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School Baals
Old Idol, New Form
© 2008 by Dan L. White
All rights reserved
How the ancient idolatry
of the human spirit reappeared in modern times.
Foreword
This book is written to Christianos.
1Pe 4:16,
WEB
(16) But if one of you suffers for being a
Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter.
The Greek
word which is translated Christian is Christianos. Christianos then
had a far different meaning than Christian does today. We all know how the dollar has suffered from
inflation, in that it buys much less than it did
previously. When I
attended high school in the early 1960’s, for lunch I bought two hot dogs, a
pie and a Royal Crown Cola for fifty cents.
Today that fifty cents will not buy a hot dog,
a pie or a Royal Crown Cola.
The dollar
does not have the same meaning today as it did then.
Neither
does the word Christian. The word
Christian has suffered from word inflation.
It has been misappropriated, misapplied, and messed with. Today people call themselves Christian who
may not believe that God or Satan exists, who do not believe that Christ is the
one way to life and who do not follow Him at all.
People
today often call themselves homosexual Christians. That’s like saying
dry water or light black. It cannot be.
By
contrast, the original word Christianos had great
meaning. As Peter pointed out in the
above verse, one who became a Christianos was
immediately subject to persecution and possible death.
A Christianos was to follow the example of Christ himself.
1Pe
2:21-22
(21) For to this you were called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should
follow his steps,
(22) who did not sin,
"neither was deceit found in his mouth."
Therefore a Christianos
committed himself to aim for perfection.
Mat 5:48
(48) Therefore you shall
be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
This book is written to Christianos, those
who seek to follow Christ’s example, who want to aim for perfection.
School Baals
Chapter 1
Abundance of Idols
Baal is
the best known idol mentioned in the Bible. Elijah had a contest with the prophets of
Baal to see who’s offering would be burned up. Baal lost, even if he is famous.
Baal certainly
wasn’t the only idol talked about in the Bible. There were a whole bunch
of them.
There are
18 words in the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament,
which refer to idols. That’s
not just 18 different idols. That’s 18 different words to describe types of idols.
Some of
them are:
Teraphim – images
or family idols.
Gen 31:19
– (All Bible quotes are World English Bible, unless noted otherwise.)
(19) Now Laban had gone to shear his
sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her
father's.
When Rachel
and Jacob were leaving her ancestral home, she thought it was necessary to take
with them her father’s teraphim, or little goddies. She didn’t take the family jewels – she took the family gods.
Bosheth –
shameful thing.
Jer 11:13
(13)
For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah; and
according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to
the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.
Aven –
nothingness or vanity.
Deu 32:21
(21)
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger
with their vanities.
There are
18 different such words to describe idolatry.
As you can tell, these words are not flattering to the idols.
Many idols
are named individually. Besides Baal, the idolatry of Astarte, Chemosh and Moloch was absorbed by
Israel from their neighbors.
The
worship of Tammuz was brought right into the temple of
Yahweh.
Eze 8:14
(14)
Then he brought me to the door of the gate of
Yahweh's house which was toward the north; and see, there sat the women weeping
for Tammuz.
As was the worship of the sun.
Eze 8:16
(16)
He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh's
house; and see, at the door of the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the
altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs toward the temple of
Yahweh, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun
toward the east.
Idols were worshiped by:
- Pouring out libations;
- Giving first fruits and tithes;
- Presenting them with tables of food;
- Kissing;
- Kneeling or prostrating themselves
before the idols;
- Sexual rites;
- And burning children
in sacrifice.
Both the
first and second commandments are against idolatry.
Exo 20:3-6
(3)
You shall have no other gods before me.
(4) "You shall not make for yourselves an
idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
(5)
you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh
your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the
children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
(6)
and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
God hates
idolatry.
Exo 22:20
(20)
"He who sacrifices to any god, except to Yahweh only, shall be
utterly destroyed.
Deu 13:6-10
(6)
If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter,
or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own soul, entice you
secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known,
you, nor your fathers;
(7)
of the gods of the peoples who are around you,
near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the
other end of the earth;
(8)
you shall not consent to him, nor listen to
him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall
you conceal him:
(9)
but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall
be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
(10)
You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw
you away from Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of
the house of bondage.
Israel was
to totally exterminate the Canaanites from the Holy
Land, because of their idolatry.
