Welcome to this special episode of the China Compass Podcast, #25 in the weekly “Prison Pulpit” series! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. You can follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I post daily reminders to pray for China (http://PrayforChina.us). To learn more about our various ministry endeavors and to get any of the missionary biographies I’ve published, visit www.PrayGiveGo.us!

Once again, we turn to Richard Wurmbrand to give us a glimpse into the suffering of the persecuted church…

Richard Wurmbrand was a Romanian Lutheran minister who spent fourteen years in prison (three in solitary confinement) and published ”Tortured for Christ" after his release in the late 1960s.

He later founded Voice of the Martyrs, but son Michael does NOT recommend VOM’s ministry today. (Read his “Open Letter” about VOM here: https://www.billionbibles.com/michael-wurmbrand-vom.html) 

Michael Wurmbrand now runs his own ministry, and has made most of his father’s books (and formerly unpublished writings) available for free: https://richardwurmbrandfoundation.com/.

Last week I read an excerpt from a “Sermon To My Own Soul”, (or, “Preaching in a Straitjacket (Gagged)”, from Wurmbrand’s book, Sermons in Solitary Confinement, where he writes the following: 

You know my secret. You know the place where I have hidden some thirty sleeping pills which, taken at once, will ensure that I do not become a Judas. These suicides are acts of love and honor. They protect the Underground church.

Read the text version of last week’s podcast here:

https://chinacall.substack.com/p/preaching-in-a-straitjacket-gagged

Today I am reading a portion from Richard Wurmband’s longer book of prison stories & meditations, In God's Underground (https://richardwurmbrandfoundation.com/pdfs/IGU-english.pdf) where he gives more context (and a finale) to the potential suicide that he only mentions in the aforementioned sermon. 

Here is the text version of this week’s podcast: 

https://chinacall.substack.com/p/to-live-is-compromise-to-die-is-gain

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