Have you come to believe that the Bible is the word of God, and decided that means you should become a Christian? Well, you’re on the right track with the first part (about the Bible), but before you take the plunge into the Christian religion, there are some things you should be aware of.
First things first, the Bible doesn’t say you should join the Christian religion at all (the word “Christians” was applied to those who believed the Gospel of the grace of God in times past, but it’s a label that appears to have been assigned to them by unbelievers rather than being our official title, which is actually “the body of Christ”). In fact, if you’re interested in holding to the doctrines of Scripture, you should avoid that religion altogether, because 99% of the doctrines taught by the leaders of the Christian religion are entirely contrary to what Scripture actually teaches.
I don’t have the time to get into all the details here, but Christians typically believe that anyone who doesn’t choose to become a Christian before they die or before Jesus returns will be punished without end in a place they call “hell.” And while ending up in a place referred to as “hell” is something that will happen to many people, according to the Bible (depending on the Bible version you use; more literal translations of Scripture from the original Hebrew and Greek use different words), if you interpret Scripture as a whole rather than just cherry-picking specific words out of certain “proof texts” the way most Christians do, you’ll discover that everyone will eventually experience at least one form of salvation (keeping in mind that there are various different types of salvation referred to in the Bible, and while not everyone experiences all of them, we’ll all experience at least one of them).
In addition, most Christians also believe that “hell” is an afterlife realm the dead go to, as is heaven, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the dead are quite unconscious. But don’t worry, it isn’t existence in an afterlife realm called heaven that we’re supposed to be looking forward to anyway. Instead, it’s resurrection in physical bodies we’re supposed to be looking forward to, and those in the body of Christ will be made immortal at the time the dead in Christ are resurrected (while everyone else will eventually be made immortal by the end of the ages).
There are a lot more things Christians get wrong about Scripture. In fact, as I said, they misinterpret about 99% of what Scripture actually teaches, so instead of becoming a Christian I’d suggest checking out this in-depth study on what the Bible actually teaches, and if God has decided to include you in the body of Christ, He’ll reveal the truth to you as you read it: Bible truths you won’t hear at church — Learn what Scripture really says about sex, hell, tithing, and much more
Or, if you want a quick summary of the Gospel of the grace of God and what it means first, read this: Good News