The Underground Church — Richard Wurmbrand

Silence as a Discipline of the Underground Church

A second thing which we have to learn in the underground church is to be silent. Pastors, by their very nature and their very profession, are loquacious people, people who speak. Now, a pastor is not meant to speak the whole time.

Nobody can preach well unless he listens well. This applies also to the free world. I have already the age of 65, and when I look back to my dealing with souls, I have won more souls by listening to them than by speaking to them.

People have so many burdens on their heart, and there is nobody who has the patience to listen to them. Even your own husband has no patience, your wife has no patience, your children, they are young, they wish to go somewhere away.

There is nobody to listen to you. And if they find you a man who listens, you have won him without speaking to him many words. Now, in the underground church, silence is one of the first rules. Every wrong word, every superfluous word which you speak can put somebody in prison.

A friend of mine, a great Christian composer, went to prison because Christians had the song composed by brothers so-and-so. They praised him, and for this having praised him, he got 15 years of prison.

But sing the song, and don't mention the name of the one who has made it. Now, you can't learn to be silent the moment when the country is taken over by the communists. You have to learn to be silent from the moment of your conversion.

A Christian is a man who speaks little, and with great weight, thinks over if he should speak this word, if it can do harm or not. In the underground church, every spare word can do harm. Solzhenitsyn, the great Nobel Prize winner, you know, this Russian writer who has come out, he has said in an interview, the one who has been his greatest persecutor, who denounced him, was his own wife.

It is written in the book of Ecclesiastes, when you are with your wife, don't tell her the secrets of your heart. Now, these words mean just nothing for me, but they are a promise, they are from God. And God knew that we will have an underground church, and he knew that at a certain moment the wife might become angry against you about some question, and if she knows the secret, she will be betrayed.

And she betrayed one sister, the wife, who was the secretary of Solzhenitsyn, and that one was so tortured or put under such pressure that she finished by hanging herself. But if Solzhenitsyn would have kept silent, this would not have happened.

Solitary Confinement and the Loss of Familiar Words

Another question, which is very important, I generally, I thank God for the years which I kept, which I passed in solitary confinement. I was, during three years, thirty meters, ten meters beneath the earth, thirty feet.

And I never heard a word, I never spoke a word. We never had a book. The outward voices ceased, the guards had felled Sol's shoes, you did not hear their reproach. Then, with the time, the inner voices ceased, we were drugged, we were beaten.

I forgot my whole theology, I forgot the whole Bible. One day, I observed, I had forgotten our father, I could not say it anymore. I knew that it begins with our father. I did not know the continuation.

And I kept just happy, and I said, our father, I have forgotten the prayer, our father, but you surely know it by heart. You hear it so many thousand times a day, so you know it by heart. So, you put an angel to say it for me, and I will just keep quiet.

For a time, my prayer has been so much, Jesus, I love you. And then after a little time again, Jesus, I love you, and then Jesus, I love you. Then it became too difficult to say even this, because we were doped with drugs, which would destroy our minds.

We were very hungry, we had times when we had one slice of bread a week. There were the beatings, and the tortures, and the lack of light, and all this. And it was impossible to concentrate my mind to say so much at least, Jesus, I love you.

And I abandoned it, because I knew that it is not necessary. The highest form of prayer which I know is the quiet beating of a heart which loves me. And Jesus should just hear, ti-ka-ta-ka, ti-ka-ta-ka, ti-ka-ta-ka, and he should know that every heartbeat is for him.

The Danger of Useless Words

Then afterwards I came out from solitary confinement and was together with other prisoners, and I heard them speaking. I wondered why they speak. So much of our speech is useless. Men become acquainted with each other, and one would say, how do you do?

And the other, how do you do? And then both would not say how they do. So what is the good of this? And one would say, don't you think that the weather is fine? And the other thinks and thinks and says, yes, I think it is fine.

But why do you have to think about the fact that the weather is fine? So much of our speech is useless. And now, here it is useless. And we don't take earnestly the word of Jesus who says that men will be judged, not for every bad word, but for every useless word.

So it is written in the Bible. Now, useless talking in a communist country means prison and death for your brother. A word of praise about your brother, if it is not necessary. If somebody comes to visit you, oh, I'm so sorry you were not here ten minutes before Brother Wimbledon just left.

And this can be an informer of the secret police, and so he knows that Brother Wimbledon is in town. Keep your mouth shut and learn this already now. You can't do underground work without using strategies.

