Interview Between Jordan Peterson and Bishop Barron of Word on Fire

In this interview between psychologist Jordan Peterson and Bishop Barron of Word on Fire, Jordan Peterson says that the greatest failing of the modern Christian church is a failure or refusal to confront evil in its own congregation using the Bible as its metric.  This failing of the church is consistent with the central theme of Peterson’s approach to improving society, which is accepting personal responsibility for yourself.

It is also very interesting that even Peterson, who began as an atheist and now takes a more moderate position as an agnostic is telling Christian churches and their pastors that they ought to obey their Bible and take it more seriously!  How ironic that it takes an atheist or agnostic to say that Christians are heretics who don’t practice what they say they believe!  Bishop Barron says that even his own church doesn’t communicate the virtues of his faith as well as Peterson does to an atheistic audience of people that it wants to recruit!

Bishop Barron appears to agree with Peterson that churches should take their bible more seriously and enforce it against their members, and so do we.  Long before Peterson came on the world stage, we have been essentially saying the same thing about sovereignty, which is:

1. That self ownership is impossible without personal responsibility for yourself in all aspects.
2. That sovereignty is impossible without personal responsibility for yourself.
3. That the origin of your private rights is personal responsibility to the dictates of a higher power than yourself, which is God or His Law or both.
4. That true liberty is not possible without personal responsibility.
5. That freedom in a modern sense is, for all intents and purposes, ownership without responsibility.
6. That based on this definition of modern “freedom”, Christians should not want FREEDOM, but Liberty.  By “liberty”, we mean freedom WITH personal responsibility.
7. That those who want freedom without complete, exclusive, and personal responsibility for supporting themselves and all their actions are socialists who want a free ride.
8. That all those who insist on a free ride or a life without personal responsibility ultimately  will end up being THIEVES who have to use the government to support themselves as parasites upon those who produce.

The notion that churches can and even must hold their members accountable to the laws of God as a moral standard is a solid principle. 1 Corinthians 5 demands the church discipline its own members. It has NO AUTHORITY to discipline non members. Zero, Zilch.

Outside of John’s McArthur Church, Plymouth Brethren, Conservative Presbyterians, and few others, most denominations refuse to discipline recalcitrant members even for flagrant sins of adultery, drunkenness, and theft.

Without a system of discipline and enforcement within the church, God’s Ten Commandments merely become “The Ten SUGGESTIONS”.  Thus, the modern church has become a mere social club or what we call “The Mutual Admiration and Self Improvement Society”.  For all intents and purposes, modern churchgoers are anarchists under God’s law and in rebellion against it, not unlike Satan himself.  The very definition of what it means to be a Christian is, in fact, someone who regards the bible as a LAW BOOK FOR THEM!

We like to quip occasionally that:

The Secret to Success is Sincerity:  If you can fake that, you’ve got it made!

We argue that those churches, Christians, and pastors who refuse to administer biblical discipline upon their members are “insincere” and not really or truly committed to their faith.  Jesus said “by their fruits you shall know them” .  Biblical discipline  is the only real or substantial “fruit” of a truly committed and sincere religious faith.

Lastly, for the purposes of this article “biblical discipline” and “biblical justice” are synonymous.  Click here (Form #05.050) for an exhaustive treatise on the subject of “justice”.