dear beej,
i understand your concerns very well.
I would like to share this with you...God has revealed his messages to prophets throughout the existence of mankind. All these teachings were the same in the essence, which was, to worship the one and only God.
It's not about the books in which the teachings have been recorded. It's about the message.
The Bible consists of two parts, the OT and the NT. The first five books of the bible (Pentateuch) are borrowed from the Torah and is proven to have been written down by four major sources, although many still ascribe them to Moses only.(this can be analyzed according to style, choice or words etc)it is a collection of revelations which were able to be preserved in one way or another, since the creation of mankind.
In the appendix of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the following is written concerning the authorship of over one third of the remaining books of the Old Testament.
Judges - possibly Samuel
Ruth - perhaps Samuel
First Samuel - unknown
Sec. Samuel - unknown
First kings - unknown
Sec. kings - unknown
First chronicles - unknown
Esther - unknown
Job - unknown
Ecclesiastes - doubtful
Jonah - unknown
Malachi - nothing known
More than half of the worlds Christians are Catholics and their version of the OT contains seven additional books (apocrypha)
The Gospels
Jesus spoke and taught in Aramaic. The earliest oral traditions of Jesus deeds and sayings undoubtedly must have circulated in Aramaic. However, the four Gospels were writen in an entirely different language, common greek. This was, to serve the majority of the Church which was Hellenistic or greek-speeking. There are only a few words of Aramaic left in the gospels.
All authors of the gospels are unknown.
I know this doesn't invalidate the contents, but it should encourage people to seek the true meaning of the words. Nowadays, people recite the bible in English and think what they read, is what Jesus said in his words and that might not always be the case.
God didn't send mankind the Torah or the Old Testament or the New Testament...he sent revelations to his prophets which were all the same, to worship ONE GOD. It is men who collected these accounts of revelations and collected them in books and "labelled" them. It is also mankind who "labelled" religion.
God did not call the religion of Moses "Judaism" and he certainly didn't reveal "Christianity" to Jesus. So we must THINK OUTSIDE THE LABELLING.
I'm afraid that if I can't trust the bible I don't have much to go on.
I beleive that the bible has been guarded by devine intervention.
I can't think that when it's my turn to stand before God he will say, you were wrong to beleive the bible.
I agree with you that God won't say to you, that you were wrong to believe the Bible, but maybe he will want to know, whether you followed the things that HE taught his prophets to teach mankind. Also, one must seek knowledge. Most men are followers...they don't like to question their own faith. Most people die in the faith they learnt from their parents without ever questioning it. Prophet Abrahams father was an idol maker and Abraham became a prophet who taught the oneness of God. Nevertheless, his father died an unbeliever, or should I say, didn't believe in the One God.
So i think when we die, we can not state as an excuse of our faith, that we followed what our parents taught, because we are responsible for our own faith and our own deeds.
So to sum it up :-) If one believes and follows what the prophets said and taught, he is save. No matter how you label it.
I also recomment you to read this book which is free and also downloadable: it's called "The glad tidings of the Messiah"
www.harunyahya.com/books/faith/gladtidings/gladtidings03.php