hard." (Wurmbrand, 31)
One winter morning, while on his way to church, Richard was kidnapped by the secret police. He was taken to prison where he endured unspeakable tortures at the hands of the Communists.
Sabina kept working in the underground church until she too was arrested and sent to work on the Danube Canal in labor camps for three years. Christian prisoners were often harassed and the women thrown into the canal only to be fished out and thrown in again. Sabina broke three ribs from hitting the rocks. The starving Christians would eat the rats and snakes near the canal to stay alive.
The Wurmbrand's nine-year-old son, Mihai, was left to live on the streets after both parents had been arrested. Whoever dared to feed or shelter the children of Christians were arrested and beaten. One such woman who took in Christian children off the streets was arrested and brutally beaten and released, a cripple for life.
When Sabina was finally released from the labor camp, two men arrived at her doorstep with news of Richard.
"We are from the same prison your husband was held," they told her. "The last time we saw him, he was dead."
Knight, Merv. “Tortured for Christ: Christian History Magazine.” Christian History Institute, 2014, https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/tortured-for-christ.
“Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand.” Plough, https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/witness/richard-and-sabina-wurmbrand.
“Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
Wurmbrand, Richard. Tortured for Christ. Living Sacrifice Book Co, 1998.
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