I grew up at least claiming to be saved but not sure if I was or not.  I didn't believe the Bible.  I believed in God, but it really was God the way Art wanted Him to be.

I asked all the questions the evolutionists still do and got exactly no answers.  I wasn't taught evolution was a theory but was a fact.  So I forced it into the Bible - theistic evolution.  I fought for it tooth and nail.  I even left a church over it.  When I asked for anyone to counter my proof and answer my questions, all I ever got was "Well, the Bible says and you just have to believe." 

For me, it didn't cut it.  So I didn't buy it.  And if I couldn't believe it there, where else shouldn't I believe it?  Well, sex - That whole no sex out of marriage thing.  That was just for that time when they married at 14.  Not for now, right?  Adultery - it isn't cheating if both husband and wife do it, right?  Gay people - God made them that way, right?  Greed - God helps those who help themselves, right?  Judging - Its ok when they are really bad, right?

Finally I had had enough of these annoying creationists.  My "facts" really were vague, and my main arguments were questions they couldn't answer like "What about dinosaurs?"   So I decided I was going to do research so I'd have the hard facts to finally quiet the creationists around me once and for all.  And after a year or two of research, I had to finally submit to the fact that I could find no facts that I could successfully argue for that weren't full of holes and based on guesses.

Finally I decided to research it from a creationist's side.  And everything fit.  The only things that didn't fit were all based on dating methods.  But having tried to support my evolutionary belief on those grounds already, I found that I couldn't believe in them either.  Bit by bit, God laid His truth on me.  I finally over came my pride and admitted I was wrong.

A few years later and I, wage this battle so that maybe, just maybe someone like me can see that there ARE answers to their questions, evolution does NOT hold water, creation DOES fit all the scientific evidence, and that yes, God is right.  Not just where I want Him to be, but in everything He said. 

I do not debate this to prove creation, but to reestablish God's authority over man.  I don't really care about evolution/creation all that much, except how it undermines the very foundation of scripture, of most if not all major doctrines, and of God's authority.  So Creation vs. evolution seems to become a battleground.

Now I look back at my former self and what I see is that the god I worshipped was not the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob Who is The Great I Am, but the god of Arthur, the great what I Want him to be.  I chose what was right and wrong.  And in doing so lead myself down many hurtful paths.

Now that God has opened my eyes I am hit with the truth that I am not God and I do not make the rules.  He does.  And it does not matter if I agree with them, nor if I understand them.  He is God and what He says goes be it His law, His promise of things to come or His word on what has passed.  And all I can do is accept it.

In His service... Arthur Smith