Christianity can seem like a confusing jumble of conflicting doctrines, rituals, and traditions. To understand Christianity, it can be helpful to take a look at the sequence of events in world history to see the basic framework of ideas that define what Christianity is.

Eternity past

1. An eternally existent God that is all powerful and is a person.

2. An act of creation responsible for the existence of heaven, earth, angels, and people.

3. An act of rebellion where the chief angel and 1/3 of the others broke away from God.

4. An act of deception where the chief "fallen" angel tricks humans to sin.

5. A period of human debauchery and sin ending with a worldwide flood.

6. The saving of eight people in an ark from the worldwide flood.

7. A period of human collectivization leading up to an act of rebellion at the Tower of Babel.

8. The intervention of God to make different languages to restrict mankind's collective efforts and to force people to spread over the earth.

9. The establishment of a nation to be the people to be a receptacle for the knowledge of God.3

10. The rebellion of the selected nation against God.

11. The arrival of God in the person of Jesus to call the nation to repent of sin.

12. The rejection of the nation of God.

13. The opening up to all people of the opportunity to return to God through faith in Jesus.

14. Present day

15. The falling away of many Christians from their faith.

16. The instantaneous removal of Christians from the world.

17. A combination of war, disease, and famine that starts with the destruction of 25% of the people left on earth and then gets real bad. This period lasts seven years.

18. The return of Jesus to judge those left alive.

19. The rule of Jesus on earth for 1,000 years.

20. One last rebellion.

21. A final judgment of the living and the dead.

Eternity future

This outline naturally raises many questions. Since this is just an introductory outline, we will focus on why Jesus died for sins.

God could have chosen to make all people and angels do exactly what He wanted. However, this would be a creation of essentially robots and God had a purpose of fellowship with His creation that one cannot have with a robot. God chose to give us real free will. By giving us free will, God made us in His own image. There is a risk in such a choice. The risk is that once given free will, the creature will chose to rebel against the creator.

This creates a dilemma. What can be done to rescue creatures who have so "fouled their nest" as to even be ignorant that they have been created? God is love and would like us all to be with Him forever. However, God is also just and cannot ignore sin and rebellion. The solution was for God to take on the penalty for all sin of all people of all time. This is what Jesus did on the cross. While crucifixion is a painful death, the real pain came from bearing the sins of everyone.

This plan to be able to rescue people was made before the world was created. It is the only way to create people with real free will and still be able to save them from the terrible consequences of their rebellion and sin. However, there is still a step necessary to complete redemption. A person has to trust in the work of Jesus that was done for him. The forgiveness of sins is a gift offered to anyone who will take it. Not many are interested.

It is when we trust in Jesus that something called a "new birth" takes place. We are joined spiritually with Jesus. He becomes present in our lives (assuming we are not so self-preoccupied that we quench any perception of Him). It is through this connection that we can be free from the compelling tendency we have to keep on sinning. Our connection with Jesus in this life is only a sample of the life we will have throughout eternity. It is by this connection that we can be pulled out of this world to be with Jesus when we die. Our personal connection to Jesus is a sort of lifeline.