What makes an image an idol is when it is an image of a false god. Images of Christ, the Saints, or biblical scense are clearly not images of false Gods. We honor these images in the same way that we honor the Gospel book, and for the same reason.
Do you object to saluting your flag, or pledging allegiance to it? Why is that not idolatry, in your opinion?
I never bowed toward, prayed toward, or offered incense to the American flag. I would oppose such acts even if the person doing so realizes the flag is just a national symbol. And on a similar note of equal relevancy, I wear pants.
“What makes an image an idol is when it is an image of a false god.”
So, as long as the image is of the true God, it is not an idol and impossible to be used in acts of idolatry? This thinking is foreign so the concept of what God says about idols that it is like trying to reason with someone who does not even speak the same language.
It appears to me that you, though very evasively, have answered that idolatry of images of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, etc. is impossible.
Why then did the apostles and angels strictly forbid and rebuke bowing down to them? Why would it not be okay to bow to the actual person but is okay to bow to an image that is supposedly like that person?