I’ll admit it, I laughed when I saw this on a friend’s Facebook page.

From a linguistic perspective, I’m not sure God’s instructions to Adam and Eve were “terms and conditions” like Apple (and other tech companies) use for software, but I guess it is close enough.

Once I was finished laughing though, I took the time to reflect on the deeper theological implications. I think most people automatically click “accept” on the EULA (End User Licence Agreement) when it comes on their computer screen. They don’t really know what they have committed themselves to because they didn’t take the time to read the fine print. We go with the easy and if there are consequences, well, we’ll worry about those later. And if later we discover we have promised Microsoft or Facebook our first-born child, or unrestricted access to our bank account, we will just scream because it is unfair. We will conveniently ignore that it is our own fault for not reading the agreement.

The Bible could be seen as a EULA from a time before computers. It is the record of the agreement between God and humanity, a spelling out of what we can expect from the relationship, and the ramifications for both parties of violating the terms of service.

Have you read it? Do you understand the agreement? Have you clicked “accept?”