Evangelical Christians do not preach any new teaching, rather they refer to the eternal truths of the Holy Scriptures. That is why they feel so close to the revival movements based on Biblical doctrine, which took place in Christianity in the past.
The Evangelical Christian Church in Poland has its roots in times of spiritual revival in nineteenth century Russia and Ukraine. The beginning of the revival movement in the Russian Orthodox Church happened in 1822-23. In 1856, with the support of Alexander II, a Tsar leaning toward Pietism, the Holy Scriptures were translated and published in Russian for the first time. A revival movement of evangelical character was started almost simultaneously, around the 1860’s, in three different parts of Russia:
• among peasants in the south of Russia and Ukraine
• in the Caucasus
• among nobilities and intellectuals of St Petersburg.
Revival in the south of Russia and Ukraine
Religious revival in the south of Russia was connected to the 1736 and 1766 manifestos of the Russian Empress Catherine II that allowed colonizers to come and reside. In those years around twelve thousand rich Germans arrived, Mennonites and Herrnhuts, many of them biblically regenerated. Russians and Ukrainians worked on their farms and after work were invited to the Bible hours where they listened to the Word about Christ and experienced conversion.
Revival in the Caucasus
At that time the Caucasus were inhabited by many displaced persons from different parts of Russia, including so called Spiritual Christians or Molokans – members of a movement in the Russian Orthodox Church which preached a return to the Holy Scriptures. They went through cities and villages distributing the New Testament in the Russian language. On 20 August 1867 a tradesman was baptised in the night in the River Kura. He later became chairman of the Molokan congregation.
Revival among nobilities and intellectuals of St Petersburg
In St Petersburg, then the capital of Russia, the revival movement had a very interesting beginning. Chertkov, a general in the Russian army, and his wife, a lady of aristocratic society, had among their children a son Misha whose teacher and educator was a Bible believer. Thanks to him Misha started to love the Lord Jesus with all his young heart. Even when he was very ill, lying on his deathbed, he enthusiastically told his mother about his Saviour, fervently praying for her conversion. Lady Chertkov was so moved by that testimony that she decided to seek the source of happiness and joy of her now deceased son. She could not find the answer from the Orthodox hierarchy so she decided to go abroad. While staying in Paris she met an evangelist of the Brethren movement, Greenville Radstock. Countess Chertkov took his message about salvation in Christ deeply to her heart. She realized that she had found what she was looking for and a previously unknown peace filled her soul. The Countess thought: “This is the man who is needed, not only for me, but also for Russia.”
Lord Radstock came to St Petersburg in 1874 and started to conduct religious meetings in the house of Elisabeth Chertkov, and afterwards in a church, where his preaching in English and French irritated and upset the nobility. In many houses of the capital people started to speak about “the apostle of revival”. Some did it with admiration, others with criticism and even mockery. Radstock visited houses and was constantly preaching God’s Word, when on a certain day he was invited for dinner by lady Alexandra Pashkov. Her husband, a retired Colonel of the Tsar’s army, was not interested in God’s Word, but as a householder he had to listen to the unusual guest. Suddenly the evangelist invited them to pray and everybody was on his or her knees. After Radstock’s prayer the mouth of Mr. Pashkov was opened and in repentance he asked God for personal salvation.
From that day on the Colonel started to study the Bible and arranged religious meetings in his own home. His beautiful palace became a centre of evangelical activity in St Petersburg. He reached a wide circle of listeners because he was preaching in Russian. In an elegant salon people of different classes sat side by side in the rows of chairs covered with silk: nobilities and their door-keepers and coachmen, teachers and students, educated and simple.
Among the first to be converted were Modest Korf (Minister of Railways), Count A. Bobrinsky, Princess Liven, Princess Gagaryna, Princess Golitzyna, Count Shuvalov, and composer Shulepnikov.
Dr. Frederick Bedeker, also of the Brethren movement, came to Russia in 1887. He had been converted at one of Radstock’s meetings twenty years earlier. His voice was heard in St Petersburg and Moscow, in the Baltic lands, in Ukraine, the Caucasus, Siberia, the Far East, and even on Sahalin Island. His most blessed activity took place among prisoners and deportees. In Moscow he talked with Leo Tolstoy.
George Muller of the Brethren movement, a worldwide known Christian and founder of orphanages in Bristol, visited Russia in 1882. In the same year W.A. Fetler, a young evangelist who had graduated from Spurgeon’s Bible Seminary, also came to St Petersburg.
On the initiative of Pashkov and Korf the first united gathering was arranged in St Petersburg on 1 April 1884. Among those invited were believers from southern Ukraine and Russia and also Baptists from the Caucasus. The gathering was planned for eight days but on the second day the Tsar’s police arrested the delegates and drove them to the Petropavlovsk Fortress, where the police interrogated them and forbade them to meet again.
Orthodox priests were disturbed by the developing evangelical movement and they inspired further persecutions. Believers were attacked and often the bodies of dead ‘heretics’ were not allowed to be buried in cemeteries. Marriages of ‘apostates’ were considered illegal and their children were not registered.
In 1891 a Council of the Orthodox Church made the following order:
“Children of ‘Stundists’ have to be taken from their parents and given to the care of Orthodox relatives, or if such are lacking, they should be given to local clergy. It is forbidden to ‘Stundists’ to buy and rent properties. Disassociation from the Orthodox Church should be punished by deprivation of civic rights or detainment in borstal for one and a half years or two years. One who spreads sectarian teachings or supports their spreading, will be sentenced to Siberia”.
(‘Stundist’ comes from German ‘stunde’, an hour, because Evangelical Christians met for Bible hours - Editor)
Pashkov and Korf were considered dangerous to Orthodoxy so were deported from Russia. Pashkov died in exile.
During this horrible time of persecution a young believer, Ivan (John) Prohanov, came to St Petersburg. Following his dramatic conversion Prohanov had fully dedicated himself to God. He was well educated in the Universities of St Petersburg, Bristol, London, Germany, and Sorbonne. People called him ‘the Reformer of the East’ and he became the new leader of the persecuted movement. Prohanov started contacts with some members of the Senate who were interested in the evangelical movement and, as lawyers, gratuitously helped the persecuted ones. In 1908 the authorities agreed to register the Congregation of Evangelical Christians in St Petersburg, with Prohanov as the leader.
The activity of the evangelical Christians developed on a wide scale. Many new congregations, outposts, and groups were formed. In order to maintain a brotherly bond there was a need to unite congregations in one religious fellowship. On 23 December 1908 a two-week gathering was held in St Petersburg and its participants formed the All-Russian Union of Evangelical Christians. John Prohanov was elected President of the Union and he held that office for twenty years. In 1913 the first Bible School was opened in Russia.
In spite of serious difficulties and persecutions resulting from World War I and the October Revolution, the Evangelical Movement made progress. In 1928 the All-Russian Union of Evangelical Christians comprised of one million people, including family members.
(Watch out for part 2 of ‘Evangelical Christians in Poland’ in January 2009) |
