Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

understanding of the nature of separation. Karev felt he was being realistic by declaring that without “ties with the world” they would not have been able to hold a congress or print Bibles. For the reformers such realism was evidence of apostasy. Doctrinal Wrangling Aside from the major debate separating Reform Baptists from the All- Union council the conflicts over theology do not deserve the status of a de- bate. They never had the opportunity to gain experience in the art of theological debate and too often opposing sides found themselves threatened with imprisonment or other punishment which helped sharpen the tone of the conflicts. Primarily, however, the constant tension within So- viet evangelicalism concerns secondary matters of practice. At the 1974 congress, Michael Zhidkov read a major theological paper on the subject of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.*® This included a short straightforward elaboration of the doctrine but focused much more on ques- tions of order. In some local congregations members had been arguing the merits of immersing the individual once or three times. Should they baptize in the name of Jesus, or in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Some were insisting with a passion that a legitimate baptism was possible only in a flowing stream; a lake, swimming pool, or a baptistry was not really an imi- tation of the way Jesus was baptized. That Zhidkov in this paper gave direc- ca Soviet Evangelical Theology 351 tive answers to these questions is a further illustration of the wrangling over uniformity of form. Within the Soviet evangelical movement generally, local conflict between the different denominational groupings also appear petty. Churches split over the issue of using grape juice instead of wine at | communion or because one side insisted on unleavened biscuits while the other wanted regular bread, whereas still others insisted on holding the bread with a white handkerchief until all had been served.” Much more significant was the conflict in the struggle for purity. Some branches of the Pentecostal movement insisted that only those individuals manifesting the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially speaking in tongues, were truly born again. This the Baptist union rejected, insisting that there were varieties of gifts of the Spirit, the Apostle Paul having listed others as more significant. The official teaching in the Dogmatika on the fruits of the Holy Spirit declared that since the Bible was now available in nearly all languages of the world, the gift of tongues was no longer necessary!*° The tension with the Pentecostals was still unresolved when it became complicated by the charismatic movement which influenced some churches in the Ukraine. The AUCECB has responded very negatively to the charismatics, speaking of them virtually in the same breath as the harmful influence of the Je- hovah’s Witnesses,5! The persistent conflict between AUCECB an