Paul: the Apostle of the Heart Set Free

Paul was born in an Asian city that is located on the southern coast of what is now Turkey called Tarsus in about the year 10. His parents were Jewish, presumably strict Pharisees. Importantly they were also Roman citizens.
Though Judea was in the Roman Empire very few Jews were Roman citizens. Citizenship outside of Italy was an honor reserved for people who made great contributions to the Empire. Thus, it would appear likely Paul's parents were people of influence and perhaps even moderate wealth.

Paul was sent to Jerusalem to train as a Rabbi at the age of 14. His teacher was a prominent rabbi named Gamaliel. At this time rabbis were also taught a trade the idea being to keep teachers from becoming a burden on society. Paul’s trade was tentmaking.

Paul grew to be a man of firm convictions and fiery temperament, a man of action willing to confront what he saw as the Christian heresy and act on his beliefs. His primary activity as a young adult became stamping out what he saw as an affront to Judaism and Jehovah God.

He took his passionate convictions to the point of condoning, though not actively participating in, the stoning of Stephen. He participated in general persecution of the new faith, "going from house to house, he dragged out the believers, both men and women and threw them into jail."

He then undertook a mission to Damascus where he intended to continue attacking Christians. En route to the city he had a vision. This vision is described several times in the Bible, three times in the book of Acts. Paul saw Jesus who asked why Paul persisted in persecuting Him. Jesus then commissioned Paul to preach His message to the Gentiles.

This Damascus Road experience of Jesus was probably the most incredible and important conversion in the history of the church. The persecutor became the greatest preacher of the faith Christianity has ever known.
According to Acts, Paul spent time in Arabia and then Damascus searching his soul and communing and being taught by God. He undertook the mission he believed had been given to him directly by Jesus. He preached in Damascus for three years. His enemies were determined to kill him so he had to slip out of the city by night.
After gaining official sanction from the elders of the Church in Jerusalem, including Peter and James, Paul brought the message of Jesus to the Gentiles. Along with Barnabas, he went on his first Missionary Journey to Cyprus, Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. During this journey they met many hardships (see II Corinthians) and Paul was even stoned and left for dead in Lystra.

Around 50 A.D. he returned to Jerusalem to report to the church elders. His visit provoked a dispute over whether Christians had to first become Jews. Paul said no. The controversy was temporarily resolved in his favor and he went on his second and third missionary journeys to Galatia, Phrygia, Macedonia and Greece. He even went to Athens where he argued with philosophers as well as pagans.

It was during this period that he met Luke, a doctor who would become a close adherent and would eventually write one of the gospels as well as the book of Acts. After his third missionary journey, Paul returned to Jerusalem where he ran into a dispute with the Sanhedrin. He was the object of a huge civil disturbance. For this, he was arrested and eventually brought to Caesarea.

While there, he was questioned and tried several times, but his enemies could not seem to make their charges stick. Even so, he was held by the governor, Felix, who was afraid he might again create problems in Jerusalem. The next governor, Festus, seemed to be loath to come to a decision on his case, so after over two years of house arrest, Paul invoked his right as a Roman citizen to demand a trial before the Emperor.

He was sent on the next ship to Rome. However, the ship met heavy seas and wrecked on the Island of Malta. Paul prayed and was visited by an Angel and the entire crew was saved. Paul eventually took another boat and reached Italy. He was met by supporters and eventually made it to Rome.

Interestingly, neither the book of Acts nor Paul's surviving letters depicts the results of Paul's trial. It is known that he spent two years under house arrest waiting his audience with Nero. Extant literature close to the time indicates that Paul was either tried and executed by the sword or he died during the persecution that came about after the great fire where Nero was reputed to have incited the blaze and to have fiddled during the conflagration in about 64 AD.