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.

Jesus Triumphantly Rescued Us! Atonement by Ransom

From a comment I put on Facebook: It was not until yesterday that I realized the full import of Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14. Both are saying we have been released because we were ransomed by his blood (Gr. apolutrosis), … Continue reading

Posted in Early Christianity, Gospel, Modern Doctrines, Rebuilding the Foundations, Teachings that must not be lost | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Does Even the Slightest Sin Deserve Eternal Damnation?

Calvinists like to quote James 2:10 to teach that even the slightest sin requires eternal damnation. Here’s my response from my book, Rebuilding the Foundations: The passage is in James 2 and talks about showing favoritism to one another, yet … Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Evangelicals, Gospel, Modern Doctrines, Protestants | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Tobit, Jesus, and the Breathtaking Power of Almsgiving from Within

Jesus told the Pharisees, “But give that which is within as charity and, behold, all things are clean for you” (Luke 11:41, NASB with note). Tobit says something similar: “For almsgiving saves from death and purges away every sin. Those … Continue reading

Posted in Gospel, Holiness, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Today’s Hodge-Podge: Messengers, Large Church Meetings, Archippus, and Apostolic Succession

For those interested, I wrote this in an email in response to questions concerning Colossians 4:14, 16-17: For at least 150 years, perhaps longer, it was perfectly okay that the Sunday morning meetings grew large enough to need big meeting … Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Church, Early Christianity, Gospel, History, History (Stories), Leadership | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reconciling the Evangelical Paul with the Biblical Paul

This is a re-issue of a 2023 post made on ancient-faith.com. A series of circumstances made me think I’d lose that URL, and I might. I do want to keep this blog alive, though, especially for saving things I’ve written … Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Evangelicals, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

The Demise of Ancient-Faith.com

I think God wants ancient-faith.com to end. You can read all the posts from before December, 2021 here. I refuse to keep writing blogs on a block builder as awful as this one, so there will be no more posts … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Ancient-faith.com Is Moved and New Subscription Works

I have the new subscription at Ancient-Faith.com at the new webhost up and running. As mentioned in the last post I sent out, if you want to stay subscribed to my posts, you’ll have to subscribe again at the new … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Galatians Promotes and Requires Works, Which Can Only Be Done by the Spirit, Not by Flesh/Law

This stuff isn’t deep or hard to find. It is sitting right on the surface. Walk in the Spirit, and you will be “perfected,” which, as he goes on to say, means producing the fruit of the Spiriit and continuing in good works. You will need those good works to reap eternal life (Gal. 5:19-21; 6:8-9), but you will never get them by the law. Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Evangelicals, Gospel, History, Modern Doctrines, Protestants, Rebuilding the Foundations | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

An Explosive View of the Atonement: Ransom and Aphesis

Aphesis: release; by implication, forgiveness This word is not extraordinary if you look it up in a lexicon, but it will blow your mind, capture your heart, and set you free if you look it up in the Bible. I … Continue reading

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Finding a Church and Obeying the Bible from a 21st-Century Perspective

This is not an exhaustive study. This is, however, packed with advice for the 21st century American who needs fellowship and knows it. It probably applies in other countries as well. Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Church | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments