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

anation for or feel uncomfortable with (for example, the gifts of the Holy Spirit) for which they create ornate explanations, thus forsaking literalism that they argue for. © McClendon, Ethics, 30. 7® McClendon, Ethics, reprinted by the Baylor University Press in 2012, p xiii. 77 McClendon, “The baptist Vision,” p 32. 78 McClendon, Ethics, p 29. 159 In short, the vision is expressed in a motto “this is that” and “then is now.””° “This is that” is a quotation from the King James Version of the Bible (Acts 2:16) that McClendon uses as an example of how a suggested way of reading and applying the Scripture is rooted in the Bible. As an example of such hermeneutics, McClendon suggests the book of Acts and the narrative of the day of Pentecost. When God poured the Holy Spirit on the Disciples, transforming them from irresolute, cowardly people into a bold and courageous group of Jesus’ messengers, Apostle Peter proclaimed to the people gathered in Jerusalem who heard Disciples speaking in different languages, But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, | will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens | will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.®° Peter said that the events described in the prophecy were happening that day. He used the phrase ‘this is that’ to relate the phenomenon to the prophecy. The fact that the prophet might have been referring to different events, maybe even for his own time ‘cannot falsify Peter’s claim.’ This device is used repeatedly in the Scriptures when ‘one set of events and circumstances is applied under divine guidance to another 781 set of events and circumstances.’ Hatchett indicates that Baptists found multiple narratives of evangelism and conversion in the book of Acts, that later helped them to overcome persecutions, and directed their mission efforts.°? He particularly 7° Recently Barry Harvey has argued that the cupola ‘is’ in ‘this is that’ motto carries certain ambiguity about the immediacy of connecting with the primitive church if applied forcefully. In his view McClendon’s formulation has to be viewed as similitude “this as that.” See his “‘This as That’: Friendly Amendments to James McClendon’s “baptist” Vision,” in Baptistic Theologies, Vol. 6, No 1 (Spring 2014), pp 36-52. 8° Quoted from the King James Version of the Bible. 81 McClendon, Ethics, p 29. See also James Wm. McClendon Jr., “Primitive, Present, Future: A Vision for the Church in the Modern World,” in Richard T. Hughes, The Primitive Church in the Modern World (University of Illinois Press, 1995), pp 98-108. See also McClendon, Doctrine, pp 36-37. 82 Cf. H Wheeler Robinson argues that Scripture is authoritative and formative be