From a standard Christian perspective, corrupted people do exist and and God has given them over to their evil will. They may think that they’re beating God, but why all forget that He wins in the end.

It is true that Christian doctrine had been harshly manipulated, but that does not make the teachings of Jesus any less true. Christianity is about recognizing that Jesus is the redeemer, who died for our sins, and basicallylowed is common man into heaven if we believe in him.

Now, from a Gnostic perspective (one of many), the ‘god’ of the world we see (jehovah, Yahweh, whatever…) is the demiurge, the evil creator, who split from the real god, the ruler of heaven/the pleroma, and has appointed archons to rule over us in this material world,

The archons could be both physical or metaphysical, but in either case, the oppression you see in this world is being carried out by the archons on orders from the demiurge in order to maximize suffering, because that is what the demiurge feeds on.

Jesus, the idea of Jesus, the Messiah, is the savior because He showed us the way out, how to oppose the demiurge, how to live life according to the true ruler of heaven, that we may one day ascend into heaven ourselves.

We only have to believe in Him, follow Him, do as He commanded, to reach heaven on our day of judgement.