Can Christians Use the Enneagram?

The Enneagram personality test has become wildly popular in recent years, but should Christians use it? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

Take five minutes and ask your question. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch us on YouTube, and you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Chris in Sarasota, Florida. Chris, welcome to the program. Hi, Pastor Adriel. Thank you so much for your show.

I really enjoy it, and I learn a lot from it. Thank you, Chris. What's your question, brother? You know, this scripture in John 17, 22, and 23 has been on my heart for a couple years now, and it's the one that says I have given them the glory that you gave me, speaking of the Father, so that they may be one. And I'm just wondering what your take is on that scripture. What do you think he means by the glory? And how that applies to us today as being in unity with the rest of the Christian brothers and sisters?

Yeah, thank you for that question. So this passage of scripture, John 17, it's what we sometimes refer to as Jesus' high priestly prayer, and it comes on the tail end of what we refer to as the Upper Room Discourse, this series of teachings that Jesus gave to his disciples shortly before his death, where essentially he's telling them about the Helper who would come and fill them. He's trying to encourage his disciples in the context here, because they're beginning to get concerned. He's been talking about how he's going to leave them.

He's going to go away. He's going to prepare a place for them. And of course, the disciples are thinking, wait a minute, are you bringing us with you?

What's going to happen here? And so Jesus has been encouraging them, and here in John 17, he prays for them, and he doesn't just pray for them. He prays for all those who would believe in him. In verse 20, it says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.

Now let's just stop right there and say, wow, Jesus is praying for us, for you, for those of you who believe in him, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them. That, there's a purpose clause here, they may be one, even as we are one. So one thing I think that we could say, just on the basis of this text, Chris, is that somehow this glory that Jesus is talking about is what unites the people of God together.

It makes us one. Verse 23, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them, even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. This is a really beautiful picture of the Father bestowing this honor, this glory upon the Son, this glory that he's had even from the beginning of creation. And Jesus saying, I give that to my people, to those who are united to me by faith.

I don't think it's this idea of us being praised or glorified in the sense of getting all this attention or that kind of a thing. It's being sharers with Christ in his victory by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And actually, this sort of makes sense in the context because as I mentioned, everything up until this point has been Jesus instructing his disciples on how the Spirit was coming and the Spirit was going to fill them and unite them to Jesus. And so in one sense, right now, by the presence of the Spirit, we experience and participate in the glory that belongs to Jesus. And one day, when we're in the presence of the Lord in fullness, we might say, when we're out of this body, when we die, and we're in the presence of the Lord, or ultimately at the resurrection, we're going to experience that glory in a new way, in a final way, if you will. And so that's what Jesus is getting at here in this passage. And one other thing that I'll just say about this text, isn't it so amazing? Earlier in John's Gospel, in John chapter 13, I think it's verse 35, Jesus said, the world will know you are my disciples by your love for each other.

And here he sort of stresses the same thing. He talks about how this oneness, this unity is going to help the world to know that God the Father sent his Son into the world. This is why Christian unity is so important. This is why it's important that we're united around the core truths of the Gospel, because it has to do with our witness to the world around us as we share those truths. Our unity, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, is this sign to the world that God sent his Son into the world. And so I love how Jesus prays that there, and what a privilege it is for us to know that Jesus prayed for us, is praying for us as our great high priest, and that he calls us to be one as his people. Thanks for that question, Chris. Thanks so much for listening, Chris, to Core Christianity. If you have a question for Pastor Adriel, here's the number to call. 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Opal in St. Louis, Missouri. Opal, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Pastor Adriel, I would like to know... I read 2 Chronicles 7 every morning for our country, and I would like to know when God appeared to Solomon. Did he really appear to Solomon and told Solomon, I hear your prayer?

And I thought Solomon... I thought God couldn't appear to people because it was too much of a glory for him to look upon him. Did he really appear to him, or did he just whisper in his ear and told him, I hear your prayer?

Yeah, that's a great question, Opal. 2 Chronicles 7, beginning in verse 12, then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command the locust to devour the land or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now, I think the focus in this passage in particular, Opal, is on the fact that the Lord heard the prayer of Solomon and that the Lord is going to continue to hear the prayer of his people because he goes on to say in verse 14, if my people, again, who are called by my name, if they humble themselves, verse 15, my eyes will be opened and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. I think that word sometimes, we're talking about these appearances, if you will, where God reveals himself to people.

That could just refer to God speaking to Solomon audibly. We do know that there are instances in the Bible where there were these physical manifestations. You think of the Israelites in the wilderness, the pillar of fire and the cloud, or you think of Moses in the burning bush. There are instances of that, but the reality is these pictures, they really don't reveal to us what God looked like, as it were, because you're absolutely right. No one can see God and live in all his glory because he's infinitely awesome. This is why so often when you would have these kinds of events in the scriptures, the people who had these experiences would be terrified and they would say, I've seen the face of God, as it were.

