Underground Church

PREPARING FOR THE UNDERGROUNDCHURCH

By Pastor Richard Wurmbrand

Christian pastors must learn what anunderground church looks like and what itdoes. I spoke with a bishop in Britain for anhour or so about underground church work. Finally, he said, "Excuse me, but you speak ofmy hobby; I am very interested in churcharchitecture. Would you please tell me if theunderground churches use Gothic styles in thebuilding of churches?"

Underground Church is comparativelyunknown. We have it right next door, but weare not ready to join it and we are not trainedfor it. Every Christian pastor must know thisbecause we might pass through tragic

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circumstances. Even if we do not pass throughthese tragic circumstances we have a duty tohelp and to instruct those who do pass throughthem.

In Muslim nations, in Red China and so on,many believers have become victims. Manyhave gone into prisons and many have diedin prison. We cannot be proud of this. Thebetter thing would have been to be wellinstructed on how to do underground work andnot to be captured. I admire those who knowhow to work so well that they are not caught.We have to know the underground work.

PREPARING FOR SUFFERING

Suffering cannot be avoided in theUnderground Church, whatever measures aretaken, but suffering should be reduced to theminimum.

What happens in a country when oppressivepowers take over? In some countries the terrorstarts at once, as in Mozambiqueand Cambodia. In other places religious libertyfollows as never before. And so it begins. Someregimes come to power without having realpower. They do not have the people on theirside. They have not necessarily organized theirpolice and their staff of the army yet.


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In Russia, the Communists gave immediatelygreat liberty to the Protestants in order todestroy the Orthodox. When they haddestroyed the Orthodox, the turn came for theProtestants. The initial situation does not lastlong. During that time they infiltrate thechurches, putting their men in leadership.They find out the weaknesses of pastors. Somemight be ambitious men; some might beentrapped with the love of money. Anothermight have a hidden sin somewhere, wherewithhe may be blackmailed. They explain that theywould make it known and thus put their men inleadership. Then, at a certain moment thegreat persecution begins. In Romania such aclamp-down happened in one day. All theCatholic bishops went to prison, along withinnumerable priests, monks and nuns. Thenmany Protestant pastors of all denominationswere arrested. Many died in prison.

"Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard bymany of this man, how much evil he has doneto Thy saints Jerusalem: But the Lord said untohim, Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel untoMe, to bear My name before the Gentiles, andkings, and the children of Israel: For I willshow him how great things he must suffer forMy name's sake " (Acts 9:13 15 and 16)


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Jesus, our Lord, told Ananias: "Meet Saul ofTarsus. He will be My underground pastor, Myunderground worker." That is what St. Paul was- a pastor of an Underground Church. Jesusstarted a crash course for this undergroundpastor. He started it with the words, "I willshow (him) how great things he must suffer..."

Preparation for underground work begins bystudying sufferology, martyrology. Later, wewill look at the technical side ofunderground work, but first of all there mustbe a certain spiritual preparation for it.

In a free country, to be a member of a church,it is enough to believe and to be baptized. Inthe Church underground it is not enough to bea member in it. You can be baptized and youcan believe, but you will not be a member ofthe Underground Church unless you know howto suffer.

You might have the mightiest faith in theworld, but if you are not prepared to suffer,then when you are taken by the police, you willget two slaps and you will declare anything. Sothe preparation for suffering is one of theessentials of the preparation of undergroundwork.

A Christian does not panic if he is put in


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prison. For the rank and file believer, prison isa new place to witness for Christ. For a pastor,prison is a new parish. It is a parish with nogreat income but with great opportunities forwork. I speak a little of this in my book, WithGod In Solitary Confinement.

In other books I mention Morse code, which isalso part of the training for the UndergroundChurch. You know what this is - a code bywhich messages are conveyed. Through thiscode you can preach the Gospel to those whoare to your right and left.

Free parishioners look at their watch; "Alreadyhe has preached for thirty minutes. Will henever finish?" When arrested, watches aretaken away from you; you have the parishionerswith you the whole week and can preach tothem from morning to night! They have nochoice. There have never been, in the history ofthe Romanian or the Russian Church, so manyconversions brought about as there have beenin prison. So do not fear prison.

Look upon it as just a new assignment given byGod.

