Suppose you were asked to explain what Christians believe to a person with no background information at all. The person is a completely blank slate in regard to the Judeo-Christian worldview.
How would you start?
It's a question I've been mulling over. Here's my attempt:
Part 1: Theism
As we look around, we see that there are... things. There are stars, planets, trees, animals, humans ... all kinds of stuff. Add all the things up together you get the whole universe. But.... why does the universe exist, when everything - down to the last atom - could have not existed?
Exploring this question long enough leads to the conclusion that there must be something from which all contingent reality flows, and which grounds it in existence. This thing would be fundamentally unlike all the other things in the universe.
To make a comparison to a computer; a computer might have all kinds of files and programs on it. But if you ask how these things came into existence and why they are sustained in existence, you cannot answer the question by pointing to another file on the computer. You have to shift your gaze to the computer itself.
That's a bit like the paradigm shift we need to think properly about God. God isn't just another thing existing in reality. God is the essence of reality and existence itself.
Part 2: Creation
God does not have any needs or necessities, but God does have desires. One of those is to share existence with other beings out of pure, unselfish kindness. Thus, God created the material universe.
God also made an immaterial realm populated by spiritual beings as well. We call them angels. These angels reflected upon their own nature and came to a disagreement. That is; What is the purpose of being a rational creature?
Most of the angels pointed back to God and said, "That's our purpose. We're supposed to give glory to our creator and be happy with Him."
The other angels came to a different conclusion. They said, "No. The purpose of being a rational agent is to decide for yourself what is good for you. We're supposed to be radically autonomous." These angels fell away from communion with God. Despising Him, they became known as the demons.
God creates humanity in the material world as rational creatures distinct from the rest of the animal kingdom. The first two humans - represented in the Bible as Adam and Eve - start out in friendship with God and enjoy certain protections as a result.
One of the fallen angels temps the humans with the same proposition which divided the angels. These two humans fall as well. In doing so, they lose that communion with God and their human nature is warped too. Humanity is marked by the consequences of this fall.
Over the generations, the knowledge of God becomes obscured in polytheism and paganism.
Part 3: The Recovery Plan
Then, around 4000 years ago, God starts a recovery operation. He calls a man named Abram who lived in modern day Iraq and asks him to bring his family out to modern day Israel. He promises Abram two things:
1) Descendants who will dwell in the land.
2) That all the world would be blessed through his descendants.
The history of Abram's family proceeds and is a messy, morally complicated affair. They are eventually enslaved in Egypt. They escape. They return to modern day Israel. As they leave Egypt, God gives them a series of laws and rituals which form the ancient Jewish religion. It involves codes of behavior, means of governance, and sacrifices and offerings to atone for sins.
This continues for a long while. Meanwhile, these people (the Hebrews) people had been receiving promises that someday there was going to be an anointed leader whom God was going to send. And he was going to be the one through whom the promise originally made to Abraham - that his descendants would bless the world - would be fulfilled. They were given hints about what this anointed person would be like, what he'd do, what would happen to him, and even a time window of when he'd come.
There was also another thing the Hebrews were given hints about. Throughout the writings of ancient Judaism there was absolute insistence that there is one God. And yet, there were some subtle hints that there was something plural about God. It wasn't quite as simple as they may expect.
Part 4: The Godman
Fast forward to around 2BC. An angel comes to a young Jewish woman and says, "You know that anointed Messiah you've been waiting on? That's going to be your kid."
She replies, "Neat, but I'm a virgin and intend to stay that way. So how's that going to work?"
The angel replies, "God is going to do this miraculously."
Mary says, "Cool. I'm in."
Nine months later she gives birth to a baby boy whom she names Joshua. Or in Greek, Jesus.
Jesus, as it turns out, is not just an anointed savior, or prophet, or king. Turns out Jesus is, in fact, God. This recovery operation which began with Abraham has culminated with God himself becoming human.
Jesus leads an ordinary life until He is around 32 years old. Then He picks up and begins a teaching and healing ministry throughout Israel.
One of the things Jesus teaches is an explication of that business of God being one but also somehow plural. It turns out that God, while being one being, is three persons. How do we comprehend this? Let's start with some examples. A tree is a being, but is not a person. A human is a being, and is one person. God, it turns out, is a being who is three persons. We call this the Trinity. Jesus is the second person of this Trinity. The other two are called the Father and the Holy Spirit.
So Jesus spends three years teaching, doing miraculous healings, and gathering a following. Among these are His 12 closest followers, who are called the Apostles. Jesus says the He is founding a community which will one day be led and taught by the Apostles. The people in this community would later be called "Christians" and the community itself would be called the Church.
Part 5: Sacrifice
Meanwhile, rumors start to grow that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one. However, the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem are afraid. They believe that if Jesus is recognized as the Messiah, He would start a war with the Roman Empire. And then the Jewish people would all be killed.
So they decide to kill Jesus first.
What they didn't realize is that this was Jesus' plan all along. And I don't mean it was his plan for the past three years. It was his plan ever since the promises were made to Abraham. That plan is to allow Himself to be killed, and make of Himself the ultimate, atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of all sins, for all people, for all time.
So that's what happens. Jesus was crucified in 33AD and placed in a tomb. Then, about 48 hours later, on a Sunday morning, Jesus was suddenly not in His tomb. And He began appearing to His disciples and the Apostles. He hadn't just returned to ordinary life the way He was before. Rather, He was animated by supernatural and immortal power.
After 40 days of appearing sporadically to the Apostles and disciples, Jesus rose into Heaven and passed out of this plane of existence promising to one day return to wrap up this phase of human history.
In the meantime, the Apostles went to work fulfilling the task they had been promised leading and teaching the community of Jesus' disciples. That community, which we call the Catholic Church, exists to this day. And people are invited to enter into it, receive the forgiveness of sins, and the promise of renewed fellowship with God both in this life and the next.
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