In his church office, pastor Chuck Smith kept a crown made of thorns and a jar full of candy. The thorns were from the Holy Land. The candy was for his grandkids. The image suggested his special appeal as a preacher: A harsh, old-school Christianity delivered with grandfatherly sweetness.
Smith, the founder of the Jesus People and the Calvary Chapel movement, and one of the most influential figures in modern American Christianity, died Thursday morning at his home in Newport Beach after a two-year battle with lung cancer, church officials said. He was 86.
“He was definitely a pioneer,” said Donald E. Miller, a professor of religion at USC. “He had a transformative impact on Protestantism.”
The Calvary Chapel phenomenon, which now includes more than 1,000 churches nationwide and hundreds more overseas, began with the 25-member church Smith founded on a Costa Mesa lot in 1965.
He was a biblical literalist who believed staunchly in hell, Armageddon and the sinfulness of homosexuality. But from the pulpit, and in person, he emanated a disarming warmth. His church became famous as a sanctuary for a generation of counterculture refugees. He wore a Hawaiian shirt and a big, benevolent smile.
Continue reading here —> http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-1004-chuck-smith-20131004,0,7276715.story
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Lonnie Frisbee
Who is Chuck Smith:
Chuck Smith
“Actually “the Calvary Chapel Movement was essentially spawned by Lonnie Frisbee, not Chuck Smith. It was Chuck’s embracing of Frisbee that drew the massive crowds of young hippies during the Jesus Movement…who then grew up and were Institutionalized by the opportunistic and shrewd Businessman, Chuck Smith.
Can a healthy Spirit-Led Movement of God be founded upon a man, Lonnie Frisbee, who was doing LSD and having homosexual relations with other men on Saturday…and then preaching the “real” Jesus Christ and Gospel on Sunday?
Lonnie Frisbee’s life and struggles with drugs and homosexuality is well documented. He died of AIDS as a result of his homosexual lifestyle. A very sad end I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Kathryn Kuhlman
Kathryn Kuhlman, another Calvary Chapel and Chuck Smith partner that was instrumental in the genesis of the Movement is hailed as the major influence in Benny Hinn’s life. The hyper-Charismatic “faith healer”,
Kuhlman, was very close to Smith and very much a part of the early days of CC.
Chuck Smith intervened with a Church Discipline Process with regards to David Hawking’s Adultery and sex scandal, circumventing another Church’s Scripturally motivated disciplinary process.
The list of scandals and cover-ups in Camp Calvary Chapel, Chuck Smith’s Progeny, is astounding. This site documents the tip
Chuck Smith and Rick Warren apostacising together of the Ice Burg (but we’ll get to many others in time, and the list keeps growing as more people contact me with information). Please read: Chuck Smith from Calvary Chapel entertains Rick Warren
A defense I’ve heard from some in the Online Discernment community, the supposed “Watch People” of “Sound Doctrine” and “Apostasy” etc. is, “Well, Chuck Smith is a gifted bible teacher”…and that excuses the Scandals and lack of following Scripture in dealing with sin in the Camp.
Well, what happens if Chuck Smith is preaching Heresy with regards to a Core Doctrine of the Faith? Can Chuck Smith be “wrong” and have a “wrong interpretation of Scripture” on a foundational issue like the Resurrection? Personhood? (Who the “real me” is).
I submit that Chuck Smith cannot be wrong on the Doctrine of Resurrection and be trusted as a true Prophet of God. The issue of Resurrection is key to our Faith. If one is “wrong” on the Resurrection…then others (Gnostics, Emergents, RCC, Mormons, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, you name it) can be “wrong”, too, and it shouldn’t rise to the level of calling out the different “interpretation”…if we can just ignore something as serious as a Heretical View of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and of the Saints.”
“What does Chuck Smith say about who “we” are as “the Real Me”? What is Chuck Smith’s teaching regarding the Doctrine of Resurrection?
Chuck Smith teaches that (in his own words, see video) that “the REAL ME is spirit“…classic Gnosticism.
Chuck Smith goes on to teach a Doctrine of Resurrection of both Jesus Christ and the Saints where “your spirit LEAVES your body” and “goes into a NEW body” after you die. Classic Jehovah’s Witness Theology.
He goes on to explain that Jesus Christ had a “similar but different” body when He Resurrected. It is not the “same” Physical Body that has been Glorified, but rather the “spirit” of Jesus (and our “spirit” who is the “real me“) LEAVES our “old bodies” and then migrates to a “new body“…some Quasi-Spirit Body. This is Heresy.
I call on Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel to repent of their Heresy regarding the Doctrine of Resurrection. They cannot be “wrong” on this Core Foundational issue as the Gnostics and Jehovah’s Witnesses are. If we compromise the integrity of this Foundational Truth…then we are on a Slippery Slope and we are preaching a “different Jesus”.
There is no “old body” in the Tomb that Jesus arose from. Jesus Christ has “one” Literal Physical Earthly Body that was Glorified. We have one Literal Physical Earthly Body that is “the real us” that is Glorified. Jesus’s “spirit” and our “spirit” does not “leave our old body” and migrate to some “new body” that is a Quasi-Spirit Body. That is JW and Gnostic and off the Reservation of Christian orthodoxy.” [Emphasis added] -http://calvarychapelabuse.com/wordpress/?p=998
2 Corinthians 6:14-1514 Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what concord has Christ with Belial? or what part has he that believes with an infidel? Ephesians 5:11
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Did’nt you read tha article on Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa?
Help me out, I understand the claim being made. The claim is CC has Freemasons teaching the church. But I’m not seeing from the article who is the Freemason being indentified.
And now Greg Laurie has taken the mantle from Chuck and is taking CC further into apostacy by mingling with the EMERGING crowd.
I have to say its really weird that both greg Lauries & Rick Warrens sons died …..
Makes ya wonder ……
I was an active member of Calvary Church Port Orchard for nearly 10 years, before I moved out of the area. S.E.Brown speaks truthfully of Pastor Kevin Lea. And because Pastor Kevin rightly divides and preaches the Word, he and his wife (of many years, the only one) have been betrayed by friends, slandered, harassed, and abused more times and in more ways than you can count. But he keeps on, refuses to give up! Until Jesus comes, our TRUE shepherds need our prayers more than ever.
I’ve spent some good time listening to Pastor Chuck Smith’s sermons and my take is that he was a real instrument that God used to relay His messege to us. I politely caution his opposers to be watchful lest they find themselves fighting against the Lord’s will.
Dear Steve Macks
you said: “I’ve spent some good time listening to Pastor Chuck Smith’s sermons and my take is that he was a real instrument that God used to relay His messege to us. I politely caution his opposers to be watchful lest they find themselves fighting against the Lord’s will.”
It appears you have spent more time listening to Chuck Smith’s sermons than Jesus Christs Word.