Men can accept this. But what about theterrible tortures which are inflicted onprisoners? What will we do about these


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tortures? Will we be able to bear them? If I donot bear them, I put in prison another fifty orsixty men whom I know because that is whatthe oppressors wish from me, to betray thosearound me. Hence comes the great need forpreparation for suffering, which must startnow. It is too difficult to prepare yourself for itwhen you are already in prison.

The preparation for underground work isdeep spiritualization. As we peel an onion inpreparation for its use, so God must "peel"from us what are mere words, sensations of ourenjoyments in religion, in order to arrive at thereality of our faith. Jesus has told us "thatwhosoever will follow" Him will have to "takeup their cross," and He, Himself, showed howheavy this cross can be. We have tobe prepared for this.

We have to make the preparation now beforewe are imprisoned. In prison you loseeverything. You are undressed and given aprisoner's suit. No more nice furniture, nicecarpets or nice curtains. You do not have a wifeor husband any more and you do not have yourchildren. You do not have your library and younever see a flower. Nothing of what makes lifepleasant remains. Nobody resists who has notrenounced the pleasures of life beforehand.


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I personally use an exercise. I live in the UnitedStates of America. Can you imagine what anAmerican supermarket looks like? You findthere many delicious things. I look ateverything and say to myself, "I can go withoutthis thing and that thing; this thing is verynice, but I can go without: this third thing Ican go without, too." I visited the wholesupermarket and did not spend one dollar. Ihad the joy of seeing many beautiful things andthe second joy to know that I can go without.

DOUBT MAKES TRAITORS

I am Jewish. In Hebrew, the language whichJesus Himself spoke and in which the firstrevelation has been given, the word"doubt" does not exist. To doubt is as wrongfor a man as it would be for him to walk onfour legs – he is not meant to walk on four legs.A man walks erect; he is not a beast. To doubtis subhuman.

To every one of us doubts come, but do notallow doubts about essential doctrines of theBible such as the existence of God,the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or theexistence of eternal life to make a nest in yourmind. Every theological or philosophical doubtmakes you a potential traitor. You can allowyourself doubts while you have a nice study and


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you prepare sermons, and you eat well - or youwrite a book. Then you can allow yourself allkinds of daring ideas and doubts. When youare tortured these doubts are changed intotreason because you have to decide to live ordie for this faith.

One of the most important things about thespiritual preparation of an undergroundworker is the solution of his doubts. Inmathematics, if you do not find the solutionyou may have made a mistake somewhere, soyou continue until you find out. Don't live withdoubts, but seek their solution.

TEST OF TORTURE

Now to come to the very moment oftorture; torture is sometimes very painful.Sometimes it is a simple beating. We have allbeen spanked as children and beating is justanother spanking. A simple beating is very easyto take. Jesus has said we should come to Himlike children, which is rather like candidatesfor spanking!

However, with us, Communists did not stop atbeatings - they used very refined tortures. Nowtorture, you must know, can work both ways. Itcan harden you and strengthen your decisionnot to tell the police anything. There are


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thieves who resist any torture and would notbetray those with whom they have co-operatedin theft. The more you beat them the moreobstinate they become. Or, torture can justbreak your will.

Now I will tell you of one very interesting casewhich was published by the Czech CommunistPress. Novotny, who was the predecessor ofDubcek and who was a Communist dictator,had arrested one of his intimate comrades, aCommunist leader, a convinced atheist, and amember of the Central Committee of theCommunist Party. (Not only Christians, Jews orpatriots were in prison. One Communistarrested another and tortured him just as theywould do anybody else.) They arrested thisCommunist leader and put him in a prison cellalone. Electromagnetic rays, which disturb themind, passed through this cell. Aloudspeaker repeated day and night: "Is yourname Joseph or not Joseph?" (His name wasnot Joseph.)

They tried to drive him mad; day and night. Hefelt that he would lose his mind. At a certainmoment, he got an illumination. "I have nowmet unmitigated evil. If Communists torture aChristian, it is not absolutely evil becauseCommunists believe that they will construct an


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earthly paradise. Christians hinder them, so itis right to torture Christians. But when aCommunist tortures a Communist, it is torturefor torture's sake. There is absolutely nojustification for it. But wait a little bit. Everycoin has two sides; every electric cable has twopoles. If there is an unmitigated evil; againstwhom does this unmitigated evil fight? Theremust be an unmitigated good. This is God, andagainst Him they fight."

