The price for this boldness would land the earnest pastor in prison. They were meeting an entirely new kind of Christianity – the Christianity of the underground church.” “We loved the Russians so much, we risked everything to bring them the Gospel. That work not only included clandestine Bible studies and meetings, where he could baptize new believers, but also occasions where he and others would share their faith with the occupying Russian soldiers. Wurmbrand (a Jewish convert and ordained Lutheran minister) would continue with his parish duties, but the meat of his work would necessarily be driven underground. “The Communists knew that faith in God was the only resistance left,” notes Wurmbrand.
His speech stirs the audience, but it makes him a marked man in the eyes of the oppressive overlords. Realizing the ramifications of such a move, Wurmbrand asks to address the congress. Underlining the congress is one stark reality: church leaders could enter into the service of the Russians, or they could go to jail. The story opens with Richard (Emil Mandanac) and Sabina (Raluca Botez) attending a congress where Joseph Stalin is recognized as a patron of the Church. Filmed entirely in Romania – including inside the very prison where Wurmbrand was confined – this powerful story is told in English, Romanian and Russian (with English subtitles), to immerse the audience into the authenticity of the story. However, it garnered a worldwide audience via the internet last weekend to commemorate that inauspicious February 29 date.
The film – also titled Tortured for Christ – has had limited showings since its release. Wurmbrand’s gripping book is the subject of a 2018 dramatized documentary. Their aim was to spotlight the plight of Christians living under repressive regimes. In October 1967, Richard and his wife, Sabina (who had also been imprisoned for three years in the early 1950s) founded a worldwide ministry that would later be known as The Voice of the Martyrs. Shortly thereafter, he wrote his best-selling book, Tortured for Christ. Wurmbrand would somehow survive a total of 14 years in prison, before being ransomed out of Romania in December 1965. His crime? Pastor Wurmbrand had dared to defy the Soviet-backed communist government in Romania by preaching the gospel of Christ. That was the date Wurmbrand was blindfolded and spirited off a street in broad daylight, driven to a penal facility in another city, questioned for hours by the secret police without legal counsel present, and then finally thrown into a subterranean prison cell. For the late Richard Wurmbrand, February 29, 1948, was one such day.
We all have particular dates on the calendar which bring a rush of memories to mind. Richard Wurmbrand (Emil Mandanac) is left to consider his fate inside a nail-embedded box in the docu-drama Tortured for Christ.
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