Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

Dominionism in Disguise: The Troubling Reality of the 7 Mountains Movement

Published by

Matt Stone

2008-11-16

Is this the next charismatic fad … or have I just been missing some of the action? I have been reading about a mega-conference coming up in Atlanta on February 2009 on Reclaiming the 7 Mountains of Culture.

The story is, in 1975, Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade, and Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With a Mission, had lunch together in Colorado where they received messages for each other from God that if Christians are to impact any nation for Jesus, then they have to reclaim the “seven mountains” of society.

More than 500 attendees from 21 nations and 30 states attended the 2008 conference. They expect more attendees in 2009.

The 7 mountains imperative seems to be grounded in dominion theology and the new apostolic movement of C Peter Wagner and friends. Sounds very theocratic to me. Have any of you heard of the 7 mountains imperative? What’s your take on it?

What I find disconcerting about the new apostolic movement is that they use much of the same language as the missional movement, are similarly concerned with cultural impact, but are much more culturally imperialistic in overall approach (and dare I say extra-biblical on some of their spiritual warfare teaching).

For more see:

Reclaiming the 7 mountains of culture

Peace Apostolic Ministries

Dominionism – The Seven Mountains

Tags Church, Politics

9 responses to “Dominionism in Disguise: The Troubling Reality of the 7 Mountains Movement”

Eric

2008-11-17

I watched the first video there. Interesting to see so much of Sarah Palin’s church, and I wonder how widely these sorts of things were seen before the election.
I’ve never been a fan of the high-road approach. Many great men of the OT were leaders, but Jesus took the low road. Lord, are you going to restore the Kingdom to Israel? Does Jesus empower us now to gain the seats of power, or does he call us to take the place of a servant? Are there ways we can do both?
I think some antagonism towards the Church is because we used to be part of the establishment. As we try to gain power, many in the world look on with anger and suspicion. When we serve, the world applauds.
Christians who occupy positions of influence ought to use them wisely, but I don’t think striving to gain those positions is so important.

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Alex Fear

2008-11-17

So basically we’re no longer interested in personal salvation of people, we just want to rule them?
About halfway through the first video you get to what this is all about.. Mammon.
Yes it’s another crafty money making scheme.. The biggest mountain is the mountain of business and finance.. which needs to be conquered first.
Gee so the rapture hasn’t occurred yet, we need to come up with another way to sustain our lifestyle.
Notice that all these prophecies and schemes always let the believer off the hook when it comes to personal evangelism.
“The Rapture” means that people left behind can read all the material that’s available, watch the videos and they have a second chance at being saved.
“The 7M mandate” also lets the believer off the hook: don’t try to be a witness to your neighbours – just try to buy his company so he’s your employee and then he’ll be in “the kingdom”.

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mono

2008-11-17

Personally I find it a bit disturbing and americanized. That reminds me of one of your blog entries bout 2-3 weeks back from Alex McManus – Becoming Normal again!
7 Mountains is the reverse of this!

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John

2008-11-18

I would call these people stark raving looney psychotics—and extremely dangerous.
And just as godless as the most extreme atheist–even more so.
They are no different to the Islamists who think and act as though jihad is about conquering an external enemy.
When it is in fact about conquering the mountainous hubristic conceipts and delusions of ones ego and thus becoming truly humbled before God.
And thus perhaps begin to practice the great calling of Jesus and all the Illumined Saints of Humankind. Namely to practice self-transcending love in all relationships.
Such love being its own sufficient demonstration and communication. And which freely blesses all without trying to convert anyone.
Who is going to convert who?
They would all do well to read and ingest the Wisdom in the marvellous book The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton.
Eric. These people have as much to do with the Great Men of the Old Testament as does the most deranged psycho-path.
Perhaps they should also go back to reading Dostoyevsky and his Grand Inquisitor. The message of which is explained in the new book by Rowan Williams.
They should also study the traditional teachings etc re the seven deadly sins.
And when they have thoroughly understood and thus transcended the impulses in themselves which are dramatised as and via these seven sinful tendencies, then PERHAPS they might thus be qualified to presume to begin to serve others in a God-Realizing way of life.

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Lucy J

2008-11-19

Alack and Alas! I don’t think it’s a fad. It’s a force that in its current form has been gaining momentum for 3 decades, and is truly a force to be reckoned with! I know a lot of people influenced by this stuff. They are people of passion and zeal and have an appreciation for the reality and importance of the spiritual realm. However, sometimes I wonder about the danger of compromise and deception into which untempered passion can lead us. There is almost a sense of the Machiavellian: cleverly deceitful and unscrupulous (Collins Dictionary) in the sense of expedient justification in this NAM.
It’s like the “in-crowd” or perhaps the “glory-cloud crowd” can decide the means to achieve “the end” claiming divine inspiration for it. My “antennas” always get twitchy when I hear pedestalled preachers start talking about Angels, divine visitations, harmonious vibrations and financial ad/ministrations. I was invited to a “conference” by a friend not so long ago and was appalled at the manipulative tactics of the eloquent, apparently amiable speaker and the exploitation of vulnerable people amongst the attendees. There appears to be a particular collusive dynamic between preach-er and preach-ee in these scenarios (perhaps a soul/spirit magnetism?). Be great to see some research done in this area.
I woke one morning last week with a distinct impression. The words came clearly as if I could hear them… “The sheep know the Shepherd and they hear his voice”.
There are many powerful and persuasive voices in our contemporary church fold, but how many of them echo that of the Good Shepherd?

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mono

2008-11-20

Uhhm Eric, what rapture :).

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mono

2008-11-20

Should be a big ? behind my last comment, sorry about that!

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futuristguy

2009-01-30

Hi Matt, I just finished up what turned out to be a very lengthy riff and response to your post on the Seven Mountain Movement. Since I was involved with readings surrounding the “dominion theology” stream in the 1970s and ’80s, I had more than a few things to say, especially related to your concern about how this could reflect on all Christians and affect the missional movement.

Examining “The Seven Mountains” Movement

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Matt Stone

2009-01-31

Excellent post Brad! Your 7 mountains post is timely with the 7 mountains conference coming up this month.
I left this comment at futuristguy:
Brad, I’m honoured that my reflections provoked such a thoughtful response. You’ve expanded my perspective.
I am interested though, where would you say YOU sit now with respect to millenialism? I find the existing categories inadequate. I expect I would be called an amillenialist by many, as I am neither postmillenialist or premillenialist, but I see a big difference between N T Wright style “inbreaking kingdom” amillenialism and Christendom style “soul survival” amillenialism. If you know what I mean.
Also, I am glad you picked up on the spiritual warfare angle. I agree missional and seven mountains theology is in conflict, but I am not sure how many realize this has implications for our prayer life. If it is conceded that Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare is bundled up with dominionism, what are missional people to do? A liberal response might be to drop demonology, or alternatively, social gospelize it. You know the way it goes: demons are “only” oppressive social structures. However I think that is inadequate and one sided. I think what we need is a fully missional approach to intercession that acknowledges spiritual opposition without descending into demonization of the other and acts of hexing non-Christians from a non-missional distance.

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