Renaming Dominion

used with permission:http://herescope.blogspot.com/
 
The Semantic Deceptions of Change Agentry

¡°It is better that we avoid the word dominion in our culture today due to the connotations that comes with this word of control and manipulation of others.¡±¡ªOs Hillman, Change Agent[1]

¡°Kingdom solutions sometimes need stealth solutions so that the secular world can accept them.¡±¡ªOs Hillman, Change Agent[2]

¡°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.¡±¡ªLance Wallnau[3]

A recent video posted online reveals that the Doyens of Dominion are feeling a bit discomfited now that their agenda is in the national spotlight. Now they have to find another word that isn¡¯t quite so controversial but means essentially the same thing. They are seeking to come up with a new vocabulary to identify their strategic objectives to build a kingdom here on earth.

The video, which can be accessed HERE, shows a conversation facilitated by Os Hillman, who set up the ¡°Reclaiming The Seven Mountain¡± website and who initiated the Seven Mountain Mandate a few years ago as a strategic maneuver of the New Apostolic Reformation. In the video Hillman is discussing the problems inherent with the term ¡°dominion¡± with two of his key change agents: Lance Wallnau and Johnny Enlow. All three of these men have been deep into Dominionism, and their rhetoric and theology have been extreme. In fact, so much so that in the process of trying to deny dominion on this video, they are actually admitting it!

Their record speaks for itself, despite the denials. Even if they change their terminology, they are obviously supporting the theology that undergirds their global ambitions.

Os Hillman is a professional change agent who is now training other leaders to be change agents.[4] In fact, he published a book about it year titled Change Agent: Engaging Your Passion to be the One Who Makes A Difference (Charisma House, 2011). His book is endorsed by C. Peter Wagner, Kent Humphries, Graham Power, Paul Cedar, and Paul Cuny, among others, and the Foreword is written by Lance Wallnau, who reveals that he ¡°first met Os while speaking in Connecticut about the seven mountains in the year 2000,¡± and, ¡°It was C. Peter Wagner who extended to me his platform and circles of friends and introduced me to Os.¡±[5] Furthermore, Wallnau confirms that there is a secondary gospel that is now supplementing and replacing salvation¡ªa gospel of a corporate salvation of societal institutions, nations and cultures:

While there is only one gospel, Os points out that the gospel we have primarily preached throughout the earth focuses on individual salvation. The gospel of salvation redeems souls but only indirectly redeems economic, educational, political, or artistic institutions. The gospel of the kingdom, on the other hand, includes the gospel of salvation but encompasses the larger and more ambitious project of teaching to save nations while preaching to save souls. Making disciples of entire people groups and nations is the end game.[6]

In his Foreword to Hillman¡¯s book, Lance Wallnau indicates that the main theological issue has to do with eschatology. He writes that

Our eschatology has put us at a disadvantage, causing us to be more preoccupied with His coming than strategic in how we occupy till He comes. This confusion is problematic because the last days are a time of great shaking. The key is not to assume that every shaking is evidence of the collapse of civilization or the expansion of anti-Christ forces. Shaking can also remove what is militating against the advance of God¡¯s kingdom¡­. [7]

Always ask a change agent how they are defining their terms. What is ¡°militating against the advance of God¡¯s kingdom¡± mean? And who or what is going to be doing the ¡°shaking¡±? And how? The answer, which Lance gives in his closing statement, is quite disconcerting. He misapplies an Old Testament prophecy to the Dominion Mandate in an ominous way:

God promised new clarity, decisiveness, and success to those who drew near to serve His purposes. He assured them, saying, ¡°I am with you¡­. Behold, I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and make the hills like chaff.¡± I believe God is extending that promise to you and me as we join Him in what He is doing in the earth.[8]

In the Introduction to his Change Agent book, Os Hillman describes ¡°the dynamics of believers positioned at the top of each sphere of influence that defines culture¡± and ¡°who become problem solvers in that culture, thereby giving godly influence over it.¡± As was stated on the video, ¡°influence¡± is a key term to describe the activities of Dominionist change agents. Again, one must ask: define ¡°influence.¡± How is it done? To whom? Where? How? Hillman defines a change agent in his book as ¡°men and women who solve societal problems.¡±[9] If this were a mere matter of influence, there would be no controversy; many Christians have exerted positive influence in positions of leadership in the church¡¯s 2000 year history. But this ¡°influence¡± is equated with a ¡°Christian worldview¡± which means, in fact, a dominion worldview with a mandate to change culture. Hillman states:

