WWUTT 1925 Q&A End Times Views, Critiquing the Enneagram, Personality Tests

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May 5, 2023

Responding to questions from listeners about views of the end-times, if a church should have one end-times view, how Christians should think about the Enneagram, and if personality tests are helpful. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

00:00: What are the different views of the end times? Should your church require members to have a particular end times view?
00:09: And does the Bible say anything regarding personality tests? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.
00:24: This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Be sure to tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt
00:33: .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Psalm 104.
00:40: Bless Yahweh, O my soul. O Yahweh my God, you are very great.
00:46: You are clothed with splendor and majesty, wrapping yourself with light as with a cloak, stretching out the heavens like a tent curtain.
00:55: He lays the beams of his upper chambers in the waters. He sets up the clouds to be his chariot.
01:03: He walks upon the wings of the wind. He makes his angels the winds, his ministers flaming fire.
01:12: Our God is sovereign. He sits in the heavens. He does all he pleases.
01:18: Fret not. The God who has situated the heavens the way that they are is on our side for all those who are in Christ Jesus.
01:29: This is the Friday edition of When We Understand The Text. When we take questions from the listeners, and you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
01:39: Babe, I said this week we're gonna be talking personality. Oh, yeah. The Enneagram.
01:45: Yeah. Yay, fun. And other such personality tests. Sure. Because we've had a few questions about this, reviewing comments since that video which
01:54: I posted, let's see, that was Saturday last week, I think that I. Was it really? I posted that one, yep.
02:00: Okay. I didn't feel like it was that long ago. Within a span of about four or five days, had over 20 ,000 views.
02:08: Wow. Thank you so much for watching. Yes. Thank you for sharing. You can find the YouTube channel, youtube .com
02:14: slash WWUTT. But in case you don't know what video we're talking about,
02:21: I'm gonna play it for you in just a moment. Okay. You won't get the fun slides and graphics, but the audio will be enough for you to be able to capture everything that's going on there.
02:30: Sure. It'll just be audio, if you wanna watch the video, you gotta go to the YouTube channel. Before getting to that,
02:37: I got a couple of Twitter polls that I did recently, we're gonna look at the results of that. Okay. First, we wanna mention. I did not partake.
02:43: You didn't vote in either poll? No, I didn't know they were going on. Oh, babe. Well, they're only 24 -hour polls.
02:51: Yeah, I know. Yeah, see. I'm not on Twitter that often. But both had to do with the end times.
02:56: Okay. So we're gonna look at the results of this. Oh, one of the polls I posted. So our homeschool group came to an end this past Monday.
03:07: Right. Like the year is over. They did their year -end sort of, what would we call that? End of year celebration.
03:16: That's what it's called? Yeah. So our end of year celebration was on Monday night. How old is he now?
03:21: 20 months? How old is Bubz? I don't know. Right? I tell everybody he turns two in September.
03:29: Okay. So there you go. We passed 18 months, which is a year and a half.
03:34: And then we stopped keeping track. I have a hard enough time keeping track of my own age, let alone my children's age.
03:41: Well, yeah, because you keep telling everybody you're 27. Well, it's easier. Every year you turn 27.
03:48: This year I actually turned 40. That was easy math. As I get older and you keep saying 27, that's starting to make people go, hmm.
03:59: Well, I don't look 27 anymore, so it's okay. When did Gabe and Becky start having kids?
04:06: A little curious there. So anyway, yeah. So he was 18 months on March 1st.
04:13: Yes. So 19 months, 20 months. He's at 20 months. Okay, there you go. Yeah, there we go. You were right then.
04:18: I had that right. Anyway, he was carrying on. Cannot keep him quiet to save our lives.
04:26: Oh, yes. On Monday night at the year -end thing. Okay, so anytime anybody has the stage, whether it be at home, at church, or during these sort of events, he has to compete.
04:40: That's right. He's got to carry on and make noise. So I went outside with him because he loves to watch cars go by.
04:47: Oh, yes. And this was where I came up with this poll question. So while I'm standing out there with him, making sure he doesn't leave the sidewalk, kind of standing between him and the road,
04:57: I did this poll question and posted it. Where would you say your eschatology most closely aligns?
05:06: Okay. Your view of the end times, where would you say that you settle? The four options were dispensationalism, premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism.
05:17: There's the four views of the end times. I had 4 ,066 votes.
05:22: Wow, that's a lot. Yeah, good response to this poll. Dispensationalism, when
05:28: I was watching it for the first few hours, it really was a horse race.
05:33: Okay. Dispensationalism came out really strong, really fast. Yeah. Like way ahead of everybody else. I wasn't too surprised by that.
05:42: Amillennialism was dead last. Premillennialism was close second to dispensationalism after a little while.
05:49: It kind of started to catch up. Postmillennialism might have been in third. Postmillennialism did end up in first place at one point.
05:57: So it pulled out ahead of dispensationalism and premillennialism. Okay. No, wait. I'm confused because I thought that premillennialism and dispensationalism go together.
06:07: Hang on. Hold on to that. Okay, okay. Hold on. That's in the responses that we're going to read. Okay, okay.
06:14: From some of the comments that we got from people, too. Check. So eventually, amillennialism came out in front and held the position.
06:20: Oh, wow. So it came out this way. Even though dispensationalism was in first place right out of the gate and a strong lead out of the gate.
06:28: Yeah. It finished with 12 .5 % of the vote. Oh, wow. Dead last. Hmm. And not even anywhere close to third.
06:37: In third place was postmillennialism. Okay. Which had 27 .3 % of the vote.
06:45: Very close to premillennialism, which was second, 27 .7
06:51: % of the vote. Okay. And the leader was amillennialism with 32 .4 % of the vote.
06:58: Now, some had made the comment that there were probably some dispensationalists that voted premillennial because they didn't recognize the difference.
07:06: Right. That's a possibility. Yeah. Really, there's only two categories here. There's premillennialism and postmillennialism.
07:13: Mm -hmm. When I did my what video on the end times, I mentioned that.
07:19: These are the two views of the end times. We typically think of there being four views. Mm -hmm. But there's only two, and then those two views are split into two more views.
07:29: Sure. So you've got four. Under premillennialism, you have premillennialism and dispensationalism.
07:34: Okay. Or what would be called dispensational premillennialism and historic premillennialism.
07:40: Oh, okay. Then under postmillennialism, you have amillennialism and classical postmillennialism.
07:47: The term amillennialism didn't even come about until just a couple of hundred years ago. Mm -hmm. And it really, there was kind of a faction among postmillennials because amillennials were taking a more pessimistic view, whereas the classical postmillennials had a more optimistic view of the world getting better and, you know, things are improving as Christianity is spreading and things like that.
08:10: Four. Right. So the postmillennials were making fun of the amillennials and came up with that term.
08:18: Okay. And so it was a critical term. Was it more like, ah, millennial.
