Liberty University the Significance of the Calling of Paul the Apostle Research Paper Bibl323

On the road to Damascus the Lord intervenes in Saul’s life (Acts 9: 3-6) and he is genuinely converted during that encounter with the Lord Jesus. Under the ministry of Ananias (a disciple) he was also healed and filled with the Holy Spirit. Saul now known as Paul from that moment on immediately began preaching Christ in the synagogues of Damascus. Paul’s preaching was very convincing and disturbing to the Damascus Jews to the point where they desired to kill him. Therefore, the other Christian disciples assisted him in his escape by night (Acts 9:22-25) that he may escape to Arabia. Paul’s missionary Journeys were defining actions of him, he usually set foot with other companions and he endured hardships on these voyages. He was imprisoned, lashed and stoned several times and almost murdered once (2 Cor. 11:24-27).

He has fought, wrestled long and hard to get to this place as his last few days of his life are now coming to an end. Tired of wrestling with in his self as sleepless nights take their toll on him, on the run he has to end of this madness. General’s today, one can look at various battles and from a battle plan. They know what it takes to end them, who to send where men, targets to bomb, etc. So it was with Saul he finally came to the point that he has to talk to God. He knows the battle plan for this pending battle this quickly approaching. The armies were all ready there waiting to go and destroy Saul and his armies. When all else falls go back to square one and Saul square on like so many today is to go here from God.

He shows he is weak and not ready to lead. (1 Samuel 9:21). Saul even hides when he is supposed to show himself to the Israelites as the chosen King (1 Samuel 11: 22). Although Saul knows that he cannot lead, he has no choice, he has to follow the Lord’s order. At last, God realizes that Saul was indeed not a leader-type person and chooses another person. God must have known that people are not forced to be leaders, but they themselves should be aware of the ability to be leaders.

After that Saul was refered to as Paul. He left his old life and began his mission as a amasador of Christ’s message to all the world, or the world as it was known at that time. He left Jerusalem and began his missionary journeys, at least five of them. He went to Asia minor (modern Turkey), Syria, Greece, Italy, Spain even Britian.Paul trained Timothy and John Mark. He was so dedicated to the calling Jesus put on him that he paid for it spending five years or more in prison for his teachings and faith on multiple occasions. He was whipped bewaten and tortured on more than one occasion. He even lived through a stoning attempt and being shipwrecked. He paid the ultimate price with his life as a martyr at the hands of the Romans.

The rise and fall of this desired king is one that is unique with a lot to look at and learn from. Saul was a man who won many battles on the field as he defeated the Philistines and others who came against the Jewish

While David was a king of God so to say, Saul was a king of man. Both had different desires in what they wanted. David was after God's own heart while Saul was after the praise of his people. Saul was cruel and unforgiving and therefore was separated from God. 1 Samuel 20: 30-32 is a good example of Saul's harsh behavior. "

Saul was given specific instructions to follow by Jesus and that would lead him to the place where he could regain his vision, but this would be a test of his obedience as well as the obedience of one of God’s disciples. Ananias was the one that Jesus chose to help Saul begin his transformation into Paul, but naturally he was hesitant to go to the man that had been singlehandedly persecuting the saints of God. “But the Lord said to him, ‘Go! For this man is My chosen instrument to take My name to Gentiles, kings, and the Israelites.

He was first named Saul, but God had greater plans for him to be a leader to his people so a conversion took place. The conversion of Saul begins while he is on the road to Damascus, "suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him [and] he fell to the ground" (Acts 9:3–4), [the light was] "brighter than the sun" (Acts 26:13) and he was then blinded for three days (Acts 9:9). While he was blinded, he heard a voice in Hebrew which translates to "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads" (Acts 26:14–15). After this encounter, Saul’s blindness was cured by one of Jesus’ disciples, Ananias. His blindness was referred to as “something like scales” upon his eyes until he was then baptized. After Saul’s conversion to Christianity, he changed his identity to Paul because he was no longer a persecutor of Christianity named Saul. Saul was now was a believer and follower of Christ named Paul. He became a powerful leader in Acts. One that Christians should consider a role model because he led his people so powerfully and accomplished the future God wanted for him.

