What was paul attitude toward the christians before his coversion why?

Answer 1

Paul despised them. He believed them to be "heretics" whose perversion of God's Law deserved death. Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was a brilliant lawyer who "grew up at the feet of Gamliel":

"...one member [of the high council] had a different perspective. He was a Pharisee named GAMALIEL, who was AN EXPERT ON RELIGIOUS LAW and was very popular with the people..." (Acts 5:34 NLT New Living Translation)

Paul testifies: "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, and I WAS BROUGHT UP AND EDUCATED HERE IN JERUSALEM UNDER GAMALIEL. At his feet I learned to FOLLOW OUR JEWISH LAWS and CUSTOMS VERY CAREFULLY. I became ZEALOUS TO HONOR GOD IN EVERYTHING I DID, just as all of you are today. And I PERSECUTED THE FOLLOWERS of the Way, HOUNDING SOME TO DEATH, binding and delivering both men and women to prison." (Acts 22:3-4 NLT)

Like most people in the world... Paul was "sincere" in his beliefs. And "zealous" to do what he thought was "right." No one should doubt that HITLER, Napoleon, Pol Pot, the "Rocket Man" in North Korea were and are just as 'SINCERE' in their beliefs as anyone else in the world. But like most people in the world, we remain ignorant of the existence and influence of "that old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan..." who "...deceives the whole world..." (Rev.12:9).

Our five physical senses discount, and generally take no thought for what they can't hear, see, taste, touch or smell. And the spirit realm, which is alive and active all around us all the time [do you feel gravity holding you down? do you see the wind? Do you smell the hatred, envy, jealousy, lust and greed of the demons that populate this planet?] is a much greater influence on the human mind than most people know or consider... or sometimes, allow themselves to consider.

Paul was deceived by Satan like everyone else, and had a huge element of knowledge and understanding missing from his formal education of the Law. While he knew [probably backwards and forward] every nuance of the LETTER of the Law... he was not yet familiar with the SPIRIT of it; an aspect of it that he would learn later after his conversion. An aspect that too many denominations of modern professing "Christianity" still don't know about.

Romans 8:7 reveals that human nature - the carnal human mind - hates God's Commandments; His Laws [as well as, hating basically, any federal, state or municipal law you care to name].

Speaking to the LORD's converts [God's church] in Rome, Paul writes: "For we know that THE LAW IS SPIRITUAL; but I am carnal, sold under sin." (Rom.7:14) [physical, human, flesh and blood, governed and ruled by five physical senses that are easily deceived and prone to RE-action rather than to be PRO-active. They are primarily asleep and/or blinded to spiritual things]

But Paul didn't possess this "spiritual" revelation before his conversion. He was just like any zealous person you see on the streets in the news, today, protesting injustices and demonstrating on behalf of their "cause" ['cause' they're all sincere in their beliefs... more often than not "sincerely wrong;" but sincere nonetheless] that they are RIGHT and everyone else is WRONG.

Before his conversion... PAUL WAS SINCERELY WRONG, full of hatred and satanic influences. And where Satan is concerned; God's Truth is first and foremost on his mind to pervert and destroy. Jesus, however, took him aside to set him straight and reveal to him the error of his ways.

In the early stages of his conversion, Paul freely confesses to the LORD his full approval of the street riot that resulted from demonstration of his day... the bloody, violent stoning of Stephen [video at eleven]:

"...I saw a vision of Jesus saying to me, 'Hurry! Leave Jerusalem, for the people here won't believe you when you give them your testimony about Me.' But, LORD,' I argued, 'they certainly know that I imprisoned and beat those in every synagogue who believed on you. And when YOUR WITNESS STEPHEN was killed, I WAS STANDING THERE AGREEING. I kept the coats they laid aside as they stoned him..." (Act 22:18-20 NLT)

Halley's Bible Handbook says this about Paul:

"'A Young Man Named Saul', Acts 7:58 Here is one of the TURNING POINTS OF HISTORY. Young Saul seems already to have been a member of the Sanhedrin (26:10). He may have been present at one, or both, of the Sanhedrin meetings in which they tried to stop the Apostles from preaching Christ (4:1-22; 5:17-40), and may himself have witnessed Peter's bold and defiant refusal. But now, in all his life, he had never seen a death like that of Stephen. Though its immediate effect was to start Saul on his rampage of Persecuting the disciples, yet it may be that Stephen's dying words went straight to the mark, and lodged deep in Saul's mind, there quietly working to make him ready and receptive for the Greater Vision on the road to Damascus (26:14). It may be, in part at least, that Stephen's Martyrdom was the price paid for Saul's soul. And what a soul! Next to Jesus, the Greatest Man of All the Ages. The One Man, who, more than any other, Established Christianity in the Main Centers of the then known world, and Altered the Course of History, Saul of Tarsus (see page 582)" (Halley's Bible Handbook: with the King James Version; classic ed. p.567]

(Page 582: Halley's Bible Handbook - 'Summary of Paul's Life with tentative approximate dates) "Paul first appears as a persecutor of Christians, resolutely determined to blot out the name of Jesus. No doubt he thought the Resurrection of Jesus from the Dead was a fixed up story.

Then, on the road to Damascus, as by a stroke from heaven, he was smitten down. Jesus Himself spoke to him, about A.D.32.

From that moment he was a Changed Man. With zeal and devotion unparalleled in history, he went up and down the highways of the Roman Empire crying out, Jesus Did Rise from the Dead, It is True, It is True, IT IS TRUE, He is Risen, He is Risen, HE IS RISEN..."