Some who profess to follow Jesus denigrate Paul and say he preached a religion that was not from Jesus. That's not true at all. Jesus came to the Jews and He taught a message specifically to them. All of the disciples were Jews because that's who Jesus came for initially. The OT says that the Jews would reject Him and that's exactly what they did. It was time to go beyond the Jews and Jesus picked Paul specifically to do the job.
After his conversion, Paul disappeared into the desert for 3 years. There are hints in the Bible that he spent that time being taught by Jesus personally. An apostle was, by definition, one who had been taught by Jesus to be a teacher and Paul claimed that title. When Paul came back, he was on fire and it never went out as long as he lived.
