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The Wisdom of Peter

May 4, 2007, 9:30 am; posted by David
Filed under Articles, David  | 2 Comments

St. PeterIf I have learned anything in my sojourn among the Christians of southern Alabama, it is that these folks are proud of their ignorance. They live for any chance to show they know absolutely nothing about the Bible but what comes from sudden inspiration or TBN. I’ve endured the apologetics that accompany this ignorance in many sermons during my time here, and I’ve begun to believe Peter, the ‘ignorant fisherman,’ is their patron saint.

“I don’t need to go to seminary,” they proclaim, “God called me to preach!” (”Seminary” is usually unintentionally mispronounced as ’seminar’ or intentionally mispronounced as ‘cemetery.’) Another favorite — “I don’t need no master’s degree, I got (pointing heavenward) the Master’s degree!” They make many declarations like these, invariably invoking Peter as the final proof that God places a premium on ignorance. “If God can take an ignorant fisherman like Peter and use him, I reckon (yes, they still use that word here) he can use me.”

Don’t misunderstand me. I understand God takes people the way they are, calls them into his kingdom, and, as we used to say at Faith Fellowship, the calling is the enablement. My contention, though, is that God never lets anyone stay ignorant — and I doubt Peter would fall under anyone’s definition of ignorance anyway.

Peter may have been a fisherman but he was raised as a Jewish boy, trained in the scriptures from a young age. He lived in a region of Judea governed by Rome and Hellenized by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, so he would have spoken Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek at least. He was able to read and write those three languages and also had a passing knowledge of Latin, the legal language of the Roman Empire.

In his first sermon in the book of Acts, Peter quoted Joel and the Psalms. In his second sermon, he references Deuteronomy, Genesis and Psalms, and at the prayer meeting after his release from prison, he quotes from Exodus and Psalms again. In his first epistle he quotes Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Genesis, Daniel, Exodus and Isaiah — in the first chapter. By the end of his second epistle he has shown a grasp of all five books of the Pentateuch, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Hosea, Jeremiah and Micah. Along the way he demonstrates a working knowledge of baptism, repentance, faith, judgment and many more doctrines than I can enumerate.

If he was ignorant when God called him, which I find doubtful, he sure didn’t stay that way. When I find people who have been saved for 5, 10, 20, or 30 years who still have not read the Bible through and in some way applied themselves to understand it, I find it inexcusable.


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Comments

2 Comments to “The Wisdom of Peter”

  1. Chloe on May 4th, 2007 10:51 pm

    You know the English say “reckon,” too?

  2. dsweetgoober on May 5th, 2007 10:05 am

    Yes, and in the KJV (1600s English) you can find it’s usage along with vittles, fetch and a few other words they use that escape me just now. Many of the peculiar aspects of Southern English are undoubtedly linked with this being the Bible Belt. They have a saying here which I have heard where someone will stand up and confess that they have an “ought” against someone and need to be forgiven. I trace it to Jesus saying “..if anyone has ought against his brother…”.

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