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Discernments

 

Hybridization of the Anointing

As already intimated, Seven Mountains teaching is based in the illegitimate hybridization of spiritual anointing, thought and principle upon fleshly endeavor. It is an unseemly concept of spiritually applied knowledge of good and evil (or "sanctified" knowledge of good and evil) and spiritually "empowered" (anointed) soul energy based in intercession and prophetic declaration. This mating of spiritual and natural energies and knowledge is the root source of the biblical concepts of spiritual harlotry and antichrist. (This brings Rev. 17:9 into view, on which we will comment in Part 7.)

 

Kingdom Mandatists strip the anointing off the gospel, prostituting its powers instead toward the open ended goal of reconstituting the world's fleshly culture systems. This is the same spirit we surmise motivated Judas and that went on to originate what became known as the Holy Roman Empire—wedding spiritual power to worldly culture. And it is this spirit that will drive the kingdom of the antichrist in its final form. Every prophet and intercessor now trying to commandeer world culture under the power of the anointing is a closet Judas in action with false compromised loyalties between this world and the next.

 

Prophetic mandatist teachers have fallen into their ideas due to a deception regarding the anointing. They erroneously believe that somehow our access to the powers of the world to come in the anointing gives us ability to carry out the contrived concept of the cultural mandate here and now. But the anointing does no such thing.  The anointing was never meant to permanently change culture, but to supplement the development of eternal life in those headed for manifestation as the sons of God, and to service the limited strategic purposes God has for preserving society until its iniquity is full and it is ready to be replaced.

 

- Reversing Primary and Subordinate Purposes

Genuine cultural transformation is a temporal byproduct of the true kingdom gospel. It is not the targeted mission objective of "the Father's Heart" to be conducted through the power of worship, intercession and the anointing. Where purposes of God are extended toward the seven spheres, they are auxiliary and subordinate to the primary purpose of the eternal gospel of salvation calling men out from the life and principalities of this world system and culture.

 

False kingdom teaching divorces the subordinate purpose from the primary purpose, and, while maintaining verbal obeisance to the primary purpose of saving men from their sins ("we need this, but..."), it in fact substitutes the subordinate purpose for the primary purpose, and redefines the original primary purpose in terms of the subordinate, or neglects it altogether. By removing focus from the primary purpose of the gospel to the subordinate purpose of cultural influence, mandate teaching leads to the esteeming and worshipping of culture in the name of Christ, establishing an idolatrous antichrist enterprise.

 

That is precisely what is happening now with the proponents of Seven Mountains and all other cultural dominion teachings. These concepts have little room for the true cross, the truths of the inner life that focus us on the internal, and genuine transformational sonship from the inside out—even though they may pay lip service to them. Seven Mountains teaching immerses Christians into the competing spheres of human culture, and by their loyalties and affinities to specific cultural spheres, dilutes their vision, distracting them from their unified eternal purpose, even to putting of them at odds with one another over their lesser carnal cultural loyalties.

 

 

Differentiating True from False Kingdom Influence and Authority

In highlighting the reversal of the purposes of the kingdom gospel relative to culture, we have begun to answer the question of what distinguishes true kingdom influence and authority in the world from mandatist perversions of it. This is so important, because issues of balance are at stake and it is just as important to avoid the extremes as it is to expose the errors.

 

Some, seeing the perversions of mandatist teachings deny that the kingdom gospel has any role to play at all in influencing and exerting authority with respect to cultural systems. Yet truth is never found in reaction to falsehood.

 

The scriptures repeatedly show us examples of prophets who apply their power to cultural institutions, such as in the way Elisha provided counsel for the King of Israel against the King of Aram. Was Elisha being mandatist? Was he trying to enforce the Genesis Mandate and convert the kingdom of Israel back to an edenic state of some kind? What about Daniel in Babylon and Joseph in Egypt? Paul tells us to pray for kings and all who are in authority. Is this dominionist?

 

The scriptures show us that there is a legitimate purpose for exerting our influence on the systems of this world as well as our spiritual authority. But those ways have nothing to do with the objectives of mandatism. They are not based in returning us to some past utopian state.  Neither Joseph, nor Daniel nor Elijah nor Elisha nor Paul had any intention of permanently "bettering" the human kingdoms in which they served under some idea of "restoring" them to life in Eden.

 

True godly vision for service in human culture is based in an ultimate vision for the replacement of the worlds systems by God's kingdom based in the power of eternal life in the knowledge of God purchased at Calvary. Genuine kingdom prophets and intercessors are anchored in the spiritual truth of the gospel and the kingdom of life entirely contrary to the principles of the kingdoms of this world, not in support of their "eternal perpetuation."

