The big picture I used to believe

What's the largest story, the biggest picture we live in?

In years gone by, the largest story, for me, was that God made everything, including people.  People messed it all up and God sent his son as a corrective to "fix" things.  

The correction or "fix" that he sent made it possible that people could possibly earn their way back to God by being a part of a local church.

All that people had to do was believe the right things about God, church, and baptism and do all the steps required before being baptized.  Those steps were to hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized.

The hearing meant that you heard the steps and did the steps.  There was more to it, but that was how it came across.

There were variations.  You could also hear the story about Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, etc and believe it.  You could repent from sin.  You could confess sin or that you believed the gospel.  

And at some point you were to be baptized.  And usually it needed to be done immediately for fear that the longer you wait, the more danger you are in of dying before being baptized.

And when you were baptized, you needed to have the right things said over you - "I now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, for the forgiveness of your sins."

Some people would go so far as to add "...and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit".  But some believed the Spirit was only received in the reading of the Bible, so not everyone said that.

Also, you needed to be sure that you were completely submerged all at the same time.  No body parts could remain un-wet or un-submerged.  For example, if your foot popped out of the water - do it again!

After you did all that, all you have to do till you die is actively NOT sin and if and when you do, ask God to forgive you so that God could send more forgiveness for each of those sins to keep you covered in an on-going, a la carte basis so that you don't fall away from God's grace and return to being in danger of going to hell.

Sin could be anything from the Bible that is actually listed as a sin, Old Testament or New Testament, but could also include anything someone thought was a sin and fit under some biblical category of sin.

A big part of not sinning included going to church every Sunday; and if you were a part of some churches, that also included Sunday nights AND Wednesday nights.  

And you had to do the "going to church" and participate in the right kind of worship service, following fairly straightforward and strict rules, otherwise you'd be sinning and in danger of hell.

Faithful attendance was/is required and "skipping church" was indeed a sin, unless you are/were genuinely sick.  No missing for Disney shows, sports participation, or a Super Bowl party.

Later, for some, that was amended to include Sunday night small groups.  For a time it was Sunday PM church and THEN small group afterward.  Later it was small groups are an okay replacement for it.

And that's pretty much the basics.  Keep that up until you die and then, when you go before God, you'll have all your life replayed on a giant screen for all of humanity to see and you'll be judged for your bad and blessed for your good.

If all the good and bad balanced out in your favor, you get to go to heaven.  If it's just barely balanced out, God's grace will nudge you over.  If it's too far out of balance, he'll let you go to hell.

And then, eternity begins and you spend all of it either in an eternal worship service, or in a catatonic like state of ecstasy, not knowing if anyone you love made it or not.  And some people had developed other versions of heaven including being able to do whatever you wanted to do for all eternity.

If you go to hell, you're in pain and suffering, burning alive, and very thirsty for all eternity.  And apparently while there, the devil and demons and such are torturing you the whole time - not also suffering alongside you.

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There are a few nuances and caveats here and there, but that's the basics of what I believed for a long time.

I'm fairly confident that a lot of people I know still believe that in some form, even up through today.

It took a long time, like over about three decades, to tease all that out and "deconstruct" it; rebuilding some of it, discarding other parts entirely.

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The other side or current situation, next time.

Grace and peace.