When he was called to the interrogator, heentered smiling into the room and told himthat he could switch off the loudspeaker nowbecause it had attained its result. "I havebecome a Christian." The officer asked him,"How did it happen?" He told him the wholestory. The officer said, "Wait a little bit." Hecalled a few of his comrades and said, "Pleaserepeat the story before my comrades." Herepeated the story, and the captain told theother police officer, "I told you that thismethod will not work. You have overdone it."

The Devil is not all mighty and all wise likeGod. He makes mistakes. Evil torture is anexcess which can be used very well spiritually.

MOMENT OF CRISIS

Torture has a moment of explosion, and the


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torturer waits for this critical moment. Learnhow to conquer doubt and to think thoroughly. There is always one moment of crisis when youare ready to write or pronounce the name ofyour accomplice in the underground work, orto say where the secret printing shop is, orsomething of that kind. You have been torturedso much nothing counts any more; the fact thatI should not have pain also does not count.

Draw this last conclusion at the stage at whichyou have arrived and you will see that you willovercome this one moment of crisis; it givesyou an intense inner joy. You feel that Christhas been with you in that decisive moment. Jailers today are now trained and refined,aware that there is a moment of crisis. If theycannot get anything from you in that moment,then they abandon torturing: they know itscontinuation to be useless.

There are a few more points in connection withtorture. It is very important to understandwhat Jesus said: "Take no thought for themorrow, for the morrow shall take thought foritself." I have had fourteen years of prison.Brother Hrapov had twenty six, Wong Ming Daohad twenty-eight. It seems impossible to bearlong years of prison. You are not asked to bearit all at once. Do not bear even one day at a


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time - bear an hour at a time. One hour of paineverybody can bear. We have had a terribletoothache, a car accident - passing, perhaps,through untold anguish. You are not meant tobear pain more than this one present minute.

What amplifies pain is the memory that I havebeen beaten and tortured so many times andthat tomorrow they will take me again, and theday after tomorrow. Tomorrow, I might not bealive - or they might not be alive. Tomorrow,there can be an overthrow, as in Romania. Yesterday beating has passed: tomorrow'storture has not come yet.

LOVE SUPREME

The Bible teaches some words very hard totake: "Whosoever does not hate father, mother,child, brother, sister - cannot be My disciple."These words mean almost nothing in a freecountry

You probably know from The Voice of theMartyrs literature that thousands of childrenhad been taken away from their parents in theformer Soviet Union because they were taughtabout Christ. You must love Christ more thanyour family. There you are before a court andthe judge tells you that if you deny Christ youmay keep your children. If not, this will be the


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last time you will see them. Your heart maybreak, but your answer should be, "I love God

Nadia Sloboda left her house for four years ofprison. Her children were taken from her, butshe left her house singing. The children, forwhom the police waited with a truck to takethem as she left, told their singing mother,"Don't worry about us. Wherever they put us,we will not give up our faith." They did not.

When Jesus was on the cross He not onlysuffered physically; He had His mother in frontof Him, suffering. His mother had theSon suffering. They loved each other, but theglory of God was at stake and here any humansentiment must be secondary. Only if we takethis attitude once and for all can we preparefor underground work.

Only Christ, the Great Sufferer, the Man ofSorrows, must live in us. There have been casesin Communist countries when Communisttorturers threw away their rubber truncheonswith which they beat a Christian and asked,"What is this halo which you have around yourhead? How is it that your face shines? I cannotbeat you anymore." It is said of Stephen in theBible that "his face shone."

We have known cases of Communist torturers


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who told the prisoner, "Shout loudly, cry loudlyas if I would beat you so that my comrades willknow that I torture you. But I cannot beatyou." Thus, you would shout without anythinghappening to you.

There are other cases when prisoners really aretortured, sometimes to death. You have tochoose between dying with Christ and forChrist or becoming a traitor. What is the worthof continuing to live when you will be ashamedto look into the mirror, knowing that themirror will show you the face of a traitor?

TRUTH ABOUT THE TRUTH

How much each one of us can suffer dependson how much he is bound up with a cause, howdear this cause is to him, and how much itmeans for him.

In this respect we have had in Communistcountries very big surprises. There have beengifted preachers and writers of Christian bookswho have become traitors. The composer of thebest hymnal of Romania became the composerof the best communist hymnal of Romania.

Everything depends on whether we haveremained in the sphere of words or if we aremerged with the divine realities.