Strategies for Protecting the Underground Church

Everyone knows what a strategy is. I know one case in Russia. The communist police suspected that the Christians are gathering somewhere, and they somehow surveyed a street. There somewhere must be the meeting.

And they saw a young boy going towards the house where they supposed that the meeting will be. And they stopped the young boy, the police, and asked him, where do you go? And he, with a sad face, said, my oldest brother died, and now we gather the whole family to read his testament.

And the police officer was so impressed and patted the young boy and said, just go, everything. He didn't say a lie. The older brother had died. And the family gathered to read the testament. With us, a brother has been taken to the police, and he was asked, do you still gather at meetings?

And he answered, but comrade captain, prayer meetings are forbidden now. Well, it is good that you conform with this. Just go. But he didn't say that he conforms. He didn't say that he doesn't go to meetings.

He was asked, do you still go to meetings? And he answered, but meetings are forbidden. But they were. But the police officer understood that he's a man who conforms. A courier of ours went to a communist country.

He was stopped at the border. And he was asked, what books do you have with you? And he said, well, I have the works of Shakespeare and the works of Jehovah. And now the police officer did not wish to show that he is an ignorant Jehovah might be some other great British poet or I don't know what, and to say I don't know who Jehovah is would put you to shame.

So he said, okay, okay, all right, just pass me. So there are strategies which in every case we believe in the Holy Spirit that he's a reality. The Holy Spirit is not a verse in the Bible. If he's a verse in the Bible, he's of no avail to me.

And if angels exist as fairy tales to be told to children, then I don't need them. There are fairy tales enough without them. Angels are a reality. We have everyone a guardian angel. And if we are here together today, I don't know how many, 50 or 60, 50 or 60 angels are also here.

There are also plenty of devils here always. We are Christians, Gaza, there are always devils also. And we have to rely on angels and on the Holy Spirit. We are not obliged to tell an atheist tyrant the truth.

Refusing Improper Interrogation

We are not obliged to tell him what he is doing. It is indecent from his side to put me questions. If I would simply put you the question, how much do you earn a month? It's really an indecent question if you belong to society.

You don't put such questions, no? How much money do you have in the bank? Nobody puts such a question. It's an indecent question. And you are not meant to answer me. I'm not meant to ask a girl, do you have a boyfriend or not?

Are you already in love with somebody? If she doesn't wish to tell me something like this. So a man is not meant to ask me about my religious activity if I don't wish to tell him. It is an emission in my private affairs of an atheist state who has no right to put such questions.

And we are not meant to answer such questions. It is very difficult at interrogations. They put you all kinds of questions. And they told me, you are a Christian and you are a pastor. You are meant to speak the truth.

Now tell us, who are the other leaders of the underground church? Where do you go? Whom do you meet? Who are the leaders in the different towns? If I would have said the truth, there would have been innumerable others.

Who in their turn would have said the truth? And so on. You have to resist this where the result are beatings and are tortures. But you have to take them upon yourself. The result of torture is that you might die.

Accepting Suffering and Death for the Sake of Others

I knew a brother, a very, very good brother, a pastor, who has today as big pains as I had when I was beaten because he played rugby. And something happened with his foot and it gives him terrible pains.

So if for rugby I can take upon myself pains, and when he will get better, he will still play rugby. Knowing that some other accident... To tell you the truth, I don't know what rugby is. I've never seen a rugby party.

I don't know the difference between rugby and soccer. I know that it is a crime in South Africa not to know what rugby is. But it is your fault because you have never invited me to see a rugby party. I don't know what rugby is.

I imagine it's also something with a ball or something like that. But the fact is that we take upon ourselves physical pains, which is a sport, a pleasure, healthy for the body. And you take these physical pains upon yourself to protect your brethren from being arrested.

The worst thing which might happen because of this is that you will die under tortures. But to die is the most natural thing in the world. A beggar stopped once at the house of a rich man and said, Could I please one night sleep here?

I don't have where to sleep. And the rich man, Go away from here, beggar. Here is not a hotel. The poor man said, I apologize. I'll go further. But could you please answer me a question? I looked to this house.

I found it so beautiful. Who has made this house? Now the rich man felt flattered somehow and said, This is the house built by my grandfather. Smart, beautiful house. And where is your grandfather now?

He died since long. And who lived in the house after the grandfather? Well, my father. And is he still alive? No, he also died. And who lives in the house now? Ah, and will you also die? Yes. And who will live in the house after you die?

