He
was born into a prominent family. Like bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, his roots
were upper-middle class, refined, and privileged. As a child he was very
bright, and so his parents arranged for him to study under the best teachers.
He spoke several languages and had a knack for moving easily from one culture
to another.
Along
with his education came an increased interest in his ancestral religion. He
became more and more devoted. You might even say he was becoming radicalized.
His
religious fervor began to express itself in extreme opposition to other
religions, particularly Christianity.
As
a young devotee, he watched approvingly as other fanatics subjected a Christian
preacher to a gruesome execution. This act of violence seemed to light the fuse
of fiery fanaticism in his own heart. He began persecuting Christians as a
personal mission, planning ways to entrap and arrest them.
He
honestly believed that the imprisonment, torture, and murder of men and women
who didn’t share his religion were what his God had called him to do.
But
his career as a fanatic and terrorist is not the end of his story. Because, as
unlikely as it is to imagine, as impossible as it must have been for his
victims to envision, he came to embrace the very faith he had tried to destroy.
It
happened in the middle of a plot to ferret out Christians from the local population.
He was travelling between cities, on his way to wreak havoc upon more infidels,
when a light from heaven blinded him and the voice of Jesus addressed him. "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
He was born Saul of Tarsus, but after meeting
Jesus he became Paul the Apostle. (You can read more of his story in Acts 9, Philippians 3)
The
persecutor and terrorist and hater of Christianity became the most influential Christian
who has ever lived. God used him to proclaim throughout the world the gospel he
once despised. He became the author (under divine inspiration) of 13 books of
the New Testament.
Paul
was executed for his faith in Christ, and before he died, he wrote….
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. (1 Timothy 1:12-15)
So
let’s pray for the salvation of Muslim terrorists. If they meet Jesus, who
knows what might happen.
