I purchased this video in the ’80s, but apparently lost it. I was so happy to find this online!
Richard’s forgiving story has impacted my life, so much so that I took time to visit The Voice of the Martyrs, and was able to meet him and Sabina before he died.
For some reason, The Voice of the Martyrs stopped selling this video many years ago, and apparently never published it as a DVD. It’s such a powerful testimony. I wonder why — unless the documentary part of this animated DVD now includes this footage: Torchlighters: The Richard Wurmbrand Story (2009).
jeff
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“The first thought which came into my mind when I was in the hand of the communist torturers, was that in the Bible, the words “don’t be afraid” occurs 366 times — once for every day of the year. And because there is the extra day of the leap year, it is not 365, but 366 times. I knew that even in the hand of the secret police I am in the hands of the Almighty God. And this gave quiet to my heart.”
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“At once the walls of the cell began to shine like diamonds! … Never have I seen the beauties which I have seen in the dark cell beneath the earth. Never have I heard such a beautiful music as on that day the King of Kings, Jesus was with us. We saw His understanding, His loving eyes. He wiped away from our eyes our tears. He said to us words of love and words of forgiveness. …
Now there came wonderful days. The bride was in the arms of the Bridegroom. We were with Christ. We didn’t know that we were in prison.
Sometimes we were taken into interrogatories. We were beaten; we were tortured, but just as Saint Stephen, while they threw stones at him did not see his murderers, did not see the stones, but saw heaven open and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father — so we didn’t see anymore the communist torturers. We didn’t see that we are in prison. We were surrounded by angels. We were with God.”
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“I had not washed myself three years. You imagine how I looked like. … We confessed to them about Christ, and we converted them. I, myself, had before me a communist officer with a rubber truncheon in his hand, and I told him about the love of Christ. I told him about heaven, about God. Forever, he put his rubber truncheon aside. He asked me, ‘Mr. Wurmbrand, how can you love me? I would never love somebody who puts me in prison and beats me.’
And I told him about the new character, about the new heart which Christ gives to men. And they become embodied love. And he became our brother. He entered in prison for having taken our defense.”
– Richard Wurmbrand
Transcribed by Jeff Fenske
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlp5yv2nq5E]Tortured for Christ in Atheist Romania – Richard Wurmbrand (1 of 3)
[full description below]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTkYZjh9WFc]Tortured for Christ in Atheist Romania – Richard Wurmbrand (2 of 3)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4LHPN3Muxc]Tortured for Christ in Atheist Romania – Richard Wurmbrand (3 of 3)
1001Phoenix
Uploaded on Jun 9, 2009
Atheism per se creates a moral vacuum where everyone can behave like Satan himself.
The most oppressive and human-killing regime’s have been when Atheists have taken over governments. Nevertheless, atheists claim that people of faith are to blame for mass amounts of people’s lives being taken. This is not based on facts. In the past century, Atheism forced its beliefs on people of faith or simply slaughtered hundreds of millions of them.
ooo OOO ooo
Pastor Richard Wurmbrand (March 24, 1909 – February 17, 2001)
Many people called him the “Voice of the Underground Church” and others referred to him as the “Iron Curtain St. Paul.” This humble man who began the ministry of The Voice of the Martyrs was the Rev. Richard Wurmbrand. Richards life was a partnership with the equally amazing Sabina, whom he married on October 26, 1936.
Richard Wurmbrand was born the youngest of four boys in a Jewish family on March 24, 1909, in Bucharest, Romania. Gifted intellectually and fluent in nine languages, Richard was active in politics and worked as a stockbroker.
During World War II, Richard and Sabina saw an opportunity for evangelism among the occupying German forces. They preached in the bomb shelters and rescued Jewish children out of the ghettos. Richard and Sabina were repeatedly arrested and beaten and, at least once, nearly executed. Sabina lost her Jewish family in Nazi concentration camps.
In 1945 Romanian Communists seized power and a million “invited” Russian troops poured into the country. Pastor Wurmbrand ministered to his oppressed countrymen and engaged in bold evangelism to the Russian soldiers.
On February 29, 1948, the secret police arrested Richard while on his way to church and took him to their headquarters. He was locked in a solitary cell and labeled ‘Prisoner Number 1.’
In 1950, his wife Sabina was also imprisoned. She was forced to serve as a laborer on the Danube Canal project, leaving their nine-year-old son, Mihai, alone and homeless. Following her release in 1953, the Romanian authorities informed her that Richard had died in prison. [But God showed Sabina in a vision that Richard was still alive – editor]
A Christian doctor masquerading as a Communist Party member discovered Richard alive in prison. In a general amnesty, Richard was released in 1956 after serving eight-and-a-half years in prison. He was warned never to preach again. While in prison, he went through horrific tortures at the hands of the brutal secret police. Despite the treatments and the warnings he received from his persecutors, Richard resumed his work with the “underground” churches after his release.
He was re-arrested in 1959 through the conspiracy of an associate, and sentenced to 25 years. Due to increased political pressure from Western countries, Richard was granted another amnesty and released in 1964.
