Like all organisations, the Holy Order has an historical begining and has undergone a process of theological evolution. The purpose of this short essay is to answer the many questions that are received by the Order as to its origin, nature, and purpose.

In its primary sense, the Holy Order is an esoteric organisation, though the word 'organisation' is perhaps a little deceptive. The word 'esoteric' means 'inner' or 'hidden', in other words, that which is not visible externally except through some outer medium.

For example, emet (truth) may be said to be esoteric because it is not something that can be examined externally. However, it can manifest itself externally through a medium such as the Scriptures, through preaching, character, etc.. Such, however, are not the emet (truth) itself, but approximations or manifestations of the emet (truth). Likewise, the essence of a true wife lies in "the hidden ('esoteric') person of the heart" (1 Peter 3:4, NKJV).

Every religion has its exoteric and esoteric traditions. Islam, which is the religion established by Mohammad, is mostly known by its adherance to a scriptural book called the Koran. It, however, has an esoteric or mystical tradition called Sufism which attempts to get beyond the world of outer forms and directly to the spiritual heart of Islam. As Abu Said said:

"Being a Sufi is to put away what is in your head -- imagined truth, preconceptions, conditioning -- and to face what may happen to you."

"Sufism is truth without form."

Pre-Talmudic Judaism, the religion established by Moses, is mostly known for its adherance to a scriptural book called the Tanakh (Old Testament) and (later) to various rabbinical traditions contained within the Talmud. It, however, has a mediaeval esoteric or mystical tradition called Kabbalism (Qabalism), itself allegedly a development of a more ancient tradition called the Sepher Yetsira, but in reality just another form of occultism.

Hinduism, the ancient religion of the sub-continent of India, is mostly known by its adherance to various books such as the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhamapada, and the Srimad Bagavatam. However, it has an esoteric tradition which has become very popular in both the east and the west, namely, Yoga, which is the basis of a new esoteric tradition loosely called The New Age Movement. And closely related to this tradition is Buddhism. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a modern guru and exponent of the Hindu tradition, summarised his belief thus: "Unconsciousness is sin", very different from the Bible whichteaches that sin is the breaking of the Torah (Law) (1 Jn.3:4).

Christianity, the religion established by Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), is mostly known by its adherance to the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) and to various traditions established by the Church Fathers. It, however, lacks a pure esoteric tradition, and has mostly borrowed from other traditions such as Kabbalism (giving rise to so-called 'Christian Kabbalism') and Hinduism (giving rise to various forms of so-called 'New Age Christianity' such as Rosicrucianism and Free Masonry) and others.

The Holy Order, also sometimes called the 'Assembly (Community, Fellowship, Church) of the Firstborn' (Heb.12:23) but known by us as the Chavurat Bekorot, is a totally unique phenomenon. It is a pure esoteric Christian/Messianic tradition untainted by Hinduism and other non-Christian traditions. Unlike the esoteric traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Kabbalism, and their pseudo-Christian equivalents which subscribe to, and are therefore flawed by, the false and misleading doctrines of reincarnation and spiritual and material evolution, the Holy Order stands almost alone in esoteric tradition in affirming the tenets of what may generally be called 'Orthodox' Christianity and Messianism. Adherence to the New Covenant Esoteric Tradition in no way, therefore, compromises the fundamental tenets of the Christian/Messianic faith as are expressed, for example, in the Apostles' Creed. In the New Covenant or Messianic Evangelical tradition there is no compromise with alien ideas, and no attempt at syncretism.

Another difference between the New Covenant or Messianic Evabgelical Esoteric Tradition and the other esoteric traditions is that it does not acknowledge the validity of the other traditions as alternative routes to salvation or enlightenment. It affirms the central tenet of Christianity that Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) was, and is, unique and not just an 'avatar' or an ascended 'spiritual master' living (as some esotericists claim) on Venus. It affirms the Virgin Birth, the bodily resurrection and the claim by Messiah Himself that He -- and He alone -- is the only Way to the Father (Jn.14:6), thus implicitly rejecting the claims of salvation offered by other religious leaders like Krishna, Buddha, or Maytrea. It recognises only one Saviour and one Plan of Salvation.

Having said that, however, the Holy Order does recognise that there is emet (truth) to be found in all the other esoteric traditions, and it acknowledges and borrows this emet (truth) freely. Having acknowledged the central truths of the Christian/Messianic faith as proclaimed by and large by exoteric (outward) Christianity, it, like all esoteric traditions, maintains that this central emet (truth) can be expressed in many different forms, and that there is no one single true external manifestation of the Besorah (Gospel). It would not, however, agree with Hindu mysticism which says that, for example, 'God' may validly be conceived in Moslem, Jewish, Hindu or Christian terms, because the outer is unimportant.

The Holy Order is not so liberal. Whereas most esoteric traditions maintain that outer forms are totally illusiory or maya, the Holy Order teaches that whilst the outer is certainly secondary to the inner, it is nonetheless real and important, and that the resurrection of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) establishes beyond question that this is so. We are not, as all the other traditions insist, simply to become intangible 'spirits' in the next life but solid, resurrected beings where the duality of spirit and flesh is ended and blended into a new reality, what the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) call a "spiritual body" (1 Cor.15:44).

In this respect it is the pure Christian/Messianic Esoteric Tradition which is based in reality while the others are rooted illusion or maya since they deny the existence of a realm of reality beyond their knowledge and experience. This is why, whilst their traditions can in some instances help humans solve what may be called certain temporal 'psychological' or psychic-level problems, they cannot deal with the spiritual realm, with eternity and therefore cannot grasp the complete picture, because they themselves cannot see it. There is a dimension of relaity wholly missing from their vision and as such this has opened them up to deception by demonic powers.

Unlike exoteric Christianity, which would bottle up all written emet (truth) into one book (the Bible), by definition esoteric Christianity/Messianism maintains no such limitation. It does not, therefore, maintain that the Bible is the whole and exclusive Davar Elohim (Word of God) but one expression of the Davar Elohim (Word of God), albeit the most important one -- that in reality, no book would be large enough to contain all emet (truth), let alone, as the apostle John testified, all the sayings and acts of the Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) (John 21:25). In principle, then, the Holy Order (as opposed to the more exoteric NCAY) has no fixed 'canon' of Scripture like exoteric Christianity.

The Order does, however, follow the Christian/Messianic principle of self-limitation for the sake of unity with the Messianic Body-external. Therefore publically, in the New Covenant Assemblies of Yahweh (NCAY), the Order uses no other book than the Bible. In practice this means, then, that the Bible is the Order's final authority, as it is throughout Christendom. And whilst it teaches its members from other written works too, a central tenet of the Order is that everything must harmonise with, or be a legitimate expansion of, the Bible, because this Yahweh has clearly established as reliable written emet (truth). It therefore teaches that the existence of a Bible, limiting and external though it is, is a part of Divine Providence for the material plane and should therefore be accorded its proper place and respected.

As in all esoteric orders, the teachings, being essentially internal, are passed down from teacher to talmid (disciple) orally. The Sufis call this Baraka which has the same root the Hebrew word for 'blessing'. The teachings are passed down orally because only in this way is its spirit preserved.

However, traditions contain human beings and occasionally when a teacher dies without appointing a successor of high spiritual callibre, those remaining try to preserve the form of the teaching. This is very rarely successful. With time the dead teacher is elevated, more by hero worship than understanding, to sainthood or its equivalent, while caretaker leaders, despite their apparent modesty, take on or assume authority. Slowly the teaching loses its inner life as its inner (esoteric) content is forgotten. Theory turns into mere words, and practices into empty repetition. A process of fossilisation takes place. Tradition takes the place of a living entity which in turn evolves into what we call a national 'culture'. A culture is what you believe and do long after you have forgotten why you believe and do it.

