Let me say up front that I know this blog post will not necessarily feel relevant to everyone, nonetheless I believe it will be beneficial for you to read it.
Jordan Peterson has become a well known figure in our culture, having come to prominence in the late 2010s and currently has his own channel on The Daily Wire. Back in 2018 he wrote what is probably his most well-known book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which was very popular with young men in particular, as Peterson himself continues to be. I read 12 Rules myself back in 2018 and thought Peterson said some helpful things in calling young men to take responsibility for their life, especially with some of the trends we are seeing in our culture. It is also clear that Peterson is a thoughtful, well-spoken, compelling intellectual who stands for his convictions and who is passionate about telling the truth.
However, ever since Peterson burst onto the scene I’ve had my concerns, as have many others (see here, here, and here). My concern only has increased since being made aware of Peterson’s new series on The Gospels that is currently being released. Peterson has assembled a roundtable of individuals, none of whom are Bible-believing Christians nor theologians, to discuss “the true meaning of the Gospels.”
While Peterson has many likeable qualities and says some things that are true, quite frankly every time he talks about the Bible I roll my eyes. For example, I’ve seen a preview of his latest Gospel series where he is discussing what “The Word” means in John 1:1 and it is, to use a technical term, gibberish. Another example is a couple of months ago when Peterson was debating with the famous atheist Richard Dawkins and frustratingly refused to answer the direct question of whether he (Peterson) believed in The Virgin Birth as a historical fact and instead started talking, again a technical term, gobbledygook, (see here, go to minute 3 and watch through the end, if you’re able).
Jordan Peterson respects the Bible and Christianity, but he doesn’t think the story is actually true (or at the very least he doesn’t care). He finds the Biblical story useful in the sense that it helped shape our Western civilization but he does not see it as God’s true story of the whole world that is to be trusted and seen as historical. Peterson’s view is not what the Bible is and he doesn’t understand its purpose but instead uses it for his own purposes.
In addition, do not forget that Peterson is a Jungian, being heavily influenced by the analytical psychologist Carl Jung, who saw religion as useful for society regardless of whether it was fact and used psychological terms to interpret religious terms (such as “soul,” “evil,” etc). This is the lens through which Peterson interprets the world and reads the Bible and is part of why he cannot understand it.
Brothers and sisters, you may like Jordan Peterson, you may dislike him, or you may not even know who he is, but regardless, you need to be careful about how much you listen to this man when he “speaks Bible,” for how he views the Scriptures is much different than how you and I do. Do not be tricked into thinking that because he is conservative and talks about the Bible that we are on the same team. We’re not. Unless Peterson is born again by the Spirit and repents and trusts in Jesus Christ, he will never be able to grasp the Bible, for the natural, unregenerate person cannot discern spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14-16). Jordan Peterson cannot truly understand the Gospels until this happens to him, so we as those who do in fact have the Spirit of God should be very wary of listening to him trying to teach us about them while also praying for him. My concern is that there are a lot of people who will think they are truly understanding the Gospels, meanwhile they are receiving interpretations that ignore authorial intent and are viewed through Peterson’s psychoanalyst lens.
If you want to learn about the Bible, you can do better than Jordan Peterson. You can do the normal, biblical things like be a member of a Gospel-preaching church with pastors who desire to shepherd you and teach you God’s Word.
You can ask your pastors for recommendations of good, reputable, orthodox, books that grow your knowledge of the Bible and good theology.
You can seek to be discipled by an older saint who has spent more years in the Bible and can teach you.
Brothers and sisters, these are the primary ways in which we should be learning about the Bible and growing in our understanding, not from YouTubers (though there are a few really great exceptions to this, Gavin Ortlund, for example), not from TikTok personalities, and certainly not from unregenerate people who may have a Ph.D, but not the Spirit of God.