Calvary Chapel has been formed as a fellowship of believers in the lordship of Jesus Christ. Our supreme desire is to know Christ, and to be conformed into His image by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not a denominational church, but we aren’t opposed to denominations as such, only their over-emphasis of the doctrinal differences that have led to the division of the Body of Christ.
We believe that:
The only true basis of Christian fellowship is His Agape love, which is greater than any differences we possess and without which we have no right to claim ourselves as Christians.
We believe the worship of God should be spiritual and inspirational. Therefore, we remain flexible and yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit to direct our worship; we give great place to music in our worship.
We believe the worship of God should be intelligent and fruitful. Therefore, our services are designed with great emphasis upon the teaching of the Word of God. We believe that His love in our lives is the supreme manifestation that we are truly worshiping Him.
We believe in all basic doctrines of historical Christianity.
We believe in the inerrancy of Scripture; that the Bible, Old and New Testaments, are 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 is the personal 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 substitutionary and atoning death on the cross, was bodily resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit, ascended to heaven, and ever lives to make intercession for us.
After Jesus ascended to Heaven, He poured out His Holy Spirit on believers in Jerusalem, enabling them to fulfill His commandment 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. 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 Lord and Savior, trusting Him to save, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit. All of his or her sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a child of God, and will spend eternity with Him.
We believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Scriptures, and that they are valid for today and are to be exercised within 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 love, all practicing of spiritual gifts is worthless.
We believe that the church government should be simplistic, rather than a complex bureaucracy, and that 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 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, participation in adult baptism by immersion and in communion.
We seek to teach the Word of God in such a way that its message can be applied to the individual's life leading that person to a greater maturity in Christ.
We reject the following:
1) Christians can be demon possessed.
2) Five point Calvinism (i.e a fatalistic Calvinistic view that leaves no room for free will; specifically, we reject the belief that Christ's 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 Scripture
5) The incorporation of humanistic and secular psychology and philosophy into Biblical teaching,
6) The overemphasis of the spiritual gifts, signs and wonders to the exclusion of Biblical teaching.
In our services, we focus on a personal relationship with God through worship, prayer and both expositional and topical teaching of the Word of God. 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 special gatherings where believers can express these gifts of the Holy Spirit.
