Jordan Peterson has taught me as much about Christianity as any preacher, author, or theologian ever has. Though a Christian for much of my life, and growing up in the church, it wasn't until coming across Peterson that I began to understand just how much fundamental truth the Bible contained beyond the supernatural aspects (which I take to be true).
Due in large part to Peterson's influence, my study of the Bible and just what it offers has been enhanced to the point where I realize that before I saw only the smallest fraction of an enormous canvas. Because of just how rich and detailed that canvas is, I doubt any human can fully grasp all that it contains. But I'm thrilled to now understand the scope of the whole picture, no matter how hazy most of it seems. Before I was focusing in on one tiny aspect and trying to see it in better and better detail, but I was losing the context surrounding that aspect, limiting the value and accuracy of my attention to detail. Now I find myself trying to bring the whole picture into better focus. And when I turn my attention to a particular aspect, it's informed by the larger context rather than hidden from it.
But it's because of this better approach to the Bible and Christianity, that I must quibble with one particular portion of Mr. Peterson's new book, 12 Rules for Life. It's a fantastic book, and it, too, has expanded my understanding of the wisdom contained in the Bible. I enjoyed so much of the book as a whole, but there was just one small part I took enough issue with that I felt it warranted this piece of writing.
The portion of the book I want to discuss here is when Peterson highlights what he calls "three mutually reinforcing consequences" that he says come from "Dogmatic belief in the central axioms of Christianity (that Christ's crucifixion redeemed the world; that salvation was reserved for the hereafter; that salvation could not be achieved through works)." (last paragraph on page 189) Peterson says three consequences are:
- "Devaluation of the significance of earthly life, as only the hereafter mattered."
- "Passive acceptance of the status quo, because salvation could not be earned in any case through effort in this life."
- "The right of the believer to reject any moral burden, because the Son of God had already done the important work."
There's a specific reason I titled this post a "response" rather than a "retort" or "refutation." I don't deny that these consequences might be the logical conclusion of the central axioms that Peterson describes. Nor do I even refute that much of what may be thought of as "Christianity" as a series of churches, institutions, and prominent individuals (rather than a system of belief), places the overwhelming amount of its time, energy, and output on these axioms. But I do take issue with the idea that these axioms are complete in explaining what Christianity as a worldview is.
I'll set aside, for this article, some of the more interesting and in my opinion closer to the truth, ideas about what God's plans are for man (check out the book The Unseen Realm by Dr. Micheal Heiser, in particular). Instead, I want to look just at what Jesus' guidance was, in addition to a few other things in the Bible. I do think there is an answer for each of the assertions which Peterson rightly presents as problems in an earthly day-to-day sense. To make it easy, I'll number my responses to match the corresponding consequence.
(1) "Devaluation of the significance of earthly life, as only the hereafter mattered."
The assertion of a 'hereafter,' or an eternal realm, that all human souls are destined to end up a part of is quite a conundrum for our mortal realm. The existence of just our mortal realm would make prioritization simple. "What are the things that matter? Those that affect this realm." But the idea of an eternity that is the eventual destination of all those who live in a mortal realm throws a real wrench into that simple understanding.
Initially, one might be tempted to say that nothing in the mortal realm matters because we'll all end up in the eternal anyways. But this is an incomplete way of thinking. What's important is not just that everyone ends up in the eternal realm, it's also important to consider what things affect the state of the eternal realm and our place in it. And those things that affect the eternal may include things that are done and occur in the mortal. And those things are all that matters in the mortal realm. In other words, if there be an eternal realm, then the only things that matter here in the mortal realm, are those that affect the eternal.
Now, I don't want to suggest that Christians and Christian teachers haven't taken this perspective. The message of salvation is one built on this perspective. It's quite meaningless outside of it. However, I do think it's quite possible that they have stopped asking the question too soon. Or at the very least, much of the church teachings have stopped using that question as context for their messages. There has been a severe lack of preciseness in the discussions about what a Christian life is and why to live it. (Being precise about what you say is another important takeaway from Peterson's book.)
When considering what Jesus and the Bible teach, Christians or even anyone just looking to understand the ideas must keep in the forefront of their minds the idea that an eternal realm can be affected by what we do here. And if we do this, it turns out that there is a lot of significance to the earthly realm. This place does matter.
Our first real clue to this comes in the Old Testament, in the form of some wisdom from Solomon. Ecclesiastes seems to be one of the more misunderstood, or at least misrepresented, books in the Bible. Many times I've heard pastors say some variation of the idea that Solomon is using Ecclesiastes to tell us of his discovery that everything is meaningless except God. It's pretty easy to see how this kind of thought process might lead to Peterson's first consequence. But this isn't an accurate portrayal of what Solomon was telling us in Ecclesiastes.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
What Solomon found was not that everything is meaningless except God. What he found was that everything is meaningful in its proper context and meaningless outside of that. The key, though, is the context and it is God who provides the proper context. If there is nothing under the sun that He has not made, then there is nothing that He has not designed a time and a place for. As we can see, to shorten this to the idea that "everything is meaningless except God" is not untruthful, but still lacks in truth.
But it's easy to understand why Christian teachers have shortened Solomon's advice. With churches today so driven towards "saving souls" and not knowing what to do with them after (except make sure that they keep coming with that tithe), it's very tempting to avoid putting hard work in front of a congregation. Better to make Christianity sound easier. But it's just the opposite. The Bible is riddled with explanations of how difficult a Christian life should be, and what Solomon presents is no different. Because what Solomon eventually conveys in Ecclesiastes is that to understand the proper context, God's context, we need to seek wisdom.
Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.
Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
an advantage to those who see the sun.
