Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen interviews Pastor Richard Wurmbrand

https://youtu.be/h6kv8gsCM3s

Pastor Richard

 Wurmbrand March 24, 1909–February 17, 2001

Sabina (Oster) Wurmbrand July 10, 1913–August 11, 2000

Matt Sanders9 months ago

At 10:40-- the pastor indicates that Marx was a member of the secret satanist church. This is highly important in understanding the roots of Communism and its threat.

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand (1909—2001) was an evangelical minister who endured 14 years of Communist imprisonment and torture in his homeland of Romania. He is widely recognized there as one of the country’s greatest Christian leaders, authors and educators.

In 1945, when the Communists seized Romania and attempted to take control of the churches, Pastor Wurmbrand began an effective, vigorous “underground” ministry to oppressed believers as well as to the Russian soldiers occupying his country. He was arrested in 1948, along with his wife, Sabina, who was imprisoned as a slave-laborer for three years on the Danube Canal. Pastor Wurmbrand spent three years in solitary confinement, seeing no one but his Communist torturers. He was then transferred to a group cell, where the torture continued for five more years.

As a Christian leader of international stature, Richard’s imprisonment did not go unnoticed. However, when foreign diplomats asked the Communist Romanian government about him, they were told that he had fled the country. Adding to the confusion, Romanian secret police posing as former prisoners told Sabina they had attended his burial in the prison cemetery. His family and friends were told that he was dead.

As a Christian leader of international stature, Richard’s imprisonment did not go unnoticed. However, when foreign diplomats asked the Communist Romanian government about him, they were told that he had fled the country. Adding to the confusion, Romanian secret police posing as former prisoners told Sabina they had attended his burial in the prison cemetery. His family and friends were told that he was dead.

After more than eight years in prison, Richard Wurmbrand was released, immediately resuming his work with the underground church. A couple of years later, in 1959, he was re-arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Pastor Wurmbrand was released through a general amnesty in 1964, again resuming his underground ministry. A group of Christians in Norway, realizing the probability and danger of a third imprisonment, negotiated his family’s emigration from Romania with the Communist authorities, who had begun “selling” political prisoners. While the average price for a prisoner was about $1,900, the government demanded $10,000 for Pastor Wurmbrand.

In May 1966, he testified before the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, where he stripped to the waist to show 18 scars from torture wounds covering his torso. His story was carried in newspapers throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Pastor Wurmbrand was warned in September 1966 that Romania’s Communist regime planned to assassinate him  but he would not be silenced.

ld not be silenced.As co-founders of The Voice of the Martyrs, Pastor Wurmbrand and his wife traveled throughout the world establishing a network of more than 30 offices that provide relief to families of imprisoned Christians in Islamic nations, Communist nations and other countries where Christians are persecuted because of their faith. His message has been, “Hate the evil systems, but love your persecutors. Love their souls, and try to win them for Christ.”

Pastor Wurmbrand wrote numerous books, which have been translated into more than 70 languages. He has been labeled at various times by Christian leaders as “The Voice of the Underground Church” and “The Iron Curtain Paul.”

SUBSCRIBE 2.2K

https://www.persecution.com/ - This is a an extraordinary meeting of two of the twentieth century's great spiritual figures -- one a Protestant, the other Catholic -- who were close friends and dynamic collaborators for Christ and His gospel for much of their lives. Each drew their worldwide influence from holiness forged in the furnace of suffering. Each brought countless souls to Christ, and continues to do so. Their friendship is witness that true followers of Christ cannot help but be close to one another. Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the first of the televangelists, continues to be the most influential Catholic evangelist of the past 100 years. His books, videos and recordings remain best sellers more than 30 years after his death, and his cause for canonization is underway. Pastor Richard Wurmbrand suffered intensely in Communist prisons for his Christian beliefs. In the depths of brutal torture and years of solitary confinement he had a vision like that of the Apostle Stephen. Wurmbrand wrote: 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." Pastor Wurmbrand dedicated his life to the cause of martyrs throughout the world and founded the international organization, Voice of the Martyrs. One of his many books, Tortured for Christ, is a Christian classic.