The Secular Passion Against Faith

By Dr. Ted Hallum

Dr. Hallum is a graduate of Tulsa Daniel Webster High School after transferring from Sapulpa high school. He worked his way through college in many jobs including but not limited to Flint Steel of Tulsa. He earned his B.A. and M.E. from Northeastern State of Oklahoma, a Ph.D. from St. Louis University, and a M.Div., D. D., and Dr. of Apologetics from Trinity Graduate School of Apologetics and Theology. He served as Honorary Chancellor of ISDET, the International School for Distance Education and Training located in the Kerala Province of India. He completed a 40 year career in Public Education serving in many different capacities in school districts in Oklahoma, Illinois, and California.
Dr. Hallum lives in his hometown in Oklahoma and writes Christian non-fiction books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664143098

Dr. Ted Hallum

Dr. Hallum is a graduate of Tulsa Daniel Webster High School after transferring from Sapulpa high school. He worked his way through college in many jobs including but not limited to Flint Steel of Tulsa. He earned his B.A. and M.E. from Northeastern State of Oklahoma, a Ph.D. from St. Louis University, and a M.Div., D. D., and Dr. of Apologetics from Trinity Graduate School of Apologetics and Theology. He served as Honorary Chancellor of ISDET, the International School for Distance Education and Training located in the Kerala Province of India. He completed a 40 year career in Public Education serving in many different capacities in school districts in Oklahoma, Illinois, and California. Dr. Hallum lives in his hometown in Oklahoma and writes Christian non-fiction books.

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COPYRIGHT © 2020 BY DR. TED HALLUM.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

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Rev. date: 10/20/2021

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Contents

An Introduction

Chapter 1   Secularism

Chapter 2   Compatibility

Chapter 3   Cultural Disintegration

Chapter 4   Censorship As Persecution

Chapter 5   Our Changing Times

Chapter 6   Disintegration

Chapter 7   Faith As Strength

List Of References

An Introduction

There are stories that must be told and awareness that must be understood as the human experience with modern life continues to develop and things become important not because of what they say but by the expectations that others have that manage our days. The walk we take today is not on the path we walked on, what seemed yesterday, but which, in reality, was at least 100 years or more in the past when the deceivers began to play hard ball. There is change in the air, it seems, for the softness of the earthly wind in daily life has suddenly began to blow in bursts of discontent and deceit while most people seldom even notice.

This is a book of things that are going on, on devious acts in the shadows that effect our days of labor and life. Yes, something is coming our way, whether we want to see it or not, it is coming and when it hits it may make the worst hurricane on record seem like child’s play during a day at the beach. It is difficult to plan for what you might not even see, and even more difficult to find a statement of truth from a controlled national news media controlled by the wealthy and protected by corporate structures and business organizations. And yet we walk and work during the day, oblivious to what is truly going on, and unable to even respond.

There are a series of wars that rage in the society we once saw in its greatness, in the hope that it gave, in the security of our each and every day. But, the news media has separated the real social war by dividing it into pieces of many worrisome things that ebb and flow like the rising tide against the goodness that is yet left in the hands of faith in the rising evil of the deceptions we now face. Are the things we see truly divided into a wide array or a cluster of social wars or are we watching the war of the ages unfold into the various aspects of a world in decay?

And, who is truly managing this awesome display of antiquated decay? Is it good or evil, is it growth or decay, is it wise or unfortunate, is it worth fighting alone through the growing constancy of the horrors of each day as an individual or should we consider unity? Do we yet hope in our faith and stand in the unity we need, do we stand firm? Has an evil presence entered our days; day after day? Is our hope yet in the resurrection and the eternal reward, or have we given ourselves up to fear and seek merely to get through the day? One of the great men of God who has passed this way in the recent past is John F. Walvoord who wrote in his book, The Millennial Kingdom, these words: What is true of the hope of the resurrection is true of Christian hope in general. Faith without hope is just as dead as faith without works. (Walvoord, v)

