Words from our founder: A new heart, a new character

VOM founder, Richard Wurmbrand (1909-2001),
strips to the waist showing the scars received
during his 14 years in prison. 

And what if I am tortured? Christ saved a robber while He was on the cross. My brethren to my right and left have sometimes brought their torturers to Christ.

A Communist officer, beating a Christian prisoner with a rubber truncheon, put his stick aside and asked, “What is it about you? How is it that your face is shining? You have something like a halo around your head. How can you look at me so lovingly? I would never love a man who jailed and beat me. How is it that you can obey the foolish commandment of your Christ to love your enemy?”

The Christian answered, “I am not obeying a commandment. It is not that I love you only because Jesus orders me to. Jesus has given me a new heart and a new character. If I wanted to hate you, I would no longer be able to do so. A nightingale cannot sound like a crow, because it is a nightingale and not a crow. So a Christian can only love.”

That rubber truncheon has remained put aside forever.

Excerpted from Richard Wurmbrand’s book, With God in Solitary Confinement. In Canada, you can order this book from our online catalogue or by contacting our office. 

The Voice of the Martyrs was founded in the mid-1960s by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who was imprisoned and tortured by Communist authorities in his native Romania for 14 years. While still in prison, Pastor Wurmbrand envisioned a ministry that would focus on the plight of the persecuted Church, raise a voice on their behalf, and provide encouragement and assistance to them.