Jordan B. Peterson: Sinner‪?‬

Dr. Jordan B Peterson is considered by many to be a great man, a man of integrity and deep understanding, a man who genuinely challenges people to take responsibility for the life they have been given. To many, Dr. Peterson is a modern day prophet, calling people to get their lives in order. Recently, however, Dr. Peterson crossed a line that calls all of this into question. With his video, "Who dares say he believes in God?" Dr. Peterson has crossed the line seperating the prophet from the false prophet and has positioned himself squarely on the side of the false prophet.

The hallmark of the false prophet is that he misrepresents God and in so doing leads people away from, rather than towards, the fountain of life. It may be that Dr. Peterson may not be aware of having crossed that line and so the title of the book remains an unanswered question, Jordan B Peterson: Sinner?

The hallmark of a believer is not wheter or not he makes mistakes but rather how he responds when his mistake is made known to him. It's King David's response when Nathan the prophet confronted him (2 Samuel 12) that reveals him to be a man after God's own heart. In like manner, the question of which side Dr. Peterson is really on will only be revealed in the manner in which he responds when confronted with the fact that, in proclaiming, "Who dares say he believes in God?" he is guilty of misrepresenting God.

A half truth presented as the whole truth is the most agregious of lies. Knowingly or unknowingly, Dr. Peterson has done just this. To imply, not to mention emphatically state, that no-one is worthy to say, "I believe in God" is to deny the message of the Gospel and the validity of the Church. Any Christian who understands the rundiments of salvation by faith rather than works should be able to see that Dr. Peterson has no personal experience with the Grace of God. Contrast his attitude to that of any true Christian, a Christian like B B Warfield and the distinction becomes blatently clear.

Warfield says that the true Christian (the Calvinist), "... is the man who has seen God, and who, having seen God in His glory, is filled on the one hand, with a sense of his own unworthiness to stand in God's sight as a creature, and much more as a sinner, and on the other hand, with adoring wonder that nevertheless this God is a God who receives sinners." On the one hand everthing Dr. Peterson proclaims in his video is true but it remains only half of the picture.

God receives sinners! Where is this in Dr. Peterson's message? The false prophet says, "You must first be worthy before daring to say I believe in God." The true prophet tells the people that God calls unworthy sinners to Himself and only once they have gone all-in does the process of sanctification begin. The believer stands worthy to say he believes in God, not because when the believer says I believe he is drawing attention, not to himself but to the God in whom he believes. This is pleasing in the sight of God because it emphasizes God's grace and mercy. To emphasize only the unworthiness of the creature and fail to balance this with a clear statement that God receives sinners is to oppose the Gospel of Christ and with that to oppose God Himself.