Christianity basics

[Hotandbothereds]

I’m not a practicing Christian but I went to C of E primary school, regularly attended Sunday school with my grandparents as a child, so I feel like I know a lot of the Bible and always thought I had a good grasp of the religion.

But I feel like I’ve missed a huge piece of learning somewhere, can anyone explain?

I understand that in the Christian faith Jesus died to save our sins, but how? How is that connection made? How did his death make that happen?

And if he saved our sins then, do people who believe that consider themselves to be without sin?

I’m sorry if this sounds ridiculous, I genuinely feel like I somehow missed a huge important piece of learning here.

No, we don't consider ourselves to be without sin. Most of us, anyway.

We are 'saved' by faith through grace. Christians believe that Jesus was perfect, without sin, and that he gave up his life as a sacrifice, him for us. He died and went to Hell so that we don't have to. Christians believe that Jesus was the Christ and act upon that belief out of faith. 'Works' (good deeds) can't save us without the faith and without the grace which God bestows at His will. We repent of our sins (regularly!).

I say 'we'. I was brought up in Christianity and studied Theology. I make no claims to be accurate above.

I had a near-death experience which changed everything for me. The love of God is immeasurable, indescribable, and very real. It's going to be ok.

You're right to be confused, because presumably if God didn't want people to go to hell he could have just changed the rules rather than putting Jesus through that suffering. However I suppose if Jesus hadn't died his message wouldn't have spread around the world.

I consider myself a Christian but I don't think all the theology stuff makes sense at all. So I don't really believe in all the detail but I still get a sense of peace and belonging from my faith.

Do an Alpha course

Basics of christianity:

God and the bible are perfect so don’t question too much.
We are all born sinners and need to ask for forgiveness regularly.
Everyone that does not accept Christ as saviour will go to hell.
Gay sex is wrong and homosexual thoughts are all also sin.
Women generally less important than men and should submit / be silent in church

None of this works for me and these silly rules helped me realise it’s all a load of rubbish.

So if Jesus went to hell (I assume before being resurrected?) so we don’t have to, why do people still repent their sins?

If he’s done that for people who believe isn’t it already set that believers will go to heaven?

I still don’t understand the true connection between him dying and absolving sins, and why if people do understand/believe that they still repent their sins?

I’m not a practicing Christian, so I don’t think this is for me.

I’m more interested in peoples interpretations of the part I don’t feel has ever been explained to me.

CoE childhood here but I've never heard that Jesus went to hell after the Crucifixion??

Op there are differences in interpretation depending on which branch of Christianity you subscribe to. For example, the concept that we are saved by grace alone arose with the Protestant Reformation and the theologies which led to it, while Catholicism says that confession and good deeds are needed to ensure entry to Heaven.

I can't account for the trustworthiness of the website at all but this may provide you with a starting point for finding the answer to your question:

thechurchoftruth.org/jesus-did-not-die-for-your-sins/

It is a line in the Apostle's Creed. ‘He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead’

A few more:

www.gotquestions.org/your-sins-are-forgiven.html

www.openbible.info/topics/jesus_died_for_our_sins

www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christianity/jesus-did-not-die-on-the-cross-for-our-sins.aspx

www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/whydidjesusdie_1.shtml

@JulesCobb thank you

What @WarmWinterSun wrote is nothing like what most of the Christians I know believe.

"Sin" doesn't mean doing evil, it's the whole mess of how broken everything is, how difficult it is to get through life without accidentally or purposefully hurting ourselves or each other, and this tangled mess prevents us from encountering the divine. Ancient religions came up with a system of "pressing a reset button" on that and starting again afresh which included the sacrifice of an animal (ie part of ones wealth) as a symbol of repentance. When Christians talk about Jesus dying to save us it's because the early church understood his death as being a single permanent version of those sacrifices that was symbolically important enough to supersede the need for any further blood sacrifice. The good news is that Jesus was able to create a link between humanity and divinity that means that sin no longer has to get in the way, we are saved from being brought down by that tangle. Not that we don't ever do bad stuff, but that the path of forgiveness and grace help us to not be entangled by it in the same way.

Different Christians believe different things about stuff like hell and what is sinful and what isn't. Personally I believe that hell is empty and that love is love and that homosexual marrige should be celebrated and blessed in churches exactly the same as heterosexual ones. Almost all denominations of christianity now officially affirm that males and females are equal. but I know there's a huge spectrum of different opinions that different Christians believe on these topics so any statement about them that starts 'Christians believe' is poppycock.

@Hotandbothereds

An Alpha course is to help you understand about Christianity and explore your thoughts and knowledge and share it with others in a small group setting.

I am a Christian myself and I have friends who have done the course and become Christians but also I know a couple of people who have done the course and didn't become Christians.

But it would help you understand about it more.

I've never said that in the Creed.

Don't believe any of those. And only know a handful of people who might believe a couple of them.

"So if Jesus went to hell (I assume before being resurrected?) so we don’t have to, why do people still repent their sins?"

I think you are possibly confusing salvation and repentance.

Repentance is about turning from living a life of sin to living a life that is in accordance with God's revealed will, i.e. a godly life. Someone who is born again has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, but they still sin every day in thought, word and deed, hence the need to confess our sins to God daily. But for the born again Christian this daily confession of sin is not for the purpose of salvation, because once someone is saved they are always saved, but it is to "keep close accounts" with God, and to walk in close fellowship with Him.

The reason a born-again person needs to repent is because, although the inner man has been regenerated, the corrupt body is not regenerated, the battle with the flesh will continue until they receive a new, glorified body when Christ returns.

Repentance in itself does not save a person, but it is the outworking of the inward work of regeneration done by the Holy Ghost to the soul. I think, going by your question, you are maybe confusing Repentance as a means of salvation.

It is impossible to do anything to "work" your own salvation- Jesus paid it all. If you claim to have faith but your faith amounts to Jesus + (insert: works, prayers, kindness, even faith in itself, charity... the list is endless) your faith then is not resting in Christ, but in something other than Him and His finished work at Calvary. 'My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name, On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand'.

Either you believe He paid it all or He didn't.

I hope that helps but please ask if anything is unclear.

What if Jesus was not actually dead in the current medical terms as we understand, but instead just unconscious in the cave ?

Makes better sense him rising back alive, otherwise how can humans believe that a dead body can live again ?

Some schools of thought say that when Jesus died he went down to hell for three days so that all those who had died before him would have the chance to hear his message and believe.
Its alluded to in 1 Peter 4:6 'For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.'

No, the real basics of Christianity are in the original Nicene creed:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father. By whom all things were made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; He suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost.

Beyond that, Christianity has numerous different sects with differing beliefs, rituals and traditions. But the above basics, are the universal Christian beliefs.

Jesus wasn’t fully human to the early Christians. He was a demi-god. Half human through the Virgin Mary and half divine through God being his father.
You have to recall this religion converted peoples who had a long religious history of believing in immortal demi-gods.

its in the Apostles Creed

I believe in God,

the Father almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth,

and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried;

he descended into hell;

on the third day he rose again from the dead;

he ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;

from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and life everlasting. Amen.

That creed (and/or that line) isn't used by a number of Christian churches, for accuracy.

Very interesting discussion though. Thank you.

It is the Apostles Creed, not the Nicene Creed.

Ok. I've still never said it. So it's obviously not used in all Churches. I've also never (in 38 years) heard that Jesus spent 3 days in hell.