Our beliefs
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 in errancy 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 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,
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-millennial, 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.
To better help people not familiar with the Calvary
Chapel ministries understand who we are, 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.
|
|
|