I'm afraid I'm going to die because of the glory of the Lord. But I think here in 2 Chronicles 7, I don't think that God appeared to him in this sort of visible form. I think it's using that word in this sense of God revealed himself to Solomon and spoke to him and gave him this assurance that, this is coming in the context of the building of the temple, that he was going to meet his people there and that when they turned to him, he would hear them. When they turned from their sins, he would hear them. As you mentioned, Opal, this is a wonderful text of scripture to pray. Many people associate this text with a particular country.

I don't know that we would necessarily do that. We're talking about the temple here in particular, but we're all called to turn to the Lord, to repent of our sins. And we have the confidence that when we do, the Lord hears us and he receives us. So really, a wonderful text of scripture and so wonderful, Opal, that you're praying the word of God. May the Lord bless you.

Thanks so much, Opal. So, Adriel, I'm curious, do you think when people apply that verse to the United States in our current situation, do you think that's valid or is it hard to read into that? I just think we have to be really careful. When we say, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and we sort of take my people there to refer to the United States of America as though the United States was God's theocratic kingdom here on earth, sort of like Israel was in the Old Testament, well, that would be a misunderstanding of that passage. One of the things that we affirm about the kingdom of God is that it's universal.

It's not associated with one particular place or one particular nation. It's all tribes, tongues, and nations, the whole world. It's so wonderful when Jesus had that encounter with the woman at the well in John chapter 4. They get into this discussion about where's the proper place to worship God. And some people say over here, some people say over there. And Jesus said, look, the time is coming where we're going to be worshipping, where God is going to call people to worship him in spirit and in truth. It's not going to be about I worship God on this mountain or on that mountain or in this country or that country. God is calling the nations to himself. And so the Christian church consists of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. So we have to be careful when we take these kinds of passages and then apply them to a particular country as if to assume that there are some countries that are really God's chosen countries and there are others that aren't.

That's where we have to be careful. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, here's the number to call.

It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also leave us a voicemail anytime, 24 hours a day at that same number. And here's a voicemail we received from Rhonda. I took a Bible over to a friend's house and her daughter is struggling with, you know, if God is living and why is there abuse of children and struggling with that. And I didn't know where I could show her in the scriptures. Thank you.

Bye-bye. Yeah, Rhonda, a very heavy question. Of course, you know, we see the suffering that exists in the world and horrible, horrible kinds of suffering and we think to ourselves, you know, how do we deal with this as Christians? What does God's Word have to say about this? You know, we know that God created the world good without sin, but that he gave mankind freedom and that Adam and Eve, left to the freedom of their wills, fell from that good state wherein they were created. Sin entered the world and it corrupts. It corrupts each and every one of us so that we do heinous and horrible things. Now, God is not the author of sin and evil, but he has allowed it.

And so we're trying to balance these two realities here, Rhonda. God, in one sense, we would say this is not God's will. God calls us to obey his word, his law, to love him and to love each other. But in another sense, we know that God is all-powerful, that he's in control, his sovereign control, that all things happen according to the counsel of his will. The apostle Paul talked about this in Ephesians chapter 1.

So we have this sort of tension there that we're dealing with and we know that God does not allow any suffering that he has not already purposed how to conquer. And ultimately, God conquered that sin and suffering at the cross. And so where I go when we think about these horrible things that happen in the world today is straight to the cross of Jesus. You want to talk about a horrible, horrific event, a picture of abuse, a picture of shame, a picture of murder.

You go to the cross. In the ancient world, in the Roman world, the cross was the ugliest symbol out there. There were philosophers at that time who railed against this idea of crucifixion because it was just so heinous.

It was reserved for the worst criminals and it was just shameful. When you saw crosses or a cross erected on a hill, it just made your stomach turn because of the shame, because of the abuse, because of the torture. Jesus experienced that. The Son of God, God himself, the second person of the Holy Trinity, experienced that in his body for our sakes.

And so he can sympathize with us in our pain and in our weakness. And here's the crazy thing, Rhonda, it really is absolutely amazing, something we're meditating on, I'm meditating on right now because we're coming up on Good Friday, getting ready to celebrate Easter. Christ ascended to the cross, hung on the cross, this symbol of torture, shame, pain, this ugly thing, and by his presence he transformed it. It's so strange, isn't it, that for Christians the cross is the symbol, if you will, of our religion, that people wear it around their necks. In the ancient world that would have been crazy.

Why would you ever do that? Well, the reason Christians do it so often today is because Jesus, the eternal Son of God, when he hung on the cross, he transformed it into this instrument of love, hope, and beauty. You see, I love this about Jesus. He's able to, by his presence, transform that which is broken. And so when we look at the brokenness in the world around us, when we look at the sin, horrible sin, we don't always have the specific answers related to some of these things, God, why did you allow that specific thing to happen?

I don't know, but I do know God is all powerful, and he's able to cause all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Paul says this in Romans chapter 8, and we're also called to take these kinds of things, these kinds of sins, very seriously as the church. You mentioned abuse.

