Babylonian Territory
The “Seven Mountains Mandate”? I was taught long ago that disciples of Jesus must live “separate from the world,” not physically, but morally and spiritually. We are “in the world but not of it,” and our task is to call men and women to “save themselves from this crooked generation” before Jesus arrives and judges the world.
Yet today, many voices are exhorting Christians to infiltrate the “mountains of culture” so they may change society's ungodly character and institutions from the inside.
But no such commission is found in the Bible. Nowhere do we find Jesus or his apostles instructing the church to take over the cultural centers of this fallen age and to reform sinful society or otherwise fix this dark world.
There is no biblical mandate for the church to take control of cultural institutions or the government and to fix human society. If anything, the very attempt to do so corrupts the body of Christ and distracts the saints from the mission assigned to them by Jesus; namely, to preach the gospel to all nations. And church history attests to this sad reality.
Of course, the Bible does mention “seven mountains,” but it links them to Babylon, “the Great Whore, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth.” This foul creature not only “sits on many waters” and the “scarlet-colored beast,” but she also sits “on the seven mountains.”
IN REVELATION
And in the book of Revelation, the image of “many waters” represents “peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.” Moreover, the “scarlet-colored beast” is none other than the “Beast from the Sea” that wages “war against the saints and conquers them.”
His red color connects him with the “Dragon, the Ancient Serpent, the one who is called ‘Devil’ and ‘Satan’ and the DECEIVER OF THE WHOLE HABITABLE EARTH.” And the “Great Whore of Babylon” sits comfortably on the whole sorry lot where she runs the show.
And in Revelation, the “seven mountains” do NOT represent the cultural institutions of society that the church is allegedly commanded to reform. Instead, they symbolize seven “kingdoms,” five of which had fallen by the time John received his vision, one existed in his day which can only be Rome, and the seventh is yet to come. Each one is an incarnation of the “Beast” that ascends from the sea and the “Abyss” to “wage war” on God’s people.
Moreover, the seventh “mountain” is identified with the “Beast that was and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he is going into perdition.” There is nothing positive here, nothing worth fixing or reforming, and the Beast’s doom is sealed.
And the whole time the “Great Whore” that is “filled full” of the abominations of the earth and the blood of martyred saints is riding the monster in its mad dash to the “Lake of Fire.”
AN UNHOLY CITY
But Revelation does have something to say about this unholy city, “Babylon.” After all, she is stained red with the “lifeblood of prophets and of saints,” and all while drunk with the “blood of the martyrs” of Jesus.
Her sins have “reached even to heaven,” therefore, “in one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.” And we expect to be able to befriend and coax her into changing her evil ways?! Well, good luck with that!
As for the saints infiltrating the “Great Whore,” instead of undertaking that dubious venture, God summons His church with the UTMOST URGENCY to “come forth, my people, out of her, that you have no fellowship with her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues!!” You cannot play with fire and not get burned!
As Paul wrote, the forms and institutions of this age “are passing away,” and disciples of Jesus must live accordingly. The present fallen age is a rudderless ship that ran aground eons ago. It is being consumed by unquenchable flames, yet popular preaching is encouraging Christians to rush headlong into this conflagration and somehow quench it.
There can be no compromise with Satan. The church cannot win the world by emulating its evil ways. The so-called “Seven Mountains Mandate” is a fool’s errand, a wasted exercise in “working for the meat that perishes.”
This is not a call to abandon the world, but for disciples to engage it using the biblical means, including gospel preaching, Christian witness, faith, prayer, death to self, and self-sacrificial service for others, activities that are contrary to the values of the present world order and its “seven mountains.”
In other words, we are called to become “lights set on a hill.” We must be everything that the fallen world is not, and we must summon others to leave its darkness behind and follow Jesus.
Alas, many church leaders are teaching Christians to embrace the Babylonian world system that was condemned on Calvary. The very idea is absurd. But, as the Apostle Paul warned, in the last days, evil men will infiltrate the church, “deceiving and being deceived.”
