What We Believe

Calvary Chapel has been formed as a fellowship of believers in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our greatest desire is to know Christ and to 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 their over-emphasis of the doctrinal differences that divide the Body of Christ. We believe that the only true basis of Christian fellowship is God's love, which is greater than our differences we possess and without which we have no right to claim ourselves Christians. In order to identify Calvary Chapel and to help better your understanding of who we are, we set forth this general statement of our fundamental beliefs:

Services

In our services, we focus on a "personal relationship" with God through song, worship, prayer, and the teaching of the Word of God. We teach both expository and topical studies. The Holy Spirit will never interrupt the worship of Jesus or the teaching of God's word, therefore we do not permit the use of Spirit-given gifts to disrupt our services. We believe that the gifts of the Spirit are necessary for today's believer, but we believe that everything should be done decently and in order.

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 a 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 would be worshipped.

We believe worship of God is fruitful; therefore we look for His love in our lives as the greatest evidence that we are truly worshipping Him.

Evangelism

We participate and support evangelistic outreach ministries in communities all over the world, as the Spirit leads us. Our main belief concerning evangelism is that "sheep beget sheep." We are convinced that as we continue to feed the flock of God by teaching them the Word of God, they will naturally lead others to Christ.

We Believe...

The Bible is the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God and inerrant in the original writings. A complete and final written revelation of God.

There is 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.

Our Lord 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, and ever lives to make intercession for us.

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 they become a child of God.

The Holy Spirit ministers today. He 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.

That God wants our little ones to come to Him, therefore we provide a children's ministry broken down according to age and grade level. Because of this, the children are taught on a level that they will better understand the Word of God.

We Reject...

The Teaching of "positive confession"
The belief that true-Christians can be possessed by demons
"Dominion theology" or "Kingdom theology"
A fatalistic Calvinistic view, which allows no room for free will
Prophesy that supersedes Biblical scripture
"Charismania" (the over-emphasis upon Spiritual gifts, experiential signs and wonders, etc.)

We Hold To...

The inerrancy of Scripture
The continuance today of the diversities of spiritual gifts as found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
Jesus Christ being the head of the Body, His church, and that church government should be simplistic rather than
a complex bureaucracy
A dependence upon the Holy Spirit to lead rather than fleshly promotion
The pre-millennial, pre-tribulation return of Christ for His waiting Church
The teaching of the Word of God in such a way that it can be applied to life as beneficial towards a growing maturity
The fact that Jesus is coming soon to rapture His bride, the church! Test