Frankly, we've minimized this, I think. We don't talk enough about it when we think about what happens in our local churches, and there are some organizations that are out there that are really raising awareness and helping churches be wise in terms of thinking through these issues and also creating policies that will protect the people in their church and in particular the children in their church from abuse. I'm thinking of one organization in particular that I'd recommend. Our church actually used this organization. It's called GRACE. It stands for Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment. We really need to understand these things so we can care for and minister to the people who are wrestling with the very questions that your friend has, Rhonda. When we're talking about going to the Scriptures, I go to the cross, and I go to the power and providence of God and God's ability somehow to transform our brokenness, to redeem us. That's where we go, and so that's where I would point your friend. For those who are wrestling with this question of abuse, for those who have experienced abuse, maybe you've never talked about it, look up this organization, GRACE, Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment.

It's so important that we get the help that we need, oftentimes professional help in situations like this, so that the healing process can begin. Thank you for that question. You were listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We have a free resource we want to send you. It's actually one that Adriel has written. It's called Seeing Jesus.

Yeah, that's right. Around this time of the year, everyone has opinions about Jesus Easter. You just turn on the TV and there are all those History Channel documentaries, who was Jesus. The fact of the matter is there are a lot of people who are confused about the identity of Christ. I wrote Seeing Jesus as really an introduction to who Jesus is. In his ministry, as our great high priest, as the one who cleanses the church, as the one who is Lord of Creation. This is going to dig into some really neat passages of scripture and hopefully illuminate them in ways that you've not heard before.

Get ahold of this free resource. It's a physical booklet, Seeing Jesus. We'd love to send it to you. All you have to do is go to our website at the special URL corechristianity.com forward slash Jesus. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash Jesus. You can also call us at 833-843-2673 to get that particular offer. Well, let's go to a voicemail that we received yesterday.

Hi, Pastor Adriel. I was hoping to get your thoughts on the Enneagram. I have friends who have recently gotten into the Enneagram and talk about their numbers and research that. However, I've been doing some reading that it has origins in the occult and that it is very closely related to New Age movement. I was hoping that you could shed some light on if Christians should use the Enneagram or if we should steer clear of it.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you for that question. And I've done a little bit of reading on the Enneagram. It does seem like, in terms of its roots, there is some background that it has in these occult movements. I think the way in which most people think about it today is sort of as another personality test.

You think of the Myers-Briggs that was really popular several years ago. In terms of just a real simple answer, should Christians use it or should they not use it, I wouldn't bind anyone's conscience one way or another. I think about the discussion that Paul has in 1 Corinthians 8 where he's talking about meat sacrificed to idols, this food that was associated with the occult, with paganism, if you will. Paul says, look, we know that that stuff is nothing. It's meaningless right now. If eating that kind of food causes other people to stumble, then let's just avoid it because we know that it's nothing. If it doesn't, hey, don't make a big deal about it.

Paul makes that very clear in 1 Corinthians 8 and in other places. I think are there potentially benefits to personality type tests? You think of the workplace and getting to know some of your colleagues more. I've seen it used in that way. I don't know that there's anything sinister about that. I also think that people can go over the top and really sort of put a lot of stock in these things and just think they're bound to this sort of identity. You have to be careful with that too.

We hold this stuff loosely. An idol, quote, unquote, is nothing in the world, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8. I think so long as people aren't being bound by these kinds of things or putting too much stock in them, I don't see them as that big of a deal. Of course, I would say that this is a matter of Christian liberty. If Paul could say what he said in 1 Corinthians 8 about food sacrificed to idols, I think we could say that about the Enneagram.

Thank you for that question. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Angela in St. Louis, Missouri. Angela, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, my question is about when we get to heaven. Being as there is no sin there, will we no longer have free will? And if we don't have free will, does that mean that we'll kind of be like slaves almost?

Yeah, that doesn't sound like a great picture of heaven being enslaved. But the fact of the matter is our wills are going to be so renewed and restored that there's going to be no desire for sin or evil. We're going to live in perfect love and in perfect harmony. The fact of the matter is right now, because sin is a part of this world, because we're still in one sense corrupt, even though we might have Jesus living in us by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we still as Christians sin. And we long for the day when we won't sin anymore, when we'll worship God and love God perfectly. And that's what we have to look forward to in heaven.

The author of the Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 12, he describes the believers in heaven as the saints whose souls have been perfected, the spirits of the righteous made perfect. So our wills are going to be so renewed and restored, if you will, that there's going to be no desire for sin or evil because we know the pain and the hurt that it caused. And there is no more sin at that point.

And so I wouldn't say that that means we're robots or that we're in this sort of terrible situation where we have to worship God and we just don't want to do it. No, we'll see the beauty of God in its fullness and our hearts will be continually prompted to worship and to praise. And in the new creation, Angela, it's going to be with all of the believers, feasting, fellowshipping in perfect love. And you think about what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, you know, now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. The love that we experience now by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that's going to endure on into eternity and it's going to be perfected and we're going to love God perfectly and we're going to love each other perfectly and it's going to be so beautiful and it's not going to be this sense of slavery.

The reality is the problem is people today are slaves to sin. We are enslaved to it, unable to be freed apart from the grace of God. And what's so wonderful about heaven and the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come is we'll be fully free.

We're not slaves. We're free to love and worship God and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we're going to be able to do that perfectly. And if you know Jesus, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, you're united to Him, that's what you have to look forward to for all eternity. Join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.