Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand

Wurmbrand was ordained twice-first as an Anglican, then, after World War II, as a Lutheran priest. Wurmbrand and his wife (known as Bintzea to her friends) converted to Christianity in 1938 due to the witness of Christian Wolfkes, a Romanian Christian carpenter they joined the Anglican Church's Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ UK). He married Sabina Oster on 26 October 1936.

Like other Romanian Communists, he was arrested several times, then sentenced and released again. When returning to his mother country, Wurmbrand was already an important Comintern agent, leader, and coordinator directly paid from Moscow. Pursued by Siguranţa Statului (the secret police), he was arrested and held in Doftana prison. 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.Īs an adolescent, he was sent to study Marxism in Moscow, but returned clandestinely the following year. Wurmbrand, the youngest of four boys, was born in 1909 in Bucharest in a Jewish family. Variations of his works have been translated into more than 65 languages. He wrote more than 18 books, the most widely known being Tortured for Christ and Answer to Moscow's (Atheist) Bible. After spending time in Norway and England, he and his wife Sabina, who had also been imprisoned, emigrated to America and dedicated the rest of their lives to publicizing and helping Christians who are persecuted for their beliefs. His colleagues in Romania urged him to leave the country and work for religious freedom from a location less personally dangerous. As a result, he experienced imprisonment and torture by the then- Communist regime of Romania, which maintained a policy of state atheism.Īfter serving a total of fourteen years, he was ransomed for $10,000. Wurmbrand preached at bomb shelters and rescued Jews during World War II. In 1948, having become a Christian ten years before, he publicly said Communism and Christianity were incompatible. Richard Wurmbrand, also known as Nicolai Ionescu (24 March 1909 – 17 February 2001) was a Romanian Evangelical Lutheran priest, and professor of Jewish descent.

Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand