There's thousands of answers given that prove the validity of the New Testament. I admit that I never needed this type of proof myself to believe, but maybe one day this may provide ample evidence to someone who is skeptical about the validity of the Bible. Hopefully, this may give someone a reason to reconsider their skepticism.
2 Peter 1:16-21
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased"--
18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation,
21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
In the Bible, the word "Christian" is first mentioned in Acts 11:26: "For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch Jesus' disciples were first called Christians" (Gr. χριστιανοί, from Christ Gr. Χριστός, which means "the anointed")
The New Testament was originally written in Greek, of which 5,650 handwritten copies have survived. When other languages are included, the total of ancient copies approaches 25,000.
Sir Frederic Kenyon, former director of the British Museum, says… "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 continues by adding, "The last foundation for any doubt that the scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed."
In terms of physical evidence that agrees with the eyewitness testimony?
To date, there have been ~ 23,000 archaeological findings directly related to and showing proof of the truths found in the Bible.
The next ancient text to come close to rivaling that number is Homer's Iliad which is thought to have survived in 643 ancient copies.
~ Recognizing this, F. E. Peters remarked:
"On the basis of manuscript tradition alone, the works that make up the Christians' New Testament texts were the most frequently copied and widely circulated books of antiquity."
The most important discovery in the history of biblical archaeological findings has been the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948. Within these scrolls was found a complete scroll of the book of Isaiah, which is dated to about 100 B.C.
This is where it gets interesting, since scholars can see how well the Massoretic scribes had preserved the OT text. As scholars compared the two Isaiah texts (from 900 A.D. & 100 B.C.), they were startled by the precision of copying.
Isaiah 53, for example, has 166 words, and there are only 17 letters that differ. Ten are just spelling differences. Four are "minor stylistic changes, such as conjunctions." The three remaining letters that differ are the word "light," added in verse 11, which does not affect the meaning.
Of course this predates the time of the New Testament, so how does this go about proving the writings of the NT?
If you cross-reference Isaiah 53:7-9 with Acts 8:32-40 you can see that this is how Phillip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian who received the gift of Salvation.
This act is also repeated in Matthew, Chapter 5, by Jesus to His disciples.
This is just one example out of hundreds that tie the validity of the NT in with the validity of the OT.
2 Peter 1:16-21
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased"--
18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation,
21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
In the Bible, the word "Christian" is first mentioned in Acts 11:26: "For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch Jesus' disciples were first called Christians" (Gr. χριστιανοί, from Christ Gr. Χριστός, which means "the anointed")
The New Testament was originally written in Greek, of which 5,650 handwritten copies have survived. When other languages are included, the total of ancient copies approaches 25,000.
Sir Frederic Kenyon, former director of the British Museum, says… "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 continues by adding, "The last foundation for any doubt that the scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed."
In terms of physical evidence that agrees with the eyewitness testimony?
To date, there have been ~ 23,000 archaeological findings directly related to and showing proof of the truths found in the Bible.
The next ancient text to come close to rivaling that number is Homer's Iliad which is thought to have survived in 643 ancient copies.
~ Recognizing this, F. E. Peters remarked:
"On the basis of manuscript tradition alone, the works that make up the Christians' New Testament texts were the most frequently copied and widely circulated books of antiquity."
The most important discovery in the history of biblical archaeological findings has been the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948. Within these scrolls was found a complete scroll of the book of Isaiah, which is dated to about 100 B.C.
This is where it gets interesting, since scholars can see how well the Massoretic scribes had preserved the OT text. As scholars compared the two Isaiah texts (from 900 A.D. & 100 B.C.), they were startled by the precision of copying.
Isaiah 53, for example, has 166 words, and there are only 17 letters that differ. Ten are just spelling differences. Four are "minor stylistic changes, such as conjunctions." The three remaining letters that differ are the word "light," added in verse 11, which does not affect the meaning.
Of course this predates the time of the New Testament, so how does this go about proving the writings of the NT?
If you cross-reference Isaiah 53:7-9 with Acts 8:32-40 you can see that this is how Phillip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian who received the gift of Salvation.
This act is also repeated in Matthew, Chapter 5, by Jesus to His disciples.
This is just one example out of hundreds that tie the validity of the NT in with the validity of the OT.
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