How long was Paul in the desert receiving revelation from the Lord?
Paul spent three years in the desert, likely in Arabia and Mount Sinai, where the Lord revealed to him the doctrines of grace. He did not confer with flesh and blood or go to Jerusalem to the apostles, because God kept him separate from the Twelve.
Les explains that after Damascus, the Lord had made Saul His own and brought him off his high horse of Judaism. Logically, Saul might have gone back to Jerusalem to look up Peter, James, and John, who had been with the Lord for three years, and ask them to fill him in. But he did not. Instead, God took him out into Arabia, and Les thinks into Mount Sinai, to keep him as far from the Twelve as possible. God did not want the revelations He was going to give to Paul mixed up with what the Twelve had already understood. Les suggests Paul was there, likely alone, for three years while the Lord revealed to him the tremendous doctrines of grace found nowhere else in the Bible.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
More Questions
How long did God reveal doctrine to Paul in the desert, and where else in the Bible are those doctrines found?
For three years, apparently alone in the desert, the Lord revealed to Paul the tremendous doctrines of grace that are found nowhere else in the Bible.
How does Les characterize Paul's three years in Arabia/Sinai?
Paul's three years in the Sinai region were like isolated seminary training.