Religion has always played an important role in society. It regulated both the life of an individual and social relations between people. And there have always been official religions and religions that he created in opposition to the religions of the dissatisfied and radical. Moreover, everyone said that they were looking for the truth, and this very truth was revealed only to them. And how was it to be verified? After all, there was always something that … was the first time.
Baptist baptism in Minusinsk in 1907. As you can see, the policeman is present in order to "if something happens" to testify the guilt of the Baptists in the death of a person.
Considering the religious situation in modern Russian society, one can see two directions in it: one presupposes a return to the spiritual sources of our national identity, which for a Russian person, of course, is inextricably linked with the Orthodox faith, and a direction diametrically opposite to it: to go beyond the existing limits historically established cultural and historical life and look for a different spirituality. And I must say that both of these trends or tendencies in the history of Russia have always existed, and are by no means a sign of only today. That is, in the past, far from only “Orthodox fruits” grew on the “lush tree” of Orthodox Christianity, there were many sprouts of various religions.
Moreover, it was precisely the abolition of serfdom that Russia created the preconditions for various sectarian movements, among which Baptism occupied a dominant position at that time. But it is interesting that Baptism, which came to Russia from the West, was very strongly influenced by both the original Russian culture and the mentality of the Russian people, in a word, on our soil, Baptism began to develop in a special way, different from the Western way of development.
Well, the first Baptist congregation was founded in Amsterdam in 1609. Its creator is considered to be John Smith (1550 - 1612) - a priest of the Anglican Church who converted to Congregationalism. And he fled to Amsterdam, fleeing from his pursuers, accepted the rite of water baptism there and began to call his followers to the same. In 1606 - 1607 two more groups of English Congregationalists moved to Holland, where they also absorbed the teachings of the Mennonites and borrowed from them the rite of "baptism by faith", that is, the baptism of not babies, but adults, since newborns could not, in their opinion, "believe consciously." As proof of their innocence, they referred to the Bible, where there is not a single word about the baptism of children. Moreover, the Gospel said that Christ commanded the apostles to baptize people who were taught and believers, but not stupid babies. Well, in Greek "baptizo" just means "baptize", "immerse in water" - hence the name of their community.
In 1612, Smith's followers returned to England and formed the first Baptist congregation in that country. They were called general, or "Baptists of free will," because they believed that God makes it possible for all people to be saved, recognized that a person had free will, and baptized people by pouring.
But the number of Baptists in England increased slowly, and they did not have much influence on the religious atmosphere of British society. Another branch of Baptists immediately arose among the Presbyterians, who in 1616 decisively separated from the Church of England. In 1633, a community was formed in London, led by preacher John Spilsbury, whose members practiced baptism through total immersion in water. The members of this community sent their envoy to Holland, who in 1640 in Leiden was baptized in a similar way by colleagues - another small group of original believers who claimed to be restoring the customs of the past apostolic age. Returning to his homeland, he christened about 50 more people in the same way. Thus was born a community of private, or particular, Baptists, who accepted Calvin's point of view of salvation only for a select few.
In 1644 in England there were already seven such communities, which at a general meeting approved the "London Confession of Faith", in which there were 50 articles. It was a "document" in the spirit of Calvinist theology, but it included two important features: "baptism by faith" and the principle of congregation between individual Baptist congregations. Another important feature that distinguished Baptists from other Protestant denominations, such as Lutherans, Reformed (Calvinists), Anglicans (the flock of the Episcopal Church of England), was the idea of a "mission", that is, they were actively promoting their teachings, which was raised into dogma faith. Each member of the community should "preach the gospel", that is, spread their faith. But it turned out to be practically impossible to act in this way in England due to severe pressure from the state authorities. Therefore, many groups of Baptists began to move to the North American colonies, where Baptism subsequently took very deep roots. And it was the United States that eventually became the second homeland of Baptism and its center, from where it began to spread throughout Europe at the beginning of the 19th century and approach the borders of the vast Russian Empire.
