This book tells the story of an uncompromising Pharisee and religious bigot named Saul, later renamed Paul, who initiated the first persecution of Christians, including approving the death of Christianity's first martyr, Stephen, after the crucifixion of Jesus. To Saul, those Jews who followed Jesus were heretics fit for imprisonment or death. Then he encountered the risen savior Jesus Christ and became an intrepid messenger of the gospel of salvation, grace, and love to Jews and former pagans alike by believing in Jesus as the Son of God and the perfect sacrifice that atoned for the sin of the world. He went on, despite assassination attempts, imprisonments, shipwrecks, beatings, and stoning, to establish churches throughout much of the Roman Empire, appoint leaders, dispatch worthy associates to far-flung provinces, write much of the New Testament, and submit to execution after witnessing to Emperor Nero. Accused of turning the world upside down, he left behind committed followers who continued his mission without fear and in the power of the Spirit.