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God is the Truth. The Bible is the truth aboutthe Truth. Theology is the truth about the truthabout the Truth. A good sermon is the truthabout the truth about the truth, about theTruth. It is not the Truth. The Truth is Godalone. Around this Truth there is a scaffoldingof words, of theologies, and of exposition. None of these is of any help in times ofsuffering. It is only the Truth Himself Who is ofhelp, and we have to penetrate throughsermons, through theological books, througheverything which is 'words' and be bound upwith the reality of God Himself.

I have told in the West how Christians weretied to crosses for four days and four nights.The crosses were put on the floor andother prisoners were tortured and made tofulfill their bodily necessities upon the facesand the bodies of the crucified ones. I havesince been asked: "Which Bible verse helpedand strengthened you in those circumstances?"My answer is: "NO Bible verse was of any help."It is sheer cant and religious hypocrisy to say,"This Bible verse strengthens me, or thatBible verse helps me." Bible verses alone arenot meant to help.

We knew Psalm 23 - "The Lord is my Shepherd;I shall not want... though I walk through the


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valley of the shadow of death...." When youpass through suffering you realize that it wasnever meant by God that Psalm 23 shouldstrengthen you. It is the Lord who canstrengthen you, not the Psalm which speaks ofHim so doing. It is not enough to have thePsalm. You must have the One about whom thePsalm speaks. We also knew the verse: "MyGrace is sufficient for thee." But the verse isnot sufficient. It is the Grace which is sufficientand not the verse.

Pastors and zealous witnesses who arehandling the Word as a calling from God are indanger of giving holy words more value thanthey really have. Holy words are only themeans to arrive at the reality expressed bythem. If you are united with the Reality, theLord Almighty, evil loses its power over you; itcannot break the Lord Almighty. If you onlyhave the words of the Lord Almighty you can bevery easily broken.

SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

The preparation for underground work isdeep spiritualization. As we peel an onion inpreparation for its use, so God must "peel"from us what are mere words, sensations of ourenjoyments in religion, in order to arrive at thereality of our faith. Jesus has told us "that


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whosoever will follow" Him will have to "takeup their cross," and He, Himself, showed howheavy this cross can be. We have tobe prepared for this.

We have to make the preparation now beforewe are imprisoned. In prison you loseeverything. You are undressed and given aprisoner's suit. No more nice furniture, nicecarpets or nice curtains. You do not have a wifeor husband any more and you do not have yourchildren. You do not have your library and younever see a flower. Nothing of what makes lifepleasant remains. Nobody resists who has notrenounced the pleasures of life beforehand. The Devil is not all mighty and all wise likeGod. He makes mistakes. Evil torture is anexcess which can be used very well spiritually.

LEARN TO BE SILENT

In the Underground Church, silence is one ofthe first rules. Every superfluous word youspeak can put somebody in prison. A friendof mine, a great Christian composer, went toprison because Christians had the habit ofsaying, "How beautiful is this song composedby Brother _____." They praised him, and forthis he got fifteen years of prison. Sing thesong, but do not mention the name of the onewho has written it.


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You cannot learn to be silent the very momentthe country is taken over. You have to learn tobe silent from the moment of your conversion.

The secretary to Solzhenitsyn was put undersuch pressure by the Communists (and she hadbeen denounced by Solzhenitsyn's wife) thatshe finished by hanging herself. If Solzhenitsynhad kept silent, this would not have happened.

Another question which is very important: Ithank God for the years which I passed inSolitary confinement. I was, for three years,thirty feet beneath the earth. I never heard aword. I never spoke a word. There were nobooks. The outward voices ceased. The guardshad felt soled shoes; you did not hear theirapproach. Then, with time, the inner voicesceased.

We were drugged, we were beaten. I forgot mywhole theology. I forgot the whole Bible. Oneday I observed that I had forgotten the "OurFather." I could not say it any more. I knew thatit began with "Our Father...," but I did notknow the continuation. I just kept happy andsaid, "Our Father, I have forgotten the prayer,but you surely know it by heart. You hear it somany thousand times a day, so you assign anangel to say it for me, and I will just keepquiet."


