Why did Paul not go to Jerusalem to be taught by Peter, James and John after his conversion?
Paul did not go to Jerusalem to be taught by Peter, James, and John because God deliberately kept him separate from the Twelve. God did not want the new revelations He would give Paul mixed with what the Twelve already understood. Instead, Paul received his revelations directly from the Lord in Arabia, apart from flesh and blood.
Les teaches that the logical human response would have been for Saul, now converted, to return to Jerusalem and look up Peter, James, and John, who had been with the Lord for three years, and ask them to fill him in. But Paul makes the point by inspiration that he did not do this. The reason is that God wanted to keep him as far from the Twelve as possible so the revelations He was going to give to Paul would not be mixed up with what the Twelve had already understood. Paul says he conferred not with flesh and blood and did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before him. Instead, God took him out into Arabia, which Les thinks may be Mount Sinai, just as God took Moses there to reveal the Law. Les suggests Paul was alone there for three years while the Lord revealed the tremendous doctrines of grace that are found nowhere else in the Bible. Paul did not attend a seminary in Jerusalem taught by Peter, James, and John or pick up their notes; his letters came by revelation as the apostle of the Gentiles.
To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
More Questions
Where did Paul go after his conversion instead of going to Jerusalem to the apostles?
Immediately after his call, Paul did not confer with flesh and blood nor go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before him, but went into Arabia.