[HOME] [INDEX OF ARTICLES ] [ COPYRIGHT INFORMATION ] [ ABOUT US ] [CONTACT ]

[ Part 1 ] [ Part 2 ] [ Part 3 ] [ Part 4 ]

[ Part 5 ] [ Part 6 ] [ Part 7 ] [ Part 8 ]

Conclusions

Seven Mountains in Perspective: The Holy Roman Empire, the Beast and the Harlot

"Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits..." Rev. 17:9

 

There is nothing new under the sun. Mandatist teaching has been around in one form or other since the church was first seduced into identifying itself with the Roman Empire. The "conversion of Constantine" was the great "Christian right" coup of all times. But we see what it produced and we supposedly came to know better through several spiritual restorations beginning with the Reformation. But the truth is, the seed of mandatist teaching has never been rooted out of the church. It has only gone into hiding to be reinvented in later generations under different guises, the latest being "Seven Mountains" teaching.

 

Belief in the conversion of the fundamental nature of the world system into that of the kingdom of God is actually a coup in reverse. It is really the conversion of the kingdom of God into the image of this world by the superimposing upon the world a "Christian mask." In the name of converting the world to Christ, the world succeeds at converting the church to the world. It is really that simple. And it has been the premier antichrist strategy against which the faithful church has had to struggle during this Second Age of Unbelief.

 

I find it no accident and an amazing irony that "seven mountains" are being used now to describe the latest version of mandatist teaching. The only place seven mountains are recorded anywhere in the Bible is in John's vision of the harlot sitting on the seven mountains of the antichrist beast! In that, I find only a confirmation of the true nature of Seven Mountains teaching.

 

The church is amazingly seduced and deceived by the dragon and beast powers of the world into prostituting its life and redirecting its spiritual energies into "worshipping" the beast. And from my own experience and study of church history, I can only conclude that it is an utter miracle that any of us are able to find grace at all for deliverance and preservation from the seducing spirits that so easily lead us into this kind of culture worship.

 

As Peter asked, "Who then can be saved?", so the Lord's answer remains, "With men this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible." All of us should walk in fear and trembling as we lift our hands and hearts and voices toward defining our relationship to this world as believers in Christ.  

 

 

Allowing Grace for Correctable Error

As we spiritually discern between the legitimacies of teachings that separate true from false kingdom ministry, given the subtlety of the seduction, we must make a certain amount of room for ignorance and error as well as be very cautious in our own assessments of what we are hearing.

 

Because of the subtle similarities between true and false kingdom teaching and spiritual ministry, we must be careful in our listening and judging of what we hear. We need to wait in earnest prayer before we draw conclusions about the truth or falsity of a certain teaching or of the teacher promoting it. In many if not most teachers, there is a mixture of true and false teaching relative to world culture and the kingdom of God.

 

Where error is confirmable to us, we must understand that some error is correctable, and we must always redemptively work to correct those in error regarding misplaced priority, context and intention of their kingdom paradigm. After all, we are all being saved now out of these influences, and we do not all have knowledge yet. Because we have all been born under the Second Age of Unbelief, all of us have inherited false kingdom teaching beliefs in our early faith and have required time to come to the light over it.

 

Other error however is not correctible. It is the error of those who, when faced with the truth after careful and repeated attempts, refuse to repent of their carnal adaptations of the truth and continue to promote the lie anyway. Such teachers must be exposed and withstood.

 

I do not have up-to-date personal experience with any of the current teachers in regard to these things. I don't know how correctable or too far gone any of them are. Nor am I responsible to. My heart's desire is that they all might prove correctable. And my earnest hope for all these is that they will see the error of the glitz and glamour of the wind, earthquake and fire of God's doings that has seduced them into riding the beast on the seven mountains. 

 

Regardless, I do know that all of them are deceived. Peter Wagner, Dutch Sheets, Cindy Jacobs, Lance Wallnau, Lou Engle, Rick Joyner and all who believe and espouse mandatism at whatever level are deceived. There are many men whose anointing I have respected as well as their spirit who are nevertheless teaching these falsehoods who must be kindly if not forcibly withstood depending on their heart attitude.

 

 

Testing the Spirits: Identifying False Teachers and Their Teaching

Those who promote Seven Mountains doctrine or any similar cultural or dominion mandatist teaching are in danger of coming under condemnation of John's identification as false prophets in league with the antichrist spirit. To understand this we must understand the full scope of his warning in this regard:

 

I Jn.4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. [2 By this you know the Spirit of God : every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God ; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God ; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.] 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world ; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God ; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

 

Note that I have bracketed verses two and three which deal with one specific manifestation of false teaching called Gnosticism. Today's mandatist teachers confess that Jesus has come in the flesh, and on this basis are not considered to be false teachers. This causes them to escape scrutiny under this passage. But John's specific example of Gnosticism is not the only evidence here of what marks a false teacher. Verse 5 also includes part of what may describe false prophets, namely that "they speak as from the world."

 

To "speak from the world" means to speak on behalf of and in defense of the cultural systems of this world. It is to advocate for them as if their conversion is the objective of the kingdom of God. It is elevating culture to make of it something in the plan of God that is plainly contrary to the Lord's teaching on the nature of the world and our relationship to it. Mandatist teaching does precisely that.

 

Most mandatist teachers in today's prophetic movement have not set out to intentionally become false prophets. They believe they have the interest of the kingdom of God at heart and are "doing Him service." The ones I know of exhibit a genuine love for the Lord and for His people. Yet their love for the Lord is polluted by an unholy esteem of and love for the world system, a seduction to which they have succumbed, usually due to failure to discern the true meaning of loving the world from hating the world.

 

I believe that the vast majority of dominionists are sincerely deceived and want to honor the Lord. Nevertheless they have been seduced by the spirit of the world to come to speak as if from the world. And if they speak as from the world, then they become false teachers and prophets. (The same applies to teachers of universalism.) My desire is to see these prophets and teachers repent, and I am available to them for fellowship if they will do so. But if they will not do so, I must separate myself from them and identify them for what they are doing.

 

My father once taught at a college of a nationally known radio minister. This minister had proven himself to be other than true to the Lord's message, yet at the time it was difficult to discern where his heart was. My dad began to expose this man's teaching for what it was. Some time later, word got back to the minister who one day confronted my dad with these words, "I hear you are teaching that I am the false prophet." My dad replied, "No. I did not say you were the false prophet. I said you are doing the work of the false prophet."

 

Whether in the end teachers such as Dutch Sheets, Peter Wagner, Lance Wallnau and the many other prophetic and intercessory mandatist teachers will irreversibly prove to be false prophets, I cannot say. I want to believe they will not so be determined. But until it can be proven, it must nevertheless be clearly declared that they are "doing the work of the false prophet."

 

    

&&&&&&&&&&

I close by commending to you a simplistic but insightful video that exposes the fallacy of Seven Mountains teaching and nicely capsulates our true heart and mission relative to the cultures of this world..

 

Blessings to all the saints,

 




Part 8





Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island

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

04/12



BACK TO TOP



Webmaster littleflock@netzero.net
Page created May 26, 2012

Background courtesy of