Can someone please tell me or lead me to where I can find information pertaining to the history of the Bible? Where did it come from? How do we know it is of God? How do we know that it is all true? I mean couldn't someone just have made it all up, created it out of their own mind? What if it is just a bunch of lies mixed in with some truth? I have also noticed that there are different versions of the Bible. Why so many? What's the difference? Which one is the true bible?

The bible was written a long time ago & all we have now of the true bible is copies of copies that date hundreds of years old. They are kept in places like Cambridge University & the Vatican under lock & key, far away from the greasy hands of the masses. Many people have different ideas about the source - after reading it for myself I have come to the conclusion that it is as the text itself states: the scriptures were inspired by God (or breathed out by God). I guess it comes down to a matter of faith. But I don't expect you to have faith in the bible untill you have a personal experience with the author thereof. When God gets ahold of you - you will know that the words contained in the bible are true, as each & every one of them is a personal loveletter from God to you.

The reason there are multiple versions is because it was written in another language (2-3 to be precise Hebrew, Greek & Chaldee) & there are multiple ways to translate different passages. Different professors join groups & publish what their concensus said was the best translation.

I prefer the King James or Authorized version but God told me that He is to be found in every version, so grab one that you are comfortable reading & perhaps a bible dictionary & try & meet the God who is written about in the pages - God loves you & that is the most important thing you have to see & understand before you can move on to the next step & believe what He said.

I am sorry I cant directly lead you to a history of where the Bible came from but I would like to say that the old testament was copied in such a painstaking process that if there was one mistake they would burn the failed attempt & start over. The new testament was gatherd together by a bunch of church fathers & there are debates to this day wether or not they did the job right.

Here are a couple reasons why I believe that the bible is true -

It tells the same story - although written by many human authors over a span of hundreds of years, collectively the bible says the same thing from front to back. If you tried to do that with something like medical or history texts you would get a hodgepodge of nonsensical jibberish.

It makes sence - take creation over evolution - if you find a watch on the beach would you suppose it crawled out of the ocean on its own? Well the human eye alone is so much more complicated than a watch that it seems impossible that we did not have a designer, just the same as the watch.

Also all other religons are man's attempt to get to God, whereas the bible is all about how God wants to have communication with us. All other religons are based on works saying that if we do enough of them we will deserve heaven, nirvana or some other paradise, whereas the bible says nobody deserves heven but anyone can go there as a free gift; however only those who recive the gift can partake of its benifits. Now after living a cirtain amount of life & being fully dissatisfied with my ability to do good works then it makes sence that I will never do more of them then bad ones or ever be able to erase the effects the bad ones I have done commit upon the earth & so therefore it also makes sense that if there is a just God, He would provide some other way, than my good works for me to enter into paradise & he did it's called Grace.

The bible is more up-to-date than the newspaper - There is a scripture that applies to every miniute of the day; there is so much wisdom in it's pages & it speaks to us right where we live - 'where the rubber meets the road' some might say.

Whenever I obey the will of God I feel better about myself - do I feel pride when I am wrong? No, but in fact I feel quite shamefull, whereas when I do the right thing according to what God has taught me in the scriptures not only do I feel good but I make others feel good as well.

If you want to know if the bible is true, read it with an open mind & pray that the true author reveal Himself unto you. I will keep you in my prayers, you sound like you will have some more interesting questions later on =)

If anyone is interested in studying about where we got our Bible, I highly recommend the following books:

"The Canon of Scripture" by F.F. Bruce.
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?it...&event=AFF&p=1015468

and

"The Journey from Texts to Translations, The Origin and Development of the Bible" by Paul D. Wegner
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?it...&event=AFF&p=1015468

There is also a great booklet about the inspiration of Scripture by Arthur Pink titled "The Divine Inspiration of the Bible." You can find this booklet posted at:
http://www.bible.org/series.asp?series_id=184