Where Did the Demons Come From?

Posted on 10/24/2026 by Paul Pavao

It is unfortunately typical for me to be unable to follow through on promises I made. I didn’t write 1,000 words yesterday because I spent the whole day, morning to night, with my daughter’s family. Family trumps blogging.

So, the demons!

The popular myth is that demons are fallen messengers (angels), 1/3 of whom fell with Satan before humans were created. The myth comes from Revelation 12:4, where “the dragon” draws 1/3 of the stars with his tail and throws them to the earth. In verse 9, the dragon is identified as Satan, and he and his messengers are thrown down to earth.

*Note: I hate, hate, hate that we continue to mistranslate the Greek word angelos into “angel.” It does not mean angel, it means “messenger.” It sounds like angel, but it does not mean angel.

I invite you to read Revelation 12. I don’t think you will interpret it to mean something that happened before humans were made. I think you will interpret it to mean something that happened when Jesus was born. This interpretation is strengthened by Luke 10:18, where Jesus said that he saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven while the 70 were out preaching the Gospel of the kingdom.

But if this was not the origin of the demons, where did they come from?

1 Enoch, the Nephilim, and the Spirits of the Dead

In 1990, I began reading the early church fathers in order to learn just what the faith once for all delivered to the saints was. The language of the 1890s translators was difficult, but I had no problems reading this bombshell:

… let these persuade you that even after death souls are in a state of sensation; and those who are seized and cast about by the spirits of the dead, whom all call dæmoniacs or madmen … (Justin, c. AD 150-160, “First Apology,” ch. 18)

I was shocked! Demoniacs are seized by the spirits of the dead!?

I’m pretty sure, based on my 1990 reading plan, that I read that in 1990. I would guess it was only a couple weeks later when I read, in Justin’s “Second Apology,” this explanation:

God, when He had made the whole world, and subjected things earthly to man, … committed the care of men and of all things under heaven to angels [messengers] whom He appointed over them. But the messengers transgressed this appointment, and were captivated by love of women, and begat children who are those that are called demons. (“Second Apology,” ch. 5)

This seemed an obvious reference to Genesis 6:4. My memory is failing me here, but I have to assume that I asked David Bercot about this in 1992 while we were trying to start a church that would honor the teachings of the united early churches. He told me about 1 Enoch, mentioned in Wednesday’s blog. I soon bought and read it.

Remember, 1 Enoch is quoted in Jude (unless there was some tradition about Enoch that both 1 Enoch and Jude quoted, which is possible). The early Christians were obviously familiar with it, at least the first section of it, which may have been written earlier than the rest. The story goes like this.

There were “Watchers” who came down to earth, saw the daughters of men, married them, and fathered children who were giants. The Watchers are not explained, but they were obviously heavenly beings who knew a lot of things humans did not. According to 1 Enoch, at least the version I read, their children were 300 cubits, which is 450 feet tall! The book has a lot of crazy things in it; no one today thinks Enoch wrote it, and outrageous exaggeration was typical of some of these recreations of supposedly older books.

Note: The “Book of Jasher” is mentioned in the Bible (Josh. 10:13 & 2 Sam. 1:18). You can buy “The Book of Jasher” today, but it is a 15th- or 16th-century re-creation. In it the sons of Jacob can yell so loud that one shout could take out a whole group of enemy soldiers. As said, extreme exaggeration is typical of these restorations, and Enoch is no exception. Nonetheless, Enoch preserves ideas that are represented in the New Testament.

Anyway, Enoch goes on to say that God commanded Gabriel to “excite them [the Nephilim] against one another” so that they “perish by mutual slaughter.” He sent another messenger, Raphael, to bind up Azazel, their leader, open “the desert which is in Dudael,” and cast him in there and, finally, Michael was to bind the rest “for seventy generations, even to the day of judgment.” See my post on Azazel for his role in the Day of Atonement.

The souls of the giants were not allowed rest, but were cursed to roam the earth until judgment day. For Justin, the offspring of the Watchers were the demons. In 1 Enoch, their disembodied spirits continued to afflict humanity. (ChatGPT wrote those 2 sentences to correct an overstatement I made. I didn’t feel like editing it, so … my first AI insertion into my blog.)

I found this interesting. Notice that “Legion,” the many demons that were in the demoniac of Mark 5, begged Jesus not to send them out of the country (Mark 5:10). That made me wonder if they were Nephilim that had lived in one specific place. Genesis 6:4 says that the Nephilim were “were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”

Note: Before we go on, I want to help you keep these things accurate in your mind. The Watchers are heavenly beings, possibly angels/messengers. “Angel” in the Bible means “messenger,” not angel, in both Hebrew and Greek, so I use “messenger” even in Bible quotes. The Watchers, who might be messengers or might be some other form of heavenly being, married women. The Watchers were condemned by God to imprisonment in chains. Their children, the Nephilim, killed one another, and their souls were condemned to roam the earth. This is one possible origin of the demons.

The Watchers in the New Testament

Whether the pleas of Legion apply or not, there are a couple direct statements about these things in Peter’s 2 letters:

Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison, who before were disobedient when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ship was being built. (1 Pet. 3:18-20, WEB modified slightly)

For if God didn’t spare messengers when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment; and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly … then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. (2 Pet. 2:4-5, 9)

Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn’t believe. Messengers who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:5-6)

Clearly, both Peter and Jude knew about spirits/messengers–messengers are spirits, Heb. 1:14–imprisoned from the time of Noah until the time of Jesus, who preached to them either in Hades or after he was resurrected. In addition, Peter says they will remain imprisoned until the Day of Judgment. Oddly, I think, he says they are imprisoned in Tartarus. In Greek mythology, Tartarus is the deepest, darkest pit of the underworld. This certainly jibes with the idea of God imprisoning the Watchers until the last day.

And the mention of Tartarus and Hades can be my next post, hopefully tomorrow. My readers are smart people. I’ll leave this post just as it is and let you take it further. I think I’ve given sufficient warning that 1 Enoch was not written by Enoch the seventh from Adam.

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Ignoring the Giants: Nephilim, Anakim, and the Sons of God

Posted on 10/21/2026 by Paul Pavao

I’m going to aim for 1,000 words per day on the blog for the next 30 days. No promises, but I’ll try. (I guess that’s a promise, LOL.)

The giants–the Nephilim, Anakim, and Rephaim–occupy a central role in the books of Moses. They show up again in 1 Samuel when David fights Goliath,  and 2 Samuel describes the killing of other sons of Anak. I want to focus, though, on a well-documented side story of giants in Genesis through Deuteronomy. This may be the most interesting story thread in the Bible that will make no impact on your life. It’s just interesting, not practical in any way I know of.

