âWe have confirmed that Coy has admitted to at least two affairs in the past year alone and has had a long standing âproblem with pornography.ââ â April 04, 2014, http://www.phoenixpreacher.com
In the early 90âs Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale was a thriving, vibrant, energetic church filled with throngs of young people. Bob Coy had founded the church with his wife, Diane, and a handful of others. Under his charming leadership, it grew to become one of the Top-10 largest churches in America.
I began attending in 1991. Back then, we met behind the dumpsters of an Albertsonâs grocery store. I liked the fact that it wasnât glamorous; that it was ânon-denominationalâ and, in my mind, the farthest thing possible from the Catholicism of my youth. (Later realizing that it really wasnât much different after all. I simply had traded âHigh-Churchâ for âlow-church,â so the strict rules and regulations were harder to spot.)

Bob Coy was the reason for the churchâs success. He is a phenomenal speaker. He had a gift for showing people their need for salvation and it was not uncommon to see 20 or 30 people âgo forwardâ for his altar call each Sunday morning.
I never planned to go forward. I didnât think I needed to âget savedâ or be born again; I was a good person and I was confident in the fact that God loved me and wanted me in His heaven. But Bob Coy convinced me to change my mind.
The message that Pastor Bob preached on Sunday morning, September 1st, 1991, allowed me to see that I was guilty of breaking Godâs laws, that I was guilty of committing sin. I needed God’s help with this problem; the help that only He could offer because of what He did on the cross. God opened my blind eyes so I could see, and I said yes to God . . . and then went forward for the altar call. đ±
I am eternally grateful to Bob Coy; I was saved from hell on that September morning. I am thankful for his gift of teaching, but I have come to regret the year and a half that I spent at his church, paying 10% of my income in order to help enlarge his ministry, and getting steeped in the doctrine of âworks righteousnessâ. My disappointment turned to major surprise several years ago when I learned that Pastor Bob is a sex addict.
âOver two decades, Coy had built a small storefront church into Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, a 25,000-member powerhouse that packed Dolphin Stadium for Easter services while Coy hosted everyone from George W. Bush to Benjamin Netanyahu. With a sitcom dad’s wholesome looks, a standup comedian’s snappy timing, and an unlikely redemption tale of ditching a career managing Vegas strip clubs to find Jesus, Coy had become a Christian TV and radio superstar.
But then, in April 2014, he resigned in disgrace after admitting to multiple affairs and a pornography addiction. Coy shocked his flock and made national headlines by walking away from his ministry, selling his house, and divorcing his wife.â (www.miaminewtimes.com)
After the scandal, he re-entered the world of nightclubs. He got a job managing the âFunky Biscuitâ in Boca Raton where he was subsequently fired amidst new allegations: charges of child molestation.
What a turn of events. The marvelous preacher Pastor Bob Coy wasnât respectable enough to manage a night club.
How could this have happened to Pastor Bob? How could this have happened to someone who led thousands of people to salvation in Jesus Christ!?
“It takes only a little yeast to make the whole batch of dough rise,” as they say. (Galatians 5:9 â Good New Translation)
And it only takes a little bit of false teaching to permeate the gospel message. Just one little rule that says, âWork hard.â Or, âTry to be good.â Or, âExert yourself to be holy.â That one tiny command then acts like yeast, it grows and spreads until the entire message of good news becomes bad news.
Think about a loaf of bread, can you pick out the yeast and discard it? No, itâs impossible. The yeast has taken over the dough and âleavenedâ the entire loaf; there is no yeast-free section of the loaf of bread.
So if your Christian life is saturated with LAW, itâs no wonder that youâll become miserable and turn to sin for a bit of temporary relief.Â
Pastor Bob gave us a plethora of methods for us to follow so that we could become more holy. We were taught:Â “positionally you are sanctified, but practically you are not sanctified.”
Some of the methods suggested to overcome sin:Â memorize Scripture verses; come to church more often; take one of the Tuesday night Adult Education classes; volunteer for one of the churchâs ministries; attend a weekly CCFL home fellowship group; read the Bible every morning; go on a retreat, go on a mission trip to Haiti, go forward for prayer with one of the elders after church, attend a weekly prayer meeting, fast, choose one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit and practice it until someone noticed and commented on how loving/patient/joyful, etc. you are.
When it came to working on one of the fruits of the Spirit, I chose to work on the fruit of âlove.â I worked hard at it until someone did eventually tell me that I was loving. Phew! Of course, by that time, I was so exhausted from all of the effort that I went right back to my normal self.
He may not have taught us to obey the Law of Moses, but we certainly were taught to obey the Law of Pastor Bob. Â Those of us who took his words seriously ended up, inadvertently, focused on sin. Â Sin gets it power from laws.
âThe sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.â 1 Corinthians 15:56
We were controlled by the power of sin. Â Me. Â My friends. Â And even Pastor Bob himself. We were controlled by our own fleshly minds, and perhaps even by the devil and his demons.
As Bob George of People to People Ministries used to say, âIf the truth sets us free, then the lie keeps us in bondage.â
Jesus came to set us free from the Law of Moses, and any other system of law that man invents. Â Jesus came to enact a new covenant. He does not want us to obey a set of rules. God wants to set us free from the bondage of religion. He wants us to trust Him. He has abolished the Law of Moses, and now He, the true and living God, offers Himself.
Trust in HIS finished work. He has done all the work necessary to make you holy and righteous. Accept His free gift of salvation . . . and then REST. You deserve it! đ
July 12, 2018Â 8:48 PM