4 Bible Verses about Pagan Gods

They called Barnabas 'Zeus,' and Paul, as being the principal speaker, 'Hermes.'

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred within him when he noticed that the city was full of idols. So he had discussions in the synagogue with the Jews and the other worshippers, and in the market place, day after day, with those whom he happened to meet. A few of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also encountered him. Some of them asked, "What has this beggarly babbler to say?" "His business," said others, "seems to be to cry up some foreign gods." This was because he had been telling the Good News of Jesus and the Resurrection.read more.
Then they took him and brought him up to the Areopagus, asking him, "May we be told what this new teaching of yours is? For the things you are saying sound strange to us. We should therefore like to be told exactly what they mean." (For all the Athenians and their foreign visitors used to devote their whole leisure to telling or hearing about something new.) So Paul, taking his stand in the centre of the Areopagus, spoke as follows: "Men of Athens, I perceive that you are in every respect remarkably religious. For as I passed along and observed the things you worship, I found also an altar bearing the inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' "The Being, therefore, whom you, without knowing Him, revere, Him I now proclaim to you.

Now just at that time there arose no small commotion about the new faith. There was a certain Demetrius, a silversmith, who made miniature silver sanctuaries of Diana, a business which brought great gain to the mechanics in his employ. He called his workmen together, and others who were engaged in similar trades, and said to them, "You men well know that our prosperity depends on this business of ours;read more.
and you see and hear that, not in Ephesus only but throughout almost the whole province of Asia, this fellow Paul has led away a vast number of people by inducing them to believe that they are not gods at all that are made by men's hands. There is danger, therefore, not only that this our trade will become of no account, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana will fall into utter disrepute, and that before long she will be actually deposed from her majestic rank--she who is now worshipped by the whole province of Asia; nay, by the whole world." After listening to this harangue, they became furiously angry and kept calling out, "Great is the Ephesian Diana!" The riot and uproar spread through the whole city, till at last with one accord they rushed into the Theatre, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, two Macedonians who were fellow travellers with Paul. Then Paul would have liked to go in and address the people, but the disciples would not let him do so. A few of the public officials, too, who were friendly to him, sent repeated messages entreating him not to venture into the Theatre. The people, meanwhile, kept shouting, some one thing and some another; for the assembly was all uproar and confusion, and the greater part had no idea why they had come together. Then some of the people crowded round Alexander, whom the Jews had pushed forward; and Alexander, motioning with his hand to get silence, was prepared to make a defence to the people. No sooner, however, did they see that he was a Jew, than there arose from them all one roar of shouting, lasting about two hours. "Great is the Ephesian Diana," they said. At length the Recorder quieted them down. "Men of Ephesus," he said, "who is there of all mankind that needs to be told that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Diana and of the image which fell down from Zeus? These facts, then, being unquestioned, it becomes you to maintain your self-control and not act recklessly. For you have brought these men here, who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess.

Therefore, my dear friends, avoid all connection with the worship of idols.