Baptism began to spread in Europe from Germany. There, in 1834, the American preacher Sirk baptized seven people, including a certain Onken, who then played a prominent role in promoting Baptism in the Baltic countries. By 1851, there were 41 Baptist congregations in Germany and neighboring countries, with 3,746 members. Then, in 1849, the first general conference of Baptists in Europe was held in Hamburg, at which it was decided to adopt Onken's Baptist Statement of Faith. In 1857, Baptism appeared in Norway, in Poland the first Baptists appeared in 1858, in 1873 it was Hungary's turn, and by 1905 their number in this country already exceeded 10 thousand people.
Note that the spread of Baptism occurred as a result of the vigorous activity of American missionary societies. It was thanks to their efforts that the Italian Baptist Union was created in 1884. But the Catholic Church actively opposed them, so that by 1905 there were only 54 Baptist congregations in this country, with 1,456 members.
During the Crimean War, the English fleet occupied the Finnish island of Alland. And it was this circumstance that allowed the Swede S. Mallersward in 1855 to become the first preacher of Baptism among the Swedes who lived in Finland. Well, the Finnish Baptist National Conference was established in this country in 1905.
And on February 11, 1884, many people witnessed an interesting spectacle: the German pastor A. R. Shive was engaged in baptizing nine Estonians right in the icy waters of the Baltic Sea. In 1896 the Estonian Baptist Association was founded, which by 1929 had more than six thousand members. However, even before that, namely in 1861, eight Latvians at night in a boat sailed to German Memel and there they received water baptism from the same I. Onken.
However, one should not argue that Baptism was the first Protestant religion that somehow got to Russia: even under Catherine II, Mennonites appeared in Russia, fleeing persecution in the West, and their colonies were quite numerous. Well, by 1867, that is, the official date of the emergence of Russian Baptism, there were already more than 40 thousand of them.
But the most important thing was that attacks against the Russian Orthodox Church were historically customary. At first, these were pagans, who often killed official Orthodox missionaries. In the XIV century, the first "heresies" appeared (strigolniki, antitrinitarians, etc.). Then, in the middle of the 17th century, a split occurred altogether, caused by Nikon's reforms. Then sectarians appeared. So Baptism became a kind of continuation of the anti-Orthodox religious tradition and nothing more.
But the preaching of the Baptists fell on "good" ground. In Russia there were already “Christovots” (or “Christovers”, or, according to their official name, “Khlysty”), who arose in the 17th century, mainly among the quitrent peasants. Typical of the "Khlystovism" was the previously widespread idea of Christ not as a son of God, but as a simple person who was filled with the "spirit of God", which allowed, in principle, every believer to receive such a "spiritual gift" and … to become like the Savior himself … Christians rejected the main dogma of the Trinity, respectively, all the statutes and rituals inherent in the Orthodox Church, but outwardly they did not break with it: they went to Orthodox services, kept icons in their homes, wore crosses.
Then "spiritual Christianity" was transformed into two famous sects: the Dukhobors and the Molokans. The followers of the first completely broke with the official Orthodox Church. They said: "You don't need to go to churches to pray … The church is not in logs, but in ribs." They rejected the Orthodox icons, but they worshiped the image of the "living" God in man. Radicalism reached the point that they did not recognize the royal power, refused to serve in the army, and, most importantly, like the same followers of the priest Utcliffe in England, proclaimed the complete equality of all the sons of God and argued that every person is directly and directly connected with God, and therefore he does not need any intermediaries in the person of priests, and the church itself, too! It was not for nothing that the tsarist autocracy persecuted the Dukhobors with particular zeal, and in 1830 ranked them among the "especially harmful sects."
Simultaneously with the Dukhobors, Molokanism appeared, which made them a rival. These also denied the Orthodox priestly hierarchy, monasticism, refused to venerate icons, did not recognize the holy relics, and the cult of saints itself, preached the idea of salvation through the performance of "good deeds." Both those and others wanted to build the "kingdom of God" on earth, created communes in which common property was declared and an equal distribution of the obtained benefits was practiced. But the Molokans, unlike the Dukhobors, recognized the dogma of the Trinity, and, most importantly, believed that the Bible is the only and most authoritative source of faith. The leaders of the Molokans did not refuse to honor the king, his powers and the laws established by the state.
So people at all times tried to find as many ways to salvation after death as possible, and most often they were not content with one official one. Moreover, they did it, relying on the same sources of religious information.
