Tortured For Christ - Richard Wurmbrand

[vlad]

Blurb description below taken from Release International - The voice of the persecuted church - one of their guy's spoke at our church at the weekend. Reminding me of the freedom I have in the UK to worship God.

This is the powerful testimony of the man who founded Release International: Pastor Richard Wurmbrand. Here he describes his imprisonment and torture by the Romanian secret police in the 1950s and 1960s.This special edition features photographs of Richard Wurmbrand's life and ministry, as well as brief information about the work of Release. As Pastor Wurmbrand writes in Tortured for Christ: I speak on behalf of my brethren who lie in countless nameless graves. I speak on behalf of my brethren who now meet secretly in forests, basements, attics, and other such places.’ His message and vision are still powerfully relevant today.

[gyco]

Tortured For Christ - Richard Wurmbrand

tuff subject VLAD,christian beleifs are a personall thing,i have a great love for god, at one time he wasnt in my heart,for 32 years till i went away this year i tht i new god,when i went away this year i did more reading on the truth of the gospel, wow very interesting,true faith or b4 the bible,youll find tht the writings of today originated from the teachings of 3 religions,hebrew ,which i beleive was jewish,latin, which i beleive was spanish, and last but not least waas greek, over many years it changed,as we see what we have today, to me its very confusing,man or women for centuries have been trying to find the rt way,id love to no the truth, gyco

[southernbelle47]

Tortured For Christ - Richard Wurmbrand

Vlad
Sounds very interesting.
I'm reading "What's So Amazing About Grace" by Philip Yancey.
I recommend it to anyone who is confused about God's grace.... Or just searching for Peace.

:lNancy

[Boss.man]

Tortured For Christ - Richard Wurmbrand

I found our experience living in Romania in 2006 to be very enlightening. We lived among Hungarian speaking Unitarians in the Tranylvanian region (western Romania, northwest of the mountains). In this area, Hungarian culture has been preserved for more than 1000 years, and the Unitarian faith has been preserved for the last 500 years.

It brings one back to the whole Catholic/Luther split, and the whole roots of Christian faith in our lives. A reminder that Luther most advocated ideals like a "readable Bible", service in the native language and people who are allowed to pray directly to God for themselves, rather than paying a priest to pray to God. It is amusing to me that the Catholic Church has adopted nearly all of Martin Luther's 90 theses, while claiming to "never change".

Unitarianism came about, in what is now the country of Romania, but was Hungary at the time. The key difference in Unitarianism was the concept that each person could decided their own fate. In an era driven by dogma and both the Catholics and Protestants busily killing each other, the Unitarian concept was that religion was a sort of buffet table, where you could taste all sorts of things, and if you chose right you would go to heaven. But if you chose wrong, you would not be murdered in your own life, but judged by your creator. It is a huge reminder that both Catholics and Protestants engaged in huge ethnic cleansing, and that between these two religions alone are responsible for murdering more people than all wars combined.

In our modern times, Catholics and most US faiths are "Unitarian" in that they now say each person has a choice. They are also generally "Universalist" in that they consider there are multiple paths to heaven, so a Chinese person goes to heaven using their own path, just as you personally are responsible for your path.

Modern US Unitarianism, and particularly west-coast Unitarianism, has abandon any references to God, or Jesus and the Bible in worship. "The Creator" is whatever you think of created us, whether it be the big bang or aliens or mother nature. Jesus was a great teacher, but no more the "son of God" as all of us are all sons and daughters of God. And the Bible is an inspirational work, just as the Torah and the Bhagat Gita are inspirational works.

So it's a bit funny to walk into a Unitarian Church, in modern day Romania, where all the townspeople are Hungarian and have preserved the exact state of religion since about 1500.

For one thing, men walk in a different door from women, and women are forbidden to speak in the church (1 Timothy 2:11). For another, the service is so dogmatic and rigid, it would be constraining to a US Catholic or UK Anglican.

For another thing, outside of faith, all lifestyle roles in the Hungarian speaking region of Romania are extremely rigid. Sons are required to engage the career of their fathers, and daughters are baby making machines. It is odd that a child from even the most rigid Catholic or Mormon family in the US, has more individual choices and freedoms than a Unitarian child in western Romania.

So from our life experience, we were profoundly moved by our experience, but we have no answers at all. I think overall the EU will wash over Romania like a cleansing ocean, and that the children of the Unitiarians we met will live a life of freedom very similar to that of Austrian or Czech children. I'm not sure if the parents will ever understand, or that there will ever be a similarity between faith between the Romanians from the most liberal religion, and those of US people from the most conservative faiths, that are still more liberal than in the old world.

[Lila]

Tortured For Christ - Richard Wurmbrand

Bossman, that was very interesting.
I am glad I am not a Unitarian Romanian, I must say!

[gyco]

Tortured For Christ - Richard Wurmbrand

wow boss guy very impressive,look up the history of religion,the faith you talk of is young,i wont get nto a war of faiths ,europe, and asia i beleive is where all came from,tht is what hstory states,man has searched the true faith for years,man or women have to decide what is rt from wrong, i personally dont beleive a god will do tht,i in my heart beleive man will have the last say,its up to him,ust like the beginning of time or so it states gyco

[Heavenly]

Tortured For Christ - Richard Wurmbrand

I still believe Jesus Christ is part of the Trinity and therefore 'God' and that He died to save me ... a sinner ...

Ergo : I am a Christian.

[southernbelle47]

Tortured For Christ - Richard Wurmbrand

Egg= shell, white, yoke= egg
Trinity=God, Jesus, Holy Spirit= God
Yes and thank you = salvation

[Boss.man]

Tortured For Christ - Richard Wurmbrand

Faith is true, gyco.

But faith comes not from a book or a hero. It comes from your inner self. And faith helps not your mother or your friend, it helps all people in your community.

Any person who feels "Faith" involve denying taxpaying citizens civil rights is simply wrong. They are wrong by the words of Jesus (Matthew 19) and Buddha and Gandhi.

What faith is, and truly is, is the universal will of all our souls to protect our children and our community and grow them all like a flower, into a better world.