The deep and abiding significance of Saul’s encounter is that he hears Jesus speak as if there’s a moral equivalence between Jesus and the people Saul is persecuting. The voice twice calls the people “me”! From that day forward, this astounding reversal of perspective became the foundation for Paul’s evolving worldview and his exciting discovery of “the Christ.” This fundamental awakening moved Saul from his beloved, but ethnic-bound, religion of Judaism toward a universal vision of religion, so much so that he changed his Hebrew name to its Latin form, Paul. Later, he calls himself the
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