Start today with Dr Jordan Peterson. Nothing like piggybacking off another
man's fame but I actually have some things that I want to observe about him
that I trust will be helpful but for those of you who have not heard very
much about Dr Peterson, he is a lecturer, he is a psychologist,
specifically he's the professor of psychology at the University of Toronto
in Canada and he shot to fame a few years ago when he refused a university
edict that staff refer to students by their preferred gender pronouns. He said
that he would not be compelled concerning what he must say especially
by those who were driven by Marxist motives and of course he has been an
outspoken critic of one of the ideas that he's swirling around in our Western
society at the moment called cultural Marxism but he has become a global
phenomenon since then in fact he's lectured in over 100 cities to more than
250,000 people in the last 12 months since he launched
"12 Rules for Life". His recent tour of Australia and New Zealand has so far
attracted 43,000 people which is pretty big but actually as I wrote that stat
down. It occurred to me that a man who has not had the same prominence in
mainstream circles is Franklin Graham and he recently did a tour just of
Australia not New Zealand and he attracted roughly 60,000 people and they
actually went to fewer cities than Jordan Peterson, for example he never
went to Canberra but that to one side we have the phenomenon known as Jordan
Peterson which is a global phenomenon and he is particularly well known and
well received amongst younger people especially amongst younger men and you
know his stated purpose and he said this recently is a message of meaning which
of course rubs up against the meaninglessness of the kind of worldview
into which so many in their 20s and 30s have been inducted at the post modern or
postmodernish worldview of the modern West but you know I've been to one of
his lectures in Sydney and I would say also a quest for truth, he looks for
truth and he looks to build up meaning. He tears down that house of cards which
is a postmodern worldview and he seeks to rebuild something substantial with a
stronger foundation in its place and there's been much
conjecture about Dr Peterson's view of Christianity and his view of God.
Of course he actually lectures the Bible in some of his lectures that he posts
online and he is well liked by many Christians because he is sympathetic
toward so many Christian principles and you know the question of God actually
came up in his appearance on ABC's Q&A on Monday night. He was invited on as one
of the panelists and of course ABC, as a result, saw their highest ratings so far
this year which is completely unsurprising but you know one of the
questions asked to the panel if they believe in God and I thought the answers
were very interesting - all of the panelists made a concession to some
degree of the reality of God. Catherine McGregor answered first and Catherine
McGregor is a transgender person born a man and Katherine said I do believe and
I base that on experience there was what I can only describe as a phenomenon in
response to a very desperate prayer when I was dying in delirium tremens and I've
not had a drink since the day I uttered that prayer that's of course withdrawal
from alcoholism from alcohol as an alcoholic I've been welcomed in some
Anglican communities and I go there because I like the ritual but without
beating my breast in the public square I pray daily I pray in the morning upon
waking I pray at intervals throughout the day and I try to meditate that from
Katherine McGregor a van bottom who was also on the panel said I'm a Christian
very devout and a Marxist yes both at the same time anyway I absolutely
believe in God and my faith sustains me through darkness my faith gives me
meaning it's what and Adam said Alex Hawke who is the special minister of
state the federal member for Mitchell said I believe in God I am a Protestant
by tradition and then went on to say one of the great successes of the West was
that we separated the church and the state and religion is a private matter
I'm not sure that's the meaning of separation of church and state but
anyway Terry Butler federal member for Griffith there
Kevin Rudd's for mercy says I'm an agnostic I've always been agnostic I've
always identified that way and Terry Butler went on to say well you don't
have to be a Christian to believe in human dignity and human Worth and morals
and some well you have to believe in God actually it's what she said I dispute
that but there you go and then dr. Jordan Peterson answered last and he
gave a very oblique and sort of not clear answer at all but this is one of
the things that he said in his answer he said I act as if God exists and that I'm
terrified he might I act in the manner of a person who is obsessed with
religious matters it's interesting you know I was looking on social media and
things like that and a lot of people were really thrilled that the entire
panel made some concession as to the existence of God and I do think that
there's something in it insofar as it represents potentially a new era in
Western culture there was a time in which such admissions were you would
have thought wouldn't have been so welcome in a crowd like the ABC Q&A
crowd but they in fact were not unwelcoming in fact I'd say somewhat in
the opposite direction of these declarations but you know there's a
sobering verse James chapter 2 verse 19 which says this it says you believe that
there is one God good even the demons believe that they tremble you see the
better question is not whether or not I believe in God or whether or not a
person believes in God the better question is who is God it's the question
asked by Jesus asked of Simon Peter who said who do you say that I am and you
