Bad Church Sign: Independent Old Timey…

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This week’s bad church sign is seen on many church signs across the Bible Belt.

This sign states:

INDEPENDENT OLD TIMEY HELL-FIRE BRIMSTONE KING JAMES PREACHING”

Wow.  That’s a mouthful.

Let me break it down and tell you what it is saying:

  • Independent – We don’t agree with the stances of larger denominations, so we remain independent from everyone else.
  • Old Timey – We will not try anything new.  Unashamedly, we are satisfied in our traditions (oftentimes, it means that anything else or new is evil).
  • Hell-Fire Brimstone – This is meant to imply tha the preacher will scare you out of hell if at all possible.
  • King James Preaching – Only the “Authorized Version” of King James in 1611 is suitable to read.  For many, they have been taught that this is the translation that Jesus and Paul used.  I know you are doing math in your head right now.  I am not kidding.  Unfortunately, many don’t even know that the KJV is a poor translation from Greek to English with many errors in it.

Ask yourself a question: who is this church sign for?  Who would drive by and say, “Wow, that’s exactly what we are looking for?”  There is a group that would think that way, but it would be a limited number of people.  And guess what, they would already be religious.

The other thing it made me think is: if you had to write a sentence on your church sign concerning your church’s preaching, what would it say?