Wurmbrand Quotes

God will judge us not according to how much we endured, but how much we could love

It was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners. It was understood that whoever was caught doing this received a severe beating. A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege of preaching, so we accepted their [the communists' ] terms. It was a deal; we preached and they beat us. We were happy preaching. They were happy beating us, so everyone was happy.

My wife and I were present at this congress. Sabina told me, "Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face." I said to her, "If I do so, you lose your husband." She replied, "I don't wish to have a coward as a husband.

He said there were two kinds of Christians: those who sincerely believe in God and those who, just as sincerely, believe that they believe. You can tell them apart by their actions in decisive moments.

Did I believe in God? Now the test had come. I was alone. There was no salary to earn, no golden opinions to consider. God offered me only suffering—would I continue to love Him?

There was once a fiddler who played so beauitully that everybody danced. A deaf man who could not hear the music considered them all insane. Those who are with Jesus in suffering hear this music to which other men are deaf. They dance and do not care if they are considered insane.

Not all of us are called to die a martyr’s death, but all of us are called to have the same spirit of self-sacrifice and love to the very end as these martyrs had.

I found that joy can be acquired like a habit, in the same way as a folded sheet of paper falls naturally into the same fold.

Martin Luther, when he walked in the woods, used to raise his hat to the birds and say, ‘Good morning, theologians—you wake and sing, but I, old fool, know less than you and worry over everything, instead of simply trusting in the heavenly Father’s care.

I have found truly jubilant Christians only in the Bible, in the Underground Church and in prison.

...if God does not exist and there is no immortality, then all the evil acts of men go unpunished and all the sacrifices of good men go unrewarded. But who can live with such a view? Richard Wurmbrand, who has been tortured for his faith in communist prisons, says, The cruelty of atheism is hard to believe when man has no faith in the reward of good or the punishment of evil. There is no reason to be human. There is no restraint from the depths of evil which is in man. The communist torturers often said, 'There is no God, no Hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.' I have heard one torturer even say, 'I thank God, in whom I don't believe, that I have lived to this hour when I can express all the evil in my heart.' He expressed it in unbelievable brutality and torture inflicted on prisoners.

Even the best of Christians are troubled by the question, "Why does an almighty God send, or at least allow, suffering?" When you are nagged by thoughts like this, say to yourself, "I am still in elementary school. When I graduate from the university of Christian life, I will understand His ways better and doubts will cease.

God chooses people whom the world does not hold in high esteem— simple souls who have stumbled, and who in their ignorance have become a prey to wickedness.

To believe in Him is not such a great thing. To become like Him is truly great.

What can we do to win these men to Christ?

Stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face.

Are you seeking Jesus? Where have you been looking for Him? As you begin your day, think through the various places you will be and the people you will be with; and envision Jesus standing next to you in each of those places.

I tremble because of the sufferings of those persecuted in different lands. I tremble thinking about the eternal destiny of their torturers. I tremble for Western Christians who don't help their persecuted brethren. In the depth of my heart, I would like to keep the beauty of my own vineyard and not be involved in such a huge fight. I would like so much to be somewhere in quietness and rest. But it is not possible... The quietness and rest for which I long would be an escape from reality and dangerous for my soul... The West sleeps and must be awakened to see the plight of the captive nations.

God is always on the side of the persecuted,

From now on a fire burned within us, as it did in the disciples on the road to Emmaus. “Snowflakes cannot fall on a hot stove,” says an Indian proverb. The coldness of this world could no longer harm us, although we had to pass through bitter times.

Often, after a secret service, Christians were caught and sent to prison. There, Chris­tians wear chains with the gladness with which a bride wears a precious jewel received from her beloved.

We can feel unworthy that the King of kings attends to such seemingly insignificant details in our lives. Read Matthew 6:25–34. As you think about your last week, thank Jesus for all the needs that He has met.

