The Molokans (Spiritual Christians)

Russian peasants who left the Orthodox Church for the Bible alone: no priest, no icon, no vestment, and a Sunday meeting of reading, psalms and prayer. They keep baptism and the Supper only "spiritually," with no water, bread or cup.

Union of Spiritual Christian Molokans, "Основания истинных христиан духовных молокан c 1803 года" (Principles of the True Spiritual Christian Molokans since 1803), from the Molokan prayer book of M. P. Lezin, 2nd ed., Tiflis, 1906, posted under "Основы вероисповедания" (Foundations of the Confession), 27 October 2014 (Russian)

N. F. Kudinov, "О крещении духом" (On Baptism by the Spirit), from Vestnik DKhM no. 9, 1927, abridged, on the site of the Union of Spiritual Christian Molokans (Russian)

"Principles of the True Spiritual Christian Russian Molokans, Since 1803, Comprising 27 Articles", the English translation printed in the Molokan Review (Los Angeles, 1948–49) from Lezin's prayer book, 3rd ed., 1910; reproduced by Andrei Conovaloff on molokane.org with the c. 2000–2003 Dukh-i-zhiznik edits marked

"Petition to Tsar Aleksander Pavlovich, July 12, 1805" and the delegates' statement to the Senate, as kept in Molokan tradition, tr. Michael P. Lediaev for the 2005 bicentennial (molokane.org)

Andrei Conovaloff, "Taxonomy of 3 Spiritual Christian groups: Molokane, Pryguny and Dukh-i-zhizniki" (draft, molokane.org, updated 17 October 2026)

molokane.org, "Molokan = milk drinkers, 1 Peter 2:2"

Roman Lunkin and Anton Prokof'yev, "Molokans and Doukhobors: Living Source of Russian Protestantism" (tr. Suzanne Pattle; posted on molokane.org with editor's bracketed notes)

Yury Kolesnikov, "Native Russian sect reviving: Molokans from San Francisco arrive in Siberia," Radiotserkov, 2 September 1998 (English tr. P. D. Steeves, on molokane.org)

Christel O. Lane, "Socio-political Accommodation and Religious Decline: The Case of the Spiritual Christians Molokan Sect in Soviet Society" (1975; updated with bracketed notes, molokane.org)

S. V. Bulgakov, Handbook for Orthodox clergy (Nastolnaia kniga dlia sviashchenno-tserkovno-sluzhitelei), 3rd ed., Kiev, 1913, "Molokane" (Russian; on azbyka.ru)

Wikipedia, "Molokans" (last resort; used for dates and counts only, never for their own words)

The Molokans began as Russian peasant dissenters in the eighteenth century, carried by one man, Simeon Uklein, from the circle that became the Doukhobors to the Volga and the south. The Tsars sent them to the Caucasus, and from 1904 a few thousand reached California. Their story is easily mixed with the Jumpers' and the Dukh-i-zhizniki's, because in America the name "Molokan" was put on all of them. Each event below is about the Molokans, and the family's other branches are named only to keep them apart.

The name "milk drinkers"

The word molokane is first used, according to Conovaloff, "to describe the heresy of not fasting." Orthodox officials gave the name to those who ate dairy foods on the Church's fast days. The Molokans later took it as their own from 1 Peter 2:2, the "spiritual milk" of the word.

The name spreads; Uklein goes to the Volga

The term is popularized from 1765 in central Russia, including Tambov. Before that, Simeon Uklein separated from the circle of Ilarion Pobirokhin, whose followers were later called Doukhobors, and took his family and "about 70 of the best singers" to preach along the Volga. Wikipedia, citing O. Beznosova, dates the break itself to about 1779–1780 and says Uklein defended reliance on the Gospel texts in the life of the church. The Molokan line begins with the name and with Uklein's turn to the written word.

The Articles

The confession is dated by its own title, Основания истинных христиан духовных молокан c 1803 года (Principles of the True Spiritual Christian Molokans since 1803). Each of its twenty-seven articles states a belief and sets out its Scripture. The Union of Spiritual Christian Molokans publishes the Russian text on its own site, from the second edition of M. P. Lezin's Molokan prayer book (Tiflis, 1906), as the foundations of its confession. The 1803 date is the title's; no earlier copy was found.

A branch goes south and the Jumpers appear

Some Sunday Molokans begin moving in 1817 to Tavria province, in what is now southern Ukraine. There, according to Conovaloff, they took on features from other Spiritual Christians and from German Protestants: a focus on the Apocalypse, prophecy, and ecstatic dances and jumping. Wikipedia dates the Jumpers' split from the old Molokans to 1833. This is the Jumpers' history, not the Molokans', and it is told here to show where the two parted.

Exile to the Caucasus

The Tsarist government sent the Molokans away from central Russia to the Caucasus (1833) and then to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia (1834), Ukraine, Central Asia and Siberia, so that they would not influence other peasants. Many communities survive there to the present.

Sunday and Saturday Molokans counted apart

The Russian Empire census counts as "Saturday Molokans" the Sabbatarians who had joined them and refused to worship on Sunday. The original believers remained "Sunday Molokans."

