Calvary Chapel is a fellowship of believers in the Lordship of Jesus Christ . Our greatest 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. We are opposed only to the emphasis of non-biblical teachings that divide the Body of Christ.

We believe the true basis of Christian fellowship is God's love, which is greater than our differences. Without His love, we have no right to say we are Christians.

..............................WHAT WE BELIEVE: OUR STATEMENT OF FAITH

To better help people not familiar with the Calvary Chapel movement understand who we are, Calvary Chapel's Bible College at Costa Mesa 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.

WE BELIEVE worship of God should be spiritual! Therefore we remain flexible so the Holy Spirit may direct our worship.

WE BELIEVE worship of God should be inspirational! Therefore we give a great place to music in our worship.

WE BELIEVE worship of God should be intelligent! Therefore, in our services, we emphasize Bible teaching so God may instruct us how He would be worshiped.

WE BELIEVE worship of God is fruitful! Therefore we look for His love in our lives as the greatest evidence that we are truly worshiping Him.

WE BELIEVE in the inerrancy of Scripture, that the Bible, Old and New Testaments, in the original autographs, is the inspired, infallible Word of God, a complete and final written revelation of God.

WE BELIEVE in one personal, transcendent, and holy God, the creator of all, Who is eternal and who manifests Himself in three separate persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ, though fully God became a man for the suffering of death, that He is the promised Messiah, 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 Jerusalem, enabling them to fulfill His command to preach the Gospel to the entire world, an obligation shared by all believers today.

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.

WE BELIEVE in the person and work of the Holy Spirit who indwells, seals, and empowers every believer, baptizing them into the Body of Christ. We further believe that the Holy Spirit will come upon any believer who asks in faith, enabling him/her to preach the Gospel in power. We also believe all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Scriptures are valid for today if they are exercised within the scriptural guidelines. We believe that love is more important than all the gifts, and without this love all exercise of spiritual gifts is worthless.

WE BELIEVE Jesus Christ is the head of the Body, His church, and that church government should he simplistic rather than a complex bureaucracy. We desire to be led by the Holy Spirit in all the functions and directions of the ministry of the church.

We await the pre-tribulational 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-millennial, and visible. This motivates us to holy living, heartfelt worship, committed service, diligent study of God's Word, regular fellowship, and participation in baptism by immersion and in 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 doctrinal viewpoints or spiritual phenomena which are based solely on experience. We look to the Word of God for the basis of all our faith and practice.

WE BELIEVE in a personal devil called Satan who, along with all his evil angels, called demons, is destined to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire, and who now seeks to deceive the believers and defeat the work of God, but who can be resisted by believers who are in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit, protected by God, and interceded for by Jesus Christ our Lord.

WE BELIEVE that the nation of Israel has a special place in God's plan and that all the promises of God to Israel will be fulfilled.

WHAT WE DON'T 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, "amillennialism," 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 Armenianism, 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.

THE BALANCE

In a broad general sense, Calvary Chapel is the middle ground between fundamentalism and Pentecostalism in modem 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 that 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 modern 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 Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th Century, and 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 un accepting 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 or 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 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 Murrieta, 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 distinctive's, what sets it apart from other Christian groups. At Calvary Chapel, we have always been hesitant to try to 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 distinctive that make Calvary Chapel unique and which define our mission.

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