You have know idea how many or what Bibles, commentaries, websites, etc., that I read and/or study from. So again you are assuming that since I live in the bible belt, believe the Bible is infallible and without err, and that I am a conservative that I am reading certain things.
Believe it or not I use the brain God gave me, and study Greek translations and many other. I look back and see what the ancients taught, and again don't just take a preachers/teachers word for what the word says or means.
Here are just a few of the different sources I use to study to show myself approved a workman that need not be ashame.
1. The Zondervan Parallel New Testament in Greek and English Bible. (KJV, NIV, Greek Interlinear)
2. The Devotional Bible by Max Lucado, it's NCV.
3. The Naves Study Bible
4. Matthew Henry Commentary to go along with the Classical Commentaries which has around 8-10 different peoples understandings.
5. There is the BibleGateway.com with it's 20 different translations.
6. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary.
7. Then there is the computer, and way to many websites.
8. The Dead Sea Scrolls, By Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr., and Edward Cook
I go with the scriptures and not the doctrines of some denomination, as I have been accused of doing many times.
Here is one of the things I have studied, which was written way before 1966. In fact these are things that were believed and taught as far back as 151 AD.
What did early Christians believe about...?
(Before 400 AD)
Uninspired records of how early Christians worshipped and what doctrine they believed!
What did early Christians believe about Homosexuality!
- 151 AD Justin Martyr "[W]e have been taught that to expose newly-born children is the part of wicked men; and this we have been taught lest we should do anyone harm and lest we should sin against God, first, because we see that almost all so exposed (not only the girls, but also the males) are brought up to prostitution. And for this pollution a multitude of females and hermaphrodites, and those who commit unmentionable iniquities, are found in every nation. And you receive the hire of these, and duty and taxes from them, whom you ought to exterminate from your realm. And any one who uses such persons, besides the godless and infamous and impure intercourse, may possibly be having intercourse with his own child, or relative, or brother. And there are some who prostitute even their own children and wives, and some are openly mutilated for the purpose of sodomy; and they refer these mysteries to the mother of the gods" (First Apology 27).
- 181 AD Theophilus of Antioch "Give studious attention to the prophetic writings [the Bible] and they will lead you on a clearer path to escape the eternal punishments and to obtain the eternal good things of God.. [God] will examine everything and will judge justly, granting recompense to each according to merit. To those who seek immortality by the patient exercise of good works, he will give everlasting life, joy, peace, rest, and all good things.. For the unbelievers and for the contemptuous, and for those who do not submit to the truth but assent to iniquity, when they have been involved in adulteries, and fornications, and homosexualities, and avarice, and in lawless idolatries, there will be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish; and in the end, such men as these will be detained in everlasting fire" (To Autolycus 1:14).
- 190 AD Clement of Alexandria "All honor to that king of the Scythians, whoever Anacharsis was, who shot with an arrow one of his subjects who imitated among the Scythians the mystery of the mother of the gods . . . condemning him as having become effeminate among the Greeks, and a teacher of the disease of effeminacy to the rest of the Scythians"
[According to Greek myth] Baubo [a female native of Elusis] having received [the goddess] Demeter hospitably, reached to her a refreshing draught; and on her refusing it, not having any inclination to drink (for she was very sad), and Baubo having become annoyed, thinking herself slighted, uncovered her shame, and exhibited her nudity to the goddess. Demeter is delighted with the sight--pleased, I repeat, at the spectacle. These are the secret mysteries of the Athenians; these Orpheus records"
"It is not, then, without reason that the poets call him [Hercules] a cruel wretch and a nefarious scoundrel. It were tedious to recount his adulteries of all sorts, and debauching of boys. For your gods did not even abstain from boys, one having loved Hylas, another Hyacinthus, another Pelops, another Chrysippus, another Ganymede. Let such gods as these be worshipped by your wives, and let them pray that their husbands be such as these--so temperate; that, emulating them in the same practices, they may be like the gods. Such gods let your boys be trained to worship, that they may grow up to be men with the accursed likeness of fornication on them received from the gods" (Exhortation to the Greeks 2).
- http://www.bible.ca/H-homosexuality.htm
Homosexuality may be a word that has not been around that long, but the act of homosexuality has. It also has been taught as a sin for as far back as I have found so far, which is around 100 AD.
We believe history books that are written about people like Alexander the Great, and other people from way back in history. Even tho these things weren't written till 400 hundred or more years after their deaths, but we refuse to believe things that were written 50 to 100 yrs., after Christs death.
Anyhow, I don't just read and believe things written and agreed on by the top denominations, or that are written from 1966 to the present time. Assuming that all people who don't agree with you, or that live in certain areas, are fundamentalist and conservative, don't know how or just don't use the brain God gave them to find the truth is, well.......................................... dare I say judgemental and wrong.
If I was a liar and a chronic one at that, would you as my brother of sister in Christ come to me as the Bible says to?
Would you lift me up in your prayers?
Would you show me how the Bible says that it is a sin and what that sin does?
If I was like this before I ask the Lord to save me, and in fact said that it wasn't a sin and needed no forgiveness would I really be saved?
If someone ask others who profess to be Christians if I can be saved while refusing to admit this sin, are they being judgemental?
Would I then be able to call anyone who did the above a hater and bigot for doing them?
Would I be able to say that they aren't showing the love of Christ because of their actions?