Paul who?
There's no doubting that God used Saul of Tarsus - better known by his alias: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus - in a very remarkable way to establish his church among the Gentiles. He is a fascinating figure for many reasons, and a man we would do well to know at more than just a superficial level. Michael F. Bird has helped us in this task wi th his book Introducing Paul: The Man, His Mission and His Message . He concludes his first chapter, "What is Paul", by saying: Paul was regarded by many Jewish Christians as a meddlesome nonconformist, by J ews as a blasphemous apostate, and by Roman authorities as a mischievous nuisance... The chief legacy of Paul is his claim that Gentiles can be part of the Israel of God without beco ming proselytes to Judaism. He also claims that there is another "Lord, one who riva ls C aesar and who will est ablish an everlasting kingdom that will overthrow all despots and self- divinized pretenders (Phil. 2:10-11; Acts 17:7). P...