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.

Verses Working Together: Salvation Apart from Works

We spent a couple posts looking at warning verses and comparing them with assurance verses. Let’s do the same with the issue of faith and works, which is closely related. For by grace you are saved, and that not of … Continue reading

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Verses Working Together: Eternal Security, Part II

Yesterday we looked at four verses used to teach eternal security. We compared them with Ephesians 5:5-6, which says … Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in … Continue reading

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Verses Working Together: Eternal Security

Yesterday I provided two lists of verses (link opens in new window or tab for reference), both of which could have been considerably lengthened. One set was meant to prove eternal security, that a person once saved is guaranteed an … Continue reading

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Verses Versus Verses: Eternal Security

We’ve been talking about eternal security the last two weeks in our “Life Group.” They have been very gracious with my dissent, and my dissent has not been very strong because this group does not deny the necessity for works … Continue reading

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Far-Fetched: John 15:2

For some reason, faithalone.org sent me a magazine in the mail. I’ve been to that site before, so I knew the magazine would be good fodder for a blog. It did not disappoint. I can’t find the magazine now, which … Continue reading

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Far-Fetched Interpretations

In researching how much the Reformers relied on or referenced the early church fathers, I ran across this article on The Old Jamestown Church blog. That particular post defends the Reformation view of salvation by faith alone with citations from … Continue reading

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Did the Reformers Read the Church Fathers?

This is just a light touch on the subject. I will try to get more specifics about how the Reformers, as well as fathers of denominations such as John Wesley with the Methodists and Alexander Campbell with the Churches of … Continue reading

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Far-Fetched

You’re probably explaining away more of the Bible than you realize. Baptized in Bickering I became a Christian in northern Florida in 1982. I was excited, filled with joy, and rarin’ to go. I was excited about Jesus, and I … Continue reading

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Christian History in a Nutshell

Ready? Let’s go! The apostles formed churches. Those churches formed churches. These churches had no leadership higher than the local city or town. Nonetheless, they were taught to carefully preserve the apostles’ teaching. Over time, as the churches grew, some … Continue reading

Posted in Church, History, History (Stories), missions, Protestants, Roman Catholic & Orthodox | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Obama Tricked Me!

Al Francken’s book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them makes a point about how he was fooled into supporting the Iraq war by George Bush. Boy, was he mad about that, and rightfully so. I was tricked into … Continue reading

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