TL:DR - Paul didn't have a 'vision of god' but simply jumped onto the Christan movement for power. He was a bigot before hand and he sure as hell was a bigot afterwards!

Now the Long Rant, but I have often had a bone to pick with Paul. Before I do begin allow me to thank you for this chance to rant about something I do hold dear. I am not Christian but one of the biggest, the largest, things that piss me off about the fundies is this: PAUL IS NOT JESUS! Stop using his words as justification for ignoring the words of Jesus himself. Just because it allow you to point to a line in the New Testament that allows you to be bigots, doesn't mean it over-writes the words of the 'son of god!'

I always have a rule of thumb: Don't just take information at face value, look at the history of the person who is telling you said information and judge if they are worthy of speaking to you about said topic.

In Paul case, this is easy. Christians don't hide what sort of person this is, they seem proud with the life this guy led and are more then willing to inform you of the life story of 'Paul the Apostle.' They believe it is an example of 'redemption onto the path of god.' They don't even over look the fact he was a bigot, they simply state that 'on finding god he changed.' It is no surprise that all the new testimony bigotry and violence can be laid at this guys feet because they have fallen for the Darth Vader syndrome. This makes them blind to what sort of person Paul was after he converted, as all they cared about is the fact he was now on their side.

Vader Syndrome, as Jim Butcher puts it: "There's no ally so impressive, encouraging, and well loved as an ally who was an enemy that made you shake in your boots"

----- The following is what I believe about the guy -----

Paul was a bigoted and hateful man who did the dirty work of the religious rulers at the time, this mostly involved hunting down Heretics. Which, as you know, was quickly followed by torture and execution because religion is funny that way. However, he claimed to be Pharisees. This was not the ruling class at the time, meaning he could not 'advance' within the religion as he would of liked and would always be a lower class. He made a few contacts and got a name for himself, particularly in the non-Jewish community that knew people like him hunted them down as Heretics, but never had a chance to advance because of his class.

This led him very distasteful of the religion he was part, not the killing and murdering as he was fine with that... he was just pissed off he would not hold a position of power.

He entertained the idea of leaving the religion itself, setting off to find one that would allow him the power he craved. He then took a closer look at the people he was hunting down and, realizing they where frightened and disorganized, he figured he could use this to his advantage. All the really needed was solid leadership as the pre-Christian movements where gaining a lot of popularity but where very disorganized and often leaderless. Paul saw this as a grand moment to inject himself into the leadership of this fledgling movement... and inject he did.

It was simple to claim to have had a vision of their god, telling him to amend his ways. To add to the deal, he said this god said they would have to follow him, as he now is an apostle, and that makes him their leader. He would then go around the region, hunting down followers of Jesus as he was skilled to do but instead of killing them he asserted he was going to lead them into greatness. At this point Vader Syndrome set in for good, and they where hooked on his words.

If the leaders of said Jesus-following-groups challenged him, he would have them killed or greatly maimed and claim it was proof he was correct. Being a smart man, at least he has that going for him, Paul credits it all to Jesus and this further cements his 'proof of being Gods messenger.' As the victor always rights the history, we might never really know just how he went about blinding, killing or otherwise maiming people but it is clear: Get in the way of his quest for power and he will have you whacked.

A trait that is well known to the followers of Paul as well, as they would spend decades and even centuries hunting down any other teachings of Jesus and eradicate them till only Paul's version of events remained.

The teachings he provided where what you expected, bigotry at it's finest. However, there was one element the people loved and that was claiming Jesus was the Son of God. Jewish belief does not hold Jesus as the Son of God, as he failed to fill a few criteria that would allow them to rest that crown on his head. Paul made up a story about Jesus being descended from the king of Israel, which filled most of these holes and made it even easier for people to follow his teachings. For this, Jesus lovers would flock to him more then other leaders.

A few times he was caught out, either people didn't believe him or the follower base was too small in a city to keep him from being considered a heretic. In these cases he would quickly flee the city in question and continue the scam, as you can tell I consider him a con-artist, somewhere else. There are numerous tales of him having to leave a town after pissing off someone in power, which the followers point to as even more evidence that he was the 'messenger of god' by claiming a miracle helped him escape.

Eventually he amassed enough followers that he was the first, if de facto, pope... he had made it, he was now the leader he dreamed to be when he was busy sending the people now following him to their deaths.