This is an understandable assumption..and if the Bible were just a normal collection of books written by humans it would not be a surprise, however, God promised that He would preserve His Word and that is exactly what He has done!
For it has been long established with the findings of the dead sea scrolls and other ancient corroborative manuscripts that the Bible (quite miraculously) has been transmitted through history with an astounding 99.98% accuracy rate, WITH NO ESSENTIAL TENETS IN DOUBT!!
Furthermore, there is a standard by which all ancient books are tested today called Aristotle’s Dictum which states we must listen to the claims of any and all documents under analysis and not assume fraud or error unless the author(s) disqualify themselves by contradiction or error.
For example: The two earliest books about Alexander the Great were written more than 400 years after his death in 323BC yet historians consider them to be accurate.
The Gathas of Zoroaster in 1000BC are claimed to be accurate even though most weren’t written until 300 years after Jesus!
Even though we have the sayings of Mohammad in the Koran (570-632AD) his biography wasn’t written until more than a century after his death in 767!
Even though there is vastly more evidence for Jesus than all these and was written much earlier by the eyewitnesses themselves, most people do not want to apply Aristotle’s Dictum because they do not WANT The Bible to be true!
In fact, there have been found over 5000 partial and complete manuscripts of the Bible in Greek and 25,000+ in other languages..some dating to the 1st century no less (thusly destroying the baseless myth that the New Testament was written 120-500 years after Christs death!)
This is an embarrassingly high number of manuscripts in comparison to any other ancient document- some of which are incomplete and number only in the dozens to the hundreds.
As for contradictions- there are none. The fact that the Bible, although penned by 44 writers over 1800 years on 3 continents from Kings to peasants who never knew each other and have absolutely no conflict in ANY subject is a miracle in itself- try getting just 5 people TODAY agreeing completely about any given subject.
..indeed, the main reason that many say that there are contradictions is that they either have not read the Bible for themselves and attack because they do not WANT to believe- repeating the same errors that they heard from someone else who never read the Bible either and so on...or they simply do not understand.
The challenge to all skeptics is to point out just ONE "contradiction" that cannot be satisfactorily explained.
Besides the Bible is there any evidence?
There are quite a number of non-Biblical sources which confirm the main events written in scripture.
This is a list of a few of the non-Christian historians and writers who lived around the time of the writing of the New Testament that wrote about Jesus:
Thallus Tactitus Mara Bar Serapion Galerius Phlegon Suetonius The Jewish Talmud Josephus Galen Lucian Pliny the Younger Celsus Numenius.
Even if we didn’t have the Bible at all, from these secular sources we would have a basic outline which matches the Bible:
That Jesus was born at the time of Tiberius, that people saw Him perform miracles and believed that He was the Messiah, that He was put to death and dispite this people claimed to see Him afterwards alive and worshipped Him as God.
I highly recommend these books: 'The Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel 'Who moved the stone' by Frank Morison and 'New Evidence that demends a verdict' by Josh McDowell. If you cannot find or afford these books, this site is excellent: http://www.tektonics.org/index2.html
Jesus Christ said in John 14:6; "I am the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE, NO man comes to the Father but through ME.*" As truth cannot be relative, Jesus was either lying, or He was telling the truth- that decision is YOURS to make- but make it on the evidence, and not on what your friends and associates think..Perhaps you feel God calling to you now as you read this so please do not ignore Him- for your own sake make the decision while you are able...
10 out of 10 people die- noone but God knows WHEN..so forever is a long time to be wrong.
*[Therefore also beware of any organisation which make the claim of being "the truth" or the "one true church"- these kind of monopolistic statements make Christ a liar or at the very least incapable to save any INDIVIDUALS who come to Him for their salvation!]
"When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else--something it never entered your head to conceive -- comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it."
-C.S. Lewis 'Mere Christianity'
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To be saved..you need to make a genuine confession to God Himself..no priests or any other 'holy men' are needed. You must confess that you are a sinner and cannot save yourself and that you believe that Jesus did in fact die for your sins then came to life again..then ask Jesus into your heart to change you into the sort of person God wants you to be.
You need to be TRULY repentant, that is, genuinely willing to turn completely away from the life you used to live and allow yourself to be led by Jesus instead.
If you have done this, you are what the Bible describes as being "born-again" (John 3:3) you ARE saved.
You MAY not feel any different..but that doesn't matter- you have Gods promise now that you are saved.
You will still stumble on your path but God says "If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from ALL unrightousness."
You are now a child of God! So do not forget who you are now..and act like one..Read the Bible as often and as thoughtfully as you can- if you cannot understand something ask the Holy Spirit (whom now dwells in you) to reveal it.
It is recommended that you are baptised and attend a Bible believing church for fellowship and learning..but always compare what is being said with what the Bible says- for when it comes down to it- it is the Bible which is the final authority.
Don't forget to talk to God..use your own words as though you are talking to a friend sitting right next to you- because you are.
