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Back in January 2018, The Catholic World Report claimed that Jordan Peterson was a prophet and that he was ‘a problem for the progressives’.

On Saturday night, I was one of eight thousand who attended Peterson’s session in the Aware Super Theatre, Darling Harbour, Sydney. At present, I am sitting down to reflect on my notes and my impressions of the night.

Jordan built his presentation on his latest book Beyond Order, 12 More Rules for Life, published by Penguin Random House, UK (2021). His lecture captivated everyone. I could almost hear a pin drop! Why was that? Yes, he is a remarkable orator without question. I would also rate him as a gifted teacher. But, perhaps more than these attributes, his content was compelling. It simply connected with us.

His book has twelve chapters; their titles are as follows:

1. Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievement.
2. Imagine who you could be and then aim single-mindedly at that.
3. Do not hide unwanted things in the fog.
4. Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated.
5. Do not do what you hate.
6. Abandon ideology.
7. Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.
8. Try to make one room in your home as beautiful as possible.
9. If old memories still upset you, write them down carefully and completely.
10. Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationship.
11. Do not allow yourself to become resentful, deceitful, or arrogant.
12. Be grateful in spite of your suffering.

On Saturday night, Jordan never referred to these chapters by name — it was far from a programmed summary of his book, which would have been tedious. However, when I read his book, I particularly warmed to chapters 8 and 10! I have not accomplished these goals yet, but I believe there is progress!

Back to Saturday night. I want to shine a light on some standout take-home impressions.

The Value of Story

Story seems to be the universal language for all of humanity. Knowing our own story is critical for our own identity and sense of purpose. Knowing the story of our culture is so important for our sanity, as it positions us in time and space. So, any movement that seeks to deny or cancel our story is met with horror. If our story can no longer be recognised, who are we? We will simply exist in chaos, with no concept of right and wrong.

How many times do we remember what the preacher said on Sunday by the stories they told as illustrations? I would argue that the best teachers use stories to connect with their students. Jesus always taught through stories. And when we are getting to know someone, it’s the telling and hearing of stories that really connects us.

An Uphill Struggle is Good for Us

Jordan asked us to think back to our school days and the situations when we were paired up for a challenge. Did we always see out a weaker opponent whom we could beat with little effort or stress? Those situations did not stretch us or teach us much of value. But when we were paired up with an equal or a better, then we really had to work hard and labour at the task. On those occasions, we actually grew.

We might fantasise that the easy route is always best, but if we look back on our lives, we can see that we grew most when there was an uphill struggle, and the victory did not come easy. We are built that way.

I think of the Israelites taking 40 years to get to the Promised Land. If God had brought them home in just seven days, would they have learnt anything on the way? (That reminds me, Jordan used Biblical stories all night. I have no idea what proportion of his audience were Christians, but they were totally fine to have the Bible story on display as a backdrop to so much of what was being discussed).

One of these Bible stories was our consideration of Abraham’s call at 80 years of age. He could have settled down to a quiet ‘retirement’ amongst his own people in his own familiar landscape. But evidently God saw in Abraham a potential for adventure. It was far from easy — look what has come from his obedience to follow the less-trodden path! Two of the most significant cultures the world has ever seen: the Muslim world and the Judeo-Christian world.

The Importance of Love

Jordan reminded us of the horrors of Ceaușescu’s orphanages in Romania. The women were encouraged to have as many children as possible for the ruling communist party, but poverty and malnutrition were so rife that many of these children were placed in orphanages. Here many simply existed in metal cribs or cages where no one was able to give them love. They simply had the basics of life, some food, water and some warmth. But without love, most could not survive, let alone thrive. They died. Some estimates reach 20,000 dead in these institutions under dictator Ceaușescu. The missing ingredient: love.

We are designed to love and to be loved. Imagine a world without love — simply transactions, contracts and a striving after equality and equity at all costs.

I am reminded that one of the casualties of the past few years was the absence of physical touch between people, on account of various government, mandated measures. The physical touch receptors in our skin do so much more than warn of danger; they can trigger so much more in our emotions for our psychological well-being. Think of kisses, for example.

Plan and Work Diligently to Maintain the Love in Your Relationship

This was about the only time Jordan more or less quoted a direct chapter heading, chapter 10, but he changed the noun from romance to love! Here the emphasis was clearly the idea of building up our bank balance of love by giving, not drawing down on our deposits by taking.

Jordan shone a spotlight on ‘for better or worse’. That’s in our vows for a very significant reason. If we only love when the situation is better, what will happen when the situation might be worse? And realistically, how many times can we expect the situation always to remain better. Let’s get used to love even when the situation is worse.

Going back to the title of this section. Jordan was spelling out the imperative to work diligently at maintaining love in our relationships. Yes, this requires a conscious, cold-hearted decision to work diligently at this.

This was music to my ears! In a non-judgmental way, this Canadian had blown into the lives of eight thousand people last night to encourage us to give more of ourselves to others. Not for any hoped-for reward, but simply because love is so important to give, and to receive. As the saying goes, love makes the world go around!

The Progressive Left’s Woke Agenda

Jordan certainly did not emphasise this at all in his presentation. But one of the questions in the Q&A at the end brought this up, and Jordan did not hold back!

His brilliant response was ignited by a recounting of the story of Cain and Abel from Genesis. The two brothers each prepared their sacrifices to God, but sadly, Cain’s was not acceptable while Abel’s was. There’s the rub. Cain envied his brother. So, Cain, having a conversation with God about this, heard Him say that ‘Satan was crouching at his door, waiting to come in and wreak havoc if he opened to him.’

So, the trigger here is envy. If we harbour envy of another, we are inviting Satan to come and perform his worst. That’s what Cain did, and he ended up murdering his brother. In a way, Jordan suggested, this was Cain’s way of seeking to kill God.

This is precisely what the so-called progressive left woke agenda is seeking. They simply want to kill God, to erase Him from our culture, to cancel the greatest story every told, the story of salvation through God’s son, Jesus Christ.

This puts a lie to the word ‘progressive’. It is so far from progressive; it is simply destructive. Jordan then went on to explain the outworking of envy. If someone envies someone for having more than they have, they have made themselves the arbiter between the wealthy and the poor. What if a different progressive was conducting the same analysis in a different part of the world? They envied the rich, saying there must be a forced redistribution of wealth to create equality. But the second person’s divide makes the first’s meaningless as, at a stroke, the second’s classification deems everyone in the first’s community as rich and therefore in need of passing their wealth back to him.

The only true equality would be if everyone owned nothing. As soon as anyone owns anything that another doesn’t, then we have the recipe for envy.

So what society is that? Simply the tyrannical rule over slaves. That is the society we are destined for if the progressive left’s woke agenda is allowed to win.

In a calm, measured way, with no bluster or irrationality, Jordan invited us to take a stand and not give the progressive left’s woke agenda any further room to run rampant through our heritage, traditions and civilisation.

Is Jordan B. Peterson a Prophet?

For me, I think he is. He seems to me to fit the bill. He advocates the defence of the Judeo-Christian story. He encourages us all to keep on growing through adversity and challenge. He calls us to a life of love and self-sacrifice while calling out the evils of envy.

For me, if each of us takes up our own personal responsibility to stand up for justice, give a voice to the voiceless and maintain the integrity of our calling without compromise. Then, the progressive left’s woke agenda can be defeated, and countless numbers can be pulled back from certain destruction in this life and the next.

That’s on a personal level. What if the church were to acknowledge that God was in fact using Jordan Peterson as a prophet? Just imagine what our churches might be like! I am not suggesting we idolise him at all; far from it. But that perhaps we might hear the voice of God through him?

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Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons