Richard Wurmbrand, , Pastor

January 9. Richard Wurmbrand. In his younger years, Wurmbrand was an atheist. He prayed:

“God, I know surely that You do not exist. But if perchance You exist, which I contest, it is not my duty to believe in You; it is Your duty to reveal Yourself to me.”

But in time, Wurmbrand learned the truth about himself, about God, and about Jesus. Not long after that the world turned upside down; politics suddenly made no sense.

In 1941, Nazis overran a city in Romania and massacred 13,266 Jews and sympathizers, including many Jewish Christians. That’s the world where Wurmbrand was a Christian, a husband, and a pastor. Here’s what happened.

At times, your only option may be to speak up. Be bold.

In 1944, when a million Russian troops poured into Romania, Wurmbrand saw it as an opportunity to share the love of Christ. He felt compelled to help the Russian soldiers know who Jesus was.

Wurmbrand knew the Communist Party had hijacked these men’s minds; they could no longer think for themselves. They were unable to believe in God unless they were ordered to.

And the Communist takeover was beyond swift. Twenty-three-year-old King Michael the First had been left on his own to deal with the sudden shift of power. There was no time for a propaganda campaign to sway the masses’ attitudes toward Stalin.

When the Foreign Secretary of the barged into King Michael’s office, he demanded that Communists be given government positions. Young King Michael could not resist. Communists muscled their way into the Romanian government while war-weary American and British forces finished off the Nazis in Europe.

Once police and military power in Romania had been dismantled, the overthrow was complete. Churches and their leaders were now subject to Communists, who bombarded the people with constant propaganda and intimidation. Knowing Romanians had a strong interest in religion, the Communists sought to consolidate power by gaining the support of all the different kinds of religious leaders. In 1945 they held a meeting of four-thousand pastors, priests, and ministers in the Parliament Building at . Stalin was the honorary president of this so-called “Congress of Cults.”

As a pastor, Wurmbrand was required to attend. One by one, ministers, priests, and bishops from various denominations stood and praised the Communist regime, said the Church could co-exist with , and assured their loyalty to its Stalinist rule.

“Stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ,” Wurmbrand’s wife Sabina told him. In her eyes, they were spitting on Jesus.

“If I do, you will lose your husband,” Wurmbrand said.

“I don’t wish to have a coward for a husband,” she answered.

There was no turning back. Wurmbrand stepped up to the podium in front of a packed audience and praised Jesus, proclaiming that God and His Son Jesus Christ demanded their full loyalty. He broadcast live throughout Romania.

The powers accused Wurmbrand of counter-revolutionary lies, and he spent 14 years behind bars. His wife Sabina was consigned to slave-labor for three years. Wurmbrand was starved, beaten, tortured, whipped, and pressed to betray his brethren.

“Why don’t you give in? It’s all so futile. You’re only flesh, and you’ll break in the end,” a tormentor asked him.

But Wurmbrand wouldn’t break. He knew he was more than flesh—he knew he was a child of God.

Jesus said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:25). Have there been times when what you believe about Jesus has demanded you speak up? At times, your only option may be to speak up. Be bold.

Would You Like to Learn More About This Man?

On the night Wurmbrand became a Christian, he wrote, “I do not understand everything that has happened to me, but I believe that my whole life, and the life of all His [God’s] children, has been planned by God, down to the smallest detail.”

“Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand: Founders of .” March 29, 2016. Plough. https:// www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/witness/richard-and-sabina-wurmbrand. Voice of the Martyrs. “Tortured for Christ: The cost of discipleship for Richard Wurmbrand.” June 26, 2018. CHRISTIAN TODAY. https://www.christiantoday.com/article/tortured-for-christ-the-cost-of-discipleship-for- richard-wurmbrand/129834. htm. Wurmbrand, Richard. Tortured for Christ. Bartlesville, OK: Living Sacrifice Book Company, 1967. “Our Founders.” Accessed September 21, 2020. The Voice of the Martyrs. https://www.persecution.com/ founders/. “Who Was Richard Wurmbrand?” Accessed September 21, 2020. The Voice of the Martyrs. https:// www.torturedforchrist.com/about/who-was-richard-wurmbrand/. Colón, Peter. “The Story of Richard Wurmbrand.” September/October 2010. ISRAEL MY GLORY. https:// israelmyglory.org/article/the-story-of-richard-wurmbrand/.