They show up first in Genesis 6:4:

The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children with them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

There’s a lot of dispute over who the Nephilim, and even “God’s sons” are, but I think the confusion will be erased by simply going on.

They come up again in Genesis 14:

In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and struck the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh Kiriathaim, and the Horites in their Mount Seir, to El Paran, which is by the wilderness. They returned, and came to En Mishpat (also called Kadesh), and struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that lived in Hazazon Tamar.

We will see shortly that the Rephaim and Emim are also giants, said to be so in Deuteronomy. This passage, though, does not center on the giants. Instead, these are the kings who captured Sodom and Abram’s nephew Lot. Abram went with 318 men, defeated the kings mentioned above, and rescued Lot.

Note: “318” is an interesting number. In Greek it is written with the letters tau, iota, and eta. Tau (Τ) looks like a cross, and iota and eta are the first two letters of Jesus’ name in Greek. The early Christians (Letter of Barnabas, Clement of Alexandria) say this number is a prophecy of Christ.

Later, Moses sends spies into the Promised Land to check out its fertility and inhabitants. Ten of the spies came back terrified, saying …

The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” (Num. 13:32-33)

In this story, we find that the giants in the land of Canaan, to whom the spies seemed to be mere grasshoppers, were Nephilim, specifically the descendants of Anak. The descendants of Anak are also called the Anakim, and we will see them again as well. In fact, let’s leap to the most important chapters on the Nephilim, Anakim, and Rephaim, both in Deuteronomy:

Yahweh said to me [Moses], “Don’t bother Moab, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give you any of his land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession.” The Emim lived there before, a great and numerous people, and tall as the Anakim. These also are considered to be Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim. The Horites also lived in Seir in the past, but the children of Esau succeeded them. They destroyed them from before them, and lived in their place, as Israel did to the land of his possession, which Yahweh gave to them. (Deut. 2:9-12)

The comments about the giants here are likely an insertion into Moses’ speech by another writer, probably a later editor. The version I read, the World English Bible (because it has no copyright), puts parentheses around the parts about the Rephaim, Anakim, and Emim. This editor clearly approved of the fact that the Moabites and Edomites (sons of Esau) destroyed the giants. You may remember that the Emim were mentioned in Genesis 14.

In the next chapter, Deuteronomy 3, we read:

We took all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its width, after the cubit of a man. (Deut. 3:10-11)

I left out the parentheses in this passage as well because they clash with the parentheses I use for the reference. The WEB puts the description of Og as a remnant of the Rephaim in parentheses, along with the description of his 13 1/2 ft. by 6 ft. bed.

I’m not telling you to do anything with this. I am just trying to tell you that the Nephilim of Genesis 6:4 were definitely giants, which means that the sons of God who fathered children with the daughters of men were definitely heavenly beings, not descendants of Seth as some people teach.

Note: AFTER I wrote this, I ran it by ChatGPT. It told me that “definitely heavenly beings” is overstating my case. Yes, the Nephilim were definitely giants, but my case for their fathers being heavenly beings is more probably than definite. I don’t agree, but I am passing on the warning.

It’s worth paying attention to the fact that the parentheses in the WEB suggest to me that the translator thinks these are later edits. He’s not alone. A lot of scholars think they are later edits. Some suggest Joshua or even Ezra added them to supply context though, of course, we have no idea who might have edited them. You can read through the quotes above and see just how much the parts about the giants sound like later insertions.

The Sons of God and the Divine Council

I have to point out that “the sons of God” is not unique to Genesis 6:4 as applying to heavenly beings.

Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, Satan also came among them. (Job 1:6)

Psalm 82:1 says that God presides in the great assembly, he judges among the gods. The late Dr. Michael Heiser spent a lot of time explaining this “divine council” in his lifetime. For my purposes, you need only to know that the “gods” that the true God was judging in this divine council were created, like Satan was. They are not real gods, but there is an argument from the Greek translation of Deuteronomy 32:8 that God assigned some of these lesser gods, also called the “sons of God” in Job 1:6, to rule nations. If this is true, then Psalm 82 describes God’s judgment on them for not taking care of the weak and needy in their nations.

ChatGPT says the argument that Deuteronomy 32:8 should be “sons of God” is stronger than I made it sound because the Dead Sea Scrolls have “sons of God” even in Hebrew. It gave me a TheTorah.com article that argues for “sons of God,” written by a Jewish professor.

By the way, these “gods” or “sons of God” that were given rule over the nations would be the principalities and powers that we read about in the New Testament. In fact, they are the “rulers of this age” who would not have crucified the Lord of glory if they had known what would happen to them.

They do appear one more time in 1 Kings 22 (and 2 Chronicles 18 repeats the story). It’s interesting, so I’ll post the passage here:

Micaiah said, “Therefore hear Yahweh’s word. I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the army of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. Yahweh said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ One said one thing, and another said another. A spirit came out and stood before Yahweh, and said, ‘I will entice him.’

Yahweh said to him, ‘How?’

He said, ‘I will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’

He said, ‘You will entice him, and will also prevail. Go out and do so.’ Now therefore, behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and Yahweh has spoken evil concerning you.” (1 Kings 22:19-23)

I don’t know how you’re going to apply all this, but I thought you would want to know. It will help you understand what you read in the Old Testament better. You might also want to know this.

The Book of Enoch

The Book of Enoch, loved by Christians and Eastern Mystics alike, is available wherever books are sold. You do need to know that no scholar anywhere believes Enoch, the pre-flood descendant of Adam, wrote it. The part most pertinent to this post, The Book of the Watchers was (most likely) written between 300 and 200 BC. It does describe things that are written in our Bibles because the Jews and Christians believed them.

For example, 1 Peter 3:19 says that Jesus preached to “spirits in prison” who were disobedient in the times of Noah. First Enoch tells us that the “Watchers” that came to earth and bore children with women were judged by God and bound in chains until the time of the judgment. Jude goes further and seems to quote 1 Enoch:

About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 1:14-15)

This is from 1 Enoch 1:9. There are plenty of disputes about why Jude quotes it and how it made it into our Bible. After reading the early church fathers through the AD 250s, it seemed clear to me that the early Christians were familiar with 1 Enoch, though the scholars you and I would trust would never include it in the “canon,” the official books of the Old or New Testaments.

