Thank You all for your advice and views.
The only other question I do have is researching and studying the bible.
Since I was mislead and thought the way I was taught or instructed to research might be off, how one should study and research religious text? Should I pursue it like a scientist or a historian/anthropologist?
All I want to do is seek out the truth and instructions without the confusion and misguidance that is spewed to me on Sunday's.
I want what I have learn and will learn be applicable and relatable
to our present and future.
I do not want to just "pray" and hope things will be alright, I want to know that it is and make it happen instead of sitting,and waiting on something or someone to do it as many do.
My apologies for the late reply. Unfortunately, life gets in the way of me visiting often.
Here is what I suggest.
1) DO NOT rely on the King James Bible. The victorian version of english alone will get on your nerves. Plus, it doesn't help that historically, this translator of the Bible did unbiblical things. The New King James version only for contemporary language purposes.
2) Get a New King James and Amplified Bible to start with. The Amplified Bible has many of the translateable Hebrew meanings attached in the OT verses and Greek in the NT verses. This is important so that you can take the right meaning of each verse.
3) Study it like a student. Ask God questions and ask Him to reveal the answers to you. Then give yourself to the possibility of the answers given. Faith is required here on a level beyond your comfort zone, but if you're willing to do so to prove your interest, you WILL get the answers.
4) Find a pastor with the heart of a teacher to help. He won't tell you the answers. He'll guide you to them. Whatever you do, do not seek help from any televangelist preachers and pastors. That's what I like to call pop-culture Christianity. All show, little substance.
5) Don't limit your study to the scope of religion. The Bible doesn't just show religious instruction. The Bible is a wholistic book, showing you lives of many, pointing out what was well to do, what was not well to do, principles to live by, warnings to heed, etc.
For instance, less than a year ago, lots of pop-culture Christian women were declaring "I'm waiting on my Boaz," right? One who studied the book of Ruth would know that Boaz was not the character one should have focused on, but Ruth. Ruth NEVER waited on Boaz! She caught Boaz's eye by WORKING to take care of her mother in law
Lastly, there is more to each story than meets the eye, so dig deep into each one. The way I like to put it is that God leaves gems for all of us in the same book. Each gem (principle and idea retrieved through study) is something you can apply to your life.
The reason many others won't is because they have the wrong idea about Christianity. They think that the religion of Christianity oppressed them, when in truth the white supporters of African and Hebrew enslavement twisted the Bible's words and outlawed all reading, so that their slaves would never find out the difference between the slave masters' deception and the truth about what the Bible suggested. White men then oppressed African and Hebrew people by fraudulently stating that their cause is just and moral. In fact, they wish to use a scripture showing what attitude slaves should have towards their masters, when the Amplified Bible points out in Exodus 20:2 that the only slaves the Bible referred to were those who were being punished for theft or those who were paying off a debt, a practice started in the Egyptian region. Only those two types of enslaved people were the subject of such NT verses. Stuck on eventual nuances like this, others forget to see the truth at its basic level. These weren't Christians enslaving them. These were pagans who descended from many Europeans bent on oppressing, raping, invading, killing, and decieving other races, something they were doing before the ideology of Christianity fell into their hands. They don't even look at pictures of the "white" Jesus placed in most churches, which are really pictures of Italians and Romans, all done because they didn't want to show how BLACK Jesus was.
If that doesn't answer your questions, feel free to inquire further. I will do my best to respond.