I’ve actually spent much of my life thinking about this very thing–what should I believe and does it really matter?  As a result, I’ve explored the primrose path.  It seems right that the more doctrine I know and the closer I can get to predicting the coming of Jesus based on the beasts in Revelation as well as who the TRUE church is, the more spiritual I’d be–right?  Wrong!  Actually, the more convoluted my “understanding” became, the more I tried to prove my point and beliefs and the more I felt others had to come into alignment with them–or else, they could go to hell–at least they had in my mind.  I like this,

We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the ONE whom the Bible reveals (see John 5:39-40).  We are called to present liberty for the conscience of others, not to bring them liberty for their thoughts and opinions.  And if we ourselves are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into the same liberty–the liberty that comes from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ. . . . There is only one true liberty–the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience ENABLING us to do what is right.

Stand Fast in your liberty!  Galatians 5:1

My take-away, when I spend my time thinking on and communicating with Christ, I am free–liberated from the bondage of dos, don’ts and doctrines–because He is the one working in me.  But as soon as I begin to believe in certain “beliefs,” i.e. you have to do X,Y or Z to please God, or I have to be identified with a “true” church, for salvation, I’ve stepped out of Jesus and into the bondage of primroses.  Things that look and sound good but have no power to bring good into my life.   I’d like to end with Colossians 2:20-23 (Phillips translation because my other Bible is at my son’s house, but I like this anyway).

“So if, through your faith in Christ, you are dead to the principles of this world’s life, why, as if you were still part and parcel of this world-wide system, do you take the slightest notice of these purely human prohibitions–“Don’t touch this,” “Don’t taste that” and “Don’t handle the other”? “This”, “that” and “the other” will all pass away after use!  I know that these regulations look wise with their self-inspired efforts at worship, their policy of self-humbling, and their studied neglect of the body.  But in actual practice they do honor, not to God, but to man’s own pride.