Saul the Enemy of Christ

Saul hated Jesus Christ. He hated Christians. He wanted them all dead. He was a very religious Jew who tried to serve God. But he thought that the Christians were taking people away from God and away from doing right. In fact, Saul thought that He was helping God by trying to kill Christians.

In Acts 7, after Stephen preached a powerful sermon about Jesus, the Jews wanted to kill him. They threw him out of the city and began to stone him. During this horrible murder, the Bible says that the Jews laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul (Acts 7:58). This shows us that Saul helped the evil Jews kill Stephen. In Acts 8:1 we read that Saul was "consenting" to the death of Stephen.

But Saul wasn't content to help kill just Stephen. He wanted to imprison and kill as many Christians as possible. He obtained permission and special letters from the high priest to go to the city of Damascus and persecute the Christians there. In fact, the Bible says that Saul "persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it" (Galatians 1:13). When Saul later told about the awful things that he had done, he said: "and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities" (Acts 26:10-11). The Bible also says that Saul imprisoned and beat those who believed on Jesus (Acts 22:19).

Saul's reputation as a persecutor of the church was well-known. Those in the church had heard about the terrible way he treated Christians, and they were scared of him. Ananias, a Christian who lived in Damascus, said: "I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done…" (Acts 9:13). Saul hated Christians, he fought against Jesus Christ, and he wanted to destroy the church of Christ. But something happened to Saul on the road to Damascus that changed his life forever.

---

Copyright © 2014 Apologetics Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

*Please keep in mind that Discovery articles are written for 3rd-6th graders.

This document may be copied, on the condition that it will not be republished in print unless otherwise stated below, and will not be used for any commercial purpose, as long as the following stipulations are observed: (1) Apologetics Press must be designated as the original publisher; (2) the specific Apologetics Press Web site URL must be noted; (3) any references, footnotes, or endnotes that accompany the article must be included with any written reproduction of the article; (4) textual alterations of any kind are strictly forbidden; (5) Some illustrations (e.g., photographs, charts, graphics, etc.) are not the intellectual property of Apologetics Press and as such cannot be reproduced from our site without consent from the person or organization that maintains those intellectual rights; (6) serialization of written material (e.g., running an article in several parts) is permitted, as long as the whole of the material is made available, without editing, in a reasonable length of time; (7) articles, in whole or in part, may not be offered for sale or included in items offered for sale; and (8) articles may be reproduced in electronic form for posting on Web sites pending they are not edited or altered from their original written content and that credit is given to Apologetics Press, including the web location from which the articles were taken. Further, documents may not be copied without source statements (title, author, journal title), and the address of the publisher and owner of rights, as listed below.

For catalog, samples, or further information, contact:

Apologetics Press
230 Landmark Drive
Montgomery, Alabama 36117
U.S.A.
Phone (334) 272-8558

http://www.apologeticspress.org