Beware the Enneagram. Facts first. For those not aware, the Enneagram is a said to be a nine-personality-type model of the human soul. The geometric symbol, pictured above, illustrates that the nine types are interconnected. Unlike the Meyers-Briggs 16 personality types used in business, and the temperament analysis of my late friend Tim LaHaye (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic), the Enneagram is rooted in the New Age, occult divination, and Islamic superstition. But the problem is, this dangerous typing of individual identities is gaining traction among many Christians. Richard Rohr has written “The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective.” (Rohr is a Catholic priest who teaches that God is neither male or female, advocates homosexuality, and declares that the crucifixion of Christ wasn’t necessary.) The Religion News Service (quoted and requoted by many evangelical publications) glowingly endorsed this system. The evangelical mission group Intervarsity Press has published “Mirror for the Soul: A Christian Enneagram.” Yet another “Christian” book is called, “The Sacred Enneagram.”
What’s the truth? The roots of the Enneagram go deep into witchcraft. One root is Oscar Ichazo, a Bolivian mystic who founded the Arica School, an early basis for New Age teaching. (I cover Arica in my “World Religions” book.) Another root is Claudio Naranjo, a Chilean psychiatrist and founder of the Seekers of Truth Institute. Naranjo was involved in Gestalt therapy, the advocacy of psychotropic drugs in therapy, and borrowed from eastern mysticism to promote the occult idea of a divine inner family of the soul. A third source of the Enneagram is the teaching of Islamic, Sufi mystic Gurdjieff, also covered in my “World Religions” book. Gurdjieff taught a state of unified consciousness and promoted transcending to this state of full human potential. His core ideas came from supposedly meeting both real and spirit beings from Tibet to Egypt.
The guilt-by-association factor provides sufficient, damning evidence. But my concern is simple. The Enneagram system seeks to do what Inner Healing and Deliverance through Christ does more effectively and without demonic associations. When the church denies the reality of spiritual warfare, it looks elsewhere for a more palatable substitute to overcome mankind’s descent into spiritual entropy and demonic bondage. The Enneagram is the new Christian yoga, yet another attempt to take that which is historically and foundationally demonic and sanctify it by redefinition and clever semantics. In the words of Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
An encouraging word: SPEAK WELL OF OTHERS
Every day the headlines blare the rancor that exists in today’s politics. Each side seems to be positioning itself to take advantage at the expense of the other. Psalm 15:3 tells us that God will only bless the person who “has no slander on his tongue and who does his neighbor no wrong.” There aren’t many Senators or Representatives who can qualify. And it’s not just politics. Our culture thrives on almost everyone getting ahead at the expense of someone else. So, no matter what the way of the world is, remember that God honors one who, as verse three continues to say, “casts no slur on his fellowman.”
Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did® (Luke 4:18). You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.
