Jordan Peterson says the Bible is the Foundation of Truth

In a long interview with Joe Rogan on Tuesday Jordan Peterson related his newfound understanding of the relationship of the Bible to truth.  He had just gone through the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC and that event seemed to coincide with this new revelation for Peterson.

“I just figured this out this week.” He told Rogan.

Now understand that Jordan Peterson, by his own admission, is not a believer in the sense that we would understand it, and Joe Rogan certainly is not—and I am certainly not recommending listening to Joe Rogan’s podcast unless you want a heaping helping of incidental profanity and vulgarity.

To sum up Peterson’s explanation, he was stating that culture is coming apart because any culture is based on a set of common beliefs and the ability to communicate those beliefs.  Culture needs a framework or a structure.

Even our ability to communicate is based upon the use of words and word meaning is determined by usage.  However, the authoritative usage of words is most greatly influenced by fundamental works of literature in the culture. The examples for the fundamental writers that formed the words, language, and therefore the structure of our culture would be Shakespeare, Dante, and Milton.

Underlying those is the Bible.

The role of the Bible, according to Peterson, in forming our common truth is absolute and inarguable.  This statement is profound coming from a professed unbeliever.

“It’s not that the Bible is true. It’s that the Bible is the prerequisite for the manifestation of truth, which makes it far more true than just ‘true.’ It’s a whole different kind of truth. And I think that’s not just literally the case – in fact – I think it can’t be otherwise. This is the only way to solve the problem of perception.”

Something has been happening with Peterson.  He is being confronted by the reality of God and is having a difficult time escaping it.  The UKTimenews.com summarized some of his statements.

What you have in the figure of Christ is a real person who actually lived, more of a myth, and in some sense Christ is the union of those two things,” he said. “The problem is, I probably believe that, but I’m amazed at my own belief and don’t understand it.”

Peterson added that “it is too terrifying a reality to fully believe. I don’t even know what would happen to you if you fully believed it.

He also said that in the past, when asked if he believed in God, “I answered in different ways, ‘No, but I’m afraid he probably exists’” – after which Peterson added, “There is no limit to what would happen if you acted as if God existed.

What he said on Tuesday is the same thing Christian apologists have been saying for nearly 2000 years, and Jesus in the beginning.

Peterson is basically saying the same thing that C.S. Lewis did in 1944.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

People are critical of Peterson and his message calling it a form of pseudo-Christianity. It is important to be clear. It is not Christianity at all. It is an unbeliever who has an astounding amount of intellectual honesty and integrity coming to grips with the reality of the Bible and its impact upon the western world as well as the philosophical realities of Christianity.

To be a real Christian, Peterson would have to admit his utter helplessness and enter into a faith relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I am the truth.”

Jordan Peterson is clearly not there.

Yet.