This past weekend, December 4, 2007, in Dallas, Texas, there was an Acts 29 Conference. It was called Eschatology and the Marketplace: Rethinking the Future and sponsored by the marketplace transformation apostles. This conference is an interesting precursor to another marketplace transformation conference, which is immediately following Robert Schuller’s Rethink Conference (see previous blog posts), and called Reclaiming the 7 Mountains the 2008 Church in the Workplace Conference. This Reclaiming the 7 Mountains Conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on January 24-26.
This “Rethinking the Future” eschatology conference was hosted by the RiosBrook Foundation. Linda Rios Brook, president of this foundation, is closely associated with C. Peter Wagner and a member of his International Coalition of Apostles. She heads Acts 29, which is variously described as “a think tank seeking answers to social and cultural issues through the marketplace” and the “Apostolic Council for Transformation in Society.” The RiosBrook Foundation’s purpose is Dominionist:
“[God] is trying to restore righteousness and justice to the marketplace and bring about the redemption of culture. RiosBrook Foundation believes He intends to do this through working people who receive the revelation that their calling is not to change the church; but rather, to change the world by bringing the purposes of God into the economic and power systems that govern it.” [emphasis added]
Guest speakers listed for this conference included Os Hillman, chief apostle of the marketplace transformation movement, and Dennis Peacocke, who has long served as a bridge between the Charismatic and Reconstructionist Dominionists. The focus of all of this new activity is the intended transformation of seven “spheres” of society. The term “spheres” is used interchangeably with “domains,” and C. Peter Wagner and his “apostles” are now calling them “mountains.”
By all means, take a few moments to visit the http://www.reclaim7mountains.com website. Check out the brochure and watch the clip with Lance Wallnau, marketplace transformation leader. Wallnau states: “This is the time when God is giving territory to Kingdom people.” The video clip says: “There are Seven — it’s time to take them all.”
The Dominionist philosophy behind the Reclaiming 7 Mountains conference literally has to do with taking over governments and nations:
When God called the people of Israel out of Egypt to form a new nation in the Promised Land, He told them that they would be the head, not the tail, if they obeyed the commands of the Lord. He told them to divide the land into 7 parts (Joshua 18:5). They would also have to displace 7 enemies that currently resided in the Promised Land. “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out 7 enemies before you including the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and the Jebusites (Joshua 3:10).
Have you noticed a pattern yet — 7 mountains, 7 parts of land, and 7 enemies that needed to be displaced?
There is a graphic representation in this Dominionism with the mystical artwork coinciding with the conference promotion which is said to help you “cast the vision of shaping our culture.”
The new eschatology has to do with building the kingdom of God on earth, a radical restructuring of the Gospel of Salvation so that the focus shifts to nation-building here on earth. Quite a transformation in thinking is required to develop this new worldview, which may be why all of these conferences are talking about “rethinking.”
Landa Cope of YWAM has written a key book, promoted by Os Hillman, entitled An Introduction to The Old Testament Template: Rediscovering God’s principles for discipling all nations, which serves as a Theonomy primer for Charismatics by teaching them how to acquire a Dominionist mindset. In this book she states that:
“We must destroy the split thinking we have been taught and take up again the gospel of the Kingdom.” (p. 147)
What is this “split thinking”?
“The Message Is The Kingdom
“This means when we preach salvation alone we are missing the majority of God’s kingdom message. Salvation is essential. There is no other way of entry into the Kingdom of God. But salvation is the entry into the kingdom; it is not the goal or the Kingdom itself. By making it the goal we have lost most of God’s message. (p. 147) . . .
“Our destiny is not salvation
“God died to save us and desires salvation for all. The only way into the Kingdom of God is through Jesus Christ, but salvation is not God’s ultimate goal. The new birth is a means to an end.” (p. 150)
Marketplace Meditations, a “Daily Electronic Devotional published by Os Hillman at Marketplace Leaders” published a talk by Landa Cope to YWAM:
“’We need to preach a gospel of the kingdom that God is the God of law, development, science, technology, health care, and economics.’ God does not just want a big church, he wants a diverse church, a deep church. He does not want just to save individuals in nations but to redeem the nations themselves.” [bold added]
The Truth:
“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:35)