(Daniel 7:22b) “And the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.”
There is a movement sweeping through wider Christendom today that is gaining momentum on a global scale. It is nothing new but a regurgitated form of a past doctrine that was perpetrated on the Body of the Messiah. While it is mainly active in Pentecostal Charismatic circles it has started to infiltrate mainline churches that are associated to a greater or lesser degree with the seeker-friendly churches and with the hyper faith prosperity movement and even in Israel there are a growing number of Messianic fellowships now embracing this doctrine. It is now being called “the Seven Mountain Mandate.” We need to ask two questions. Firstly, what do they teach and secondly, is it Biblical?
Those who follow and teach the seven mountain mandate believe that, in order for the Lord Jesus to return to earth, the church must take control of the seven major spheres of influence in society for His glory. Once the world has been made subject to the kingdom of God, Jesus will return and rule the world. These seven spheres of influence are in the areas of education, religion, family, business, government including the military, the art and entertainment world and the media.
The Seven Mountain Mandate has its roots in Dominion theology, which started in the early 1970s with a goal of “taking dominion” of the earth, twisting Genesis 1:28 to include a mandate for Christians to control civil affairs and all other aspects of society. The New Apostolic Reformation, now renamed as the International Coalition of Apostolic Leaders (ICAL) with its self-appointed prophets and apostles, has also influenced the seven mountain movement, lending dreams and visions and other extra-biblical revelations to the mandate. The Seven Mountain Mandate says that it is the duty of all Christians to create a worldwide kingdom for the glory of the Lord Jesus.
Teachers in the movement use Isaiah 2:2, which mention “mountains,” in an attempt to support their view but it is taken out of its Biblical context: The text reads; “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.” This prophecy we are directly told refers to Judah and Jerusalem in the last days, not to the Church. (Vs.1) The principal goal of Dominion theology and the Seven Mountain Mandate is political and religious domination of the world through the implementation of the moral laws and subsequent punishments of the Old Testament. However, Isaiah 2:1-5 is speaking about the Messianic Kingdom established from Jerusalem and in direct connection to the full national and spiritual restoration of Israel as a nation which happens at the very end of this present age when the Lord Jesus returns.
Isaiah 2:1-5 is not speaking about the Church taking possession or kingdom dominion over the nations and presenting them to the Messiah when He comes back. This Seven Mountain Mandate doctrine is a form of replacement theology. They are in effect teaching that the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus is not dependent at all on God’s Biblical prophetic promises and purposes for Israel, but dependent on their movement taking kingdom dominion over the nations and presenting a Christianised world to the Lord Jesus on His return. Added to this, their ‘doctrine’ has to bypass the time of Great Tribulation, the coming of the man of sin, and the global persecution of the faithful Body of the Messiah before the return of our Lord Jesus.
When do the saints in fact inherit the Kingdom? We know from both the Old and the New Testaments that the term “saints’ refers to all believers. According to the New Testament all born again, blood washed, Spirit indwelt, Spirit filled believers are all spiritual descendants of Abraham through having the same kind of faith that he had in God. He is the father of faith and of all who believe in the Lord Jesus for salvation both Jew and gentile being one new man in the Messiah. (Romans 4:11-12, 16-25) (Ephesians 2:14-18) Having said this in no way does away with Israel as a nation and its complete national and spiritual restoration at the end of this present age and the coming Messianic Kingdom where the City of Jerusalem will be the global headquarters of the Messiah Himself our Lord Jesus.
God’s Word clearly teaches that the saints will inherit the kingdom on earth but not before the return of the Lord Jesus. In fact our Lord Jesus clearly said that the last thing that will be happening on earth just before He comes back will be a time of great tribulation unlike anything that had happened in the past and that will ever happen in the future. For the sake of the survival of the planet and the elect saints those days will be cut short. (Matthew 24:21-22) While God’s Kingdom is here in the hearts of His Spirit indwelt saints on earth, it is invisible to the world and one that is a spiritual kingdom. However, after our Lord Jesus has returned it will be a visible physical kingdom that the surviving nations will see and be subject to with its global headquarters located at Jerusalem.
The prophet Daniel foretold this time to come when the Antichrist, also known as the man of sin, will persecute faithful believers both Jews and Gentiles. Of course Israel and the Church are like two sides of the same coin, you can distinguish between the two but spiritually they are one people in the Messiah.
Lets’ look very briefly at what the prophet Daniel writes concerning the saints inheriting the Kingdom of God on earth. If you turn to Daniel chapter seven we clearly see the time when the believers inherit the Messianic kingdom of God on earth. In this chapter Daniel has a dream of four beast empires. The fourth beast empire of course is the kingdom of the Antichrist and we are told that there is a little horn (king of ruler) that comes up and takes dominion over a ten nation federation of nations and deposes three of them.