¡­[M]aking more conversions will not necessarily change culture. It is important to have conversions, but it is more important to have those who are converted operate at the top of the cultural mountains from a biblical worldview¡­.
The more godly the change agent at the top [of the mountain], the more righteous the culture will be. It doesn¡¯t matter if the majority of the culture is made up of Christians. It only matters who has the greatest influence over that cultural mountain.[10] [emphasis in original]

As a matter of background information, change agentry is a form of wizardry in that it is a secretive, highly specialized training that involves how to manipulate people through powerful hidden psychological and sociological mechanics. These are subtle methods that are not recognized by those acted upon; they are therefore very vulnerable to the power that an elite trained change agent can exercise over them. Change agentry employs highly skilled techniques, including such controversial methods as the Delphi Technique (a deceptive and intimidating method of orchestrating group consensus), which are designed to shift a person from Point A to Point B in their worldview, beliefs, opinions, values, attitudes and behaviors. Change agents have a pre-determined outcome, a measurable goal to shift a paradigm. They are not necessarily the top leaders, but must be identified as key community influencers in a culture, community, village, or nation. An existing paradigm is most often easily shifted by various methods of peer pressure (especially in small groups), but in cases where that is not effective, penalties, force and coercion may be applied.[11] It is therefore in this overall context that Os Hillman¡¯s book Change Agent must be viewed.

The theology articulated by these three men is summed up by Johnny Enlow, who is Os Hillman¡¯s pastor,[12] in his book The Seven Mountain Prophecy: Unveiling the Coming Elijah Revolution,[13] as ¡°¡®restoration of a true theocracy.¡¯¡± He claims that ¡°Jesus is retained in heaven until Elijah¡¯s Revolution¡­[which] will prepare for His final return.¡± This ¡°revolution,¡± says Enlow ¡°clearly entails the crushing of Satan here on Earth before He returns for His bride.¡±[14] Enlow¡¯s militant church is supposedly told by God that

¡®Your body on Earth will crush Your enemies. The last generation will be the ¡®foot generation and will rule over Your enemies. Until they do so, You are not going back to rescue, rapture, save, or anything else. Your body, in fact, will not be a beautiful bride until she has accomplished this crushing of Satan.¡¯[15]

Hard core language for someone who is now engaging in semantic gymnastics on the issue!

Os Hillman, characteristic of most all Dominionists, re-casts the Fall in early Genesis into a ¡°Dominion Mandate¡± which was corrupted and now needs to be rectified by the church. The emphasis is not placed on man¡¯s sin and the sacrifice of Christ¡¯s shed blood at the cross of Calvary as the atonement for our sins. Rather, the emphasis is placed on man (the church) undoing what went wrong in Paradise and fixing it. Hillman believes that in the Lord¡¯s Prayer ¡°Jesus was wanting to restore all that had been lost. His desire for His people has been for them to be at the top of every sphere of society.¡±[16]

Amending the supposedly insufficient Gospel of Salvation to include the gospel of the kingdom (Dominion) is the name of the game. Note Hillman¡¯s corrupted gospel of Dominion:

¡°God¡¯s original mandate was to rule and reign on the earth through His creation. His mission wasn¡¯t simply for man to receive salvation. Salvation was only the entry point. His ultimate goal was for man to rule¡­.[17]

What did God mean when He said, ¡®You shall surely die,¡¯ if they ate from the tree? It didn¡¯t mean physical death. It meant that their relationship with the Creator would die¡­. Satan would be allowed to have dominion instead of man.¡±[18]

Jesus came to the earth to reclaim all that had been lost in the garden and give the keys back to man. However, it was man¡¯s responsibility to be His representative in this reclamation process.¡±[19]

