My take on Paul would be that he had a free will and could have chosen not to follow God but did so because he believed. Therefore, i believe it was a willing conversion.
So your saying God has no power to predestine people? That Paul was not predestined to be a servant of God? That when God plans to use someone before the founding of the world, that the man foreknown, predestined, and called to do God's will and purpose can refuse? The Bible does not agree with your understanding:
Gal 1:13-17
13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
Paul is saying in the above he was predestined and called. Paul shows below that this is exactly how God works.
Rom 8:29
29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son,
Rom 8:30
30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
When someone becomes a prisoner, are they in prison by freewill? Do they willingly put themselves in chains and say "lock me up?" No. Never. But Paul constantly refered to himself as a "prisoner of Christ." Why? Because in the manner in which he was "set apart from birth."
Eph 3:1
3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-
Philem 1
1:1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus,
If you say that reading the Bible is a good start, I take it to mean that you do not think the Bible alone could teach a person the plan of salvation. If the Bible is not enough, is there a leader or organization needed?
Organization? No. Leader? Absolutely! Christ and His spirit. The combination of Christ's spirit and the Bible are all that is needed. When people of Christ's time put faith in Him, or showed they had a strong belief of who He was, what did they do? They listened to His words and they went to HIM. So, there's the key, his Words and Him. They did not go to an organization, they did not go to another person to get to Him, they did not go to a governing body or a building, they went straight and directly to HIM. No middle man to Him. Just Him. After all, He is the divinely appointed middle man isn't he? We DO NOT need a middle man for the God appointed middle man, do we? Just because He is dead and gone in the flesh doesn't change the rules. listen to His words by reading the Bible, go to Christ and only Him, and He WILL come to you. Because that is all we need to get to the Father.
Lets see if we can agree on certain identifying marks of such groups.
Discerning "identifying marks" is a judgement call. I am here to ascertain and build on my own individual understanding and teach my family, not to judge "identifying marks" of leaders or organizations of this world. I will let Christ do the identifying/judging.
Do you think a person should examine not only the teachings, but also the history of any religious organization before deciding it is the truth?
The Bible is the only truth to me. But for some, to get to that ultimate reality, examination of the worlds organized religions would indeed shed greater light on the fact that Christ is the only way, not man made "religions." Besides the Bible and Christ, everything else is so much darkness.
Religion is from man. Spirituality is from God.
