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In God's underground;
Book by Wurmbrand, Richard
253 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
149 people are currently reading
1518 people want to read
About the author
Richard Wurmbrand
119 books282 followersEarly life
Richard Wurmbrand, the youngest of four boys, was born in 1909 in Bucharest in a Jewish family. He lived with his family in Istanbul for a short while; his father died when he was 9, and the Wurmbrands returned to Romania when he was 15.
As an adolescent, he became attracted to communism, and, after attending a series of illegal meetings of the Communist Party of Romania (PCdR), he was sent to study Marxism in Moscow, but returned clandestinely the following year. Pursued by Siguranţa Statului (the secret police), he was arrested and held in Doftana prison. Wurmbrand subsequently renounced his political ideals.
He married Sabina Oster on October 26, 1936. Wurmbrand and his wife were converted to Christianity in 1938 through the witness of Christian Wolfkes, a Romanian Christian carpenter; they joined the Anglican Mission to the Jews. Wurmbrand was ordained twice - first as an Anglican, then, after World War II, as a Lutheran pastor.
In 1944, when the Soviet Union occupied Romania as the first step to establishing the communist regime, Wurmbrand began a ministry to his Romanian countrymen and to the Red Army soldiers. When the government attempted to control the churches, he immediately began an "underground" ministry to his people. He was arrested on February 29, 1948, while on his way to church services.
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. His wife, Sabina, was arrested in 1950 and spent three years of penal labor on the Danube Canal.
Pastor Wurmbrand was released in 1956, after eight and a half years, and, although warned not to preach, 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.
Eventually, he was the recipient of an amnesty in 1964. Concerned with the possibility of further imprisonment, the Norwegian Mission to the Jews and the Hebrew Christian Alliance negotiated with the Communist authorities for his release from Romania for $10,000. He was convinced by underground church leaders to leave and become a voice for the persecuted church.
Wurmbrand traveled to Norway, England, and then the United States. In May 1965, he testified in Washington, D.C. before the US Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee. He became known as the "The Voice of the Underground Church," doing much to publicize the persecution of Christians in Communist countries.
In April 1967, the Wurmbrands formed Jesus To The Communist World (later named The Voice of the Martyrs), an interdenominational organization working initially with and for persecuted Christians in Communist countries, but later expanding its activities to help persecuted believers in other places, especially in the Muslim world. However, when in Namibia, and confronted with the case of Colin Winter, the Anglican Bishop of Namibia, who had supported African strikers and was eventually deported from Namibia by South Africa, Wurmbrand criticized the latter's anti-apartheid activism, and claimed resistance to communism was more important.
In 1990 Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand returned to Romania for the first time in 25 years. The Voice of the Martyrs opened a printing facility and bookstore in Bucharest. He preached about God together with pastor Ioan Panican.
The Wurmbrands had one son, Mihai. Wurmbrand wrote 18 books in English and others in Romanian. His best-known book is entitled Tortured for Christ, released in 1967. His wife, Sabina, died August 11, 2000.
Pastor Wurmbrand died on February 17, 2001 in a hospital in Long Beach, California. In 2006, he came fifth among the greatest Romanians according to a poll conducted by Romanian Television (Televiziunea Română).
Richard Wurmbrand, the youngest of four boys, was born in 1909 in Bucharest in a Jewish family. He lived with his family in Istanbul for a short while; his father died when he was 9, and the Wurmbrands returned to Romania when he was 15.
As an adolescent, he became attracted to communism, and, after attending a series of illegal meetings of the Communist Party of Romania (PCdR), he was sent to study Marxism in Moscow, but returned clandestinely the following year. Pursued by Siguranţa Statului (the secret police), he was arrested and held in Doftana prison. Wurmbrand subsequently renounced his political ideals.
He married Sabina Oster on October 26, 1936. Wurmbrand and his wife were converted to Christianity in 1938 through the witness of Christian Wolfkes, a Romanian Christian carpenter; they joined the Anglican Mission to the Jews. Wurmbrand was ordained twice - first as an Anglican, then, after World War II, as a Lutheran pastor.
In 1944, when the Soviet Union occupied Romania as the first step to establishing the communist regime, Wurmbrand began a ministry to his Romanian countrymen and to the Red Army soldiers. When the government attempted to control the churches, he immediately began an "underground" ministry to his people. He was arrested on February 29, 1948, while on his way to church services.
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. His wife, Sabina, was arrested in 1950 and spent three years of penal labor on the Danube Canal.
Pastor Wurmbrand was released in 1956, after eight and a half years, and, although warned not to preach, 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.
Eventually, he was the recipient of an amnesty in 1964. Concerned with the possibility of further imprisonment, the Norwegian Mission to the Jews and the Hebrew Christian Alliance negotiated with the Communist authorities for his release from Romania for $10,000. He was convinced by underground church leaders to leave and become a voice for the persecuted church.
Wurmbrand traveled to Norway, England, and then the United States. In May 1965, he testified in Washington, D.C. before the US Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee. He became known as the "The Voice of the Underground Church," doing much to publicize the persecution of Christians in Communist countries.
In April 1967, the Wurmbrands formed Jesus To The Communist World (later named The Voice of the Martyrs), an interdenominational organization working initially with and for persecuted Christians in Communist countries, but later expanding its activities to help persecuted believers in other places, especially in the Muslim world. However, when in Namibia, and confronted with the case of Colin Winter, the Anglican Bishop of Namibia, who had supported African strikers and was eventually deported from Namibia by South Africa, Wurmbrand criticized the latter's anti-apartheid activism, and claimed resistance to communism was more important.
In 1990 Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand returned to Romania for the first time in 25 years. The Voice of the Martyrs opened a printing facility and bookstore in Bucharest. He preached about God together with pastor Ioan Panican.
The Wurmbrands had one son, Mihai. Wurmbrand wrote 18 books in English and others in Romanian. His best-known book is entitled Tortured for Christ, released in 1967. His wife, Sabina, died August 11, 2000.
Pastor Wurmbrand died on February 17, 2001 in a hospital in Long Beach, California. In 2006, he came fifth among the greatest Romanians according to a poll conducted by Romanian Television (Televiziunea Română).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews
May 11, 2020
Poate cea mai bună carte creștină citită de mine. Nu tratează dogmatică, nu dezbate subiecte controversate predicate în zilele noastre, dar prezintă o relație a unui om cu Dumnezeu și o dragoste față de El într-o manieră atât de pragmatică încât nu poți să nu îți pui întrebări legate de credința pe care o trăiești cu adevărat.
February 9, 2014
Being a Christian under Romania´s Communist regime
This man is one of the most intelligent men I have read about. An intellectual and a hero of the Christian faith. A man of integrity. Blessed with a long and beautiful life as a reward for all his pains while spreading the Good News in Romania during the long Communist dictatorship years in prisons, being tortured physically and mentally. And never giving up his faith, which was the prize the communists were hunting. It was amazing to see how many, almost all, the communists who had a chance of talking intimately with Mr Wurmbrand would eventually open up their hearts and crack. That tells a lot for the influence of evil spirits on people, people whose souls are naturally -in their origin- Christian, as Wurmbrand says.
A man well-learned, who can talk of science, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, ancient history, or almost anything without hesitation, who can give a quick and wise response to any questioner who's trying to ridicule the faith. The book is full of lessons on how to live as "sheep in the midst of wolves... therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." (Mat. 10:16) This was Mr Wurmbrand.
Reading him is learning to be wiser. There is priceless advice on how to face situations that can compromise your faith in Christ. It is not an idealistic, theological treatise, it's simple and handy advice on how to respond to the test of atheists.
Here's one pearl of his philosophy: "A real disciple does not seek gifts but Christ Himself, and so is ready for self sacrifice to the end. They were not followers of Jesus, but customers."
Since the persecutions of Christians in ancient Rome, there has been no such hellish scenario up to the Communist era in the 20th century. The book is not pessimistic though. It is a wonderful story of victory of faith against all odds. When faith in the Christian God of Israel was put to the test real bad, and boy did it come out alive!
This man is one of the most intelligent men I have read about. An intellectual and a hero of the Christian faith. A man of integrity. Blessed with a long and beautiful life as a reward for all his pains while spreading the Good News in Romania during the long Communist dictatorship years in prisons, being tortured physically and mentally. And never giving up his faith, which was the prize the communists were hunting. It was amazing to see how many, almost all, the communists who had a chance of talking intimately with Mr Wurmbrand would eventually open up their hearts and crack. That tells a lot for the influence of evil spirits on people, people whose souls are naturally -in their origin- Christian, as Wurmbrand says.
A man well-learned, who can talk of science, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, ancient history, or almost anything without hesitation, who can give a quick and wise response to any questioner who's trying to ridicule the faith. The book is full of lessons on how to live as "sheep in the midst of wolves... therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." (Mat. 10:16) This was Mr Wurmbrand.
Reading him is learning to be wiser. There is priceless advice on how to face situations that can compromise your faith in Christ. It is not an idealistic, theological treatise, it's simple and handy advice on how to respond to the test of atheists.
Here's one pearl of his philosophy: "A real disciple does not seek gifts but Christ Himself, and so is ready for self sacrifice to the end. They were not followers of Jesus, but customers."
Since the persecutions of Christians in ancient Rome, there has been no such hellish scenario up to the Communist era in the 20th century. The book is not pessimistic though. It is a wonderful story of victory of faith against all odds. When faith in the Christian God of Israel was put to the test real bad, and boy did it come out alive!
February 11, 2021
This book challenges everything you thought you knew about being a Christian. Such simple words from such an intelligent man & it all points to relationship with Christ. After years of torture, his only message is love and forgiveness. Truly heartmoving!
