Richard Wurmbrand's
Full Letter to the SDA General Conference
by Vance Ferrell
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Dear Reader, Some of you have read a
part of Richard Wurmbrand's letter to the SDA
General Conference, but now, the entire letter has been found and published
by Vance Ferrell. You should pray before you read this letter. Then you
should pray again and ask the Lord if you should support a church that
supports atheistic communism and has for decades betrayed faithful Adventists
in Russia. Vance says that his appeals are "not a call
in nor a call out of the church." Vance has not the
courage, the morality nor the sense of Christian duty to inform professing
Seventh-day Adventists, that in addition to not supporting a false New
Movement, masquerading as the Seventh-day Adventist church, and which we were
NEVER to join, Selected Messages, Book 1, 204-5, we should never join a
church that extols atheistic communism and its leaders. But Vance makes much
money selling wares to unsuspecting Seventh-day Adventists. Apparently, this
is the reason he is not willing to tell them the truth as regards supporting
such a church. The money flow would end if he told SDA's the truth. Pastor Robert Priebe, (retired), relative of Pastor Dennis Priebe, personally told me that he went to visit Vance
Ferrell. Pastor Robert Priebe is a separationsis SDA. He said that Vance commended him for
his stand. But why will Vance not take the same stand? Pastor Priebe said he took one look at a number of large mail
bags in the room which were full of money, and he realized that money is
Vance's shortcoming. Money is the reason he cannot bring himself to tell
Seventh-day Adventists the truth about separation from a New Movement--New
Organization, they were never to join. The Lord has shown me that Pastor
Robert Priebe's assessment is correct. Vance's
statement that his warning message "is not a call in, nor a call out
of the church," is double-speak rather than a clarion yea or nay
which the Bible enjoins: 2Cr 1:17 When I
therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or
the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me
there should be yea yea, and nay nay? Mat 26:73 And after a
while came unto [him] they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also
art [one] of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee. Jam 5:12 But above all
things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven,
neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and
[your] nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. Mat 5:37 But let your
communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. If you think that God
would approve of a New Movement SDA church whose leadership extols the evils
of communism as having similarities with Christianity, better stay on your
knees in prayer friend, until you get the true answer. End foreword by Ron
Beaulieu. The
Cries of the Persecuted Unheeded! Richard Wurmbrand
and His Letter
Because his story is
about a Christian who suffered for his faith, and because of a letter he
later wrote to our General Conference, we will here tell part of the Richard Wurmbrand story. His book, Tortured for Christ, is
well-known and you may already have read it. But few know the following
story: Richard Wurmbrand died on February 17, 2001 in Whittier
, California , at the age of 91. A Romanian Jew, he and his wife
converted to Christianity in 1936. When World War II ended, Wurmbrand pastored a church of 1,000, mostly of Jewish
converts. He also printed and organized the distribution of a million Russian
Gospels to the Russian troops that occupied Romania .
He was fluent in nine languages, including English. In 1947, two years
after the war ended, Wurmbrand was arrested and
imprisoned for 14 years for leading an underground Christian church and
smuggling Bibles into Russia . His wife, also a
Christian, was imprisoned for three years. While in prison he
converted several high-ranking secret police officers who helped provide his
eventual release. In 1964, the Communist Government allowed him and his
family to be ransomed for $10,000 by Norwegian Christians-and leave Romania . In December 1965, the Wurmbrands arrived in Oslo, Norway .
