Right to the End
by Donald T. Williams
In his first epistle, Peter is writing to encourage people facing the Neronian persecution. He tells them that they are “protected by the power of God”—from what? From being fed to the lions? No, they are being kept “for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1:5). Peter gives no promise that God will protect believers from suffering, sorrow, loss, or death. Rather, if they have to face these things, he wants them to be confident that it will be worth it because of the glory Christ will reveal in the last time.
Maybe we Christians and our churches would be more like those of the first century if, instead of promising people their “best life now,” we proclaimed a Christ worth living—and dying—for.
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Donald T. Williams Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College and the author of Deeper Magic: The Theology Behind the Writings of C. S. Lewis (Square Halo Books, 2016) and Ninety-Five Theses for a New Reformation: A Road Map for Post-Evangelical Christianity (Semper Reformanda Publications, 2021).
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