October 12, 2019
Initial crezusem ca aceasta carte va trata modul in care Dumnezeu a fost alaturi de Biserica crestina subterana de pe timpul comunismului. La finalul cartii am constatat ca aveam partial dreptate, fratele Richard Wurmbrand constituia mici biserici in fiecare inchisoare in care a stat, si o buna parte a timpului sau petrecut inchis a fost in locuri de sub pamant. In aceasta carte el povesteste cei 14 ani jumatate petrecuti in inchisoare, si o face intr-un asemenea mod incat realizezi ce crestinism difuz si disperat traiesti, trezind in tine dorinta de a te apropia de Dumnezeu si a te intoarce la dragostea dintai. Este o carte plina de smerenie si de adevar si de multe ori m-am surprins razand la diversele intamplari povestite in ea cu mult haz si umor (nu degeaba avem vorba "a face haz de necaz"). De asemenea contine argumente bune in favoarea crestinismului, fratele Wurmbrand dovedind o prezenta de spirit fascinanta, raspunzand cu intelepciune tuturor capcanelor intinse de comunisti.
Cu siguranta o voi reciti, a intrat in top 5 carti favorite.
Cu siguranta o voi reciti, a intrat in top 5 carti favorite.
September 25, 2024
Wow, Richard Wurmbrand. There’s a person I would have loved to meet. A couple of decades ago I did have the privilege of hearing a talk by Josef Tson, a Rumanian pastor from a later generation (whose stories were slightly less horrific), but I digress…
Persecuted by the fascists because he was Jewish and then by the Communists because he was a a Christian, Wurmbrand kept his faith and his integrity through some of the nastiest physical and psychological torture I have read about. Man’s inhumanity to man knows few bounds, and the revolutionary politics that breeds totalitarianism allows full rein to these evils. But what a testimony to the power of God and the marvels of strength in weakness. And what fascinating conversations and surprises on every page, as priests and pastors from different confessions and sects were thrown together, and then former guards and government officials were thrown into the mix as political purge followed political purge outside the walls of the prisons through the late 40s, 50s and early 60s. The shadow of the grave was ever present in these gruesome conditions, with many beaten to death or starved or shot, but also the fragrance of life and hope in Christ.
Communism is such a lovely idea in theory and such a terrible, terrible one in practice, especially to those who dare to be different and refuse to bow the knee (and then with the constant purges and paranoia it becomes as dangerous to the true believers as to anyone else).
Persecuted by the fascists because he was Jewish and then by the Communists because he was a a Christian, Wurmbrand kept his faith and his integrity through some of the nastiest physical and psychological torture I have read about. Man’s inhumanity to man knows few bounds, and the revolutionary politics that breeds totalitarianism allows full rein to these evils. But what a testimony to the power of God and the marvels of strength in weakness. And what fascinating conversations and surprises on every page, as priests and pastors from different confessions and sects were thrown together, and then former guards and government officials were thrown into the mix as political purge followed political purge outside the walls of the prisons through the late 40s, 50s and early 60s. The shadow of the grave was ever present in these gruesome conditions, with many beaten to death or starved or shot, but also the fragrance of life and hope in Christ.
Communism is such a lovely idea in theory and such a terrible, terrible one in practice, especially to those who dare to be different and refuse to bow the knee (and then with the constant purges and paranoia it becomes as dangerous to the true believers as to anyone else).
April 3, 2026
O carte care prezintă pe deplin încrederea în Dumnezeu când circumstanțele sunt nefavorabile
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June 9, 2010This book is realy challenging all you think of what it means to be a christian. As Christ promised persucution and trials, Richard Wurmbrand faced a lot of it. Also the way the Communist worked to undermine religion in Romenia, makes you realise that the enemy won't rest at attacking the church of Christ and its members. God uses simple people, and great ones like Richard, to expand His kingdom. I also can't help to draw simmilarities between communistic practises and thoughts and the political situation in SA today!
April 3, 2022
Într-adevăr o credinţă biruitoare.
Viaţa lui Wurmbrand arată că iubirea lui Hristos e mai puternică decât orice armă care a existat vreodată pe pământ.
Dumnezeu l-a folosit cu putere pe acest om ca să aducă mesajul Evangheliei chiar şi în închisorile comuniste. Fiind torturat în cele mai oribile moduri ca să renunţe la Regele inimii lui- Isus, Wurmbrand afirma cu şi mai multă îndrăzneală că Hristos e Domnul!
În închisoare, el a zis:
"Eu m-am gândit mereu că Isus, care ar fi putut veni pe pământ ca un rege, a preferat să fie condamnat ca un criminal şi S-a lăsat biciuit. O biciuire după legea romană era groaznică şi, la fiecare lovitură primită, îmi spuneam că a îndurat şi El o asemenea suferinţă, şi mă bucuram s-o împărtăşesc cu El."
A condus mulţi oameni la credinţă în cei 14 ani pe care i-a petrecut în închisorile comuniste române, suferind pentru Domnul Său.
"Dar pentru mine asta înseamnă să fii creştin. Nu e mare lucru să crezi în El. Să devii ca El este într-adevăr un lucru mare"
"Această carte, care conţine episoade din viaţa unui om şi a celor care au fost împreună cu el în închisoare. În spatele tuturor stă o Fiinţă nevăzută: Isus Cristos, Care ne-a ţinut în credinţă şi ne-a dat forţa necesară pentru a ieşi biruitori."
🙌❤
Viaţa lui Wurmbrand arată că iubirea lui Hristos e mai puternică decât orice armă care a existat vreodată pe pământ.
Dumnezeu l-a folosit cu putere pe acest om ca să aducă mesajul Evangheliei chiar şi în închisorile comuniste. Fiind torturat în cele mai oribile moduri ca să renunţe la Regele inimii lui- Isus, Wurmbrand afirma cu şi mai multă îndrăzneală că Hristos e Domnul!
În închisoare, el a zis:
"Eu m-am gândit mereu că Isus, care ar fi putut veni pe pământ ca un rege, a preferat să fie condamnat ca un criminal şi S-a lăsat biciuit. O biciuire după legea romană era groaznică şi, la fiecare lovitură primită, îmi spuneam că a îndurat şi El o asemenea suferinţă, şi mă bucuram s-o împărtăşesc cu El."
A condus mulţi oameni la credinţă în cei 14 ani pe care i-a petrecut în închisorile comuniste române, suferind pentru Domnul Său.
"Dar pentru mine asta înseamnă să fii creştin. Nu e mare lucru să crezi în El. Să devii ca El este într-adevăr un lucru mare"
"Această carte, care conţine episoade din viaţa unui om şi a celor care au fost împreună cu el în închisoare. În spatele tuturor stă o Fiinţă nevăzută: Isus Cristos, Care ne-a ţinut în credinţă şi ne-a dat forţa necesară pentru a ieşi biruitori."
🙌❤
November 12, 2020
In God's Underground is a powerful story of suffering of one man in Romania under the Communist regime. Richard Wurmbard suffered many years in prison because he refused to turn away from his Christian faith.
This is a hard book to read because the suffering was intense and painful. But it is also a story of the triumph of God's work in frail people under great oppression. There is much valuable truth in this book and it is challenging to me to read and examine my heart to see if I would stand up for Christ under this circumstances or give up to stop the pain.
This is a hard book to read because the suffering was intense and painful. But it is also a story of the triumph of God's work in frail people under great oppression. There is much valuable truth in this book and it is challenging to me to read and examine my heart to see if I would stand up for Christ under this circumstances or give up to stop the pain.
May 5, 2021
Mărturia cutremurătoare a lui Richard Wumbrand despre suferințele îndurate în închisorile comuniste din România pentru credința lui în Isus Hristos. Când mă gândesc la suferințele îndurate de acest om, mi se face rușine că noi astăzi nu prețuim libertatea de care avem parte și nu vestim Vestea Bună a mântuirii așa cum ar trebui să o facem.
Această carte m-a convins încă odată că fără Dumnezeu omul este nespus de rău, fiind în stare să facă lucruri groaznice.
Această carte m-a convins încă odată că fără Dumnezeu omul este nespus de rău, fiind în stare să facă lucruri groaznice.
September 24, 2020
Oh boy... I'm a grown-up man and I cried like one...
Such a powerful testimony,
So many lessons,
So much pain,
So much faith.
A big man,
A beautiful soul.
Richard Wurmbrand looks a lot like his Lord - Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Praise God for this kind of people!
Amazing!
Inspiring!
Such a powerful testimony,
So many lessons,
So much pain,
So much faith.
A big man,
A beautiful soul.
Richard Wurmbrand looks a lot like his Lord - Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Praise God for this kind of people!
Amazing!
Inspiring!
July 19, 2022
Wow
This is a story that shreds your heart. We are lucky here in the US... We have never been pressed to deny our faith. But it means that we don't know how we would respond. I pray that I would be faithful as Richard and Sabrina Wumbrand were.
This is a story that shreds your heart. We are lucky here in the US... We have never been pressed to deny our faith. But it means that we don't know how we would respond. I pray that I would be faithful as Richard and Sabrina Wumbrand were.
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February 14, 2025pag 106
March 29, 2026
Citită mai de mult, dar e 5/5. Goosebumps când citești.
April 23, 2026
Raw. Gut-wrenching. Yet unbelievably inspiring and encouraging.
I love that it is clear that Mr. Wurmbrand did not alter stories or downplay certain unpleasantries. He does not tell his story in ways to make himself look better. He honestly depicts horrors, doubts, temptations, and struggles, simply sharing the truth without regard for “saving face” or “cleaning up” certain theological truths.
This book was incredible. I highly recommend it!
For my own future notes:
Page 3 - “I gave him no assurances. They had the dollars and that must be enough. Christian organizations in the West had paid £2,500 in ransom money for me.
Selling citizens brings in foreign currency and helps the Popular Republic's budget. A Rumanian joke says,
"We'd sell the Prime Minister if anyone would buy him." Jews are sold to Israel at £1,000 a head, members of the German minority to West Germany, Armenians to America. Scientists, doctors and professors cost about €5,000 apiece.
Next I was summoned openly to police headquarters. An officer told me: "Your passport is ready.
You can go when you like, and where you like, and preach as much as you wish. But don't speak against us. Keep to the Gospel. Otherwise you will be si-lenced, for good. We can hire a gangster who'll do it for $1,000—or we can bring you back, as we've done with other traitors. We can destroy your reputation in the West by contriving a scandal over money or sex." He said I could go. That was my unconditional release.
