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RenewingMinds
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Some Reflections on the Calvary Chapel Movement
©FOUNDATION Magazine
May-June 2001A personal, Biblical look at a burgeoning group of churches
offering believers a mixture of truth and error.by Robert W. Hurzeler
THE FIRST CHURCH my family and I attended after we were saved in 1993 was a small Calvary Chapel in Central Oregon. We still love the people who first discipled us as new believers. My wife and I had no real background in the doctrines of the faith. We had very little understanding concerning the rapture, the millennial reign of Christ, the gifts of the Spirit or the function of the church in the life of the believer. We were taught many good and sound teachings by our new family in Christ, and I will be forever grateful that God used these folks to help us understand Him and know Him. However, it is not for the good teachings and sound doctrines we were taught that this article is being written. I write this article not out of malice, but of love. It is my hope that this article will help people who attend Calvary Chapels to see and understand the pervasive and dangerous doctrines within these fellowships and come to a right understanding of what the Scriptures really teach. This article is intended to help Fundamental Bible believers understand the errors of one of the fastest growing and most popular movements in the church today. The problem with Calvary Chapel lies in it’s Charismatic theology and its ecumenical nature.
Aberrant Charismatic Theology
The Calvary Chapel movement promotes and encourages the "line by line, precept by precept" study of the Scriptures. I thank God for that. I first learned to deeply love and appreciate the Word of God at a Calvary Chapel, and I certainly will not fault the movement for its strong emphasis on the Scriptures. The problem, however, is that Calvary Chapels teach the errors of the Charismatic movement. Calvary teaches that the sign and revelatory gifts in the early church are still available today and should be sought and practiced. They teach their followers to seek what Charismatics call the "baptism of the Holy Spirit." According to Calvary doctrine, this baptism is a second baptism which comes upon the believer subsequent to his salvation.
Any teaching that is contrary to the teachings of the Bible is, by its very nature, ungodly and dangerous. Nowhere in God's Word are believers exhorted or encouraged to seek a second baptism. In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite when It states, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (I Cor. 12:13) and "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (Eph 4:4-6). Those who seek a second baptism are in direct conflict with the Word of God. The Scripture states there is but one baptism. Charismatics teach that there are two. The Bible states all are baptized. Charismatics teach that only some are baptized.
One leader within the Calvary Chapel movement, Larry Taylor, writes in the booklet What Calvary Chapel Teaches:In our services, we focus on a personal relationship with God through worship, prayer, and the teaching of the Word of God. We teach both expositorily and topically. 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 specific "after-glow services" and believer's meetings when these gifts of the Spirit may be exercised.1
Calvary Chapel does not teach nor believe in many of the blatant errors of hyper-Charismatics. Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel, does not believe that a Christian can be demon-possessed or that a person under the Holy Spirit's influence should be out of control or behave in an undignified manner. He teaches against practices such as " being slain in the spirit, " barking or laughing uncontrollably. Calvary's stance seems sensible and orderly, but this combination of truth and error is what makes these doctrines so seductive and confusing.
Concerning Fundamentalism, Taylor writes:Fundamentalism is that portion of Protestantism which holds to the literal interpretation of the Scriptures, believing that they are divinely inspired and inerrant. Hence, the "fundamentals" of the faith are emphasized. Although the modem news media and the liberal church scorn fundamentalists as backwards and stupid, the truth is that fundamentalism has preserved the integrity of God's Word and held on to the essential doctrines of the orthodox faith ...1
In this instance, Taylor is correct. Fundamentalism has held and should continue to hold to the fundamentals of the faith. A day does not go by that I do not thank God for strengthening and raising up men and women who refuse to compromise the teachings of Scripture with the philosophies of the world (Col. 2:8).
Taylor then defines Pentecostalism:Pentecostalism as a modern movement grew out of the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century, and spawned denominations that emphasize the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the exercise of spiritual and Scriptural gifts of the Spirit which had fallen dormant in the main line churches.1
Taylor points to the Azusa Street revival as the beginning of the restoration of the "Scriptural gifts of the Spirit." However, neither the gifts of the Holy Spirit nor the Holy Spirit has been dormant for the last 1900 years. Only the revelatory and the miraculous sign gifts "ceased" when the perfect canon of Scripture was completed in the first century (I Cor. 13:8). The Holy Spirit has never left the church (Eph. 1:13-14; Heb. 13:5). It must be noted that the phenomena at Azusa street could not be a true movement of the Holy Spirit, for there were spiritists, hypnotists and many unscriptural activities taking place at the Azusa Street Mission. People who were allegedly under the power of the Holy Spirit were given to fits of laughing and weeping uncontrollably. Many babbled in unintelligible gibberish. Much of the same error and unscriptural activity that took place at Azusa Street is occurring today in places such as Toronto and Pensacola.
Taylor then defines the position of the Calvary Chapel as the following:Over the years, however, fundamentalism, while it clung to the integrity of God's Word, tended to become rigid, legalistic, and unaccepting of spiritual gifts. Similarly, Pentecostalism became enthusiastic and emotional at the expense of the teaching of God's Word.
