You asked how to know if the Bible is true, and if Heaven ,or hell is real.
This is a long read but I have tried to answer all your questions with as much truth, as I can ,of what I have searched out for many others for years.
I'm thankful that you believe there is a God.
Some who argue that hell does not exist do so on the basis of their belief that Jesus taught love, peace, and forgiveness - and that He did not teach about an eternal place of fiery punishment for non-believers.
However, the exact opposite is true.
Jesus taught more about hell than anyone else in the Word of God.
Jesus described hell as an unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12), a place of eternal fire, (Matthew 25:41) eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46), and as a place of torment, fire, and agony (Luke 16:23-24). Jesus taught specifically about hell many times in His ministry (Matthew 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15,33; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:6; 16:23).
People across the world are asking, "Is hell real?" Can there really be a physical location of burning torment and punishment that is spoken of in the Bible? Only three in ten adults (31%) see hell as an actual location: "a place of physical torment where people may be sent.
The question of why hell exists has perplexed many people through the ages. Countless have asked, "If God is so good, why would He create a place like hell?"
This is similar to asking, "If our government is so good, why would it create prisons?" The answer seems simple enough - places like hell and prisons exist because some people will choose to do the wrong thing, and because of that, they need to be punished. It is fairly easy to understand how this reasoning applies to the existence of prisons, but does it really pertain to hell as well?
In the biblical Creation account found in the book of Genesis, no mention is made of a place called hell. Everything that God made during the time of Creation was good.
However, the Bible tells us in Matthew 25:41 that hell was later prepared for "the devil and his angels" (see also Isaiah 14:12).
God did not create hell for man; it was never His intention that any man or woman should go to hell.
In 2 Peter 3:9, we learn that God does not want "anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
Hell is a real place.
We know this from many verses in the Bible, several of them spoken by Jesus, Himself; and we know that the wicked and unrighteous will go there when they die.
So once again, we are back to the main point that God is good, and life in hell is terrible, so why would God create such a place?
Even though hell was initially created to hold Satan and the angels that fell with him, there will also be men and women in hell.
Hell is a place of eternal separation from God, and people go there when they die because they chose to separate themselves from God while living on earth.
God created us with the free will to make our own choices, and separating ourselves from God is one of the choices we are free to make.
Our free will is a wonderful gift from God in that He does not force us to love Him or to follow Him. Without our free will, we would be nothing but puppets or robots, which does not please God, and certainly does nothing to better our lives.
While God desires that everyone would choose to love Him, some people will choose not to. These people will die in their sins and be separated from God forever in hell.
God loves us so much that He respects our freedom of choice. If we choose not to love Him, then why would He want to force us to live with Him eternally in heaven?
Wouldn't living for eternity with someone we don't love be hell anyway?
God wants to spare those people who don't love Him from having to live with Him and be under His rule for eternity in Heaven.
"Is hell real?" is answered "no" by a lot of people. These people would like to believe that when we die, we don't go to a heaven or a hell, we simply cease to exist. However, wouldn't a God who sends us into nonexistence at death be just as "cruel" as one who allows us to freely choose our own destiny, which could be hell?
Even atheist Friedrich Nietzsche said that he would rather choose eternally conscious suffering than nonexistence.
God's perfect justice also demands that there be a hell to punish the unrepentant and wicked among us.
As Walter Martin said about the existence of hell and eternal punishment in his book, "The Kingdom of the Cults," "They make much to-do about God being Love but forget that because He is Love, He is also Justice and must require infinite vengeance upon anyone who treads underfoot the precious blood of Christ, who is the Lamb slain for lost sinners from the foundation of the world."
What kind of a loving God would He be if the wicked were never punished? Why would He have sent His Son to die for our sins, if we could reject that redemption and not eventually pay the price?
What incentive would we have to do good and love God if we knew we could reject His Son and choose to do evil all of our lives and never be punished? We would not want this lack of justice in the streets of our cities and towns, so why do we expect God to mete it out in the overall universe
This is how to know that the Bible is true. No one has the wisdom nor the knowlege to see so far into the future to be able to predict so many things that can become this true, with so much perfection ,so many times over and over again.
Messianic prophecy is the collection of over 100 predictions (a conservative estimate) in the "Old Testament" ,about the future Messiah of the Jewish people.
These predictions were written by multiple authors, in numerous books, over approximately 1,000 years. Messianic Prophecy is so dramatic today, because with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the reliability of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament (both of which have been proven to exist prior to the time Jesus walked on the earth) you can be assured that these prophecies were not “conspired” after-the-fact.
Messianic prophecy was fulfilled by the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Although many Jews did not accept Jesus as their Messiah, many did, and they became the Jewish sect later known as the Christians.
Christianity, based in dramatic part on the fulfillment of historical prophecy, spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire of the 1st Century.
Examine the prophecies yourself, and calculate the probability of one man fulfilling just a handful of the most specific ones, and you’ll be amazed.
“Jesus said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’” Luke 24:44 (NIV)
The Old Testament verses are the prophecy; the New Testament verses proclaim the fulfillment. Check them all out for yourself!
Born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:21-23)
A descendant of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 22:18; Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:16)
Of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10; Luke 3:23, 33; Hebrews 7:14)
Of the house of David (2 Samuel 7:12-16; Matthew 1:1)
Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:4-7)
Taken to Egypt (Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2:14-15)
Herod´s killing of the infants (Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:16-18)
Anointed by the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 11:2; Matthew 3:16-17)
Heralded by the messenger of the Lord (John the Baptist) (Isaiah 40:3-5;
Malachi 3:1; Matthew 3:1-3)
Would perform miracles (Isaiah 35:5-6; Matthew 9:35)
Would preach good news (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:14-21)
Would minister in Galilee (Isaiah 9:1; Matthew 4:12-16)
Would cleanse the Temple (Malachi 3:1; Matthew 21:12-13)
Would first present Himself as King 173,880 days from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem (Daniel 9:25; Matthew 21:4-11)
Would enter Jerusalem as a king on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:4-9)
Would be rejected by Jews (Psalm 118:22; I Peter 2:7)
Die a humiliating death (Psalm 22; Isaiah 53)
involving:rejection (Isaiah 53:3; John 1:10-11; 7:5,48)
betrayal by a friend (Psalm 41:9; Luke 22:3-4; John 13:18)
sold for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12; Matthew 26:14-15)
silence before His accusers (Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 27:12-14)
being mocked (Psalm 22: 7-8; Matthew 27:31)
beaten (Isaiah 52:14; Matthew 27:26)
spit upon (Isaiah 50:6; Matthew 27:30)
piercing His hands and feet (Psalm 22:16; Matthew 27:31)
being crucified with thieves (Isaiah 53:12; Matthew 27:38)
praying for His persecutors (Isaiah 53:12; Luke 23:34)
piercing His side (Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34)
given gall and vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:21, Matthew 27:34, Luke 23:36)
no broken bones (Psalm 34:20; John 19:32-36)
buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57-60)
casting lots for His garments (Psalm 22:18; John 19:23-24)
Would rise from the dead!! (Psalm 16:10; Mark 16:6; Acts 2:31)
Ascend into Heaven (Psalm 68:18; Acts 1:9)
Would sit down at the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1; Hebrews 1:3)
Christian persecution started with Jesus himself.
He was asked directly at his trial, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”
Jesus left no room for ambiguity – His first two words were “I am.”
The religious elite in Jerusalem knew what Jesus was saying – It was very clear to them that He was claiming to be God. As such, Jesus was put to death on a Roman cross for the crime of blasphemy, thus becoming the first martyr for what would become the Christian Church.
Many of the Early Disciples Died for their Faith.
Christian persecution was a dramatic part of early church history.
