The Bible was written within a period of over 1300 years and by about 45 writers of different origins and professions. Despite the span of more than 50 generations regarding the Bible's temporal origins and the different social classes of its authors, the Bible displays a uniform, finely coordinated theme. The writers treat hundreds of subjects with particularly striking harmony and continuity. Experience shows that if people from such different times and with such divergent personalities worked on such a range of subjects without the work of God, no such unity could be expected. In particular, the biblical teaching about God and the history of salvation run like a common thread through the whole Bible.

The credibility of literary sources is measured by the time span between the original and the oldest copy preserved, and how many identical copies have survived until today.

The above table gives us a chance to compare the New Testament to other ancient books that today are considered trustworthy. We do not have the originals of any of the six works listed in the extreme left-hand column. But before they disappeared, the originals were copied. So historians look at the time gap between when the original was written and the earliest surviving copy. The shorter the time gap between the original document and the earliest surviving copy, the more sure we are that we have got an accurate copy of the original. As you can see, the New Testament does well by comparison. Its various books were written between AD 40 and AD 100. And there is no dispute that the earliest bit we have of the New Testament is dated AD 130. This is a fragment of John's Gospel, which is in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England. We have large portions of the New Testament from about AD 200 and full manuscripts of the New Testament from AD 350.

Looking at the extreme right-hand column, the greater the number of identical surviving copies we have, the more certain we can be that what we have got is an accurate copy of what was originally written. For the New Testament we have more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts, and these were found in locations all over the ancient world. The similarity between them and 10,000 Latin manuscripts and a further 9,300 in other languages like Ethiopic, Slavic or Armenian, means we can reconstruct the text of the original New Testament from these copies. The result, according to scholars Norman Geisler and William Nix, is that "the New Testament, then, has not only survived in more manuscripts than any other book from antiquity, but it has survived in a purer form than any other great book" - Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible 1968; reprint [Moody Press, 1980], p. 367

Summing up, Sir Frederic Kenyon, perhaps the world's greatest expert of Greek papyrus and the former director of the British Museum, said: "In no other case is the interval of time between the composition of the book and the date of the earliest manuscripts so short as in that of the New Testament." He concluded: "The last foundation for any doubt that the scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed" - The Bible and Archaeology [Harper, 1940], p. 288

It seems like the content of the Bible is handed down to us as it was written originally, but that does not guarantee that it is the truth, that the Bible is more than a collection of stories and predictions.

About 30% of the Bible is of prophetical nature, often fulfilled hundreds of years after it was written down. Peter W. Stoner, Professor of Mathematics at Westmont University, estimated the chances for some prophecies in the Old Testament that were precisely fulfilled hundreds of years after being written down. His calculations led to the following results:

Multiplying these chances - since all of these prophecies have been fulfilled - gives us a total chance of 1.7 · 10^-58. In other words, the chance that these events happened as they did is about 0,000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001%. And this is just a very small selection of prophecies in the Bible that were fulfilled.

Now let us take a look at the New Testament. Jesus fulfilled about 300 prophecies that were written hundreds of years before he was born. We are talking about very precise prophecies like the place of his birth, his family tree, that he will enter Jerusalem on a donkey, that he would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, that they would crucify him and so on. We will calculate with a chance of 1:2 (50%) that each prophecy will be fulfilled by everyone, which literally means that we assume every second person rides a donkey to Jerusalem and every second human being gets crucified. The chance that someone will fulfill all 300 prophecies is then 1 : 2³⁰⁰ ≈ 1 : 10⁹⁰. To understand this number you need to know that every increase of the power equals a multiplication by 10.

10³ is the same as 1,000, while 10⁴ equals 10,000 already. 10¹⁰ is another way to write 10 billion!

Our whole universe contains about 10²⁴ stars "only", and the amount of all atoms in this universe is about 10⁸⁰. You see how ridiculous these numbers are. A chance of 1 : 10⁹⁰ means that you need as many people as 10 billion universes have atoms in total to get a decent chance of fulfilling these prophecies accidentally. I probably don't have to tell you that the amount of people who ever lived on earth is hilariously small in comparison.

