On my way home from Harry Potter at 3am, I drove past this Bible church that always has annoying signs out. They write things that are apparently supposed to make you want to come into their church. I can’t remember specific past examples, but they did spell Matthew with one T recently. The one this morning just got to me though. “The wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23” Um, sure. Yes, that’s partly correct. One word (“for”) missing at the beginning, but the next six words are right. However, the majority of the verse is missing: “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Perhaps I focus on grace too much (isn’t too little law, too much Gospel a criticism of the ELCA?), but that part of the verse seems exceedingly important. You can’t scare people into believing something. That isn’t faith. And selective reading bugs me.
July 15, 2009