Yet, Nina Shea comments in her book, The Lion’s Den, below:

Paul Marshall believes: Many evangelicals in particular seem to be so obsessed with their own well-being that they cannot get their noses out of their own navels to pay attention to the plight of their brothers and sisters around the world. (Shea, 15)

Are we sleeping through a time when we are expected to see the signs that one can gather and actions of principalities and powers of darkness? If so, what will it take to shake the Christian world to a full alert status; a people standing firm against the things that are happening at an ever-growing pace? Josh McDowell, author of The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict, shares the effect of the writers of the New Testament:

The writers of the New Testament also appealed to the firsthand knowledge of their readers or listeners concerning the facts and evidence about the person of Jesus Christ. The writers said Look, we saw this, or We heard that, but they turned tables around and right in front of their most adverse critics said, you also know about these things. You saw them, you yourselves know about it. (McDowell, xxxvi)

The deniers of faith accept judgment and eternal separation from our Creator God because of their desire to argue and debate known facts. McDowell explains:

Christianity may be true for you but it’s not true for me. This is the misconception of relativism, a central component of postmodernism. It assumes that Christianity may be true for some people, in some places, and at some times, but it is not true for all people, in all places, and at all times. It is relatively true, not absolutely or universally true.* (McDowell, xIII)

This book is about faith in tomorrow and faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ. The battle is enjoined, it’s the love of God against a blatant presence of evil. It is eternal life versus eternal death, it is hope versus despair, and it is tomorrow versus the sadness of the past with the hope of mankind resting in the hands of the Christian faith in our land.

CHAPTER ONE

Secularism

The basic problem of the Christians in this country

in the last 80 years or so, in regard to society and

in regard to government, is that they have seen things

in bits and pieces instead of totals.

Francis Schaeffer,

A Christian Manifesto

How would you describe the present state of our world, of the United States, and of the Christian faith? It doesn’t seem likely that a wise man would say that all is well, regardless of his faith, or that life is trouble free. Have you grown aware of the two sides of life today, where one is centered in Christ and one is centered in man? Are you aware of the motives for the secular trend to wrest the faith of man from Christ and to place it squarely in the hands of man? Or is that merely a road to placing the center of life in the hands of the very opposite of what God intended; that is in the hands of the principalities and powers of darkness?

But, then a wise man would ask who or what controls the wayward thinking that places man in the center of life; and where are the intentions for tomorrow? Is man to be the ultimate power in human life for eternity or are intentions becoming quite clear that man is deceived and is being used to tear the fabric of the Christian faith from God and replace it with the evil of Satan? Have you considered that possibility? Could you follow after evil and turn your back upon the God of creation?

WINDS OF CHANGE

The world in which we were born is changing and many have difficulty in finding their way in this new world, this neo-pagan society we now call secularism. We live during a time that in some ways resembles the time of our Lord’s ministry of some 2000 years ago in what we now call Israel. This time can best be described as a time of growing hostility, a time of lingering doubt, a time where one or more groups have tried to intervene in the delivery of the Gospel message of redemption and hope.

We live in a hostile and growing violent world where the sanctity of human life is no longer respected; where children are murdered in the name of religion in the Middle East as anarchists in the United States insist on killing unborn children and selling their body parts around the world for experiments; a time where worshippers are murdered during terrorist attacks; a time where British tourists are murdered as they sunbathe on a beach in Tunisia in the name of that same middle east religion. This is a time of growing hatred and growing demands by protestors and their henchmen and their financial supporters who lurk in the shadows of life.

But this cometh to pass,

that the Word might be fulfilled

that is written in their law.

They hated me without a cause.

John 15:25 (KJV)

Today, in the United States, there are several groups, and from both foreign and domestic bases, who are trying to interfere with the practice of the Christian faith; with Christian’s Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech are in the process of denial by traitors who hide in the shadows of our society and infiltrate our government in order to plant their evil seed. What do they use to launch the attacks against faith? They use the same Constitution and its guaranteed freedoms and rights to attack the church and with plans to destroy the Constitution when they no longer have use of it.

