I want to address those like
@partinobodycular who think the NT could have been "embellished" or maybe completely changed to the point of being completely made up back in very, very close to Bible times.
And I was in error earlier about the earliest copies that we have, but was thinking of the time they were reported to have been written, which was at the the time that many of Jesus followers were still alive, etc, but the earliest copies that we have are from around the middle of the second century A.D. Which was long before the RCC, or when Christianity was accepted by the Roman government, or was recognized as being the religion of Rome, etc. This was still during a time of great persecution for a lot of Christians, and most of the believers were very common, very simple people at the time, etc.
The copies that we have are around 100 years or so from the actual events that they are reporting, and are believed not to have changed very much from the originals that were originally written around 50 to 100 years or so ago before that at the time, etc. Like I said, most of them were very simple folk and commoners at the time. Not people of high position or of great rank or wealth, or notoriety or repute, but just common simple folk, or regular people at the time.
Now, do you think these folk all got together and said "Let's change or alter what we have in order to make the story of Jesus even greater, or even more exaggerated/believable/unbelievable, and so we can use this to finally take a hold of or sieze great wealth and power and position, and control people since they will all be looking at us", etc, etc, etc, or anything like that at the time?
And if they did, then what do you think they also said? Maybe something like "Let's make up a story about Jesus feeding a lot of people supernaturally, or him walking on water during a storm, or calming a storm with the rest of his disciples in a boat, or make up a story about him and some of his apostles going up on a mountain, and Jesus being transfigured, and Moses and Elijah being there with him, and it being witnessed by some of his apostles that he took with him at the time? That would be really, really cool, and would make a lot of people worship Jesus more, right?"
Or maybe they also said or added "How about we make up a ton of stories and put them in there about him curing the sick, or supernaturally healing lepers (which was an incurable disease at the time) and him opening blind people's eyes so they could see, and opening up deaf people's ears so they could hear, and restoring the paralyzed so they could move or walk again, or supernaturally delivering people from demons, and everything of that kind, etc. And lets just make up a bunch of stuff like this and rewrite what we have or put them all in there of every kind", etc. That would be really cool right? I mean, we could get a lot of power with it, and control people with it, and no one would be the wiser, right?"
Do you really think these common simple folk did this? Or were even capable of such a thing of any kind? These people were very much downtrodden, and were being stepped on and crushed at the time, and this was some of the furthest things from their mind at the time. Their leaders of their individual churches who could have done these things were just common simple folk with no great power or wealth or high position also at the time, and just wouldn't/couldn't have done this at the time.
Anyway, if you believe any of this, or anything like this, I might ask you just what it is you are smoking right now at the time, etc? It's preposterous to think these very simple people did this, etc. Most of them were not even capable of the kinds of things that you are accusing them of at the time, etc.
Or maybe you doubt the previous people's memories, who were the original followers of Jesus at the time? But even if their memories were not the greatest, it is highly, highly unlikely that these events could have been all just made up by the people who were here/there with him at the time, and many who were personal eyewitnesses/followers of him at the time.
You can't make this stuff up, ok, so you need to just accept it for being pretty much very, very close to what it is or was at the time, etc. And that means some of it at least had to have been real or true or actual at least, and whoever does not believe that, is probably smoking something, or is probably high on some kind of illegal substance right now at the time.
And in closing, I would like to ask you just exactly how you think it is that these things were exaggerated or embellished at the time? There would have to be a lot of just 100% completely fabricated made up lies to be exaggerated or embellished to the point that you are talking about at the time. And this would have had to be done by some of the original followers of Jesus at the time, etc.
So, please give some specific examples of how you think this specifically happened at the time?
You can't make this stuff up, etc, which is probably why they found it so very much important to make sure it was all written down at the time, etc.
Jesus was a real man who really did exist back then in those times, and who really did do or perform at least some actual bonafide, very, very real supernatural acts or miracles at the time, etc.
That is what 100% honesty tells us anyway, etc.
And his power/abilities at the time are beyond explaining other than the existence of a supernatural being or God at the time, etc.
That is the only real honest conclusion anyone can make about this if they are being truly honest, etc.
Unless you can tell me very, very specifically how it could have happened or been otherwise, etc.
And I want specifics of just how exactly some of the very specific things in it were all fabricated or embellished to the point of not at all being true at the time, and not just some general statements of such at the time, etc.
God Bless.