Why would Jesus select the likes of Paul? There were certainly other devoted followers of Jesus available in those early days of the Church — followers ready to give their lives to proclaim Jesus Christ as savior of the world. Certainly, our Lord works in mysterious ways. Emmons writes from Pennsylvania. Confessions of a Catholic Dad Editor's Notebook.
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From persecutor to Christian: The conversion of St. Paul Celebrated each year on Jan. Scripture Says Following is the story of St. On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. For three days he was unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank. He is there praying, and [in a vision] he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay [his] hands on him, that he may regain his sight.
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And here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison all who call upon your name. He got up and was baptized, and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength. God chose Paul for a unique purpose, and he has chosen many other "Sauls" to become "Pauls" throughout the history of Christianity. The seven men in this book tried to destroy the bride of Christ but ultimately succumbed to the power of the Holy Spirit.
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These modern-day "Sauls to Pauls" illumi No conversion story in the Bible is more expansive than that of the apostle Paul. These modern-day "Sauls to Pauls" illuminate the struggle of the persecuted church and show that our sovereign God can incline even the most hardened heart toward his own. As the Bible clearly illustrates, when a "Saul" becomes a "Paul" and engages as an active witness, the kingdom of God grows exponentially.
Your prayer life for our persecuted family will be transformed as you read the testimonies of men who choose to bless rather than curse those who wish them harm.
Conversion of Paul the Apostle
The stories will also challenge you to consider your attitude toward your enemies, confronting you with the question, "How would God's kingdom be affected if they became completely committed to Christ and his Great Commission? Kindle Edition , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Saul to Paul , please sign up.
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Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Feb 13, Kevin Wildman rated it it was amazing. This is an incredibly important book for Christians to read today. One of the hardest, if not the single hardest, commands of Scripture is found in Matthew 5: At this day in age no group epitomizes "enemy" quite like Islamic terrorists.
From persecutor to preacher: the journey of St Paul
How can a Christian love when people are carrying out the evil deeds these people carry-out? That being said, I have long found hope and encouragement from the story of Saul of Tarsus. Though, if I am honest, I have struggled to see it This is an incredibly important book for Christians to read today. Though, if I am honest, I have struggled to see it as a viable hope for a counter to terrorism.
In Saul to Paul not only do you receive the hope that this is in fact a very real and viable hope for today, you are able to read specific accounts.
Furthermore, this book helps to answer many of the how and why questions myself and others have asked regarding terrorism. Apr 30, Patrick rated it it was amazing Shelves: A collection of powerful stories about a few of Saul of Tarsus's modern-day counterparts in Africa and the Middle East. Hatred really can be transformed by forgiveness and love. Kierkegaard's Pancakes rated it it was amazing Apr 09, Cindy rated it it was amazing Jan 27, Natalie Lane rated it really liked it Apr 02, Teri rated it it was amazing Mar 16, Razmik rated it really liked it Feb 06, By contrast, Catholic translations and older Protestant translations preserve the apparent contradiction in Acts And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. It often takes a noun in the genitive case for a person is being heard, with a noun in the accusative for the thing being heard. However, there has been debate about which rule Luke was following here. Wallace finds this argument based on case inconclusive. A similar debate arises with the NIV's use of the word "sound" instead of "voice" in Acts 9: Although it is possible that there is a contradiction in these two passages unnoticed by their author, Richard Longenecker suggests that first-century readers probably understood the two passages to mean that everybody heard the sound of the voice, but "only Paul understood the articulated words.
The conversion of Paul, in spite of his attempts to completely eradicate Christianity, is seen as evidence of the power of Divine Grace , with "no fall so deep that grace cannot descend to it" [25] and "no height so lofty that grace cannot lift the sinner to it. The transforming effect of Paul's conversion influenced the clear antithesis he saw "between righteousness based on the law," [27] which he had sought in his former life; and "righteousness based on the death of Christ," [27] which he describes, for example, in the Epistle to the Galatians.
From persecutor to Christian: The conversion of St. Paul
The Acts of the Apostles says that Paul's conversion experience was an encounter with the resurrected Christ. Alternative explanations have been proposed, including sun stroke and seizure. Landsborough published an article in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry , [28] in which he stated that Paul's conversion experience, with the bright light, loss of normal bodily posture, a message of strong religious content, and his subsequent blindness, suggested "an attack of [ temporal lobe epilepsy ], perhaps ending in a convulsion The blindness which followed may have been post-ictal.
This conclusion was challenged in the same journal by James R. Brorson and Kathleen Brewer, [29] who stated that this hypothesis failed to explain why Paul's companions heard a voice Acts 9: Additionally, Paul's blindness remitted in sudden fashion, rather than the gradual resolution typical of post-ictal states, and no mention is made of epileptic convulsions ; indeed such convulsions may, in Paul's time, have been interpreted as a sign of demonic influence, unlikely in someone accepted as a religious leader.
A completely different theory has been put forward in by astronomer W. Hartmann [31] [32] who argues that the three accounts in the book of Acts describe exactly the sequence of events that occur when a fireball , like the Chelyabinsk meteor of , passes through the sky. This includes people being knocked off their feet and the physical effects on Saul's eyesight.
The Renaissance Italian master Caravaggio painted two works depicting the event: Peter Paul Rubens also produced several works on the theme. It is also the focus of an eight part mixed choir a cappella piece The Conversion of Saul composed by Z. From the conversion of Paul, we get the metaphorical reference to the "Road to Damascus" that has come to refer to a sudden or radical conversion of thought or a change of heart or mind even in matters outside of a Christian context. For example, Australian politician Tony Abbott was described as having been "on his own road to Damascus" after pledging increased mental health funding, [34] and a New Zealand drug dealer turned police officer was likewise described as taking "the first step on the road to Damascus.
The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle is a feast celebrated during the liturgical year on January 25, recounting the conversion. This feast is celebrated in the Roman Catholic , Anglican and Lutheran churches. This feast is at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity , an international Christian ecumenical observance that began in , which is an octave an eight-day observance spanning from January 18 observed in Anglican and Lutheran tradition as the Confession of Peter , and in the pre Roman Catholic Church as the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Rome to January Supposed prophecies ranged from fine days predicting good harvests, to clouds and mists signifying pestilence and war in the coming months.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Conversion of Paul the Apostle disambiguation.