In answer to the video "Can We Trust the Apostle Paul? (Answering Islam Part 19)"
On his road to Damascus, about a year and a half following Jesus' alleged crucifixion, Paul claims to have seen Jesus in a vision. If we were to analyze these variant descriptions, made by the same man, as in a court of law, they would be thrown out as fabrication. We're not talking about the variations usually written off as being complimentary, such as the vision addressing Paul in Acts 9 with
“Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me… I am Jesus”then in Acts22 with
“Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me… I am Jesus of Nazareth“and in Acts 26 with
“Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads… I am Jesus”.More serious defects in the reports of the event, made by the same man are what cast doubt on its verracity. In Acts 9:3-7 Paul falls to the ground when the vision appears to him while those with him didnt see anything except hearing Jesus'voice. In Acts 22:6-9 the others didnt hear anything but saw the light and in Acts 26:14 all fall contradicting 9:3-7. Christians usually try harmonizing the accounts in light of the tenses and forms of the Greek words akouo and phone. These attempts are all inconsistent in light of the usage of these words throughout the NT.
Akouo is translated 373 times in the NT as hear, then suddenly changed to "understand" in 22:9 so as to not contradict Paul's other accounts of the encounter. There are many similar examples of apologetics playing with words and Greek tenses to harmonize the story, none of them standing the test of the rules of language.
During the whole incident, this "light" which appeared to Paul fails to take any explicit form in order to be identified as Jesus. One must be very cautions here, according to 2Corinthians satan can disguise himself in the most trustworthy appearance such as an angel of light so as to fulfill his purpose. This light certainly did gain Paul's trust as it incited him to contravene and innovate most of what the God of the Torah, let alone Jesus and the previous prophets taught.
Paul, a sworn enemy of Jesus that suddenly sees the "light" and changes his course, surely was the perfect candidate that fit the satanic purpose of infiltrating the original disciples and corrupting them from within, destroying the law Jesus abided by to the letter, through resorting to lies, camouflaging and deceit in order that "Christ is preached", instructing his missionary followers to resort to the same deceptive tactics. His objective was to disseminate as far and wide as possible a system of beliefs described even by the early church fathers and saints the likes of Justin Martyr as
"no different from what you (pagans) believe".
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