*Note: this is Part 1 of a 2-part series. Click here for Part 2.
Summary:
- How should the church interact with the culture?
- The church is called to take dominion, influencing the culture through the Creation Mandate in Genesis 1.
- The Seven Mountains of Culture help with this mandate.
The church’s role in the world has always fascinated me. As disciples of Christ, fulfilling His Great Commission, what is our responsibility in interacting with the culture around us?
Throughout church history, there have been varying ways of the church approaching the culture. I’ll list two modern examples:
1. Isolationism
The mid-20th century American church is a good example of cultural isolationism. The primary mission of the church during this period focused on saving souls, not influencing culture. During this time many missions movements (ex. Jesus Movement; Youth With A Mission) had tremendous impact both in the United States and around the world in saving souls.
At the same time, American culture began to shift in a negative direction; to give one example: in 1970, there were 193,491 total abortions in America.1 By 1990, the abortion count went up to 1,429,247!2 (sidenote: abortion rates have been declining since then).
2. Theocracy
Vatican City, where the Pope of the Catholic Church presides, is a good example of a theocracy. The Pope is both the religious and political leader of the Vatican, and the laws of religion and government are intertwined. The CIA reports that the legal system of Vatican City is a “religious legal system based on canon (religious) law.”3
The influence of the church on the culture of Vatican City is total. For example, the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government are all required to be led by leaders of the Catholic Church. 4
Influencing the Culture
We see two interesting cultural views in the examples above, and there’s multitudes of other ways the church has interacted with culture throughout history. The question remains: is the church called to influence culture, or stay isolated from it?
I’d like to propose that the church IS called to influence the culture, through a simple, Scriptural method known as the Seven Mountain Mandate.
“Come on, Alex, you’re just trying to sound cool using a phrase like Seven Mountain Mandate. What is this, some new Charismatic theology?”
Well… Yes and no. While the Seven Mountain Mandate does originate from the Charismatic movement (full disclosure: I’m a card-carrying Charismatic), it also has deep roots in Scripture. Let me explain…
A Scriptural Foundation
Let’s begin by looking at the original goal of God’s creation of man in Genesis 1 (I put certain words in bold). Some Biblical scholars refer to this as the Creation Mandate5:
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26-28 (NKJV)
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
To summarize: God created man to have dominion. In the original Hebrew language (before about 1,000 BC), there were pictographs that were used to convey meaning. Below are the pictographs for the word dominion, made up of the Hebrew letters “resh” and “dalet.”
According to the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon,8 the first picture (“resh”) is the head of a man, and the second (“dalet”) is a picture of a door that allows entrance into the tent.
In other words, dominion means nothing comes through the door except through the “head” (or leadership) of man.
What does this mean for us?
Ultimately, this means we are the “doorkeepers” of this “tent” (earth). God has placed everything on earth under the dominion, or leadership, of mankind. He has given us, as Christians, the responsibility of proclaiming His glory on the earth, and leading the culture around us with Godly influence.
What does it mean to “be fruitful and multiply” (verse 28)?
Typically, the church has defined this as having kids. While that’s true, it’s much more than that: it’s a prophetic declaration that the dominion of God will bear fruit and multiply over the face of the earth.
What about “fill the earth and subdue it” (verse 28)?
This means to fill the earth with the glory of God, and subdue or literally “bring into bondage”9 everything on the earth in accordance with the will of God. I don’t believe it’s a passive request; I believe it’s a charge for the church to fulfill.
In Conclusion
At the beginning of Creation, God gave man dominion over everything on earth; at the fall of Adam and Eve, the devil gained (through man’s freewill) what was promised to mankind. This is why Satan was able to take Jesus up to a mountain during His temptation and promise Him the kingdoms of the world (Luke 4); they were Satan’s to give away.
When Jesus died and resurrected, he regained dominion over the earth (Colossians 2:15). Now the only thing the devil has access to is what we (the church) have allowed him to have dominion over.
Click here for Part 2, where we look at the history of the Seven Mountain Mandate and cover what the Seven Mountains of Culture are.