Thread: The Gospel of Calvary Chapel

I have a friend who is considering Calvary Chapel. Leaving the Arminianism vs. Calvanism debate alone, does anyone see anything problematic in their statement of faith below?

Besides a false assurance given "after praying the prayer", I can't seem to find any fault here. Any help would be appreciated. But I'd like to keep this thread strictly on the theme below. Thanks


Calvary Chapel's Gospel:

Our greatest desire is for people to come to know God personally. The simple truth is that there is a God who created you and loves you very much. (Genesis 1:1) He gave us life and deserves our gratitude and love.

We, however, have chosen to disobey Him and sin against Him; all of us have done wrong and failed to do what is right. (Romans 3:23) We may not be more sinful than our neighbor, or we may be far worse than anyone we know, it does not matter. Either way, we are guilty before God. (1 John 1:8)

God is perfect, completely good, always right and fair. He cannot tolerate sin. He cannot simply overlook the fact that we have chosen to disobey Him. The Bible says "the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) This means that the fair payment for our rebellion against God is death. It is the punishment that we deserve.

Jesus, the one and only Son of God, came to earth and lived a perfect sinless life. He was crucified even though He was completely innocent. He received the punishment that we deserved. He was the perfect sacrifice, He was put into our place and took on Himself the sentence of death that should have been ours. (Romans 5:8)

Jesus did not, however, remain dead. After three days, He rose from the grave and later ascended into heaven. He will return for all those who are trusting in Him as their Savior.

Jesus died for you. You can be saved by asking Him for forgiveness from your sins. If you are willing to repent of your sin, He is waiting to forgive you. It doesn't matter what you have done in the past, if you cry out to Jesus for forgiveness, He will not reject you. The word "repent" literally means "to turn away from." You need to look at your life, admit that you are a sinner, genuinely desire to turn your back on that sin, and ask Him to forgive you. If you do this, He promises to forgive you.

True Christianity is not about attending a particular church, or how your parents raised you, or what country you were born in. Being a Christian means that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that He is your Savior. It's not good enough that your priest, pastor, mother, or aunt knows Jesus, you must know Him for yourself. They cannot believe in Him for you, you must believe for yourself. They cannot repent for you, you must repent for yourself.

Jesus is everywhere all the time. He can hear you now if you ask Him for forgiveness. Please turn your life over to Him now. Time slips by so quickly, don't miss this opportunity. If you want to pray and ask Jesus to be your Savior, you can say a prayer something like this:

"Jesus, I know that I have sinned against you. I know the truth is that I have sinned by my own choice, and I am the one responsible for it. I know that I have earned punishment from You, and that the fair punishment would be death. Jesus, I believe that You died in my place. Forgive me for my sin. I cannot cover or take my sin away, I am relying totally and only on You. You are the only one who can save me. I reject my sin, I turn away from it, I repent. Come into my life, take away my sin, and show me how to live my life in a way that is right and pleasing to You."

If you have prayed this, YOU ARE SAVED! You are now completely forgiven, a new creation, innocent in the eyes of God. Welcome to the family of God!

It is important for you to start to grow in your relationship with Jesus. Just like any relationship, you need to spend time with someone if you want to know them well. The way to know God is through the Bible. We have a few different Bible studies here that will help you get going. It's also important to find a church you can attend where they teach the Bible. This will allow you to talk with a pastor who will help explain questions you might have, and it will give you a chance to spend time with other Christians who can encourage you.

You can start to study the Bible by going through our New Believers Booklet. After that, we recommend that you start a Bible study through the Gospel of John. You can look for a church in your area by checking our List of Calvary Chapel Fellowships.

Missing: active righteousness imputed to believers
faith in Christ, as well as repentance.

[Edited on 8-1-2006 by turmeric]

We, however, have chosen to disobey Him and sin against Him; all of us have done wrong and failed to do what is right. (Romans 3:23) We may not be more sinful than our neighbor, or we may be far worse than anyone we know, it does not matter. Either way, we are guilty before God. (1 John 1:8)

While it is true that we have willingly chosen to sin, they didn't mention that we are also guilty apart from that truth. There is the fact of imputed sin from Adam that we are guilty of (Romans 5:12-19).

If you decide you want to touch on the soteriological aspect of their statement (C vs A), there's ALOT more that can be said.

[Edited on 8-1-2006 by Greg]

Right on Meg. Leaving that out that part is the great error of much Arminianism with respect to the Gospel. The believer is then wracked with the "Why am I not experiencing the same blessing that others appear to be? Am I not praying enough? Have I received the "second baptism"?"

I do appreciate that there is a sense of the condemnation that we deserve but it is sort of undermined by this idea that God loves you anyway and is simply waiting outside your heart for permission to come in.

Christ also is knocked down to a "buddy" type of level with the whole "...Being a Christian means that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that He is your Savior..." language. Notice the focus is inward. Do I have a personal relationship with Christ? Have I decided He is worthy of my time? The whole concept of personal denotes to many a peer relationship as well. I think the tenor of the Scriptures is that our relationship is one of WORSHIP. While that is personal to be sure, it's the emphasis that's out of whack.

