Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

the pietistic teaching that believers are to be in constant fellowship with Christ, and the holiness teaching that believers are to move from the initial conversion experience to a second work of God, that of sanctification. As Radstock brought these beliefs to St Petersburg, he became involved in the revival of the Christian faith. From his perspective, evangelism of the lost was necessary, but if the established church lacked true spiritual life, the effects of evangelism would be hampered. The established churches must therefore be revived for the Gospel to bear much fruit. Radstock did not oppose the leaders of the Orthodox Church, but wanted a revival to happen in their midst. His pietistic teaching emphasised that the true Church was entered through faith, rather than baptism, catechism or membership. Radstock never spoke against any denomination, but sought only revival. He did not try to understand the Orthodox Church's schisms, leaders or theology. As a layperson, he was not interested in the study of theology. His primary goal was to bring people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Their church affiliation was of little concern. Radstock’s Victorian evangelicalism touched the souls of the Russian aristocracy, and soon his meetings were overflowing with the Russian elite. When Radstock permanently left Russia in 1878, the movement became known as Pashkovism, after Vasilii Aleksandrovich Pashkov, retired Colonel of the Guard and founder of the Society for the Encouragement of Spiritual and Moral Reading. This society printed and distributed Christian litera- ture throughout the Russian Empire. Pashkov and his followers subsidised its periodicals, pamphlets, hymnals and books, and soon Pashkov became the driving force behind the revivalism. Pashkov endeavoured to continue Christian fellowship. The two perspectives are not mutually exclusive, but in a mission set- ting, one seeks to “tend what is blooming” while the other tries to reproduce an exact copy of itself. '8 The Open Brethren were a non-partisan Brethren party which evolved as John Nelson Darby and B.W. Newton split the Plymouth Brethren in the late 1820s in England. Darby and the Brethren were the seedbed for Dispensational theology. '? Mrs Edward Trotter, Lord Radstock: an Interpretation and a Record (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914), p. 80. 79 the vision of Radstock and soon formed connections with the Evangel- ical Alliance.” Pashkov and other likeminded Russian aristocrats made a deep impression on Kargel, who began attending Pashkovite prayer meet- ings regularly in 1875. Nonetheless, he remained a German Baptist pastor, working among the German population of St Petersburg and reporting to the German Baptist Union. Bulgaria Kargel’s model of ministry changed slightly in 1880, when he married a friend of the Pashkov family and moved to Bulgaria. Kargel had been ill due to the climate of St Petersburg, when