My People Are Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge

Scripture says that everyone will be deceived except for the elect. Since there is only one Creator then we have to ask ourselves, why is there more than one religion. I was raised as a Christian but even in Christianity there are thousands of various doctrines. I believe that by the process of elimination we need to narrow it down so that we can identified what it takes to be accounted as righteous by the Most High Creator. I have studied scripture for about 16 years now and I do not believe we can take the preachers word for it. We must do our own study to show ourselves approved.