Paul Relates the Story of His Conversion

Paul told the Thessalonian Jews of his amazing experience at the gate of Damascus. Before conversion his faith had not been anchored in Christ; he had trusted in forms and ceremonies. While boasting that he was blameless in performing the deeds of the law, he had refused the One who gave value to the law.ULe 85.6

But at his conversion, everything had changed. The persecutor saw Jesus as the Son of God, the One who had met every specification of the Sacred Writings.ULe 86.1

As Paul proclaimed the gospel with holy boldness at Thessalonica, a flood of light opened up the true meaning of the tabernacle service. He carried the minds of his hearers beyond the ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary to the time when He would come in power and great glory and establish His kingdom. Paul was a believer in the second coming. He presented the truths concerning this event so clearly that the minds of many received an impression that never faded away.ULe 86.2

For three Sabbaths in a row Paul preached, reasoning from the Scriptures about the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). He lifted up Christ, whose ministry, when properly understood, is the key that gives us access to the rich treasures of the Old Testament Scriptures.ULe 86.3

Paul’s words gripped the attention of large congregations. “Some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.” But as in other places they had already entered, the apostles met with opposition. By uniting with “some of the evil men from the marketplace,” the Jews succeeded in setting “the city in an uproar.” They “attacked the house of Jason,” but they could not find either Paul or Silas. In their disappointed rage the mob “dragged Jason and some of the brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, ‘These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.’”ULe 86.4

The officials took a security bond from the accused believers to help assure the peace. Fearing further violence, “the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.”ULe 86.5

Those who teach unpopular truths today sometimes meet with no better reception, even from those who claim to be Christians, than Paul and his fellow workers did. But the messengers of the cross must move forward with faith and courage, in the name of Jesus. They must lift up Christ as our mediator in the heavenly sanctuary, the One in whom those who have broken God’s law may find peace and pardon.ULe 86.6