Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 1 Corinthians 15:24 ESV

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jew. But my kingdom is not from this world. John 18:36 ESV

Have you ever sat in corporate church gathering where you heard a minister say that we as the church needed to “conquer a particular mountain in society”? If you have ever noted this being said, then you are not alone. I remember hearing this on a number of occasions concerning the “media mountain” and the necessity in ascending and conquering said mountain. This belief stems from the seven mountain mandate, a perpetuated belief dating back to 1975 that the church is to take over the spheres/pillars/mountains of influence in society. What is central to this teaching is that the church must do this in order for Jesus Christ to return and that Christ is essentially bound in heaven and is unable to do anything until the body of Christ ascends in power and authority, taking back the culture and the kingdoms (dominion theology). Does this sound contradictory to Scripture? It should. There are a few resources that can be found on the subject from supporters of this mandate. This post will evaluate one of them.

About a year ago, I took time to read The Seven Mountain Prophecy by Johnny Enlow. In this book, he lays out the seven mountains that are to be conquered by high ranking governing authorities in the church, namely the five fold ministry with apostles taking over the government mountain. The seven mountains or pillars of society are government, family, economy, education, religion, arts and entertainment, and media. Enlow assigns each mountain to one of the seven nations listed in Deuteronomy 7:1, claiming prophetic revelation that these “ites” are linked to each mountain of society. In addition, he feels that he has discerned which demonic principality is over each mountain, and he provides insight going beyond the confines of Scripture, offering a multilevel approach and prayer strategies for each. He also assigns the five fold ministry to each mountain along with others such as worship leaders to conquer these mountains of influence. Enlow states early on in his book, “Jesus regained authority to establish the rule of God upon the seven pillar of the very cultures, or infrastructures, of every nation of the earth.” I guess the question could be posed, “When did Jesus Christ lose authority?” There were several times while reading this book that I was concerned about particular statements, and there were stark contradictions with Scripture. I am writing this post to help others in seeing the contradictions and to humbly point back to Scripture for the truth.

Enlow states several times in his book that the church will deliver the kingdom back to Jesus Christ after the church has conquered the seven mountains. However, we are never told in Scripture that we are instructed to do such a thing. Jesus made it clear that His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36) and to say that He cannot return without us essentially doing something first is to become man centered rather than Christ centered. Furthermore, the Scripture makes it clear that Christ Jesus will deliver the kingdom to God after He has destroyed every rule, authority, and power (1 Corinthians 15:24). Deuteronomy 7:1 seems to even contradict Enlow’s premise of our authority and power to conquer as it is God who does the work of bringing the Israelites into the land and giving those nations over to them to conquer. Jesus Christ is not dependent upon us for anything, contrary to popular belief and teaching. He stated in Matthew 28:18 that all authority and power has been given to Him, and as the metaphorical body of Christ, believers are instructed to make disciples, ministering the gospel of Jesus Christ and testifying of Him by the Holy Spirit.

With regards to the gospel of Jesus Christ, Enlow separates the gospel of salvation from the gospel of the kingdom, claiming that saving souls is not sufficient and that the gospel of the kingdom is what must go forward. However, when reading Scripture there is no distinction between the two because at the crux of the gospel of the kingdom is repentance and salvation by faith in Christ. There is no coming into the kingdom where Christ is King without salvation through Him, and we should not diminish the miracle of salvation. He also claims that the church is going to “take on the false prophet and the beast, and we’re going to annihilate both of them.” When this happens, he says that we will come and present the nations of the world to Him for His possession. There is a glaring issue with this statement, and that would be its contradiction with Scripture among its man centered authority. Revelation 19:19-20 tell us that Jesus Christ throws the false prophet and the beast alive into the lake of fire where they will be tormented forever. He will not annihilate them, and neither will we. They will not cease to exist, but rather they will suffer eternal torment and punishment by God who will judge. Revelation 20:10 tells us that this is where Satan will be thrown, reiterating the same location where the beast and the false prophet will spend eternity.

He says numerous troubling statements ranging from the left brain “squeezing out the Spirit of God and that the fruit of the Spirit are accessed only through the right brain” to calling those who “oppose all manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s power…a part of the Antichrist’s resistance, a tool of the anti-anointing.” He also believes that the church’s rebellion is found in hearts of unbelief toward God and Him using us to conquer the seven mountains. No, rebellion is shown in sin and rejecting God Himself. There are implications in this book that Jesus is “held in the heavens” until a generation rises to finish the assignment and to dominate. However, Jesus Christ finished the “assignment” on the cross, and as stated before, He is not at our mercy. One final note, the Bible speaks of seven mountains only one time to my knowledge, and that is found in Revelation 17:9 in a rather negative connotation. The verses leading up to this describe a woman riding a beast with seven heads. The seven heads were seven mountains. There are several interpretations for this passage, namely that this woman is the harlot church, but at any rate, this should help us to understand the importance of reading the Word of God and studying it. If I can encourage you in any way, have your Bible open and ready to cross check teachings that are being perpetuated. It is commendable to be a Berean.