To California

In 1901 Molokans petitioned the Canadian government for the terms it had given the Doukhobors. According to Conovaloff, Captain Peter A. Demens turned nearly all the arriving Spiritual Christians who were not Doukhobors toward Los Angeles. Of those who came to California between 1905 and 1920, about a quarter were Molokans, and from 1907 their congregations existed only in San Francisco, Vacaville and Sheridan. The many Spiritual Christians in Los Angeles were mostly Jumpers and others; the "Molokan" label was put on all of them.

San Francisco hall; and a book that is not theirs

The Molokans built their meeting hall in San Francisco in 1928. The same year, the Dukh-i-zhizniki in Los Angeles published Spirit and Life, the book that defines that body. It is not a Molokan book and has no place in the Molokan faith.

The Articles in English

The Articles are printed in English in the Molokan Review of Los Angeles, edited by Paul I. Samarin, translated from the third edition of Lezin's prayer book (1910). Conovaloff, who reprints them on molokane.org, says the Review was published by Dukh-i-zhizniki, who took the list from the Molokans, and that about 2000–2003 Los Angeles Dukh-i-zhizniki edited the English again, changing three article labels and adding two articles. That English is therefore a Dukh-i-zhiznik text. This chart quotes the Articles from the Molokans' own Russian, and uses the English only where it renders the Russian faithfully.

The Union of Spiritual Christian Molokans

The Union is founded in Moscow in 1990 and moved about 1994 to Kochubeevskoe in Stavropol territory, to serve refugees from the Caucasus. By 2007 it had about 45 dues-paying congregations in Russia and one in San Francisco.

Children of Christ

A congregation at Mikhailovsk in Stavropol territory splits from the Molokans and adds water baptism "for any age." Its service is "nearly identical to Molokan," and relatives nicknamed its members "wet Molokans." It stands as a mark of how plainly the Molokans omit water.

Two hundred years of religious freedom

Conovaloff writes that American Molokans celebrated 200 years of religious freedom in 2005.

Simeon Matveevich Uklein

A Tambov peasant (a tailor by trade, in the 1913 Orthodox handbook of S. V. Bulgakov), son-in-law of Ilarion Pobirokhin. He broke with the circle that became the Doukhobors, held to the written Gospel and preached along the Volga and southward until his death in 1809 (Wikipedia, last resort, for his dates).

Peter A. Demens

A captain and professional man in America who had himself immigrated from a Slavic country and who, in Conovaloff's account, diverted nearly all the arriving Spiritual Christians who were not Doukhobors from Canada to Los Angeles. He is named here because the "Molokan" label spread through his efforts, not because he led the Molokans.

Paul I. Samarin

Editor of the Molokan Review in Los Angeles, which printed the Articles in English in 1948–49. Conovaloff says the Review was published by Dukh-i-zhizniki, so Samarin's work is a link between the two bodies.

Timofei Vasilich

Named by Conovaloff as the senior presbyter of the Union of Spiritual Christian Molokans in his account of the Mikhailovsk split. The sources fetched give no further record of the Union's presbyters.

Who is who in the family. Conovaloff's taxonomy sorts the Spiritual Christians who came from Russia into three groups and says plainly that they "are as distinct as apples and oranges." The Molokans use the Bible, hold the holidays he calls Christ's, have no prophets, and keep an open communion. The Jumpers (Pryguny) are Molokans who, from about 1833, took up prophecy and jumping, and who mostly keep a closed communion. The Dukh-i-zhizniki are a body he says was founded in the United States about 1928, around the book Spirit and Life (Kniga solntse, dukh i zhizn'), which he says they hold as a third testament beside the Bible; the Maksimisty are a tribe within them. The Jumpers do not hold that book. Many American descendants of all three are called Molokans, and the taxonomy argues that most of them are not.

Other groups that split from or joined the Molokans. The Saturday Molokans (Subbotniki) were Sabbatarians who merged with Spiritual Christians. The "Dry Baptists" (Sukhie Baptisty) were Molokans who merged with the All-Russian Union of Evangelical Christians but "refused water baptism, preferring their traditional baptism by the Holy Spirit." The Children of Christ, as above, add water. A Russian Orthodox handbook of 1913 also describes a Don branch of the Molokans that baptized in water and blessed bread and wine; it is taken up under Salvation and the Supper.

On the name. Some sources, including Wikipedia and Lunkin and Prokof'yev, call the original Molokans the "Constants." Conovaloff asks writers not to use the Russian adjective behind that name, because he says it was an insult and not a name the Molokans chose, and this chart does not use it as a label. Where a source uses it, the chart says "Sunday Molokans" instead.

Persecution and endurance. Lunkin and Prokof'yev write that the Molokans and Doukhobors "were persecuted by the spiritual and secular authorities," and that in the early years the dissenters would still "take communion in Orthodox churches from time to time and bury their dead according to Orthodox rites." Lane's 1975 study of the Molokans in Soviet society, in the version on molokane.org, carries a bracketed note by the site's editor that by 1975 most descendants of Spiritual Christians in Russia had become educated, intermarried and left their faiths, many joining the Baptists. That is the editor's statement, and not Lane's or the Molokans'.

The Bible alone, proved article by article; no priest or Church tradition beside it. The twenty-seven Articles are the written statement of the faith.