Not understanding Norwegian, on their first Sunday, they attended the
American Lutheran Church. Impressed by the freedom of worship, they both
cried uncontrollably during the entire service. The Lutheran pastor opened
his home to the refugee family while he was checking through the U.S. embassy
government connections, to verify Wurmbrand's
strange account of suffering and torture. People in the West did not know
what was happening behind the newly formed Iron Curtain. Wurmbrand's contacts answered, "fully
reliable," and so he was invited to speak at the largest NATO base
chapel meeting in Oslo . When the meeting was opened
for questions, Colonel-Chaplain Cassius Sturdy asked Pastor Wurmbrand why the West should or should not try to
coexist with communism. Wurmbrand, always dramatic
in his behavior, quickly stepped off the podium, snatched the colonel's
wallet from his pocket and replied, "I took your money, your money is in my pocket. Let's co-exist!" Communism has taken
over half the world, and now it wants coexistence. There might be no solution
to cancer, he added, but no one has decided to coexist with cancer. Every
thief would like to coexist with the police, but this is unacceptable, Wurmbrand said heatedly. Colonel Sturdy stood up
immediately; and, turning to the audience, he said, "Gentlemen, let's
send this man to America to snatch the wallets from all the leftists and open
their eyes." A collection was taken right then to pay Wurmbrand to go to the U.S. An initial itinerary of
several speaking engagements was prepared for him in the Eastern states. But,
upon arriving alone in New York , most of the
meetings were small military chapel gatherings; and, believing them to be
unsuccessful, Wurmbrand scheduled an immediate
return to Norway . But, prior to his
planned departure, he went to Philadelphia to visit the only friend he knew,
a Jewish-Christian minister. His friend discouraged him from trying to stay
in the United States , declaring that, after years
of imprisonment and torture, Wurmbrand was too
feeble to pastor a church. "You will not be able to raise a
salary," were his final words. Before his departure
for New York , to board a ship to Norway , Wurmbrand asked his friend to show him a little bit of
Philadelphia . As they were walking down the street, they came upon a large
anti-Vietnam rally. Out of curiosity, the two entered the large building
where it was being held. A Presbyterian minister
was the main speaker, and he was telling the people that
communist leaders, although atheists, were our friends and we should
not oppose them. Wurmbrand went straight for the
microphone, shouting, "You know nothing of communism. I am a doctor
[expert] in communism! You should be on the side of communism's victims,
instead of defending their torturers." "How could you be
a doctor in communism," was the sarcastic reply. "Here are my
credentials," answered Wurmbrand, as he took
off his shirt to show deep torture scars on his trunk. The police led Wurmbrand off the stage and told him to put his shirt
back on. But not before newspaper reporters took dramatic photographs and
asked him for interviews. The next day, on page
one of nearly all major newspapers in America and some overseas, were
pictures of his torture scars. Requests for interviews and speaking
engagements poured in. Wurmbrand had to postpone his return to
Norway for several months while he spoke in various parts of the nation. More
speaking engagements followed afterward, and he had to return once again to America . In May 1966, he testified before the U.S. Senate's
Internal Security sub-committee. His testimony became the U.S. Government's
most sold publication during the next three years. In November 1966, Wurmbrand immigrated with his family to the United States . Immediately, he started the Christian Missions to
the Communist World (presently called The Voice of the Martyrs), a worldwide
organization trying to help Christians persecuted by communist regimes.
(After the fall of the Soviet Union , it switched
its activities to helping persecuted Christians in Arab countries.) His book,
Tortured for Christ, became one of the first books to alert the West
as to what was taking place in Communist prisons. In the years following,
Wurmbrand spoke all over the world and helped many
people. On one occasion, he was in the audience when Madalyn
Murray O'Hair, the outspoken atheist, was speaking on a television broadcast.
He rose and said, "I have traveled throughout the world and have seen
many charitable works such as Christian hospitals and Jewish orphanages.
Could you give me an example of one atheistic charitable establishment?"
