Seven Mountain Mandate

I’d rather call this Seven Mountains Madness because I think that’s what this is.

Perhaps you’ve never heard of the Seven Mountains Mandate. Here’s a quick explanation:

The Seven Mountains Mandate is a theological ideology that is based off of a single verse in the book of Revelation which defines seven mountains. The ideology was conceived by several powerful Evangelical male leaders but gained traction when Bill Johnson, the influential pastor of the Bethel megachurch in California, wrote a book called Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate. The mandate states that Christian’s should seek to control the following seven areas of society: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business and government. When these areas are brought under control the followers of this ideology believe that it will bring about the “end times.”

I don’t have a lot to say about this ideology except in official statements, speeches and documents that are written by proponents of this line of thinking they commonly use the word “dominion.” As in to take dominion over or to have control over. Perhaps that doesn’t set off the red flags for you that it does for me. The only place that I can think that scripture uses this sort of command is in Genesis when the recently formed mankind is given dominion over fish, fowl, cattle and the earth. Beyond that - not a whole lot of dominion or taking control comes to my mind. In fact, if we consider that Jesus is the perfect ambassador of God (yes, that is an unashamedly Anabaptist approach to scripture called christo-centricism) we could make a pretty good argument that His approach is the opposite of dominion.

Dominion and the 7 mountain mandate involves taking control of society by taking control of seven specific areas of society. This is explicitly a “power over” concept. However, the Apostle Paul, in Philippians 2, writing about Jesus urges followers of Jesus to imitate the mindset of Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Notice that Christ humbles himself in His approach to ministry among mankind. Jesus doesn’t take control over or have dominion over seven areas of society. He enters into society in the lowest of possible places - a baby born to a poor family provided for by a carpenter. If that wasn’t low enough he took on the role of servant in many cases and allowed himself to be arrested as a criminal and even killed on the cursed cross. And, yes, I do mean cursed. Because in Biblical times it was though that anyone who died on the cross was cursed.

This is the opposite of dominion. This is the opposite of control over.

In fact, if we really want to consider how Jesus is exalted over others it is when God exalts him to the highest of places. Jesus doesn’t exalt himself. He doesn’t lift himself up. He doesn’t capture seven areas of society. He isn’t taking dominion. Jesus humbles himself and allows God to do all the lifting up and exalting. Which is an important thing to note when considering the Seven Mountain Mandate because followers of the ideology believe that they can bring about the end times that they believe that Revelation speaks about. Which puts proponents of this theology in a position of power over God.

Any theology that gives proponents of it power or position over God is a formal heresy. Any theology that is based off of a single verse from the book of Revelation should be questioned. Any theology that is said to have been “given by God” to a bunch of Evangelical male leaders should be placed in the same category as the visions given to Joseph Smith outlined in the Book of Mormon (the only difference in the delivery is the amount of people that it was delivered to) until somehow proven otherwise. Any theology that takes the life and work of Jesus Christ and solicits a response that is the exact opposite of Christ’s life - should not be followed.

This says nothing of the fact that the movement blessed and anointed the presidency of Donald Trump. It says nothing of the prophecies of Paula White, another proponent of the movement, or the political ties of many of these leaders to the Christian Nationalism movement. I’ll leave all of that out of this but I will say that the deeper you dig, the more you reasons you can have for denying that this has any legitimate basis as theology and calling it what it is - political strategy.