EXPLAIN THIS: Would You Suffer Years of Extreme Pain, Hardship For A Lie?
Paul the Apostle made four major missionary journeys around the ancient Mediterranean world sharing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who he claimed to have seen and talked to during that famous encounter on the road to Damascus a year or so after the crucifixion.
In the decades thereafter in the course of his travels, Paul was in constant danger, from man, beast and the elements. And yet he kept going, overcoming every obstacle and being the main missionary catalyst of a spiritual movement that literally changed the world.
He describes those obstacles at II Corinthians 16: 24-27:
“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.”
Remember, when Paul, then known as Saul, left Jerusalem to go to Damascus, he did so for the purpose of arresting Christians there in order to bring them back to the capital and prosecute them. Before that, he was known for holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death, an act of which he heartily approved.
So, ask yourself this: Paul claimed to have seen and talked with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Would anything less than an actual event have so totally and completely changed him from determined and deadly opponent of Christianity to the new faith’s most devoted advocate?
Critics can claim Paul imagined that encounter, or that it was merely an illusion, but those are purely speculative, without any credible evidence to support them.
What Would It Take to Break You?
Now ask yourself this: Would you endure the same physical danger, suffering and hardships that were routine for Paul if you knew you had made it all up, that the encounter on the road to Damascus never really happened?
We’re not talking here about how the other disciples and apostles maintained that they had seen and spoken with the resurrected Jesus, even to the point of dying horrendous deaths as a result.
No, in a sense, that’s a one-time thing, facing imminent death. Whereas, what we’re focusing on here with Paul is the litany of daily suffering that he endured for years on end, without ever once qualifying his account of the Damascus road encounter or the Gospel he preached to the world as a result.
You must take such a man deadly seriously and come to grips with what he said about Jesus:
“For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised up on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at once, the majority of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as it were to one born at the wrong time, he appeared also to me.”
That’s not something from which you can simply walk away. How do you explain this man, Paul?
Even more astounding is the horrible reality that Paul’s core teaching, the mystery as he described it multiple times, has been warped and diluted by most of Christianity for 2000 years. Yes the protestants give lip service but they also stress Faith Alone in Christ’s finished work alone PLUS human works for salvation. They mix Peter’s Gospel with Paul’s Gospel and refuse to see the impossibility of this and the utter confusion this brings.
That is certainly an accurate characterization of many of the current Protestant denominations, but I don’t think it is an accurate characterization for most conservative Southern Baptist, many PCA and a host of independent Bible churches, for whom Romans 10:9 remains the core doctrine of salvation: “If confess with your tongue that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will saved.”
Yes. They say that but then add on various ( depending on the denomination/doctrine ) pressures to conform or tithe or attend church or refrain from questioning what’s coming out of the pulpit etc. Of course the worst offenders are the ‘Lordhip Salvation’ preachers. Usually Calvinists. They preach what Jesus told the rich young ruler. Law, drop your life, take up your cross. Paul, as the Risen Christ instructed him, came with the new doctrine. A new age. A new dispensation. For all who believe, both Jew and Gentile. Free Grace. No not cheap grace as the works preachers like to denigrate the doctrine of Paul. No not cheap. FREE !
Reed, are you suggesting that Jesus said one thing to the rich young ruler and something else to Paul on the road to Damascus?
the doctrine of salvation are the words of Jesus in the New Testament.
He calls Peter “the rock on which I will build my church” and gives authority and
power to the Apostles. He tells them “whoever eats my body and drinks my blood”
will be saved. And he lets people walk away when they cannot accept this because
“this is an hard saying”.
Anyway for all its faults it seems obvious to me that the Catholic Church
is the one true church.
Peace to men of good will! and God bless.
Ray, where in the Gospels does Jesus say that to be saved one must literally eat His body and drink His blood? Peace to you as well.
This article is a powerful argument against those today who say that Paul just made up his Damascus Road experience, or else he actually met the devil.
So sad tho, to see many “Christians” today try to pit Paul against Jesus, when Jesus said if you love Him, you will keep His commandments. Paul kept the commandments too. And just like Jesus, he worked tirelessly to lead the people away from human-made requirements to go to heaven, and back to God’s requirements.