Saul 2 - Acts 9:3-4

Now that we know Saul’s background, we have to ask:

3. Q - Why did Jesus choose Saul to become an apostle instead of any of the other Jewish leaders who opposed and persecuted Christianity? 
A – He was foreordained to be an apostle. He was worthy of the call, though misguided. He was uniquely qualified to powerfully preach the gospel to both Jew and gentile, across all social strata. He was zealous and valiant in his beliefs. He was humble.
Expansion: Sometimes it’s hard to reconcile your perception of a person with who they really are. Both Almas are good examples of this, because we only really get to know them when they are righteous, but realizing that they spent many, many years running amok on the wild side can sometimes be hard to put together. Saul is similar in this way because we are all familiar with the Apostles Paul and all the great things that he did for the work, but then we remember that he did terrible things to people before he learned the error of his ways. But this is where the split happens between Saul and those who remained on the wrong side of history. When confronted with his errors, Saul recognized the source and changed his ways to fall in line with God, this is the same thing that happened to both Almas.
Those who remained in wickedness would not recognize the source of the call to repentance and did not fall in line with the will of God. The call to change our ways comes to all of us differently, with Saul it was Jesus Christ himself, with Alma the older it was the prophetic teachings of Abinadi, with Alma the younger it was an angel, with us it is the prophets and the scriptures and the Holy Ghost attending us. One way is not superior to any of the others, even though it might seem like having Jesus Christ appear to you personally would really be the best way, but let’s think about that for a second.
Saul had to have heard about Jesus at some point in the Savior’s ministry, and because Saul was a devout Pharisee, it is possible that he was in the group of his brethren who were rebuked by the Savior. So Saul was too hard hearted to be persuaded by Jesus’ mortal teachings. He didn’t respond favorably to Stephen’s teachings, so he was too hard hearted to be influenced by the prophet and the Holy Ghost, in fact he doubled down his efforts by trying to disrupt the work in Damascus. It took the glorified, immortal Messiah Himself coming down and rebuke Saul before he could recognize his mistakes. So as much as the rest of us would like to see the Savior, if it doesn’t take that much to convince us, then that it probably counted to us as a blessing.
This also begs the question, why did Jesus appear to Saul and call him to the work, when he didn’t appear to the other well-meaning Pharisees. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “Saul was foreordained; nothing he had done on earth qualified him for what was ahead; but his native spiritual endowment, nurtured and earned in pre-existence, prepared him for the coming ministry.” This brings a lot of insight into many of the seemingly unreasonable events that happen with angelic visitations and conversions, etc. When wondering why one person received something spiritual when another didn’t, one thing we have to consider is that much of what’s happening here in this life was already arranged in the previous one, we just have forgotten about it.
There is also another aspect to Saul’s conversion that I had never considered before. During Christ’s mortal ministry, the gospel was specifically kept to Jews, Samaritans and those gentiles who had previously converted to Judaism. But after his death and resurrection, his disciples were commanded to take the gospel to the whole world. While those of traditional Jewish upbringing might struggle with understanding why Christ’s gospel fulfilled and so superseded the law of Moses, they would also struggle with cultural differences, language barriers, and social status that was unique to the Roman empire.
It would seem that the theory about who Saul was in the pre-mortal life is gaining some ground here. Who he was as a person, strong willed, determined, and dedicated was the foundation and allowed God to give him experiences in life so that he could be uniquely qualified for the task at hand.
4. Q – Why did Jesus Christ personally appear to Saul instead of sending an angel?
A – So that Paul could be an “eyewitness” to the resurrected Christ and qualify for the apostleship. So that Paul could testify from experience of Christ’s resurrection.
Expansion: On his way to Damascus, “suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” One question that I had about the Savior’s appearance to Saul is, why did Jesus himself appear to Saul when usually all other appearances are done via angel? What was it about Saul that was so special that prompted Jesus Christ himself to come to him? The answer is extensive, but ultimately, it wasn’t about what was so special about Saul, but what was so special about Christ, specifically that he was alive. Just like Heavenly Father and Jesus appearing to Joseph Smith, it wasn’t because the human boy was so special, but that the glorified beings were.
In an article from gospelway.comentitled, “Saul’s conversion as proof of Jesus’ resurrection” the author noted that “Saul was one of Jesus’ most determined enemies. If such a person saw Jesus, surely his testimony would be especially significant.” I hadn’t considered this aspect before. I always just assumed that Christ had been resurrected and because I attributed malevolence to Saul’s intentions, I thought that Saul knew that Christ had been resurrected, but was trying to destroy people’s testimonies of it. What I didn’t anticipate was that it’s possible that Saul legitimately didn’t know that Christ had been resurrected, and therefore could not have been a witness to his resurrected state without seeing it for himself.
