>
Plus the efficency of the Soviet psychological and ideological methods in to perform the dirty war against the enemies of the regime.
One detail: in the following text I integrally report here, you will notice how with the rising of atheist anti-Christian Communism, the Russian Baptists had to face another hard task, to counter the atheist ideology of the Bolshevik regime. They opposed the fleshy Kingdom of Earth of the Bolsheviks telling the only true Kingdom, the one of GOD, which "comes without observation" and it "comes in your heart" (Luke, ch. 17). The ideals of fraternity to be implemented at any cost on earth as the revolutionist catechisms, are only a fleshy dummy of the true fraternity of all the saints in heaven and, at the present time of persecutions, among the brethren on earth. Significantly there was a parallel ideological and cultural opposition to the Bolshevik regime, which tried to occupy the field of the "betrayed fraternity" stealing it from the mouth of the Baptist brethren: the Anarchists. Who acted not only with the culture and ideology, but also with the blood of the Nestor Machno's anarchist uprising.
Today in the s.c. liberal democracies, the situation is not far away from the one of Russia between Czarist and Boshevik persecution: the liberal democracies are no more or less anti-Christian, opposing to the Kingdom of God another version of the fleshy Kingdom of Earth. Evangelical Baptists share persecutions not only in the Russia of the Yarovaya law, but quite well in the liberal democracies, where (my personal witness and troubles) the bureucracy to which you are constrained to apply if you want decently live our "liberal democratic countries" is no less full of hatred towards the Evangelical Baptists. The hordes of feminists, homosexual-supporters, abortion militants, evolutionist-darwinist squads and other, which you can see every day in the squares of USA protesting against the new President Trump, are only the last fulfillment of 2 Timothy 3:12
12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Taken from the website of Russian Baptists:
http://rusbaptist.stunda.org/engl/ecb.htm
EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS-BAPTISTS IN THE
RUSSIA
Thousands of churches and groups of believing Evangelical Christian - Baptists in our
country gather for praverful fellowship after their day’s or work to praise and thank
Him Who gives life to all the creation on the earth.
This narration can give you just a slight impression of life and activity of the
Evangelical Christian Baptists in the Russia.
Evangelical Christians - Baptists are scattered on the vast territory of our country.
Churches of our brotherhood can be found in central regions, in the Far North, in
Transcaucasia, in the Baltic region, and in the boundless lands of Siberia and the Far
East.
Our brotherhood is multinational. It consists of Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians,
Germans, Latvians, Armenians, Georgians, Ossets, Moldavians, Chuvashes, Komi, and other
nationalities. Any nationality enjoys love, respect, and equal rights in our brotherhood.
Many foreign delegations and separate tourists visit our churches. As a rule, they are
impressed by deep dedication of believers to Savior Jesus Christ and striving for carrying
His divine teaching into everyday life.
The history of Christianity tells us that there had been Christ’s followers inany
century, who held the name of the Teacher sacred and preserved His commandments in purity.
The Reformation, which took place in the 16th century, was a sign of its times. It
moved almost all the people of Western Europe and opened again the source of salvation -
the Holy Scripture.
Evangelical Baptist movement in Russia was a great spiritual heritage of the Radicals
Reformation, which proclaimed the forgotten teaching of the Gospel on justification
through faith. This movement stepped forward towards reaching the goal set by the
Reformation - revival of the earty Christianity of apostolical times.
The year 1997 saw the 130th anniversary of the day when, Nikita Isaevich Voronin, who
later became a well-know worker on God’s field, was baptized through faith in the rapid
Kura river in Tbilisi.
August 20, 1867, when N.I. Voronin was baptized, is considered to be the beginning of
the Evangelical Baptist brotherhood in our country. This beginning was very modest. More
that 100 years ago believers did not strive for creating a special church, or for
establishing their union, or any organization whatsoever. They just gathered for reading
God’s Word and for prayer. They were especially characterized, by their commitment to
Christ and the Gospel. This enabled the new movement to become a great family whose
members are hard to enumerate.
The Evangelical Baptist movement is often compared with a river. And like any river
which rises from tiny brooks, our brotherhood has three sources. These three sources, or,
to put it in other words, three cradles of our Evangelical Baptist brotherhood, were the
Ukraine, the Cacasus, and St. Peterburg. It was in these places that the Evangelical
movement was born in our country.