He is called “the little horn” because he starts from obscurity but grows in power and dominion to challenge God Himself. (See also Daniel 8:9-10) Coming back to Daniel Chapter seven we see that this boastful and arrogant man of sin comes to the judgement as we see the thrones of God’s judges set in the heavenly courts to sit in judgement on the Antichrist and his beast empire. (Daniel 7:11-12) We also see the Second Coming of the Messiah to establish His Messianic kingdom. (See also Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45)
Now in the interpretation of the dream given to Daniel in Chapter seven it was revealed to him that this little horn, the Antichrist, would wage war against the saints and be defeating them until the Ancient of Days (the Messiah) came and pronounced judgement in favour of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom. (Daniel 7:21-22) This persecution by the Antichrist will come upon faithful Jewish and Gentile believers in the Messiah and will last for three and a half years by the Jewish calendar. (Daniel 12:7b) (See also Revelation 13:5-7) We are told the man of sin will speak against God, oppress the saints and seek to change God’s laws. (Daniel 7:25) (See also Daniel 11:36 and 2 Thessalonians 2:4) But we are then told that the heavenly judicial court will sit and his power will be taken from him and completely destroyed forever. (Daniel 7:26)
After this we are then told specifically; “Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey Him.” (Daniel 7:27) It is clear that the saints inherit the Messianic Kingdom on earth and have kingdom dominion over the surviving nations only after the Time of Great Tribulation, the reign and demise of the Antichrist and his beast kingdom and after Israel as a nation has been fully restored spiritually and nationally after the Messiah has come back.
Satan is going all out to spiritually deceive the faithful Body of the Messiah through false and unbiblical doctrines, prophets and teachers and there are two prominent deceptive doctrines he is perpetrating within wider Christendom today because he knows that his time on earth is now short. One of these two is the pre-tribulation secret rapture invented in the late 19th century and the other is this kingdom dominion theology, now being propagated as the Seven Mountain Mandate which is not new but has surfaced in past Church history.
These two specific ‘doctrines’ are not preparing the wider Body of the Messiah to handle the coming persecution, one we already see happening in countries like North Korea, Russia, China and in every Muslim country especially in Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia to name a few. This persecution is coming to the western democracies as we already see our secular governments passing legislation that will suppress and alienate and marginalize faithful bond slaves of the Lord Jesus and that go contrary to the Bible. Already the spirit of Antichrist is at work in the western democracies traditionally associated historically with Biblical Christianity seeking to change the set times and the law of God.
You see dear brothers and sisters that Satan has been around a long time and he knows what works best to deceive even the very elect. (Matthew 24:24) He repackages and relabels those past heresies he knows will spiritually weaken God’s people and through them open the door for persecution so that he can get as many as he can to fall away from their faithfulness to the Lord Jesus and to their allegiance to the absolute authority of God’s Word, the Bible. In the last days Satan is using lawlessness (Torahlessness) to cause the love of most believers to grow cold in this spiritually defiled climate which is very active in the world today.
We are also told in Matthew chapter 24 that “he who has endured to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:12-13) We are saved now through faith in the Messiah and in His atoning and cleansing blood, but to stay saved we need to have endured to the end all that Satan throws our way. Of course this is only possible through the power of the blessed Holy Spirit because apart from Him we cannot stand and will not stand against the onslaught of the devil and his minions from Hades that is wearing down the saints of the Most High. (1 Peter 4:14) (Daniel 7:25)
This is why Spirit-filled fellowship is vitally important and why we must stay in the Word of God and keep building ourselves up in our most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit. This will keep us in the flow of God’s love and sustaining power while we wait patiently for the mercy of our Lord Jesus the Messiah to bring us to eternal life, a life we now possess inwardly that will carry us on into eternity. (Jude 1:20-21)
Kingdom Dominion is coming for all of the saints of the Most High God and this is part and parcel of the blessed hope being the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus. (Titus 2:13) The deficiency and spiritual deceptiveness of the Seven Mountain Mandate is that it bypasses the Time of Great Tribulation, the revealing of the man of sin and his demise, the persecution of the saints of the Most High God, and the place of Israel within the prophetic purposes of God.
This Dominion now doctrine of the Seven Mountain Mandate is weakening the wider Body of the Messiah for the final persecution to come. On the authority of God’s Word it is to be rejected. Either their teaching is right and the word of God is wrong or the Word of God is right and their teaching is wrong. You cannot have it both ways! And so Daniel records; “I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favour of the saints of the Most Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.” (Daniel 7:21-22)
