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.

Rinse and Repeat

Originally posted on Growing Forward:
1. False god promises greater joy through disobedience to God. 2. Person believes the lie. 3. Real life happens. 4. False god’s lie is exposed for what it really is. Rinse and repeat.

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Jesus: God of the Old Testament?

Is Jesus Yahweh, God of the nation of Israel? I cannot definitively say that it is the view of the early churches that it was the Son of God, the divine Logos [Word], that interacted with Israel as their God, … Continue reading

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God in the Plural?

Is God plural? You will not understand the answer to that question if you don’t read yesterday’s post, “The Early Christian Definition of the Trinity.” If you don’t want to read two of my posts today, yesterday’s is more important … Continue reading

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The Early Christian Definition of the Trinity

A friend of mine is very concerned about my position on the Trinity, despite the fact that I have proven that what I say is not only the view all the apostles’ churches, but also the definition confirmed in the … Continue reading

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Is the Casual Approach to Church Producing Casual Christians?

Originally posted on Not For Itching Ears:
It is worse than it looks! It doesn’t  matter which study you read about the church, because they all say pretty much the same thing:  The church is in decline. The church is…

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Finding the Next Step

Yesterday I talked about working on the next step in church life with friends of mine, though friends far away in California. Today I want to tell you about searching for the next step for people I only heard about … Continue reading

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My Life

I’m not in Africa starting a new church every week. Most days, I face nothing remotely life-threatening. I’ve recovered from leukemia and a marrow transplant better than most people do, and my “new normal” is a lot like my old … Continue reading

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Zealous for Good Works

You won’t be able to tell right away, but this is a followup to yesterday’s post about Ephesians and what we should be doing as churches. The title of this post comes from Titus 2:13-14 where we are told that … Continue reading

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Ephesians for House Churches: Why We’re Trying Too Hard

This is not the only overall message of Ephesians, but it’s probably the most critical one for house churches. Deep breath. Rub my hands together. Here’s my attempt at a short, to-the-point, yet helpful 400-meter dash through Ephesians. Ready? You … Continue reading

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Unity and Denominations

I began my last post with “I left all the denominations.” Although that is clearly a Protestant-type comment, for Protestants are the only one who have denominations and gladly belong to them, I got a couple Catholic responses. One of … Continue reading

Posted in Church, Modern Doctrines, Protestants, Roman Catholic & Orthodox | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments