Source: Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation (London; New York: T&T Clark: A Continuum Imprint, 1993), 118–149.
4. Worship Christ Monotheism.pdf
The worship of Jesus Revelation.wav
This podcast examines the significant development of Jesus' worship in early Christianity, particularly within the context of strict Jewish monotheism, which reserved worship exclusively for God. The author highlights the tension this created, suggesting early Christians had to either reject worshipping Jesus as idolatry or accept it, setting the stage for later theological developments. Crucially, the source analyzes how early Christian texts like the Apocalypse of John and the Ascension of Isaiah, while explicitly prohibiting the worship of angels (a traditional safeguard against idolatry), simultaneously depict and affirm the worship of Christ in heaven, effectively placing him on the divine side of the crucial distinction between God and creatures.
Here we face a theological paradox that lies at the very heart of the Christian faith. For many, the core of ancient Jewish monotheism seems simple and absolute: there is only one God, and He alone is to be worshipped. This was not a minor detail; it was the bedrock of religious identity, a truth for which martyrs would die. The most grievous sin imaginable was idolatry—directing the worship due to the Creator toward any created thing.
This sacred principle presents us with a crisis point in the history of the early church. How did the first followers of Jesus, devout Jews steeped in this tradition, begin to worship him? This was a remarkable development, one that took their Christology to its acutest form. To an outsider, offering divine hymns and devotion to a man, however exalted, would look like a catastrophic breach of monotheism. How could they do so without believing they were committing the ultimate spiritual betrayal, shattering the very foundation of their faith?
The answer is found in a startling place. It lies not only in the dramatic accounts of who they chose to worship, but, more profoundly, in the powerful figures they adamantly refused to worship. By policing the boundary between the created and the Creator with fierce precision, they made their most radical claim about who Jesus truly was.
In the Jewish tradition from which Christianity emerged, the real test of monotheistic faith was not a matter of abstract philosophy or metaphysical debate about God’s nature. The critical issue was intensely practical and centered on a single, non-negotiable action: worship.