O'Hair was struck dumb and could not speak for three minutes. Whereupon,
Allan Burke, the moderator, invited Wurmbrand into
the debate. He continued to travel
and speak past his 85th birthday; but, during the last five years of his
life, he was confined to his bed. On August 11, 2000, his wife, Sabina, died;
and on February 17, 2001, Richard Wurmbrand died in
Torrance , California . Now you can
better understand why he wrote the following letter to our church leaders. Wurmbrand knew a lot about our friendly relations with
the communists. Since he had been a
persecuted Christian, he writes to the General Conference of Seventh-day
Adventists describing the persecution he saw Adventists were receiving and
his astonishment at the attitude of the General Conference to the Communist
authorities in Russia notwithstanding this persecution. In this letter, Mr. Wurmbrand comments about an article he saw in an official
Seventh-day Adventist magazine: To the General
Conference of Seventh-day Adventists The magazine Ministry 55 W Oak Ridge
Drive Hagerstown, Maryland 21740 Dear Brethren: Your article
about depression was highly appreciated. I am a Jewish Christian pastor who have been persecuted since
childhood for being a Jew. Almost our entire family perished in the
Holocaust. After I became a Christian and a pastor, I was in Nazi prisons,
and then in Communist jails for 14 years. Now in America,
I lead a mission which helps the Christians
persecuted in Communist countries. Everyday I read
reports about Christians who are imprisoned, tortured, and killed there. This
does not depress me. What weighs upon me is the unloving attitude of American
Christians toward their persecuted brethren. Your magazine is
an example of this. In your article about Russia, you find "similarity
between Marx and God's promises." How can one be a
Christian teacher if he does not distinguish between what one says and what
one does? I send you my book "Was Karl Marx a Satanist?,"
with plenty of quotations from Marx. He says verbatimly
that he wishes to ruin the world. To success in this and to catch naives, they speak about beautiful plans for the world. Are you not
aware that the language of criminal seduction and that of love are the same?
If I wish a girl for one night, to throw her away afterwards like a dirty
rag, I will tell her, "I love you." I will say the same if I wish a
girl for honest marriage. Before finding
"similarity between Marxism and God's promises," you should have
studied Marx and Lenin. The latter wrote in a letter to Gorki:
"Thousands of natural catastrophes and epidemics are preferable to the
slightest notion of God." Thus, cancer is preferable to faith. This is the
major difference between us and Marxists: love toward God and hatred toward
Him. When you write
about the parallel between Marxism and Christianity in morality, standards
and values, again you show complete ignorance of Marxism. They glorify
violence, murder, lying. My book "The Answer to Moscow's Bible"
which I enclose, too, will show that we are at opposite poles. It is true they
have no pornography in Russia. They wish their people strong, but they
support pornography in the whole world to weaken their enemy. In this regard
read the book of their Minister of Police, Lavrentii
Beria's "Psychopolitics." Is this more
moral? I wonder if you
know Russian. If not, as I assume, how many of their novels and poetry have
you read? What radio of theirs have you heard, to give such a preposterous
appreciation of what you do not know? You wrote, "their standards
relative to literature and art resemble what most Western Christian churches
attempt to teach." Their books and radio programs are satiated with
God-hatred. What does the
Constitution of the USSR count? Do the authorities give the rights they
promise? In what world do you live that you do not know their words to be
vain promises? I sent to
brother Hegstad of your Department of Religious
Liberty a bunch of material about Adventists in prison for their faith in
Russia. Where was the liberty for the Adventist preacher Shelkov
who died in jail- after 24 years of detention? The same for many others of
the underground and of the official Adventist Church. It is simply a
lie that the Adventist church lost its organization prior to World War II
because of internal problems, as you assert. Did you not read the "Gulag
Archipelago?" It is not
permissible to write about Adventism without having read Ellen White. It is
not permissible to write about Russia without having read Sotzhenitsyn.
