The road to secularism is paved by false interpretations of the Bible. Secularism says society doesn’t need God. Jordan Peterson similarly insinuates that individuals do not need to repent and believe in Christ. They seem to suggest that cultural Christianity is sufficient. But as the 20th century in the West shows, cultural Christianity without repentance and faith in Christ inevitably leads to secularism. 

Last Sunday, DailyWire+ premiered the first two episodes of Jordan Peterson’s ten-part series, The Gospels. It’s a follow-up to their Exodus series from 2022. DailyWire+ describes the series as:

“A part of his lifelong effort to rescue society from the meaning crisis that seeks to devour our culture, Peterson gathers nine of the world’s most brilliant minds to unravel the mysteries of the Gospel story and to resurrect the anchoring principles of the text that formed the West.”

The series features scholars such as a Catholic bishop—Robert Barron, an Eastern Orthodox liturgical artist and speaker—Jonathan Pageau, an Anglican philosopher—Dr. James Orr, and a religious Jew—Dennis Prager.

The series begins with Jordan Peterson reading verses from the first chapter of the Gospel of John. I immediately noticed something strange about the Bible translation he was reading. I wasn’t familiar with it, but it didn’t sound like any traditional Bible translations. Peterson explained later that he was reading from a translation called The Single Gospel by a writer named Neil Averitt.

The Single Gospel adds all four gospels into one supposedly cohesive story. Since the four gospels often share accounts of the same events—like the crucifixion of Jesus Christ—Averitt omits many words from the Gospels to create a chronological story. So it’s crucial to understand that The Single Gospel isn’t the Bible. It’s an interpretation of the Bible, not a translation.

Therefore, in some sections of the book, he replaces the Word of God with false teaching. For instance, the ESV translation of John 1:18 is, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” But The Single Gospel’s translation says: 

“No one has seen God at any time; but the only Son, who is closest to the Father’s heart, has made him known to us.” 

That mistranslation fundamentally changes what we know about Jesus and the Gospels. The ESV translation, like all faithful translations, suggests Jesus is God. It implies, as Jesus says in John 10:30: “I and the Father are one.” Averitt’s “translation,” however, implies Jesus isn’t God. It suggests Jesus is merely the closest being to God. That is heresy. Averitt essentially admits this in his description of the book: “These kinds of judgments mean, of course, that the present work is no longer a holy text.” 

Instead of letting God speak for himself, he tries to improve on God’s word, which is fitting, since the same can be said for the series.

I’ve watched the first two episodes, and they cover the meaning of the Word in John 1, Jesus’ baptism and temptation, Jesus turning water into wine, and Jesus’ words to Nicodemus about what it means to be born-again. However, no one on the panel offered a Biblical view on these topics.

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