February 29, 1948 • Prisoner Number One

Richard Wurmbrand whose sufferings for Christ led him to found the Voice of the Martyrs.

One beautiful Sunday morning--it was on this date, February 29, 1948--pastor Richard Wurmbrand of Rumania set out on foot for church. He never arrived. For eight and one half years his wife and son did not know where he was or even whether he was alive or dead. "Ex-prisoners" assured Sabrina Wurmbrand they had witnessed her husband's funeral in a Communist prison. Sabrina was heartbroken and yet she had her doubts. The men might be government stooges.

Wurmbrand's disappearance was expected. Anyone who acted contrary to the regime could expect imprisonment or death. At a "Congress of Cults" held by the Communist government, he had asked for it. Religious leaders stepped forward to swear loyalty to the new regime. Sabrina asked Richard to "wipe the shame from the face of Jesus." Richard replied that if he stepped forward, she would no longer have a husband. "I don't need a coward for a husband," she answered. And so Richard stepped forward and told the 4,000 delegates that their duty as Christians was to glorify God and Christ alone.

He returned home to pastor an underground church and promote the gospel among Rumania's Russian invaders. He smuggled Bibles into Russia, disguised as Communist propaganda. And then he disappeared.

What had actually happened? As Richard walked to Church, a van full of secret police stopped in front of him. Four men jumped out and hustled him inside. He was taken to their headquarters and later locked in a solitary cell where he was designated Prisoner Number 1.

His years of imprisonment consisted of a ceaseless round of torture and brainwashing. For seventeen hours a day, repetitious phrases were dinned into his ears: Communism is good. Christianity is stupid! Give up. Give up! Over the years, he was carved in a dozen places and burned. "I prefer not to speak about those [tortures] through which I have passed. When I do, I cannot sleep at night. It is too painful." His jailers also broke many of his bones, including four vertebrae. Miraculously, he survived. Other martyrs did not.

Eight and one half years later, in 1956, Wurmbrand was released. Sabrina herself was brutalized for three years in prison. The Wurmbrand's nine year old son Mihai was orphaned during this time. Released, the Wurmbrands immediately recommenced underground work. Wurmbrand was returned to prison, not released again until 1964.

In 1965, Western churches ransomed Wurmbrand from Rumania for $10,000. Richard and Sabrina immediately spoke out for those still suffering in Communist hands. Wurmbrand was asked to testify before the US Senate. He displayed the eighteen holes cut in his body. Afterward, he was invited to speak before hundreds of groups.

By 1967, "Prisoner Number 1" had incorporated the Voice of the Martyrs, an organization dedicated to assisting those who suffer for Christ throughout the world.

Richard and Sabina were able to survive their ordeal through the power of love. "If the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ," wrote Wurmbrand, "and if the heart loves him, you can resist all tortures. What would a loving bride not do for a loving bridegroom? What would a loving mother not do for her child? If you love Christ as Mary did, who had Christ as a baby in her arms, if you love Jesus as a bride loves her bridegroom, then you can resist such tortures. God will judge us not according to how much we endured, but how much we could love. I am a witness for the Christians in communist prisons that they could love. They could love God and men."

Double Doses of Love

By Pastor Richard Wurmbrand

"...they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword..." - Job 1:15.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Job lived in a very great country. In his country, people were free to do the most amazing things.
We read in chapter one of his book, verse 15, about some people -- the Sabeans. The Sabeans fell upon the asses and oxen of Job, and took them away. They slew the servants with the edge of the sword. One alone escaped.

We read in verse 17, the Chaldeans formed three bands and fell upon the cattle and carried them away. Yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword.

People were free, even as they are free in America or Australia, to commit crimes: robberies, murder, assault and rape. That is what was considered freedom in the time of Job.

Not everybody was a bandit or a robber at that time. There were very honest people like the friends of Job. But these friends of Job came only after all the catastrophes had happened to Job.

They did not do anything to prevent such terrible crimes from happening. They were not with him while he suffered. They were unconcerned. They came after Job had lost everything, and instead of words of comfort, they upbraided him.