ChatGPT pointed out that Tertullian, a Carthaginian lawyer writing around AD 200-220, argues for the authority of 1 Enoch in “On the Apparel of Women,” ch. 1, par. 3. It also points out that the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches have 1 Enoch in their canon. Here’s a video of Dr. Wes Huff explaining Enoch. 

There are some commentaries on those verses at biblehub.com. You can also try asking an AI, but make sure you ask the AI to give you scholarly sources. All sorts of people have made videos on the Book of Enoch, but it’s best to get your information from sane sources. Dr. Heiser has an hour-long video on the Book of Enoch that will give you the facts as well as the theories.

Tomorrow, it seems, we should talk about the origin of demons!

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Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (PPPPPP version): Paul Pavao’s Potentially Prejudiced Personal Paraphrase

Posted on 08/10/2026 by Paul Pavao

Paul Pavao’s Potentially Prejudiced Personal Paraphrase (PPPPPP) of Romans:

Romans 1:1-17: I am not ashamed of my Good News because it is so powerful that over and over again, the people who believe it practice righteousness. My Good News is that God raised Jesus from the dead by the Spirit of Holiness, and God has empowered us to use this Gospel to bring about the obedience of faith among ALL nations.

Romans 1:18-31: Gentiles who don’t believe in God get more and more wicked.

Romans 2:1-28: If they Jews don’t obey the law, their circumcision won’t do them any good because God judges by deeds, not nationality. Those who are evil get wrath and indignation, and those who do good get eternal life.

Romans 3:1-19: The Scriptures tell us that the Jews don’t obey the law, so “every mouth [Jew and Gentile] is closed and brought under the judgment of God.”

Note: I’m writing “Romans” in front of the chapter and verse so Reftagger lets you hover and read the passages if you want.

Romans 3:20-26: Since no one was obeying God, he offered up his Son as a sacrifice cleansing all the sin and transgressions committed under the old covenant (cf. Heb. 9:15), showing God to be just in overlooking those transgressions and declaring those who believe in Jesus innocent.

Romans 3:28-31: God justified both Jews and Gentiles through or by faith (not sure why this distinction was important to Paul), but this does not nullify the law.

Romans 4:1-25: God is simply doing what he did with Abraham. He declared Abraham righteous because of faith, and now he’s doing the same with those who believe in Jesus.

Key Transition Here: “It is by faith so that it may be by favor” (v. 16). Paul is moving towards a two-chapter theological and then practical description of favor.

Note: I replace grace with “favor” throughout because it is a much better translation. “Grace” is a made-up word that sounds like the Greek charis but does not translate it. There is a short bonus section after my paraphrase that explains the eye-opening, scholar-reviewed, secular use of charis in the first century.

Romans 5:1-2: Faith has brought us peace with God, and now we stand by his favor, so let’s start talking about the favor that faith brought to us.

Romans 5:3-21: Favor is so amazing that we can overcome suffering and be transformed by it into godly character. Jesus reconciled us to God by his death, and he infused us with divine life by his resurrection, so than now everything Adam did to us is nullified by everything Jesus has done for us.

Key Explanation: “… as sin reigned in death, even so FAVOR might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 21).

Romans 6:1-23: Here’s how favor works: We are buried with Christ in baptism, dying to all that we were, and we are raised to new life in Christ. In Christ, we have God’s favor, and this removes sin’s power over us (v. 14). The result is that we are servants of God, which results in growing holiness, if we turn over our body parts to him (v. 19). Holiness results in eternal life (v. 22). The point is, sin brings you death, God’s gift of favor is eternal life.

Key Misunderstanding: “Gift” in Romans 6:23 is charisma, which is charis with –ma at the end, thus “gift of favor,” the same word used for the spiritual gifts in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. No one translates “gifts” in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 as “free gifts.” The gifts are free, as all gifts are, but the point of charismata (plural of charisma), at least when it comes from God, is not that they are free, but that they are transforming. A person with the favor-gift of prophecy is enabled to prophesy. A person with the favor-gift of eternal life can live forever. By charisma in verse 23, Paul is not trying to deny what he just said in verse 22, that eternal life is the end result of serving God with your body and becoming holy, he is describing eternal life as an enabling gift from God, a gift that makes you immortal.

Romans 7:1-6: We are freed from the law by death in the same way a widow or widower is freed from his/her marriage by death.

Romans 7:7-24: The Law of Moses is holy, good, and perfect, but since we can’t keep it, it does us no good. The problem’s not the Law, it’s us. Doing good is impossible for us as long as we have “sin in our flesh.” The law is good, but we don’t keep it and thus sin, and because we sin we die.

Romans 7:25: Thanks be to God, we can be delivered from this law of sin and death by Jesus Christ!

Romans 8:1-2: There’s no condemnation to the ones that are in Christ Jesus, as previously explained in Romans 4, because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the described-in-Romans-7 law of sin and death. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has been described in Romans 5:9-21, but now Paul is going to explain it to us practically.

Romans 8:3-4: God “condemned” sin in the flesh by sending his Son in the image of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. It is living (“walking”) by the Holy Spirit that enables us to do the things that the law was trying to get us to do.

Note: The “righteous requirement of the Law” in Romans 8:4 is nicely summarized in Micah 6:8: “… love justice, do mercy, and walk humbly with your God,” as well as, of course, by Jesus in Matthew 22:36-40, the two greatest commandments.

Romans 8:5-8: Walking in the Spirit happens, if you are in Christ, by thinking spiritual things. (Romans 12:1-2 says something very similar.)

Romans 8:9-11: If everything said in chapters 4-6 has happened to you, then your body is dead because of sin but your spirit is alive because of righteousness, and you have the Holy Spirit in you. If that hasn’t happened, you’re not a Christian.

Romans 8:12-14: If you live by your flesh–the desires of your body–you will die. You will live, now and forever, if you put to death the deeds/desires of the body, because only those who are led by the Spirit are the children of God.

Romans 8:15-39: If you are led by the Spirit, the benefits are almost beyond description. They are so great that every suffering in the world cannot compare to the benefits you will receive. The whole universe is waiting for the day that not only your spirit, but your bodies will be re-created, and until then we are living under incredible power of God’s favor and support so that nothing that has ever been created can stand against or accuse us, not even spiritual principalities, powers, and dominions, and not even death. [This should be received with a “Whoo hoo!” and joyous dancing!]

Romans 9 – 11: Paul knows in advance people, especially Jews, are going to complain about what he is about to teach, so he begins with: “God has every right to harden whoever he wants, so don’t complain against the potter, you beings of clay.” God has temporarily and partially hardened the Jews so that the Gentiles can come in. His idea is that the Jews will be jealous of the Gentiles, repent, and then the hardness will be removed and there will be mercy for everyone on earth. This is marvelous wisdom!”