08:23: Yes. Might have been. Like it was kind of like, you don't even believe in a millennium, so it became amillennial.
08:32: Okay. Of those four views, amillennial apparently was the one that got picked on the most because it has the most negative name.
08:39: Okay. It's like the amillennial doesn't actually believe in no millennium, but that's what the name means.
08:45: Right. So that means somebody that didn't like the viewpoint gave them that name. Uh -huh. They didn't decide, no,
08:53: I don't believe in a millennium, so I'm going to be amillennial. That isn't where that came from.
08:58: In case you're not familiar with these two views, so the main difference between premillennialism and postmillennialism is where the millennial reign of Christ is.
09:09: Uh -huh. So both the amillennials and postmillennials believe we're in the reign of Christ now.
09:14: Right. The amillennials believe that Christ's reign is in heaven. Postmillennials do believe that his reign will be on earth, but it's as the kingdom is expanding presently as Christians are being added to the kingdom.
09:27: Okay. Premillennials believe that the millennial reign of Christ is going to be after his return.
09:34: So postmillennials, it's before his return. Premillennials, it's after his return. Almost sounds like the names are backwards.
09:41: Yeah, it does. Because if the millennial kingdom is going to be after his return, wouldn't that be postmillennial?
09:48: Right. Yeah. So it does sound like somebody got a little mixed up in how we were throwing these names around.
09:55: So Christ will return and he will set up his earthly kingdom and will reign from Jerusalem.
10:02: Uh -huh. Both the dispensational premill and the historic premill believe that.
10:08: But a dispensational premillennial believes that there's a rapture, then seven years of tribulation, and then
10:15: Christ returns again. Uh -huh. That's the distinction between dispensationalism and premillennialism.
10:23: Okay. But then again with amillennialism and postmillennialism, the amill will say Christ's kingdom is in heaven where he reigns presently.
10:31: The church is kind of like the outpost of that kingdom. Postmillennialism believes Christ is reigning in the present millennium and that his kingdom is expanding through his church.
10:41: Okay. So anyway, I'm pretty sure I kind of summarized that the best I could there. There's the four different views of end times, and there you have the percentages of how people came out.
10:51: Uh -huh. So here's the comments that we got as a result of that. Katie, the
10:57: Berean Millennial. Okay. Who, by the way, you can follow on Twitter. She's also got a snappy Instagram account, has more followers on Instagram, I believe.
11:05: That's probably her platform. But she's got some good apologetic videos, ladies, if you're looking for some good stuff like that.
11:14: I don't have Instagram, unfortunately. No, that's fine. That's fine. You don't need Instagram. Be one more thing.
11:20: That's right. It's one more thing. I just use it to post memes. I'm glad she's on it, though. Yeah, she's got a good ministry there.
11:27: So she said, everyone that doesn't believe exactly like me is absolutely wrong. But I'm not going to tell y 'all what
11:33: I believe because it's Twitter, so you'll just have to accept wondering if you're wrong. Fair enough.
11:41: David from Baltimore, you're asking for trouble with this one. I believe that.
11:46: I responded to David, hey, I'm not capping anybody. Yeah. I'm not saying this view is bad and this view is good.
11:52: It's just an even end times question. Uh -huh. That's where you're stirring the pot already.
12:01: Just that I'm suggesting the fact that there's more than one view is going to make somebody angry.
12:06: Because more than one view is an option. Right. There's only one. There's only one.
12:12: There can only be one. And watch us all be wrong. Well, I really think, you know,
12:22: I've said that I align more on the amillennial side of things by default. Right. Because it's the system that I have the least number of problems with.
12:30: Uh -huh. Doesn't really mean that I think that amillennialism is foolproof. Right. I really think that when
12:36: Christ returns, we're all going to be pleasantly surprised. Right. Well, that's what the
12:42: Bible says we're going to be. Yeah. So, you know. Yeah. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 says, we will marvel when he returns.
12:49: Amen. With his angels. And he gathers up his saints. Toby from Washington says,
12:56: I'm amill with no problem making perfect sense of Zechariah. Okay.
13:03: Nice. This goes back to the Shepherd's Conference in March. Because the sermon that John MacArthur said.
13:09: I wondered about that. Yeah. He said that Zechariah is an amillennial's worst nightmare. Uh -huh. I'm sitting there going, nope.
13:15: I have no problems with Zechariah. Yeah. It does not demolish my eschatology at all.
13:21: Adam from Florida. Depends on the day, brother. I fall on amill or postmill. You know, it's interesting that he says that.
13:28: Because I've had postmillennials tell me that I sound amillennial. And I've had amillennials tell me that I sound postmillennial.
13:35: Like you said, you can't like say you're one without.
13:42: Yeah. It's in the same category. Yeah. They're both on the side of postmillennialism. And you're kind of like not completely there.
13:50: Yeah. So, yeah. I'm sure the Dispies are out there going, yeah. That's what we think. You're not all there.
13:57: I'm not in the category. So, this one from Smash Bales.
14:05: Which one do you belong to? Well, I answer that one. It's the Amillennial Camp. In fact, you can find my blog on it.
14:11: It was the sermon that I preached back in 21 on amillennialism.
14:17: So, if you search for, if you do a Google search for Pastor Gabe amillennialism, that article will come up.
14:23: Baptist Knox in Montana. I don't see panmillennialism. And I am offended. Everything's going to pan out in the end.
14:32: Yeah. That's right. That's panmillennialism. Which, by the way, if you're panmill, you're amill. Just so you know. Bernard says, if someone were to get ratioed on a poll,
14:43: I believe it's appropriate that this would be the one. You understand the concept of getting ratioed?
14:49: No, I have no idea. It's where your comments exceed, like, number of likes. Oh, okay.
14:55: Yeah, yeah. But in this particular case, since it's a poll, it would be votes. Right. But I did not get more comments than votes.
15:01: So, I wasn't ratioed. Interesting. Crystal said, I don't know.
15:06: I come from an Arminian background, and I just don't know. I didn't even know there was more than one, more than the dispensational point of view.
15:15: No one has helped me figure it out after that. You know, I was attending a youth group.
15:21: This was when I was in my 20s. And I was at this particular youth group, I think because I was speaking there, or I was helping out or something.
15:28: I can't remember why I was there. Okay. You were just there. I was there. Okay. And I know they had just finished up a series on the end times.
15:37: And they said something about it. Like, one of the youth leaders said, hey, if you missed our series, if you didn't get all the packets with the information, here we have the packets here.
15:45: And at some point at the very end, we were talking about the series that they had just been through.
15:51: This wasn't like I wasn't teaching anymore. We were kind of just, you know, mingling around and talking. Sure. And I asked a question that was something to the effect of, so how did you do the whole end times thing?
16:01: Did you do, like, here's a dispensational view, and here's what the pre -meals believe and what the post -meals believe?
16:09: And as I was asking that question, the youth were just kind of standing there staring at me, bug -eyed. They're like, what are you talking about?
16:16: Oh, interesting. And it was somebody that said, no, no, no, no, no. We just talked about it. And then what they explained was only dispensational.
16:25: So I said, okay, so you were only doing the dispensational view. You didn't go through all the different other views. And that was when the other student spoke up and said, we didn't even know there were other views.
16:34: Oh, wow. So I may have sowed some seeds of division that night. May? Just as a guest speaker being there.
16:45: Well, that's okay, because then they can go and study on their own and with help, and they get to know the word more.
16:53: That's right. There is nothing wrong with that. Broaden their horizons a little bit. That's right. You know, every time
16:58: I heard R .C. Sproul talk on the subject, he would say where he fell, but then he would also give other views.
17:05: Right. Briefly. It wasn't like an exhaustive explanation of each view. Right. Then it would be a whole sermon.
17:12: Right. But he was always very respectful. And I remember a Q &A that he did once where somebody asked him what his end times view was, and he said, well, it depends on the season.
17:24: You could ask me, and I might have changed my mind. I think he kind of waffled between amillennialism and postmillennialism.
17:30: He said, I can tell you what I'm not. I'm definitely not dispensationalist, and I'm definitely not a full preterist.
17:36: So full preterism, by the way, is the idea that all of the prophecy that we're reading about in Scripture already came to fulfillment.
17:43: Okay. So there's really nothing we're looking toward. It's already all happened.
17:49: Revelation was written before 70 A .D. Yeah, right. So it's entirely a past.
17:56: See, I don't like the view that everything is futurist. Yeah. So we're only looking toward the future, and there's really only going to be one generation of human history that these things absolutely pertain to.
18:07: Oh, wow. And then the opposite of that is preterism, which is all these things have already happened.
18:13: So we're looking back at something that's already taken place. Okay. And it seems kind of like, okay, well, then what's, you know, how does this apply to us now?
18:21: Yeah. Either one of those. So next one. This is from Pastor Keith in Nebraska.
18:28: I'm a premill dispensationalist, but I most definitely will not die on that hill. It's okay. You can change your mind.
18:34: Yeah. I've changed my mind over the years. I have a fellow elder,
18:40: Doug, at our church. He said he's been through all of them. Oh, really? I started out dispensationalist. I became historic premill, then amill, and now
18:46: I'm postmill. Huh. So, yeah, you just run the gamut. Brewster from North Carolina.
18:53: It's strange that you offer two options that overlap with each other. And then Jameson from Oklahoma.
18:59: I've always understood dispensationalism to be a subset of premillennialism kind of messes with the poll a little bit.
19:06: Well, like I said, they really fall into two categories. So I'm looking at the two broken up into four.
19:13: Yeah. Yeah. That's why you had those options. But it could be that between the premillennials and the dispensationals, those numbers may have evened out a little bit more than that.
19:22: Yeah. Rather than leaving the dispensationalists in the dust like that. There probably were more, and they were just selecting premillennialism.
19:30: Emily said, I still don't know what these words mean, and at this point, I'm too afraid to ask. Oh, no.
19:38: There must have been some conversations. Well, look for my explainer video.
19:46: It's just 90 seconds, or it might have been a two -minute video. I can't remember. But that was the one I did. The first video I did this year was on the four views of the end times.
19:55: The what video? All right. So then after that, I did another poll. Okay. And this poll was a two -question poll about end times views.
20:04: Number one, does your church have in their statement of faith a particular view of eschatology premill, postmill, etc.?
20:12: And number two, does your church require that someone must hold that view in order to become a member or serve in the leadership?
20:22: Yes to both, 7 .6%. So their church would...
20:28: How many votes? Oh, yeah. Sorry. This was over 1 ,000. I didn't write it down, but it had over 1 ,000 votes.
20:34: Okay. Another good turnout. Yep. So 7 .6 % said yes. We have a particular end times view in our statement of faith, and you have to hold to that in order to be a member or serve in the leadership.
20:49: 18 .7 % said yes to one. So the end times view is in the statement of faith, but no to two.
20:56: You don't have to hold that view to become a member or serve in the leadership. Okay. That's a little confusing.
21:05: Say that again. That's a little confusing. So they have it in the statement of faith, but you don't have to hold to it to become a member.
21:14: Yeah. Why would you have it in the statement of faith? Yeah, I'm not sure. Okay. I don't know. Just to let people know what you'd be preaching about?
21:22: Possibly. Okay. Could be that. Maybe. It could be the sort of a thing where, like when you ask them, if you interview this family for membership at the church, and you ask them something like, have you read our statement of faith?
21:36: Is there anything in there that you disagree with? And they might say, well, I don't hold that end times view.
21:43: Okay. Was that going to be a problem for division? No, it's fine with me. You know, that sort of a thing. Okay. It could be that.
21:48: Okay. But with leadership too, you would think that that'd be important if it's in their statement of faith.
21:56: So, yes, it's in the statement of faith. No, you don't have to hold to that particular end times view in order to serve in the leadership.
22:04: In order to serve in the leadership. Yeah. Anyway. Okay. That's interesting. Our church is no to both.
22:10: We do not have it in our statement of faith. And you're not required to hold a specific end times view.
22:17: You just have to believe Christ is coming back bodily, just like he ascended into heaven bodily. He's gathering up his saints.
22:23: He's going to judge the living and the dead. We'll live with him forever in his glorious kingdom. Amen. We understand the basics.
22:29: The important part. I mean, the very, very important part. The very important part. Yeah. Yeah. We might disagree on the order in which all of these things are going to happen, but we still hold to the same.
22:41: Yeah. Okay. So how many had that? How many percentage had that? 70 .5 % said no to both.
22:47: Oh, wow. That's a lot. And then 3 .1 % said other. I just threw that in there. I really don't know what
22:53: I meant by other or what I intended by that. Maybe they were just looking. They didn't know. That's right. So they were looking for results.
22:59: I don't know. So I'm clicking on something. I can see the results. Yeah. Justin Peters commented on that. Okay. And he said, yes to one, but a split decision on two.
23:07: You do not have to hold the same eschatology to be a member, but you do in order to serve as a pastor, elder, or in the leadership.
23:15: See, I can see that. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. But I was just kind of curious. Anyway. Fellow by the name of Big Blue, yes to number one, no to number two.
23:24: But when I was searching for a church, I attended a reformed Baptist church and went through the membership classes, found out they are pre -mill.
23:32: And I told them that I was post -mill. And they said, if I join, I'm not allowed to share my eschatology with anyone at the church.
