Psychology or Astrology?

A few weeks ago I was asked to write and present a paper on the proper response to the thought that personality tests and other psychological testing have pagan astrology as their basis. I had to think twice. I knew I had taken many of these tests myself without thinking twice. And now I was supposed to defend or ditch them. So before I made my input, my first stop was at the library to examine some of the writers’ opinions and later form my own.

Personality tests aim at categorizing people according to certain observable forms of behavior, which Keirsey and Bates (1984) believe are important in interpersonal relationships. People are different from each other and no amount of getting after them is going to change them. And there is no reason to change them, because the differences are probably good not bad.

The study of personality has been aided by a number of tools including, among others, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the DiSC Personal Profile System (PPS), the Biblical Personal Profiles (BPP), the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis (TJTA), the LaHaye Temperament Analysis (LTA), the Personality Profile Test (PPT), and the Spiritual Gifts Inventories (http://www.rapidnet.com). The big questions is to what degree are these tests related to, or have a bearing towards, pagan astrology?

According to the expository dictionary of Bible words, the word astrology as used in the context of the Book of Daniel is linked with magic and sorcery. People who practice magic and sorcery, referred to as “diviners of heavens” (Isaiah 47:13), expect to find guidance for the decisions they must make and to gain insight into the future. Scripture does, however, prohibit God’s people from looking to any source but the Lord himself for personal guidance. Deuteronomy 8 calls all such practices “detestable” and says “Let no one be found among you who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiriticit or who consults the dead” (18:10-11). Scripture gives a number of ways Christians can be guided. These include the completed word of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, the insights of other Christians, circumstances, and the proper use of our renewed minds (Romans 12:2). These sources provide all the guidance we need. To turn to any other source is to insult the living Lord and to reject the guidance he has provided.

The grand question is whether personality testing and its suggestion of who we are is outside the proper use of what God has ordained to guide us, thus qualifying as divination or astrology. A careful examination of astrology as it stands side by side with personality testing is necessary if we are to understand the similarities or the differences. Take the horoscope for example. By plotting all the heavenly bodies pertinent to the sign under which an individual is born, an astrologer draws up a celestial map known as a horoscope. Conclusions are drawn from this regarding one’s personality, tendencies etc., and thus predictions are made. The question is how different are these “horoscope” predictions from the four temperaments of Keirsey and Bates or from all the other personality groupings? How scientific are these predictions and how can we be certain that they are not rooted in astrology and fortunetelling? In their book “Magic, Mystery, and Science,” Burton and Grandy (2004) confer that the occult, the magic, and the mystery of the ancient worlds still seeks refugee in western civilization through science and psychology.

Just how different are we and how much can personality tests define the kind of people we are- our weaknesses and strengths, our actions and human relationships? How much does the Holy Spirit change our temperaments? How much does God change us to suit the kind of ministry he has called us to do? Can we say that we are wired this way or that way? Doesn’t God reserve the ultimate control of our personalities? Can personality tests define who I am and how I relate with fellow man? Much as one can argue that the idea of personality and temperament is truth related to anthropology, it is also true that the philosophers who have passed on our lessons in anthropology were greatly influenced by the mythological beliefs of their time. In the same breath, therefore, believers ought to pay close attention to whatever form of knowledge that claims to define and predict human behaviors based on formula and method. The study of temperament and personality traits might as well be the new form of astrology, the civilized horoscope with scientific evidence.

A Prophet of Doom?

No. That’s not what you would call a learned man like Federal Reserve chairman , Ben Bernanke. So what do you call him? A realist? I think so. Uncle Ben’s comments on the downwardly moving American economy are frightening. Ben Bernanke speaking on behalf of the Federal Reserve on Thursday told Congress that the American economy was going to get worse. What will a powerful country like America do if its dollar, the internationally acclaimed medium of exchange, hit a down-low average against the ever rising euro? What does that mean to the American economy, the strongest economy in the known world?

China, with a mushroom-growth rate of 11.3 percent is topping the charts against all odds. Compare this to America’s 2.45 percent growth and the rising cost in housing and gas prices and you have a picture you don’t want to paint. The big post-office-box question is “are we seeing a green-swing in the pendulum of world economies and super-power muscle-flexing as we have seen in the past?”