 

True kingdom ministries see their influence in society as a concession to the weakness of fallen man in order to reach man with the gospel and save him out of his fallen ways as they too are being saved—not to reinforce the glory of their domains under darkness. Genuine kingdom influencers and authority exercisers are consumed with rescuing men out of the kingdoms of darkness and into God's marvelous light, at the expense of the principles of the systems of this world. This means rescuing men from their enslavement to their own cultures. The engagements of true kingdom ministries with society, that is, engagements that work toward the temporal betterment of society, are strategically limited and targeted toward the ultimate end of delivering men out of their own flesh life toward the coming manifest eternal kingdom.

 

 

Priority — Context — Result

The terminologies used by both mandatists and true kingdom advocates—terms such as "influence," "authority," and "reformation"—are very similar on the outside, but very different on the inside. True and false pliers of kingdom authority are ultimately known by their priorities, context of applications, and their intended result in the use of their words. Although the two can sound extremely similar, even as Moses' serpent and those of Egypt's wizards appeared to do the same things, they can be told apart. And they must be.

 

Antichrist looks and sounds very much like Christ, as Holly Moody has shown us. And we must have two edged discernment in our approach to these things. For in prosecuting mandatist teachers, we do not want to prosecute Elijahs whose intercessory and prophetic activity may appear similar. And in the process of embracing the Elijahs, we do not want to embrace ignorant deceived Judas teachers who misapply the genuine concepts of influence and authority in the world to exalt the world.

 

The issues of priority, context and intended result are what tell us whether a kingdom teacher or activist in society is working for the kingdom of God or working against it in the name of working for it. Key questions are:

          In advocating our godly kingdom influence on society, is the kingdom teacher's top priority to see men come to Christ through our witness, or is cultural transformation the ultimate goal? Is the gospel an after thought or "side bar" in the teacher's emphasis?

          Is the teacher focused on Christ, on the eternal, and on the spiritual demands of repentant faith, or is the teacher focused on the minute applications of the anointing to the betterment of society as its own end, and/or consumed with the warp and woof of every evil conducted under the sun?

          Is the kingdom teacher's doctrine contexted in acknowledging and promoting the ultimate replacement of human culture with the spiritual kingdom of God, or is the gospel contexted by the teacher's larger vision for "permanently preserving" and "perfecting" the culture? What governs the teacher's ultimate hope in God? Is it cultural perfection or cultural replacement?  

 

Again, the question will always be what is the ultimate focus and objective?

          Is it to replace this world's systems based on the rebellious knowledge of good and evil with the kingdom of God, or is it to "sanctify" the world's flesh-driven systems as if they could be reconstituted as the kingdom of God?

          Is it to compartmentalize the gospel, spiritual relationship with God and body life in the church apart from and as somehow "inferior to" or "less mature than" our dedicated "ruling" vision toward changing earthly systems? Or is it to make the truth of the gospel with its saving kingdom message in the death of Christ and His resurrection the heart and focus of all our exercise toward these systems?

          Are we primarily focused on the destiny of men's souls? Or on the perishable imagined "destinies" of the systems of nations?

 

 

Discerning Between the Legitimacies

In asking these proving questions, we must further understand the difference between the legitimate roles of kingdom "maintenance" and kingdom "engineering" within human society. One vision is burdened with the need for the limited preservation of society ("salt" ministry); the other with the need for replacement of the society as it is altogether. These complementary roles are outlined more fully in my article Election Reflection, but must be discussed here.

 

There is a legitimate limited influential and authoritative role some ministries, in fact all of us, have toward the systems of this world as salt and light. This is the ministry of kingdom maintenance. Under the limited objectives of this ministry, prophets may counsel national leaders and intercessors may pray for certain laws to be passed or to be defeated. They may pray together with politicians who have a burden for a nation to repent, come to the knowledge of God, and find national healing out of brokenness as a byproduct of its submission to the truth of the gospel. These are legitimate temporal maintenance responsibilities within the purview of the larger purposes of the kingdom of God.

 

But such maintenance ministry must not be our focus nor divorced from our primary vision for the replacement of these systems by the engineering side of the kingdom of God still awaiting manifestation. Once again, the spiritual legitimacy of our teaching and involvement toward the betterment of culture is determined by the spirit of the priority, context and ultimate intention behind our activity, not necessarily by the activity or teaching itself. It is equally as important not to falsely judge as "dominionist" all forefront prophetic involvement and input into society and its institutions as it is to expose that which is of a false spirit.

 

Comparing and Contrasting the World Views

Mandatist teachers are accurate when they say that we must get beyond the "born again" message in our approach to people. Where they are wrong is to separate the concept of the kingdom from the born again message, as if there is no intrinsic connection between them. Where they are further wrong is in their ultimate intention through the kingdom message to basically give an "everlasting facelift" to the culture to make it perpetually "good" or "good again" (as if it once was), and eventually "good enough" to "enable" Jesus to return—as though by our spiritual labors we "bring Jesus back."

 

By comparison, true kingdom teachers also say we must get beyond the "born again" message. But by contrast they do not separate their concept of the kingdom from the new birth or from the church, which is the capital of the kingdom.

