Peter’s Testimony

Saint Peter Preaching

Peter is so human.  He is rash, he is loving, he is afraid, he is brave. He was all of that in the one night Jesus was taken prisoner and tried, in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 and John 18. In Acts 10 he learned that God is no respecter of persons, and testified to other disciples about it.

Later, in his second epistle, he endeavors to continue this testimony long past his death:

Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

That is a normal human longing, to last beyond our death.  Peter, though, knew that earthly death is simply a passageway.  A passage that many attempt to deny or ignore, and only One has returned from, if Peter can be believed.

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

An eye witness – for three years, then more.  But even those have been discredited in today’s court. We need more than eyewitnesses.

For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

That matches what the gospels tell us, too.  Peter heard that heavenly voice confirming God’s pleasure in the work being accomplished. Multiple witnesses telling the same story for years afterward.  Yet, Peter offers us more.

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:14-21 KJV)

I believe, as Peter did, that prophecies were fulfilled.  I believe that a study of those same scriptures with a prayerful heart will confirm that the Holy Spirit provided those prophecies.  I believe they were fulfilled in Jesus, as the promised Messiah, that He is Christ.

Long after his death, Peter’s words are read, discussed, accepted, ignored, ridiculed in hundreds of differing languages.  He did not ask for less, only for the opportunity to have these things always in remembrance.