Barnabas made all the difference with the believers – he was not called the “Son of Encouragement” for nothing – and with his support, Paul was accepted into their fellowship.  At this time, however, most of their leaders were not in Jerusalem, and Paul was only able to meet Peter (also called Cephas) and James, the half-brother of Jesus.

But nothing could convince Paul’s old friends to accept him.  They saw him simply as a traitor, not as a man who had found truth and was willing to admit he had been wrong.

Within a couple of weeks, they were plotting to kill Paul, so his visit to Jerusalem lasted only fifteen days.  He was happy to have met the brethren he had, but he would have preferred to meet more.

Escape, again.

 

 

“Traitor!”

“You call me a traitor, Simon, but why would I turn traitor?  Tell me how I am benefiting from being a traitor.  Surely I must have a reason to betray my friends as you say I’m doing?”

“Not only your friends – your God as well!”

“Okay, I’ll let that pass for the moment, but tell me, what benefit am I getting?  What advantage have I had in making this change of beliefs?”

“You just want to be important.”

“But the other believers in Jesus don’t even know me, even though I became a follower of Jesus more than three years ago.  So what advantage have I gained?”

“Probably someone paid you to change.”

“Most of Jesus’ followers are not rich men, though some of them were before they decided to follow him.  They couldn’t afford to pay me to join them.  Have they ever offered to pay you to change?”

“I wouldn’t listen if they did.”

“You’re dodging the issue.  Listen, I left Judaism because I discovered that what I once thought was impossible was really a fact.  Jesus isn’t dead – he’s alive.  I’ve talked to him.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.  After all, people come back to life all the time, don’t they?  Particularly people who have been crucified for heresy.”

“We were friends, Simon, why won’t you listen to me?”

“Yes, we were friends, Saul – until you betrayed us all.”

“How can you say I’ve betrayed you when I’m offering you all an opportunity for salvation?  I was your friend and you trusted me, so why won’t you now believe me when I tell you that I’ve met Jesus?  I’m trying to help you!  Why would you ever think I’m betraying you?”

“You’ve abandoned the faith and tried to lead us into worshipping other gods.  Moses told us to kill anyone who did that.”

“All I’ve done is to tell you that Jesus is alive.  It’s a fact I can’t deny any more.  Why won’t you believe me?  After all, as I’ve pointed out, his death and resurrection fulfilled predictions God made through many of our prophets.”

“You’re twisting their words.”

“Many of them are so simple and clear that it’s really hard to twist them!  We all know that the soldiers tore up some of Jesus’ clothes and cast lots for other items.  Well, that’s just what God predicted in the Psalms!  And in enough detail that I couldn’t twist it if I tried.  Can’t you just believe it?”

“Never!  Your way of reading it is all wrong.  This Jesus was executed for blasphemy!  Why would God raise a blasphemer from the dead?”

“God raised him because he had promised that he would not let his holy one see corruption.  Do you remember that in the Psalms?  And God also predicted that he would be killed unjustly, which is exactly what happened.”

“The Romans killed him because he wanted to make himself king instead of Caesar.”

“The Romans would never have killed him if our chief priests hadn’t demanded that they do so.  At the time, they didn’t know what they were doing, but now they’ve heard from many witnesses that Jesus is alive, and they still won’t believe it.  I’m just one of those witnesses.”

“He’s not alive at all – it’s just a big trick.  You’ve heard the guards’ reports: they went to sleep and his disciples came and stole the body.”

“Did you also hear the report that the guards were paid to say that?”

“Who would pay them?”

“The very people who stood to lose their position of power and influence if Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead.  They also happen to be rich and able to fork out money like that.”

“Didn’t you say that some of Jesus’ followers started off rich?  How come they aren’t any more?  Have they been paying gullible innocents to join this sect you’re promoting?”

“No, they’ve been helping poor people who don’t have enough to eat because they’re being persecuted.  Look, Simon, I don’t want to spend time in pointless arguing.  You know I’ve already heard all the arguments you’re putting forward.  I used to believe them myself, until I met Jesus and found that he is the Christ.  He spoke to me and asked me why I was persecuting him.  Now I’ll ask you the same.  Don’t you love truth?  If you do, stop fighting it.  In the end, I had to admit that I was wrong.  Listen!  Compare what Jesus Christ told us with what God said in the scriptures and you’ll see that it matches.  Start listening to Abraham and Moses, to David and Isaiah, to Jeremiah and all the other prophets.  Stop fighting against the truth; stop denying the truth.”

“Saul, you’re the one who’s twisting truth.  We have history on our side – a consistent faith held by our fathers for more than 1,000 years.”

“So why were our fathers sent into captivity, if our faith as a nation was so exemplary?”

“Because there were people like you around who kept breaking Moses’ law and teaching others to do the same.”

“Simon, Simon, you know the words Moses spoke about God raising up a prophet like him.  Moses warned us that we had to listen to that prophet because he would speak the words of God – that we must listen or answer to God for not doing so.  Jesus is this prophet.  He spoke God’s words and fulfilled many of God’s prophecies.”

“You sound like John the Baptist,” snorted Simon with disdain.  “But only the ignorant, common people accepted his fine-sounding nonsense.”

“John warned the nation that God’s prophet was coming.  As you say, the simple people believed him.  But those of us who thought they knew better wouldn’t listen, and then we wouldn’t listen to Jesus either.  We were all sure that we knew better, so we rejected God’s efforts to teach us.”

“God wouldn’t try to teach us to blaspheme!”

“No, but what if God’s idea of blasphemy and yours don’t match?  What if we and our fathers have twisted God’s words so that good looks like bad and bad looks like good?  Please, just stop and think about whether that could happen.”

“It couldn’t.  Moses’ laws are clear and unchanging.  You’re trying to get rid of those laws just as Jesus did.  He died for his crimes as he deserved, and I’m warning you – you’ll soon be following him in that way too!”

“Simon, I beg you to listen!  Please, just consider for a moment: what if I’m right?  How would you check it?”

“I don’t need to.  We know that you’re wrong!  You were my friend, but Moses warned us that we had to be on our guard even with our friends.  By the words of Moses, I will be doing my best to have you executed.”

“How do you explain the miracles that Jesus and his followers have done?  Are they not the work of God?”

“They are the work of Beelzebul!”

“And yet they are always used for good!  Does that make sense to you?  Countless miracles have been performed through the power of God’s Holy Spirit as evidence that God himself is helping these people, yet you refuse to listen.  How can God ever save you if you won’t listen?”

“Moses’ law will save us.  And you’ll find out soon enough whether God will save you, Saul!”