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.

To begin with, 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, 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 Scripture, through preaching, art, music, dance, etc.. Such, however, are not the truth itself, but approximations or manifestations of the truth.

Every religion has an exoteric and an esoteric tradition. 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." Ibn El-Jalali said: "Sufism is truth without form." Perhaps one of the best-known Islamic mystics is Kahlil Gibran.

Judaism, the religion established by Moses, is mostly known by its adherance to a scriptural book called the Old Testament and to various rabbinical traditions contained within the Talmud. It, however, has a mediaeval esoteric or mystical tradition called Kabbalism (Qabalism), itself a development of a more ancient tradition called Sepher Yetsira. Speaking of Kabbalism, Leo Schaya said: "Its doctrines have spiritual contemplation, pure inspiration, or "intellectual intuition" as their point of departure and not the autocratic activity of reason."

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. It, however, 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 exponent of the Hindu tradition, summarises his belief thus: "Unconsciousness is sin."

Christianity, the religion established by Jesus Christ, is mostly known by its adherance to the 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 Church of the Firstborn and the New Covenant Church of the Father, is a totally unique phenomenon. It is a pure esoteric Christian 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. Adherence to the New Covenant Esoteric Tradition in no way, therefore, compromises the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith as are expressed, for example, in the Apostles' Creed. In the New Covenant tradition there is no compromise with alien ideas, and no attempt at syncretism.

Another difference between the New Covenant 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 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 Christ Himself that He -- and He alone -- is the only Way to the Father, 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 truth to be found in all the other esoteric traditions, and it acknowledges and borrows this truth freely. Having acknowledged the central truths of the Christian faith as proclaimed by and large by exoteric Christianity, it, like all esoteric traditions, maintains that this central truth can be expressed in many different forms, and that there is no one single true external manifestation of Christianity. It would not, however, agree with Hindu mysticism which says that, for example, God may validly be conceived in Muslim, 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 that the resurrection of Jesus Christ establishes this to be so. We are not, as all the other traditions insist, simply to be 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 New Testament calls a "spiritual body" (1 Cor.15:44). In the respect it is the pure Christian Esoteric Tradition which is based in reality and the others in 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 help humans solve what may be called certain "psychological" problems they cannot deal with 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 truth into one book (the Bible), by definition esoteric Christianity maintains no such position. It does not, therefore, maintain that the Bible is the Word of God but one expression of the Word of God -- that in reality, no book would be large enough to contain all truth, let alone the sayings and acts of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 21:25). In principle, then, the Holy Order has no fixed "canon" of Scripture like exoteric Christianity.

It does, however, follow the Christian principle of self-limitation for the sake of unity with the Body external. Therefore publically the Order uses no other book than the Bible. In practice this means 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. 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 be respected.

As in all esoteric orders, the teachings, being essentially internal, are passed down from teacher to 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, while caretaker leaders, despite their apparent modesty, take on 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.

The outer form is 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 Jesus Christ in the New Testament -- and particularly the Gospels -- reveal that He was trying to get back to the original teaching of the Jewish and Patriarchal traditions, which had, at that point, become too rigid. Christ never denied Judaism. He rejected the tendency towards conservatism for its own sake. It must be remembered that His first followers were Jews, not rebels or converts from Judaism. However, what Jewish Kabbalists fail to realise is that whilst Jesus came to restore Judaism to its roots, He also came to elevate it to a new level of consciousness. Yet even then He came to do more than this, for He was Himself, as the Scriptures so eloquently testify, God Incarnate -- the Eternal God come down to earth in the flesh 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 that the esoteric and exoteric teachings of Christ became separated. What happened was that the exoteric tradition, deprived of its inner spiritual life, became fossilised into a series of rituals and complex doctrinal propositions to give Orthodoxy. This tradition, being essentially an external (exoteric) shell only (though it did 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 Roman Catholicim) and Constantinople (from which we derive 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 and whilst much of it is corrupt, some hearkens back to the earliest Christian times and even pre-dates the Synoptic Gospels.

Other schisms took place also. These, in their turn, divided up, the most significant being the Protestant Schism led by Luther, Calvin 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 Church established by Jesus Christ -- must have both an external as well as an internal initiation.

The Protestant churches, being a reaction against the excessive ritualisation of Roman Catholicism, sought inner initiation by faith alone, with few if any truly viable ordinances. The endless cycles of revival and stagnation, the mushrooming of groups and sects, is the predictable result of an improper balance of inner and outer (of esoteric and exoteric) initiation, and without the necessary keys of knowledge to ensure their stability and working harmony.

