Consider this assertion by Jon Murray, former president of American Atheists:
“There was no such person in the history of the world as Jesus Christ. There was no historical, living, breathing, sentient human being by that name. Ever. [The Bible] is a fictional, nonhistorical narrative.”
The debate can fairly be stated as, “Is the Bible merely the word of the men who wrote it, or is it truly the word of God?” As it happens this was actually the very question that was faced by the earliest Christians as the gospel message moved out from Jerusalem into the larger Greco-Roman world. It’s the question the Thessalonians faced when they were first visited by Paul.
Central Reflections 