Meet Our 21st Century Paul

Dear Father,

Have you heard about the newly converted disciple? Some say he is the 21st Century Paul, the Jewish zealot who prosecuted the early Church, got converted and became one of the most influential apostles in Biblical History, so is the new convert everybody is talking about.

Father, some say, he has actually seen the light and rightly so, he has every reason to share the good news with everybody in our village about the village’s only beacon of hope, they say.

And Father, the good news is that he is doing it with the same passion and zeal with which he carried out his prosecution against the Village’s beacon of hope, I mean the Old Lady popularly known as “Iron Lady”.

And like the Biblical Paul, he also comes with a wealth of experience in his area. So, when he speaks and tells others that once he was blind but now he sees and focuses primarily on those things that he sees rather than those things he once criticized, he makes quite a significant impact positively in favor of the village beacon of hope.

Remember, Father, when the news broke to the rest of the members of the early church that the man who had been prosecuting the church of Jesus was now preaching, there were many who doubted and were still afraid thinking whether Paul could be trusted. But there were other brethrens who whole heartedly welcome him and provided him the platform to speak? So, is our 21st Century Paul, in spite of all the sermons he is preaching here and there, there are members in the Old Lady’s camp who still  have doubts about his conversion.

Some are even afraid to welcome him in their districts, reasons being that he is only trying to win their minds and souls for his personal gain and not for the Old Lady and so they have shunned him with many of them threatening to decide his fate come October 11, Judgment Day.

But there are others like the early church Christians who have wholeheartedly welcome the brother and have given him a place in their midst, making him one of the most influential men in the Old Lady’s camp, with a mission to win those who are not members of the Old Lady’s camp over.

You see, Father, it was the same with the Biblical Paul who after being accepted by the early church became very influential in winning the gentles over.

And interestingly Father, if you follow the story of the biblical Paul and how he got converted is no different from how our 21st Century Paul also got converted.

Remember the story about the “Talking Donkey” It was Paul’s Donkey, the Good Old Book says.  Paul was said to have been on his way to Damascus to prosecute a church that had been established there when Jesus appeared to him and said “Saul, Saul, why prosecuted thy me?” And Paul answered: “Is that you Lord?”

They say in the case of our Paul, he had gone to the computer boys down “Dead-Body Street” in our village to indoctrinate the men over there against the Old Lady, when he got arrested by their demands and had no other option, but say “if only you can save me from this embarrassment madam, I will spread your good news abroad and bring other people who had been kicking against you to you.”

And since then Father, our Paul has been living up to his promise, preaching the good news about the Old Lady all over the place more than the disciples who started off with her.

And the message has been plain and simple: “She is the only beacon of hope for our village.” I know you have been following the various crusades around our village these few days. Yes, my son I have.  Most of their sermons have been taken from the book of “Pure Rhetoric.” 

But have you heard the various sermons for minds and souls ahead of the “October 11 Judgment Day?” Some of these crusades are often broadcast live on radio and television and sometimes carried in the newspapers too. Just listen to the various preachers who tried to win the mind and souls of your people in this village.

And like the Good Old Book, they have the Old Testament Rhetoric and the New Testament Rhetoric. The Old Testament Rhetoric are based on the doctrines of the old politicians who have failed to live  up to present day reality and still thinks that the variables used in the 40s, 50s and early 70s are still applicable when in fact they are not.

And then the New Testament Rhetoric are based on new variables. Some of the crusaders are said to have ran out of topics and are recycling their messages which now have no meaning in the ears of the villagers. For some their own messages have brought them in conflict with present day reality. The war scare sermons are recipe for their own defeats.