The Last Words of Peter, Eyewitness of Jesus
by Terry Wane Benton
Just before Peter died, he wrote his final letter (II Peter). He had been sharing “the knowledge of God” (II Peter 1:2). It was not a myth or a fairytale. He was privileged to share real “knowledge of God.” Others had shared mythology, but Peter knew he was sharing “truth” and “knowledge.” It was “knowledge of Jesus our Lord.”
Great things come to us through this knowledge. Grace and peace can be multiplied through this knowledge. We don’t have to wonder in doubt or fear of the unknown. There is available “knowledge of God”. Life and godliness and glory and virtue (II Peter 1:3) come to us through this wonderful “knowledge of God.” Some atheists pretend to know there is no God. Peter knew there was a God, and He knew there was “living hope” for what is beyond this world.
He knew “exceedingly great and precious promises” (II Peter 1:4) that exhilarated his heart. He knew something that would help people “escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.” What a wonderful thing he knew was true! “The knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Peter 1:8) would flourish into wonderful inner qualities. You could make your “calling and election sure” through this “knowledge” (II Peter 1:10-15).
He alludes to the fact that he would shortly “put off this tent” (II Peter 1:14), "just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.” This is knowledge. This is not fiction! This is not a man deluded by mythology and imagination. This is a witness who has “knowledge” and is sharing real knowledge just before he is executed. Traditional accounts say he requested to be crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy to hang upon a cross in the same position as His Lord. A man writing his final words but vehemently denying that his testimony was just “cunningly devised fables” (II Peter 1:16). I cannot believe this man was tricked by others, nor tricked by his own mind playing games. “We (all the apostles) did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
After 30 years, it was still fresh and powerful, and there was no fear of death in this man. “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” “We heard this voice” (the voice of God speaking on that mount of transfiguration). Peter is speaking about his “knowledge of God.” "We were with Him” on the Holy mountain.
It is amazing that Peter then returns to the living prophecies of the Old Testament and says, “We have the prophetic word made more sure” (II Peter 1:19). The Tanakh in the hands of those who have lost faith in the Messiah that was supposed to have come renders liberal “scholars” hopeless while reading those scriptures with blinders on. The Messiah they had hoped for never came, and they set aside the “stone rejected by you builders” (Jesus, the real Messiah). The Old Testament in their hands has been reduced to mythology, but in the hands of witnesses like Peter, men with real “knowledge of God and of Jesus,” those prophecies are alive and “more sure” than ever before.
Peter is on the right side of history. He knows that the prophetic word is living and dependable. He knows it is true. He knows the critics have all been wrong. “The Morning Star” has arisen in His heart. He knows that any man would do well to listen to the prophecies as independent lights guiding people out of the darkness of ignorance. Listen carefully to the prophets until the Morning Star rises in your heart. In this dark world of ignorance and despair, we would all do well to “heed” the prophetic word. We can “know”! “Knowing” this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation or origin. Holy men of God spoke as the Holy Spirit guided them.
The same man who denies following “cunningly devised fables” will also deny being a “false prophet” (II Peter 2:1f) or a “false teacher,” or someone who brings in “destructive heresies.” But he will not allow himself to “deny the Lord who bought them.” There is the “way of truth” (II Peter 2:2) that the false teacher will blaspheme, but Peter calls himself a witness with the knowledge of God and truth. Peter talks about others who, for financial gain, “will exploit you with deceptive words” (II Peter 2:3), but he absolutely knows that he is not deceiving people for financial gain. This man had been with Jesus, and no amount of opposition and persecution could change what this man knows as fact. The prophetic word made more sure, along with Peter and the others being with the miracle worker for three years, seeing Him crucified and then raised from the dead, made this man an eyewitness with knowledge, not myth or fable. We are privileged to hold that great testimony of divine demonstration in our hands to give us “joy inexpressible and full of glory” (II Peter 1:6-8).
