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.

Evolution, Creation, and the Glory of God

I’m at a creation conference that was supposed to present 3 different views of creation that are in vogue among committed Christians: Young earth creationism: The earth was created 6 to 10 thousand years ago in 6 literal days, presented … Continue reading

Posted in Evolution and Creation, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Doesn’t It Feel Great To Know What You’re Talking About?

I got an email the other day from a guy who’s been debating the Jehovah’s Witnesses about the deity of Christ. Because modern Christians generally have never even heard about what the early churches believed about the Trinity (almost none, … Continue reading

Posted in History | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sola Scriptura, Tradition, and Bible Interpretation

The idea for this post, the framework for yesterday’s post, and a couple quotes today come from Contra Sola Scriptura by an Orthodox believer. Tradition and the Ancient Churches Most of us, when we hear a Roman Catholic use the … Continue reading

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Sola Scriptura

I read part of an article on sola scriptura today, and I thought it’s high time I addressed the subject here. This isn’t a response to that article. The article just provides an easy outline to address. Sola scriptura, by … Continue reading

Posted in Church, History, Modern Doctrines, Roman Catholic & Orthodox, Unity | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Religious Arguments

Today I got an email from someone that left no return address. It was about gnosticism, a deviation from early Christianity that is enjoying a bit of a revival today, but not in its original form. (Click the link to … Continue reading

Posted in History, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Stopping To Smell the Flowers

Thank God for wonderful, incredible, influential people like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, and even Martin Luther. They stood in them middle of the way and cried out for truth, even when people were purposely trying to run them over. … Continue reading

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged | 1 Comment

Love Wins by Rob Bell

I’ve been reading Love Wins by Rob Bell. I’m 89% done (percentage courtesy of Kindle). ***I wrote this a week ago; I’m finished with the book now.*** Originally I was not going to blog about it. After all, a thousand … Continue reading

Posted in History, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Electronic Church?

I read a very interesting paragraph in a blog by Lisa Miller, former religion editor of Newsweek. “When Bible study can be done on Facebook as easily as in the church basement, and a favorite preacher can teach lessons via … Continue reading

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God’s Righteousness

I was quoted last night. One of the elders told the church here that I had said that we should not pursue righteousness. Everyone was nodding. No one minded. Let me tell you why. There is a useless righteousness. The … Continue reading

Posted in Holiness | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Easter, Passover, Resurrection Day? What Is It?

I have read dozens of articles and sections of books that talk about the pagan origins of Easter. What about the Christian origins? From the very earliest times, the apostles’ churches celebrated the Passover each year. We know that there … Continue reading

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