This important comment was recently made and it needs addressing in its own post as it is no simple matter to answer…Here is the comment as follows: 

“…Too much money in ‘church’ business.  Big building,  high paid preachers, etc. of course we live here and now but we can still return to house assemblies with everyone getting involved in worship .   Bible study and comments, songs,  baptisms in fresh water ( that might be difficult ) but keeping worship simple. Teaching and making disciples!”

This issue has long been troublesome to us. As Calvarians we don’t base our beliefs or behaviors in the Messianic Movement of the last century nor the Protestant Movement of the centuries prior. While we are Messianic in that we follow Yeshua the King Messiah, and Protestant in that indeed we do protest the assertions of Rome to hold authority over faith and practice, never the less we follow those of old who did not spring from these recently groups, modeling themselves either in the image of existing denominations and sects or else styling themselves in opposition to the same. Rather we recon ourselves as the heirs of an older order, a very strict sect, secretive until recently for avoidance of destruction by all Christian versions, but always present in every century. For this reason our gatherings (when possible) are simply referred to as Centuries’ Assemblies. 

Calvarianism is an anachronistic term like Christian or church often set back into the centuries prior to their existence, but Calvarian describes those of every age and generation who set aside our own pride and assume the ancient identity of Israel, with its requirements and responsibilities. When done in public in the early days such people were persecuted by Jews as being Christians and persecuted by Christians and pagans alike as being Jews or judaisers, though in their day most were merely known as Sebomenoi - those who fear and respect. They were those born to the nations but longing to join or rejoin Israel. The Jews required becoming Jewish to do so and the Christians viewed this conversion as falling away from faith since they believed themselves a separate entity from Israel or the replacement thereof.

Calvarianism is a 12th century restoration movement hiding in a heathen and Christian world. An attempt to restore the Nazarene Way of the first century but not exactly. Why not exactly? Because the first century Natzorim sect was a Jewish sect allowing pagan converts to join. It’s goal was to grow into the whole nation of Israel again by bringing in the repentant pagans. The Nazarenes perceived themselves as the stump of a tree cut down, one which could be regrown again into a new tree by bringing in those who descended from the lost tribes and those who were turning to YHWH in repentance. So Calvarianism wasn’t exactly the same because in the 12th century almost all those who were joining up were secret converts from Catholicism. There were hardly any Jews or Jewish converts to the Calvarian Way. And even in its inception, the restoration remained a closely guarded secret until the modern day because of persecution. Which means unto the present day, the Calvarian Way has only ever been practiced in private and never in corporate. In the beginning it was Jewish absorbing heathen converts and teaching them The Way and throughout the centuries it was Christian converts unlearning everything and relearning the Way, yet unable to obey everything openly and properly lest they one and all be exterminated.

In recent days, however, though we are now allowed to speak openly, we never the less have not yet begun to enact congregations personally. Why? Here’s where we come to the moment that inspired this response… The Nazarene sect was destroyed by open congregations. And over the centuries the Calvarian forms thrived in hiding. In the modern world the Messianic Movement and Hebrew Roots Movement are being eaten alive in similar ways to the first century. OurTemplar ancestors outlined the method of restoration should ever religious liberty be allowed. Though they never implemented it in their day and they could not have ever foreseen the zeitgeist we face today. (The Templars were playing the long game hoping to grow so powerful within the Catholic Church to eventually overtake it entirely and slowly evolve it backward again to the beginning the way it slowly devolved into its pagan form…Alas that never happened and they were destroyed before they could gain such a state . But their Way was never lost. The remnants were taught Calvarianism in every successive generation, keeping The Way alive but never hoping their would be a place and time when it would be possible once again to openly declare the Truth without instant destruction. )

Today we are so able to speak openly and have had clearance to speak since 2010. But the trouble still remains of how to overcome, the ever devouring distortion that comes with open in-person assemblies. 

In secret, the Way was taught with exactitude, and entrusted exclusively to those who would keep it in exacting status, with no deviation nor diminution. Calvarianism was memorized and never written down till these modern times. Those who were given the duty to transmit it were tested to the uttermost and tried to the point of torture to ensure we would rather suffer and die than to distort the Way we had been entrusted with. 