The loneliness in suffering

In suffering, men usually have no friends. I know that not only in communist countries people are suffering, they are suffering here in America, too.

When the heart is most burdened, usually you are alone. Rarely you will find somebody to understand you, to be ready to listen to you.

We Americans cannot listen to somebody's suffering because the problem on the color television is much too interesting. We see there people weeping, being shot, being wounded. There are many weeping next door to us. We have no time for them because we watch the picture.

In all our dramas, we are alone, we have no earthly friend. This problem can be solved only one way. You become a friend. Don't ask others to be your friends.

All men are one and we are meant to cooperate as kidneys, lungs, liver, legs and brain.

As organs cooperate for the health of the body, so we all should feel that we are one and we should care for one another.

The great commandment which our Lord has given to us is found in John 13:34. "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have given My life for you... that ye also love one another."

The radiant flower of love Because it so happens that I passed 14 years in communist prisons and also some time in Nazi prisons, everybody expects from me to speak out against communism.

I prefer rather to speak out for Christ.

Instead of speaking about the ugly things of the devil, I prefer to speak about the beautiful commandment of love which Christ gave us and about His beautiful example.

It is said about the Emperor of Japan that he heard about one of his nobility who had a splendid garden with orchids. No one else had such beautiful flowers. He said to this nobleman, "I will come on such and such a day. I wish to see the garden."

On that day, the man waited outside his palace. The emperor's carriage arrived and he said to the ruler, "Your highness, let us go first to the garden." They entered the garden. It was ploughed. Not a single flower could be seen in the garden. The emperor wondered, but did not say a word.

Then the nobleman said to the emperor, "Let us have tea." They entered into the tea room. There in a jar was just one flower, but a flower of radiant beauty, overwhelming beauty. The nobleman told the emperor, "I have kept the most beautiful flower for the best of emperors. The other flowers were not worthy to live."

I believe that for our emperor, Jesus Christ, we have to keep in our hears just one flower -- the flower of love. All the other flowers are not worthy to live. Jesus Christ is embodied love. He gave his life for us. Every one of us should offer Him our self sacrificing, our burning love.

I am happy to tell you about the Christians behind the Iron Curtain that in spite of unspeakable persecution, have kept this love. The communists could kill bodies of Christians. They could maim them. They could torture them. They could slay Christians. But they cannot slay the love of Christians, neither their faith.

How the church in China grew

I imagine that many of you must have heard the name of Watchman Nee, the renowned Chinese evangelical writer. He passed away some 20 years ago after having spent 26 years in communist prisons.

We have been told about what happened to him in prison. They arrested him, Wang Min-Dao, and so many other Christian leaders. Samuel Lamb and Allen Yuan, with whom we continue to work today, were arrested at the same time and each suffered more than 20 years in prison.

The communists had closed all the churches. Red China is a country with 1.2 billion inhabitants. Every fifth man in the world is Chinese. God loves the Chinese very much. Proof is He has made so many of them: 1.2 billion.

For such a population not one single church was left open. Everything had been destroyed. The underground church, however, was blooming: hundreds came to Christ and were baptized although the church was underground.

The communists were very alarmed about this and asked themselves how this was possible. Then they found out. Watchman Nee himself had smuggled letters to the Christians outside the prison and his letters were of such beauty and such Christian depth that the Christians outside were strengthened in their faith.

They became full of zeal and they won new souls for Christ. So the communists said, "We can outsmart Watchman Nee. Henceforth, the guard in front of his cell will be changed every 6 hours and never will the same guard be twice on duty because he converts the guards, and persuades them to smuggle out the letters. If we change the guards every 6 hours, he will have no time to convert them and no letters will be smuggled out any more."

They multiplied the guards. More guards were converted and more letters were smuggled out. The church in China grew even faster. We smuggle into China and other countries Bibles and other Christian books.

We broadcast the Gospel in a number of languages, and we help the families of Christians who are in prisons. Thousands are in prison. Our couriers go and bring the news of what is happening where Christians are persecuted. There are underground churches all over Red China. Also in Vietnam, Laos, and other communist and Muslim countries.

