If an 18th century Christian suddenly dropped into any church service in the United States tomorrow morning he or she might experience shock and horror. Actually, a better illustration for my experience today would be yanking a 21st century saint out of pew or pulpit, dropping him into an 18th century congregation for a number of years, then returning him home once again to the 21st century.

Such a scenario would almost certainly deliver a body blow of revulsion to this faithful one. The way salvation is being worked out may have changed dramatically in the intervening centuries. My return to the horse show practice pen today got me thinking about how far we may have traveled from the path blazed by first century Christians.