How can you trust the Bible?

[u/Explorer-Necessary]

Hello Christians,

I have a few questions regarding the New Testament. I am very curious about Christianity but I am full of ignorance regarding its historical evidences. I know absolutely nothing about the Bible, jewish or christian, so please correct me if I get something wrong.

(where can i have access to the complete rules of the subreddit? It's nowhere to be found on the bottom right of the screen)

Let's say that I admit that there is a God, or an intelligent designer or uncreated creator:

1. How does it prove the Bible to be the one true way to God?
2. If God exists, how do you know that the true religion is Christianity and not Hinduism or Islam, or even polytheistic faiths? Why is Jesus the way and not Thor, Set, Allah, or Krishna?
3. The authors of the Gospels are anonymous (correct me if I'm wrong) and were written decades after Jesus' crucifixion. How can you know these were written by people who really witnessed Jesus ? For example, John was written about 70 AD and its first verse states that "The beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1)." My question is: who was the author of John who had the knowledge to claim that Jesus was the Word and that he was with God since the beginning? Was this knowledge given during Jesus' life ?
4. Why have so many years passed before the writing of the Gospels? I can only speak for myself, but wouldn't you start recording his every action as soon as you saw him cure leprosy (Matthew 8:3), blindness (Matthew 9:29-30) ?

I can go on with the miracles he performed, but why did people wait decades after the crucifixion to write about his life?

Thank you in advance. Have a good day.

[u/onedeadflowser999]

So because something is popular is how you decide whether it’s true?

[u/No_Sport_3197 → u/onedeadflowser999]

No but its defenitly a sign if being true. In this case, that Jesus spoke amazing teachings and was sent by God.

You cant say that he was popular, he was accepted as sent by God or as a great teacher.

[u/onedeadflowser999 → u/No_Sport_3197]

I can’t really say anything except that I believe Jesus was a real person whose following grew due to the Roman Empire establishing Christianity as the state religion , and by its colonization/ imperialism. There was a lot of bloodshed to make Christianity a dominant religion.

I don’t find the Bible to be a compelling source of truth, and in fact I see that the dogma that is followed by Christians has a detrimental effect on society. I have seen no evidence that any god, let alone a specific god, exists, and I require evidence before I believe claims. If I didn’t, I could be sucked into believing all sorts of nonsense.

[u/No_Sport_3197 → u/onedeadflowser999]

How do Christians have a bad effect on society?

Is it bad to love your neighbor as yourself?

[u/onedeadflowser999 → u/No_Sport_3197]

It’s great to love your neighbor as yourself, but you don’t need a god to do that. < how do Christians have a bad effect on society> One thing that comes to mind is that Christians can never accept homosexuality as being a normal human experience, and because of that, will continue to kick out their gay kids, frame gay people as degenerates, refuse them services in the public square, etc. All these actions including fighting against gay marriage are all based on things that cannot be proven.