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Would the Real Faith of Jesus Please Stand Up?

Would the Real Faith of Jesus Please Stand Up?

Last updated on: September 14, 2024 at 4:33 pm by Rob Giannamore

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Would the Real Faith of Jesus Please Stand Up? 2024-09-14T16:33:40-04:00 Rob Giannamore

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Is the Seven Mountain Mandate Christian? A troubling theology or theory is plaguing our Christian landscape right now, potentially undermining the genuine efforts Christians have been making for thousands of years since Jesus left us. In this post, I want to explore the Seven Mountains theory, some of the theological history behind it and demonstrate how it undermines the Acts 2 mission and misleads our politics.

Begun in 1975, The Seven Mountain Mandate, also Seven Mountains Mandate, 7M, or Seven Mountains Dominionism, is a dominionist conservative Christian movement within Pentecostal and evangelical Christianity. This theory holds that there are seven aspects of society that believers should seek to influence: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government. In 2013, Lance Wallnau and Bill Johnson move this theory to modern consciousness with their book, “Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate”. coined the term seven mountain mandate and is one of its prominent teachers. Wallnau adapts the missionary mandate of Jesus to His disciples to “go and make disciples” of all the nations into a mandate to effect social transformation. The problem with this was that Jesus historically was talking about the social transformation needed in his time of occupation by the Romans, not the perceived social transformation that Wallnau is suggesting.

It is to be noted that in researching this topic, one will find themselves staring down a deep rabbit hole. This will be the briefest thumbnail sketch of this religious phenomena.

Dominionism, Dispensationalism and Millennialism

At the end of the 4th century, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. This alignment of religion and state along with a persistent longing for Jesus’ return known as the delay of parousia would begin a series of events, theories and theologies that continue to persist to current times. For the sake of this conversation, we are going to home in on the 19th and 20th centuries of the modern times (this could easily be a 100 page dissertation). In these two centuries, the world over saw an incredible amount of upheaval with civil and world wars, economic crisis’s, political crisis’s and shifts in religious identities.

Dispensationalism –

Dispensationalism is a theological framework that views history as divided into distinct periods in which God interacts with mankind in specific ways. Each of these periods is known as a dispensation. The defining characteristics of a dispensation are the distinct governing relationship in which God interacts with mankind during that period, and the resulting responsibility placed upon mankind in that period

The group of Christians that believe in dispensationalism believe we are in the 6th dispensation or the Dispensation of Grace. During this dispensation, “Man’s responsibility is to believe in Jesus, the Son of God (John 3:18). In this dispensation the Holy Spirit indwells believers as the Comforter (John 14:16-26). This dispensation has lasted for almost 2,000 years, and no one knows when it will end. We do know that it will end with the Rapture of all born-again believers from the earth to go to heaven with Christ. Following the Rapture will be the judgments of God lasting for seven years”.

This then creates the push to convert and reform all so that no one is left behind (a very simplistic way of looking at this) and has to experience the rapture. One of these pushes is dominionism.

Dominionism –

Dominion Theology is a group of Christian political ideologies that seek to institute a nation governed by Christians based on their personal understandings of biblical law. The key word here is personal understanding.

Unlike “dispensationalism’s message of social deterioration that precedes Christ’s return, Christian dominionism is postmillennial rather than premillennial. It argues that Christians can and must reform society so that it becomes progressively better. Only then will Christ return”.

Seven Mountain Mandate – The theology of the New Apostolic Reformation

To effectively reform society to better prepare for Christs’ return, enter the seven mountain mandate. The seven mountain (7-M) mandate or the seven mountain prophecy is a strategy for evangelizing the modern world and enlarging Christ’s kingdom. It has especially gained a following

in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches. Those who follow the seven mountain

mandate believe that the best way for the church to be effective is to bring change in

the seven major spheres of influence in society:

1) Education
2) Religion
3) Family
4) Business
5) Government/Military
6) Arts/Entertainment
7) Media

It is from this that we get the Project 2025 playbook. To say any of this is new would be a bold and ignorant misunderstanding of Christian history. We know that the group behind the Project 2025 playbook have been influencing politics for at least 75 years. Prior to this, extreme Christian ideologies have fought to rule society for their own gain for millennia. We are just more aware of it now because information is so available and in our faces.

A Jewish Way Forward

Big surprise, Jesus was Jewish, and his Judaism did not look like our Christianity. In Christianity, our message is often fear based to keep congregants and parishioners in check Jesus’ faith was not fear based. What sets us apart from our Jewish cousins and even our ancestral Acts 2 church is that as Christians, we affirm the messiahship of Jesus. Our theology shapes and defines how we understand Jesus embodies his Christness.

In Judaism, justice is founded in the idea of covenant. In the Hebrew Bible, the Exodus event is the greatest narrative for the Jewish people around covenant. In the covenant that they enter, they become obligated to each other and to God. It is through this covenantal relationship that we observe all the holy festivals observed in the Hebrew bible and by Jesus in the New Testament. It was this covenant that included the specific provisions for human relationships, including fair courts, protecting the vulnerable, lending to the poor and needy without interest, treating wage laborer fairly, essentially, a very liberal approach today. This would have been the faith of Jesus. We need to think more deeply how we can engage with the faith of Jesus rather than the faith about Jesus.

To say that there is one right Christianity would be saying a lot and would also be a grossly inaccurate statement. There is only one Christianity or sect that followed the way of Jesus. There have been many interpretations of what this is supposed to look like since that 4th century collision. Some of these interpretations are healthier and life giving than others.

In studying sects and cults for a while, it can be fairly stated that it can be very hard to draw the line between the two. Christianity is clearly a sect of Judaism, but at what point does it become cult like? Or when does it even cease to be Christian or become pseudo-Christian? It is felt that the outline is drawn in Acts 2 and by careful examination of the faith of Jesus of how our Christian posture should be. It is felt that the current Christian narrative today does not fit that template.

God, the faith of Jesus and the early fellowship of Jesus was about love. Unconditional and unrelenting love. A love that did not alienate or separate. This is the faith of Jesus, a faith that we need to embody. This is the faith of Jesus that needs to stand up right now.

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