Saturday, August 25, 2018

Flashback: Communist Labor Camps





A VOICE FROM THE PAST SPEAKS A CLEAR
MESSAGE OF WARNING TO THE PRESENT GENERATION,
ESPECIALLY THOSE IN AMERICA TODAY WHO
 ARE SO CAPTIVATED BY THE IDEOLOGIES
OF SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM.



Pastor Richard Wurmbrand
(1909-2001)
Founder of the Voice of the Martyrs Ministries
and author of the book, "Tortured for Christ"
which recounts his horrific ordeal of torture
and imprisonment for 14 years inside a communist prison.



Until the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe, Richard Wurmbrand spoke out tirelessly
against the persecution of Christians in that part of the world.
He refused to remain silent about the evils of communism
and how its godless ideology was used to persecute the body of Christ.

Iron-fisted regimes of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
followed the philosophy of Karl Marx, who stated that,
"Religion is the opium of the people."

These oppressive communist governments sought the end of
religion, singling out Christians who did not bend to the will of the state.
Those bold enough to speak against the government were intimidated,
imprisoned, and tortured. Many were sentenced to labor camps with
the goal of "re-educating" them to a communist way of thinking.






In labor camps reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps, prisoners
experienced back-breaking labor, lack of food and harsh living conditions.
Richard wrote about atrocities such as prisoners starved to death and
Christians being poisoned. 

Christian farmers were imprisoned in these camps for the "crime"
of refusing to work on Sunday. According to one eyewitness account,
a group of Christian farmers in a Siberian camp who refused to work
on Easter Sunday 1967 were forced to stand on the ice barefoot for
the whole day. Miraculously, not one of them fell sick.

Richard told the world about the courage of these believers and
urged Christians to write to the families of those imprisoned or those
who had died in camps, a ministry that we continue to this day.

In 1969 Richard wrote, "What a privilege it is for you and for us
to be helpful to the church which gives us such heroes. Now these,
our brothers and our sisters, have been sentenced. They go to
Siberia, to the land of the white death. They will do slave
labor in ragged clothing. They will stand knee-deep in swamps
and snow. Their food will be meager and the weak among them
will soon die...But their names will remain forever written in
heaven and in the hearts of Christians everywhere."
May we continue to be helpful to the church today.



 THE ENEMIES OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,
 OUR FREEDOM AND OUR WAY OF LIFE
ARE COUNTING ON WOEFUL IGNORANCE 
AND INDIFFERENCE OF THE TRUTH
 IN ORDER TO WIN IN THIS CRUCIAL ELECTION YEAR.
THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE THIS NOVEMBER. 



"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."
-Pastor Richard Wurmbrand




"Flashback: Communist Labor Camps"
The Voice of the Martyrs Magazine
February 2017 



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