Pillars of CCC

The Great Master, Reverend Prophet Samuel Bilehou Joseph Oshoffa (Ojú kìí ṣe ọfà) was born on May 18th, 1909 in Porto-Novo, in a Yoruba family of mixed religion. His father, Joseph Oshoffa, was a Muslim but became a Methodist, while his mother, Alake Iyafo, from Imeko City, Nigeria, followed traditional religious beliefs. His family was a member of the Church of Cherubims and Seraphim. Samuel Biléhou Joseph Oshoffa, on the other hand, never joined. His mother left him when he was only three months old to return to Imeko, Nigeria. His father was a carpenter (a fact that was considered important to a person who later reported receiving a visit from an Angel of God).

Prophet Joseph Oshoffa also worked in the ebony trade in 1947, as a carpenter before the establishment of the Church. He went to the forest one day to find the right type of trees to work on the wood. Once there, he lost his way and had to live from the earth products in the forest for three months. Prophet Joseph Oshoffa had a divine revelation on May 23rd, 1947, during a solar eclipse in the forest where he was lost. When he appeared again, he was empowered with the gift of healing and prophecy. It was during his stay in the forest that he received the divine order by an Angel of God to create the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC). Members are called “Celestians”.

The first act of healing of the prophet Oshoffa was the resurrection of his nephew. The nephew was recognized as the first prophet of the new church. In the following years, several other people were reportedly brought back from the dead by the prophet Oshoffa. Between 1947 and 1951, the church grew considerably in Benin. But in 1976, Prophet Joseph Oshoffa moved to Nigeria because he was in minor conflict with the government of Benin. It was timely because he was about to be arrested. Shortly after arriving in Nigeria, the prophet Samuel Joseph Oshoffa healed a mad woman in front of a crowd of people. At a healing event held at his home in Lagos, the prophet Samuel Jospeh Oshoffa gave the hearing and the word to a 19-year-old (who came from the United States with his father) who since his birth was deaf and mute. Reverend Prophet Joseph Oshoffa held a public meeting in Yaba, Lagos, where gathered people reported his ability to heal and prophesy. Miracles of all kinds were done by the prophet, whose healing of deaf, dumb, blind, disabled, paralyzed, and even resurrection of people from the dead.

In Nigeria, the Reverend Prophet Joseph Oshoffa received a large area of land, where a church was built later, after the landlord gained a legal dispute lost in advance, thanks to his intervention. The new church received resistance from Nigerian authorities for some time, but was officially recognized in 1958. The Church was recognized and authorized by the Republic of Benin in 1965. The new church grew rapidly and gained members across West Africa and the world. The Church of Celestial Christianity (ECC) is one of the most important churches of the Aladura movement. In 2001, it was the second Church in Benin in the number of its practitioners (almost half a million) who witness every day to the miracles of God in their lives. Today, it has millions of members worldwide. It has spread from West Africa to countries in America such as the United States, Canada, Brazil and European countries such as Belgium, France, England, Austria. The Church now has its main offices in Benin and Nigeria. The Reverend Prophet Samuel Bilehou Joseph Oshoffa died on September 10, 1985 in Lagos, Nigeria.

Praying with eyes closed is good, but experiencing God is even better and is a sure way to get to know God (the Creator), to know ourselves and to develop our faith in God. In CCC, the experience of God through Christ in each of us, through divine manifestations and miraculous healing, is the very object of their action. God is alive and always in action; His presence and manifestations are visible with Celestial Christianity. The Angels of God are constantly at work through the Great Masters such as his successor, Rev. Prophet the late Ehun Xavier GBEDAYI, and the Venerable Master, Supreme Divin Anselme, who, in the footsteps of the founder and his successor, work to sustain the humanistic, mystical and spiritual action of Celestial Christianity.

It is not only Jesus who is Christ. Christ is a spiritual path, a divine spark that exists and lives in the heart of every human being. This divine spark is dormant in some, awakened in others. It is time for the whole world to reveal its greatness, and experience this limitless Divine Power, for the liberation bell has rang for human beings.