The Molokans appeal to Scripture for every point. Each of the Articles states a belief and sets out the texts that prove it. The Articles refuse the Orthodox tradition of icons, the cross, vestments and the priesthood, each one "according to the Holy Scripture," and say the apostles themselves wore no special dress. Lunkin and Prokof'yev, two Russian scholars, write that "Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures is still the main sign of holiness among the Molokans." The twenty-seven Articles from the prayer book are the written statement of the faith, and the Union of Spiritual Christian Molokans publishes them today as the foundations of its confession. They quote the Bible in its Slavonic and Russian form, which includes books outside the Hebrew canon.

Иконам рукотворенным делам рук человеческих не поклоняемся по слову св. писания

Облачения риз не имеем, ибо св. апостолы не имели для богослужения особых одежд и сам Иисус Христос не установлял оныя

Where the text comes from. The Union of Spiritual Christian Molokans posts the Russian Articles on its own site, under "Основы вероисповедания" (our translation: foundations of the confession), from the second edition of M. P. Lezin's Molitvennik dukhovnykh khristian molokan (Tiflis, 1906), with the spelling left as printed. The English most readers meet is another matter. It was printed in the Molokan Review of 1948–49, "translated and printed word for word from the Prayerbook of the Spiritual Christian Molokans, 3rd edition. Published in 1910 by M. P. Lezin." Andrei Conovaloff, who reprints it on molokane.org, says the Review was published by Dukh-i-zhizniki, who "plagiarized this list from the Molokan faith," and that about 2000–2003 they edited it, relabelled three articles and added two (on judging and on killing). So the content is the Molokans' own, and the English is a Dukh-i-zhiznik translation. This chart quotes the Russian, gives the Review's English where it is faithful, and gives its own translation where it is not. In two places the Review's English goes wrong: Article 2's prayer "по Христу" (after Christ) became "prayers to Christ," and Article 15's "божественных и животворящих тайн" (the divine and life-giving mysteries) became "a divine and blessed Sacrament."

Books outside the canon. The 1948 translators say the Russian texts quoted "will be found to correspond, chapter and verse" to the Douay Bible, and the Russian Articles draw on Wisdom, Tobit, Baruch, Sirach, 3 Esdras and 2 Maccabees as well as the books of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Article 23 rests its memorials and prayer for the dead on Judas Maccabeus' offering in 2 Maccabees, and Article 17 rests its betrothal on the book of Tobit. The Molokans are not alone in this, since the Russian Synodal Bible prints these books as well, but the chart notes it because the Lord's own division is "the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms" (Luke 24:44).

A statement beside Scripture. The Articles are a prayer-book creed, and they work as the answer to the question of who is a Molokan. That is a lighter thing than an added book or a living teacher, and nothing fetched shows that any Molokan office binds new doctrine. Bulgakov's 1913 handbook, written for Orthodox clergy, says the same from outside: the Molokans' teaching is set out in their "обрядниках" (our translation: books of rites), and they hold Scripture to be "Единственным источником вероучения" (our translation: the only source of doctrine). The Dukh-i-zhizniki are the ones who canonized a new text, and the Molokans do not share it.

Baptism is repentance and the remission of sins, and the cleansing is not a material one. Infants are named, not baptized. No water is used.

Article 12 places baptism "в покаянии и оставлении грехов" (our translation: in repentance and the remission of sins), and it cites Mark 16:16, Acts 22:16 and Romans 6, yet the baptism it means is not in water. Article 16 says the same from the other side: repentance is the baptism for the remission of sins. Article 19 holds cleansing and sprinkling to be "не вещественное" (our translation: not material). Infants are given their names at birth, with no baptism. N. F. Kudinov, writing in the Molokan journal Vestnik DKhM in 1927, in an article the Union republishes, calls the baptism of the Spirit the cornerstone of all Molokan teaching, and says the churches replaced it with a baptism in water given to infants. Lunkin and Prokof'yev write that the Molokans "see no need for the sacrament of Baptism; they speak instead of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is described in the Bible." A 1998 Radiotserkov report, relaying a San Francisco Molokan, says they "consider that instruction in the word of God is true spiritual baptism and there is no necessity of performing baptism by immersion in water." Conovaloff's table of the groups leaves the "water baptism" column empty for the Molokans, while it marks it for the Baptists. Lane writes that their belief that faith must prove itself by good deeds "led them to renounce sacraments and icons as useless for the achievement of salvation."

Крещение полагаем в покаянии и оставлении грехов по свидетельству писания.

Очищение и окропление полагаем не вещественное, но стараемся очистить себя от всякой скверны плоти и духа

Крещение Святым Духом было заменено крещением в воде

What the sources say about water. The Molokans of the Articles keep no baptism in water; six sources agree: the Articles themselves, Kudinov in 1927, Lunkin and Prokof'yev, the Radiotserkov report, Lane, and Conovaloff's table. Kudinov puts the Molokan reason plainly: "Крещение духом у духовных христиан-молокан является краеугольным камнем" (our translation: baptism by the Spirit is, among the Spiritual Christian Molokans, the cornerstone), and of infant baptism in water, "Это крещение является главным препятствием для крещения Духом Святым" (our translation: this baptism is the chief obstacle to baptism with the Holy Spirit). Two small groups show where the line lies. The "Dry Baptists" (Sukhie Baptisty) are Molokans who joined the All-Russian Union of Evangelical Christians and still "refused water baptism, preferring their traditional baptism by the Holy Spirit." The Children of Christ, who split in the early 2000s, "added water Baptism for any age."