Overcoming hatred with double doses of love

When you meet hatred, don't reproach the perpetrators with "Why do you hate?" He hates because I don't love enough. If I would double the doses of love, it might overcome his hatred.

Once there was a a great fire in a town and a man came with a cup of water, and threw it onto the fire. The fire continued to blaze.

He came back and said, "What stupidity. People believe that water quenches fire. You have seen, I threw water onto the fire and it was not quenched."

He did not know the truth -- a cup of water does not quench fire but many hoses with water quench fire. Christian love, as much as we have it today, does not quench the fire of anti God hatred. So we have to increase our love.

Christ has given us an example of love. He forsook heaven for us, was born in a stable, led a whole life of sorrows, allowed himself to be flogged, spat upon and crucified because He loved.

He has given us the freedom, not the freedom to commit wicked things, but the freedom to spend our lives in love.

A torturer repents

I don't have much time to tell you all the beauties of the underground church. I should perhaps tell you just one episode which I have lived.

We were in a prison cell; some 30 or 40 prisoners. The door was unlocked and the guards and pushed in a new prisoner. He was dirty like we were. We had not washed ourselves in 3 years. So he was dirty, and we were dirty.

He was shorn and had the striped uniform of a prisoner. In the half darkness of the cell we did not recognize him, but at a certain moment, one of us exclaimed, "This is Captain Popescu, I recognize him!"

Captain Popescu had been one of the worst torturers of Christians. He had beaten and tortured even some of us who were now in the same cell with him. We wondered how he had become a prisoner of the communists and how he had been put in a prison cell reserved for Christians.

So we surrounded him and asked him his story. With tears in his eyes, he told us that a few months ago he sat in his office. The soldier on duty knocked at the door and said, "Outside is a boy of 12 or 13 who has a flower for your wife."

The captain scratched his head. He did not remember that it was his wife's birthday, but in any case, he allowed the boy to enter.

The boy entered with the flower in his hand, very shy, but very decided, and said, "Comrade Captain, you are the one who has put my father and mother in prison. Today is my mother's birthday. I have the habit every year on this day, out of my little pocket money, to buy a flower for her. Because of you, I have no mother to gladden today. But my mother is a Christian and she taught me since I was a little child to love my enemies and to reward evil with good. Because of you, I have no mother to gladden today, I thought to give joy to the mother of your children. Please take this flower to your wife and tell her about my love and about the love of Christ."

It was too much even for a communist torturer. He was also a creature of God. He also has been enlightened with the light which enlightens every man who comes into this world. He embraced this child.

He could not beat any more. He could not torture anymore. He was no longer useful as an officer of the communist secret police. He came to suffer together with the children of God and was happy for this new state.

Believe in love

We have all experienced the love of Christ towards us. Now this Christ, who died and resurrected for us, lives in our hearts and imparts in us this love.

The enemies of God can kill us. They cannot kill love. If you tramp on a flower with your boots, the flower rewards you with its perfume. Let us have before our eyes the love of Christ who saved us.

Let us have before our eyes also the love of our brethren who have heavy burdens, thousands of times heavier than our burdens. Continue to simply believe in love. Let us follow their heroic example.

Let a new Christian life start with every one of us. You must not be shallow Christians. You must not be lukewarm Christians. Our love towards Christ can be a full, overflowing one.

Amen.



Warmly yours in Christ Jesus,


Pastor Richard Wurmbrand

We absolutely need God

This is a text of Sabine Wurmbrand, this great missionary personality who spent all her life to accomplish good deeds in the Spirit of the Ressusrection of our Lord.


Dear brothers and sisters,

I was a slave worker in a Romanian prison camp and worked at building a huge canal with thousands of women. We were sad, but we had among us a young Jewish lady who was a doctor. She was sadder than all the others. Nobody could speak with her.

One day I was on my straw mattress. Near me was this Jewish doctor, and I tried to comfort her sad heart. I said, "You, as Jewish lady, should not be in despair. For God has promised to our forefather, Abraham, that the Jewish people will have a bright future. They will be like the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky."

