Leaving Everything

Posted on 09/11/2008 by Paul Pavao

I started to writeÂ a blog last night, and I decided I wanted it permanently on my “Rest of the Old, Old Story” web site. You can read it at http://www.oldoldstory.org/teachings/leaveitall.html. Sorry for linking you to a “blog,” but this seemed to work. Leave me a note (your back button will get you back here after reading it) if you have comments. It’s a lot to chew on. It was a lot for me to chew on, and I wrote it!

About Paul Pavao

I am married, the father of six, and currently the grandfather of five. I teach, and I am always trying to learn to disciple others better than I have before. I believe God has gifted me to restore proper theological foundations to the Christian faith. In order to ensure that I do not become a heretic, I read the early church fathers from the second and third centuries. They were around when all the churches founded by the apostles were in unity. My philosophy for Bible reading is to understand each verse for exactly what it says in its local context. Only after accepting the verse for what it says do I compare it with other verses to develop my theology. If other verses seem to contradict a verse I just read, I will wait to say anything about those verses until I have an explanation that allows me to accept all the verses for what they say. This takes time, sometimes years, but eventually I have always been able to find something that does not require explaining verses away. The early church fathers have helped a lot with this. I argue and discuss these foundational doctrines with others to make sure my teaching really lines up with Scripture. I am encouraged by the fact that the several missionaries and pastors that I know well and admire as holy men love the things I teach. I hope you will be encouraged too. I am indeed tearing up old foundations created by tradition in order to re-establish the foundations found in Scripture and lived on by the churches during their 300 years of unity.

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3 Responses to Leaving Everything

Shammah says:

09/18/2008 at 5:05 am

I don’t know if that’s the best wording, either, since what I really mean is “knowing what’s true may be a lot more rare than you realize; we need more people on board and doing this together; and I really want you to take this seriously.” I don’t know that this qualifies as “a great victory over the kingdom of God.”

Well, let me add something: I occasionally call the time period from Constantine’s Edict of Toleration until the Council of Nicea as the “great judo throw.” In judo you push your opponent as a preparation for throwing him. When he pushes back, you pull, and it’s his momentum that allows you to throw him over your back or shoulder. Constantine was preceded by a period called The Great Persecution. It was the most intense and organized empire-wide persecution there had been. That was the push. Immediately afterward, Constantine first removed the persecution, then embraced the church. That was the pull, and the result was a great crash. The difference in the histories written before and after Nicea are immense.

That was a victory for the devil, and the allowance for a gospel of half-heartedness is a victory for him, too. The way that those who deny themselves are forced by our Christian system to be in fellowship with those who do not is also a victory for him. On the other hand, Jesus said it would always be the few walking the narrow way, so those are who he’s after. Still, the life, power, and grace available when those few walk together, rather than trying to fellowship with the multitude on the broad path, is immense. When the enemy is able to insert a hundred half-hearted believers among five or six who deny themselves, he is able to effectively separate those five or six in many cases.

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britt says:

09/17/2008 at 6:12 pm

Well said! I’ve dealt many times with people over the same misapplication over Romans 7.

My only issue would be in the statement “the devil is winning a great victory over the kingdom of God” … it may be semantics, since I know your heart and where you’re coming from, but I firmly believe that the kingdom of God will have victory and reign, even though it seems quite the opposite at times, and maybe I just need to have hope in that, not to get discouraged when I feel alone at times in the things you’re speaking of. I don’t mean it as a criticism, just a comment on where I am personally …

love you and always appreciate what you share.

peace.

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Jason Fitzpatrick says:

09/12/2008 at 8:56 pm

That blog is great! That is the bottom line. This is where you seperate the sheep from the goats. Many are willing to give 10% but 100% no way.

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