The Seven Mountain Mandate (7-M) is also called the Seven Mountain Prophecy. It deals with the mandate to Christians to take dominion over the so-called seven spheres of influence in our modern times. Each of these spheres is referred to as a mountain and many who claim to be modern apostles and prophets have been prophesying that Christianity will conquer these ‘mountains’ before Jesus returns to earth. Different ‘prophets’ have slightly different divisions of the 7 mountains. It was begun by the co-work of Loren Cunnihman and Bill Bright. I tried to find their respective 7 categories and, along with the book the Seven Mountain Prophecy by Johnny Enlow, I produced the following table.
| Loren Cunningham1 | Bill Bright2 | Johnny Enlow3 |
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According to Johnny Enlow, each mountain presently has an associated demonic force attached to it. He says that there are demonic principalities presently ruling each of these secular spheres. These demonic forces need to be vanquished. In addition, he says the seven spheres of influence correspond to the seven nations of Deuteronomy 7:1.
| Mountain of Influence |
Deuteronomy 7 Nation |
Demonic Principality |
 |
||
| 1. | Media | Hittites | Apollyon | ||
| 2. | Government | Girgashites | Lucifer | ||
| 3. | Education | Amorites | Beelzebub | ||
| 4. | Economy | Canaanites | Mammon | ||
| 5. | Religion | Perizzites | Spirit of Religion | ||
| 6. | Celebration | Hivites | Jezebel | ||
| 7. | Family | Jebusites | Baal |
The Seven Mountain Mandate (7-M), which is supported and taught in the New Apostolic Reformation movement, is based primarily on two verses in the Bible: Gen. 1:28 and Isaiah 2:2-3
- “God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth,'” (Genesis 1:28).
- “Now it will come about that In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2-3) For more scriptures related to this see (Micah 4:1-2).
Genesis 1:28 is commonly referred to as the Dominion Mandate where God has instructed Adam to subdue the earth. It is the summation of the creation account in which Adam (mankind) receives the instruction on what to do. This reflects the creative and sovereign nature of God that is shown in human nature (We are made in God’s image, Gen. 1:26). As part of this, Christians are to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20) which encompasses all areas of life.
Isaiah 2:2-3 speaks of the “last days.” This is eschatological since the couplet ‘last days’ is also mentioned in Acts 2:17, a period of time we have been in for approximately 2000 years. The interpretation of the Scripture and its fulfillment in the New Testament ‘Last Days” is varied. Interpretations range from literal governmental organizations to all people groups.
Conclusion
The seven Mountain mandate is a hyperfocus on Christian dominion theology that does not seem to have the centrality of Christ’s atoning sacrifice as a central theme. In all of my research in it so far, making disciples of unbelievers is not the central issue. Instead, it’s taking dominion. This concerns me since it could be a strategy used by the devil to take the focus off of Christ and put it on Christian work in the battle to dominate the world. In this, we need to be very careful.