Further, churches assert their wish to save men from a future hell. Then they should prove their love toward men by helping save the world from today’s hell of illiteracy, hunger, misery, tyranny, exploitation, and war.

But every point of view is a point of blindness: it incapacitates us for every other point of view. From a certain point of view, the room in which I write has no door. I turn around. Now I see the door, but the room has no window. I look up. From this point of view, the room has no floor. I look down; it has no ceiling. By avoiding particular points of view we are able to have an intuition of the whole. The ideal for a Christian is to become holy, a word which derives from “whole.

There’s always a good reason to rejoice. There is a God in Heaven and in the heart. I had a piece of bread this morning. It was so good! Look now, the sun is shining! And so many here love me! Every day you do not rejoice is a day lost, my son!

Luther said that every Christian is “simul justus et peccator, comprehensor et viator”—“simultaneously righteous and sinful, a man who has reached the goal and one who reaches out toward it.

Persecution has always produced a better Christian—a witnessing Christian, a soul-winning Christian. Communist persecution has backfired and produced serious, dedicated Christians such as are rarely seen in free lands. These people cannot understand how anyone can be a Christian and not want to win every soul they meet.

When the Messiah comes, many will try to play their own songs on His harp. The results will be tragically dissonant. On the Messiah’s harp, you must play His own song — the song of His eternal glory with God; the song of His humiliation as a babe in a manger; the song of a life in sorrow, opposition and poverty on Earth; the song of His being whipped and crucified and buried; and finally the song of His resurrection, ascension and enthronement in heaven. “Then the harp will give a beautiful sound. His congregation will shine like a sun.

Not all souls are the same. Some rivers flow quietly between their banks; others overflow. There exist choice souls, whose love of God cannot be confi ned to the narrow limits of what is considered a normal faith. Their cup runs over. Their love of God burns. Solomon’s Song answers to the desires of such hearts.

The fourth is the thought of the sorrows that Christ bore gladly for us. If the only Man who ever could choose His fate on earth chose pain, what great value He must have seen in it! So we observe that, borne with serenity and joy, suffering redeems.

Solomon’s Song belongs to those who have made the greatest renunciation of all: the renunciation of self. For them, only the Beloved counts.

Și ce te faci dacă totuși exista Dumnezeu: spune-mi, ce te faci dacă totuși este adevărat ca El exista? (Levi Yitzhak)

If the embryo could reason in the womb, it would wonder why it grew hands and feet, and it would surely conclude that there must be another world to play and run and work.

Bible verses remain true, even if the devil quotes them.

God is “the Truth.” The Bible is the “truth about the Truth.” Theology is the “truth about the truth about the Truth.” Christian people live in these many truths about the Truth, and, because of them, have not “the Truth.” Hungry, beaten, and drugged, we had forgotten theology and the Bible. We had forgotten the “truths about the Truth,” therefore we lived in “the Truth.

A man who visits a barber to be shaved, or who orders a suit from a tailor, is not a disciple, but a customer. So one who comes to the Savior only to be saved is the Savior’s customer, not His disciple. A disciple is one who says to Christ, ‘How I long to do work like Yours! To go from place to place taking away fear; bringing instead joy, truth, comfort, and life eternal!

Ar trebui să ne preţuim mintea după atitudinea pe care o luăm în situaţii limită, când ea se străduieşte să găsească o cale de ieşire în momentele de criză supremă. Atunci când raţiunea trebuie să treacă peste prăpastia morţii, faţada ateismului, aproape întotdeauna, se prăbuşeşte.

Jesus said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes” (Matthew 11:25). Why would this be? I believe that God desires that His message not be perverted, this message which has eternal significance. Intellectuals are seldom capable of conveying a message just as they have received it, without giving it a personal twist; whereas the simple, ignorant people transmit it faithfully.

