Pastor Charlie Mallie, a Lutheran pastor from Texas, as heard recently on Issues, Etc.

…in modern day churches, you can have places that are ‘in the Word’, that are doing things ‘from the Scripture’, but apart from Christ’s dying and saving office being at the center and also the circumference of the whole thing they’re sort of missing the point.”

Well said! Indeed many churches today do teach from the Scripture here and there, but yet completely miss the One, namely Christ, around whom Scripture finds both it’s origin and center.  As Pastor Mallie noted earlier in the interview, Christ clearly admonished the Pharisee (the top pastors of their day, if you will) that, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40 ESV)   Likewise, most churches today “search the Scriptures”, not for Christ, but for mere tips for moral living, mere snippets of quotes in easy-listening sermons awash in therapeutic deism.  “But,” the defenders reply, “we do hear Scripture from our pastor, so you’re wrong that we’re not Biblical!”  Yet as Jesus warned, simply knowing the words does not mean someone — parishioner or preacher — understands anything of what they’re reading if they miss the whole point of Scripture:  Jesus, the Lord, come as savior to sinners, for whom He died to bring to Himself.