Jeremiah Johnston

Here's the beauty of this story.

He thought he was killing and murdering, not murdering.

To him, it was just getting rid of these people that were called at the time followers of the way.

They were all Jews.

So he saw it as a heinous thing in the Jewish population.

He had to get rid of it for righteousness' sake, right?

They weren't called Christians until Nero called them that.

Interestingly enough, the apostolic period had to come in after Jesus was resurrected and ascended.

Then they were called apostles, which means to be sent out with a message.

And the followers of Jesus, the followers of the way then, were being so persecuted by Nero, so horrendously tortured and everything else.

And Saul of Tarsus was a big part of that.

And they left Jerusalem.

And so it was on the road to Damascus that Saul of Tarsus heard the voice of Jesus say to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And Saul goes, who are you?

And he goes, I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

And then he goes blind.

And then he goes into a hole.

The rest of the story, some people know.

But what amazes me, Glenn, is it took him hearing, hearing the absolute voice of Jesus for him to realize, and this is the part that makes me sob, I missed the Messiah.

He was already here.