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The following points are drawn together as a cross between the overall ideas found in the Bible and a summary of its content.

• The Bible, especially the Old Testament, can be summarised as people “perpetually backsliding” from forgiveness and proper ways, back into derogative behaviour (Jeremiah 7:25-26).
• God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17).
• A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven (John 3:27).
• Whoever believes in the Son, has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son, shall not see life, but rather the wrath of God will remain on him. (John 3:36).
• The reason the Jews killed Jesus: Jesus was not only breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God (John 5:18).
• It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help to us at all (John 6:63).
• For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:11).
• Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him (1 Corinthians 7:17).
• “They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.” (Jeremiah 12:10) Showing how people can ruin everything for someone, no matter how content they were.
• Without love, you have nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2).
• By ‘faith’ we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible (Hebrews 11:3).
• Faith by itself, without work and actual deeds, is dead (James 2:17).

Current Day Influence

Aside from those who still follow the Bible today, whether it be to a higher or lower degree in their lives, everyone living in an officially Christian country is still largely affected by the religion today. This is because the points on the lists have an effect on the laws countries pass and their yearly calendars, and everyone is therefore affected in these regions whether they belong to this religion, another one, or none at all. The following points list some of the ways these individuals are influenced in their daily lives, followed by a second list of how people were affected in the past. The lists show some overlap.

• Holiday calendar which revolves around Christian celebrations, for example, Christmas and Easter.
• The year we live in is marked by Christ’s death.
• Traditional gender roles.
• Ideals about family and marriage.
• Divorce.
• Monogamy.
• Primary principles in life, do not murder, do not lie etc.
• Services provided to the less fortunate: homeless shelters, food banks etc.
• Human rights and social justice e.g., abortion, gay marriage, racism.
• Atheism.
• Education.
• Common everyday phrases in the English language.

Former Influence

• Holiday calendar which revolves around Christian celebrations, for example, Christmas and Easter.
• Traditional gender roles.
• Ideals about family and marriage.
• Divorce.
• Monogamy.
• Not allowed to use birth control methods.
• Art and architecture.
• Music.
• Philosophy.
• Stories that are told: limiting what can and cannot be included and the moral of the story.
• How books were read, in mass groupings, gathered together as a shared experience.
• Negations in scientific observation, for example, the world was round and gravity.
• Some religious groups being persecuted by high powers, meaning mass immigration and the settling of those religions and cultures in another area, for example, certain Christian believers to newly discovered America, Irish immigration to Spain to rebel against England’s rule in Ireland (1600s).
• Wars.
• Politics.
• Economics.
• Personal hygiene.
• Laws.
• Education: content and institutions attended.
• Health and hospitals.
• Social order and etiquette.
• Restrictions on sex lives, for example, no sex before marriage, it was for conceiving a child.
• Primary principles in life, do not murder, do not lie etc.
• The year we live in is marked by Christ’s death.
• Common everyday phrases in the English language.

The Bible. ESV, Good News Publishers, 2007.