I came to the West. Doctors examined me, and one said: "You're as full of holes as a sieve." He could not believe that my bones had mended and my tuberculosis healed without medical aid. "Don't ask me about treatment," he said. "Ask the One who kept you alive, and in Whom I don't believe."
Page 4 - “In churches and universities all over Europe and America I found that people—although they were deeply moved, often, by what I said—did not believe that a danger really threatened them. "Communism here would be different,” they said. “Our communists
are few, and harmless.” We thought the same in Rumania, once, when the Party was small. The world is full of small Communist parties, waiting. When a tiger is young you may play with it: when it grows up, it will devour you.”
Page 15 - “Then I raised my voice. "But you. What have
you done with your hands?
The congregation looked amazed. They were
holding prayer books.
I thundered, "You are killing and beating and torturing innocent people! Do you call yourself Christians? Clean your hands, you sinners!"
The Iron Guard men looked furious. Yet they did not care to break up the service. They stood with guns drawn while I said a prayer and the benediction, and the audience began to leave. When nearly all had safely gone, I came down from the pulpit and stepped behind a curtain. I heard running footsteps and shouts of "Where's Wurmbrand? After him!" before I passed through a small door, turning the key behind me: this secret exit had been built many years before. Along corridors I found my way to a side street, and so escaped.”
Page 41 - “Under his supervision, I was made to stand facing a wall with my hands raised above my head so that my finger tips just touched it. "Just keep him there," Brinzaru told the guard before leaving.
At last, the torture began. I do not want to make much of it, but it must be told because these things were common to all Secret Police prisons. First I stood for hours, long after my arms had lost all feeling, and my legs began to tremble and then swell.
When I collapsed on the floor, I was given a crust and a sip of water and made to stand again. One guard relieved another. Some of them would force you to adopt ridiculous or obscene postures, and this went on, with short breaks, for days and nights.”
Page 45 - “Perhaps waiting was the worst torture: to lie there, listening to screams and weeping, knowing thạt in an hour it would be my turn. But God helped me never to say a word which harmed another. I lost consciousness easily, and they wanted me alive. Every prisoner could be a source of further information, of use in some later twist of Party fortunes, no matter how long he was kept. A doctor was present at torture sessions to take the pulse and check that the victim was not about to escape into the next world while the Secret Police still had need of him. It was an image of Hell, in which torment is eternal and you cannot die.”
Page 45 - “The mockery and humiliation were also more than many could support. Jesus often said that he would be scourged, mocked and crucified. I used to think that mockery, compared with scourging and crucifixion, was nothing. That was before I knew that a man could be forced to open his mouth so that others could spit or urinate in it, while our masters laughed and jeered.”
Page 66 - “the Devil…I saw him once, as a child. He grinned at me. This is the first time I have spoken of it in half a century. Alone in the cell, now, I felt his presence again. It was dark and cold, and he was mocking, me…I heard his voice day and night, "Where's Jesus? Your Savior can't save you! You've been tricked, and you've tricked others.
He isn't the Messiah—you followed the wrong man!"
I cried aloud, “Then who is the true Messiah
who will come?" The answer was plain, but too blasphemous to repeat. I had written books and articles proving Christ was the Messiah, but now I could not think of one argument. The devils who made Nyils Hauge, the great Norwegian evangelist, waver in his faith while in jail, who made even John the Baptist doubt in his dungeon, raged against me. I was weaponless. My joy and serenity were gone. I had felt Christ so close to me before, easing my bitterness, lightening the darkness, but now I cried, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" and I felt utterly forsaken.”
Page 76 - “Not one died an atheist. Fascists, Communists, saints, murderers, thieves, priests, rich landowners and the poorest peasants were shut together in one small cell. Yet none of them died without making his peace with God and man.”
Page 84 - Aristar the farmer said, "The first Communists were Adam and Eve." “Why?" asked the obliging Popp.
"Because they had no clothes, no house, they had to share the same apple-and still thought they were in paradise."
Page 92 - “Crude violence was punctuated by sessions of more refined cruelty, under medical supervision to ensure that prisoners did not die. Doctors were often PCs themselves. I knew a Dr. Turcu who, after examining a cellmate, would advise a pause, give the man an injection to increase his resistance and tell the re-educators when to start again. It was Tureu who decided when the man had reached his limit and might be thrown back into his cell until next day.
A way of madness swept the prison. Tuberculosis patients were stripped, laid on the stone floors and
drenched with buckets of freezing water. Pigs swill was thrown on the ground before men who had been starved for days; with hands tied behind their backs they were forced to lick it up. No humiliation, however vile, was spared. In many prisons men were made by the PCC bullies to swallow excrement and drink urine. some wept and begged at least to be given their own, not that of others. Some went crazy and began to scream for more. Convicts were also not hough that such mockeries of boly and soul were possible.”
Pages 92-93 - “Those who clung to their faith were the worst treated. Christians were tied for four days to crosses, and daily the crosses were placed on the floor. Then the other prisoners were ordered to defecate on their faces and bodies. After this, the crosses were put up again.
A Catholic priest brought into Room Four told us that in Piteshi jail, on a Sunday, he had been pushed into the latrine cesspit and ordered to say Mass over excrement and give men Communion.”
Page 101 - The professor told me that there had been many suicides at Jilava. It was the same in other prisons. At Gherla and Piteshi men threw themselves down from the upper floors until the spaces between the landings were covered with wire to stop them. Some cut their wrists with glass, some hanged themselves, some died after drinking cleaning fluid. One poor old Orthodox father had thrown himself down from a top bunk to the floor, cracking his skull. He had done this several times before he succeeded in killing himself.
"He'd been tortured," the professor said. "He was afraid that if the re-educators started on him again he would break down and betray his faith.”
Page 116 - “My wife came under the orders of a notorious figure, Colonel Albon, the Poarta Alba chief. She ate grass like an animal: rats, snakes, dogs, everything was eaten. Some of those who had eaten dog said it was good. I asked them, "Would you eat it again?" "Oh, no!" they said. Sabina was tiny and fragile, so a favorite joke of the guards was to throw her into the freezing Danube and fish her out again.”
Page 118 - “Lazar Stancu, a clever linguist whose crime had been to work for a foreign news agency, broke in to say, "Not more about Christianity, pleasel There are other interesting religions."
"Well," I said. "I know something about Confucius and Buddhism." And I told one of the lesser-known New Testament parables.
"Fascinating!" Stancu exclaimed, and praised
its beautiful and original thought.
"Im glad you think that," I said, and explained that it was really Christ's teaching.”
Page 126 - “I said, "You had a namesake four thousand years ago, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, and suffered many other injustices in Egypt. Then he rose to be Prime Minister and so he was able to save the land, and his own ungrateful brothers, from starving in a famine. So until, like Joseph, you reach the end of the story, you can never know if what has happened so far will prove good or bad.”
Page 134 - “This other pastor was really Christ-like. You felt that just the touch of his hand could heal and calm. One day he talked to a small group of prisoners and one asked him the question you have asked me: What is Jesus like? I’ve never met anyone like the man you describe, so good and loving and truthful. And the pastor replied, in a moment of great courage, simply and humbly, “Jesus is like me”. And the man who had often revived kindness from the pastor, answered, smiling, “If Christ was like you, then I love Him?@l The times when one may say such a thing as that, Josif, are very rare.
But to me that is what it means to be Christian. To believe in Him is not such a great thing. To become like Him is truly great."
"Pastor, if Jesus is like you, then I love Him, too," Josif said. There was innocence and peace in his gaze.”
Page 142 - “…a handful of Christian prisoners tried to find out by asking for a truthful answer to a simple question: "Have you always obeyed the basic rule of the Christian church in remaining chaste in word, thought and deed before marriage, and faithful thereafter?"
Of 300 prisoners, all nominal Christians, two men answered yes. One was saintly old Father Suroianu, and the other a boy of fifteen.”
Page 165 - “I hate atheism as a creed, but I love atheists, just as I hate blindness, but love the blind.
Since atheism is a form of spiritual blindness, it must be fought."
Page 179 - “He was a young radio engineer who had sent information to the West for a patriotic group, and he mentioned that he had been brought to Christ through his knowledge of Morse.
"It happened five or six years ago. I was interrogated in the cells of the Ministry of Interior and, while I was there, an unknown pastor next door tapped Bible verses to me through the wall."
When he told me the position of his cell, I said,
"I was that pastor."
Page 202-203 - “Rugojanu called church leaders to a meeting at the bishop's palace in Cluj, where I was denounced for trying to poison youth with concealed attacks on the government. "You may be sure that he will never preach again," shouted Rugojanu, working himself into an ugly rage. At the end he cried, "Wurmbrand is finished, Wurmbrand is finished, Wurmbrand is finished!" He gathered up coat and hat and walked out of the building.
A hundred yards from the door a car, swerving to avoid a dog, mounted the pavement and crushed him against the wall. He died on the spot.”
Page 204 - “I prayed, "God, if You know men in prison whom I can help, souls that I can save, send me back and I will bear it willingly." Sabina sometimes hesitated, then said, "Amen." There was at this time an inner
joy about her, which came from knowing that we would serve Christ more fully soon. Once more, I wondered if our image of the Mother of the Lord, standing grief-stricken by the Cross, is not mistaken; was she not also filled with joy that her son would be savior of the world?…
When they had taken me away, Sabina picked up my Bible. She found, on a scrap of paper, a sentence I had noted down from the Epistle to the Hebrews which said "through faith... women received back their dead raised to life." I had written below it, “I have such a woman for my wife.”
Page 221 - “Florescu, who had drawn up a stool, said-with an obscenity, “I believe in what I can see, taste and
feel. We’re all matter, like this bit of wood I'm sitting on, and when you're dead, that's it."
I went over and kicked the stool from under him.
It shot across the floor, and Florescu went down with a bump. He scrambled up furiously and made for me, but the others held him. "What's the idea?" he snarled.
I replied mildly, "But you said you were matter
like the stool. I didn't hear the stool complain!"
Page 231 - The story of Richard’s wife, Sabina, meeting and forgiving the man who killed her family. Incredible.
Page 235 - “When the clergy had departed, a guard asked me what I was. "A pastor," I replied in a country accent. So I was placed in a cell with shepherds and farm hands. "Pastor" is the usual word for a shepherd in Rumanian.”
