https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+9&version=NKJV
Saul of Tarsus' life would be turned upside down, and inside out on his fateful journey to Damascus to detain several followers of the crucified Nazarene known as Jesus.
Saul was a rising star in the power structure that was The Sanhedrin, determined to prove to his superiors that his loyalty to them, and his well recognised intellectual abilities were beyond reproach. Saul was an accomplished expert in matters of The Mosaic Laws, fertile ground leading him to climb the ladder of success. Saul had a well established track record as an enemy of The Way, opposing everything that the followers of Jesus believed.
There were those in The Sanhedrin's corridors of power who believed that Jesus, and His Way would become more dangerous after His death.
What could have happened to Saul that he would alienate his former colleagues, and incur the suspicion of the followers of The Nazarene leading him to abandon his ambitions that would have guaranteed him a prosperous and influential life ?
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one ~Khalil Gibran
Numinous events are highly persuasive for those who experience such a phenomenon, but for most people unbelievable for they represent nothing more than the ravings of a fantasist state of mind. Some might say that the "victim" of such phenomena needs professional clinical assistance to rescue them from their delusional interpretations of an event that might well have been triggered by drinking too much alcohol, or the beginnings of a mental break down.
The rational response to any event that defies human reasoning is to reject such a phenomenon for want of being able to understand why it occurred, and what it means to the one who underwent the experience. Time tells.
Saul's transformation from an enemy of Jesus's Good News, into becoming one of the most enthusiastic of Jesus' followers would in time lead to his execution. That Paul of Tarsus would lose his life rather than renege on his faith in Jesus may well suggest that Paul's Damascus Road event was beginning of his journey into a new life that enabled him to reject his former legalistic ways when embracing The Way of The Saviour.
It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going ~Hebrews 11:8
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