In Richard Wormbrand’s autobiographical “Tortured for Christ,” he shares much of the following:
Orphaned at an early age and raised in a totally non-religious home, Richard Wurmbrand, knowing poverty during WWI, became an atheist, bitter toward religion. He actually hated the “notions” of God and Christ. And yet he seemed drawn toward churches and visited a Catholic church at one time repeating the Hail Mary that he heard but nothing happened. Once he actually said a prayer, “God, I know you don’t exist, but if you do, it is your duty to reveal yourself to me.”
During this time of inner turmoil, an old carpenter high up in the Romanian mountains prayed, “My God, I have served you here on earth, please reward me before I die by bringing one Jew to faith in Christ.” There were no Jews in his village, and he was too old to search for one, so he asked God to bring one.
Romania has 12,000 villages and Richard had no reason to go there but he felt “drawn.” Upon hearing Richard was a Jew, the old man saw him as an answer to his prayer. It was his witness and faithful prayers that brought Richard to faith in Christ and soon his wife, Sabina, also an atheist, was converted and together they started a new Lutheran church In Bucharest, the capital city.
Then came the Nazis as they overran eastern Europe before the start of WWII and they targeted Jews especially, and Protestants. Sabina and Richard were arrested several times, beaten, and hauled before Nazi judges. That proved only a foretaste of what the Russian communists would do later.
When the communists pushed the Nazis out of eastern Europe, they established themselves and began bringing the population into subjection. In August 1944, 1 million Russian troops entered and took over 24 million Romanians. The Allied powers had their hands full with the Nazis, so they turned a blind eye toward Eastern Europe and the scourge of communism that was about to dominate during the ensuing cold war.
As an American, with great sadness I must relate the following:
Vishinsky, Foreign Secretary of the Soviet Union, stormed into the office of Romania’s beloved King Michael I, pounded his fists on the table and said, “You must appoint communists to the government.” The Romanian army and police were disarmed and by violence the communists came to power.
Richard recalls that it was not without the cooperation of the Americans and British. He writes, “Men are responsible before God not only for their personal sins, but also for their national sins. The tragedy of all the captive nations is on the hearts of American and British Christians,” Richard wrote. “Americans must know that they at times unwittingly (or wittingly — this writer’s view) assisted the Russians in imposing upon us a regime of murder and terror. As a part of the Body of Christ, Americans must atone for this by helping the captive peoples come to the light of Christ.”
The communists convened a congress of 4,000 pastors, priests and rabbis to seek (demand) their support for their new rulers and it was amazing how easily and quickly many fell in line. These men of God chose Joseph Stalin, Russian dictator, as the honorary president at the same time he was a mass murderer of Christians! One after another, bishops and pastors arose to declare that communism and Christianity were fundamentally the same and could coexist.
Sabina told Richard, “Stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face!” Richard replied, “If I do, you lose your husband.” Sabina answered, “I don’t wish to have a coward as a husband.” So, the message of Christ was broadcast to the whole country! Richard knew he would pay for this but said “It was worth it.”
Orthodox and Protestant church leaders competed with each other in yielding to communism. An Orthodox bishop put the symbol of Russia, the hammer and sickle, on his robes and asked his priests to no longer call him Your Grace but Comrade Bishop. Two priests became officers of the secret police and a deputy bishop of the Lutheran church began to teach in the seminary that God had given three revelations through Moses, Jesus AND Stalin. At a congress of the Baptists, they stood and sang the anthem of the Soviet Union. The president of the Baptists praised Stalin as a great teacher of the Bible and did nothing but fulfill the commandments of God!
As Christians had done in Russia, Richard and Sabina helped develop the underground church in Romania. His work as pastor of the Norwegian Lutheran Mission and as a representative of the World Council of Churches in Romania provided the cover for his secret underground ministry, among Russian soldiers and the enslaved people of Romania.
Jim Korver is an 85-year-old resident of Coronado whose wife Angela is a lead nurse at Sharp Coronado Hospital. They are blessed with 13 children, 34 grands, and 9 greats. Jim has had careers in aerospace, human resources, and teaching plus the administrative leader/director in Christian schools in CA, ID and WA — and international Christian schools in Korea, Austria, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico City, Ghana, Kenya, Indonesia, Malaysia, and China.
