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.

What I Support: Faith Alone and the Family of God … In New Words

I get so caught up in correcting what I see as obvious error that sometimes I forget to make clear what I’m supporting. I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ really is good news. I attack all sorts of doctrines. … Continue reading

Posted in Bible, Church, Gospel | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Hearing God

I’m mixing my blogs today. On my Leukemia blog, “Thrilled to Death,” I’m writing about setting our eyes on Jesus. That requires some comments about hearing God, which goes better here. You’ll understand the short teaching you’re reading here, but … Continue reading

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The Leukemia Tapes: 3 Minutes with Shammah

Rather than writing everything, I’m devoting some time to some videos on some basic misunderstandings in modern Christianity. I’m limiting them to 3 minutes or less. (That explains “3 Minutes with Shammah.” I’m calling them “The Leukemia Tapes” because I’m … Continue reading

Posted in Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Grace and Faith

I consider it possible that this discussion is too much about words, or too technical, to be very important. But anything that drives the real definition of grace home for modern Christians, very few of whom know what grace means, … Continue reading

Posted in Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

The True Church

Many of my friends will wonder why I’m writing about the true church and apostolic succession again. Well because there’s hardly a week that goes by that I’m not presented with arguments either that I should join the Roman Catholic … Continue reading

Posted in Church, Roman Catholic & Orthodox | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Evolution, Grace, Logic, and Algebra: Why X – Y = Abundant Grace

I couldn’t resist putting the following exchange up as a blog post. It happened in the comments section of “Evolution and Romans 5:12.” I’ll just give you Monster’s one comment, and my reply. I chopped out a section his (marked … Continue reading

Posted in Evolution and Creation, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Can This Really Happen in America?

Last night I went to a Bible study. Most of the people I’d never talked to before. The topic was faith and works. Everyone agreed with me. It wasn’t a dream. I couldn’t believe it was happening. I’m somewhat scared … Continue reading

Posted in Leukemia, Miscellaneous, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

My Leukemia Blog

This really isn’t meant to be a leukemia blog, so I started a new one called Thrilled to Death. It’s sort of an online journal, so I’ll be talking about the whole process and what I’m going through there. I … Continue reading

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Leukemia: Humbled To Be Found Worthy

This post won’t go up until July 9. By then I should be in the hospital, just finishing chemo, with no bone marrow and no immune system, and starting a 4-6 week recovery. My 50th birthday is July 11. Happy … Continue reading

Posted in Holiness, Leukemia, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Attack of the Cloned Mutant Giants

Note: This post ignores all the questions about what the body of Christ is. This applies whether you’re including everyone who claims to be Christian and all churches that claim to be churches or not. Further note: While most of … Continue reading

Posted in Church, History, Holiness, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments