Chuck Smith /
Calvary Chapel
LIVING WATER
The
Power of the Holy
Spirit in Your Life
Miles J. Stanford
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"The work of
the Lord Jesus now is to occupy me with Himself. It is clear
that in spirit I am up There in all His beauty and acceptance, and
now I am to live down here, not as a comely and excellent person,
but as the Lord Jesus manifested in my body (2 Cor. 4:10).
"And He who
sustains me up There in all the brightness of His glory, is the
same One who has to do with me in all my weakness and need down
here in this scene of darkness and death."
1 August 1996
Dear brother:
Thank you for your
informative, albeit sad, letter. And I appreciate your
request concerning Smith's 'Calvary Chapels ... especially since I
was working on the subject! The Father is always an infinite step
ahead of us (Isa. 26:12; Eph. 2:10).
It is a shocking
thing to contemplate the level to which the Christian Booksellers,
and most other such organizations, have sunk to. And the end
is not yet, it all being the harvest of corruptible seed sown a
generation or more ago (Gal. 6:7).
In that these
organizations, and churches, are composed of individuals, it is
astounding to note the great numbers of leaders, and
followers--all who should know better--that are slipping down into
the Charismatic realm. And now with the onslaught of the
Charismatic, so-called Promise Keepers, the worst is yet to come.
So the poor
brother you mention is but one of a vast number--sound doctrine,
fruitful ministry, and all. How the mighty have fallen--in
droves! The scene is much like the flattened, blackened and
barren, forests surrounding Mount St. Helens!
I would like to make a suggestion,
if I may. I would hesitate to send the enclosed critique to
your brother in Christ. You have had an extensive talk with
him--I am sure from the heart, and scripturally-based.
He has not stepped down on a doctrinal
basis, but rather that of subjective experience. If
he comes out of it--which they very seldom do, I am sorry to
say--it will more than likely be via the bad experience of coming
to realize what he has gotten into. He already has the
necessary doctrine for recovery, but he must first find out by
crushing experience, by hitting the bottom of the chasm into which
he has fallen.
Probably it will have to be via
"O, wretched man that I am," before he will be able to
say, "I thank God through the glorified Lord Jesus
Christ."
This "falling away" that
is happening in the Church, many assemblies included, has two
primary causes. The one is lack of dispensational
distinctions. The result is the lack of establishment in
one's heavenly position in the Ascended Lord. Anyone
consciously "hidden with Christ in God" would never fall
for, and into, the Charismatic craziness.
With you, trusting the Father for
His blessed will--on His terms, and in His time.
Resting in Him
Miles |
CHUCK
SMITH & THE CALVARY CHAPELS
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Living Water--The
Power of the Holy Spirit in Your Life, by Chuck Smith (Harvest
House, Eugene, Oregon, 1996, 297 pages).
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Chuck Smith is founder*
and pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California; which has spawned a
number of Calvary Chapels in different parts of the country. All are
Charismatic; all are out of scriptural bounds.
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The author has a radio program
titled "The Word For Today," and often speaks on TV via the
rabidly Charismatic Trinity Broadcasting Network. He has a very
personable aspect, his speaking approach is low-key, and he is careful to
avoid any untoward Charismatic characteristics.
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Hence his ministry is
especially dangerous, in that most Christians today tend to evaluate a
leader by his personality and appearance, rather than by his doctrine.
But this is a fatal practice, especially concerning false teachers, as Dr.
Chafer warned:
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"Beware of false
prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matt.
7:5-20). The [kingdom] warning here is against false prophets who
are to be discerned by the quality of their lives.
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The warning to the
Christian under grace is against false teachers who are to be discerned
by their doctrine concerning Christ (2 Pet. 2:1; 2 John 1:7-11),
never by their lives; for outwardly, false teachers are said to
appear as the "apostles of Christ," and to be under the
influence of Satan who himself appears as an "angel of light"
(2 Cor. 11:13-15). The attractive personality of the false teacher
affords great advantage as a "front" for the appeal he makes
for his false doctrine.
Chuck Smith, Charismatic to the
core, emphasizes the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian, rather than
the glorified Lord Jesus Christ, "who is our Life" (Col.
3:4). The ascended Lord Jesus Christ is not even secondary in
the Charismatic concept, as they, failing to rightly divide the Word of
truth, turn back to Jesus in His pre-Cross life on earth, and His earthly
Kingdom Gospel to Israel.
The Lord Jesus said to His
disciples, "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come... He shall not speak
of Himself, but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak... He shall
glorify Me" (John 16:13,14).
Prior to His ascension, Jesus
prayed, "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be
with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast
given Me" (John 17:24).
Paul says to the Christian, to
the Church, "Seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth. For ye have died, and your life is hidden
with Christ in God" (Col. 3:1,2).
But the Charismatic seeks to
emphasize and glorify the Holy Spirit, in spite of the scriptural fact that
His purpose is to glorify the Glorified One at the right hand of the Father
on high. And they seek to know and follow Jesus in His earthly humiliation,
and Kingdom Gospel. Hence we see this in Chuck Smith's book
titled Living Water--The Power of the Holy Spirit in Your Life:
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The purpose of this book
is to help you get to know the Holy Spirit so that you may enjoy a full,
rich relationship with Him.
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I am praying that by
God's grace and through this book the Lord will develop in you an
insatiable hunger for and thirsting after the Spirit. He is the
person of the Godhead to whom we relate most closely (pp. 7,8).
Wrong way around!
Error! It is the Spirit's ministry and purpose to develop in the
believer an insatiable hunger and thirst for the glorified Lord Jesus
Christ! The fruit of the Spirit consists of aspects,
characteristics, of the life of Christ (Gal. 5:22,23).
The purpose of The Book,
for the believer, is expressed by Paul: "He that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord." "For I determined not to know any thing
among you, except Jesus Christ." "Christ shall be magnified
in my body ... for to me to live is Christ." "That I may
know Him" (1 Cor. 1:31; 2:2; Phil. 1:20,21; 3:10).
The Spirit's ministry is that
"the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2
Cor. 4:10). As J.B. Stoney well said:
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The work of the Lord Jesus
now is to occupy me with Himself. It is clear that in spirit I am
up There in all His beauty and acceptance, and now I am to live down
here, not as a comely and excellent person, but as the Lord Jesus
manifested in my body.
Because the Charismatic does
not center in the glorified Lord Jesus Christ, he does not really know God
for who He is; and he would attribute sovereignty to Satan. But while
Satan may be the "prince of this world," God is King over him,
this world, and the universe.
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Jesus told us to pray,
"Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven" (Matt. 6: 10). Oh, how I long to see the day when
God's will instead of Satan's is being done on this earth! (p. 44).
But Chuck Smith is right about
one thing; one should not "stick around" Calvary Chapel, or any of
the other lesser Chapels, for that matter. He speaks of a letter received,
and his answer:
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Some time ago I received
a letter from a fellow who wrote, "I considered affiliation with
the Calvary Chapels, but this aspect was wrong and that doctrine was
wrong and I don't know if I really understand what is going on
there."
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I wrote back and said,
"I don't think you do know. And I would suggest you not
pursue any further trying to affiliate with Calvary Chapel."
He described his shock at one of the issues that was brought up, and I
said, "If you stick around, you will probably find a lot more
shocking things. So maybe it's better that you do not stick around"
(p. 90).
As a Charismatic, Chuck Smith
claims that all of the gifts of the Spirit are for today:
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When you walk with the
Spirit, develop in your relationship with Him, and respond to His work
in you, it is very likely that you will begin to have all kinds of
glorious, supernatural experiences (emphasis mine) (p. 19).
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In exercising the
ministry of pastor-teacher, I believe there are three spiritual gifts
that operate, especially when we are teaching the word of God: prophecy,
the word of knowledge ["the Lord told me"], and the word of
wisdom.
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This is the word of
wisdom: You didn't know the answer before this moment, but even as you
speak your heart testifies of its truth and it makes [subjective]
sense. The Spirit of God gives you the answer. It is
something that you had not learned or studied or thought about, but it
is right, so on target, that you recognize it as a word of wisdom
(p. 103).
It is as always: "The poor
Pentecostals and Charismatics; they do not think, they only
feel." That is verified by their quest for, and claims of,
tongues, healing, and miracles:
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I believe healing faith
is related to and associated with what 1 Corinthians 12 calls the gift
of faith. The gift of faith is related many times to healing and
miracles (p. 122).
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I believe that lack of
miraculous healing today lies more in the failure of man's faith than in
the reluctance of a compassionate God to meet His children's
needs. The reason we don't see much miraculous healing today is
our general skepticism. The reason why people aren't healed so
often today as they seemed to be in the past can be traced to general
unbelief. The fault is not God's, but ours (pp. 135,136).
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We do have our
limitations, and I confess I'm in that group. I could not in faith
believe that God would give a person a new arm. I just couldn't do
that. It is not that I don't believe God could do it; I
just don't believe God would do it.
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Don't
misunderstand--that's a confession of my lack of faith. I'm not
proud about it. I wish I did have the kind of faith that could
pray, believing that God would give a person a new arm (p. 145).
To these people, faith is the
factor, rather than the sovereign will of God.
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I encourage you to covet
earnestly the work of miracles [new arms?]. It would take
quite a bit of preparation to possess, but I don't believe it is out of
reach or out of the question. I would love to see the hand of God at work among His children in a
greater measure. And I believe God desires to do it. So what
hinders Him? I think we are the stumbling blocks; we are the ones
who have clogged the flow of the Spirit in that realm (p. 149).
And then there is the Charismatic
"tongues" error:
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How is the gift of tongues to be used
in the life of the believer? Tongues are exciting! It builds
you up in your walk with God, and invigorates your relationship with Him
(p. 178).
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Tongues is the only gift of God that
edifies you personally and individually. All the other gifts serve
to edify the church and to build up the body. But this one gift
was given to build you up, to strengthen you. Speaking in tongues
strengthens your walk, your relationships, and gives you the power to
commune with God on a deep spiritual level (p. 180).
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Speaking in tongues is a powerful,
God-given tool. It brings an intimacy and communion and fellowship
with God that can be achieved in no other way (p. 182).
Such misplaced reliance is the reason for the
general Charismatic craziness. And yet another key error concerning the Holy
Spirit:
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Peter said we should receive the
gift
of the Holy Spirit. Jesus also called the Holy Spirit a gift. And
the only way to possess a gift is to receive it. The gift of the
Holy Spirit must be received by faith. Receiving the Spirit is
like believing on Jesus for salvation.
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You must ask for the Holy
Spirit. God is not going to force on you something that you do not
want. You must desire what He has to give. God will not
violate your free will. You must ask the Lord in faith for the
gift of the Holy Spirit (p. 276).
The Charismatic movement is not
characteristic of the work of the Holy Spirit; as Sir Robert Anderson
warned long ago:
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In proportion therefore as mind and heart are fixed on
Christ we may count on the Spirit's presence and power. But if we make
the Holy Ghost Himself the object of our aspirations and our worship,
some false spirit may counterfeit the true, and take us for a prey.
SPIRIT MANIFESTATIONS AND THE GIFT OF TONGUES.
A final word from Dr. Arno Gaebelein
concerning the Holy Spirit:
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What is it to "walk in the
Spirit?" It is not self-occupation, nor even occupation with
the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit is occupation with the
Lord Jesus Christ in glory. If the believer ever looks to
the Lord Jesus, depends upon Him, draws all he needs from Him, if He is
his All in all--then the believer walks according to the Spirit of
Christ.
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* A few 'old-timers'
have written to clarify Chuck Smith's role with the early local
church. "The original Calvary was started in Costa Mesa
near Newport Beach as a non-denominational independent group under
another pastor. They asked Chuck to come as a last stab at
reviving their dwindling group, now down to around 25 people
('equally divided' as Chuck puts it). Chuck was from a strong
Foursquare [Pentecostal] Church background and moved from pastoring
the Foursquare Church in Prescott, AZ to Costa Mesa. A few years
later, the church outgrew its meeting place. That's when they moved
to Santa Ana and built a larger building some 5.3 miles away on the
corner of Sunflower and what is now Wimbledon Way. Later they
bought a huge parcel of land down the street where it is located
today on Sunflower and Fairview in Santa Ana, CA."
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