Big decisions every Christian needs to make in evaluating the Bible

I think most Christians, but perhaps especially Protestants, have experienced doubts about the role of The Bible in their faith. 

On the one hand, it seems to be the core evidence concerning Jesus Christ's life, work and his teachings. On the other hand; it also seems intrinsically unsatisfactory for so much to hinge upon A Book. 

There are just So many problems with this! So many questions that need to be answered, if we are to pin everything that is most important upon A Book. .  

Which particular question strikes each person as most significant varies. Since modern Man developed greater self-awareness and a compulsively questioning consciousness, matters which previous generations simply "took for granted" becomes doubtful. 

Modern Man exists (as a fact of his existence) in a mind-space outside his own culture, and indeed alienated from himself. This reality can only be avoided by not-thinking about it, by not-taking-responsibility - and - here-and-now, in a secular and materialist culture - not-thinking leads away from Christianity. As has been the clear trend for more than two centuries.   

There are, of course, matters of the constraints of communication, and relating to language, translation textual accuracy; and the problem of understanding meaning, when what is written is in the context a different culture with different expectations, knowledge and assumptions.  

For me, the most personally significant doubts are more fundamental; and begin with the questions of who compiled the Bible, on what principles, and with what authority to decide both the content and arrangement?

Even more fundamentally, how and why was the role of the Bible in Christian faith decided, and on what grounds?

My point is neither to assert that doubts about the Bible need to be fatal, nor to provide pseudo-objective answers to the multiplicity of problems; but instead to emphasize that the whole question of "The Bible" inevitably and unavoidably leads back to each individual person (you and me) making assumptions. 

We can choose to take our assumptions from external sources, but which external source, and which grounds for choice we find compelling, will itself entail assumptions. 

Personal assumptions are inescapable in both the aspects of being personal and being an assumption hence a choice - although this reality can be, and often is, denied!

The Bible does not make a Christian; rather the Christian makes The Bible, or rather A Bible. 

His Bible is another Mans Bible to very widely variable degrees, and in many various ways. 

Indeed, The Bible is optional to Christian faith*. A Man might follow Christ to resurrected eternal life without knowing The Bible; or this might be a choice.  

For me, all of this means that there is no objective basis for The Bible; and its usage and value are ultimately rooted in personal faith. 

And what doubts apply to The Bible, and the necessity for personal assumptions, applies (mutatis mutandis) to each and all of the sources of Christian knowledge, including the self-identified Christian churches, theology and philosophy, and such academic disciplines as history.   

In the end, I think we reach the conclusion that The Bible cannot be the basis of Christian faith; unless, and only in such ways as, we have personally assumed - and thereby made it such.

*It seems obvious to me that God the Creator and our loving Father would not have made a world for His children that depended upon each and every one of them having access to a particular book, and reaching a true understanding of that book. (Neither would God have made a world in which salvation depended upon the intermediary of a particular church.) The implication I find inescapable; is that the bottom-line of Christian faith cannot be any-thing external, but can and must be something that is some combination of that which is innate to every Man, and that which happens directly and unmediated between Man and God. Of course, this conviction renders the socio-political aspects of traditional Christianity untenable - which is the reason why so few will accept the obvious... I mean, most Christians are primarily and essentially interested and motivated by the socio-political possibilities of the religion.