[continued from previous message]   
      
   [335] Psalm 104:1-6 & 19-23.   
      
   [336] Exodus 20:1-17.   
      
   It should be mentioned that, historically, there have been three distinct   
   systems for numbering the Ten Commandments, known also as the Decalogue.   
   Although all three systems maintained a total of ten commandments, the   
   structure of the first commandment    
   differs in each case. According to Jewish tradition, the first commandment   
   consists of nothing more than the prologue, wherein the Jewish God is defined   
   as the Prime Agent Who delivered the Jews from Egyptian slavery. The   
   prohibition against giving    
   preference to other gods, and the ban on making and worshipping idols are then   
   combined to form the second commandment. According to medieval Roman   
   tradition, which was also accepted by Martin Luther, all of the above was   
   taken to be the first    
   commandment, but still ten commandments were preserved by distinguishing, in   
   the last two commandments, between coveting someone's wife, and coveting   
   someone's possessions. Finally, according to the Greek Orthodox and Protestant   
   Reformed traditions, the    
   prologue and the prohibition against giving preference to other gods   
   constitute the first of the commandments; the injunction concerning idols is   
   taken as the second commandment.   
      
   In this book, the last system of enumeration above has been accepted as the   
   most logical arrangement although, in the final analysis, it makes little or   
   no difference which of these three systems is adopted. In any case, the   
   fundamental defects within    
   the Ten Commandments remain substantially unaltered, and no amount of juggling   
   of words can possibly remove those defects.   
      
   [337] This is, in fact, the only logical explanation for the aforementioned   
   line in the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Had   
   Moses been prepared to say that Jehovah was, or is the only God (as ultimately   
   Ikhneton did say    
   about Aton), then surely Moses would have reported his Jehovah as having said   
   to him, “There are no other gods except me.”   
      
   [338] Actually, many times within its first 1500 years, Christianity became   
   confined to such a limited territory that it seemed Christianity might well   
   disappear. One of the most significant effects of the Protestant Reformation   
   was that it inspired the    
   Roman Catholic Church to respond with a program for global expansion. About   
   two hundred years after the Reformation, the Protestant Churches also   
   developed a missionary approach and, within a short time, they not only caught   
   up with, but literally    
   surpassed the Roman Catholic Church in virtually every respect. Today,   
   Christianity is established as the world's largest religion, with an official   
   membership of more than one billion adherents. Furthermore, from a pure   
   geographical point of view, only    
   Christianity can make a substantive claim to being a bona fide world religion.   
      
   [339] 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.   
      
   [340] Of course, such an event never took place in any of the four Gospels,   
   nor was it even remotely possible in three out of four of the accounts.   
   Nevertheless, it is reasonable to concede this much poetic license to the   
   artists, considering the fact    
   that they did not exceed the boundaries of clerical propaganda.   
      
   [341] Exodus 20:8-11.   
      
   [342] In the early Church there was no formal system of canonization – the   
   first saint to be canonized being Ulrich, the Bishop of Augsburg, who died in   
   973, and was declared a saint by Pope John XV in 993. Nevertheless, the cult   
   of local martyrs was,    
   indeed, widespread, perhaps the more so because it was entirely regulated by   
   the Bishops of the concerned dioceses. Eventually, saints evolved to serve   
   almost every purpose under the sun and, along with those saints, there emerged   
   a thriving traffic in    
   bogus relics and holy sites. There were patron saints for health, travel,   
   fertility, and so on. When the Christian Church tried to replace the signs of   
   the Zodiac, often associated with the different parts of the body, with their   
   own patron saints, then    
   St. Blaisius ruled over throat and lungs, St. Apollonia dominated the teeth,   
   St. Erasmus controlled the abdomen, and Sts. Lucia and Triduana jointly   
   administered the two eyes. There were special saints to be worshipped for   
   curing specific diseases –    
   hence, chorea came to be known as St. Vitus' Dance, and Erysipelas as St.   
   Anthony's Fire.   
      
   One of the most popular saints was Christopher, patron of travelers and, in   
   this 20th Century, of motorists. Though recognition of Christopher dates back   
   to the 3rd Century, there is no historical evidence that he actually existed.   
   Belatedly dropped from    
   the official calendar of saints in 1969, Christopher's feast, dated 25 July in   
   the Roman Catholic Church, and 9 May in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is now no   
   longer obligatory for the Universal Christian Church. However, if all of the   
   miracles associated    
   with St. Christopher are today to be discounted because of his mythological   
   nature, because of his omission in history, one may well wonder what   
   significance should be attached to all of the miracles associated with any of   
   the saints, or even with Jesus    
   and Mary, themselves. The popular importance of these Saints may be grasped   
   when considering the theological debate which erupted after Alaric's Goths   
   sacked Rome in the year 410 A.D. The patron saints of Rome are Peter and Paul,   
   and so what the people    
   of Rome clamored to know was, why Peter and Paul – not Jesus and Mary, but   
   Peter and Paul – had failed to protect their city.   
      
   [343] Cherishing little or no real love for humanity, the standard bearers of   
   popular religion never flinched, nor do they now, from applying force of arms,   
   wiles and finance to win some petty mundane advantage. In this respect even   
   Buddhism, widely    
   regarded as one of the most tolerant and least violent of the world religions,   
   had its bloody period some sixteen to seventeen hundred years ago. At that   
   time in India, particularly in Bengal, many thousands of innocent human beings   
   were sacrificed on    
   the altars of Vajrayana Buddhism, in order to gain material boons from the   
   deities.   
      
   [344] Roman Mithraism was a religion which offered intense loyalty to the   
   King. Hence, it was encouraged by several Roman Emperors such as Commodus   
   (180-192), Septemius Severus (193-211) and Caracalla (211-217). When   
   Diocletian sought to revive a Roman    
   state religion, he also dedicated an altar to Mithra as patron of the Empire.   
   But, in 312, Constantine defeated Diocletian at the battle of Milvian Bridge –   
   allegedly, as popular legend has it, after Constantine had witnessed the sign   
   of the cross with    
   the words “in hoc signo vinces” – and so it happened that imperial favor   
   shifted to Christianity, and the worship of Mithra fell into decline. From a   
   political point of view, Constantine's support for Christianity made good   
   sense, for Christianity was at    
   least the equal of Mithraism when it came to the question of abject obedience   
   to the King. (See, for example, Romans 13:1-7.) In the year 380, the Emperor   
   Theodosius declared Christianity as the official state religion.   
      
      
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