Romans 12:1-15:13: Paul always includes general teaching about how to live and to use the super-powers God has given you (favored you with0, so here are some instructions.

Note: Paul explains why he gives instructions like these in Ephesians 4:20-32. If we have been taught as the truth is in Jesus, then we need to take off the old man, the condemned body of sin, and put on the new man that is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Romans 15:14-16:24: News and greetings

Bonus Section: The Use of Faith and Favor in First-Century Rome

The following is entirely based on David A. daSilva’s “Patronage and Reciprocity: The Context of Grace in the New Testament,” which is shortened to quotes by “Berean Patriot.”

In first-century Rome, many artisans and tradesmen had patrons. The patrons were wealthy citizens who provide funding and aid for the artisans/tradesmen. Charis, or favor, was the assistance that the patrons gave to their “clients,” the artisans and tradesmen. Pistis, usually translated “faith” in the Bible, is the faithfulness/loyalty that the clients showed to their patron. In return for the favor/favors the patron provided. the clients would faithfully support the goals/purposes of the patron, whether political or social.

Paul co-opted those words for his description of the Gospel. It seems to me that Jesus expresses this favor-faith connection with remarkable similarity in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.”

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Paul’s Potentially Prejudiced Personal Paraphrase: 1 John 3:7 and 1 John 5:13

Posted on 07/31/2026 by Paul Pavao

I’m hoping God lets me continue a series beginning with today’s “Paul’s Potentially Prejudiced Personal Paraphrase.” I told Lorie, my wife, about it, and she said, “Perfect!” (LOL).

1 John 3:7, NASB: “Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.”

1 John 3:7, PPPPP: “Don’t be tricked into thinking that you have imputed righteousness unless you can see imparted righteousness in your life. If God is not training you in righteousness, then he is not theorizing that you are righteous despite your unrighteous behavior. Walk by the Spirit and thus perform the good works you were created in Christ Jesus to do, and you will be one of the blessed ones whom the Lord will not charge with sin.” (Related Bible passages: Rom.4:8 & 8:1-14; Eph. 2:8-10 & 4:20-24; Gal. 5:16-6:9)

In keeping with Hollywood tradition, you get a double dose in this series pilot.

1 John 5:13, NASB: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”

1 John 5:13, PPPPP: “I told you this whole letter to believers in Jesus so they can know that they have eternal life. Please stop assuring people who hate one or more of their brothers, don’t keep Jesus commands, talk about loving others without serving others, and who love the world and the things in it that they have eternal life!” (References: 1 Jn. 3:15; 1 Jn. 2:3-4; 1 Jn. 3:18-19; 1 Jn. 2:15)

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Why the Earliest Churches Never Debated Faith vs. Works

Posted on 07/29/2026 by Paul Pavao

Today to a person asked, “If faithfulness is required to inherit the kingdom [Col. 1:22-23; Gal. 5:19-21; 2 Pet. 1:10-11], doesn’t that violate saved by grace?”

I wrote (you get the edited version):

I’ve wrestled with these passages since 1986. I could not put them together until about 1992, a couple years after I started reading the church fathers. 1992 was 34 years ago. I have stewed in the uncertainty since 1986, slowly learning how these verses fit together. I do not expect others to “get it” in one Facebook post.

What surprised me, after I began reading the church fathers, was that none of them seemed to share our modern dilemma. They never ask, “How do we reconcile Paul and James?” They simply quote both.

So here’s my explanation:

Grace and Works

I strongly, strongly prefer “favor” over “grace,” so I’ll use “favor” through the rest of the post.

Favor is how we remain faithful and avoid gratifying the flesh. The favor of God brings salvation and trains us to live righteously and godly in this present age (Tit. 2:11-12). Mercy is God forgiving our sins; favor is God empowering us to overcome them (Rom. 6:14).

Consider Romans 6:22-23. Everyone knows verse 23 but most don’t know verse 22 even exists. Romans 6:22 says eternal life is the result of holiness (cf. Heb. 12:14) and holiness is the result of becoming a servant of God. Then, immediately, Paul says eternal life is the gift of God in the next verse.

John Chrysostom explained, more than 1600 years ago, that eternal life cannot be said to be the wages of righteousness, like death is the wages of sin, because our righteousness [both our behavior and our innocence before God, 1 Jn. 3:7] is a gift. We are servants of God because by favor and through faith we became God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Why should we receive wages for God’s work? No, we can’t say that eternal life is wages. Instead, eternal life is the gift of God because the service and good that we did to reap eternal life (Rom. 2:5-8; Gal. 6:7-9) were the gift of God as well.

It is hard to take Romans 11:6 and join it to Ephesians 5:5-7 or 2 Peter 1:10-11 or Galatians 5:19-21 and 6:7-9, but we have to. So many modern Christians pick whether they prefer Ephesians 2:8-9 or 2 Peter 2:20-21.

We don’t get to pick. They are both true. No early Christian ever wrote about struggling to reconcile faith and works. No early Christian ever asked, “What do we do with James 2:24 and Romans 3:28.” There is something they understood which we have lost.

The best example is one of the earliest and most well-known church fathers, Polycarp. He wrote the way Paul wrote, assuming his readers knew something we have forgotten. He starts his letter to the Philippians by echoing both Paul and Peter, saying we are saved by favor (Eph. 2:8-9) and therefore rejoice with unspeakable joy (1 Pet. 1:8). Yet only a few sentences later he says God will raise us up in Christ IF we keep his commandments, don’t return evil for evil or insult for insult. He spends most of the second chapter listing things we have to do to be raised up with Christ.

We have to make the effort to find out what Paul, Polycarp, and the early churches understood. If the Christians closest to the apostles saw no contradiction, then perhaps the contradiction is not in Scripture but in the assumptions we bring to it.

Posted in Bible, Dealing with Scripture Honestly, History, Modern Doctrines, Verses Versus Verses | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Just Do It! No, Wait, Just Think It!

Posted on 07/21/2026 by Paul Pavao

I get flak for all I say about works, especially when I say we have to stop explaining and apologizing when we say “good works.” Good works are “good.” No, you cannot be changed from dead in your sins to alive in Christ by good works, but you were made alive in Christ to do good works, so go do them (Eph. 2:1-10). God likes good works, even when a non-Christian does them (Acts 10:1-5; 30-31).

I am fighting this fight for those who agree with me, who see the exhortations to good works and the warnings against not doing them. Every day, in song and sermon, slogans are sung and warnings are issued against “trying” to do good works. I want you to have at least one voice reminding you that it’s ok to obey Paul’s admonition to “be careful to maintain good works” without wondering if you’re doing them right.