I have seen Christians in Communist prisons with fifty pounds of chains on their feet, tortured with red-hot iron pokers, in whose throats spoonfuls of salt had been forced, being kept afterward without water, starving, whipped, suffering from cold —and praying with fervor for the Communists. This is humanly inexplicable! It is the love of Christ, which was poured out in our hearts.

How many Christians of the free world visit communist countries and other nations where Christians are persecuted but never ask permission to visit a jail and encourage their brothers and sisters in pain?

In his play Murder in the Cathedral, T. S. Eliot describes a martyr as one “who has become an instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, not lost it but found it, for he has found freedom in submission to God. The martyr no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of ­martyrdom.

When extreme need or threat arises, it is good to cry out. Nobody whispers when threatened by a dragon. God says to Samuel, “Their cry has come to me” (1 Samuel 9:16). If the cry is missing, the realization of our great danger in this valley is missing. But after the cry the silence returns.

I am convinced that the Lord heard my prayers and took me out according to His plan. I had only to learn a very deep lesson, to drink the cup to its bitterest dregs; and now I am thankful that I passed through this hard school, which teaches you the highest love, love toward God, even when He gives nothing but suffering.

My brothers and sisters, you also must believe that your lives are clay in the hands of a wonderful Sculptor. He never makes mistakes. If at times He is hard on you, it is because He sometimes has what we could call negative successes. He loses a pawn in order to win the chess game. He loses a battle in order to win a war. He causes his Son to endure suffering in order to save a world. Just trust. Don’t live on another’s messages, but discover the message for which He is molding you.

When a man has no faith in the reward of good or the punishment of evil, there is no reason to be human. There is no restraint from the depths of evil that is in man. The Communist torturers often said, “There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.” I heard one torturer say, “I thank God, in whom I don’t believe, that I have lived to this hour when I can express all the evil in my heart.” He expressed it in unbelievable brutality and torture inflicted on prisoners.

Bonaventure was the first Superior of the Franciscan Order after the death of its founder. Thomas Aquinas once asked him where he got his extensive knowledge. Bonaventure pointed to the crucifix on his desk. “That is the source of all my knowledge,” he said. “I study only Jesus Christ, and Him crucifi ed.” Bonaventure had received the holy kiss of the divine nature of Jesus. * * * Set aside a portion of time today to read Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2. As a follower of Christ, what are you “determined to know” or be or do (verse 2)? Is it what Christ wants for you? Then spend time thinking about the words, “We have the mind of Christ” (verse 16). How would your life change if you embraced this truth?

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28).

but God had used their years of imprisonment and poverty to transform the couple into contemplatives satisfied with little more than the presence of Christ.

People are so inoculated in childhood with small doses of Christianity that they seldom catch the real thing.

So at last when I believed Christianity was dead, I said, "Even so, I will believe in it, and I will weep at its tomb until it rises again, as it surely will.

Hammer away, ye hostile bands. Your hammers break; God’s anvil stands.

Faith in God is the sole answer to the mystery of evil.

We will respond, even in the face of irony and slander, with the sweetness of love. We can afford to take this attitude because good anvils do not fear the blows of many hammers.

Where there is love, it is Jesus that will surely triumph.

In spiritual matters, the only real glory is in the renunciation of glorifying self.

I wish to be an “I” no longer. I reject my “I.” My desire is to be a “He.” “When He is revealed, we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2).

I saw in the shabby, dirty, weak martyr near me the splendidly crowned saint of tomorrow. But looking at men like this - not as they are, but as they will be

The value of the Bibles smuggled in by these means cannot be understood by an American or an English Christian who “swims” in Bibles.

God will judge us not according to how much we endured, but how much we could love.

Credo quia impossibile

A little known preacher named Mordecai Ham led to Christ a young boy whose name was Billy Graham. Billy Graham brought thousands upon thousands to Christ. Mordecai Ham had witnessed to many people. He may not have had big results, but one of those he won to Christ was exceptional. He was Ham’s Song of Songs. I would encourage you to write many songs. One of them will be your Song of Songs.

