Dr. Jordan Peterson Reveals How He Feels About Efforts To Convert Him: ‘Look To Your Own Salvation’
Prominent agnostic Dr. Jordan B. Peterson recently had ‘The Chosen’ creator Dallas Jenkins on his podcast, where he praised the hit Jesus flick and its intentionality while revealing how he feels about people proselytizing him.
During the conversation, the topic of Peterson’s exposure to and influence of The Chosen in his life comes up, and he notes:
I was watching it with my wife and she had undergone quite a profound religious transformation not too long before we started watching ‘The Chosen,’… I was watching her watch it and and seeing her response. The first response I had was relief. The relief was, ‘Oh I can watch this,’ because I’m very sensitive to propagandistic intent; I don’t like it at all. Even a bit of it is a turnoff for me.”
He continues:
“Religious films can be propagandistic just like political films and then they fail. They’re not interesting. and I think not only do they not serve the religious purpose, then I think they harm it because it’s the hijacking of the quest in art to push forward a message that’s predetermined. It’s not an exploration. There’s not even any faith in it. There’s no risk in a way.”
Turning to the topic of personal faith, Jenkins asks Peterson his thoughts on the continued efforts to share the gospel with him. Peterson gives a dishonest answer, saying that the spirit behind questions like ‘Have you bent the knee?’ and ‘Do you believe Jesus rose from the dead?’ is really a query of ‘Do you believe in Christ exactly the same way I claim to?’
He later adds that people who witness to him should ‘look to (their) own salvation.’
Jenkins: “Christians all over the world have looked at you for the last several years as almost like a gateway drug into Christianity, but still hoping ‘When is Jordan Peterson, like, do you believe? Have you bent the knee? How many people have asked you, how many Christians have you met have gone, “so do you believe Jesus rose from the dead?”
Peterson: “No, they ask me something worse. The question usually is, “do you believe in Christ exactly the same way I claim to?”
Jenkins: “Yeah, people are competing for Dr. Jordan Peterson to bring them into their fold the correct way.”
Peterson: “Yeah, well, that’s fine, I suppose, but it’s…”
Jenkins: “There’s something very sweet about it, too.”
Peterson: “Well, yes, that’s what I mean by being it fine. It’s just… well, it’s something like, you know, ‘look to your own salvation.’ That’s my fundamental attitude towards that.”
Peterson is the thought leader of our age. A promoter of logic, reason, and general sanity, he has gutted the anti-intellectual emotionalism of the political left and has done so through a secularist worldview, all the while frequently commenting and teaching through the scriptures.
By all accounts Peterson has gleaned more understanding about God and his created order from natural revelation than leftist Christians have gleaned about God and his created order from special revelation. Probably more so than any man has ever articulated it, Peterson has taken natural revelation as far as it can be taken, and is frequently seen grasping for more.
Yet because he is lost, and the scriptures say in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 that “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit,” there is practically nothing to gain from his understanding and teaching of the scriptures, because nearly everything he says about it is tainted, corrupted, and flat out wicked.
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By all accounts, JBP is sincere, though skeptical. Ironically, JBP seems to take a late-modern approach to belief. He must see and touch and take the propositions of Christianity in a literal sense. He’s not to be condemned for this as doubting Thomas isn’t condemned for his doubting. We don’t come to Christ by debate, rhetoric, proposition, and “literal-ness”. Ultimately, it’s is a movement of the heart, not the head. We enter into this movement through Christ’s body — the Church. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
Good post. Dr. Peterson, though wearing the mantel of logic, reason, and intellect, yet wanting so badly to retain his autonomy, is forced into admitting using arguments based on anything except those. They are almost embarrassing to a man of his stature. He is not being completely honest about the reasons for his resistance, and the fact some of them are purely emotion-based. As you said, he is taking a late-modern approach to hold onto his disbelief. Good catch, Simon.
I have far, FAR more respect for the honest skeptic than for those who claim to believe in Christ and by their lives, spit on His commandments, create doctrine based on cultural norms, cherry pick verses out of context, and twist passages into nonsensical pretzels. What I admire about Peterson is that he so respects the biblical message of what it means to be a Christian, he dares not claim it without living it.
