By way of reminder this was the sort of quote:
"Saul, who God changed to Paul, was one of the greatest persecutors of Christians but was transformed, by God's grace, to become a man of faith."
We begin with the thing that is confirmed in 1 Cor. 15:10, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Paul attributes the change in his life to the grace of God. He was indeed transformed by the grace of God. The old had passed and he was a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). Transformation by the grace of God is necessary for all who desire to follow the Messiah. It is a process and is accomplished by Him and the power of His Spirit, not by our efforts alone. But transformation must occur or there is no relationship with the Lord, no faith, no salvation. It is clearly evident in the Scriptures that Saul/Paul was transformed by the grace of God.
Did God change Saul to Paul? God did change Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah and Jacob to Israel. He did tell Zacharias to name his son John, Yoannes, meaning God's gift and Mary to name her son Jesus, Yeshua, meaning He saves. Not, by the way Joshua, Yehoshua, meaning the Lord is salvation or the Lord is my salvation. There is a theological difference if you think about it. (That thought was for free.) However, we have no record of God ever changing Saul's name to Paul. The Lord certainly had the opportunity in Acts 9 when He confronted Saul on the road to Damascus. But there He calls him Saul. It is not until Acts 13 that we are told that Saul is also called Paul. So why the change? I find four possibilities. 1) Paul is a Hellenistic version of Saul. Like we use John instead of Yoannes or James instead of Yacov (check your concordance or Bible dictionary if you find this hard to believe). So Paul is a little more Greek sounding than Saul; his being the Apostle to the Gentiles would account for the name change. 2) As the Apostle to the Gentiles the name Paul carried more weight than Saul. Paulus was an honored name among the Greeks and Romans, as in Sergius Paulis in Acts 13 where Saul is first called Paul. 3) It was a nick name of derision that stuck. The first Saul of 1 Samuel was the honored first king of Israel. He came from the tribe of Benjamin, as did the apostle. the name Paul means small and insignificant, which is how the Corinthians saw him. (See 2 Cor. 10:10, unimpressive and contemptible is not a compliment) 4) God sovereignty orchestrated the shift to remind Saul that he was not royalty but small and insignificant outside of God's grace. I think option 1 is the most likely. If you like option 4 you can say God changed Saul to Paul; just know you have no Scripture to back up your claim. All we know for sure is that among the Hellenistic world, Saul was known as Paul.
So maybe you can stretch God into changing Saul into a Paul, but you cannot get to the second statement following the path of Scripture. To do so you have to take the detour of tradition to get there. Scripture simply contradicts the premise. Paul never persecuted Christians. In the time of Saul/Paul's zealous pursuit of the followers of Yeshua there were no Christians. His persecution ended in Acts 9 and the word Christian doesn't show up until Acts 11 and there it is likely a term of scorn calling them "Little Messiahs". The insinuation within the quote is that Saul persecuted Christians until he became one. Any number of commentaries and works on the life of Paul will refer to Acts 9 as his point of conversion, when Saul became a Christian. But Paul never became a "Christian". He was, throughout his life a Jew. He became a follower of Yeshua as Messiah and worked to persuade Jews and Gentiles to accept the truth that Yeshua was Messiah, and therefore, the Lord to be faithfully trusted and obeyed.
To affirm this point see Philippians 3:4-6 where Paul gives his current heritage as:a Jew, a Pharisee, a follower of Torah etc. In Acts 23:8, Paul declares to the Jewish crowd that he currently is a Pharisee on trial for his belief in the resurrection from the dead. In Acts 24, Paul's defense is, "this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect [of Judaism not Christianity], so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law [Torah] and in the Prophets." Even at the end of his life, Paul comes to Rome and does not seek the Elders of the Assembly of believers in Yeshua, but the Leaders of the Jews, Acts 28:17 "And it came to pass after three days that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. So when they had come together, he said to them: “Men and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans."
As a zealous Jew and Pharisee Saul/Paul was concerned that a new sect of Judaism was being formed. This new group was declaring that this man, Yeshua, was Messiah and even divine. This would be a clear violation of what Saul held to be true. It was a violation of his understanding of Torah and Jewish tradition, therefore, it must be stopped. Saul/Paul was a persecutor of Jews, never of "Christians". In our contemporary understanding of the word Paul was never a "Christian". He was a devout Jew and Follower of the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua.
Last but not least is the claim that Paul became a man of faith. The problem here was dealt with in my blog on "Faith or Faithfulness". Faith is not a noun it is an action. A man of faith acts faithfully. Saul was a man who acted faithfully, living as best he could in accordance with Torah. He kept the feasts and festivals and Jewish traditions. None of that changed after he believed that Yeshua was Messiah. He still hurried to Jerusalem for Passover. Still partook in vows and Temple worship. Still observed the Sabbath and attended Synagogue whenever possible. Saul was a man of Jewish faith before and after he accepted Yeshua as Messiah. The question becomes one of "What is faith?". If one did not become a man (or woman) of faith outside of acceptance of Jesus, then none of those in Hebrews Chapter 11 were people of faith. All these died in their faithfulness awaiting the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and the reign of Messiah. Just what Paul was waiting for. He just came, by the grace of God, to a realization the Yeshua was Messiah and God's Kingdom was at hand.
Do not misunderstand, today God only accepts faithful living based in Messiah alone. It is not any faithfulness to any random religious system. However, at the time of Saul, faithfulness that mattered was faithfulness to Torah and the Word of God. By the way, that is true today as well. True followers of Messiah, the author of Scripture, who love Him keep His commandments. The inference in the statement that Paul became a man of faith is that there was a change in faith or a conversion. That Paul left his Judaism and became a Christian by faith. Saul/Paul was a man of faith long before he encountered Yeshua on the road to Damascus. That is what we observe in Scripture. We too are called to be people who are faithful both to the Word of God and to His Son Yeshua. We too are to be transformed by the grace of God.
The simple statement that Paul persecuted Christians and converted to some new faith or religion is seldom questioned. It just isn't supported in God's Word. Tradition is simply accepted. But we are called to diligently study to see if these things are so. Even if it leaves you feeling like a cat pet backwards.
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