by A. W. Tozer
About 300 B.C. a Greek king named Pyrrhus fought a battle with the Romans at Heraclea. Pyrrhus won the battle but in doing so he suffered such appalling losses as to more than offset his gains.
Thus a victory that costs too much is often called a Pyrrhic victory.
A news item from the Associated Press a short time ago brought to mind King Pyrrhus and his too-expensive military triumph. The item had to do with the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism which, with its sister organizations, the Freethinkers of America and the National Liberty League, rode high and mighty in the 1920s and '30s. Together they had scores of branches or chapters in the United States. Militant atheists and agnostics lectured each week to hundreds of persons who paid to get in. Smith and his atheists were headline news. Clubs known as "Damned Souls" were not uncommon on the various college campuses throughout the country. God, the Church and the Bible were under constant attack by the all-conquering army of the godless. That was, say, twenty five years ago.
Well, it seems that an AP religious writer the other day got to wondering what had happened to all the anti-God shouting and arm swinging of yesterday and set out to investigate. He hunted up the aging Charles Smith (now seventy nine) and asked him how come? Where was everybody? And what had happened to the triumphant army of atheism? His answers are significant.
First, the anti-religion organizations have shrunk away to a shadow. No one will pay any more to hear an atheist talk and only a ragged handful will come to hear him, free for nothing. The oldest and most famous of the anti-God magazines is down to a mere 2,000 circulation. The tumult and the shouting have died and the few professional atheists and agnostics yet remaining cannot work up enough mad to attack anybody even if they could find anyone to attack. Christianity has won! The church has scored a victory over those "blatant infidels" against whom I used to hear the preachers declaim a few years ago.
Maybe so. But let's not declare a holiday just yet to celebrate our triumph. It could be a Pyrrhic victory.
Mr. Smith believes that true intellectual atheism is stronger than ever and he explains his apparent defeat in a way that should make every serious Christian squirm. Even granting that Smith is on the defensive and his explanation may need a bit of discounting, there is truth enough in his words to drive us to our knees in penitence and shame.
The reason organized atheism has petered out in recent years, says President Smith, is that there is no longer any sharp battle line drawn between the doctrines of atheism and those of the church. The preaching that once angered the atheists and brought them charging out against God and the Bible has pretty much disappeared. Hell fire, miracles, the necessity that men please Almighty God, are no longer a serious part of current Christian teaching. Christianity has been watered down until it is little more than "cheer 'em up stuff," as Smith calls it. Instead of trying to please God, Christians now try to please their fellow men. The kind of Christianity that is being propagated now is not radical enough to rouse an atheist to want to "free" people from it. This new sort of religion, says the old atheist, is "not so bad." Religion is now taking a more rational position and is less offensive to atheists, and the churches are little more than social centers.
So says the old AAAA president, and if that doesn't hurt enough he adds these terrible, stinging words: "Some of them," he says, referring to Christians, "are nearly as good as atheists."
For years I have watched misled Christians in their unholy effort to make friends with the enemy and to render the cross socially acceptable. A few prophets have written and preached against this outrageous sellout, but their words have gone unheeded. The leadership of the popular Christian movements has been and still is in the hands of persons who are blind to the meaning of the cross. That darkness and light cannot mingle never so much as occurs to them. They are busily engaged copying the world and trying to be like it as far as they dare. To be a Christian one need only "accept" Christ. That brings "peace of mind" and assurance of heaven. After that the cross has no meaning and Christ no authority. Compromise and collaboration are now the distinguishing marks of religion. To be relaxed and well adjusted to society is more important that to keep the commandments of Christ. The fawning, ingratiating spirit is the modern badge of saintliness. Between the world and the Christian there is no longer any great difference. And that not by accident. They planned it that way.
Yes, we have won a victory over the atheists. They no longer cause us any trouble. But subsequent developments will show that our triumph has cost us too much. It is a Pyrrhic victory.
( The Size of the Soul, Chapter 22 )
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