Exodus 20:4-5- "Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them...".
This commandment is echoed in Deuteronomy 5.
Deuteronomy 5:8-9- "Thou shall not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any things, that are in heaven above, or that are in the earth beneath, or that abide in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them.…”
Those who quote these passages in condemnation of the Catholic position on statues/icons are blatantly misinterpreting what Sacred Scripture actually says, and serves to prove that their religion is not of God.
When God condemned the adoration of statues, He is condemning the adoration of the icons themselves, and the making of icons of false gods and idols (i.e. the golden calf, buddha, etc).
Notice in the passage, it clearly says "you shall not adore THEM, nor serve THEM". He is clearly forbidding the adoration of icons themselves, i.e. treating the icon as if it is a diety and worshipping the substance of the icon as if divine.
What God does not forbid, however, is the fashioning of icons for use in His One True Faith. Throughout the Old Testament, we find many examples of God explicitly commanding statues to be made for His purposes. In Exodus 25 for example, He commands Moses to make multiple statues for the temple.
Exodus 25:18-19- "Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle. Let one cherub be on the one side, and the other on the other."
Here we see God Himself directly commanding Moses to fashion two statues of cherubim, the highest rank in the three Angelic Choirs. Very clearly, God does not forbid statues if they are to be used for worship in the confines of His Church.
There are numerous other examples of statues being made by God's command for religious purposes.
1 Kings 6:5- "According to the number of the provinces of the Philistines you shall make five golden emerods, and five golden mice: for the same plague hath been upon you all, and upon your lords. And you shall make the likeness of your emerods, and the likeness of the mice that have destroyed the land, and you shall give glory to the God of Israel: to see if He will take of His hand from you, and from your gods, and from your land."
3 Kings 6:23-28- "And he made in the oracle two cherubims of olive tree, of ten cubits of height...And he set the cherubims in the midst of the inner temple...And he overlaid the cherubims with gold."
3 Kings 7:25-36- "And it stood upon twelve oxen, of which three lookes towards the north, and three towards to west, and three towards the south, and three towards to east, and the sea was above upon them, and their hinder parts were all hid within...And between the little crowns and the ledges were lions, and oxen, and cherubims: and in the joinings likewise above: and under the lions and oxen, as it were bands of brass hanging down...He engraved also in those plates, which were of brass, and in the corners, cherubims, and lions, and palm trees, in the likeness of man standing, so that they seemed not to be engraven, but added round about."
God also commanded the creation of a statue for healing purposes. God commanded Moses to make a statue of a serpent, that whoever looked at it would be healed in Numbers 21.
Numbers 21:8- "And the Lord said to him: Make a brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign: whosoever being struck shall look it, shall live."
The Catholic Church infallibly teaches that trust is not to be put into the image itself, rather in whom the statue is a representation of, by means of the image.
Council of Trent, Sess. XXV: “Moreover, that the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints are to be placed and retained especially in the churches, and that due honor and veneration is to be given them; not, however, that any divinity or virtue is believed to be in them by reason of which they are to be venerated, or that something is to be asked of them, or that trust is to be placed in images, as was done of old by the Gentiles who placed their hope in idols; but because the honor which is shown them is referred to the prototypes which they represent, so that by means of the images which we kiss and before which we uncover the head and prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ and venerate the saints whose likeness they bear. That is what was defined by the decrees of the councils, especially of the Second Council of Nicaea, against the opponents of images.”
It is also taught by Scripture that the relics of saints should be venerated and are miraculous (i.e St. Paul's handkerchiefs and Elijah's cloak).
Acts 19:11-12- "And God wrought by the hands of Paul more than common miracles. So that even there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits went out of them."
4 Kings 2:13-14- "And he took up the mantle of Elias, that fell from him: and going back, he stood upon the bank of the Jordan, and he struck the waters wit the mantle of Elias, that had fallen from him, and they were not divided. And he said: Where is now the God of Elias? And he struck the waters, and they were divided, hither and thither, and Eliseus passed over."
As we can clearly see, the Catholic position regarding statues/icons/images is completely biblical, and the true biblical interpretation of the issue.
The protestant aversion to sacred images is rooted in the Iconoclast heresy, which rejects the use and veneration of sacred images. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines it as rooted in dualism (the heresy that all matter is evil). Iconoclasm was the last breach with Rome during the Great Schism of Photius (the schism with the eastern "orthodox").
Pope Gregory II wrote a letter to Emporer Leo III, an iconoclast, condeming his iconoclasm and teaching the true position on sacred images.
Pope Gregory II, Letter to Emporer Leo III, 737AD- “For what are our churches? Are they not made by hand of stones, timbers, straw, plaster, and lime? But they are also adorned with pictures and representations of the miracles of the saints, of the sufferings of Christ, of the holy mother herself, and of the saints and apostles; and men expend their wealth on such images. Moreover, men and women make use of these pictures to instruct in the faith their little children and young men and maidens in bloom of youth and those from heathen nations; by means of these pictures the hearts and minds of men are directed to God. But you have ordered the people to abstain from the pictures, and have attempted to satisfy them with idle sermons, trivialities, music of pipe and zither, rattles and toys, turning them from the giving of thanks to the hearing of idle tales. You shall have your part with them, and with those who invent useless fables and babble of their ignorance... You ask: “How was it that was said about images in six councils?” What then? Nothing was said about bread and water, whether that should be eaten or not; yet these things have been accepted from the beginning for the presence of human life. So also have images been accepted; the popes themselves brought them to councils, and no Christian would set out on a journey without images, because they were possessed of virtue and approved of God.”
The Second Council of Nicaea was called to condemn this very heresy.
Second Council of Nicaea, 787AD- “We decree with full precision and care that, like the figure of the honored and life-giving cross, the revered and holy images, whether painted or made of mosaic or of other suitable material, are to be exposed in the holy churches of God, on sacred instruments and vestments, on walls and panels, in houses and by public ways, these are the images of our Lord, God and savior, Jesus Christ, and of our Lady without blemish, the holy God-bearer, and of the revered angels and of any of the saintly holy men...Indeed, the honor paid to an image traverses it, reaching the model, and he who venerates the image, venerates the person represented in that image.”
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