Some scholars believe that William Shakespeare did not write Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet or any of the other brilliant plays with which he is credited. Some claim that Shakespeare was just a lackey used by the real author, and that the real author was Christopher Marlowe.
When these scholars make this claim, they invariably point to Marlowe's finest attributed work, Doctor Faustus. Is it merely coincidence, they ask, that a man capable of writing one of the best plays in history lived at the same time as the best playwright in history? Or is it more reasonable to assume that the author is one and the same?
Regardless of how one feels about this argument, it is hard to dispute the claim that Doctor Faustus is a masterpiece. After about 400 years, Marlowe's play has flourished as the granddaddy of the "selling your soul to the devil" genre. Countless copycat books and plays (including The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann) have been spawned by Marlowe's dark tale of a man willing to trade 24 years of selfish gratification for an eternity in hell.
Dr. John Faustus, the anti-hero of the story, is a man unconvinced of the reality of hell. Even after he summons a demon and enters into the bargain that condemns his soul, Faustus argues with the demon about the existence of hell: "Think'st thou that Faustus is so fond to imagine, that after this life there is any pain? No, these are trifles, and mere old wives' tales." In fact, Faustus decisively rejects all Christian doctrine based largely on the fact that, even if it is true, it is too harsh: "The reward of sin is death? That's hard."
And again: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us. Why then, belike, we must sin, and so consequently die. Ay, we must die an everlasting death. What doctrine call you this? Che sara, sara: What will be, shall be. Divinity adieu!"
As a result of his dislike for Christian doctrine, Faustus bids adieu to God and enters into a bargain with Lucifer, trading his soul for the pleasures of earth. He writes the pact with his own blood, and then enjoys a life of sin, grasping god-like knowledge and the "freedom" to engage in whatever actions he likes. The play ends with his destruction, and the lamentation of a friend that "The devils whom Faustus served have torn him thus..."
On the surface, Marlowe's play seems very Christian-friendly. What could fit the Christian worldview better than the story of a man rebelling against God, confronting the reality of the spiritual realm, and then suffering the consequences of that rebellion? The story is steeped in biblical imagery and has much to say about redemption. Surely this play encourages a Christian view of the world! And yet, if approached from the wrong perspective, Doctor Faustus actually encourages one of the most dangerous belief systems man can adopt: a worldview that might be best described as Santa-ism.
Especially prevalent in America today, Santa-ism relies on the vague belief that some god-like being created us and loves us, and doesn't care at all how we behave as long as we don't hurt each other. Adherents to this worldview don't worry about morality, because the god they envision is like Santa Claus—he likes us and wants to give things to us, and looks forward to letting everyone spend eternity playing harps with him in heaven.
All of us know Santa-ists. In America today, more than 80% of the population claim to believe in God, but only 38% believe that the Bible is the Word of God. Many of the people who believe in a god but deny the authority of scripture create a friendly grandfather god that lets them live however they choose. They frame their beliefs something like this: god is love, and someone that loves me would never hurt me; therefore, I can do whatever I please without incurring god's wrath.
As Christians know, such a worldview is deadly: when we fail to understand God's righteousness, we fail to understand our need for Christ as Savior. Until we understand that we are sinners cut off from God by our own sin, we won't embrace the Son Who sacrificed Himself for our sins.
On the surface, of course, Doctor Faustus does not seem to encourage a God-as-Santa belief system. After all, Faustus is a man cut off from God by his sin, a man desperately in need of a Savior. Isn't that the message of the play?
With the proper perspective, it is. But it's also dangerously easy to fall into the wrong perspective. How does Faustus cut himself off from God? By selling his soul to the devil. Only after specifically disowning God and allying himself with Lucifer does Faustus put his soul in jeopardy of hell. Only by granting Lucifer "full power to fetch or carry the said John Faustus, body and soul, flesh, blood, or goods, into [his] habitation" in a document written in his own blood, does Faustus grant permission for eternal damnation.
Such is the case here, and such is the case with most stories about selling one's soul to the devil. But is this the case in the real world?
Not according to scripture. The Bible makes it clear that every man is a sinner who has "earned" eternal damnation by virtue of his sin. We need not write a pact in blood, or conjure up a demon, or commit gross sins for 24 years, to merit hell. As sons and daughters of Adam, we carry the seed of rebellion within us, and are completely cut off from God whether we choose to articulate it or not. "All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one" (Psalm 14:3).
According to the Santa-ist view, god roots for us no matter what we do, as long as we don't explicitly tell him to get lost. He's content to see us pursue happiness, and to interfere only when we really want some new toy or circumstance. But this is completely at odds with the Christian worldview. The holy and just God of the Bible loves us, certainly, but His love requires Him to require perfection of us—something we cannot attain without Christ's atoning sacrifice. In short, man in the real world finds himself in the same desperate straits as John Faustus, whether or not he has explicitly sold his soul to Satan.
This, then, is the secret to keeping the proper perspective when reading Doctor Faustus or other stories in the same genre: we must recognize ourselves in Faustus. We, too, have chosen death— and our only hope is Jesus Christ. This principle is eloquently described by Joel Belz when he discusses Christ's parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7). Belz wonders about the 99 sheep that don't wander off—why is God more happy about rescuing the single lost sheep? The reason, Belz says, is because "the 99 sheep never really even existed." They were a "prop" for the story. He continues:
Indeed, there's really nobody at all like [those 99]. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Jesus was withering the Pharisees with irony when he spoke of the 99 sheep... "Go ahead and pretend," he was saying. "But it's only pretense." In the end, God's huge household is made up of just one category of people. All of us are sinners who have gotten tired, or are getting tired, of our sin.
We are all lost sheep. We all act in ways that separate us from God. And only one Shepherd can rescue us: Jesus Christ, Who died so that we might choose to be set free from our sin and live eternally with God.
The Santa-ist, of course, wants to believe the opposite: god doesn't judge; he just accepts us as we are. Unless we choose as Faustus chose and sell our soul to the devil, we'll be playing harps in eternity someday. But such a belief contradicts scripture, demoting God from perfect holiness to insipid friendliness, and cheapening His grace.
It's interesting: both Santa-ism and Christianity claim God is our friend, but two more different friends were never conceived. The Santa Claus god is simply a friend who looks the other way (and stays out of the way) when we do wrong; he'll pal around with anyone from Attila the Hun on down. The God of the Bible befriends hopeless sinners, too (including slave-traders like John Newton), but only after going to the gallows to sacrifice Himself for the punishment that Newton, and every man, deserves (John 15:13-14). One god-friend sacrifices all, and the other sacrifices only his integrity. Who's the better friend?
JEFF BALDWIN is the author of ian. He works full-time with World View Academy, training young people at camps across the country. Jeff will be teaching at upcoming camps this fall in Pennsylvania, Texas and South Carolina. Call today for more information: 1 -800-241 -1123.
Christianity & Literatureby Jeff Baldwin appears in every issue of New Attitude. Before the next issue of New Attitude arrives, serious students should read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien.