Who deserves to be Worshiped ?

writes, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the
man Christ Jesus.” 81
Today, many modern scholars in Christianity hold that Jesus Christ was not
‘God’.
In 1977, a group of seven biblical scholars, including leading Anglican
theologians and other New Testament scholars, published a book called The Myth of
God Incarnate, which caused a great uproar in the General Synod of the Church of
England. In the preface, the editor, John Hick, wrote:
The writers of this book are convinced that another major theological
development is called for in this last part of the twentieth century. The need
arises from growing knowledge of Christian origins, and involves a
recognition that Jesus was (as he is presented in Act 2.21) ‘a man approved by
God’ for a special role within the divine purpose, and that the later conception
of him as God incarnate, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity living a
human life, is a mythological or poetic way of expressing his significance for
us. 82
It should be noted that the concept of Jesus’ humanness is held not only by
Muslims but also by Jews and some early sects of Christianity such as the Ebionites
(Nazarenes), Cerinthians, Basilidians and Goths. These sects maintained that Jesus
was a beloved prophet of God, and they did not elevate him above his rightful status.
Even today, there are churches in Asia and Africa, in addition to the Unitarian
church and Jehovah’s Witnesses, who do not worship Jesus as God. It is important
to stress, though, that denying the divinity of Jesus is not enough to free them on the
Day of Judgement unless they also accept Islam, Prophet Muhammad (bpuh), and
the last revelation from Allah.
81
82
All the messengers are mediators between God and people in the sense that they are His
messengers, who deliver His message.
Philips, The True Message of Jesus Christ, 61.
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