In December 1965, the Norwegian Mission to the Jews and the Hebrew Christian Alliance paid $10,000 in ransom to the Communist government to allow the Wurmbrand family to leave Romania. Reluctant to leave his homeland, Richard was convinced by other underground church leaders to leave and become a “voice” to the world for the underground church. Richard, Sabina, and their son Mihai left Romania for Norway and then traveled on to England.
Richard began his ministry of being a voice for persecuted Christians in England with Rev. Stuart Harris, where he also wrote his testimony of persecution, Tortured for Christ. Later, Richard moved on to the United States, and in 1966 he appeared before a U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, where he stripped to the waist and revealed 18 deep torture wounds on his body. His story spread rapidly, leading to more and more speaking engagements.
In 1967, the Wurmbrands officially began a ministry committed to serving the persecuted church, called Jesus to the Communist World (later renamed The Voice of the Martyrs). In the same year, Richard released his book, Tortured for Christ.
In October, 1967, the first monthly issue of The Voice of the Martyrs newsletter was published in the U.S. By the mid-1980s his work was established in 80 restricted nations with offices in 30 countries around the world.
In 1990, after the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu in December 1989, Richard and Sabina returned to Romania after 25 years in exile and were warmly received. A printing facility and bookstore were opened in Bucharest, and the officials of the city offered to store Christian books in a room below the palace of Ceausescu, the very site where Richard had been held in solitary confinement.
For additional information, please visit:
http://www.persecution.com
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From Wikipedia:
Wurmbrand, who passed through the penal facilities of Craiova, Gherla, the Danube – Black Sea Canal, Văcăreşti, Malmaison, Cluj, and ultimately Jilava, spent three years in solitary confinement. This confinement was in a cell twelve feet underground, with no lights or windows. There was no sound because even the guards wore felt on the soles of their shoes. He later recounted that he maintained his sanity by sleeping during the day, staying awake at night, and exercising his mind and soul by composing and then delivering a sermon each night. Due to his extraordinary memory, he was able to recall more than 350 of those, a selection of which he included in his book “With God in Solitary Confinement,” which was first published in 1969. During part of this time, he communicated with other inmates by tapping out Morse code on the wall. In this way he continued to “be sunlight” to fellow inmates rather than dwell on the lack of physical light.[3]
At the beginning of his first imprisonment, he recalls being in deep remorse as thoughts of past sins and duties undone were remembered. Unlike the discipline that helped him through later days of imprisonment, he later wrote that God came to him and fellow prisoners in a vision not unlike that which Stephen experienced:
We didn’t see that we were in prison. We were surrounded by angels; we were with God. We no longer believed about God and Christ and angels because Bible verses said it. We didn’t remember Bible verses anymore. We remembered about God because we experienced it. With great humility we can say with the apostles, “What we have seen with our eyes, what we have heard with our ears, what we have touched with our own fingers, this we tell to you.”[4]
Wurmbrand was released from his first imprisonment in 1956, after eight and a half years. Although he was warned not to preach, he resumed his work in the underground church. He was arrested again in 1959 and sentenced to 25 years. During his imprisonment, he was beaten and tortured. Psychological torture included incessant broadcasting of phrases denouncing Christianity and praising Communism. His body bore the scars of physical torture for the rest of his life. For example, he later recounted having the soles of his feet beaten until the flesh was torn off, then the next day beaten again to the bone. This prolific writer said there were not words to describe that pain.[5]
Related:
[6-minute video] Richard Wurmbrand (1909 – 2001): Solitary Confinement & Tortured for Christ for 14 Years — “You wonder why I smile. … I remember it as a glorious time. The bride was in the embraces of the Heavenly Bridegroom. We received His Holy Kiss. We knew His caresses. It has been one of the most beautiful times of my life!”
[9-minute AMAZING video] Arrested in Iran, horrified missionary, Dan Baumann has VISION OF JESUS in jail, Whose love SETS HIM FREE TO LOVE his torturer, who leads others to Christ. Set free in his heart, God gives Dan TOTALLY HONEST words to speak at the trial for 20 minutes. And Dan was released from Iran too! — “God gave me the grace to stand up and speak the truth. And in doing so it brought freedom in my heart. I AM FREE!!!!!!!”
CORRIE TEN BOOM: PREPARED For The COMING TRIBULATION — “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be STRONG ENOUGH TO BE A MARTYR for Jesus Christ.” My father said, “OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN KNOWS when you will need the strength…. HE WILL SUPPLY ALL YOU NEED – JUST IN TIME.“
[full movie] ‘THE ROBE’ (1953) — The GOD of ALL COMFORT! “As the SUFFERINGS of Christ ABOUND to us, OUR COMFORT also ABOUNDS through Christ!!!” (2 Cor. 1)
Dumitru Duduman: Wake Up America
Christian Woman Who Lived Under Chauchesku in Romania: America is Becoming A Communist Country — “If we lose freedom in America there is no place to escape to.”
My Poem: The Ghost and THE RIVER! (When I also saw Jesus’ face)
