Shortly after Richard Wurmbrand was exiled from Romania following 14 years of brutal imprisonment for his faith, he was speaking at a home meeting in suburban America. When the meeting ended, one of the men present asked Pastor Wurmbrand, “Why is it that we don’t have to deal with Communism here in America?”

This was an important question! After all, Wurmbrand had suffered unspeakable agony because of the Communists, and his wife, Sabina, had languished in a slave labor camp for years, separated from her husband and their son. Some of their best friends and colleagues had been killed for their faith, while others had been tortured and endured hardships beyond description. Why was it that America had been spared the horrors of Communism? Why was it that the Church here had escaped the fury of atheistic persecution? How did Pastor Wurmbrand respond?

We might have expected him to say, “It is because of your national heritage! It is because you have not built or accepted a Communist government, because there are too many believers in your country to allow such a thing to happen, because the Church has consistently cried out to God.” Yes, he could well have responded like this, and to a great extent, he would have been correct. But that was not his answer. Instead he replied, “You don’t have Communism here; you have something far worse. You have materialism!”

Excerpt taken from Michael L. Brown’s book, entitled Revolution in the Church, published by Baker Books and available through ICN Ministries www.icnministries.org , p. 105.