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History and Beliefs |
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Calvary
Chapel began in the late 1960's as a small non-denominational church of 25
members pastored by Chuck Smith. As we approach the turn of the century,
Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa is home to some 30,000 believers, The Word for
Today publishes Bible study books and tapes all over the world, KWVE
broadcasts God's Word to all of Southern California, and Calvary Chapel's
Bible College provides Bible education to thousands at its home campus in Twin
Peaks, California and at over 20 extension campuses world wide. Because of
its size and influence, many Christians have asked exactly what Calvary
Chapel believes, what are its distinctives, what sets it apart from other
Christian groups. At Calvary Chapel, we have always been hesitant to try and
answer those questions, not because we are unsure of our beliefs, but because
we are cautious to avoid division within the Body of Christ. After all, what
really matters is what we have in common as Christians: the
"essential" doctrines of the infallibility of God's Word, the
virgin birth of Christ, His sinless life, death for our sins, bodily
resurrection. ascension to glory, and personal return to rule the earth.
These are the essence of Christianity, and agreed upon by virtually all born
again believers. When we
move away from the essential doctrines to those that are less essential we
risk setting barriers up in the church, something we at Calvary Chapel have
no desire to do. Still, Calvary Chapel is distinct from denominational
churches and other Protestant groups and people want to know what those
distinctions are. That is the purpose of this little booklet. It is not
our purpose to cause division or discord in the Body of Christ, conversely,
we long for unity among God's people of all persuasions, and we allow for a
great deal of flexibility even within our own ranks. Calvary Chapel pastors
are not clones who all believe exactly the same thing. Still, there are
distinctives that make Calvary Chapel unique and which define our mission. THE BALANCE
In a broad
general sense, Calvary Chapel is the middle ground between fundamentalism and
Pentecostalism in modern Protestant theology. In fact, we believe that this
is at least part of the reason why God has raised up this ministry. Fundamentalism
is that portion of Protestantism which holds to the literal interpretation of
the Scriptures, believing that they are divinely inspired and inerrant.
Hence, the "fundamentals" of the faith are emphasized. Although the
modem news media and the liberal church scorn fundamentalists as backwards
and stupid, the truth is that fundamentalism has preserved the integrity of
God's Word and held on to the essential doctrines of the orthodox faith. Pentecostalism
as a modern movement grew out of the Over the
years, however, fundamentalism, while it clung to the integrity of God's
Word, tended to become rigid, legalistic, and unaccepting of spiritual gifts.
Similarly, Pentecostalism became enthusiastic and emotional at the expense of
the teaching of God's Word. Calvary
Chapel is the balance between the two. At Calvary Chapel we believe in the
gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Bible, and we encourage their
exercise, but always decently and in order, and with the primary emphasis on
the Word of God which we look to as our primary rule of faith. To quote
Pastor Chuck Smith: "We believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit
mentioned in the Scriptures, and that they are valid for today if they are
exercised within the Scriptural guidelines. We as believers are to covet the
best gifts, seeking to exercise them in love that the whole Body of Christ
might be edified. We believe that love is more important than the most
spectacular gifts, and without this love all exercise of spiritual gifts is
worthless." Because of
this balance, Calvary Chapel services are designed to be centered around the
verse by verse teaching of God's Word, and special "after glow"
services are provided where the gifts of the Holy Spirit can operate freely
under the leadership of mature Christians. Many Pentecostals think Calvary
Chapel is not emotional enough, and many fundamentalists think Calvary Chapel
is too emotional. That balance is indication, in my opinion, that we are
right where God wants us to be. Calvary
Chapel also differs from most mainline churches in its style of church
government. Most denominational churches maintain either a congregational
form of church government, a Presbyterian form, or an Episcopal form of
running their churches. These three terms should not be confused with the
denominations that bear the same names because other churches of different
names share the same styles of government. The
congregational form of church government is an American invention and appeals
to our American sense of democracy. Basically, the congregation as a whole
makes all decisions in these churches by voting on matters of importance and
appointing committees from its ranks to run the daily operation of the
church. Most Congregational, Baptist, Pentecostal, Brethren, and
non-denominational churches are organized in this fashion. The congregation