The outer form is then considered perfect, and as such, is often mistaken for the real thing. However, the results are the precise reverse of what the original teacher intended, for the work of liberating people gradually turns into one of binding them closer to a mechanical way of life, however spiritual it sets out to be. There are many examples of this in historical and modern times. All the great religions (irrespective of their esoteric truthfulness or error) have suffered from such phenomena and so have many small and unknown communities originally dedicated to the development of man.

The most enlightened traditions have dismantled the outer structures upon the death of a teacher to avoid this very problem. The founder of the Holy Order has, moreover, dismantled one exoteric structure in his lifetime as it began to fossilise, thus setting a precendent in esoteric tradition [1].

A close study of the teachings of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Chris)t in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) -- and particularly the Gospels -- reveal that He was one of His goals was to get back to the original living teachings of the Hebrew and Patriarchal traditions (the Melchizedek Order). The religion of His day had become too rigid and fatally laced with manmade doctrines.

Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) never denied the spiritual heart of Torah. Whilst certainly rejecting liberalism, He also rejected the tendency towards conservatism for its own sake. It must be remembered that His first followers were Judahites (Jews), not rebels or converts from Judaism. However, what Jewish Kabbalists fail to realise is that whilst Yah'shua (Jesus) came to restore Yahwism to its Melchizedek roots, He also came to elevate it to a new level of conscious awareness, reality and being. Yet even then He came to do more than this, for He was Himself, as the Scriptures so unambiguously testify, Elohim (God) Incarnate -- the Eternal Elohim (God) come down to earth in the flesh (incarnation) to make atonement for sin and to transform outer flesh and material into something permanent and eternal. This is the mystery of resurrection absent from all other esoteric traditions.

It is regrettable, though in truth inevitable, that the esoteric and exoteric teachings of Messiah became separated. What happened was that the exoteric tradition, deprived of its inner spiritual life, became fossilised into a pot pourri of rituals and complex doctrinal propositions that gave rise to Orthodoxy. This tradition, being essentially an external (exoteric) shell only (though it did unfortunately absorb some of the Greek neo-Platonic esoteric tradition), did what exoteric traditions are best at -- it schismatised. The Orthodox Tradition divided up into several new traditions, the main ones being centred at Rome (from which we derive Western Roman Catholicim) and Constantinople (from which we derive Eastern Greek and Russian Orthodoxy).

Meanwhile false Christian esoteric traditions came into being based on a syncretism between Christian mystical thought and Zoroastrianism, leading to what has popularly become known Gnosticism. Gnosticism has itself, by and large, become exoteric and fossilised. One of its more important contributions has been an addition corpus of Scripture (Nag Hammadi) and whilst most of it is corrupt, some hearkens back to the earliest Christian/Messianic times and some (parts of the Gospel of Thomas) even pre-date the Synoptic Gospels and may have been source material of the sayings of Yah'shua (Jesus).

Other schisms took place also. These, in their turn, divided up, the most significant being the Protestant Schism led by Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and others which, though attempting to unconsciously return to Christianity's esoteric roots, ended up somewhere in the middle with what might be called a Mesoteric Tradition. But devoid of a pure esoteric core, Protestantism soon fossilised into more exoteric forms and has gained a reputation as being the most schismatic of all Christian movements. Though the cause of Protestanism's tendency to schismatise is interesting, it is beyond the scope of this short essay, suffice to say this: Christianity as a vibrant whole -- the Messianic Community (Church) established by Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) -- must have both an external as well as an internal elements working as echad (one).

Protestantism (Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, etc.), being a reaction against the excessive ritualisation and idolatry of Roman Catholicism, sought inner transformation by emunah (faith) alone, with a considerable reduction in the number of Catholic ordinances. The endless cycles of revival and stagnation, the mushrooming of groups and sects, is the predictable result of an improper balance between inner and outer (of esoteric and exoteric) spirituality, and without the necessary keys of knowledge to ensure their stability and working harmony.

Other traditions, such as that of the Campbellites and Latter Day Saints, initially moved in the right direction but were early on corrupted by false traditions inherited from Freemasonry and occult magic. Joseph Smith attempted to establish both an exoteric as well as an esoteric Latter Day Saint tradition, based on false scriptures like the Book of Mormon inspired by fallen nefilim angels, and met with a violent death. His successors, lacking his charisma and spiritual callibre, corrupt though the tradition was, were unable to halt the process of fossilisation described above, and the churches which descend from him have all lost the essential spark of his movement, though remnants of the Smith esoteric tradition have found their way into the corrupt neo-Masonic Mormon temple rituals.

Whereas the early impulse of Restorationism was basically correct in maintaining that the essence of Christianity could not be limited to one Book of Scripture -- the Bible -- it made the fatal mistake of trying to syncretise the Christian tradition with an alien, esoteric one, namely, occultic Freemasonry and kabbalism. Joseph Smith met his death heavily involved in the occult and magic, an unfortunate inheritance from his New England childhood where folk magic was the norm.

The latter half of the Twentieth Century was very much the century of Hindu esoteric infiltration and ascendancy as this pagan religion has been refashioned and has become popularised by being made palitable to the western scientific appetite, and what little of the Christian esoteric tradition that has survived has been absorbed almost wholesale into the New Age/Occult tradition which has shown enormous flexibility. It may be truthfully said that the true esoteric Christian tradition has almost been totally erased.

Scripture - the written Davar Elohim (Word of God) - has form and therefore is a manifestation of emet (truth) in time and space but what lies behind the form is of necessity timeless. That which is of the Ruach (Spirit) is, as Ibn El-Jalali insisted, "emet (truth) without form". The same is true of the Holy Order, for though it has a manifestation in time and space, is a formless entity beyond time. It belongs to the eternal realm. The same is true of authentic Priesthood - it is a spiritual power, a knowledge and an authority that requires no imprimatur or certificate issued by any man. It simply 'is' and is recognised by those who possess it in whatever degree.

What, then, is the 'Holy Order' and how can it be 'restored'? Unlike NCAY, which was officially organised in time and space in November 1987 in Oxford, England, the Chavurat Bekorot has no such beginning and therefore no ending either. One may say that it began to be manifested in the second half of the Twentieth Century. Because it is spiritual, it cannot be said to be 'here' or 'there' until it is revealed in the people whom Yahweh has chosen to manifest it through.

The Assembly of the Firstborn, being a heavenly organisation and fellowship of souls in Messiah devoted 100 per cent to their Saviour, comes and goes like the wind in this dimension - like the Ruach (Spirit). It has appeared as divers forms of revelation (like the Olive Branch and the Books of Abraham), as divine tavnith (pattern) that can only be rooted in a recipient firstborn soul disciplined and submitted enough to incarnate and thus retain and propagate it. It manifests both as written Davar (Word) as well as in spiritual movements. Like veins of gold in ore, it is sometimes strongly present, and sometimes weakly. And sometimes it is not present at all.

No person 'owns' or can set his or her name to these manifestations of the Firstborn (Yah'shua/Jesus) so the names of its recipients and teachers are unimportant. Though we sometimes call the Pentateuch, or the first five books of thr Tanakh (Old Testament), the 'Books of Moses', the truth is that navi (prophet) never put his name to them - men did when they started fossilising out their traditions, and then calling themselves talmidim (disciples) of Moses when they ought to have been the talmidim (disciples) of El Elyon (the Most High) alone.

In the days of Abraham, Seth - who was also known as Melchizedek (the King of Righteousness) - was the Cohen Gadol or High Priest of the Order, to whom Abraham paid his tithes. As there are no longer any High Priests in the Holy Order, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) being the final and eternal Cohen Gadol (High Priest) over Messianic Israel, the head of the Order is simply the head apostle (when any are around), as Peter, James and John were at sundry times, and was known as the head or presiding Patriarch or 'father-ruler'. This is not so much a title as it is simply a means of identifying through whom Yahweh is speaking, revealing and teaching.

