Apostle Paul (part I)

It occurs to me that many people aren’t really familiar with the life of Apostle Paul. I think that it’s important to be familiar with his life; he wrote a sizable chunk of the New Testament—possibly more than half. I am going to attempt to cover his life here, but it’s going to take more than one post.

In the first part of the Book of Acts, the man that was to become Apostle Paul was known as Saul. Evidently, Saul was named for the first King of Israel. In some ways, this was appropriate, because both men set out to do something great for God, but both men wound up falling very short. King Saul was noted for being a goodly man, even when he was young. When the prophet first told Saul that he was to be king, Saul showed proper humility. Saul even went on to prophecy. In 1 Samuel 11, Saul fights his first battle as king, and the spirit of God is with him, and the army of Israel demolishes the enemy. Later on, though, when it becomes apparent that God intends for David to succeed Saul, instead of one of Saul’s sons, Saul sets out to kill David, and even one of his own sons who supports David. There were times that Saul and his army pursued after David and his men, even though David himself posed no threat to Saul. This pursuit of God’s chosen people clearly foreshadows the persecution of God’s people by Saul the Pharisee.

The Saul of the New Testament was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were an order of Judaism that was very strict in its teaching; Pharisees were fundamentalists, and did not allow much leeway from the letter of the law. Saul studied the Scriptures, and he also studied the teachings of the Pharisees. He is noted for having studied under a teacher of the Pharisees named Gamaliel. Interestingly enough, in one of the first conflicts between the early church and the Pharisees after the death of Christ, Gamaliel commanded that Apostles Peter and John be left alone; expressing his belief that, with Jesus dead, the followers of Christ would disperse—unless, of course, Christianity actually was of God.

Apparently Saul had already decided that he had learned all he could from Gamaliel—or perhaps he just didn’t get the memo. When Stephen was stoned, the crowd laid articles of clothing at Saul’s feet, an indication that he was their leader, implying that he instigated the stoning. As Stephen died, he prayed for those that were stoning him. I wonder if God would have chosen Saul later, if it were not for Stephen’s prayer? Still, the prayer apparently had little effect on Saul, he went and obtained papers form the elders giving him authority to go and arrest more Christians. He continued to pursue and to persecute for some time to come.

Eventually, though, on the road to Damascus, God struck down Saul and spoke to him directly. Saul, dumbfounded by the idea that the God that he was serving so zealously should strike him down, cried out, “Who art thou, Lord?” God answered, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.” This gave Saul something to think about. God took Saul’s eyesight from him; other people led Saul into Damascus. A disciple named Ananias was sent by God to share the truth with Saul. Ananias healed Saul’s eyes, and baptized him. Saul’s life would never be the same. For quite some time after, Saul was feared by the church. They knew what Saul had done as a Pharisee, and they weren’t sure that he had really changed. To be honest, that’s somewhat understandable. With Saul’s stated goal of destroying Christianity, what better way to find out who the Christians were than by infiltrating the organization? For that matter, what better way to infiltrate the church than with an inspiring story wherein God speaks directly to the persecutor, and convinces him to change his ways?

More to come...