Bible Discussion Thread

Who is Paul of tartius and what was his purpose .?..

Was he one of the disciples?

We're introduced to Paul (then known as Saul) from Acts 7:58 onwards. Saul, by his own claim, was a Jew & a Pharisee (a religious leader, studied in Jewish Law), from the tribe of Benjamin ( Philippians 3:5,6). He also hailed from Tarsus, Celicia in Asia Minor (now Turkey). If you're keen to see the city & you have a map of Turkey, Tarsus is located between the cities of Mersin & Adana on the South coast.

Then from Acts chapter 9, you can read of Saul's mighty encounter with the risen Jesus Christ & from that event, Saul believed on Jesus, was baptized & later he was also referred to as Paul ( Acts 13:9). We generally hear the name Paul being used from hereon.

Paul wasn't one of the 12 disciples who walked with Jesus. However, since Paul had seen the Lord, received teaching from him (from Heaven while in the deserts of Arabia: Galatians 1:17), & called by Jesus to be His apostle ( Romans 1:1), the other apostles after some initial hesitance acceptance him. And of course, we know that God used Paul mightily to preach to both the Jews & the Gentiles of His saving Grace (his mission however was primarily to the Gentiles). Paul went on several missionary journeys & established several Churches, even in his own country. How very sad though, that Turkey now has Islam as its predominant religion, when at the time of Paul, he would have "turned the world upside down" with the power of the Gospel even in his home country.

So, if you read the Book of Acts, especially from chapter 7 onwards, you'll learn more of what I've shared here. And then his letters to the Churches are filled with wisdom, that which he learned from Jesus to teach Christians on how to live the Christian life victoriously.