School of the Prophets. Cult, featuring bad doctrine, a charismatic authoritarian leader (since deceased) and mind control. Founded by Walter Simpson Ballantyne (deceased) in 1997, with branches reported in Auckland, Tauranga, Gisbourne, Wellington and Christchurch, as well as Australia and South Africa. Also known as New Zealand Training School for Prophets and Intercessors. It appears that people leaving School of the Prophets are deemed to be lost, with no hope of salvation. The mind control technique thought stopping is used to protect members from the almost inevitable rejection of their message by outsiders, while jargon and loaded language is used to obfuscate true beliefs from outsiders (for example, Mr Ballantyne states "the Gospel of the Kingdom" is not the same as "the Gospel"). The School of the Prophets is given a Danger rating because of its bad theology, mind control, and reports of marriage breakups in Tauranga, Gisborne, Australia and South Africa as a direct result of the work of Walter Ballantyne and this group. This listing is under review. Submissions for this listing are now being accepted. Please see the Contact page.

Similarly-named groups: The idea of a school for prophets (ignoring for the moment the biblically-sound notion that prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit, not something taught) apparently came to New Zealand from Australia (in recent times, at least), where a Brisbane School of the Prophets was (at that time) led by Chris and Debbie Gaborit, and from America before that. However, Walter Ballantyne does not acknowledge this chain of descent, and claims originality of concept – the school was supposedly revealed directly to him by God in a vision. (He needn't bother trying to emphasise the originality of the idea, as the concept was raised as early as 1860.) Functionally speaking the Tauranga-based School of the Prophets is unrelated to the American and Australian groups of the same name.

There is also a School of Prophecy founded by false prophet Graham Cooke.

	Danger: The group/person or belief/practice is considered dangerous due to mind control or particularly bad doctrine. These groups (or people) have a strong tendency to damage their members/followers.
	Hot Topic: The group/person or belief/practice has recently featured in the secular news media, has generated notable correspondence, is a popular conversation topic, etc. Note that this rating has nothing to do with the "cultishness" of a group.

Printed on 18 December 2019 at www.cults.co.nz.
Close window