Page 264 - “The commandant was on his feet. "Tell that nonsense to Gargarin. He's been up in space, but he saw no sign of God!"
He laughed. The prisoners laughed with him.
I replied in a matter-of-fact way, "If an ant walked around the sole of my shoe, it could say it saw no sign of Wurmbrand."
Page 271 - “And in time I came to believe what they had told us for all those months. Christianity was dead.
The Bible foretells a time of great apostasy, and I believed that it had arrived.
Then I thought of Mary Magdalene, and perhaps this thought, more than any other, helped to save me from the soul-killing poison of the last and worst stage of brainwashing. I remembered how she was faithful to Christ even when He cried on the Cross, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" And when He was a corpse in the tomb, she wept nearby and waited until He arose. So when I believed at last that Christianity was dead, I said, "Even so, I will believe in it, and I will weep at its tomb until it arises again, as it surely will."
Page 275 - “I made a telephone call to a neighbor of ours in Bucharest. The voice that answered was Sabina's!
"It's Richard," I said. "I thought you were in
prison!" There was a confused noise. Mihai came on the line. "Mother's fainted-hold on!" There were more strange sounds. Then he said, "She's all right. We thought you were dead!"
Mihai had never been in prison. The false news I had been given was a last turn of the screw to test my reactions to brainwashing.”
I love that it is clear that Mr. Wurmbrand did not alter stories or downplay certain unpleasantries. He does not tell his story in ways to make himself look better. He honestly depicts horrors, doubts, temptations, and struggles, simply sharing the truth without regard for “saving face” or “cleaning up” certain theological truths.
This book was incredible. I highly recommend it!
For my own future notes:
Page 3 - “I gave him no assurances. They had the dollars and that must be enough. Christian organizations in the West had paid £2,500 in ransom money for me.
Selling citizens brings in foreign currency and helps the Popular Republic's budget. A Rumanian joke says,
"We'd sell the Prime Minister if anyone would buy him." Jews are sold to Israel at £1,000 a head, members of the German minority to West Germany, Armenians to America. Scientists, doctors and professors cost about €5,000 apiece.
Next I was summoned openly to police headquarters. An officer told me: "Your passport is ready.
You can go when you like, and where you like, and preach as much as you wish. But don't speak against us. Keep to the Gospel. Otherwise you will be si-lenced, for good. We can hire a gangster who'll do it for $1,000—or we can bring you back, as we've done with other traitors. We can destroy your reputation in the West by contriving a scandal over money or sex." He said I could go. That was my unconditional release.
I came to the West. Doctors examined me, and one said: "You're as full of holes as a sieve." He could not believe that my bones had mended and my tuberculosis healed without medical aid. "Don't ask me about treatment," he said. "Ask the One who kept you alive, and in Whom I don't believe."
Page 4 - “In churches and universities all over Europe and America I found that people—although they were deeply moved, often, by what I said—did not believe that a danger really threatened them. "Communism here would be different,” they said. “Our communists
are few, and harmless.” We thought the same in Rumania, once, when the Party was small. The world is full of small Communist parties, waiting. When a tiger is young you may play with it: when it grows up, it will devour you.”
Page 15 - “Then I raised my voice. "But you. What have
you done with your hands?
The congregation looked amazed. They were
holding prayer books.
I thundered, "You are killing and beating and torturing innocent people! Do you call yourself Christians? Clean your hands, you sinners!"
The Iron Guard men looked furious. Yet they did not care to break up the service. They stood with guns drawn while I said a prayer and the benediction, and the audience began to leave. When nearly all had safely gone, I came down from the pulpit and stepped behind a curtain. I heard running footsteps and shouts of "Where's Wurmbrand? After him!" before I passed through a small door, turning the key behind me: this secret exit had been built many years before. Along corridors I found my way to a side street, and so escaped.”
Page 41 - “Under his supervision, I was made to stand facing a wall with my hands raised above my head so that my finger tips just touched it. "Just keep him there," Brinzaru told the guard before leaving.
At last, the torture began. I do not want to make much of it, but it must be told because these things were common to all Secret Police prisons. First I stood for hours, long after my arms had lost all feeling, and my legs began to tremble and then swell.
When I collapsed on the floor, I was given a crust and a sip of water and made to stand again. One guard relieved another. Some of them would force you to adopt ridiculous or obscene postures, and this went on, with short breaks, for days and nights.”
Page 45 - “Perhaps waiting was the worst torture: to lie there, listening to screams and weeping, knowing thạt in an hour it would be my turn. But God helped me never to say a word which harmed another. I lost consciousness easily, and they wanted me alive. Every prisoner could be a source of further information, of use in some later twist of Party fortunes, no matter how long he was kept. A doctor was present at torture sessions to take the pulse and check that the victim was not about to escape into the next world while the Secret Police still had need of him. It was an image of Hell, in which torment is eternal and you cannot die.”
Page 45 - “The mockery and humiliation were also more than many could support. Jesus often said that he would be scourged, mocked and crucified. I used to think that mockery, compared with scourging and crucifixion, was nothing. That was before I knew that a man could be forced to open his mouth so that others could spit or urinate in it, while our masters laughed and jeered.”
Page 66 - “the Devil…I saw him once, as a child. He grinned at me. This is the first time I have spoken of it in half a century. Alone in the cell, now, I felt his presence again. It was dark and cold, and he was mocking, me…I heard his voice day and night, "Where's Jesus? Your Savior can't save you! You've been tricked, and you've tricked others.
He isn't the Messiah—you followed the wrong man!"
I cried aloud, “Then who is the true Messiah
who will come?" The answer was plain, but too blasphemous to repeat. I had written books and articles proving Christ was the Messiah, but now I could not think of one argument. The devils who made Nyils Hauge, the great Norwegian evangelist, waver in his faith while in jail, who made even John the Baptist doubt in his dungeon, raged against me. I was weaponless. My joy and serenity were gone. I had felt Christ so close to me before, easing my bitterness, lightening the darkness, but now I cried, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" and I felt utterly forsaken.”
Page 76 - “Not one died an atheist. Fascists, Communists, saints, murderers, thieves, priests, rich landowners and the poorest peasants were shut together in one small cell. Yet none of them died without making his peace with God and man.”
Page 84 - Aristar the farmer said, "The first Communists were Adam and Eve." “Why?" asked the obliging Popp.
"Because they had no clothes, no house, they had to share the same apple-and still thought they were in paradise."
Page 92 - “Crude violence was punctuated by sessions of more refined cruelty, under medical supervision to ensure that prisoners did not die. Doctors were often PCs themselves. I knew a Dr. Turcu who, after examining a cellmate, would advise a pause, give the man an injection to increase his resistance and tell the re-educators when to start again. It was Tureu who decided when the man had reached his limit and might be thrown back into his cell until next day.
A way of madness swept the prison. Tuberculosis patients were stripped, laid on the stone floors and
drenched with buckets of freezing water. Pigs swill was thrown on the ground before men who had been starved for days; with hands tied behind their backs they were forced to lick it up. No humiliation, however vile, was spared. In many prisons men were made by the PCC bullies to swallow excrement and drink urine. some wept and begged at least to be given their own, not that of others. Some went crazy and began to scream for more. Convicts were also not hough that such mockeries of boly and soul were possible.”
Pages 92-93 - “Those who clung to their faith were the worst treated. Christians were tied for four days to crosses, and daily the crosses were placed on the floor. Then the other prisoners were ordered to defecate on their faces and bodies. After this, the crosses were put up again.
A Catholic priest brought into Room Four told us that in Piteshi jail, on a Sunday, he had been pushed into the latrine cesspit and ordered to say Mass over excrement and give men Communion.”
Page 101 - The professor told me that there had been many suicides at Jilava. It was the same in other prisons. At Gherla and Piteshi men threw themselves down from the upper floors until the spaces between the landings were covered with wire to stop them. Some cut their wrists with glass, some hanged themselves, some died after drinking cleaning fluid. One poor old Orthodox father had thrown himself down from a top bunk to the floor, cracking his skull. He had done this several times before he succeeded in killing himself.
"He'd been tortured," the professor said. "He was afraid that if the re-educators started on him again he would break down and betray his faith.”
Page 116 - “My wife came under the orders of a notorious figure, Colonel Albon, the Poarta Alba chief. She ate grass like an animal: rats, snakes, dogs, everything was eaten. Some of those who had eaten dog said it was good. I asked them, "Would you eat it again?" "Oh, no!" they said. Sabina was tiny and fragile, so a favorite joke of the guards was to throw her into the freezing Danube and fish her out again.”
Page 118 - “Lazar Stancu, a clever linguist whose crime had been to work for a foreign news agency, broke in to say, "Not more about Christianity, pleasel There are other interesting religions."
"Well," I said. "I know something about Confucius and Buddhism." And I told one of the lesser-known New Testament parables.
"Fascinating!" Stancu exclaimed, and praised
its beautiful and original thought.
"Im glad you think that," I said, and explained that it was really Christ's teaching.”
Page 126 - “I said, "You had a namesake four thousand years ago, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, and suffered many other injustices in Egypt. Then he rose to be Prime Minister and so he was able to save the land, and his own ungrateful brothers, from starving in a famine. So until, like Joseph, you reach the end of the story, you can never know if what has happened so far will prove good or bad.”
Page 134 - “This other pastor was really Christ-like. You felt that just the touch of his hand could heal and calm. One day he talked to a small group of prisoners and one asked him the question you have asked me: What is Jesus like? I’ve never met anyone like the man you describe, so good and loving and truthful. And the pastor replied, in a moment of great courage, simply and humbly, “Jesus is like me”. And the man who had often revived kindness from the pastor, answered, smiling, “If Christ was like you, then I love Him?@l The times when one may say such a thing as that, Josif, are very rare.
But to me that is what it means to be Christian. To believe in Him is not such a great thing. To become like Him is truly great."
"Pastor, if Jesus is like you, then I love Him, too," Josif said. There was innocence and peace in his gaze.”
