quote from Bonnie

Phl 3:4 Yet I could have confidence in myself if anyone could. If others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! 


 Phl 3:5 For I was circumcised when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish family that is a branch of the tribe of Benjamin. So I am a real Jew if there ever was one! What's more, I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 


 Phl 3:6 And zealous? Yes, in fact, I harshly persecuted the church. And I obeyed the Jewish law so carefully that I was never accused of any fault. 


 Phl 3:7 I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.

Of course it's Christ who saves us.

Then why did you say that he wasn't?   

There is no shame in acknowledging a misspeak, if that's what it was.




But this is a discussion/debate forum, is it not?

The point being made in this passage by Paul himself is what is being discussed, not a summation on his life in general. In this passage, and it's important because Paul wrote it this way, Paul left the stand-up life of a near perfect Jew under law and legalism for one of perfect redemption because of Christ under grace.  This shouldn't be glossed over.  It also explains why it was so important to him to not bring a bad name to the Good News because of his own behavior that he would 'beat himself black and blue' to stay true to Christ.  (I imagine it was a challenge for him to not slip back into the ways of law-keeping that he knew and had lived so well for so long.)

Bonnie----

Paul was never a Roman soldier.   Paul was a Pharisee named Saul--a strict Jew who observed the LAW before he was converted.  He observed the LAW and was one of the Pharisees who went about persecuting and killing Christians.  He was exrtremely "religious" and knew the Jewish Law backwards and forwards.  But the Bible never says he was a soldier----and as far as a "past life of sin"----he would refer to his "religiousness" as garbage more than a sinful life he lived------though I'm sure as he called himself "the chief of sinners" he viewed the "righteousness" he had lived as completely "filthy rags" just as Isaiah said.

Yes, Bonnie, Paul persecuted Christians, but as a Pharisee, as a religious person, not as a Roman soldier.

Pharisees were a Jewish religious group that followed OT laws to a "T". Beyond the "T", actually.  They threw in some of their own traditions as if they were law.  Paul was taught by Gamaliel, top of the class.  The Pharisees hated Jesus because what He taught was in conflict with their comfort zone.  He questioned their motives and pointed out their pride.

This is why he laid out his Jewish pedigree, because it was top-notch, then proclaimed it nothing, less than nothing - dung.  All that was important, really important, was found in his Redeemer, Christ.

I think most of us could call our past life as sinners nothing but dung compared to having a Saviour in our lives who has redemned us from the  old ways.
How and by what means did he put some of the people he captured into prisons?

I don't understand. Phoebe, are you saying he never put them into jail or what?

The point he was making in this passage was directly connected to his top-notch "jewishness", though.  That's why he went to the trouble of detailing it. He was more than a sinner.  He was a Jew by birthright.