Personality quizzes like, "What's Your Emotional Type?", "Which Famous Elizabeth Are You?", "What Does Your Eye Color Mean?", "Which State Do You Actually Belong In?" or worse, Christianized versions like, "Which Bible Character Are You?" not only clog many Facebook newsfeeds, but they're also the avenue in which many people subliminally praise themselves and invite others to join in.

One of the biggest problems with these online personality quizzes is that there are a limited number of options of what your personality can be like, and they're largely generic so that your results can be somewhat true about everybody.

"The quizzes are overwhelmingly upbeat and lighthearted in nature, a calculated decision by the people engineering them. After all, they’re designed to be an affirmation of how you see yourself, not an assessment of who you really are." -New York Post

"People love knowing and talking about themselves. It’s social currency. And these quizzes are a great opportunity for people to compare themselves with others." -Jonah Berger (quoted in Mashable's Q: Why Are Quizzes Suddenly So Popular? A: Narcissism)

There was once a time when I took a few of this personality quizzes for the sake of trying to speak the same love language as someone I befriended earlier this year. She often took these quizzes and posted her results on her timeline. In order to love her well, with what I believed at the time, to be harmless, I would take them too, comment on her post with my results, and encourage her where I thought I could. One time, I posted my results from the "Which Bible Character Are You?" on my own timeline, and sadly influenced others to waste their time doing the same. Though I never took the results of these quizzes seriously (or even with a grain of salt), I regret having unwisely led my friends (who trust me) to participate in vain activities, as well as inadvertently fish for compliments from them.

I didn't realize the way I was trying to love my new friend, wasn't loving at all; and was also very unwise. Not knowing her very well, it turned out that my compliments were actually mere flattery because the attributes I affirmed from her quiz results were not true of her character. Thus, I did her great harm rather than good, because instead of being more prayerful and mindful of Proverbs 14:8, "The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving." I hastily contributed to her already prideful and erroneous view of herself.

Learning from this grave mistake, I stopped "liking" and commenting on her quiz posts in order to keep from feeding her pride, hoping that through God's Word, I could truly exhort her in what is true and good. Unfortunately, God's Word is not her favorite thing to use to assess herself so she continued to find her identity in these fabricated, narcissistically-geared quizzes, which sadly encouraged other mutual Christian friends to do the same. That's why these quizzes are so popular—like viruses, they're highly contagious, spread from personal contact, and rapidly infect others with the vanity bug.

I understand why people of this world do this, but I'm completely bewildered as to why Christians do this. People of this world love talking and learning more about themselves, but people of God (should) love talking and learning more about God. Those who do not know Christ, don't genuinely know who they are and need others to tell them. They investigate and determine their identity based on horoscopes, what their family and friends say about them, what magazines and now, social media quizzes say who they are based on their responses to questions about their fickle personal affinities. But for Christians to be just as consumed with these personality quizzes is quite strange. I'm not saying these quizzes can't be silly and fun, they are. But to take and post them often is very odd behavior for anyone who professes to know and be known by God Almighty who readily made available, His Word—the perfect mirror that displays what our hearts truly look like—revealing to us, who we really are.

As children of the Most High God, if we want to know whether or not we love God and others well, if we manage our time well, if we're good stewards of our finances, if we're good spouses/parents/friends or whatever we want to know about ourselves, we ought to look into the perfect mirror of God's holy Word so that we will not only know what our true character strengths are, but also what our sin issues are so that we can repent and die to our sins, and live more fully in Christ.

Here's the bottom line: the goal and pursuits of people of this world is happiness; the goal and pursuits of people of God is holiness. What you pursue reveals which you are...regardless of what those unscientific, geared-to-make-you-feel-good, personality quizzes say.

"One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple."

-Psalm 27:4, ESV

Photo credit: David Whitlow, courtesy of AFFIRM Films/Provident Films War Room with Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore

As time passed, I began to see and hear more about this movie. Then about a week ago, I saw that Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer were in the film, with Shirer playing the lead female role. This instantly gave me cause to be greatly concerned about the message of the movie. For those who don't know about Beth Moore's false teachings, please refer to my article here: "What Do Ann Voskamp, Beth Moore and Sarah Young Have in Common?". In short, Beth Moore believes in the unbiblical practice of "binding Satan", as well as proudly declaring her extra-biblical prophetic messages and false visions from the Lord. Unfortunately, Priscilla Shirer is close friends, ministry partners, and contemplative prayer practitioner/teacher with Beth Moore, and as God warned us, "Bad company, ruins good morals." (1 Cor 15:33)—and Beth Moore is certainly bad company for anyone, especially believers.

But still, I wanted to be open-minded about the movie, so I prayed about whether or not I should go see it and write a review on it myself. Thankfully, the Lord answered my prayers with these two reviews by Justin Peters and Seth Dunn.

War Room sadly promotes and teaches: wives to be worldly submissive rather than biblically submissive, conversing with Satan, and many other Word of Faith types of practices. But sadly, I am not surprised because Alex Kendrick did not heed the admonition in 1 Corinthians 15:33, and earlier this year, he immersed himself with Word of Faith false teachers at the Missions and Marketplace Conference 2015. Strangely enough, the link to this year's speakers (as you can see pictured below), has recently been deleted so that you can't see that Alex Kendrick was one of their keynote speakers.



You can't travel with and work alongside false teachers and remain completely undefiled by their heresies and presumptuous blasphemes they proclaim and to their hurt, teach others to practice. This is why I wasn't surprised to hear that there were so many Word of Faith type prayers and proclamations (e.g., when Mrs. Clara was held at knife-point, she rebuked her assailant "in the name of Jesus", Elizabeth rebuking Satan, etc.).

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

"Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.' "

-Jude 1:3-4; 8-9, ESV

While I agree with the premise of this movie: that we need to pray more, I disagree with the unbiblical manner in which War Room teaches and promotes prayer—as our personal power source to get something from God (to fix our lives) rather than what Christ told us prayer is for—the gift of God to know and submit to His will rather than our own.

I also take serious issue with the one little line by Beth Moore's character has, "Sometimes submission to your husband looks like ducking so the Lord’s punch hits him instead". Sisters, while this may feed our flesh, it certainly does not feed our spirits with pure spiritual milk. This line completely opposes the humble, loving and biblically submissive heart-disposition God delights in Proverbs 31:11-12. Rather, a godly wife readily admits she is a sinner and is grateful for the mercy she's received from the Lord, therefore delights to submit to  her husband from her overflowing love for Christ, and not so that her husband would get "punched" by God (which denigrates our Father's holy and righteous character). A truly biblically submissive wife understands the admonition given to ungodly husbands in 1 Peter 3:7 and out of her love for Christ and her husband, she prays for him and submits to him for His good and not for his harm—for God to grant him the same mercy she's received in Christ.

I'm disappointed and saddened that this latest film from the Kendrick Brothers succumbed to the seeker-friendly, happy-clappy, false Christianity. But I hope and pray that their next film will return to more doctrinally sound portrayals of what it looks like to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ—the light and salt of the earth.

As you read the reviews from Justin Peters and Seth Dunn, please keep in mind something Charles Spurgeon once said, "Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather it is telling the difference between right and almost right." And War Room is dangerous, because it's almost right.

Why Commenting is Closed

I did a rare thing today. I closed comments on this article early because I'm responsible to God for all the the content found on this site, including the comments.

I've learned from the past, and can more quickly discern when an article begins to garner too many ill-mannered commenters rather than edifying commenters. It doesn't bother me when people disagree with me (read my other posts where hundreds of people disagree with me, here and at the Christian Post). I actually appreciate and am very encouraged by sincere, loving and challenging comments/questions by brothers and sisters in the Lord and always pray about and take into serious consideration any disagreements. I know that I can and am often wrong and am encouraged by the true expression of love that I'm shown by those who care enough to correct me. So I test sincere disagreements with God's Word and if I'm right, I stand firm, and if I'm wrong, I thank the person who loved me enough to take the time to correct me and openly share my error so others won't make the same error I did.

Commenting on my blog is allowed as long as it's respectful, loving, and edifying to others; and most importantly, honoring to Christ (Ephesians 4:29-32, 5:4 and 2 Tim 2:14, 24-26). When comments become belligerent and emotion-led rather than Spirit-led, I close the thread so that I may maintain an environment of God's truth and peace, rather than provide a place for havoc and ranting. 

