Summary: The "conversion" of Saul/Paul by Christ on the way to Damascus is a turning point in the history of Christianity. In Acts, Saul/Paul the anti-vegan Roman citizen gave three accounts of it (Acts 9:3-7; Acts 22:6-10; Acts 22:17-21), which are strikingly contradictory regarding, e.g., whether Christ directly instructed him to convert the Gentiles, who fell to the ground, who heard the voice, who saw the light, etc. Such kind of self-conflicting evidence would have been dismissed by a court of law. Further, after the alleged conversion, instead of beating him up and putting him in jail, Paul's secret-police-colleagues—who had set out with him to persecute Jewish Christians—actually left him in the care of a devout Jew (cf. Voskuilen 2005). As Paul was a self-admitted chameleon (1 Corinthians 9:19–22; Romans 3:7) who pathetically repeats that he's not a liar (Romans 9:1; 2 Corinthians 11:31; 1 Timothy 2:7), his conversion was probably a fabrication to serve the purpose of domesticating and corrupting Jesus' Vegan Church from the inside on behalf of the Roman Empire.
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1. Texts of the 3 Conversion-Accounts Given by Saul/Paul
In the first account, Paul's "conversion" is narrated when it supposedly took place. In the second account, Paul was defending himself before a group of Jews angry with his violation of the Law of Moses. In the third account, Paul was testifying in his own defense before the Judean King Agrippa and his Gentile Court.
1.1. Account One
"…[Saul] was approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, `Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'…The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.…there was a…disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision... "...look for a man of Tarsus named Saul... so that he might regain his sight... for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel..." So Ananias went and ... laid his hands on Saul and said, `Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."( Acts 9:3-17 New Revised Standard Version)
1.2. Account Two
"While I was…approaching Damascus…a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying…Saul,Saul, why are you persecuting me?...those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice…I could not see because of the brightness of the light…those with me…led me to Damascus…Ananias, who was a devout man according to the law and well spoken of by all the Jews living there…said…get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name." (Acts 22:6-21 New Revised Standard Version)
1.3. Account Three
"…I was traveling to Damascus…I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, `Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads…the Lord answered, `I am Jesus whom you are persecuting…get up and stand on your feet… , for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. I will rescue you from your people and from the gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ "( Acts 26:12-18 New Revised Standard Version)
The three accounts contradict each other concerning, for example, whether Christ directly instructed him to convert the Gentiles, who fell to the ground, who heard the voice, who saw the light, etc.
2. Discrepancies Outlined
Now, which account of the conversion of Saul/Paul is correct? Saul alone fell to the ground; those with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one; Saul was without sight for three days; Ananias was a disciple who laid hands on Saul to restore his sight and fill him with the Holy Spirit.
Or
Saul alone fell to the ground; Just he heard the voice; Those with him saw the light but did not hear the voice; No mention of three days without sight or food; Ananias was "a devout man according to the Law and liked by the Jews."
Or
Everybody fell to the ground; the voice spoke in the Hebrew Language; a direct instruction of Jesus Christ for Paul to preach the Good News to the Gentiles; no blindness, no Ananias, no baptism, no restoration of sight, no “filled by Holy Spirit”!
Make up your mind, Saul/Paul!
In a Court of Common Law, such contradictory evidence would have been rejected and the witness concerned considered unreliable (cf. Ali n.d.) .
2. Discrepancies Analyzed
The discrepancies among the three accounts may be partly attributed to the different target audiences.
2.1. Who Fell to the Ground?
The first two accounts try to highlight Paul's status in relation to Christ compared with his companions, by claiming that only Paul fell to the ground when he saw the light and heard the voice. In the third narration, which was given at the Court of King Agrippa, Saul and his companions all fell down, probably because Saul wanted to dramatize the vision by showing that this even had impacted not only himself but also those in his presence.
2.2. Who Heard the Voice?
The second account is supposed to be an improvement upon the first, for while in the first account both Saul and his companions could hear the voice, in the second account only Saul was "blessed" enough to hear Christ's message. Further, in that case, he could make up whatever message from Christ he wanted.