For anyone who holds that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was a man-made hoax conspired by a group of disciples should check out the legacy of martyrdom.
Eleven of the 12 apostles, and many of the other early disciples, died for their adherence to this story.
This is dramatic, since they all witnessed the alleged events of Jesus and still went to their deaths defending their faith.
Why is this dramatic, when many throughout history have died martyred deaths for a religious belief?
Because people don’t die for a lie.
Dying for a belief is one thing, but numerous eye-witnesses dying for a known lie is quite another.
Here is an account of early Christian persecution, as compiled from numerous sources outside the Bible, the most-famous of which is Foxes’ Christian Martyrs of the World:
Around 34 A.D., one year after the crucifixion of Jesus, Stephen was thrown out of Jerusalem and stoned to death. Approximately 2,000 Christians suffered martyrdom in Jerusalem during this period.
About 10 years later, James, the son of Zebedee and the elder brother of John, was killed when Herod Agrippa arrived as governor of Judea. Agrippa detested the Christian sect of Jews, and many early disciples were martyred under his rule, including Timon and Parmenas.
Around 54 A.D., Philip, a disciple from Bethsaida, in Galilee, suffered martyrdom at Heliopolis, in Phrygia. He was scourged, thrown into prison, and afterwards crucified.
About six years later, Matthew, the tax-collector from Nazareth who wrote his gospel in Hebrew, was preaching in Ethiopia when he suffered martyrdom by the sword.
James, the brother of Jesus, administered the early church in Jerusalem and was the author of an Epistle by his name. At age 94, he was beat and stoned, and finally had his brains bashed out with a fuller's club.
Matthias was the apostle who filled the vacant place of Judas. He was stoned at Jerusalem and then beheaded.
Andrew was the brother of Peter who preached the gospel throughout Asia. On his arrival at Edessa, he was arrested and crucified on a cross, the two ends of which were fixed transversely in the ground (this is where we get the term, St. Andrew's Cross).
Mark was converted to Christianity by Peter, and then transcribed Peter’s account of Jesus in his Gospel. Mark was dragged to pieces by the people of Alexandria in front of Serapis, their pagan idol.
It appears Peter was condemned to death and crucified at Rome.Jerome holds that Peter was crucified upside down, at his own request, because he said he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord.
Paul suffered in the first persecution under Nero. Paul’s faith was so dramatic in the face of martyrdom, that the authorities removed him to a private place for execution by the sword.
In about 72 A.D., Jude, the brother of James who was commonly called Thaddeus, was crucified at Edessa.
Bartholomew preached in several countries and translated the Gospel of Matthew into the language of India. He was cruelly beaten and then crucified by idolaters there.
Thomas, called Didymus, preached the Gospel in Parthia and India, where exciting the rage of the pagan priests, he was martyred by being thrust through with a spear.
Luke was the author of the Gospel under his name. He traveled with Paul through various countries and is supposed to have been hanged on an olive tree by idolatrous priests in Greece.
Barnabas, of Cyprus, was killed without many known facts in about 73 A.D. Simon, surnamed Zelotes, preached the Gospel in Mauritania, Africa, and even in Britain, where he was crucified in about 74 A.D.
John, the "beloved disciple," was the brother of James. From Ephesus he was ordered to Rome, where it is affirmed he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. He escaped by miracle, without injury. Domitian afterwards banished him to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation.
He was the only apostle who escaped a violent death.
Christian Persecution: The Church Grew Dramatically Despite the Horrible Deaths Christian persecution didn’t slow the growth of the Christian faith during the first few centuries after Christ. Even as its early leaders died horrible deaths, Christianity flourished throughout the Roman Empire. How can this historical record of martyrdom be viewed as anything but dramatic evidence for the absolute truth of the Christian faith – a faith, unlike any other, founded on historical events and eye-witness testimony.
Who and why would anyone die like this for something that they knew was not true?