New Things, New Covenant, New Commandment, New Creation, New Man; all this to go along with the New Year! I hope this all thrills you as it does me! May we do as the Apostle Paul EDITED: Offending other religions figure is not allowed - BrAiKi and press on: "One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12-14).
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19179331&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=222089&rfi=6

I can’t understand is it a joke?

Who are these guys :os?

Shouldn't this be in religion sabla?

What's bugging you? That they call the Apostle Paul a terrorist?

It's a bit over the top. But isn't the point of the message that you can be a Christ killer and persecutor of God, like St. Paul was and still become renewed? What's wrong with that message.

Paul was the CHIEF Jewish persecutor of Christians and whether he was literally a terrorist or not, his hands were steeped in blood of the saints as he himself admitted.

If such a one can not only repent and change but become completely renewed, so can we.

This reminds me of a homily Msgr. Harbert preached in our church once. He said, "It's impossible to emphasize enough how unlikely it was for St. Paul to become not only a Christian, but an Apostle. It's like--and I am not exaggerating--it's like Osama bin Laden becoming the Pope."

Might like to read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_to_Damascus

Btw, St Paul is our islands' patron saint. He is the man who brought Christianity (in person) to Malta.

ok here's what I know of Pawlu ta' Malta ( as we call him over here...Paul of Malta).
he was a jew by birth, called Saul. but his father paid a special tax for him to have roman citizenship. so when he grew up he was employed by the romans to spy on the early Christians and uncover their secret places of worship.
One day on his way to Damascus, a light shone from him, Paul falls from his horse. A voice speaks to him from the blinding light. Paul asks 'who are you?' the voice answers 'IT is i, Jesus, why are you persecuting me?'...so Paul asks the voice to guide him. The voice tells him to go to Betanja (might not be right, i'm doing this from memory) and find a man called Hanania. He spends three days there and realises the wrong he was doing. So he decides to become the total opposite of what he was before. Changes name from Saul to Paul. He travelled through the east of the mediterranean and corresponds with seven churches. He is cornered and arrested by the Jews for treason but since he was a Roman citizen, he asks to be taken to Rome for trial.
On his way to Rome as a prisoner, close to Malta, a huge storm arises. An angel speaks to Paul and tells him that not a single hair from any person will be touched...as in nobody is gonna come to any harm.
The Maltese see the shipwreck and rush to their aid.
they light up a bonfire and provide food and blankets (see, we've been welcoming boat people since 60A.D lol)....
anyway, the Maltese look at Paul and say (since they were pagans till then) "this man must be a God, nobody would survive such a storm).
A viper comes out from the sticks and bites Paul's hand.
The Maltese (always a bit gossipy) go 'HaH! he must be a bad man because he survived the storm and the Gods are punishing him with poison'.
But Paul shakes the viper into the fire and is not poisoned.
Paul spends 3 months in Malta, and preached in Catacombs.

this one in fact...where one can still see graffiti of the early christians

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/malta/images/rabat/st-paul-catacombs/chamber-in-small-catacombs-c-andreas.jpg

the middle circle is the agape table where they used to break bread and pray ...early form of our Holy Mass.
Anyway...in three months, Paul converts the island and goes to rome, where he was beheaded.
So he becomes a Saint..and that's all folks

I would be quite offended to hear Paul called a terrorist all that kind of "talk" is just a bunch of moronic buzz word fad catching crap for the moment.

Btw, St Paul is our islands' patron saint. He is the man who brought Christianity (in person) to Malta.

Yes, precisely. Christianity.

But that's where these guys want to make an argument. St. Paul is supposed to be the arch-perverter of Jesus' "real teaching", which was meant only for the Jews and not for the Gentiles. He made up all that stuff about Jesus dying on the cross and redeeming us too.

Why would an educated arch-Jew who loved the Law and the Prophets and hated Christians suddenly turn on a dime and invent a new religion that was anti-Jewish and made a god out of a man and preach it to the Gentiles? And persist in the face of Roman authorities who wanted to kill him and finally did? I dunno...

Of course it's all lumpenfish and ninnyhammers. But they don't know that, more's the pity. So one has to fisk through the arguments one by one.