Do not make idols and pray to idols Deuteronomy 5:7.
Idolatry is the worship of an idol or cult image, being a physical image, such as a statue, or a person in place of God. Let’s stress that point – IN PLACE OF GOD. In short, Idolatry is the worship of other gods and not the true God. Therefore idols are those that are worship as God but are not.
In Abrahamic religions, namely Judaism and Christianity, idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than God as if it were God – AS IF IT WERE GOD. So idolatry is making an image or treating a person or something (IDOLS) as God and give worship as to God. Thus the Bible clearly qualified idolatry as worshiping the statues and images as God. The keyword is worship.
Therefore the mere making or presence of images and statues is not idolatry if they are not worshiped as God. Let us then first understand what worship means.
God knows our hearts and minds and he knows if we are
worshipping something as God. That is why God even ordered the Israelites to
make an Ark of the Covenant with images of Cherubim. God even ordered the
making of Saraph image put on the Pole to heal the Israelites. The Temple of
Solomon had statues of Angels but again that is ok with God because they are not
worshipped. The prohibition of God is well defined which is against worshipping
them like God. But while they are not worshiped as God, they are called Holy
Things and what is made Holy by God you shall not call profane. In the Old
Testament, the Holy Things and Holy Objects of God used by the Priests in performing rites of worship to God in the
Tabernacles were to be handled with care and no one can touch them except those
that are designated to touch, carry, or hold them. Anyone who was unauthorized
to hold or touch them died.
Saints are not idols because they are not worshiped by
Catholics. Only the Protestants insist and claim such thing just because the
statues adorned the Catholic Churches place of worship. Just like the
Tabernacle in the Old Testament which God called a replica of God’s abode in
heaven, likewise the Catholic Church place of worship is a replica of what we
find in heaven according to the visions of John in Revelation and the
Tabernacle in the Desert in Exodus. God surrounded by the saints, elders, and
angels who worship and serve him as depicted in the Altar where Jesus on the
Cross can be found and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saints, the Elders (Bishops and
Apostles), and Angels.
The Saints are real people who lived holy lives and now in
heaven that include the Apostles. They continue to pray for us and they are
like angels that they know what is happening on earth. They pray for us. Their
statues are there in our churches not to worship them as God but as a visible
reminder for us that one day we will join them in heaven. Their statues serve
to inspire us and to help us focus our prayers on God. The memories of their saintly lives
glorify God since their lives encourage others to follow and do the same.
