Tortured for Christ (1967)

O playboy que se tornou pregador — esteve preso durante 14 anos em cadeias comunistas. Os guardas tentaram forçá-lo a confessar que pertencia a uma rede de espionagem imperialista. Foi açoitado, torturado e obrigado a ingerir drogas.
Apesar de tudo ele resistiu e ficou firme. Passou dois anos na "cela da morte" — assim chamada por não ter voltado ninguém dali com vida.

"Months of solitary confinement, years of periodic physical torture, constant suffering from hunger and cold, the anguish of brain-washing and mental cruelty these are the experiences of a Romanian pastor during his fourteen years in Communist prisons. His crime, like that of thousands of others, was his fervent belief in Jesus Christ and his public witness concerning his faith. Meeting in homes, in basements, and in woods sometimes daring to preach in public on street corners these faithful souls persisted in their Christian witness knowing full well the ultimate cost of their actions. This is their story a classic account of courage, tenacious faith, and unbelievable endurance. This history of the Underground Church reflects the continuing struggle in many parts of the world today"--Page 4 of cover.

94 pp pamphlet, c. 1967

This is a story that I don't think I will ever forget. A story of courage, faith and endurance through horrible and unspeakable persecution, and a story of hope. It caused me to realize what many are going through in countries where freedom to share a Christian witness is forbidden. These Christians though are standing firm in their testimony for their Lord. I can understand how and why the "Voice of the Martyrs" began and it gave me pause to realize how little I knew about what other Christians are experiencing around the world. I encourage all to read and be moved beyond words to pray and help those who are a part of the "underground church" around the world. ( )

This is a short biographical account of a Romanian Pastor imprisoned and tortured for his Christian faith by the Communists just after the second world war. He spent a total of 14 years in prison, was eventually ransomed and released and moved to the West to encourage others to support "The Underground (persecuted) Church" in many countries. He founded "Voice of the Martyrs," which continues to work in countries around the world to this day.

Although the author states that he cannot go into graphic detail about the torture he endured at the hands of evil men. He proceeds to give seriously disturbing detail which some readers may not appreciate. He was placed in solitary confinement for 3 years!

"In solitary confinement, we could not pray as before. We were unimaginably hungry; we had been drugged until we acted like idiots. We were as weak as skeletons. The Lord's prayer was much too long for us- we could not concentrate enough to say it. My only prayer repeated again and again was, "Jesus, I love You."

Personally I felt challenged when reading this and forced to ask myself questions about how far I would be willing to go for my Christian faith. The detail is not in any way included for entertainment or to assist the author in obtaining spiritual one-up-man-ship. I believe the author's main purpose in writing these things was to try and shock people into doing something to help the persecuted church. His passion, dedication and commitment to the cause resonate throughout the book and are compelling. Many Christian's have been and will continue to be seriously convicted about their own roles in this Gospel and help ministry to those that are suffering for Christ, this can only be a good thing.

I note the complaints in various reviews about the author's negative/judgemental comments about Western Christian's. His attitude is that they are unconcerned, indifferent, apathetic and lacking in prayer for their brethren in crisis in other parts of the world. One reviewer's response which I would echo is that when reading/hearing criticism of ourselves we should examine (through Scripture and prayer) whether the things that are being said are true. If they are we should seek to address them and if they are not we should disregard them. Wurmbrand's opinion about Western Christian's may or may not be accurate, (in my view it is pretty accurate and has become more so in recent decades as this book was written a long time ago.) But, we cannot disregard his experiences and fail to help the persecuted church based on our prejudice towards him as an individual and how he chose to express himself. The things he experienced are happening around the world and the underground church does need help.

To those that don't believe the content of the book (which I also read in some reviews.) I can understand the skepticism due to various Christian Biographical books being removed from sale due to the "made-up" stories. Wurmbrand has on his body the scars from the torture he endured at the hands of his persecutors as he revealed this during a public meeting. Again I believe he did this to capture the attention of people rather than for personal gain.

I tend to believe the content of this book and that the author (who has since died) was a sincere soul seeking to follow Jesus and being willing to give up everything for that call. Ultimately only God knows his heart but we can all be challenged by his story and encouraged to get more involved in helping those suffering persecution in any way that we can.

I would encourage adult Christians to read this book.

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