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.

Final Judgments and False Gospels: A Comment

If Jesus changes our lives, then Christians are holier than non-Christians. We are better than non-Christians, and they need to know that. The lost need some idea that Jesus has the power to help them!!! Continue reading

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Final Judgments and False Gospels

Will the judgment be like many modern Christians describe it? Or will it be like Jesus describes it? When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon … Continue reading

Posted in Gospel, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Power of Zeal for God

J. Lee Grady is an editor for Charisma magazine. To be honest, I can’t imagine thinking highly of a mainstream, charismatic magazine. Grady’s articles, however, are consistently excellent. Continue reading

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Practical, Visible Christianity

Almost all the doctrine we argue is theoretical and cannot be tested. There is nothing practical about our doctrines; there are no ways to see whether they work. Continue reading

Posted in History, Holiness, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Really Important Things a Christian Should Know

I’ve been promising myself and friends I would upload this list for a few weeks. These are just a random assortment of issues. I’m sure there’s some important ones I’m missing. Feel free to add those in the comments. In … Continue reading

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A Little Politics: Sarah Palin, Targets, and Assassinations

Actually, I want to repent for using "politics" in the title of this post. This post is not about politics; it’s about common sense and not pretending like things are the way they are. We can work on problems, but not if we pretend they’re not there and mandate certain ways of speaking in order to maintain our illusions. Continue reading

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Why I’m Not Catholic: Gandhi and the Truth

Of course, you’ll have to triumph by dying. That’s how Christians do it, you know. Continue reading

Posted in Church, Gospel, Modern Doctrines, Roman Catholic & Orthodox, Unity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Real Spiritual Battles

I’m not going to get up a post every day in 2011, nor even one each day in January. It was fun pulling that off in December, but sometimes these posts take me a couple hours! Anyway, there was more … Continue reading

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Talkin’ to the Devil

There’s something about respect, even when it’s given to a terrible and evil opponent like the devil. Continue reading

Posted in Leadership, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Other Birth Story

So let’s pretend that we’re early Christians, in the apostles’ churches, who don’t know yet that we’re not allowed to believe that Proverbs 8 is about Jesus, and let’s get all the joy out of it we can … Continue reading

Posted in Miscellaneous, Modern Doctrines | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments