All the questions you have are exactly the questions my spouse and I have. Matter of fact the first commandment in the Old Testament says have no other gods before me, yet Christianity tells you that you can't get to God unless you believe in jesus. Well that right there is heresy in my opinion because I only believe in God. And I can talk to God anytime and I don't have to go through anybody to talk to God. We were in a Bible study and anytime we brought up questions such as this, they got very defensive. So we finally just quit the Bible study altogether. This coming from a couple who got totally burned by their church, but continued in the faith.
All the questions you have are exactly the questions my spouse and I have. Matter of fact the first commandment in the Old Testament says have no other gods before me, yet Christianity tells you that you can't get to God unless you believe in jesus. Well that right there is heresy in my opinion because I only believe in God. And I can talk to God anytime and I don't have to go through anybody to talk to God. We were in a Bible study and anytime we brought up questions such as this, they got very defensive. So we finally just quit the Bible study altogether. This coming from a couple who got totally burned by their church, but continued in the faith.