Emperor Worship

The basic reason for most Christian persecution during the time of Jesus was not that they worshiped Jesus. In the Roman and Greek culture, the worship of many gods was not only tolerated, but recommended. However, in the Roman culture, the emperor himself was considered god (or considered himself god), and the danger was to ascribe that there was one God - even greater than the emperor - that held all authority. This crossed the line from the religious into the political. It was a statement of dis-allegiance or political subversion. It would get you killed. The Christian statement is even stronger than that: other gods are no gods at all (Acts 19:23-26)

The Jewish mindset towards blasphemy is almost understandable when you take a look at their recent history. Antiochus Epiphanes was a Greek who ruled over Israel in the 2nd century B.C. He believed he was god and forced the Jews to honor him with a yearly sacrifice of a pig upon their altar. To the Jew, any man claiming to be God blasphemed.

All of that being said, notice how things are today. The issue isn't that Jesus is God. The issue is that He is 'the' way, and that no man goes the to Father except by Him. Are you saying that belief in Jesus is the only way to get to heaven? How many times have we heard that question? It's immensely unpopular and even fanatical to think Jesus is the only way to heaven. Things have not changed much.