Strong economies have come and gone. This whole scenario leaves us still wondering. What really matters in the world today? Power? Money? Wealth? What are we running after and what is the end of things? Now, I am not really saying that money is not important. Money is a very good thing. The author of of Ecclesiastes writes that money is a protection and that it does answer all things. The point I am making here is that the world comes to a crisis when its chief end is to amass wealth and live a happy and uninterrupted life. One of the wisest men in history wrote, “I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun. And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind.

This brings up another important quesation. What is the chief end of man? The westminister catechist confronted this question centuries ago by stating that "the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever." But how does this enjoying look like?

To be continued…..
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Who Needs Help?

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come.
My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.
Psalm 121:1-2

We need help; help when everything around us seems to be going against us. We need help great help, stable help, and constant help. Where does our help come from? In whom have we placed our trust? So many times we turn to the left and to the right looking for help from friends, family, and sometimes the government. And in most cases we have been disappointed. At times we have put trust in our own strength and wisdom, and hoped that we would make things right for ourselves. But even then we have become disillusioned by our own efforts; for with them come fear, failure and constant disappointments. Our trust should be in the Lord who made heaven and earth. If we put our trust in Him, we can rest assured that our help is on the way and will not fail to reach us in due time; for He who sends it is never too early or too late. God has promised to protect us from all evil. And when we go to him for help, we should go with that attitude of surety that He who promised is faithful to complete what He promised.

Reading these verses makes me feel ashamed of myself for trying hard to achieve my freedom on my own. I feel relieved that I can rest in God knowing that He has my best interests in mind. I know of a few things that I have been stressed about even though I knew I couldn’t do anything about them in my own might. But still I was worried and troubled. Going through these affirming verses about God’s provision is like lifting a heavy burden off my shoulder. I can now rest in God knowing that He who keeps me will not sleep or slumber. He is watching over me and I just need to rest in Him knowing that He is working out the best plan for me amidst of all my turmoil and difficulties.

Walking the Road to Humility

Walking the Road through Serving

Christ has commanded that he who is chief among the brethren should be as he that serves (Luke 22:26), for the one that serves is greater than the one that reclines at the table (Luke 22:27). Christ modeled this example by serving his disciples. On that Passover feast before he could face his hour of trial, Jesus laid aside his garments, girded himself with a towel and washed his disciples’ feet. This he did to demonstrate the spirit of servanthood and humility which those who follow him ought to have (John 13:1-ff).

Walking the Road through Love

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (I Corinthians 13: 4- 8).

Walking the Road by Putting Others First

Pride, the opposite of humility, finds its way in self importance and self focus which is the opposite of Christ’s command to “love one another, even as I have loved you” (John 13:34). By putting others first, we walk in Jesus’ footsteps of humility who seeks not his own glory but the glory of God his Father (John 8:50).

Walking the Road by Giving Equal Treatment

God sees all people equal in his sight. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34-35) and he expects us to look at people with the same lenses.

The Road to Humility

"In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself...For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility." - Benjamin Franklinan

Can we achieve total freedom from pride and self seeking egotism? This is one of the oldest questions in the school of man’s total deliverance from selfish desires. Whereas total deliverance may be something ahead of us, God does value the steps.

Christ our Model.
The life of Christ is the ultimate model in our journey to humility. Christ lived a life of humility and obedience to the Father. He speaks of his relation to the Father as working for the will of the Father and doing everything by the Father’s empowerment. The son can do nothing of himself (John 5:19). The son does not seek his own glory (John 8:50) but the glory of the one who sent him (John 6:38). As you work towards humility, seek to have this attitude which was in Christ, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:6-7). Because of this humility, God gave Christ a name which is above every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:9-11).

"I am Humble; Am I Not?"

Proude of My Humility
Paul warns against a certain type of false humility (Colossians 2:18-23). This kind of humility is a self-seeking, voluntary kind which has to be guarded against. It is not genuine humility to humble ourselves with the feeling that we are greater than others, but only when we do not think of self at all. It is possible to be proud of our humility. The question then is what is this genuine Christian humility and how does it express itself?

Watch me: I am Humble, Am I Not?

True Christian humility is not the kind that seeks to be wondered at, but one that is active at work and in being more interested in others than self. It is found in being more committed to truth than convenience, in being more inclined to look up to others than to look down on them, and like the incarnate Son of God, being more comfortable with the lowly than the great. Humility is more silent than loud; it is more a done thing than a said thing. And because the humble can never know they are, humility makes no attempt to project itself. It certainly makes no pretence of being humble.