It is a miracle, with no logical explanation, that even amid the fierce anti-Semitism of Hitler’s oppression, there were Germans who believed with all their hearts in the crucified Jew as their Savior.

Worms, fire, or the sea might consume my body. But my spirit will live in a world with no more wanderings and trials. I do not have to pass through many painful incarnations. Beyond death lies paradise.

Prison is one of the places where we should look for Him. I remember a Good Friday in a cell in the Romanian jail of Jilava. We were all very hungry. But that day when the bowl of gruel was brought to us, we refused to eat it. We fasted. Good Friday is the only fast day described by the Lord Himself: “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Matthew 9:15). Days of fasting, with deep repentance for our past sins and ardent prayers for the persecuted, are the greatest gifts anyone can give to members of the underground church and the missions that help them.

The cruelty of atheism is hard to believe. When a man has no faith in the reward of good or the punishment of evil, there is no reason to be human. There is no restraint from the depths of evil that is in man.

Matchevici answered, “I don’t wish to remain alive and be ashamed to look in a mirror, because I will see the face of a traitor. I cannot accept such a condition. I prefer to die.” The officer of the secret police shook Matchevici’s hand and said, “I congratulate you. I didn’t expect any other answer from you. But I would like to make another proposal. Some of the prisoners have become our informers. They claim to be Commu­nist and they are denouncing you. They play a double role. We have no confidence in them. We would like to know in what measure they are sincere. Toward you they are traitors who are doing you much harm, informing us about your words and deeds. I understand that you don’t want to betray your comrades. But give us information about those who oppose you so you will save your life!” Matchevici answered, as promptly as the first time, “I am a disciple of Christ and He has taught us to love even our enemies. The men who betray us do us much harm but I cannot reward evil with evil. I cannot give information even against them. I pity them. I pray for them. I don’t wish to have any connection with the Communists.” Matche­vici came back from the discussion with the political officer and died in the same cell I was in. I saw him die—he was praising God. Love conquered even the natural thirst for life.

They say the tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep harmony. Their words are scarce, they’re seldom spent in vain For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain. How well he could have applied this passage to the last words of Jesus on the cross.

Whoever has known the spiritual beauty of the Under­ground Church cannot be satisfied anymore with the emptiness of some Western churches. I suffer in the West more than I suffered in a Communist jail because now I see with my own eyes Western civilization dying. Oswald Spengler wrote in Decline of the West: You are dying. I see in you all the characteristic stigma of decay. I can prove that your great wealth and your great poverty, your capitalism and your socialism, your wars and your revolutions, your atheism and your ­pessimism and your cynicism, your immorality, your broken-down marriages, your birth-control, that is bleeding you from the bottom and killing you off at the top in your brains —can prove to you that there are characteristic marks of the dying ages of ancient states—Alexandria and Greece and neurotic Rome. This was written in 1926. Since then, democracy and civilization have

difficulty is not lack of knowledge, but moral weakness. If you love Jesus with a pure heart, you will know where He feeds His flock as surely as every man who loves drugs or alcohol knows where to find them (Matthew 5:8). “Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses” (Psalm 25:12).

Finally, we should note that in the Song, the Bridegroom is sometimes called a king and the bride a queen. Sometimes he is a shepherd; sometimes they are workers in the vineyard. Sometimes they are in a palace; sometimes in the field. This teaches that people of all social classes are called to participate in spiritual life at the highest level.

reminded him of the great scientists who have been Christians—from Newton and Kepler to Pavlov and the discoverer of anaesthetics, Sir James Simpson. Luca said, “They conformed to the conventions of the time.” I said, “Do you know the declaration of Louis Pasteur, who discovered microbes and vaccination? ‘Je crois comme une charbonnière le plus que je progresse en science.

