Calvary Chapel, Bill Hybels, and Jesuit Mysticism

Roger Oakland of Understand the Times International says that Calvary Chapel has a new found connection with Bill Hybels, one of the architects of the seeker-sensitive movement.  Oakland wonders how big of an impact this union will have.  There’s a program Willow Creek implemented by Bill Hybels’ son-in-law Aaron Niequist called The Practice that Oakland sees as “the epitome of all that is emergent.” (please see, Willow Creek’s “The Practice” blends New Age & Catholic Mysticism)

What about Calvary Chapel’s connection with The Practice and contemplative prayer? Will this connect Calvary Chapel to the spiritual formation practices promoted by the Jesuits?  So many questions…

Who has bewitched you?

Who has bewitched you?

While contending for the faith risks the chance of being ridiculed and scoffed at by men, the apostle Paul said we should stand up for Jesus Christ and the truth of His Word whatever the cost. Writing to the Galatians, he stated:

As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. [1]

In order to qualify as a servant of Christ, Paul is telling us to beware of false teachings that can and will enter the church. Paul also indicated that false teachings can be introduced in a manner so cleverly devised by Satan that these doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4:1) creep in unnoticed. He warned the church at Galatia with these words:

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? [2]

These words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, are not just for the church that was in Galatia in the past. The words should be powerful reminders of the danger of following men today who may be led by the words of other men who are led by doctrines of demons. This, of course, can happen without recognizing it has even happened. This is what deception is.

As a result, millions of undiscerning sheep are led away by men posing as shepherds who are not following the Good Shepherd. Instead, these “shepherds” are playing a very significant role in setting up a false ecumenical belief system designed to reach the postmodern generation that does not believe God’s Word is absolute.

Before you have a chance to read the rest of this commentary, I am going to predict the reaction there will be from some in the body of Christ. When one lovingly attempts to point those who are being deceived back on the right path, there will be those who will be cynical, sarcastic, and will lash out. Comments like this will appear: There he goes again, another “old grumpy man” who is against everything. He is just like the Pharisees. We are living in a whole new generation, and he is out of touch. I am addressing these issues before I present my case.

Recently, I was informed about a conference held this week in Budapest, Hungary where Willow Creek senior pastor Bill Hybels taught leaders. According to comments posted on Phil Metzger’s Facebook page, the event was held at Calvary Chapel Golgota Budapest where Metzger is pastor. He is also the director of Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe (also located in Hungary). On Metzger’s Facebook, Hybels was not only endorsed, he was praised. [3]Continue reading

Related:

Willow Creek’s “The Practice” blends New Age & Catholic mysticism

See our White Papers on Contemplative Prayer and  Purpose Driven 

 

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8 Responses to Calvary Chapel, Bill Hybels, and Jesuit Mysticism

  1. Truthwarrior53 April 25, 2016 at 7:48 pm #

    So my son and I decided to go to Praise and Prayer night and discovered that the regular ministry leader wasn’t there. The “sub” began by dimming the lights and telling everyone that we would have a time of prayer and silence before the meeting commenced. We bowed our heads and prayed but then time went by…tick…tick…five minutes…tick, tock….10 minutes…At 15 minutes, my son and I looked around the room and then at each other and almost burst out with nervous laughing! Understanding what was happening, we quietly slipped out of the room. Yep, CALVARY CHAPEL.

  2. berlorac April 26, 2016 at 1:00 pm #

    I left Calvary Chapel 11 years ago. First, in 2004, the pastor and his wife praised The Passion of the Christ. I spoke to them about the promotion of Catholicism, but they said they didn’t see any Catholicism in the movie! This is from a denomination (and a pastor) that had always spoken out against Catholicism.

    Then, in 2005, the sermon was about Brother Lawrence and Practicing the Presence, after which they stocked the bookstore with that garbage. Then, they did a production for “Easter” in which they exalted Madame Guyon. I spoke to some folks about it, but no one cared. They had no idea why I had a problem with it.

    Going verse by verse does NOT prevent error, folks! I listened to CC pastors twist the Scriptures verse by verse. Painful.

  3. Denise Rittler April 29, 2016 at 12:33 pm #

    My husband and I attended Calvary Chapel in Philadelphia for a few years. We found the music was nice but way to repetitive and not in keys regular people can sing in, so it was more of a “performance” than “congregational singing”. Eventually we left, we just felt something was wrong there.

