I was interviewed recently on the “Church Talk” podcast about my book, The Apostles’ Gospel. This is a short summary of what the book and the interview were about.
We all know Matthew 16:16 because we want to refute the Catholic claim that Jesus was establishing Peter as the first pope. Thus, we only know it negatively. We argue that Peter’s confession is the rock in that verse, but we only use it to refute the Catholics.
What we don’t do is pay attention to the fact that Jesus builds his church on the confession that Jesus is Christ and Son of God. As a result, we go on our merry way building the church on the confession that Jesus died for our sins, and we reap mountains of backsliders and nominal Christians.
It’s so bad that we read Romans 10:9-10, which tells us we’re saved by confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in the resurrection, then use the passage to teach converts to pray a sinner’s prayer focused and Jesus’ death and Jesus as Savior.
You don’t need a seminary degree to see we’re missing it on those 2 passages.
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.
The Rest of the Old, Old Story 