I was not always clear about the difference between the First and Second Command-

ment until I started doing more in-depth research into their meanings. The First

Commandment tells us to have "no other gods," which would certainly include
"idols." But, then, the Second Commandment tells us not to make any "graven
images," or idols. What is the difference, really?

A brief explanation from Dummelow's Bible Commentary set me in the right direction:
"If the First Commandment implies the truth of God's unity, the Second implies that of
His spirituality. Israel is forbidden to worship even the true God under any external
form. God is not like anything that human hands can make."

That explanation falls into line with the teachings of Christian Science: that God is
Spirit only, and is to be worshipped only through spiritual avenues, rather than
material means and methods. It was also taught in the Bible by John, in his book,
chapter 4: "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship

the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a

Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

For the Israelites, the Second Commandment forbade them to create idols of wood
or stone or metal, and then proclaim them to be God -- either as representatives of
the one true God, or as "other gods" separate from Him.

In our day and age, in order to be obedient to the Second Commandment, we must
examine our concepts of worship to ferret out any materialism. We might think we
are worshipping the one Supreme Being by our daily or weekly rituals, but it is
possible that these rituals do not represent our highest means of worship. We also
may find that we are empowering certain material things or activities with the ability
to make us happy or sad. We have to monitor the images engraven in our minds to see
if they represent any idols we may have thoughtlessly created. Do we serve these
images, or do we serve God, Spirit? That is what we will explore now through the
teachings of Christian Science.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM:

"Anthropomorphism" is defined in Webster's as "the attributing of human shape or
characteristics to a god, animal, or inanimate thing." It describes the weakness that
humans have for trying to make God more like them, in order to better understand
Him, rather than trying to understand God, and then becoming more like Him. We are
told right up front in Genesis, that man was made "in the image and likeness" of God.
Some religions teach, therefore, that God must be like us -- with human attributes --
only bigger and more powerful.

Christian Science teaches that man must be the likeness God as a spiritual reflection
of the one infinite Spirit. The material body and world we experience with the five
physical senses, therefore, must be a lie about our true identity. The second chapter
of Genesis, with its allegory about the mists that went up from the earth, the deep
sleep that fell upon Adam, and the mesmerism of the "talking serpent," point to the
fact that human existence is a dream, or hypnotic state, from which mankind needs
to awaken. Working daily with the Second Commandment will help to guide our
thoughts and action away from the mesmerizing images that would keep us from
recognizing our need for spiritual enlightenment.

One aspect of that search for understanding is watching that we do not outline

God in human terms or forms. Here are some citations from the writings of

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, which

discuss the idea of anthropomorphism:

"The Jewish tribal Jehovah was a man-projected God, liable to wrath, repentence,
and human changeableness. The Christian Science God is universal, eternal, divine
Love, which changeth not and causeth no evil, disease, nor death. It is indeed mourn-
fully true that the older Scripture is reversed. In the beginning God created man in
His, God's image; but mortals would procreate man, and make God in their own
human image. What is the god of a mortal, but a mortal magnified?"

(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 140)

"The material senses and human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into
material beliefs, and would say that an anthropomorphic God, instead of infinite
Principle, -- in other words, divine Love, -- is the father of the rain, 'who hath
begotten the drops of dew,' who bringeth 'forth Mazzaroth in his season,' and guideth
'Arcturus with his sons.'" (S&H 257)

"We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity, which Jesus required,
while error seems as potent and real to us as Truth, and while we make a personal
devil and an anthropomorphic God our starting-points, -- especially if we consider
Satan as a being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him. Because such
starting-points are neither spiritual nor scientific, they cannot work out the Spirit-rule
of Christian healing, which proves the nothingness of error, discord, by demonstrating
the all-inclusiveness of harmonious Truth." (S&H 351)

"In one of the ancient languages the word for man is used also as the synonym of
mind. This definition has been weakened by anthropomorphism, or a humanization
of Deity. The word anthropomorphic, in such a phrase as 'an anthropomorphic God,'
is derived from two Greek words, signifyingman and form, and may be defined as
a mortally mental attempt to reduce Deity to corporeality." (S&H 516-517)

IDOLATRY:

Turning God into human-like dimensions is a form of idolatry. But, as every
Christian Science Sunday School pupil likes to ask, if God made man in His "image
and likeness," where did evil and idolatry come from?