23:38: Whoa. Yeah, that's pretty harsh. I was interviewed by a reformed
23:46: Baptist church who was interested in me becoming their senior pastor. And I'm like, okay,
23:52: I'm willing to have that conversation. I found out in those conversations that they were dispensational pre -mill, which
23:59: I'm not. And I said, you're a reformed Baptist? And they said, yes. And I said, so you hold to the 1689
24:05: London Baptist Confession of Faith? And they said, yes. And I said, in your dispensational pre -mill? That doesn't fit with the
24:13: LBCF. Yeah. Needless to say, the conversations came to an end at that point.
24:19: So I didn't cut it off. I was okay. You just have to accept that that's not what
24:26: I'm preaching when I get up there. But yeah, anyway, I get it. If a church has settled that that's going to be their end times position, it's good that you state that out front.
24:37: If it's really going to be a source, or rather, you want to prevent it from being a source of division.
24:43: So you're setting that out front at the first so that people are aware, this is where our leadership sets.
24:50: This is the view of the end times that they're going to present. And so if I'm comfortable with that, I can become a member.
24:55: But if not, I have to be willing to bite my tongue if I want to be a member of this church. At least over end times stuff.
25:02: I mean, I don't think you should have to bite your tongue, but just don't cause a ruckus.
25:09: Well, I think that's what... Get all heated. I mean, if they have that in the statement of faith, and they want you to adhere to it to become a member, that's pretty much what they expect.
25:19: That's true. We're not teaching all the end times views. We're going to say the other three are wrong, and this one is right.
25:26: That's the way they're going to approach it. And that's when you bite your tongue. Right. I get it.
25:33: So this person, Casey, for my current church, yes to one, unsure about number two.
25:39: Interesting. So it's in the statement of faith, but whether or not a person has to hold to that to become a leader or a member.
25:45: And Casey went on to say, for my last church, I went to the website and just realized there's absolutely no statement of faith on it.
25:52: Nothing. And they don't ask leadership to hold to any particular view as well.
25:58: Okay. Yeah. Colin from Iowa, the PCA holds that you cannot be dispensational pre -mill and be an officer.
26:05: However, that belief system doesn't prevent someone from becoming a member. There you go.
26:11: So in the Presbyterian Church of America, you can't be dispensational pre -mill in order to be an officer.
26:17: I guess that would be either pastor or deacon, elder, lay elder, et cetera. Yeah. But dispensational pre -mills can become members of Presbyterian churches.
26:28: Yeah, because you can persuade anybody. Just teasing. All right.
26:34: So before we transition into the next part, we're going to be talking about the Enneagram and personality in general.
26:39: Uh -huh. But first of all, I want to mention G3, again, coming up in September. Yes. We're going to be there.
26:46: We've got a booth at G3. We hope to see you there as well. To register, go to g3min .com.
26:55: Org. I do this every time. You do. I do this every week. Anyway, you'll figure it out.
27:01: It's one of those. Go to the website. You'll find one or the other. And then what was the other thing
27:06: I was going to mention? Next week, we're going to be in Garden City, Kansas. Yes. And I'm going to be preaching at New Life Community Church on North Campus Road.
27:16: So if you're in the Garden City area, I haven't been to Garden City in I think 10 years or something.
27:22: Or more. Yeah. You've driven through there more recently than I have, I think, haven't you?
27:29: Probably. I know we've been - But I didn't really stop. We went through Dodge City on the way to your grandparents.
27:34: Right. Maybe - Yeah. We went to your garden on the way. But I think I went on a trip with my family to go to Garden for something.
27:42: Right. I want to say I did too, though, because it seems like I remember we left
27:47: Ulysses and we were heading north, and we went to Garden. I was pretty sure we did. I think it was a fridge that we were going for.
27:54: A fridge? A fridge. I wasn't part of that trip. Grandma and Grandpa's fridge went out. So we had to book it.
28:02: Gotcha. So we're going back. We're going to see some of Becky's family. I'm going to be at a church while I'm there as well.
28:10: Again, that's New Life Community Church on North Campus. Worship starts at 9 .30.
28:16: Yeah. 9 .30 a .m. Sunday, May 14th. That's Mother's Day. Yes, it is.
28:22: Yeah. Come worship with us. Yeah. If you're in the area, would love to see you. Okay. Let's get to this deal about the
28:29: Enneagram. Yeah. What in the world is it? You know, I was surprised at the number of people that commented and said, never even heard of this until now.
28:37: That's fine. I thought that it was more of a well -known than that.
28:43: It is pretty widespread. Yeah. And the more research that I did into this, the more
28:49: I came to realize just how widespread it is. But I'm glad if you hadn't heard of it.
28:55: That's a good thing. Right, because that shows that you're attending a church that's not dabbling into any of this stuff. Yeah.
29:00: So here's the video that I did. This is about ten and a half minutes. Becky's got the tag at the very end.
29:06: And then we'll read some of the comments that we got after sharing this video on the
29:11: Enneagram. In 1 John 4, 1, the Bible says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
29:24: Let's test the spirits behind the Enneagram. What is it? How has it become so popular in many churches?
29:29: Where does it really come from? And what does the Bible have to say? The Enneagram of personality, or simply the
29:38: Enneagram, is a nine -sided star polygon used to classify human personalities into nine interconnected personality types.
29:45: The word comes from the Greek words enia, meaning nine, and grama for writing or drawing. Each number at each point of the
29:51: Enneagram corresponds with a different personality. The Enneagram is utilized anywhere from business management to religious contexts.
29:58: Some believe it can help a person understand their own personality and the personalities of others, improve interpersonal dynamics, and become healthier and more productive.
30:08: The religious believe it can help a person know God or achieve enlightenment. Others do it just for fun.
30:14: Though the Enneagram is largely regarded as pseudoscience, it has developed into a cottage industry with seminars, conferences, books, jewelry, candles, and more.
30:23: This became quite the fad in many American churches. Franciscan priest Richard Rohr was one of the first to promote the
30:29: Enneagram to Christians with his book, The Enneagram, A Christian Perspective, published in 1995 and again in 2001.
30:37: Over the next few years, Rohr's teaching on the Enneagram caught on with the emergent church movement, including teachers like Rob Bell and Brian McLaren.
30:44: In 2016, Christian publisher InterVarsity Press released The Road Back to You, an Enneagram journey to self -discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile, who is called the
30:54: Enneagram Godmother. Ivy Press has since published dozens of books on the Enneagram, including an entire series devoted to each personality type.
31:04: Andy Stanley had Ian Cron, an Episcopal priest and psychotherapist, on his Leadership podcast to promote the
31:10: Enneagram. Stanley said Cron is responsible for introducing the Enneagram to its broadest audience, evangelicals.
31:17: Rick Warren has hosted Enneagram seminars for teachers at Saddleback Church. Tyler Zack is an
31:22: Enneagram pastor who has organized the Gospel for Enneagram Summit. Speakers included Russell Moore of Christianity Today and Lisa Vischer, the voice of Junior Asparagus from the popular children's series
31:33: Veggie Tales. She's now an Enneagram coach. Other speakers included Beth and Jeff McCord, who founded
31:39: Your Enneagram Coach, so Christians can use its power to harness and transform self -limiting behaviors into life -enhancing personal empowerment.