votes on hiring a pastor, votes on how to spend the money, and on anything
else of importance. Although democratic people like the idea, congregational
forms of church government often wind up at best causing the pastor to be
directed by the sheep he is supposed to lead, and at worst reducing the
pastor to a hireling. The
Episcopal form of church government, used by Episcopalian, Anglican,
Catholic, Orthodox, and Methodist churches (to name a few) is controlled by a
church hierarchy which may have differing names. Basically, there is a
bishop, or someone of similar stature if called by a different name, who
oversees the churches, appoints pastors to pulpits, sets policy, and guides
the vision of the local congregations. Unfortunately, this style of
government, which grew out of European monarchies, leaves little freedom for
the local pastor or congregation to follow the leading of the Spirit. The
Presbyterian form of church government, which is typical in Presbyterian and
Reformed churches, puts the decisions of church polity in the hands of a
select group of elders (the "presbytery") who are appointed in
various different ways, depending on the church. These elders are over the
pastor, who in turn is over the congregation. The problem here too is that
this system puts the God-appointed leader, the pastor, under some of those he
is supposed to lead. Calvary
Chapels are organized differently. Church government at Calvary Chapel is
very simple, not a complex bureaucracy, committees and sub-committees are
essentially non-existent. Basically, at Calvary Chapel we believe that the
pastor is responsible for the church, responsible to hear from God, and
responsible to feed and love His people faithfully. Elders are appointed in
the larger churches to help the pastor care for the spiritual needs of the
congregation, as are deacons to help the pastor care for the material needs
of the church. In
addition, our churches have church boards as required by most states which
vary in size depending on the size of the church, and which usually are made
up of mature Christian businessmen who can advise the pastor with respect to
the business operations and decisions of the church such as property
management and investments. At Calvary Chapel, church organization is
de-emphasized, and only the organization that is needed to run the church is
instituted. The pastor guides the church as he is lead by the Holy Spirit,
and we trust God to put pastors where He wants them to be. DOCTRINE
At Calvary
Chapel we believe in all the fundamental doctrines of the evangelical
Protestant church. For example, we believe in the inerrancy of Scripture,
that the Bible, Old and New Testaments, is the inspired, infallible Word of
God. We
believe
that God is eternally existent in three separate persons: Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. We believe that God the father is the personal, transcendent,
and sovereign creator of all things. We
believe
that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, that He was born of a virgin,
lived a sinless life, provided for the atonement of our sins by His vicarious
death on the Cross, was bodily resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit,
ascended back to the right hand of God the father, and ever lives to make
intercession for us. After
He ascended to Heaven, Jesus poured out His Holy Spirit on the believers in
We
believe
that all people are by nature separated from God and responsible for their
own sin, but that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness of sin are freely
offered to all by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When a person repents
of sin and accepts Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, trusting Him to
save, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit,
all his/her sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a child of God,
destined to spend eternity with the Lord. As we
previously mentioned, we believe in the proper Scriptural exercise of
all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Bible, the greatest gift of all being
God's love. At Calvary
Chapel, we await the pre-tribulation rapture of the church. Calvary
Chapel is strongly committed to a belief that the church will be raptured
before the seven year tribulation period described in Revelation chapters 6
through 18. We recognize that other believers hold a different view, but this
is the way we see the Scripture's teaching on this subject. We
believe
that the second coming of Jesus Christ with His saints to rule on the earth
will be personal, pre-millennia, and visible. This motivates us to heartfelt
worship, committed service, diligent study of God's Word, regular fellowship
with other Christians, and participation in both adult baptism by immersion
and in Holy Communion. Calvary
Chapel rejects the teaching of "amillenialism" which spiritualizes
Scripture and denies the literal 1,000 year reign of Christ on the earth as
described in Revelation chapter 20. WHAT WE DO NOT BELIEVE
At Calvary
Chapel, we reject some popular doctrines of some Christian groups because we
believe them to be in error Scripturally. This does not mean that we will not
fellowship with those holding these views, it simply means that such views
are outside the boundaries of what constitutes a Calvary Chapel church. For
