This the third installment in the series on Paul written by Wayne Jackson. This appeared in the November, 1978 Christian Courier which was published by the East Main Street Church of Christ in Stockton, Californian and was edited by Jackson.
The pen of Luke, as expressed in the book of Acts, together with the multiple testimonies of Paul himself in his epistles, bear clear and indisputable witness to the fact that this zealous Jew was the most active persecutor of ancient Christianity. And yet, amazingly when he was at the very zenith of his fame, he stopped dead in his tracks. Not only did he cease persecuting Christians but, incredibly, he became the most influential advocate of the ancient faith that this world has ever known. How does the historian deal with this astonishing fact?
Paul the Penitent - According to Luke's historical record in Acts, Saul, armed with arrest warrants for those of the Christian Way, departed Jerusalem for ancient Damascus, some 140 miles to the north. As he drew near that city, suddenly he was surrounded by a light brighter than the noon sun and a voice inquired: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" Saul replied: "Who are You, Lord?" (The title "Lord" was merely employed at this point as a title of respect.) The voice was then identified as Jesus of Nazareth and the stunned persecutor was instructed to enter Damascus where instructions would be given as to what he must do. Blinded as a consequence of this miraculous vision in which Christ actually appeared to him (Acts 9:17; I Corinthians 15:8), Saul was led into the city where he agonizingly fasted and prayed for three days. Subsequently, Ananias, a messenger selected by God, came and restored his sight and commanded him to, "Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord." (Acts 22:16) After certain days passed, Saul began to proclaim that Jesus, "is the Son of God" among his fellow Jews. Saul's dramatic transformation has perplexed infidelity for centuries. This phenomenon is in fact, an unassailable argument for the genuineness of Christianity.
In the early 1700's, Oxford educated member of British Parliament Lord George Lyttelton, who had succumbed to the skeptical influences of his day, determined to do an expose of the alleged "conversion" of Paul. He planned to show that the apostle's radical change could be explained on the basis of dishonest motives, personal gain, etc. After carefully researching in a thoroughly scholarly fashion, the available data, he was forced to completely reverse his views. Accordingly, in 1747 he published his book Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul. In the opening paragraph he affirmed: "The conversion and apostleship of St. Paul alone, duly considered, was of itself a demonstration sufficient to prove Christianity to be a divine revelation" (The Fundamentals, Volume II, 1917, pp. 353ff). Lyttelton's procedure was first to gather all of the available New Testament information regarding the conversion of Paul as given in the book of Acts and Paul's epistles. He then laid down four propositions which he felt exhausted all of the possibilities of the case: (1) Either Paul was, "an impostor who said what he knew to be false, with an intent to deceive;" or (2) He was an enthusiast who imposed on himself by the force of, "an overheated imagination;" or (3) He was, "deceived by the fraud of others;" or finally, (4) What he declared to be the cause of his conversion did all really happen; "and, therefore the Christian religion is a divine revelation."
In his compact little volume of 78 pages, Lord Lyttelton forcefully proved, on the basis of the extant evidence, that the first three propositions could not be reasonably believed and hence the fourth was correct. Paul the penitent thus stands as an imperishable monument of the power inherent in the gospel of Christ.
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