Paul gave a simple answer to explain why he changed so dramatically as discussed previously: he met the resurrected Jesus.
If one says: No! It is insane to believe that someone comes back to life after his death! Jesus must have died and stay dead!
Then how do we explain Paul’s change? From Paul’s letters, some of which were collected into part of the New Testament bible, most people agree that he was a sincere person with a rational mind. He is not a lunatic or a deceiver. His change from a hater of Christianity to a preacher who brought Christianity to the world is unexplainable if we refuse to believe Paul’s own simple reason for his change.
Paul was not the only one who changed drastically after meeting the “resurrected Jesus”.
Peter was one of Jesus’ disciples. He was so determined to follow Jesus that he once declared that “Even if I have to die with you (Jesus), I will never disown you”. When Jesus was arrested the night before his crucifixion, Peter was with Jesus and he used a sword to cut off an ear of one of the people who was arresting Jesus. Yet, when emotion came down and life was in danger, he acted differently. After Jesus was arrested and was taken to the high priest at nighttime, Peter followed the crowd and entered the courtyard of the high priest. When the people there asked Peter if he knew Jesus, he swore to them and said, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about”.
What do we expect Peter to do after that? After a few days or weeks of grieving over his master’s death and regretting his coward disowning of his master, life had to go on. I think it would be natural for Peter to just go back to his old occupation as a fisherman and moved on with his life.
No, that was not what happened.
On a festival day called the Pentecost, which is about seven weeks after Jesus’ crucifixion, Peter declared that God had raised Jesus from the dead and that Jesus was the Messiah (savior promised in the Old Testament). It was not a small group of people that Peter was addressing. The Book of Acts says that after Peter’s preaching, three thousands people joined the disciples to become Christians.
Peter’s change came at a cost. The high priest and his followers had brought Jesus’ death through the Roman authority. The large number of people converting to Christians prompted them to stop the disciples from preaching. They arrested the apostles and put them in front of the Jewish authority and be questioned by the high priest.
The Jewish authority said to the apostles, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name. Yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s (Jesus’) blood”.
Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead – whom you killed by hanging him on a cross….”
Peter and the apostles were warned and flogged. Did they regret it? No. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the (Jesus’) Name.
Why did Peter change?
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