example, we reject, as we have already mentioned, "amillenniallsm",
post-millennialism, as well as a mid or post-tribulation rapture view. At
Calvary Chapel, we are strongly pre-millennialists and pre-tribulation
rapturists. We also
reject the belief, held by some Pentecostals and charismatics, that
Christians can be demon possessed. The Scripture says "greater is He
that is in you than he who is in the world" which makes no sense if a
believer can be simultaneously indwelt by both the Holy Spirit and evil
spirits. Christians can be attacked by demons, but they cannot be possessed
or controlled by them. In addition,
we reject "5-point Calvinism". For a deeper understanding of what
Calvinism is, see my book Calvinism versus Arminianism, but for our purposes
here, suffice it to say that Calvary Chapel rejects two of the five points of
five point Calvinism. First, Calvinism teaches that Jesus' atonement on the
Cross was limited, that is, that He died only for a chosen group, His
"elect", not for the sins of the entire world. At Calvary Chapel,
we believe that Jesus died on the Cross for all the sins of all people, and
that anyone who wants to can accept Him as Lord and savior and be born again.
Strict five point Calvinists believe that only the elect can be saved and
that God has elected others to spend eternity in hell. Secondly,
we reject the Calvinistic teaching called "irresistible grace",
which is the belief that man cannot, even if he wants to, resist the wooing
and calling of God to salvation. Instead, at Calvary Chapel we believe that
man has a free will and he can resist the call of God if he chooses to do so.
Therefore, those who hold to five point Calvinism are outside of the borders
of what defines Calvary Chapel. At Calvary
Chapel, we also reject the teaching of "positive confession" which
is the doctrine put forth by the faith movement teachers that says that we as
human beings can have unlimited health and wealth because we, like God, have
the ability to create our own reality by the confession of our lips. These
people teach that if a person will confess health and wealth consistently,
then that is what they will have, and, conversely, the Christian living in
sickness or poverty is settling for less than his full inheritance in Christ.
At Calvary Chapel, we believe that many believers both in the Bible and in
daily life are often afflicted not because their confession is wrong, but
simply because we live in a foreign world. We believe that the health and
prosperity doctrine is a perversion of Scripture and is often used to fleece
the flock of God. We do not believe that God can be commanded by man to heal
or provide, but that we must always submit to His perfect will even in
affliction. Additionally,
we reject the teaching that uses human prophecy to supersede the Word of God.
There are some Christian groups around which claim to have prophets and apostles
of equal validity with those who wrote the Bible. Moreover, they claim that
the prophetic utterances from these people take precedence over the Word of
God. At Calvary Chapel, we believe that the Bible is the final authority and
the complete Word of God for His church today, and that no prophecy or
teaching can ever supersede it. Some
churches have incorporated human secular psychology and philosophy into their
teaching programs, creating sermons that are more based on secular humanistic
theory than on the Word of God. While we respect our fellow believers who
work in mental health related fields, we at Calvary Chapel believe that the
central mission of the church is to proclaim God's Word to a lost and hurting
world. Moreover, it has been our experience that humanistic psychology and
philosophy often do more harm than good, and people respond best when God's
Word is proclaimed in the power and love of the Holy Spirit. It is God's Word
that changes lives for the better. At Calvary Chapels our services remain
centered on the teaching of the Bible. This is
not to imply that we object to the work of the many dedicated Christian
mental health professionals; conversely, we thank God for them. Our point is
simply that in our church services, we emphasize the teaching of God's Word. And
finally, as we have mentioned before, Calvary Chapel rejects the
over-emphasis of spiritual gifts and experiential signs and wonders to the
exclusion of Biblical teaching. Again, we are a Bible based ministry that
avoids programs and gimmicks in favor of the simple teaching of the Word of
God in love to His people. In our services, we focus on a personal
relationship with God through worship, prayer, and the teaching of the Word
of God. We offer both expository and topical studies; we do not allow
speaking in tongues loudly during services because we do not believe that the
Holy Spirit Would interrupt Himself. WORSHIP
Many
people are under the impression that a particular style of worship is
insisted upon at Calvary Chapel, that style being the soft contemporary Sound
made popular by Maranatha! Music and by Asaph Records (which both originated
at Calvary Chapel). Although most Calvary Chapels do utilize a form of
contemporary worship, there is actually a great variety of styles Of Music
found In our churches. Some are very traditional and conservative, with
organs or pianos and hymns, while others prefer electric guitars and drums.
