Apologetics
You enter the large auditorium nervously. Thousands of people are already inside milling about. Down in front there is a massive TV screen. As you look for an empty seat a picture of a beautiful castle scene appears on the screen. You notice that some of the colors don’t make sense: one of the fields in the foreground is purple, the moat on the left side of the drawbridge is white, like milk, but on the other side of the drawbridge it’s kind of a brick color. There are people in the picture doing various things that also don’t seem to make a lot of sense – like a knight in green armor mounted on a lion.
As you are looking at it trying to figure it out a booming voice comes over the PA system and announces, “This picture is an optical illusion. There is a picture of a king hidden inside this picture somewhere – see if you can find him.” Everyone in the auditorium begins to murmur quietly as they all stare up at the picture. You start scanning every inch of the picture trying to find a king. After a couple of minutes the picture fades and the screen goes blank. People are looking around puzzled whispering and asking if anyone saw the king. You notice everyone is shaking their heads. After a couple of minutes of this the picture reappears so you start looking again even harder. There’s a man in the picture on his hands and knees over near the purple field. He has kind of a funny looking hat on. You think to yourself, “That hat might be a crown, maybe he’s the king. But he’s not really dressed like a king and a king probably wouldn’t be on his hands and knees.” After a few minutes the picture disappears again, and a few minutes later it reappears. This appearing for a couple minutes and disappearing for a couple minutes continues.
By now several hours have passed. The auditorium is quite a bit louder now as people are talking, laughing and joking with each other. You look around and notice that when the picture reappears a few people stop and look up at it – searching, but most of the people now seem to have lost interest in it. They don’t even notice it as it appears and disappears. Then you hear someone behind you say to someone else, “There’s no king hidden in that picture.” You begin to wonder if maybe they’re right: do they know something you don’t know? The person next to you shows you a youtube video on his phone about a car wreck and you begin a conversation with him. Pretty soon both of you have also forgotten about the picture that continues to appear and disappear on the big screen in front.
Out of the corner of your eye you notice the picture has reappeared again while you’re discussing the ultimate keg party with your new friends. From across the auditorium you hear a woman excitedly yell out, “I see him! I see the king! Amazing! That is sooo cool!” You and you’re your new friends stop and look up at the screen expecting to see something different, but it’s the same picture of the castle. One of your friends smirks and says, “What an idiot, I guess if you stare at anything long enough you’re bound to start seeing things.” Everyone in your little group laughs and goes back to discussing other things. But now your curiosity has been peaked again. Is there really a king hidden in that picture? You go back to staring at it again trying to see if you missed something but your focus is soon broken with one of your friends tapping you and saying, “Hey, hey, what do you think - huh?” “Oh, sorry” you say, “What were you asking? I was distracted for a second.”
Pretty soon someone else yells out that they can see the king - then another person – and another person. Now you’re starting to get a little frustrated. You notice that whenever someone yells out that they’ve seen him, most of the people in the auditorium don’t look up at the screen: instead they look at the person who yelled, shaking their heads with a look of pity or disgust on their face. You hear people around you muttering and whispering comments to each other like, “It’s just the power of suggestion. Those people are morons. They were told there is a hidden king so they actually believe they can see a king.” Most of the people now are not only ignoring the picture but they also ignore the occasional person who yells out that they can see the king. The fact that the overwhelming majority don’t see a king and aren’t even looking for one, while only a very few isolated people scattered around claim to see him, indicates to you that it makes more sense to believe there probably isn’t a king hidden in the picture. It’s simple math – there are more, by far, who believe there’s no king than those who do.
The picture reappears and as you casually glance up for no reason – there he is, as plain as day. You can see the king. It’s not that he’s in the picture – he is the picture. It’s as though a light went on in your head and he suddenly just materialized. You’re absolutely amazed that you couldn’t see him before: he’s so blatantly obvious and he’s been right there in front of you all along. You don’t see a picture of a castle anymore - now when you look all you can see is a picture of a huge king, front and center, and the castle is simply part of the background. Things that you thought were parts of the castle picture before you now realize were actually the picture of the king. And now all the colors make perfect sense. It’s not a purple field in the foreground – it is part of the king’s robe. Whereas before you had to really focus to try and see a king, now you have to really focus to see the picture of the castle you used to see: but it’s still there. There’s no denying it’s the same picture.
In your excitement you involuntarily yell out “I see him!” Your friends stop talking and just stare at you with their mouths open. You turn to them and say, “This is so cool. Can you see the king yet?” Their reaction catches you a little off guard. They all start laughing, looking at you like you are a freak and in a tone dripping with sarcasm they say, “Uh, yeah, sure, we see the king… and big foot… and Mickey Mouse.” They all start moving away, laughing under their breath and making circular gestures around their ear with their index finger. You can’t believe it. Those were your “friends” two minutes ago. Where did that hostility come from?
