“The seventh seal closes out the age we live in with Christ emerging from the veil of the heavenly realm to begin his physical reign on earth. … It begins the process of the second coming and the rapture.” -- Revelation Explained, K. J. Soze
In many cultures, the number seven is considered a lucky number. Seven factors into math equations, there are seven colors in a rainbow, seven continents, seven seas, and the number of music notes in a scale is seven. Seven has all sorts of meanings across a spectrum of religions. When I think of the number seven, I remember the music and dancing in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” the darkness of Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal,” and the depth of the Mose Allison’s rendition of Willie Dixon’s song, “The Seventh Son.” Today, however, we’re talking about a different and dangerous iteration of seven; the Seven Mountains Mandate, also known as the Seven Mountains prophecy or 7M.
According to Theology professor André Gagné, author of the new book, “American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times,” “The Seven Mountain Mandate is not a theology, it's more of a strategic marketing tool to mobilize people. If Christians are to rule … that's what I call the political theology of power. But how do you mobilize people to act upon that idea? You come up with a mobilizing strategy and that strategy is the Seven Mountain Mandate.”
What is the Seven Mountains Mandate: Simply put it is the attempt by Christian Nationalists to rule over different aspects of culture: religion, politics, education, family, business, arts and entertainment, and media.
The movement is a classic case of political opportunism: the re-branding of dominionism, elasticization of the Bible, playing the long game, and slowly moving from the fringe to the mainstream.
“The goal,” Gagné told Salon’s Paul Rosenberg, “is to have Christians in influential positions — maybe at the top of those mountains — to influence the culture of each of the sectors of society. And when you do that you will exercise dominion. This is how you bring about God's kingdom.”
Key to bringing the Seven Mountains into existence is what is called “spiritual warfare.” Another key is the taking over of a major political party.
Rosenberg explained:
The first, ‘ground-level spiritual warfare,’ involves things like exorcism and the casting out of demons, akin to the powers Jesus supposedly conferred on his disciples. The second, ‘occult-level spiritual warfare,’ involved battling demonic powers acting through purportedly occult practices, meaning anything from yoga to Satanism to New Age spirituality. The third, ‘strategic-level spiritual warfare,’ involves battling against an imagined hierarchy of high-ranking demonic spirits that control geographic and demographic entities, along with the demonic networks aligned against Trump that Paula White-Cain prayed to be broken and torn down.
On his way to the presidency in 2016, Donald Trump corralled the forces of spiritual warfare, bringing them into his camp. The well-known and controversial Pastor Paula White-Cain became a close spiritual advisor to Trump. She led a prayer in Washington, D.C., during a Save America Rally in support of U.S. President Donald Trump, which was later followed by violent protestors stormed the U.S. Capitol. White-Can was given a platform to mainstream spiritual warfare and she created numerous videos to prove the viability of spiritual warfare.
Shortly after the January 6 insurrection, reporter Elle Hardy, who has followed the Seven Mountains Mandate closely, told CBC Radio that conservative Christian movement believes in a "God-given authority" to "take over the world."
"You can see a lot of shades of the Tea Party in this, which starts organizing at a very local, micro level. Start making a fuss in your workplace if you don't believe that it's being Christian enough — if they're not flying the flag or allowing you to pray or things like that," she said. "Whatever it takes is the basic idea, and they will play a long game."
Hardy was asked by CBC Radio’s Day 6 host Brent Bambury: “How does what 7M wants fit into the idea of Armageddon and end times as it's always existed in Christian prophecy?”
Hardy: “The number seven is significant in the book of Revelation, which is the final book of the Bible, which talks about those end times. So it's repeatedly referred to, for example, the seven churches of Asia. But it also is a symbol, and it signifies completion. So it's very important with these groups who really believe in prophecy and symbols and signals.
“But the actual case for seven mountains, and this authority to take over the world, comes from Isaiah 2:2 which says: "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's House shall be established on the top of the mountains."
“So there's a lot of biblical justification for this, but it's also obviously very heavily mixed into a very certain political worldview, and this is why I think it becomes so, so powerful and so dangerous, because they are taking a lot of these ideas from the Bible, but putting them into real-world action.”
One of the most important leaders of the movement is Lance Wallnau, has been dubbed “the father of American Dominionism.” Wallnau, a Pentecostal Christian businessman, is seen as a prophet, an apostle, and a teacher, is a leader figure in the New Apostolic Reformation (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/8/2222180/-The-New-Apostolic-Reformation-Shadowy-Powerful-Christian-Nationalist-Movement-Is-Stalking-Democracy). Wallnau is a proud Christian Nationalist, an avid supporter of Donald Trump, and, according to Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson, Wallnau “is best known for popularizing … the Seven Mountains Mandate” (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/lance-wallnau-doug-mastriano-christian-dominion-1234602214/).
In his September 28, 2022 piece titled “He Has a 7-Point Plan for a Christian Takeover — and Wants Doug Mastriano to Lead the Charge,” Dickinson wrote: “In the world according to Wallnau, the MAGA movement is guided by Jesus against devilish Democrats. Wallnau spent years insisting Trump was an instrument of the Lord, even declaring that, ‘Fighting with Trump is fighting with God.’ By contrast, as documented by Right Wing Watch, Wallnau insists that ‘antichrist Biden’ is an ‘illegal counterfeit’ and an ‘evil ruler.’ Environmentalists who seek to limit fossil-fuel extraction are ‘under control of demons.’ Americans who defend the rights of the LGBTQ+ community are the ‘Trans Taliban.’ In a recent speech, Wallnau denounced Black Lives Matter as ‘witchcraft’ that is ‘laying siege to the American system of government.’”
One could go on and on about Wallnau’s hysterics and sordid and opportunistic business practices, but the most important takeaway about the Seven Mountains Mandate is that is becoming more popular as the country becomes more polarized. And, there is no doubt that it will be putting its considerable evangelical political weight behind Donald Trump.