Am I a Pharisee?
I believe in order for Paul to have been an effective apostle and preacher, God had to do some work within Paul. Work that only the Holy Spirit could perform. I believed that Paul had to go through a detox of mind, body and spirit before he began preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ, because everything he historically and traditionally taught and believed prior to accepting Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior spoke to his belief in God’s favoritism towards the Jewish people above and beyond any other people or nation on earth. We must understand that the Jews in this day believed the law – the torah (the first five books of the bible) and they believed that they were privileged beyond any other nation because they were God’s chosen people based on God’s covenant with Abraham and his seed (the Jews).
In the book of John we read about another Pharisee who had an encounter with Jesus. His name was Nicodemus. Nicodemus was intrigued by Jesus and wanted to speak with him about his power and authority because he saw and experienced the miracles performed by Jesus. He knew Jesus was special and wanted to find out more for himself.