But the time has come to reveal what we have long guarded, and to restore the old ways… but it is an issue of how? How to do so without falling victim to the compromise currently consuming the Messianic / Hebrew-Roots Movement. And the disease that devoured the ancient Nazarene sect, which drove the survivors underground for damn near 2000 years. 

There is a curriculum we’ve compiled for teaching but keeping the people on course is a tricky business. Folks generally want to conform. They desire to and do adapt the facts to the familiar instead of the right and righteous reverse. They adjust to the expected, they adopt the existent, they alter to the acceptable. They paraphrase. They interpret. They equate. And they justify. 

In our estimation in order to be like the Nazarenes who were never intending to be the finished product and to be like the Calvarians of old who were only attempting to keep the ancient fire burning through the dark ages, we must indeed do as they did where intended that their heirs should but not follow precisely as they who were undone by their welcoming and trusting nature. 

A Calvarian congregation, must be exclusive not inclusive. No one can be allowed to enter the assembly without being invited and none invited without permission from the assembly. The open hand of charity is offered to all who prove to be in need, but the open hand of fellowship only to those proven to conform to The Way and never the inverse. No leader of a Calvarian congregation is ever paid to to do the work nor ever any tithe given. No one is ever allowed to teach in a Calvarian assembly without being vetted thoroughly. The Didache is the guide for all conduct in the assembly. The assembly is the people both when gathered and when abroad. There are no official buildings. And official buildings are never the goal nor ever allowed to become so. The leaders are never allowed titles of superiority and never separate from the rest of the assembly. 

Calvarians never employ Greco-Roman terminology when the original Hebrew or a suitable translation is available. There are those Calvarians who follow Templar tradition and those who do not, but all remember that the Templars are their progenitors being the only time in history when pagan born converts to the Hebrew faith made their return to The Way to take their place as part of Israel. 

In this late age of unfettered uneducated opinions and itching ears to receive them, coupled with a lack of belief in absolute truth as well as social media platforms amplifying the most foolish of narratives and the diminution and silencing of the truth, the greatest challenge to restoration is the extremes of ego and altruism.

In this age the ultimate evil is considered to be intolerance of any kind. We aren’t talking about intolerance of people based on their appearance but intolerance based on their beliefs and behaviors. All are welcome to repent and change but there are other assemblies where people who have not yet done so are welcome. Not so among Calvarians. Once repentance and change is made only then do the doors open for such a one to join The Way. Till then, there’s a church down the road for them. No hate for them; but they do not walk this Way and so the Way is not open to them; they may one day, and repentance will be there but till then, the way is shut; love and grace and mercy and charity to those outside, but they are infact outside and must remain so. Your neighbor is not hated because he isn’t given a room in your house; he is simply not family until, marrying in or being adopted. 

Every Calvarian assembly must have aim of discipleship nothing more or less. If anyone is after anything else then they need go elsewhere. No accommodations are or will be made. There are softer sects in Christianity. Ours is the hard road. And it is designed to make men and women tough and tough men and women tougher. For centuries the Calvarian Way was measured by actual torture. And we don’t do that any more. But while it is made safer, it will not be made any simpler nor any softer. 

There will be dark times ahead and that is what we are preparing ourselves and others for. No exceptions. Discipleship is most often solo though. We can set the standard for what should be but there will often be no actual assembly. No fellowship. No camaraderie. The standard is exacting and must be held to exactly. We don’t address a crowd with a feel good message of faith and trust and picky-dust as the way to get to never land. While cheap Christian grace can reach thousands of itching ears all at once, only one or two genuine men and women are able to be  trained inThe Way, a training which literally takes a lifetime and may be ending in an instant if forced to contend for the faith. 

The King Messiah never called for believers to be the leaders but disciples, that is to say apprentices. Those who were being taught by word and deed and watching Him work, how to do as He did. That’s what Calvarians are becoming. Not intellectually knowledgeable but empirically practical. We will always be few. Never about the numbers and never compromising in the least detail. 

Until we can figure out how to make such an assembly without losing it to the lies of our times and making yet another watered down denomination, this small digital island will suffice. Some will hear, some will not, but we will stand alone in the room and talk to the walk before we allow the compromised to come in nor make a physical assembly that could so fall like the first century. 

Question Everything 

Get Biblical 

templcrier.com