GOD IS ONE
WE ARE MANY
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Our conceptions of God are as varied as we are. Even so,
all Christian understanding of God fall within four categories. Both the New and Old Testaments offer commonly
used categories to arrange our human observations of His Divine presence. Ezekiel’s sighting of the four-faced Cherubim
is the most obvious Old Testament instance, and those four perspectives appear
in the New Testament in the four Gospels.
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Arranging these four Cherubim faces alongside related
gospels with the gospel’s theme of each provides four categories, which are often used
to classify what we see of God in Christ.
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Our responses
to Him also vary. The form of our reactions
also fit within those four categories. The
Old Testament shows the four responses in many ways. No examples are clearer than the individual personality
types of Israel’s leaders during its wilderness wanderings: Moses, Aaron, the
Levites, and the elders.
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Later, these
same personality treats are evident in the tribe of Judah with King David, Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the
leader of the mighty men. Their
personality type suited them for their roles.
The New Testament echoes the Old Testament roles, what Judson Cornwall
calls the “quadruplex” nature of human observations of and reaction to God as established
in the church. God “gave some to be
apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors
and teachers."(Ephesians 4:11). These church
offices represent the range of responses, which arise out of individual temperaments,
or personality types. It is not
surprising then, that the unique way each of us perceive God inspires very
different responses to Him.
These
ministry-gifts indicate four personality classifications. Overlapping Ezekial’s vision, the ministry-gifts
of Ephesians, the leaders of the Old Testament, and the four gospels of the New
Testament provides compelling Biblical prove that our individual responses to
God stem from our different perceptions of Him.
It also highlights the mistake we make when we assume those who view and
respond to God differently than us are deceived heretics.
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1) The
LION is akin to Matthew,
which presents The Messiah-Kingship of Jesus. The major focus is God’s forgiveness,
fellowship, and the fulfillment of God’s promised King. Its New Testament parallel is the apostolic
ministry-gift.
2) The OX is akin to Mark’s depiction of the
suffering servant of God in Jesus. Its
emphases on correcting disciples, patiently clarifying misunderstandings, while
focusing on one’s personal costs is a perfect description of the prophetic
ministry-gift
3) The MAN matches Luke’s presentation of the Divine-Son
of man, with its definite emphasis on tender compassion toward marginalized
people, which perfectly fits the temperament of the pastor/teacher ministry-gift.
4) The EAGLE represents John’s view of the
celestial messenger, with its abiding underlying theme of salvation, and
heaven’s benefits through faith in Christ Jesus. Therefore, it relates closely to the
evangelical ministry-gift.
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The four
separate gospel accounts from four different writers reveal nuanced responses
to individually distinct views of God. What
is more, each gospel targets various individual readers, who in turn gain their
own subjective view of the most extraordinary Object, the One True God. In so doing the four gospels affirm the validity
of the quadrilateral personality designations.
More importantly, this four-sided structure validates our personal and individual
observations of God, while sanctioning our distinct responses to those personal
encounters.
Furthermore, Ephesians 4:12 says
all four ministry types are needed in the church, “…to equip his people for
works of service.”
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That means
that you and I possess personalities that likely fit into one of these four
personality types or a blend of two or more. The following character
chart may help you identify your place in the body of Christ. More importantly, linking the range of
personality traits, ministry-gifts, and the roles they play in the church should
make one thing very clear. Brothers and
sisters, who view God from different vantage points, and perhaps respond to Him
in different ways are not, for those reasons, misguided backslidden apostates who bend “the faith” to accommodate the prevailing culture.
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Analytic
methodical orderly “melancholic” people
love tradition. They are very social,
seek to contribute to the community, and are good people managers. This is an Apostolic personality type, well suited to the establishment of and/or
leadership in a church or churches.
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Assertive
competitive goal-oriented “choleric” personality types are also analytical, and logical. However, they are less social, more pragmatic, less restrained, and straightforward.
Those characteristics fit the temperament of both New and Old Testament Prophets
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Tenderhearted humanistic conflict-adverse “phlegmatic” personalities usually are people persons. They seek interpersonal harmony and close
relationships. All genuine Pastor/Teachers have these qualities.
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Amiable
spontaneous outgoing “sanguine” individuals
love adventure, attract others, and exhibit high-risk tolerances. This personality type finds it easy to yield
to the call of an Evangelist.
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Today,
Christians with all their varying character traits need to be encouraged to
contribute their part within every Christian congregation. “So
Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors
and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of
Christ may be built up until we all
reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become
mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph. 4:11-13)”
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Those who perceive and
respond to God differently will necessarily approach religious observances
different, concentrate on divergent ministries, and favor dissimilar political
points of view.
Nevertheless,
God arranged for all four personality-types to work together equipping His
people for works of service. Unfortunately,
for generations Christians have divide themselves into separate groups based on
their ministry-gifts. It is common for
these congregations to avoid working together, or even refusing to get along
with each other. This is as true of entire
denominations and congregations as it is of individuals. Nowadays, most identify with and associate solely
with one particular ministry-gift. They stay
separated largely according to their particular personality type.
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The methodically
tradition-loving congregations keep their antiquated version of church. While, the dogmatic straight-talking
prophetic leaning believers go out and form their own congregations. The more spontaneously adventurous, got bored long
ago and fashioned something new. Whereas,
those more socially concerned folks created congregations that serve the
marginalized. They are all Christian
religions, but because they cannot see eye-to-eye on their ministries, they
split and then accuse the others of infidelity to God.
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Consequently, each of them
is falling short of what God intended.
Had they kept their animosity to themselves, they could survive, as they
always have, drawing their little quarter of the population who have their typical
personality type. Even if we, as the
church, manages to continue in its disunity, we will still fall short of God’s ultimate
goal, “to reach the unity of the faith in the knowledge of the Son of God, and
become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
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Worse still, now that our political outrage with each
other is flashing all over public media, our problem has grown much worse. Presently, evangelicals and the prophetic
leaning “Conservative Christians” take one side, and the more traditional and
socially oriented “Liberal Christians” holdfast on the opposite side, each vehemently
broadcast divisive slander at each other…and that before a spiritually hungry
world.
Brothers and sisters, we need
each other. Nether the world, nor God,
need us divided. The “Church” must unite
as one if any of us, corporately or individually, hope to reach the maturity
God in Christ Jesus died to give His Church.
As it is, those seeking God, are justified in looking anywhere else,
other than the warring church. Do we,
who make up the Church, really prefer dying RIGHT, rather than growing united
in the knowledge of the Son of God?
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To be “one,” as He is one,
we must recognize, as legitimate, the part of God our other brothers and
sisters see. I repeat, we each see God
differently. We each respond to God
differently. We cannot go on permitting pride
in the way see God or the way we respond to Him, keep us apart. What we believe as heresy today is most
likely another aspect of our Heavenly Father we have been unable or unwilling
to recognize yet. It seems impossible,
but reuniting is worthy of our prayer, if not immediate change. If we do not, or will not, we need to ask ourselves if we really are Christians,
at all. It is what Jesus Christ Himself asks
in His prayer to His Father:
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“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me
through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am
in you. May they also be in us so that
the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory
that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so
that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and
have loved them even as you have loved me.”
John 17:20-23
