“A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; a mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan. Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks,at the mountain which God has desired for His abode? Surely the Lord will dwell there forever” (Psalms 68:15-16).

I cannot help but pause to consider the mountain of which the Psalmist speaks. It is the mountain of God, where God will dwell forever.

Is it Mt. Sinai? No. Is it the mountain of Bashan, which at first glance you would assume from this passage? No, because the mountain of many peaks, the mountain of Bashan, is looking enviously at the mountain of God’s abode. Is it Mt. Zion, to which the writer of Hebrews says we as believers have come? This cannot argued. However, we have in Scripture another revelation of what this mountain is: it is none other than the house of the Lord.

“Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2-3).

That this refers to that future occasion when the Lord Jesus will have established His earthly reign for a thousand years is evident, for it goes on to say that, “He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war” (Isaiah 2:4).

But what I wish to point out is the phrase, “the mountain of the house of the Lord.” That is, put a different way, the Lord’s house is a mountain; and not only a mountain, but the chief of mountains. Here is the truth to be seen here: we the church, are His house. The church then, in this day, is the mountain of God.

Again, from the book of Hebrews,

“Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end” (Hebrews 3:5-6).

The “chief of mountains” captures my attention. It is said the are seven mountains of influence. These ‘mountains,’ deemed to be those areas or divisions of society that shape culture, are business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, the family and religion. Revealed at first to Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade, and Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With a Mission, and then to Francis Schaeffer, these are the mountains which they say Christians must ‘scale’ to influence the world around us for Christ.

For the sake of clarity, at least in my mind anyway, while religion is listed as one of the seven, I do not consider it to be the church of Scripture, but rather those ecclesiastical organizations that most would render ‘religious.’

Here’s where I’m going with this: the church is not among these. The church, rather, is intended by God to be–and is in fact–chief of these. The church of Jesus Christ, the house of God (Hebrews 3:5-6), the mountain of God, the chief of mountains, is by nature and calling intended to be the supreme culture-shaper. And, though I’ve not time to present here proof, a brief overview of history will demonstrate that it has to a large degree done so. Yet it is a truth to be laid hold of in our day lest it be lost upon us.

(The book, How Christianity Changed the World, is a good place to start.)

Paul writes concerning the church, that it is the pillar and support of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15). It is not a fraternity, nor a social club, nor even just a gathering place where people of like mind come together to worship God. While indeed it is the latter, what I mean to say, what Scripture tells me, is that the church of Jesus is the principal agent of change in a fallen world. It is, in the words of Jesus, the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world.” It is intended to be this “city set on a hill,” with the word of exhortation being, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Where we are at in this equation ought be the question every serious Christian should ask himself. Then, having answered this question and seeing that he comes short, seek God as to how he might get to where God wants him to go.