“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (Acts ix, 3–5).
This was simply a hallucination; and upon this hallucination of the diseased mind of Paul the whole system of Christian theology is based.
3.
The effect of Paul’s miraculous conversion upon his companions is thus related:
“And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless” (Acts ix, 7).
“We were all fallen to the earth” (xxvi, 14).
4.
“And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man” (Acts ix, 7).