Towards Understanding of the Practice of Proclamation: The Core Element of Russian Baptist Worship, Timofey Cheprasov, 2015

he case with the Baptist churches in Russia).’* He refers to William Brackney’s point that some Baptists trace their origins directly to Jesus or even better, to John the Baptist; others insist that they appeared under the Anabaptist influence; still others insist that every time the Holy Spirit forms a church according to biblical revelation that church can be classed as Baptist.” ° Mykhailo Cherenkov, “Nash Baptism: Istoriia i Sovremennost” [“Our Baptism: History and Modern Era”], accessed on 12.12.2009, from http://cherenkoff.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-post.html). 10 Russian Baptist Union, Veruem [We Believe], Accessed on 10.01.06 from http://baptist.org.ru/index.php/sub/believe articles; Cf. Rostislav Krizhanovskii, Kto Takiie Baptisty? [Who are Baptists ?] (Irpoen, Dukhovnoie Vozrozhdeniie, 2012). ™ See Chapter 3 of this research. ” Sharp, “Kto Takiie Baptisty Segodnia?” pp 106-107. *3 William H. Brackney, The Baptists (New York, Greenwood Press, 1988), p xvii. 137 Perhaps, this inability of Baptists to define who they are can be explained by the absence of any rigid and authoritative creed, or even a simple set of doctrines that distinguishes Baptists from all other Christians, which is one of the baptistic principles. Baptists ‘believe in a living faith and not one that can be stated in archaic terms that bind 714 all Baptists forever in a creedal straitjacket.’~” William L. Lumpkin wrote, The Baptist Movement has traditionally been non-creedal in the sense that it has not erected authoritative confessions of faith as official bases of organization and tests of orthodoxy. An authority which could impose a confession upon individuals, churches, or larger bodies, has been lacking, and the desire to achieve uniformity has never been strong enough to secure adoption of a fixed creed even if the authority for imposing it had existed.*> E. Y. Mullins in his account of Baptist beliefs argues that because the voluntary principle is the core principle of Christianity, therefore, the right of ‘private judgment in religion’ is the core right of Christian faith. Thus, a Baptist can never judge the representative of another denomination on the basis of any creed, since every person is 16 free to exercise religious freedom.” Hence, when Baptists try to enforce their interpretation on other Baptists, it means that they themselves have moved away from 217 what can be called ‘authentic baptist.’”° Therefore, according to Fisher Humphreys, “Tuck, Our Baptist Tradition, p 24. ° Baptist Confessions of Faith (Philadelphia, Judson Press, 1959), p 16. °E. Y. Mullins, Baptist Beliefs (Valley Forge, Judson Press, 1912), p 7. ’ Tuck, Our Baptist Tradition, p 24. Such rejection of any possible statement that restrict or limit others, can be well illustrated by a split among the members of the alumni of Spurgeon’s College. The so called Downgrade Controversy was caused by Spurgeon’s