Is the Bible a book of fiction or fact and how do you know?

It has magic and talking animals, so those should be your first clues it's obviously just myths and fables.

The Bible provides us with many truths. It does so through a variety of literary styles, including parables, stories, poetry, etc. The New Testament describes a great deal of historical fact as well, much of it written by eye witnesses, but even Jesus frequently used parables to teach a particular truth (made up stories not intended to be taken literally).

Very simple. 

The Bible claims to be the inerrant words of god. Then all you have to do is find whether any part of it has erred.If it did erred, then it cannot be a book of facts or, by it own claim, the words of god.

It's a book of facts! It was written over a 1600 year period by about 40 different men who were all guided by the Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit) as to what to write. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God...." (2 Timothy 3:16)

In short it is the Lord's own Word to us as He was the author.

I have studies the scriptures for years and am able to personally testify that the contents are VERY factual.

The Bible is full of prophesy and almost all the prophesies have already been fulfilled with astonishing accuracy. No one but the Lord could have prophesied the fulfillment of His prophesies with such astonishing accuracy.

Almost all the prophesies were predicted hundreds of years before their fulfillment all of which is well beyond the ability of man to have made such predictions.

The Lord tells us in His Word that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem In the Old Testament book of Micah (5:2) some 700 years before the event which He was.

In the book of Genesis chapter 50, Joseph said that his bones were to be carried out of Egypt after he died. Some 400 years later, his remains were carried out at the time of the exodus.

Over 3500 years before man admitted it with the telescope, the Lord had said that the stars were too many to number. (Genesis 15:5).

Over 2200 years before Columbus proved it, God said that the earth is a sphere in the book of Isaiah 40:22). Who else back then could have known it?

Jeremiah 34:3 The impossible prediction that Zedekiah would see the king of Babylon, yet would never see Babylon though he'd go there. Ezekiel 12:13 Only God could have known that his eyes would be put out (2 Kings 25:6-7).

During the 24 hour period  ending with Christ's burial, at lest 25 specific predictions about Him were fulfilled. Such specific occurrences as His betrayal for 30 pieces of silver. (Zechariah 11:12) Predicted 480 years before the event.

Desertion by His disciples. (Zechariah 13:7) 480 years before the event.

None of His bones would be broken (Psalm 34:20) Approximately 930 years before the event.

The Lord would be buried in a rich man's tomb (Isaiah 53:9) Approximately 681 years before the event.

The scriptures also tell us all about the end times and just one such event is found in the book of Revelation where it mentions the two witnesses who will be on earth during the coming Great Tribulation. The apostle John was the one who penned Revelation which was about 1900 years ago. John tells us that these two witnesses will finally be over powered by the the beast and killed. Their dead bodies will lie in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days and the whole world will see them laying there. Today we know how the whole world will see it as we now have the media of television.

The Bible makes for fascinating reading and would encourage everyone to seriously read it as it shows us the way to eternal life which is given as a free gift to any one at all who wants to spend eternity with the Lord.

Blessings 

Fact.

When we encounter evidence that touches on its historicity, and even in areas of science, the Bible is always correct.

For example, it used to be that proof that the Bible was fiction was its mention of the Hittite people, since there were no records of such a nation anyplace other than the Bible--until around 1900 when archaeologists found their remains in modern Turkey.  Similarly, until the 1960s, there was the "steady state theory" of the universe where it always existed, but now we know it had a beginning.  More recently, even "dark matter", a theoretical substance no one can see, appears to dovetail with divine revelation.

Hebrews 11:3 By faith, we see the world called into existence by God’s word, what we see created by what we don’t see.

It is the Greatest work of Fiction ever written.

well we wont know til we are dead hahah best to try to believe while we are alive.....but hey, i dont believe the other mob saying its evolution/or big bang or we  crawled from the sea 

.what rubbish!!   .all the things in the world are pretty perfect how they all work,even a little ant  so id rather try believe in God  

It's both.  Form criticism enables us to identify the intent of different texts within it and sometimes the accuracy can be verified.  However, almost all of the time the message is more important than whether it actually happened.

Fiction. There isn't any good archaeological evidence for its claims.

Philo and Josephus disagree about what the gospels say about the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

The new testament is pretty well documented.

It was assembled from parts written by many different people over a couple of hundred years at least, and none of it was written by people alive at the time of the events depicted in it.In other words it is a collection of fiction and myths.