BALTIMORE, Maryland, Saturday, November 19, 2016 and Monday, November 21, 2016 - One of the most enigmatic men in all of history, and a man who is studied today by more scholars, both Christian and secular, than almost any other person in history, other than Jesus Christ, is Saul of Tarsus, or, as he is universally better known today, St. Paul. St. Paul was born a Jew and a Roman Citizen, and before his conversion to Christianity, he was a huge thorn in the side of the early Christian Church. He searched out the early disciples and turned them over to the authorities, both Jewish and Roman. He was a man almost dedicated to eradicating the Christian movement.
Then came a night during a trip from Jerusalem to Damascus. By the time Saul took this journey, Christ had been crucified, had risen from the tomb, and had ascended back to heaven. The resurrected Christ appeared to Saul during this journey to Damascus, surrounded by a blinding bright light. In fact, Saul was left blind by the experience. The encounter is recreated in the Bible in the book of Acts, and for those who take a moment to read it, it is enthralling. Suffice to say that Saul - whom the Lord renamed Paul - was converted to Christianity by the miraculous experience, and three days later, a Christian man in Damascus by the name of Ananias was able to restore his vision. The Book of Acts also teaches that Ananias gave instruction to St. Paul in the teachings of Christianity, and later Baptized Paul. Some believe that Ananias subsequently became a Martyr.
After being converted, St. Paul worked unceasingly and with great power, to convert both Romans, Jews and other men to Christianity. He traveled throughout the known world, teaching and baptizing men and women into the Christian Faith. He wrote a large portion of the New Testament. Wikipedia, under its entry for Paul the Apostle, reviews the latest scholarship on the topic of which books in the Bible were actually written by St. Paul. According to Wikipedia, scholars agree that Paul wrote six of the books and quite possibly up to twelve. Today, St. Paul's authorship of the Book of Hebrews is the most hotly debated by those claiming expertise in such things. Many Christians are interested in that debate, because the words of the Book of Hebrews are often found to be both inspiring and revealing by people who take the time to read it.
The early church, under the leadership of St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John and the other apostles, as well as those who came to the faith because of the efforts of the original apostles and the Holy Spirit, now spread the words of Christ and the joys of Christianity throughout the civilized world in a breathtakingly short period of time. I've always believed that the amazingly brief period of time in which Christianity spread throughout the civilized world is a great, if unrecognized miracle. Paul's eternal position in the Christian Church is confirmed for all of time by his internment, along with St. Peter, in the catacombs directly below the Vatican.
Another Book in the Bible that many believe was authored by St. Paul is the Book of Colossians. In fact, that Book is known as "Paul's letter to the Colossians." In Chapter 1, verses 13 through and including 20 of Colossians, it is written: Verse 13: He (Christ) has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the dominion of his beloved Son, Verse 14: in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Verse 15: He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation, Verse 16: for in him all things were created, in heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, principalities or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. Verse 17: He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Verse 18: He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. Verse 19: For in him all of the fulness of God was pleased to dwell; Verse 20: and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on Earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.
Many see these precise words - which I have drawn from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, (my copy, which I used to retrieve the words, was given to me by my parents in 1962) - as a summary of that which all Christians believe. I believe these words, if that matters to you as you read this. Christ, who came to Earth as a human after being born a spirit in the heavens, was created in the image of God the Father. And man was created in the image of God, the Book of Genesis tells us. All words worth considering now, even as a few Americans engage in a putrid and vicious, if figurative, blood-letting over the results of the just concluded national election, an election that made Mr. Trump the man who will be President come January 20, 2017, when, by law, Barack Hussein Obama, gives up the mantle of power. Those who voted for Donald Trump watch in amazement as they are vilified by those who may have voted for, or at least favored, Hillary Clinton. Yet many who voted for Trump saw him as the only viable choice in view of the Democratic Candidate's many collisions with the criminal law of These United States, not to mention her ongoing conflicts with civil society. I am a life-long Democrat who, throughout my life, has always favored liberal and progressive views. I make no apology for that. But I tell you that I never even considered voting for Hillary Clinton. She had brazenly taken tens of thousands of dollars from the national treasury, and did so without apology. She allowed a huge percentage of all known uranium ore to come under the control and ownership of a man, Vladimir Putin, and his nation, Russia, that is often seen as the sworn enemy of These United States. She even heightened tensions ten fold with Russia, by alleging during the just concluded campaign that Trump was acting in league with Putin in a plot against the United States. She knew when she said these words that none of them were even close to being true, but she lied about it anyway; in fact, she lied whenever she thought it helped her cause or her own pocketbook. In the end, her willingness to lie 'on a dime' is what did her in on November 8, and that ugly and despicable habit may yet land Hillary Clinton behind bars. The Democratic Party, itself, has become so corrupt, so desperate for power, that it allowed someone like Mrs. Clinton, who was the subject of a top level criminal inquiry by the FBI throughout the Presidential Campaign, to represent the party in these national elections even as the criminal probe went forth. A tainted FBI Director, in the end, bowed to pressure from President Obama and did not move to indict Hillary, but most Americans believed that she should have been indicted, and James Comey, the FBI Director, sullied his own record and reputation, to avoid recommending that indictment. The corruption that soaks through the Democratic Leadership, and, if truth be known, much of the party hierarchy, also extends to the national news media, which worked hand-in-hand with the corrupt Democratic Party in an all out attempt to get Hillary Clinton elected. It made no sense to many Democrats, who had begun to question what it was about Hillary that appealed to Democrats, anyway. Wikileaks, the entity that exists to embarass the mighty, released many thousands of hacked emails that had been exchanged between the powers that call the shots within the Democratic Party. Many of them cast a bright and sharpened light on the corrupt ties between the Democratic Party and the mainstream media. These emails revealed that the media provided Hillary Clinton with verbatim copies of questions they would pose to Hillary Clinton during debates with Bernie Sanders during the primary campaign, and with Donald Trump during the General Election campaign. They also showed that the Clinton Campaign was able to "place" newspaper stories in the New York Times, and favorable televised reports on CNN. The mainstream media, especially the newspaper industry, is already held is very low regard by the American People, and these revelations may be the final death knell for some of these newspapers and media outlets. Immediately after Trump's victory was assured, Univision, the outlet followed by many Hispanic Folk, and a leading critic of Trump's candidacy, announced thousands of layoffs. A relationship that Hillary took for granted - the one between her and her close friends in the media, may have played a large part in her undoing.