31:48: The gift of the Enneagram, they say, is that through self -discovery, one can create and sustain meaningful and lasting relationships with others,
31:56: God, and themselves. Not through Christ, but through the Enneagram. Other Enneagram enthusiasts include
32:03: Beth Moore, who says she is an Enneagram 7, and Scott Sauls, who's an Enneagram 4. In a
32:08: Passion Talk, Sadie Robertson -Huff said, I'm a six -wing seven on the Enneagram. I can tell you everything there is to know about it.
32:14: Late Southern Baptist pastor Darren Patrick said, I think the Enneagram is like the image of God broken in nine pieces.
32:20: In the same answer, he said, You've got to understand, really the Enneagram is to show you your dark side more than your sunny side.
32:28: Two weeks later, Patrick committed suicide. His widow was invited to speak at Tyler Zack's Enneagram Summit.
32:34: Some churches have utilized the Enneagram to hire new staff, not according to their biblical qualifications, but according to their
32:41: Enneagram number. Here's Troy Frazier of the Revive Thoughts podcast. I was working with getting hired at a church.
32:46: Everything was going very, very well. However, at the very end, they just sent me a link and they said,
32:52: Hey, everyone who we would want to hire for this position is taking this Enneagram test. And I don't remember what my numbers were, but let's just pretend for the sake of remembering these things.
33:01: It was a four. The message I got back the next day was, Oh, you are a four. I am really sorry, but actually, you know,
33:07: I'm a four. Dave's a four. We actually have several fours already. And we're trying to have a well -rounded staff here.
33:13: We appreciate you taking all the time on this. But yeah, not looking for a four right now. Thank you. This is not the only time, not the last time
33:19: I would have an Enneagram test come up at Christian ministry. It's happened actually a few different times. At best, the
33:25: Enneagram is pop psychology. At worst, it's of the occult. Now, this is something that many evangelical teachers pushing the
33:31: Enneagram try to ignore. Bill Gaultier, who led the seminar at Saddleback, has said the following about its origins.
33:38: I did some research about the history of it, and I became convinced that I feel like God has had his hand in the development of this tool.
33:46: Now, you may say, but wait a minute, Bill. I've heard about, you know, all these different influences, Eastern religions and Sufi Muslims and, you know, all this stuff.
33:54: Well, that's true. It's a cross -cultural tool. The first thinkers in the history of the Enneagram were the desert fathers and monks of the third and fourth century, and they were
34:03: Christians. The desert father, Evagrius, is the one that identified the seven deadly sins.
34:08: The whole Enneagram theory is based on that, plus two more nine deadly sins.
34:13: Now, you don't always hear about that. Because it's a lie. In fact, the guy who pushed that story about the
34:19: Enneagram going back to ancient sources admitted he made it up. Here's Chilean psychotherapist and Enneagram guru,
34:26: Claudio Naranjo. So when people heard me, they thought I was talking about something that comes from Babylonian origins through Oscar Hichasso to me.
34:37: Well, yeah, because they trust that more. They're scholars.
34:43: I thought it would make sense. Actually, when I chose to do that intentionally, and I was remembering a recommendation of Oscar Wilde, who said, if you want an idea of yours to become famous, attribute it to a famous person.
34:58: That's right. So at the conference, I told them I had made up this tale that all this came from millennia ago, and that this information came from the
35:10: Sufis. The earliest mention of the Enneagram is from Russian occultist Peter Uspensky, who got it from his teacher, occultist
35:17: George Gurchiev. They taught that the human soul is trapped by personality and needed to be set free.
35:23: Gurchiev explained this using symbols like the Enneagram. He said all knowledge can be included in the
35:29: Enneagram. A man may be quite alone in the desert, and he can trace the Enneagram in the sand, and in it read the eternal laws of the universe.
35:38: The term Enneagram of personality is credited to Oscar Hichasso, a philosopher who founded an occult school in Chile.
35:45: He called his study protoanalysis, nine ways in which a person's ego becomes fixed at an early stage of life, often due to psychological traumas.
35:53: Each person latches on to one of these ego fixations, becoming the self -image that develops into their personality.
36:00: Hichasso claimed to receive this from spirits, including an angel called Metatron. His student
36:05: Claudio Naranjo referred to these spirit guides as a higher authority, through which he was also influenced.
36:12: Naranjo assigned each of the nine Enneotypes, which he claimed to have received through automatic writing, a form of spirit contact.
36:18: Actually, Oscar Hichasso had not described any of the Enneotypes either. Actually, in the seven months we spent with him, he devoted about six hours to talk about the
36:30: Enneagram, but he never came to describe any one of the types. That was in Eureka. In Eureka, Chile.
36:36: In Eureka, Chile, yeah. So that came from my own observations, but mostly from automatic writing.
36:42: Automatic writing? Yeah, it came to me through automatic writing. What did? The specific information.
36:48: And it's Enneotypes. About Enneotypes, which I then verified through observation. When you find your personality type is a six -winged seven, according to the
36:57: Enneagram, this is not, as Darren Patrick called it, a reflection of the image of God. The Enneagram is not what
37:03: God says about you. It turns out the Enneagram is what demons say about you. Galatians 1, 6 through 8 says,
37:10: I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
37:23: But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed, let him be accursed.
37:32: Deuteronomy 18, 10 through 12 says, There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices soothsaying, or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, or one who is an enchanter or a medium or a spiritist, or one who inquires of the dead.
37:49: For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh. In 1 Timothy 4, 1 we are warned,
37:55: The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons.
38:05: Now just because a professing Christian uses the Enneagram, that doesn't automatically mean they have become a New Age pagan.
38:11: They may be misled and should be warned that such a tool is not of God. It's no different than astrology, which also engages human personality and utilizes shapes like this.
38:21: Well that looks familiar, doesn't it? Tools like these will not deliver the freedom or enlightenment they promise.
38:27: They lead to more deception, darkness, and even death. The Bible says, See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
38:42: Ephesians 2 .10 says to Christians, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
38:50: God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Later we read, Therefore look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
39:02: On account of this, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Turn from these
39:08: New Age demonic tools. Jesus died on the cross to redeem us from these worldly things.
39:14: Turn to Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If you want to know who you are and what you are made for, the answer is in His word, the
39:24: Bible. Know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error when we understand the text.
39:31: Thank you for watching. Please subscribe to our channel and look for our podcast with 20 minutes of Bible study, 5 days a week.
39:38: Special thanks to Good Fight Ministries, Cultish, Marcia Montenegro, and American Gospel, some of the sources for this video.
39:46: Well done, babe. Thanks. Now there's some ministry that's associated with Marcia Montenegro.
