Oakland Hijacks The Truth Part 2
Following up on our article reviewing Roger Oaklands piece on “The Hijacking of the Calvary Chapel Movement into the Coming One-World Religion” ;
“Finally, as I conclude this commentary, do you not think there is something wrong in the Calvary Chapel movement? What about Brian Brodersen himself? What about Cheryl Brodersen, Brian’s wife and Chuck Smith’s daughter. Do they echo words of warning about the coming onslaught of ecumenism and the march to the Coming One World Religion? Are the cardinals of Calvary Chapel speaking out? “
“Their silence is deafening”
“Would someone please stand up and uncover who the real wolves are?”
Look in the mirror, Roger.
What really happened in the last years before the death of Chuck Smith is that some in the movement began to understand that the rest of the church was not the enemy.
They began to appreciate the work of scholars and teachers from other traditions.
They began to get a clue that in this new information age they could no longer isolate their congregations from the influence of the rest of the church.
They began to understand the folly of constantly being at odds with everyone without a dove.
The vast majority of them did so without changing one iota of their own beliefs in the “Calvary Distinctives”.
After Smith’s death, the “flagship” in Costa Mesa underwent some needed changes.
The demographics of the church and the community around it have changed drastically in the last forty years…and like it or not, so had the pastor.
The worship and the building were both dated, both were changed.
The doctrine didn’t change.
The emphasis changed.
The constant drumbeat of Rapture based teaching and the “imminent” return of Christ had left people exhausted from the wait.
The eschatology hasn’t changed, the frequency that it’s harped on has.
This doesn’t mean that anyone is headed to Rome or Geneva, it means that in some ways, the movement has grown up a bit.
Brian Brodersen’s greatest problem is that he’s not Chuck Smith…but that doesn’t mean that he’s a heretic or a wolf.
The prophecy crowd has always depended on sliming anyone who wasn’t in lockstep with their apocalyptic visions and in doing so have sinned against some wonderful people of great faith.
I’m glad their numbers are shrinking and their influence waning.
Calvary Chapel still has to address the real issues Chuck Smith left behind, the foremost being accountability for clergy and transparency in governance.
Maybe now that some are not playing pin the tail on the anti-Christ they will have the time to do so…
“The constant drumbeat of Rapture based teaching and the “imminent” return of Christ had left people exhausted from the wait.”
“Calvary Chapel still has to address the real issues Chuck Smith left behind, the foremost being accountability for clergy and transparency in governance.
Maybe now that some are not playing pin the tail on the anti-Christ they will have the time to do so…”
excellent!
This was very well written.
Thanks, Gman, covered… we try. 🙂
I viewed that sign on the back wall of the CCCM Bible Book Store that faced the Shell gas station patrons for several decades, “Jesus Is Coming Soon!”
Today it is no longer there, replaced by something else that is not “time sensitive.”
I used to wonder to myself if any unsaved people thought it strange to read that sign for decades and not seeing Jesus return.
I admit to felling weird about the original sign, I guess somebody in authority at Calvary did too, because they changed it.
Not that Jesus isn’t returning, just not slogan worthy for public viewing from the local gas station LOL
Ya Calvary Chapel changed.
Well I certainly do not have an issue with the term “Jesus is Coming Soon”
Would it have been more appropriate if they had painted “Jesus Delays His Coming?
The other thing is perhaps after a while an unsaved person would ask “hey, I have been driving past here for a decade reading that sign – what’s up with that?” and now an opportunity has arisen to share God’s Law and his Gospel.
My only disagreement with CC teaching in this area is what leads up to that ‘coming’ and what comes after the ‘coming’ – but the fact of the coming is…, well fact.
Quoting Jesus on the walls of the city is a good thing.
a new version might read, “Jesus is coming soon, but only God knows when…” ?
one of the saddest outcomes of the rapture now frenzy (irregardless of your belief in a rapturing out or just a landing and a takeover) is that folks are “exhausted from the wait.”
that isn’t what should be tiring us
we need to keep one eye on the sky, as it were… we need to know deep down inside that there will be an end to the chaos and the misery; all the while trusting God to run the show and conclude it on His omnipotent, omniscient schedule… like they said in WW2, “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.” we’ve been told what the weapons of this, our war are, have we not? we should tire as we are standing for the Lord, perhaps, but not from the wait… or so it seems to me…
Surfer when he gives his CC anecdotes and reminds us of his years of experience there is like the person who gives you a recipe and leaves out one or two key ingredients so instead of something tasty you are left with something inedible.
He does this..almost always. Maybe his memory is a little faulty or maybe it is deliberate.
But that mural was a rainbow. It said “God keeps His promises.” Then it also said, Jesus is coming soon. 2 Peter 3:3-9 is the clear connection to the message of the mural where the flood is tied into the latter day scoffing at those who actually think Jesus is returning one day.
Surfer presents a crazy sandwich board street person yelling at you “Jesus is coming soon!” and leaves out what made the mural a mural. It was not just lettering…a rainbow.
Now, I was not there when the decision to paint something different was made, but I am not so clueless as to be unaware that a certain loud, activist, group of folks have co-opted the rainbow for their own political purposes – and that we have been living now for quite some time with a major argument among churches as to homosexuality, and homosexual marriage…and maybe, just maybe, having a rainbow on your church building does not send the same message today as it did in years past.
For as long as the mural was up it seems there must be a picture of it somewhere. I saw it a ton of times but can’t remember any details. Comes with the territory I guess! 🙂
could the reason for the removal of the mural, perhaps, have been because the rainbow now sends a mixed message to folks in today’s world? hmmm
how very sad that the world at large has taken God’s rainbow and twisted it from a promise to a compromise…
Erunner…I see Surfer had the same partially accurate comment, and I the same correction, back in 2014 here at the blog https://phoenixpreacher.com/?p=19899
I’m going to chew on that for awhile…
Yes–well said, Michael.
A quick note on the rainbow thing:
I don’t think homosexuality had anything to do with changing the rainbow mural. The rainbow that God invented progresses in a very orderly manner from red transitioning to orange, then yellow, green, blue and indigo/violet. The “lgbtq” rainbow symbol is a hodge podge of colors, some of them ‘natural’ colors of the spectrum (ie, different value and saturation, if you’re into technical color theory), and not at all in chromatic order.
I guess that’s what happens when Roy G Biv tries to dress as a girl.
“not ‘natural’ colors”, I should have said. I’m too used to sites that let you change or edit things after you submit it.