I grew up in the Episcopal Church. I went to catechism and was confirmed. I spent the majority of my young life being drilled into understanding and memorizing the fundamentals of christianity. My teachers were nuns until I actually started going to public schools, even then I went every Saturday and Sunday to christian fundamental schools.
A Bishop that I knew who had a Ph.D. in theology told me that there are really only two things that I must remember.
1) Man is burdened with just one sin, the sin of knowledge, known as original sin.
2) Salvation or redemption from this sin comes only through christ.

Then he explained.
In the beginning, god made man. He gave him all he needed. God and man had a covenant a union. Man broke that union by disobeying god by acquiring knowledge. Thus there was from that point no direct link to god. The solution came in the form of christ. God took human form and sacrificed himself to absolve man of sin. That absolution returned man to the union with god. The reward of that union is eternal life.

That is it. That is all there is to christianity. The bible is minutia and has no real relevance to the facts about christianity.
Deeds, praying, good works, other sins, or anything that concerns the mortal world has no relevance whatsoever. It is your immortal soul that christianity is based upon. Anything and everything you do doesn't matter. There is only one thing that you must do to receive eternal life, and that is to accept christ as your savior.
Now the religions of the world would have you to believe different. After all, they are a going concern, a business. They want you to believe that they are in control of salvation. Even the bible is of no consequence and doesn't matter. It is just a story an explanation, not a guide. The concepts of heaven and hell are imaginary even in the christian world. Eternal life is the only thing that is real in the basis of christianity.
Now I don't believe a word of it. But if I were still a christian I would really have a problem with what most if not all religions purport. Even the story of jesus just doesn't matter. The healing the preaching the mortal actions just don't matter. Only his death and resurrection/sacrafice matter.
You see christianity is really a blood cult. The blood of christ cleanses mankind of sin. Before jesus, jews made blood sacrifices to appease their god.
The sacrafice has to be of one without sin. Usually a lamb or a goat kid. Since in the eyes of christianity mankind was burdened with sin, god had to send one without sin to be sacrificed to spill blood to absolve sin. That is why jesus is described as "he who is without sin".