Much has been said these past few years about the Seven Mountains Mandate. A couple of the recent and vocal champions for whom I have tons of respect include Lance Wallnau and Johnny Enlow. The Seven Mountains Mandate simply identifies the seven influential mountains of culture in which followers of Jesus and ought to be bringing the light of the gospel.
These seven mountains represent the primary arenas of culture in which mind-molders are actively shaping our culture and they are:
- Religion & Faith
- Family
- Education
- Government & Law
- Media, News & Commentary
- Arts & Entertainment
- Business & Economics
Many leading Christian thinkers are teaching that in order to spread the gospel effectively we must be involved and active within these seven mountains. There is very strong scriptural support for this, but there is also a plainly logical and rational argument to support the seven mountains mandate.
The scriptural basis is vast, but just consider these:
Mark 16:15 “And He [Jesus] said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’”
Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Acts 1:8 “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Luke 14:23 “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.’”
It’s actually quite shocking to me that many Christians feel that the seven mountains message is not scriptural. They use a variety of arguments, from decrying it as a social gospel, to selling out to the systems of the world, to calling it “dominionism” (whatever that is supposed to mean—did not God tell Adam and Eve to take dominion over the whole earth? So dominionism is actually a biblical principle. I read the book the end and we win!).
But one simple question ought to clear up whether the seven mountains is something we should be interested in:
How in the world are we to go into ALL THE WORLD if we are avoiding these seven cultural mountains?
Think about it: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel”:
Our education system is part of “all the world.”
Our religious system is part of “all the world.”
Our families are part of “all the world.”
Our education system is part of “all the world.”
Our government is part of “all the world.”
Our news and media systems are part of “all the world.”
Our arts and entertainment systems are part of “all the world.”
Our business and economic systems are part of “all the world.”
If we are to take the gospel to all the world yet shun the primary cultural systems in the world, then we will be of no effect whatsoever. This is one place where logic and spiritual truth come together. You can’t play baseball unless you walk onto the field. Period. Total common sense.
Christians who fight against the seven mountains mandate make the mistake of thinking that we demand that every single CEO, movie director, news anchor, elected official, teacher, whatever, be Spirit-filled born-again Christians. Of course, that is a noble goal, in fact, it’s the end game of Jesus! Why would we not want to have every one of those positions filled with believers in Jesus? It’s what Jesus calls us to do!
We know that “He is not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9), but we are not naïve enough to think that every human being will become Christians overnight. Besides, there are many non-Christians doing an admirable job for society and the culture around them in every one of these mountains. There are Cyruses out there who, although they may not serve God and know Jesus, yet God can use them to bring blessings on the poor, the needy, the lost, those in prison, those in bondage.
What the seven mountains mandate is really about is stopping the slide of culture toward utter godlessness, immorality and perversion, and turn it back toward values consistent with the will of God, i.e., truth, liberty, purity, even holiness. All the good things that come from healthy societal structures are consistent with biblical principles.
I honestly can’t understand Christian hostility toward the seven mountain mandate, because the end result of their hostility is to let it all go to hell on our watch. Really? This is God’s will? To avoid getting involved in the seven mountains, and let the entire world crumble into evil and poisonous idolatry while we stand on the sidelines begging Jesus to return and save us from the evil to come?
Jesus Himself gave us the Great Commission. In it, he expects us to be in the world, but not of the world. In other words, we are to remain separate from the spiritual worldview offered by the world thought processes that are founded on corruption, evil, dishonestly, deception and a hatred for all things God, and fully active for Jesus while we live our lives.
The seven mountain mandate is nothing more than this: wherever you are, whatever your job, whatever your calling in life, you should be a witness for Jesus while you’re there. And don’t shun certain cultural institutions just because they tend toward the corrupt and evil end of the spectrum. Those places are exactly where the light needs to shine. “It is not the healthy who need a physician” (Luke 5:31).
Also remember that some of those most rotten institutions, for example some of our most renowned ivy league schools, started off as seminaries or institutions devoted to a godly world view, and on our watch they decayed into bastions of liberal godlessness.
No, the seven mountain mandate is not anti-biblical, but just the opposite. It very precisely describes the Great Commission in modern language. Go into ALL THE WORLD. Purposefully. Go to the movie industry, to government, to education, to the church, to the media, and take the light of Jesus with you as you go.