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.

Fall in Love with Jesus!

31 years ago, I attended a revival in a little Florida town called Niceville. Yeah, Niceville. The preacher was Danny Duvall, fresh out of college and fired up for Jesus. He not only preached, but he gathered up the young … Continue reading

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The Cost of Church Life

I found this tract as I was clearing out old files because of an office move. I know the author, so I got permission to publish it with all references to his church removed. Church life is what it is. … Continue reading

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Ignatius of Antioch: Conqueror

Imagine yourself in your front yard, suddenly confronted with two huge, growling Rottweilers. One has a short length of thick chain hanging from his log-sized neck that he has clearly snapped to set himself free. They’re too close for you … Continue reading

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The Problem of Pain

I’ve heard a lot of arguments against spanking children over the last 20 years. I only want to address one aspect of the argument. Those who are opposed to spanking seem to me to be opposed to physical pain. Emotional … Continue reading

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Grace and Mercy Revisited

Little rant I did on Facebook. I think it’s important, very important. So here it is: I get so frustrated with how widespread the confusion is between mercy and grace. I’m reading an article on “communities of grace.” It has … Continue reading

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Are You Selling a Car or a Key?

Yesterday a friend and I were reading through Acts together. I got to expounding on Peter’s sermon in Acts 2, and I came up with an illustration I want to tell you about. I was about to write “… that … Continue reading

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Introduction to Authorship in Hebrew Culture

Oh, great. The one day that I accidentally post something, I get a rash of readers immediately in the morning. “Authorship in Hebrew Culture” was not supposed to go up. I set it as “draft” a couple days ago. It’s … Continue reading

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Authorship in Hebrew Culture

This post wasn’t supposed to go up until January. By then, I intended to have written an introduction for it. Somehow. it just went up today. I was horrified, as I thought it was set to “draft,” not Dec. 23. … Continue reading

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Clement of Rome

This post is part of a series of explanations of my Second Century Timeline of Christian history. Not every point well get its own post, but I am at least going to do a post on Clement of Rome and … Continue reading

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Second Century Timeline

I was going to do a part 2 on my introduction to the Second Century Timeline. Restless Pilgrim, who has been a tireless follower of this blog, asked about quotes from Ignatius. He deserves a medal for tolerating me so … Continue reading

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