The History of our Church
Jesus Life Assembly (aka Jesus Life), the Church arm of Another Life Christian Ministries, Port Harcourt had its beginning in May 2004 when a group of people were called together to seek the Lord for direction and leadership for the formation of a full-gospel church. God provided a Pastor in the Person of Pastor Mrs. Ifeoma Edith Chukwuogo. On 19th June 2005, Jesus Life Assembly held its first service in our present facility in the City of Christ.
We Believe
• In the verbal and written inspiration of the Holy Bible, both the Old and New Testament, and that is without error and complete.
• That God is a sovereign God who exists apart from His creation, and who is in total control of His creation.
• That man fell through the eating of the forbidden fruit, is totally depraved, and is unable to save himself apart from the redeeming work of Christ
• That Jesus of Nazareth, being both God and man, came in the flesh, died on the cross, rose again on the third day, and ascended to the right hand of God. His death on the cross and bodily resurrection from the dead enable salvation to come to all those believing in Him.
• In the visible, bodily return of Jesus Christ to this earth to gather His Church someday.
• The doctrine of eternal punishment for the lost (hell) and eternal bliss for the saved (heaven).
• Except a man/woman be born again he/she cannot enter the kingdom of God.
• That the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity; and that the manifestation recorded in 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 shall operate in the Churches today.
• We believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit is for every believer as evidenced in many present day believers.
• That he/she that has the Son Jesus Christ has life;
• That he/she that does not have the Son Jesus Christ does have life. Though he/she is living, he/she has a death sentence handing on his/her neck.
History of the Church
The history of Christianity really goes back before the birth of Jesus into the Old Testament and ancient Jewish prophesies. Christians believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, a leader and savior whose coming was predicted by Jewish scriptures (the Christian Old Testament) centuries before His birth. "Christ" is the Greek word for Messiah, which is why Jesus is also called Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus or simply Christ. This is where the term "Christian" came from, to identify a person who followed Jesus.
Christianity began as an offshoot of Judaism for those Jewish believers who accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah and their Savior. God's promise of the Messiah was always meant to be a blessing for the entire world and not just the Jewish people. In the same promise God made to Abraham, the father of the Jews, about creating a Jewish nation through him, God also states that the Jewish lineage would bring a blessing to the whole world. Christians believe that Jesus is that blessing that was promised to Abraham and everyone else. Jesus commanded that the good news of His sacrificial death, resurrection and redemption should be shared with the whole world. The early Christian church leaders soon realized that Christianity was not just for Jews and began spreading the word to Gentiles (non-Jews) as well.
The Gospel Spreads Throughout the World
Because Jesus and His disciples lived in the Roman province of Palestine, the environment was just right to take advantage of the well-connected Roman communications networks and enabled Christianity to spread quickly throughout the Roman Empire and eventually to the rest of Europe, and finally throughout the entire globe.
Over the last 2,000 years, the message of Christianity has been spread through three major branches of the Christian Church. The Roman Catholic branch of Christianity is the successor of the church established in Rome and shares a history going back to the early church with the Eastern Orthodox branch. In 1054, the Eastern Orthodox Church separated itself from the Roman Catholic Church. Orthodox churches are largely national, each associated with a particular country. Orthodoxy is common in Russia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, the Ukraine, and Armenia. The Protestant branch split from the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation, a sixteenth and seventeenth century series of church reforms in doctrine and practice. Protestantism eventually developed into many denominations with slight subtleties of doctrine, theology, or religious practice. However, despite differences in practice and style, all Christian churches agree that the essential Christian doctrine is a life-changing and death-defying faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We see Christian church history not as the history of various and specific institutions, but as a history of the message of the gospel (which means good news), that Christ commissioned his disciples to spread throughout the world. It is that connection to the original message of Jesus, which has been spread through various Christian groups throughout history, that we identify with. We desire to continue to pass on "HIS-Story" as we take part in God's history.
