Many Christians are interested in the question of people like evangelists. Who is this and what did they do unusual to be remembered forever by all believers? They represent the apostles, each of whom wrote a major Christian book. It's called the Gospel.
According to church traditions, the closest people to Christ were his disciples - the apostles. It was they who told the world about him, talked about the miracles that he performed and about his teachings. And there are only 4 evangelists, each of whom is revered by the church and elevated to the rank of saints.
Apostle Luke
St. Paul had a special influence on one of the evangelists. It was Luke. It was under the influence of the Apostle Paul that he wrote the third book. It had unique content and a special theme. Only in his texts were mentioned such points as:
- Jesus' ascension into heaven after he had earned forgiveness for all people.
- Birth of Saint John.
Luke is also the evangelist who wrote most in detail and openly about church canons. He never says that forgiveness is aimed only at fellow saints who have renounced committing sinful deeds. Heavenly life awaited not only Christians, but also everyone else, because Jesus came precisely for forgiveness for them.
His miracles have not ended today. Holy relics help Christians and representatives of other religions.
Thus, Luke is an evangelist who continues to perform miracles to this day. Anyone in need can turn to his holy relics. Usually in prayers they ask him for recovery or successful operations. This is due to the fact that during his lifetime Luke was a doctor. But this does not mean that he only helps the sick, anyone can tell him about their problems, ask for help, and it will definitely come.
This religious organization emerged in our country as a result of the union of Baptists with evangelicals in 1944 and with Christians of the evangelical faith in 1945. Thus, this is a religious association of sects that have their own history and traditions. Baptistism originates in England, where in 1611-1612 the preaching of the doctrine of this large Protestant movement began. The sect of evangelists arose in Russia in the second half of the last century. The faith of Baptists and evangelists is similar in many, most significant points. This served as the basis for the unification of these sects.
A person entering the prayer house of Evangelical Christian Baptists for the first time will be amazed by many things. He will not see here the church attributes common to Orthodox and Catholic churches. He will not see magnificent divine services accompanied by complex rituals, theatrical ceremonies, dressed in long robes of clergy. Baptist services take place in modestly furnished meeting houses. They consist of sermons delivered by selected preachers from among believers, readings of gospel texts, choral singing and prayers. Members of this religious organization reject the worship of icons, the cross, faith in saints, in “holy relics”, they deny mediation between God and people, the role played by special clergy in Orthodoxy and Catholicism. They do not recognize common Christian sacraments. When performing the rites of baptism and communion, they declare that these are not sacraments with the help of which a person supposedly joins the deity, but simply actions symbolizing memorable events from the life of Jesus Christ. Based on this understanding of the rituals, they perform baptism on adults, because a person, according to them, must consciously join the faith, having passed a certain probationary period.
The sect of Evangelical Christian Baptists retains the basic principles of Protestantism in its doctrine and cult. Denying the role of the church in the salvation of believers, it places emphasis on the inner conviction of people. Evangelical Christian Baptists recognize the “holy scripture” as the source of their doctrine; they believe in a triune God, in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, in the “Last Judgment” and heavenly reward. At the same time, they deny any mediation between God and people, reject the worship of saints, icons, the cross, and do not recognize church sacraments. In their cult only baptism and communion are preserved, but not as sacraments, but as symbolic rites. In this case, baptism is performed by immersion in water over adults who receive it “by faith.” Hence the name Baptists from the Greek word “baptidzo” - to immerse in water. General Christian holidays are not celebrated in the sect of Evangelical Christian Baptists. Members of the sect have their own solemn holidays - “harvest day”, “unity day”, etc.
Baptists did not abandon church rituals at all. They only simplified and “democratized” the cult. And it must be said that their rituals sometimes produce no less, or even stronger, emotional impact than the rituals performed in the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Baptists, for example, do not perform the wedding ceremony so magnificently, but this does not make it any less solemn. The participation of “brothers and sisters” and the elder of the community in performing this rite gives it special significance. The choir praising the young, the parting words of the community members, and the entire atmosphere during the ritual create a special psychological mood among the believers.
In the sermons that are heard within the walls of the houses of worship of Evangelical Christian Baptists, the main focus is on the personal salvation of each believer.
In this regard, preachers talk a lot about the moral improvement of people, which is supposedly a necessary condition for salvation. Baptists often emphasize that they have a special concern for the morality of people. They claim that their faith improves human characters and morals, teaches goodness and, in fact, is the only teaching that can overcome evil on earth and lead to the establishment of the purest and brightest relationships between people.
Making efforts to make inner religious conviction the property of every believer, the preachers of the sect pay special attention to introducing the principles of religious morality into people's consciousness. This gives grounds for the assertion that the sect’s doctrine is supposedly imbued with humanism, contributes to the eradication of evil, and the improvement of people’s characters.
