Saint Paul Pt.1- Saul the Accuser

In the book of Acts we are introduced to a new character in the Bible's story of Jesus. His name is Saul Paulus, he is a Roman citizen and a member of the Pharisees. We know him today by his honorary title of Saint Paul but who was he originally and how did he effect the early church?

We see Saul in the book of Acts chapter 7, verse 58. This particular story is about a young apostle to Christ, called Stephen. Stephen has made a speech before the Sanhedrin and the religious leaders and the high priest. In his speech he accuses the religious leader of being arrogant and resisting God's will. The religious leaders are not happy with what Stephen is saying so "They covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began attorney stone him."(Acts 7:57-58)

At the stone, as the book of Acts describes was a young man named Saul, "And Saul approved of their killing him."(Acts 7:60) As we see thee scene unfold even further in chapter 8, we see Saul get approval to go house to house and take both men and women who believed in Jesus and began to put them in prison.

In chapter 9 Saul goes to the high priest and ask permission that he migtht go to Damascus and begin to arrest those there that might belong to "The way" and bring them back to Jerusalem. We are never given much clarification as to why Saul is so against the growing Christian movement but we are shown in these couple of chapters that he is willing to do what ever it takes to have them arrested. We can only assume that it is because of his duties of being a Pharisee, that he is so out against the followers of Jesus. As the chapter moves into verse 3 we see that a light is shown from heaven and a bright light has blinded Saul. A voice(Jesus) begins to call out to him asking "why do you persecute me"
As he says this Saul asks simply, who are you? And the voice replies again,
"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you are to do"

So Saul is led by his companions into the town of Damascus and was blind for three days until a believer in Christ called, Ananias, came to Saul after being instructed by God to come and restore Saul's sight. God told Ananias "I will shoe him how much he must suffer for my name." At this point after he regains his sight, he is baptized.

So from a man of the religious realm of the Jewish faith, a man devoted to arresting the members of the new Christian movement, to a newly baptized Christian. This conversion at this point in time would have been a very difficult one for Paul because of his standing as a Pharisee. He too would become one if the men that he sought out to be arrested for proclaiming Jesus name.
This simply goes to show God's power. When God appears to men in the Bible, Moses, Saul, and any others he shows them that he is God and that it is his will to be done, not the will of man. As Saul was blind before he accepted, he was now given sight through the grace of God for having accepted him. We are like Saul, we must do what God has for us to do, or we will wonder blindly without his guidance.