Well, I hope my children. Then he said, Why did you shout at me? You said that this is not a hotel. It is a hotel. It changes its inhabitants every time. Just like a hotel room. You pack your things. Somebody else comes.

So if you know, you somehow know these things. Therefore, when such stories are told, everybody laughs. He laughed because of the obviousness of the thing. Now if it is obvious, take it as your part of the view of life.

If God wishes me to be dead today, He does not need the communist torture. I can die by a heart attack without the communist torture. So the communist torture never can shorten my life with one day. It never can the best restaurant with the finest dentist prolong my life with one day.

I die when I am called by God. And Christians are unafraid. They know where they go. I recommend to you very much. For the underground work, there are here also brethren who work in Angola. The question is very actual for them already now.

Avoiding Quarrels in the Underground Church

Now the slightest quarrel is permitted in the underground church. Every quarrel in the underground church means arrests, beatings, and perhaps death. The communists watch and listen. They have their informers in the underground church.

Wherever there is a quarrel, there are reciprocal accusations, no? There are reciprocal accusations. The one would say to the other, Yes, when you were with Brother Smith, you did this. Aha, here I have a name, Smith.

Yeah, but you have covered up the sin of Brother Johnson. Here I have another name, Brother Johnson. Yeah, but what did you do when you were with Sister Johansen? Aha, here I have another name, no? Quarrels always bring up names.

And bring up facts. And therefore, the word which is written in the Bible, don't quarrel while walking on your way. I know in one town of Romania, in Chisinau, there was a terrible quarrel between two congregations.

The one was Baptist, and the others were what you would call here the strict brethren. You probably know these exclusive brethren. And there was such a terrible quarrel. It resulted in the arrest of the leaders of both congregations.

The communists listened to everything. And you can't take last minute decisions. I know that in heaven I can enter only if I will be saved. Because who is not holy can't enter in heaven. Then it would be better to start today to be saved.

It will be too late to start to be saved when you go to heaven. You will not know how to start it. You have to start it now. And if, in the case of a communist takeover, I will have not to quarrel. The best thing is not to quarrel already now.

It is dramatic that there exists, sorely, quarrels among organizations which work behind the amulet. It has had already dramatic results. And as far as possible, they should be avoided. Even a family quarrel in a communist country can mean death.

I have been in the same prison cell with a man. He had a girlfriend. And as it happens at a young age, at a certain moment, he met another girl. And he preferred that other girl to this girlfriend. But to this girlfriend he had told different secrets.

And this girlfriend went and told the secret police, and he got a lifelong prison, and he got mad in prison. What has happened with him afterwards, I don't know. So that really the preparation for an underground work is not something else than the preparation for a normal Christian worker.

Only it is much deepened, and it has to become much more real, a part of life, knowing, well, I believe that in South Africa you can destroy a congregation by quarrels. I believe that in your country, in all countries, there have been cases of congregations destroyed by some quarrel between two pastors or two elders of the church.

That happens everywhere. But there it means imprisonment and death. Another question. One of the great methods of the communists is not only physical torture, it is brainwashing. And we have to know how to resist brainwashing.

Brainwashing and the Need for Heartwashing

A Christian must generally resist brainwashing, because there exists brainwashing in the free world too. The press brainwashes us. The radio brainwashes. Everything brainwashes. Everything which exercises influence upon us.

There exists no motive in the world to drink Coca-Cola. You drink it because you are brainwashed. Water is surely better than Coca-Cola. But nobody advertises, drink water, drink water. If there would be advertising, we would drink water.

And now communists have driven this technique of brainwashing to its extreme. Brainwashing essentially, the methods vary. But brainwashing in communist prisons consists essentially in this, that you have to sit 17 hours a day on a form which has no possibility where you should live.

You are not allowed to close your eyes. And 17 hours a day you have to hear, Communism is good, communism is good, communism is good, communism is good, communism is good, communism is good, communism is good, communism is good, communism is good.

Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead. And so on, and so on, and so on, endlessly. Give up, give up, give up, give up, give up, give up.

You are bored already, because I repeat these words since one minute. But there you have to hear it. The whole day, weeks, months, years, without any interruption. I can assure you that it is not easy.

It is one of the worst tortures, much worse than the physical torture. But Christ, who has foreseen all things, because with him there is no time, future, past, present, are one with him. He knows all things from the beginning.

