With the Reject Jesus fest approaching and the God machines about to start bombarding us with their invitations, it is a good time to see what Jesus actually was teaching.
I have noticed through the New Testament, and particularly the Gospels, that Jesus was preoccupied with setting man free. From what? Notice how many times he denounced the Scribes and Pharisees. Why? Because they were teaching people to obey every little letter of the Law, not the spirit. They would impose strict Sabbath requirements, denouncing the disciples for such offenses as picking grains of wheat and saving a fallen lamb on the Sabbath. They taught that one must give the tenth of minor spices, but they did not keep the essence of the Law (which was mercy).
Additionally, Jesus busted up a couple of scams that were going on in the temple. Both cases involved price gouging for animals for sacrifices. He ripped those in charge of these scams, dumping the money on the floor and driving the scammers out. Obviously, Jesus did not want people to give themselves into hardship for worship.
What did Jesus want? He was actually trying to teach the apostles to think for themselves. Back then, most of the people were peasants with little education and bicameral mentality (doing as they are told by voices inside their heads, in the most extreme cases). The religious leaders were trying to exploit this, by replacing the internal gods with external rules. Now, instead of listening to the voices in their heads, they were supposed to obey the leaders. This was harmful to progress, and Jesus wanted to remove this stumbling block. There were obstacles, however--the religious leaders were going to do all they could to keep hold of the flock, and the secular rulers did not want to lose blind obedience of the people.
Why the need for a God? As we know, the religious leaders set themselves up as absolute rulers, as did the political rulers. Jesus needed a way to get through to people, and so he used the God concept to transcend the authority of the religious leaders and Caeser. That would give them the tool needed to rise above being told what to do by others. And, he used Satan as the means to describe those that would force or trick people into blind obedience. As metaphors, they would help those people to think on their own, and lead them into freedom.
Along comes St Augustine. This religious leader is now trying to take God and abuse the whole concept to take advantage of people, re-enslaving them to this new God. As Jesus claimed to be God (which was part of the metaphor), the Trinity doctrine was born (yes, the Trinity is a Bible teaching when it is taken as is commonly). But, Jesus had to do that in order to get people to listen to him, so they could think themselves into independence, instead of listening to the leaders. The early Catholic church came along and abused the whole thing to gain power for themselves. They then forced their brand of Christianity onto people, starting and sustaining a Dark Ages.
Today, one sees all these religions and wonders why they are all different. There actually is only one truth, but none of the organized religions have it. And, since most people have been trained by the churches and Kingdumb Hells to misinterpret the Bible, most people lack it. The actual truth is that no one should ever be forced--they should be independent and free to look through as many independent sources as possible and make their own integrations. The Catholic church did not have that freedom of doing independent research--they held man in the Dark Ages for 1,000 years. The Watchtower Society does not have it--people are forced to believe whatever a group of old men in Brooklyn tell them. Protestant churches are closest, since most are offshoots of independent Bible research, but share the same flaws of not having the whole Bible and fully integrated honesty.
How to find the truth? I'm afraid you are going to have to do all the research independently and with independent sources. Look at the messages of Jesus, using independent thinking. You will find that Jesus himself wanted people to think on their own and not blindly follow others. Note how often Jesus bashed the leaders that stopped people from doing that, while exercising patience with those who were sinners. Cross reference as many of the scriptures and references as you wish--and look up secular sources as well. In doing so, you will yourself find out why all the religions are falling apart--people are finding that the truth may in fact be closer to atheism or antitheism!