A thought flashes through your mind and hits you like a punch in the stomach. Are you seeing things? Is it really just the power of suggestion and you’ve lost your mind? You immediately start looking around to find some of the other people who have said they see him, but you can’t remember who they were. You weren’t really paying that close of attention. When the picture reappears you stop and stare at it, but you’re not staring to search for something now, you’re staring in amazement. It’s the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen. You begin walking around the auditorium hoping to find someone else who has seen it. At the same time, you want to explain it to others and help them see it the way you do now. This is just too amazing to keep to yourself. All of those people who have given up looking have no idea what they’re missing.
You walk past a group of people seated in one area and they’re all listening intently to a man who is excitedly explaining something to them as he keeps pointing to the screen. Awesome you think, this guy has seen the king hidden in the picture and he’s trying to help those others to see him. As you join the group the man is pointing to the screen and you hear him say, “Now does everyone see that green knight riding on the lion down there in the bottom left corner? That knight is the king that everyone is talking about.” The rest of the group is looking at the screen nodding, although some of them look a little uncertain. The man is continuing on with a well thought explanation as to why the green knight on the lion is actually the king. Wanting to be helpful you politely interrupt and say, “Excuse me, I don’t mean to be rude but that knight is not the king. The king is actually most of the whole picture. It’s not really a castle, it’s an optical illusion. See, that tower on the left, if you just look at…” The self-appointed leader of the group angrily cuts you off and snorts, “You are free to see whatever king you want to see, but don’t try to push your ideas or opinions on us.” As you look around everyone in the group is giving you an angry stare, so you slowly start to walk away. A few rows away you run into another small group of people and the self-appointed leader in this group is explaining that a dog shown running near the entrance of the castle is actually named King, and that is the “King” everyone is looking for. You look at the picture and see the small dog by the entrance. “How in the world could anyone come to the conclusion that the dog’s name is King?” You ask the leader, “Did you say the dog is named King?” The leader glares at you and says sharply, “Yes!” You glance around and notice everyone in this group is also glaring at you, almost daring you to question the integrity of their fearless leader.” “Never mind” you say, not wanting to get into an argument, and again walk away. You look back up at the screen and wonder, “How can anyone not see it?” But then you remember that for the longest time you yourself couldn’t see it either.
As you continue to walk around you see a lady explaining to one group that if they hold their heads sideways and squint they will notice that the castle looks like a big guitar. “Elvis Presley played the guitar and as you know, Elvis was referred to as ‘The King”, therefore…” You don’t even stop – you just shake your head and keep walking.
In another section of the auditorium a man seated and there is a large pile of money on the seat next to him. There is a line of people that extends up the aisle almost to the back of the auditorium. The man in the seat is charging people ten dollars each to tell them the “secret” to seeing the king. As one lady he was talking to walks away and the next person in line hands him their ten dollars, you approach that lady and ask, “So what’s the secret?” She looks to the left, then to the right and motions you to come closer, then whispers “The king is just a metaphor. Do you notice that the picture is rectangular? Paper money is also rectangular, right? And that’s the secret. The “king” is money - money is the king. Once we can accept that concept we will unlock the secret and we too will have piles of money just like that man does.” You stare at her in disbelief and before you can stop yourself you say, “You don’t seriously believe that do you?” Like the rest, this lady instantly becomes angry and says “Look at all the money that man has next to him. If that doesn’t prove to you that he’s telling the truth then I guess there’s just no hope for you” and she storms off in a huff.
A well dressed man in a suit is making his way through the crowd handing pieces of paper to everyone. As he walks by, he hands one to you and you read it:
“Hello, I am the smartest person in this auditorium. I have all kinds of diplomas and degrees and I’ve spent my entire life in a classroom. I’ve studied that picture more intensely than anyone else and I have it all figured out. There is positively no hidden king in that picture, I guarantee it. If there was, I would have been the first to see it because I’m the smartest person here. It’s a trick. Don’t be stupid and fall for it.
Signed,
Dr. I.M. Ajeenius.”
Finally in the back of the auditorium you come across the largest group yet. There are hundreds of people standing there – smiling - listening to a little skinny guy with the biggest smile of all. In a creepy soft effeminate voice the little smiley man says, “The king is whatever or whoever you want him to be: you’re in control. If you want the green knight on the lion to be your king, then that’s who your king is. If you want the lion he’s on to be king, then that’s who your king is. For some, the dog is named king and that’s okay. For others there’s another king, and they’re okay as well. The important thing is not that one king is more important than another king: the important thing is that we all just keep smiling and try not to offend anyone.” You notice that a couple of people from the green knight group have wandered over to this guy’s group, and a few people from the dog named King group, and a few from the Elvis group. You think to yourself “Apparently smiling like an idiot and not being offensive is a popular concept.”
