Well its kind of hard to say what isn't in the bible because, well, its not in there.
Both the old and new testament were assembled by a commitee of men. In the interest of thier faith and with mankinds supreme falibility, logic dictates that they wouldn't include damaging material. [/quote]
The only group of men who actually censored anything were the Pharisees and Sadducee's. The Church later continued the trend by censoring out God's name.
I am referring to the bible writers here:
On removing "damaging" material, there are numerous accounts in the Bible of serious mistakes.
King David had an affair with another woman, on some occasions the nation of Israel would sacrifice their children to false gods, Israelites were cheating and defrauding their brothers, and the list goes on.
They could have removed all this "material" in effort to look spotless.
They also had a nasty habit of killing heretics and destroying any "propaganda" that wasn't in line with Christianity. If they couldn't kill 'em they would do their best to discredit them.
That was the Church. All their bloodshed has not gone unnoticed.(Revelation 17:3-6,15-17)
It comes down to a "he said this but I said that" deal.
Considering that the Old Testament's contents were handed down over several hundred years by mouth and occasionally on paper, translated many times by many people, and had many authors before the first edition was put forth, its credibility is very suspect.
Occasionally by Paper? There are many scolls proven to be authentic.
By the 1st Century, Christians already had the Codex which was the old testament.
The reason why it took so long for the whole Bible to be printed is once again, the Church was opposed to making a whole Bible available to people.
Despite the many contributors, the Bible contains the same theme: God's kingdom, from Genesis to Revelation. If it were a hoax, how could they keep the farce up for so long?
The New Testament was written many years after JC's death, and the submissions for it were only accepted if the material came from apostles or those close to them. That sounds a little biased to me.
... Because they ( the Apostles ) were close to him.
As for censorship, Peter denied Jesus 3 times, you can read that Matthew 26:69-75. How would they benefit from censoring things? The Pharisees' and Sadducees' had all the power to lose.
As far as JC hisself goes...in his time he was but one of many that claimed to be a direct link to God. If they were boy bands, he'd be a Menudo or NKOTB. Just because he rose to fame didn't make him the truth, only the most popular.
Your right on the false messiahs, you can read that at Matthew 24:23-25. So what would prove that he is the Son of God? His actions and what he promoted:
He was given the opportunity for political power, which he refused.
(John 6:14-15) (Luke 4:5-6)
He condemned the use of violence. (Matthew 26:52)
He condemned the Pharisee's for being hypocrites on failing to teach the important matters of the Mosaic Law to the people. (Matthew 23:23)
He promoted to seek spiritual needs rather than riches. (Matthew 6:33)
He does not speak of his own originality. (John 7:16-18) <--- I am not sure why that smiley is there.. I tried to edit it out but no luck.
The truth is that Christianity has failed to live up their claims, not Jesus or God.