Doubt is denial of the obvious. True faith includes the head, the affections, and the will. People know better, especially those who have read Scripture, as in JP’s case. Has he bowed the knee? This is the correct question, and true believers appreciate the propogating of the Gospel and don’t resent people asking questions about their faith. They welcome such questions as an opportunity to speak of Christ and His great grace in their life. Pray for JP, but let’s not deny the literal truth of Scripture in our desire to justify His lack of theological understanding, and possibly lack of true saving faith.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Rom 1:18-21 NKJ) Paul reasoned with the Athenians and called them to repent lest they be judged for their idolatry, even arguing from their own poets that they knew better.
Doubt is not wrong, if sincere and honest. No where in scripture is that condemned. And many things are not always as obvious to everyone, as you insist, even if they were to you. The remainder of your post stands as read and was greatly appreciated.
There was NOTHING dishonest about his answer. There was something very dishonest in how his answered was portrayed though.
“Dishonest”? Maybe not.
Silly? Definitely so.
Dr. Peterson will, later on in life, admit that, and be embarrassed by the frail reasons he’s given for his resistance to the Gospel.
To all Christians, I have this to say. If you can show me even one verse in the Old Testament where God promises his “New Covenant” would be led by himself in the form of Jesus (by name) then I will believe. In the Synoptic Gospels Jesus denies that he is equal to God. He says that only God is good. Jesus made known quite explicitly that he was a Jew and for the Jews only. The Roman Empire, three hundred years after Jesus’ death, got hold of John’s gospel and rewrote it to make the outrageous claim that Jesus was God and based the entire religion of Christianity upon the pagan practices of Mithraism which included Sunday Sabbath vs. the God ordained Saturday Sabbath. I was a disillusioned Christian for 24 years until I really dug into the Bible. It is you Christians that will face hell’s fire.
1) No, you WON’T; you proved later in your own post, by your own words, that your problem is not intellectual but spiritual. Yeshua ha Meschiac could appear personally to you and you wouldn’t believe in Him. Why not be honest about it, instead of throwing out insults, disguised as sincere questions, Richard? You know, and now we know, what is the real reason you will not become a Christian. Say it.
2) No, He did NOT deny being God or being equal to God. No, He did NOT admit to being a sinner. The First Century Jewish leaders, who understood things a hundred times better than you, realized He was claiming divinity. They understood it SO well, they once tried killing Him for what they described as blasphemy. Lies are not arguments for your rejection of Jesus the Messiah. Why not be honest about your real problem, Richard?
3) No, the Roman Empire did NOT change the Gospel of John to make it say Jesus was God. And even if they HAD, there are a dozen other passages in the NT Gospels that would still suffice to put the lie to your hateful attack. Why not be honest about this, Richard? Why not simply admit that someone in your church once offended you, and you have dedicated the rest of your life to sliming the Christian faith because of that?
4) No, Christianity is NOT based on Mithraism. That wild claim that has been refuted over and again – by Christians and non-Christians alike. Historical revisionism is NOT an argument for your Judaism. Why not be honest, and present your case, instead of simply mendaciously attacking ours?
5) No, you were NOT a Christian. Not for 24 years, or for 24 minutes. Christians do not change faiths like people change their socks, Richard. But even granting your hilarious claim for the purpose of debate, all that proves is that you publicly, and embarrassingly admit to being “deluded” for a quarter of a century! Wouldn’t it be better for you and your position, if you’d have HIDDEN that fact? Why be finally honest, but only when it completely humiliates you and derails your own premise, Richard?
6) Lastly, I appreciate your honesty (albeit sickening and vicious) at the end, where you condemned us all to hell. Again, it reveals and reinforces your true motive – which is pure hatred. No good Jew would wish that even on his worst enemy, you sicko. And Jews don’t believe in hell anyways. Think, Richard, THINK!
“And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Luke 14:12)
Richard, you can’t blame others for your unbelief. That’s a lazy man’s excuse. You have a Bible. You’re not illiterate. If you choose not to believe, that choice is yours and yours alone, and nobody else is responsible for it. If you claim God’s written word isn’t good enough, that’s your decision alone.