She lifted up her beautiful, sad eyes, tears ran down her cheeks. She said, "Surely, like the sand on the seashore, trodden under the feet of everyone as we are trodden here under the feet of the prison guards… Don’t speak to me any more about your God."

She went away. Nobody could speak with her. A few days after this, I awoke one morning deathly sick. So in order not to die in this cell, I was thrown in a van of the police and taken to another prison that they called the hospital. Many dying women were there – two or even three in a small bed – everyone waiting to be taken out to the nearby cemetery.

There we were. In the evening the director of the prison entered. Together with about ten of his officers. He looked around among the dying women. We looked like ghosts. (Remember thousands like them, your sisters, are in prisons and slave labor camps today in dictatorial countries like China, Vietnam, North Korea.)

He looked around at the dying women and delivered a speech : "Now you see? We have all the power. We prevailed. We are stronger than your God. We have doctors and we don’t need your God any more, your Christ. In here, in our hospital, you are not meant even to mention the name of God or Christ".

A big silence followed. Nobody dared to answer nor did any of the women even have strength to speak. But the Holy Spirit was there. He gave me strength. He gave the right words. I said, "Mr. Officer, as long as death and sickness will be on earth and you see how near death we all are together, we absolutely need God. We need Jesus Christ the Son of God, the only giver of life."

The director went into a rage and answered. I answered him back. When he didn’t know any more what to say, he went out and banged the door. The women were so happy. It was the most beautiful event, which had happened in their sad prison life. On the beds of happiness they embraced each other because someone had stood up to this brute.

Early the next morning when it was still dark, a guard entered with a list of three names – women who were fit to go back to work. The first of the three names was mine, although I was dying. No question about going. I was thrown again into the van and brought back to the prison cell.

When the prisoners saw me, they started to cry. They banged at the door calling for help. Nobody came. The next morning when the thousand were gathered in order to be taken to the field, I had to go with them. The other prisoners took me on their arms, walking miles and miles. Who could ever describe what it meant – marching, hungry, sick, marching to the fields day by day, surrounded by the many prison guards with their rifles, surrounded by big dogs. Only seeing them, your heart would freeze.

So the weak women walked, having also to carry me on their arms. When we arrived, they had to put me down on the ground. Nobody was allowed to stand near me.

Everyone had to work. There I was. Many of the Christians worked and wept, being convinced that they had put me there in my grave forever.

While nobody was allowed to come near me, in a second, Jesus stood before me. He had passed the guards. Jesus touched my dying body and in the evening, when the thousands of prisoners were brought to the prison cell, I was with them. Like a fire, it spread all over the prison.

Late in the evening, when I was on my straw mattress, on the concrete, this Jewish lady doctor came. She confessed that, in seeing such a miraculous healing, she acknowledged now her belief in the Messiah who had touched my body and had healed me.

An American army officer in World War II told his men : "The enemy troops are in front of us, in our back, to the right and to the left. We are totally surrounded. This time the enemy cannot escape!"

The opportunity to help cannot be exhausted. People in desperate need surround us. Let us forget forever the sins that the Lord has forgiven. Let us forget our human heart in its despair. But let us also not forget what we need to remember : our beloved Lord Jesus Christ! Thanks for all your hard efforts in behalf of our persecuted family in dictatorial countries.

Yours in Christ,

Sabina Wurmbrand

Message for a friend

I begin my daily work by reading the last news concerning the persecution which prevails around the world.

I hear that there are massacres in Rwanda, assassinations in Iran, in Nepal, in Bosnia...

Too often Christians of different confessions are sacrificed just because they believe in Jesus Christ.

Thinking of them, praying for them is another way of living the Good News today and waiting for the times when hatred will no longer exist and men and women will live in peace.

Each day my love grows stronger for the members of the Uniate Church of Romania who experience, since two generations, a perfidious persecution and are not free to live according to their faith. All this Church's goods have been confiscated together with some 2,500 churches, and the present authorities are continuing the persecutions which prevailed under the Ceausescu regime.

And each time I feel the pain of knowing what the women and children of Bosnia are suffering in this long and cruel war.