Many persecuted believers have thrived in the desert of prison. Perpetua, a third-century Christian who was imprisoned and martyred for her faith, said of her prison cell: “The dungeon became to me as it were a palace, so that I preferred being there to being elsewhere.” Do not be fearful of dry times in your spiritual life. Tap into the Bridegroom, seeking only His living water and you will thrive.

The tyrant of Syracuse once went to the slavephilosopher Epictetus and told him, “I’ll pay the ransom for you and you will be liberated ” Epictetus replied, “Why do you care about me? Free yourself.” “But I am a king,” said the amazed tyrant. “This I contest,” was the answer of the philosopher. “He who masters his passions is a king even while in chains. He who is ruled by his passions is a slave even while sitting on a throne.

Where do you flee when facing darkness and shadows in life? Find a favorite photo of a mountain or hill. It could be a photograph from a vacation, nearby sites, or even a postcard, magazine cut-out or greeting card. Put it in a place where you will see it whenever you face difficulties. Then envision Jesus carrying you up the mountain of myrrh where He will bring you refreshment and healing so that you can return to bring His fragrance to others.

Abbot Miron had sat sewing a patch on his trousers as we talked. He raised his intense luminous eyes to Gaston and said, “Years ago I had a postcard from my brother in New York, who had been to the top of the Empire State Building. He didn’t investigate the foundations first, Pastor Gaston. The fact that it had been there forty years is proof that the foundations are good. The same with the Church, which has rested two thousand years on the truth.

Miron said, “Strange that men who wrote with what seemed deep Christian faith should turn traitor so easily!” Perhaps the answer was that in their writings Daianu and Ghinda praised Christ for the gifts He gives us—peace, love, salvation. A real disciple does not seek gifts but Christ Himself, and so is ready for self-sacrifice to the end. They were not followers of Jesus, but customers; when the Communists opened a shop next door with goods at lower prices, they took their business there.

A carpenter witnessed to me about Christ. He died knowing he had brought only my wife and me to faith, but we brought others to Christ. Those brought others, and so on. The result is Hebrew Christian churches in Haifa, Tel-Aviv, and Jerusalem. Their true founder is that carpenter. He witnessed to many people without result, but he brought one to Christ who brought others. Some of them became interested in helping persecuted Christians in communist countries. That is how The Voice of the Martyrs worldwide began.

My wife and I were present at this congress. Sabina told me, Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face.' I said to her, 'if I do so, you lose your husband. She replied, 'I don't wish to have a coward as a husband.' Then I arose and spoke to this congress, praising not the murderers of Christians, but Jesus Christ, stating that our loyalty is due first to Him. The speeches at this congress were broadcast and the whole country could hear proclaimed from the rostrum of the Communist Parliament the message of Christ! Afterwards I had to pay for this, but it was worthwhile.

Matchevici answered, “I don’t wish to remain alive and be ashamed to look in a mirror, because I will see the face of a traitor. I cannot accept such a condition. I prefer to die.” The officer of the secret police shook Matchevici’s hand and said, “I congratulate you. I didn’t expect any other answer from you. But I would like to make another proposal. Some of the prisoners have become our informers. They claim to be Commu­nist and they are denouncing you. They play a double role. We have no confidence in them. We would like to know in what measure they are sincere. Toward you they are traitors who are doing you much harm, informing us about your words and deeds. I understand that you don’t want to betray your comrades. But give us information about those who oppose you so you will save your life!” Matchevici answered, as promptly as the first time, “I am a disciple of Christ and He has taught us to love even our enemies. The men who betray us do us much harm but I cannot reward evil with evil. I cannot give information even against them. I pity them. I pray for them. I don’t wish to have any connection with the Communists.” Matche­vici came back from the discussion with the political officer and died in the same cell I was in. I saw him die—he was praising God. Love

We have to follow in the footsteps of such men, loving our enemies but also resisting their evil deeds. It is easy to walk “by the footsteps of the flock” because sheep can wear ruts into trails. But again, let us be careful to walk only by the path of Jesus’ sheep. Not all sheep have virtues to be imitated. Some can be very cruel. Any farmer will tell you about sheep that let their lambs die of starvation by withholding milk. Sometimes they even smash the lambs’ heads against a wall. Also, certain sheep of different breeds hate one another. Those of the Hampshire breed cannot tolerate those of the Suffolk breed. Avoid Christian sheep of this kind.

