Dr. Miller and Peter the Apostle

One of the great blessings of my life was being able to attend Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. I began classes there in the fall of 1989 at the age of 39. I graduated in April 1992 with a Bachelor of Science degree. I majored in Psychology and minored in History. My first year there I participated in the Honors Program, and that is where I became acquainted with Dr. Dean Miller. Dr. Miller was a professor who generally taught Psychology courses, but I first met him as the instructor for my Honors History of Civilization course.

By the time I arrived at BYU I had already completed two years of college at community colleges. History of Civilization was a 200-level course, but it was required for graduation, so I was taking it even though I was a junior, not a sophomore. I passed the course with a grade of B. During that semester, Dr. Miller was named Dean of the BYU Honors Program.

For a number of reasons, I did not stay in the Honors Program, so I did not see Dr. Miller again until the spring of 1991. Dr. Miller taught a course that I needed for graduation, Senior Seminar in Psychology. It was a course that discussed all the various psychology courses we had completed during our undergraduate studies. One afternoon, towards the end of the term, Dr. Miller began class by telling us the following:

“The Apostle Peter is one of my heroes. He could be stubborn and rash, but he was completely devoted to the Savior. He had faith enough to walk on the waters of the Sea of Galilee, but he was also human enough to realize when he saw the waves that what he was doing was physically impossible. On the night before the crucifixion, Jesus told the Apostles that they would all be offended and scattered like sheep.

“Then ‘Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee’ (Matthew 26:33-35).

Dr. Miller then told of the three occasions that Peter did, indeed, deny being a follower of Christ. Dr. Miller said, “Immediately after Peter denied the Savior the third time, the cocked crowed, and Peter wept…” He paused, and then stated, “…because he knew he had done what the Savior had told him to do.”

I’m pretty sure that I was not the only one in the class that was thinking, “That’s not how it happened.”

But after another short pause, Dr. Miller said, “That was from a talk given by President Kimble, presented at a seminar for BYU instructors at the beginning of the 1975 school year.” He then added, “Things are not always the way they seem.”

President Spencer W. Kimball was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sustained by the members of the Church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. I don’t know whether or not President Kimble actually said that about Peter (but I can’t think of a reason why Dr. Miller would make up such a story). Hearing the story has made me view Peter from a different perspective than I had in the past. It has also helped me to try to examine all the possibilities before making a decision. It has helped me resist the urge to make judgments about others without knowing all the facts. Perhaps reading this will help you, too.