Faustus traded his soul in exchange for worldly knowledge and service from demons. Fiction is not always stranger than truth. In our ancient history, humans contracted to lifelong servitude in exchange for receiving soul.
Life is Complex
In law, a contract arises through offer and acceptance. Other elements must also be present such as intention, capacity, certainty, and consideration. Above all, if an offer is not accepted, there is no contract. In this context, acceptance is an agreement to satisfy specific terms and conditions important to the contracting parties.
There is another consideration. In the field of psychology, acceptance is recognition and acquiescence of reality. Typically, it’s resigned acceptance to a harsh realisation, for example: our job becomes redundant, or someone we love is diagnosed with serious illness. Usually, this acceptance follows a behavioural process characterised by six stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, and reconstruction.
While the first form of acceptance above seems less severe than the second, it is no less complicated. Entering contracts is fraught with difficulties and tense negotiations, sometimes so intense that the contractual process breaks down and requires arbitration for it to find successful conclusion.
Curse, Suffering, Terror and Dread
Although potentially unpleasant, dealing with contracts and uncomfortable realisations is the easy part of our existence. Accepting who and why we are is more complex.
On human purpose, Judaeo-Christian tradition teaches two views: pre-flood, and post-flood.
We are told before the flood, ‘God’ (who created humans in ‘our own image, in the likeness of ourselves’ – note the plural) instructed humans to “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it” (Genesis 1: 28). We are also told that because humans ate from the tree which ‘God’ had forbidden, the soil of the earth would be accursed for humans, and we would suffer to get food from it until we die (Genesis 3: 17-19).
After the flood, we are told that ‘God’ instructed surviving humans to “be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Be the terror and dread of all wild beasts and birds of heaven, of everything that crawls on the ground and all the fish of the sea” (Genesis 9: 1-2).
So, our contracted purpose is to act on behalf of ‘God’ – a manipulative, vengeful, xenophobic, and self-proclaimed jealous god – to procreate and dominate the earth and be the terror and dread of all living things. We do a fine job.
It seems the contract – the covenant – offered by ‘God’ was wholly accepted by us humans. In exchange for soul, we obliviously over-populate and conquer, and we are resigned to the uncomfortable realisation that this is the whole contract: we are the terror and dread – the suffering of this planet – until we die.
Less is More
Should we accept our contracted purpose from ‘God’? Is our questioning of this tantamount to sin? Does it make us bad? Do we see acceptance as obedience to a one-sided contract, or as dejected resignation to this life being ‘as good as it gets’? Is there an alternative acceptance? Can we transcend this futility? Can we become more than the terror and dread of the earth?
The alternative starts with deeply understanding who and what the ONE true God really is. Within every living human, in addition to soul that makes us live, there is spirit from the ONE. In most of us, that spirit lies dormant because we are unconscious of it. Accessing the spirit starts with our understanding that we are more than the ego-centric mortal flesh that imprisons the soul.
While an alternative acceptance is possible, it depends on us becoming soul conscious, spiritually enlightened, and ultimately re-integrated with the ONE. It’s a choice backed by action; essentially simple, but something we find difficult to do. Many of us are ignorant, sceptical, ashamed, or fearful. What will others think if we accept the ONE?
Voiding the Contract
In truth, there is no contract with and from ‘God’, which we broke to become ’original sinners’ doomed to lifelong suffering from our own terror and dread. These notions are a legacy bestowed upon us by our Fallen creators.
Sadly, we must live in this Fallen world; we must tolerate its terror and dread until we die. But, through the spirit of the ONE, we can choose to be ‘passers-by’ and to ‘fast from this world’ (see Gospel of Thomas, sayings 42 and 27).
“When you strip without being ashamed and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample them, then you will see the child of the living one and you will not be afraid” (Gospel of Thomas, saying 37).
Another way of reading this is: when you discard (both figuratively and materially) the human body and earthly system that imprisons your soul, and you take the clothing (the ego-centric bodily flesh and false social veneer) of your human identity and reject it with innocent abandonment, you will see yourself as the child – the spirit endowed soul – of the ONE, and you will not be afraid.
There is no contract without acceptance. The contract made by ‘God’ with the root of humanity is voidable on the grounds of repeated fraudulent misrepresentation by that ‘God’. I do not accept that contract; I unashamedly strip it off and trample on it.
Michael Beaton
Author of Transcendence – A Search for Meaning and Hope (Available on amazon.co.uk). Also see Michael’s blog at: https://john3-6.blogspot.com
Article published in More to Life – Edition 64
