What type of christianity is calvary chapel

We believe the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is an abiding helper, teacher, and guide John , , ; Romans The supreme evidence of the Spirit-filled life is the fruit of the Spirit, love.

We believe in the present day ministry of the Holy Spirit in regard to the exercise of all biblical gifts of the Holy Spirit according to the instructions given to us I Corinthians Yet, God saves and gives new life to all who come to Him in repentance and faith, trusting in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus died for the sins of the world the invitation to believe is open to all, and whoever desires may come unto Jesus for new life and the forgiveness of sins Matthew ; John ; Acts , ; Romans ; Ephesians , ; I John ; Revelation That salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Him.

We believe that all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved eternally. We believe there is one church, the body of Christ, consisting of men and women from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. We believe that each local congregation is an expression of that universal church. We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians , 1 Corinthians , Revelation , Acts We believe that all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Scripture are available to, and active in His church today.

Every CC I attended the pastor vocalized when they thought Christs return would be. Even though the Bible says that no one knows when Christs return will be, Calvary pastors seem to think that they do.

Not surprizing since Chuck Smith made a habit of doing so as well. Over-emphasizing end times theology and the role of Isreal. It is my belief that end-times theology makes for great debate but is an absolutely secondary issue in the church. They will tolerate you as long as you keep your ideas to yourself. Otherwise you will be asked to leave the church. The problems with this are too numerous to cite here. Anti intellectualism and anti seminary.

Limited Bible knowledge. I sat through many sermons where the Pastor simply did not get it right. First off I would like everyone to know that I am ordained as a Pastor in the Calvary Chapel Church movement, I say this not out of any kind of pride or ambition but as an accountable leader of the church before god. I would tell the readers to accuse any members of the body of christ without going to them first and following the procedure as the Lord Jesus instructed in matthew ch 18 v is simply unbiblical or did we decide to throw that part out of the bible.

Now it would seem that there are many gripes and complaints about the leadership and the lack of seminary training and qualified men. And they realized they had been with Jesus.

I do admit a certain humbleness is needed to be under authority to men whom God has selected that one might feel superior to intellectually, and spiritually, but we do have to remember the words Paul spoke to the Corinthians in his first epistle to them because of the same problem.

Ephesians 2v8 For by grace you have been saved and that not of yourselves;it is the GIFT of god,not of works lest anyone should boast. There is not enough time to refute and examine the many claims of the commentators, and to show that not ever has the church been perfect. We are being prepared as the Bride, to be married the Groomsman this is what the bible teaches. But for now we are still having to live this imperfect life while attempting to do our best as we depend on the Holy Spirit as his seal of promise to bring us to perfection.

Check out the Blue Letter Bible and you will find a more complete section of the teachers of Calvary Chapel and You will also find there is no charge and Jesus gets the Glory.

Thanks I am sorry I could not appease the readers on all arguments if even any but I am sure that if they are walking with Christ no one could take them from his Grip. John 10v Sadly, many go to the source-the pastor- but it was a closed door with no opening of any kind to talk at all. No humility or accountability was there. Just defensiveness and sweeping your concern under the carpet and making life unpleasant for you there until you finally just give up and leave.

When you ask a question about why the behavior toward you is so un-Christlike or why there is this treatment instead of sticking to the character of Christ you are just met with the accusation that you are not submissive. It seemed to be OK with them to not take into consideration the character of Christ in their treatment towards those who annoyed them without even biblical reasoning, just a immature tantrum about who are you to question them. Very sad indeed. I provided court testimony attesting to said conduct and scriptural justification for my concerns to back up the legal documents.

The following Sunday, people tell me that I was publicly accused of many sins including rebellion Titus and my excommunication was announced from the pulpit by Pastor John. Calvary Chapel is NOT a cult — but it is cult-like in leadership and practice. Excuse me, this is a free nation that by the 1st Amendment, you have a right to state your beliefs. These rights come from God…You cannot kill the mind. You are a nut.

A degree is nothing. The problem is that they are ignorant of the scriptures and it shows in their teaching and abuse of them. It is not gossip to point out false teaching. It was done plenty of times in scripture themselves. What did Eph have to do with your comment? Were you hoping to quote random verses to support your claims?