As you walk around the auditorium you notice that occasionally someone in one group or another will suddenly shout, “Hey, wait a minute, I see the king! There really is a king.” These folks are immediately met with the same reaction you received from your friends. They spend a few minutes trying to point the king out to others in the group, but eventually the angry stares and ridicule get the best of them and they begin walking around the auditorium by themselves like you, trying to find their group.
Then a person next to you excitedly yells out, “WOW! I see the king. That is amazing!” You sigh and half-heartedly ask a little skeptically, “So what does your king look like?” Expecting them to say, “The drawbridge is the king” or “The king is actually a queen” or some other nonsense. They then proceed to excitedly describe their king to you saying, “That tower on the left there, that is actually his scepter, and those flags over the drawbridge are part of his crown, that big window on the main building is his eye. He’s looking down and slightly to the right so that’s why you can only see one eye. And if you look down at the bottom near that clump of trees you can see he has his left foot propped up on a trunk or a stool or something. That purple field is not a field at all, it’s actually his robe.” As you listen you’re looking up at the picture on the screen and you can hardly believe your ears. You realize this person is describing the same exact king you see, right down to the smallest detail. That same wave of excitement you felt when you first saw the king washes over you again as you realize - you’re not crazy: you’re not just seeing things. As others yell out you make your way over to them and your excitement increases with every new person you hear describing the same king that you see.
Suddenly the voice booms over the PA system again and asks, “With a show of hands, how many of you have seen the hidden king in the picture?” You raise your hand and look around the auditorium. Most of the people have their hands raised as well. The people in all those various groups, with all those various ideas about who or what the king is, all have their hands raised and they’re all nodding approvingly at the other members of their respective groups, convinced the king they see is the one the voice on the PA is referring to. The large group of smiling people in the back seems to be a little hesitant to raise their hands. They’re torn between raising their hands to indicate that they think they see a king… maybe, and possibly offending those who can’t or don’t want to see a king. So they are a little timid with the hand raising, but what they lack in confidence they make up for in grinning.
The voice in the PA continues, “I just want to make sure everyone understands that there is only one king hidden in this picture.” All the members of the various groups glance at each other with a wink and a nod – they understand. The PA voice says, “when you see the king you will know it. There will be no mistaking him - you won’t have to guess.”
Dr. Ajeenius looks annoyed. He rolls his eyes, shakes his head and smirks as he continues to pass out his notes. He too now has his own little following of “smartest person in the room” types scowling their way around the auditorium on their mission to convince everyone that there is no hidden king in the picture.
And finally the voice on the PA announces, “In a little while all the lights in the auditorium are going to go out. When they come back on there will no longer be a picture of a castle with a hidden king – it will be real. But only those of you who can see the hidden king in this picture will be left when the lights come back on. There’s not much time. Study the picture. Focus. Find the hidden king inside it.”
You look around. Most of the people in the auditorium are still not paying any attention to the picture as it appears and disappears. Those in the various groups seem content to believe they have seen the king so they have nothing to worry about. The “smartest-person-in-the-room” crowd only seems to be concerned with convincing as many people as possible that there is no king. It’s as though the truth of their claim is dependent upon how many people they can get to believe it, and not on whether or not there really is in fact a king hidden in the picture. As you look around you’re aware that you don’t know everyone in the auditorium, but you do know quite a few people. You also are aware that the people you know personally are scattered among every group there. Everyone knows the lights are going to go out soon, but no one is sure what happens after that. A few believe the lights will go out and that will be it. Most believe the lights will go out and then come back on. They aren’t sure what it will be like when the lights come back on, but they’re pretty certain they will be there to find out.
All you know is that the voice over the PA system said there was a king hidden in the picture and that the king was unmistakable. Once you saw the king it became clear that the voice was telling the truth. In fact, after walking around the auditorium all this time it’s become pretty obvious that the voice on the PA system is the only one telling the truth. And that voice said when the lights come back on, only those who can see the unmistakable king hidden in the picture will be left. You have all kinds of reasons to doubt everyone else you’ve talked to – but you have no reason to doubt the voice on the PA – and that frightens you. No one in the auditorium could force you to see the king: you had to see him for yourself. Likewise, you can’t force anyone else to see him. All you can do is ask them to look for him – and hope they take your advice.
The End
KEY
• The picture of the castle is reality, or the world. Every single person in the auditorium sees the same picture. There are some parts to the picture (the world) that don’t seem to make sense.
• The hidden king is Jesus: (God)
• The voice on the PA is God.
• The PA system is the bible: What God uses to make His voice heard.
• The different groups can represent all world religions or merely different Christian denominations: it works either way.
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