Chapter Two -

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT

The ancient nations, cut off from the real God, almost invariably worshipped idols. The masses needed gods near at hand-and this meant those that could be seen. Before God could instruct Israel how to properly worship Him, He first had to show them how not to worship Him.

..."slickWindow('Exodus','20','4-6')" title="View scripture">Exodus 20:4-6 records the Second Commandment. Here is God's explicit directive: "YOU SHALL NOT MAKE UNTO YOU ANY GRAVEN IMAGE, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments."

God specifically defined the forbidden ways that were used to worship idols. He realized human nature's tendency to justify loopholes around His instructions.

The First Commandment forbids having other gods before the true God. The Second Commandment forbids using an image to represent the true God, or any false god. This commandment deals specifically with using physical images for worship or as representations of anything related to worship. This does not condemn the existence of statues or pictures in general-only their use for worship. Therefore, using any statue or picture to represent God is expressly forbidden. Man is to worship, bow down to and serve the Creator God. God does not allow man to transfer this same honor to an image representing Him. He strongly warned Israel of this danger.

Notice God's specific instructions to Moses: "You shall not make with Me gods of silver, neither shall you make unto you gods of gold" (..."slickWindow('Exodus','20','23')" title="View scripture">Ex. 20:23). These were God's first words to Moses after giving him the Ten Commandments!

Again, notice ..."slickWindow('Exodus','20','5-6')" title="View scripture">verses 5-6: "...for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments." If people persist in idol worship, God will not only punish them, but also their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. No other commandment gives such detailed implications.

However, Almighty God promises to bless those who love and obey Him!

God's Warnings to Israel

..."slickWindow('Leviticus','26','1')" title="View scripture">Leviticus 26:1 warns, "You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God."

In turning away from worshipping such images, Israel went against the current of the surrounding nations, as well as their carnal human nature. The natural mind seeks for some image to represent the god it worships. Human nature finds it easier to worship a physical object than to worship the invisible God. The Second Commandment forbids using images to assist or remind in worshipping God.

..."slickWindow('Deuteronomy','4','15-20')" title="View scripture">Deuteronomy 4:15-20 expands upon this in greater detail: "Take you therefore good heed unto yourselves; for you saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spoke unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, the likeness of any thing that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth: and lest you lift up your eyes unto heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, should be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord your God has divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. But the Lord has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as you are this day."

The ancient Greeks worshipped as many as five thousand gods, mostly images of men and women. Many of the nations around Israel worshipped images of various land, air and sea creatures, such as the Philistine fish god, Dagon. The Babylonians and others worshipped the "host of heaven"-the sun, moon and stars.

Here is how Moses warned Israel about idolatry: "Take heed unto yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God" (..."slickWindow('Deuteronomy','4','23-24')" title="View scripture">Deut. 4:23-24).

Israel's Track Record

How well did Israel listen? In only a matter of days during Moses' absence, Aaron, under pressure from certain people, allowed them to mold a golden calf. The worship of the calf was followed by a celebration in which the people "sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play" (..."slickWindow('Exodus','32','1-6')" title="View scripture">Ex. 32:1-6).

..."slickWindow('Judges','2','ALL')" title="View scripture">Judges 2 summarizes Israel's record for about three centuries after arriving in the Promised Land. Less than a generation after Joshua's death, a cycle started. Israel would turn from God, and then He would deliver them into subjection or captivity. They would repent and turn back to God, who would deliver them from their enemy. As Israel began to prosper due to God's blessings, they would soon turn away again and the cycle would repeat itself. In departing from God, one of the first things that Israel adopted was idol worship.

..."slickWindow('Judges','17','ALL')" title="View scripture">Judges 17 and ..."slickWindow('Judges','18','ALL')" title="View scripture">18 record how low Israel had descended. A Levite named Micah had come to possess a "valuable" idol. He was elated to expand his collection of idols. ..."slickWindow('Judges','17','6')" title="View scripture">Judges 17:6 shows the extent to which Israel had forgotten God's ways. Notice: "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Studying such accounts should help you appreciate the order and harmony that flow from obeying God's laws.

..."slickWindow('Psalms','78','56-58')" title="View scripture">Psalms 78:56-58 records, "Yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not His testimonies: but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images."

Pictures of "Christ"

God expressly forbids the use of any pictures or images to represent Him. Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of God the Father, serving as our High Priest. There is no justification for any images or pictures of Christ. Even pictures in general are forbidden to be worshipped. Israel was to destroy pictures and images belonging to the nations that occupied the Promised Land: "Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places" (..."slickWindow('Numbers','33','52')" title="View scripture">Num. 33:52).

Pictures of Christ are often found in bibles and other literature and on the walls of homes and churches. They are prominent in Protestant churches, as well as Catholic churches that take the extra step of adding statues of Christ and Mary. Not only are these pictures and images forbidden, those that supposedly represent Christ bear no resemblance whatsoever to the way He really appeared. For instance, we know that Christ was Jewish, as the Bible states: "For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah" (..."slickWindow('Hebrews','7','14')" title="View scripture">Heb. 7:14). This is not the usual picture presented either by popular artwork or Hollywood.

Also, Christ is always depicted as having long hair. However, He inspired Paul to write, "Does not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?" (..."slickWindow('1 Corinthians','11','14')" title="View scripture">I Cor. 11:14). During Christ's time, the Romans typically had short haircuts. Statues exist today of various Romans and people of other races at that time, in which their hair length is short.

