Student Book Review: Richard Wurmbrand’s Tortured for Christ

Posted On July 09, 2025

Written by Noah Onken, an RBC alumnus.

Tortured for Christ is the true story of a Lutheran pastor’s life and imprisonment for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Richard Wurmbrand was orphaned at an early age, and as he matured, his hatred for God grew stronger. Yet God never left him, and instead, in the years before World War II, he answered the prayers of an old, sick Romanian carpenter who wanted to see the conversion of a Jew to Christ before his death. The Lord sent him Richard, and soon after, Richard and his wife Sabina were converted.

In the following years, Wurmbrand would go through many difficulties for the cause of Christ. He became a Lutheran pastor and was persecuted along with his wife and many other Christians by the Nazis that rose to power during World War II. This persecution, though, as Wurmbrand notes, was a way of preparing him and the others for the unimaginable cruelty they were about to face under the communist regime of the Soviet Union.

Yet even in these harsh and often deadly circumstances, a prayer of Wumbrand’s was answered. He had always wanted to bring the gospel to the Russian people, and now, through their occupation of Romania, God brought the Russians to him. He details many accounts of their witness to the Russian soldiers who ultimately came to faith in Christ. One account is of a young man named Piotr. Piotr came to faith in Christ and began to help the work of the underground church by distributing Bibles. Piotr was a zealous believer, having been changed by the grace of God, yet he soon went missing due to his newfound faith.

This was the price they were willing to pay, and many did. In his memoir, Wurmbrand shares the names and stories of the Christian brothers and sisters who would give their lives for the gospel of Jesus Christ. His own story is a miraculous story of the sovereign grace of God working in the life of a meek and faithful servant.

Reading his story of enduring the unspeakable tortures by his captors and yet loving them so much that he would pray for their salvation is an awe-inspiring picture of the kind of life we are called to live.

This book presses you to count the costs of following Christ. The price may seem light right now, but many of our brothers and sisters know just how much it can cost to follow Christ and are willing to serve Him until their last breath.

This book is a must-read. It will make you cry tears of sorrow and pain at what our brethren have endured. It will make you cry tears of joy and thankfulness to see what our Lord has done.

This book captures what Christ meant when He said, “Take up [your] cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). It also confronts us with the question of how we will pray for and serve those brothers and sisters who have been and are being persecuted for the cause of Christ.