Not-That-Bright said:
Yea I get that, but I think ummm when people say 'central message' they're really saying 'the only important thing'.
Well, let's put it this way. Most Christians will accept the Nicene Creed as the litmus test for whether one is or isn't a "true" Christian.
It reads in modern English as follows:
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
So in essence, mainstream Christianity revolves around general theological precepts (Trinity, Creator God, etc.) and the deity, death and resurrection of Jesus. There is no mention of OT concepts in any depth, no mention of exact meaning of creation narratives.
Which I don't think is what the religion at least started out about.
Christianity DID start out of the alleged death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the whole point of the religion. The idea is that Jesus was a sacrifice for all mankind's sins--so he had to die, and that his resurrection proved his deity and also represented a victory over death which entailed eternal life for all his followers. Without the resurrection story, the Jesus religion was just one of many hero/messiah cults which existed in Palestine at the time.