It is one thing for an evangelical pastor like me to say, “The Bible is the greatest book in all of history.” However, it is much more confounding to hear it from one of our greatest modern-day psychologists, Jordan B. Peterson.
In an interview with Joe Rogan, Peterson stated,
“It isn’t that the Bible is true. It’s that the Bible is the precondition for the manifestation of truth, which makes it way more true than just true,” Peterson continued. “It’s a whole different kind of true. I think this is not only literally the case, factually. I think it can’t be any other way. It’s the only way we can solve the problem of perception.”
In other words, he stated, the Bible is a text, “from which other texts depend.” He contended to Joe Rogan that in some sense all other books emerged out of the Bible, which is a library, a collection of books.
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Is Jordan Peterson correct in his assessment? Well, I’m thinking you would be safe to assume that I agree with his conclusion. The Bible is indeed the greatest book of all books.
A Few Observations
First, Peterson may or may not believe the Bible is inspired by God. Rather or not he believes in biblical inerrancy and inspiration is not important. Christians, however, believe the Bible is the book of all books because it is theopneustos, “God breathed.” In other words, it is a divine book.
The Bible’s composition was superintended by the Holy Spirit who used human authors to convey his perfect truth. The Bible’s metanarrative, which some summarize as Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration, is both divinely inspired and composed by humans. Jason Meyer writes, “This metanarrative is, of course, composed of individual books, written by many different human authors who were guided by the divine author (from God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment, p. 67).
Second, Peterson claimed the Bible is the “precondition for the manifestation of truth.” Though he likely did not think about the implications of using the word “manifestation,” the ramifications are astounding. The reason his the word “manifestation” is significant is because that is what the Bible is. The Bible is the manifestation of the triune God.
The very Word (logos) of God is the manifestation of his personhood. Jesus himself is referred to as the divine logos (word). Most Christians know if John 3:16, which tells us of God’s manifested love through his Son for our salvation. It is outside of the Gospel, however, that Paul wrote to young Timothy,
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory – 1 Timothy 3:16
Third, Peterson is right to point out that the Bible is the basis of truth by which reality is perceived. Paul made the same case to Timothy when he told him to “correctly handle the word of truth” 2 Timothy 2:15. It is the very Word of God that is our truth guide. Psalm 25:5 writes, “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”
Furthermore, the Bible reveals to us that truth is not merely a concept, it is a person. Jesus, the God-man, said of himself, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). When answering Pilate Jesus said, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” In other words, he is truth!
Jesus is the truth by which reality is perceived. The gospel is the proclamation of Christ as the truth of our salvation. He frees us. He saves us. He changes us. He enlightens us. Why? Because he is truth! Ephesians 1:13 declares, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.”
The Bible
Christians contend that the Bible is God’s Word. In other words, God has spoken. If God has spoken, then mankind must listen. Albert Mohler’s book “He is Not Silent” communicates the reality that God is not a deistic despot. Rather, he cared enough to reveal his nature, purposes, and design to us.
We can trust the Bible because it is consistent.
With respect to the Bible, because we are dealing with one Divine Author speaking through diverse human authors by his Spirit, and because this Divine Author is the very standard of truth (if he is not true, the concept “truth” has no meaning), we expect consistency of teaching from beginning to end – Johnson, Dennis E in Him We Proclaim
God chose to reveal himself to us through the written word of truth.
God chose to convey his revelation to humans in a way they could understand––by written literature -Klein, Blomberg and Hubbard in Introduction to Biblical Interpretation
We can trust the Bible because of its reliability.
There are more than 5,000 copies of the entire New Testament or extensive portions of it. In addition, we have several thousand more fragments or smaller portions of the New Testament. If these numbers don’t seem like a lot, compared to other works of ancient history, the manuscript evidence and copies for the New Testament far outweigh manuscript evidence for other works. For instance, there are less than 700 copies of Homer’s Iliad and only a handful of copies of any one work of Aristotle – Robert Velarde
God still speaks to us today. Recently Jordan Peterson’s daughter had an encounter with God. She said she’s “found God.” What’s fascinating is that after her counter with God she began reading the Bible, which has completely changed her! How is it possible? Well, God’s word is alive and active and is more powerful than a two-edged sword and it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12)
“I’m pretty new to this,” she said on the Oct. 1 episode of her podcast. “What I’ve been doing for the last like month or so is reading the Bible and praying. … And it’s been, like, the amount of peace I’ve had I haven’t had before. It’s completely absurd. I can’t believe it.”
Written by Daniel Messina
Recommended Resources:
- T. D. Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2009).
- Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture, 2nd (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014).
- Chris Bruno, The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015).
- Stephen G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2003).
- Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015).