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

terpretation, had not changed since the origin of the tradition. However, the tradition began to take a more cautious posture towards the excesses of pneumatic enthusiasm, in light of the development of the Pentecostal movement...”” In this chapter | am attempting to draw a paradigm of the development of preaching among Russian Baptists. The initial formative years of the movement show fascinating complexity of factors that have contributed to the development of the character of the contemporary Baptist movement in Russia. The movement had indigenous roots (Molokans and some Stundist groups), influenced by both British (Pashkovites) and German (Baptists) Christians. It started in different geographical areas (the distance between St. Petersburg and Odessa is over 1,600 km; from Odessa to Tiflis (now Tbilisi) is over 1,700 km). It had diverse social composition (from wealthy aristocrats in the North to poor peasants in the South). The movement had a dissimilar stance towards the Orthodox Church (Baptists had clear denominational affiliation, whilst many Pashkovites did not want to break away from the national church, even after their leaders were exiled from the country). Despite the differences, these groups were similar in their theology and ecclesiology. All of them were characterised by the emphasis they placed on the importance of individual and communal Bible study and “© Puzynin, The tradition of the Gospel Christians, pp 185-186. “7 Ibid., p 187. 64 its application. Every Christian had a right to interpret the Holy Scriptures; everyone had a duty to share God’s message with others. Kuznetsova wrote, Recent converts were finding great joy in newly discovered biblical truths. Many of them overcame the barrier of illiteracy and quickly realised the freedom of reading and searching the Scripture for themselves. As they did so, the Bible took on enormous significance for them. They regarded the Bible as the disclosure of God’s very will. To this belief they... emphasised the Holy Spirit’s assistance in the process of interpretation and application of Scripture. Another important feature was the great importance that they... placed upon obedience to revealed truths and following Christ.*® Such freedom to interpret God’s word without the constraints of a particular dogmatic theology played an important role in the quick spread of the baptistic movement across the Russian Empire. Simple proclamation of biblical truth of salvation interpreted through the lenses of the Orthodox understanding of holy Christian living rang true to the hearts of many listeners. The message they heard was not a foreign teaching. Rather, it was an embodiment of the Gospel truth, already deeply rooted in the society.”’ Lack of style or clarity of the sermons proclaimed by (often) self-taught preachers was not a distraction either — it wasn’t much different from the sermons in the Orthodox Churches with their hea