Paulo Romeiro
Paulo Rodrigues Romeiro is a Brazilian Christian apologist and pastor. Formerly the president of the Instituto Cristão de Pesquisas (also known as ICP or CRI Brazil), he is the chairman of the Agência de Informações Religiosas (AGIR) in São Paulo. He works closely with The Centers for Apologetics Research (CFAR). He is also a noted member of the Christian countercult movement.
Paulo Romeiro was raised as a Catholic and Spiritist and became Protestant in the 1970s. In 1978 he took a degree in journalism and went to the U.S. to study in the Ministry School sponsored by Pentecostal evangelist Morris Cerullo. He earned a master's degree at the Melodyland School of Theology and later earned a master's degree in theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Romeiro was ordained a minister of the Gospel by the Southern California District Council of the Assemblies of God in 1984. He developed many evangelistic works and returned to Brazil in 1988. In 2004 he received a doctorate in Science of Religion from the Methodist University of São Paulo. Romeiro is on the faculty of Mackenzie Presbyterian University.
During the time he was associated with ICP, he co-authored the book Desmascarando as Seitas (Unmasking the Cults) with Natanael Rinaldi. In 1996 he left ICP and started AGIR.
Concerned with doctrinal problems in Brazilian churches, in 1993 Romeiro wrote Super Crentes: O evangelho segundo Kenneth Hagin, Valnice Milhomens e os profetas da prosperidade (Super Believers: The Gospel According to Kenneth Hagin, Valnice Milhomens and the Prophets of Prosperity) that refutes the neo-pentecostal Prosperity gospel and critiques its leaders, especially Kenneth E. Hagin and Valnice Milhomens. His book became a best seller in Brazil. In 1995 he published a sequel, Evangélicos em Crise: Decadência doutrinária na igreja (Evangelicals in Crisis: Doctrinal Decadence in the Brazilian Church). He is also the author of Decepcionados com a Graça: Esperanças e frustrações no Brasil neo-pentecostal (Disappointed with Grace: Hopes and Frustrations in Neo-Pentecostal Brazil) 2, which examines the International Church of God's Grace of R.R. Soares. His most recent book (with Yon Morato) is Religião e Alienação: Um estudo sobre os desafios e tensões do adolescente testemunha de Jeová (Editora Reflexão, 2009).
Romeiro is the senior pastor of Igreja Cristã da Trindade (Trinity Christian Church) in São Paulo and professor in the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. He is married and has two children.
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