The ORAL TRADITION which you seemed to have so triumphantly trumpeted about, was NOT the way in which the Apostle Paul first, and originally "came to know" the Lord.
Yes, of course you are correct. Saul of Tarsus was so ardent in his faith that it took Divine intervention to get his attention. Taylor Caldwell wrote a novel about St. Paul, entitled Great Lion of God. She captures his ardor and does an excellent job of bringing him to life.
Recently, another Jew had a conversion quite similar to that of Paul. Roy Schoeman, whose parents fled the holocaust and had him educated by one of the top rabbis in this country, never once entertained the thought of changing faiths. But one day ....
During the spring of 1987 I took a few days off from work and went to Cape Cod to spend time in the nature there. I was walking in the early morning, in the woods just back from the beach, when God intervened, dramatically and distinctly, into my life to pull me back and put me onto the right path. As I was walking, lost in my thoughts, I found myself in the immediate presence of God. It is as though I "fell into Heaven." Everything changed from one moment to the next, but in such a smooth and subtle way that I was not aware of any discontinuity. I felt myself in the immediate presence of God. I was aware of His infinite exaltedness, and of His infinite and personal love for me. I saw my life as though I was looking back on it after death, in His presence, and could see everything which I would be happy about and everything which I would wish I had done differently. I saw that every action I had ever done mattered, for good or for evil. I saw that everything which had ever happened in my life had been perfectly designed for my own good from the infinitely wise and loving hand of God, not only including but especially those things which I at the time I thought had been the greatest catastrophes. I saw that my two greatest regrets when I died would be every moment which I had wasted not doing anything of value in the eyes of God, and all of the time and energy which I had wasted worrying about not being loved when every moment of my existence I was bathed in an infinite sea of love, although unaware of it. I saw that the meaning and purpose of my life was to worship and serve my Lord and Master, in whose presence I found myself. I wanted to know His name, so that I could worship Him properly, so that I could follow "His" religion. I remember silently praying "Tell me your name. I don't mind if You're Apollo, and I have to become a Roman pagan. I don't mind if You're Krishna, and I have to become a Hindu. I don't mind if You're Buddha, and I have to become a Buddhist. As long as You're not Christ, and I have to become a Christian!" (Jewish readers might be able to identify with this deep-rooted aversion to Christianity, based on the mistaken belief that it was the "enemy" which lay behind two thousand years of persecution of the Jews.)Not surprisingly, He did not tell me His name. Obviously, I wasn't ready to hear it — my resistance at the time was still too great. But I knew, from that moment on, the meaning and purpose and goal of my life; and that sense has not faded or wavered, although the immediate state of perception did.
I have read his book Salvation is from the Jews and watched several of his interviews on tv. His conversion story never ceases to amaze me. It bears such a fascnating parallel to that of St. Paul. God truly acts in extraodinary ways to grab our attention.
Thank you again for the ping back to this thread. You have quite a memory ;-)
I think I've encountered that testimony before, probably right here on FR. It's a good one.
I'll go to the link and read it again, and save it this time.