There is no set style of worship makes a Calvary Chapel unique; instead there
is wide latitude in expression. All of us desire, of course, that whatever
the style of worship, it come from our hearts. Similarly,
some of the worship services at Calvary Chapels are quite traditional, while
others are more contemporary. Some of our churches are filled with elderly
people in suits and ties, some are filled with young people in jeans and tee
shirts, and many are a combination of all different ages, styles, and races
of folks who come together with one common focus: love for Jesus Christ and
the desire to know Him more intimately. I recently
spoke at one of the larger Calvary Chapel affiliates where seven different
ethnic groups of people who range in age from teens to quite elderly gather
every week filled with the love of Jesus. That is typical of a Calvary Chapel
church. Most are places where anybody with any style of dress or musical
taste or culture feels welcome. STATEMENT OF FAITH
To better
help people not familiar with the Calvary Chapel ministries understand who we
are, we at Calvary Chapel's Bible College developed the following statement
of faith, most of which was written by, and all of which was approved by
Pastor Chuck Smith, the founder of the Calvary Chapel movement, pastor of
Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, and President of the Bible College. Calvary
Chapel has been formed as a fellowship of believers in the Lordship of Jesus
Christ. Our supreme desire is to know Christ and be conformed to His image by
the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not a denominational church, nor are we
opposed to denominations as such, only to their over-emphasis of the
doctrinal differences that have led to the division of the Body of Christ. We
believe the only true basis of Christian fellowship is Christ's (Agape)
love, which is greater than any differences we possess, and without which we
have no right to claim ourselves Christians. We
believe
worship of God should be spiritual. Therefore, we remain flexible and yielded
to the leading of the Holy Spirit to direct our worship. We
believe
worship of God should be inspirational. Therefore, we give great place to
music in our worship. We
believe
worship of God should be intelligent. Therefore, our services are designed
with great emphasis upon the teaching of the Word of God that He might instruct
us how He should be worshipped. We
believe
worship of God should be fruitful. Therefore, we look for His love in our
lives as the supreme manifestation that we have been truly worshipping Him. We
believe in all the fundamental doctrines of orthodox evangelical
Christianity. We
believe
in the inerrancy of Scripture, that the Bible, Old and New Testaments is the
inspired, infallible Word of God. We
believe
that God is eternally existent in three separate persons: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. We believe
that
God the Father is the personal, transcendent, and sovereign Creator of all
things. We
believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, that He was born
of a virgin, lived a sinless life, provided for the atonement of our sins by
His vicarious death on the Cross, was bodily resurrected by the power of the
Holy Spirit, ascended back to the right hand of God the Father, and ever
lives to make intercession for us. After
Jesus ascended to Heaven, He poured out His Holy Spirit on the believers in We
believe
that all people are by nature separated from God and responsible for their
own sin, but that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are freely offered
to all by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When a person repents of sin
and accepts Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, trusting Him to save,
that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit, all
his/her sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a child of God, destined
to spend eternity with the Lord. We
believe
in the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Scriptures, and that they
are valid for today if they are exercised within the Scriptural guidelines.
