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?
Actually, I provided an example of the idolatrous use of those images in Santeria. If you salute the flag, you are honoring it. Jehovah’s Witnesses say you are worshiping it. When you honor the flag by saluting it and pledging allegiance to it, are you honoring colored cloth, or the country that it represents?
And the Apostles and Angels rebuked people who bowed in worship to them, believing them to be gods, or God. Bowing to people is not, in and of itself worship... as you can see by reading this: http://orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/prostration_heb.aspx Even the second commandment itself speaks of bowing and serving (latria) as two distinct things.