Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

. Elwyn Davies, expressed a similar fear following a trip to the So- viet Union. He told fellow evangelicals that the liberal churchmen (mean- ing some participants in the WCC) responded to the Russian evangelicals with love and caring, whereas many Western evangelicals, with whom they had much more in common, stood back with criticism and sharp denuncia- tion of the churchmen as Soviet agents, 26 The Dogmatika presents standard evangelical arguments for the doc- : trines of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. This is also true in anthro- pology, where there is a heavy emphasis on the doctrine of salvation. 2. A Church of the Regenerated: When a person wishes to join an ECB church, he first appears before the presbyter and the church council where the individual must be able to convince his listeners that he has truly experienced salvation. They will be listening whether he repented of his sin, that is, did he recognize his sins, did he resolve to start a new life in Christ, and has this repentance involved his entire being—his intellect, his emo- tion, and will. Further, they will be looking for a sense of joy, of sin’s for- giveness, and indications that he is filled by the Holy Spirit. The Dogmatika defines rebirth as “the resurrection of man from his mortal spiritual condi- tion and his birth to a new life.”27 Rebirth is the only road to salvation; it liberates man from his sinful condition and it is demanded by the holiness of God. The Dogmatika also warns against false ways of achieving the rebirth. Rebirth cannot be attained through baptism nor through good works, Rebirth signifies that there has been an inner change in man’s condi- tion; evangelicals also speak of justification, which reflects man’s changed status before God.?8 Divine grace through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ plus faith in Christ form the basis for justification. Evangelicals also em- phasize that a justified person is entitled to sonship or adoption into the family of God. 346 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il The second major emphasis in evangelical teaching about salvation is the concern for holy living. As the Dogmatika puts it, justification shows what God did for us, but sanctification what God is doing in us.” As noted earlier, S. P. Fadiukhin and other writers identified three stages of sanctifi- cation: (a) Its beginning at the point of rebirth, (b) daily growth in sanctifi- cation, and (c) the final, complete sanctification which is reserved for heaven. The Dogmatika does not devote a separate section to ethics. In the context of showing evidence of a genuine rebirth and a growth in holy liv- ing, the primary positive evidence was to share in the responsibility for evangelism. There were also numerous negative proscriptions. Prohibited practices included dancing, card playing, attending the cinema, smoking, dr