Tag Archives: Apologetics

Apologetics, Hip Hop, Music

Wish It Were True E.P

“Make good men wish it were true; then show them that it is”
Blaise Pascal, Pensées

We seem to go through life never fully satisfied with what this world has to offer. Things, achievements, power, sex–they all leave us wanting more in the end. The closest we get to satisfaction, and the thing which we really want above all else, is in true and loving relationships with other people. Those moments when we feel that connection, that sense of being truly known and yet truly loved, give us a sense of what life should feel like. And yet, even those things eventually come to an end. Again, we are left with the desire for more.

So is this desire just an evolutionary mistake? Is everything that we hope about life and the universe–that there are such things as love, justice, meaning and truth–really just an illusion? Or do those deep desires point us to a reality outside of ourselves, a personality beyond this universe?

Everything within us says that those feelings are not meaningless and that they do have an end. Wouldn’t it be strange if we felt thirst in a world with no water? Wouldn’t it be strange if I had within me an insatiable desire for relationship, if there were no infinite, all-loving being I was created to relate to?

We wish that it were true. But what if, instead of merely wishing, we actually came into contact with that being? What if he entered our reality and initiated a relationship with us? In this short project, Neuma wrestles with these questions and argues that not only can we wish, but we can know that it is true. We can meet Him. And once we do, our entire view of the world will is transformed.

Standard
Apologetics, Theology

“Your Sins Are Forgiven”

IMG_0111-0.JPG

Sometimes it seems crazy that Jesus would forgive someone else’s sins. It has often been pointed out that this only makes sense if he were God, since who has the right to do that? This is true. Yet, you might wonder why all sins are against God, when he is not the one that has been hurt by the words or actions committed.

But when you think about the nature of reality it makes perfect sense for all sins to ultimately be against God though they are also against others. Imagine you are at a large dinner with the people you generally know and do business with in life, but you also have a special guest, a king or president or honorable figure who sits near enough to hear your conversation and see whatever you might do.

Now imagine you verbally disrespect another guest, or break out into a fight with them, or steal some of their food, or ogle their wife. Your crime would certainly be against that person, but you would also be offending the honour of your esteemed guest. In fact the shock and reproach of doing those things in their presence would be much more than if they had not been there. It makes the real offence, the deepest most ugly offence, against them, not even against the person to whom it was consciously directed, even though their hurt remains. You have really, with your actions, proclaimed that the King’s presence demands no better behaviour from you. In other words, you don’t care what he thinks. Ultimately, you have tarnished his name and reputation and made him a mockery. To be forgiven, you would require not only the forgiveness of the particular person, but also of your guest. The more esteemed, the worse the offence.

This situation is easy to get our heads around. And yet this is a description of the reality that we live in. God is present and near us at every moment. The nature of the universe is wrapped up in the Trinity, the perfect, eternal community of love. When we violate that nature, we offend not only human persons, but the divine person. We are ultimately transgressing, not just some abstract law, but the law of his character from which the moral law comes.

Now Jesus’ words are seen in a new light. They are both astounding, as he is claiming to be the very fabric of that moral law, and compassionate, as he would be willing to excuse our rebellion in his presence.

Standard