Bear with us while we work on this. I am seriously considering dropping the Statement of Faith. Not that we have a lack of structure pertaining to how we see things, it’s just that we don’t want to nail ourselves down to a set of precepts that we have to fit the Bible in. Instead, it is our desire to let the Bible structure our faith based on the specific understanding of scripture and understanding the grammar.
The problem as I see it, is that Christianity has become Tribal. “I’m of Paul and I’m of Apollos” has turned into absolute divisive rhetoric. As far as Soteriology it’s an argument between Calvinism, Arminianism and Provisionalism. As it turns out, all three of these depend on a misinterpretation of Scripture. So as far as our Soteriology we must reject man’s wisdom.
As it pertains to Covenantal Theology and Dispensationalism we again have to yield to the Bible and the clear text that helps us understand it. What it comes down to, is we reject the concept that we yield to the Church Fathers as Authoritative. The Bible is our authority, and while the church fathers added context to things, we forget that they were fallible men who may also have added their bias.
It’s been our experience that people have been “taught” by well meaning teachers that placed a presuppositional mindset that may or may not align with God’s Word. We have failed to maintain the attitude of the Bereans in Acts 17. We must challenge what we are hearing from others by digging deep in the Bible and see if that is in fact the truth.
We trust our Bible, as it is the accurate, authoritative and concise revelation of GOD. We understand that with the different authors we have a variety of writing styles to convey truths of scripture. There are many linguistic tools used by the inspired authors, and it’s up to us to have proper discernment to understand the intent of the author, the perspective of the audience, culture at the time of writing just to start the process.
ARTICLE ONE: Scripture
The Bible is 100% accurate. It is GOD’s breathed word penned down by over forty authors culminating in the sixty-six books we have today. Because our Bible is Divinely Inspired there are no errors in the original texts.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 ESV – 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
We, as Calvary Chapel, have a high view of scripture. It is our goal to navigate through the Word of GOD, letting scripture influence, edify and develop our understanding of GOD. We try to avoid placing our own views on scripture, rather let scripture direct our lives and ministry so that it is not our opinion, but GOD’s instruction.
We are currently teaching using the English Standard Version (ESV) for no other purposes than clarity of translation. After researching other versions this seemed to be the one that word for word agreed with BDAG and TDNT as far as using the proper english words that represent the Koine Greek.
ARTICLE TWO: Triune GODHEAD
Beginning in Genesis 1:1 we are introduced to the Trinity. In the beginning GOD (אֱלֹהִים or Elohim) describes GOD as [noun masculine plural [Strongs H430]]. From this point forward there are many other passages such as Genesis 1:26
Genesis 1:26 ESV – 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
As we go through the totality of scripture this is a recurring theme. Probably one of the more vivid scriptures to put this in perspective is Matthew 3:16-17 which has each of the three persons of the GODHEAD represented…
Matthew 3:16-17 ESV – 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Our specific understanding is that there are three distinct persons of the Trinity or Triune GODHEAD. GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON and GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. GOD is infinite. GOD exists outside of time. GOD Created the Earth and all life on it. GOD Created the Universe (Uni [single] verse [spoken sentence]) GOD said let there be…