Some people may dislike this book. It upsets apple carts, slays sacred cows, demands that we go back to the Bible and, for all of those reasons, all of us must read it. -J.T. Tancock, Welsh apologist, speaker, and missionary In the late second century, Irenaeus-a missionary weathered with age, persecution, and the ravages of life among the barbarians-complained about the heretics of his time: By transferring passages and dressing them up anew, the Valentinians adapt the oracles of the Lord to their opinions. It is as if one, when a beautiful image of a king has been constructed by some skilled artist out of precious jewels, should then take this image apart, remove the gems, then reassemble them into the form of a dog or fox, even that but poorly executed, then should declare that this was the beautiful image of the king! Paul Pavao reassembles the beautiful image of the King from the gems of Scripture, using only Scripture, carefully guided by wisdom accumulated by Irenaeus, the missionary who penned those beautiful words above, and others of his time. The result is an image of the King, undeniably beautiful, that will stir the heart and awe the senses of those who love him and recognize him in these pages. The Reformers' intentions were good. They tried to assemble the image of our great King, but too many of the gems had been lost over the centuries and replaced with the catch phrases and proverbs of human tradition. Nor ought custom ... prevent the truth from prevailing and conquering, for custom without truth is [merely] the antiquity of error.-Cyprian of Carthage, A.D. 256