Other traditions, such as that of the Latter Day Saints, initially moved in the right direction but were corrupted by false traditions inherited from Free Masonry and magic. Joseph Smith attempted to establish both an exoteric as well as an esoteric Latter Day Saint tradition but met an untimely death. His successors, lacking his spiritual callibre, 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 Mormonism 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, Free Masonry. Joseph Smith met his death still very much involved in the occult and magic, an unfortunate inheritance from his New England childhood where folk magic was the norm.

The Twentieth Century has very much been the century of Hindu esoteric ascendancy as this pagan religion has become popularised and 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 tradition which has shown enormous flexibility. It may be truthfully said that the true esoteric Christian tradition has almost been totally erased.

The Holy Order began in the second half of the Twentieth Century as a tangible organisation in England, though it has its roots in the Far East and is now based in continental Europe and is slowly spreading around the world. Like all true esoteric traditions, it is non-public, being reserved for those willing to be guided by its strict discipline. As no pure Christian esoteric tradition then existed, the Holy Order had to be slowly and painstakingly restored through its founder who was guided by divine revelation. (As in all true esoteric traditions, the names of the teachers of the traditions are never made public, since the tradition is about principles and not personalities -- save the Lord Jesus Christ Himself). The founder was led through various religious traditions beginning in the orient and ending in the occident where he came to personally know the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him as his Saviour, Teacher and Master.

Passing through various key Christian traditions, he was taught line upon line and was called to establish a mesoteric organisation in addition to the esoteric Holy Order so that he could interface with the outer world. This organisation gathered the first members of the Holy Order, teaching those who were willing to follow the new discipline to balance and perfect each stage of their spiritual growth in Christ using the keys given by revelation and experience to the Order's founder and teacher, and sifting out those who were still trapped in the old exoteric way of thinking. This preliminary mesoteric organisation was established in Western Europe and existed for six years before being dismantled. As a vehicle of recruitment and experimentation it had served its purpose and, being unstable because of its pioneer construction, proved more of a liability and a hindrance than a blessing as the forces of fossilisation, caused by the exoteric thinking patterns of many of its members, began to set in.

In 1992 the founder, who is known as the Presiding Patriarch, organised the New Covenant Church of God® consisting of three organisations: an esoteric, a mesoteric, and an exoteric one. They were known, respectively, as The Holy Order® (or Church of the Father), the New Covenant Church of Jesus Christ® (or Church of the Son) and the New Covenant Christian Fellowship® (or Church of the Holy Spirit). The purpose of these three orders was to progress committed disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ through the disciplines of the new tradition from an essentially materialist, outer conception of Christianity into its inward, spiritual, esoteric core. Though three separate organisations, they were, like the Godhead they foreshadowed, in fact essentially one organisation. Only the NCCF® (also called NPKF® -- Nye Pakts Kristne Fellesskap®, named after the pioneer fellowships in Norway) was a public organisation and in almost all respects was like a typical Christian Church, and was the recruiting body of the Holy Order. It co-operated with other churches in winning souls for Christ and was a true exoteric Christian denomination.

In 1996 the New Covenant Church of Jesus Christ (the mesoteric tradition) and the NCCF (the exoteric tradition) were merged, thus eliminating the meosteric tradition which served no further purpose. The ministries of the mesoteric tradition were divided between the Holy Order and the newly constituted Local Colonies.

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 a prophetic period in history called in the Bible "the last days". 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 called the New Age Movement. Christianity, because it has lost its spiritual roots, is in grave danger of extinction.

We are soon entering a time called by the Bible the "Great Tribulation" (Rev.7:14). In this prophesied period of terrestrial 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 political secular power and a new artificially created "New Age" world religion based on the false Hindu esoteric tradition 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 Antichrist and False Prophet behind whom is Satan himself.

Christianity is ill-prepared to meet the threat at the present. 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, 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, whatever their tradition, by exposing the corrupting forces as work in and on them and imparting to them the keys that will invigorate their faith and discipleship. The New Covenant Church of God is not, therefore, a new exoteric church organisation in competition with other Christian churches.

Jesus said: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent" (John 17:3, NIV). The Holy Order invites you to become a part of this great commission -- to bring to the world the true knowledge of a Saviour, and not the counterfeit knowledge that is masquerading as Light. Our testimony is that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God, the only Saviour today, yesterday amd forever. We desire to share our knowledge of Him with you, if you will but receive it.

If you would like to know more personally, or like the Holy Order to give a lecture or a hold a discussion group with your Church or organisation, please get in contact by e-mailing us below.

Footnotes

[1] In 1992 the Indepedent Church of Jesus Christ, which had acculumated too much detrius from the Restoration movement which was hampering its growth, was dissolved, and a new outer form -- the New Covenant Christian Fellowship (NCCF) -- was formed. This served as a transition structure whilst the Holy Order was itself reforming and was replaced in 1996 by the New Covenant Church of God. The presence of a dynamic, esoteric Holy Order has ensured the survival and progression of the New Covenant Movement.