This is about correct teaching and the meanings of latria and worship.
- TL;DR(1): if the bishops do not ensure proper teaching regarding
religious images, they let the faithful down. That's where the problem started both during the Iconoclast Movements and during the Reformation where some of your points were raised.
- TL;DR(2): was a commandment abrogated? Yes and no. (See below).
- Per the Catholicism tag, answered from that PoV. This is an example of
a question where teachings between denominations varies considerably.
The crux of the matter, as far back as the Second Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, was whether proper teaching was getting to the faithful. In some places, it was not since the Iconoclast movement was a response to a trend toward syncretism with pagan Greek religions. That "getting the teaching across effectively" isn't as easy as it sounds. Even after the second council of Nicaea, up to the 11th Century France for example, there was difficulty in effectively communicating the teaching that derived from that Ecumenical Council. (Of course, the Reformation gave two fingers to the teaching, in arguments that resemble your four points).
This question was answered about 1300 years ago.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 787 was convened as a direct response to the Iconoclast movement and the destruction of images in the Eastern Roman Empire.
The Council's Proclamation
"We define that the holy icons, whether in color, mosaic, or some
other material, should be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on
the sacred vessels and liturgical vestments, on the walls,
furnishings, and in houses and along the roads, namely the icons of
our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, that of our Lady the Theotokos,
those of the venerable angels and those of all saintly people.
Whenever these representations are contemplated, they will cause those
who look at them to commemorate and love their prototype. We define
also that they should be kissed and that they are an object of
veneration and honor (timitiki proskynisis), but not of real worship
(latreia), which is reserved for Him Who is the subject of our faith
and is proper for the divine nature, ... which is in effect
transmitted to the prototype; he who venerates the icon, venerated in
it the reality for which it stands."
For more on the Iconoclast Movement, the Catholic Encyclopedia has an extensive entry.
Confirmed at the Council of Trent, where some of your points were addressed.
From the Council of Trent(page 170 of that link)
The holy Synod enjoins on all bishops, and others who sustain the
office and charge of teaching, that, agreeably to the usage of the
Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the primitive times of
the Christian religion, and agreeably to the consent of the holy
Fathers, and to the decrees of sacred Councils, they especially
instruct the faithful diligently concerning the intercession and
invocation of saints; the honour (paid) to [Page 234] relics; and
the legitimate use of images: teaching them, that the saints, who reign together with Christ, offer up their own prayers to God for men;
that it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and to have
recourse to their prayers, aid, (and) help for obtaining benefits from
God, through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our alone Redeemer
and Saviour; but that they think impiously, who deny that the saints,
who enjoy eternal happiness in heaven, are to be invocated; or who
assert either that they do not pray for men; or, that the invocation
of them to pray for each of us even in particular, is idolatry; or,
that it is repugnant to the word of God; and is opposed to the honour
of the one mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus; or, that it is
foolish to supplicate, vocally, or mentally, those who reign in
heaven. Also, that the holy bodies of holy martyrs, and of others now
living with Christ,-which bodies were the living members of Christ,
and the temple of the Holy Ghost, and which are by Him to be raised
unto eternal life, and to be glorified,--are to be venerated by the
faithful; through which (bodies) many benefits are bestowed by God on
men; so that they who affirm that veneration and honour are not due to
the relics of saints; or, that these, and other sacred monuments, are
uselessly honoured by the faithful; and that the places dedicated to
the memories of the saints are in vain visited with the view of
obtaining their aid; are wholly to be condemned, as the Church has
already long since condemned, and now also condemns them.
Moreover, that the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and
of the other saints, are to be had and retained particularly in
temples, and that due honour and veneration are to be given them;
not that any divinity, or virtue, is believed to be in them, on
account of which they are to be worshipped; or that anything is to be
asked of them; or, that trust is to be reposed in images, as was of
old done by the Gentiles who placed [Page 235] their hope in idols;
but because the honour which is shown them is referred to the
prototypes which those images represent; in such wise that by the
images which we kiss, and before which we uncover the head, and
prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ; and we venerate the saints,
whose similitude they bear: as, by the decrees of Councils, and
especially of the second Synod of Nicaea, has been defined against the
opponents of images.
And the bishops shall carefully teach this,-that, by means of the histories of the mysteries of our Redemption, portrayed by paintings
or other representations, the people is instructed, and confirmed in
(the habit of) remembering, and continually revolving in mind the
articles of faith; as also that great profit is derived from all
sacred images, not only because the people are thereby admonished of
the benefits and gifts bestowed upon them by Christ, but also because
the miracles which God has performed by means of the saints, and their
salutary examples, are set before the eyes of the faithful; that so
they may give God thanks for those things; may order their own lives
and manners in imitation of the saints; and may be excited to adore
and love God, and to cultivate piety. But if any one shall teach, or
entertain sentiments, contrary to these decrees; let him be
anathema.
The Council recognized the problem of incorrect usage, and incorrect teaching, and declared that it was a serious error to teach it wrong, and to do it wrong.
Both councils are cited as sources in CCC 2132
2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first
commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an
image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image
venerates the person portrayed in it." The honor paid to sacred
images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God
alone:
Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered
as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading
us on to God incarnate. the movement toward the image does not
terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.
The distinction between "latria" and other "worship" or rendering of honor and veneration
From St Thomas Aquinas: (Question 94)
Reply to Objection 1. Neither in the Tabernacle or Temple of the Old
Law, nor again now in the Church are images set up that the worship of
latria may be paid to them, but for the purpose of signification, in
order that belief in the excellence of angels and saints may be
impressed and confirmed in the mind of man.
St Thomas Aquinas, question 81 (cited in the Catechsim (2132) as a source for that article)
Objection 3. Further, seemingly "latria" pertains to religion. Now
"latria signifies servitude," as Augustine states (De Civ. Dei x, 1).
And we are bound to serve not only God, but also our neighbor,
according to Galatians 5:13, "By charity of the spirit serve one
another." Therefore religion includes a relation to one's neighbor
also.
Reply to Objection 3. Since servant implies relation to a lord,
wherever there is a special kind of lordship there must needs be a
special kind of service. Now it is evident that lordship belongs to
God in a special and singular way, because He made all things, and has
supreme dominion over all. Consequently a special kind of service is
due to Him, which is known as "latria" in Greek; and therefore it
belongs to religion.
All of the above boils down to the following: there is a correct and incorrect use of religious images. Bishops, and the Church in general, must ensure correct teaching or people (as in the olden days) may well pay more respect than is due to something other than God. That can lead to sin, which in the case of teachers falls into "an act of omission" which may lead the faithful into sin via "acts of commission." (St Thomas Aquinas provides commentary of idolatry as superstition and sin in the Summa Theologica). It's a serious matter for the Church to teach the faithful properly.
The key: true worship, latria, is to be reserved for God.
Offering true worship to anything or anyone else violates the Commandment. In that regard, it appears that the Greek Orthodox, the Catholics, and the Reformation descended churches are in general accord.
A commandment abrogated? Yes and no.
As noted in this Catholic Encyclopedia article, the Old testament holds multiple examples of images and physical items associated with worship, referred to by St Thomas Aquinas above, so your dismissal of that factor in point 3 represents a dismissal of 1300 years of Catholic teaching. (No few of the faithful have difficulty with any number of catholic teachings, so you are not alone). The position taken is that the "natural law" was not abrogated in the New Covenant, but the "positive law" was abrogated by the New Covenant.
We note in the first place that the First Commandment (except inasmuch
as it forbids adoration and service of images) does not affect us at
all. The Old Law — including the ten commandments — as far as it only
promulgates natural law is of course eternal. No possible
circumstances can ever abrogate, for instance the Fifth, Sixth, and
Seventh Commandments. On the other hand, as far as it is positive law,
it was once for all abrogated by the promulgation of the Gospel
(Romans 8:1-2; Galatians 3:23-5, etc.; Acts 15:28-9).
Christians are not bound to circumcise, to abstain from levitically unclean food and so on.
