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What are the “best” and “most convincing proofs” leaves a good deal of latitude for the person in answering this question. With this in mind, it is important to clarify the word “proof.” The idea of proving something to be “true” is a scientific term. To prove means to allow for replication and repeatability. When we speak of God and faith, much like history or a criminal investigation, we speak instead of evidence for belief in God and faith in Christ. Below are five examples of evidence that support the trustworthiness of the Bible.Evidence of Prophecy:

One of the strongest arguments for supporting the Bible is its accuracy in predicting the future, called “prophecies.” The Old Testament was written between approximately 1450 BC and 430 BC. During that time, many predictions of the future were recorded in the Bible by God’s prophets. Of the events that were to have taken place by now, every one happened just the way they predicted it would. No other “sacred writing” has such perfectly accurate predictions of the future. Of these prophecies, the most striking examples are the predictions about an “anointed one” (“Messiah” in Hebrew) who was to arrive in the future. Jesus fulfilled more and more of these prophecies written about the Messiah. His fulfillment of these prophecies was very spectacular: Jesus gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, cured those who had leprosy, gave the deaf hearing, and raised people from the dead! These miracles and others were done many times in front of witnesses for three years. About 30 AD, Jesus was crucified (a prophecy) and died (a prophecy). Three days later he rose from the dead (another prophecy), after which He was seen by over 500 witnesses.

Textual Evidence:

Both the Old and New Testaments are strongly supported by manuscript evidence (the evidence of early hand written copies). The Dead Sea Scrolls are one example of the Old Testament evidence. These documents came from the “library” of a settlement founded at Qumran before 150 B.C. and abandoned about 68 A.D. Some of the manuscript copies were made during that period, and some were written earlier (third century BC) and brought to the settlement. Ignoring spelling-oriented (orthographic) changes and similar small differences, the Dead Sea Scrolls match the Hebrew text behind today’s Old Testament, in spite of the passage of over 2,000 years. Over 20,000 known manuscripts document the New Testament text. This makes the New Testament the most reliable document of antiquity (a document written before the printing press). These manuscripts vary in size from a part of a page to an entire Bible (Old and New Testaments). The earliest New Testament manuscripts date from the second century (100-199) AD These manuscript copies were written in different languages by people of different nationalities, cultures, and backgrounds. In spite of all those differences between them, the New Testament texts all agree.

Evidence of People living at the time of Christ:

Christians were strongly persecuted by both the Jews and the Roman government. If the New Testament writings were false, these two groups would have produced a great deal of evidence to stop the growth of this “sect.”Further, the New Testament writings (before they were assembled into the “book” we call the New Testament) circulated during the lifetimes of thousands of people who had actually seen Jesus’ miracles and other historic events.

Evidence of Archaeological Discoveries:

The more we dig up the more we confirm what is noted in the Bible. Lots of examples for this. Take a look at this link as an example of 10 important ones.

http://biblicalstudies.info/top10/schoville.htm

Evidence from History:

External evidence from both archaeology and non-Christian writers confirms that the Bible–both Old and New Testaments — is a trustworthy historical document. Archaeologist Joseph Free has said that “Archaeology has confirmed countless passages which had been rejected by critics as unhistorical or contrary to known facts.” Renowned Jewish archaeologist Nelson Gluek confidently said that “It … may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference. Scores of archeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible.” Christian apologist Josh McDowell tells us that “After personally trying to shatter the historicity and validity of the Scriptures, I have come to the conclusion that they are historically trustworthy.” Some scholars once said that Moses couldn’t have written the first five books of the Bible (as the Bible says) because writing was largely unknown in his day. Then, archaeology proved otherwise by the discovery of many other written codes of the period: the code of Hammurabi (ca. 1700 B.C.), the Lipit-Ishtar code (ca. 1860), and the Laws of Eshnunna (ca. 1950 B.C.). Critics used to say that the biblical description of the Hittite Empire was wrong because the Hittite Empire (they though) didn’t even exist! Then archaeologists discovered the Hittite capital in 1906 and discovered that the Hittite’s were actually a very vast and prominent civilization. Archaeological and linguistic evidence is increasingly pointing to a sixth-century B.C. date for the book of Daniel, in spite of the many critics who attempt to late-date Daniel and make it a prophecy after the detailed events it predicts. For the New Testament, Dr. G.R. Habermas points out that within 110 years of Christ’s crucifixion, approximately eighteen non-Christian sources mention more than “one hundred facts, beliefs, and teachings from the life of Christ and early Christendom. Liberal scholars used to argue that a town named Nazareth didn’t exist at the time of Jesus, until archaeology of the last few decades confirmed its existence. The Gospel’s portrayals of the temple, Pilate’s court, Jesus’ crown of thorns, and the mode of His execution have all also been confirmed.

Evidence of the Bible’s Self Authenticating Nature

Ultimately, however, evidences can can only point us in the direction, but not prove conclusively that the “Bible is the word of God”. However, people we were to take the “Bible is the word of God” as the first principle, and see their own lives, and the world, through the lenses of the Bible, they will find that this view of themselves and the world is rationale, accurate, coherent, and meaningful. As CS Lewis once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” It’s like seeing through the world through black-and-white lenses all our lives, and suddenly having the colour turned on.