He has given us, when Pavlov invented brainwashing, Christ had invented already the cure for brainwashing. It is heartwashing. He had said, blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God. Stephen, around him there were hundreds perhaps, or scores, I don't know how many, with big stones in their hands, to throw them at him.

And he says, I see. And the wife of Stephen probably will have thought, he sees in what danger he is, and now he will run away. But he says, I see, Jesus, standing at the right of the fire. Wait a little bit until Jesus.

Don't you see all this mob around you, ready to throw stones at you? A mob which wishes to... Oh, yes, yes, yes, some little ants there. Yes, yes, below there are some little ants. Not worth mentioning.

I see, Jesus. He didn't see those who wished to kill him. And there exists, blessed are the pure in heart, the simple fact is that they resisted brainwashing. I have passed through brainwashing three years.

The communists would say that my brain has not been washed. But you cannot resist brainwashing. It is by heartwashing. Now, technically, in the same rhythm in which they said, Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead, I and others, we repeated to ourselves, Christ also has been dead.

Christ also has been dead. Christ also has been dead. Christ also has been dead. But we knew he resurrected. And we remembered we live in the communion of the saints. We usually believe that the saints who have passed to the Lord are somewhere in the skies above the stars.

You know, the Bible tells us where they are. Seeing then that you are encompassed by a cloud of witnesses. Why should they sit there in the stars? They are here, where the fighters and the sufferers are, in the world of the Spirit.

There exists no here and there. We, these notions of space and time, which don't exist in the world of the Spirit, we localize these things. They are around us. And we felt the presence of the martyrs of all times.

And I personally had very much the feeling of the presence of Saint Mary Magdalene. And I was so happy when I thought, what is it telling me that Christianity is dead? Supposing it is there, right? What difference does it make?

Supposing that there is no more one single Christian in the world except me. What difference would it make? Mary Magdalene just loved Jesus. And if Jesus is dead, she loves the dead Jesus. She sat near the tomb of the dead Jesus.

He could not lift a finger for her. He could do no miracle to her. He could not speak to her words of comfort. He could not wipe away her tears. Nothing. He was dead. But he was a Savior. Living or dead, he was a Savior.

Living or dead, he was lovable. And what if you tell me that he is dead? I love him just as much as when he was alive. And if the whole church would have died and would have lost its faith, that's no motive for me.

Certainty of Truth and the Mathematics of Faith

We have to arrive to a certitude in faith. I told you yesterday that the word to doubt does not exist in Hebrew. It does not exist in the Old Testament. And it does not appertain to this. But may I point to you another Hebrew word which does not exist.

I have been very often accused by leaders of the World Council of Churches. They have written against me. And they have written always, Wurmbrand paints the situation behind the Iron Curtain in white and black.

It is not so. There exists the gray. And I told them, I accept this if you show me in the whole Bible the word gray. The Bible does not know the color gray. There exists in the Bible blue. There exists green.

There exists white. There exists whatever you like. Gray mixture does not exist. A thing is true or untrue. It is right or it is wrong. It is white or it is black. You have to go with the world or you have to go with Christ and so on.

And now, the Bible does not have the word, the Old Testament, the Hebrew, does not have the word to doubt, and we must be sure in these problems of faith, as I am sure about the table of multiplication, and two and two are four.

This is true if my father is alive or if he has died. It makes no change in the Bible. If I am satiated or I starve, if I am free or if I am in prison, if I am beaten or if I am caressed, the truth of the mathematics does not change.

Two plus two caresses are four caresses, and two and two beatings make four beatings. Two and two make four. And then the certainty of truth and the love like that of St. Mary Magdalene makes you to be able to resist brainwashing, resist to the extreme.

Encouragement During Spiritual Doubt

I don't wish to pose as a hero. I am a man, and as every man I have had my flaws and my weaknesses as others, and therefore we exist as a church to encourage each other in moments of weaknesses. And under this terrible pressure, I at a certain moment whispered to a brother near me, he was a Presbyterian minister, a very good Christian, and I whispered to him, Brother, I believe that I have lost my faith.

I don't think that I am anymore a believer. And he, with a smile which never left him, asked me, But did you ever believe? I said, Yes, I surely did. He said, Then remember one verse of the Bible. When Virgin Mary comes to Elizabeth, Elizabeth tells her, Blessed is the one who has believed.