Groups of believers, which appeared in different parts of the country, were called
differently. They were called “Stundists” in the Ukraine since believers took part in
Bible hours called “Bibelstunden” by Germans who lived in the Ukraine. They were
called “Baptists” in the Caucasus (from the Greek word “baptizo” - “I immerse”
or “baptize”). These Christians were called “Pashkovites” in St. Peterburg after
the name of Pashkov, a believer who was a retired colonel and belonged to the circles of
high society of the former capital.
Spiritual life began to exist in different times and in different ways in other parts
of our country as well, such as Estonia, Moldavia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia. The
rise of these national brotherhoods took place after 1867. But the event that took place
on the night of September 22, 1861, is unforgettable for the Latvian brotherhood: pastor
Adams Gertner, the founder of the Baptist movement in Latvia, performed the first baptism
through faith in Latvia, having baptized 72 persons in the Ziros river.
The rise of Evangelical believers was strongly promoted by the fact that many peoples
living in Russia could read the Gospel in their mother tongues at the beginning of the
19th century. The Bible Society issued books of the Holy Scripture in Russian, Polish,
Georgian, Armenian, and Lithuanian.
The Russian Synodal Bible was published for the first time in 1876. People obtained the
Book of life, which can be compared with the best Western European translations as far as
the accuracy of the holy original’s reproduction is conserned.
As is known, ober-procurator of the Most Synod Pobedonostsev, due to his unlimited
influence, had done all his best during 25 years (from 1890 till 1905) to crush so-called
“sectarians” including Evangelical Christians-Baptists. Nearly all active brothers
experiensed arrests, exile, and other deprivations.
Revolutionary riots, which occured in 1905, forced the Tsarist goverment to rescind the
“crushing law” against Stundists, which had come into force on July 4, 1894, and
proclaim the Manifesto on freedom of conscience, speech, meetings, and unions on October
17, 1905.
A number of congresses were held after this event. The publication of the magazine
“Khristianin” (“Christian”) began in 1906, and the publication of the magazine
“Baptist” and other Christian literature began in 1907.
However, in spite of some easing in the Lord’s cause, one should note that the
Tsarist government tried to return to Pobedonostsev’s policy. This is confirmed by two
circulars issued by the government in 1912 and 1913, which infringed upon the believers
freedom of religion and called upon punishing all those who broke them. Needless to say
that it somehow hindered the work of many members of our brotherhood.
When World War 1 was unleashed, the situation of the Russian Evangelical Baptist
movement aggravated even more. The Bible school was closed. Many prayer houses were also
closed. In September, 1916, all the prayer meetings were banned in Petrograd. I.S.
Prokhanov, President of the Union, and all the Council of the Evangelical Christian Union
were summoned to court for having established an “antistate union”. I.S. Prokhanov’s
case was dropped only due to the October Revolution.
Under the new historical conditions leaders of the Evangelical brotherhood had to face
new tasks, especially witness to Christ and His good news in the atheistic milieu.
Christianity has already shown to many people that the Kingdom of God is the Kingdom
where the great idea of liberty, fraternity and equality will be fully realized. The task
of Christianity nowdays it to give examples of the highest morality, the most selfless and
unselfish love, beauty, purity and holiness of Jesus Christ to the world.
Christ calls upon His followers to show the world the virtue and beauty of the true
Christianity in their faith, no matter how hard it would be for them.
In 1944 two big kindred movements of Evangelical Christians and Baptists merged into a
single brotherly union to work zealously in the unity of the spirit and union of peace for
glorifying our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This merger was an important unification of
Evangelical believers in our country.
We are convinced that all baptists who love Lord Jesus Christ sincerely, with all their
hearts, are united in the spirit even if they are not united organizationally. Our unity
depends primarily on our personal attitude towards Jesus Christ. Living faith in Him and
ardent love of Him and ardent love of Him make us members of His Body - the Church - and
create unity among believers which cannot and must not be broken by any Christian man and
woman. There is no other way to the true unity among Christians. There is only one way to
unity: living faith in Christ and ardent love of Him!
Theology of Evangelical Christians-Baptists is based on the fundamental recognition of
the divine authority of the Holy Scripture - the Bible.
We believe that all the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments were inspired by
the Holy Spirit and given by Lord as the only necessary and adequate source for the
cognition of God, our salvation, and His will concerning our faith and life.