Exo 34:11-17
(11)
Observe that which I command you this day. Behold,
I drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the
Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite,
and the Jebusite.
(12)
Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land
where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the midst of you:
(13)
but you shall break down their altars, and dash
in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim;
(14)
for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh,
whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
(15)
Don't make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play
the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you
and you eat of his sacrifice;
(16)
and you take of their daughters to your sons,
and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons
play the prostitute after their gods.
(17)
You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.
And Israel herself was cast out of the Holy Land when she
became idolatrous.
Jer 2:11-23
(11)
Has a nation changed its gods, which yet are no gods?
but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
(12)
Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be you very
desolate, says Yahweh.
(13)
For my people have committed two evils: they
have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
(14)
Is Israel a servant? is he a native-born slave? why is he become a prey?
(15)
The young lions have roared on him, and yelled; and they have made his
land waste: his cities are burned up, without
inhabitant.
(16)
The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes
have broken the crown of your head.
(17)
Haven't you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh
your God, when he led you by the way?
(18)
Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? or what have you to do in
the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?
(19)
Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall
reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that
you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is
not in you, says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
(20)
For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you
said, I will not serve; for on every high hill and under every green tree you
did bow yourself, playing the prostitute.
(21)
Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a
right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign
vine to me?
(22)
For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your
iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord Yahweh.
(23)
How can you say, I am not defiled, I have not
gone after the Baals? See your way in the valley,
know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary
traversing her ways;
In the New
Testament, idolatry was said to be not just the
adoration of an image, but also love of self.
Col 3:5
(5)
Put to death therefore your members which are
on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire,
and covetousness, which is idolatry.
From this
brief survey, we can conclude two things about idolatry.
1. God hates it.
2. Humans love it.
Chapter 2
What is Idolatry?
The
apostle Paul writes about idolatry in Romans 1.
Rom 1:18-25 MKJV, Modern King James.
(18)
For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
(19)
because the thing which may be known of God is
clearly revealed within them, for God revealed it to them.
(20)
For the unseen things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly
seen, being realized by the things that are made, even His eternal power and
Godhead, for them to be without excuse.
(21)
Because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were
thankful. But they became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened.
(22)
Professing to be wise, they became fools
(23)
and changed the glory of the incorruptible God
into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals,
and creeping things.
(24) Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness
through the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between
themselves.
(25)
For they changed the truth of God into a lie, and they worshiped and
served the created thing more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Verse 25 says
they served the created thing more than the Creator.
The same Greek
word, ktisis, which is rendered
as “created thing” in verse 25 is translated in verse 20 as “creation:” “For the unseen things of Him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen…”
The
International Standard Version gives verse 25 as:
Rom 1:25 ISV
(25) They exchanged God's truth for a lie and
worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator...
The word which is translated in the ISV as “rather than” and in the KJV
as “more than” can also be “as opposed to.”
Idolatry, then, is serving the creation as opposed to
serving the Creator.
Humans are
the natural enemy of God.
Rom 8:7 MKJV
(7)
because the carnal mind is enmity against God,
for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can it be.
Rom 8:7 GNB, Good News
Bible.
(7)
And so people become enemies of God when they are controlled by their
human nature; for they do not obey God's law, and in fact
they cannot obey it.
Humans -- God’s natural enemies -- as a whole always revert to idolatry.
This is how they refuse to subject themselves to God and
His law.
They create an idol, and so get rid
of God and His law.
What is
idolatry again? Serving
the creation as opposed to serving the Creator.
After the
great flood, all nations quickly forgot that punishment and reverted to
idolatry. Sun worship, the most common
form of idolatry, emerged around the world – in the Middle East, Africa,
Europe, China, India and the Americas.
Only a few
hundred years after the flood, Abram was called by Yahweh
to come out of Ur, the city of the moon goddess, to start a Godly nation,
Israel. Apparently
even Abram’s family was involved with idolatry.
Jos 24:14-15, MKJ:
(14)
Now, then, fear Jehovah, and serve Him in sincerity and truth. And put away the gods which your fathers served on the
other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and serve Jehovah.
(15)
And if it seems evil to you to serve Jehovah, choose this day whom you
will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served Beyond the River, or the
gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But as
for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.
Israel was given the knowledge of the true God, yet constantly reverted to
some form of idolatry.
