well the Bible has saved my life both physically and spiritually-from someone who had all the success this world offers but who had a secret disgusting sin life spiraling into self destruction, God's grace (unmerited, undeserved favor toward a sinner- john newton's amazing grace comes to mind) and love changed me in an instant when i took whatever faith, and it was not much, and humbly believed in Jesus enough to surrender everything to his will. at the time i did not own nor care about the bible- after my conversion experience i had and still have an intense and ravenous desire to read it- starting with john's gospel( by the way in that gospel Jesus uses the word "believe" like believe in me, over 55 times. i think he was making a point about the simplicity of the gospel; the second most often used word by Jesus in that gospel is "love".
i believe the Bible to have transforming power- i have witnessed hundreds of conversions like my own over the years.
on all the issues about the Bible like god telling joshua to kill every living being in jericho etc, my franciscan friend richard rohr says if a passage does not fit with the attributes of a loving and just God, then it was manmade-that works for me!
for an authentic christian the Bible is the link to a relationship with Jesus Christ!
just sayin
k