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 25, 2015 – San Francisco residents may look up to see a rainbow in the sky next week, but it won’t indicate the typical support for gay rights. A new movie that over 1,000 LGBT supporters have warned the public not to watch will be advertised on a banner for two days over San Francisco.

While pro-LGBT viewers have slammed the film on online review sites, the film’s producer is not deterred. Ray Comfort, whose movies have been seen by millions, said, “Despite the calls for censorship and displays of intolerance, we’re hoping people will be open-minded enough to watch the film and come to their own conclusion.”

As the best-selling author noted, not all perceive the movie to be heavy-handed. One viewer commented, “I have to say, as a gay woman who watched Audacity, I agree that the topic was handled with love and compassion which was refreshing to see…the message was clear (even if it was one I disagreed with as an atheist).”

After flying the banner over San Francisco, the producer plans to target Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, and New York. Comfort explains his goal for the banners, and the film itself: “A film reviewer stated that ‘this film has the potential to ease the tensions between Christians and the LGBT community.’ That’s something I think most people would agree is sorely needed these days.”

“Audacity” received 100,000 YouTube views in five days. It may be freely seen on www.AudacityMovie.com.

Earlier today at 6:45 a.m., a horrifyingly sinful act was witnessed when three innocent people were gunned down in Moneta, Virginia during a live WDBJ-TV interview: a reporter (Alison Parker, 24), a cameraman (Adam Ward, 27), and a woman being interviewed (Vicki  Gardner). It is heartbreaking that both Alison and Adam were killed, but I'm grateful to the Lord that Vicki has already undergone surgery and is in stable condition.

Though I'm aware of the evil in this world, I was still stunned by this act of violence by Bryce Williams (legal name: Vester Lee Flanagan) who was once a reporter and co-worker of both Alison and Adam at WDBJ. Two hours after the shooting, Williams faxed a 23-page manifesto to ABC News. In this manifesto, Williams claims that he was racially discriminated against and harassed by black men and white women because he was a homosexual black man. Williams also stated that he's "been a human powder keg for a while…just waiting to go BOOM!!" and that the church shooting in Charleston was the final spark that ignited his bustling fuse. Sadly, he also stated what many who are lost in their sins say—that God told him to do it. But those of us who truly know God, know this is not true. And my heart grieves for others who, like Bryce Williams, are completely deceived by their own sin nature.

It seems lately, that every time we watch or hear the news, there's always something that tempts us to fear man rather than God. There seems to be constant heart wrenching news about violence and the increasing depravity of man being celebrated while character, honor and holiness is being beaten to a pulp or threatened to be silenced. So what's a Christian to do? We are to do what we should always be doing—getting on our knees: repenting of our sins, asking God to forgive others, and praying for the wisdom, courage and love to do what's right in God's sight.

"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him [the Almighty] who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

-Matthew 10:28, ESV

News like this senseless and tragic shooting today, should not rattle or frighten a Christian or scare us into remaining in more of a Christian bubble than some of us already are. News like this should wake up the idle Christians from their selfish stupor and exhort the faithful Christians to continue preaching the Gospel with more compassion and urgency. Ultimately, there is no human program, law or institution that can or will stop the cause of these continual evils we inflict upon one another. The only solution, the only true hope and help for anyone, is to hear and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So before you decide to judge, hate and call Bryce Williams ugly names, remember that we're all capable of such heinous crimes. Remember that in the sight of the one and only holy God, we all have sinned the greatest sin—rebellion against God Almighty; therefore we all deserve the greatest punishment—eternal damnation in Hell. But because God is gracious and full of mercy and compassion, He crushed His own Son, making Christ the propitiation for our sins. Making Him who knew no sin to be sin for us—us, who knew nothing but sin prior to the Father's gift of faith in His Son.

Remember what the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write to the Ephesians. Then pray for Bryce Williams' family and friends and others like him. Pray for God to grant them all the gift of repentance that leads to saving faith in Jesus Christ. And be brave—pray for God to give you opportunities to share the Gospel of His grace with others, even people you may feel uncomfortable or fearful around (homosexuals, drug users, or simply people who aren't like you).

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus"

-Ephesians 2:1-6, ESV