Church History - Peter Waldo

There are many who feel that Peter Waldo had a direct hand in helping to found that group of people that history has labeled the ‘Waldensians.’ While others believe that they existed long before Peter was born.  

None of this really matters, for there can be no doubt that he played a part and had an influence upon them no matter what stage their existence was at.  

I think that one of the characteristics that set Peter apart wasn’t so much what his doctrine was as the way he lived. There came a time in his life that he believed God had called him to sell all that he had and go and preach the gospel. After doing that and leaving enough for his wife to live on, he obeyed and went and did it.  
At a time when the love of money was so part of the religious system, this was quite a step to take.  

While at first this was embraced by the religious leaders, eventually they grew quite uncomfortable with his way of life. Not so much that he went about poor, but rather that they didn’t have a say in what he did.  

What is tremendous about this is that in his own fellowship with the Father and Jesus, he was given instruction to do something and he obeyed and did it. Now this was something that the religious leaders couldn’t and wouldn’t tolerate. After all, what would God be doing talking to someone like Peter without consulting them first and getting their approval?  

So with the consistent monotony of the religious system, they attempted to shut him up. As usual it didn’t work. When God wants to do something, He just doesn’t like religion getting in His way.  

Like others, Peter and those who participated in these things went out and preached the gospel to those who would hear them. They went out by twos and had a huge impact on the world of that day.
 
Because he refused the popes admonition to stop preaching, he and others with him were excommunicated. This did nothing to deter them from continuing to do the Lord’s will as He moved within their spirits and reached out to a world desperately in need of a real testimony of who Christ was.  

Again, to me the significance of Peter Waldo was that he showed forth the ancient unction to fellowship with Christ and the Father outside of any human mediator. This inevitably rubs paganistic, religious systems the wrong way. Somebody always wants to try to manipulate and control what they think God should do within human beings. This will always fail as history has proven.  

Peter Waldo, and those with him, have shown us that actions and practices that come from fellowshipping with God has always been the result that comes from His eternal purpose.  

It is that fellowship that the world and religious systems and power seekers hate. After all, where is the need for mediators when we can know Him directly ourselves? This is the testimony that Peter Waldo left us.