Jesus returned to reclaim His Lordship over all domains of influence through His representatives¡ªnot just as Lord over salvation. After Jesus returned to heaven, it was up to His followers to appropriate what He did on the cross by reclaiming out of obedience all that had been lost. We are His representatives on the earth.[20]

We are to enforce and teach what Jesus has instructed us to do and what He has said. Our role is to enforce His will through intercessory prayer by claiming His promises and defeating the works of the enemy. Jesus came to defeat the works of the enemy. ¡°For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.¡± We too are called to defeat the works of the enemy on earth because we are to live as Jesus did on earth. Jesus said we would do even greater works than Him.[21]

Going a step further into the doctrinal abyss, Hillman asserts that Jesus has given ¡°His representatives power of attorney to represent and enforce His interests on the earth. That is our role.¡±[22] (This extreme view may account for the strange antics of the NAR in attempting to ¡°divorce Baal.¡±)[23] One should ask what Hillman¡¯s oft-used term ¡°enforce¡± means and how it will be applied to citizenry. Hillman also believes that the bride of Christ is maturing to a ¡°preparatory dominion, as in the earth being prepared for the return of the King. When Jesus prayed the Lord¡¯s Prayer, He prayed that what was in heaven would be manifested on the earth through His representatives.¡±[24] Hillman states that Jesus will ¡°come back for a mature bride in order to reclaim the earth¡± and that do accomplish this ¡°God needs His change agents¡± to ¡°start this reclamation process.¡±[25]

Interestingly, according to Dominionists God can¡¯t seem to do it on His own, but in needing man¡¯s help to build this kingdom, He actually seems to need man¡¯s machinations. Hillman says that there must be ¡°quantifiable transformation¡± and that the ¡°defining characteristic of a community that is being transformed is that the socioeconomic traits are being positively affected.¡±[26] As an example of ¡°Kingdom solutions¡± for the HIV crisis in Uganda, Hillman does not cite the Gospel of Salvation. Rather, he employs the humanistic criteria of ¡°promote sexual abstinence,¡± ¡°stress the importance of monogamy,¡± and ¡°place a high priority on instructions in preventative hygiene to the people.¡±[27] These global goals of ¡°societal transformation¡±[28] bear little resemblance to the goals of a changed heart and changed lives through repentance from sins, forgiveness, sanctification and holiness. This all about changing external behavior, attitudes, beliefs, opinions and values ¨C i.e., worldview ¨C not about changing the heart.

As an aside, a familiar feature of Hillman¡¯s book is his belief that a change agent needs to undergo six stages of progression to fulfill this ¡°call.¡± These stages bear some resemblance to those articulated by Robert Hicks in the book The Masculine Journey, which was used during the Promise Keepers era as an experiential men¡¯s study.[29] These six stages include crises, isolation and discovering ¡°secret things.¡±[30]

By this time it should be abundantly clear that the ¡°change agent¡± matrix from which these men operate is based on pure, unadulterated Dominion¡ªno matter what else they try to call it. As they merge their agenda more and more into the evangelical mainstream via their connections with Emergent and Reformergent leaders, the language may become more sophisticated. But the agenda will stay the same. And the hard questions about what it means to ¡°enforce¡± the kingdom of God on earth need to be asked.

The Truth:

¡°When he speaketh fair, believe him not:For there are seven abominations in his heart.¡±(Proverbs 26:25)

Endnotes:

[1] Os Hillman, Change Agent: Engaging Your Passion to be the One Who Makes A Difference (Charisma House, 2011), p. 20.

[2] Ibid, p. 31.

[3] Lance Wallnau, http://vimeo.com/28961430, transcribed and reported at http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/wallnau-dont-say-dominionism-least-not-front-media. This video is described as: ¡°Johnny Enlow, Lance Wallnau, and Os Hillman discuss the 7 cultural mountains of influence and evaluate questions regarding dominionsm. Excerpted from the Change Agent Video course by Os Hillman. To learn more visit ChangeAgentVideoCourse.com.¡±

[4] Os Hillman¡¯s organization Marketplace Leaders (http://www.marketplaceleaders.org/) has been advertising events such as Pinnacle Forum¡¯s ¡°Transforming Leaders To Transform Culture: 2011 National Conference¡± (e-mailed August 10, 2011); a ¡°Change Agent Intensive in Atlanta Georgia for June 24-26 (e-mailed June 8, 2011); and ¡°two nights of meetings in Hollywood, California¡± with ¡®those in the business, arts and entertainment and media mountains in Hollywood¡± (e-mailed May 4, 2011).

