The storyline of Christianity:
Mankind lost its way and strayed from God's righteous family, falling into sin, which brought death and misery; God made provisions to bring back faithful humans back to his family and ultimately either reward them with eternal life on earth or heaven [depending on your flavor]; for that purpose, his heavenly son became human, Jesus, miraculously being born of a faithful jew female; he became a role model of a pious life, taught mankind the way to live a godly life, and finally died a sacrificial death as ransom for our sins. God rose him from the dead, resurrecting him back into heavens, where he was crowned King of God's Kingdom, which will soon put an end to Satan's rule over mankind, and restoring mankind's perfect status for all eternity - amen!
------------------------
This is a wonderful storyline, one that's hard not to feel attracted to. We all yearn to see the end of injustices, we all ask where evil comes from and why does it exists, we all want to see better days, and who doesn't want to live forever young? Christianity provides an answer to those questions, or at least that's what we all used to think at some point.
The very sad reality is - it's just a really compelling story, but it doesn't adhere to reality. The historical Jesus, that man who walked the earth, that Jewish Rabbi whose interpretation of the law departed from that of the Pharisees and Saducees and attracted a devout following - his message was NOT what later generations of Christians made up about him. If the strain of followers [led by James, the Just] that adhered to his teachings more closely had won the theological war, Christianity would have never existed, and Jesus would have been yet another celebrated Rabbi of Judaism, and life would carry on undisturbed. Christianity, as we know it today, is based on an elaborate invention by the apostle Paul and his disciples, who took the original accounts about Jesus and shaped them into something that the Greek-Roman world could accept. (**)
The historical Jesus was never born to a virgin, never had a pre-human existence, was never the Son of God [unless in an adptionist kind of way, at best], his death never acquitted our sins, and he was never resurrected; quite possibly, like most male jews of his day and age, he was married; he never meant to form a new religion or break away from the Torah; his prophecies about a kingdom of God, to be established in Israel within the generation of his disciples, never materialized, thus making him a failed prophet.
THAT, my friend, is the truth about Christianity and Jesus and the Bible. A collection of man-made, highly adulterated and re-shaped, re-written, edited scriptures. I no longer subscribe that an all-powerful God would communicate with mankind through such a crooked book. I still want to believe that there is some kind of creative intelligence that drove the early stages of life, due to some evidence of design in certain features of life, but I find it hard to ever think again about God as a personal entity akin to a father who cares for us, his would-be children. Still, I don't find evidence that convinces me that God - if indeed exists - demands our worship or cares for our well-being.
Question is: Do you still want to remain a Christian in spite of Jesus' historical truths? That's your option. I see value in Christian ethics, but I'm at a loss as to why should I belong to any organized Christian religion (or any other, for that matter) because faith in Jesus dictates my salvation. I can never go back to that way of thinking. I've lost my faith. But I haven't lost my hope.
(**) On this subject, I strongly recommend that you read James Tabor's book Paul and Jesus - How the Apostle Transformed Christianity.
Eden
