Nay there was none to use this mode of persuasion. But was it that he saw Him present on earth, and was abashed? He had already been taken up into heaven. He went forth to persecute, and after three days the persecutor is a preacher in Damascus. By what power?
Others call friends as witnesses for friends but I have presented to you as a witness the former enemy: and dost thou still doubt? The testimony of Peter and John, though weighty, was yet of a kind open to suspicion: for they were His friends. But of one who was formerly his enemy, and afterwards dies for His sake, who can any longer doubt the truth?
By St. Cyril of Jerusalem–315-386ad
1700 years ago St. Cyril used Paul’s conversion to prove the risen Christ. He asks, what reason would Paul have to convert? When he was a man already given great honor, a Jew, a lawyer, and a Roman. Paul wanted for nothing in life, and had set out with legal warrants in his hand to find, jail, and even kill Christians. Knowing full well that his becoming a Christian would not only remove him of his station in life but, would also cost him his life. He converted, and did so without Christian preaching to him. Then his checks his account with Peter and John of what he saw, and they agree that he see Christ God, thus proving that Paul did not see a mere vision.
Michael Fowler
