Calvary Chapel: What do you know about it?

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If you search this forum for Calvary Chapel, there are few threads that have dealt with this in the past. I’ll look for a few for you.

They are heavy into Rapture and End Times theology. They are big Dispensationalists. In their worship service, they do a verse by verse study of the Bible. They put huge emphasis on music in their worship as well. Basically, worship is singing and study.

The individual pastors can run from pretty anti-Catholic (my experience) to Catholics are Christian. Their theology is pretty anti-Catholic and even anti-mainline Protestantism (basically everyone but them has it wrong/only their definition of salvation and who is saved counts) though the individual pastors will vary in their emphasis of this (you can see this in Chuck Smith’s online book about Revelation and his interpretation of the chapters that refer to the seven churches). They do, depending on the individual pastor, go out of their way to convert Catholics to their denomination (and they are a denomination though they argue otherwise, they have a “leadership” of sorts and they look to Chuck Smith for everything).
That is really funny. every single protestant church born few years back or few days go; they all made to come after the catholics. what is it about us that; they all want us.
 
Communion (for me) is remembering what He did for me. How he suffered because of my sins. I am truely (so are we all) to blame for His suffering! Thank You LORD for forgiving us!
Communion (for me) is literally receiving Jesus in the Eucharist. I literally eat his flesh and drink His precious blood. Is that a hard saying? Yes. Just as it was for His disciples - many walked away. 😦

From the gospel of John:

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

Thank you Lord for giving us your precious body and blood! Thank you for the promise of eternal life with you! Thank you for your Church, which you direct through the power of the Holy Spirit. So much to be thankful for… :signofcross:
 
wisdom seeker

That is really funny. every single protestant church born few years back or few days go; they all made to come after the catholics. what is it about us that; they all want us.

is not about the catholics it’s about Jesus! I know catholics, jehova witness’s, even someone that came from a buddhism background who has come to know Jesus! Sorry to say that the church of God is not a building, it’s not a structure, it’s not a sanctuary, but everyone who puts their trust in HIM! so whatever background you come from if you believe in Him I say welcome to His Church! A church of believers in Jesus!
 
wisdom seeker

That is really funny. every single protestant church born few years back or few days go; they all made to come after the catholics. what is it about us that; they all want us.

is not about the catholics it’s about Jesus! I know catholics, jehova witness’s, even someone that came from a buddhism background who has come to know Jesus! Sorry to say that the church of God is not a building, it’s not a structure, it’s not a sanctuary, but everyone who puts their trust in HIM! so whatever background you come from if you believe in Him I say welcome to His Church! A church of believers in Jesus!
**Here it is the True Church.

St Augustine was surrounded by heretics, schismatics, separatists, sectarians. He was surrounded by sincere people who had separated from the one family of God and he said, “none of them; none of them is truly Catholic and being Catholic is the chief family trait by which I’m identified. The Church,” he goes on to say, “the Church of the Christian religion is called Catholic, not only by her own members but even by our enemies; for when heretics or the adherents of schisms talk about her, not among themselves but with strangers, they willy-nilly call her nothing else but Catholic for they will not be understood unless they distinguish her by this name which the whole world employs in her regard.”

There is only One Catholic Church the whole world knows about. our Church. named from the beginnig. **
 
you can quote man’s words all you want! st Augustine was a sinner just like all of us! again!
1 John 1:8 “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"

Jesus said that His church was built on the Rock! This is not peter (the pebble) 1Corinthians 10:4 says "…For they drank of that spiritual Rock that folowed them, and that Rock was Christ! also knowned by as Chief Cornerstone.

Psalm 118:22-23 The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily.

Matt 21:42-43 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: `The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

it is obvious that Peter wasn’t a “a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation” Peter denied the Lord 3 times! (not a sure foundation)
Ephesians 5: 23: ""For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church: and He is the Savior of the Body!

God Bless!
 
Jesus said that His church was built on the Rock! This is not peter (the pebble)
Actually, what Jesus said to Peter was in Aramaic. The difference in pebble and boulder is a difference in the Greek, which has a masculine and a feminine form. The Gospel writer could not use the same word to refer to Peter (being male) to refer to Rock (which in Greek has a feminine form). Aramaic does not have gender forms, nor does English. So this arguement does not hold. Peter means rock.

Calling Peter the Rock and Jesus building His Church upon Peter was radical. Until that time, only God had been refered to as Rock. Now Jesus, who is both man and God, calls Peter, a man, rock. Very radical. Not only that, but promises that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus made that promise to Peter and the Church that Christ built on Peter. Yes, Jesus is the Head of the Church and the Church is his Bride but Peter is the foundation on which the Church is built.
 