          True kingdom teachers recognize that the kingdom is the extension of the internal new birth into its developing place of spiritual authority over creation through its increasing contest with the powers of darkness over creation. The ultimate intention in this view is not to give an everlastingly improving facelift to culture, but to use that exercise in creational authority to grow toward the place of glorification which results in the displacing and replacing of human culture with "glorified culture."

          Furthermore, this replacement of human culture is not achieved "in order to enable" the Lord to return, but rather in synchronization with His plans for His return, in accord with the stated tumultuous conditions the scriptures say will surround that return.

 

The following chart succinctly identifies the chief concepts that distinguish Mandatist teaching from true kingdom teaching:

 

Mandatist Teaching	True Kingdom Teaching
Sees its own spiritual kingdom identity as basically one with the culture (family, nation, etc.)	Sees its own spiritual kingdom identity as basically separated from the culture.
Believes in the new birth as a separate and even inferior dimension of our kingdom spirituality	Believes in the new birth as inseparably intrinsic and foundational to our kingdom spirituality
Believes in the applying of self-effort (power of argument and activism) and/or the applying of the anointing to permanently improve human culture	Believes in the denial of self-effort and exercises the anointing toward strategic short-term preservation of human culture but otherwise toward its removal and replacement.
Sees itself as rulers now in fact and practice	Sees itself as rulers now only in principal, but in practice as rulers in training
Sees its present kingdom role as to enable the return of the Lord through its conquest of human culture	Sees its present kingdom role as growth toward, preparation and readiness for actualized dominion through glorification in synchronization with the planned return of the Lord
Rejects, minimizes or allegorizes Biblical predictions of cultural destruction (ie, judgment) relative to the return of the Lord.	Believes and embraces Biblical predictions of judgmental cultural destruction necessary to the return of the Lord.
Has a vague inactive agnostic expectation of both glorification and the return of the Lord	Has an intense active expectation of both glorification and the return of the Lord

     

Clearly, not all Mandatist teachers follow the complete "straight party ticket" described in the chart above. There are variable nuances within mandatist belief, some of which borrow elements from true kingdom teaching. Reconstructionist mandatists do not believe in the present tense anointing. Present prophetic mandatists would deny that they depend on self-effort to advance the kingdom. Some would say they embrace an active expectation of the return of the Lord, and some even of glorification. And some reluctantly admit to some degrees of cultural destruction (ie, judgment) ahead of the Lord's return.

 

Nevertheless, the overall thrust of Mandatist teaching is to fundamentally see one's spiritual identity in union with one's human cultural identity, to compartmentalize new birth identity and inner spiritual truth from kingdom function, to advocate the unqualified open-ended purpose of improving human culture, to see oneself as a ruler over the culture now not just in principle but in fact, and to believe the Lord's return depends on the culture-conquering efforts of His people.     

 

 

The True Meaning of "Restoration"

The mistaken notion of cultural reformability is based in part on a mistaken spiritual understanding of the word restoration as used by the Holy Spirit in scripture. Mandatist philosophers and teachers continually appeal to the words restoration, reconstitution, reconstruction and reformation. They do have a noble sound, after all.

 

Paired with the idea of "return to Eden" based in the Genesis Mandate, these words make perfect sense to them and certainly appeal to their hearers and readers. But in this we find the last problem that is fatal to the mandate concept. It is that these words when used by the Spirit do not refer to making something over the way it used to be, but to the creating of a higher succeeding order out of the ruins of a previous lower order.

 

When God uses the word restore or reconstitute, it does not spiritually mean as in our common English to return something to the way it was before. It means to re-make by and into a higher form of life never before seen.  

 

The earth is to be made over according to the power of an endless life found through salvation and the new birth. "Behold, I make all things new." If any man is in Christ, "he is a new creation, behold all things are become new." The Greek word for "new" in these passages is kainos which means "as respects substance: of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of." This newness is of an entirely different order than what was originally created. It is something "no eye has seen nor ear heard."

 

This is the Spirit's definition of "renew." It is the same as how the new life of Christ is of an entirely different order than the originally new life of Adam. So when God's kingdom comes into manifestation through "restoration," it will not look like anything the earth has ever seen.  (I deal more fully with this issue of the true spiritual meaning of "restoration" in my treatises on Israel.)

 

Absent this understanding however, reconstructionists, dominionists, and many other "prophetic" spiritual teachers are continually focused on a rearview vision. They always believe that something is supposed to go back to the way it was before—whether to "colonial America," or to "ancient Israel" and "the Law," or to the Garden of Eden itself.

 

But God is not restoring us to the Garden of Eden or to anything that has been seen in the past. The Garden of Eden is not coming back. Something far greater than was ever known at Eden—something no eye has seen nor any ear heard—is what God has prepared for those who love Him, and who are called according to His purpose. God is always moving forward, never backward.




Part 6



Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island

First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org

04/12



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