Affiliation and Doctrinal Statement

SCRIPTURE We believe the Bible (i.e., the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments) is the Word of God, comprises the totality of Holy Scripture, is verbally inspired and inerrant in the original text, remains inerrant and infallible in all its substance, and is sufficient for salvation and sanctification. Therefore, it is the supreme, final, and authoritative standard for faith, theology, and life. We seek to teach the Word of God in such a way that its message can be applied to an individual’s life, leading that person to greater maturity in Christ. (All CCBC faculty and staff affirm the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.)

HISTORICITY We believe in the full historicity and perspicuity of the biblical record of primeval history, including the historical existence of Adam and Eve as the progenitors of all people, the Fall in the Garden of Eden and resultant divine curse on creation, the worldwide cataclysmic Flood, and the origin of the nations and languages at the tower of Babel. GOD We believe that the triune God eternally exists in one essence and three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; that He is essentially Spirit, personal, transcendent, sovereign, life, love, truth, almighty, simple (i.e., essentially one without parts), timelessly eternal, unchangeable, wise, just, holy, relational, pure actuality, dynamic, infallible in all things, including His foreknowledge of all future decisions and events, and that He created the heavens and the earth in six historic days.

JESUS CHRIST We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, possessing two distinct natures which are co-joined in one person; that He was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless and miraculous life, provided for the atonement of our sins by His vicarious substitutionary death on the Cross, was physically resurrected in the same body that was buried in the tomb by the power of the Holy Spirit; that Jesus Christ physically ascended back to the right hand of God the Father in heaven, and ever lives to make intercession for us. After Jesus ascended to Heaven, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers in Jerusalem, enabling them to fulfill His command to preach the gospel to the entire world, an obligation shared by all believers today. (CCBC affirms the Apostle’s, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds.)

HOLY SPIRIT We believe the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead who seals, indwells, sanctifies, baptizes, teaches, empowers, reveals, and guides the believer into all truth. The Holy Spirit gives gifts to whom He wills, which are valid for today, and ought to be exercised within scriptural guidelines. We as believers are to earnestly desire the best gifts, seeking to exercise them in love that the whole Body of Christ might be edified. We believe that love is more important than the most spectacular gifts, and without this love all exercise of spiritual gifts is worthless.

HUMANKIND We believe that human beings are created in the image of God; however, after the fall of Adam and Eve, all people are by nature separated from God and responsible for their own sin, but that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are offered as a free gift by the Lord Jesus Christ to all based on His grace alone. When a person repents of sin and receives Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, trusting Him to save, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit, all his/her sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a child of God, destined to spend eternity with the Lord.

SALVATION Salvation is initiated, attained, and procured by God through the death of Christ on the Cross for our sins and His resurrection from the dead. The salvation Christ offers is available to all, and is received freely by grace alone and through faith in Christ alone, apart from good works, thereby justifying and indwelling the believer.

THE CHURCH The universal Church is an organic body composed of all believers, both living and dead, who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. The church has the responsibility to worship the Lord and share the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection to the world, making disciples, baptizing believers, and teaching them to observe sound doctrine and live a morally pure life. We believe church government should be simple rather than a complex bureaucracy, with the utmost dependence upon the Holy Spirit to lead, rather than on fleshly promotion or worldly wisdom. The Lord has given the church two ordinances which are to continue until He returns — adult baptism by immersion and Holy Communion. Water baptism is not necessary for salvation, and cannot remove sins, but is a picture of the salvation already received by the believer. We believe the only true basis of Christian fellowship is Christ’s sacrificial agape love, which is greater than any secondary differences we possess, and without which we have no right to claim ourselves Christians.

WORSHIP We believe worship of God should be spiritual. Therefore, we remain flexible and yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit to direct our worship. We believe worship of God should be inspirational. Therefore, we give great place to music in our worship. We believe worship of God should be intelligent. Therefore, our gatherings are designed with great emphasis upon the teaching of the Word of God that He might instruct us how He should be worshiped. We believe worship of God should be fruitful. Therefore, we look for His love in our lives as the supreme manifestation that we have been truly worshiping God in spirit and truth.

CHRIST’S RETURN We await the imminent rapture of the church and the Second Coming of Christ which will be physical, personal, visible, and premillennial. This motivates us toward evangelism, holy living, heart-felt worship, committed service, diligent study of God’s Word, and regular fellowship.

ETERNITY We believe those who are saved by Jesus Christ will be with God forever in an everlasting conscious state of blessedness, reward, and satisfaction (heaven); those who do not personally trust in and receive the saving work of Christ by faith will be forever separated from God in an everlasting conscious state of torment (hell).

SATAN We believe there is a real, personal devil of great malevolence, cunning, and power, who seeks to deceive, tempt, kill, steal and destroy, yet his power is limited by God to only what God permits him to do; that the devil has been defeated positionally at the Cross of Christ, and will be defeated practically at Christ’s glorious Second Coming which will eventuate in the permanent quarantine and punishment of the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.

MARRIAGE & SEXUALITY We believe that God created humankind as male and female, and that He created them different so as to complement and complete each other. God instituted monogamous, exclusive, faithful marriage between male and female as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society. We believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female, sanctioned by the state and evidenced by a marriage ceremony. We also believe that biblical marriage, thus defined, is the only legitimate and acceptable context for sexual relations. Hence, all other sexual activities such as, but not limited to, adultery, fornication, pre-marital sex, incest, polygamy, homosexuality, transgenderism, bisexuality, cross-dressing, pedophilia and bestiality are inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible. Further, lascivious behavior, the creation, viewing and/or distribution of pornography are incompatible with a true biblical witness. We do not condone or recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions, or domestic partnerships, and we do not affirm the resolution of tension between one’s biological sex and one’s experience of gender by the adoption of a psychological identity discordant with one’s birth sex.

While the faculty and staff of Calvary Chapel Bible Colleges holds to these beliefs, we welcome any applicant who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has a sincere desire to grow closer to Jesus and become more like him while abiding by our Doctrinal Statement and community guidelines, in harmony with the leadership of the College.

Our desire is to share in the fellowship of Jesus Christ in a way that avoids division and brings glory to God by showing His love to the world.

Departure from the beliefs and practices expressed in the doctrinal statement may, in the evaluation of the College, constitute grounds for denying admission to CCBC, subsequent dismissal, or prohibition from graduating, especially if such a departure involves proselytizing others, disrupting class sessions, or otherwise hindering our community of learners as we pursue our mission.