Page 142 - “…a handful of Christian prisoners tried to find out by asking for a truthful answer to a simple question: "Have you always obeyed the basic rule of the Christian church in remaining chaste in word, thought and deed before marriage, and faithful thereafter?"
Of 300 prisoners, all nominal Christians, two men answered yes. One was saintly old Father Suroianu, and the other a boy of fifteen.”
Page 165 - “I hate atheism as a creed, but I love atheists, just as I hate blindness, but love the blind.
Since atheism is a form of spiritual blindness, it must be fought."
Page 179 - “He was a young radio engineer who had sent information to the West for a patriotic group, and he mentioned that he had been brought to Christ through his knowledge of Morse.
"It happened five or six years ago. I was interrogated in the cells of the Ministry of Interior and, while I was there, an unknown pastor next door tapped Bible verses to me through the wall."
When he told me the position of his cell, I said,
"I was that pastor."
Page 202-203 - “Rugojanu called church leaders to a meeting at the bishop's palace in Cluj, where I was denounced for trying to poison youth with concealed attacks on the government. "You may be sure that he will never preach again," shouted Rugojanu, working himself into an ugly rage. At the end he cried, "Wurmbrand is finished, Wurmbrand is finished, Wurmbrand is finished!" He gathered up coat and hat and walked out of the building.
A hundred yards from the door a car, swerving to avoid a dog, mounted the pavement and crushed him against the wall. He died on the spot.”
Page 204 - “I prayed, "God, if You know men in prison whom I can help, souls that I can save, send me back and I will bear it willingly." Sabina sometimes hesitated, then said, "Amen." There was at this time an inner
joy about her, which came from knowing that we would serve Christ more fully soon. Once more, I wondered if our image of the Mother of the Lord, standing grief-stricken by the Cross, is not mistaken; was she not also filled with joy that her son would be savior of the world?…
When they had taken me away, Sabina picked up my Bible. She found, on a scrap of paper, a sentence I had noted down from the Epistle to the Hebrews which said "through faith... women received back their dead raised to life." I had written below it, “I have such a woman for my wife.”
Page 221 - “Florescu, who had drawn up a stool, said-with an obscenity, “I believe in what I can see, taste and
feel. We’re all matter, like this bit of wood I'm sitting on, and when you're dead, that's it."
I went over and kicked the stool from under him.
It shot across the floor, and Florescu went down with a bump. He scrambled up furiously and made for me, but the others held him. "What's the idea?" he snarled.
I replied mildly, "But you said you were matter
like the stool. I didn't hear the stool complain!"
Page 231 - The story of Richard’s wife, Sabina, meeting and forgiving the man who killed her family. Incredible.
Page 235 - “When the clergy had departed, a guard asked me what I was. "A pastor," I replied in a country accent. So I was placed in a cell with shepherds and farm hands. "Pastor" is the usual word for a shepherd in Rumanian.”
Page 264 - “The commandant was on his feet. "Tell that nonsense to Gargarin. He's been up in space, but he saw no sign of God!"
He laughed. The prisoners laughed with him.
I replied in a matter-of-fact way, "If an ant walked around the sole of my shoe, it could say it saw no sign of Wurmbrand."
Page 271 - “And in time I came to believe what they had told us for all those months. Christianity was dead.
The Bible foretells a time of great apostasy, and I believed that it had arrived.
Then I thought of Mary Magdalene, and perhaps this thought, more than any other, helped to save me from the soul-killing poison of the last and worst stage of brainwashing. I remembered how she was faithful to Christ even when He cried on the Cross, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" And when He was a corpse in the tomb, she wept nearby and waited until He arose. So when I believed at last that Christianity was dead, I said, "Even so, I will believe in it, and I will weep at its tomb until it arises again, as it surely will."
Page 275 - “I made a telephone call to a neighbor of ours in Bucharest. The voice that answered was Sabina's!
"It's Richard," I said. "I thought you were in
prison!" There was a confused noise. Mihai came on the line. "Mother's fainted-hold on!" There were more strange sounds. Then he said, "She's all right. We thought you were dead!"
Mihai had never been in prison. The false news I had been given was a last turn of the screw to test my reactions to brainwashing.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
January 11, 2020I haven't read Wurmbrand's Tortured For Christ, so I'm not sure the difference.
This book is an autobiographical account of Wurmbrand's life from just before he was arrested for his faith to after he got released fourteen years later. The book is basically a chronological account of anecdotes filled in between with descriptions of the political an prison climates.
Wurmbrand stood up for his faith over and over again against heinous tortures and beating by different communist regimes that kept him imprisoned for his faith. When he had a chance to speak he would quote his attackers own literature in argument against them. He led people to Christ through tapping on prison walls with a cup (and learned Morse from a radio operator in another cell by tapping cups!). Though he struggled immensely in prison yet was able to depict the kind of person Christians would want to be under such circumstances; standing by the faith, leading people to Christ, loving enemies, and having intellectual discussions with those at hand.
May 22, 2019
4 stars [Memoir]
A prison memoir on par with Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago.
Writing: 3.75.
Slightly less rousing than Tortured for Christ, but better written.
Use: 4.
Truth: 4.
It would be 5, except Wurmbrand suffers from the same confused ethics that Corrie Ten Boom did, and he makes a case for it much more throughout this book than he merely mentioned in his previous. We of course cannot blame ten Boom or Wurmbrand for their reactions to inhuman tortures; it is their survival from these and cleaving to those flawed decisions and ideas in book-form that can be blamed.
Despite this demerit, the rest of the book is an amazing memoir of the horrors of atheistic communism, its psychological brainwashing and tortures, and the history of Communism in general in 1950s Romania. Wurmbrand demonstrates in most cases exactly what a believer in Christ does in the most awful conditions.
A prison memoir on par with Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago.
Writing: 3.75.
Slightly less rousing than Tortured for Christ, but better written.
Use: 4.
Truth: 4.
It would be 5, except Wurmbrand suffers from the same confused ethics that Corrie Ten Boom did, and he makes a case for it much more throughout this book than he merely mentioned in his previous. We of course cannot blame ten Boom or Wurmbrand for their reactions to inhuman tortures; it is their survival from these and cleaving to those flawed decisions and ideas in book-form that can be blamed.
Despite this demerit, the rest of the book is an amazing memoir of the horrors of atheistic communism, its psychological brainwashing and tortures, and the history of Communism in general in 1950s Romania. Wurmbrand demonstrates in most cases exactly what a believer in Christ does in the most awful conditions.
April 29, 2023
I recently read Dracula, now after reading In God's Underground by Richard Wurmbrand I am sure I would rather be in Dracula's castle than Wurmbrand's prison. The book is about the time Wurmbrand spent in prison and was tortured by the then-Communist regime of Romania. He was a Romanian Evangelical Lutheran priest, and professor of Jewish descent. In 1948, having become a Christian ten years before, he publicly said Communism and Christianity were incompatible. Wurmbrand preached at bomb shelters and rescued Jews during World War II. As a result, he spent a lot of time in prison. In very horrible prisons. Wurmbrand was ordained twice—first as an Anglican, then, after World War II, as a Lutheran priest. I am a Lutheran, I have never heard them called priests before. In 1944, when the Soviet Union occupied Romania as the first step to establishing a communist regime, Wurmbrand began a ministry to his Romanian countrymen and to Red Army soldiers; the Socialist Republic of Romania had a doctrine of state atheism. When the government attempted to control churches, he immediately began an "underground" ministry to his people. Wurmbrand was a professor in the only Lutheran seminary in his country. Wurmbrand is remembered for his courage in standing up in a gathering of church leaders and denouncing government control of the churches. He was arrested on February 29, 1948, while on his way to a Divine Service.
Wurmbrand was passed from one prison to another, I can't remember why or the names, each one was terrible in it's own way. He spent three years in solitary confinement. It was a cell twelve feet underground, there were no lights or windows, and there was no sound because the guards wore felt on the soles of their shoes. Three years of no sight or sound, it is hard to imagine thankfully. I would have gone insane, he didn't. He worked out a routine he followed for his years in solitude. He would begin with a prayer, often of thankfulness, then he would preach a sermon as if he was in church beginning with "Beloved brethren". He no longer cared what the bishop would think, so he preached the complete truth. I'm still thinking about that. He talked to his wife and son as if he was with them. He would spend an hour each day trying to put himself in the minds of his adversaries and try to understand them. He would think of some past joy. And alone in his cell each night he would dance for joy. Oh, and he and other prisoners found a way to tap messages to each other. Here are some other things he went through:
Brinzaru had a nylon whip. After a few strokes with this, I lost consciousness. Water was poured down a funnel into my throat, until my stomach was bursting; then the guards kicked and stepped on me. I was also branded with a red-hot iron.
The mockery and humiliation were also more than many could support. Jesus often said that he would be scourged, mocked and crucified. I used to think that mockery, compared with scourging and crucifixion, was nothing. That was before I knew that a man could be forced to open his mouth so that others could spit or urinate in it, while our masters laughed and jeered.
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, claiming there were not words to describe that pain.
Sometimes they find themselves in the prison hospitals. Yes, they have such things, there just aren't any drugs or doctors to go with them. In one they had this conversation:
Since I had no strength to wash myself, Professor Popp took on the task. I asked whether there were showers in his part of the prison.
"Yes!" he said. "In the People's Republic of Rumania we have the most modern equipment. Only it doesn't work. The showers have been dry for years." He straightened his back and went on:
"Have you heard of the Communist and the Capitalist who died and met in Hell! They found two gates. One was labeled "Capitalist Hell" and the other "Communist Hell". Although the men were class enemies they put their heads together to decide which would be better. The Communist said, "Comrade, let's go into the Communist department. There, when there's coal, there'll be no matches. When there are matches, there'll be no coal. And even when they have both coat and matches, the furnace will break down!"
The professor continued to wash me while the others laughed. Aristar the farmer said, "The first Communists were Adam and Eve."
"Why?" asked the obliging Popp.
"Because they had no clothes, no house, and they had to share the same apple - and still thought they were in paradise."