I went to one of their services. It was about 90% music (some of which really was very good. They did some gospel hymns which I hadn’t heard in a very long time.) and I really couldn’t tell from the minimum amount of preaching what their theology was. Most people referred to themselves as being non-denominational. It seemed like a very large church (they also have a rather successful school).
 
It seems that Chuch Smith is a interesting character and has some good things going on.👍
The bad news about him is that either he or some people in his “nondenominational Church fellowship” are quite anticatholic, for example selling Dave Hunt’s books, inviting Dave Hunts to speak, and teaching a dispensationalist, Christian Zionist view of end of times.😦
 
with respect to PacBox,
I do not agree that the scriptures point out that Peter was the rock! If we read what Jesus said in Luke 6:46

"But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? 47 Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:

48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great."

Here clearly Jesus says that “he who come to ME, and hears MY sayings and does them” is building on the Rock (which is Jesus, and Not peter). verse 48 (he who comes to Jesus and hears and does what He says is compared to a man building a home on the rock!

You said that the gates of hell will not prevail against it! You are right! And in this scripture we see it compared to a flood or stream.

In Galatians we read (Galatians 2:6 ”…God shows no personal Favoritism to no man”). This includes every man or woman!

If Peter had been set as the rock which Jesus was to build His church, I believe it would have been recorded as such even in Mark which is not even mentioned? See Mark 8: 27 thru 30, notice Mark 8:32,”…Then Peter took Him (Jesus) aside and began to rebuke Him. Who here would rebuke the Lord? That’s is when Jesus rebuke Peter in verse 33, “Get behind Me, Satan!..” How can Jesus say I will build my church upon Peter and almost immediately rebuke Peter? doesn’t make sense to me! Just another example of how unstable Peter was!

You can read more about his instability in Galatians 2: 11 on.
if Peter who lived with Christ for 3 years acted in such a manner just think of how we would act in a similiar situations? God Bless!
 
with respect to PacBox,
I do not agree that the scriptures point out that Peter was the rock! If we read what Jesus said in Luke 6:46
Okay, you are allowed to disagree but let’s stick to the versus that relate to this and not jump all over the place.

Matthew 16:18-19
18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
"But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? 47 Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:
48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great."
Here clearly Jesus says that “he who come to ME, and hears MY sayings and does them” is building on the Rock (which is Jesus, and Not peter). verse 48 (he who comes to Jesus and hears and does what He says is compared to a man building a home on the rock!
Actually, what is seen here is that if a person build there foundation on sand, then they had no foundation. Someone who built their faith not on Jesus but on manmade rules has no faith. Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Nowhere in these versus does Jesus say that He is the Rock.
You said that the gates of hell will not prevail against it! You are right!
Again,Matthew 16:18-19
18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
In Galatians we read (Galatians 2:6 ”…God shows no personal Favoritism to no man”). This includes every man or woman!
Actually, the verse reads:
6As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message.

Paul is saying here that men can add nothing to the Gospel, no matter their station in life, being rich or poor or having every new toy.

Looking at the following versus:

7On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. 8For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. 10All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
If Peter had been set as the rock which Jesus was to build His church, I believe it would have been recorded as such even in Mark which is not even mentioned? See Mark 8: 27 thru 30, notice Mark 8:32,”…Then Peter took Him (Jesus) aside and began to rebuke Him. Who here would rebuke the Lord? That’s is when Jesus rebuke Peter in verse 33, “Get behind Me, Satan!..” How can Jesus say I will build my church upon Peter and almost immediately rebuke Peter? doesn’t make sense to me! Just another example of how unstable Peter was!
Not every Gospel records every miracle Jesus performed.
Each writer was writing to a specific audience. Matthew was writing to the Jews, Mark was writing about Jesus as servant, etc.

Peter unstable? Aren’t we all without Christ’s grace? Just because a man appointed by God is rebuked by him does not make him unfit. Jesus picked twelve men who in today’s world would never get a job with their resume. That’s the great thing about Jesus: He works with what he has not with what the world wants. Jesus didn’t conform to the world’s standards, why should his disciples?

