Here's an incident in the life and ministry of Henry Allen
Ironside, the Archbishop of Fundamentalism [one of my favorite
preachers of all time]. It's about a challenge of an agnostic to
Christianity and how Ironside wisely parried his challenge.
Enjoy!!!!
An Agnostic's Challenge.
"For nearly a year after I left the Salvation Army and launched out
in evangelistic work in fellowship with the Christians commonly
known as "Brethren," I lived in the San Francisco Bay region. One
Lord's Day afternoon as I was walking up Market Street, I saw a
large group gathered at the corner of Market and Grant Avenue. When
I heard the sound of music and singing, I realized in a moment that
it was a meeting of my old Salvationist friends, and went over to
enjoy it. They had a splendid brass band. There were perhaps sixty
soldiers in all, who had formed a large circle round which some
three or four hundred people were gathered. I pushed my way through
to the front of the crowd, and was almost immediately recognized by
the little lassie captain who came over and asked me if I would not
like to give a testimony. Of course I was pleased to do this, so
when opportunity presented itself, at her suggestion I stepped into
the ring and tried to give a gospel message based on my own
personal experience of Christ's saving grace.
While I was speaking, I noticed that a well-dressed man of medium
build and intelligent countenance who was standing on the curb took
a card from his pocket and wrote something on it. Just as I was
concluding my talk, he stepped forward, politely lifted his hat,
and handed me the card. On one side I read his name. I realized at
once who he was, for I had seen his name in the public press and on
placards as one who had been giving addresses for some months all
up and down the West Coast from Vancouver to San Diego. He was an
official representative of what was then called the I. W. W.
Movement that is, the "Industrial Workers of the World," though
opponents of its socialistic principles generally interpreted the
mystic letters as standing for "I Won't Work." He held meetings
among laboring men, seeking to incite them to class hatred and to
organize with a view to overthrowing the capitalistic system.
Turning the card over, I read on the opposite side, as nearly as I
can now remember, the following challenge: "Sir, I challenge you to
debate with me the question 'Agnosticism versus Christianity' in
the Academy of Science Hall next Sunday afternoon at four o'clock.
I will pay all expenses ."
I read the card aloud, and replied somewhat as follows: "I am very
much interested in this challenge. Frankly, I am already announced
for another meeting next Lord's Day afternoon at three o'clock, but
I think it will be possible for me to get through with that in time
to reach the Academy of Science by four, or if necessary I could
arrange to have another speaker substitute for me at the meeting
already advertised. Therefore I will be glad to agree to this
debate on the following conditions: namely, that in order to prove
that Mr. has something worth fighting for and worth debating
about, he will promise to bring with him to the Hall next Sunday
two people, whose qualifications I will give in a moment, as proof
that agnosticism is of real value in changing human lives and
building true character. First, he must promise to bring with him
one man who was for years what we commonly call a 'down-and-outer.'
I am not particular as to the exact nature of the sins that had
wrecked his life and made him an outcast from society whether a
drunkard, or a criminal of some kind, or a victim of any sensual
appetite but a man who for years was under the power of evil
habits from which he could not deliver himself, but who on some
occasion entered one of Mr.s meetings and heard his glorification
of agnosticism and his denunciations of the Bible and Christianity,
and whose heart and mind as he listened to such an address were so
deeply stirred that he went away from that meeting saying,
'Henceforth, I too am an agnostic!' and as a result of imbibing
that particular philosophy he found that a new power had come into
his life. The sins he once loved, now he hated, and righteousness
and goodness were henceforth the ideals of his life. He is now an
entirely new man, a credit to himself and an asset to society all
because he is an agnostic.
"Secondly, I would like Mr. to promise to bring with him one
woman and I think he may have more difficulty in finding the
woman than the man who was once a poor, wrecked, characterless
outcast, the slave of evil passions, and the victim of man's
corrupt living." As I spoke I was within perhaps a stone's throw of
San Francisco's infamous Barbary Coast, where so many young lives
have been shipwrecked; and so I added, "Perhaps one who had lived
for years in some evil resort on Pacific Street, or in some other
nearby hell-hole, utterly lost, ruined and wretched because of her
life of sin. But this woman also entered a hall where Mr. was
loudly proclaiming his agnosticism and ridiculing the message of
the Holy Scriptures. As she listened, hope was born in her heart,
and she said, 'This is just what I need to deliver me from the
slavery of sin!' She followed the teaching until she became an
intelligent agnostic or infidel. As a result, her whole being
revolted against the degradation of the life she had been living.
She fled from the den of iniquity where she had been held captive
so long; and today, rehabilitated, she has won her way back to an
honored position in society and is living a clean, virtuous, happy
life all because she is an agnostic.
"Now, Mr.," I exclaimed, "if you will promise to bring these two
people with you as examples of what agnosticism will do, I will
promise to meet you at the Hall at the hour appointed next Sunday,
and I will bring with me at the very least one hundred men and
women who for years lived in just such sinful degradation as I have
tried to depict, but who have been gloriously saved through
believing the message of the gospel which you ridicule. I will have
these men and women with me on the platform as witnesses to the
miraculous saving power of Jesus Christ, and as present-day proof
of the truth of the Bible."
Turning to the little Salvation Army captain, I said, "Captain,
have you any who could go with me to such a meeting?" She exclaimed
with enthusiasm, "We can give you forty at least, just from this
one corps, and we will give you a brass band to lead the
procession!"
"Fine!" I answered. "Now, Mr., I will have no difficulty in
picking up sixty others from various Missions, Gospel Halls, and
evangelical churches of the city, and if you promise faithfully to
bring two such exhibits as I have described, I will come marching
in at the head of such a procession, with the band playing 'Onward,
Christian Soldiers,' and I will be ready for the debate."
I think Mr. had quite a sense of humor, for he smiled rather
sardonically, waved his hand in a deprecating kind of way as much
as to say, "Nothing doing!" and edging through the crowd he left
the scene, while that great crowd clapped the Salvation Army and
the street-preacher to the echo, for they well knew that in all the
annals of unbelief no one ever heard of a philosophy of negation,
such as agnosticism, making bad men and women good, and they also
knew that this is what Christianity has been doing all down through
the centuries.
Our gospel proves itself by what it accomplishes, as redeemed
people from every walk of life, delivered from every type of sin,
prove the regenerating and keeping power of the Christ of whom the
Bible speaks."
Classic Ironside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That great man of
God.