A Don branch that baptized in water. The 1913 Orthodox handbook of S. V. Bulgakov describes a Don branch of the Molokans, who call themselves "Evangelical Christians," in which "донские молокане признают крещение, которое совершается у них через троекратное погружение крещаемого в воду" (our translation: the Don Molokans recognize baptism, which is done among them by a threefold immersion of the person baptized in water). He is an opponent writing for Orthodox clergy, and no Molokan source fetched confirms it. He counts the Don branch as one of four Molokan branches of his day, founded by Isaiah Krylov, one of Uklein's helpers, and says some of its people later went over to the Baptists or formed the "New Molokans." Molokan practice, on his account, varied from branch to branch. The Articles give no sign of such a rite, and the Union publishes the Articles, so this chart weighs the Molokans on the Articles.

Why a repentance without water. The Articles do not explain the choice, except by the texts they cite. Article 12 cites John's baptism of repentance (Mark 1:4), Mark 16:16, Acts 22:16 and Romans 6, and it closes with Acts 1:5 and Luke 3:16, where John's baptism in water is set beside the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It reads them all as a repentance, though every one of them speaks of a baptism that was done.

Communion is a partaking of the divine and life-giving mysteries, received as the word of God. Reports say Scripture reading takes the place of bread and cup. Sources do not give how often.

Article 15 places communion in partaking of "божественных и животворящих тайн" (our translation: the divine and life-giving mysteries), and proves it from Scripture that speaks of the word as bread: Deuteronomy 8:3, that man lives not by bread alone but by every word from the mouth of God; John 6:27 and 6:63, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing" (as the Molokan Review's English prints it); and the one loaf of 1 Corinthians 10:17. Article 11 names no chalice: the vessels of divine service are "уста разумных" (our translation: the lips of the wise). The Radiotserkov report of 1998 states it plainly: "Reading of holy scripture replaced the rite of the eucharist or communion." Conovaloff's table calls the Molokan communion "open." He does not say what is shared. None of the sources fetched says how often the communion is kept.

Причастие полагаем, в причастии божественных и животворящих тайн по слову писания.

Сосудами при богослужении считаем уста разумных по слову писания.

Two readings, not one. The Articles and the Radiotserkov report describe a communion of the word with no bread and no cup. Conovaloff's table sets the Molokan communion in the "open" column (the Jumpers and the Dukh-i-zhizniki are mostly "closed"), which speaks of who may share, and not of what. This chart does not read the word "open" as bread and cup, and it does not take the Supper as a meal. Conovaloff does note community meals (obed) at weddings, funerals, child dedications and holidays, but he does not describe them as a communion.

The Don branch. S. V. Bulgakov's 1913 handbook, writing as an Orthodox opponent, says the Don Molokans kept communion with a prayer over bread and wine and the presbyter's words, "Приимите ядите сие есть тело Христово" (our translation: Take, eat, this is the body of Christ). If the Don branch did so, its practice differs from that of the Molokans of the Articles, and the chart scores the Articles. The handbook adds that the Don Molokans counted baptism, repentance or confession, communion or the breaking of bread, marriage and anointing as sacraments, "а не простых обрядов" (our translation: and not mere rites).

Early years. Lunkin and Prokof'yev write that, under persecution, the early dissenters "would still take communion in Orthodox churches from time to time." That is a statement about the first generations, hidden among the Orthodox, and not about the Molokans' own table.

One Priest and Bishop, Christ. Each congregation has presbyters drawn from its own elders; there are no paid religious positions.

Article 6 says they have one Priest and Bishop, the Son of God, who sits at God's right hand, the head of the church. They have no priesthood and no ornate dress. Each congregation is led by its own presbyter, the head of the assembly in Article 27, with other leaders around the table. Article 27 also puts discipline in the congregation's hands: a member who will not hear is put out "от собрания нашего" (our translation: from our assembly), citing 1 Corinthians 5:11. Lane writes that their groups "are led and generally administered by elders who evolve out of their midst" and that "Any member of the community can address the congregation." Lunkin and Prokof'yev add that the Molokans kept "a system of elders rather than establishing a single leader" and formed "autonomous groups." Conovaloff writes that none of the three groups has "missionaries, or paid religious positions or staff." The Union formed in 1990 is a registered religion with dues-paying congregations, and nothing fetched says it makes doctrine for them.

Священника и архиерея имеем еданого, иже сидит одесную Бога, т.е. Сын Божий, глава церкви.

И в начале пред молением у нас всегда настоятель собрания напоминает

What the room looks like. The Radiotserkov report of 1998 describes a San Francisco Molokan meeting: "The leaders of the meetings--presbyters, "discussants" and "narrators," sit around a table." In that report the discussant explains the text of Scripture, and the narrators recite the verses of the psalms to be sung. Lane adds that they have "presbyters (lay ministers) as congregation representatives" and buildings called assemblies or prayer houses.

