'God' in the Bible

But God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: 'It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it, house of Israel?

But you took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, the images you made to worship, but I will deport you beyond Babylon.'

Our ancestors had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as God who spoke to Moses ordered him to make it according to the design he had seen.

Our ancestors received possession of it and brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors, until the time of David.

He found favor with God and asked that he could find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently toward heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

"Look!" he said. "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

All the people, from the least to the greatest, paid close attention to him, saying, "This man is the power of God that is called 'Great.'"

But when they believed Philip as he was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they began to be baptized, both men and women.

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

You have no share or part in this matter because your heart is not right before God!

and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "This man is the Son of God."

He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was all his household; he did many acts of charity for the people and prayed to God regularly.

About three o'clock one afternoon he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God who came in and said to him, "Cornelius."

Staring at him and becoming greatly afraid, Cornelius replied, "What is it, Lord?" The angel said to him, "Your prayers and your acts of charity have gone up as a memorial before God.

The voice spoke to him again, a second time, "What God has made clean, you must not consider ritually unclean!"

He said to them, "You know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile, yet God has shown me that I should call no person defiled or ritually unclean.

and said, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your acts of charity have been remembered before God.

Therefore I sent for you at once, and you were kind enough to come. So now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to say to us."

Then Peter started speaking: "I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism in dealing with people,

with respect to Jesus from Nazareth, that God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him.

but God raised him up on the third day and caused him to be seen,

not by all the people, but by us, the witnesses God had already chosen, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to warn them that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.

for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said,

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted the word of God.

But the voice replied a second time from heaven, 'What God has made clean, you must not consider ritually unclean!'

Therefore if God gave them the same gift as he also gave us after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder God?"

When they heard this, they ceased their objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted the repentance that leads to life even to the Gentiles."

When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with devoted hearts,

So Peter was kept in prison, but those in the church were earnestly praying to God for him.

But the crowd began to shout, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!"

Immediately an angel of the Lord struck Herod down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.

But the word of God kept on increasing and multiplying.

When they arrived in Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. (Now they also had John as their assistant.)

who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. The proconsul summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God.

So Paul stood up, gestured with his hand and said, "Men of Israel, and you Gentiles who fear God, listen:

The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay as foreigners in the country of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it.

Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.

After removing him, God raised up David their king. He testified about him: 'I have found David the son of Jesse to be a man after my heart, who will accomplish everything I want him to do.'

From the descendants of this man God brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, just as he promised.

Brothers, descendants of Abraham's family, and those Gentiles among you who fear God, the message of this salvation has been sent to us.

But God raised him from the dead,

that this promise God has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second psalm, 'You are my Son; today I have fathered you.'

But regarding the fact that he has raised Jesus from the dead, never again to be in a state of decay, God has spoken in this way: 'I will give you the holy and trustworthy promises made to David.'

but the one whom God raised up did not experience decay.

When the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and were persuading them to continue in the grace of God.

Both Paul and Barnabas replied courageously, "It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we are turning to the Gentiles.

"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.

They strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, "We must enter the kingdom of God through many persecutions."

From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.

When they arrived and gathered the church together, they reported all the things God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.

When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all the things God had done with them.

After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that some time ago God chose me to preach to the Gentiles so they would hear the message of the gospel and believe.

And God, who knows the heart, has testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,

So now why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?

The whole group kept quiet and listened to Barnabas and Paul while they explained all the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

Simeon has explained how God first concerned himself to select from among the Gentiles a people for his name.

"Therefore I conclude that we should not cause extra difficulty for those among the Gentiles who are turning to God,

After Paul saw the vision, we attempted immediately to go over to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

She followed behind Paul and us and kept crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation."

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the rest of the prisoners were listening to them.

The jailer brought them into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced greatly that he had come to believe in God, together with his entire household.

But when the Jews from Thessalonica heard that Paul had also proclaimed the word of God in Berea, they came there too, inciting and disturbing the crowds.

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.

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,

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.

Therefore, although God has overlooked such times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent,

Then Paul left the synagogue and went to the house of a person named Titius Justus, a Gentile who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

So he stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

saying, "This man is persuading people to worship God in a way contrary to the law!"

but said farewell to them and added, "I will come back to you again if God wills." Then he set sail from Ephesus,

He began to speak out fearlessly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the way of God to him more accurately.

So Paul entered the synagogue and spoke out fearlessly for three months, addressing and convincing them about the kingdom of God.

God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul's hands,

testifying to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.

For I did not hold back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God.

Watch out for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son.

And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

When Paul had greeted them, he began to explain in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all ardent observers of the law.

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated with strictness under Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors, and was zealous for God just as all of you are today.

Then he said, 'The God of our ancestors has already chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear a command from his mouth,

Paul looked directly at the council and said, "Brothers, I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God to this day."

Then Paul said to him, "God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit there judging me according to the law, and in violation of the law you order me to be struck?"

But I confess this to you, that I worship the God of our ancestors according to the Way (which they call a sect), believing everything that is according to the law and that is written in the prophets.

I have a hope in God (a hope that these men themselves accept too) that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

This is the reason I do my best to always have a clear conscience toward God and toward people.

And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors,

a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain as they earnestly serve God night and day. Concerning this hope the Jews are accusing me, Your Majesty!

Why do you people think it is unbelievable that God raises the dead?

to open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds consistent with repentance.

I have experienced help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except what the prophets and Moses said was going to happen:

Paul replied, "I pray to God that whether in a short or a long time not only you but also all those who are listening to me today could become such as I am, except for these chains."

For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve came to me

and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul! You must stand before Caesar, and God has graciously granted you the safety of all who are sailing with you.'

Therefore keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will be just as I have been told.

After he said this, Paul took bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all, broke it, and began to eat.

But they were expecting that he was going to swell up or suddenly drop dead. So after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.