As I already mentioned above, the second chapter of Genesis shows, through
symbolism in its allegory of Adam and Eve, the deception which lured man away
from his relationship to God. In the following citations regarding "idolatry," see
how often Mrs. Eddy points the blame where it belongs: the illusion of life in matter
and a mind in mortals.

Turning God into human-like dimensions is a form of idolatry. But, as every
Christian Science Sunday School pupil likes to ask, if God made man in His "image
and likeness," where did evil and idolatry come from?

As I already mentioned above, the second chapter of Genesis shows, through
symbolism in its allegory of Adam and Eve, the deception which lured man away
from his relationship to God. In the following citations regarding "idolatry," see how
often Mrs. Eddy points the blame where it belongs: the illusion of life in matter and
a mind in mortals.

"SERPENT. . . . the first statement of mythology and idolatry. (S&H 594)

"The first idolatry was faith in matter." (S&H 146)

"LORD GOD. Jehovah.
This double term is not used in the first chapter of Genesis, the record of spiritual
creation. It is introduced in the second and following chapters, when the spiritual
sense of God and of infinity is disappearing from the recorder's thought -- when the
true scientific statements of the Scriptures become clouded through a physical sense
of God as finite and corporeal. From this follow idolatry and mythology, -- belief
in many gods, or material intelligences, as the opposite of the one Spirit, or intelli-
gence, named Elohim, or God." (S&H 590-591)

"Heathen mythology and Jewish theology have perpetuated the fallacy that intelli-
gence, soul, and life can be in matter; and idolatry and ritualism are the outcome of
all man-made beliefs. The Science of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate
the chaff from the wheat." (S&H 466)

"We bow down to matter, and entertain finite thoughts of God like the pagan idolater.
Mortals are inclined to fear and to obey what they consider a material body more
than they do a spiritual God. All material knowledge, like the original 'tree of know-
ledge,' multiplies their pains, for mortal illusions would rob God, slay man, and mean-
while would spread their table with cannibal tidbits and give thanks." (S&H 214)

"The idols of civilization are far more fatal to health and longevity than are the idols
of barbarism. . . . Is civilization only a higher form of idolatry that man should bow
down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to baths, diet, exercise, and air?" (S&H 173-174)

"We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when after admitting that God, or
good, is omnipresent and has all-power, we still believe there is another power,
named evil. This belief that there is more than one mind is as pernicious to divine
theology as are ancient mythology and pagan idolatry." (S&H 469)

"Idolatry sprang from the belief that God is a form, more than an infinite and divine
Mind; . . ." (People's Idea of God 4)

"The question is often asked, If God created only the good, whence comes the evil?
To this question Christian Science replies: Evil never did exist as an entity. It is
but a belief that there is an opposite intelligence to God. This belief is a species of
idolatry, and is not more true or real than that an image graven on wood or stone is
God." (Miscellaneous Writings 346)

"We learn from the Scriptures that the Baalites or sunworshippers failed to look
'through nature up to nature's God,' thus missing the discovery of all cause and effect.
They were content to look no higher than the symbol. This departure from Spirit, this
worshipping of matter in the name of nature, was idolatry then and is idolatry now.
When human thought discerned its idolatrous tendencies, it took a step higher; but it
immediately turned to another form of idolatry, and, worshipping person instead of
Principle, anchored its faith in troubled waters. At that period, the touch of Jesus'
robe and the handkerchief of St. Paul were supposed to heal the sick, and our Master
declared, 'Thy faith hath made thee whole.' The medicine-man, far lower in the scale
of thought, said, 'My material tonic has strengthened you.' By reposing faith in man
and in matter, the human race has not yet reached the understanding of God, the
conception of Spirit and it's all-power." (Miscellany 151)

Click here to continue with The Second Commandment

The Second Commandment for Children

Practicing the Second Commandment in Daily Life