WHAT  WE  BELIEVE

We believe the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God and constitute the entirety of Scripture.  God inspired every part of it, and it is completely true and without error in its original writings.  The Bible is trustworthy, sufficient, and authoritative for what we believe, how we live, and how we come to know God through salvation in Jesus Christ.  It is our final standard for faith, doctrine, and moral truth.  We are committed to teaching the entire Bible clearly and faithfully so that people can apply God’s Word to their lives and grow in maturity as followers of Christ. (Psalm 19:7–9;  Matthew 4:4;  John 17:17;  John 20:31;  2 Timothy 3:16–17;  James 1:21)  ...  CCW affirms the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.

We believe there is one true Triune-God who created the heavens and the earth and eternally exists in three distinct Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  These three are one God, equal in nature, power, and glory.  God is spirit, eternal, sovereign, holy, loving, wise, just, and unchanging. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and completely trustworthy in everything He does and says.  God perfectly knows all things, including every future event and decision.  (Genesis 1:26;  Deuteronomy 6:4;  Deuteronomy 32:4;  Psalm 90:2;  1 Kings 8:27;  Isaiah 6:3;  Isaiah 46:9–10;  Isaiah 55:8–9;  Isaiah 57:15;  Malachi 3:6;  Matthew 28:19;  John 4:24;  John 5:26;  John 14:6;  John 17:5;  Acts 17:25;  Romans 16:27;  2 Corinthians 13:14;  James 1:17;  1 John 4:8)

We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.  He has two distinct natures united in one Person.  Jesus was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  He lived a sinless life, performed miracles, and willingly died on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for our sins.  He was physically raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit in the same body that was buried, proving His victory over sin and death.  Jesus physically ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father, where He continues to intercede for believers.
After Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the believers in Jerusalem, empowering them to proclaim the gospel to the world.  This mission of making Christ known to all people continues to be the responsibility of every believer today.  (Matthew 1:20-23;  Luke 24:39;  John 1:1, 14;  John 20:27-28;  Acts 1:9-11;  Romans 6:9;  Romans 8:34;  2 Corinthians 5:21;  Philippians 2:6-7;  Col 2:9;  1 Peter 2:22;  Hebrews 1:3;  Hebrews 2:14;  Hebrews 7:25).  CCW affirms the Apostle’s, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds insofar as they are consistent with Scripture.

We believe the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity.  He lives within every believer, sealing them as God’s own and helping them grow in holiness and truth.  The Holy Spirit teaches, guides, empowers, and reveals God’s truth to believers so they can live faithfully for Christ.

We believe that every person is created in the image of God and therefore has value and purpose.  However, because of the fall of Adam and Eve, all people are sinners by nature and are separated from God because of their sin.  Salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are offered freely to all through Jesus Christ by God’s grace alone.
When a person repents of sin and places their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, trusting in Him alone for salvation, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit.  Their sins are forgiven, they become a child of God, and they receive the promise of eternal life with the Lord.

We believe that salvation is fully the work of God.  It was planned, initiated, accomplished, and secured by God through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins and His resurrection from the dead.  The gift of salvation is available to all people and is received by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ, apart from good works.  When a person trusts in Christ for salvation, God forgives and justifies them, and they are sealed by the Holy Spirit.

We believe that the early chapters of the Bible record real historical events and are meant to be understood as such.  We believe Adam and Eve were literal people created by God and are the ancestors of all humanity.  We believe the fall in the Garden of Eden truly occurred, bringing sin and God’s curse upon creation.  We also believe in the worldwide flood in the days of Noah and that God brought about the origin of the nations and languages at the Tower of Babel.
 (Genesis 1:26–27;  Genesis 2:7, 18–25;  Genesis 3:6–7, 17–19;  Genesis 7:19–23;  Genesis 11:7–9;  Deuteronomy 32:8;  Acts 17:26;  Romans 5:12;  Romans 8:20–22;  1 Corinthians 15:21–22, 45).

