I'm willing to lay this down as a rule: You have a problem if your church is teaching you that only your church is able to teach you. It is the practice of many false religions to claim exclusive authority over the Bible. "Believe this." "But the Bible tells me to believe this..." "Only our church can correctly interpret the Bible." But the Bible tells a very different story. Rather than giving exclusive rights to any church to interpret the Bible for you, the Bible actually sets itself up as a standard by which you can judge a church (Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:21). A church which claims exclusive authority to interpret the scriptures automatically fails this test.
All Christians have a student-teacher relationship with the Holy Spirit. Rather than a church taking the role of teacher, churches are more like student study groups. The Holy Spirit has written a "lesson plan" in the form of the scriptures, and believers gather together to study it. We are commanded to study it (2 Timothy 2:15), we are commanded to edify each other (Romans 14:19), but not even a student on the brink of graduation will hold as much authority over his peers as the head master.
All throughout the scriptures, there is one consistent message: We are taught by God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all shown to reveal things to us which, first of all, only they are able to do (see, for example, Matthew 16:17), and second of all is infallible. When God says something, nothing can override that.
But some might ask "if the Holy Spirit teaches us, why are there so many differing opinions?" Put simply, it's because while the Holy Spirit is the perfect teacher, we are not the perfect students. That's not to downplay His ability, of course. If He really put the effort in, we'd be as infallible as He is, just as God is completely able to stop us sinning, and on the other side of death or rapture, this will come to fruition. However, in His infinite wisdom, He has chosen to do neither on this side of the veil. He has chosen not to make us incorruptible or infallible. But that doesn't mean He hasn't given us everything we need while on earth. Both our sin and our errors are still our own.
Unfortunately, sin is one of the reasons for error. It's no secret that men twist the scriptures to suit their sinful desires. I can testify from experience that while I was still gay, I knew what the scriptures really said. I knew God did not approve of my lifestyle, I just twisted the scriptures to say He did. In His unsearchable mercies, God refused to let me stay like that, but during the time when my desire for sin was so much greater than my desire for Him, I did twist His word. So, one of the reasons we often differ isn't that His word is so ambiguous that we need a church to tell us what it means, but that even when we know what it means, we also know what we want it to mean, and that is what we profess.
Another reason is that we neglect our studies. It is often said that waiting for an answer to prayer while your Bible is closed is like waiting for someone to ring you while your phone is switched off. All student-teacher relationships require effort on both parts in order for the student to pass. The teacher can be the world's best at his/her job, it's no good if the student doesn't listen in class, revise, or generally do anything that says "I want an A+". One of the reasons I started this ministry is actually that I was severely lacking in my own studies. I can honestly say that it has helped. That's not to say I'm an A+ student now, of course. I doubt I'd even get a C+. But trying to get a post out on a regular basis requires me to study on a regular basis. That's far better than the occasional glance I was previously giving the Bible.
Linking to that is our assumption that we know everything. It's one thing to say "I'm not doing well because I don't often read my Bible", it's another thing to say "I've read the Bible, therefore I know everything". In the previous paragraph, I confessed to being a terrible student because I'd only given the occasional glance to the Bible. But at the same time, this ministry was started mere days after I'd finally read the Bible from cover to cover. I am therefore in a perfect position to say that reading is not the same as knowing. You can read the same book over and over again, and you'll always find new things you didn't catch. Each of you will probably remember a time when you've read a passage you're well familiar with, and yet this time around you noticed something different. Suddenly, you're hit with "I've never thought about it like that" or maybe even "I've been wrong this whole time...". The more you study, the more you learn, but it's actually a good idea to act like you learn less. Humility is a great shield against error.
A very common reason for error, and one that is pertinent to why I wrote this article, is that people have simply trusted someone else. Those who do not do the research for themselves will inevitably inherit the errors of those who do it for them. Parents pass on their errors to their children. Teachers pass on their errors to their students. Churches pass on their errors to their congregation. A question you need to ask yourself is whether or not you'd come to the same conclusion if you did not have these teachers? If I was not a Calvinist, would I interpret John 3:16 as only referring to the elect? If I was not an Evangelical, would I really interpret 2 Peter 3:8 as saying God could have created over millions of years? If I was not a Baptist, would I really interpret Psalm 12:6 as saying the KJV is the only true translation of the Bible? These are all serious interpretations that I've heard from people, but none of them flow naturally from the text, they are imposed on the text because of prior beliefs.
As Christians, we are students, and God is our teacher. That requires us to act like it. We ought to study hard, we ought to edify each other, we should never assume we know more than our teacher (this doesn't apply to earthly teachers though, as they can make errors, and James 3:1 tells us they'll be judged for them), we should never take the word of our fellow students over the word of our teacher. Be a good student, and your final grade will significantly improve.