Author Archives: Paul Pavao

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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.

How I Finally Reconciled “Faith Alone” and “Works” in the Bible.

I was taught, like most Protestants, “salvation by faith alone.” The problem with this is that I was taught that “salvation” meant “going to heaven.” The two, however, are not equivalent. This is the story of how I found out … Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Early Christianity, Evangelicals, Gospel, Modern Doctrines, Protestants, Verses Evangelicals Ignore | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Psalm 38: What Is Righteousness and How Merciful Is God?

Caught again, your faithless friend. Don’t you ever tire of hearing what a fool I’ve been? (“Stubborn Love” by Kathy Troccoli) King David wrote Psalm 38. It seems like it has to be about the Bathsheba incident because he is … Continue reading

Posted in atonement, Bible, Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Evangelicals, Gospel, Modern Doctrines, Rebuilding the Foundations, Teachings that must not be lost, Verses Evangelicals Ignore | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I thought the retired pastors were motormouths, but they are actually gushing wells

I go to a Wednesday morning Bible Study with three long-time pastors even older than I am. If you meet someone who just wrote a book, you will have trouble talking about anything other than the new book. In the … Continue reading

Posted in Miscellaneous, missions, Modern Doctrines, Testimonies | Tagged | Leave a comment

Responsibility and Authority: What Others Won’t Tell You About Women in Ministry Roles

The point of this post is to argue that the issue of women in ministry roles cannot be reasonably argued nor understood without understanding the connection between responsibility and authority. I apologize for the provocative title, but that is what … Continue reading

Posted in Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Miscellaneous, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Understanding the Trinity: How Proverbs 8:22-31 Harmonizes Scripture and Personalizes Creation

Scripture quotes today are from  the ESV, which was an accident. Usually I use the World English Bible because it is not copyrighted. Lately, though I have been reading the ESV, and I forgot to switch my Bible app back … Continue reading

Posted in Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Early Christianity, History, Modern Doctrines, Teachings that must not be lost | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Prophecy Watchers Conference: The Rapture, the First Resurrection, and the Problem with the Pre-Trib View

I am at a “Prophecy Watchers” conference in Norman, OK. I am going to make a strong effort not to personally insult or slander any of the people at this conference. Both speakers and attendees appear to be among the … Continue reading

Posted in Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Early Christianity, Far-fetched, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Not a few good men, but a righteous people, zealous for good works

“Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor …” (Ps. 12:1-2) Just like when we speak, “everyone” rarely means everyone in the … Continue reading

Posted in Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Evangelicals, Modern Doctrines, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Making of a Maverick: My Militant Quest for Theological Honesty

This is an answer to an email that was sent to me by a lady that found Christian-history.org and sent me some brilliant questions before beginning to read my articles. Those are interesting questions. My general intent is to simply … Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Dealing with Scripture Honestly, Early Christianity, Evangelicals, Far-fetched, Modern Doctrines, Rebuilding the Foundations, Roman Catholic & Orthodox, Unity, Verses Evangelicals Ignore | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 15, John Chrysostom, and Why the Rich Need the Poor!

This morning I read in Deuteronomy 15:4 that God promised that there would be no poor among the Israelites when God gave them the promised land. Moses then spends two paragraph-long verses just how prosperous Israel would be if they … Continue reading

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The Word, the Word, and the Word; Multiple Meanings of “the Word of God”

The word of God increased and the number of the disciples greatly multiplied in Jerusalem. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. (Acts 6:7) The word of God grew and multiplied. (Acts 12:24) So the word … Continue reading

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