Grace is never an excuse for bad teaching. Neither is Grace an excuse for Pastors to commit adultery and continue in the service of pastoring. Dear Mike, Stating observational fact about the Calvary Movement is not gossip. Personally, I am stating my experience with calvary both to call out the problems with the movement in order that it would bring change within the movement, to inform the unsuspecting, and to empathize with the many thousands of sincere christians who have been unfairly hurt by this movement.

As a pastor, you would do well to contemplate very seriously the admonitions found on this blog since they are endemic among calvary churches. Further, your point that since Peter and John were uneducated men, therefore so can Calvary Pastors be, is short-sighted. Far better than a seminary education, these men were instructed by the king of instructors, the Lord of the seminaries, the God of the universe. The verse by verse teaching was clouded by twisting of Scripture to fit dogma.

Despite seeing a need for topical teaching at various times, the chapter by chapter teaching was adheared to as this was the way it was done. Despite teaching through the Bible three times we were still being spoon fed, surely a pastor is to lead sheep to pasture, so they can feed themselves not to be fed grass blade by blade for fifteen years?

This effectively stifled the body. I know this is only my experience but in talking to other pastors of Calvary Chapels I found the same rigid control. The man given qualifications I attained were duly despatched to the trash — The discipleship I received as the Lord dealt with me was more important than a bit of paper, sadly at Calvary Chapel I found thr opposite to be true.

God bless. Andrew, could not have said it better! God bless you brother, for the love, grace and mercy you carry in your heart! Sometimes I think about Judgment day, when we will all be kneeling in front of our wonderful Lord….. Calvary Chapel is just that…another Church among many….

Goes without saying that those gathered together, kneeling before our awesome Lord, will be those that believe in their hearts that Jesus is the Way, the Life and the Truth, that He is the Only Way, that He is our all in all, that only through Him can we find salvation, that He is our Lord and the only One, unfortunately for those who do not hold these view, I do not believe they will be gathered together within the Bride of Christ.

And the heart of each one is what Jesus will be looking at. All Calvary Chapels do hold to this doctrine. All Calvary Chapels must hold to this book or otherwise leave Calvary Chapel. I do not claim to know it all. That is why I am against individualistic Christianity that rejects several centuries of biblical scholarship, debate and study.

You have to realize that Calvary Chapel does hold to a set of doctrine that was and has been condemned as heresy over the last several centuries. It is not a matter of my opinion vs.

It is a matter of historic Christianity vs. Chuck Smith. Calvary Chapel rejects and mutilates clear biblical texts. Five years ago I would of been saying the same things as you.

I fully understand and I have compassion for you. Since God in the beginning made the race of angels and men with free will, they will justly suffer in eternal fire the punishment of whatever sins they have committed. For there is no coercion with God. Jon- your misunderstanding of the doctrines of grace lead you to believe they are in opposition to free-will.

They also believe that we voluntarily choose Christ, it is not by coercion. I just want to thank you for this informative post, for your site, and for your labor of love in the Lord.

I know it is hard for many CC people to break free from the stronghold that the cult-like movement has on them, but I trust that God will reveal the truth to His own, in time, and that His people will come out from it.

I attended a Calvary high school and subsequently attended chapels and even the main service. Most of what I remember included nepotism, unaccountable leadership, and arrogant hypocrisy. I grew weary of all the nonsense and turned towards rebellion from what I thought was Christianity for a year or so until the Lord drew me back into truths that I had never been taught at Calvary. Learning about true repentance, conversion, actually being born again, the Lordship of Christ, the sufficiency of grace, the new life in Christ, the body of Christ, how the church is supposed to function, etc.

I am still learning and am hoping to find a good, solid church, but I feel for those in my family, friends, and others who are still caught in the CC trap.

I know some of the CCs, particularly those farther from the mother ship, may have pastors who are learned in scripture and teach things like the doctrines of grace to some degree , but these are few and far between and, if caught, would probably lose their Calvary status.