Calvary Chapel is the balance between the two. At Calvary Chapel we believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Bible, and we encourage their exercise, but always decently and in order, and with the primary emphasis on the Word of God which we look to as our primary rule of faith.1
According to Taylor, then, anyone who believes that the gifts of the foundational Apostolic Period are not for today is "rigid and legalistic." But the Bible teaches that believers are to base their beliefs on Scripture alone as opposed to experience—there is nothing "legalistic" about it. Calvary claims to be the balance between those who cling to God's Word and those who put emotionalism and experience in the place of God's Word. This is not balance. Make no mistake about it, Calvary is teaching grave error. The world teaches us to seek unity and common ground with those who have beliefs different from our own. God's Word teaches us to separate from unscriptural practices. John 8:32 says, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." We are not instructed to find the "balance" or the "middle ground." Jesus did not say, "know the balance, and the balance shall make you free."
Many people who attend Calvary are either confused or unaware of what Chuck Smith teaches on the issue of "tongues" being for today. I know I was. The following quotes are taken from an article entitled "The Baptism of the Holy Spirit" by Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith:Speaking in tongues is an exercise of faith that is an affront to my intellect. My intellect used to be very important to me. A straight-A average was the most important thing in the world when I was going to school, but God humbled me. I must admit it is very humbling to pray to God in tongues, for you don't understand what you are saying. I must by-pass my intellect to communicate with God in the spirit. I must trust the Holy Spirit to speak to God, instead of my intellect. I must have faith that He knows, much better than I know, what is best for me and how to petition God for it. In order to exercise my faith by speaking in tongues, I must deny that my own intellect is better able to communicate.2
Chuck Smith bases his belief that one must pray in tongues while bypassing his intellect on Romans 8:26 which states, "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." This is a misunderstanding and misapplication of this verse. First, it is not we who are praying or making intercession; the verse clearly states that "the Spirit itself maketh intercession." We have nothing to do with His intercession on our behalf. Second, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." This rules out speaking or groaning out loud in public or in private. Chuck Smith teaches the same error that extreme Pentecostals and Charismatics use to justify praying in unintelligible gibberish.
Chuck Smith also believes that if an individual doubts that he is speaking in tongues because he has the ability to stop, Satan must be behind it. He writes,The first hassle you find, the minute you start speaking in an unknown tongue, is that Satan tells you that you're just making it up. When he does you're going to stop—just like that. And then he will say, "See, you were making it up, because you can stop." That is exactly what he did to me. But Paul said, "I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with understanding." 2
This is the same erroneous teaching that Charismatic seminars promote when training people to speak in tongues. The people giving the seminar encourage the participants to "let their voices go" and to speak out whatever syllables or gibberish is in their head. They are then told not to let the devil deceive them into thinking it is only gibberish and not a genuine Holy Spirit-given "prayer language." How can such faulty teaching be reconciled with what is clearly stated in God's Word, which says, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints" (I Cor. 14:33)?
No one needed to teach the apostles how to speak in tongues on the day of Pentecost. They did not speak gibberish but, instead, known languages understood both by them as well as those hearing them. They spoke intelligible languages as the "Holy Ghost gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4-1 1). The apostles had no reason to doubt that this was an act of God. Faith is reasonable, and we must never "bypass" the mind that God has given us. "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (I Pet. 3:15).
When the Pentecostal movement began at Azusa Street, a clear and definite difference existed between the emotionally driven Pentecostal and the sober Bible-believing Fundamentalist. Hyper-Pentecostals were considered "extremists" and part of the "lunatic fringe." But this is no longer true today. The Fundamentalist is now the one who is considered divisive, extreme and unloving while the Pentecostal/Charismatic churches are considered loving and tolerant. What has caused this dramatic reversal? Though many factors exist, the primary reason is that the vast majority of churches have gradually compromised. Doctrinal issues have been clouded because church leaders fail to practice Biblical separation from those who promote these unscriptural doctrines. Many churches have not heeded the apostle Paul's exhortation: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them" (Rom. 16:17).
Calvary Chapel churches have played no small part in giving the Charismatic Movement the respectability it has needed to thrive and flourish. Calvary Chapel, by taking a so-called moderate or "balanced" stand on extrabiblical revelation such as prophecy and tongues, has made what was once considered extreme and unacceptable now appear to be moderate and credible.Fellowshipping with Compromisers
Chuck Smith, Greg Laurie, Chuck Missler and many other well-known leaders of the Calvary Chapel movement often appear on the hyper-Charismatic Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). By appearing on TBN, these men, by association, actually endorse TBN's many programs that con money from their faithful viewers. The manipulative and blatantly unscriptural practices of TBN to raise money are almost beyond belief. Promising those who send money 100 to 1,000-fold returns on their "seed faith" offerings is only one of the many deceptions TBN uses to fleece the flock, yet Chuck Smith and Chuck Missler hosted the "Praise the Lord" broadcast just this past year. Chuck Smith opposes such unscriptural practices, but then he appears on TBN. His compromise has a huge impact on those who attend the various Calvary Chapel churches and who identify strongly with him, for it implies that this network and its blasphemous "word of faith" teachings have his stamp of approval. After all, if the gifts of miracles, tongues and prophecy are for today, who would dare question or judge TBN's ministry? Galatians 5:9 makes it clear that only "a little leaven (bad doctrine) leaveneth the whole lump." TBN has much more than a little leaven. I have heard Chuck Smith warn people about unscrupulous televangelists on his various radio ministries, but he rarely names the people or programs against whom he is speaking. An overseer of the church of God has an obligation to warn other believers of unscriptural and ungodly practices. How can church leaders warn God's people if they remain silent for the most part and go so far as to participate with and, thereby, endorse those who promote unscriptural teachings for profit?