Modernist and liberal dogmatic wiews are not widely distributed in our movement. Faith
in Jesus Christ as one’s personal Savior, full commitment to serving Him, thirst for and
happiness of prayerful fellowship, love of one’s neighbour accompany the ministry of our
brotherhood.
“The folk’s soul is revealed in the song”, says a popular wisdom. This can be
said about our brotherhood. Our churches are singing churches. There have been many
splendid choirs, endowed singers, precentors, and composters in our churches. There exist
more than, 2000 hymns that are sung in local churches. It is really a cup of burning
incence before the throne of God.
Parents in our country enjoy the right to educate their children in the spirit of the
Gospel and to visit worship meetings together with their children. Education of children
in the love of God, brotherhood and neigbors is a right of believing parents.
All the believers of the Evangelical Baptist brotherhood pay great attention to the
Bible studies.
Knowledge of God’s Word is the prerequisit of the saint and devout life that
corresponds to the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The history of existence of our brotherhood is full of wonders. These wonders are
visible in everything, especially in the promotion of the Gospel'’ workers by God both
from the common people and the high-flown, aristocratic society.
Among the first preachers of the Gospel and selfless servants of Christ in the Ukraine
were Mikhail Ratushnyi and Ivan Onishenko - serfs who learned to read and write by
themselves to read the New Testament which had just appeared in Russian. Among the
founders of the Evangelical movement in the Ukraine were also Efim Tsimbal and Ivan
Riaboshapka.
The well-known ministers of the Baptist brotherhood in the Caucasus were V.G. Pavlov
and V.V. Ivanov who devoted all their lives to God’s glory and the benefit of the His
Church. One should mention D.I. Mazaev, editor of the “Baptist” magazine and eloquent
preacher and spiritual writer.
Among the Gospel’s outstanding in St. Peterburg one should mention first of all the
blessed preacher lord Redstoke who visited twice the old capital of Russia. His two visits
laid the foundation for the spiritual revival in St. Peterburg.
One of the first St. Peterburg’s aristocrats who turned to Christ through
Redstoke’s sermons and conversations was retired colonel V.A. Pashkov. Later on he
became an ardent worker in the cause of the Gospel.
I.M. Korf was a magnificent Evangelical worker in St. Peterburg.
Russian Minister of railreads A.P. Bobrinskii was a fellow - champion of Pashkov and
Korf in their Christian work.
I.V. Kargel worked hard in preaching the Gospel and in Christian education of the
believers in St. Peterburg and many other parts of Russia. He wrote a number of Christian
works and taught at the Bible courses in Leningrad.
The group of outstanding Evangelical workers of St. Peterburg and the whole of the
Evangelical Baptist brotherhood included brother I.S. Prokhanov, well-known both in our
country and abroad.
Such distinguished workers and injureds for
True of the Evangelical Baptist brotherhood as G.I. Shipkov,
G.P. Vins, N. Odintsov, V.V. Ivanov-Klyshnikov, M. Timoshenko, Datsko, N. Khrapov, N.
Baturin, Y. Grachov and others brothers.
Unlike the universal Church, which includes all the revived souls, both gone to
eternity and still living on the earth, the local church consists of souls believing in
Christ and having received the water baptism through faith.
The Church is Christ’s school whose task is to bring up each church member “to very
height of Christ’s full stature” (Eph. 4,13) and to glorify Jesus Christ by the beauty
of its pure and holy life.
Each person who has believed in Christ as his personal Savior, has reached 18 years of
age, and received the water baptism may become a member of the church.
The budget of a local church is made up from voluntary gifts of believers.
The purity and perfection of local churches depend on each believer. Therefore, God’s
Word calls upon all members of the church to be an example “in faith, hope, and love”.
Women, sisters continuing the great dynasty of the most blessed Martha, Mary, Tabitha
and many other women zealots of faith of the Gospel zealously work in all the churches.
They combine care of the family, creating comfort at home, and work in industry with work
in the church.
Various divine services are performed in Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches. They
include the sermon, singing, prayer, baptism of believers, Lord’s supper, etc.
Sermon is the main divine service of the New Testament Church. The good message of the
salivation through Jesus Christ refreshes the joy of salvation in our hearts and leads to
this joy all those who have not experienced it yet.
