Atos 9:23-24

It is hard to determine how "many days" had elapsed, but evidently Saul remained in Damascus several months. F. F. Bruce dated his return to Jerusalem about A.D. 35 and his conversion in 33. [Note: Bruce, Commentary on . . ., p. 205. Cf. Galatians 1:18.] This would mean that Saul was converted just a few months after Jesus’ ascension to heaven. [Note: Cf. Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, p. 143.] I think it is more probable that Saul became a Christian a little later, perhaps in 34, and returned to Jerusalem in A.D. 37. Regardless of the dates, we know that he finally left Damascus for Jerusalem three years after his conversion (Galatians 1:18).

"No one persecutes a man who is ineffective and who obviously does not matter. George Bernard Shaw once said that the biggest compliment you can pay an author is to burn his books. Someone has said, ’A wolf will never attack a painted sheep.’ Counterfeit Christianity is always safe. Real Christianity is always in peril. To suffer persecution is to be paid the greatest of compliments because it is the certain proof that men think we really matter." [Note: Barclay, p. 77.]