Johnny Enlow Archives • Jesus Pattern Son

Finishing up our series on what the Bible has to say about government, let’s talk about this new idea, 7-mountains. The basic concept is also called, in different circles, “the cultural mandate.” Given the perspective of those I know, this is an important topic to discuss when we consider how we should interface with society and with government. So often, conservative Christians, pentecostals especially, and women, just thought they should stay out of politics. By contrast, some fundamentalist Baptists or conservative Reformed folks seem to hold political views co-terminus with theology. Both groups have, in my hearing, questioned this 7 Mountain Mandate talk. On the other hand, my Spirit-filled educated friends are thrilled with the opening of the door to application of Christian life, of Spirit, and of Bible, to all of life. They often felt stifled and hemmed in in the lower middle class perspective of separation defined as not getting involved, and simply staying quiet in a corner.

I can hear people get offended as I state this clearly and precisely. Read it again. Admit it. The upper middle class, mainline folks were in charge of civics and politics in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, increasingly the secularist and socialists have been in ascendancy. But in the ’50s and ’60s, conservative Christians eschewed both education and civic involvement. With the advent of the charismatic movement more educated people joined these churches and adopted this theology. That portion of the church expanded its market share steadily. At the same time, these churches, along with their SES segments, experienced great economic growth.

In this century, however, growth slowed, and communists (meaning authoritarian socialists) arose to prominence in the marketplace of ideas as in politics. Socialism took a stronger hold in the mainline churches. The most conservative churches split off, but struggled for direction, carrying with them more leftest ideas than they realized. At the same time, pentecostal churches fell back into their ways. Word of Faith continued to grow and are a home for middle class pentecostal/charismatics. The upper middle class tended to search for a home mostly in the Apostolic and Prophetic movements, precisely the sector most likely to accept the 7 Mountain Mandate. Why? because they needed faith direction for vocation and civic engagement.

Then, the question arose: is this Biblical? Because neither of the two promoters of the 7 Mountain Message are either theologians or professional sociologists (tho both have in-depth Bible knowledge, and tremendous practical insight (one in management and the other I judge as a pastoral sociologist) — and both have a great following among business and government leaders — no apologia has been made. Detractors have popped up. So, here is the answer: yes: The 7 Mountain Message is Biblical and theologically orthodox.

Listen, and I will tell you why.

While the last post was about 10 days late because of technical issues with uploading to the podcast platform, this episode is about a month early. Normally, this would be our June installment of our study on what the Bible says about government and politics. However, coincidentally, Johnny and Elizabeth Enlow have been able to publish their long-awaited documentary. So, since I had this made, and was successful at getting it uploaded, I decided to go ahead and publish it.

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7 Mountains Apologia