That said, one of greatest super powers in doing good works is simple. Think about spiritual things (Rom. 8:5-8). The way you live is completely affected by what you think about. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:1). Paul said his weapons were able to tear down strongholds, those things you can’t overcome, to cast down imaginations, those lies you’ve bought into that demons and evil people whispered to you or shouted at you, and that the purpose of the weapons were “to bring every thought into captivity to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:4-5).

Hang around people who think the same way. I don’t mean the people who agree with you on what the Bible says. I mean hang around people who love Jesus, want to talk about him, and keep you thinking about him (Heb. 3:13).

Fight for your mind today because the problem is not that good works aren’t good if you do them for the wrong reasons. The problem is that the mind set on the flesh **CANNOT** please God (also Rom. 8:5-8). So set your mind on things above, where Christ is, who is your life (Col. 3:1-4). Don’t worry about how spiritual you feel; fight to be a spiritual thinker: set your mind, set your mind, set your mind.

Oh, if you want to be thoroughly equipped to do good, read the Bible. That’s its purpose (2 Tim. 3:16-17), and reading it will make you think about spiritual  things!

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Bible Warnings and Why I Don’t Believe Eternal Security

Posted on 07/20/2026 by Paul Pavao

I’ve never believed in eternal security. I attended two churches when I was first saved, an all-black Pentecostal Church every other week when my boss, the greatest Christian who ever lived, was preaching, and an almost all-white Assembly of God (Pentecostal lite) church the other weeks. Both believed you can lose your salvation.

After reading the early Christian writings a decade later, I realized that the main concern they had was not losing salvation, but never attaining (cf. Php. 3:8-15, esp. vv. 11-13). to a salvation we do not yet have. There is a judgment coming, and only there will we be able to say we have attained and that we have been saved from wrath by the life of Jesus (Rom. 5:10-11; Eph. 5:5-7).

Almost no one likes that, so I don’t generally get a thorough hearing on the topic (though the pastors of the last 2 evangelical churches I’ve attended have given me a hearing without getting upset at all).

The Bible Warns Us Against Eternal Security

This post isn’t really about that, though. Instead, I want to say that I read a small book arguing eternal security when I was 2 months old in the Lord, and I rejected the idea because I already knew we are warned against eternal security.

First, to address the biggest pushback I’ve received, the Bible never says “go to heaven.” Instead, the apostles say “inherit the kingdom of God” or “inherit eternal life.” If the passages that warn us about not inheriting the kingdom are not warnings about not going to heaven, then someone needs to show me the passages that say, “go to heaven.” Right now, it looks to me that the only way the Bible says, “go to heaven,” is “inherit the kingdom” (e.g. Matt. 25:34).

John, as usual, is the exception, using “resurrection of life” (Jn. 5:28-29) to talk about going to heaven, assuming you have done good.

The Warning Passages

Here’s some of the warnings:

Romans 2:5-8 and Galatians 6:7-9 both say we will be judged by our deeds in very similar wording. Eternal life at the judgment is for those who “patiently continue to do good” or “don’t grow weary in doing good.”

Romans 11:19-22 warns us that if we don’t continue in God’s goodness, we will be cut off the olive tree just like the unbelieving Jews were.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Galatians 5:19-21; and Ephesians 5:5-7. These all tell us that the unrighteous–with a list of what makes us unrighteous–won’t inherit the kingdom of God. One says “Don’t you know?,” one says, “I’ve told you over and over,” and the last says, “Don’t be deceived.”

1 Corinthians 10:1-12: “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” This passage argues that the Israelites were baptized into Moses and drank of the spiritual rock which is Christ, but they died in the wilderness.

Hebrews 6:1-8 warns those of us who have tasted of the heavenly gift and of the power of the age to come that if we fall away we probably can’t repent (“near being cursed,” thank God that James 5:19-20 suggests we can.)

2 Peter 2:20-21 warns us that if we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (cf. 2 Peter 1:4) but are entangled and overcome by that corruption again, we will be worse off than before we knew the truth!!

Revelation 2 and 3 have Jesus writing to 7 churches in Asia Minor. It’s obvious he wasn’t thinking eternal security when he wrote to them.

True Stories About Casually Dismissing Warnings

I remember being in a Sunday school class when “I wore a younger man’s clothes.” The teacher read Galatians 6:7-8 and asked, “Does this mean we can lose our salvation?” He paused for effect, which was indeed effective. I think everyone was holding their breath. Then he said, “No.” Then he moved on to verse 10.

Yes, that really happened.

I wrote him a note saying, “No matter what you believe about eternal security, Galatians 6:7-8 is a warning passage, and you did not pass on the warning.” He gave the note to the pastor, and the pastor called me into his office to ask me why I felt free to correct his Sunday School teachers. (I should point out that this was a uniquely evil pastor, not your average pastor at all. He later kicked that Sunday School teacher out of the church for exposing the funds the pastor purposely left out of the budget.)

I met my wife at that church. After we were married, we went to our first married Sunday School class together. There were just four couples, so we sat around a circular table. They were reading Matthew 6, and they got to verses 14-15:

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

The leader, who was reading  the passage, lifted his head and said, “That’s not true, you know.” (I’m not making this up.)

My wife was Baptist through and through. She was saved, for real saved, and age 7 and has loved and served Jesus since then. Until she met me, she didn’t know there were any Christians anywhere who believed you could lose your salvation. In fact, after she met me, she told me she was reading Galatians and was shocked to read, “You have fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4). She had been told all her life that no one could fall from grace.

Anyway, despite her upbringing, both she and I gasped when he said, “That’s not true.”

We were so shocked we could hardly talk. I suspect, though this was almost 39 years ago and I’m no longer sure, that we both blurted out “What?!” at the same time.

He defended his assertion, choosing to believe Baptist theology over Jesus’ theology, assuring us that all our sins were forgiven at the cross whether we forgave others or not. I do wonder if he also adjusted the Lord’s prayer, which came right before our passage, In fact, Matthew 6:14-15 is Jesus’ explanation of why he put “Forgive us our debts  as we also forgive our debtors” in the Lord’s prayer.

Years later, I heard Charles Stanley explain, on the radio, that we have “judicial” forgiveness because of Jesus’ death, and this will get us into heaven. Matthew 6:14-15 is talking about “parental” forgiveness. If we don’t forgive others, God will chastise us.