We believe that God is the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens and the earth, as well as of every basic form of life, and that He did this in six literal, historical days (not in myth or symbolic time) as described in Genesis [Gen. 1:1–2:3].  We believe this account of creation is factual and historical, and that it gives the foundation for understanding the created universe, God’s power, and His glory [Psa. 19:1].  We also believe that God providentially cares for every living thing in His creation [Mt. 6:25–33], and that Christ is the One who continues to uphold and sustain all things [Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:17].
We reject both theistic evolution and naturalistic macroevolution because they are unbiblical, cannot be justified by Scripture, and are based on naturalistic assumptions.  We believe these views weaken or deny essential Christian doctrines, including the biblical teaching on creation [cf. Gen. 1:27; Mt. 19:4–6; Rom. 5:12–14; 1 Cor. 11:8–9; 15:45].
We also believe in a literal, worldwide flood that destroyed the earth, animal life, and the human race, except for Noah and those who were with him in the ark [Gen. 6–9; Mt. 24:37–39; 1 Pet. 3:20].

We believe the universal church is made up of all true believers in Jesus Christ, both living and dead, who have been saved through faith in Him and sealed by the Holy Spirit.  The mission of the church is to worship the Lord, proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, make disciples, baptize believers, and teach them to obey sound biblical doctrine and live holy lives.
We believe church leadership and government should remain simple rather than becoming a complicated bureaucracy, with dependence upon the leading and power of the Holy Spirit rather than human ambition or worldly wisdom.
We believe the Lord gave the church two ordinances to observe until He returns: water baptism by immersion and Holy Communion.  Baptism does not save a person or wash away sin, but is an outward testimony of the salvation already received through faith in Christ.
We believe the true foundation of Christian fellowship is the sacrificial love of Christ.  This love is greater than our secondary differences, and without it we have no rightful claim to call ourselves Christians.

We believe that worship of God should be spiritual, meaning it is led by the Holy Spirit and not rigidly controlled by human tradition.  For this reason, we remain flexible and responsive to His leading in how we worship.
We believe worship should also be inspirational, and therefore we give an important place to music as part of our gathered worship.
We believe worship should be intelligent, meaning it is grounded in the teaching of God’s Word.  Our gatherings place strong emphasis on the instruction of Scripture so that we learn how God calls us to worship Him.
We believe worship should be fruitful.  The true evidence of worship is a life transformed by God’s love.  When we are truly worshiping God in spirit and truth, it will be reflected in love for God and obedience in daily life [John 4:24].

We believe the baptism (or filling/overflow) of the Holy Spirit is distinct from salvation, though it may occur at the time of salvation or sometime afterward. This work of the Holy Spirit empowers believers for faithful living, Christian service, and witness, and it is not measured by any single gift such as speaking in tongues.  The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to believers according to His will, and these gifts are to be used according to the teaching of Scripture for the strengthening and encouragement of the church.  Believers should desire to use their gifts in a way that builds up the Body of Christ and brings glory to God.  Above all, spiritual gifts must be exercised in love, because without love even the greatest gifts are meaningless.

We believe that Jesus Christ will return again and that His coming is imminent.  We believe the church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (the rapture) before the Great Tribulation described in the book of Revelation, as believers are not destined for God’s wrath [1 Thess. 5:9].  We also believe that Christ’s second coming will be physical, personal, visible, and will precede His millennial reign on earth.
We understand the rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ as two distinct events.  At the rapture, Christ comes for His church in the clouds.  At His second coming, Christ returns with His church after the Great Tribulation to establish His kingdom on earth.
This hope shapes how we live today.  It motivates us toward evangelism, holy living, sincere worship, faithful service, diligent study of God’s Word, and regular fellowship with other believers.

We believe that all who are saved through Jesus Christ will spend eternity with Him in heaven in a conscious state of blessing, reward, and full satisfaction.  We also believe that those who do not personally receive the finished work of Christ by faith will spend eternity separated from God in a conscious state of judgment and torment.

We believe there is a real, personal devil who is full of evil intent and great power, and who works to deceive, tempt, and destroy.  However, his power is limited and can only operate within what God allows.  We believe that Satan was defeated decisively through the cross of Christ, and that he will ultimately be defeated at the second coming of Christ.  At that time, the devil, along with the Beast and the False Prophet, will be judged and eternally punished in the lake of fire.

We believe marriage is between one biological man and one biological woman only, and the marriage bed is undefiled.  Sexual relationships outside the bonds of heterosexual marriage are both unbiblical and immoral.  
We also believe that God created men and women with intentional differences in identity and role, and that the confusion or blurring of those distinctions goes against His created order.  We believe God’s design for order and leadership is reflected in Scripture, where the man is called to loving headship in the home, Christ is the head of the man, and God the Father is the head of Christ.

