In some ways, I'm amazed that anyone ever converts to the theology of church Christianity

Sometimes I find myself in a frame of mind in which I experience evangelical rhetoric as an outsider to Christianity - and then it strikes me, with greater and greater force each time, how extremely complicated, implausible, and indeed contradictory it all seems. It doesn't convince, and it just doesn't appeal. 

The classic service pre-Christmas of nine lessons and carols is probably the main way in which most non-Christians are exposed to the Christian message; but If one actually tries to make sense of the readings and put-them-together... Well, if they make any converting appeal to the alienated atheist in search of meaning and purpose - it is not clear to me. 

(I accept that the nine lessons services are not meant to convert atheists; but nonetheless, they are probably the only scripture and sermon to which most atheists get exposed in the course of a year.)  

And when Christianity is summarized briefly but in terms of its primary concepts; the philosophical explanation of what it's all about, seems to require all kinds of assumptions that aren't at all natural or obvious - or even good! 

Not obviously right, confusing and incoherent stuff, from my perspective, is:

That God (and then Jesus) are in practice mainly interested in judging us for our sins, and will inevitably find us deserving of punishment - probably horrible and everlasting punishment... 

Yet Jesus, as saviour, seems to be saving us from a situation that (by definition) has been entirely set-up by God. 

But God and Jesus are essentially the same - yet "the Jesus aspect of God" was somehow necessary for the work of salvation to happen. Apparently; God needed to become Man (while remaining God) in order to save us from a God-created situation...  

But that the fact this world is full of sinful people is not God's fault, despite that he created absolutely everything that exists - instead the universality of sin the fault of some combination of inherited original sin (hence the Genesis reading in the nine lessons) plus our own freely-chosen individual sins. 

It seems that, faced with the sinfulness of His Creation; God would - because of justice - condemn every single person to damnation - except that Jesus (who, by some selection or combination of his birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension) somehow negated this damnation* - on certain conditions (which conditions vary between different churches and denominations). 

(*Various theories are offered; maybe God punished or sacrificed Jesus instead of us; maybe Jesus experienced the totality of suffering that otherwise would have been experienced by us... there are various theories, none of which fit common sense ideals of good relationships or virtuous behaviour among people.) 

Most of being-a-Christian is about these conditions required for salvation: what we must do (and not do) to satisfy our judge/s, and avoid the punishments of Hell. 

But Jesus (for reasons which aren't clear) did all this is a two-phase process - beginning the work during his life as a Man some 2000 years ago, and ending the process at some future date when Jesus will (in some sense) return and finish the job.  

It is not terribly clear what we (and all humans of the past) are supposed to be doing in the meanwhile...

I can only suppose that all this business is utterly bewildering to most people (insofar as they take the slightest notice of it), and that it does not amount to something that one would obviously endorse as a way of setting-up and running things. 

I also think it is factually wrong in many important respects, and that reality is not really structured thus. 

But you all know what I think already. My main point here is to point out that - quite apart from whether the teachings are true - all this doesn't come across as anything like as self-evidently appealing as some Christians seem to think it is... 

(I know all this can be and is nuanced into other and more positive and appealing stuff by the many and complex abstractions of official theology... But Christians need to ask why it is that they are so utterly unable to explain their religion concisely and lucidly, what it "offers", what is its appeal, how it "works" - even when they have the attention of a captive audience.)