I am so very grateful for the life and legacy of Pastor Chuck Smith, Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement. He entered the presence of the Lord early this morning after a bout with lung cancer.
No one will probably ever know how many tens of thousands of people have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ through the ministries of Calvary Chapel. Over the years I have deeply appreciated his commitment to the Bible as the word of God and the simple, clear way that he taught through the Scriptures. Dr. Robert Saucy concurs: “Pastor Chuck Smith was a truly faithful Bible teacher. He was a courageous person committed to the authority and power of God’s word.”
Talbot School of Theology joins its many Calvary friends in grieving this loss, but we celebrate the extraordinary legacy of this great Christian leader.
Clinton E. Arnold enjoys teaching, speaking and writing on various aspects of the New Testament. He is the editor of the four-volume Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary and the general editor of the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. His other books include: How We Got the Bible (Zondervan); Ephesians: Power and Magic (Cambridge/Baker/Wipf & Stock); Powers of Darkness: Principalities and Powers in Paul's Letters (InterVarsity Press); The Colossian Syncretism (Mohr Siebeck/Baker); and 3 Crucial Questions About Spiritual Warfare (Baker). Arnold has published in Christianity Today and was a regular columnist for Discipleship Journal. His research articles have appeared in such journals as New Testament Studies, Novum Testamentum, Journal for the Study of the New Testament and the Journal of Psychology and Theology. He is a professor of New Testament language and literature and the dean of Talbot School of Theology. Arnold, his wife and three boys are vitally involved in their local church.