It must have been very shortly after the death of Stephen that Saul sought and received his commission to go to Damascus and apprehend any Christians he might find there. The persecution in Jerusalem, the first organized persecution of the Christian Church was initiated and conducted by Saul. Immediately following Stephen's martyrdom, Saul "made havoc of the church". He combed Jerusalem for believers in Jesus and consigned them to prison for trial before the Sanhedrin. His power to do this stemmed from the Roman principle of allowing the undisturbed practice of native religion in each of the countries under Roman government. The arrest of the Christians would have been on the pretext that they were blaspheming against the accepted official religion of Judea and although the Roman governor Marullus, successor to Pontius Pilate, was probably quite indifferent to the merits or demerits of the accusation, he was unlikely to do anything that could be construed in official quarters as hostility to the religious faith of Judea. Pilate had been faced with the same position at the arrest of Jesus, and reacted similarly.

The effect of Saul's campaign was an immediate contribution to the spread of the Gospel. Many of the believers left Jerusalem to avoid the persecution and became missionaries of the new Faith. "They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." The rapidity with which the faith of Jesus Christ spread through the Roman empire within a few years of the Crucifixion has always been a matter of wonder to scholars and historians. It reached and took root in the British Isles within twenty years of Pentecost, and Britain was remote from Judeans at that time.

Damascus was the capital of Syria and the most notable city of the seaboard lands. It is probable that many believers fled there and established a healthy Christian community. Such a consequence of Saul's Jerusalem campaign did nothing to improve his temper. If the birds were flown, he would go after them. In the certainty of his conviction that these men were dangerous heretics, h+e intended to leave no stone unturned to seek them out and bring them to justice. He approached the High Priest, Jonathan, for the necessary letters of recommendation and authority with which he could establish himself with the ecclesiastical authorities in Damascus and carry out his intentions there with their full approval and backing.

So it came about that a little procession left Jerusalem by the Damascus Gate and took the road heading north through Samaria and past the Sea of Galilee. The bystanders would conclude that among the travellers there was a person of note for they were mounted on asses or mules, whereas the ordinary traveller or the peasantry would normally go on foot. The man in the centre, mounted on the best mule, who was clearly a Pharisee, looked forbidding. His companions were Levites of the Temple guard, strong burly men with a few servants and attendants. The convoy disappeared in the distance and the bystanders shrugged their shoulders and returned to their own interests.

It was about a hundred and fifty miles from Jerusalem to Damascus. Saul and his companions could not expect to complete their journey in less than a week. At dusk they would put up at a convenient wayside inn and resume their way in the morning. The mule-drivers and the Levites would get on together well enough; there was plenty of variety in the minor incidents of the journey to interest them and at night they would gather round the fire in the yard of the inn and entertain themselves and each other. With Saul the position was different. He had none of his own kind with him; as a Pharisee he felt it necessary to maintain a position of remoteness from his subordinates, and whether he was riding on his mule during the day, or seated by himself in a corner of the inn through the long evening, he had only his own thoughts for company.

That might well have been the Divine provision for Saul of Tarsus, leading his thoughts into a position where the revelation so soon to be made to him should strike in the most effective way. It was inevitable that his active mind during the long hours of the journey should be occupied with the object of his mission and all that had led up to it. He was sincere and zealous for the God of Israel and the Laws of Moses. The man of God that we know Saul to have been, the sterling candour and honesty of his mind must continually have been pondering the contrast between the requirements of that Law and the hypocrisy and dishonesty of his fellow-Pharisees and Sadducees. He could not but be conscious that there was a tremendous gap between his own understanding of how the righteous son of Israel should serve God and the miserable exhibition of greed, hate, injustice and every evil trait, manifested by the rulers he had left behind at Jerusalem. He must have known and admitted to himself, that these men who professed to keep the Law stood far from the portals of the Kingdom of God. If anyone had ever told him of the words of Jesus 'The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof' he would most certainly have admitted to himself that the condemnation was just. From that point he must have reflected on the contrast presented by these simple Christians whom he had vowed to destroy. He could not avoid seeing their purity and uprightness of life, their steadfast loyalty to all those righteous deeds that were incumbent on every Jew and their insistence that there must one day be due retribution or reward for every good and evil act. They had fervent conviction that the kingdom that would release the people of God and bring to pass all God's purposes and exalt His salvation to the ends of the earth was shortly to appear. If they had not espoused the cause of a crucified felon as their Messiah and proclaimed that the Son of God must suffer and die for man before He could redeem and restore him, and that sacrifice must precede glory, he could almost have thrown in his lot with them. So he might well have mused as the little party passed through Shiloh where once the Tabernacle of God had stood, and Samuel the lad who became the greatest of Israel's Judges, spent his boyhood. With disdain he looked upon the Samaritans as he journeyed through Samaria. His eyes lighted upon Mount Gerizim with its ruined Temple. Never, thought he impetuously, would he tolerate any challenge to the traditions of Moses and the Law that God gave him on Mount Sinai. Samaritans and Christians were all the same to him. He came within sight of the Sea of Galilee but the glimmer of its blue waters only reminded him of the Prophet who came from Galilee and like some of his brother Pharisees in earlier years he might have muttered to himself "search, and look, for out of Galilee arises no prophet".

Perhaps he would remember that Elijah the Tishbite, the prophet who converted Israel, came from Galilee, and that Jonah the prophet, who converted the Assyrians, came from Galilee. Angrily his thoughts turned into another channel: but every time he came back to the same maddening conundrum. Why, if he and his were the true worshippers of God, did their work and actions so deny the principles that he knew to be inherent in the Mosaic Law? Why, if the Christians were so deluded and blasphemous, did their lives exhibit such evident manifestations of the spirit of the Law? Why, if Jesus of Nazareth was the blasphemer and the seducer Saul verily believed Him to be, could He have inspired His followers with a zeal and devotion and tenacity which Saul would fain have seen amongst his own people? He lay, sleepless through the long Syrian nights, his mind racing over the dark sayings of the Law and the prophets, words he knew so well and understood so little. "Gird your sword upon your thigh, 0 most mighty, with your glory and your majesty, and in your majesty ride prosperously." "He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." "All kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him." "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth." "Unto us a child is born, and his name shall be called the Everlasting Father. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end," "He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken; and he made his grave with the wicked." Over and over again the words repeated themselves, tantalizing him almost beyond endurance with their contradictions. The Messiah when He came must live forever; how could he die? The Sent of God comes to exalt Israel over the nations and put down evil with firm hand. How could He suffer death at the hands of men? So the burning questions tormented his fevered brain and all the time he saw before him the face of one who, radiant as an angel, looked up into the heavens and claimed to behold the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. In the horror of that blasphemy he had given his vote for the condemnation of the offender and watched him put to death pleading Divine forgiveness upon his murderers — Saul turned over wearily and rose from his hard couch to prepare for yet another day's journeying under the blazing Syrian sun.