The faithful are committed to continue to live in faith and to continue to share that faith with others; even in the face of growing persecution. We must endure until the end and stand firm and united in the face of whatever adversity comes our way. We are no better than our Lord, Jesus Christ, who carried our sins to the cross and then into the grave before emerging in resurrected form, an example for His people; in some ways a challenge for the hope of tomorrow. And we must remember the words that follow:

And ye shall be hated of all men

for my name’s sake:

But he that endureth to the end

shall be saved.

Matthew 10:22 (KJV)

Our duty requires that we learn to handle the hatred that the world exhibited toward our Lord and to overcome it through His strength, in the face of opposition; sharing the Christian message while living the Christian faith as times grow more difficult and become a greater challenge.

Gary Stearman, writing the Introduction to Petrus Romanus by Thomas Horn and Cris Putnam, shares his insight into the happenings of today: Something of gigantic proportion is shifting in the landscape. Institutions worldwide are discovering that their foundations are turning to sand. Everything is changing. There is a mad scramble for ascendancy. (Horn and Putnam, 2)

The 21st Century has brought with it challenges from the secular side of society as well as the New Left Wing coalition; what one may think of as an enhanced version of the New Left of the 60s and 70s using the socialist concept of gradualism. Lifestyles have changed dramatically across our nation as mainline churches have continued to water down the Gospel of Christ through the use of allegorical interpretations of Bible Scriptures, leaving a vacuum for the intellectual world of liberalism that has been filled with ongoing conflict. David Kupelian, author of the article, Winning the War, offers this comment:

America is currently engaged in mortal combat with a three-headed monster. The first two heads are discussed all day, every day, by politicians and the news media: namely the coronavirus pandemic and the unprecedented mass economic shutdown it has led to. But the third head of the monster threatening America right now goes almost unmentioned. It is what some in the Democrat-Media Complex, the de facto alliance between the increasingly far-left Democratic Party and the establishment news media—both of them pathologically obsessed with destroying the elected president of the United States by any means possible, including weaponizing a genuine mega-crisis. (Kupelian, 4)

Who is the invisible enemy that is launching the blatant attack from within the United States, in the style of a political revolution but carefully cloaked with the cover of a culture war, while our streets are occupied by anarchist and the Antifa that once traded blow by blow with the Brown shirts of the German Nazi Revolution of the 1930s. The main purpose of the left is to draw the American version of brown shirts out into the streets to set the stage for a political civil war, as they hope for the people to join them. It is, of course, a gamble. What if the people then oppose the presence of these totalitarians parading about clad in different colors and trying as strenuously as they can to appear as Americans?

David Kupelian, also authored an article called The New Totalitarians, in which he shares this comment:

Until recently, the Democratic Party and the elite news media—the face of the modern American left—had only fake crises to exploit: Trump colluded with Putin to steal the election from Hillary, The world is ending soon due to global warming, Trump is Hitler and is creating concentration camps fill with children all across America, Brett Kavanaugh is a serial rapists, Trump had a phone call we didn’t like with the Ukrainian president, so he must be impeached, and so on. (Kupelian, 5)

The emerging victims of that conflict are not too surprising to the common man; it is once again the Christian Church. Secularism seems to have merged with remnants of the revitalized New Left as a result of the commonality of goals, purposes, and opportunity. Changes have been implemented unknowingly by citizens, by elected officials, while Christian churches and their members slumber during a time when the world’s attention is focused on the Middle East and the massive verbal assaults hurled at the little nation of Israel by the overwhelming voices of a crumbling world.