The entire system seems like Roman Catholicism-lite to me…. Calvary Chapel claims to be a movement of the Holy Spirit, but you need to ask yourself if it is really of the Spirit that they Chuck Smith, really add to the book of Revelation.

Jesus gives His last command in Rev — ever considered this angle? And what does Jesus eventually tell them that do not do the will of the Father, in Matt ? Away from me, you evildoers! How is their disposition in Matthew 7 any different than the disposition of them that add or subtract from Revelation? Revelation Unfortunately, you seem to have a misunderstanding of what exactly Calvary Chapel is intended to be. This is sad, but is found in every different denomination and even found in different churches throughout the bible.

We do believe in the doctrines of salvation, imputation, and the trinity. Anyway, I thought this was a very poor and vague attempt to slander another part of the body of Christ. You may have disagreements, and that is fine, but what you are falsely accusing here is wrong.

You point out the fact that Paul even criticized churches and people in scripture for their false doctrine. Often he had very strong words for them, even desiring some to be cut off. Was Paul slandering? Or was Paul warning the body of false teachers and doctrine? They do not teach the bible, they read it and then talk about unrelated stories and ideas under a pretense of teaching the bible.

This was not a local Calvary Chapel, it is Smith himself. Listening again to Smith I am amazed at how much I thought he was a great bible teacher. Calvary Chapel IS a place of theology, but false theology if that. He is constantly saying in his distinctives that the bible is not clear, and how much liberty we have to then come up with our own ideas. Who is Calvary Chapel to decide all of a sudden that what the bible says is not clear?

You are absolutely right though, there are MANY things in scripture that is impossible to understand under a 19th century dispensational framework. Scripture would make a lot more sense if Calvary Chapel adopted the Covenantal hermeneutic presented in scripture. I think if we just take our eyes off man the church and keep focus on the Lord that is what is important. We are to be doers in Christ, that is what I try to do.

I pray that we will all see that including myself cause I see it happen to me too. God Bless you brothers and sisters. I am criticizing Calvary Chapel because they distort the gospel, teach false doctrine and pretend as you are doing that instead of focusing on doctrine we should focus on Christ.

The bible commands us to focus on doctrine, our understanding of doctrine is one and the same with our understanding and focus on Christ. Jesus is not here to give us bubble gum goose bumps and we are not commanded to pretend nothing else exists but the mere existence of the words of his name. Calvary Chapel is just as dangerous in some ways as Joel Osteen, TD Jakes and other modern evangelicals and it should be pointed out. If you have biblical warrant otherwise, please present it.

Do not pretend the issue is a matter of taking our eyes off Jesus however. Modern evangelicals love that fallacy. That is the difference between you and Paul the apostle.

That would be wrong. But that is a side story for another time. When Paul would write letters of correction not with any other intent other than correction , he would call out exactly what the problem was so that way it could be fixed… not just complain about stuff that he saw of heard of and never saying exactly what the problem was. And again, perhaps i am way off, but the tone of your article seems very angry. With a subject of the magnitude, you should have this article stand alone filled with fact so that there will be no misunderstandings or strictly opinions being stated because on ones distaste for a particular group.

In it I cite page numbers and quote him. I also spend time showing how the scripture he quotes is taken out of context and how he continually contradicts himself. You can see for yourself the blatant twisting of the Word, scripture taken out of context, and modern evangelical influence.

Aside from that, Calvary Chapel IS dispensational, a doctrinal framework for interpreting scripture invented in the 19th century. What more do you want from me? In this post I highlighted the fact that Calvary Chapel boasts of doctrinal ambiguity to attract people. You want to fish in as big a pond as you can find. Do you not realize you are taking offense to my criticizing Chuck Smith because you are his follower?

But glossing over controversial issues is often deliberate because there are usually two sides. Here is Chuck Smith bashing education. In fact he takes a scriptural concept out of context. The concept of having begun in the spirit and now being perfected in the flesh is reference to salvation by works. Some of the Calvary Chapel pastors have gone back to school.

Wake Up! Open your eyes and read a bit about the denomination you are in and its context in the history of the entirety of the church. Lots of error, lots of things missing… The majority of judgment will be on the teachers, but the congregation has itching ears too. But I can tell you that CC pastors in Philadelphia do not believe that.