There is absolutely no doubt that the Bible's prophecies have only been fulfilled because there is a God behind it.

Let's take a closer look at this person Jesus. When Jesus was on this earth, he raised great claims. He claims to be God's son. He says that he is the truth himself and that he will one day judge each of us. James Smith does not claim to be your judge after your death. Jesus did. So it matters who Jesus is.
There are exactly three options: either Jesus was the greatest liar of all time or he was insane. Or - he said the truth.

Let's start with the possibility that Jesus was a liar. We are talking about an extremely bad liar who promises people heaven and thus sends them to their deaths. Many people have died for their belief in Jesus. But if he knew he couldn't give them paradise - that makes him a monster. And if he was a liar, he really exceeded everything, because he deceived the world and told everyone he was the most holy person ever, and he urged people to live an absolutely pure life. He even claimed to be sinless himself. But Jesus did it: in the midst of his bitterest enemies, he asked them to name one sin that he had committed, but none of them could name one (Jn 8:46). If Jesus was a liar, how do we explain his love for leper, prostitute and poor? He spent most of his time with the outsiders of society. But the craziest thing is his death, which he could easily have avoided. He is killed because he claims to be God's son. What do you get when you die for something that you know perfectly well is not true? Why is he playing the theater to the end? And when he hangs on the cross and they kill him terribly and he only has a few minutes left to live, what can we see with him? Nothing but love! He prays for his murderers: "Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).

The second possibility is that Jesus would have been crazy. Even if you might think that there are some supporters of this theory, no psychologist would join it because Jesus shows no sign of a mental illness. But on the contrary! One would expect that someone who is as self-centered and as selfish (from the point of view of people) as Jesus - he talks about himself all the time and says that he is the answer to everything - is unstable and unbearably arrogant. But there is no doubt that everyone thought Jesus was the most humble person you can imagine. Do we really want to claim that our entire legal system and the past 2,000 years of European history are based on the words of a madman? No one has ever surpassed Jesus' teachings. Even if you read his Sermon on the Mount, you can no longer seriously say that he was crazy. One should also not forget the miracles that he worked. Even the opponents of Jesus admitted that he worked miracles (e.g. Jn 11:47). His miracles are even reported outside the Bible (e.g. in the Talmud). And what about the prophecies? Jesus fulfilled 322 prophecies that were written down at least 400 years before his birth! Many of these are very specific, precise things that he absolutely could not have in hand; for example, Jesus would have had no control over the place of his birth, but over 700 years before his birth it had been prophesied that the Messiah will be born in a small place named Bethlehem (Micah 5:1), and very precise details were prophesied: for example, the exact price for which Jude was willing to betray Jesus (Zechariah 11:12-13, fulfilled in Matthew 26:15). The death of the Messiah by crucifixion was prophesied when the crucifixion was not yet invented (Psalm 22:17), as was the fact that the soldiers cast lots for his clothes (Psalm 22:19, fulfilled in Jn 19:23 -24) and that he was given vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:22, fulfilled in Mt 27:34 + 48). Jesus had no control over the fact that a spear was thrown into his side after his death (Zechariah 12:10, fulfilled in Jn 19:34), which was not a common practice, or that his legs were not broken (prophesied in Psalm 34:21, fulfilled in Jn 19:33). Usually the legs of those crucified on the day before the Sabbath were broken to hasten their death. In addition, the prophecies range from the Messiah's required family tree to the exact time of his death. A madman might have been lucky enough to fulfill a few prophecies, or a liar could have deliberately arranged a few. But realizing all 322 prophecies would simply have been impossible. Jesus fulfilled 29 of these prophecies on the day he died alone.

Now that all alternatives are excluded, there is no other option left than that he was saying the truth. Also, if God actually came to earth as a human being, you would expect that human to be the most famous person who ever lived. One would expect that his birth determines the time count of humanity. One would expect that his teachings, miracles, and character would leave an indelible mark on the history of this planet and that billions of people would do everything possible to follow him. One would expect that someone who is God and man at the same time would have as great of an impact as Jesus of Nazareth had.