Baptistic Theologies, 2009

F. H. Revell, 1909) p. 73. 3 Mrs Edward Trotter, Lord Radstock, An Interpretation and a Record (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914), pp. 188-200; J.H. Rushbrooke, The Baptist Movement in the Continent of Europe (London: The Kingsgate Press, 1923), pp. 138-139. 24 Baptistic Theologies the German Baptist Union Conference that year, his work in Russia drew considerable attention and he was asked to make regular contributions regarding the work to Missionsblatt, the German Baptist Union’s journal. In 1879, Kargel registered his congregation with the government, making it the first Baptist congregation to be officially registered in the Russian Empire. 4 Very early in his St. Petersburg pastorate, Kargel came into contact with the Radstockists (later know as Pashkovites). Kargel described how, when he reached one of the Pashkovite meeting places, ‘...the people were gathering in the courtyard. A young man offered to take me upstairs. I asked if he loved Jesus and he answered yes with a beaming smile.’ This young man described to Kargel a thrill at hearing God’s word being explained in St. Petersburg in his mother tongue of Russian. He had been, he explained to Kargel, to the Baptist services, and although he did not understand any German he ‘still felt God’s presence as it was in his own life’. 5 Kargel was captivated by the deeply personal relationship with Jesus which was being expressed in these meetings. This was to become a theme in his own later ministry. He wrote: More of these believers gathered and each one introduced to me asked me if I loved Jesus Christ. When I said yes, they welcomed me heartily. After about 20 were gathered, we were sent to another room where the Count awaited us. After we all sat down, the Count stood up and said a wonderful prayer to begin our study. It was a thrilling feeling to hear a prayer of such a person of high standing, prayed in another language. 6 7 In 1880, Ivan Kargel married Anna Aleksandrovna Semnoff, a close friend of the Pashkovite family, and moved to Bulgaria to answer a request for someone to come and baptise several Congregationalists who had been influenced by colporteurs concerning baptism. The group had been waiting four years before Ivan Kargel came and baptised them. The Kargel’s left Bulgaria in 1884 and returned to St. Petersburg to assist Pashkov in the work there. While in Bulgaria, he read two brochures, written by A.B. Simpson which changed his life. He moved from the position of a creedal Baptist to a non-creedal Baptist and ‘was released from his spiritual n narrowness’. Pashkov was exiled in 1884 and Ivan Kargel became an influential teacher among the house churches which were scattered throughout St. Petersburg and other areas of Russia which had resulted from the Radstock 4 It was a German Baptist congregation registered for the German people in St. Petersburg. 5 Johann G. Kargel, ‘Nachrichten Von Br. Kargel’, Missionsbl