Raul Ries
Calvary Chapel Golden Springs · Diamond Bar, California
Pastor of Calvary Chapel Golden Springs, and the voice of the Somebody Loves You radio programme. Teaches book by book and chapter by chapter.
Life
Born in Mexico City, Raul Ries came to the United States at ten years old with his mother, brother and sister, leaving behind an abusive father.
Just out of high school a fight put him to a choice between prison and the military. He entered the United States Marines at nineteen and shipped out to Vietnam, where he served two years of active combat and came through two near-death experiences. He was already trained in the martial art Kung Fu San Soo.
Discharged and home, he married Sharon, a daughter of missionaries to South America, whom he had fallen in love with through letters written during his service. The marriage was hard: he was, in his ministry's own words, “a young man still filled with anger and bitterness,” and they were close to separating. On Easter 1972, waiting at home intending to kill his wife and children, he was converted.
He could not, his biography says, read or hear the Bible teaching of Chuck Smith enough, and took unsaved friends to the tent in Costa Mesa as often as Pastor Chuck taught.
The ministry began as a Bible study in his home, moved to his Kung Fu studio when the house was too small, then to a movie theatre in West Covina, then into a bought and converted Safeway store as Calvary Chapel West Covina. He later bought twenty-five acres in Diamond Bar and converted an office building there into Calvary Chapel Golden Springs, where the congregation is now over twelve thousand.
Through Somebody Loves You Ministries he is carried on more than 350 radio stations and in New Zealand, travels with the Somebody Loves You Crusades, and heads a missions ministry, “so send I you,” taking him to South America, Europe, India and Japan for pastors’ conferences.
Stated as his ministry states it, from Calvary Chapel Golden Springs, Biography. Nothing here is inferred.
What he teaches
WE BELIEVE the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative, inerrant Word of God. (2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:21)
WE BELIEVE there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; John 10:30)
WE BELIEVE in the deity of Christ; His virgin birth; His sinless life; His miracles; His vicarious and atoning death; His resurrection; His ascension to the right hand of the Father; His personal return to earth in power and glory. (John 10:33; Isaiah 7:14; Hebrews 4:15; John 2:11; 1 Corinthians 15:3; John 11:25; Mark 16:19; Acts 1:11)
WE BELIEVE in the absolute necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit for salvation because of the exceeding sinfulness of human nature, and that all are justified on the single ground of faith in the shed blood of Christ, and that only by God's grace, through faith alone, are we saved. (John 3:16-19; 5:24; Romans 3:23, 5:8-9; Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 3:5)
WE BELIEVE in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, and they that are not unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:28-29)
WE BELIEVE in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Galatians 3:26-28)
WE BELIEVE in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by Whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life. (Romans 8:13-14; 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19-20; Ephesians 4:30, 5:18)
Statement of Faith, Calvary Chapel Golden Springs. Quoted, not summarised. This page applies no label to Raul Ries that he has not used of himself.
Teaching archive
The teaching archive, in three named sections. The church describes each one in its own words; the individual studies load from within each section rather than being listed on the index.
- Through the Bible. “Study the Bible; book by book, chapter by chapter with Pastor Raul.”
- In-Depth Studies. “Bible studies go through the Bible in a verse by verse study method.”
- Topical Studies. “Study them chapter by chapter, verse by verse, or go straight to the topic you want to study.”
Recorded services. The index loads its listing dynamically.
The teaching in podcast form.
Radio
Somebody Loves You Radio · Daily. The church publishes a station listing at calvarygs.org/media/station-listing/; the biography states more than 350 stations and translators, and New Zealand.
Books
- Fury to Freedom — publisher not stated by the source. Autobiography; also made as a film. Named in the biography, publisher not stated there.
- Somebody Loves You Growth Book — publisher not stated by the source. Listed in the Somebody Loves You store as a booklet; publisher not shown.
Where to find him
- A portrait. Neither site publishes a media or press page offering one.
- Which books of the Bible the archive covers. The Audio Library names its three sections but loads the studies themselves dynamically, so the list of books could not be read.
- Publishers for either book. Neither the biography nor the store states one.
- Broadcast times, and the station list itself, which sits behind a separate page that did not render its contents.
Sources for this page are closed to Calvary Chapel Golden Springs, Somebody Loves You and the Calvary Chapel Association.