In fact, Baptist morality is just as selfish and individualistic as religious morality in general.
Members of the sect of Evangelical Christian Baptists unite into communities, which are governed by elders together with the community council. All communities are governed by the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christian Baptists.
Christian sectarianism, as well as religion in general, is characterized by constant internal struggle, splitting sects into smaller movements. This is especially true for such a heterogeneous religious association as the Evangelical Christian Baptists.
Recently, a group of believers has emerged here, 4 so-called initiative activists, or Prokofievites (named after one of the leaders of the group, A.F. Prokofiev).
In 1961, the leaders of this movement created an “organizing committee” to convene an extraordinary congress of Evangelical Christian Baptists in order to remove the leadership of the association. They began to distribute appeals, demanding a revision of the legislation on religious cults, permission for unlimited religious propaganda on the streets, in public places, teaching children religion, etc. And these were not just words. Initiatives have developed active activities, trying to provoke believers to organize religious processions in a number of cities. They began to create children's and youth religious circles, publish leaflets with antisocial appeals, and give inflammatory sermons.
Some believers, misled by the demagogic sermons of the initiative leaders, followed them. However, they soon realized the true meaning of the activities of the leaders of this group and began to move away from them. At the conventions of Evangelical Christian Baptists in 1963 and 1966, the leaders of the initiative did not receive support. They were not elected to the governing bodies of the association of Evangelical Christian Baptists. Despite this, they have not abandoned their antisocial activities to this day.
John the Theologian
If you pay attention to what kind of life the evangelists led, who they were and how they became famous, then first of all we need to consider John the Theologian. The fact is that many written sources of Christians indicate that he was a favorite disciple of Christ. It was John who became the only person who stood next to the Mother of God near the crucifixion. Therefore, it was quite logical that he began to write the Gospel.
John was the first witness to many miracles, including the resurrection of Jesus. That is why he paid special attention to the Easter holiday, which other evangelists did not do. Icons, prayers, various chants - all this was dedicated to John, since his book is radically different. The basis of all the writings in it is focused on the Resurrection of Christ, some texts were taken as couplets. In all churches they are used in chants at the Easter night service.
Levi Matthew
Matthew was one of the 12 disciples of Christ. Moreover, before he let Jesus into his heart, he was an ordinary tax collector. And such people, as you know, were not distinguished by honesty and justice. Therefore, his appeal to God can be called a miracle from the very beginning. It is believed that Levi followed Christ as soon as he heard his sermons.
All the evangelists spoke about the faith and teachings of Jesus; it is unknown who started doing this first. What is directly told about Matthew is that he began to teach his teaching to the Jews in Judea. It was for them that he wrote his Gospel, and it was in the appropriate language. Subsequently, this book was translated several times.
Levi spent the last years of his life in India, teaching Christians in that country. He helped a famous family with noble roots. Its head first admired the acts of the apostle, and then became angry with him. As a result, Matthew suffered a painful death. But the head of that family subsequently renounced his titles and wealth. He was baptized in the name of Matthew and led a Christian lifestyle until the end of his days.
Apostle Mark
One night on the territory of Jerusalem, Barnabas had a nephew, and then he did not yet know what kind of life was destined for him. The apostle, evangelist and saint Mark first followed Christ. Then, after his ascension, he went to Egypt, where he became the first bishop of Alexandria. It was here that he wrote his Gospel, which was intended for pagans who accepted the faith.
Sources indicate that the book of Mark included little. It consisted of short stories of the Apostle Peter. After Mark wrote them down, he returned to Alexandria. And there he already realized that the remaining pagans would not give him a quiet life, so he hurried to find successors.
Soon the pagans finally reached him. For two days he was subjected to various tortures with a break for the night in prison, then he died from terrible torture. But, like all saints, he did not doubt the existence of God at all, and his last words were addressed specifically to him.
Is the word "evangelists" found in the New Testament?
The word “evangelists” appears three times in the New Testament. In Acts 21:8, one of the seven deacons is called an evangelist - Philip (in the Church Slavonic translation - “evangelist”); Eph. 4:11 speaks of evangelists as one of the church ministries along with apostles, prophets, shepherds and teachers (also translated as “evangelist”); in 2 Timothy 4:5 ap. Paul calls on Timothy to do the “work of an evangelist” (ἐργὸν εὐαγγελιστοῦ, in the Church Slavonic translation: “an evangelist”), the content of which, as can be assumed, is conveyed in the words of 1 Thess. 3:2, where Paul calls Timothy “a servant of God” and his co-worker “in the gospel of Christ."