39:53: I didn't catch the name of the ministry, but they did see the video and they sent me an email. Awesome. And thanked me for using their info and stuff like that.
40:02: And they were going to send me a book. Oh, cool. So I'm looking forward to getting that book in the mail. This comment comes from Andrew, Fresno, California.
40:10: He says, great video. Also from a psychological standpoint, the Enneagram and other similar personality tests like Myers -Briggs are completely bogus.
40:20: You can't put one's personality into a box. The human mind is far too complex for this.
40:27: People act differently depending on their mood and the exact situation. And they can also change over time.
40:32: So this is not the best metric to use to determine whether to hire someone, to date someone, et cetera.
40:39: What also happens is that people tend to read themselves into whatever Enneagram number or Myers -Briggs type, et cetera, their test result shows, regardless of whether or not this is actually accurate.
40:52: What can also happen is that this can become a self -fulfilling prophecy. And that can cause people to subconsciously become more similar to the personality result that they are given.
41:02: One issue I have also seen is that some, not all people, use their Enneagram type to justify various sin issues in their life instead of actually addressing those sin issues and repenting of them.
41:15: Yeah, there's a lot of people that do stuff like that. Yeah. A good example of this is, well,
41:20: I'm Irish, so I got a bad temper anyway. Yeah. So, you know, you just got to get over it.
41:26: I've used that one. I'm Irish and I'm German. German.
41:32: That's right. And I have flare -up. Or somebody says, I'm a redhead. Uh -huh.
41:38: So, of course, I just fly off the handle. Yeah. Anytime. Is that indicative of redheads?
41:44: I don't know. I don't know. Unpredictable and fiery. Something. I've met so many different redheads with so many different personalities,
41:52: I don't really understand where that personality type comes from. I don't either. And sticks.
41:58: But, yeah, I had one person that had commented to me and said that when they took their Enneagram test, well, it was, you know, a test or whatever.
42:05: It's not really a test. It's not a personality test. It's like a magazine quiz kind of thing where you just fill in the blank.
42:13: Well, sure. But it's – I mean, you could look at the Enneagram wheel or, you know, the polygon, whatever it is, and you could pick one of those that you're like, okay, that's me.
42:23: Uh -huh. You know, and say I'm that one, a six -winged seven, or whatever. You know, the wings are like the most closely aligned personality that goes with the one that you are.
42:33: Uh -huh. So, that's, you know, how that numbering system works. But you just pick one. You're like, okay, that one describes me.
42:39: And I've heard people say to me that when they would find their personality according to the
42:45: Enneagram, it became like that self -fulfilling prophecy. Like, for example, if it was
42:51: Peacemaker, if my personality came out Peacemaker. Okay. Then I would do everything that I could to maintain
42:58: Peacemaker. Ah. And I'm not going to go do something that's going to compromise my identity as a
43:06: Peacemaker. Okay. And so, then you get swallowed up by that. And now the Enneagram is dictating who you are.
43:12: Hmm. It's actually not telling you anything about yourself. It's entrapping you.
43:18: Yeah. I could see that. Because any time that I took personality, like this was way back when.
43:24: Any of those personality tests or what career do you need or whatever. Yeah. I was in every category.
43:31: Oh, sure. I was the same way. I mean, I was all over the place. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, well, that tells me nothing. Right. I've taken a number of personality tests over the years.
43:40: Maybe not a dozen of them, but pretty close to that. Uh -huh. And I can honestly say
43:45: I've never agreed with any of them. Oh, really? Never. I agreed with all of them.
43:50: Yeah. I was like, yes, yes, yes. I think every time I took one of those and I got the results,
43:56: I would just kind of like, hmm, okay, I can kind of see that. You know, that was kind of my reaction. Yeah. The closest that I would get to agreeing with it.
44:02: But then I would always go back and I would find a couple of answers. Because there's always those questions where you could go either way.
44:09: Right. You know what I mean? Exactly. Yes. And so I would go back to those two or three questions. I would change the answers.
44:15: Uh -huh. And then the personality type would change. Yes. So I'm like, well, that doesn't make any sense.
44:20: That's what I'm saying. I was all of them. Yeah. Because on those questions, I mean,
44:25: I legitimately could go either direction on those. Right. On those options. Depends on circumstances. Right. Yeah. Exactly.
44:31: What mood I'm in. So they're really kind of silly. I mean, all things considered, when it comes to personality tests, what's the big deal?
44:39: Yeah. I mean, what's the point? I was just looking for what I should go to school for. Like, narrow it down.
44:46: Right. But no. I mean, I guess if you don't. Right. If you don't know what you're going to do, what your career interests are, something like that.
44:53: Uh -huh. You would kind of figure most people kind of have a good idea what they want to do for the rest of their life. Sure. But I'm up for, like, something new.
45:01: Sure. That I hadn't thought of before. You know, that, like, this would fit you perfectly kind of thing.
45:06: But no. Didn't happen. Yeah. It's good. Now, I loved, when
45:11: I was in college, there was a website called Emode. It doesn't exist anymore.
45:17: It even turned into something else, and the website that it became doesn't exist anymore either. Huh. So there's no version of this out there anywhere.
45:25: But Emode was the website, and you would take all these different personality tests.
45:31: Okay. Not like official. Well, official. I don't think any of them are really official. But it wasn't like a
45:38: Myers -Briggs or an Enneagram or something like that. Okay. It was just these fun little personality tests. What kind of dog are you?
45:44: Sure. What Star Wars character are you? Sure. You know. And then I would always get, like, Chihuahua. I'm not a
45:49: Chihuahua. What are you talking about? Let me go back and change that Taco Bell answer that I put.
45:58: Or, you know, like, what Star Wars character are you? I'd come out Chewbacca. I am not hairy enough to be
46:03: Chewbacca. Come on. And everybody understands what I say. I don't agree with this at all.
46:14: And you just whine. Agree with this? I do not.
46:22: So, anyway, yeah, those were always fun. You know, just to do those and kind of like, what musician are you?
46:28: Yeah. Something to that degree. I actually didn't realize when I was taking those tests, but I was building an online dating profile.
46:37: Oh. Had no idea that's what was going on. Well, there you go. And then I started getting emails like, hey,
46:43: I saw you came out a Golden Retriever. Me too. And I'm like, what? Why am I getting emails?
46:49: I thought you were Chihuahua. Yeah, right. Yeah, Chihuahua. Well, I went back and changed the Taco Bell answer.
46:54: Oh, right, right, right. Yeah. I changed it to steak and potatoes, and I came out a
46:59: Golden Retriever. You know, those things were always kind of goofy.
47:07: They were fun. You never took those things seriously. Oh, no, no, no. Definitely not.
47:12: But these personality tests, really, I mean, there are people that live, breathe, and die by them. You can go to their internet profiles, and they've got the results of two or three personality tests right there in their profile, as though that really actually says something about you.