And yet after Christ’s resurrection, Jesus asks Peter to feed his sheep three times and Peter says yes three times. He was forgiven. Peter was a work in progress just like the rest of us.
You can read more about his instability in Galatians 2: 11 on.
if Peter who lived with Christ for 3 years acted in such a manner just think of how we would act in a similiar situations? God Bless!
So Peter wasn’t perfect. None of the disciples were. Jesus chose twelve men, one who would betray him. And all but one deserted him when he was crucified and yet Jesus still chose them as his apostles knowing what they were capable of. So one act nullifies all the good that Peter does? Interesting. One sin makes a person useless, at least that’s what I’m reading from your post. In reading the scripture you mention, yes, Peter was still a sinner in need of Jesus’s grace. Just because he was Pope does not make him automatically incapable of sin. I get the impression that you would rather have perfect apostles that never sinned and did not have to pray for God’s grace than accept that Jesus chose Peter.
 
That is really funny. every single protestant church born few years back or few days go; they all made to come after the catholics. what is it about us that; they all want us.
They want what we have: the Eucharist. They may have Jesus but they don’t have Jesus fully, in the Eucharist, His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinityt that Catholics have.
 
It seems that Chuch Smith is a interesting character and has some good things going on.👍
The bad news about him is that either he or some people in his “nondenominational Church fellowship” are quite anticatholic, for example selling Dave Hunt’s books, inviting Dave Hunts to speak, and teaching a dispensationalist, Christian Zionist view of end of times.😦
If you google their website and look at his online books, especially the one about Revelation and the End Times, he pretty much calls the Catholic Church unbiblical but that we’re improving since we use their music. I’m not kidding.

The thing is, pastors in Calvary Chapel look to Chuck Smith as their “pope”. What he says goes. What would Chuch Smith do? In reading several of their blogs, they come down pretty hard on themselves if they don’t 100% agree with Chuck Smith’s views on things, which is pretty problematic. They write as if becoming Chuck Smith-clones is the only acceptable way to be a Calvary Chapel pastor. It’s really strange.
 
You said
Okay, you are allowed to disagree but let’s stick to the versus that relate to this and not jump all over the place.

Isaiah 28: 9-10, & 13
9 “Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message?
Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts?
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.”

Doctrine cannot be perfected using one verse that is why I jump all over the place! Searching through Gods word looking for the truth of a matter is what God intended us to do.
For example

Churches that practice snake-handling, these churches did this because of the below verse!
Mark 16:18
They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

They took up serpents because they read it in the bible! We must examine a matter not just take something at face value!

We should be like this in Thessalonica
Acts 17:11
These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so

You said
And yet after Christ’s resurrection, Jesus asks Peter to feed his sheep three times and Peter says yes three times. He was forgiven. Peter was a work in progress just like the rest of us.​

Jesus asks Peter do you love me 3 times and Peter said yes three times then Jesus after every “do you love me” Jesus said then Feed my sheep!

Yes Peter sinned against God just like we all do! And yes he was forgiven true! Scriptures point out that the stone for a foundation is a tried and tested stone! Do you really believe that Peter was the chief cornerstone of church?

Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily.

Even Peter himself said
1Peter 2:4-5
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ(We are the living stones being built up on the chief cornerstone stone Jesus making the church)
6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scriptures “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect precious And he who believes on Him(Jesus) will by no means be put to shame! 7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious…
Do you believe that Peter is precious? Or is Jesus precious! Do you really believe that Isaiah 28:16 was talking about Peter as being the foundation in which we as living stones, are built to form the church?

You wrote
I get the impression that you would rather have perfect apostles that never sinned and did not have to pray for God’s grace than accept that Jesus chose Peter.

Jesus choose us all! Ephesians 1:4-5

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself…

I’m not coming down on Peter, by no means he was indeed one of the twelve choosen by God! That is just awesome to think the the creator of the universe selected them to bring his message!

in HIM
Alfonso!
 

You said
And yet after Christ’s resurrection, Jesus asks Peter to feed his sheep three times and Peter says yes three times. He was forgiven. Peter was a work in progress just like the rest of us.​

Jesus asks Peter do you love me 3 times and Peter said yes three times then Jesus after every “do you love me” Jesus said then Feed my sheep!
My bad, I got those versus wrong. I’ll get to the rest of this tomorrow. It’s late here and I still have studying and essays to finish.
 
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I have recently (last 6 months) gotten out of a relationship with someone from Calvary Chapel and I would like to add to it for the benefit of all. The experience was, to say the least, bittersweet.