We affirm that God made all people from one man.  Although people may be distinguished by different ethnicities and nationalities, they are equal before God in both creation and redemption.  “Race” is not a biblical category, but a social construct that has often been used to label groups of people as inferior or superior.  We believe that all that is good, honest, just, and beautiful in the many ethnic backgrounds and life experiences of people can be celebrated as the fruit of God’s grace.  At the same time, all sinful actions and their consequences, including evils committed between and against ethnic groups, are to be confessed as sin, repented of, and rejected.
We deny that Christians should separate themselves into racial groups or place racial identity above, or even equal to, their identity in Christ.  We also deny that any division between people groups, whether expressed as superiority, resentment, or hostility, has any rightful place in the fellowship of the redeemed.  We reject any teaching that encourages racial groups to see themselves either as privileged oppressors or as entitled victims of oppression.  While we are called to weep with those who weep, we deny that a person’s feelings of offense or oppression automatically prove that another person is guilty of sinful behavior, oppression, or prejudice. (Genesis 1:26–28; Acts 17:24-26; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; 2 Corinthians 12:16-18).

We affirm that some cultures may reflect biblical truth more clearly than others, because those worldviews are shaped by greater alignment with God’s revelation.  We believe that anything within a culture that reflects God’s truth should be affirmed, embraced, and encouraged.  At the same time, every culture contains elements that are worldly and sinful, and those must be rejected for the honor of Christ.  We also affirm that any sinful or harmful influences we have absorbed from our culture can be—and must be—overcome through conversion in Christ and the renewing of the mind through biblical truth.
We deny that cultural environment, upbringing, or social conditioning can excuse moral or spiritual corruption, since all people are accountable before God; instead, we affirm that by His grace anyone can be brought to repentance, faith, and transformation in Christ.  (Romans 1:18-32; Ephesians 4:17-24; Colossians 3:5-11)

We affirm that racism is a sin rooted in pride and malice, and it must be condemned and renounced by all who seek to honor the image of God in every person. This kind of sin can appear both openly and subtly, as racial hostility or as pride based on ethnicity. Any form of partiality or prejudice is contrary to God’s revealed will and violates the royal law of love. We also affirm that virtually all cultures, including American culture, at times contain laws, systems, or attitudes that can promote or sustain racist thinking and behavior.  We include this because Scripture teaches that all people and cultures are affected by sin, and therefore all must be measured and transformed by God’s Word rather than cultural assumptions.
We deny that treating people with sinful partiality or prejudice is consistent with biblical Christianity.  We deny that only those in positions of power can be guilty of racism, or that any ethnic group is incapable of it.  We also deny that racism is compatible with historic evangelical Christian convictions.  We deny that Scripture can be rightly used to justify prejudice, contempt, or partiality toward any ethnicity.  We deny that the evangelical church has any hidden or deliberate agenda to elevate one ethnic group over another.
We also deny that lectures on social issues or activism aimed at reshaping the wider culture are essential to the life and health of the church.  While such discussions may at times be helpful, they can easily become distractions that pull the church away from the gospel.  Therefore, we believe it is essential that the church remain focused on the preaching of the gospel and the faithful exposition of Scripture.  (Genesis 1:26-27; Deuteronomy 10:17; Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Galatians 3:28; James 2:4)

• The belief that true Christians can be demon-possessed or are helpless against the Devil’s craftiness and schemes.
• Any philosophy or theology that denies that the human will is involved in receiving Christ’s free gift of salvation.  Specifically, we reject the belief that Jesus’ atonement was limited in its extent.  We believe that He died for all unrighteous people.  We also reject the idea that a person has no real ability to reject Christ’s finished work of atonement, or that God’s gracious drawing cannot be resisted, or that He has chosen some people to go to hell.  Instead, we believe that anyone who desires to come to Christ may do so freely through the conviction and persuasive work of the Holy Spirit.
• “Positive confession,” such as the Faith movement, which teaches that faith is a force that can create one’s own reality, or that God can be commanded to heal or perform miracles according to man’s will and faith.
• Human prophecy that goes beyond, replaces, or contradicts Scripture.
• Any use of psychology or philosophy in biblical teaching that is contrary to Scripture and is, in substance, “according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”
• “Open Theism” or “Freewill Theism,” which denies God’s exhaustive foreknowledge of future free decisions and redefines His nature in ways that are inconsistent with Scripture.
• The “Emergent Church” movement, insofar as it departs from historic orthodox Christian doctrine in favor of postmodernism.
• The Contemplative Prayer and Spirituality movement, insofar as it introduces non-biblical spiritual practices and ideas into a believer’s communication with God...  including influences drawn from Eastern mysticism, teachings that resemble pantheism or panentheism, the practice of emptying the mind, and forms of prayer or repetition that are not grounded in Scripture.
• The overemphasis of spiritual gifts, experiential signs, and wonders to the exclusion of biblical teaching.
• Any attempt by anyone (including Christian scholars, academic institutions, or church pastors)  to use critical theories of interpretation or genre classification in a way that relativizes or dehistoricizes the biblical text.
• Any prayer movement that emphasizes corporate prayer, spoken in any language, outside the orderly guidelines given by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14.