What the sources do not say. None of the sources fetched says how a presbyter is chosen, whether he is appointed over a plurality of elders in each congregation, or what qualifications are asked. Bulgakov, in 1913, says of the Don branch that they chose a teacher from among themselves and ordained him with the laying on of hands, and that only he could perform their sacraments; the Articles do not describe that. The Molokans of the Articles are therefore weighed on the structure the sources show: no priest, no bishop above the congregation, no pay.

Reading, psalms and prayer in Russian, sung without instruments; the prayers of the prophets and apostles, beginning with the Lord's Prayer; no icons, cross, vestments or incense. They keep memorials and prayers for the dead, fasts, and holidays.

A Molokan meeting is made of Scripture reading, psalms and prayer. Article 2 says their prayer is made "по Христу" (our translation: after Christ), in the prayers of the prophets and apostles, as the Son of God commanded his disciples, and it begins with the Lord's Prayer, "Отче наш" (Our Father). It cites the Lord kneeling to pray to his Father (Luke 22:41) and his word that true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth (John 4:23). The Molokan Review's English turned "по Христу" into "prayers to Christ," which the Russian does not say. The Orthodox cross, icons, vestments, throne and censer are refused one by one, and each article gives its texts. The offering is described as praise, the fruit of their lips with a contrite spirit (Article 8). The Sunday Molokans meet on Sunday, though Article 24 is headed "Seventh Day" and quotes both the Sabbath law and the first day of the week; the taxonomy says the original believers remained Sunday Molokans, and the Saturday Molokans are a separate body. The melodies are memorized and sung without instruments. The Articles also keep fasts, memorials for the dead, and, according to Conovaloff, the holidays "given by Christ."

Моление наше состоит по Христу в пророческих и апостольских молитвах, по приказанию сына Божия ученикам Его

Жертву приносим на всяком месте плод устен наших духом сокрушенным

Сей день посвящаем молитве и добрым делам

Fasting and food. Article 20 rejects the Orthodox fasting days: "постов по средам и пятницам не принимаем" (our translation: fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays we do not accept). It keeps fasts of four, five or seven days "по своей возможности" (our translation: as each is able) and cites Leviticus 11:3 for the food that is blessed to eat. Bulgakov's 1913 handbook says the same of Molokan food: "В пищу же можно употреблять все, кроме свиней, рыб, не имеющих чешуи" (our translation: In food one may use everything except swine, fish without scales, and the like).

Memorials for the dead. Article 21 describes a vigil of prayer and the singing of the psalms of King David at a death, with the body followed to the grave in weeping and song. Article 23 adds memorials in which they pray "чтобы были отпущены грехи их" (our translation: that their sins be forgiven).

Holidays. Conovaloff writes that the first Molokans kept the major Orthodox holidays, "which some now call Christ's Holidays," and that American Molokans celebrate eight holidays. His table marks the Molokans for Christ's holidays only, and the Jumpers for Christ's and God's.

How a meeting is led. Bulgakov, in 1913, says a Molokan service "состоит в чтении и пении известных мест из Св. Писания, преимущественно из Псалтири" (our translation: consists in the reading and singing of certain passages of Holy Scripture, chiefly from the Psalter), and that the presbyter sits with an open Bible and reads a verse, which the congregation takes up and sings. He is an opponent, but his description and Conovaloff's agree. Lane adds that the meetings are "devoted only to prayer, singing and sermons on moral and spiritual themes."

One God in Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The Molokans of the Articles claim no present prophets; the Jumpers do.

The first Article confesses one God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who seals: Article 4 gives the believer's mark as the sealing of the promised Holy Spirit, not a visible sign of the cross (Ephesians 4:30). The Articles say nothing about present gifts of tongues, healing or prophecy. Conovaloff's table marks the Jumpers and the Dukh-i-zhizniki as having prophets and does not mark the Molokans. He writes that the Jumpers were the ones who took up prophecy and jumping, from about 1833, and his taxonomy keeps them apart from the Molokans. When the Molokans speak of the Spirit, Lunkin and Prokof'yev say, it is as "the baptism of the Holy Spirit," which they say stands in the place of baptism in water.

Веруем во единого Бога, что он пребывает в трех лицах, Отец и Сын, Святый Дух.

знаменуемся обетованным Святым Духом по свидетельству Св. писания

Silence is not a denial. The Articles do not teach that the miraculous gifts have ceased, and they do not claim them. Nothing in the sources fetched shows a Molokan congregation claiming tongues, healing or new revelation, and the taxonomy treats the Molokans' lack of prophets as a mark that separates them from the Jumpers. The chart reads that as a body that claims no continuing gifts, and says so with that care.

Life beyond the grave and the resurrection in another flesh; the judgment of all, citing Scripture. Memorials pray for the forgiveness of the dead.