In the past tense. Elizabeth does not say, Blessed is the one who believes. Blessed is the one who has believed. If you have believed, you are blessed. Live on this blessedness. I can't tell you what these words have meant for me under those circumstances.

I don't know how good theologies are, if you can put them in a book of theology, but we did not live on theology in that time. Nobody lived on theology. And you live on past memories, therefore the Bible says it.

Praise the Lord and don't forget his past blessings, which he has given to you. We remember the past blessings, even if now I pass through a dark night of the soul. I jump from one question to the other, because suddenly the watch also jumps.

But after a tea break, we will have the occasion to put questions and we will come back to this. One of the great problems for an underground fighter is to know to fill out his solitude. As I told you, I have been three years in solitary confinement.

Spiritual Preparation for Solitary Confinement

I was lucky. I met a prisoner who was 17 years in solitary confinement. And we were with absolutely no book, not only the Bible, but not even a novel, nothing. No book, no scrap of paper and no pencil.

We never heard a noise. There was absolutely nothing to distract our mind. You looked at the walls, that was all. Now, normally a mind under such circumstances gets mad. If you will read great books about prison life as Papillon and other such books, which are very valuable to be read for a future underground worker, just to catch the atmosphere of prison as much as a free man can catch it, you will see the maddening influence of being alone during years, without anything to distract your mind.

Now I can tell you from my own experience how I avoided becoming mad. But this again has to be prepared by a life of spiritual exercise beforehand. How much can you be alone now, without the Bible? Just you for yourself alone, without switching on the radio, or a record player, and so on.

Now, I and many other prisoners, we did it like this. We never slept during the night. We slept during the day. The whole night we were awake. You know that a soul says, Blessed are those who are at night in the house of the Lord.

One prayer at night is worth ten prayers during the day. All great sins and crimes are committed during the night. The great robberies, and burglaries, and drunkenness, and traveling, and adultery, and everything.

This whole life of sin is a night life during the day. Everyone has to work somewhere, in a factory, or in a college, or somewhere. The great sins are committed in the night. The demonic forces are forces of the night.

And therefore it is so important to oppose them during the night. And vigils are very important. I don't know how it is in South Africa, I don't know. But in America, vigils are completely unknown. Completely unknown.

But I know in my country, even before the communists took over, my son Mihai, when he had the age of three, four, he knew about vigils. He was brought up in vigils. The whole night we would pass in prayer, visit children of three and four.

While we prayed, they would pray a little bit, then they would kick each other, then we would spank them a little bit. Then they would pray again a little bit. Then they would fall asleep under some tables, and we would give them some.

That's how they were brought up, with vigils. And we awoke when the other prisoners went to bed. When the signal was given for going to bed. And now, I put it in this first person, I don't wish to speak about myself, but I speak of my experience, it was the experience also of other prisoners.

Prayer, Scripture Memory, and Joy in Prison

We filled our time with a program, which was so heavy, that we could not fulfill our whole program. We started with prayer. A prayer in which we traveled through the whole world. I have been to South Africa, too.

We traveled through the whole world, and prayed for each country, where we knew the names of towns, where we knew the names. Sometimes we knew names of men, of great preachers in Britain, or in America, or I don't know where.

It took us a good hour or two to come back. We prayed for pilots, and we prayed for those who are on the sea, and those who are in prisons. And then the Bible says, one of the great joys, which everyone can have, even in a communist prison cell, in the Bible it is said, rejoice with those who rejoice.

And I thought, now there are somewhere families are gathered with their children, and they read the Bible together, and they say jokes to each other, and they are so happy with each other, and I can rejoice with them.

And here is a young boy who loves a young girl, and I can be happy about them. And there they have a prayer evening, and there is somebody who studies, and there is somebody who enjoys just good food, and so on.

We could rejoice with those who rejoice. After having traveled through the whole world, I read the Bible from memory. Now, to memorize the Bible is very important for an underground worker. The friendly more will not give you Bible stories.

I can assure you, neither the Zimbabwe, or the Swapo, or all these gangs are called. They will give you no Bible simply. And we learned the Bible, we read the Bible out of memory. And just to make us also laugh a little bit, I will tell you one thing which happened.

Once I lay on the few planks which were my bed, and I read out of memory from the Gospel according to St. Luke, the Sermon on the Mount, and I arrived to the part where it is said, when you are persecuted for my name's sake, rejoice and jump for joy.

You remember that it is written like this. And I said, how could I commit such a sin of neglect? Christ had said that we have to do two different things. One, to rejoice. This I have not. And the second, jump for joy.

