Puppet strings? I don’t know about any of those. But the Bible is a historical document, as well as being the inspired Word of God. Archaeology supports the Biblical record. And if you want to discount the NT writings, you’re going to have to discount the writings of Homer, Aristotle, and Plato, because NT documents are much more numerous, better-preserved, and consistent (almost 100%) than any other ancient writing.
On the other hand, there is no evidence to support the claims of Mormonism...absolutely no historical nor archaelogical proof. In fact, Joseph Smith is known to have made “prophecies” that never came true, and the Bible says that is the mark of a false prophet.
I agree, but you are leaving out the OT. It takes a leap of faith to believe a man named Noah built a giant ship and saved civilization by loading all species onto the ship. Could that be a metaphore or simply a story to teach a greater lesson? Historical records are going to be more reliable from David’s time around 1,500 BC and certainly around Christ’s time than Genesis.
Yes, much of the Bible (both OT and NT) is historical and none of that to my knowledge has been proven false. Much of what is in the Bible is teaching and philosophy and we are to believe that is the Word of God. Much of it are letters and stories of the apostles using various styles to convert various groups. And again, you still discount the human element. The Apostles and Gospel authors were great men no doubt, but did God write their letters or were they simply inspired by the Holy Spirit to spread the Good News, but the words writen were their own slants or sales speels and not God’s actual words. The fact is, the NT Bible passages were chosen by the Council of Nicea under the authority of the Pope and the Emperor Constantine. You have to figure the final product was some kind of debate/compromise as there were thousands of passages, stories, and Gospels that were left out. Not anywhere near every account of Christ made the cut. In the end, you still had a council of human beings deciding what was the Word of God and what was heresy... and there are plenty of heresies that could have been included that conflict with what made the cut. So, if you believe the Bible and nothing but the Bible is the Word of God, you believe that God pulled the puppet strings on much human interaction among the early Christians. Personally, I struggle with it a bit.