Saul was tall, good looking and a warrior, however, as Hindson and Yates put it, “The people seemed to focus on Saul’s outward appearance (9:2) rather than his heart (16:7)” (Hindson and Yates 2012, 164). Despite his early successes as king, Saul’s arrogance and pride caused him to start disobeying God. Samuel warned Saul repeatedly about his covenant disobedience. So when he offered priestly

The Apostle Paul (formerly Saul) is responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout the areas of Asia Minor and Greece. Through his 3 mission trips to the region Paul created a base of support for the Christian faith and implemented a support strategy for future growth. The time period for his journeys was 45 AD – 58 AD. The story of Paul is interesting from the perspective that the man best known as the author of most of the New Testament started out as a devout Jew and despised the Christian faith. After his conversion he made it his life’s work to spread the Christian message throughout the world. To this end, Paul made several mission trips to the area of Asia Minor and Greece.

This argument does not, however, decisively remove the possible use of ‘conversion’ for Paul, as Stendahl’s view that conversion must mean abandonment of a previous religious system is certainly not a necessary condition. In addition to this, to remove the language of ‘conversion’ from Paul’s experience is to remove its decisiveness; its absolute alteration of Paul’s thinking and being that can be seen in Gal 1:12-14. In these passages we see Paul speak of the risen Christ, who gave him his teaching and drew him away from his life in the Law, and as a Pharisee, in which he excelled (Gal 1:14) and which had led him to persecute the Church (Gal 1:13). When this Christocentric language is placed against his former understanding, which had caused him to persecute the Church, one cannot simply speak of a ‘call’, but rather must move to language of radical turning, of ‘conversion’. As this shows, while Stendahl’s argument that Paul should not be considered a ‘convert’ is not strong enough to warrant abandonment of the term, his exposition of Paul as ‘called’ should not be ignored, as, from a missional point of view, he certainly was. This leads us to the conception of Paul’s experience as encapsulating both ‘call’ and a ‘conversion’ dynamic, more fully expressing the reports he and others gave of this time.

Apostle Paul was not always a preacher of Christianity, Paul’s parents were Jewish as well as Roman citizens. Paul was to be a Rabbi though his future plans changed, on Paul’s journey of scorning Jesus, he had a vision in which Jesus asked why Paul scorns him, then commissions Paul to preach his message to the Gentiles who received mercy through Jewish unbelief. Around A.D. 56-58; Apostle Paul wrote the Romans, verses 8:26-30 states, “26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Paul whose name was Saul was an early Christian missionary and theologian, known as the Apostle to the Gentiles was born a Jew in Tarsus, Rome. As a minor, he was trained as a rabbi but earned his living as a tentmaker. A zealous Pharisee, he persecuted the first Christians until a vision of Jesus, experienced while on the road to Damascus, converted him to Christianity. Three years later he met St. Peter and Jesus ' brother James and was henceforth recognized as the 13th Apostle. From his base in Antioch, he traveled widely, preaching to the Gentiles. By asserting that non-Jewish disciples of Christ did not have to observe Jewish law, he helped to establish

For some background information on Paul. His original name was Sual in Hebrews announced in the new testaments. He was yoked to a rabbi so he can become a rabbi him self. Paul converted to christianity when he saw the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the road of Damascus. During his life he created three big ministries to travel through the Roman Empire, and he did this because he was planting churches. His goal was to preach to the new Christians the word of God, and to give encouragement. Paul started his mission because the Lord asked of him to do so, and so the Lord provided him with wisdom and strength to for fill his journey.

In The Bible there are multiple ideal societies which are presented, each denoted by the God's approval of that society and its leader. One of these societies is that portrayed in the story of Saul. In this story Samuel, a prophet of God, is given the task of revealing Saul, the ruler who is specified