For the entirety of my life in the church, which has been all of my life up to this point, I have heard every pastor, Sunday school teacher, and Bible teacher tell of how Saul became Paul. The only problem with that narrative…it simply isn’t true.
Why do we as Christians do that? We have the greatest story ever told. The story of creation, the story of life, the story of our salvation through Christ and yet we feel the need to create these images that elucidate the story, even when it isn’t needed.
The story of Saul to Paul is didactic in nature. Its purpose is to show the drastic change in the person after receiving Christ as his savior. It simply isn’t needed here because if you can’t tell the change in Saul/Paul by what he was doing compared to what he ended up doing then you aren’t paying attention...or maybe you just haven’t read it.
I know that Christian leaders over the years desired to make a simple point with this analogy, but it just isn’t needed and it teaches Christians a false narrative which can give the impression that all of it is a lie.
We don’t need a false narrative. The Bible can stand on it’s own.
This type of tactic should be offensive to Christians because it assumes that we are not smart enough to understand the truth of the entire story and for me that is the real problem. Too many Christians want comfortable Christianity.
Comfortable Christianity is easy. It doesn’t ask much of you. It doesn’t require you to dig too much and it doesn’t require you to think. It simply gives you a nice and easy message that doesn’t challenge you in any way.
Saul did not become Paul. Saul is the Hebrew version of his name, Paul is the Greek.
Don’t believe me? I challenge you to read all of Paul’s letters, Luke, and Acts. You will see that he continues to be referred to as Saul after his conversion...11 times!
Now, go read your Bible.