Don't you know that Stalin killed millions of Orthodox, Protestants,
Adventists, Jews and that he destroyed church buildings? Where are the
buildings the Adventist churches owned before? The Adventist
church in Moscow must gather now with the Baptists in a building which
belonged formerly to the Reformed church. Its pastor and all
the congregation simply disappeared under Stalin's terror. You praise the
Russian Adventist leader Kulakov for urging
cooperation with the government authorities. These are Marxists. Marx wrote
in "The Communist Manifesto" that his aim is to abolish all
religion and morals. At what can Christians cooperate with them? It was not the
endeavors of Kulakov which sparked the
reunification of your church. It was the fact that the KGB put in jail every
Adventist who dared to say, "we do not collaborate with Godhating communists." On what side would Ellen
White, the author of "The Great Controversy," have been? It is a shame
that your General Conference supports the Russian Adventist preachers who had
become stooges of Communists. The founder of Adventism, Ellen White, sided
with Christians who worked underground against Papacy. Why had the
audience no place in the church in Kiev? Such things are solved simply. Why
do they not have a second church? It is because the churches in Kiev exist
not to accommodate believers, but to fool foreigners. The believers profit of
this. How could you
write about Russia and not mention even one martyr? The Christians Hmara and Burda were savagely
killed. They had their eyes gouged out and their tongues torn. The Christian Hailo and hundreds of others are in psychiatric asylums
for their faith. Nikolai Moiseev is in such an
asylum since 16 years. Michael Ershov and Basil Shipilov are in jail since 40 years. I suffer of
depression. You and those like you are its cause. Nothing can help me except
your conversion and return to Christ. If you would
have gone on a fact-finding tour to Israel 2,000 years ago, you would have
praised the full liberty in the temple with 12,000 priests and Levites, and
the fact that all over the country many synagogues functioned without
interference. As about a Carpenter crucified because He was the only one who
represented the true faith, why lose our time on martyrs of today? We better
spread Ellen White's books about the martyrs of old. It makes interesting
reading and obliges to nothing. The story of
betrayal of Adventists by its leadership is old. I remember the German
Adventist leadership shouting, "Hiel
Hitler!" The General
Conference collaborated with them, while true Adventists filled jails under
Hitler and some of them were beheaded. I attended an
Adventist congress in Roumania in which the
dictator King Charles II was praised. Many Adventists were in jail at that
time. The Adventist
leadership of Roumania today also praises the
Communist government. I was at the same time in jail with many Adventists,
official and underground, beaten to the blood because they refused to work on
Saturdays. In jail they ate almost nothing, fearing there might be some pork
in the food. In times when we got one slice of bread a day, they gave tithe.
They renounced to this bit of bread in favor of somebody who was older, sick,
or weaker. At the burial of
Tachici, the former Adventist general secretary of Roumania, a delegate of the Communist party spoke,
disclosing only then that Tachici had been a member
of this Party secretly, many years before its coming to power. They also
carried cushions with the medals he had obtained from the God-hating
Communist government. The Adventist leaders of Russia are of the same kind. When I was in
South Africa, I heard that Communists jailed there are tortured. I am against
Communism, but Communists are human and should be well treated. I knocked at
the gate of their jail and asked to see them in the absence of any guards. I
was permitted without difficulty. They themselves denied the story of
tortures. In every civilized country, pastors have access to prisons. Why did
you not ask for the permission to visit the imprisoned Adventists? Wherever you
are, you are meant to seek Jesus. Jesus has given His address in Russia:
"I was in jail and you visited me not." Did you even try? A refusal
of the authorities would also have been illuminating. Ellen White
prophesied there will be a great persecution of Sabbath keepers in the USA.
Suppose this will happen, will you be on the side of the Adventist, loyal to
their faith, who will worship underground, or will you collaborate with the
persecutors as your kin does in Russia? If I were an
Adventist, I would leave the church if you do not get disciplined for the
''grave sin" of having written this article. The board of your General
Conference would have to be dismissed, too, for siding with the Communist
stooges in Adventism. I would also
retain my tithes until assured you refunded this holy money which has been
misused for such travels and pro-Communist propaganda. I am sure you
would have neither the courtesy or courage to
publish this. Yours in Christ, (signed) Richard Wurmbrand -- Letter to the
General Conference from Richard Wurmbrand. |