[5] Change Agent, p. xi. Also see this Herescope post where the relationship between C. Peter Wagner and Lance Wallnau is documented: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/09/next-great-awakening_20.html

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid, p. xii.

[8] Ibid, p. xiii. The Scripture referenced here is Isaiah 41:15, and this is a perfect example of the Latter Rain theology which wrongfully posits a role for the church on earth that can only be fulfilled by Jesus Christ upon His Second Coming. The historical and theological context of Isaiah 41 is actually the opposite of Dominion, as explained by the Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Bible Commentary, Vol. 2 (Hendrickson), p. 693: ¡°There is a grand question at issue between God and the world, and between the people of God and the people of the world. The question is, whether the kingdom of God is to prevail, or the kingdom of the world, which is estranged from God. The remarkable interposition of God in behalf of His oppressed people in their Babylonian captivity, whereby He raised up Cyrus to execute His ¡®righteous¡¯ will in delivering them, decides the point at issue. That deliverance is a pledge and earnest of the final deliverance of the people of God, the literal and the spiritual Israel, by the Messiah, of whom Cyrus was the type. The nations in vain oppose themselves to the will of God, relying on their earthly idols. The Almighty is the ¡®first,¡¯ and therefore was before all human devices. He also is ¡®with the last,¡¯ and therefore shall Himself for ever be, and shall have His people with Him, when all adversaries of Himself and His people shall have been cast out finally. The same antitypical Cyrus, Messiah, shall destroy with the brightness of His coming the God-opposed nations and people, and will deliver the people of His covenant for the sake of Abraham, the forefather of Israel after the flesh, the father of all the faithful, and the ¡®friend of God.¡¯¡±

[9] Change Agent, p. 102.

[10] Ibid, p. 8-9.

[11] Elsewhere we have written about this topic in depth on the blog in posts such as: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/change-agents-for-church.html, http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/01/emerging-from-tradition-to-transition.html, http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/10/global-health-leadership-management.html and http://herescope.blogspot.com/2006/10/mclaren-secret-agents.html . Additional material on this topic can also be found at www.crossroad.to. The notable change is that the NAR employs downline networking structures which can rapidly diffuse a new worldview across a wide continuum. And Os Hillman's book Change Agent emphasizes this networking. The seven mountains themselves are symbolic of a pyramid marketing scheme.

[12] In Change Agent, p. 7 Hillman identifies Enlow as ¡°my pastor.¡±

[13] Johnny Enlow, The Seven Mountain Prophecy: Unveiling the Coming Elijah Revolution (Creation House, 2008), p. 23.

[14] Ibid. Italics in original.

[15] Ibid, p. 23-24. See this Herescope for further quotations from Enlow and Wallnau on this topic: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/09/concocting-great-awakening.html and see the graphic at the top of this post for an illustration of the warrior bride: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2011/09/dominique.html

[16] Change Agent, p. 19.

[17] Ibid, p. 20.

[18] Ibid, p. 21.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Ibid, p. 23.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Ibid, italics in original.

[23] Regarding the divorcing of Baal, see the following Herescope posts: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2011/07/divorcing-baal.html http://herescope.blogspot.com/2011/07/divorcing-baal-for-dominion.html http://herescope.blogspot.com/2011/08/baal-covenant.html

[24] Change Agent, p. 23.

[25] Ibid, p. 24.

[26] Ibid., p. 31.

[27] Ibid. Note that one of Uganda¡¯s gay activists was murdered, which may be connected to the ¡°influence¡± of the Dominionist ¡°worldview¡± that encourages returning to Old Testament laws to deal with homosexuals, rather than telling them how to know Jesus and be saved by grace so that they may be redeemed by His blood.

[28] Ibid.

[29] For additional reading on this topic, see these articles: http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Articles/GuysatRisk.pdf and http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Articles/ResurrectingPaganRites.pdf

[30] Change Agent, p. 71.