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    Called or Converted On The Damascus Road?

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    The document discusses whether Paul's Damascus Road experience was a call or conversion. While Paul did not change religions, the author argues it was a conversion in the sense of embracing Christ as Lord and Savior. The experience involved conviction, a life change in Paul, and embracing Christ, indicating it was a spiritual conversion preceded by conviction from Stephen's martyrdom.

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    Called or Converted On The Damascus Road?

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    The document discusses whether Paul's Damascus Road experience was a call or conversion. While Paul did not change religions, the author argues it was a conversion in the sense of embracing Christ as Lord and Savior. The experience involved conviction, a life change in Paul, and embracing Christ, indicating it was a spiritual conversion preceded by conviction from Stephen's martyrdom.

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    An exploration of Paul's Damascus Road experience

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    Called or Converted on the Damascus Road?

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    The document discusses whether Paul's Damascus Road experience was a call or conversion. While Paul did not change religions, the author argues it was a conversion in the sense of embracing Christ as Lord and Savior. The experience involved conviction, a life change in Paul, and embracing Christ, indicating it was a spiritual conversion preceded by conviction from Stephen's martyrdom.

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    20 views2 pages

    Called or Converted On The Damascus Road?

    Uploaded by

    grimespopz
    The document discusses whether Paul's Damascus Road experience was a call or conversion. While Paul did not change religions, the author argues it was a conversion in the sense of embracing Christ as Lord and Savior. The experience involved conviction, a life change in Paul, and embracing Christ, indicating it was a spiritual conversion preceded by conviction from Stephen's martyrdom.

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    NBST 520: New Testament Orientation II

    Daryl L Grimes
    Paul: Called or Converted on the Damascus Road?

    Robert Wayne Stacy introduces the video “Paul’s Damascus Road Experience: Call or
    Conversion?” by reminding his hearers that Paul never referred to a conversion per se.1 Some
    scholars deny Paul was converted because he did not change religions but saw this occasion only
    as a divine call.2
    Whenever having a debate, it is important to define one’s terms. While some view the word
    conversion as changing from one religion to another, I am using the word in reference to
    salvation, or what Jesus called the new birth in John 3. While Paul did not cease being a Jew
    when confronted with the risen Christ, it seems that he was converted in the sense of embracing
    Christ as Lord and Savior and experiencing what Jesus referred to as the new birth (see John 3).
    You may remember Jesus was speaking to a man named Nicodemus, a Jew, and a Pharisee, but
    Jesus clearly told him that he needed to be born again. In that sense, Nicodemus and Saul of
    Tarsus needed to be converted. They needed to embrace the Messiah by faith and experience the
    conversion of the Spirit. I believe that’s what happened due to the Damascus Road experience.
    This new birth conversion was preceded by conviction. In Acts 26:14, the risen Christ mentions
    that Paul had been kicking against the goads. Some believe the message delivered by Stephen
    (recorded in Acts 7) and his martyrdom had been used by the Holy Spirit to convict Paul and
    prepare him for the interaction with Christ on the road to Damascus.3 Not only is there
    conviction involved before and during this event, but there is also a life change that happens due
    to this event. This life change also led me to believe this was a new birth conversion experience.
    In the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul says that those in Christ become new creatures and
    old things pass away (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). This is exactly what happened to him.
    Not only was there conviction and life change but also an embracing of Christ by the Apostle
    Paul. Once, he had tried to destroy those who followed Christ, but after this experience, he
    followed Jesus for himself. Very soon after this event, he even preached Christ in the synagogues
    (see Acts 9:20).4

    1
    Robert Wayne Stacy, “Paul’s Damascus Road Experience: Call or Conversion?” (video lecture in NBST
    520 at Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA, July 16, 2022).

    2
    James Leo Garrett Jr., Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical, Second Edition., vol. 2
    (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014), 279.
    3
    Charles C. Ryrie, Biblical Theology of the New Testament (Dubuque, IA: ECS Ministries, 2005), 147.
    4
    John B. Polhill, Acts, vol. 26, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman
    Publishers, 1992), 240.
    I cannot deny that part of the Damascus Road experience also contained a calling. However, to
    say that it was only a call, in my opinion, is far less than what happened on that journey.

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