Paul Daniel Larson yielded his life to Christ as a child and thereafter pursued study in various fields. Prior to completing a degree in music performance (BM, 2005), Paul played in jazz groups, performed for charity events, and gave full piano concerts. The first of these concerts was an all Franz Liszt concert (2003), the second an all Beethoven concert (2004) (if one does not include the music of the encore, if there was an encore), and the third, Paul’s senior recital featuring works of Frederic Chopin (2005). After completing undergraduate and graduate studies in accounting at Bradley University (BS 2005; MS 2006), obtaining his Certified Public Accountant and Certified Internal Auditor designations (CPA 2006; CIA 2007), and passing other professional exams (Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Management Accountant and Certified Financial Manager), Paul studied at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, completing master’s degrees in divinity (M. Div., 2009) and philosophy of religion (MA, 2010). He then completed a PhD in New Testament Language, Literature, and theology at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (2014).
Starting in 2008, Paul began giving memorized word-for-word recitations of at least almost all of different books of the New Testament (the phrase 'at least almost all' being used here in case Paul made error(s), such as saying 'Jesus said' when the text had 'Jesus answered'). Within a span of five years prior to turning thirty, Paul had given a recitation of at least almost all of every book of the English New Testament. Although these recitations were often presented in a dramatic format, Gospels and Acts recitations in particular were presented as one-man theater, with Paul performing as if he were various characters in the story, and sometimes playing piano while reciting some red letter sections of the Gospel of John and Gospel of Mark. Since completing this New Testament series, Paul expanded his recitation to texts in Spanish and Portuguese, giving his first recorded recitation in these languages in 2014.
After returning to the US, Paul founded the evangelistic and apologetics ministry Credible Faith and began the work of establishing a new ministry, which is somewhat like starting a new business and a new ministry at the same time. On the organizational side, it involved an ongoing educational process of coding, database management, graphic design, and web design. On the ministry side, it required the research for and writing of material for talks to bolster Christians' faith and to show the validity of Christianity and it involved the development of an English podcast and a Portuguese podcast that could reach people online. Wanting to reach more people, in late 2017 Paul started the process of building a video studio and developing 3D and visual asset(s) for English, Spanish, and Portuguese videos. Outside of developing the Spanish podcast, this involved learning to use 3D animation and rendering software and video editing software, all with the aim of reaching the culture through the visual and auditory arts. Able to speak both Portuguese and Spanish (see the respective Credible Faith Portuguese and Spanish websites), Paul has sought to produce writings, podcasts, and videos in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and through those mass media efforts, to be an evangelist and apologist for nearly the entire North and South American continents. Paul particularly wants to impact students at universities and other secular venues where the light of the gospel needs to be seen.
In September 2017, Paul talked with a friend/donor to Credible Faith who mentioned Forks Over Knives and Paul shortly thereafter read much of the Forks Over Knives book. In that same month, Paul adopted a whole food, plant-based diet, which involves focusing on plant-based foods and generally avoiding processed foods. As with veganism, such a diet also includes consuming no meat, dairy, or eggs. Unlike many vegans, though, Paul's primary motivation was not based in the welfare of animals, but in science. His reading of nutritional literature on a whole food, plant-based diet convinced him then that the scientific evidence clearly shows that such a diet is the most optimal diet for human health, capable of preventing or reversing a host of the leading causes of death in western society: heart disease, lung disease, brain diseases, digestive cancers, infections, diabetes, high blood pressure, liver diseases, blood cancers, kidney disease, breast cancer, suicidal depression, prostate cancer, parkinson's disease, and iatrogenic causes (death from doctors or medical professionals). Convinced that the scientific evidence was very clear about the superiority of a whole food, plant-based diet for avoiding diseases and prolonging one's health, Paul felt that it would be a refusal to submit to the lordship of Christ if he were to eat the standard American diet that would reduce his healthspan and lifespan and thus shorten the amount of time that could be fruitfully used for the kingdom. Although it was the scientific evidence that convinced Paul, it was a bonus perk that the whole food, plant-based diet was basically what God recommended to Adam in Genesis 1:28-29, which stands in marked contrast to the paleo diet that is based on a false view of a long evolutionary origin of humans.
Paul has participated in some of the Tall El-Hammam archaeological excavation in Jordan, and he is blessed to be the uncle of ten nephews and two nieces.
Endnotes:
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