Note: I clearly remember Charles Stanley teaching this, but I don’t remember the words I put in quotes, “judicial” and “parental.” ChatGPT told me, “I do think ‘judicial’ and ‘parental’ are the pair you were trying to remember. Those two terms became almost a trademark of Stanley’s preaching.”

 

Posted in Bible, Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Evangelicals, Gospel, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Real Debate Behind Eternal Security: It’s Not About Security—It’s About the Atonement

Posted on 07/17/2026 by Paul Pavao

I am going to try to explain a complicated idea as simply as I can. It starts with the idea that eternal security (once saved, always saved) depends on the doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement. If God took out his wrath on Jesus and fulfilled justice by punishing Jesus rather than us for sin, then of course we should think we are eternally secure. Justice has been established, sins have been punished, and our sins cannot bring condemnation.

The problem with this is that the apostles say sin will be punished, even among Christians. The clearest place is Jesus’ letters to the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3. These are real churches, all near Ephesus in Asia Minor, and all said to have been supervised by the apostle John in the late first century. There, the “deeds” or “works” (used 11 times in those 2 chapters) of the churches are threatened to be punished by:

1. the removal of the church’s candlestick, which is not clear but implies it won’t be a church anymore ( (Ephesus, cf. Rev. 1:20)
2. Jesus warring against them with the sword of his mouth (Pergamum)
3. a bed of oppression and death (Thyatira)
4. not walking with Jesus in white and having their name erased from the Book of Life (Sardis, and Jesus notes that only a few will escape this because Sardis is an unusually bad church: “even at Sardis” you have a few who have not defiled their garments)
5. being vomited out of Jesus mouth (Laodicea)

There are only 5 churches listed here because Smyrna and Philadelphia were faithful enough they received no warning.

Where Penal Substitution Gets It Right

I am not saying all teaching on penal substitution is wrong. In Galatians 3:13, Jesus became a curse for us by being hung on a tree. That is penal, and it is substitution.

The penal substitution, however, was to get us out from under the Old Covenant so we could obtain the justification offered in the New Covenant by faith. In Hebrews 9:15, Paul writes:

For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Hebrews carefully explains how we were extracted from the Old Covenant by Jesus’ death, then also explains how he instituted the New Covenant by his blood.

Through the rest of the epistles, as well as the Gospel and Acts, the apostles repeatedly emphasize that Jesus died to deliver us from sin, not just forgive us of our sins. For example, in Acts 2:40, Peter says to be “saved from this perverse generation,” and in 3:26 he says God sent Jesus “to bless you by turning all of you from your wickedness.” I could give you a lot of verses, but it is worth emphasizing Titus 2:11-15.

We like to quote John, the only apostle who says we have eternal life, but John says the ones who have the righteousness of Christ are those who are actually doing righteousness. He precedes this by saying “don’t be deceived” (1 Jn. 3:7).

Why These Things Aren’t Taught Everywhere

The Protestant Reformers–trying to understand the Bible after the Roman Catholic Church had forbidden it to Christians for centuries and tried to kill all those who would translate it into a readable language–did not get everything right. In the end, they failed to pass on the critical importance of good and evil (Isa. 5:20)  and God’s goal is to deliver us from wickedness (Acts 3:26) rather than to ignore wickedness.

The New Testament warns of death, condemnation, and destruction at the final judgment (Heb. 9:27) even to those who have believed in Jesus . Second Corinthians 5:10 tells us that our deeds, “whether good or bad,” will be brought up at the judgment seat of Christ (cf. Matt. 25:31-46, the Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats). Galatians 6:7-9 warns of corruption, as opposed to eternal life, for those who sow to the flesh. Ephesians 5:5-7 warns of wrath to Christians who live like the sons of disobedience. John 5:28-29 threatens a resurrection of condemnation to those who do evil.

Why Good Works Are Easy for Christians

Mind you, it is supposed to be easy, because we are God’s workmanship, to do good works (Eph. 2:10). Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30). In Matthew 11:29, he says coming to him will produce “rest for your souls.”

It does take effort, we are supposed to “be diligent” (or “make every effort”) to make our calling and election sure by “doing these things” (2 Pet. 1:10, referring to the things in 2 Pet. 1:5-7) to gain an entrance into Jesus’ everlasting kingdom (v. 11). Paul agrees with Peter, telling us in Philippians 2:12-13  that we are to work out our salvation with “fear and trembling.” Despite the fear and trembling, the same passage tells us that this is possible because it is God who is working in us both to want to do and to do his will.

With this Peter agrees, saying that we are to fear the judgment throughout our sojourning on earth (1 Pet. 1:17).

There’s a writing from the second century that captures this contrast of fear and power extremely well. It is called The Shepherd of Hermas, and it is a tale of “the Messenger of Repentance” visiting Hermas and giving him visions, allegories (similitudes), and commandments. After giving him 12 commandments, Hermas and the Messenger have this conversation:

I [Hermas] say to him, “Sir, these commandments are great, and good, and glorious, and fitted to gladden the heart of the man who can perform them. But I do not know if these commandments can be kept by man, because they are exceeding hard.”

He answered and said to me, “If you lay it down as certain that they can be kept, then you will easily keep them, and they will not be hard. But if you come to imagine that they cannot be kept by man, then you will not keep them. Now I say to you, If you do not keep them, but neglect them, you will not be saved, nor your children, nor your house, since you have already determined for yourself that these commandments cannot be kept by man.”

These things he said to me in tones of the deepest anger, so that I was confounded and exceedingly afraid of him, for his figure was altered so that a man could not endure his anger. But seeing me altogether agitated and confused, he began to speak to me in more gentle tones; and he said: “O fool, senseless and doubting, do you not perceive how great is the glory of God, and how strong and marvelous, in that he created the world for the sake of man, and subjected all creation to him, and gave him power to rule over everything under heaven? If, then, man is lord of the creatures of God, and rules over all, is he not able to be lord also of these commandments? For,” says he, “the man who has the Lord in his heart can also be lord of all, and of every one of these commandments. But to those who have the Lord only on their lips, but their hearts hardened, and who are far from the Lord, the commandments are hard and difficult. Put, therefore, ye who are empty and fickle in your faith, the Lord in your heart, and ye will know that there is nothing easier or sweeter, or more manageable, than these commandments. (Pastor of Hermas, Commandment 12th, ch. 4)

Doesn’t Everyone Sin?

We live by repentance, confession, and forgiveness. The Bible calls this “walking in the light” (John 3:19-21; Eph. 5:8-13; and especially 1 John 1:7-2:2). The only way, even as God’s workmanship, to make it to the end is to gain forgiveness regularly along the way (Heb. 4:16). It is simply true that the best way to become righteous is to acknowledge your unrighteousness to God every day (1 Jn. 1:7-2:2). Even the man known as “James the Just,” to Jew and Christian alike, wrote, “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2).

