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A Tongan woman who claims she is the true Prophet of God and His new messenger has gained growing band of followers.
Esita Smith, who lives in Australia, began her religious mission about a year ago, but has been widely mocked on social media.
She told Kaniva News she was sick of being attacked by people who called themselves Christians.
Smith has gathered a strong following among people she calls her apostles.
These apostles imitate her video preaching style when they preach and claim God has made a change in their souls through the Prophet.
In a video she released on Facebook on November 10, Smith said she had received a new command from God to reveal to her followers.
“I am the new Word of God and the new Old Testament version,” she announced online in Tongan.
She said people believed in the Old Testament and the work of prophets like her, but had never seen them first hand.
“That is the difference between me and those prophets because you are seeing me and what I am preaching to you,” she said on the video.
The Tongan Australia resident has faced strong criticisms from a Tongan church minister in Australia and some Tongan Christian followers on social media.
Rev. Semisi Kava of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga in Australia lashed out at Smith and labelled her as
“manufekai” (beast) “fie-Kalaisi” (Anti-Christ) and “vale” (ignorant).
When asked about the motives behind his reaction against Smith, Rev. Kava said it was because she departed from the teaching of the Bible and claimed she was Christ.
Rev. Kava claimed he discovered through his Facebook messenger that some Free Wesleyan Church members have left the church and followed Smith.
He did not give the exact number of those people.
However, he claimed they included a church steward couple who had separated from their children after they chose to follow.
Rev. Kava said the couple had left Christ and moved into fire.
In an emotional statement he called on all Christians to stand together for the real Jesus the Christ.
Response
Smith told Kaniva News she was fed up with people who regarded themselves as Christians and at the same time they showed hatred against her and swore at her and her followers.
She said she ignored them because what she did was what God had told her to do.
“Remember our people, they do not want others to have anything better,” she said.
“I told you they could not defeat me”, Smith said.
Some of the Tongan community said they found Smith’s preaching and behaviour unusual.
She did not wear pastoral or formal attire, but instead dressed casually.
In one of her videos she wore a singlet and while preaching she referred to her golden necklace and ring.
She said she told her followers to make sure they appeared clean and beautiful whenever they preached online.
The language she used was very informal and she did not appear to have based her preaching on a religious book or referred to church teachings.
She did not preach using references to the Bible but on one video she strongly criticised church leaders for collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars from their poor church members.
She told church leaders God wanted them to stop it immediately.
The following videos were recorded by some of Smith’s apostles
The apostles openly declared how they believed in Smith’s preaching and teachings. Some of their videos viewed more than 20,000 times and shared more than 200 times on Facebook.
The main points
- A Tongan woman who claims she is the true Prophet of God and His new messenger has gained growing band of followers.
- Esita Smith, who lives in Australia, began her religious mission about a year ago, but has been widely mocked on social media.
- She told Kaniva News she was sick of being attacked by people who called themselves Christians.
- Smith has been criticised by Rev. Semisi Kava of the Methodist Church in Australia, who has labelled her as the “anti-Christ” (fie Kalaisi).
