Every reader of this pamphlet must have had some experience of impostors at some time or other. There comes along the sneaking, ingratiating person, a plausible teller of lies, seeking to gain some sordid advantage, it may be of money or position or power, Let us see what advantage Paul could hope to gain by imposture.
(a) Was it wealth that Paul sought?
We all know that some upstarts get great wealth by their propaganda, for instance, Mrs. Eddy of Christian Science fame, whose royalties on her books made her a dollar millionaire. It was far otherwise with the Apostle Paul. If he had remained religiously a Jew, he was on the high road to a place of great distinction among his nation. With such a position there would have come great ease of circumstances. But once converted to the Christian faith, he turned his back upon these tempting prospects, and espoused the cause of the humble Christians, poor and persecuted as they were.
He sometimes worked with his own hands night and day at tent-making to provide bare necessities for himself and co-workers in the Gospel field. The whole record of his life, as given in the Acts of the Apostles, supports the claim he made to the Ephesian elders: -" I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts 20:33-3533I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. 34Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. 35I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:33‑35)).
At the end of his life see him a prisoner for the Gospel's sake at Rome, chained to a soldier, awaiting martyrdom at the hands of Nero, the cruelest of the Roman Emperors, begging Timothy to bring him a cloak, for he was shivering in the severity of an Italian winter. Is this the life, are these the actions of an impostor? Throughout the whole of Paul's record there shines a truthfulness, a sincerity, a transparency, that is quite in-consistent with the idea of imposture.
(b) Was it a great reputation that Paul was seeking?
What reputation could Paul expect from a nation that had with fanatical hatred rejected and crucified the Son of God, whom, after conversion, he straightway pro-claimed as such in the very stronghold of the Jewish religion? Nor would he fare any better with the Gentiles, the pagans, who worshipped idols, as witness the uproar in which he was embroiled when the silversmith of Ephesus, who made silver shrines for the goddess Diana, declared that their craft was in danger, if the Christian religion was allowed to take root. To preach Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. (1 Cor. 1:2323But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; (1 Corinthians 1:23)). Would such preaching bring him reputation?
He tells us himself that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, the weak things to confound the mighty, the base things, the things which are despised, yea, the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are. (1 Cor. 1:27, 2827But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: (1 Corinthians 1:27‑28)). This was the circle in which Paul chose to move. He certainly did not seek a place in a world, which had crucified His Lord.
(c) Was it power Paul was seeking?
This has often been the urge with many, who have put forth religious claims, and along with them sought worldly power and influence. Take the case of the popes of Rome during the middle ages. They were marked by political ambition, straining every nerve for secular power, aiming to be in a position to dictate to the proudest rulers of the day. Is this not alas! largely true at this present time? How vastly different was the conduct of the Apostle Paul. You never find him striving to be the head of a party, or interfering with politics, or inciting men to rebellion, hoping thereby to obtain for himself reputation and power.
His attitude to the world is clearly defined: -" Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power,. resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." (Rom. 13:1, 21Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. (Romans 13:1‑2)).
When it was the case of his religious association, where he might have sought to gain great pre-eminence and power, as a religious leader, we see clearly that this was not so, as witness his conduct when he rebuked party making in the assembly at Corinth. Suppressing the names of the actual party makers, and introducing the names of Peter and Apollos and his own, in their per-sons he rebuked the incipient heresies. (1 Cor. 4:66And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. (1 Corinthians 4:6)). We read:-" Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor. 1:12,1312Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. 13Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:12‑13)).
If it had been power that Paul was seeking, he could not have rebuked these Corinthian leaders, who were seeking it, by rebuking it in his own person. Read the record of his life as seen in the Acts of the Apostles, and as witnessed by his epistles, and you will find no trace of seeking after power.
(d) Was Paul's motive the gratification of some other passion?
