Delania Byerley

The Book of Acts contains the prodigious account of Paul’s missionary journeys around Europe and Asia Minor. These journeys allowed Christianity to spread to places where it had never been before. After Paul’s first mission, he and Barnabas traveled to Jerusalem to speak on an issue that had been plaguing their converts. Would Gentiles, those who had not been converts to Judaism, have to be circumcised and uphold the Law of Moses be Christians?

Paul’s missionary journeys are an incredible part of the Bible. The area that he covered to proclaim Christ as the Savior, even to those who would potentially kill him, makes Acts a phenomenal book on witnessing. But Paul wasn’t always a Christian, nor was he originally named Paul. To understand the beginning of Paul’s missionary journeys and why he felt compelled to begin, let’s look into Paul’s conversion to Christianity as told in Paul: Life and Letters, starting from when he was called Saul.

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying. “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.” (Revelation 1:17–19)