Acts 19:26

And ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.

Saying that they are no gods By this, Demetrius committed himself to the proposition opposite, namely, that their shrines were real gods. This is a glimpse of the practical fact regarding images, that being that they are indeed considered "gods" by the persons using them, regardless of the specious rationalizations by which the consecration of them is allegedly justified.

It is likely that Demetrius exaggerated the success of Paul; but even if he did, the insight which he had regarding the eventual fate of the shrine business was accurate:

Pliny in his epistle to Trajan (Ephesians 10p. 96), half a century later, spoke of "deserted temples," "worship neglected," and "hardly a single purchaser" found for sacrificial victims.[34]