Although Paul of Tarsus never met the historical Jesus, his vision of the risen Christ convinced him to change his life’s course, become an apostle, and devote the rest of his life preaching the “good news” of the resurrection. Not everyone in the growing movement was pleased by this development and Paul records coming into serious conflict with Jesus’ actual disciples, Peter, James, and John. Paul’s insistence that Christians should not follow Jewish law was at the center of the argument and during the conflict, Paul’s opponents questioned whether he had authority to plant churches. At the end of his career, Paul despaired that many of his own churches in the Eastern Mediterranean seemed to have converted to follow the interpretation of his opponents, causing him to plan a retreat to Spain to start anew. Despite these setbacks, only a few decades later, Paul’s teachings on the law became doctrine for a majority of Christians and his writings were revered as scripture. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will trace the conflict among early Christians and consider why Paul’s churches ultimately won.

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