Evidence of an Evangelical Paradigm Shift
“…Learn not the way of the heathen….”
(Jeremiah 10:2a)
By Sarah H. Leslie
It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The graphic exhibit above is from the Winter 1998 issue of Gnosis magazine, which billed itself “A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions.” This is an occult periodical titled with the ancient word gnosis, the Greek word for knowledge.[1] Gnosticism was a potent heresy in the early church, and it has shown up in many guises throughout church history.
This Gnosis cover image depicts an utterly unclothed woman in a trance (I covered her up). This image is credited to have come from a Tarot card deck, which is witchcraft.[2] The magazine contains an article about G.I. Gurdjieff titled “Oracles Within: The Inner Animal Teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff” which has to do with shapeshifting, from the very deepest dregs of Satanism. In case our readers have never considered the utter depth of depravity of man described in the verses in Romans 1, particularly verse 23 (“And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things”) the exhibit below from page 36 of the article about Gurdjjieff in Gnosis magazine illustrates it (again I covered up the nakedness): “
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| Exhibit: Gnosis graphic of a bird woman from the Guirdjieff article[4] |
“Who changed the Truth of God into a lie,
and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,
Who is blessed for ever. Amen.”
(Romans 1:25)
So now you can plainly see the milieu of G.I. Gurdjieff. He has been a well-known figure in the occult world.[5] “Gurdjieff had great influence on the modern New Age Movement.”[6] He is credited with the Enneagram, an esoteric symbol, a device to “see” into hidden things of the “universe.”[7]
The Enneagram is increasing in popularity in the evangelical world. The Enneagram symbol is being used as an assessment device to “divine” one’s inner self. This represents a fundamental paradigm shift away from the written and spoken Word of God (logos, λόγος – by which we are born again – e.g., 1 Peter 1:23,25) to a visual symbol to “divine” one’s self (idolatry -- εἰδωλολατρεία; literally, image worship – 1 Cor. 10:14; Gal. 5:20; Col. 3:5).
The “image” of beasts that Gurdjieff taught, and the “image” of the Enneagram, both typify visual forms of worship strongly forbidden in Scripture (Lev. 26:1, e.g.). In fact, increasing imagery is a sign of the endtimes. Our tech-laden culture is now surrounded with visual images, and sadly many people are functionally illiterate. It was inevitable that there would be a corresponding spiritual shift to the visual. The day is rapidly approaching when people will worship the beast and the image of the beast (Rev. 13:12,15; 14: 9, 11).
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| Exhibit: Basic Enneagram from p. 39 of Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret. |
Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret
A few months ago I was sent a review copy of a new book titled Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret by Don & Joy Veinot and Marcia Montenegro, published by Midwest Christian Outreach.[8] I decided to write a review when I realized the significance of the current rise in popularity of the Enneagram in the evangelical world. I had noticed that recently Lighthouse Trails had published a warning on May 20, 2020 about Zondervan’s big marketing push for the Enneagram,[9] which referred to their previously published booklet by Lois Putnam titled The Enneagram—An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception?[10] Others with discernment had also written on this topic, including Gary Gilley’s brilliant analysis “The Enneagram—Part 1.”[12]
Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret painstakingly documents the known origins of the Enneagram. This history was important to establish because so much of it has been “updated” and sanitized in order to make the Enneagram seem like a helpful psychological self-improvement tool that evangelicals can safely use to “see” into their personality. The authors explain, “According to early disciple and Russian P.D. Ouspensky (1978-1947), Gurdjieff taught the Enneagram was a knowledge of all that is in the cosmos.”[13] He then developed a “path of self-transformation” to “awaken” the consciousness. Terms associated with his beliefs include “Fourth Way” and “The Work.”[14]
On its face, these terms should be immediately suspect to the Christian who knows God’s Word is the only source of Truth about ourselves and the universe. There is no other “way” than Jesus Christ, “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). As Paul wrote, he feared “lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Even through his subtitly, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). But many evangelicals are no longer standing upon objective facts, biblical truth and rational science. There is a tendency to be emotion-driven, living in the subjective realm. Many are falling into the shifting sands of cultural relativism, media narratives, peer pressures and pseudo-science (2 Tim. 3:6; 2 Cor. 11:3. Many have opened themselves to alternate pathways to “truth”, which now includes the Gnostic, occult and New Age worldview of esoteric and deep secret knowledge (gnosis).
Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret recounts the circuitous path by which the Enneagram traveled from Gurdjieff to Richard Rohr who has “played a key role in bringing in and popularizing the Enneagram in the evangelical churches.”[15] Rohr is described as a Franciscan friar who is also known for social justice, contemplative practices, panentheism and a theology of “nonduality” (no right or wrong). He is also known as a Perennialist – “the belief that there is one Divine Reality at the center of all religions” (p. 78). His theology that all humanity is united spiritually is a core tenet of the global New Age religion. The authors recount other names associated with Rohr who have become well-known promoters of the profitable Enneagram, including Bob Ochs, Mitch Pacwa, Ian Cron, Suzanne Stabile, and Christopher Heuertz.
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| This book is available from Midwest Christian Outreach HERE. |
Occult Origins
The mystical origin of the Enneagram is documented in many occult research sources. The Seeker’s Handbook, a New Age encyclopedia of terms, listed George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff as “Assumed name(?) of an influential and somewhat notorious occultist”[16] and defined Enneagram as:
“In metaphysical and esoteric systems, especially the Gurdjieff work, a model of the principles working in the universe, usually represented as a nine-pointed star with lines connecting every other point. Widely viewed as a profound key to the organization of the universe and human psychology, where it is treated a system of nine distinct personality types…. Nineness seems to be an archetypal feature of world-design…”[17]
The remainder of this definition goes into deeper occult meanings of the symbol itself and its “nine world-generating powers of various pagan goddesses—a history which is so spiritually dark that I will not repeat it here lest any be deceived. The Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult defines the term Ennead (the number nine) as a term used in both numerology and mythology.[18] As I read this definition my mind flashed back to what I already knew about mystical symbolism of the number nine. When I entered the Baháʼí temple in Wilmette, Illinois in the summer of 1974 I was told that the architectural significance of this nine-sided building represented nine major religions of the world that would one day be united as one.[19] The Baháʼí faith teaches that Jesus was merely one of a succession of christ figures culminating in a “unified world order.”[20] The Enneagram fits into this syncretistic vision of a global religion.
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| Exhibit: Read Lighthouse Trails' warning about this Zondervan film HERE; |
Further insight into the occult significance of the Enneagram symbol can be found in Dr. Cathy Burns’ Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated, a classic reference compendium warning Christians explicitly of the occult origins of many popular symbols, signs, logos, diagrams, etc. Dr. Burns classifies Enneagrams under Astrology, which is a form of divination (see the warning in Jeremiah 10:2), and cites “Djwhal Khul, the spirit guide who revealed this diagram and its meaning to Alice Bailey,” the woman who forged the rise of the occult New Age Movement.[21] She also notes that the Enneagram resembles the Tree of Life of Jewish Kabbalah mysticism.[22] The astrology connection is underscored by Marcia Montenegro, one of the authors of Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret, who notes how astrology is done by “identifying with and divining one’s human interactions and events according to one’s Zodiac sun sign.” She warns that there “is a dangerously similar pattern with the Enneagram. Christians are identifying with their Enneagram number.”[23] As one who practiced Astrology during the hippie era I can attest to the dangerously seductive nature of trying to identify my personality traits via a star sign, which corresponds with “divining” the future.[24]
There is one other important aspect of the Enneagram – it is a series of triangles inside a circle. Dr. Burns notes that a circle is the symbol of the universe.[25] Triangles have embedded symbolic occult meaning depending on how they are pointed, upwards or downwards. They can represent devilish deity, the divinization of man, sexuality, and other secret coded meaning. Series of triangles have additional meanings, such as the 5-pointed pentagram, which represents the devil Baphomet, “the embodiment of Lucifer as a god.”[26] The Enneagram’s unique triangular arrangement subtly depicts this very image. Believers are therefore warned to NOT engage in gazing at the image of the Enneagram, nor should they attempt to maneuver through its triangles! If you have done so, and fall under conviction of the Holy Spirit upon reading this, please pray a prayer of repentance (1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”).
