Video Transcript
We often refer to Paul’s famous trip down the road to Damascus as Paul or Saul’s conversion. But is this really what happened in Acts 9? Let’s take a deeper look at this.
We all know the story in Acts 9, where Paul has a life-altering encounter with the risen Jesus. He changes his beliefs, he changes his path, and he would later change history. But there is an inherent problem when we refer to this as Paul’s conversion. Why is that a problem? Well, hopefully it becomes clear when we ask a simple question. What are we claiming Paul converted to? What are we claiming Paul converted from? See, most Christians would answer that Paul converted to Christianity from Judaism, but this is a complete misreading of the text. When we start with the now common knowledge that the Bible is almost entirely a Jewish book written by Jewish people about Jewish people, then the context of this event changes. The belief that Paul has converted to Christianity in abandoning his Jewish faith and that other Jews should follow suit is a dangerous theology that has led to the death of Jewish people and Jewish identity for centuries.
Let’s start at the beginning. We have explained in many videos and articles how the identity of Jew and Gentile was created by God as an ongoing eternal distinction, just like male and female. Galatians 3:23, the Jew/Gentile distinction has been confused for centuries, as the theology that the church replaced Israel has permeated the thinking of followers of Jesus, and the misconception that Jesus ushered in a new religion, Christianity.
But is this how Paul saw it? Is that how Jesus and his disciples saw it? We often neglect the fact that Jesus was an observant Jewish man. His disciples, like Peter, remained Torah-observant and kosher, even after the resurrection. All the early disciples of Jesus lived Jewish lives, continued to attend synagogue, and referred to themselves as Jews. It’s only retroactively that we place this conversion to Christianity on them. Now, let’s shift to Paul.
Paul was a self-proclaimed apostle to the Gentiles, but we must not forget, he’s not a Gentile. We see Paul enter the synagogue nine times in the Book of Acts, as scripture says was his custom. He describes himself as a Hebrew of Hebrews in Philippians 3:5. He refers to himself as a Pharisee. Notice the present tense verb. He says, I am a Pharisee, not was a Pharisee. Paul didn’t abandon his Judaism for Christianity. He had a revelation about the Jewish Messiah and chose to follow him.
Why is this so important for us to understand? Well, for centuries, Christians have told Jewish people that they must abandon their Jewish identity to believe in Jesus. Even in the historic Catholic church, the Jewish men and women that desire to be baptized in the name of Jesus would have to recite this edict: “I renounce all customs, rights, legalisms, unleavened breads, and sacrifices to the lambs of the Hebrews, and all other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspersions, purifications, sanctifications, propitiations, and fasts, and new moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and hymns, and chants, and observances, and synagogues, and the food, and drink of the Hebrews. In a word, I renounce absolutely everything Jewish, every law, rite, and custom.
The notion that accepting Jesus required a Jewish identity conversion is unbiblical. Sadly, it has led to the Jewish believers in Jesus to feel forced to lay down their God-given Jewish identity. The Bible teaches us that Jewish people that believe in Jesus remain Jewish, just like Paul, just like Peter, and the Gentiles that believe in Jesus remain gentile, just like Cornelius. Jews and Gentiles come together in the name of Jesus to become what scripture says is one new man, the Ekklesia, the Church.