The following is one of the oldest sermon illustrations used in the Christian church. It also tests one’s understanding of the Christian life. There once lived an ugly, hunchback dwarf. No one ever invited him to a party. No one showed him love or even attention. He became disillusioned with life and decided to climb a mountain and throw himself from its peak into the abyss. When he ascended the mountain, he met a beautiful girl. He talked to her and discovered that she was climbing the mountain for the same purpose. Her suffering was at the other extreme. She had everyone’s attention and love, but the one she loved had forsaken her for another girl, one with riches. She felt life had no meaning for her any longer, so they decided to make the ascent together. While they climbed, they met a man who introduced himself as a police officer in search of a very dangerous bandit who had robbed and murdered many people. The king had promised a large reward to the person who captured him. The police officer was very confident: “I will catch him because I know he has a feature by which he can be recognized. He has six fingers on his right hand. The police have been looking for him for years. For the last two or three, nothing has been heard from him, but he must pay for a multitude of past crimes.” The three climbed the mountain. Near its peak was a monastery. Its abbot, although he had become a monk only recently, had quickly attained great renown for saintliness. When they entered the monastery, he came to meet them. You could see the glory of God in his face. As the girl bowed to kiss his right hand, she saw he had six fingers. With this, the story ends. Those who hear this story are perplexed. It can’t finish like this! What happened to the dwarf, the girl, the policeman? Was the criminal caught? The story’s beauty is that it does finish here. Something beautiful has happened: A criminal hunted because of his many robberies and murders has become a great saint, renowned for his godly life. All the rest is of no further interest. The great miracle has been performed. Christ has been born in the heart of a man of very low character.

A story is told about David as a young boy in King Saul’s court. He asked permission to play on a beautiful harp that was sitting unused in the throne room. King Saul said: “It’s useless. I have been cheated. I paid a great deal for that harp because it was spoken of highly. But the best harpists have tried it, and it was painful to hear the ugly sounds it produced. It’s the worst harp that you could imagine.” David persisted; and because the king loved him greatly, he granted David permission to play it. The music was so beautiful that all the court wept. They had been moved to the depths of their hearts. “How is it,” demanded King Saul, “that so many tried to play this harp, and only you succeeded?” David replied, “All the others tried to play their own songs, and the harp refused to yield to their wishes. I played to the harp its own song. You saw its joy when I reminded it of the days when it was a young tree in the forest. I told it about sunbeams playing in its branches, about chirping birds and about lovers embracing each other in its shadow. The harp was glad to remember those days. “I told the story of the evil men who came and cut down the innocent tree. It was a sad day. Its life as a tree had finished. However, I told the harp that death cannot triumph over life. The tree has died as a tree, but its wood has become a harp, which can sing forever the glories of the eternal God. And the harp, which had wept when I told about her death, now rejoiced.

