Baptistic Theologies, 2009

odox family from Bicazu Ardelean there can be found a translation of the Bible by Cornilescu from 1931. ~ Both the translations of Nitulescu and Cornilescu were printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society. 14 Therefore it can be stated that the effort of this Society to put in the hands of common people an accessible Bible translation was one of the most important factors that contributed to the spiritual search of the people. Another major factor was two movements in Romania: the Baptist and the evangelical movements led by Teodor Popescu and Dumitru Cornilescu. The Baptist influence will be analysed in the second section of this paper. A few explanations should be given about the other evangelical movement that arose from inside the Orthodox Church. This was influenced by Dumitm Cornilescu. While translating the Bible, he 9 Nicolae Iorga, Istoria Bisericii Romanesti si a vietii religioase a romanilor (Iasi: Junimea, 2001), p. 326. The Greek Catholic Church appeared between 1698 and 1701, being formed from the previous Orthodox Churches and priests who were not recognised by the Austro Hungarian authorities. Thus they formed this new church that accepted four principles of unity with Rome (the Pope in Rome as primate, the use of unleavened bread in Communion, the Purgation, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from both the Father and the Son (Filioque). In return they received the guarantee of keeping the traditional rites, the celebration of the Orthodox holy days, the election of the bishops by the Synod, and the equality in rights with the priests and believers of the Catholic Church. In 1948 the communist authorities denied any rights to the Greek Catholic church but after the Revolution from December 1989 the Greek Catholic Church was again recognised officially by the State. Today they number over 190,000 people, most of them being Romanian and a small percentage Hungarian. Ministerul Culturii si Cultelor, Viata Religioasa din Romania (Bucuresti: Editura Bizantina, 2005), pp. 38-40. 1(1 Dunca, Amintiri din viata mea, p. 104. 11 Ibid., pp. 104-112. 12 Interview ofTepes Paleu Gheorghe on 17 lh August 2008. 13 Discussion with family Negustor David from Bicazu Ardelean on 17 lh August 2008. 14 Alexa Popovici, Traduceri moderne ale Bibliei. Online: http://www.crestinul.ro/traduc.htm, cited on 18 th August 2008. The Beginnings and Growth of Baptist Witness in Bicazu Ardelean 43 understood, like Luther centuries before, 15 that salvation is only through faith in Jesus Christ. 16 He started proclaiming this message and among the converts was the Orthodox priest, Teodor Popescu, who was serving at the ‘Cuibul cu barza’ church in Bucharest. Together they started a movement inside the Church and proclaimed the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Popescu was proclaiming this message from his pulpit but they also started small Bible study groups. The movement had great success in Bu