Some time back, I came across the 7 Mountain idea, a.k.a. the 7 Mountain Theology, which posits that there are seven “mountains” of societal influence: Religion, Family, Education, Government, Media, Arts & Entertainment, and Business. Some would hold that “religion” is the one that contains God and so, therefore, it should dominate over the others. (We see how well that has worked out every time it’s been tried.) But the bottom line is that all seven (except Family), in their institutional formats, are the creations of men, and that – to the extent that reality and truth exists in each one – God is in them ALL.
Now, in practical terms, we as men tend to either dominate in or be (or at least feel) dominated by the powers that be in each one of these areas. But that is not how God would have us to think or behave. Long before He created man in His image, His plan was that we, His people, would take dominion over all of the rest of creation. It was wicked MEN who later came up with these sub-divisions of creation and started to assume authority as humanist individuals (not as sons of God) over segments of the same. These seizures of power were NOT at the direction of or by the authority of their Creator. In fact, they started out with an element of His authority (or they never would have worked at all), but they added to it – they built on top of the perfect, solid foundation of God’s authority imperfect additions of men, and it is these additions that are the source of the flaws that we have observed ever since.
(Consider, for example, copyrighted Bibles. How can the Bible, the Word of God, over 2000 years old, be copyrighted by anyone? The words of the Bible itself cannot be. It is what is ADDED – the formatting, margin notes, commentaries, translations, maps, etc. … i.e., the ERRORS – that is copyrighted.)
Religion is a flagrant example, in that men took the idea of “ecclesia,” which was well understood in Greek and Roman culture 2000 years ago, and built upon it an institutional monstrosity called “church,” pretending by language substitution that the two were one and the same, but the latter was a pagan creation of man. Religion is, you see, the chief institution of humanism. When Marx called religion “the opiate of the masses,” he was not using it as a pejorative: he knew that the masses needed a lightning rod at which to satiate the God energy that He created us to feel drawing us from within, or we could never be led and conquered. But Jesus did not come to give us religion; He came to save us FROM religion.
Business and money are huge, affecting everyone on the planet, and, as referenced here last article, are built firmly on business principles that are laid out in the book of Proverbs. Many other principles affecting business and money are also to be found elsewhere in the Old Testament (OT), but we do not pay those quite as much attention because they appear to be solely for OT “Jews.” Today we see the dominance of “Jews” in the arenas of money, banking and business. That dominance comes from following the same principles that God set up during OT times to allow Israel to dominate. Many get lost in arguments about who the Jews were, are and/or have become (biological descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob … or politically-motivated voluntary adherents to the religion of the Pharisees), and thus miss the God-sourced principles that provide the foundation for that success. The fact that God allows people who “say they are Jews and are not” (as Revelation 2:9 and 3:9 condemns) to use these principles and dominate, whether or not they were the people He originally intended the principles to benefit, should, rather than perturbing us at who is using them, encourage us who do not choose to call ourselves Jews that we can ALL benefit from the principles that our Creator made to enable mankind to achieve the creation mandate of earthly domination. Jesus told us that God the Father “makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Why, then, do we roll tarps across our financial fields as if to protect ourselves from God’s benefits that are frequently used more effectively by the unjust?
Here’s the deal: when we have knowledge of God-created principles, it is incumbent upon us to live according to that knowledge AND to share it with others. I Corinthians 9 says that about preaching the gospel – the good news – and the PRINCIPLE holds to ALL biblically-sourced “good news,” not only the traditional “gospel” message of Christ’s death to save us from sin and to enable us to go to heaven when we die.
Any pushback against that – an insistence that the only thing we are called to “preach” is salvation from death and a free ticket to heaven – is largely the result of the replacement of ecclesia – the family and government of God on earth – by church – a man-made institution focused on religious practice and Pharisaical obedience to hierarchies. (Anyone who talks about salvation primarily in terms of “going to heaven when we die” has COMPLETELY missed the point.) And we miss so much of what – so many of the tools that – God put here for us by allowing ourselves to be so distracted and dominated by these man-made entities.
For example, does God intend for us to be healthy? Did He not make our bodies to heal themselves? Of course, but did He not also warn Adam and Eve from the very beginning that there are consequences attached to what we eat?
From where did the idea come that God especially blesses the poor over those who follow Godly principles in order to gain the wherewithal to bless the poor directly, even the “poor” who are such by their own laziness, ignorance and lack of seeking to learn His principles of wealth and domination?
Why did we allow ourselves to be hoodwinked by the idea of a “divine right of kings” and allow it to be extended into a horrible mis-translation of Romans 13 such that, rather than stepping into the places of governance that He intends for His sons, His ecclesia (the true “higher powers,” those closest to Him) to exercise atop all of earth’s mountains, we find ourselves making excuses for why we have to submit to the power of those who take their marching orders from the other side?
God does not wish us to be removed from “the marketplace,” whatever “mountain” that may be for us (and each one of them – excepting, again, Family – is but another facet of the marketplace); He simply expects us to rule there with His power, on the basis of His principles, for His glory here on earth. Rather than becoming angry at the abuse of God’s principles for advancement and reacting by removing ourselves from what we regard as a polluted marketplace, we should hone in on the principle and practice it in a godly fashion.
If the ungodly can get this much traction out of it, by practicing God’s principles in carnal ways and for carnal purposes, think how much WE can get out of it, by doing it in GODLY fashion! Their fields are sown with tares! Both tares and wheat benefit from Godly principles that make them grow, but only the wheat is honorable.
“Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. BUT HIS DELIGHT IS IN THE LAW OF THE LORD (the principles that God created whereby for all to benefit), and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so …”
So, if we learn a principle about, say, money, or health, or family, or government, that is good and Godly, it is our job to follow it and to teach it to others. It is our mandate to do so. In fact, if we have the solution and do not share it, we are as guilty of what befalls the one we could have helped as one who passes by a burning house, hearing calls for help from inside, yet drives on by without stopping. We do not have a choice about it. For to whom much is given, from him shall much be required.