We as believers are to covet the best gifts, seeking to exercise them in love
that the whole Body of Christ might be edified. We believe that love is more
important than the most spectacular gifts, and without this love all exercise
of spiritual gifts is worthless. We
believe
that church government should be simplistic rather than a complex
bureaucracy, and we depend on the Holy Spirit to lead, rather than on fleshly
promotion. We
await
the pre-tribulation rapture of the church, and we believe that the second
coming of Christ with His saints to rule on the earth will be personal,
pre-millennia, and visible. This motivates us to holy living, heartfelt
worship, committed service, diligent study of God's Word, regular fellowship,
and participation in adult baptism by immersion and Holy Communion. We seek to teach the Word of
God in such a way that its message can be applied to an individual's life,
leading that person to greater maturity in Christ. We
reject: (1) The belief that true Christians can be demon possessed; (2)
"5-point Calvinism" (i.e., a fatalistic Calvinistic view that
leaves no room for free will; specifically, we reject the belief that Jesus'
atonement was limited, instead we believe that He died for all people, and we
reject the assertion that God's wooing grace cannot be resisted or that He
has elected some people to go to hell; instead we believe that anyone who
wills to come to Christ may do so); (3) "positive confession" (the
faith movement belief that God can be commanded to heal or work miracles
according to man's will), (4) human prophecy that supersedes the Scripture,
(5) the incorporation of humanistic and secular psychology and philosophy
into Biblical teaching, and (6) the over-emphasis of spiritual gifts,
experiential signs and wonders to the exclusion of Biblical teaching. In our
services, we focus on a personal relationship with God through worship,
prayer, and the teaching of the Word of God. We teach both expositorily and
topically. We do not allow speaking in tongues loudly during services, nor
prophecy while a Bible study is in progress because we do not believe that
the Holy Spirit would interrupt Himself. We have specific "after-glow
services" and believer's meetings when these gifts of the Spirit may be
exercised. CONCLUSION
By
clarifying some of what we believe at Calvary Chapel, our purpose has been
simply to help others less familiar with the movement gain insight into who
we are. It has not been our intention to say that we are right and everyone
else is wrong, nor has it been our intention to argue our position with any
Christian believer. We are content to agree to disagree, and we desire to
have nothing but love and fellowship with anyone who calls on the name of our
Lord in truth and sincerity . While
there are many additional areas of polity and doctrine we could discuss, and
while we could write volumes in an effort to defend all our positions against
other positions, this is not our desire. Our desire is to simply adore Jesus,
and we invite all God's people to join us as we do so. On the
other hand, there have been people who have started churches and called them
Calvary Chapel that hold views and practices very different from what has
been described here. In our opinion, it would be better if they would take a
different name for their churches that more accurately reflects what they
believe and practice so as not to confuse people who are looking for a
ministry that is in line with what we have described on the previous pages. While many
different kinds of people attend and pastor Calvary Chapel affiliated
churches, all of the Calvary Chapel leadership (men such a Raul Ries, Greg
Laurie, Mike MacIntosh, Jeff Johnson, Jon Courson, Skip Heitzig, Don McClure,
Steve Mays, Oden Fong, and Wayne Taylor) agree on the essential elements of
this booklet, although their individual styles of ministry, methods of
preaching, and visions for outreach vary greatly. As a
potential Calvary Chapel affiliated pastor, we welcome you to start a
ministry under the direction of the Holy Spirit and to join our fellowship of
independent autonomous churches if you are in harmony with our vision. As an
individual believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we welcome you to our churches
and We seek
the unity of the Spirit in a bond of peace and love and believe that God has
called us to a unique ministry that fulfills His special purpose in this
generation. May God bless you as you seek to draw near to Him in love. |
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