Thank you for your support as I conquer my Mt. Dew addiction. Sadly I may have just substituted it for a Starbuck's Mocha addiction. However, my Aussie also loves mochas so I have to watch it or it is his in a flash.

So there are two things I want to point out first. My personal exploration, which I share here with everyone is two fold. The first is, what does it really mean to be a Christian and the context for this is, am I following a book or am I following my Savior. I will come back to this. The second is the exploration of recreational sex and the debate of whether or not it is a sin. (Which of course I don't believe that it is)

I was inspired to write this after reading your post because I get concerned that we as Christians get WAY too hung up by the Old Testament. The Old Testament is a wonderful book of history and poetry. It's pages foretell the coming of Christ into the world.

The New Testament is a combination of a Book of History and a collection of instructional letters. AND of course, central to the book is the Words of Christ and the Gospels which is a history of His life and teachings.

The genesis of our beliefs was handed down originally as oral tradition emanating from those who knew Jesus first hand. Both the books of the Bible and other historical documents indicate that His fame was growing and He had amassed a great following. And from that core of people who spent time with Him, learned His teachings, heard Him preaching, witnessed His miracles, emerged His followers, Christians. There was no New Testament then, just the verbal tradition of His followers. From that point to what we now observe as modern Christianity and in this we have somehow swapped the History Book with the Savior. Modern Christians spend more time thinking about how to interpret the Bible than on what Jesus and who Jesus is.

Your next to the last paragraph gets down to, as Frank Zappa would say, the crux of the biscuit. Is there a difference between sex for recreational purposes (pleasure) and sex for the purposes of procreation. While the Bible does not addresses, other cultural records indicate that birth control was used. Often prostitution was used as a way to fund the priesthood of that era. So while Recreational Sex was not referred to in direct context, it was clearly happening. Sex with a prostitute is primarily for pleasure and remember that in old and more modern societies, both men and women purchase prostitutes.

In the rest of the post, you bring up some of the standard arguments and its clear you have thought through what you posted. I said this post was two fold. So the point I wish to make is if we strip everything back, and transport ourselves back in time and picture ourselves standing at the Mount of Beatitudes, a hill in Northern Israel on the Korazim Plateau, would we be converted to follow Christ's teaching after listening to His sermon? Early Christians chose to follow Him that day, to follow Christ, the Holy Spirit moved them. There was no New Testament - Jesus was the New Testament.

And I am a Christian who follows Christ's teachings, AND His Great Commandment, AND his Great Commission. I want to emulate how He treated others. Understand His Parables and to keep with His traditions.

So here is my ask of you as the poster, and the rest of you reading this. Spend some time today and think about what is really important. Put yourself at the Mount of Beatitudes and read to yourself Matthew Chapter 5: 1-48. If you were there, if you heard His words, if you witnessed and felt His message. Would the words in a History Book matter to you in shaping your faith? Or would you choose to follow this Rabbi Sharing His message with you from the top of the mount?

Thank you for your post!