47:31: And I don't know. Like, every time I, this is back in college, high school?
47:37: I don't remember. But I would look at the astrology, right? Yeah, astrology.
47:43: Okay, yeah, yeah. Which is the same thing. It is. Yeah, a horoscope. It totally is. Horoscope, there we go. And I would look at that, and I'm like, oh, yeah,
47:49: I'm going to have a bad day today. Oh, man. And then I'm grumpy the whole day.
47:55: I'm like, this just figures. It goes with my day. Yeah, your horoscope is a personality test with a fortune cookie.
48:01: Yes. That's what it is. It's the Enneagram with a fortune cookie. Yes. You know, and I made this comparison before I made this video.
48:09: I said, the Enneagram's no different than your horoscope, than the whole, like, zodiac wheel.
48:15: Right. It's the same thing. It is. And, oh, man, I got so much pushback from the, no, it is not the same thing.
48:20: And people were, Phil Vischer contacted me about it. The creator of VeggieTales said it's not the same thing,
48:27: Gabe. Yes. And then I find out his wife is an Enneagram coach. Okay, I see why he was so defensive now about me making a comment that it's the same thing as the zodiac.
48:39: But, yeah, all that's tied into personality, too. Yeah. It is. You know, where the stars align, where planets end up in, you know, such and such a place.
48:49: So, this is the kind of day you're going to have. This is your mood, your attitude. Personality is totally wrapped up in horoscopes and in the zodiac.
48:58: In astrology. They try to put everybody in the same category of if you're, like, I don't know, such a such sign, you're going to be more agitated.
49:08: And if you're such and such sign, you're more of a peacemaker. Yeah. That sort of thing. So, they kind of try to go with that, but it's,
49:16: I don't know. I actually do not know either my Enneagram or my zodiac.
49:22: Yeah. I have no idea. I've looked at it before. I know my zodiac. Didn't retain it. But the
49:29: Enneagram, I've never even done it. No clue. So, I don't know. I love the meme where there's a girl that's asking this guy, so what's your sign?
49:37: And he says, dinosaur. Dinosaur. And she goes, that's made up. And he goes, they're all made up.
49:43: Oh, yeah. I remember that one now. So, Alice says,
49:49: I really appreciate the video. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine recommended a book to me about the Enneagram. I can't remember the name of it, and I don't think it's important.
49:56: It's somewhere in my room, and I never finished it. I identified with more than one type and was ultimately more confused than before.
50:05: That's how I was all the time. Then came across a few videos from Christian content creators speaking out against it and how it's saturating the church and should be viewed with discernment.
50:18: After that, I don't feel peace about exploring it in depth, and I still haven't touched that book since I got it a couple of years ago.
50:24: And honestly, I think I'll just get rid of it. I can definitely see it ties to divination, and I don't want that derailing my pursuit of God and His truth laid out in Scripture.
50:35: Amen. Absolutely. This one from Marilyn. This entire video is a firm confirmation of my conviction on this topic.
50:42: The first time I heard the word Enneagram and saw the symbol that represented it, I felt in my spirit that something about it was very wrong.
50:50: One of the speakers at the recent conference that I went to has promoted it at my church, and my research traced its origins to the occult.
50:59: I have run from it ever since. Thank you for this clear biblical response to this topic. Our great God does not need any help in sanctifying
51:07: His children. Amen. This one from Matthew. He runs the YouTube channel
51:12: Truth For You. Thanks for creating this. Richard Rohr, who pushes the
51:18: Enneagram in his book The Universal Christ, believes everyone can become the
51:23: Christ, including his dog Venus. Whoa. This has infiltrated a lot of ministers, including
51:29: Bible seminaries, for assembly of God. After researching and finding out, my church, one where I ministered over 25 years, had a marriage counseling course doing the
51:41: Enneagram. I began to speak out against it in love. Along with others, I was kicked out.
51:48: Sorry for sharing the link to my own documentary, but if anyone is interested, I do include a lot of info on Richard Rohr, and also how the
51:55: TV series The Chosen is influenced by Richard Rohr. We need to be voices of truth to bring light to this evil.
52:01: You know, I haven't looked into that. I've not seen the connections between Richard Rohr and The Chosen, but I can say that I've heard it in The Chosen.
52:12: So, there's some things that I've heard in the show that I've thought sounded like Richard Rohr. Interesting. He's a panentheist, which basically means that God is in everything.
52:22: Okay. And he's a universalist. So, you know, his book called The Universal Christ, he believes everybody's going to go to heaven anyway.
52:28: And that's something that's becoming more, and I'm finding that more and more. Yeah. Universalism.
52:35: Well, you can't be naughty. I don't know what that means.
52:40: Everybody has some good in them. Okay. You can't be naughty.
52:47: Your mom is coming out there. Totally was. Your momhood. So, this was a comment.
52:55: This comes from James. Oh, and he's from our church. Okay. So, James from our church.
53:00: Thanks, Brother Gabe. Great video. I didn't even know about the Enneagram. That's right, because it's not in our church.
53:06: Nope. Jeremiah 2911. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the
53:11: Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. We don't need to plot out who we are and where we're going on a piece of paper.
53:20: God will reveal his plan for each of us if we turn to Christ and his work on the cross.
53:27: His resurrection is our resurrection and the plan of our salvation. Amen. Amen. John, also from our church.
53:34: Do you make any distinction between the Enneagram and a regular personality test? My Enneagram number is 10, being a display of God's creative power and identifying problems and their solutions through his word.
53:46: So, I've tested out. I'm above all of that. You can't be an Enneagram 10.
53:52: There's only nine. I'll check. Okay. Yeah. I obviously didn't know. I was checking to see if you were catching on to that.
53:58: Yep. So, you're just saying I tested outside of the Enneagram. There you go. I came out as a 10.
54:04: Woo -hoo. Yeah. I mean, there are personality tests out there that they may be beneficial to some degree.
54:11: I don't know the Myers -Briggs. I don't know the disc test that well. I've looked at them and I know what they are.
54:17: Sure. I'm just not. Like I said, I can't tell you what my Myers -Briggs is. It's not really that important to me.
54:24: Maybe there can be something useful about it, but you don't need it, is the thing. Yeah.
54:29: You can want to do it. You can be intrigued by the results, but you don't need it. You just need to ask the people around you.
54:37: Yeah. Right. What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? I know. What do you need to work on? It's kind of funny.
54:42: We've lost any understanding of spiritual gifts. Yeah. And we've gone to these personality tests.
54:49: Read the Bible and see what it says about you having a gift that benefits the church to help build it up.
54:55: Yeah. I mean, the whole concept of personality, is that even a real thing? Hmm.
55:01: You don't find that word personality in the Bible. No. What it does talk about is our character, and our character is supposed to be
55:10: Christ -like. Yes. We're to be imitators of God. And, you know, character changes.
