The fact that Christians have been so easily persuaded by the validity of personality tests and have developed an affinity for such tests points to a lack of understanding and practice of the Bible in their lives. It is also an indictment of the local church, as it pertains to its weaknesses regarding discipling the body.

This may come as a surprise to some, but it is hardly a surprise for the biblical counselor. A lack of practical understanding of the Bible and a general weakness in local church discipleship processes was what gave rise to the biblical counseling movement in the 1970′s. Teaching people the practical truths of what Peter told us 2000 years ago is what keeps me in business as a para-Church (Read: alongside the local church, but not the local church) organization:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence… – 2 Peter 1:3 (ESV)

We were granted all things that pertain to life and godliness long before Freud told Jung that they were going to change the world in the early 1900′s. Freud’s hatred for God motivated him to create a new way to think about the human condition. Many others have followed his path, as the psychological community has evolved into the ever-changing world of DSMs.

Because of the encroachments of the psychological community, it would be an unfair assumption to think that Christians know how to accurately understand themselves through the lens of Scripture. The primary reason that personality testing has such a foothold in the Christian mind is because of a general lack of awareness of the true purpose of Bible: to reveal the true person of God and the true person of man and how God came to transform man through the death and resurrection of His Son. Simply put, this is a discipleship issue.

Understand Your Gifting; Understand Yourself

For example, nothing can assess your gifting better than the Bible, especially in the context of a caring, discipleship community. Nothing can supplant the Bible when worked out through biblical discipleship processes, as far as assessing your personality. James gives us a clue as to how we drift from the Bible as a primary means of God’s grace that he gives us to help us understand ourselves better:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. – James 1:22-25 (ESV)

The mirror, according to James’ inspired understanding, is the Word of God. James is saying that we tend to look into the Word (mirror), make some mental notes by assessing ourselves, and then quickly forget what we saw. When we do this, we are cutting ourselves off from being blessed.

Testing Replaces Community

As mentioned earlier in this post, another major key to biblical assessment is biblical community. The psychological tester unwittingly has replaced biblical community by their testing tools. The test has replaced the person as a means of grace to help figure out human deficiencies. I understand the problem: if you have never had consistent biblical fellowship in the context of a caring, discipleship community, where people were carefully and lovingly speaking into all areas of your life, then how can you know the sufficiency of Scripture and the practical transformative help that it brings to our lives through the community of faith? You can’t know what you don’t know.

Too many Christian husbands and wives do not experience this depth of biblical community, also called biblical fellowship (Kononia), where careful, loving, observation, and correction is given to them in order to adjust them so they may grow in ways that matter.

Too many Christian relationships are so superficial that it leaves one longing for something to help them grow. This leads the Christian community to look outside of the Bible and biblical contexts for self-discovery. One of the many means of grace that I have received from God, over the years, are people who are willing to love me enough to show me what I do not see about myself. A person who has this kind of community (Koinonia) is not only positioned for initial assessment, but there is a context in place for long-term, transformative growth.

If a test is your best option to accomplish what you are trying to do then I want to encourage you by letting you know that God has something for you that can blow your mind.

Caveat: When I speak of personality tests I am talking about tests that reveal your personality or your character. I am not talking about tests that seek to discover health, medical, or physical abnormalities.

Articles in this Series

• I’m Type A! I’m an Otter! I’m a Choleric! What Are You? – 1.0
• Otter-ology and other false continuums – 2.0
• Personality Tests & Psychology – 3.0
• When Testing Replaces Community – 4.0

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

The past two days I have been writing about personality tests from a secular psychology worldview. This new way of thinking about the manifestations of our hearts has crept into our churches and has been bandied about as though it is biblical.

The proponents, who almost without exception love God, have their “verses” to support their claims. Sadly, what they do not understand is that there is only one point to any text and in the entire history of the church no person has interpreted a text to support their exegesis.

Scholars call this proof texting. This common method of teaching the Bible is not grounded in an understanding of what the various Bible writers actually taught. Proof texting, simply put, is compiling a short list of texts that support precisely what the person has already decided to believe.

It is also called “backing into a text.” This is when a person has a belief about something and they go into the Bible in order to find verses that somewhat point to what they believe.

I was first introduced to personality tests 30 years ago because of a desire to understand what makes me tick. And I liked what I read. I’m a Phleg/Mel btw.