“What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar … ” (Romans 3:3-4a)
Richard, even if you never receive an answer to your question, you’ll still have no excuse. On judgment day, you won’t get away with trying to shift blame and responsibility to others. Do you truly believe that “but, but, you didn’t foretell His exact earthly name!” will be a reasonable excuse? Particularly when He fulfilled every prophecy, and rose from the dead? Seems extremely weak to me.
Jesus came to primarily minister to the Jews, but He did also minister to Gentiles (see https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-Jews-only.html), and delegated that mission to the Disciples with the Great Commission. Jesus later appeared to Peter, and Himself reiterated to Peter that the Gospel was for Gentiles, and that they were not held to the Jewish ceremonial law (Acts 10). Yet prior to that, many Gentiles had believed. If you pay attention to scripture, you’ll note He made it very clear that the Gospel is not just for Jews alone. But His ministry was first to the Jews, as fulfillment of prophecy, as their foretold Messiah. As the Apostles reiterated in the epistles, first for the Jews, and then for the Gentiles, who are then grafted in (Rom. 11)
Interesting. And so Jesus was crucified for just exactly what? Having a bad accident?
I get it; there are millions of people, especially in this hyper-sensitive age, who don’t want to hear that they are sinners. That they need to make a 180 degree turn. That there is a certain prescribed formula, as reported in scripture, to become a Christian. That the faith isn’t a self-help program, or a buffet of choices from which you design your own faith, as is the New Age cult. It certainly can feel in-your-face, take-it-or-leave-it, no-holds-barred, black-and-white, rigid, narrow, and stilting. Even many Christians can remember before their conversions feeling that way. I do. And I understand Peterson’s point that he doesn’t like to feel that he has to believe exactly the same way as the person witnessing to him. When sharing our faith, we must keep him, and all those like him, in mind. But being a missionary myself, whose job it is to do what Jordan doesn’t like, makes me a bit sensitive to my perspective, as well. 😉
Well said, Oscar
Like Craig, I too thought of Paul’s address at Areopagus to the thought leaders of his day, recorded in Acts 17:16-34. He begins with the fact that God created it all. And ends the speech by conveying the fact that judgment is coming … “because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” – Acts 17:31
As Jesus began, consistently taught, and ended His own ministry in fulfillment of the very message with which it began “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”’ (Matt. 4:17)
It’s either true or it isn’t.
There is no in between. The “cultural Christian” agnostics and atheists, make themselves liars. Agnostics less so, but still not completely honest. If it isn’t true, then they are nothing but a bunch of deceitful, manipulative, control freaks, trying to take the place of God. They see the value, but cannot see that it couldn’t be anything but a truly supernatural work of almighty God. But because they reject the truth, the only message they convey is “lies are good”. They only work to delegitimize and destroy whatever value they claim to respect. Because if it isn’t true, and it isn’t truly a supernatural work of God, and He isn’t the Creator who will judge His creation, then of what value is a lie? No, it works because it is true. And it is that simple. The value they see is evidence of that truth and supernatural work.
Asking anyone, “are you saved, yet?”, in the context Peterson’s audience is asking it, is a form of duress. It is persecutorial. It is not breathed by one moved by The Spirit. Jesus told us simply to acknowledge Him, stop sinning, and then preach His Gospel. And do all of this with love. Never once did He command us to harass and ridicule people for not knowing what we know. There is zero love at work in that. Pray for Peterson to be surrounded by God’s Love, not by God’s self-congratulatory brats. Agápe Love is how Peterson will be persuaded.
Perhaps people ask that question out of love and concern for JP’s eternal destiny?
Just like Ben Shapiro, he likes Christianity for utilitarian reasons only; they don’t believe in it personally.
Peterson is clearly a crypto-jew. His use of Old Testament stories as psychology doesn’t work against thay but confirms it. He is always on about OLD Testament stories. The only ones he knows, because he is a Jew. But he doesn’t want it publicly known because he has a good grift going among dumb Christians who want to think he’s a Christian.