DOI: 10.25549/pcra-ouc11399bpjt
title: Evangelist, no. 1 (1928)

description: [5 issues per year]. A decision to publish “Evangelist” journal monthly was made at the Second Regional Congress of CEF which took place from the 2nd to the 4th of September 1925. The first number of journal was published at the beginning of 1928. The All-Ukrainian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith was its publisher. The Union’s main office was located in Odessa city. Voronaev I.E. was selected an editor. There were three people in an editorial board. Thus Voronaev I.E. was a managing editor, Koltovich V.R. and Podlesniy I.N. were the members of the board. Circulation of the journal was 3 thousand copies. In general, 8 issues were published: 1, 2, 3-4, 5, 6-7, 8. Publishing of this journal as well as of the other evangelical ones was stopped by the Soviet rule in 1928 by reason of struggle with religious ideology.The purpose of the journal was threefold:1. To preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God in power of the Holy Spirit; to call believers to live authentic Christian life; to call sinners to repentance, purification, rebirth, and sanctification; to preach and testify about baptism and filling with the Holy Spirit (Mth. 3:11; Acts 1:5,8).2. To struggle against modern theological and worldly delusions; to expose wrong understanding of the Word of God and people who have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions; to spread peace, joy and love in the Holy Spirit between believers; to sow pure seed of God; to teach the truth; to awake those who sleep, to comfort those who are sad, to encourage those who are timid, to give strength to those who are weak; and to reveal the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints (Col. 1:26-28).3. To unify all believers into one flock (John 10:16; 17:21) so that they might be able to have invisible ties of unity and to give opportunity to friends to meet spiritually, and to find wise and those who are approved in the Word of God and spiritual gifts.Usually the members of the Union’s leadership were permanent authors of the journal articles. Voronaev I.E., Galchuk M.A., Podlesniy I.N., Kushnerove P.V., and Koltovich V.R. were among them. Some articles were translated from foreign Pentecostal journals such as “Pentecostal Evangel”. There were three types of the articles published in the journal: dogmatic, informative – they narrated about life of the local communities of the Union, and inviting articles, i.e. articles encouraging people to search and strive for spiritual life inside of the church. There was some poetry on the pages of the journal as well.The following articles may be considered as dogmatic ones: “About the Holy Bible”, “About the Church of Christ”, “Christ and His first Church”, “About authentic faith of God”, “About birth from above”, “About God”, “About goodness and mercy of God”, “About baptism with the Holy Spirit”, “What power the Holy Spirit has”, “About resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ”, “Singing and music”, “About prayer”, “About the Word of God”, “About us being chosen”, “The promise of God”, “About the turtle-dove or the Church of Christ”, “About the power of Christ’s blood”, “About salvation”, “About significance of Christ’s death”, “About ministers in the church of Christ”, “Survey of the apostolic epistles”, “What the Holy Scripture tells about the Holy Spirit”, “About fruits of love”, “About fasting”, “About the Holy Scripture”, “About birth from above”, “Sunday or Sabbath”, “About abolition of the Sabbath and keeping Sunday”, “God is Light”, “About presbyters”, “About the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost”, “What do Christians have to keep?”.The following articles may be considered as inviting ones: “A calling to serve”, “Search for God”, “For people of God (CEF) to know”, “About birth of Jesus”, “Lord God is Sun”, “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities (Tit. 3:1)”, “Morning devotion to God”, “About God’s comfort”, “About ministry of Christian women”, “Back to the Day of Pentecost”, “To brothers who preach”, “Care for soul”, “To work”, “Advice to newly converted”, “About God’s love to a man”, “Few rules of Christian life”, “Christ is our teacher and mentor”, “Is it the same to be called and chosen”, “For the children of God baptized with the Holy Ghost to know”, “About being with God alone in silence”, “About reaching possible perfection”, “Spiritual thermometer”, “About new name”, “Hope of believers”, “Joseph is an antitype of Jesus Christ”, “About persecution of Christians in the first century”, “About praise of the Lord”, “About man’s heart”, “What you think of Christ”, “Some advice to preachers”, “How can one learn to preach and to give lectures”, “About ministry to God with fear and trembling”, “Prayer”.The following articles may be considered as informative ones: “From editorial staff”, “About the Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith”, “About the second All-Ukrainian Congress of Christians of Evangelical Faith”, “About death and funerals of the dear sister in the Lord Vera Ivanovna Voronaeva”, “Warning”, “I.I. Salchatov’s letter from Siberia”, “About a new house of prayer in Jerusalem”, “News from Tashkent”, “A letter from Kiev community”, “About regional congress of CEF in Kremenchug city”, “From the life of Nadezhdensk community of CEF”.Most of the doctrinal articles were written by I.E. Voronaev.By now, “Evangelist” journal has become a rare one. Nevertheless, many of the articles published on its pages haven’t lost their spiritual value and significance for the modern Pentecostal movement in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Besides, they have valuable information on Church History on the territory of the Former Soviet Union in the XX century.