LCG Scribe

The Ark of the Covenant

If there’s one thing that the Work of the Philadelphian Era has emphasized consistently for decades, it’s this: God’s people are called to rule! This basic truth – suppressed by so many religions that profess Christianity – is stated clearly in both Testaments. We often quote a set of basic New Testament passages that state this truth (e.g., Revelation 1:4-6; 2:26-29; 5:8-10; 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; etc.).

Some few of us (not many, and not often, I believe) might get a little too overeager at the prospect of ruling the world! In the face of so much injustice around us – and due to the temptations of human nature – we might look forward a bit too much to fulfilling the words of Psalms 149:1-9. If any of us face this temptation now, then we may know for certain that the temptation will get worse as the world gets worse around us! Historically, the Pergamosian Era faced that temptation, although Jesus Christ only mentions the prophetic result: a specific kind of apostasy from the truth (Revelation 2:12-17), even as some were fostering hatred and even use of arms against their persecutors. But should that discourage us from striving to reach our goal? Of course not. There are right uses of power.

Let’s look at how power may be used rightly: “Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, and His praise in the assembly of saints. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise His name with the dance; let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp. For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute on them the written judgment – this honor have all His saints. Praise the LORD!” (Psalms 149:1-9).

We know from biblical prophecy that Israel and Judah, when they come out of captivity, will be allowed to do exactly this (e.g., Isaiah 11:11-14; 14:1-2). And they will do so under the leadership of their Messiah (Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalms 46:8-11) and His holy ones: as far as we can tell, both His angels and His resurrected saints (Zechariah 14:3-5; Revelation 19:11-16).

 “But I Don’t WANT to Rule!”

Many of us, when we think about these things, are anything but eager to fulfill them. “But I don’t want to rule as a king and a priest, if that’s what’s involved,” some might say. “I don’t even like being set over people, let alone the idea of breaking those under me with a ‘rod of iron’ if they get out of line.”

Part of the problem lies in a basic misunderstanding of how God will reward His saints. The passage we quote so often about ‘ruling with a rod of iron’ along with Jesus Christ – Revelation 2:26-29 (cf. Psalms 2:7-9, referring to David and, ultimately, to Jesus Christ Himself) – has a general application to the whole Church, but it specifically applies to the Thyatiran Era. This is because Jesus Christ describes that part of the rule we all will share with and under Him that means the most to the Thyatirans. Having overcome under absolute tyranny (as history records), they will know how to exercise absolute power righteously. In like manner, while all who overcome will receive a portion in the reward offered to those who overcome in each era, the reward offered to each era has special significance to those in that era.

As an example, those who overcome in Laodicea will share power with Jesus Christ, for that is what the symbolism that He uses implies. “The Eastern throne is broad, admitting others besides him who, as chief, occupies the center” (Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Commentary on Revelation 3:21). Now can we seriously argue that those in other eras (including our own) will not likewise share power with Him? Similar evidences can be put forward for the rewards offered prophetically to the other Church eras, again including our own. Those rewards apply particularly to those who overcome in each era, but generally to those who overcome in all eras. Our use of Revelation 2:26-27, in our own media, is consistent with this truth.

What does this mean for us individually? Like a wise manager, Jesus Christ will not “put square pegs in round holes” in His Kingdom. Rather, He will put us in roles that fit our personal talents and spiritual gifts the best. While no doubt we will all be giving sharp correction to some wayward human at some point, especially if he is a ruler himself (cf. Psalms 149:6-9 again, and Isaiah 30:20, KJV), some of us will be doing that more often than others – because some of us are better suited by creation to do that sort of thing on a regular basis.

How can we demonstrate this? Let us look first at how Jesus Christ employs our personal talents and our spiritual gifts now, in His Church, while we are yet human beings. For this life is our training ground! What we go through today is preparing us for what we will be doing as kings and priests tomorrow. This preparation involves our talents and gifts as much as it does our characters.

 Spirit, Soul and Body

Paul gave a wonderful benediction which we might not think about as often as we should. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

We in the Church often hear about the “spirit in man”. We could not have rational thought on a human level without it (1 Corinthians 2:11). We hear less about the human “soul”, which is our animate life with its particular way of dealing with the world. Still less perhaps do we hear about the human “body”, which is the seat of our most basic human motives and desires. However these three relate to each other exactly, together they form what modern Westerners call the human personality – which is sometimes called more simply the human mind.

As deep as the human mind is (and as potentially treacherous), man can and should discover much about how it normally works. He can do so if he will set aside certain deceptive presuppositions about spiritual things and follow the facts he observes in nature where they lead. Searching for the simplest and most complete explanation of all the physical facts always leads eventually to a conclusion consistent with the revealed Word of God, for God also reveals Himself clearly (if generally) through nature (cf. Romans 1:18-22).

It may surprise you to learn how much man can discover, and has discovered, about the spirit, soul and body of man by observing how they relate to each other and to the world we live in. We owe much to Jung, Myers, Briggs, Kiersey, Berens, Beebe and many others for constructing a powerful three-part model of how the normal human mind works. Their work as psychologists – scientists who study the human mind as it manifests itself in nature – has a fundamental respect for the spiritual core of human personality, which respect is refreshing in itself. Their model (ultimately based on some 2,500 years of observation of human behavior) revolves around the interrelationship of temperament, interactive or social style, and something called cognitive dynamics: how one’s thought processes relate to one another and in what order. (The technical terms used in the following discussion are those of Dr. Linda Berens.)

Temperament closely corresponds to what the Bible describes as the “body” or the “flesh”. It is a description of why we do what we do as human beings. This seems to be determined both by genetics and by the influence of four hormones in the womb, with the influence of one hormone always predominant over the others for a given fetus. Perhaps because of the hormonal influence, while we always have one “core” temperament, we also have elements of all the others within us and motivating us. What this means (again) may surprise you. For example, while all normal human beings desire freedom to act, a sense of belonging, a sense of competence or mastery, and a sense of unique identity, each human being has one of these basic desires dominating the other three. (What follows in second, third and fourth place differs from person to person as well.) Those who naturally crave a sense of unique identity are often mistaken as being “more spiritual” than other people, but they are not. Rather, each of the four temperaments brings with it a different natural approach to spiritual things (remember, this is a matter of observation, not of presupposition), and therefore serve best in different roles in God’s Church (and in other religions as well).

Interactive style (or social style) closely corresponds to what the Bible describes as the “soul” (which of course is not immortal). This too starts to unfold from birth onward. It is a description of how we do things. This is the part of the human mind – the “personality” – that has to do the most directly with leadership style. Some naturally like to be “in charge” of an organization, and are good at it. Some prefer to work “behind the scenes”, making sure the organization runs smoothly. Some prefer to “chart the course” for the organization, keeping everyone aiming for the goal. And some prefer to inspire everyone else in the organization to “get things going” and to keep them going. Their natural enthusiasm is contagious. Again, while we all have elements of all these leadership styles within us (with all in particular orders of preference) and can exercise them, each of us is naturally best at exercising one of them.

When the four temperaments and the four interactive (social or leadership) styles are combined, sixteen personality types emerge, each type distinguished by the order in which it uses eight natural cognitive (thought) processes. Each leadership style, in effect, can be broken down into four personality types; and the same can be done with each temperament.

While this model does not explain everything about human personality, it explains much. Think of your (inborn) personality type as the seed of a tree; your life experience, as the tree and branches that grow from that seed and are shaped by larger circumstances; and the motions of the branches in the wind as how you react to smaller circumstances from day to day and hour to hour. Understood in that light, the model is not a pigeonhole or a box – it is a tool for growth.

Understanding one’s personality type can tell one much about how resistant (or how vulnerable) one naturally is to a particular kind of sin. While we are all vulnerable to all kinds of sin, and thus need the Holy Spirit to overcome sin no matter what, Satan seems less apt (for example) to corrupt the naturally formidable intellectual honesty or moral integrity of some personality types, preferring to work first on their naturally weaker abilities to deal with temptations coming through the senses. (Of course, he may also try to make the very same people self-righteous about their strengths, in comparison to other people!)

When Mr. Ames wrote the following earlier this year, certain tests based on one aspect of this threefold theory were among the potential tools of self-examination he had in mind. “Many of us have taken aptitude tests, interest inventories and personality profile analyses. Some of these tests are of greater value than others, but if you approach them with the right care” – and practitioners of “personality typing” strongly urge that one get competent and ethical guidance from a certified counselor, as misunderstandings about oneself through being “mistyped” can have far-reaching consequences – “you can often learn more about yourself through using these tools” (“Self-Examination: A Vital Key to Growth”, in Living Church News, March-April 2009, p. 6).