Then there was the re-education system. They were stripped, laid on stone floors and drenched with buckets of freezing water. Pig's swill was thrown on the ground before men who had been starved for days and with hands tied behind their backs they had to lick it up. They were made to swallow excrement and drink urine. Some were made to perform sexual perversions publicly. I don't know what that means and I don't want to. And through it all Wurmbrand keeps his faith in Jesus strong. In an early chapter he says this:
My life as a pastor, util this time, had been full of satisfaction. I had all I needed for my family. I had the trust and love of my parishioners. But I was not at peace. Why was I allowed to live as usual, while a cruel dictatorship was destroying everything which was dear to me, and while others were suffering for their faith? On many nights Sabina and I prayed together, asking God to let us bear a cross.
That was quite the cross, I wonder if that was what he had in mind. Happy reading.
Wurmbrand was passed from one prison to another, I can't remember why or the names, each one was terrible in it's own way. He spent three years in solitary confinement. It was a cell twelve feet underground, there were no lights or windows, and there was no sound because the guards wore felt on the soles of their shoes. Three years of no sight or sound, it is hard to imagine thankfully. I would have gone insane, he didn't. He worked out a routine he followed for his years in solitude. He would begin with a prayer, often of thankfulness, then he would preach a sermon as if he was in church beginning with "Beloved brethren". He no longer cared what the bishop would think, so he preached the complete truth. I'm still thinking about that. He talked to his wife and son as if he was with them. He would spend an hour each day trying to put himself in the minds of his adversaries and try to understand them. He would think of some past joy. And alone in his cell each night he would dance for joy. Oh, and he and other prisoners found a way to tap messages to each other. Here are some other things he went through:
Brinzaru had a nylon whip. After a few strokes with this, I lost consciousness. Water was poured down a funnel into my throat, until my stomach was bursting; then the guards kicked and stepped on me. I was also branded with a red-hot iron.
The mockery and humiliation were also more than many could support. Jesus often said that he would be scourged, mocked and crucified. I used to think that mockery, compared with scourging and crucifixion, was nothing. That was before I knew that a man could be forced to open his mouth so that others could spit or urinate in it, while our masters laughed and jeered.
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, claiming there were not words to describe that pain.
Sometimes they find themselves in the prison hospitals. Yes, they have such things, there just aren't any drugs or doctors to go with them. In one they had this conversation:
Since I had no strength to wash myself, Professor Popp took on the task. I asked whether there were showers in his part of the prison.
"Yes!" he said. "In the People's Republic of Rumania we have the most modern equipment. Only it doesn't work. The showers have been dry for years." He straightened his back and went on:
"Have you heard of the Communist and the Capitalist who died and met in Hell! They found two gates. One was labeled "Capitalist Hell" and the other "Communist Hell". Although the men were class enemies they put their heads together to decide which would be better. The Communist said, "Comrade, let's go into the Communist department. There, when there's coal, there'll be no matches. When there are matches, there'll be no coal. And even when they have both coat and matches, the furnace will break down!"
The professor continued to wash me while the others laughed. Aristar the farmer said, "The first Communists were Adam and Eve."
"Why?" asked the obliging Popp.
"Because they had no clothes, no house, and they had to share the same apple - and still thought they were in paradise."
Then there was the re-education system. They were stripped, laid on stone floors and drenched with buckets of freezing water. Pig's swill was thrown on the ground before men who had been starved for days and with hands tied behind their backs they had to lick it up. They were made to swallow excrement and drink urine. Some were made to perform sexual perversions publicly. I don't know what that means and I don't want to. And through it all Wurmbrand keeps his faith in Jesus strong. In an early chapter he says this:
My life as a pastor, util this time, had been full of satisfaction. I had all I needed for my family. I had the trust and love of my parishioners. But I was not at peace. Why was I allowed to live as usual, while a cruel dictatorship was destroying everything which was dear to me, and while others were suffering for their faith? On many nights Sabina and I prayed together, asking God to let us bear a cross.
That was quite the cross, I wonder if that was what he had in mind. Happy reading.
March 12, 2019
"In God's Underground" is essential reading for every Christian. At the heart of this book, beyond the horrific descriptions of torture, beyond the many Communist governments and upheavals, lies the idea of Christian love. It is difficult for Christians, or for anyone, to understand what Jesus meant when he said to "love your enemies," but Wurmbrand makes it clear in this autobiographical book documenting his 14 years of imprisonment in Communist Romania. This book is instructive for Christians, as well as eye-opening and thought-provoking for unbelievers. I highly recommend to... well, to everyone who comes across it.
August 23, 2013
This is so moving. Wurmbrand was a prisoner in communist Romania. His faith and trust in God are incredible.
May 23, 2020
Impresionant!
November 13, 2025
Înainte să mă apuc să citesc această carte, am crezut că-i o carte în care se
vorbește doar despre religie/credință, dar m-am înșelat amarnic.
Nu mă așteptam ca această carte să aibă un impact asupra mea fiindcă mi-a deschis
ochii într-o anumită privință. Ultimele cărți pe care le-am citit, înainte de cea a lui
Richard, au fost despre Auschwitz și cu durere în suflet spun că nu mă așteptam ca și
noi, românii să fim așa cruzi și inumani cu conaționalii noștri.
Am citit chinurile prin care a trecut Richard în închisorile din România și pot spune c-am
rămas șocat de cruditatea oamenilor, credeam că doar pe vremea Holocaustului a
existat așa ceva.
Prin câte momente grele și oribile a trecut, un singur lucru este cert, nu s-a
lepădat de credința sa și de Ieshua, indiferent de cruzimea la care a fost supus, indiferent
de câte bătăi a luat, câte durerei a suferit, câte înfometări a dus în acei ani de întemnițare.
Această care este un exemplu pur de iubire față de Mântuitorul nostru, un lucru minunat,
un lucru ce te motivează.
Chiar dacă au fost câteva idei cu care nu sunt de acord, cartea a fost foarte bună
fiindcă l-a pus pe Mântuitorul nostru pe primul loc și i-a scos bunătatea în evidență.
Când citeam, mă gândeam așa: Îți dai seama câte a pătimit acest om, câte a
îndurat și tot nu s-a lepădat, iar noi, în ziua de astăzi când poți face orice pe lumea asta
că nu ești judecat, nu ești asuprit, nu ești torturat, nu ești bătut, nu ești chinuit și cu
toate astea, omul nu alege să creadă în Ieshua, nu alege să creadă că doar prin El noi
vom avea mântuire. E trist, e foarte trist. Unii au fost umiliți, batjocoriți și chinuiți pentru
asta și tot n-au renunțat la ceea ce este adevărat și real, n-au renunțat la viața eternă și
noi? Ce facem?
Oamenii se pierd așa ușor și renunță așa ușor la ceea ce contează cu adevărat,
se lasă copleșiți de plăcerile acestei lumi, de păcatul care pândește la orice colț, însă
noi trebuie să luăm exemplul lui Richard și prin oricâte încercări am trece, să nu
renunțăm niciodată la ceea ce este adevărat și bun în această lume. Să nu renunțăm la
credința noastră în Ieshua!!
A reușit să ierte oamenii care l-au torturat, bătut și chinuit. Stau și mă gândesc
dacă eu aș putea face acest lucru și răspunsul nu-i unul pozitiv...
A fost un moment când avea un coleg de celulă (Cernei) ce spunea că-i
îndrăgostit de o evreică, dar nu se pot căsători fiindcă amândoi au credințe diferite și
aici țin să-i dau dreptate deținutului Cernei, nu lui Richard, el spunând că pot rămâne
fiecare cu credința lui chiar și după apariția unui copil. Poate că într-o lume paralelă,
ideală, s-ar putea așa ceva, dar în ziua de astăzi nu-i posibil.
Un alt aspect cu care nu sunt de acord, a spus că toți pot fi iertați și mântuiți,
chiar și cei mai răi oameni de pe lumea asta. Sunt de părere că n-ar fi corect ca de
exemplu Hitler, dacă s-ar căi ar fi iertat și mântuit, n-ar fi corect față de milioanele de
evrei pe care i-a omorât. Nu cred că Elohim i-ar pune în rai împreună pe Hitler și cei pe
care el i-a omorât, și aici exemplele pot continua. Nu cred că Elohim va pune-n rai pe
cel care a mâncat curat toată viața cu cel pe care n-a mâncat curat, oricât de bun ar fi
el ca om în această lume, să nu mai zicem de alte lucruri mai grave. Aici sunt multe de
discutat și încep să deviez de la subiectul cărții.
Cartea aceasta m-a făcut să nu mai iau totul dea gata, să nu cred că mi se
cuvine totul și să nu cred că am vreun merit. Tot ce am, tot ce sunt, pacea pe care o
trăiesc acum, liniștea, totul se datorează lui Ieshua și jertfei Sale. Trebuie să fiu mai
recunoscător lui Elohim, mai mulțumitor și în fiecare zi să încerc să mă apropii mai
mult de Ieshua, fiidncă nu voi putea ajunge la Tatăl decât prin fiul său.
Ultimele două paragrafe din carte au fost extraordinare. Spunea că pe o clădire
din Washington există o placă mare unde-i gravată Constituția, iar dacă te îndepărtezi,
vei vedea chipul lui George Washington și că la fel trebuie privită și această carte. Ea
istorisește patimile unui om și prin ce a trecut el, dar în spatele lui, dacă stai și te
îndepărtezi puțin, vei vedea puterea nevăzută a lui Ieshua, bunătatea Lui cea mare și
dragostea Sa față de copii Săi. Nu poți suporta atâta cruzime și atâtea chinuri dacă
Ieshua nu a fost cu tine, e imposibil...
Cred cu tărie că puterea lui Ieshua a fost cu Richard și l-a păzit în acea perioadă
cumplită și mai cred că dacă ești sincer în credință, dacă nu renunți la fiul lui Elohim,
dacă vei crede în El, nimic din această lume nu te poate dărâma și nimic nu te poate
afecta fiindcă alături de tine este Elohim.
Această carte te învață să fii o lumină în această lume plină de păcate și nu poți
fi o lumină dacă nu-l ai pe Ieshua în tine.
vorbește doar despre religie/credință, dar m-am înșelat amarnic.