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| Rohr's attempt to Christianize the occult symbol |
Reading the Tea Leaves
The Enneagram is being used as a tool for divination—accessing or discovering secret things. Divination would include such practices as channeling via occult symbols, horoscopes, palmistry, tea leaf reading, the Ouija Board, crystal ball gazing, and other forms of sorcery and vision casting.[27] Divination is expressly forbidden in Scripture:
“When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee,
thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you any one
that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire,
or that useth divination,
or an observer of times,
or an enchanter,
or a witch,
Or a charmer,
or a consulter with familiar spirits,
or a wizard,
or a necromancer.”
(Deuteronomy 18:9-11)
According to Dr. Orrel Steinkamp, an expert on how the New Age has influenced evangelicaldom,
Divination generally refers to attempts to learn "hidden things" that cannot be known by normal means. Divination falls into two broad categories: mechanical and internal. Mechanical divination uses physical means to acquire hidden knowledge. Examples of this include such things as gazing into crystal balls, examining the livers or other internal organs of animals, interpreting the way arrows land after being thrown into the air, and reading Tarot cards. The internal category, sometimes called "soothsaying," involves conjuring up a spiritual entity during a trance or an altered state of consciousness. Sometimes this spirit entity will appear as a person, no longer living, who returns and speaks words of wisdom. Sometimes the spirit who is "called up" speaks “through” a medium. In Acts 16:16 the slave girl had a "spirit of divination."… Whatever the category or method used, divination is an attempt to ferret out hidden (occult) information.[28]
It is significant that some of the practitioners of the Enneagram believe that “it is the face of God.”[29] Bob DeWaay, in his review of Richard Rohr’s book The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective informs us that “Rohr includes a graphic of the Enneagram with the face of Jesus in the middle of it (245).”[30] This is imagery, which is idolatry. If you are seeking the “face” of God you need to turn to the Bible, God’s written Word: “Thy Word is true from the beginning,” Psalm 119:160a). And, as Jesus prayed to God, His Father, “Sanctify them through Thy Truth: Thy Word is Truth” (John 17:17). There is a profound difference between Christianity, which is based on the written Word of God, and other religion systems that rely upon imagery, imagination, idolatry, and stimulations of the senses in order to access the spiritual realm.
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| Exhibit: An Enneagram figure with 4 temperaments and astrology (Source) |
The Enneagram Assessment
The old occult Enneagram has been repackaged. The Enneagram has been called an “odd conglomeration of mystical sources [that] has been modified and integrated with pop psychology, temperament theory and ad hoc mystical spirituality.”[31] It is being marketed to evangelical Christians as an assessment tool, a psychological test that will measure their personality.
When I asked Don Veinot whether these Enneagram “tests” had been put through the normal processes of validation or reliability, he referred me to “The Enneagram, Science, and Christianity” by Jay Medenwaldt (Part 1 and Part 2). We have strong disagreements with much of this author’s stance regarding the use of psychological testing instruments, but he does correctly point out that the “enneagram is not a scientifically validated tool.” For those who want to delve into the actual research on the test’s reliability and validity, they will be sorely disappointed by the lack of unbiased objective hard scientific data. Interestingly Medenwaldt also compares the Enneagram to Astrology “because they both ‘work’ for the same reasons.” His list of warnings (“reasons”) about the Enneagram instrument is characteristic of what we know about human nature—we are susceptible to irrationality, coincidence, false characterizations, confirmation bias, correlation and causation errors, groupthink and felt needs. Medenwaldt sums up:
All of these explanations are widely accepted by psychological scientists for why people sometimes make errors in their reasoning. This is just the normal way people think so the growing popularity of the Enneagram is not surprising. After all, it does seem like a pretty good test on the surface (this is known as face validity, which is the lowest level of scientific validity).[32]
All psycho-social testing instruments are inherently flawed. They are not hard science (1 Tim. 6:20). The troubles with using them in the church, as noted by Medenwaldt, include the potential for mischaracterizations and mislabeling people, the possibilities for abuse in the church, the misuse of the test itself, and its inherent “anti-intellectual and anti-science” nature.
