Mysteries of the faith

At first glance, Christianity looks extremely illogical. There´s the incarnation of a transcendental god as man, the idea that such a god can be personal, the notion of the Trinity, the idea that the atonement of Christ is valid for everyone, including people who aren´t even born yet, and so on. These are all "mysteries of faith", at least to those brave enough to admit that you can´t prove any of them by sound derivations from philosophical first principles. But perhaps Christianity isn´t so illogical after all? Primitive Christianity, that is. The original meanings of the Christian ideas might not have been so strange.

Perhaps the earliest Christians accepted the old Israelite cosmology, where the Earth is a flat disk, the universe is very small, and "heaven" is a real place beyond the firmament (likewise, the kingdom of Satan is in the stratosphere). Then, it suddenly makes sense.

God isn´t an invisible transcendental spirit. (He certainly doesn´t seem so in the Old Testament.) God is actually a humanoid creature living in a concrete place called Heaven beyond the stars. (That is, relatively close.) He rides a chariot, and is surrounded by angelic creatures, who look like theriantropes. *This is how God is actually depicted in the Bible*, more specifically Ezekiel´s visions. Since God looks like a man, he created man in his image. And, I suppose, woman. This also explains how God could incarnate as a man. He really didn´t - that was his literal son, the Christ, who was born on Earth. But God himself could have incarnated on Earth, too. He seems to do so at several points in the Old Testament. Indeed, at one point, he shows himself as three men! Side up, side down, God is depicted as a human-like personal being in the Bible. He walks in the garden, talks to Adam and Eve, shows his back to Moses, appears full clad in shining armor to Joshua, and so on. Note also that God and his heavenly court fear that humans can "become like gods"! And what about the Tower of Babel? 

Which brings me to the fallen angels, who mated with human females. How was *that* possible? Presumably because God, the angels and humans are somehow related, they seem to belong to the same "genus", so to speak. How can the atonement of Christ on the cross work for everyone, including the dead and the unborn? First, all Christians affirm that the death of Christ on the cross was a "sin sacrifice" similar to those in the Jewish Temple. But this atonement was for Israel only. And Christ was originally seen as the Jewish Messiah. (Later, Gentiles could be "adopted", as it were, into the Jesus Movement.) The atonement works for the dead due to Christ´s "harrowing of Hell", not explicitly mentioned in the New Testament but implied at several points. This harrowing of hell was for Old Testament patriarchs only. 

How can it work for future generations? Answer: it doesn´t. The first generation of Christians believed it was also the last generation, and that Jesus would return during their lifetimes. So that problem didn´t even exist. In sum, there is no mystery to explain here. It´s all completely simple and logical *provided you accept ancient Israelite cosmology*. But if you don´t, then of course the whole thing gets more murky. And when Christianity spread, it presumably accepted a pagan cosmology, a more philosophical view of God, and so on. Today, there is also the theory of evolution. And a lot of faith mysteries...

There is one form of Christianity that has resurrected a modified version of the ancient Israelite cosmology. Yes, I´m referring to Mormonism. While the Mormons don´t deny the infinity of space and time (indeed, they explicitly affirm it), the only gods that matter are God the Father and Jesus Christ, who are gods of *this* Earth (or perhaps heliocentric solar system). Thus, Earth (while a globe) is nevertheless part and parcel of a kind of mini-version of the Israelite cosmology, inside the infinite space-time. God looks like a man, is the literal father of Jesus, and men can become gods, suggesting that God and man are the same genus. So, presumably, are the angels. The Earth is only 6,000 years old. God and his heavenly court reside at a concrete planet, the mysterious Kolob near the center of the universe. Originally, Mormon speculations even included claims that Jesus (the Son of God, remember?) was married (a polygamist, actually) and sired children!

Make of this what you wish.