Wordpress Pagination with custom template

Question

I'm developing a website with a custom template and I've been facing some problems when trying to paginate the website (149 pages with 10 posts each one). I'm using a page called template-tests.php in which the pagination links and numbers should be displayed and another page called theme-functions.php in which the pagination function should be written. Here's what I've got:

1- theme-functions.php (function to paginate only):

function pagination_test() {

if( is_singular() )
    return;

global $wp_query;

/** Stop execution if there's only 1 page */
if( $wp_query->max_num_pages <= 1 )
    return;

$paged = get_query_var( 'page', 1 );

$max   = intval( $wp_query->max_num_pages );

/** Add current page to the array */
if ( $paged >= 1 )
    $links[] = $paged;

/** Add the pages around the current page to the array */
if ( $paged >= 3 ) {
    $links[] = $paged - 1;
    $links[] = $paged - 2;
}

if ( ( $paged + 2 ) <= $max ) {
    $links[] = $paged + 2;
    $links[] = $paged + 1;
}

echo '<div class="navigation"><ul>' . "\n";

/** Previous Post Link */
if ( get_previous_posts_link() )
    printf( '<li>%s</li>' . "\n", get_previous_posts_link('<i class="fa fa-angle-left"></i> &nbsp; Previous') );

/** Link to first page, plus ellipses if necessary */
if ( ! in_array( 1, $links ) ) {
    $class = 1 == $paged ? ' class="active"' : '';

    printf( '<li%s><a href="%s">%s</a></li>' . "\n", $class, esc_url( get_pagenum_link( 1 ) ), '1' );

    if ( ! in_array( 2, $links ) )
        echo '<li>…</li>';
}

/** Link to current page, plus 2 pages in either direction if necessary */
sort( $links );
foreach ( (array) $links as $link ) {
    $class = $paged == $link ? ' class="active"' : '';
    printf( '<li%s><a href="%s">%s</a></li>' . "\n", $class, esc_url( get_pagenum_link( $link ) ), $link );
}

/** Link to last page, plus ellipses if necessary */
if ( ! in_array( $max, $links ) ) {
    if ( ! in_array( $max - 1, $links ) )
        echo '<li>…</li>' . "\n";

    $class = $paged == $max ? ' class="active"' : '';
    printf( '<li%s><a href="%s">%s</a></li>' . "\n", $class, esc_url( get_pagenum_link( $max ) ), $max );
}

/** Next Post Link */
if ( get_next_posts_link() )
    printf( '<li>%s</li>' . "\n", get_next_posts_link('Next &nbsp; <i class="fa fa-angle-right"></i>') );

echo '</ul></div>' . "\n";

}

2- and here's the template-tests.php extract:

<main id="primary" class="site-main" role="main">

    <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();

    get_template_part('content', get_post_format());

    endwhile;
    ?>

        <?php if( '' !== $post->post_content ): ?>

            <?php zilla_page_before(); ?>
            <!--BEGIN .page-->
            <article <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
            <?php zilla_page_start(); ?>

                <!--BEGIN .entry-content -->
                <div class="entry-content">
                    <?php the_content(__('Read more...', 'zilla')); ?>
                    <?php wp_link_pages(array('before' => '<p><strong>'.__('Pages:', 'zilla').'</strong> ', 'after' => '</p>', 'next_or_number' => 'number')); ?>
                <!--END .entry-content -->
                </div>

            <?php zilla_page_end(); ?>
            <!--END .page-->
            </article>
            <?php zilla_page_after(); ?>

        <?php endif; ?>

    <?php endwhile; endif; ?>

    <section class="featured content">
        <?php zilla_print_home_featured_post(); ?>
    </section>

    <section class="recent content <?php echo zilla_get_mod_state('homepage_recent_layout') ? esc_attr( zilla_get_mod('homepage_recent_layout') ) : 'grid'; ?>">
        <div class="container">
            <div class="col-md-8">
                <?php zilla_print_home_recent_posts(); ?>
            </div>

            <div id="affix-home" class="text-right col-md-4 hidden-xs hidden-sm affix">
                <br />
                <?php /* Widgetised Area */
                if( is_active_sidebar( 'sidebar' ) )
                 dynamic_sidebar( 'sidebar' ); ?>
            </div>

            <div class="col-md-9 pagination">
                <?php pagination_test(); ?>
            </div>
        </div>
    </section>

<!--END #primary .site-main-->
</main>

I've read a million forums and topics on StackOverflow but nothing seems to solve my problem. When I open the page on the browser the pagination links are shown correctly but after clicking on "next" for the first time, the loop seems to stop. So after the first loop everytime I click "next" it takes me to the SECOND page, which is the most strange error.

Edit #1: the links containing the pages are updating correctly but the page content is always the one from the first page. For example: if I click "next" the link is updated to "site/page/2"..."site/page/3"... but the content stays the same.

Answer 1

try to change

$paged = get_query_var( 'page', 1 );

with

$paged = get_query_var( 'paged' ) ? absint( get_query_var( 'paged' ) ) : 1;