The WASHINGTON POST reports on a recent study of how flippantly people regard the terms and conditions of even the most basic of contracts:
In an experiment sponsored by security firm F-Secure, an open Wi-Fi network was set up in a busy public area. When people connected, they were presented with lengthy terms and conditions.
But to see just how little attention we pay when checking that agreement box, F-Secure included a “Herod clause” — one that offered up free Wi-Fi in exchange for the company’s permanent ownership of the user’s firstborn child.
A company would probably have trouble getting you to hand over your pride and joy (even if you were technically contractually obligated), so don’t panic. But this hapless agreement to terms is pretty common: A 2011 survey found that 58 percent of adults would rather read an instruction manual … than go through online terms and conditions. Even the phone book was a more palatable read for 12 percent of those surveyed….
This new study isn’t the first of its kind: On April Fool’s Day in 2010, a host of U.K. shoppers were tricked into signing away their immortal souls. [1]
Did you know that the term The New Testament actually means The New Contract? That being said, how much attention have you given to the terms and conditions of God’s contract with you?
When it comes to a relationship with God, far too many of us would rather read the phone book than read the Bible, wherein we’d discover that no amount of religiosity, morality, or good deeds are sufficient to gain an eternal relationship with God.
No, we must come to God on His terms: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). These are the terms of His contract, the new covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20).
Ignore these terms and conditions and you actually could end up signing away your immortal soul.
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1. “Londoners accidentally pay for free Wi-Fi with a firstborn, because no one reads anymore” by Rachel Feltman, posted WASHINGTON POST, September 29, 2014