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For a time my prayers were, "Jesus, I love You." And then after a little time again, "Jesus, I loveYou. Jesus, I love You." Then it became toodifficult even to say this because we weredoped with drugs which would destroy ourminds. We were very hungry. We had one sliceof bread a week. There were the beatings, andthe tortures, and the lack of light, and otherthings. It became impossible to concentrate mymind to even say so much as, "Jesus, I loveYou." I abandoned it because I knew that it wasnecessary. The highest form of prayer which Iknow is the quiet beating of a heart whichloves Him. Jesus should just hear "tick-a-tock,tick-a-tock", and He would know that everyheartbeat is for Him.

When I came out from solitary confinementand was with other prisoners and heard themspeaking, I wondered why they spoke! So muchof our speech is useless. Today men becomeacquainted with each other and one will say,"How do you do?" and the other answers, "Howdo you do?" What is the use of this? Then onewill say, "Don't you think that the weather isfine?" and the other thinks, and says, "Yes, Ithink it is fine." Why do we have to speak onwhether the weather is fine? We do not takeearnestly the word of Jesus Who says that menwill be judged not for every bad word, but for


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every useless one. So it is written in the Bible.

Useless talking in some countries means prisonand death for your brother. A word of praiseabout your brother, if it is not necessary, maymean catastrophe. For example, somebodycomes to visit you and you say, "Oh! I'm sorryyou were not here before - brother W. has justleft." The visitor could be an informer of thesecret police. Now she will know that brotherW. is in town! Keep your mouth shut. Learn todo it now.

PERMISSIBLE STRATAGEMS

You cannot do underground work without usingstratagems. I know of one case which happenedin Russia. The Communists suspected that theChristians were gathering somewhere and theysurveyed a street. They knew that the meetingmust be there somewhere. They saw a youngboy going toward the house where theysupposed the meeting would be. They stoppedthe boy and the police asked him, "Where areyou going?" With a sad face, he said, "Myoldest brother died, and now we gather thewhole family to read his testament." The policeofficer was so impressed that he patted the boyand said, "Just go." The boy had not told a lie.

We are not obliged to tell an atheist tyrant the


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truth. We are not obliged to tell him what weare doing. It is indecent for his side to putquestions to me, impertinence.

RESISTING BRAINWASHING

One of the greatest methods is not onlyphysical torture; it is brainwashing. We have toknow how to resistbrainwashing. Brainwashing exists in the freeworld, too. The press, radio and televisionbrainwash us. There exists no motive in theworld to drink Coca-Cola. You drink it becauseyou are brainwashed. Water is surely betterthan Coca-Cola. But nobody advertises, "Drinkwater, drink water." if water were advertised,we would drink water. Some have driven thistechnique of brainwashing to its extreme. Themethods vary, but brainwashing in myRomanian prison consisted essentially of this:we had to sit seventeen hours on a form whichgave no possibility to lean, and you were notallowed to close your eyes. For seventeen hoursa day we had to hear, "Communism is good,Communism is good, Communism is good, etc.;Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead,Christianity is dead, etc.; Give up, give up, etc." You were bored after one minute of this butyou had to hear it the whole seventeen hoursfor weeks, months, years even, without any


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interruption.

I can assure you, it is not easy. It is one of theworst tortures; much worse than physicaltorture. But Christ has foreseen all thingsbecause with Him there is no time. Future,past, present are one and the same: He knowsall things from the beginning. Communistsinvented brainwashing too late! Christ hadalready invented the opposite to brainwashing -heart washing. He has said: "Blessed are thepure in heart, for they will see God."

Stephen, the first martyr for Christ, had aroundhim hundreds with big stones in their hands tothrow at him. He said: "I see." And the wife ofStephen probably thought he saw the dangerhe was in and would run away. But he said: "Isee JESUS standing at the right hand of God." Perhaps she said (it is not recorded), "Don'tyou see the mob around you ready to throwstones at you?" "Oh yes! I see some little antsthere below not worth mentioning. I look toJESUS." He did not look to those who wishedto kill him. Blessed are the pure in heart.

I had passed through brainwashing for overtwo years. Now the Communists would havesaid that my brain was still dirty. In the samerhythm in which they said, "Christianity isdead," I and others repeated to ourselves:


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"Christ also has been dead, Christ also hasbeen dead." But we knew He rose from thedead. We remembered that we lived inthe communion of saints.

OVERCOMING SOLITUDE

One of the greatest problems for anunderground fighter is to know how to fill uphis solitude. We had absolutely no books. Notonly no Bible; but we had no books, no scrap ofpaper, and no pencil. We never heard a noise,and there was absolutely nothing to distractour attention. You looked at the walls and thatwas all. Now normally a mind under suchcircumstances becomes mad.

