So many aspects of Christian theology seem to take it for granted that Jesus made a better world. That the world after Jesus was better than the world before Jesus.
If this was truly so, then the world should have undergone a very obvious transformation in or around 33AD.
One would expect massive disagreement as to why this had happened, and even disagreement about whether or not this massive change had been for the better or worse. But that this had happened - that the world (indeed the universe) had been transformed at this time would - presumably - have been so obvious as to require no argument.
Yet that is not the case. Nobody seriously argues that the world underwent an unique and qualitative change around AD33.
I regard this as a powerful argument against this-worldly interpretations of Christianity - and this-worldly interpretations of Christianity were those that I nearly always came across when I was an atheist.
On the other hand, if we take Jesus as his own word in the Fourth Gospel; then his work was not about this world, but the next world: not so much about what happens in life, but instead mostly about what happens after death.
Therefore it is unsurprising if the world did not change in any obvious way during or after the ministry and death of Jesus.
I put this forward as an instance of the way in which Christians need to be careful, much more careful than they generally have been, about how they describe the faith, and the aspects that they emphasise. To advocate Christianity as a means to the end of a better life or a better world, seems like a good idea in the short term - but it is fundamentally false and alien to reality. And, sooner or later, this tactic will - and rightly - discredit Christianity.
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