Articles
Acts 9 - Saul's Conversion As Evidence
Acts 9 - Saul's Conversion As Evidence
Paul began his life in Judaism. He was of the strict Jewish sect (Pharisee). In this religious life he was advancing and profiting above his peers. As a Pharisee the law / covenant was everything. His life revolved around the temple, priesthood, sacrifices – the pomp & circumstance. He was in with those who were the leaders of God's religion on earth. To abandon Judaism for this new cult would be to be cut off from family and friends.
With great zeal he persecuted the church (Acts 8:1, 3). On his way to arrest even more (Acts 9:1-2). Then changed! He began the journey as a persecutor and ended the journey a disciple of the very movement he sought to destroy. The Christians themselves were perplexed, saying: "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy" (Gal. 1:23).
He gave up his career, his friends, his family, and his religion. Those who had worked with him in persecuting the church now seek his life. He is ostracized, arrested, beaten, even stoned and left for dead. He ended up a martyr. Why? Why would one make such a change that would cost him everything?
In the 1700's a skeptic named George Lyttelton sat out to study and write the answer to that question. He was going to show that Paul was NOT converted by the appearance of the resurrected Jesus. He set out to discover and show the real reason that Paul made such a change.
Among things proposed we can make a list and consider the weight of such.
Wealth - 1 Cor. 4:11 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands.
Phil. 3:7-8 – But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Fame – 1 Cor. 4:9 - 'a spectacle to the world', hated by all opposition, small poverty ridden group of people,
Power – He became part of the group that he could write about saying: "… consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are" (1Cor. 1:26-28). He never meddled in politics, never rallied to change laws, never raised rebellion. Leader in his own religious heritage – or an 'apostle' to this movement of poverty and oppression?
'Front' for debauchery ? Many men have used religion as a curtain to hide their life of lust and debauchery. Yet, this is the one thing that Paul constantly wrote about and condemned (1Cor. 6:6-9; Gal. 5:19f; Eph. 5: ; 1 Thess. 4:1-10; etc.).
Deceived. By who? HOW? How produce the bright light, the voice, the vision of the one he hated? Who and how was Ananias persuaded to come to him by vision?
Willfully deceived. Why? He was NOT looking for it, not seeking it. The LAST thing he would want to do is become part of the very thing he had his heart set upon destroying.
Further, we note that with this conversion came a life of problems and turmoil. He would write that he suffered "…imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure" (2 Cor. 11:24-27).
Lyttelton considered all of these things and in the end he became a disciple of Jesus and a believer in the resurrected vision unto Paul. Thus he wrote not to convince people that Paul was a fraud, but that Jesus is the Christ raised from the dead.
Hugh DeLong
