When he was asked to describe his faith in Jesus Christ, Richard Wurmbrand said this: "I would rather be the poorest man on earth and know Jesus Christ than be the richest man on earth and be going to hell."
Who was Wurmbrand? He was one of the greatest Christian missionaries who lived during the 20th century. And he also happened to be Jewish. Born in Bucharest, Romania in 1909, Wurmbrand grew up in a nation that eventually became swallowed up by the monolithic and communist Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was not only vehemently anti-Semitic, it was also atheistic, which meant that it viewed Christianity as an outdated belief system for people with primitive minds. When Wurmbrand first professed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior in 1938, he had two strikes against him; he was both a Jew and a Christian.
That got Wurmbrand jailed twice; first in 1948 for preaching against communism and then again in 1959 for defying the Romanian government by continuing to preach and proclaim Jesus Christ after he had been ordered to stop. When he was mercifully amnestied in 1964, he immediately began traveling the world to share his testimony of the savage beatings and harsh persecution that he was forced to endure during his time behind bars.
This is what Wurmbrand wrote during his first imprisonment that lasted until 1956: "We didn't see that we were in prison. We were surrounded by angels; we were with God. We no longer believed about God and Christ and angels because Bible verses said it. We didn't remember Bible verses anymore. We remembered about God because we experienced it. With great humility we can say with the apostles, 'What we have seen with our eyes, what we have heard with our ears, what we have touched with our own fingers, this we tell to you.'"
During his second imprisonment, Wurmbrand was threatened daily with death; he was starved, beaten and tortured psychologically with nonstop tape recordings that denounced Christianity and praised communism. Though his body bore the physical scars of the torture he suffered, Wurmbrand's spirit never broke and he never renounced Christ. Despite the misery that he was forced to endure--the type of misery that would've broken most men--Wurmbrand continued to give thanks to God for the eternal life that Jesus Christ earned for him by paying the ultimate price for Wurmbrand's sins on Calvary's cross.
Sadly, when most people celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday--including many professing Christians--they won't be thinking about giving thanks to God for the free gift of eternal life he presented them through Christ's crucifixion on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. Rather, they'll be thinking about consuming lots of food and watching football on TV. While that's become a time-honored tradition in America, it's just an empty ritual where few, if any people even bother to give thanks for anything other than a day off from school or work.
Before you gather at the table and eat the traditional Thanksgiving meal, stop and think about true freedom and who really made it all possible. Certainly, Richard Wurmbrand would gladly cherish your political freedom, and he would never take it for granted. And neither should you. However, mere physical freedom from political persecution without spiritual freedom from sin and eternal damnation really isn't any freedom at all. Therefore, before you eat, give true thanks to God for what Jesus Christ accomplished for you on a Roman cross 2,000 years ago.
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