Monday, October 12, 2009

Let's just gut the Gospel, shall we?

The verse on the cover of this week's bulletin at the CFABM:

I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is...the salvation of everyone who believes... Romans 1:16, NIV

Here is what the entire verse actually says:

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Romans 1:16, NIV

There is plenty of room on the cover for the entire text. Would many of the congregation notice the omission? Most likely not; I did, simply because it's a verse I memorized years ago. Does it make a difference? Yes.

I can understand not including the final phrase, but to remove the middle, to take the power of God out of the equation, borders on blasphemy. The watered down gospel the church in general has been promoting for the last few years - one with no mention of sin or the need for repentance, as that would be too "harsh" for someone to hear - is now apparently to be stripped of any mention of God at all.

Am I overreacting? No.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
2 Timothy 4:3 - 4

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