This I have not done. Now, it must have been sin that Christ had said, jump. I came down from my bed, and I began to jump around. Now, I don't know how many of you are jailbirds, how many of you have been in prison already.

They would not say. Well, now, in prison, the door of the cell has a peephole, and the guards look in. And he happened to look in just while I jumped around. So he believed that I got mad. And they had the order to behave very well with madmen, so that those who were shouting and banging at the door and so on should not disturb the order of the prison.

And so he immediately entered the garden, quieted me down and said, you will be released, you will see, everything will be all right, just remain quiet. I will bring you something. And he went as to a little child, you know, when he is naughty.

And he brought me a big loaf of bread. Our portion was one slice of bread a week, and now I had a whole loaf. And cheese. If you would know, it was white. Never eat cheese, just simply eat cheese. First of all, admire its whiteness.

It is beautiful to look upon. And sugar. And then he told me a few nice words again. He locked the door and he left. And I said, well, I will eat these after having finished the supper. And I laid down again, where did I remain?

Yes, when you will be persecuted for my name's sake, rejoice and jump for joy, because great will be your reward. And I looked at this loaf of bread and cheese. Really, the reward was great. So the next thing which we did is we read the Bible from memory, we memorized it, we meditated it.

Preaching, Creativity, and Maintaining Hope

I composed this before I broke down under the effect of doping. I composed every night a sermon, beginning with dear brethren and sisters and finishing with a man. And after I composed it, I delivered it.

I put them afterwards in very short rhymes, so that I could remember them, you know, the essence of the sermon. And here are two books, Sermons in Solitary Confinement and If Prison Walls Could Speak.

I have memorized 350 such sermons. When I came out from prison, I wrote them down. I can't find a publisher who should publish 350 sermons. But some 50 of them have been published already in two books, Sermons in Solitary Confinement and If Prison Walls Could Speak.

Sermons which I just delivered, God hears, the angels hear, and the angels have wings, and perhaps they take the thoughts to somebody else, and God made it, the angels made it. They are published, and they are published in many languages, and they are helpful.

But we filled our time with this. I composed books, I composed poems, I thought about wife, about children. Then I thought it is very important, it has no sense to sit in prison and not to do jokes. So I told myself every night jokes, but only always new jokes, which I had not known before, so that I might be able to laugh.

Sometimes I cheated, you know, I just changed the name. Instead of Moshe it was Chaim, you know. But somehow, and now as I remember those jokes, some of them are written down in the book Sermons in Solitary Confinement, they were all optimistic.

They were all optimistic. One joke, it shows, no I could not reproduce, but it shows me how I felt then. One of the jokes was that a woman says to her husband, Peter, what should I do? I have set on my false teeth, and I broke them.

And the husband said, be happy. Imagine that you would have set on your natural teeth. So I saw the good side in things. Out of bread I have made chestnut, and some of them I made white with a little bit of chalk on the wall, and the others were grey, you know.

And I played chess with myself, and never believed the lie that Bob Fisher is the greatest chess master of the world. He won in the last match with Pesky, he won eight parties and lost two. I in three years never lost a party, either with white or with black.

It was always I who won. Now, it is very important, the result of why I told you all these things is that it belongs to the secrets of the underground worker when he suffers, never to allow his mind to become depressed, because then the communists have you in his hand.

Your mind must be continually exercised. Now, after having worked so many years in the underground church, now I read the New Testament with new eyes. When I read in the Acts of the Apostles, Barthabas called Justus, Simon called Niger.

Now, if he is Simon, why should he be called Niger? And if he is Barthabas, why should he be called Justus? And why should one James be called son of the thunder? And why, if he is Simon, should he be called Peter?

I had never known any explanation for this. You will find so many names changed in the New Testament. Now, that is exactly what happens in the underground church. I had so many names in the underground church, all kinds of names.

Wherever I went, in a town, in a village, they could not say that it was a Burmese coming one time, it was Vasily, the other it was George Esmond, the other one it was Ruben, and the other one it was so-and-so.

And then when I was arrested, I was Richard Wurmbrand, called so-and-so, called so-and-so. So, we have nicknames. We have some very strange expressions in the New Testament. Now, the New Testament is really the word of God, I believe in the literal inspiration of the... not in the verbal inspiration, I don't believe in the verbal inspiration, I believe in the literal inspiration of the Bible, every letter.