From denying Christ three times to helping found the Christian Church, the Apostle Peter is one of the Bible's most compelling and sympathetic figures.
Much has been written about Peter's teachings, but in "You Will Be Peter," Mobile businessman-turned-author Jerry Lathan took a different approach, exploring the apostle's life and history through story.
Having experience in the movie industry, Lathan sought out books on Peter's life to turn into a feature film. However, when he couldn't find what he was looking for, he decided to write his own.
"There's plenty of great books about the life of the apostle Peter and how his life evolved, but they're liturgical, they're teaching the lessons of the church and the lessons of Jesus. And that's all great, but I want to just hear the story," Lathan explained on the latest episode of "1819 News: The Podcast."
Lathan argued that Peter — a flawed, impulsive, lowly fisherman — was the perfect person for Christ to use to forward his teachings and build his church.
"He's quite an interesting figure because he's not really particularly well-connected. He's not rich. He's not particularly handsome that anybody said anything about," Lathan said. "He's not any of the things that we normally think lead to a really wonderfully successful human life, don't appear to be in Simon's life. He's not, it doesn't seem, to be the brightest guy or the richest guy or the best-connected guy or anything. He's really profoundly average. And that's exactly what Jesus meant. That's exactly what he meant."
He continued, "I hear from people all the time in book talks how they that, you know, 'I relate to Simon Peter. I kind of feel like I can relate to that guy.' And I was like, no kidding. That's what Jesus meant for you to think. That's exactly right. It shouldn't be a surprise to you. That's precisely what Jesus was going for. He picked a guy who was relatable, normal. And the reason you know about his flaws and the reason you know about his shortcomings is because they were important. They were important in the story that no matter how close he was and how much dialogue he had with Jesus, he struggled to understand what Jesus was telling him.
To connect with the story's author or comment, email [email protected] or find him on X and Facebook.
Don't miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
