Is that Saul or Paul?
You don't always know when a Paul—someone with the potential to become a devoted and even a stellar member—has come knocking at your church door. If you see a Saul—someone with reputation quite contrary to your fellow Christians—you may shut him out. That way the church stays safe. Or so we think! But if those early disciples who helped Paul in his beginning Christian discipleship had failed to answer the spiritual call to accept and help him, the church and the whole world would have been the losers.
Before Saul took the new name of Paul, when he became a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ, Saul had been a Pharisee with a reputation for zealously going after Christians, mercilessly persecuting them. He even played a role in the stoning of Stephen, an outstanding Christian preacher and healer (see Acts 6:8 and 22:20). Those in the Jewish community who considered Stephen's preaching as a blasphemous attack against Mosaic law and temple worship stoned Stephen to death in the presence of Saul, who gave his tacit approval (see Acts 7:54-8:1).
