Jordan Peterson’s Unbelief, and the Serpent’s Question

Today’s edition covers a Christian author’s hot take on Jordan Peterson, the impact of Gutenberg’s printing press, the serpent’s question to Eve in Genesis 3 (plus a question for you!), and much more.

“The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.” (Proverbs 14:18)

Of Christian Concern

LARRY TAUNTON: JORDAN PETERSON SHOULD STOP TEACHING THE BIBLE

*Left: Popular psychologist Jordan Peterson, ARC Forum, 2023 (Public Domain). Inlaid: Larry Alex Taunton (X).*

In a recent post on X, Christian author and columnist Larry Alex Taunton takes aim at famed Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson. Highlighting a clip from a recent video in which Peterson interviews a popular internet atheist, Taunton writes,

Atheist Alex O’Connor asks Jordan Peterson: Do you believe in the Resurrection of Jesus?
Peterson does his typical thing: he obfuscates as if the question is sooo deep.
Peterson is an effective critic of wokedom, but he has nothing to offer in its place. He’s all sail, no anchor. His defenders will say that he’s never claimed to be a Christian (he clearly isn’t one) and he’s learning. Fair enough. Then he shouldn’t be teaching the Bible, a book he doesn’t understand.”

Quickly: if you’re not getting Project 18:15 in your inbox each week, here’s your chance.

Taunton goes on to take issue with Peterson’s teachings on the Bible and forthcoming book We Who Wrestle With God because Peterson rejects “the central premise of Christianity,” that is, that “Jesus is Lord.”

“This is often what we do when confronted with the Truth of Scripture,” Taunton writes.

“We either submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ or we twist its meaning to justify our rejection of it. Peterson’s Bible teaching may be summarized as one man’s lengthy soliloquy to justify his own unbelief.

Peterson’s “musings” are not those “of a profound intellectual,” Taunton suggests, but “are the ramblings of your average unbeliever.” He offers anecdotes from his own life of people who “sounded like this.” Then, he provides an anecdote from the Bible:

Peterson reminds me of Simon the Magician in Acts 8: 9-25. It’s a chilling story of a man who was fascinated with the power of the Gospel but whose soul was in danger of hellfire because he did not repent. We can hope that Peterson humbles himself before the Cross. But until that time, he’s got nothing to offer Christians in his Bible teaching.

For a lengthier article by Taunton evaluating Peterson in greater depth, see here.

Also Noteworthy

*The Tennessee State Capitol (Public Domain)*

→ The Tennessee General Assembly passes a resolution calling for “a thirty-day season of prayer and intermittent fasting…as a means of seeking God's blessing and humbling ourselves to receive His Grace and Mercy…”

→ The Biden administration designates Christians as unfit to be foster parents by passing a rule requiring foster parents to be supportive of a child’s “gender identity.”

→ Donald Trump responds publicly to “a beautiful letter” from Franklin Graham in which Graham asks Trump to stop cursing during his speeches. Trump says, “The problem is, if you don’t interject every once in a while…you don’t get the emphasis.”

→ 69% of Americans think “marriages between same-sex couples” should “be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages, according to a Gallup poll.

→ Federal judge Danny C. Reeves temporarily blocks Biden’s expansion of Title IX rules that would add “gender identity” to the protected category of “sex.”

→ The Oklahoma Supreme Court rules that a religious charter school would be unconstitutional.

Content Catch-Up

Recent, notable content of Christian interest.*

*Screenshot of Michael Knowles interviewing Kirk Cameron. (Michael Knowles / YouTube)*

→ Kirk Cameron vs. Drag Queen Story Hour: Conservative podcaster Michael Knowles interviews Christian actor Kirk Cameron about his children’s book reading initiatives, including an upcoming nationwide event called “See You At the Library” on August 24, for which Cameron says volunteers are needed. (Video)

→ 10 Commandments, But No Justice: Christian journalist Ben Zeisloft responds critically to Tennessee’s law requiring a display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, considering it a cynical ploy by “Republican swamp creatures.” (Post)

→ Abortion Abolitionist Tries To “Convert” Incrementalists: T. Russell Hunter of the anti-abortion group Abolitionists Rising argues for abolitionism with incrementalists on the YouTube channel The Standard. (Video)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

Church History Tidbit

Gutenberg’s Printing Press

Johannes Gutenberg, a German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher, developed the movable-type printing press around 1440.

