It is odd that there is one God, one Bible (at least there is to a Christian) but so many different beliefs.
All of us want to know that we follow God's Word but as I see it, the only way to assure that is to follow His written word. Then you get into the different interpretations by different religions. Very confusing for someone. I've finally given up on "religion" and just study scripture. I listen to different teachers and the more I study the easier it is to weed out false teaching, according to His word.
That may not be the best way to go about it but I feel it has opened my eyes and ears somewhat and if I continue to study perhaps more will be opened to me.
"For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." -- 1 Corinthians 11:19
Life is unfolding exactly as God wills. The good and the bad are all here for a reason. Our part is to do as you are doing, study the word of God with all "diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end" and to trust that by the leading of the Holy Spirit we will learn within those pages of our salvation by Jesus Christ, "by whose stripes we have been healed."
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." -- Romans 10:17 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." -- John 14:1 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." -- Romans 10:9"Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." -- Luke 11:28
Who believes and why?
"And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." -- Acts 13:48
"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." -- Philippians 2:13
Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do." -- 1 Thessalonians 5:4-11"But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.