For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,
and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.
Consider the work of God:
who can make straight what he has made crooked?
(Ecclesiastes 7:10-13)
Wisdom is not an easy thing to find. It's even harder to apply. It's not a set of rules to follow. It's more like guidelines to apply to different situations. And searching for it, trying to understand it, is a life-long process. It's anything but easy. That, though, is what Solomon tells us we need to do if we wish to do things that are meaningful, that are done in the context God had in mind.
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal."
(Matthew 6:19-20)
Jesus, the most important source of the wisdom Solomon advised us to seek, also makes clear that there is more that matters in this realm than just salvation. He tells us to store up our treasures in heaven; something that is beyond salvation. And while righteousness may not be the key to our salvation, it is the path to these treasures (which probably doesn't mean literal gold or jewels and is likely comprised of something beyond our comprehension). Much of what Jesus taught was not specifically attuned to salvation or the eternal but was advice on how to live a better, more impactful life right here in our mortal world.
Even if we were to just look at the example of Jesus' life, we could see just how much he cared for people beyond the idea of salvation. He healed them, fed them, and spent time with them. If Christians are called to be like Christ, we have no choice but to value earthly life in addition to the hereafter.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
(Romans 6:12-14)
Paul also spoke of the importance of living a righteous life, one free from sin. If we are meant to live this way in the mortal realm and are told that by God, then we must assume it has some significance to the eternal. Paul describes us being "instruments for righteousness," instruments that operate in this mortal realm. And if God has reason to use us as instruments here, then it must certainly be for something meaningful.
The above passages are just a few that show the importance of earthly life, even in the context of the hereafter. We see the Bible express this before Jesus, from Jesus himself, and after Jesus. So remember, it's not only the eternal realm that matters, it's that the only things that matter here in the mortal realm are those that affect the eternal. Study what those things are. Seek the wisdom to know them.
(2) "Passive acceptance of the status quo, because salvation could not be earned in any case through effort in this life."
While I don't believe that this is the attitude that one should derive from careful attention to the Bible's teachings, it is one that a frightening number of those claiming to be Christians fall into. Perhaps the most obvious evidence of that is how indistinguishable the church, and more importantly, its members, have become from secular society.
Other than waking up a little earlier on Sunday mornings, one would have a hard time telling these people are Christians. Their moral standards aren't very different. Their perspective on life appears to be the same. And in many ways, they, even more so than non-Christians, seem to allow the pull of society and life to drag them along, rather than being the force for change and point of inspiration that the Bible calls them to be. But the real question is whether this malaise which seems to hang over most Christians is a product of poor teaching, or what the Bible says. I think we'll find the former to be true.
The Church has, in my experience, never emphasized enough, the importance of the way Christians are supposed to live their Earthly lives, and the problem has gotten worse in recent years. The majority of Christian teaching has centered around either the metaphysical or external matters. And while these are important, their emphasis has ignored an area that a significant amount Jesus' teaching centered around: personal growth.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
(Matthew 5:43-48)
Perhaps no command that Jesus gives argues more strongly against Christians accepting the status quo, than this one: "be perfect." This idea should be the driving motivation behind every Christian's life. Jesus gives us a goal that is unattainable. We know that God is the only one capable of perfection. But at the same time, we can strive to get ever closer to that mark. That is what this commandment is about.
It commands the exact opposite of accepting the status quo. It states that the only acceptable status quo is perfection. And since we can't reach that, there is always work for us to be doing and changes to be made. But the great blessing of this impossible commandment is that it gives Earthly life meaning beyond salvation.
So the passivity regarding the status quo that we see from Christians is not a product of what the Bible teaches, it's a product of a lack of quality Bible teaching.
(3) "The right of the believer to reject any moral burden, because the Son of God had already done the important work."
This consequence also can be addressed by Matthew 5:43-48 and the command to be perfect. It includes not just the idea of never being satisfied with the status quo, but it also includes the direction we are to move away from it. We are to move towards the perfection of God. And far from rejecting any moral burden, this means we are to be in pursuit of perfect morality.
Jesus may have already done the most important work, but given his commandment to move towards perfection, along with the surrounding teachings which address how to live a more moral earthly life, it becomes clear that there is still important work to be done. And living a more moral life is what this work is primarily comprised of. We see this idea reiterated after Jesus is gone.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
(Romans 6:1-4)
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
(Romans 6:15-16)
Here we see that Paul addresses specifically the relationship between salvation and Christian behavior after its acceptance. What he is trying to get his audience to understand is that after the saving power of grace, it is even more important that Christians attempt to live a life that is morally sound. He makes clear that so powerful is this saving grace, that we are made into almost entirely new people by it. He compares it to the process of death and resurrection that Jesus went through. And that in this new manifestation, sin has no place, so we must be diligent to eliminate it.
We can see also, how the conclusions we should come to regarding the first two consequences Peterson proposes (and Christians seem to fall victim to), would also change our thinking about the third. If Earthly life does matter, and we should desire to change the status quo, it makes sense that God would want us to be moving towards a more moral direction.
So as I said before, I don't blame Peterson for suggesting these consequences of Christian belief. He's not strictly wrong because most Christians seem to fall victim to this way of thinking. I would just say that it's more a product of a poorly taught version of Christianity, and not what the Bible teaches. But more than anything else, Christians should take Peterson addressing these issues as a lesson. We've done a poor job of understanding our own sacred book. We've done and even worse job at drawing logical conclusions based on it. It's time for Christians to make some changes and make sure that the world understands that although we don't condone a lot what is done here on Earth, we are invested in improving it and making it a better place by improving ourselves. That, after all, is what our savior taught us to do.