{"id":39687,"date":"2024-08-29T12:47:16","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T16:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=39687"},"modified":"2024-08-29T12:49:16","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T16:49:16","slug":"country-singer-john-rich-confronts-jordan-peterson-about-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2024\/08\/country-singer-john-rich-confronts-jordan-peterson-about-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Country Singer John Rich Confronts Jordan Peterson About Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Country singer John Rich recently appeared on Jordan Pe\u00a0 terson\u2019s podcast<\/a>, where he pressed the popular political and religious commentator on his view about Jesus Christ. Rich quoted Peterson\u2019s own words to him. \u201cBut I still don’t know what to make of it, partly because it’s too terrifying of a reality to fully believe. I don’t know what would even happen to you if you fully believed,\u201d read Rich. \u201cWhat struck me about that is the \u2018terrified\u2019 part. Because to me I would think it would be the greatest thing in the world if Jesus is who the Bible says he is \u2026 Then you should go running straight to him because he controls Heaven and Hell,\u201d said Rich. Rich, the son of a pastor, has been an outspoken Christian through his career, telling Tucker Carlson in a recent interview that he has felt a need to counter satanic messaging. \u201cThey are practicing witchcraft on the stage right in front of you. You’re watching a football game or an award show with your kids, and now evil is coming straight at you. We’ve all seen this. Somebody has to counter that,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rich confronted Peterson about his own fear in submitting to God. \u201cHe loves you more than [any]body will ever love you. He created you. The last thing he wants to see happen to you is for you to go and follow the other way and wind up in eternity separated from him. So, I know it’s your interview, but I wanted to ask you, what terrifies you about the notion that Jesus might be who the Bible actually says he is?\u201d he asked. \u201cThere’s a terror in letting that go, let’s say, and only doing \u2026 what you’re commanded to do or what you’re invited to do by the spirit of the truth,\u201d Peterson admitted. He added, \u201cThere’s a terror in being subjugated to that even though it’s a necessary subjugation.\u201d Rich pushed Peterson about giving his life to Christ, which Peterson said he had, although Rich stated he believed Peterson is still trying to be worthy of salvation. He encouraged Peterson to reject his aversion to speaking about his personal beliefs in public. \u201cYou could be one of the most powerful weapons in the hand of God that he ever slung,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rich\u2019s approach was praised by other Christians. \u201cLord knows, I love Jordan Peterson. I think he’s close to the Kingdom in many ways, but he never provides a simple and clear answer about his faith. He’s always wishy-washy and evasive,\u201d Not the Bee\u2019s Harris Rigby wrote<\/a>. \u201cJohn Rich makes the Gospel, makes the Bible, makes Christ so black and white and so real. He doesn’t allow Jordan to abstract it. He doesn’t hold back on the truth of the Bible at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Author Larry Taunton praised the interaction on X<\/a>. \u201cWonder how to share the Gospel with a skeptic?\u201d asked Taunton. \u201cYou can do no better than @johnrich<\/a> with a confused & evasive Jordan Peterson. Peterson tries to end the convo, but Rich respectfully & relentlessly keeps pounding home the Truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson has had a complicated relationship with Christianity for years, with his videos on books of the Bible having millions of views while his own views on Christ being puzzling at best. Christian site \u201cGot Questions<\/a>\u201d addressed Peterson views, writing, \u201cMuch of what Jordan Peterson says supports Romans 1:19\u201320, indicating that certain truths about God are evident in common human experience. However, he does not subscribe to Christian faith.\u201d The site adds, \u201cSome of Jordan Peterson\u2019s views echo biblical concepts. His work features themes such as the inevitable struggles of real life (John 16:33), personal worth and responsibility (Galatians 3:28; Ezekiel 18:20), and legitimate differences between genders (Genesis 1:27). Peterson also stresses the importance of precision in discussing hard topics (see Acts 17:11; 1 Corinthians 4:6). Peterson has produced content regarding the Bible\u2019s influence on modern ethics and politics. Yet his views are not presented from the position of a born-again believer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peterson\u2019s struggles with faith mirror that of another great intellectual and philosopher, CS Lewis. An atheist for many years, Lewis described himself as not wanting to by \u201cdrawn in\u201d by faith. When he finally gave his life to Christ, as described in his memoir, Surprised by Joy<\/em>, he described himself as \u201creluctant.\u201d \u201cYou must picture me alone in that room at Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThat which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Country singer John Rich recently appeared on Jordan Pe\u00a0 terson\u2019s podcast, where he pressed the popular political and religious commentator on his view about Jesus Christ. Rich quoted Peterson\u2019s own words to him. \u201cBut I still don’t know what to make of it, partly because it’s too terrifying of a reality to fully believe. 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