Mission Shaped Church
Reverend Richard Wurmbrand was also known as the "Voice of the Underground Church" or "Iron Curtain St. Paul" was a Romania Minister whose desire to share the gospel of Jesus to his oppressors the Communist landed him fourteen years of torture and imprisonment which he miraculously survived. Rev. Richard arduous story as a prisoner of Jesus has been an inspiration to many including myself and his appeal to believers around the world to support the mission of the underground/persecuted churches is one I take seriously as persecuted Christian in Nigeria.
Richard Wurmbrand was born on March 24, 1909, in Bucharest, Romania. As an atheist, Richard 's bitter childhood as a result of poverty during WW1 convinced …show more content…
The message of the Underground Church is the gospel in its purest form. The preachers often do not have any formal theological education, have being imprisoned, and haven 't read a bible for many years because of imprisonment. But like Peter on the day of Pentecost, these preachers speak boldly about a Savior they know subjectively. The members whose faith have being tested by the oppression of the communist gladly receive the message and are excited to be ambassadors of Jesus. One of the many challenges the Underground church faced was the threat of atheism as the state religion in most communist countries. Without a formal theological education, the laity were able to challenge atheistic claims about God by using simple logic to expose the lies of communist. One of my favorite story in the book Tortured for Christ was a professor of communism who demonstrated that Jesus was a magician by pouring a powder in a pitcher of water which turned the water red. He said "This is the whole miracle...Jesus had hidden in his sleeves a powder like this." After pretending to be mesmerized by the demonstration, a Christian stood up and asked the professor to drink the wine he magically made. The professor replied that he cannot do that because the power was poisonous hence, the Christian replied, "This is the whole difference between you and Jesus. He, with His wine, has given us joy for two thousand years, whereas you poison us with your wine." There are many inspirational stories of Christians challenging atheism but they were able to do all of that through wisdom from the Holy Spirit and daily study of the Bible. Richard argues that the underground church is equipped to evangelize to the atheist like a Surgeon is equipped to