Learning what the Holy Order is is something that Messianic Evangelicals are still learning. The Order has been tangibly organised in the past but was as stable or unstable as those early qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones). It has 'disappeared' for long periods of time, without assembling. Highly active from the late 1980's to the mid-to late 1990's, it faded away and was 'hidden' for many years. It does not easily harbour those too fixed on exoterica, who take comfort in external things, nor those lawless ones whose lack of self-discipline causes them to resist accountability structures.

Messianic Evangelicals have experienced first hand the bane of spiritual atrophy and fossilisation causing the Chavurat Bekorot to stop assembling for many years, resulting in priesthood selection and weighing for all but NCAY's pastors devolving upon the local assemblies themselves. Even the exoteric organisation, the precursor to NCAY, went silent and invisible for many years as Yahweh worked on His people.

In the meantime the work of assembling the spiritual building blocks and instructions continues apace for the Remnant.

The world we live in is a dangerous one. Religiously, morally, politically and socially it is in chaos. As many alert Christian bodies have noted, the world has entered the end of a prophetic period in history called in the Bible "the last days" which essentially began in the days of the first apostles. Christianity, though experiencing revival here and there, is in disarray and is so divided within itself that in most parts of the world it stands helpless before the organic satanic conspiracy to destroy it. However, what the latter cannot see, it cannot destroy. Christianity, because it has lost its spiritual roots, is in grave danger of extinction in many formerly Christian countries which are now being spoken of as post-Christian nations.

We are, within a generation, to enter a time called by the Bible the "Great Tribulation" (Rev.7:14). In this prophesied period of the earth's history Christianity will come close to being almost totally routed by an invasion of demonic forces that are taking control of governments, religions and secular societies with a view to setting up a World Dictatorship. Through the manipulation and use of spiritual forces and extra-terrestrial scientific technology, an unholy alliance between secular, political power and a new artificially created 'New Age' world religion, based on the false Hindu esoteric traditions, will take place that will seek the total control of the human soul. The resultant monster will be a form of spiritual fascism that will attempt to eradicate all religious and secular traditions that will not bow down before the new gods. That is what we are heading for -- Word Government under the dictatorship of what the Bible calls the Anti-Messiah or Antichrist and False Prophet behind whom is Satan himself.

Lawless Christianity is ill-prepared to meet that threat at the present and is already buckling. Because it has lost its esoteric tradition, it does not know how to counter the satanic threat, despite the brave work of many dedicated groups. The Holy Order has, as one of its commissions, the task of teaching the churches and assemblies, through receptive and enlightened souls trained in the Order, to prepare to do combat with the ever growing concealed demonic powers through spiritual education and inner discipleship. The call of the Holy Order is therefore to be the servant of the Christian churches and Messianic assemblies, whatever their tradition, by exposing the corrupting forces as work in, and on, them by imparting to them the keys that will invigorate their emunah (faith) and discipleship. NCAY is not, therefore, a new exoteric church organisation in competition with other Christian churches and Messianic assemblies. It exists simply to set an example.

Yah'shua (Jesus) said:

"Now this is eternal chayim (life): that they may know You, the only True Elohim (God), and Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), whom You have sent" (John 17:3, NIV).

If you would like to know more please get in contact.

Footnotes

[1] In 1992 the early 'Indepedent Church', which had accumulated too much detrius from the Restoration movement hampering its growth, was dissolved, and a new outer form -- the New Covenant Christian Fellowship (NCCF) -- was organised. This served as a transition structure, whilst the Holy Order was itself reorganising and reforming, and was replaced in 1996 by the New Covenant Church of God (B'rit Chadashah Assembly of Yahweh). In 2015-16 the two alternative names were merged into the New Covenant Assemblies of Yahweh (NCAY). The presence of a dynamic, esoteric Holy Order has ensured the survival and progression of the 'New Covenant' or 'Messianic Evangelical Movement' since its inception. The outer forms are not nearly as important as the inner life that drives them.