An Orthodox priest, a friend of mine, telephoned me and told me that a Russian officer had come to him to confess. My friend did not know Russian. However, knowing that I speak Russian, he had given him my address. The next day this man came to see me. He longed for God, but he had never seen a Bible. He had no religious education and never attended religious services (churches in Russia then were very scarce). He loved God without the slightest knowledge of Him. I read to him the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus. After hearing them, he danced around the room in rapturous joy proclaiming, “What a wonderful beauty! How could I live without knowing this Christ!” It was the first time that I saw someone so joyful in Christ. Then I made a mistake. I read to him the passion and crucifixion of Christ, without having prepared him for this. He had not expected it and, when he heard how Christ was beaten, how He was crucified and that in the end He died, he fell into an armchair and began to weep bitterly. He had believed in a Savior and now his Savior was dead! I looked at him and was ashamed. I had called myself a Christian, a pastor, and a teacher of others, but I had never shared the sufferings of Christ as this Russian officer now shared them. Looking at him, it was like seeing Mary Magdalene weeping at the foot of the cross, faithfully weeping when Jesus was a corpse in the tomb. Then I read to him the story of the resurrection and watched his expression change. He had not known that his Savior arose from the tomb. When he heard this wonderful news, he beat his knees and swore—using very dirty, but very “holy” profanity. This was his crude manner of speech. Again he rejoiced, shouting for joy, “He is alive! He is alive!” He danced around the room once more, overwhelmed with happiness! I said to him, “Let us pray!” He did not know how to pray. He did not know our “holy” phrases. He fell on his knees together with me and his words of prayer were: “Oh God, what a fine chap you are! If I were You and You were me, I would never have forgiven You of Your sins. But You are really a very nice chap! I love You with all of my heart.” I think that all the angels in heaven stopped what they were doing to listen to this sublime prayer from a Russian officer. The man had been won for Christ!

In Solomon’s Song, Jesus did not come out and say where He feeds His flock. He wants us to think for ourselves. But on the Day of Judgment, we will be reproached or approved for our decision to be among, or not among, this world’s sufferers.

These are the last words of Iuliu Maniu, a Christian and the former Prime Minister of Romania, who died in prison: “If the Communists are overthrown in our country, it will be the most holy duty of every Christian to go into the streets and at the risk of his own life defend the Communists from the righteous fury of the multitudes whom they have tyrannized.

Theologians of the West discuss trifles in the meantime. It reminds me that, while the troops of Mahomet II surrounded Constantinople in 1493 and it had to be decided whether the Balkans would be under Christian or Mohammedan dominion for centuries, a local church council in the besieged city discussed the following problems: What color were the eyes of the virgin Mary? What gender do the angels have? If a fly falls into sanctified water, is the fly sanctified or the water defiled? This may be only a legend concerning those times, but peruse Church periodicals of today and you will find that questions just like these are discussed. The menace of the persecutors and the sufferings of the Underground Church are scarcely ever mentioned.

The language of love and the language of seduction are the same. The one who wishes a girl for a wife and the one who wishes her for only a night both say the words, “I love you.” Jesus has told us to discern between the language of seduction and the language of love, and to know the wolves clad in sheepskin from the real sheep.

If you had refused to descend to men, you would have been my distant dream. If you had refused to sow your word, I would love you without hearing it. If you had hesitated and fled from the crucifixion, and I were not saved, I would still love you. If you were a myth, I would leave reality and live with you in a dream.

Kirgizskaia Pravda of 17 January 1966 quoted an underground Christian leaflet to mothers: 'Let us join our efforts and prayers to dedicate to God the lives of our children from the time they are in the cradle! Let us save our children from the influence of the world.

It is important to observe in the Bible not only what it contains, but also what it omits. One interesting feature of the New Testament is that Jesus never asked anyone to tell Him about the circumstances of his sins. He knew men to be sinful, so the details of their trespasses, be they small offenses or huge crimes, did not interest Him. Instead of probing in dirt, He went from one man to another saying, “Be of good cheer, son; be of good cheer, daughter. Your sins are forgiven.” Another important feature is that no one ever said to Jesus, “Please, forgive me,” or, “I am sorry.” On the last evening all the apostles fled and one denied Him. Later, when the resurrected Lord appeared to them, it would have been appropriate for them to ask His forgiveness. None did. Whoever looked into Jesus’ face saw there so much love and goodness that he felt, “With Jesus forgiveness is self-evident. His willingness to forgive me is much greater than my readiness to ask for forgiveness. His wish for me to be saved is far greater than my own. His desire for my fellowship in heaven is greater than my wish to go there.” They did not approach Jesus with words of apology, but only trusted in His goodness.