There were many appealing aspects and compelling arguments about these kinds of tests.

• I wanted to be understood. (Not a bad desire to be known.)
• I wanted to understand myself. (The Bible appeals to us to look in the mirror. James 1:22-25)
• These new ways of thinking about myself were not only novel, but appealing. (That makes sense.)
• It “helped” me. (This is a weak argument, which usually points to pragmatism. You also have to unpack what “helped” means.)
• It seemed right. (But I must admit that I had a limited understanding and practice of biblical psychology.)

These reasons were compelling enough, though my life was not markedly better and there was still a measure of unrest in my soul. In hindsight I see that my limitations, as it pertained to my sanctification, were in proportion to my limitations in understanding biblical psychology. But in God’s kind mercy to me, He not only regenerated me, but He began to teach me a better psychology, from the greatest psychology book ever written.

Biblical Psychology & the Psychologist Defined

The word psychology is a compound word: psyche & logos. The word psyche means soul and the word logos means word or the study of. It could be said that the word psychology is the study of the soul or the word concerning the soul. A psychologist is a person who seeks to care for the soul. Psychology is the word derived from this definition: the study and practice of soul care.

The greatest psychologist who ever lived was Jesus Christ. It would be wrongheaded to say that somebody knew more about the soul than the One who created the soul. And the greatest psychology book ever written was the Bible. Therefore, my argument for the Bible is the same as my argument for the soul: if God created the Bible, then it would be wrongheaded to think there is a better book that explains man.

One of the bigger issues with these tests is that they are using the Bible to support their tests rather than using the Bible as the test. You see, the real, God-generated and God-ordained “personality tests” are contained in the Bible. The primary argument and very real problem is that we have a sufficiency of Scripture issue. This attack on God’s Word began in Genesis 3.

And it also smacks of an American-Christian-Centric-Biblical-Psychology.

1. Do you think Christians in other countries, who do not have access to these new tests, are at a disadvantage because all they have is the Bible?
2. Do you think you are better off by having these tests, as opposed to other American Christians who do not have this “advantage?”
3. Do you think these tests reveal more about you and get to the heart of who you really are better than the Bible does?
4. What weaknesses do you see in the Bible that make these tests desirable?
5. How do these tests, plus the Bible, help you live out the two greatest commandments, as outlined in Matthew 22:36-40? (I assume the goal in administering and/or taking these tests is to maximize your ability to live out the two greatest commandments. If not, then I would like to know what other purpose(s) are greater than the two greatest commandments.)

Articles in this Series

• I’m Type A! I’m an Otter! I’m a Choleric! What Are You? – 1.0
• Otter-ology and other false continuums – 2.0
• Personality Tests & Psychology – 3.0
• When Testing Replaces Community – 4.0

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Yesterday’s blog post, I’m Type A! … I’m an Otter! … I’m Choleric! … What Are You? was a simple, but straightforward critique of pop psychology’s attempt to figure themselves out. The following is a tongue-in-cheek (hopefully humorous) critique of some of the pitfalls for Christians who are persuaded by our culture’s approach to soul care.

What You’re About to Read is NOT True: You are not a Light Pole Christian!

Therefore, you are a “Light Pole Christian.”

A Few Warnings for Light Pole Christians

You are not a Light Pole Christian - No, really…you’re not. I just made this assessment up. I was sitting in my dining room looking at the light pole in my cul-de-sac. For real! I made it all up. I was looking at the light pole and began to draw metaphoric conclusions from my observations.

It is tall and, thus, “straightforward.” The lights at the top are bright, hence the “generally happy” conclusion. Because it is tall, I figured I’d throw in something about “standing for truth.” Get it? Of course, I had to go to the negative side of the spectrum in order to have a balanced assessment. Therefore, stubborn and unrelenting were obvious conclusions. The “limit your possibilities” was a stroke of creativeness. It took an extra five minutes of thinking about the light pole to come up with this one. The light, you see, can only illuminate so far. If I have just described you then please know that you are NOT a Light Pole Christian.

Accurate descriptors do not make accurate conclusions - People who do not have a proper understanding of the Bible are easily duped into this kind of approach to understanding the soul. What they do not realize is that God has given us all that we need to know in order to live a godly life. (See 2 Peter 1:3) But sadly for these Christians, who sincerely desire to grow, rather than advancing in their understanding of the Bible, they easily latch onto our culture’s explanations of the soul.

