Paul does not ever refer to previous encounters with or knowledge of Jesus. After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, Paul has a powerful encounter with Jesus in Acts chapter 9. After that he becomes as zealous in his proclamation of the Gospel as he was for the persecution of the church. While we widely accept Paul as an apostle and Paul names himself as an apostle, there is no indication that the other apostles (11 of whom had lived alongside Jesus, plus one added to replace Judas) accepted Paul as an apostle. The word apostle means sent and Paul certainly travelled widely to proclaim the Gospel. Whether apostle or not, Paul was clearly important to the proclamation of the Gospel to the Gentiles and to the developing church. – Pastor Trudy Stoffel