In the free world, it is customary during a strike for men to picket the entrance to a factory. They often use violence to prevent from entering any workers who choose not to join their actions. Likewise we Christians must decide to boycott hell, picketing the entrance with determination.

Materialists do not love matter. They have no sense of its “earnest expectation” (Romans 8:19), and do not sympathize with its “bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21).

The Bible verses that comfort me most are two verses that are not in the Bible.” First, I am happy that the Bible never mentions Jesus asking anyone what sins they had committed, how many, of what gravity, under what circumstances, with what complicity. He met sinners and told them, “Be of good cheer, son or daughter, your sins are forgiven.” Second, what I appreciate is that the Bible records no instance in which anyone apologized or asked Jesus for forgiveness during His earthly life. On the last evening before His crucifixion, the disciples had forsaken Him and one had denied Him. Afterwards, when they met their resurrected Lord, they should at least have said, “I’m sorry.” But whoever looked into the face of Jesus saw so much kindness, so much love, such a willingness to forgive, that he knew there was no need to ask.

Last night I dreamt that an Orthodox Jew with a beard and curls asked me, “What is the other world?” I answered, “It is where one has the answer. This world is the world of asking questions.” But I am already at the border of the other world. I begin to have the replies. We have our first reply in the Bible. But scholars know that the Bible is like reality as defined by Planck and Heisenberg in modern physics, a wave of probabilities. You can never say what and where an elementary particle is and what it will do. You handle it by working on probabilities.

An English sergeant once stationed in Egypt tells this incident about himself: “There was a civilian in the same company who was converted. We gave that fellow an awful time. One very wet night, he came in tired. Before getting into bed, he went down on his knees to pray. My boots were heavy with wet mud, and I let him have one on each side of his head. He just went on with his prayers. Next morning, I found those boots beautifully polished and standing by the side of my bed. That was his reply to me, and it broke my heart. I was saved that day.

When an engineer has built a bridge, the fact that a cat can pass over the bridge is no proof that the bridge is good. A train must pass over it to prove its strength. The fact that you can be an atheist when everything goes well does not prove the truth of atheism. It does not hold up in moments of great crisis.” I

Most of your statues in churches do not correspond to the picture I have of you. In the statues you are shown very much like a nun, with a rosary in your hand. You are smiling serenely. But nuns have no children. You have. Your true likeness has yet to be depicted.

Domnule sublocotenent, unul dintre strămoşii mei din secolul al XVII-lea a fost rabin. Biografii lui relatează cum, întâlnind un ateu, el i-a zis: "Te invidiez, dragă frate! Viaţa dumitale spirituală este, probabil, mai tare decât a mea. Eu, când văd un om în necaz, spun adesea: "Dumnezeu să-l ajute" şi trec mai departe. Dar dumneata nu crezi în Dumnezeu, aşa încât trebuie să-ţi asumi toate sarcinile lui Dumnezeu şi să-i ajuţi pe toţi.

When the apostle Peter realized who Jesus was, he said to Him, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Peter was very grateful that Jesus had increased His catch to an exceptionally great multitude of fish. But he also knew that a being like Jesus could do greater things than merely provide a fisherman with a miraculous haul. Like the bride who sends the Bridegroom away to the mountains of Bether (the word “bether” means “separation”), Peter wanted Him to go away and do His more marvelous work. Peter was prepared to be content with a normal-sized catch.

I was left an orphan while I was still a child, and we were very poor. Sometimes I would stand for hours on end in ecstasy outside a baker’s shop, gazing with burning desire at the cakes. I would say to myself, ‘These are not for me. I shall never be able to eat anything like this.’ The Bible brings back these memories. Once again I can see wonderful things, but I know that they are not for me, because I am a Jew. I know that there are Jews who have converted to Christianity in order to marry Romanian girls or to escape anti-Semitic persecution. But I have not yet met a Jew who believes in Jesus.