I can tell you from my own experience how Iavoided becoming mad, but this again has tobe prepared by a life of spiritualexercise beforehand. How much can you bealone without the Bible? How much can youbear to be with yourself without switching onthe radio, or a record player, etc.?

I, and many other prisoners, did it like this. Wenever slept during the night. We slept duringthe day. The whole night we were awake. Youknow that a Psalm says, "...bless you theLord,... which by night stand in the house ofthe Lord." One prayer at night is worth ten


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prayers during the day.

All great sins and crimes are committed duringthe night. The great robberies, drunkenness,reveling, adultery - this whole life of sin is anight life. During the day everyone has to workin a factory, college, or somewhere. Thedemonic forces are forces of the night, andtherefore, it is so important to oppose themduring the night.

In solitary confinement we awoke when theother prisoners went to bed. We filled our timewith a program which was so heavy, we couldnot fulfill it. We started with a prayer, a prayerin which we traveled through the whole world.We prayed for each country, for where we knewthe names of towns and men, and we prayed forgreat preachers. It took a good hour or two tocome back. We prayed for pilots, and for thoseon the sea, and for those who were in prisons.

After having traveled through the whole world,I read the Bible from memory. To memorize theBible is very important for an undergroundworker.

THE JOY OF THE LORD

Just to make us laugh also a little bit, I will tellyou one thing which happened. Once while I lay


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on the few planks which were my bed, I readfrom memory the Sermon on the Mount,according to Luke. I arrived at the part whereit is said, "When you are persecuted... for theSon of man's sake, rejoice you, in that day andleap for joy...." You will remember that it iswritten like this. I said, "How could I commitsuch a sin of neglect? Christ has said that wehave to do two different things. One to rejoice,I have done. The second, to 'leap for joy,' Ihave not done." So I jumped. I came downfrom my bed and I began to jump around.

In prison, the door of a cell has a peep holethrough which the warden looks into the cell. He happened to look in while I jumped around.So he believed that I had become mad. Theyhad an order to behave very well with madmenso that their shouting and banging on the wallshould not disturb the order of the prison. Theguard immediately entered, quieted me downand said, "You will be released; you can seeeverything will be all right. Just remain quiet. Iwill bring you something." He brought me a bigloaf of bread. Our portion was one slice ofbread a week, and now I had a whole loaf, pluscheese. It was white. Never just eat cheese;first of all admire its whiteness. It is beautifulto look upon. He brought me also sugar. Hespoke a few nice words again and locked the


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door and left.

I said, "I will eat these things after havingfinished my chapter from St. Luke." I lay downagain and tried to remember where I had leftoff. "Yes, at 'when you are persecuted for MyName's sake, rejoice... and leap for joy becausegreat is your reward." I looked at the loaf ofbread and the cheese. Really, the reward wasgreat!

So the next task is to think of the Bible and tomeditate upon it. Every night, I composed asermon beginning with "Dear brethren, andsisters" and finishing with "Amen." After Icomposed it, I delivered it. I put themafterwards in very short rhymes so that I couldremember them. My books, With God InSolitary Confinement and If Prison Walls CouldSpeak, contain some of these sermons. I havememorized three hundred and fifty of them.

Out of bread I made chessmen, some of themwhitened with a little bit of chalk and theothers gray. I played chess with myself. Neverbelieve that Bob Fisher is the greatest chessmaster of the world. He won the last matchwith Spassky. He won eight games and losttwo. I, in three years, never lost a game; Ialways won either with white or gray!


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Never allow your mind to become distressedbecause then the Communists have youentirely in their hands. Your mind mustbe continually exercised. It must be alert, itmust think. It must, everyone according to hisabilities, compose different things, etc.

I have told you all these things because theybelong to the secrets of the undergroundworker when he suffers. May God bless you.

Richard Wurmbrand

Founder of Voice of the Martyrs

NOTE: While I hope for a people betterprepared to work outside the scrutiny of oneswho are enemies of the Gospel; we must beprepared, and hopefully Pastor Wurmbrand'sexperience will help motivate us to do what isnecessary NOW to set up infrastructure thatwill not be easily compromised at a later date...

I pray that as we continue to work throughinternal issues confronting the Americanchurch; every thing that seems critical will notbe viewed as an attack, but rather anopportunity to examine ourselves...

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