know that question any either of those questions who is Jesus Christ who is God
that would have actually got a very different and an extremely revealing
answer from each of the panelists on Monday night because you see belief in
God may be coming back in vogue the audience certainly welcome the response
but the God that is increasingly worshiped today he's not God as you and
I instinctively think about him necessarily I think you know he has a
name it's a name that I hear in conversations it's a name that I hear in
debates it's a name that I hear as I talk to people about
sanity and God and things like that and you've probably heard his name - and his
name is something like this it is God to me that's what people say they say God
to me is like this or does that or is this kind of being or is that kind of
being or or comes to me in this experience or whatever our views of God
are so often framed entirely in terms of what we find helpful what we find
comforting what we find reasonable what we find to be in accordance with with
what we think and feel whether God's private not public you know was one of
the panelists said whether God is is it's not so much Lord of your life that
he pushes the Marxism out of your worldview or God who fits in with my
experience there are things that I think that I've encountered God always in a
box in my box always God to me and you know Jesus said something
chilling these are heart this is a hard business by the way but I think really
important to ask these questions these days Jesus said something for his
chilling in Matthew chapter 7 during the Sermon on the Mount he actually said
many will say to me many will say to me on that day Lord Lord we didn't did we
not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name
perform many miracles and then I will declare to them I never knew you depart
from me you who practice lawlessness see this is the point he says many people
gonna say because there is a daddy coming or see him many people are gonna
say Lord I know you and the response is going to be will know you don't
doubtless you know something doubtless you may even know someone but there's
something that you know someone you that you know even if very real to you
actually wasn't me who do you say that I am that's the key
question who is Jesus who is God that's the question that we all have to answer
and that we will all answer one day and you know it's a challenge to me because
I am reminded that we must be scrupulous about always submitting to the truth
that is revealed to us not falling into the trap of designing something else a
Christ who is actually the Christ that I've imagined God who is actually the
God who I have imagined stepping outside of the scope of the revelation that God
has given us of himself it requires serious and sober reflection
and that's the question that it's much harder to get dr. Jordan Peterson to
answer who is Jesus who is God really deep in his philosophies deep in his
thinking there are oblique answers to those questions but they're not
necessarily the one that Peter gave you are the Christ the Son of the Living God
with it differently not the one that Peter caves but you know before I move
on from from this subject I want to turn back more generally to dr. Jordan
Peterson because some have asked me for my views on on him and that's a tough
question because I mean you know I've got a realistic he's infinitely more
brilliant than than I am infinitely more experienced more thoroughly knowledgable
it's a stupid idea if it make any sense of comparison at all but here's what I
can figure out in terms of in simple terms which is how I try and assess
things I do try and get to the core of issues and think them through and I've
listened very hard to what he says and I've read some of his materials and you
know I find I have found that I've learned so much from him on a particular
point I've learned so much from him on his cultural analysis I really have in
terms of he's understanding dissecting describing the prevailing worldview in
Western society right now he's actually able to tell especially Millennials so
younger people thought about the world that they live in and the world that
they're encountering in such a way that makes them go oh my goodness yes
he's absolutely right he this guy understands this guy gets me like people
like him don't usually understand the world that I mean he's brilliant at that
I've learned a lot from him on worldview analysis on philosophical analysis of
the way the thought patterns of how time but the question is for me his analysis
has grown up learned a lot but what if his gospel because that's what he does
he analyzes the worldview he kind of shows how empty it is actually the
prevailing worldview our that's emerging amongst Millennials in our time but
what's his gospel what's his solution what's the truth that he wants to build
up in its place and I attended one of his lectures in Sydney in fact it was on
his last tour when he came out here last year and you know he opened by declaring
quite openly that his was a quest for truth he was searching for the truth he
said I want to find bedrock I want to drill all the way through till I hit
rock bottom and find substance something to stand on something to rely on a truth
quest and you know then he opened he opened with that and he lectured for two
hours and the room hung on his every word I looked around me at a few
junctions and people were leaning forward listening absolutely and that
was incredible and it's Testament I think to how hollowed out we have become
through vacuous postmodernist type of thinking that says that there is no
substantial truth to make a claim that you know truth is arrogant it's not
