A Christianity Primer (long)

[RJT]

D. S. from the thread “The Anguish of Semi-Believers”:

“This thread seems to be bringing a different kind of Christian out of the woodwork. They don't believe in an eternal hell and seem to think that just being good is enough to give you a nice shot at heaven.

You could almost say these folks are Jewish except that they believe Jesus showed up to get everybody back in line, but not much more than that.”



Ok, now we are be getting somewhere, kinda.

We can take out the “not much more than that” part out or we can leave it in.
My first reaction to this post was to quote George from Seinfeld, “That’s the genius of it”.

Instead, let me just highlight some key point of Christianity

Christianity is like mathematics. Math can be as simple as arithmetic or as complex as quantum physics. So, I guess one can say that quantum physics is not much more than arithmetic. (Now, 700+ ers - don’t’ get into whether this is true or not, I ended math after calculus and I still never figured out conceptually what sines and cosines were really about. So, the analogy might not hold exactly.)

Anyway, Christianity can be reduced to its simplest form (arithmetic) and we can say it boils down to 1 thing: Jesus’ central message: The Kingdom of God.

Basically, to participate in the Kingdom of God one must repent and do God’s will: one must love God and love one’s neighbor. That is pretty much it. Jesus reduced everything to these two rules. Now, of course, the complexities come in when you get into all the ethical/moral questions, etc. of what that means - cf. questions posed on this forum. ( As well as getting into details of what is in the Gospels/Bible and how details are interpreted, etc.)

The other complexities arise when we try to interpret what the Kingdom of God (I’ll abbreviate as KoG) means. But, is also is as simple as He said, "The Kingdom of God is at hand".

But, first a (very) brief history of the tradition of the KoG is necessary, (and this is where the Jewish folk point above becomes accurate, albeit, not the whole story):

- KoG arose from the Jewish belief in the Day of Yahweh. The day which God would execute judgment upon the nations who ruled the peoples of Israel. Israel would then become master of the world. The KoG was seen as an earthly kingdom.
- The prophet Amos expanded the notion to include Yahweh’s judgment upon the people of Israel themselves. Isaiah introduced the Messiah as the ruler of this future Kingdom. The Messiah would be born of the line of David.
- Daniel added that the Messiah would be the son of Man sent by God. (One can see here where the Jesus as God/Man “myth” (to non believers) starts to arise. To believers it is a progression of thought and prophecy. To believers it isn’t as silly as it sounds, but for this post and arguments sake beside the point, especially when we look at it “objectively“ from what comes next: the good part.)
- The Jewish perception of the KoG was basically a political understanding. Jesus was unique in His conception of the Kingdom. His was not a political Kingdom and was not limited to the House of Israel. He pictured a Divine community of love which is open to all men and women. In order to participate one must (simply) repent and do God’s will: one must love God and love one’s neighbor.

The next quantum theory part of Christianity comes in when we try to understand what exactly Jesus meant by the KoG.

There are at least four ways in which Jesus’ central message of the Kingdom can be interpreted.
1) As a future occurrence.
2) Already present.
3) It can be perceived as both already and not yet here.
4) As a non temporal arrival.

The study of the KoG has its own branch of “math” in theology called Eschatology. So, I’ll leave it as summarized here.

The basic thing to remember about KoG is that Jesus came and brought the message. Christians believe he is the Messiah and try to understand and live (for) that message. Jews are still waiting for the Messiah to bring a (The) “Message”.