The place of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in the Christian churches is a highly controversial issue. The stance of all the mainline churches is that homosexuality is sinful and incompatible with Christianity. In seeking to respond to attacks on their lives, identities and relationships LGBT Christians have moved over recent decades from a defensive position to a more affirmative position which asserts that there is evidence in the Bible and the Jesus tradition of validated homoerotic experience. This is the only book on the market which:presents a systematic overview of both the defensive and affirmative positions;  is grounded in up to date Biblical scholarship and research;deals with highly controversial issues such as Jesus' sexual orientation;yet is written in accessible, easily readable style.In part one, The Defensive Testament, each of the so-called 'biblical texts of terror' used to demonise LGBT people is considered in turn and found wanting. None of them has anything to say about consensual same sex love. In part two, The Affirmative Testament, homoerotic elements in various Bible stories including the healing of the centurion's servant, David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi are revealed to make visible the place of LGBT lives in the Biblical tradition, including the homoerotic relationship between Jesus and the Beloved Disciple reported in the Gospel of John.Taken together, these two testaments forcefully champion the equality of LGBT people in the Kingdom of God and represent a formidable challenge to ecclesiastical homophobia.  This is a life saving book for gay Christians.