55:16: Things can happen in your life. Well, sorry, not character, because there is a character that we're supposed to be aspiring to that is
55:24: Christ -like. Well, I thought that's what you meant by character changes. Yeah. You get sanctified. Well, okay.
55:29: That's a good point. Yeah. Yes. So, as you grow in that character, certainly. Okay. Holiness, godliness, those things are increasing in your life.
55:37: Yes. Personality was really the word that I was looking for, though. Oh, okay. Your personality can change. I am nothing like I was in high school.
55:44: Oh, me either. In fact, when I was in high school, from my freshman to sophomore year, and then my junior to senior year,
55:52: I was two completely different people. You would have thought I was schizophrenic. I went through some dramatic changes during that period of time.
56:00: Yeah. And there's been things that have happened in my life, as well, that have changed who I am personality -wise.
56:06: I remember taking a – the first personality test I ever took was in my comp class in high school, and I still remember the results.
56:13: It's probably the only personality test I ever took where I can remember the results of that test. Oh, wow.
56:20: But honestly, looking back on it, I can say it's just not helpful. I don't see how that's beneficial to me at all.
56:26: Did it change you in any way? No. It was the same – I came out as two personalities. And actually, there were four, four main types in this particular test.
56:36: I won't go into it and say what they all are and all this thing. But anyway, there were four main types. My top two, how it came out, was what my teacher labeled me as.
56:45: So, you're a this -this because those are the top two. Was that helpful for your teacher, I wonder? I don't – it could have been.
56:52: Maybe that's what – she was the one that needed it. I didn't. Right. Maybe that's what it was. Well, really, though, in the results,
56:59: I tested even. Almost exactly even. So, there were two personality types that I came out stronger on.
57:06: But I was pretty even on almost all four. There was another guy in a different class.
57:14: It was still the same class, but we just weren't in the same hour together. You know what I mean? It wasn't the same period.
57:20: Same teacher, but different time. Yeah. He got almost the exact same results. Only he had one or two personality types that placed higher than the personality types that I had.
57:31: But our numbers, if you just looked at the numbers, they were exactly the same. So, we were considered the two people, out of these two classes, we were the two people that actually came out almost even on all the personality types.
57:43: But for whatever reason, this teacher platformed him as –
57:50: Now, here's our example of a guy who can actually test out even on all the personality types.
57:57: And I remember just being totally puzzled by that. It was like, he and I got the same results. Why does he get platformed as the special one?
58:06: Yeah. I was selfish. I was thinking this is God's way of humbling you, but sure.
58:12: Why am I not getting some honor here? That's what I was thinking. But it was just bizarre. I just remember all of that.
58:18: Why? But why him? Why not me too? Look at my results. They came out the same way.
58:24: Anyway, so all of that to go back to – When I look back at those results and I remember that test and all, what really was the point?
58:33: You remember the outcome of it rather than how the test itself helped you.
58:38: Yeah. How did people react to your test? Oh, yeah. My life did not change. There was no benefit to that after that.
58:45: But in fact, what ended up happening is that all of us classmates, we started identifying each other by our personality types.
58:53: Like when we're hearing how everybody comes out, we're like, oh, well, that person's a this. Well, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I mean, it really kind of became a little prejudiced.
59:02: Yeah. When we're looking at each other that way, it became kind of divisive. Because you pick it out easier.
59:09: It's like you're labeled now, and so now you can be like, oh, yeah, uh -huh. I see it.
59:14: Yeah. And it's like, what? I have all these other personality types that were with that.
59:22: It wasn't just the one. Yeah. It's almost like a way of owning somebody else. Yeah. I know your personality type.
59:29: I don't know. It's kind of weird. Stuff like the Enneagram gets promoted as these things are going to help bring us together.
59:37: I don't see that being the result of personality tests. Obviously not if he got asked to leave his church.
59:45: Yeah, right. Yeah, this fellow got asked to leave his church. That does not sound very welcoming.
59:51: Yeah. Or unifying. In 2 Peter 1, 4,
59:57: Peter says that God has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
01:00:13: Now, for this very reason also, applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence.
01:00:19: And in your moral excellence, supply knowledge. And in your knowledge, self -control.
01:00:25: And in your self -control, perseverance. And in your perseverance, godliness. And in your godliness, brotherly kindness.
01:00:32: And in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our
01:00:43: Lord Jesus Christ. There's the kind of character, the kind of sanctification that we should be growing in.
01:00:50: Yes. You know, we're all unique. Yeah. We're all gifted a certain way.
01:00:55: The Holy Spirit giving us certain gifts to use for his good, his glory, for the benefit of others in the church.
01:01:04: If you don't know what your spiritual gift is, ask somebody. Yeah. Ask people in your church to help you know what that is.
01:01:12: There's a uniqueness to all of us. But no matter what our personality, and no matter how your personality test comes out, you still got to love each other.
01:01:20: That's right. And there's no tool that is going to help you do that like the
01:01:28: Bible. Amen. The Bible is how we know who we are in Christ and how we are to love one another.
01:01:36: Enneagram test be damned. Becky just nodded. I did. I was trying to think of a one -word thing, and nope, that was it.
01:01:46: Like, yep, there you go. All right. Let's finish with prayer.
01:01:52: Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for our time together and considering what your word has to say about us.
01:02:00: We know, according to Scripture, we're sinners in need of a Savior, and Christ is that Savior.
01:02:07: As we read in Titus 3, we were once hated by others and hating one another. But when Christ, our
01:02:13: Savior, appeared, he saved us, not by works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy and grace.
01:02:20: And so by that same mercy that we've been shown in Christ, let us be merciful toward each other, gracious toward one another, building each other up in love, so that we may all hold fast to the head of the body who is
01:02:35: Christ, through whom all of us are joined and knit together in love.
01:02:41: Help this body be working properly. We're encouraging one another. We're building each other up, strengthening one another toward love and good works in Christ Jesus.
01:02:51: It's in his name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Is that lightning that did that?
01:03:04: I assume so. All right, we're up and rolling. This is
01:03:12: When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word. Be sure to tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt
01:03:21: .com. And once again, it's Pastor Gabe. That's fine, because I was making all kinds of noise. I know you were.
01:03:26: I was like, well, it doesn't matter that I messed up anyway. Are you ready?
01:03:35: Are you ready? Let's match my
01:03:40: Slimer world. Oh, man.
01:03:49: Yep. Fun fact, the guy who played
01:03:54: Ray's voice in Slimer was the same guy. Okay. That was so fun.
01:04:04: Thanks. I could not have gotten to sleep without knowing that. You would not have been able to sleep without that information.
01:04:10: That was it. That was what I needed. Thank you. Oh. Now are you ready?
01:04:22: Yes, I'm ready. Now that I've gotten that out, I'm ready to go. Yes. Okay. Well, now that I've heard it,
01:04:29: I'm ready. Who knew that's what I needed? All right.