{"id":14766,"date":"2024-06-09T19:04:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T00:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=14766"},"modified":"2024-06-10T19:10:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T00:10:55","slug":"why-did-saul-persecute-the-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/14766\/why-did-saul-persecute-the-jews\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Did Saul Persecute the Jews?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi John,<\/span><\/p>\n

I had always thought the reason Saul persecuted the Jews after they received the Holy Ghost was because they stopped keeping the law.\u00a0\u00a0Since the Jews were required by God to keep Moses\u2019 law after they received the Holy Ghost, why did Saul persecute them?<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you,<\/span><\/p>\n

Randell<\/span><\/p>\n

===========<\/span><\/p>\n

That is a very thoughtful question, Randell.\u00a0 It is one that I should have asked myself a long tome ago.\u00a0 Thank you for asking it.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

One would think that Jewish believers would have been highly respected by their fellow Jews since believing Jews were devoted to the law (Acts 21:20).\u00a0 But Paul told the Thessalonians that believing Jews had suffered many things at the hands of other Jews (1Thess. 2:15).\u00a0 When you asked me this question, I realized for the first time that the Bible provides us with no clear answer for it.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Leaders of unbelieving Jews hated Jesus because they envied his popularity with the people.\u00a0 Even Pontius Pilate saw that they envied Jesus (Mt. 27:18).\u00a0 They invented a rule that forbade the sick to be healed on a Sabbath in order to condemn him, for they saw that he healed people every day.\u00a0 And they condemned him for claiming to be their Messiah.\u00a0 Maybe that is why Paul as a young man joined others in persecuting their fellow Jews who believed in Jesus.\u00a0 Maybe it was just a case of Jesus’ reproach falling on those who believed in him.\u00a0 They were certainly not hated because of immoral conduct.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It is fascinating to me that I had never considered that the Bible never tells us why believing Jews were so hated by their fellow Jews.\u00a0 They arrested Peter and John because they preached the resurrection from the dead, and many people believed them (Acts 4:1\u20134).\u00a0 They stoned Stephen because he told them that they were resisting the holy Ghost, and that he saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand (Acts 7:51\u201360).\u00a0 When Paul was a young Pharisee, he was commissioned to travel to Damascus to bind believers and return them to Jerusalem simply because they believed the gospel (Acts 9:1\u20132).\u00a0 Later, the Jews plotted to kill Saul because he had found out Jesus was the Messiah and was telling it in the synagogue (Acts 9:20\u201323).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In no case that I have found was there any justifiable reason given for the hatred and persecution.\u00a0 They were always hated for doing something that was actually good, or for testifying about Jesus.\u00a0 We are seeing more and more of this irrational hatred in our time.\u00a0 But let us continue in doing good in the sight of God anyway.\u00a0 The reward for doing that will far outweigh anything this world can throw at us, as Paul said, “I\u00a0consider the sufferings of this present time to be unworthy\u00a0of comparison\u00a0with the glory that shall be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you for a great question!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Tell us what you think:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/WitnessofSpirit\/status\/1800319481761435826<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi John, I had always thought the reason Saul persecuted the Jews after they received the Holy Ghost was because they stopped keeping the law.\u00a0\u00a0Since the Jews were required by God to keep Moses\u2019 law after they received the Holy Ghost, why did Saul persecute them? Thank you, Randell =========== That is a very thoughtful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14768,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14766\/revisions\/14768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}