I'm limiting my discussion to Christianity for krupaclassy's sake, since that's where krupaclassy's coming from. You're right -- other religions would result in similar discussions.
In your case, you're not coming at it from this viewpoint. You already understand the simplicity of it (I think...!), so the allegory I used won't work.
Then again, maybe I've just over-complicated it, period. Perhaps there's a better way to explain it. (It can't really just be as simple as you've described, can it? *grin*)