Nonetheless, Paul tells us that if we want to be rewarded with eternal life at the judgment, we must “patiently continue to do good” (Rom. 2:6-7). I would call this “plugging along.” Paul calls it “not growing weary in doing good” in Galatians 6:9 and says it is the only way to reap eternal life.

Why Do I Write About Judgment So Much

I apologize for having to write these things over and over, but the Reformers’ not-quite-right theology is being advertised every day in song and sermon. This ongoing war against the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3), requires an ongoing war in return. Jude, in fact, tells us to “contend earnestly” for that faith. Even Peter, after telling us to be diligent to make our calling and election sure by “doing these things,” says that he will remind us of these things and make every effort to get us to remember them even after his death (2 Peter 1:10-15).

Martin Luther had to dismiss Hebrews and James to maintain his theology, saying that James was “a right straw-y epistle” (rechte strohern Epistel) and that both Hebrew and James had nothing of the nature of the Gospel about them. John Calvin had to turn James 2:24’s “justified by works and not by faith alone” into “justified by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone,” which is not a faithful paraphrase.

The fact is that James 2:24’s “not by faith only” is the only occurrence of “faith only” or “faith alone” in the Bible, but we have decided nonetheless to make “salvation by faith alone” a mantra.

I Had To Mull Over These Passages for Years

I puzzled over the passages I covered above for years, from 1986 through about 1992, not knowing what to do with those passages, especially with “not by faith alone” being the only occurrence of “faith alone” in the Bible. I knew that Ephesians 2:8-9 is correctly understood as “faith alone,” because he eliminated all works so that no human could boast, but it is still not right to twist and try to eliminate James 2:24.

The early Christians, who wrote at a time that all the apostles’ churches were united (yes, even Peter’s and Paul’s churches) helped me find what I was missing, though it took time for me to get it.

The only way into the life of Christ, into justification and innocence, into receiving the Holy Spirit and becoming a new creation, into being God’s workmanship, a work he accomplished by his grace/favor towards us, is by faith and faith alone. Even God cannot require righteousness from a mere human (with exceptions like Job, Noah, and Daniel–Ezek. 14:14). He tried that for 1500 years, not to prove to himself that we were too weak in our flesh to be righteous, but to prove to us who inherit the New Covenant that we cannot inherit the kingdom of God in our own strength.

Note: I borrowed that from an anonymous and very early, possibly first-century, author, who wrote: “This was not that he at all delighted in our sins, but that he simply endured them; nor that he approved the time of working iniquity which then was, but that he sought to form a mind conscious of righteousness, so that being convinced in that time of our unworthiness of attaining life through our own works, it should now, through the kindness of God, be vouchsafed to us; and having made it manifest that in ourselves we were unable to enter into the kingdom of God, we might through the power of God be made able (“Epistle to Diognetus,” ch. 9).

I learned from the difference between our past-tense salvation from sin by faith alone and the future-tense salvation from wrath at the final judgment by works. This difference is mentioned in Romans 5:9-10. It is not discussed directly elsewhere that I know of, but it underlies everything in the New Testament. Faith is “vs.” works in our minds because we don’t understand the faith that saved us in the past tense, making us doers of good works, would lead to us being justified by our works at the judgment.

Because we could not attain to the kingdom of God in our own power, God offered us a way into something new by faith and faith alone. By faith we “are having been saved” (Eph. 2:8, past tense) from being dead in our sins and trespasses (Eph. 2:1) by being “made alive in Christ” (Eph. 2:5) and becoming “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Eph. 2:10). There is nothing in Ephesians 2 about going to heaven. It is all about being re-created in Christ Jesus, saved (past tense) from death in our sins by being reconciled with God so that me have his favor releasing us from sin’s dominion (Rom. 6:14) and training us in godliness (Tit. 2:11-12) so that we are “zealous for good works” (Tit. 2:13-14).

There is a past-tense salvation by faith apart from works that changed us into spiritual people that can do good works. If we want a future-tense entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:10-11), we will need to faithfully do the good works that he has equipped us to do by being born again (Eph. 2:10), by the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16-17), and by the exhortation of the saints (Heb. 3:12-13; 10:24-25), even though we know this will require regular repentance, confession, and forgiveness along the way (Heb. 4:16; 1 Jn. 1:7-2:2). Otherwise, and don’t be deceived about this, we will have no inheritance in the kingdom of God and Christ (Eph. 5:5-7) nor will he have the righteousness of Christ attributed to us (1 Jn. 3:7).

Notice that I did not add the “don’t be deceived” to those verses, Paul and John put them in there.

So, saints, work out your salvation with fear and trembling because in due season you will reap eternal life if you do not lose heart in doing good (Php. 2:12; Gal. 6:8-9).

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The Strange Case of Symbolic Baptism: A Doctrine in Search of a Text

Posted on 07/06/2026 by Paul Pavao

I’m looking at a defense of symbolic baptism written by a an intelligent and godly man with long experience in the Scriptures. You may be like him, a follower of Jesus that, to borrow a John Wesley quote about Georg Whitefield, I will never see in heaven because in the great crowd that is praising his name you’ll be so much closer to the Throne that you’ll be out of sight to the likes of me, yet nonetheless holding to an irrational position on baptism.

The defense I am looking at is like every other defense of symbolic baptism I have seen. There is not a single verse presented that implies baptism is symbolic except 1 Corinthians 1:14-17, which says Paul was sent to preach the Gospel, not baptize, so he let others baptize in Corinth. This defense does not even include that passage.

Instead, there is a list of 7 passages that “seem” to say that baptism has something to do with salvation, and even one that says “baptism saves you” (1 Pet. 3:21), all being explained away as unclear.

To me, one of the prime principles of Bible interpretation is “A verse is only unclear if it is difficult to understand. If it seems unclear because you don’t believe it, you need to change your theology, not the verse.”

The problem with that prime principle of Bible interpretation is that it causes confusion and fear. For example, everyone told me when I was first saved that “salvation is by faith alone.” In fact, “salvation by faith alone” is one of the central tenets of the Protestant Reformation. The problem is that the only occurrence of “faith alone” in the Bible is “not by faith alone” in James 2:24.

That’s no minor problem, but if you look at the problem, you will have to do a lot of deep thinking about how “saved by grace through faith apart from works” in Ephesians 2:8-10 can possibly be reconciled with not being deceived into thinking that immoral, unclean, or greedy people will inherit the kingdom of God in Ephesians 5:3-7.