Article 22 confesses life beyond the grave and the hope, after death, to be in another flesh and to rise. It cites 2 Corinthians 5:1, 1 Corinthians 15:50–52, Mark 12:26–27, John 5:28–30 and Revelation 20:12 and 21:1–4, with the dead judged and a new heaven and earth. It sets no date and no earthly kingdom. The statement that Molokan tradition keeps as its delegates' words to the Senate in 1805 adds the Lord's return: "At the end of the age, our Lord Jesus Christ will come back again, in all His glory, with all of His Holy angels." Article 23 adds memorials in which they pray that the sins of the dead be forgiven, citing 2 Maccabees 12:43. The expectation of a gathering on Mount Ararat for the thousand-year reign belongs, in Conovaloff's account, to the followers of Rudomyotkin among the Dukh-i-zhizniki, not to the Molokans.

Веруем в жизнь за гробом и посмерти надеемся быть в другой плоти и возстать, по свидетельству писания

He will resurrect all those who died in Christ. Those who are alive will be transformed into incorruptible.

The 1805 text. molokane.org posts, for the 2005 bicentennial, a petition of three Molokan delegates to Alexander I dated 12 July 1805 and an account of their hearing before the Senate, translated by Michael P. Lediaev, with the Russian "to be posted." It is a text the Molokans keep, and it is quoted here for what it confesses, not as a record of what was said in the Senate.

An outsider's report on the founder. The 1913 handbook of S. V. Bulgakov says of the original teaching of Uklein that the resurrection will be "не духовное, а плотское" (our translation: not spiritual but fleshly), and that the older generation of one branch, which he calls the old-Uklein branch, still kept it while the younger left it. He also says that branch held Christ's flesh was not real human flesh. Article 1 of the Articles confesses the Son of God in the Trinity, Article 22 speaks of rising in another flesh, and no Molokan source fetched says what Bulgakov says. His account is of a branch, from an opponent, over a century ago, and it is reported here only so the reader knows it exists.

The name "spiritual milk"

A name given as an insult for drinking milk on fast days, taken up from 1 Peter 2:2.

The Orthodox Church called them molokane because they ate dairy foods on its fast days, and the people took the name for themselves, with the apostle's text about the spiritual milk of the word. They call themselves Spiritual Christians. The molokane.org page on the name says so in a sentence.

Molokans embraced the label by referencing 1 Peter 2:2

as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation;

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day:

The name is a good one, and no fault. Peter does tell newborn believers to "long for the spiritual milk which is without guile" (1 Peter 2:2), and the Molokans were right that a fast day is not a law for Christians: no man is to "judge you in meat, or in drink" (Colossians 2:16). The Orthodox Church bound days the apostles never bound, and the Molokans were punished for refusing. The same text that frees them from that rule is the one they would later set aside when they kept the Old Testament food laws, as the next distinctive shows.

No icon, cross, vestment or priest

The Orthodox apparatus is refused article by article, each with its texts.

Articles 4 to 10 reject the sign of the cross, the icons, the ornate vestments, the throne, the censer and the sacrificial altar, and Article 6 the priesthood. In each place the Articles name the apostolic practice they take in its place: plain clothes, prayer in the spirit, "a sacrifice of praise," and one Priest and Bishop, Christ.

Видимого крестного знамения на себе не возлагаем

Жертву приносим на всяком месте плод устен наших

Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me,

The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus,

Here the Molokans stand on the text, and they stand nearer the New Testament church than the church they left. Paul told Athens that God "dwelleth not in temples made with hands" (Acts 17:24), the second commandment forbids worshiping an image, and there is "one mediator also between God and men" (1 Timothy 2:5). A people who gave up the icon and the priest at the price of exile were right, and the Articles prove it from the book. Their refusals fall short in what they put in its place: the ordinances the apostles did command are the very ones they hold only "spiritually."

The Old Testament food laws

The Articles keep the clean and unclean foods of Leviticus and reject the Orthodox fast days.

Article 20 sets out their own fasts and then, citing Leviticus 11:3, the food that may be eaten. Bulgakov's 1913 handbook says Molokans eat everything except swine and fish without scales, and Wikipedia (last resort) says they refuse pork and shellfish. The same article quotes 1 Timothy 4:3–5 beside it.

Прочих же постов не соблюдаем, а постов по средам и пятницам не принимаем

because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught? This he said, making all meats clean.

forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.

Wherefore my judgment is, that we trouble not them that from among the Gentiles turn to God; but that we write unto them, that they abstain from the pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood.

The Molokans are right that the Church had no right to bind fast days, and wrong to put a law of Moses in its place. The Lord was "making all meats clean" (Mark 7:19), and Paul calls the command to "abstain from meats" a mark of a departure (1 Timothy 4:3). The Jerusalem council laid on the Gentiles a short list and did not add the food law of Leviticus (Acts 15:19-20). Their own Article 20 quotes 1 Timothy 4:3–5 and still keeps the rule it releases, and a conscience bound where the apostles left it free is a burden they were not asked to carry.

No oath

Article 26 refuses the oath on the Lord's word and honors the authorities.

Article 26 states the Molokan teaching on the oath from Matthew 5 and James 5 and ends that they therefore always keep faith. Article 25 honors the king and the authorities. The articles on judging (jury service) and on killing that appear in the English on molokane.org were added about 2000 and 2003 by Los Angeles Dukh-i-zhizniki, and are not in the Russian text the Union publishes, so they are not cited here as Molokan teaching.

