When I was growing up, I was encouraged to learn my memory verses because there would come a time, I was told, when our Bibles would be taken from us. Then, like the Waldenses, the only scriptures at our disposal would be what we had committed to memory, and whatever portions of Scripture we had sewn into our clothes.

In the meantime, the threat to the viability of the Bible has come from a surprising source: the unprecedented increase of secularism and atheism around the world. In many parts of Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, and North America, the Bible hasn’t gone away—it has simply stopped being an influence in society. And while we have access to the Bible in more forms and in more translations than ever, people are reading it less and ignoring its counsels more.

Which leaves us with an extraordinary challenge: To communicate Bible truths without the benefit of quoting the Bible.

Oddly, after 2,000 years Christianity has more than made its mark on society. So that even if people don’t read the Bible, they still know about the Ten Commandments (although they probably aren’t able to quote more than a couple of them), the good Samaritan, and the phrases “the light of the world,” “the salt of the earth,” “the greatest of these is love,” and the golden rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

In fact, it’s probably this last phrase with which people are best acquainted, and by which they judge those of us who call ourselves Christians. And while we might wish that people are interested in our interpretation of the Bible, they probably want more than anything to see a demonstration of Bible truth, for actions speak louder than, you know.