Baptism in the New Testament

If you read the baptism verses in the New Testament, you will only find passages that agree with “as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” in Galatians 3:27. That, too, is seen as conflicting with salvation by faith alone, so without any scriptural support for baptism as a symbol or public testimony, we explain away every verse on baptism in the New Testament, not reading a single one for its plain meaning, except perhaps 1 Corinthians 1:14-17, which we make sure not to compare with Acts 18:8.

Yes, reading the Bible for what it says leads to confusion and fear because the majority of teachers and denominations have no qualms about twisting clear verses into difficult verses, even if they have to do it on almost every page of the New Testament. In the case of purely symbolic baptism as a public testimony, every verse on baptism is explained away, not on the merits of the verse, but on a strict and questionable adherence to “salvation by faith alone.”

So, yeah, if you read the Bible for what it plainly says, you are going to be confused for a while until you can deal with the contradictions between the Bible and what your teacher and denomination believes, and what public songs and sermons teach every day. Calling clear verses difficult is the best way to avoid have to deal with those verses and the fear and confusion they cause.

On the other side of the confusion, though, is peace with the Scriptures. It is reading the Bible without having to twist “we are justified by works and not faith only” into “we are saved by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone.”

I especially like that I can read Ananias’ words to Saul, who would later be known as the apostle Paul, “Arise and be baptized, washing away your sins and calling on the name of the Lord” for what they say (Acts 22:16). I don’t have to twist it into “Arise and be baptized, then separately call on the name of the Lord to wash away your sins.” It is apparent to an unafraid reader that Ananias meant to use the word “wash” in association with the only act that involved water, baptism, and also to associate calling on the name of the Lord with baptism. All those things are in one sentence for a reason. You wash away your sins by being baptized and calling on the name of the Lord.

What is my authority for this interpretation of Acts 22:16? Your common sense. I think, deep down, you agree with me whether you like agreeing or not. The burden of proof is not on the reader who takes the sentence as it stands, but on the reader who divides its parts and assigns them separate functions.

I recommend ditching the training in explaining away verses and reading the New Testament like a fisherman. I say that even though I recommend reading the Old Testament like a trained and inspired rabbi like the apostle Paul.

*I didn’t even mention that none of the apostles waited for the church to gather nor for outside witnesses before baptizing their converts in Acts. The Philippian jailer, in fact, was baptized between midnight and morning in his house (Acts 16).

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Will God Judge You by Your Church Membership?

Posted on 06/29/2026 by Paul Pavao

I was asked, “Can I be saved if I don’t join the Eastern Orthodox?” I answered:

I am so sorry you are having to ask this question. Here’s the simplest answer I can give you.

Read Ezekiel 18:20-32; Matthew 25:31-46; and Revelation 2-3 (both chapters). Do read them; don’t skip them, nor go on until you’ve read them.

Now ask yourself:

  • Do any of these passages judge you by what church you belong to?
  • In the letter to Sardis at the start of Revelation 3, what is more important, which church they are in or their relationship with and obedience to Jesus?
  • How important are these passages? What are they offering or threatening?

That all said, let me give you a teaching about your salvation:

Salvation from Sin

In Ephesians 2:1-10, the Bible tells you that you can be changed from dead in your sins and trespasses into God’s workmanship, a new creation in Christ Jesus created specifically for good works. This is salvation from sin. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 describes this, too, as does Titus 2:11-14.

Salvation from Wrath

In Ephesians 5:5-7, Paul tells you what will happen to you if you do not continue as a new creation, living in the Spirit rather than living by the flesh. You have been saved from sin, meaning you are now empowered to stop sinning, but you shall be, future, saved from wrath if you live by the life of Christ and do the things described in those judgment passages I gave you above. Romans 5:9-10 discusses the salvation we have now and salvation from wrath in the future in exactly the same way I just did.

Those first passages I gave you above describe that future judgment, by works (by how you lived). You will be saved from wrath in the future by learning from those passages, living by the life of Jesus, walking in the Spirit, and thus obeying Jesus’ commands. That sounds hard, but that’s because people are constantly saying it’s hard. It is perfectly normal for a Christian to live in the commands of Jesus, excited about them, and considering them a wonderful blessing, not a grievous burden (Matt. 11:28-30). Of course, no one does them perfectly (James 3:1), but God has made provision to forgive us as long as we are making our best effort to live in the Spirit rather than the flesh (1 John 1:6 – 2:2).

Second-Century Quote

[The Messenger of Repentance] concluded the twelve commandments, and said to me, “You have now these commandments. Walk in them, and exhort your hearers that their repentance may be pure during the remainder of their life. Fulfil carefully this ministry which I now entrust to you, and you will accomplish much. For you will find favour among those who are to repent, and they will give heed to your words; for I will be with you, and will compel them to obey you.”

I say to him, “Sir, these commandments are great, and good, and glorious, and fitted to gladden the heart of the man who can perform them. But I do not know if these commandments can be kept by man, because they are exceeding hard.” He answered and said to me, “If you lay it down as certain that they can be kept, then you will easily keep them, and they will not be hard. But if you come to imagine that they cannot be kept by man, then you will not keep them. Now I say to you, If you do not keep them, but neglect them, you will not be saved, nor your children, nor your house, since you have already determined for yourself that these commandments cannot be kept by man.” (Shepherd of Hermas, c. AD 100-160, Commandment Twelfth, ch. 3)

Will God Judge You by Which Church You Join?

You will read all those verses, and hopefully it will seem ridiculous to you that any organization, the Eastern Orthodox or any other, would claim that you have to join them to be saved. None of the Scriptures above give any reference to any organization, but only to your relationship with Christ.

What Church Is Supposed To Do for You

Now, one thing is important. We do not live our lives by ourselves. We depend on each other. Hebrews 3:13 and 10:24-25 are enough to prove that, though a lot of other passages say the same thing.

I do want to point out, though, that neither the Eastern Orthodox nor just about any other church actually does Hebrews 3:13 nor Hebrews 10:24-25. You are going to have to stir yourself up and seek fellowship that will help you walk in the Spirit and obey Jesus. The Eastern Orthodox are not going to find it for you, and not many Protestant churches will either. You have to find men and women who love Jesus to do the things for you that those two passages in Hebrews mention.

Let’s do this. Write to me once per week unless that’s too much. I will write you a response like this one. You, though, have to go read all the verses in the email I send you. For example, it will take you a lot longer to read the verses I mentioned than to read this email.

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