Should we expect the same conversion experience as the Apostle Paul?

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Rembrandt - Apostle Paul - WGA19120
Rembrandt - Apostle Paul - WGA19120 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Does Luke intend us to regard Saul’s conversion as typical of Christian conversion today, or as exceptional? 

Many people dismiss it as having been altogether unusual, and as constituting no possible norm for conversion today. ‘I’ve had no Damascus Road experience,’ they say. Certainly some features of it were atypical. 

On the one hand, there were the dramatic, supernatural events, like the flash of lightning and the voice which addressed him by name. On the other hand, there were the historically unique aspects, like the resurrection appearance of Jesus, which Paul later claimed it was, although the last (9:17, 27 and 1 Cor. 15:8), and his commissioning to be an apostle, like the call of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel to be prophets, and more particularly to be the apostle to the Gentiles.

In order to be converted, it is not necessary for us to be struck by divine lightning, or fall to the ground, or hear our name called out in Aramaic, any more than it is necessary to travel to precisely the same place outside Damascus. Nor is it possible for us to be granted a resurrection appearance or a call to an apostleship like Paul’s.

Nevertheless, it is clear from the rest of the New Testament that other features of Saul’s conversion and commissioning are applicable to us today. For we too can (and must) experience a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, surrender to him in penitence and faith, and receive his summons to service. 

Provided that we distinguish between the historically particular and the universal, between the dramatic outward accompaniments and the essential inward experience, what happened to Saul remains an instructive case study in Christian conversion. Moreover, Christ’s display of ‘unlimited patience’ towards him was meant to be an encouraging ‘example’ to others.

Stott, J. R. W. (1994). The message of Acts: the Spirit, the church & the world (pp. 165–166). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

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