We are sanctified ( seen as perfect in the eyes of God) AT the point of faith in Christ. It is an event, not a process. Are you saying that it has to be a dramatic moment, like Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus? But Acts and Paul don't depict that "event," in the same light. In Acts it seems like a process. In his letters, more like what you say. But If it is true that I Thess. is his first letter, than the views he holds in Romans are what he sees in retrospect. His meeting with Jesus was more a call then a conversion, because at that moment Paul made no decision: he was literally knocked off stride. Just as Peter and the rest were first call and then came to know their mission, the same was true of Paul. It all took time. Why not, we all libe in time.Which is it Robby? Did it take time to know his mission or to convert? Sure looks like the conversion happened quick to me
acts 9;6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Sounds like he decided to obey and follow instantly. Do you ever actually read the book? Or is all your reading time spent reading papal history and tradition?
An event is no more than an important occurance, with the implication that something has been building up to it. Nothing we read before leads us to believe that he was anything but cocksure of his mission. He was stunned by what happens, but his vision is but the first in a chain of events. Does he KNOW that he is "saved?" Acts does not tell us that what he writes fifteen to twenty years later,hoever one interprets it, was revealed to him in that moment.