Some confuse Christ's appearance with the Nazarites. This is because they confuse Nazarites with Nazarenes. Nazarites were those who took the Nazarite vow. They were not to cut their hair or beard during the time of their service (..."slickWindow('Numbers','6','5')" title="View scripture">Num. 6:5). Upon completing their vow, they shaved their heads (..."slickWindow('Numbers','6','18')" title="View scripture">Num. 6:18). Nazarenes were people who came from the town of Nazareth. The term Nazarite vow has nothing to do with this town, in which Christ grew up.

Pictures of Christ existed as early as 400 years after His death. These "pictures" were paintings that artists conjured up to show how Jesus "must have appeared." Not surprisingly, most all of these early painters were steeped in counterfeit Christianity.

This explains in part why, instead of portraying Christ as a Jew with short hair, the early images bore a remarkable resemblance to the Roman god Jupiter, who supposedly ruled over all the other gods. Jupiter was attributed to have overthrown his father, Saturn, taking over the rule of the world. This meshed perfectly with the theology of the counterfeit church, which portrayed Jesus as having now superseded the God of the Old Testament, whom they incorrectly identified as God the Father. False teachers portray the theology of Christ as vetoing the harsh rule of God the Father and replacing those "harsh Ten Commandments" with "love and tolerance."

The use of this image of Jupiter Olympus gained momentum, like all the other false doctrines the counterfeit church perpetuated. Today, people who think that they worship Christ are worshipping something entirely different-in appearance as well as substance!

Recall that the Jews paid Judas Iscariot to lead them to Christ. Upon betraying Christ, Judas did not describe Him in the following manner: "Well, He has this sad, sanctimonious look and exceptionally long hair. He will probably be carrying a lamb on His shoulder and you just could not miss that glowing halo."

In reality, Christ looked like the average Jew of His day-and so much so that Judas specifically identified Him by kissing Him. Like any carpenter of His time, Christ would have had a weather-seasoned, masculine appearance-not the soft features imagined by painters centuries later. The prophet Isaiah was inspired to record, "For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him" (..."slickWindow('Isaiah','53','2')" title="View scripture">53:2).

The world's concept of who and what Christ was is as false as its idea of what He actually looked like! (You may read our article "Did Jesus Have Long Hair? - Proper Hair Lengths and Styles in God's Church" for more detail.)

A Church Sanctions Idolatry

As an extension of the Babylonian Mysteries religion, the early Catholic church continued their centuries-old tradition of image worship. The true Church exposed the Catholics' blatant idolatry in the early centuries. In order to avoid condemnation and negative publicity, the Catholic church had to do one of two things: either cease this practice, or change the biblical laws regarding idolatry.

Not surprisingly, they chose the latter.

The theologian/scholar who "saved the day" was Augustine (A.D. 354-430). This man carefully re-structured the Ten Commandments to minimize the direct assault that the Second Commandment brought upon them.

The Second Commandment condemns image worship. Therefore, by "combining" the first and second commandments, Augustine essentially "did away" with the Second Commandment. In order to maintain a total of ten, he split the last commandment into two separate commands. This "re-arrangement" changed the Ninth Commandment to read, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife," and the Tenth to read, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house."

After breaking away from the Roman church, Martin Luther retained the Catholic texts of the Bible including the Augustine division.

Notice the following quote from The Encyclopedia Britannica: "The Church of Rome and the Lutherans adopt the Augustine division...combining into one the first and second commandments of Philo, and splitting his tenth commandment into two" (11th edition, Vol.7, p. 907). Philo was an eminent Jewish scholar of the early first century. He advocated the proper division of the Ten Commandments, as they appear in the King James Version of the Bible.

In combining the first two commandments, Augustine blatantly altered the Ten Commandments. Also, the splitting of the Tenth Commandment presents an unnatural and transparent attempt to alter God's Word.

In ..."slickWindow('Romans','13','9')" title="View scripture">Romans 13:9, Paul mentions all five of the last commandments and makes no distinction in the one forbidding coveting. In ..."slickWindow('Romans','7','7')" title="View scripture">Romans 7:7, he states, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet." We would expect to find this intact as one commandment, since Augustine did not make the change until about 350 years after Paul's death.

If the Bible you are reading is a classic Catholic Bible, this will explain why the Ten Commandments, as listed from the King James Version, differ from your version. Not all Catholic versions contain this Augustine division. If your Bible does not include the Second Commandment in its true form, obtain a more objective, less corrupted version of the Bible. (You may also read our article "Which Bible Translations Should You Use?")

Now read ..."slickWindow('Deuteronomy','4','1-2')" title="View scripture">Deuteronomy 4:1-2: "Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers gives you. You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you."

Why would Augustine and other theologians and scholars not fear to violate this direct command from God? Did they willingly violate it for the same reason that they defied the Sabbath commandment and most of the laws and statutes of God? (Read our booklet Many shall come IN MY NAME.)

Idolatry in Perspective

Without God's Spirit, the human mind is naturally inclined to worship images. Someone who breaks the First Commandment will eventually break the Second Commandment.

Satan the devil has capitalized upon this. He knows that breaking one commandment leads to breaking another. For example, in many pagan religions, adultery-violation of the Seventh Commandment-was actually part of the worship rituals.

A true worshipper of God will not seek or need an image to assist in his worship: "But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (..."slickWindow('John','4','23-24')" title="View scripture">John 4:23-24).

What If...?

This time, we ask: What if the whole world kept the Second Commandment? Not only would image worship disappear, but there would also be a ripple effect. The curses brought upon all humanity for breaking this law would no longer exist. Every faction of false Christianity would cease its worship of pictures and images. Virtually every other religion in this world would lose its core attraction. For example, what good would Buddhism be without a statue of Buddha? The world would move one giant step closer to God.