Keep in mind that most skeptics of the Bible admit that it is a historically accurate book.
The Disciples' Unique Position
Many people have believed in many different gods over the years, not knowing whether their views were true or not. When Jesus' disciples began to propagate the principles of Christianity (and of Jesus' resurrection), they were in the unique position to actually know whether their beliefs were true. They saw with their own eyes whether Jesus really did resurrect from the dead.
If we want to think that the New Testament is a flawed document, we must think that the disciples were willfully sharing a false religion.
A question for my audience, what would you be willing to die for? Maybe if you found truth, maybe for yourself, but would you be willing to die or be persecuted for a lie that doesn't even benefit you? Not many people would be willing to undergo such persecution to spread any sort of lie. But here are several individuals doing that very thing.
A Pharisee at the time of the Disciples makes this exact argument in Acts 5:34-40,
"Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space; And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God."
Scientific Discoveries
Most Bible skeptics like to point out Christians and the Bible as always being a hindrance to science. Not only is this statement not even true for Christians, it is exactly the opposite when it comes to the Bible itself.
As Dr. Hugh Ross, scientist and founder of the think-tank, Reasons to Believe, explained,
"Not only is the Bible filled with the fundamentals of science, but it is as much as 3,000 years ahead of its time. The Bible's statements in most cases directly contradicted the science of the day in which they were made. When modern scientific knowledge approaches reality, the divine accuracy of the scriptures is substantiated...In the crucible of scientific investigation, the Bible has proven invariably to be correct. No other book, ancient or modern, can make this claim; but then, no other book has been written (through men) by God."
In this article, Dr. Ross also lists several times in which the Bible accurately told of a truth about nature many years before science discovered it to be true, including the earth is a sphere (Isaiah 40:22), the difference between individual stars (I Corinthians 15:41), and how the procedures for uncleanness reduced the spread of bacteria.
It is no surprise that God, creator of the world, could know these precepts about nature. But how could men who were not exactly scientists have deciphered these concepts of nature so much sooner than the rest of the world?
Cohesiveness
Let me remind you that the Bible is either written by God through about 40 different men over a span of 1500 years, or was written by 40 different authors over a span of 1500 years with no supervising director. Those are our only two options.
What might one expect from a document written from several sources and different time periods? A mess of contradictions is what I would expect. But what do we get with the Bible?
In the Bible, we see prophecy after prophecy fulfilled. As the aforementioned Dr. Ross indicates, 2000 Biblical prophecies have been fulfilled through both historical events and within the Bible itself.
One may wish to nit-pick the individual examples of the prophecies and explain them away, but they cannot answer why men would write fictitious prophecies in hopes that one day someone else will write fictitious fulfillments of those prophecies. As Matthew McGee writes,
"Are we to believe that the Old Testament prophets each decided to write the beginning of a great story and then said, "Maybe in a thousand years or so, someone will come along and write a good ending to this?" That would be ridiculous. No man would decide to do such a thing on his own, much less a large group of men who did not know each other or even live at the same time. Therefore, the unity of scripture despite a diversity of writers is evidence of the Bible's divine authorship."
Fallible Men Used
Skeptics of the Bible may still not be convinced. They may argue that since fallible men were involved in the process, there couldn't possibly have been an infallible document created. We should know that an all-powerful God has the ability to direct the words of fallible man to create his perfect word. As 2 Peter 1:21 says,
"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
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