I have taken due care with this theory, under wise guidance, and have learned a great deal about myself (and others) in the process. One thing I have learned has motivated this article: the realization that many people have too narrow and too imprecise a view of what “leadership” means. So let us go back to the Bible for an overview of personality (and leadership) that “dovetails” very neatly with what man can discover on his own.

 “Servant Leadership” Now and Later

“Servant leadership” at its best in God’s Church uses the spiritual gifts that become associated with a person’s natural talents, as that person becomes increasingly aware of who and what he is before God (no more and no less). In that light, Paul describes various spiritual gifts that Jesus Christ gives the Church, each one like one of the members of a human body: prophecy, ministry (or service of a particular kind), teaching, exhortation, giving with liberality, leadership with diligence, showing mercy with cheerfulness (Romans 12:3-8).

It’s certainly possible that God can place people in particular roles in the Church for which they hardly seem suited naturally. In fact He seems to do this quite often at first with a person, to show that the transcendent power belongs to Him and not to us (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:7). Sooner or later, though, God can (and usually does) bring a person’s role in line with his natural talents and the gifts of grace that God adds to those talents.

Consider what God does when He adds His grace to our natural talents. People having certain personality types are noted for their unusual natural insight into the future. Some naturally seem to enjoy particular kinds of service more than others do. Some are naturally apt teachers, even more than the others. Some are outstanding at exhortation. Some seem to be natural givers of their time, resources and personal attention. Some are natural leaders who “take charge” without straining themselves or others overmuch. Some are naturally merciful, sometimes even to a fault. And there are those rare people like Paul himself, multifaceted people who are able to look at a problem from all angles, to “connect the dots” between many branches of learning and to do almost anything they set their hands to do well. All these personality types are magnified, and then bit by bit brought into balance, when God’s Spirit is added to the “spirit in man” and His gifts of grace are given through that Spirit to each Christian.

This is part of what lies behind Paul’s wish that our whole spirit, soul and body be sanctified and preserved until Jesus Christ comes. God has a spirit, a soul and a body too (He speaks of them all in both Testaments), and He wants to make ours like His! Yet while God as a Being (the Father and the Son taken together, united by the Holy Spirit) has the most complete Personality there is (for example, Jesus Christ, in the Four Gospels, famously manifests the abilities of all four human temperaments), God the Father apparently wants varieties of personality among His children. He wants us all to duplicate His character – but He would have no reason to take such trouble to make us all different in personality, only to erase our personality differences at the resurrection of the just.

God has a reason for making each of us as we are! The reason may be stated in different ways, and here is one way: being “in charge” is not all there is to being a king and a priest! In fact, many of us will not be interacting as leaders with humanity in a “take-charge” way most of the time. Rather, all of us (each according to the talents and gifts we are developing now) will be inspiring and motivating people, helping the things they do run smoothly, charting the course for them and keeping them pointed toward right goals, as well as telling them what to do when necessary. All of us will be giving people the right kind of freedom to act, giving them a sense of belonging, helping them to achieve competence and self-mastery, and helping them to attain unique identities as individuals. And each of us will always prefer to do some of these tasks, even though we likely will become able to do any of them at need.

This is what being part of Christ’s spiritual Body is and always will be about: one Body, many members, each member having a different function, with all members working together in cooperation. Even when that “rod of iron” needs to be employed, chances are, if you prefer not to use one, then you will not be called upon to use one. But here is the “bottom line”: if using a “rod of iron” is demanded of you – are you willing to use it, and use it wisely, no matter how much you might dislike doing so personally?

If you can answer “yes” to that question, then read the results that will arise in the world ruled by the Kingdom of God:

“Behold, a king [Jesus Christ] will reign in righteousness, and princes [the resurrected saints] will rule with justice. A man [preferably each, as in the RSV – the Hebrew word is the same] will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen. Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly. The foolish person will no longer be called generous, nor the miser said to be bountiful; for the foolish person will speak foolishness, and his heart will work iniquity: to practice ungodliness, to utter error against the LORD, to keep the hungry unsatisfied, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; he devises wicked plans to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks justice. But a generous man devises generous things, and by generosity he shall stand” (Isaiah 2:1-8).

You will be made a king and a priest so that you may then have a part in making this state of affairs come to pass! And you will enjoy your part in it – guaranteed!

– John Wheeler (יוחנן רכב)