#3 Paul

The third person that I want to meet when I go to heaven is Paul.  

Now as I am sure you can guess by now, one reason why I might like to meet Paul is because I want to clear up some things which, to my mind, are not clear enough for me in my thinking as a western philosopher/theologian, or just details which I am not sure really sure of.  For example, that “thorn in the flesh” that he refers to in 2 Corinthians.  What exactly was that?

Many of the theological examples of “unclarity” may already be cleared up by the time I meet with Paul.  I certainly do hope that God holds a “Theology 101” class, taught by Himself, where He teaches “how it really is.”  But whether God has or has not, it certainly will be interesting to get Paul’s views of other things, like our formulation of the doctrine of inspiration, or the Calvinist/Arminian controversy.  

I don’t know how those things will work, when we get to heaven.  I do know that we will be having fellowship with each other and praising and worshiping God.  I am sure a big part of that will be listening to testimonies.  And I want to hear Paul tell and describe Jesus’ visit with him on the Damascus road.  I want to hear about his visit to heaven, and what he heard on that visit that he could not tell about.  I want to know what the “Bodily ailment” he suffered was when he saw the Galatian people.  

I also want to listen to him as a thinker.  What does he pounder, and how?  How much of his theology was he taught from God, and how much of it did he come to realize by his Holy Spirit enlightened intellect.  How much did he engage with the Greek Philosphers, like Socrates and Plato, and his thoughts on what they wrote.  I hope that he will also be able to show me the world as he saw it through his own eyes.  And if we have the opportunity, visit some of the ruins of the world of his day, gain his impressions of them, and also see if he will show us where he walked, and where he stood when he appeared before Gallio, and of his visits to the various agoras; agoras that you can still see the fallen columns and stones today.

He was a thinker, and a man of great passion.  I would ask him “How do those things work together while still living in a sinful body?”