When church leaders fail to separate and speak out against the "wolves in sheep's clothing" that permeate the Charismatic movement, new believers as well as those who have been poorly taught suffer much confusion. I did not know what to think about the sign and revelatory gifts when I attended Calvary Chapel. I was in a perpetual fog about the person and function of God the Holy Spirit. I was never certain whether or not one or two baptisms existed. I often wondered, if all the spiritual gifts were still for today, why had I never met or even heard of anyone who had the gifts of healing or miracles. I am not referring to the theatrics and alleged miracles displayed on TBN, but to genuine miracles such as described in Acts chapter 3. The man who had been born lame from his mother's womb had never walked a day in his life and was over 40 years old. This same man was healed with merely a word from the apostle Peter. In Acts chapter 4, we read that the scribes, elders and rulers of the people could not deny that this healing was a true miracle. These same people desperately wanted to crush the infant church, and if there had been any way at all to dismiss this amazing miracle, these Jewish leaders would have used it. The antics and so-called miracles seen on TBN not only are refutable but bring shame on the church and degrade the name of Jesus Christ in the eyes of unbelievers.
I remained confused and uncertain as to what to believe while attending Calvary. For a period of time I wondered if I had any hope of coming to a right understanding of the spiritual gifts issue. One day when surfing the internet for Christian apologetics web sites, I found the "Bible Believers Resource Page" hosted by the Fundamental Evangelistic Association. What an eye opener! I clicked on the topic "Charismatic Movement" and began to read the article titled "Is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit Subsequent to Conversion?" written by J. A. McConnelee in 1927. When I read the article, it was as if scales fell from my eyes. I found the truth. There was only one Baptism and one Spirit, received once, at conversion. I began to read every article concerning the Charismatic Movement on the FEA web site. I was convinced that what I was reading was true and that the doctrine being taught by Calvary was false. I hit my print button and made a few copies of the articles to give to the elders and pastor of my fellowship. I was convinced they would see the truth and major changes would take place in our church. I had found the truth and wanted to set my friends free!
There was initial enthusiasm from the elders and some of the members of the church on these issues, but this was soon replaced with indifference and then a denial that this was even an issue at all. It became painfully apparent to me that the Calvary Chapel I attended was going to remain true to the cardinal doctrines and philosophy of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. I was told that the doctrines on spiritual gifts were "side issues" and that these issues should not divide the body. I was not completely surprised by this reaction. Calvary has a built-in philosophy for compromise and toleration of questionable doctrines. Notice once again what Larry Taylor writes:When we move away from the essential doctrines to those that are less essential we risk setting barriers up in the church, something we at Calvary Chapel have no desire to do. Still, Calvary Chapel is distinct from denominational churches and other Protestant groups and people want to know what those distinctions are. That is the purpose of this little booklet. 1
With a philosophy this open to interpretation, I was not shocked when I was told that the church had enough room for different points of view on the gifts issue. I found that even within our small fellowship we had the full gamut of beliefs among those attending. Members of the fellowship who knew or had doubts about Charismatic teachings kept silent for the sake of unity in the body. But the Scriptures do not teach that any portion of the Word of God contains doctrines that are "less essential." Our Lord and Savior left no room for doubt on this subject: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4).
I had no choice but to leave the fellowship. My firm stand had begun to put up a barrier between myself and other church leaders. With the full support of my wife, I stepped down as head deacon and left the church. It has been well over a year since I left. I have no bitterness or doubts about my decision. I have grown closer than ever to my wife and family. We are in the first stages of forming a Bible-believing, Fundamentalist church in our area. We trust God and know He will guide us and provide for all our spiritual needs. I urge everyone who is going through a similar experience to wait on the Lord and be strong.
When my family and I left Calvary, I knew it meant that I would lose friends and the social life that came with their friendship. In that respect, it was painful to leave. As individuals, we all have a decision to make. We can stand by what God's Word teaches and please Him, or we can choose to please men (which, in reality, means pleasing ourselves) through compromise and silence. We need to hold each other up in prayer. We cannot and must not give in to bad doctrine for the sake of unity and friendship. The apostle Paul gives us the example to follow in Galatians 1:10 "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."1 http://calvarychapel.com/library/taylor-larry/text/wcct.htm
2 http://calvarychapel.com/ashland/hspirit.html
For a complete refutation of Pentecostal/charismatic error, read THE LINE DRAWN, Miles J. Stanford
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