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Posts Tagged ‘epistle’

Question: Conversion of Peter, formerly called Satan. Why does it say "when", about his conversion, not if: Luke 22:32?

Matthew 16:23 (Apostle Peter is called Satan)
But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan:
thou art an offence unto me:
for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Luke 22:32 (Peter, aka Satan, is told he'll get converted)
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not:
and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

2Peter 3: paraphrased:
(Peter admits conversion via Paul's epistles)
(Peter strengthens brethren with grow in grace)
(For Grace will have mercy, multiplies peace)

Answer: Jesus was a prophet, and as such "knew" the future.

Therefore, it was a certainty that Peter would eventually be converted, so Jesus could use the word "when" with confidence.

Many people say that God transcends time without fully understanding exactly what that means. It means that it is BOTH pre-destination and free-will; it is not one or the other. We have free-will in that we - in the moment - are free to CHOOSE our own destinies, while on the other hand we are pre-destined because God - who is NOT in the moment - already knows the results of our free-will choices.

Thus: While Judas still had the choice of whether or not to "betray" Jesus (and I personally believe that he really didn't betray him - any more than Peter did with his denials of him; all Judas really did was make it easier for the Pharisees to do what they had already made up their minds to do anyway), he couldn't NOT betray him because when God had said that he would, he really already HAD chosen to do so.

The same as with Peter's conversion, which hadn't yet happened when Jesus used the word "when," it couldn't NOT happen the way that it was prophesied, because it already HAD happened to the God for whom all things have already happened.

It is only a matter of our linear time until our FREE-WILL choices coincide with God's PRE-DESTINATION.

***** ADDENDUM *****

Although "Machine Head" did not answer your question about Jesus' prediction, he does have a point, because, whereas his statement about the book of 2 Peter is debated, the Gospels themselves are known to have been written well after the time that Jesus lived. Specifically, then, Luke 22:32 could have been written so as to give the impression that Jesus prophesied what was already known - even to men - to have happened, in an effort to make it more believable.

I'm not saying that it was - or even that I think that it was. I am only presenting both sides of the argument to you here.

It is up to you to decide which one to believe.

And although I agree with "Always Praising" that Peter was not called Satan, only that Satan was influencing Peter at the time, in any event you are not going to be held "accountable" for teaching false doctrine - primarily because the Church's OVERALL doctrine is - BIBLICALLY - just as questionable as is any other.

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