about telling people truth it's about finding out what they feel about things
and getting their responses on things that's what education has done these
days and that's where it's headed or or telling people that that they can be
anything they want to be and whomever they want to be and there's no
strictures or right and wrong and we're seeing the pretty toxic fruits of that
at the moment I looked around most in the first two I don't think that was so
much the case this time but in the first two her most of the people were men sort
of guys in their 30s 20s and I looked around I thought yeah here's a
generation that's been sort of raised on a diet of binge watching Netflix and
surfing YouTube and and pornography and all of these things that are just
vacuous and dissipation and here are guys and I talked to some
of them that were sitting around me in their early 30s realizing how that
they've got a meaningless life many of them say to dr. Peterson you know you
saved my life you gave me meaning and that's exactly what these guys were
saying off dr. Peterson has helped me to find meaning in life it's incredible to
see the emptiness of that which this worldview is leaving young people and to
see someone like dr. Peterson say well I'm gonna try and find the truth and my
goodness don't they flock to him but you know
after I went to his talk I wrote a piece a blog which in my hotel and I put it up
on the internet last year and it was republished in an edited form yesterday
in response to his Q&A appearance so look at at a CL website when you get a
chance I'm gonna read part of it which captures my I think general reflection
it says listening carefully to Peterson I couldn't help thinking of the Apostle
Paul's sermon to the Athenians on Mars Hill in acts 17 because they to those
Athenian philosophers sought bedrock they were the great Greek philosophers
the men who Paul addressed these were engaged in one of the greatest quests
for truth and ultimate meaning our Western cultural heritage bears witness
to their work even today but they hadn't gone deep enough this was a drilling
expedition that had top stop too soon remember Peterson opened with saying I'm
looking for that bedrock to drill down to Paul saw as he walked through their
city idols and altars to many gods so many of these represented realities that
these people had discovered gods for example who imparted art and music
fertility victory and powerful gods of the sea of fire of beauty and so forth
but surely there is something even greater that lies yet behind all of
those things and actually the history of Greek thought I think showed I think I'm
right in saying shows that they were looking for those things that lay behind
all of that Petersons similar the foundations upon which he relies are the
archetypes of psychological theory they are said to be deep enduring truths held
in the collective unconscious of societies throughout the ages they find
expression in narratives and religions and social norms and cycle
realities and this kind of thing they exist and have always existed because
they are true though we often know not how or why in his lectures the Bible is
held up as a text in which we find the Paramount expression of some of these
archetypes Jesus for example says Peterson
shows us this deep truth it's archetypal truth that if we bear the burden of our
own vulnerability to hardship and injustice willingly and without
complaint then we will be able to transcend it
Zion the heavenly City on a hill tells us this truth that we can struggle
under the weighty burdens of our human brokenness in a way that carries us
upwards until we reach a place where there will be no more or the Sermon on
the Mount it bears witness to this truth that no matter the pain and difficulty
of our own circumstances no matter our lack of privilege moral character is
attainable by all that's why he calls the Bible both myth and true it's a myth
that bears witness to the truths of the archetypes but surely there is something
greater than the archetypes the realities of our world are not true
because they spring from Greek myth or even from archetypes that may be
expressed by those myths and other sources like the Bible as Paul once said
these things are true because of God who is yet unknown to Peterson and so many
of his disciples the true and living God as Paul said at Mars Hill the God who
made the world and everything in it being Lord of Heaven and Earth God who
made the bedrock truth which lies behind the archetypes the one in whom we live
and move and have our being said Paul as well by whom we can actually become
transformed to the people of character that Peterson would have his followers
become who gives us the indwelling power to do that in many ways I felt like I
was sitting in a modern-day areopagus which is where the sermon was delivered
whilst listening to Peterson the great philosopher stood before us leading us
on our quest for truth and meaning and audience made hungry by hollowed-out
postmodern secularism hangs on every word questions followed it would have
been fitting had there been an altar to an unknown God in the corner
as there was in Athens the room doesn't know it but he is the answer to all of
their questions those they've asked and those that they don't even know here's
the bedrock that they seek the law goes by whom all things have been made who is
the light and life of men there is a hungry needy confused generation growing
up in Australia the dr. Jordan Peterson's of this world are feeding
them something but I can't help thinking one or the church if it is a message of
truth and meaning that we crave then increasingly this unknown God but
revealed in the pages of Scripture is the answer because he is true and he has
given all things their meaning