“For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.”
Galatians 1:13-14

Everyone has a story, but the majority of people have mostly a one-part story.

At that time, Saul (who would later become Paul) actively sought to destroy the followers of Jesus. He saw Jesus as a misguided, blasphemous heretic. In Acts 22:4, Paul said, “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons.”

But Paul begins his story by talking about his former life in Judaism – and he was very serious about practicing Judaism. 

Christianity, at that time, was known as the Way. 

Why?

Because Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me” (John 14:6). So, Saul was doing all he could to eradicate what he felt to be heresy. He was a classic, religious terrorist.

Our modern society, unfortunately, is still filled with religious terrorists who believe passionately and zealously that what they are doing is right and is pleasing in the eyes of God. Their actions aren’t only motivated by hate but are efforts to eradicate what they believe is false teaching about God. And yes, their actions are diabolically evil, but the religious terrorist is often blinded by their own self-righteousness. They naively think that what they are doing is right.

Saul had that same kind of mindset.

This background in Paul’s life, what we call “Part 1,” is the time in his life before he met Christ. Everybody in the history of the world has a Part 1 of his/her life story. Now, some of you might be thinking, “There’s never been a time in my life when I wasn’t a Christian.” Well, the Bible is very clear—no one inherits Christianity. All of us, at some point, must decide in our lives whether or not we will trust Christ and follow Him.

Saul represents the majority of mankind in Part 1 of his story. Most never get to Part 2.

But Saul did.

And it was triggered by an amazing, miraculous event. We’ll read about it tomorrow.

Trust me, you don’t want to miss it!

Written by Bryant Wright, Founder, RFTH

DIG DEEPER
Read “Paul, the Worst Kind of Terrorist” also by Bryant Wright