1. Can you please introduce yourself?
My name is Sonny Paago. I was an ocean liner captain. I grew up in a large Indonesian family and lived in extreme poverty. Life was tough and I went through many hardships in life that I would not have survived without Jesus. Now, I aspire to use these experiences to help others.
My time sailing around the world, whether as an officer or master on board the ship, was a great experience because I met different people from differing religions, who went to different churches, and had different pastors. These people believed in one God, had one faith and one baptism, but there were differences within their church regulations and laws. And despite all having the same red blood running through their veins, they still saw people as being distinctly different form each other because of their black, brown, red, white or yellow skin. The question is why? Why are there differences in righteousness and interest?
After sailing, God called me to serve as the chairman of the Straight Path Fellowship Ministry. This decision was made after I studied God, and became convinced that God’s Law is the expression of His love to us.
2. When did you accept Christ in your life?
I was born to a Moslem mother and a non-Christian father. I studied in Catholic school and married a Christian woman. It is a good background, and during school I accepted Jesus as our one and only savior. I argued with the pastor, why not allow me to read the Bible? From this point, I made the effort to have and read the Bible after I left school, and during sailing periods. I regularly attended church, where I met other Seafarers. At every port, I visited churches and their pastors, and also discussed with my non-Christian colleagues on board the ship while at sea.
3. What inspires you to write God’s Law?
I learned a lot from my experiences at sea. I wanted to explore the dichotomies that exist in life—living standards of the rich and poor, educated and non-educated, powerful and not, differences in cultures and traditions of peoples, and the crises arising from arguments and conflicts of peoples amongst themselves. Churches all claim the righteousness of their own religion, but there are constantly social conflicts over the issue.
From all of these points, I started learning, researching, studying, sharing, and discussing the arguments of each of these religions. I studied within many different colleges and Theological colleges, and shared my findings with the Elders of different churches of different religions.
I have undergone many different experiences in my personal and familial life, and I find that the answer to all my problems was prayer— getting closer and closer to God and Jesus. In a moment of chaos in Jakarta, I found the inspiration to write God’s Law, to introduce to everyone how we can all live in peace, love and happiness. This can happen—conflicts are the result of human moral crisis due to self-interest and political motivation (but it is not a permanent situation).
4. How can we apply God’s Law into today’s modern world?
I believe that “modernity” arose from the human desire to serve the flesh as much as possible during their life. They want more, and consequently need more to satisfy themselves, but the limit to this greed is unknown. At that point, Satan enters their mind and they no longer know their limit. They have over-lived their standard of living. They get sick, old, and upset, yet blame others and wonder why it happened. They must be taught and given more information so they understand. If something is over the limit for your body, you become sick. You have become sick from your own doing, problems have overcome your life and Satan now leads it. Your life becomes broken, as does your family. How do we apply this to the modern world? We must teach them how not to just live your life now, but also insurance for the afterlife. I believe it is extremely important to spread the truth about God, and I need you to help spread His Message. God’s Law encourages every one to follow God’s Law that is laid out in the Bible. It is still relevant to the peoples, as long as we have the desire to spread righteousness, and not just our personal interests.
5. What message do you want to send to the readers?
I want them to fall in love with God, and to surrender all, their mind, strength, and soul. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service”. Why? You must believe that God covered you in your mother’s womb, and He knows your future and your afterlife as well. Please obey, be honest, and observe His commandments, and read God’s Law. Learn God’s teachings, for it is righteousness and not teaching for self-interest. Come unite through Straight Path Fellowship Ministry—let us all live in peace, love and happiness, Amen.
6. Why do a lot of people leave religion these days?
Nowadays, everyone has a good education, and they can get information easily by just clicking a website. They have everything they wish to know. The members of the church are clever and read more information and the Bible than they preach. Sometimes members of the church know better than to preach due to global information, they stay home, enjoy and share among themselves. Life is tough, we spend more time seeking jobs, food and entertainment. If a members of the church knew that their preacher wasn’t preaching according to the word of God in the Bible, not glorifying God, but instead glorifying themselves for interest. Let us preach God’s teaching, and not Men’s teaching. Let us go back according to the Bible, and preach for unity, not for separation. Cease talk of “my church is better than yours”, create funding to support our churches, and donate more as well.
7. How can we bring them back to the Lord’s path?
If we know how and why they left religion in the first place, the solution will come to us. We need to let them back to the church, first the Elders, the preachers, the pastors, evangelists, etc. We need to give them information on how important church is. Because church members now enjoy more pleasures of the flesh, and they have more interest in their life on earth, they don’t understand how important insurance of the after life is. The reason being that they do not enjoy the love of God, Moses teachings of law, grace and truth, and the teachings of Jesus. Moses was the center of problems, and Jesus is the center of love. All the problems were undertaken by Jesus, and he took the risk and sins of everyone and became the savior of all peoples who obeyed, were honest, and observed according to his Father’s will, up onto the cross. As He said in Mark 3:35, for whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother and my sister and mother. So, if we are to lead the peoples in how to apply God’s will, we need to obey, be honest, and be observed accordingly. His commandments and love for each other, and write that into our hearts. As the sayings in the Old and New Testament, Jeremiah 31:33, “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write in their hearts and will be their God, they shall be my people”, and Proverbs 3:3 “Let now mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about they neck, write them upon the table of thine heart”, and also Proverbs 7:3. “Bind them upon they fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart”, and also Hebrews 8:10 “For His is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and rite them in their hearts, and I will be to them a god, and they shall be to me a people”, and also Hebrews 10:16, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and their mind and write them, and Corinthians 2:3 “For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in table of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart”.
All of the elders, pastors, evangelists, and those in charge regularly come in and visit our family house to teach and share. They also share with members of the church, those in other churches, schools, offices, government, media and cultures. That is the aim for us, to let them go back to church.
8. Are you going to write another series of God’s Law?
Yes, I already have 6 books for upcoming publication. Thank you.
Since 2004, Captain Sonny Paago actively ministers as an evangelist in his capacity as chairman of the Straight Path Fellowship Ministry Foundation (Yayasan Jalan Lurus).