Quite a few English versions of the Bible, e.g., NLV, try to smooth over the contradiction between Acts 9:7 and 22:9, by translating Acts 9:7 -- ἀκούοντες (akouontes/heard) μὲν (men/indeed) τῆς (tēs/the) φωνῆς (phōnēs/voice) -- as "they heard the sound of someone's voice"; but Acts 22:9 -- φωνὴν (phōnēs/voice) οὐκ (ouk/not) ἤκουσαν (ēkousan/did they hear) -- as "didn't understand the voice." Now, according to Luke's own record of Paul, Paul was well familiar with better words for "understanding". In Acts 28:26, Paul asserts, "When you hear what I say, you will not understand." (Acts 28:26 NLT). The Greek work he uses for "understand" is συνῆτε (synēte) instead of ἤκουσαν (ἤκουσαν). He also uses this word in Rom 3:11, 15:21, 2 Cor 10:12, and Eph 5:17, as pointed out by Malik Ali.
2.3. Did Jesus Directly Instruct Paul to Convert the Gentiles?
As the target audience of the second account was common Jews, Saul did not specify that Christ personally ordered him to convert the Gentiles. In the first account, this mission for Paul was only mentioned by the Lord to Ananias, but not directly to Paul. In the third account, Jesus directly gave this instruction to Saul/Paul in the alleged visionary encounter between the two, probably because the target audience was King Agrippa's Gentile court and Saul wanted to emphasize the relevance of the visionary event to them.
2.4. Ananias as an Intermediary
The doing away with Ananias totally in the third account has two more advantages for Paul. Firstly, Jesus Christ directly communicating with Saul/Paul without going through a middleman is very much in line with Paul's subsequent claim that he derives the message he preaches from a revelation of the heavenly Christ (Galatians 1:11-12), rather than "from men or through men," alluding to James and the other disciples whom Jesus had personally selected and taught (cf. Tabor 2012:3). Secondly, the absence of a devout Jew healing and baptizing Paul would make him appear stronger, and more detached from Jewish Christians whom King Agrippa's Gentile Court deeply distrusted.
3. How about Saul/Paul's Secret-Police-Companions?
Further, after the alleged conversion, instead of beating him up and putting him in jail, Saul/Paul's secret-police-colleagues—who had set out with him to persecute Jewish Christians—actually left him in the care of Ananias the devout Jew (cf. Voskuilen 2005). In other words, they just let him walk away Scott free, allowing him to take highly confidential data with him, such as State tactics, the identities of his secret-police-colleagues and of possible informants within the resistance alliance, in Damascus as well as in Jerusalem. Doesn't make sense at all.
Back to Ananias, he must be one of the Jews that Saul and his companions had come to get in the first place. Obviously, they did not even consider arresting or interrogating the first element of the adversary movement they came across. Extraordinary!
4. Paul as a Habitual Liar
As Paul was a self-admitted chameleon (1 Corinthians 9:19–22; Romans 3:7) who pathetically repeats that he's not a liar, his conversion (Romans 9:1; 2 Corinthians 11:31; 1 Timothy 2:7) was probably a fabrication to serve the end of corrupting Jesus' Vegan Church from the inside.
4.1. Paul as a Self-Confessed Chameleon
As admitted by himself, in order to achieve his aim, Paul is also ready to be a "chameleon", i.e., an impostor, someone always ready to change his own stance/color so as to cater for different "clients":- "Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law...so as to win those not having the law (1 Corinthians 9:19–22 NIV).
4.2. By Hook or by Crook!
Even more scandalous is Paul's declaration in Romans 3:7 (KJV) that he is free and entitled to lie in order to widely spread the Good News -- “For if the truth of God hath more abounded through MY LIE unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?" In other words, to Paul, the end justifies the means (cf. Nunez 2023).
4.3. Someone who Keeps Denying that he Lies
Now, if someone insists that "I lie not," in the first couple of times, it might seem endearing. However, if they persistently repeat this claim, it inevitably leads you to question their sincerity. Such constant reassurance prompts one to wonder, "Could this person actually be deceiving me?" It's natural to become skeptical about someone's honesty when they feel the need to continuously affirm it. What type of person would constantly have to stress to other people that they are not telling lies, not to mention in the Bible? Answer: A Liar! (cf. Nunez 2023) This precise point is referred to in certain Biblical verses related to Paul and written by Paul himself as follows:-
“I say the truth in Christ, I LIE NOT, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 9:1 KJV)
“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I LIE NOT.” (2 Corinthians 11:31 KJV)
“Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I LIE NOT.” (Galatians 1:20 KJV)
“And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle. I am telling the truth, I AM NOT LYING–and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.” (1 Timothy 2:7 NIV)
This kind of continual denying is probably indicative of two things. Firstly, Paul's honesty was questioned by a lot of his contemporaries so that he had to reiterate his integrity again and again. Secondly, he was unconsciously trying to suppress the fact that he's a liar. Denial is a popular defense mechanism. From a Freudian perspective, the more vigorously you deny something about you, the more real and the more stronger is that thing (Freud 1924:181-8).
