Yes I have read the bible and yes actually I do have a NIV study bible (the notes were quite helpful)
That wasn't the point of my questions, I understand the bible does give answers and tells us all we need to know about the nature of God.
In essence I am asking the bigger question....How do we know what is written about God in the Bible is True??
I respond in my own name; I
believe the Bible to be the word of God and that`s it.
All religions and myths deal with revelations (revelations are truths by excellence, by definition; they do not need empirical demonstration, like science does).
Besides religion, only in mathematics we have this kind of truths, apodictical truths - for example the truth that there is an infinity of numbers doesn`t need demonstration, it also can`t be demonstrated either).
For our ancestors, the simple fact of looking up to the sky was already a spiritual experience, a revelation (manifestation of sacrality, of the
ultimate reality). Throughout history, people discovered (or it has been revealed to them) glimpses of God, they intuited Him, just like through introspection and intuition, people discovered mathematics; so we did not invented God, but people did invented gods, there is a difference here.
People invented idols and gods because they felt the need of concrete. But this was a big deception from the devil, who tries to get people away from focusing on the highness, on the ultimate reality, and get them to attached on the pleasures of this earthly world.
God, nonetheless, had mercy on us and satisfied our need for concrete by embracing the human condition and incarnate in Jesus Christ, so that we learn directly from Him how to lift ourselves to Heaven, in the true life.
Jesus Christ is the end of religions, He raised our relation with God to a whole other level. Jesus Christ promised that wherever two or three persons gather in His name, He will also be there; He is the founder of the church (ecclesia, community with God), a premiere in human history (except for the paradisiac state of Adam and Eve, before the fall).
I believe in the Bible because I believe Jesus Christ is the real life that all humans, in every corner of this world, wish for. The Bible is the revelation that we need, in order to know how to get back HOME.