News in the U.S.A. is controlled almost exclusively by the left wing media which chooses to ignore any and all news that paint an accurate picture of what is really happening in this country and around the world. Wars rage across the landscape of earth even as the land is battered by earthquakes, storms of the century, massive hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and the developing lawlessness that threatens to lead the world into absolute chaos as politicians parade their thoughts across the televisions and newspapers of the country supporting their favorite projects and condemning their opponent’s favorites. Conservatives must fight to be heard; for they are blocked from use of the liberal media.

The greatest sin might well ride on the coattails of enemies within the church and within the state, Richard Terrell, in his excellent work, The Resurrection of The Third Reich, offers this observation:

A departure from traditional moral and spiritual authority was a cause for exhilaration among many of the turn-of-the –century intellectuals. Emerging was a new faith in the autonomy of man and an ongoing social progress. A new society could be envisioned which would derive its cultural expression, religious sensibilities, and moral fabric from the discoveries of science. Prominent intellectuals reflected in their writings a bold confidence in human scientific knowledge to provide a comprehensive framework for human life. (Terrell, 23)

What is it that the secular side of society is seeking in their condemnation of the Christian faith? That is an interesting question to pursue, in that it has been left open by the attackers, as though they want to accomplish their goals before admitting to them. What can we see in examining the attacks on Christians in the military during the Obama administration, in a society where the Constitution guarantees our rights so long as the left wing secular movement approves and their masters concur in the tearing of the law and the strength of the constitution? Is it possible that there are at least four reasons for the ongoing rush to attack the faith?

• The desire to silence Christians in the United States and to hamstring the church;

• The desire to remove the moral and ethical standards by which the American society has lived for over 200 years;

• The desire to turn to World government and to prepare the way for the Beast; and

• The desire to remove the church in its entirety from American society.

What methodology and particular techniques are being used in the growing number of attacks against the church, against Christians, and against the American society? Consider what you are seeing in the new American society and describe it; what are the consistently used tools of the left and of their radicalized troops? Several obvious tools can be seen from day to day that are applied to Christians and particularly Christian politicians:

• Trashing Christians;

• Trashing Conservatives;

• Attempts to establish censorship in the United States;

• A Liberal and controlled media which, instead of reporting the news that is happening, determines instead what they want people to know about;

• The use of Deception; Propaganda based upon lies and twisting truth;

• Silencing Christians;

• Destroying Freedom of Religion;

• Destroying Freedom of Speech;

• And attacking Constitutional guarantees, major American cities, and organizations that do not connect to the left wing, etc.

It seems that the time is fast approaching when citizens arising in the morning will view the chaos of the previous night and think, what will we do? Soon, the purpose of this chaos will become apparent as food distribution and medical services change forever in this land. And so, we must see what it is that is happening today in the shadows of life and then try to understand where it has come from and what is necessary to deal with it now and in the very near future. What is coming? Will it be simply earthly-based nonsense or will it be something else that will frighten the world and create a dilemma in our lands?

EMERGING NEO-PAGAN SOCIETY

Modern life has become a prolonged journey through the annals’ of history and into the quagmire of the pending secular or neo-pagan society of the future. For many, the journey began during the years in which the world was focused on the insanity we knew as World War II. The aftermath of that great conflict which shattered the peace of meaningful home life and altered the course of mankind for the foreseeable future was the beginning for many of us. How so, one might wonder; with the birth of the United Nations through the feeble intellectual processes of the self-chosen saviors of the world and the rejection of the savior of all mankind: Jesus Christ.

From the passing of millions of souls from life to death came the groundwork for the demise of future mankind; complete with birth to death planning and the attempted eradication of the human soul through the rejection of God. And so today, in this time of chaos with lawlessness and violence in the streets and the shooting of Police Officers in coordinated and precisely carried out ambushes, we know little of this United nations; apparently intentionally so. The answer by the self-styled new left atheists and other weirdly concocted political thoughts has been to marginalize the Christian Church and to ridicule the Christiaan faith. John Whitehead, the author of The Second American Revolution, Writes that:

Autonomous, secular