Of all the personalities in the Bible, if I were to choose a favorite, obvious choices might be people like King David or even Jesus Himself. However, when I consider what Christianity has become today, I kind of have to give a great deal of thanks to a slightly more recent biblical character, Paul the Apostle.
The thing about Paul is that he was actually not one of Jesus' apostles. He was however, what I like to call the first "modern" Christian. In essence, when Paul was on the road to Damascus, he encountered Jesus and learned from Him about the Way. It's all there in the book of Acts and I'm sure you're familiar with it the same as I am.
However, for me, Paul is more than just an early convert. He is the man who brought Christianity to the masses. In its early days, Christianity was an exclusively Jewish sect, no different than the various sects of Judaism today, such as Hassidic Jews or Reform Jews. Each group has its own traditions and ways of living, however they are all Jews. Similarly, followers of Christ were also exclusively Jews until that point.
In fact, Paul was on his way to Damascus to put any Jewish followers of Jesus he could find under arrest and he was acting specifically under the direction of the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin. However, once he had his vision of The Lord, he changed his tune and began to preach to the masses the truth of Jesus Christ. However, he did so much more than just that. Later visions allowed Paul to preach not just to the Jews but to the gentiles as well. In fact, when we look at Acts 9:15, we see that Paul was to be the man who would speak for Jesus to the gentiles.
While there are no specific sites for Saint Paul in Israel, I feel his presence everywhere in Jerusalem. Every Christian icon that we visit today, the Church of Holy Sepulcher, the Chapel of Ascension and even Christ Church are all there because Paul was given the mission to spread the gospel to the world at large and not just to the Jewish people. I invite you to visit these places and ruminate on the trials and travels that Paul underwent in order to spread the word of Jesus. It's a truly remarkable experience.