The article continues, “Saul was an enemy of the gospel and a persecutor of the church. Based on his background, he had no possible motives to accept the gospel and every possible motive to continue to reject it. His testimony has every evidence of truth and sincerity, for he had no reason to be untruthful… So Paul’s own testimony claims specifically that he both saw and heard Jesus, as well as speaking to Him. This occurred to qualify Paul as an eyewitness, which was an essential requirement in order for one to be an apostle. This means that Saul was a ‘witness’ in the same sense as the other apostles: he was able to tell people that he had personally seen Jesus alive after His death.”
Even though it was several months ago, we talked about how the existing apostles went about choosing a replacement for Judas Iscariot. The IM comments on this saying, “When choosing a replacement for Judas Iscariot in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the remaining Apostles understood the important of the man being a witness, with the others, of Jesus ministry, from His baptism through his resurrection. The importance of this eyewitness testimony is a major theme in the early Church and the early chapters of Acts.” Even though Saul wasn’t an eyewitness to Christ’s entire ministry, the fact that he had not only seen, but also had a conversation with a supernatural being claiming to be Jesus, qualified him to start on his journey preaching the gospel.
Looking up “did Sault see Jesus’ on google, so many of the search results are basically “how could Saul be an apostle if he never actually saw Jesus?” Maybe it is because our apostles today don’t come right our and say, “I’ve seen Jesus face to face” that my idea of ‘apostle’ might just mean “righteous guy called by God to do a job.” It is no big deal to me if Saul saw Jesus because our church leaders don’t say “I’ve seen Jesus” but they are still able to powerfully testify of Him and teach the gospel with authority.
I guess my big hang up is that Alma the younger saw an angel, not Christ himself, and transformed into a major player in the spiritual scene, why did Christ have to appear to Saul? It might be as simple as Jesus saying, “I’m going to take care of this one personally,” although I doubt it was for that reason. Let’s look at the differences in the two scenarios to see if we can make sense of it.
First, the angel appeared to Alma Jr. before the birth of Christ, so there Jesus wouldn’t have had a body to appear to him in at that time. But that doesn’t make sense because the brother of Jared saw Jesus in “the body of my spirit,” so it is possible for the Savior to appear to someone before his mortal birth.
Second, the angel appeared to Alma to command him to stop his work of destruction because he was “the vilest of sinners.” He wasn’t worthy of a call to the ministry yet. Saul on the other hand was commanded to redirect his efforts. He was worthy of the call even though he persecuted the Church because he was striving with all his efforts to obey God’s law, he just needed some redirection.
Third, Alma was living in a secluded, small community with very little outside influence. There were already prophets and the gospel had among the people, with varying prominence. There were two groups of people who had originated from the same man a few hundred years earlier and the cultures of the two were similar and readily understood. Saul lived in an area that was highly populated and heavily trafficked. He had the potential to make a huge difference in the spread of Christianity throughout the known world. So it would appear that the stakes were a little bit higher on Saul’s end.
Fourth, Alma had the testimony of his father and other righteous people to build up his knowledge and faith, he had an incredible amount of resources that could teach and testify of the Savior. I don’t feel that that area immediately following Christ’s death would have been that rich in resources to build an apostleship testimony. That’s a poor way to phrase that, because clearly many people were converted and built faith enough to become martyrs for the cause. I guess what I mean is that there were still only a few people who had seen the resurrected Christ, around 500, and they might not have been willing to help Saul understand the gospel if only an angel had appeared.
Fifth and final, Saul was going to be called to be an apostle and testify of the resurrected Jesus Christ throughout all the known world. At that time, and maybe even now I’m not sure, there is a huge emphasis on Apostles having seen Jesus with their own eyes, they are “special witnesses.” Saul had every reason to keep on persecuting the church, he would have gained favor in the eyes of his colleagues, he would have commanded power and respect and fear, he could have become rich, etc. But be gave all that up to teach the truth that he had learned. God had arranged and influenced Saul’s entire life to prepare him to take the gospel to the entire world, why wouldn’t he come personally, Himself to start that transition? Because Jesus came to Saul personally, he could be called to the apostleship, and Saul could bear a powerful witness that he had both seen and heard the resurrected Jesus Christ after his death. Neither of those would have been possible without the Savior personally appearing to Saul.