Присягу разумеем по свидетельству Евангелиста Матф. 5 гл. 37 ст.

Поэтому и мы всегда сохраняем верность.

but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by the heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and whatsoever is more than these is of the evil one.

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by the heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath: but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; that ye fall not under judgment.

Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God.

The Lord said, "Swear not at all" (Matthew 5:34), and James repeats it: "above all things, my brethren, swear not" (James 5:12). The Molokans read the words plainly and hold to them, and they also honor the authorities, since "the powers that be are ordained of God" (Romans 13:1). They stand with the text here, at a cost, and their word is their bond.

Memorials and prayer for the dead

Article 23 prays that the sins of the dead be forgiven, citing 2 Maccabees.

Article 23 describes memorials for the dead and prayer that their sins be forgiven, with the example of Judas Maccabeus offering a sacrifice for the dead in 2 Maccabees 12:43. Article 21 describes the vigil and psalms at death and burial.

По усопшим поминовение творим и молимся, чтобы были отпущены грехи их

And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment;

And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us.

For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Scripture gives no prayer for the forgiveness of the dead. "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment" (Hebrews 9:27), and each is judged for "the things done in the body" (2 Corinthians 5:10). The Lord's own account of the other side has "a great gulf fixed" (Luke 16:26). The only text the Article offers for the practice is in a book the Lord's own division of the Scriptures leaves out. To weep and sing psalms at a burial is right, as Acts 8:2 shows, and a prayer that the dead be forgiven is not in the apostles' teaching.

The Molokans left the Orthodox Church because they would not go beyond the written word, and they hold to that further than most. They stand nearer the first-century pattern than the church they left on the priesthood, the icons, the vestments and the oath. On baptism and the Lord's Supper they stand far off, and they do it by the same road: reading a command "spiritually" until the outward act is gone.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

And he said unto them, These are my words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me.

Much every way: first of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of God.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.

The Molokans stand where Paul stood: Scripture makes the man of God "complete, furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17), and they refused the Church's tradition because it was not in the book. Every article is proved from the text, and no living office, founder or added book binds new doctrine on them. The chart places them one step further from the line than the lineage figures alone give, because their rule of faith reaches past the canon the Lord names, "the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms" (Luke 24:44): the Articles do not only quote Wisdom, Sirach, Tobit and 2 Maccabees, but rest practices on them that no apostle taught, the betrothal on Tobit and the prayer for the dead on 2 Maccabees. None of the three lineage criteria scores what counts as Scripture, so the move states it here. The lineage chart already counts the Articles as bound teaching and the food laws they keep, so those are not charged a second time.

The Jews were "intrusted with the oracles of God" (Romans 3:2), and the Lord quoted the same three divisions. A rule of faith that reaches for other books has gone past what he set. The step is a small one, and the Molokans are not alone in it, since the Russian Synodal Bible prints these books. It is also a different thing from a church that adds a new revelation. Nothing the Molokans hold needs a pope, a prophet or a book from outside the Bible to bind it.

Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And as they went on the way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

Can any man forbid the water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

The Lord commanded his apostles to make disciples, "baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19), and Peter said, "be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38). The Molokans keep no baptism in water, so its mode and its subjects have no answer among them, and the placement rests on what baptism is for. Their Article 12 itself cites Mark 16:16 and Acts 22:16, where Ananias says, "arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins" (Acts 22:16), and then places baptism in repentance alone. At Cornelius' house the Spirit had already fallen, and Peter still asked, "Can any man forbid the water" (Acts 10:47), so the baptism of the Spirit does not replace the water. They are right to baptize no infants, and right that baptism without a repentant heart saves no one.

The Molokan argument is that the word of God is the true washing, and the texts they cite are real: Paul speaks of "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5), and Peter says baptism saves "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience toward God" (1 Peter 3:21). Peter's clause guards the water from a magical view of it, and does not take the water away. The eunuch "went down into the water" (Acts 8:38), and Paul says we were "buried therefore with him through baptism into death" (Romans 6:4), and a burial is seen in the water. The splinter that added water in the early 2000s, and the Don branch of the older reports, show that Molokans themselves have found the text hard to set aside.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.

It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life.

Paul wrote, "I received of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:23) that the Lord took bread and the cup and said, "this do in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24), and "as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come" (1 Corinthians 11:26). The disciples at Troas met "upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7). The Molokans of the Articles keep the communion as the word received, with no bread and no cup, so how often and how it is eaten have no answer among them. The placement scores what they teach the Supper is: an inward partaking in which something else stands in place of the memorial Paul delivered. The omission itself is charged once, on the lineage chart, as an ordinance of Christ left out, and is not counted twice here. They are right that the words of Christ "are spirit, and are life" (John 6:63) and that bread and cup eaten without faith are empty.

John 6:63 is the Articles' chief text, and it was spoken in Galilee, before the night in which the Lord was betrayed. Paul delivered the bread and cup to a Gentile church years after, with "till he come" written into it. The Lord's saying that the flesh profits nothing does not cancel what he then commanded, and the first church "continued stedfastly in … the breaking of bread" (Acts 2:42). The sources disagree on what Molokan congregations actually share; if some do take bread and cup, they stand nearer the line than the Articles do, and the 1913 report of the Don branch points that way.