Nu mă așteptam ca această carte să aibă un impact asupra mea fiindcă mi-a deschis
ochii într-o anumită privință. Ultimele cărți pe care le-am citit, înainte de cea a lui
Richard, au fost despre Auschwitz și cu durere în suflet spun că nu mă așteptam ca și
noi, românii să fim așa cruzi și inumani cu conaționalii noștri.
Am citit chinurile prin care a trecut Richard în închisorile din România și pot spune c-am
rămas șocat de cruditatea oamenilor, credeam că doar pe vremea Holocaustului a
existat așa ceva.
Prin câte momente grele și oribile a trecut, un singur lucru este cert, nu s-a
lepădat de credința sa și de Ieshua, indiferent de cruzimea la care a fost supus, indiferent
de câte bătăi a luat, câte durerei a suferit, câte înfometări a dus în acei ani de întemnițare.
Această care este un exemplu pur de iubire față de Mântuitorul nostru, un lucru minunat,
un lucru ce te motivează.
Chiar dacă au fost câteva idei cu care nu sunt de acord, cartea a fost foarte bună
fiindcă l-a pus pe Mântuitorul nostru pe primul loc și i-a scos bunătatea în evidență.
Când citeam, mă gândeam așa: Îți dai seama câte a pătimit acest om, câte a
îndurat și tot nu s-a lepădat, iar noi, în ziua de astăzi când poți face orice pe lumea asta
că nu ești judecat, nu ești asuprit, nu ești torturat, nu ești bătut, nu ești chinuit și cu
toate astea, omul nu alege să creadă în Ieshua, nu alege să creadă că doar prin El noi
vom avea mântuire. E trist, e foarte trist. Unii au fost umiliți, batjocoriți și chinuiți pentru
asta și tot n-au renunțat la ceea ce este adevărat și real, n-au renunțat la viața eternă și
noi? Ce facem?
Oamenii se pierd așa ușor și renunță așa ușor la ceea ce contează cu adevărat,
se lasă copleșiți de plăcerile acestei lumi, de păcatul care pândește la orice colț, însă
noi trebuie să luăm exemplul lui Richard și prin oricâte încercări am trece, să nu
renunțăm niciodată la ceea ce este adevărat și bun în această lume. Să nu renunțăm la
credința noastră în Ieshua!!
A reușit să ierte oamenii care l-au torturat, bătut și chinuit. Stau și mă gândesc
dacă eu aș putea face acest lucru și răspunsul nu-i unul pozitiv...
A fost un moment când avea un coleg de celulă (Cernei) ce spunea că-i
îndrăgostit de o evreică, dar nu se pot căsători fiindcă amândoi au credințe diferite și
aici țin să-i dau dreptate deținutului Cernei, nu lui Richard, el spunând că pot rămâne
fiecare cu credința lui chiar și după apariția unui copil. Poate că într-o lume paralelă,
ideală, s-ar putea așa ceva, dar în ziua de astăzi nu-i posibil.
Un alt aspect cu care nu sunt de acord, a spus că toți pot fi iertați și mântuiți,
chiar și cei mai răi oameni de pe lumea asta. Sunt de părere că n-ar fi corect ca de
exemplu Hitler, dacă s-ar căi ar fi iertat și mântuit, n-ar fi corect față de milioanele de
evrei pe care i-a omorât. Nu cred că Elohim i-ar pune în rai împreună pe Hitler și cei pe
care el i-a omorât, și aici exemplele pot continua. Nu cred că Elohim va pune-n rai pe
cel care a mâncat curat toată viața cu cel pe care n-a mâncat curat, oricât de bun ar fi
el ca om în această lume, să nu mai zicem de alte lucruri mai grave. Aici sunt multe de
discutat și încep să deviez de la subiectul cărții.
Cartea aceasta m-a făcut să nu mai iau totul dea gata, să nu cred că mi se
cuvine totul și să nu cred că am vreun merit. Tot ce am, tot ce sunt, pacea pe care o
trăiesc acum, liniștea, totul se datorează lui Ieshua și jertfei Sale. Trebuie să fiu mai
recunoscător lui Elohim, mai mulțumitor și în fiecare zi să încerc să mă apropii mai
mult de Ieshua, fiidncă nu voi putea ajunge la Tatăl decât prin fiul său.
Ultimele două paragrafe din carte au fost extraordinare. Spunea că pe o clădire
din Washington există o placă mare unde-i gravată Constituția, iar dacă te îndepărtezi,
vei vedea chipul lui George Washington și că la fel trebuie privită și această carte. Ea
istorisește patimile unui om și prin ce a trecut el, dar în spatele lui, dacă stai și te
îndepărtezi puțin, vei vedea puterea nevăzută a lui Ieshua, bunătatea Lui cea mare și
dragostea Sa față de copii Săi. Nu poți suporta atâta cruzime și atâtea chinuri dacă
Ieshua nu a fost cu tine, e imposibil...
Cred cu tărie că puterea lui Ieshua a fost cu Richard și l-a păzit în acea perioadă
cumplită și mai cred că dacă ești sincer în credință, dacă nu renunți la fiul lui Elohim,
dacă vei crede în El, nimic din această lume nu te poate dărâma și nimic nu te poate
afecta fiindcă alături de tine este Elohim.
Această carte te învață să fii o lumină în această lume plină de păcate și nu poți
fi o lumină dacă nu-l ai pe Ieshua în tine.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 6, 2024
Un creștin, Borcea, povestea că unii au fost ținuți legați timp de patru zile de cruci. Crucile erau culcate în fiecare zi pe pardoseală. Apoi, altor deținuți li se dădea ordin să-și facă nevoile pe fețele și trupurile celor răstigniți. După aceasta, crucea era iarăși ridicată. Un preot catolic, Cheruvian, mi-a povestit că, în închisoarea din Pitești, i se ordonase să oficieze liturhia asupra excrementelor pe care apoi să le dea ca împărtășanie oamenilor. „Și le-ai dat ascultare?” am întrebat. El și-a îngropat fața în palme și a plâns: „Am suferit mai mult decât Iisus”, a zis.
în raport cu cartea am fost precum acel om evocat de Eugen Ionescu care-și începea fiecare dimineață cu rugăciunea: „Doamne, fă-mă să cred în Tine”. mi-e greu să mă raportez la o asemenea carte, mai ales că am purtat-o în gând vreme de aproape patru ani, de când am făcut cunoștință cu Wurmbrand prin intermediul Ruxandrei Cesereanu (în lucrarea Călătorie spre centrul infernului), timp în care i-am exagerat poate proporțiile. cert e că nu mă așteptam să întâlnesc o carte de memorialistică concentraționară în care credința să fie pusă la încercare. și aici vorbim de tot felul de metode: fie prin izolare, când Wurbdrand se va simți bântui și literalmente încercat de diavol, fie prin discuțiile purtate în contradictoriu cu deținuții și comandanții închisorii. voiam să încep cu „mi-e foarte greu să---” dar mi-e chiar imposibil să întrezăresc drept soluție de depășire a schingiuirilor această acceptare creștinească a morții ca înviere. și tocmai de aici vine dificultatea de a mă raporta în vreun fel la pastorul Wurmbrand.
sunt 14 ani de detenție priviți prin ochii unei fețe bisericești, cu evocări doar trecătoare ale torturilor, bolii sau ale posibilelor traume personale și tocmai asta nu reușesc a înțelege. cum este posibil ca un om să primească cu atâta seninătate tot ceea ce îi este oferit? mai ales că „ofertele” au specificul lor: lipsa tratamentelor, a hrănii, a unor condiții relativ omenești de detenție.
am și o viziune deficitară asupra gulagului românesc: poate că el presupune și convertirile anchetatorilor, spovedaniile de pe patul de moarte venite din partea celor mai înverșunați comuniști ori chiar și punerea la îndoială a credinței.
sunt și unele episoade care mi-l apropie mult pe Wurmbrand, deși nu-i împărtășesc/ înțeleg credința: scenele dostoievskiene în care își spovedește colegii de detenție, anecdotele legate de viața în comunism (Se spunea atunci în România că viața era alcătuită din patru „auto”: „autocritica”, făcută cu regularitate în birouri și fabrici, „autodubo”, care te ducea la Securitate, „autobiografia”, pe care te puneau s-o scrii, și „autopsia.”) sunt numai câteva care îmi vin în minte. dar e și o oarecare insistență pe tema aceasta: e ceea ce-i determină pe unii să-i declare că „Sunteți mai rău decât un comunist!” - când un coleg de detenție îi mărturisește că a vrut să se sinucidă, el îl sfătuiește să vorbească cu Iisus, pentru a se îngriji și de suflet: oricât aș ține cont de specificul situației, tot nu găsesc cum ar putea fi un astfel de sfat de ajutor. dar toate acestea sunt probabil impresiile unui om chinuit, pe care de altfel Wurmbrand ar încerca pe tot posibilul să-l readucă pe linia de plutire dacă nu creștină, cel puțin omenească.
