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

rses (BCC) started to work, the only resource available to churches and individual preachers were publications in the BV. In his recent work, A. Popov offered an in-depth analysis of the way the Bible was used in the BV and addressed aspects of the identity of Baptists in the Soviet Union." In this section of my research, | will offer an overview of articles on preaching and preachers that appeared on the pages of the BV. Since through most of the Soviet era no other materials on the subject were available to churches and individual preachers, the BV played an extremely important role in shaping the understanding of various aspects of preaching ministry. However, prior to addressing preaching itself, it might be helpful to start with a wider subject of biblical hermeneutics and exegesis. 4.1 Biblical exegesis in post-war communities | have already touched upon the issue of how the Bible was used in early baptistic communities in Russia. At this stage, it might be helpful to return to the subject of biblical hermeneutics in Russian Baptist churches in the post-World War II era. | have already stated that the Bible has always been of paramount importance for Russian Baptists. People learnt to see almost every aspect of their personal and ecclesial life through the lens of the Bible. Hence, as A. Popov notices, ‘This is why the quest for sound biblical teaching constituted the main task of any research project of ECB “scholars”.’? However, despite all the emphasis on the Bible as the source and foundation of Christian faith, the subject of how to read and interpret the Bible * “The Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the Soviet Union as Hermeneutical Community.” ? A. Popov, “The Evangelical Christians-Baptists...”, p 99. 90 received surprisingly little attention. There was a simple reason for such a neglect — a strong belief that any born-again believer had the ability to understand the Holy Book, which was given by the Holy Spirit. In itself, this conviction was not drastically different from biblical literalism of the first communities of Evangelical Christians, Stundists or Baptists. As with the congregations of the AUCECB the main change, however, was in the emphasis on the need for the interpreter to belong to the church, which had the final authority in accepting or rejecting the message, being the only agent that possessed the fullness of |’ the knowledge of the Word. Whilst such “congregational approval” may appear as a sound practice of communal discernment, in reality the ultimate authority in matters of faith was given to the leadership of local churches. Thus, it was a step away from truly communal reading of the Scripture and towards uncritical reception of any message proclaimed by the preacher. Ivan I. Motorin® wrote a number of articles on biblical subjects, which appeared in the BV in 1946-1947. Although his articles resemble sermons both in style and content, they