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away.

ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Here the Molokans stand on the line, and nearer it than most. They have no priesthood over the people, no bishop above the congregation, no paid clergy, and no office that binds doctrine. Their Article 6 gives the reason in the apostles' words: there is "one mediator also between God and men" (1 Timothy 2:5), and every believer is part of "a holy priesthood" (1 Peter 2:5), which Article 3 cites. The apostles "appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23), and Peter tells the elders to tend the flock "not of constraint, but willingly" (1 Peter 5:2); the Molokan presbyters sit among the elders of each congregation, unpaid. The sources fetched do not say how presbyters are chosen or what qualifications are asked, so nothing is charged against them for it.

The Union of Spiritual Christian Molokans (1990) is a registered body that congregations join with dues, a voluntary tie that the sources fetched do not describe as ruling any congregation. That is the one structure above the congregation, and it should be watched, since a union that begins to bind its members' teaching or practice would leave the pattern of elders in each church. Nothing fetched shows it does.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

The Molokans worship as Paul tells the church to: "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19). They sing from memory, without instruments, and read the Bible aloud, and Lane notes that any member can address the congregation, as at Corinth, where "each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching" (1 Corinthians 14:26). They refuse the icon, the incense and the vestment, and worship "in spirit and truth" (John 4:24) is exactly how they put it. The departures are small ones: the prayer for the dead in the memorials, and fasts and holidays that the apostles did not bind. The missing Supper is charged under the Supper and not counted again here.

Article 2 roots their prayer in the Lord's command to his disciples and begins with "Our Father," as he taught. The 1805 statement adds prayer "to His only begotten Son," and that address too has a pattern in the New Testament (Acts 7:59). The holidays are a quieter matter: Paul says, "Let no man therefore judge you … in respect of a feast day" (Colossians 2:16), so a day may be kept, but none may bind it. Where the Articles speak of keeping the "Seventh Day," and the taxonomy says the Sunday Molokans meet on Sunday, the first day of the week is the pattern of the apostolic church (Acts 20:7). The Saturday Molokans, who are another body, bind the seventh day.

how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

The Molokans confess the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son, and they claim no present prophets, tongues or healing. That leaves them where the Scriptures leave the gifts: they "confirmed" the word and belonged to the apostles' day (Hebrews 2:3-4). The chart cannot place them on the line itself, because the Articles do not say whether present gifts are claimed; the placement rests on the lack of a claim in the sources. The one thing they say of the Spirit's work in practice is that his baptism takes the place of water, and that is judged under Salvation. Peter's own words show the two were not set against each other: "John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit" (Acts 11:16), and the water was commanded after the Spirit fell.

The Jumpers are a different matter. They are Molokans who, from about 1833, took up prophecy and the jumping of the spirit, and the Dukh-i-zhizniki add a book of prophecies. Those claims are tested by the apostle's rule, "prove the spirits, whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1), and by Paul's, that any gospel beyond the apostles' is to be refused. This chart does not weigh them because they are not the Molokans.

Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

The Lord teaches a resurrection of all the dead, "unto the resurrection of life" or "unto the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:29), and Paul says the dead "shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52). The Molokans confess the resurrection in another flesh, citing those texts, and the judgment and the new heaven and earth from Revelation. They stand with Scripture here, set no date and no earthly kingdom, and the 1805 statement confesses the Lord's return in glory. The step off the line is Article 23: the memorials pray that the sins of the dead be forgiven. But "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment" (Hebrews 9:27), and each is judged for "the things done in the body" (2 Corinthians 5:10), so the placement sits near the line and not on it.

The only text the Article gives for the prayer is Judas Maccabeus' offering for the dead in 2 Maccabees 12:43, from a book outside the canon the Lord names (Luke 24:44); that is weighed under Authority as a matter of the rule of faith, and here as a matter of what happens after death. Bodies that keep no prayer for the dead stand nearer the line on this question, and the Molokans are held to the same measure. Paul's own word is that "he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness" (Acts 17:31).

The Molokans hold much that Scripture holds, and they paid for it. They left a state church for the Bible alone, and were sent to the far edge of an empire for it. They refuse the icon, the cross-sign, the vestment and the incense because the apostles had none. They have no priest and no bishop, for there is one Priest and Bishop, Christ. They baptize no infants. They refuse the oath because the Lord said, "Swear not at all." They sing the psalms from memory without instruments, and any member may speak. They confess the Trinity, the resurrection and the judgment.

The Molokans asked the right question: what does the book say? They answered it well on the priesthood, the images and the oath, and they paid for it. The same question, asked of baptism and the Supper, has an answer they did not take. The apostles baptized in water, "went down into the water" (Acts 8:38), and met on the first day of the week "to break bread" (Acts 20:7). A church that reads those commands "spiritually" has put its own reading in the place of the act the Lord gave.

The line is not that the Spirit is absent from the believer's heart. The line is that the Lord gave outward acts for inward faith to use: the water in which a penitent believer is buried with him, and the bread and cup in which his death is proclaimed until he comes. Those who rejected so much that men had added should take up what he commanded.

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