What I mean is that once all the veneer and the strange twisted arguments and reasoning are stripped away is there a universal coherent message in the bible?
Love with compassion and justice (fairness) for all, along with a belief in God.
As simple as that sounds, the reality is that it ain't. This is the "narrow path" that Jesus talked about, and his Parable of the Sheep & Goats demonstrates this. IOW, it's easy to believe in some things
about Jesus but much more difficult to live
in what he taught, especially if we are not willing to put God and Jesus first and not take the attitude "Well, if it's convenient I'll follow".
It's like what a priest at my wife's church used to periodically say: "Joe thought he was going to heaven for what he did on Sunday, but he went to hell for what he did on Monday".