Feeling the force of this, the modern opponents of the supernatural have retreated from the position of the elder deists, and, admitting that Paul believed that he savv and heard the risen Saviour, have attempted to explain the matter either on a combination of natural and psychological grounds, or on the latter purelj'. The vevy excess of Paul's antichristian zeal paved the wa}'^ to his conversion. It brought him into contact with the Christians, and thus made him acquainted with the arguments for and against the claims of Jesus to be the Messiah. AVas the scandal of the cross de- cisive against this claim ? An impartial examination of the prophets would prove that the idea of a suffer- ing Messiah was familiar to them. To himself as a Pharisee the idea of a resurrection from the dead would present no difficulties. The patience and jo}' with which the Christians encountered suffering must have produced a deep impression upon him. Thus a state of doubt and hesitation would naturalh' succeed to that of unreasoning prejudice. IMight not the death of CInist, shameful as it appeared, be really, as the Christians considered it, God's ordinance for the salva- tion of the world ? If his resurrection were but a fact, it would turn the scale. The more this thought fixed itself in Paul's mind, the more, in the agony of sus- pense to which it would give rise, would he long for some convincing proof of what he had come to hope might be true. On that memorable journej' the crisis took place. As he was vainly endeavoring, by re- doubled efforts against the Christian faith, to stifle the remonstrances of conscience and the growth of con- viction, either a sudden thunder-storm which over- took him (Amnion), or his own excited imagination without any external cause aiding (Baur, Holsten), so affected the nerves of vision and hearing that an appearance or phantasm of the risen Saviour, uttering words of reproach and admonition, figured itself on his retina, and produced the effects recorded.
Such is the latest form of the rationalistic theory on this subject. To us it appears wholly inadequate to support the conclusion intended, viz. that no ex- ternal manifestation of Christ took place. We can but briefly touch upon its inherent improbabilities. That Paul fullj' believed that the transaction had an
existence external to himself is plain, not merely from his own references to it (Acts xxii, 6-10), but from his unhesitating claim to be an apostle of Christ, in no wise inferior to those who had seen the Saviour in his humiliation (1 Cor. ix, 1). Now it was the special qualification for the apostolic office that the holder of it should have beheld the Lord in his glorified bodj', so as to be able to testify to the fact of his resurrec- tion. (See especially Acts i, 22, and the addresses of Peter in ch. ii and iii of that book.) As certainly, therefore, as Paul claimed to be an apostle, so certain- ly was it his conviction that, like his colleagues, he had had ocular demonstration of our Lord's resurrec- tion : on no other ground could he have asserted a co- ordinate rank and authority. Still, it is no doubt pos- sible that he miglit have mistaken vision for realitj' ; or at least that Luke, the historian, might have con- founded the two. But, in fact, both writers exhibit a perfect consciousness of the diff'erence between them. Peter's " vision" (Acts x) is exj)ressl}' described as such (ver. 3) ; and that the distinction was familiar to the historian is proved by his observation in the ac- count of the same apostle's miraculous deliverance, that he "wist not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision." W^e are told that it was in a " vision" that Christ appeared to Ana- nias (Acts ix, 10), and to Paul himself on subsequent occasions (Acts xviii, 9 ; xxii, 17). The apostle speaks in various passages of his Epistles of a state of ecstatic trance, as not unfrequent with him ; and in such cases whether he was "in the body or out of the bodj'" he could not tell; a description which presents a strong contrast to the positive matter-of-fact stj'le which the apostle uses in describing what took place on the jour- ney to Damascus.
It is clear then that both Luke and Paul, far from placing all supernatural communications in the same category, drew a distinction, well-known and acknowl- edged, between a mere vision, or rapture, and an ex- ternal manifestation ; and, therefore, if the}' had re- garded that appearance of Christ which issued in the conversion of the latter as an instance of vision mere- ]}', they woidd have described it as such. The hy- pothesis, therefore, that they were unable to distin- guish the one from the other falls to the ground. Not less ungrounded, as far as the evidence is concerned, is the "psychological" explanation. There is no trace in the history of any intercourse between Paul and Christians of a friendly nature previous to his conver- sion. Neither is there any evidence of a growing struggle in his own mind between prejudice and con- viction as to the truth of Christianity. His mental and moral conflicts were wholh' of a lerjal character (Rom. vii). Is it credible that if, as the theory sup. poses, such a struggle had been going on he would have continued, as he did, in his career of persecution to the last moment ? Moreover, is it agreeable to ex- perience that a change, not merely of view but of heart, so vast as to be called by Paul himself a "new creation," should have been wrought by the unaided exercise of the natural powers? The theory sinks under an accumulation of inherent improbabilities. There remains only tlie other alternative, that Paul realh' beheld the risen Saviour piercing the clouds of heaven as he will do at the last day, and visible in his glorified body. Nor can we fail to perceive the divine wisdom in this extraordinarj' conversion. Nat- ures like Paul's can onl}' be transformed, if at all, snd- denlj' and with a mighty shock : a liglitning stroke of conviction must fuse tlie hard metal ; or, to varj' the image, the veil that was upon liis heart must be split fruni uifhouf, if the light of heaven was to visit the darkened chamber.