My husband Lynn and I have education and professional expertise in testing and assessment measures. We have published, edited and authored many articles and books pertaining to spiritual and academic issues in testing for the past 40 years.[33] Once I became aware of the overt occult nature of the Enneagram I declined to look into it further. Thus I will provide no scholarly analysis.
Also, given my hippie experience with Astrology I am fully aware of the dangers of “looking” too deeply into something like this. There is a basic risk whenever delving into the occult realm – it leads to endlessly spiraling circuitous routes to find “truth” that never ends. I did not want to go near temptation lest I become deluded into identifying myself with one of the 9 “types”. It is clear from Gary Gilley’s analysis of the Enneagram in his Part 2 that the purveyors of it have purposefully exploited the “deeper” meanings,[34] and developed intricate complexities that lure people into the spiraling loops of endless philosophies that never answer (1 Tim. 1:4).
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| Exhibit: A JoPa e-mail 5/10/13 |
Emergent Enneagram
Readers wanting to look further into the background of the Enneagram can research Richard Rohr in the search engine of the late Pastor Ken Silva’s Apprising Ministries website. There are a multitude of well-documented articles documenting the rapid rise of influence of Rohr via the Emergent Church movement. During the period of time that Pastor Silva was writing these articles he was sharing his research with me, and he became more and more convinced that there was a push to mainstream the Enneagram into the evangelical church world. Pastor Silva published articles such as:
- WHO IS RICHARD ROHR?
- RICHARD ROHR: CONVERSATIONS, CONVERGENCE AND EMERGENCE APOSTASY
- RICHARD ROHR: ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM
- RICHARD ROHR: FOUR PHASES OF EMERGENCE CHRISTIANTY
- THE GOSPEL COALITION AND TREVIN WAX NOW RECOMMENDING RICHARD ROHR?
- PETER SCAZZERO INTRODUCING ENNEAGRAMS INTO MAINSTREAM EVANGELICALISM
- DONALD MILLER, ENNEAGRAM, AND WHO "FEELS" CLOSER TO GOD
- DOUG PAGITT EXCITED ABOUT EVENTS THROUGH THE LENS OF THE ENNEAGRAM
Thankfully others with discernment have written good articles to warn about the dangers of the Enneagram. Gary Gilley summarized several of the most key issues:
“Despite the recent popularity of the Enneagram, there remain numerous concerns for the discerning Christian. For example:
• “Absolutely none of the Enneagram’s teachings are derived from Scripture.
• “The sources upon which the Enneagram rest are mysticism, visions, psychological theory, and experience.
• “There is no scientific verification of the Enneagram, and even the vast majority of psychologists reject it.
• “The foundational developers of the modern Enneagram took a Gnostic approach in which they sought esoteric and secret knowledge. The great flaw in Gnosticism was abandoning the objective truth of Scripture to seek hidden knowledge. When Gnostics supposedly found secret knowledge, they developed a religious system that proved to be early Christianity’s greatest challenge in the second and third centuries. The teachers of the Enneagram have imitated this very approach, seeking esoteric knowledge from unreliable sources, developing a system of supposed mystical truths, and promoting it among the unsuspecting.”[36]
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| Exhibit illustrating Catalyst's promotion of the Enneagram[37] |
Putting this issue into its bigger context, the launching of an aggressive Enneagram marketing campaign into Evangelicaldom is a huge sign that the big corporate and/or spiritual gurus think that the church is ready to more fully enter the massive paradigm shift from the Written Word over to the Visual Image. This has extraordinary implications for remnant believers, especially as we see the stage being set for a global church. For many decades we have warned both in the church and to the outside world about the necessity of literacy, knowing how to read and write language. We wrote an entire post about this titled “Envisioning Emergence” on July 23, 2009, which described the pivotal role that the Emergent Church Movement played in orchestrating this shift over to a global visioning:
“Dreams, images, icons, symbols, meditations, chantings, labyrinths – anything but God’s Word – have become fully operational in the modern Emergent movement. All serve as a means to an end. Mysticism and experientialism do not simply supplement Scripture, they replace it.”[38]
Now, more than ever before, believers need to spend time away from the barrage of incessant imagery, especially emanating from Big Tech, and immerse themselves in the Truth found only in God’s Word.
“Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own will begat he us with the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
(James 1:16-18)
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”
(1 Peter 4:17)