Given that much of Christianity has decided to focus on other things than actually teaching Christianity, here is a condensed early Christian version of forgiveness.

Man has broken the laws of God (the ten commandments ect.) and so deserves death. God is perfectly just and so must punish those who do wrong.

However, God is also merciful and so he sent his son, Jesus, to die in the place of a guilty race of humans. Through his death, Jesus took upon himself the penalty for the wrongdoing of man. After taking this penalty upon himself, Jesus rose from the dead, proving his claims of divinity and his power over death itself.

The requirements for a human to receive divine forgiveness, for breaking the divine laws are, admit that they have broken the laws of God and be willing to turn away from their law breaking ways.

To believe in (put total faith in/put total trust in) Jesus as the son of God, the one who has power over life and death. This belief is expressed in words, however, it is also shown in a changed life.

Those who accept that Jesus, God the Son, paid the penalty of lawbreaking on their behalf will be spared the final judgement from God the Father upon mankind for breaking his laws (the ten commandments ect) and be granted entrance to Heaven.

Those humans who refuse to accept the payment for wrongdoing that Jesus made on their behalf will receive the just punishment they deserve for breaking the divine laws.

Really, this all rests on the resurrection, if Jesus actually rose from the dead, as is claimed, then the things he is recorded as saying, such as statements like, believe in me, follow me, no one comes to the Father except through me, I am the way, and so on, would make a whole lot of sense.

However, if Jesus did not actually rise from the dead, all these sayings would simply be the ravings of yet another religious fanatic. Note that this is a condensed overview of the traditional/Orthodox Christian belief. Over the years Churches (both Catholic and Protestant) have added all kinds of things to this but the earliest documents seem to indicate that this was the basic doctrine preached before A.D. 100 or so.

In fact, the earliest records of Christianity traced back at least to A.D. 50 show that they believed in the resurrection of Jesus and worshiped him as God. Someone may not believe what the early Christians believed, someone may argue that the early Christians were mistaken in their beliefs, but to say that very early Christians actually didn’t believe in the resurrection or that Jesus is God is far-fetched.

You see, I just saved you five years of watching televangelists.

You’re welcome.