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.

Scoffing Scholars

Don’t you hate it when someone announces that “all the scholars know” that Christianity isn’t true; they’re just scared to tell us? I hate it, and it’s baloney. A guy named Bart Ehrman has written a book called Jesus, Interrupted, … Continue reading

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Honest Bible Interpretation: Assumptions, Humility, and Reality

It seems that there’s always some incident making me want to talk about honest Bible interpretation. Today it was a phone call  made to a call-in talk show. The hosts, conservatives like most talk radio hosts, had repeated a rumor … Continue reading

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Low-Carb Christianity: How to Continue to the End

Today, at the chiropractor’s office, I read that the problem with low-carb diets is that people can’t stick to them. I’d heard that before. People who go on the Atkins’ diet have been tested, and the results are amazing. Not … Continue reading

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GoodSearch: Would You Like to Help Contribute to Rose Creek Village Ministries . . . for Free?

Good Search GoodSearch is a Yahoo-powered search engine that donates 50% of its proceeds to charity. Better yet, it lets you choose the charity. Their 50% works out to approximately 1 penny per search conducted on their page. Think of … Continue reading

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Except a Man Be Born Again

Have you ever wondered if someone was really a Christian? You see regular signs that they’re not. Perhaps there’s a lack of interest in obeying Christ. Perhaps there’s situations where you wonder, “Can a Christian really be that mean on … Continue reading

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Bible Preaching and Unity

I responded to an email asking about Bible preaching and why the preacher was lacking success, and worse, feeling unfulfilled. Here’s what I wrote: Small Things Our approach to changing things has been to start small. Jesus didn’t begin a … Continue reading

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The Simplicity of Christ

In 2 Cor. 11:3, the apostle Paul says that he doesn’t want our minds to be “destroyed” from the simplicity of Christ. You have to be careful about making too much of Greek definitions, but in 2 Cor. 11:3, I … Continue reading

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Platform 9 3/4: The Roman Catholics’ Nine and Three-Quarter Commandments

I’m not sure how many of you know that the Roman Catholics have a different ten commandments than the Protestants, but they do. I was raised Catholic, and I was stunned when I found out that “Thou shalt not make … Continue reading

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The Praise of the Brethren

Every morning at work, except Mondays, our whole warehouse–about 20 people–gets together to sing a couple songs and give some quick encouragement for the day. We take 15 or 20 minutes, but it’s incredibly refreshing. Last week, a sister had … Continue reading

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Why Believe? Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?

I heard a song on the radio announce that Jesus had conquered the grave. Did he really? That’s an extraordinary claim, don’t you think? Do we really believe that a man got up out of the grave and never entered … Continue reading

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