Relics and Images

The Protestant charge that Catholics are idolaters is a false accusation as is the charge that we worship Mary. Catholics see images and relics as worship aids  not as idols. God’s prohibition on the People of Israel against idols was not the creation of statues. It was against the worship of images as gods:

Ex. 20:2-6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; Do not have any other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

We must not forget that God commanded Moses to make 2 golden Cherubim to place atop the Ark (Exod. 25:18-20) and they prostrated themselves before it (Joshua 7:6). He also commanded him to fashion a bronze serpent and mount it on a pole so that those who gazed upon it would be healed (Num. 21:4-9). Images aren’t necessarily idols and therefore, the Protestant position against images would render all statues and paintings created by Catholic and Protestant artists over the centuries idolatrous. It is simply not a cohesive argument, given the context of Scripture