What We Believe

The following are the core beliefs of Des Moines Gospel Chapel based on the foundational truths taught in the Bible. All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these Biblical doctrines.

The Bible is inspired of God, and it is without error in the original documents.

There is only one God, eternally existent in three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God, born of a virgin, and sinlessly perfect in His humanity. He died for our sins, and was buried. He rose bodily from the dead and ascended to His Father's right hand, where He now serves as the believers' Great High Priest.

Each member of the human race is fallen, sinful and lost, and new birth is absolutely essential for the salvation of man. Redemption is wholly by the blood of Christ, and salvation is by grace, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and produces new birth in individuals who trust Christ as Lord and Savior. At the moment of new birth the Holy Spirit baptizes the new Christian into the Church universal, which is the Body of Christ, and, therefore, every believer is united to Christ and to one another. The Holy Spirit lives within the believer and gives light, direction and power for godly living. He always directs attention to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Church universal began with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Its chief functions while on earth are to glorify God and to witness for Christ. The ultimate hope and destiny of the Church are heavenly. The local church, or assembly, is composed of believers in a locality who meet together under the Headship of Christ for worship, prayer, edification, fellowship, and witness.

Christ, the living Head of the Church which is His Body, is the Giver of gifts to the church, such as evangelists, pastors and teachers, and they are responsible to Him for their service. Leadership in the local church is entrusted to elders and deacons. Elders are the overseers of the church, the pastors or shepherds of the flock. Deacons are, likewise, servants of the church, giving particular attention to the physical functioning of the assembly.

There are two Christian ordinances to be practiced by the local church: baptism and the Lord's Supper (i.e. Communion).

Every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ possesses eternal life, and is safe and secure for all eternity. However, a Christian can, through sin, lose their fellowship, joy, power, witness and reward, and incur the Father's chastisement. Relationship with God is eternal, being established by new birth. Fellowship, however, is dependent upon obedience.

There will be a resurrection of the saved and of the lost -- of the saved, unto eternal life, and of the lost, unto eternal and conscious judgment.

The personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ to take His Church to be with Him in heaven could take place at any moment. This event will conclude this present age of God's grace. It will be followed by the outpouring of God's wrath and judgment on the earth, known in the Bible as the time of Tribulation. After this, Christ's kingdom of a thousand years will be established in the earth, and He will reign as King.

At the conclusion of His thousand-year reign, Christ will judge all unbelievers at the Great White Throne judgment, and will deliver up the kingdom of God, the Father, that the Triune God may be "all in all."