[pelathais]

I think he may have had a pretext text in search of a text - and found the tabernacle rings suitable.

We are in a "transition" period right now - but the "greatest in the history of the church?" Fact of the matter is, every period of time - by definition - is a transition period. Everyone has to learn how to carry what is important from the past into the future. That's our responsibility as human beings.

How important are hem lengths, for example? At a certain point it is important, but do guys always have to have their hems down to the ankle while the ladies can enjoy the comfort of every breeze? And since this is an example of something that the early church never observed, why do some insist upon following such a "standard." The list is really filled with the silliest of things.

"We" decided at some point to abandon infant baptism, because the early church never practiced it. "We" decided to abandon burning our heretics at the stake (at least literally) because, well... just because, but the early church didn't do that either.

"We" have successfully navigated an almost uncountable number of "transitions" all of which seemed to be fraught with the gravest of perils at the time. Most of these things are now looked upon as being so trivial that we're embarassed by the mention of them.

I have to question the motives of the preacher you describe. I have no idea who he is, but c'mon! Is the Indiana board really such a tyrannical group that they must be mollified with pap? How about preaching the Gospel to those kids - or have we "transitioned" out of that?