It kept peaking my interest so I emailed him and he asked me to stay afterward the next week and I did. After we talked for a half hour i was still confused about his belief, so I put it just like this. Where would his soul spend eternity? And he said it was because he has that moment of repentance and accepted Jesus as his Savior. I was blown away! So I gathered from his responses that you can have a moment of saving faith, say you give your life to the Lord and then go on living in sin and debauchery, you can do what you please, including the things Hitler did, or Ted Bundy, and still receive eternal life in Heaven.

This is commonly called the no-lordship stance. They believe that Christ can be your savior, but that Lordship is entirely optional. Their view of salvation is purely post-mortem fire insurance. They fail to recognize that salvation reconciles us to God. This is why scripture commands all men to repent and put their faith in Christ. I had a girlfriend very dear to me who is still currently attending Calvary Chapel in Chino, California.

My girlfriend was bothered by a statement made regarding marriages and age difference with no scriptural standings. It was there where I raised my hand, said the little childlike prayer, make the altar call, and was baptised at the beach.

Out of all those actions, only the baptism had a Biblical Basis…something I found after the fact. Examine Yourselves on youtube. What a vast difference in preaching! This was convicting preaching…the kind that sinners need! At MC, I felt like I was getting the milk, but not the meat. I searched for a new church. We eventually came to a Reformed Baptist church. Now, I have a deep hunger for the Lord.

I thank God for opening my eyes to the truth. You might be equally disappointed in any teacher. James MacDonald for once is not who he used to be or seems to be. Remember the words of Paul in 1Cor 1 how we never should exalt men and their wisdom. Where is the humble, loving, faithful Gaiuses today? Because they are warned that if you left you must be divisive and disagree with the Pastor-which is a spiritual crime.

Just a thought. If you spent as much time sharing the Lord with those who are perishing, as opposed to spending so much time blogging about Calvary Chapels and your issues with them, then I wonder what would happen? It seems like your passion for the Lord could be better served by fulfilling the great commission, rather than focusing so much on other churches and picking them apart. They are bound to have issues because of the involvement of man. Instead of being nothing but a fault-finder, why not do something good?

Just seems like there are other issues that are so much more important — like our friends and neighbors that are on the footstep of hell. I love that you have a passion for the Lord — just seems like you could be using your passions to pull people from the clutches of hell, rather than debate with people who are walking beside you on the road to heaven.

Is this the same advice you would have given to Paul when he named false teachers? Additionally- the Gospel is not a means to get people to post-mortem bliss as you seem to imply. It just seems like you have a vendetta against Calvary Chapels — pointing out what you think is wrong with them. I was just wondering what it would look like if those passions were used to expand the Kingdom.

Its easy to get fixated on things like this. The bottom line is that if you are looking at MAN, then you will always be dissappointed. We are all sinners that are saved by grace. All of the faults that we would find would be with the way that we, as men, handle things.

There is no fault in God — so that is who we should keep our eyes on! You are trying to say there are more spiritual things someone could be doing than pointing out error and you are elevating and emphasizing just one aspect of the Christian life evangelism.

You do know we are also called to pray, fellowship, eat, drink, go to church, talk about doctrine, identify false teachers, even work, have children, be fathers, mothers, grandparents, have professions, etc… etc… All of those things have their place in time. I wonder what that would look like if instead you focused on evangelism? Calvary Chapel is a small part of the larger picture of modern evangelicalism. I am not disappointed in God because of man.

I am pointing out BAD doctrine. Was Christ erroneously focusing on man when he criticized the pharisees? I am going to assume that you are just parroting what someone else said out of context.

I stumbled across this blog by accident on Google. Randy, you are definitely entitled to write whatever you want here, after all this is your blog. However, the problem I see here is that if I were not a believer, my reading this blog would put a bitter taste in my mouth regarding Christ and his followers. The truth is, God is using Calvary Chapels for His glory. We were created to serve our Creator now and throughout eternity. God does not care about the title or denomination of your church. I am also comfortable recommending other churches where I know Jesus is center.

