Paul, as discussed in the last post, believed that persecuting Christians was the right way to serve God. He met the resurrected Jesus and turned around to preach the gospel. That led him to trial in front of the Jewish King a decade later.
Out of the 27 books in the New Testament, 13 were written by Paul. Born into a Jewish family in a Roman “free city” Tarsus, he was granted the privileged of Roman citizenship at birth. He received his early religious training from the best Rabbinical school by then, led by the highly respected Pharisee Gamaliel.
Paul’s birth environment and early education definitely prepared him for success! However, everything changes after his conversion to Christianity.
We saw in the last post that he was put in trial before the Jewish King a decade after his conversion. Paul suffered more than just being in trials. In one of his letters to a church, he wrote
“I (Paul) worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles…. I have labored and toiled and have gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches”.
That is miserable! Did Paul regret the conversion? In another letter Paul wrote:
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us”.
In simple words, Paul says the sufferings are worthy. No regret.
So really, what changed Paul?
Can Paul be just a deceiver, that he did not really have a conversion to Christianity? Most people including critics of Christianity agree that Paul’s faith was genuine.
Can Paul just want to get more wealth or reputation? Paul worked with his own hands to make tents to finance his missionary trips. Reputation was ready for him before the conversion with the help of his famous teacher Gamaliel, but definitely not after his conversion.
Did Paul want to get more power, by lording over the church? It does not seem probable for someone to subject himself to frequent imprisonment and life-threatening situations just to have power over church members, who themselves are not welcome by the society by being Christians.
Was Paul credulous and ready to believe in Jesus? No, in fact Paul was on the opposite side before his conversion. Being lived in Jerusalem for a time, Paul is very likely to have seen the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection, the arguments for and against Christianity, and the news about Peter’s sermon at Pentecost that led to thousands of people to become Christians. Out of all of these, Paul had closed his mind and refused to believe until he met the resurrected Jesus on his road to Damascus to arrest Christians!
Finally, can Paul hallucinate? I think we can clearly affirm that to be impossible. The common scenario for hallucination is that someone misses a loved one so much that he or she feels that the loved one is around even though it is not real. Did Paul love Jesus when he met Jesus? Absolutely not! He was arresting Christians at the time! Hallucination mostly involves impression only, but Paul claims Jesus talked to him and instructed him to go to a certain place. Paul constantly affirmed that the resurrected Jesus was physical, which is also in contrast with hallucination.
Perhaps the reason for Paul’s conversion is simply what he claimed – that he met the resurrected Jesus.
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