în raport cu cartea am fost precum acel om evocat de Eugen Ionescu care-și începea fiecare dimineață cu rugăciunea: „Doamne, fă-mă să cred în Tine”. mi-e greu să mă raportez la o asemenea carte, mai ales că am purtat-o în gând vreme de aproape patru ani, de când am făcut cunoștință cu Wurmbrand prin intermediul Ruxandrei Cesereanu (în lucrarea Călătorie spre centrul infernului), timp în care i-am exagerat poate proporțiile. cert e că nu mă așteptam să întâlnesc o carte de memorialistică concentraționară în care credința să fie pusă la încercare. și aici vorbim de tot felul de metode: fie prin izolare, când Wurbdrand se va simți bântui și literalmente încercat de diavol, fie prin discuțiile purtate în contradictoriu cu deținuții și comandanții închisorii. voiam să încep cu „mi-e foarte greu să---” dar mi-e chiar imposibil să întrezăresc drept soluție de depășire a schingiuirilor această acceptare creștinească a morții ca înviere. și tocmai de aici vine dificultatea de a mă raporta în vreun fel la pastorul Wurmbrand.
sunt 14 ani de detenție priviți prin ochii unei fețe bisericești, cu evocări doar trecătoare ale torturilor, bolii sau ale posibilelor traume personale și tocmai asta nu reușesc a înțelege. cum este posibil ca un om să primească cu atâta seninătate tot ceea ce îi este oferit? mai ales că „ofertele” au specificul lor: lipsa tratamentelor, a hrănii, a unor condiții relativ omenești de detenție.
am și o viziune deficitară asupra gulagului românesc: poate că el presupune și convertirile anchetatorilor, spovedaniile de pe patul de moarte venite din partea celor mai înverșunați comuniști ori chiar și punerea la îndoială a credinței.
sunt și unele episoade care mi-l apropie mult pe Wurmbrand, deși nu-i împărtășesc/ înțeleg credința: scenele dostoievskiene în care își spovedește colegii de detenție, anecdotele legate de viața în comunism (Se spunea atunci în România că viața era alcătuită din patru „auto”: „autocritica”, făcută cu regularitate în birouri și fabrici, „autodubo”, care te ducea la Securitate, „autobiografia”, pe care te puneau s-o scrii, și „autopsia.”) sunt numai câteva care îmi vin în minte. dar e și o oarecare insistență pe tema aceasta: e ceea ce-i determină pe unii să-i declare că „Sunteți mai rău decât un comunist!” - când un coleg de detenție îi mărturisește că a vrut să se sinucidă, el îl sfătuiește să vorbească cu Iisus, pentru a se îngriji și de suflet: oricât aș ține cont de specificul situației, tot nu găsesc cum ar putea fi un astfel de sfat de ajutor. dar toate acestea sunt probabil impresiile unui om chinuit, pe care de altfel Wurmbrand ar încerca pe tot posibilul să-l readucă pe linia de plutire dacă nu creștină, cel puțin omenească.
December 28, 2025
Ce să spun despre cartea Cu Dumnezeu în subterană...foarte bine cotată pe Goodreads, nu aș putea spune că nu a fost bine scrisă...ce s-a întâmplat în închisorile de la Jilava, Gherla și altele din România, cu intelectuali condamnați, cu fețele bisericești...mai scârbos, mai oribil decât ce am citit despre lagărele de la Auschwitz. Păcat că acestea nu se spun, nu se predau la istorie! Nu știu câți știu despre multe aspecte ale comunismului, ale României, în general, din multe perioade, cum ar fi al celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial și după.
Însă...în altă ordine de idei, asta cu biserica...cu iubirea de dumnezeu...cred că ar trebui lăsat la latitudinea fiecărui om. Nu am înțeles niciodată de ce trebuie să mă convingi tu pe mine că nu sunt ateu sau de ce trebuie să-mi arăți tu mie cât de credincios ești, că religia ta e mai bună, că dumnezeu chiar există, că de fapt eu cred în el, dar nu știu și te-aigăsit tu să-mi arăți! Sau invers, trebuie să-ți arăt eu că el nu există. Dar mergi, doamne iartă-mă, în treaba ta, cu credința ta!
Mi-ar plăcea să cred că există oameni care iartă, iartă, iartă și iubesc, iubesc, iubesc! Pe oricine, oricând, oriunde!
Deși Richard pare a nu insista, pare a accepta și a iubi și a ierta, i se reproșează "Cât de insistent sunteți! ...mai rău decât un comunist!" Pare a ierta, a înțelege, însă răzbate din cele afirmate că roata se întoarce, dumnezeu este acolo sus cu carnețelul și botează, iar mai târziu păcătoșii plătesc! În fine, om a fost și el până la urmă!😊
Iar eu una nu mă împac prea bine cu predicile astea extatice, pline de patos și evlavie. Însă, atâta timp cât îți vezi de bucățica ta, eu cred că fiecare se poate închina cui vrea sau se poate a nu se închina. 😃
All in all...cartea nu e rea, daaaar...nu o recomand (sau astfel spus, nu cunosc pe nimeni căruia să o recomand)😅
Însă...în altă ordine de idei, asta cu biserica...cu iubirea de dumnezeu...cred că ar trebui lăsat la latitudinea fiecărui om. Nu am înțeles niciodată de ce trebuie să mă convingi tu pe mine că nu sunt ateu sau de ce trebuie să-mi arăți tu mie cât de credincios ești, că religia ta e mai bună, că dumnezeu chiar există, că de fapt eu cred în el, dar nu știu și te-aigăsit tu să-mi arăți! Sau invers, trebuie să-ți arăt eu că el nu există. Dar mergi, doamne iartă-mă, în treaba ta, cu credința ta!
Mi-ar plăcea să cred că există oameni care iartă, iartă, iartă și iubesc, iubesc, iubesc! Pe oricine, oricând, oriunde!
Deși Richard pare a nu insista, pare a accepta și a iubi și a ierta, i se reproșează "Cât de insistent sunteți! ...mai rău decât un comunist!" Pare a ierta, a înțelege, însă răzbate din cele afirmate că roata se întoarce, dumnezeu este acolo sus cu carnețelul și botează, iar mai târziu păcătoșii plătesc! În fine, om a fost și el până la urmă!😊
Iar eu una nu mă împac prea bine cu predicile astea extatice, pline de patos și evlavie. Însă, atâta timp cât îți vezi de bucățica ta, eu cred că fiecare se poate închina cui vrea sau se poate a nu se închina. 😃
All in all...cartea nu e rea, daaaar...nu o recomand (sau astfel spus, nu cunosc pe nimeni căruia să o recomand)😅
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December 19, 2025Many years ago, I went to a service in a huge Church in Liverpool to hear Richard Wurmbrand speak. The Church was literally rammed; every single seat was taken, people sat on window ledges, around the altar, in the organ loft, and around the pulpit. When he arrived to speak, he walked slowly and painfully to the front as he had suffered terribly through torture whilst in prison. And when he got there he looked around maybe for a full minute at the whole of the congregation. And a great silence came up upon the place. Since that day I have always thought that there are two kinds of silence, a negative and a positive silence. The negative silence is simply the absence of sound, like when you turn the TV off. But the second is something remarkable, it was something positive. This was not an absence. It was a presence. It was something of the deep presence of God. I have met many deeply spiritual men and women over many years. But here was someone who was truly holy. If you read no other Christian book; read this!
June 11, 2025
Cartea asta nu e doar o mărturie – e o rană deschisă și o lumină puternică în întuneric. Richard Wurmbrand povestește cum a suferit în închisorile comuniste din România, dar mai ales cum a rămas cu Dumnezeu chiar acolo unde părea că Dumnezeu nu mai e: în subterană, în beciuri, în celule reci și pline de chinuri.
Ce m-a atins cel mai mult a fost liniștea lui în mijlocul durerii, curajul de a ierta și de a iubi pe cei care îl băteau. Nu e o carte ușoară, dar e una care îți schimbă viața. Îți arată că Isus merită tot, chiar și atunci când nu mai ai nimic. Te trezește din confort și te face să te întrebi: eu cât sunt gata să sufer pentru credință?
Un exemplu de dăruire totală, o lecție de iubire curată și de credință neclintită. Dacă vrei să simți ce înseamnă cu adevărat să trăiești pentru Domnul, citește această carte.
Ce m-a atins cel mai mult a fost liniștea lui în mijlocul durerii, curajul de a ierta și de a iubi pe cei care îl băteau. Nu e o carte ușoară, dar e una care îți schimbă viața. Îți arată că Isus merită tot, chiar și atunci când nu mai ai nimic. Te trezește din confort și te face să te întrebi: eu cât sunt gata să sufer pentru credință?
Un exemplu de dăruire totală, o lecție de iubire curată și de credință neclintită. Dacă vrei să simți ce înseamnă cu adevărat să trăiești pentru Domnul, citește această carte.
December 10, 2022
I specifically looked for the oldest copy available of this book. I did not want a revised edition through The Voice of the Martyrs or otherwise. This book was binge worthy for the most part. Though it gave much to think about in one’s self as you read through the circumstances given. “Take the wheat and leave the chaff.” With considering some doctrinal discrepancies, who would you be without your bible in such a prison? How would one’s memory endure such things?
This book makes one think on their own relationship with God, individual we stand before Him…and their drive for it. Also the steps in government.
The language is easy to read and you can tell at some points it is spoken through a second language, which I enjoy.
This book makes one think on their own relationship with God, individual we stand before Him…and their drive for it. Also the steps in government.
The language is easy to read and you can tell at some points it is spoken through a second language, which I enjoy.
April 19, 2018
This was a powerful read. It's impressive how many individual conversations with fellow prisoners Richard remembered to write this memoir. It's a great dialogue-driven story with alarming honesty into his own suffering heart. I found myself taking notes on his philosophical approaches to spiritual conversations. To see his character and personality remain steadfast as a free citizen and a prisoner is a testimony to God sustaining and staying with him. His balance of humility and boldness challenged me.
January 9, 2020
Commitment and dedication we don't hear of
A few years ago an internet ad for "Tortured for Christ" peaked my interest. Reading this and now having read "In God's Underground" makes me pray for strength should I ever be in a situation of persecution, pray for strength for those suffering for their Christian identity, and pray that those causing the suffering can be brought to believe in the love that is Jesus Christ. Christian and non-Christian alike can and will benefit from reading this book.
A few years ago an internet ad for "Tortured for Christ" peaked my interest. Reading this and now having read "In God's Underground" makes me pray for strength should I ever be in a situation of persecution, pray for strength for those suffering for their Christian identity, and pray that those causing the suffering can be brought to believe in the love that is Jesus Christ. Christian and non-Christian alike can and will benefit from reading this book.
February 8, 2019
Very good , inspiring. This is required reading for anyone who wants to know what went on behind the Iron Curtain . Pastor Wurmbrand is an amazing person of faith and courage. I recommend it to any Christian and any student of history.
The heroic story of Richard Wurmbrand, a Lutheran pastor, who holds firm in his faith in Christ, despite great torture by the Communists. 14 years in prison for the defence of gospel.
The heroic story of Richard Wurmbrand, a Lutheran pastor, who holds firm in his faith in Christ, despite great torture by the Communists. 14 years in prison for the defence of gospel.
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