"Jesus is the true church and the one we are to follow and believe. As for what they believed back then, we have clear examples of how even some of those close to Jesus, had the sh...y end of the stick, ..."
I hope you are not referring to the Judas - the betrayer incident ?
You say Jesus' death and it's details were known and planned by God before the days of Adam.
Jesus was the Son of God, breathing God's Spirit.
Jesus carefully chose from among the multitude, 12 to be his closest disciples and receive direct teaching not intended or available for ordinary folk.
Those 12 saw and experienced the miracles and extraordinary things that Jesus performed.
Jesus knowingly and deliberately arranged to be where he would be easily accessible in order to fulfill the prophecies.
Despite this, you believe that at the last minute one of Jesus' most trusted disciples suddenly decided to betray his beloved Master for a few silver coins ... even knowing that Jesus had told them all what had to happen.
Doesn't that raise the slightest bit of "Mmm ... sounds suspicious, perhaps there's more to the story than meets the eye."
".....so your example or suggestion of considering others views who were less close to Jesus, is not a path I will head down."
None of the OT authors were close to Jesus, Paul was not close to Jesus nor Paul's pupils, yet you accept everything they write, even that which was specifically not addressed to you.
Seems to me you are already well down that path.
