While American Christians waste untold millions of dollars every year pandering to their own vanities (multimillion-dollar megachurches, senior superpastors, trying to elect "Christian" politicians, etc.), most of the Church around the world is suffering persecution, discrimination and privation for the Lord Jesus Christ. During the last century, God raised up a man to come to the West and wake us up.
Tortured for Christ is an autobiographical work, but it goes far beyond biography. Richard Wurmbrand (1909-2001) was not only brilliant, but also learned. As will be gleaned from his many works, his knowledge of most matters was encyclopedic. In discussing the questions of persecution and suffering, he was moreover able to process this vast knowledge through his Jewish worldview, which unlike the prevailing Western worldview involves a great deal of non-linear thinking. Because of this, he was able to posit penetrating questions and produce poignant answers that never would have occurred to many of his readers.
Wurmbrand was not only a pastor, but an outstanding apologist for the Christian faith. Yet his defense of the faith was never merely intellectual. I am convinced he understood that theology worthy of the name must be forged in the fires of persecution. When Christians are not called on to suffer for their faith, they begin turning their attention to trivial controversies (the Calvinist-Armininan and textual/translational squabbles going on today are examples). When one's own life and the credibility of the gospel are at stake, the issues change.
Richard Wurmbrand was one of the first believers to publicize the plight of the Persecuted and Suffering Church in our generation. In doing so, he has helped to refocus our attention onto the essentials of the gospel.
I hope the Western Church will begin to give heed to the message of Tortured for Christ. Otherwise she is wasting her time on foolish preoccupations and squandering what the Lord Jesus Christ died to bestow upon her.