My views on eschatology are still wanting. I lean towards an optimistic a-mil in that I believe that the church will continue in suffering until Christ’s second coming. However we do see Christ’s Kingdom advancing especially in comparison to the very small gathering that started with a few uneducated fishermen at Pentecost. I think the pessimistic approach presupposes the church started out this big, because the pessimist only has room for mass apostasy in their theology (something that is definitely not evident in history). History demonstrates several ups and downs with a general trend towards up. Today the people of God meet in churches throughout the world to worship. As pessimistic as anyone can be, our savior’s kingdom has flourished.

The question is, how much will be fulfilled now and how much at the commencement when Christ returns. I don’t know! But what I do know is that the defeatist mindset of dispensationalism is utterly unbiblical. Christ obtained victory at the cross and no matter where we fit things into the already or not yet we are to be about the Kings business, fulfilling the great commission and subjecting all things to the glory of God. We do not have to wait until the cavalry to expect God’s kingdom to advance; he obtained that victory on the cross.

Here are some helpful sermons:
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=711101124536
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=71810114460

This is commonly called the no-lordship stance. Some Calvary Chapel’s hold to it. They believe that Christ can be your savior, but that Lordship is entirely optional. Their view of salvation is purely post-mortem fire insurance. They fail to recognize that salvation reconciles us to God.

As God’s people we are saved from our sinful state that we might live for Christ, enjoying Him and worshiping Him now and for all eternity. This is why scripture commands all men to repent and put their faith in Christ.

I believe that a Christian, after the “moment of being saved” must continue in faith and trust on God for everything. (health, healing, finances etc.). But I can tell you that CC pastors in Philadelphia do not believe that.

When I was younger, I attended “college nights” (i think they were called) and the pastor teaching those nights kept hitting on a subj. about being saved no matter what. It kept peaking my interest so I emailed him and he asked me to stay afterward the next week and I did.

After we talked for a half hour i was still confused about his belief, so I put it just like this.

“So you are saying that in your opinion, a person at age 18 could confess his sins and accept Jesus as his Savior, and you would say he is saved. (we agreed to that point) And then in later years, he could fall away from faith in God, he could denounce God, curse God, murder, rape, and become a drunkard and in that current state with no desire to repent of any of those, he dies. Where would his soul spend eternity?”

This pastor’s answer was “Without a doubt, Heaven”. And he said it was because he has that moment of repentance and accepted Jesus as his Savior. I was blown away!

My follow up question was “So what about all those verses that say “if you deny me to men, I will deny you to my Heavenly Father”

or the one about all drunkards and liars will spend eternity in hell.

I names many and his response was “Those are for the unsaved to get them to repent”.

So I gathered from his responses that you can have a moment of saving faith, say you give your life to the Lord and then go on living in sin and debauchery, you can do what you please, including the things Hitler did, or Ted Bundy, and still receive eternal life in Heaven.

I was blown away at this teacher’s response I stood up and said “We would agree to disagree” and walked out of that God lacking building

I have spent the last two months or so reviewing Chuck Smith’s book, “Calvary Chapel Distinctives” on this blog. In it I cite page numbers and quote him. I also spend time showing how the scripture he quotes is taken out of context and how he continually contradicts himself. You can see for yourself the blatant twisting of the Word, scripture taken out of context, and modern evangelical influence. Aside from that, Calvary Chapel IS dispensational, a doctrinal framework for interpreting scripture invented in the 19th century. I have posted text from Chuck Smith’s 1978 book where he predicts the year the rapture will take place and have scanned it in on the blog (http://www.modernpulpit.com/2010/06/23/chuck-smith-calvary-chapel-the-end-times-fascination/). I have also documented Chuck Smith stating that God will return to taking pleasure in animal sacrifices from Christian’s during the millennial reign (http://www.modernpulpit.com/2010/03/29/the-millenial-reign-of-christ/). What more do you want from me? Until you get out of your modernistic presupposition you’ll never be able to see how off kilter Calvary Chapel really is.

In this post I highlighted the fact that Calvary Chapel boasts of doctrinal ambiguity to attract people. Here are some snippets from his book:
“You know the beautiful thing about being called Calvary Chapel? People don’t know where you really stand… Calvary Chapel has a sort of mystique about it. “What do these people believe?” “I don’t know, but let’s go find out.” And the whole field is ours. You want to fish in as big a pond as you can find. When you’re marketing something, you want the largest market appeal possible. So don’t chop up the market and say, “Well, we’re just going to fish in this little market here.” Keep the market broad. (pg. 49, 50)”

You wouldn’t have a problem with my writing if I was criticizing Benny Hinn unless you were a follower of Benny Hinn. Do you not realize you are taking offense to my criticizing Chuck Smith because you are his follower?

More Smith, “Some people object because they feel that I gloss over certain passages of Scripture, and they’re correct. But glossing over controversial issues is often deliberate because there are usually two sides. And I have found that it’s important not to be divisive and not to allow people to become polarized on issues, because the moment they are polarized, there’s division. (Pg. 48)”

Do you think it is right that Chuck Smith gets to decide what is clear and what isn’t clear in scripture? Isn’t that what all cults do? “ohh, I don’t think church government is clear in scripture… therefore… I run the show.” (Pg. 17-26) (http://www.modernpulpit.com/2010/06/21/calvary-chapel-distinctives-church-government/) In it find links to Christianity Today articles documenting the gross immorality in Calvary Chapel as a result of this terrible theology.

Here is Chuck Smith bashing education. In fact he takes a scriptural concept out of context. The concept of having begun in the spirit and now being perfected in the flesh is reference to salvation by works. On Page 96 of Calvary Chapel Distinctives Chuck Smith asserts that going to school is being perfected in the flesh! “It’s interesting that having begun in the Spirit, so often, we then seek to be perfected in the flesh. Some of the Calvary Chapel pastors have gone back to school.”

Wake Up! Open your eyes and read a bit about the denomination you are in and its context in the history of the entirety of the church.

I believe Calvary Chapel is as much a part of the body of Christ as Christian’s are in Rick Warren’s church. Lots of error, lots of things missing… The majority of judgment will be on the teachers, but the congregation has itching ears too.