M*W wrote
No he wasn't. That still makes PAUL a liar.
We might not know all the details, chronology, or psychology of what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus but we do know this: it radically affected every area of his life.
First, Paul's character was drastically transformed. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes him before his conversion as an intolerant, bitter, persecuting, religious bigot - proud and temperamental. After his conversion he is pictured as patient, kind, enduring, and self-sacrificing. Kenneth Scott Latourette says: "What integrated Paul's life, however, and lifted this almost neurotic temperament out of obscurity into enduring influence was a profound and revolutionary religious experience."
Second, Paul's relationship with the followers of Jesus was transformed. "Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus" (Acts 9:19). And when Paul went to the apostles, he received the "right hand of fellowship."
Third, Paul's message was transformed. Though he still loved his Jewish heritage, he had changed from a bitter antagonist to a determined protagonist of the Christian faith. "Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is the Son of God' " (Acts 9:20). Paul's intellectual convictions had changed. His experience compelled him to acknowledge that Jesus was the Messiah, in direct conflict with the Pharisees' messianic ideas. His new conception of Christ meant a total revolution in his thought. Jacques Dupont acutely observes that after Paul "had passionately denied that a crucified man could be the Messiah, he came to grant that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, and, as a consequence, rethought all his messianic ideas."
Also he could now understand that Christ's death on the cross, which appeared to be a curse of God and a deplorable ending of someone's life, was actually God through Christ reconciling the world to himself. Paul came to understand that through the crucifixion Christ became a curse for us (Galatians 3:13) and was "made…to be sin on our behalf" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Instead of a defeat, the death of Christ was a great victory, being capped by the resurrection. The cross was no longer a "stumbling block" but the essence of God's messianic redemption. Paul's missionary preaching can be summarized as "explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead… 'This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,' " he said (Acts 17:3).
Fourth, Paul's mission was transformed. He was changed from a Gentile-hater to a missionary to Gentiles. He was changed from a Jewish zealot to an evangelist to Gentiles. As a Jew and Pharisee, Paul looked down upon the despised Gentile as someone inferior to God's chosen people. The Damascus experience changed him into a dedicated apostle, with his life's mission aimed toward helping the Gentile. Paul saw in the Christ who appeared to him the Savior for all people. Paul went from being an orthodox Pharisee whose mission was to preserve strict Judaism to being a propagator of that new radical sect called Christianity which he had so violently opposed. There was such a change in him that "all those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying 'Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this [Jesus'] name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?' " (Acts 9:21).
Historian Philip Schaff states: "The conversion of Paul marks not only a turning-point in his personal history, but also an important epoch in the history of the apostolic church, and consequently in the history of mankind. It was the most fruitful event since the miracle of Pentecost, and secured the universal victory of Christianity."
Quoted from “DID YOU HEAR WHAT HAPPENED TO SAUL” By Josh McDowell
http://www.yfiles.com/saul.htm
Thank you for your response, M*W, but there are more than 300 prophecies Jesus fulfilled during His lifetime. One of them is prophesied in Daniel 9:25, 26.
M*W wrote
If Jesus "fulfilled more than 300 prophecies during his lifetime" then the "prophecies were written in the OT AFTER THE FACT!
Better read the history of the OT again, M*W. The Hebrew Bible was standardized centuries before Jesus arrived. Nothing was changed or added.
M*W wrote
So where is your messiah now?
Choose a verse, M*W, and you have your answer.
John 14:1-3 - "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
Mr 16:19 - So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
Lu 22:69 - "But from now on THE SON OF MAN WILL BE SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND of the power OF GOD."
Ac 2:33 - "Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
Ac 5:31 - "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
Ac 7:55, 56 - But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
Ro 8:34 - who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Col 3:1 - Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Heb 10:12 - but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,
Heb 12:2 - fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
1Pe 3:22 - who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.
Plus the Old Testament gives a clear outline as to who, what, where and how the Messiah will appear.
M*W wrote
Yes, and the Jews are still waiting for the messiah who HAS NOT COME! All you have is a dead rabbi.
"After the sixty-two sevens, the Anointed One will be cut off (yikaret) and have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary (temple)." (cf. Daniel 9:26)
The Hebrew term, yikaret, implies a sudden, violent death. This is a precise description of Jesus’ brutal death on the cross. Another astonishing aspect deals with the fact that the Temple was destroyed some forty years after Christ's crucifixion; clearly fulfilling Daniel’s prediction of the "sanctuary" being demolished right after the death of the Messiah! Hence, Jesus must be the Messiah since the prophecy clearly states that the Messiah must appear before the destruction of the second Temple. The only person who fits the bill is Jesus Christ, since He is the only one who claimed that his death was essential in providing the atonement that was both necessary to usher in God’s everlasting righteousness and to eradicate sin.
Furthermore, any denial of Jesus’ Messiahship is essentially a denial of Daniel’s authenticity as a prophetic book since the condition of the prophecy rests upon the arrival of the Messiah before the Temple’s destruction. Yet, if Jesus is not Messiah then Daniel is proven to be a false prophet since the Temple has been destroyed and the Messiah has not come. Hence, once the weight of historical occurrences and mathematical calculations is thrown behind the prophecies of the Bible, it becomes increasingly impossible to deny the fact that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
Additional confirmation of the messianic overtones of Daniel 9:25-27 comes from the Talmud itself:
“In Daniel is delivered to us the end [‘the time of His appearance and death’ - Rabbi Jarchi] of the Messiah.” The Talmud also records that about the time of the Roman general Titus’ destruction of the Temple (70 A. D.), the Messiah was believed to have already come, yet His identity was concealed from the Jews until they were rendered more worthy of His appearance!” (Frank Delitzch and Paton Gloag, The Messiahship of Christ / The Messianic Prophecies of Christ [Minneapolis, MN; Klock & Klock, 1983 rpt.], pt. 2, p. 226)
Rabbi Moses Abraham Levi stated: “I have examined the Holy Scriptures, and have not found the time for the coming of the Messiah, clearly fixed, except in the words of Gabriel to the prophet Daniel, which are written in the ninth chapter of the prophecy of Daniel.”
Quoted from
http://www.jesusplusnothing.com/messiah/messiah.htm
Nehushta wrote
But a messiah might evolve from existing myths and rumors, if one didn't actually show up in the flesh when expected. And the stories of Jesus were not well known until long after his alleged death, and the "facts" of his life were not set in stone until hundreds of years later, and only then by those with an agenda (e.g., unification of the crumbling Roman Empire).
The New Testament accounts of the resurrection were being circulated within the lifetimes of men and women alive at the time of the resurrection. Those people could certainly have confirmed or denied the accuracy of such accounts.
The writers of the four Gospels either had themselves been witnesses or else were relating the accounts of eyewitnesses of the actual events. In advocating their case for the gospel, a word that means "good news," the apostles appealed (even when confronting their most severe opponents) to common knowledge concerning the facts of the resurrection.
F. F. Bruce, Rylands professor of biblical criticism and exegesis at the University of Manchester, says concerning the value of the New Testament records as primary sources: "Had there been any tendency to depart from the facts in any material respect, the possible presence of hostile witnesses in the audience would have served as a further corrective."
Because the New Testament provides the primary historical source for information on the resurrection, many critics during the 19th century attacked the reliability of these biblical documents.
By the end of the 1 9th century, however, archaeological discoveries had confirmed the accuracy of the New Testament manuscripts. Discoveries of early papyri bridged the gap between the time of Christ and existing manuscripts from a later date.
Those findings increased scholarly confidence in the reliability of the Bible. William F. Albright, who in his day was the world's foremost biblical archaeologist, said: "We can already say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book of the New Testament after about A.D. 80, two full generations before the date between 130 and 150 given by the more radical New Testament critics of today."
Coinciding with the papyri discoveries, an abundance of other manuscripts came to light (over 24,000 copies of early New Testament manuscripts are known to be in existence today). The historian Luke wrote of "authentic evidence" concerning the resurrection. Sir William Ramsay, who spent 15 years attempting to undermine Luke credentials as a historian, and to refute the reliability of the New Testament, finally concluded: "Luke is a historian of the first rank . . . This author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians."
From E. M. Blaiklock, Professor of Classics, Auckland University: “I claim to be an historian. My approach to Classics is historical. And I tell you that the evidence for the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ is better authenticated than most of the facts of ancient history . . . “
Quoted from “Evidence for the Resurrection” by Josh McDowell
http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html
Historians have found that there were a number of people proclaiming themselves as “messiahs” during the time of Jesus, inciting revolts or revolutions against the Roman authorities. And when these “messiahs” died, their followers dissolved into obscurity, only to follow another self-proclaimed “messiah”. (Acts 5:34- 39) This habit was evident of Jesus’s followers when the authorities came to arrest Jesus. His followers ran away and hid for their lives. With the death of Jesus, they should have dissolved and looked for another. But that didn’t happened. After some time they were out on the streets proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead and they were witnesses to that fact. (Acts 4:5- 14) They were bold enough to take the message of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead to the world. If they had not seen it with their own eyes it would be doubtful they would have given their lives for something they weren’t sure of. Jesus gave the responsibility of proclaiming His resurrection and the “good news” to the Apostles. For that they faced horrible executions, which is a strong indication they actually saw the resurrected Christ and believed what they taught. The testimony of seeing the resurrected Jesus was written with their blood. It is doubtful they would have been able to do this great work of spreading the gospel if they did not really believe that they had seen the risen Lord with their own eyes.
