A former Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult member awaiting trial after 17 years on the run is still brainwashed.
Also: Destiny Church’s controversial, self-appointed ‘bishop’ Brian Tamaki told his devoted followers that God wanted them to give high-denomination bills to his church.
Brian Tamaki is exhorting his followers at Destiny Church to leave behind houses, jobs — even family members — to join him at a “City of God” he is building in New Zealand.
There are concerns about the church’s cult-like elements, both theologically and sociologically.
Destiny Church’s self-styled bishop Brian Tamaki has appalled the Christian community by denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, an essential fundamental tenet of Christian faith.
A comprehensive dossier compiled by Mark Vrankovich, founding director of the Auckland-based international organisation Cultwatch, reveals that Mr Tamaki dropped this inexplicable heresy on his congregation in sermons beginning in May last year.
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki says his $1 million-plus home and $75,000 car are “not much” of a reward for decades of clean and righteous living and taking his message to the masses.
But a former high-ranking Destiny member told the New Zealand Herald he and others left because people were hearing less about Jesus Christ and hearing more about the church’s leader.
Destiny Church‘s self-proclaimed Bishop, Brian Tamaki, said he feels uncomfortable with members of his parish giving him gifts but the rules were written by the church’s elders.
He said he had been ready to take a vow of poverty but that was not what God wanted.
New pastors have been appointed to run Brisbane’s Destiny Church after their predecessor and more than half the congregation walked out of last Sunday’s service.
Brian Tamaki dismissed reports of a split within Destiny as “grossly exaggerated” and accused the media of being “funny and weird”.
Destiny Church ministers and leaders are heading to its Brisbane branch after more than half the congregation – including its pastor – walked out.
“You might think I’m stupid for going into the church in the first place. But I found out it was a cult after I went in,” one former member says.
The leader of Destiny Church, Brian Tamaki, who not long ago anointed himself bishop of the church he founded, has now proclaimed himself the church’s “spiritual father” and designated the male members of the church as “spiritual sons”.
Last December the cult-like church announced plans to create a ‘holy city’ for its followers.
At the time Tamaki reportedly urged church members to sell up their homes around the country and move to his promised land.
Observers see in Destiny Church a cult in the making.
Destiny Church is planning to create a holy city for its followers in the heart of South Auckland.
The church’s leader is urging church members to sell up their homes around the country and move to his promised land – a suggestion that is not being welcomed by everyone.
Tamaki told his parishioners the city will hold a church to seat 5000, maraes, medical centres and schools, so his parishioners never have to leave.
God looked down on the ordination of Bishop Brian Tamaki in Manukau yesterday afternoon and lo, he was much pleased.
Or so thought the 3000 Destiny Church faithful who paid up to $70 a ticket for a seat at the TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre, only to be reminded again that moral crusades can’t be waged on the cheap.