Many Protestants and non-believers accuse Catholics of practicing idolatry because they have images or statues inside their Churches. Is their accusation true or not?
Before we jump into conclusions, let us first examine what IDOLATRY is. According to Merriam-Webster, idolatry is the worship of a physical object as a god. Now the question is, "Do Catholics perceive physical objects like images or statues as god?". The answer is clearly a NO.
But why do Catholic Churches have images or statues of Jesus, saints, and other important figures? Isn't it a violation to God's commandment found in Exodus 20:4?
Exodus 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; (RSV-CE)
On the surface, it seems that Catholics are violating this commandment of God, but actually they do not. Why?
If God forbade the making of images, then why did He commanded Moses to make massive statues of two cherubim?
Exodus 25:18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. (RSV-CE)
If God forbade the making of images, then why did He commanded Moses to make an image of a serpent so that whoever look at it will be healed from the serpent bite?
Numbers 21: 8 And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." (RSV-CE)
If God forbade the making of images, then why did he not stop Solomon from making images in the temple?
1 Kings 6:27 He carved all the walls of house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms. (RSV-CE)
Clearly God does not condemn the idea of making images. So what is it that God prohibits?
The answer is in the preceding verse of Exodus 20:4.
Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me. (RSV-CE)
God prohibits having false gods or idols that people would worship to.
When we read Exodus 20:4 in Hebrew texts, the Hebrew term used for the English translation of image is pesel which means idol.
p̄e-sel פֶ֣֙סֶל֙ ׀ any graven image
The Hebrew term of image is tselem.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
bə-ṣe-lem | בְּצֶ֥לֶם | in the image |
If tselem and pesel are the same, then God Himself created idols (men and women).
Moreover, in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) the term used in Exodus 20:4 is εἴδωλον (eidolon) which means idol. The Greek term for image is εικών (eikon) which is used in Colossians 1:15.
God does not prohibit the idea of having images but rather idols. Although it is true that an idol could be in a form of an image like money, sun, moon,star, animal, and even person, but it doesn't mean that all images are idols. If you have an image/s of a person/s or a saint/s, as long as you don't consider those image/s as a god/s then you're not committing idolatry at all.
Images and statues used in Catholic Churches are not gods. They are simply representations of people. Those images don't have divinity by its nature. It's up to God if he would use that image to relay His blessings or miracles to the faithful just as He did with the brazen serpent (Numbers 21:8).
Now, some would ask why Catholics bow and give flowers to those statues.
Well, it's rendering honor and respect to their departed brothers and sisters. Bowing does not exclusively mean worshiping. We see texts in Scriptures that proves it.
Genesis 33:3 He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. (RSV-CE)
Genesis 49:8 Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you. (RSV-CE)
1 Kings 2:19 So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king's mother; and she sat on his right. (RSV-CE)
Joshua 7:6 The Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads. (RSV-CE)
The rendered honor and veneration do not go to the object or image but to the person portrayed in it. As the Cathechism of the Catholic Church explains in paragraph 2132
The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it"...
Conclusion:
Images inside the Catholic Churches are not idols, hence, Catholics around the world are not violating the first commandment of God and are not promoting idolatry by any means.