It's just all very mushy. I think most people assume that people will just get up and leave if you remind them very plainly that God is their God whether they think He is or not and they better flee to the Cross. I've done that a few times now in the SBC I attend here in Okinawa. People come up with tears afterwards thanking me for such a clear Gospel message. It's not about me, it's about Him.

Providentially, the latest episode of the White Horse Inn touches on this whole inward focus of modern Evangelicalism with respect to justification and sanctification and how poisonous it is to the soil. I commend it to all:

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/the_white_horse_inn/

First things first: Having seen this movement firsthand cc does not posess the three marks that make a church a church. tell your friend that christ does not recognize them as His bride. They may be just a bunch of believers wandering about aimlessly perishing for lack of knowledge and being led astray by false teachers.

[Edited on 8-1-2006 by Scott Bushey]

Leaving the Arminianism vs. Calvanism debate alone,

Does this mean that, in criticizing CC, Arminianism is "off the table?" If so, why?

Calvary Chapel's Gospel:

The simple truth is that there is a God who created you and loves you very much. (Genesis 1:1) He gave us life and deserves our gratitude and love.

Isn't this "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life"?

This isn't how the gospel is preached. We don't know anything of the sort do we? The Apostle Peter did not say to the Jews at Pentecost, "God loves you...." He said, "you sinned, repent and believe..."

There is a sense in which God loves all his image-bearing creatures, but not in the sense in which CC means it here.

We, however, have chosen to disobey Him and sin against Him; all of us have done wrong and failed to do what is right. (Romans 3:23) We may not be more sinful than our neighbor, or we may be far worse than anyone we know, it does not matter. Either way, we are guilty before God. (1 John 1:8)

This seems to touch only actual and not original/federal sin.

Jesus, the one and only Son of God, came to earth and lived a perfect sinless life.

CC doesn't have a doctrine of the active obedience of Jesus

Jesus died for you.

No, Jesus died for for sinners. If you trust him, then it may be said that he died for you. If one does not trust him or never trusts him, then Jesus did not die for that person.

If you have prayed this, YOU ARE SAVED! You are now completely forgiven, a new creation, innocent in the eyes of God. Welcome to the family of God!

No. If you have true faith the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you and your sins have been imputed to Christ, judged in his death, etc.

Saying the words of a prayer is not faith. Trusting in Christ is faith. How is their approach to saying the words of their prayer not magic or ex opere operato Romanism?

We have a few different Bible studies here that will help you get going.

No. Jesus did not institute "Bible Studies." They are fine, but they are not the first thing one needs. Jesus instituted the visible instutional church. The first thing one needs to do is to unite himself to a true expression of Christ's church. That would not be CC, by the way. As a member of and pastor in a congregation composed of CC refugees, my flock tells me that there was precious little gospel in CC and it was usually truncated and tacked on to a series of moralisms ("be like David..." whatever) or to a series of homely anecdotes about the pastor's lastest misadventure at the beach.

CC lacks the marks of a true church. They corrupt the gospel on a regular basis. They don't observe the sacraments truly. They don't practice "discipline," but they do shun (e.g., some of our members) those in CC who the temerity to criticize the leadership or to question the doctrine of CC. It's a modern expression of Anabaptist moralism and mysticism.

Don't be mislead by the Hawaiian shirts and the surfer-dude slang. CC is a personality cult built around Chuck, his lieutenants and appointed and anointed leadership.

The good news, as it were, is that they keep telling students to read Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and, as a result, we keep seeing a steady trickle of recently "ex-CC" folk at school and at church!

rsc

Originally posted by R. Scott Clark

The good news, as it were, is that they keep telling students to read Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and, as a result, we keep seeing a steady trickle of recently "ex-CC" folk at school and at church!

It's funny that you mention that Dr. Clark. I used to attend a CC and Spurgeon was quoted at times in the sermons there (obviously nothing Calvinistic). It was after I left CC that I came across this website, as well as many others, and began to read a whole side of Spurgeon that I never heard preached from the CC pulpit.

Dr. Clark,

You are the man!

If I go to seminary when I retire from the Marine Corps then I know where I'm going. Especially after the following:

"Scripture tells us men should be equipped for the ministry but doesn't tell us where we should go to Seminary.

Relax...

Westmister Seminary in California..."

By the way, whenever I refer to Calvary Chapel I prefer the term franchise to Church. You go to the Bible College (i.e. Burger University) and then you can brand your own Calvary Chapel. How you organize and run it is up to you. Churches with Elders, according to Chuck Smith, make the Pastor nothing more than a "hired lackey".

The Pastor of my home Church in Temecula, Jesse Pirschel, is a former Calvary Chapel pastor. See http://www.temeculachurch.org (That webmaster of theirs is awesome!)

Originally posted by R. Scott Clark
The good news, as it were, is that they keep telling students to read Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and, as a result, we keep seeing a steady trickle of recently "ex-CC" folk at school and at church!
rsc

And praise God for it! Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones are my two most favorites.