Saint Paul was working directly against against God when God appeared to the Saint during his fateful journey to Damascus. The Lord insisted that Saul turn his life around.
Make no mistake; Donald Trump is not God. Fortunately for These United States, Trump does not pretend to be God, either. This cannot be said these days about many of the Ultra Leftists who run today's Democratic Party. Even today, when it is clear that Americans did not elect Hillary Clinton to the position she craved, she has yet to apologize for the wholesale lies and corrupt acts which directly led to the killing of four Americans at Benghazi. She has not apologized for the lies she told about her illegal emails and her highly illegal email servers, even though these lies and these acts led directly to the ability of hostile nations gaining the content of national secrets. American Espionage Agents placed overseas may have been killed because of Hillary's illegal practices. And, the Wikileaks revelations showed inarguably that Hillary's campaign paid people to commit violent acts at Trump rallies during the Primary and General Elections. There is no one that denies the truth of this, but no one, not Hillary, not John Podesta, her campaign manager, or any other Clinton campaign spokesperson, has apologized to the people who were beaten and injured at the rallies where the paid provocateurs struck. The corrupt Obama Justice Department has yet to move to indict those at the heart of the violence.
When Donald Trump took on Hillary Clinton during the fall campaign, it was not good vs. evil. But there were bad actors and wholesale corruption that soaked my Democratic Party. We should all realize that when the Ultra Left gains control of a political movement, illegal acts, corruption, fascist policies and other un-American practices are absolutely certain to follow.
That, in fact, is exactly what happened to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. America in the long-run, will benefit by her defeat.
Sports:
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland, Sunday, November 20, 2016: I was here to witness this match, but sitting and describing the heartbreaking conclusion of this magical Maryland soccer season is extremely difficult. The weather was awful, and played a huge role in the way things happened. In the end, though, the result is still completely unbelievable even to someone who has been watching this team play for many many years. For the record, the Terps bowed out of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday Night when they lost a 4-1 lead in the final 22 minutes and lost the match to determined Providence, 5-4.
The weather, in particular, the wind, made conditions just awful. Both teams had to deal with the same conditions, however, and in the end, it was Providence that was able to navigate the misery spread over the pitch by the gale-force winds. I thought Maryland had given up a huge advantage by playing with the wind at its back in the first half. The howling wind, out of the northwest and gusting up near 50 miles per hour, ushered in a winter-like cold front and led directly to both of Maryland's first half goals. Each of the two Terp scores in the opening half came on long distance free kicks. Gordon Wild hit a free kick from about 30 yards just 5:29 from the start. Five minutes later, Amar Sejdic hit a similar kick from 40 yards. Maryland led at the half, 2-1. The Terps moved ahead, 4-1, despite playing against the wind in the second half. Sejdic struck again just over five minutes into the second half when he blasted home a rebound from inside of the penalty area. Eryk Williamson then scored 8:29 into the final half when he also blasted home a close in shot from ten feet away. The Terps continued to play well over the next 15 minutes, and still led, 4-1, up until the Friars began their fateful comeback at the 69:22 mark of the second half. In other words, Maryland was up three goals with 20:45 left to play. The four goals scored by the Friars were stuffed into just barely over 19 minutes.
After the game, Terp coach Sasho Cirovski was literally at a loss for words, telling a student reporter over and over again that he couldn't "process" what he had just witnessed. Cirovski is one of the college game's truly great coaches, and watching his teams, I am often at a loss when trying to see what exactly he is doing to be so utterly successful. Those four goals scored by Providence were accomplished even with the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year and Goal Keeper of the Year on the field and playing hard. Only one of the four goals was obviously wind-assisted: I believe it was the score that tied the game where the shot got up in the wind and fooled Maryland Keeper Cody Niedermeier. He had come off the line - a huge mistake for a keeper, but one that the Friars' Keeper had also made on both of Maryland's first half set-piece scores - and when the wind allowed the high shot to just barely dip inside the cross-bar, he wasn't in a position to tip it back up over the bar.
Friar Keeper Colin Miller, who was heckled by Maryland's "Crew" throughout what was, for Miller, not the best of his efforts, had the final word on this forsaken night. When the game ended with his team ahead despite his less than stellar play, he spun gleefully toward his tormentors and flipped them a double bird, if you take my meaning. I suppose it is he who laughs last who laughs loudest.
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