What We Believe

Calvary Chapel Payson is a non-denominational fellowship of believers that is an affiliate of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa California, with Pastor Chuck Smith as it's founder, and under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Although we are not opposed to denominational congregations, we believe that God’s (Agape) Love, is greater than any of our denominational differences and is the true basis of Christian fellowship. We look for the presence of His Love in our lives as the greatest evidence that we are truly following Him.  Our greatest desire is to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ and to be conformed into His image by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Our mission is to make Him known, share His Love and build up His Body, the Church.

There is one eternally existing God who has three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is the creator of all that exists, both visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy of all glory and praise.  God is perfect in love, power, holiness, goodness, knowledge, wisdom,  justice, and mercy. He is unchangeable and therefore is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

God has revealed himself to us through his Son, Jesus Christ, who is the visible image of the invisible God, the holy scriptures, and through all of creation itself.

Humans, both male and female, were created in God's image for His glory. The first humans, Adam and Eve, were created without sin and appointed as caretakers of the rest of God's creations.

When Adam and Eve chose not to obey God, they ceased to be what they were made to be and became distorted images of God. This caused them to fall out of fellowship with God, and fractured all of creation ever since that time.

Jesus Christ came to reconcile us with God. He came humbly and lived a sinless life and willingly died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. God raised Jesus from the dead and now, by grace, offers as a free gift of eternal life to all who follow Jesus Christ, by faith, as their Lord and Savior. That is why salvation can be found in Christ alone.

The Church is meant to be the visible body of Christ, sent into the world to glorify God and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is returning one day to judge both the living and the dead and to usher in the fullness of God's kingdom on earth.

Calvary Chapel holds strongly to the  pretribulation and premillennial viewpoints. We believe that the rapture of the Church will occur first, followed by a literal seven year period of Great Tribulation, followed by the second coming of Jesus Christ, and then finally a literal thousand year reign of Jesus Christ on earth called the Millennial Kingdom. Calvary Chapel also rejects Supersessionism or Replacement Theology and instead believes that Israel will play an important part in the end times.

Calvary Chapel faithfully upholds expository teaching; A "verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book" approach to teaching the Bible. This essentially means that the sermons are directly related to a passage of the Bible, and following sermons will start where the previous sermon left off (often this is done from Genesis to Revelation). We hold the opinion that topical studies fail to present the "whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27) and that ministers who use this approach often choose topics that they have a certain inclination to teach, while leaving out important controversial issues of the Bible. It is Calvary's desire to teach, not preach the word, in order to equip and train laymen for everyday ministry as well as encourage development of a personal relationship with Christ.  We believe the Bible is the inspired, complete Word of God revealed to man, and that the Bible is complete and without heresy or untruth.

 Calvary Chapel's most defining practice is the emphasis on the Bible. We believe that God meant what He said and said what He meant, and His desires is that we follow the Word literally.

We simply teach the Word of God.