"The Historical Challenge!"

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6 KJV)

  "Later Jesus said to them again, "I am going away. You will search for me but will die in your sins. You cannot come where I am going." The people asked, "Is he planning to commit suicide? What does he mean, 'You cannot come where I am going?" Jesus continued, "You are from below, I am from above. You belong to this world; I do not. That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I AM who I claim to be, you will die in your sins."" (John 8:21-24 NLT)

 Without a real belief in God, there is hardly any chance to diligently seek Him; to make matters worse, just living in this world, which has so many things that cause us to not seek Him, it is only by His will and purpose that He reveals Himself to us, that we are even given a chance! And even then, we still must be able to believe that it is He! 

 As I have said, several times already, I have believed in God as far back as I can remember. The earliest time I recall, was when I was five years old, being in Sunday School, and drawing pictures about God and His rainbow. That would have been around 1963, which is about the time things started to get wicked and anti-God in these United States. I believe it started with the Supreme Court ruling that state-sponsored prayer in public schools was unconstitutional, on June 25, 1962.

 From that point on, things were sliding deeper and deeper into many anti-God teachings is public schools, all throughout the United States. As I remember back, I believe it was the first day of school, in 1968, which was when the Beetles released, "The White Album", as I remember the poster on the wall in class. The teacher also had a poster above the chalkboard of Life Magazine's illustration of the Evolution of Man. As soon as I saw that poster, I was totally offended and spoke out against it. As I remember, the teacher had a globe on his desk that was placed in a holder, and I walked up to his desk and turned the globe upside-down.  

 Having said all of that, I still believed in God when I rebelled against Him, not much latter than when I took that stand; I think it was within the next 2 years or so. It was when I determined that I could not keep His commandments, which was when I just accepted that I was destined to hell. Once you get to that phase in life, you still know God is watching, but you just don't care. 

 Fortunately for me, God never gave up on me, and He came to my rescue...

"Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once. The sailors were awestruck by the LORD'S great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. Now, the LORD had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights." (Johah 1:15-17 NLT)