Therefore, when they read what seems to be an accurate assessment of themselves (and it may be accurate btw) they attach “authority” to the person who provides the assessment because he accurately described them. And, by doing so, the Christian accepts their conclusions as well. Based on the power of persuasion, an insatiable craving to be figured out, and a desire to change, the Christian embraces the conclusion and begins his/her new identity as a “Light Pole Christian.”

It is not a broad jump to embrace my conclusions if you believe I have accurately described you. This is a false continuum. A false continuum is precisely what drives the ADD and ADHD analysis. Assessing a child subjectively for ADD, which is the only method for “assessing” ADD and giving the child a conclusion based on a secularist subjective assessment is highly questionable.

Human psychology is not a board game - Many times people who embrace pop psychology’s explanations for the soul share their newly found wisdom in giddy ways. I have heard many, who embrace this approach, share their “Otter-ology” with humor and light-heartedness. They do not seem to understand that the Savior was executed on a cruel cross in order to transform them from their old nature into a new person in Christ.

But for these novices, being an Otter, Golden Retriever, Sanguine, Phlegmatic, or Type A personality unwittingly sucks the power from the Gospel message. God killed His Son so we can be better than that. These kinds of assessments are not the biblical route to a transformed and transforming life. Neither do they offer the biblical hope found in the Gospel. But, even worse, it places the focus more on self than the Savior who died for them. All things considered, this is a mockery of the Gospel.

If any person is in Christ…

If you are “in Christ” can I persuade you to humbly seek to think more like Christ? Make much of Him. Make less of yourself. (John 3:30) Are you better known as Type A or Christ-centered? Are people more aware of the results of your personality assessment or God’s assessment of you?

Articles in this Series

• I’m Type A! I’m an Otter! I’m a Choleric! What Are You? – 1.0
• Otter-ology and other false continuums – 2.0
• Personality Tests & Psychology – 3.0
• When Testing Replaces Community – 4.0

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

One of the more intriguing oddities that our psychologized culture has foisted on our Christian culture is their way of thinking about and explaining the reasons why people do what people do. I don’t think they would have made as much headway in their opinions and speculations if the Christian community was not so self-fascinated with themselves.

Paul gave us the good news regarding who we were and now who we are, post-regeneration:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. – 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

To be “in Christ” means that our old ways of living and thinking have passed away and a brand new way of thinking and living is our joy and privilege.

The Gospel is Too Simplified

I realize, that for many, Paul was overly simplistic in his way of looking at things, especially the “intricacies” of psychology. He essentially said the reason we do the things we do is fundamentally tied to our fallenness. Another way of saying it is that we are selfish and self-centered. It is not that hard to figure out. The most simplistic and cursory examination of my heart motives reveals this basic truth: I’m selfish and I need to change.

Over-examining my old ways of thinking and doing is not a biblically warranted or personally wise way to spend my time.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. – Ephesians 4:17-18 (ESV)

Fascinating Infatuation

Our culture is head-over-heels in love with themselves. And because of their “unresolvable” fallenness they have no choice but to recycle, regurgitate, and re-describe who they are and why they do what they do. They do not have an alternative plan. They are lost! They are trapped in their fallen natures with no hope of ever escaping, apart from Christ. And because they reject Christ they have to evolve their thinking into more and more nonsensical explanations of the soul.

However, Christians should not be so easily persuaded or intrigued by their sloppy psychology. The Christian’s fascination with this kind of pop psychology is mind-boggling to me. I can not recount how many times I have heard the expression “I am a Type A personality.”

When Christians say this, they are merely explaining, in a more sanitized way, why they do what they do. The term is so general that it tells me nothing about the person I want to serve. And to say you’re a choleric or otter or golden retriever is just as ambiguous and unhelpful.  Though Christians would be appalled to think that they are, in some way, excusing themselves from their sinful behavior by embracing this kind of philosophy of understanding the human soul, but rationalizing their “former selves” away is, in part, what they are doing.

Many times the comeback to using this kind of pop psychology approach is along the lines of, “I am so glad someone understands me. Now I know why I am this way.” Don’t you think God understands you and that he has given us his Word so that we can understand you?

Which Letter Are You?

