Dear brothers in Christ,
I just came across this post on the Evo board of a site hosted by a Christian. The owner does not have the same commitment to weeding out equivocation and blasphemy like our host does here. Unfortunately, below is testimony of how years of battering by Satan can wear down even the faithful.
This is profoundly sad. Let it be a lesson.
As of this writing, in four days time there have been 148 replies to this man's confession of his crisis of faith. The atheists, theistic evolutionists and Christians confused about the Bible congratulated this poor soul on his "honesty," and admonished the remaining true YECers there to "see the light" like he did. They welcomed him into to the fold.
Sadly, this sparked a rancourous argument between some of the Biblically faithful Christians there and the others about the state of our backslider's walk with the Lord. This debate certainly was not a positive witness for the Christian faith.
Our poster has apparently been faithfully arguing creation in the poisonous atmosphere of that board for years, and managed to do it while earnng the respect of even the atheists there. No small accomplishments. But, probably because of some unmentioned crisis in his personal life, he has fallen into a crisis of faith concerning God's word in the Bible.
One can only hope and pray that the Holy Spirit will help lead this man out of his bad decision.
I'd like to make sure that I personally thank Fred Williams for running this board in such a way that it is unlikely this kind of thing can happen here. Also, I'd like to remind fellow believers here (as Fred does in his introduction) that the battle isn't against men and their beliefs, it's against principalities of darkness. Remain strong in your faith, strong in your beliefs. Be in the word daily, and check your thoughts with the Holy Spirit. He won't lead you wrong.
Blessings to all, especially to our confused poster quoted above.
Dave
Dave, this happens on an everyday bases. You are now wittnessing why evolution is a religion. For you cannot lose faith in one thing that is religion, to something that is not.
Also, this is something that is done to discurage believers by non-believers. Don't believe it everytime you see it. Here is an example from another forum:
My official renunciation of YECism, and further inquiry into science and religion
Before the official renunciation...I will pause to ponder where I came from, and my journey out of YECism.
I first began my journey at about age 13, when I first began to doubt. But due to my sheltered environment, I was not able to seriously explore my doubts until I came to Christian Forums in this very forum, to debate the issue. Before I came here, I was a staunch believer in a literal Creation that happened approximately 6,000 years ago, and that all Christians believed this (since anyone who didn’t wasn’t a true Christian). I thought that Adam and Eve were literal, that we were all descendents of them, and that, most importantly, scientific evidence supported all this.
Although I had doubted since the age of 13, I was hostile to many of you here who were not YECists, thinking that you were mistaken. I marvel now at my hypocrisy, since I had long been suspicious and skeptical of the pamphlets, tracts, and church literature I was reading that “proved” Creation and “disproved” evolution. I believed some of the literature, but most of it, I thought, did not compare to the scientific literature from educational institutions.
What I really thought at the time was that the “truth” of YECism was buried deep under the laws of science, and that only YECists were on the right track. I thought that all the evolutionists were letting themselves be blinded by their awe for Charles Darwin. Don’t look at me like that! At least I didn’t believe in the great conspiracy that all evolutionists were deceived of the devil!
For several years before I came to CF in a serious attempt to end my doubts and “prove” you all wrong, or myself wrong, I was seriously suspicious that I was wrong, and that the rest of the world was laughing. And indeed they were! One day I came out of the cave I had been in, and I saw them standing around the cave, pointing and laughing and mocking. At first some of you were there in the crowd.
When I came to CF, I thought that it was you, and not I, who would have to change beliefs. But you all presented me with overwhelming scientific evidence that surpassed in quality and quantity anything I had before read by Creationists. I was not accustomed to such intellectual integrity, consistency, logic, and proof—proof that came not from someone’s reasoning or wishes, but from calculations, lab experiments, and testing.
Here are the past threads (in no specific order) that I have started here:
QUOTE
There were several links here. But I omit them.
And now, for the renunciation.
I, *******, having been a YECist for all my life until the summer of 2004 at the age of 19 (shameful it took so long), do hereby, officially and forever, renounce my belief in the literal creation of a planet, solar system, people, and universe several thousand years ago.
The causes of this dramatic change are due to vigorous debate with evolutionists, atheists, agnostics, liberal Christians, and conservative gap-theory and other Christians; in-depth reading on topics such as Geology, Astronomy, and a few other sciences, which convinced me over the span of about 4 months, that a literal earth created about 6,000 years ago, was not scientifically possible; extensive and deep thought about the issues and materials I had read; and a willingness to be open-minded and not dismiss the truths that I was now so thoroughly and “dangerously” exposed to.
Through all this my mind was convinced that YECism is untrue, and was invented out of a desire of deeply religious people to validate a faith structure that would simply be too painful for them to leave.
End of renunciation.
The ramifications of this renunciation have been profound. When I gave up Biblical literalism, my intellectual bonds broke. I felt as though I had been released from a harbor and had drifted out to sea. The sea was adventurous, and held many possibilities. But it was also uncertain, unlike the safe harbor.
So I drifted to many small islands and found other harbors. Some of them are very safe, being made of steel instead of rotting wood. My ship never did fit at that old harbor anyway.
My new intellectual journey thus began. And since then I have come to see the world from a more agnostic-Christian point of view, if that is possible.
Many of you claim that evolution does not equal atheism, and I agree. The two are not directly related. However, the belief in evolution might lead to atheism in some cases. Ever since the Origin of Species, we humans have realized that the idea of a loving God who is directly involved in our existence and lives is not true, because species are not fixed, but evolve by a random, natural process of natural selection. This places God further away, not being directly involved in our creation or direction. Now God is a mysterious, distant, and uninvolved deity.
If God didn’t create us directly as Genesis indicates, is there any reason to believe that He is as directly involved with our lives as the rest of the Bible claims? If he allowed species to evolve painfully through survival and extinction, what does that say for us?
I have read that Genesis is not literal, but that certain other parts of the Bible are. This presents contradicting reasoning that is unacceptable. However, if someone creates a thread on it, I will become involved in the debate.
The unleashing of my intellectual curiosity has caused me to strongly desire another safe harbor in which to rest. I have not yet found that harbor. Perhaps there is no safe harbor. None of the great philosophers ever found one. Perhaps safe harbors are a delusion. Steel eventually gives way to erosion, and wood to rot.
In the book I am reading, there is a quote that goes something like this:
Is religion a projection of human fears and desires, or is it an expression of some innate knowing or connection with a deity? In other words, did we make God, or did He make us? Or neither?
P.S. ******* may now add me to his list (if he remembers what I am talking about...)
__________________
Young Earth Creationists rely on the falsification of dating
methods to validate their literalist claims and their faith
Does this look like just a post, or a well thought out plan to discurage any believer who read it? If this is true, then they were put up to this post by the same evolutionist-atheist who convinced them the bible is a bunch of lies.
Did you know that evolutionists and atheist actually celebrate, and keep score of how many people they can get to renounce their faith? I have actually seen them do this on their own forums. Boast about how many they have led astray, compared to someone else. Christians don't realize this is not a game we play.
And I have no intention of wallowing in the cesspool of that board.