History-Centric Dogma of Christianity

Mainstream Christianity has some essential, non-negotiable beliefs or dogma.  The dogma are centered on some crucial historical claims.  Dogma can be summarized in the form of three major claims.  The purpose of these claims, and their supporting arguments, is to convince the reader that Jesus is son of God and believing in Jesus as savior is the only means to salvation.

Claim 1:  Jesus died on the cross but was brought back to life by God.

The historical sequence of three claims is non-negotiable for mainstream Christians:

(1) Jesus was crucified.

(2) Jesus died on the cross.

(3) Jesu came back to life after dying on the cross.

An additional premise is:

(4) Only God can bring back someone from death to life.

The conclusion drawn from these four premises is that Jesus died on the cross but was brought back to life by God.

Christianity will be incomplete if the belief stops with this conclusion.  There is more to the Christian dogma.

Claim 2: God sent his son in human form as Jesus and subjected him to death by crucifixion as the ultimate human sacrifice to atone for Original Sin of humanity.

(1) Adam committed the original sin by eating the forbidden fruit.

(2) God cursed Adam and his successors (all of humanity, since Adam was the first human male) with Original Sin.  Original Sin separated humans from proximity to God and made humans mortals.

(3) sacrifices were made to atone for sins.  Size of the sacrifice to atone for a sin had to be commensurate with the sin.  Over time, Jews practiced all forms of sacrifice, including human sacrifice, but none were sufficient to atone for Original Sin.  

(4) God sent his son in human form as the ultimate sacrifice as payback to atone for the Original Sin.  Thus, death of Jesus was intended by God to be the ultimate sacrifice that was needed to free up humanity from Original Sin.

Claim 3: Belief in Jesus as savior is essential to claim the benefit of freedom from Original Sin and achieve eternal life in heaven in the proximity of God.

The centrality of the Christian faith is in the notion of salvation and belief in Jesus as the savior as the only means to achieving salvation.

Above claims are essential dogma for Christianity.  Following words of Paul to the Church of Corinth as shown in the Bible clarify this:

1 Corinthians 15:14-19 

And if Christ has never been raised, then the message we tell is worth nothing. And your faith is worth nothing. And we will also be guilty of lying about God, because we have told people about him, saying that he raised Christ from death. And if no one is raised from death, then God never raised Christ from death. If those who have died are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised from death, then your faith is for nothing; you are still guilty of your sins. And those in Christ who have already died are lost. If our hope in Christ is only for this life here on earth, then people should feel more sorry for us than for anyone else.

(B) Liberal Christianity is the fringes of Christian faith, remaining unclear about its level of commitment to historical claims.  Thus, liberal Christianity comes in flavors with different levels of commitment to above arguments, with some rejecting more claims than others.  Many youngsters are rejecting Christianity's historical claims.  Liberal Christianity's blurring helps attract such people back to the church.

(C) Be clear in your understanding that Nicene creed memorializes the essential, non-negotiable elements.  Nicene creed summarizes the essential history-centric elements for Christians.  Do not get distracted by non-essential history-centric aspects such as Moses parting the sea or the idea of creation in Genesis.

(D) Nicene creed is a dogma unsuitable for reconciling with science. Christians will try to convince you that forensic methods of analyzing history validate claims of Nicene creed.  They do not. 

(E) Christians shift focus to non-essential Christian theology and then constantly adjust theological claims to accommodate science.  Thus, theology adjusts itself to fit with the theory of evolution, with the theory of Big Bang, with relaxed absolute moral standards etc., Recognize that theology is merely a red-herring designed to convince you to accept the dogma.  Following Paul's words above, Christianity's real claim is the history-centric aspect of Nicene creed.