Emergent Monday: The Disaster of Dominionism

The core doctrine of Jesus Christ's second coming, as taught consistently in Scripture, can be summed up in one line: "Jesus Christ is coming again bodily to earth to rule and judge." This is kind of a no-brainer for anyone that's sat down and read the bible. 

For those that haven't read the whole bible - SPOILER ALERT: Jesus is coming back and he's got a whole lot of judging to do. This revelation (which comes from the book of the same name) has lead to many differing doctrines; Pre-Tribulational Rapture, Mid-Tribulational Rapture, Pre-Wrath Rapture, and Post-Tribulational Second Coming (In most versions of postribulationism, the "rapture" and the "second coming" are at the same time. Jesus Christ comes back for His elect, they meet Him in the air and He comes bodily to earth immediately to rule and reign.)

Are these doctrines important to your salvation? No. Do they have anything at all to do with your salvation? No. Agree with them or not, each one of these doctrines is based on interpretation of scripture and what they all come down to is a matter of timing, and since Jesus told us that even He didn't know the exact hour they're all fair arguments. Unfortunately another doctrine has gained popularity in the emergent church and it is not based on scriptural interpretation, or any scripture at all. The doctrine is Dominionism (AKA Kingdom-Dominion AKA Restoration) and its the darling heresy of the emergent darkness church. 

Dominionism is the belief that Jesus will return to earth with His kingdom only after the "christian" church takes control of the entire earth and cleans up the place a little. It's based on the idea of social transformation, to turn the world into a Christian based theocracy. Dominionism is (loosely) based on Genesis 1:28 (From the KJV)

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And that's what our old buddy C. Peter Wagner mentions when he talks about taking dominion over the earth. Biblically dominion means to maintain order, not make a government to rule over humans. However when Adam and Eve sinned, God cast them out of the Garden of Eden, their dominion ended there. God made man to serve Him, not to rule over each other. He gave us dominion over the fish, birds and beasts, not each other. That's His job. However Daniel 7:27 tells us:

Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’

"...will be given..." not "Go ahead and take..." as the Dominionists believe is their calling. We are to wait until God brings his kingdom to earth, there's nothing we can do to hurry that, and nothing we can do to do it ourselves. However according to C. Peter Wagner in The Church In Dominion states:

‘Dominion theology is predicated upon three basic beliefs: 1) Satan usurped man’s dominion over the earth through the temptation of Adam and Eve; 2) The Church is God’s instrument to take dominion back from Satan; 3) Jesus cannot or will not return until the Church has taken dominion by gaining control of the earth’s governmental and social institutions.

Belief number 1 is a lie. When Adam and Eve sinned God took man's dominion over the earth away from us, but He didn't give it to Satan. The earth belongs to God, and so do those that love and follow Him

Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine (Exodus 19:5)

Belief number 2 is not true either. God defeats Satan, Jesus judges him and locks him away, we do get to help along with a nearly infinite number of angels, but at best we're participants and witnesses to His divine glory, at worst we're condemned along with Satan.

Belief number 3 is completely and utterly false. There is nothing at all in the bible that says man has anything to do with the timing of Jesus return, and anyone that reads John 18:36 knows that the idea that we can influence anything of Jesus' kingdom is completely ludicrous:

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”

How could we possibly dream of effecting a kingdom not of this realm with our meager actions? Dominionists believe they can take over the world and control it with their "7 Mountains" When they control the 7 Mountains they will control the world, when they control the world, Jesus will return. These "mountains" are 1. Family, 2. Government, 3. Media, 4. Education, 5. Arts and Entertainment, 6. Religion (or the Church), and 7. Business (I'm not kidding - they really believe this)

The gospel of Dominion replaces the Gospel of Salvation by teaching men that they can improve the human condition through their own efforts rather than through Jesus. It's teaching that the solutions to the problems caused by sin come from man rather than God. This is the false gospel of the emergent church. The true Gospel of Salvation says that Christ died for our sins according to scriptures, He was buried, then He rose again according to scripture (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) that by grace through our faith in His holy name we are saved, and not by the works of our hands.

So you may be asking yourself, "Self, what bible verses does Dominionism use to justify its theology?" None! That's the beauty of it! They can (and do) say anything they want, and since there's a lot of them saying it, the goats believe them. Why do you think people like Rick Warren and Brian McLaren like this theology so much? They can do or say anything they want (as long as it's in line with C. Peter Wagners Master Plan) and they get to act like Big Shots, rebuilding the world and commanding you like they are demi-gods.

The truth is that the church has no calling to change the world, our calling is to preach  the Gospel. Yes, we are salt and light and we set an example for the world to follow, but it's the world's choice to emulate our example Not Ours. But we do not change society by usurping laws or governments, the bible clearly states that in Romans 13:1. We follow laws and governments. When we change society, we do it one life at a time. As new believers are born again and begin to be changed into the image of Jesus, society will change. Anything else does not deal with the sinfulness of the human heart. Only the true Gospel alone can do that.

I have a theory where Dominionism comes from. Look again at the Seven Mountains, the parts of society where these "christian" Dominionists are concentrating their efforts: The American family is in ruins, the few babies that aren't aborted are primarily born to single women now. Government is an impotent socialist nightmare that now only operates efficiently when it's operating illegally. Media is merely lapdogs for the inept idiocracy that is the US Government. American schools are graduating tens of thousands of illiterates with high self esteem and little more, and their primary goal is to stomp out any competition that produces well educated students. Arts and entertainment is rapidly devolving into a cesspool of pornography and stupidity. Religion is being dominated by unbiblical heretics whose seeker sensitive money grab is erasing biblical teaching from the face of the earth faster than all militant atheists combined. And business? Thanks to the Obama administration private business is an endangered species.

Is this is result of Dominionists attempt to take over the  "Seven Mountains"? If it is, STOP HELPING!!! Look at them - everything they're trying to "fix" is falling apart, and they're not quiet or apologetic in their desire to take over the world. Does Revelation 17:1-5 pertain to Dominionists? possibly, however I think that the emergent church is just part of it, I believe that the prophesied one world religion will be made up of  many religions that are drawn together. The Seven Mountains plan of the dominionists makes Revelation 17:9 VERY interesting indeed:

"Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits,

Maybe the seven mountains of Revelation 17 are not the seven hills of Rome as we have heard, maybe the Seven Mountains of Revelation 17 are actually the Seven Mountains of C. Peter Wagner - his plan is appealing enough for different branches of false Christianity like the NAR and IHOP, why not a world wide movement behind them?

But personally I think the biggest danger of Dominionism is their utter nonsense. They carry on about how they're going to take over the world, how they're going to change everything, but then you see their "services" on TV and the Internet and they're little more than a circus side show. Babbling, twitching, shrieking, giggling, scratching, laughing, howling, collapsing, pretending to knock each other out, it's quite clear that their holy trinity is Curly, Larry, and Moe. In the words of Rodney Howard-Browne, the "Holy Ghost Bartender" (and I quote) "La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, melody, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, melody, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, melody, la, la, la..."  Really, he said that. It went on forever. That's the New Apostolic Reform in action.

The danger is that the secular world thinks that this satanically inspired utter nonsense is Christianity and they think that we, the bible believing Christians, are part of that nightmare.