It is not enough to know only God’s promises to grow spiritually and to reach “very
height of Christ’s full stature”. The main and necessary thing for all Christ’s
followers is the knowledge of the wish of the Heavenly Father. Therefore each church must
deeper cognize Christ and the power of His resurrection as the supreme revelation of
God’s love of man. The constant realization of Christ’s teaching in real life is the
task which should be fulfilled to provide the continuous fellowship with Christ (Acts
4,42).
An important place in our services is given to the spiritual choir and general singing.
Like a sermon, a song should contain an exhortation, i. e. an admonition. The Gospel says:
“Teach and instruct each other with all wisdom: Sing psalms, hymns, and sacred songs;
sing to God with thanksgiving in your hearts” (Col. 3,16). Choir song of the Evangelical
Baptist brotherhood are different by form and repertoire. There are some choirs that have
achieved a high artistic level. We are thankful to God that He inspires many ministers of
church singing to continue glorious traditions of the multinational brotherhood to sing of
God’s grace and greatness.
Singers of choirs, their directors - precentors - and musicians are believers. Besides
the precentor, the church superintendent is also spiritually responsible for the choir.
Christ says that the means of being filled with the Holy Spirit is the prayer (Lk.
11,13). For this reason, great attention is paid to prayer in the life and ministry of
children of God. Believers continuously maintain inner prayerful relations with God.
Children of God may face many difficulties in their lives. But the prayer gives support
and strength for serving God and men. Christ calls upon us to overcome any difficulties by
the strenth of the prayer: “Keep watch and pray that you will not fall into
temptation” (Mt. 26,41).
The Savior Himself, when He was on the earth, continuously prayed to the Heavenly
Father. He also prayed in the most difficult hour - the hour of death: “Father! In Your
hands I place my spirit!” (Lk. 23,46). These words must be the last words in the life of
each believer.
Another important divine service is baptism though faith. This act has a deep spiritual
meaning. Receiving baptism, a believer plunges into Christ’s death, figuratively dies
with Him and, leaving baptism water, he figuratively resurrects with Christ for the new
life (Rom. 6,3-4).
This divine service should be preceded by the baptized’s faith and knowledge of the
fundamental truths of the Gospel. That is why only grown-ups can be baptized in our
churches after they received Christ though faith in their heart.
Baptism is an open witness of the baptized to his faith in Jesus Christ and the promise
to God to live the new life (1 Pet. 3,21).
Lord’s supper is an obligatory commandment for those who believe according to God’s
Word. By the words “do it to remember Me” Christ commanded to make Lord’s supper a
constant divine service of His Church.
Wine and bread are the means of communion, i. e. contact with our crucified Lord.
As a rule, Church members who have received the holy water baptism, take part in
Lord’s supper.
This commandment of Jesus Christ is carried out in local churches of Evangelical
Christians-Baptists in accordance with the decision of each church; generally, Lord’s
supper is observed on the first Sunday of each month.
The divine services also include the ordination to the pastor and deacon ministry,
marriages, burials, etc.
We should say just a few words about ordination. Ordination is a very ancient act. It
was practiced even in the Old Testament.
Ordination of a church minister is his initiation to the ministry.
The act of ordination is performed in the following way: ordained ministers impose
hands on the person being ordained and make a prayer.
The following words from the Holy Scripture concerning everyday work have become the
golden rule of Evangelical Christians - Baptists: “Whatever you do, work at it with all
your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for the men” (Col. 3,23).
As a rule, each brother and sister of ours seeks to live and work at home and in
industry in such a way that theier work could glorify Jesus Christ (Mt. 5,16).
The words of the Gospel: “God has called you to live in peace” (1 Cor. 7,15) - are
taken by Christians-Baptists as the program of actions. Being aware that “the prayer of
a good person has a powerful effect” (Jac. 5,16), our churches continuously pray to God,
the Giver of true peace and perfect quietness, for establishing peace on the earth.
We believe that our prayers please God as the Gospel teaches us: “Try to be at peace
with everyone, and try to live a holy life, because no one will see the Lord without it”
(Heb. 12,14).
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Sunday, October 16, 2016
Yarovaya law forces to close American Independent Baptist mission in Russia
http://spirithismouth.blogspot.it/2016/10/yarovaya-law-force-to-close-american.html
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Fined in 2015 for "distorted interpretation" of the Bible and reading it from "electronic devices".
http://spirithismouth.blogspot.it/2016/11/fined-in-2015-for-distorted.html
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