I had a man tell me many years ago that he was a “Type A” personality. Essentially, he was telling me why he practices the art of husbandry the way he does. And since he was pulling letters out of the alphabet to describe himself I suggested that he pick two others. I said, “Why don’t you try a ‘Type JC personality?’”

He either did not get what I was saying or he did not want to change his behavior. It’s been 13 years since our encounter and he is still predominantly Type A rather than JC.

I believe there are two primary reasons people buy into pop psychology’s nonsensical labeling of the human personality:

1. We, like our culture, are generally self-absorbed and love to think about ourselves a lot. Our Zodiac signs, temperaments, and other ways to examine our personalities intrigue us. While some call it an advance in understanding the soul, it is really a distraction from the teaching of Scripture.
2. We are illiterate, to varying degrees, as it pertains to theology and the application of theology in our lives. We quite simply do not understand the biblical categories that describe the human condition, which prohibits us from understanding the human condition from a biblical perspective.

CAVEAT: I do realize, as far as employment is concerned, certain types of psychological testing can be valuable in order for an employer to have somewhat of an idea of who he is hiring. Other than that, it is just a winsome way to talk more about yourself.

Thoughtful Questions to Reflect On

1. How well are you at describing your sinfulness using biblical categories?
2. When you realize the sinful/biblical reasons for your sin, how does repentance play out in your life?
3. Do you spend more time looking back at who you were before Christ saved you or looking forward to who you are now that you are in Christ?
4. How does living in the daily good of the Gospel contribute to your progressive transformation into Christlikeness?
5. On your best day, do you see yourself as “in Christ?”
6. On your worst day, do you see yourself as “in Christ?”

Articles in this Series

• I’m Type A! I’m an Otter! I’m a Choleric! What Are You? – 1.0
• Otter-ology and other false continuums – 2.0
• Personality Tests & Psychology – 3.0
• When Testing Replaces Community – 4.0

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter

Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast

Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

Ricky the Wannabe

Several years ago a friend asked me not to sing too loud in our small group meeting. He was a friend and he was caring for me and everyone else in the group. He said I threw everyone off, because I sang too loud and offbeat.

Here are two questions for you:

1. How would you assess my problem?
2. Is it a character issue or a capacity issue?

William the Mute

William rarely talks to his wife. However, the other day she noted that he talked for two hours with his neighbor about their favorite NFL team. She originally thought William was a mute, but now she is thinking his “mute-ness” is not as universal as she originally thought. Is William’s problem a character issue or a capacity issue?

Sarah the Whiney

Nearly every time you talk to Sarah, she is a whiney, mousey sounding kind of person. That is why when Sally was scrapbooking with Sarah last week that she was shocked. Sarah was cheerful, motivated, encouraging, and a delight to be around. Does Sarah have a character issue or a capacity issue?

Wally the Wimp

Phyllis was complaining about her husband, Wally, because she doesn’t think he is gifted in the area of leadership. Phyllis compares Wally to her best friend’s husband. However, Wally loves God and is seeking to serve him with all his soul, mind, heart, and strength. Does Wally have a capacity issue or a character issue?

Answers to the Character/Capacity Tension

• Ricky can’t sing. It’s a capacity issue.
• William is angry with his wife. It’s a character issue.
• Sarah is self-focused. It’s a character issue.
• Wally loves God and is trying, but within his ability. It’s a capacity issue.

People are gifted in different ways. Some people only have a 45mph fast ball and it does not matter how much you coach them up, 45mph is all they have. They will never throw harder than 45mph. Every issue in counseling is not necessarily a sin issue that calls for repentance. The widow lady in the Gospels could not give any more than her two, puny, copper coins. Her limited capacity brought instantaneous and immeasurable pleasure to the Savior.

However, there are other times when the issue is not so much about capacity as it is about character. When it is a capacity issue,  there is little hope for change, but when it is a character issue, there is much hope for change. You can’t repent of capacity issues, but you can repent of character issues. The former needs more grace and encouragement, while the latter needs a call to repentance.

Knowing the difference is essential. This is where the counselor needs to not only be careful to ask the right questions, but to really listen and to discern what he is hearing. With the right questions, it should be obvious that William is not a universal mute. He can talk. He needs to repent. On the other hand, I could take voice lessons, but truthfully, I might be wiser to put my energy, time and money into another pursuit.

Paul gave us a good word on how to respond to different kinds of people…

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. – 1 Thess. 5:14

Read this article on How to Assess a Husband.

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