Ever since the New Apostolic Reformation had its political coming out party at Rick Perry's recent "The Response" prayer rally, there has been a lot of investigation and discussion of the movement and the brand of Dominion Theology that is promotes ... so much so, in fact, that NAR-affiliated leaders have suddenly begun trying to downplay all their talk of taking dominion.
Os Hillman, the man behind the Reclaiming The Seven Mountain website, has recently suggested that activists should stop using the word "dominion" and instead use the word "influence" because "dominion" make the "secular media [think] that Christians want to rule the world."
On his website, Hillman posts pieces written by Johnny Enlow, author of "The Seven Mountain Prophecy" which asserts that goal of Christians ought to be to establish a "virtual theocracy" in which government leaders will also be religious leaders so that they can present "the nations of the world to the Lord as His possession" and bring about the return of Christ.
On Hillman's Seven Mountains website, Enlow says that the best way for Christians to accomplish this goal is through stealth:
The goal is not just to have Christians in high places, but rather to have Christians who are called to be in high places step into that role. And wearing a "Christian” label on our sleeve isn’t the point. We need to learn to be "as wise as serpents and harmless as doves” and realize that stealth authority and influence are much preferred over overt authority and influence. A low profile diffuses resistance from the opposition.
Hillman's website also sells the works of Lance Wallnau, one of the leading Seven Mountains proponents whose work has been central to the mission to "do whatever is necessary" to claim dominion.
Last week, we discovered a video featuring Hillman, Enlow, and Wallnau discussing the attention that Seven Mountains and Dominionism have been receiving during which Wallnau suggested that using language about "taking over" is fine to use when "preaching to the choir" but such language shouldn't be used in situations where the media or secular audiences are present:
Wallnau: Part of my problem is that people will take my message, link their own interpretation to it and go out and talk about taking down high places, coming against the Devil - I am very particular where I use that language because you don't want to startle the horses out of the barn. If you're talking to a secular audience, you don't talk about having dominion over them, I mean, my gosh, that's what their afraid of, that's what the Left is saying the Right wants to do and the Right is saying the Left wants to do.
So the anxiety is based on misinformation. What I've said today is I want to find out who's anointed with the right ideas and I want to serve them - to be a Joseph, you're going to shape Pharaoh.
This whole idea of taking over, and that language of take over, it doesn't actually help - it's good for preaching to the choir, and it's shorthand if we interpret it right, but it's very bad for media.