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This is actually a great question IMHO and one I've thought about for years. I dare say we all know people who have built up what, upon reflection, is almost a pathological disgust at theism and especially at Christianity. And then one day they "flip", and are saved.

The Paul of my imagining was a super scrupulous Pharisee, applying the beautiful Torah to everything, and just horrified at these blaspheming Xtians because he loved God -- the God of Moses, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- so much. And one day he is travelling on the dusty road to Damascus, and his mind takes an unexpected turn, and then, as we say theologically, he is knocked off his ass, uh, donkey, as he is suddenly infused with knowledge about how this scummy, criminal, Galilean Yeshua is the fulfillment of the Torah he loves so much.

Yeah, that was the moment, if you like, of his saving. But God had been setting him up all along. That's my take on it. Before he was conceived, God had a plan for him.