4.4. Confession as a Freudian Slip of Tongue
On the other hand, when you keep denying a strong drive inside you, one day you may all of a sudden unconsciously divulge it in a "Freudian slip of tongue". The term refers to an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is believed to be linked to the unconscious mind's suppressed thoughts or desires (Freud 1914). This is arguably why Paul made the following shocking confession:-
“Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you. Yet, a CRAFTY fellow that I am, I caught you by TRICKERY!” (2 Corinthians 12:16 NIV)
5. Jesus vs Paul
After all, Paul's preaching is so different from Jesus' that it is extremely doubtful that Paul was personally converted and tutored by Christ. While Jesus the Vegan Christ declares "I desire compassion, rather than sacrifice" (Matthew 9:13 NASB), Paul the anti-vegan apostate tells people they may "eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience" (1 Corinthians 10:25 NIV). Don't forget that Jesus died for animal liberation (Akers 2020:111). In protesting bloody sacrifice and setting free animals bought and sold for cruel sacrifice in the Holy Temple (Matthew 21:12), Jesus disrupted the lucrative revenue stream of the chief priests and scribes and gravely offended them. Immediately afterwards, they plotted to have Him killed (Mark 11:18), eventually leading to His crucifixion. Paul, however, turned Jesus into the very thing he was protesting -- a sacrificial lamb (Chen 2024)!
While Jesus upholds action motivated by love:-“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18 NIV), Paul preaches that salvation comes by faith only, e.g., "And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness" (Romans 4:5 ESV). While Jesus asserts, "I came not to send peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34 KJV), Paul, a Roman citizen, commands, "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established" (Romans 13:1-3 NIV).
6. Conclusion
To put it in a nutshell, the self-claimed "conversion" of Saul/Paul is a pivotal moment in the history of Christianity. Ever since then, the Pauline camp has dominated mainstream Christianity for two thousand years.
Saul/Paul's three accounts of his "conversion" are so full of self-contradictions that they cannot be considered admissible evidence. The discrepancies may be partially explained by adjustments made for different audiences. The tolerant and even indulgent behavior of his secret-police-companions after his "conversion" was also unreasonable. As Paul himself confessed that he's a crafty cheater who is ready to get what he wants by hook or by crook, there is good reason to believe that Saul/Paul as a Roman mole just pretended to be converted by Christ, in order to pervert, subvert and subdue Jesus' Vegan Church from the inside out, especially when we consider the fact that what Paul preaches is so different from what Jesus teaches.
It is thus high time we turned away from anti-vegan Pauline Christianity and returned to Jesus' Vegan Church.
References
Akers, Keith (2020). The Lost Religion of Jesus. NY: Lantern Publishing & Media/ Woodstock & Brooklyn.
Ali, Malik (n.d.). "St. Paul The Root of Christian Missionary Deception." Missionislam. https://www.missionislam.com/comprel/deception.htm
Chen, Chapman (2024a). "Pauline Christianity is a Bloody Black-Magic Sacrificial Cult. Go Vegan!" HKBNews, Apr. 2. https://www.hkbnews.net/post/pauline-christianity-is-a-bloody-black-magic-sacrificial-cult-go-vegan-by-dr-chapman-chen
Freud, Sigmund (1924). "The Loss of Reality in Neurosis and Psychosis." In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIX (1923-1925): The Ego and the Id and Other Works. Trans. James Strachey. London: Hogarth.
Freud, Sigmund (1914). The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. Trans. A. A. Brill. London: Macmillan.
Gott (n.d.). "The Gospel of Paul." The Nazarene Way of Essenic Stuides. http://www.thenazareneway.com/The%20Gospel%20of%20Paul.htm
Nunez, Ayala (2023). "Rebellion, the Tower of Babel, Demonic Tongues and the Pagan Pentecost." Blog with Real Revolution Radio, June 5. https://blogwithrealrevolutionradio.com/2023/06/05/rebellion-the-tower-of-babel-and-the-pagan-pentecost/
Voskuilen, Thijs (2005) "Operation Messiah: Did Christianity Start as a Roman Psychological Counterinsurgency Operation?", Small Wars & Insurgencies, 16:2, 192-215, DOI: 10.1080/09592310500079940
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