We place great emphasis on the exposition of Scripture and teaching the entire Bible chapter-by-chapter and verse-by-verse. Exposition is more than merely speaking about the Bible or from the Bible; it is the proclamation of the Bible itself. We believe that Bible exposition is inductive: directing the listener to the Bible’s own truth without preconceived ideas. We believe that Bible exposition is exegetical: demanding that the pastor critically examine the text with accuracy and basing his message upon observable principles of interpretation.

In Calvary Chapel, we love offering ourselves to the Lord and worshiping and praising and rejoicing and resting in Jesus for all He has accomplished for us. We worship Him for what He has done in taking our sin on Himself and giving His life for us. And we worship Him for ever living at the right hand of the Majesty on high making intercession for us and presenting us faultless. And we worship the Father and the Son and the Spirit for all they mean to us for the rest of eternity.

At Calvary Chapel, we learn to walk in the Spirit and have a renewed mind. God has given gifts to believers to serve His people. We are to win people to Jesus; disciple those people in Jesus, and send out for Jesus.

Calvary Chapel was born in revival. It’s very birth and growth was because Jesus Christ gave himself for us on the cross, that He might give Himself to us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that He might live His life through us sharing the good news. We believe in and love sharing the good news of Jesus and do it with zeal. Calvary Chapels as churches love all manner of public preaching of the gospel, desiring to reach all we can with the good news of Jesus saving us. Thus, there is also many varied methods of preaching Christ; in public open air evangelistic meetings, missionary outreaches around the world and through many media forms. Our desire is “to know Him and make Him known.”

Calvary Chapel holds to the Pretribulational and Premillennial interpretation of Biblical Eschatology. This view anticipates a literal fulfillment of yet unfulfilled prophecies just as previously fulfilled prophecies have been literally fulfilled (Matthew 5:17-18).

Grace has been defined as God’s unmerited favor. In contrasting grace, mercy and justice, I see that justice is getting what I deserve, mercy is not getting what I deserve, and grace is getting what I don’t deserve. Thus our proper attitude should be, to consent to be loved, though we are aware of how unworthy we are of that love; to refuse to make resolutions and vows to be better, for that is to trust in our flesh; to expect to be blessed, though we know how unworthy we are of those blessings.

(1 Timothy 1-3) sets out four qualifications for elders and pastors: moral character, giftedness to teach, divine calling, and male gender. God uses women in ministry and in strategic ways, and the Holy Spirit gifts women as He does men according to His will, but the office of pastor and pastoral authority is reserved for qualified men.

The equipping and enabling of the Holy Spirit allows us to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We acknowledge that to live for and serve the Lord, we need the filling (empowerment) of the Holy Spirit.

Calvary Chapel places an emphasis on servant leadership. This is the conviction among its pastors that the churches we pastor do not exist to serve us, but that we are called to serve and lay our lives down for them. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28).

Ministers of the gospel and pastors should have lives that clearly line up with scripture, and as such a pastor’s life should be earmarked by integrity and moral purity.  In Calvary Chapel ministries, we desire to be men who not only talk the message, but also walk the message. We are aware that God has entrusted the care of His sheep to us, and because we take such a charge seriously, we guard our hearts, and we minister with integrity, and moral purity.

A distinctive characteristic of Calvary Chapel is our relaxed casual style. Calvary Chapels are minus the hype. We’re not into the carnal pursuit of new programs or spiritual hype to try to appeal to people. It’s the Word of God that we trust in, that we teach, that we rely on. It’s the foundation upon which we are built.