It is well-known that religious fanatics, who arise periodically only to disappear in ignominy, sometimes pre-tend to a divine revelation as a means of indulging in the gratification of their desires for luxurious living, and often for that of immoral conduct. Mohammed was one such. His system offered the lure of a plurality of wives, he him-self indulging in sixteen; a prospect of a sensual paradise, consisting of perpetual virility, and the opportunity of indulging in vice of the lowest order with impunity, and under the aegis of religion. The founders of Agapemone (Greek, love abode) were a set of religious visionaries with unedifying ideas about sexual relations, and who were denounced by all decent people. And yet this was under the shadow of religion.
Read the writings of the Apostle Paul, and you will not find a trace of this. No scandal was ever recorded in connection with his name. Hear his strong · warning on the subject, needed to-day more than ever:-" Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;.... but fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolator, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." (Eph. 5:1-51Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor. 3But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; 4Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. 5For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Ephesians 5:1‑5)).
These were his sentiments. You cannot accuse Paul of seeking to find in his conversion the means for the gratification of the sins of the flesh.
(e) Was the account of Paxil's conversion a pious fraud on his part?
If his conversion had been a fraud, we might have imagined that he would have located the occurrence in some remote inaccessible spot, where there could be no witnesses to refute-his statements. Instead of this he tells us more than once that his conversion occurred quite close to the famous city of Damascus, in the full glare of the mid-day sun, in the presence of a retinue, which must have consisted of a considerable number of persons. They saw the blinding light, above that of the mid-day sun, they heard the voice, not understanding the words. They could have contradicted Paul's story, if it had been un-true.
Nor could he have fabricated the story in collaboration with the Christian's, when he was their bitterest enemy, and occupied at the time of his conversion in searching for them to bring them to prison and sometimes to death. Instead of collaborating they kept out of his way in mortal fear.
Then further, how could it be accounted for that a man, approaching Damascus as a bitter opponent of the Christians, entered it to become a most devoted servant of the Lord. Never was a conversion more outstanding. His position of being empowered by authority of the chief priests was known to the whole nation, and his sudden conversion, and complete reversal of his sympathies and actions, must have made a great impression upon the whole nation, so much so that he could say, when he stood before King Agrippa, "The king knoweth of these things, before whom I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner." (Acts 26:2626For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner. (Acts 26:26)).
Could Paul have so addressed the king, if his con-version was not well-known to him, before whom he stood as a prisoner?
If the assertion of his conversion had been fraudulent, then was the occasion for King Agrippa to have said so. On the contrary he exclaimed, " Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." (Acts 26:2828Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. (Acts 26:28)).
Never did the great Apostle of the Gentiles appear, to greater advantage than when he replied to the king with power and earnestness:-" I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and ALTO-GETHER such as I am, except these bonds." (Acts 26:2929And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. (Acts 26:29)).
Did this look like a pious fraud on his part? Does it not ring grandly true? Only willfully blind persons could think otherwise.
And perhaps the strongest answer to our question is found in Paul's subsequent career after his conversion. Would a man give himself to a life of austerity and privation and danger for the propagation of a lie? Look at the persecutions he endured Î -the scourgings, imprisonments, ending in martyrdom. Look at the work he did: the converts he made: the assemblies he formed. Hear his own words forced out of him in self-defense, wrung from him unwillingly, for speaking of himself was most distasteful to him. He wrote:-" Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) " I am more: · in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." (2 Cor. 11:23-2823Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:23‑28)).
Think well over this amazing list. How would you like to be stripped to the waist, and feel the dull thud of the whip cutting into your flesh again and again, whilst the blood flowed freely from a dozen gaping wounds. And this is what this refined scholarly servant of Christ had to endure again and again. Was this all done for the propagation of a lie? Was his teaching, emphasizing truthfulness, cleanness of life, self-denial, merely a cover for depths of corruption and deception? Can it be? With one voice we affirm that such a life does not cover a lie, but was a proof of the reality of the uplift and power of Christianity.