| Calvary
Chapel Churches are a non-denominational fellowship of believers
in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our greatest desire is to
know Christ and to be conformed into His image by the power
of the Holy Spirit.
While we are not a denomination, we do share
a common philosophy of ministry, centering on verse-by-verse,
through the Bible teaching and Spirit-led worship. We are
not opposed to denominational churches, only to the over-emphasis
on non-biblical teachings that divide the Body of Christ.
We believe that the true Biblical basis for Christian fellowship
is God's love, which is greater than our differences. Without
God's love, we have no right to call ourselves Christians.
The following is intended to clearly express
some of our specific beliefs.
God
We believe that there is only
one true God, eternally existent in three Persons; Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, each of whom equally possess all of the
characteristics of personality and all of the attributes of
deity. By His sovereign power, He created and continues to
sustain the world. He is active in human history, fulfilling
His redemptive purposes.
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ, the Son of God is the second
Person of the Holy Trinity. Through the miraculous virgin
birth, He alone is both fully God and fully man. He lived
a sinless life in perfect obedience to His Heavenly Father.
The Son of God freely gave His life, dying on Calvary's cross,
and thereby atoned for the sin of the world. On the third
day, Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and is
seated at the right hand of His Father. He is the only mediator
between God and man and continually makes intercession for
His own. He will come again, according to the scriptures,
personally and visibly to consummate human history and the
eternal plan of God.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the
Holy Trinity. While active throughout human history, He is
uniquely active in and through the Christian Church, the Body
of Christ. He indwells all true believers and seals them for
the day of redemption. According to Jesus'words, the Holy
Spirit is working in the world, convicting the lost of sin
and leading them to Christ. He is active in the church, leading
it into all truth and endowing believers with gifts for the
purpose of building up the Body of Christ. It is only through
the power of the Holy Spirit that the Christian life can truly
be lived.
The Bible
We believe that the sixty-six books of the
Old and New Testaments were divinely inspired of God and are
our sole basis for faith. We maintain that the Scriptures
are inerrant and infallible in their original manuscripts.
They are the complete, full and final authority on all matters
of faith and practice for the Christian Church.
Salvation
While originally created to have fellowship
with God, man chose rather to exert his own will and rebel
against God. The love of God found its fullest expression
at the cross, where Jesus, the Son of God gave His own sinless
life as a ransom for mankind. Man has no ability at all to
save himself from his own sin, and therefore apart from the
grace of God is hopelessly separated from God. Salvation is
entirely a work of God and is therefore offered to man as
a free gift of God's grace, completely apart from any human
effort.
The Church
The Body of Christ, or the Church, is
a body of believers in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Though
represented in diverse denominational and non-denominational
settings, there is only one true Church universal, comprised
of all who acknowledge Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord.
Under the care and guidance of Godly leadership, the members
of the local church are to fellowship in love and unity with
a mind to glorify God in all that they do and say. The Church
exists to glorify God and it is through this community of believers
that God reaches out to a lost world.
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