Gutenberg is credited with the innovation of the movable metal type, which allowed for the reusable and interchangeable arrangement of individual letters and characters for printing. In fact, movable type was previously used in China, Korea, and eventually Holland, but it was Gutenburg’s version that took off. Gutenberg combined several technologies and concepts, such as oil-based ink and the screw press (previously used for pressing wine or oil), to create an efficient and reliable printing system.

The first major book printed using movable type was the Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible because most of its pages had 42 lines of print), completed around 1455. It demonstrated the potential of the new technology for producing high-quality, mass-produced books.

The printing press significantly reduced the cost and time required to produce books, making literature and knowledge more accessible to a broader audience—though that was not the ambition of Gutenburg, whose “purpose was to produce large numbers of books that he could then sell as expensive manuscripts.” His target customer was the upper class. Therefore, “With minor exceptions, the printing press was not used for communication to the masses until the time of the Reformation eighty years later.” Its capacity to quickly produce religious texts in vernacular languages—the Bible, theological pamphlets, etc.—was a significant factor in the success of the Protestant Reformation.

Eventually, the increased availability of printed materials and the ability to standardize texts contributed to higher literacy rates, the spread of education, and the rapid dissemination of new ideas. This led to profound economic, social, and religious transformations, including those of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution—the latter of which was also essentially a Christian movement.

Editor’s disclosure: AI helped with the composition of this text.

The Bible, Briefly

Fact-Checking the Serpent (Part 1): Misleading Inquiry

The Quintessential Temptation

Thoughtful consideration of the first time a member of our species was deceived, leading to the first sin, is helpful for avoiding future deceptions and moral failings. That sin plunged us and the cosmos into our present fallen state, such that we now inherit sin like a family gene (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12; 19).

How profound (and pitiful) it is that such sweeping effects—every unspeakable evil, every death, and every tragedy that has ever occurred—started from a few simple words, which our first mother foolishly believed and (worse) our first father knowingly tolerated.

As that fateful moment is the origin of all our woes, it is quintessential. Therefore, a careful evaluation can help us recognize signs of deception and temptation that we ought to be alert against.

A close reading of Genesis 3:1-5 reveals a grand total of one (1) question and three (3) statements from the forked tongue of the enemy of our souls, that serpent which spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Let's fact-check the serpent’s words.

The Serpent’s Deceptive Question

The serpent’s question: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1) — Rating: MISLEADING. While a question technically can be neither true nor false since it’s not a statement, it can have a deceptive intent and effect. That is the case here for the following reasons.

“Did God actually say…?” implies incredulity. He was introducing Eve to the exercise of questioning God. The serpent pretended that he found God’s supposed command to be unreasonable. Such a question may leverage what psychologist Robert Cialdini called “social proof,” where “a person who does not know what the proper behavior for a certain situation is…look[s] to other people to imitate what they are doing and to provide guidance for his actions.” In Eve’s case, the serpent’s question implied he knew something she didn’t; if he found what God said to be odd, she supposed, maybe he had a reason. As commentator David Guzik observes, “Satan’s first attack was leveled against the Word of God. If he could make Eve confused about what God said, or to doubt what God said, then his battle was partially won.”
By asking whether God had said, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden,” the serpent was questioning not only what God had said but also what God had forbidden. The inference was that God was keeping something good from Eve. In the words of The Jeremiah Study Bible, the serpent was “creating doubt about God’s love.”

In these ways, the serpent intended to plant a seed of doubt and lead Eve to think that perhaps God’s commands were not altogether reasonable or in her best interest. It had never crossed her mind that God would not tell her the truth, but the mere phrasing of the question invited her to that consideration.

Can you think of any modern-day examples of this kind of deceptive question in our culture? Reply to this email with your answer, and your response may be featured in next week’s edition.

Notice also that a falsehood is embedded in the serpent’s question: the idea that God had forbidden eating from any tree in the garden. We’ll consider the significance of that next week.

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