The Third Commandment that ordered the Jews to keep Saturday
holy is a typical case of a positive law abrogated and replaced by
another by the Christian Church. So in the First Commandment we must
distinguish the clauses — "Thou shalt not have strange gods before
me", "Thou shall not adore them nor serve them" — which are eternal
natural law (prohibitum quia malum), from the clause: "Thou shalt not
make to thyself any graven image", etc. In whatever sense the
archaeologist may understand this, it is clearly not natural law, nor
can anyone prove the inherent wickedness of making a graven thing;
therefore it is Divine positive law (malum quia prohibitum) of the Old
Dispensation that no more applies to Christians than the law of
marrying one's brother's widow.
Since there is no Divine positive law in the New Testament on the
subject, Christians are bound firstly by the natural law that forbids
us to give to any creature the honour due to God alone, and forbids
the obvious absurdity of addressing prayers or any sort of absolute
worship to a manufactured image; secondly, by whatever ecclesiastical
laws may have been made on this subject by the authority of the Church
The situation was defined quite clearly by the Second Council of
Nicaea in 787. In its seventh session the Fathers drew up the
essential decision (horos) of the synod. In this, after repeating the
Nicene Creed and the condemnation of former heretics, they come to the
burning question of the treatment of holy images. They speak of real
adoration, supreme worship paid to a being for its own sake only,
acknowledgment of absolute dependence on some one who can grant
favours without reference to any one else. This is what they mean by
latreia and they declare emphatically that this kind of worship must
be given to God only. It is sheer idolatry to pay latreia to any
creature at all. In Latin, adoratio is generally (though not always;
see e.g. in the Vulgate, 2 Samuel 1:2, etc.) used in this sense. Since
the council especially there is a tendency to restrict it to this
sense only, so that adorare sanctos certainly now sounds scandalous.
So in English by adoration we now always understand the latreia of the
Fathers of the Second Nicaean Council.
The commandment in the natural law sense is not abrogated, but old law in the other sense about images (positive law) is abrogated in accordance with the New Covenant established by Christ. Part of the issue here is that the Catholics have that as all one commandment, while some of the Protestant traditions break it into two and roll the "covets" into one. (If you look at the table here, Greek Orthodox and Reformed break it into 2, while Catholic leaves it as one). This underlines why this question is denomination dependent for the answer.
Note: latreia and latria are Latin forms of Greek (λατρεία).
Experience with this teaching
In the RCIA ministry, we often encountered people whose cultural upbringing was informed by over four centuries of syncretism in Mexico. (I live in Texas). The dialogue typically went like this.
- RCIA: It is appropriate to show veneration to the saints, with or without
the presence of a picture or a statue. {Apostle's Creed, belief in the communion of saints, intercessory prayers, etc}. Worship {in the latria sense}
is reserved for God {the Holy Trinity}.
- Candidate: But I was raised to worship the Virgin.
RCIA: We have told you the teaching of the Church. What you actually do,
in your heart and in your prayers, is between you and God. We encourage you to follow the teachings of the church.
At this point, our deacon would usually follow up with this (paraphrased)
When you pray, and when you go to confession, you should speak from
the heart. In your heart there is truth between you and God. If you
go to confession, and you try to be untruthful to God ... good luck
with that. God knows the truth in our heart.
So what's a Catholic to do?
Reserve true worship, latria, for God (The Holy Trinity). If an image or a statue inspires you to contemplate on the divine, that's fine. Just remember that the image isn't worthy of true worship, only God is.
I recommend reading the extended treatment of "Veneration of Images" at the Catholic Encyclopedia online.
I had brought to my attention by @anonymouswho in comments on another question that the rendering of various Greek terms into 'worship' isn't as simple as I've presented it, and that the Greek proskuneó is a related term for this element of the answer regarding latria.
proskuneós means to bow (properly, to kiss or to do obeisance to), like the Israelites did to YHVH and King David in 1 Chronicles 29:20. Latria is the Latin form of the Greek (λατρεία)(latreuó / latreia) meaing to serve. Like in Luke 4:8
- "And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for
it is written, Thou shalt worship (proskuneó) the Lord thy God, and
him only shalt thou serve (latreuó)."
