Loving the Persecutors
When it was at the worst, when we were tortured as never before, we began to love those who tortured us. Just as a flower, when you bruise it under your foot, rewards you with its perfume, the more we were mocked and tortured, the more we pitied and loved our torturers.
Many have asked Wurmbrand, “How can you love someone who is torturing you?” He replies:
“By looking at men…not as they are, but as they will be… I could also see in our persecutors a Saul of Tarsus, a future apostle Paul.
Many officers of the secret police to whom we witnessed became Christians and were happy to later suffer in prison for having found our Christ. Although we were whipped, as Paul was, in our jailers we saw the potential of the jailer in Philippi who became a convert.
We dreamed that soon they would ask, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ It was in prison that we found the hope of salvation for the Communists. It was there that we developed a sense of responsibility toward them.
In Communist prisons the idea of a Christian mission to the Communists was born. We asked ourselves, ‘What can we do to win these men to Christ?’ The gates of heaven are not closed for the Communists. Neither is the light quenched for them. They can repent like everyone else. And we must call them to repentance. Only love can change the Communist and the terrorist.”
Continued Ministry
When Pastor Wurmbrand was released in 1956, he resumed his work with the underground church. In 1959, he was turned over to the authorities again, this time by one of his own co-workers. He was released the second time in 1964, and again resumed his work.
In May of that year, Richard testified in Washington, DC, before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to his waist and revealing eighteen deep torture wounds. In 1967, the Wurmbrands formally started their mission to the Communists, Jesus to the Communist World.
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:43-45
Date: 5th August 2023
Martyr: RICHARD WURMBRAND
Location: ROMANIA 1945
Source: Jesus Freaks
Author: DC Talk and The Voice of Martyrs
Suffering Saturday 050
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