And I pray for these persecuted people, forgotten by this world. In fact, they are more numerous today than ever: in our century, more christians have been killed because of their faith than during the nineteen previous centuries.

Bringing back peace, respect of human dignity and of freedom of belief, helping the martyrs which are suffering today, is a blessed cause. I pray for the martyrs and for the persecuted, and I also send to you, dear friend, a complimentary copy of this information bulletin, "The Voice of the Martyrs". I only ask you to read it, today. And also to think of those who are persecuted today and of ways to help us in this fight for freedom and justice.

You can truly be helpful to those who suffer today. By giving from your surplus, you will truly help those who suffer, the hungry children and the widows of those who died fro their faith.

So how can you participate, by giving and by being informed, to our charitable work for the Martyr Churches? Just remember the women who were asking themselves, in front of our Lord's tomb: How can we move the tombstone? They did not lose hope, and the angels came and moved the tombstone.

Like these women, I am not alone in this combat. Angels are on my side. Their work has brought a partial ceasing of the anti-religious persecutions in the former communist countries. You can contribute to the work of the angels, who have already defeated communist tyrants, by helping the Uniates of Romania, the Hungarians, the Bulgarian, the eastern Slovaks, the catholic Ukrainians, the Russians, the christians persecuted in the muslim and buddhist countries, all these forgotten people in our world of wealth.

This information bulletin can become the good friend who faithfully enters your home once a month. It will bring you, if you wish, the information which will keep you in touch with a world where christian faith struggles for survival. It can be the lever with which you can move the tombstone, so that in the glory of the empty tomb, you can be the instrument and the witness of the resurrection of the Church in distress.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Radu Roscanu, Director

Message for a friend

Dear friend,

I begin my daily work by reading the last news concerning the persecution which prevails around the world.

I hear that there are massacres in Rwanda, assassinations in Iran, in Nepal, in Bosnia...

Too often Christians of different confessions are sacrificed just because they believe in Jesus Christ.

Thinking of them, praying for them is another way of living the Good News today and waiting for the times when hatred will no longer exist and men and women will live in peace.

Each day my love grows stronger for the members of the Uniate Church of Romania who experience, since two generations, a perfidious persecution and are not free to live according to their faith. All this Church's goods have been confiscated together with some 2,500 churches, and the present authorities are continuing the persecutions which prevailed under the Ceausescu regime.

And each time I feel the pain of knowing what the women and children of Bosnia are suffering in this long and cruel war.

And I pray for these persecuted people, forgotten by this world. In fact, they are more numerous today than ever: in our century, more christians have been killed because of their faith than during the nineteen previous centuries.

Bringing back peace, respect of human dignity and of freedom of belief, helping the martyrs which are suffering today, is a blessed cause. I pray for the martyrs and for the persecuted, and I also send to you, dear friend, a complimentary copy of this information bulletin, "The Voice of the Martyrs". I only ask you to read it, today. And also to think of those who are persecuted today and of ways to help us in this fight for freedom and justice.

You can truly be helpful to those who suffer today. By giving from your surplus, you will truly help those who suffer, the hungry children and the widows of those who died fro their faith.

So how can you participate, by giving and by being informed, to our charitable work for the Martyr Churches? Just remember the women who were asking themselves, in front of our Lord's tomb: How can we move the tombstone? They did not lose hope, and the angels came and moved the tombstone.

Like these women, I am not alone in this combat. Angels are on my side. Their work has brought a partial ceasing of the anti-religious persecutions in the former communist countries. You can contribute to the work of the angels, who have already defeated communist tyrants, by helping the Uniates of Romania, the Hungarians, the Bulgarian, the eastern Slovaks, the catholic Ukrainians, the Russians, the christians persecuted in the muslim and buddhist countries, all these forgotten people in our world of wealth.

This information bulletin can become the good friend who faithfully enters your home once a month. It will bring you, if you wish, the information which will keep you in touch with a world where christian faith struggles for survival. It can be the lever with which you can move the tombstone, so that in the glory of the empty tomb, you can be the instrument and the witness of the resurrection of the Church in distress.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Radu Roscanu, Director