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

or of Bratskii Vestnik. 1° artur |. Mitskevich served as a Starshii Presviter [senior pastor] of Ukraine (1946-1956), in 1956 he became a Vice General Secretary of AUCECB. He served as a Director of BCC from 1968. ™ V. Popov was a pastor of a local church and one of the teachers at BCC. A. Karev, A. Mitskevich, V. Popov, Ekzegetika [Exegesis] (Moscow: VSEKHB), p.4. "3 Ibid., p.5. 93 The handbook suggested two types of interpretive tools — analytical and auxiliary. Analytical tools include the definition of the purpose of the book or a passage, the meaning of words and phrases, understanding the context, and biblical parallelism (‘which is juxtaposition of two or more similar passages of the Holy Scripture in order to explain texts difficult for understanding’).** Auxiliary resources are information about the author of the book, its characters, the time and place when the book was written, and its purpose. It is suggested that most of this information can be received from the Bible itself, although additional knowledge can be obtained from the works of Christian theologians from the first four centuries.’° All of this highlights an important hermeneutical principle — the Bible is interpreted by the Bible itself.*° Similar to the articles of Motorin, the authors of Exegetika also address the issue of who can interpret the Bible. After various aspects of biblical text were taken into consideration, there is ‘one final condition, which is the most important — an interpreter must be a child of God. Only such an interpreter possesses gifts which give him assurance in the work of interpretation.’ The authors then explain that differences of interpretations or even disagreements between the believers can occur if (1) there was no true regeneration of the interpreters; (2) due to the diversity of their life experiences and (3) existing differences in the level of their spiritual maturity. ‘’ As A. Popov noticed, ‘In practice, the demand of spirituality and holiness in the interpreters meant conformity of their interpretation to ideals, norms, and standards accepted among the “holy people.”’*® 4.2 Bratskii Vestnik on preaching BV played an important role in the Baptist churches of the USSR, being the primary and often the only instrument of developing preachers in local churches. A. Popov wrote, Spiritual articles, most of which were written specially for BV were the most valuable element of the journal. When spiritual literature was unreachable for “ Ibid., pp 10, 12-17. * Ibid., pp 17-21. *® Ibid., p 6. Ibid., p 10. 18 A. Popov, “The Evangelical Christians-Baptists...”, p 110. 94 the majority of believers, the journal gave often the only opportunity to get acquainted with sermons and spiritual articles, of highest quality... BV’s educational aim was very important. It is a known fact that from early 30-s and until 1968 there were no evangelical educational institutions in the U