Acts 14:14-18
14:14 But when the apostles
Barnabas and Paul heard about
it, they tore
their clothes and rushed out
into the crowd, shouting,
14:15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men, with human natures
just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you, so that you should turn
from these worthless
things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth,
the sea, and everything that is in them.
14:16 In
past
generations he allowed all the nations
to go their own ways,
14:17 yet he did not leave himself without a witness by doing good,
by giving you rain from heaven
and fruitful seasons, satisfying you
with food and your hearts with joy.”
14:18 Even by saying
these things, they scarcely persuaded
the crowds not to offer sacrifice to them.
Acts 17:22-31
17:22 So Paul stood before the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects.
17:23 For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it, this I proclaim to you.
17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands,
17:25 nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone.
17:26 From one man he made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live,
17:27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope around for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
17:28 For in him we live and move about and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’
17:29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human skill and imagination.
17:30 Therefore, although God has overlooked such times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent,
17:31 because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, having provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Acts 21:39
21:39 Paul answered,
“I am a Jew
from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city.
Please
allow me to speak to the people.”