Is the Seven-Mountain Mandate Biblical?
What is the “Seven-Mountain Mandate?”
The “Seven-Mountain Mandate” is part of reconstructionism which says power and wealth must be taken from the world and given to the church. It is promoted by teachers of the New Apostolic Reformation. But is it biblical?
Reconstructionism involves the idea that Christians are to radically oust the devil from spiritual strongholds through a variety of spiritual warfare activities.
Prayer walks and prayer rooms
Christians are encouraged to conduct prayer walks throughout neighborhoods to cast out territorial spirits from cities so that the gospel can advance.
In prayer rooms that operate around the clock, Christians must battle the demons of sickness and poverty.
Gaining ground through the Seven-Mountain Mandate
Reconstructionists say that every Christian has an obligation to participate in warfare prayer, to do battle with the enemy, to release judgments against demonic forces. Through the “Seven-Mountain Mandate” Christians must cast territorial spirits from the realms of government, media, family, business, education, church, and the arts.1
This activity is said to be the means through which power and wealth is redistributed to the church and the dominion lost at the Fall is restored.
Ultimately, reconstructionism reduces to man-centered postmillennialism.
Must Christians directly engage the forces of darkness to advance the kingdom?
The Bible does indeed describe the Christian embroiled in a spiritual war (Ephesians 6:12, 13). There is no issue here.
The issue is with the idea that Christians, even new ones, have a responsibility to directly engage the forces of darkness to advance God’s kingdom. This idea is not biblical and is precariously dangerous.
Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, says that even Michael the archangel avoided direct battle with the devil by appealing to the Lord. He “dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’” (Jude 9).
Peter knew first-hand what it was like to overestimate one’s own strength and to be sifted as wheat by the devil (Luke 22:31-34). He later described the devil as a “roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).
Paul writes about the “schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:10-18, ESV) and our need for defensively standing firm under attack. Three times “stand” is used (Eph. 6:10, 13, 14) and once “withstand” is used (v. 13). To use Paul’s text as the basis for arguing Christians have an obligation to look for ways to engage the enemy is eisegesis (imposing one’s belief upon the text).
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- Geivett, A New Apostolic Reformation, loc. 3138-3140.