I agree that we must point out false teachers, but maybe we should be pointing out false teachers who deny Jesus Christ. False teachers who glorify Satan. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for this blog. I agree with you Heather. I am actually a little embrassed that it really does have a hostile, worldly Facebook status feel. One day we will be accounted for how we used them. Call me lazy, but since this blog is getting rather lengthy, would you, Randy, or someone else sum up a few bullet points of what, scripturaly, you have a problem with in the Calvary Chapel or the modern evangelical movement as a whole.

If you could give me a few verses that the Calvary Chapel, in your opinion, distorts we could move forward with some productive discussion. I currently attend a Calvary Chapel and would love to know if there are ways Biblically we can better worship and serve God.

I attended CC for 10 yrs and gradutated from their Bible College so I can speak on their behalf with accuracy. They do all agree on what the call Calvary Distinctives and in order to become a CC pastor you must abide in these essential teachings.

From my personal experience I have never experienced any unjustice or example of abuse etc…but I do see they are very clickish. To break the click up take a step of faith and enter those clicks breaking down their doors! CC may not observe Reformers teachings in their sermons, but they certainly do speak of Gods elect, but they also teach that man has his own ability to make a decision for or not to receive Christ as Savior.

I recommend anyone who feels they can determine what each church falters in that they take it upon themself to step up and start a new fellowship. Preach on the streets, have home fellowships and teach the word accurately and faithfully. There are many false teachers, bad teachers, unfaithful teachers and lazy teachers out there so expect those consequences to be in the form of the reasoning most of this thread is discussing.

Be like Paul when he said he imitates Christ, and to live is Christ. Make that the mission! That is precisely the problem with CC.

You are embracing the same modern evangelical presuppositions as CC. Read some of my critiques of CC Distinctives. The church government specifically. All Calvary Chapel embrace the same presuppositions and are all bad.

Every time I go there, I can feel the great presence of the Holy Spirit, it is wonderful, they are dedicated to preaching the truth of the Bible in my opinion. I am at an online learning Institute called the Koinonia Institute, I am taking courses there, my pastor introduced me to it. Beware any man who claims to know it all. I do feel it is my duty to study the bible with significant vigor, but I have accepted that our ways MAN are not his ways and pray that the Lord guide me in all things, including MY OWN interpretation of the bible.

I have not really started a new one, but I have definitley made a small contribution, as I am leading my family including three wonderful children in their persuit of Christ.

I too was misunderstanding this issue before. To be honest with you, I am only beginning to comprehend it. I think people need to realize that not only the gate is narrow but the path is narrow.

Jesus is also the narrow Gate, the narrow Path and the Good Shepherd who can lead us on that narrow Way and Jesus is the Light who enlightens the world. With that said, we should all consider what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 7. We will recognize the false prophets by their fruits, we should all examine ourselves by the light of Scripture to see if we bear the good fruits or not and that whomever hear those sayings of Jesus and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.

Bad trees who wear bad fruit will be cut down and cast into fire. Mat « Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. So, it is essential to consider all those teachings of Jesus and realize that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. If your church does not teach biblical repentance, it only teaches an incomplete gospel and therefore there is no gospel at all. I am adressing all the readers here A dead faith cannot save you.

James clarifies that point in chapter 2 of his book. Go read it. Go watch them all, they are worth it! These teachings helped me understand the huge difference between decisionnism and regeneration.

Because we need to consider all the Scriptures and not put over-emphasis on some verses and misinterpret others. Again, I must repeat myself, I am only beginning to comprehend the Word of God and I know that I have an imperfect understanding of Scriptures but I am seeking the Truth by the grace of the Holy Ghost, through prayer, through the other members of the body of Christ, through church history and the reading of the Holy Bible itself. But on the regeneration issue, therefore I stand firm.

Let me explain. It spawned denominations that emphasize the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the exercise of spiritual and Scriptural gifts of the Spirit that had fallen dormant in the main line churches.

Also criticized by the liberal church and news media as being emotionally driven, Pentecostalism restored to the church the importance of gifts of the Spirit and the power of God for the believer today.

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. Special "after glow" services and home fellowships 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 that may have differing names.