Leaving aside all the good stuff in our relationship (I had a great relationship with her) I will focus on the theological side in a list format. These are things that she, her family and her friends said about us, our relationship and Catholicism in general.
  1. Accused Catholics of worshipping Mary
  2. Said that the Temple Virgin title of Mary was actually one of a temple prostitute.
  3. Christianity is not a religion, it is a fellowship (apparently, Catholics aren’t part of it)
  4. Father said I was an unbeliever (quoted Bible and told his daughter to not be yoked with unbelievers)
  5. Catholics added to the Bible
  6. Friends/family said she was a “backslider” for dating me
  7. A whole list of other ****.
Now, she had a lot of questions for me about Catholicism and we had a great many debates and I ended up winning all of them (except for one) and though I had a ton of fun learning all this stuff about my faith, this greatly frustrated her and caused her to have problems with us. In retrospect, I should have just told her that if she has questions to look elsewhere on her own instead of asking me, it would have reduced the stress level (at least on her part) to a manageable level.

I know this post doesn’t make too much sense but it gets better when I am asked questions about it so if anyone has a question about it I would love to answer it.
 
I decided to look into the Protestant denomination called “Calvary Chapel”. I started off going to its official web page and I located the “history” section.
Here are some facts:

-began in 1965 in Costa Mesa, California

-Calvary Chapel’s pastor, Chuck Smith became a leading figure in what has become known as the “Jesus Movement.”

-moved from our original building (one of the first church buildings in Costa Mesa) to a rented Lutheran church overlooking the Pacific. Soon thereafter … move the church to a school that we had bought. The building did not match up to code so we tore it down and built another. But by the time the sanctuary of 330 seats was completed in 1969, we were already forced to go to two services … Soon after buying the land, we again did the unprecedented and erected a giant circus tent that could seat 1,600 at a stretch. This was soon enlarged to hold 2,000 seats.

-Today…the church which only had twenty-five members has established more than five hundred affiliate Calvary Chapels across the world and is among the world’s largest churches with more than thirty-five thousand calling it their home church. It is one of the ten largest Protestant churches in the United States.

This is nothing more than a 40 year old start-up denomination. It is amazing how things with no historical roots can take off so quickly. From what I have read it took off because of its position on the End Times and its style of worship (contemporary music).

I found a page of doctrines and theological positions which I will look at later. From what I did look into they appear to reject Calvinism and hold strong views on the End Times.

What are your thoughts?
I attended Calvary Chapel churches for years before I grew into a Reformed understanding.
 
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I have recently (last 6 months) gotten out of a relationship with someone from Calvary Chapel and I would like to add to it for the benefit of all. The experience was, to say the least, bittersweet.

Leaving aside all the good stuff in our relationship (I had a great relationship with her) I will focus on the theological side in a list format. These are things that she, her family and her friends said about us, our relationship and Catholicism in general.
  1. Accused Catholics of worshipping Mary
  2. Said that the Temple Virgin title of Mary was actually one of a temple prostitute.
  3. Christianity is not a religion, it is a fellowship (apparently, Catholics aren’t part of it)
  4. Father said I was an unbeliever (quoted Bible and told his daughter to not be yoked with unbelievers)
  5. Catholics added to the Bible
  6. Friends/family said she was a “backslider” for dating me
  7. A whole list of other ****.
Now, she had a lot of questions for me about Catholicism and we had a great many debates and I ended up winning all of them (except for one) and though I had a ton of fun learning all this stuff about my faith, this greatly frustrated her and caused her to have problems with us. In retrospect, I should have just told her that if she has questions to look elsewhere on her own instead of asking me, it would have reduced the stress level (at least on her part) to a manageable level.

I know this post doesn’t make too much sense but it gets better when I am asked questions about it so if anyone has a question about it I would love to answer it.
One last thing… I always thought it funny that a church whose start was helped in the beginning by a gay guy (Lonnie Frisbee) would be now so homophobic…

Also, (fudge, I keep forgetting all of these little things!) in case you all didn’t know, science is wrong and the earth is 10,000 years old… I’m serial! 😉
 
One last thing… I always thought it funny that a church whose start was helped in the beginning by a gay guy (Lonnie Frisbee) would be now so homophobic…

Also, (fudge, I keep forgetting all of these little things!) in case you all didn’t know, science is wrong and the earth is 10,000 years old… I’m serial! 😉
I don’t understand the gay remark. With my many years fellowshipping at Calvary Chapel churches, you will find that many of the Pastors and regulars who worship at Calvary Chapel are ex-Catholics. I would not agree that you won the differerent debates with my brothers at Calvary Chapel. I will represent Calvary Chapel if you want to continue the debate. As a matter of my history, I started to debate Roman Catholics and Catholic Forum material when I participated in a door to door Calvary Chapel ministry.
 
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