    I researched CC online and found that Chuck Smith is the one who brought rock music into the house of God. At first it was folk music, with guitars and not overly loud or harsh. He appointed a man named Lonnie Frisbee, a hippie preacher who was on LSD and practicing homosexuality to head up the music department.

    He continued practicing homosexuality until he died of AIDS in 1993. Now this was not very smart on the part of Chuck Smith. So that’s how the rock’n roll music entered the church. There’s a lot more I can say about Calvary Chapel, but that is enough for me to know there is not much discernment going on there.

    • Maggie April 30, 2016 at 8:12 pm #

      After a time, Chuck Smith removed Lonnie Frisbee from ministry. This occurred during the Jesus Movement, at a time when the usual state of the church was impacted greatly by this (largely) youth awakening. I was not in any way connected to CC, but I know Chuck Smith was among many pastors who recognized that this was a move of God and was willing to accommodate the youth, including the new music coming in (not really rock n roll, that came later). The music was sweet, many songs based entirely on Scripture.

      • Dense Rittler May 2, 2016 at 1:01 pm #

        That is true, but even those sweet folk songs contained little or no doctrine, such as the first CCM “hit”, “Come to the water, stand by my side, I know you are thirsty you won’t be denied, I’ve seen every teardrop when in darkness you cried, and I’m here to remind you that for those tears I died.” No, Jesus did not die because of our teardrops, He died because of our SIN, which is not often mentioned in the modern Christian music.

        Also, the music opened the door that lead to worldly music with a heavy back beat imported from Africa (jazz, blues then rock and roll), a satanic beat used to summon demons, into Christian churches in America. Now some are actually singing “Purple Rain” since Prince died as a worship song in churches!

        A pop star dies and they light up Niagara Falls purple, meanwhile, 2000 unborn babies are murdered in the US daily and no one bats an eye.

        Satan is very subtle, look at the first Beatles album. “I wanna hold your hand”. Then later as the group got into drugs and sang songs about it, they led millions of young people to try drugs too, many never got out of it. They went to India, and millions of people left Christianity to follow Eastern religions like Hinduism, and IHOP and other so called “churches” today are really practicing Trancendental Meditation when the beat goes on and on for over 7 minutes, your brain is in a sort of trance like state and you will believe whatever is said, works like hypnotism. Whenever you hear music playing while someone is speaking (often done in churches), not singing, that also shuts off your brain from logic and reason and you’ll just believe whatever is being said.

        So Calvary Chapel, mostly apostate now, helped (inadvertently) introduce these demonic and evil practices get into churches now, starting innocently enough. That was my point.

  4. Manny1962 May 4, 2016 at 7:49 am #

    Amen, Dense! Mixing the world and Christianity, compromise, dilution, heresy and ultimately apostasy. Same thing happened in Paul’s day, he spent the better part of his ministry rebuking such things, here we are, at the cusp of the great apostasy unraveling Churchianity.

  5. Bob James November 13, 2016 at 7:03 pm #

    Pastor Chuck Smith’s vision for Calvary Chapel was for truly spirit-filled men to be raised up to leadership positions within the Calvary Chapel movement, as it spread across the country and around the world. My 22 year affiliation with CC ended in 2003 when my CC supported ministry was deemed less important than the church’s family picnic. Loyalty to Jesus’ calling was deemed to be of lower priority than bolstering the ego of the Senior Pastor. Among the 20 or so CC’s in my area, nepotism is a prominent feature among those CC churches. Familiarity with the ministry is seen as a higher priority than successive pastors being truly spirit-filled. Upon leaving, I was lied about, denigrated, and even shunned. The fellowship of 25 folks who departed with me was dubbed Calvary Chapel of the Disgruntled, though we never adopted the CC moniker. We’ve been thriving and growing since leaving, and based on the news coming out of CCA, we are delighted to have separated ourselves before such drastic changes in ministry and doctrine crept into CC and defiled those who remain there.

  6. mrs O March 24, 2017 at 4:45 pm #

    I was a committed supporter of a Calvary Chapel fellowship. The Pastor would allow no-one to do anything, it was doctrinally very sound, though. I left CC for a few years.

    A new couple took over the work, lovely people, but they made a woman an unofficial assistant pastor. This Lady runs the fellowship.

    However this fellowship has gone very ecumenical, getting involved with Tres Dias, the “Unofficial Pastor” insisted I attend this retreat. I told her that I would have nothing to do with ecumenical gatherings, she told me I was divisive. I informed her I had a Masters Degree in Theology so I do know what I was talking about.

    Needless to say I won’t be attending again.

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