The
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says:
“The
neighboring gods of Phoenicia, Canaan, Moab--Baal, Melkart,
Astarte, Chemosh, Moloch, etc.--were particularly
attractive to Jerusalem, while the old Semitic calf-worship seriously affected
the state religion of the Northern Kingdom. As early as the
Assyrian and Babylonian periods (8th and 7th centuries BC), various deities
from the Tigris and Euphrates had intruded themselves--the worship of Tammuz
becoming a little later the most popular and seductive of all (Ezekiel
8:14)--while the worship of the sun, moon, stars and signs of the Zodiac became
so intensely fascinating that these were introduced even into the temple itself
(2 Kings 17:16; 21:3-7; 23:4,12; Jeremiah 19:13; Ezekiel 8:16; Amos 5:26).”
All nations which did not have the
written word of God became idolatrous.
The one nation which did have the
written word of God also became idolatrous.
Humans as a whole always become idolaters, somehow serving
the creation as opposed to serving the Creator.
Chapter 3
The Source of Idolatry
The Tower
of Babel shows two aspects of idolatry.
Gen 11:1-8
(1)
The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
(2)
It happened, as they traveled east, that they found a plain in the land
of Shinar, and they lived there.
(3)
They said one to another, "Come, let's make bricks, and burn them
thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they
used tar for mortar.
(4)
They said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city, and a tower whose
top reaches to the sky, and let's make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered
abroad on the surface of the whole earth."
(5)
Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of
men built.
(6)
Yahweh said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one
language, and this is what they begin to do. Now
nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend
to do.
(7) Come, let's go down, and there confuse
their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."
(8)
So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the
earth. They stopped building the city.
It would
seem that the Tower at Babel was involved with physical idolatry. Remains of towers have been
found in Mesopotamia, and this is what they were like.
“The
buildings were pyramidal in form and rose in several, usually seven, step-like sections. The storied tower of Birs Nimrud
counts seven of these quadrangular platforms painted in seven colors, black,
white, yellow, blue, scarlet, silver, and gold, and in
the same order sacred to the stellar gods, Adar (Saturn), Ishtar
(Venus), Merodach (Jupiter), Nebo (Mercury), Nergal (Mars), Sin (the Moon), Shamash (the Sun).” –Catholic Encyclopedia, article Babel.
Apparently these towers were built to serve the
7 brightest heavenly bodies, the sun being chief. We will then presume that the tower at Babel,
in the same area as the other remains of these towers, was
also built to worship the heavenly bodies. That is, it may have been
built to idolize the sun, moon and five brightest planets.
However,
the tower at Babel also shows another aspect of idolatry.
Reading
again from the account in Genesis 11:
(4)
They said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city, and a tower whose
top reaches to the sky, and let's make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered
abroad on the surface of the whole earth."
(5)
Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of
men built.
(6)
Yahweh said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one
language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld
from them, which they intend to do.
The
manifestation of idolatry in Mesopotamia was the towers which
were used to worship the heavenly bodies, but
the actual idolatry came from the people.
The towers
were just dead, baked mud bricks.
Neither were the sun, moon and five planets alive. The real idolatry was in the heart of the
people, to make a name for themselves -- to lift themselves up, as opposed to
lifting God up.
In the
account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Eve was idolatrous without an
idol.
Gen 3:4-6 KJV
(4)
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall
not surely die:
(5)
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall
be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
(6)
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of
the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her; and he did eat.
There was
no physical idol, but this was idolatry.
The idolatry was in the human heart.
“…you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil;” and it was “a tree
desired to make one wise.” Eve was her own idol.
The golden
calf is a prime example of having a physical idol and spiritual idolatry.
Exo 32:1-6
(1)
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain,
the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come,
make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of
him."
(2)
Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the
ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to
me."
(3)
All the people took off the golden rings which
were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
(4)
He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving
tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods,
Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt."
(5)
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a
proclamation, and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh."
(6)
They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and
brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose
up to play.
When Aaron
and the Israelites made the golden calf because they thought that Yahweh had
taken Moses, where was their idolatry coming from? Who was the real idol? Who actually came before Yahweh God? What part of creation was
being served?
The real
idol was not the golden calf. The golden
calf came from the disobedient, disbelieving spirit of the people. The real idol was the self-serving human
spirit.
The Geneva Bible, which preceded the King James, says:
Exo 32:1
- And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the
people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, (a) make us gods, which shall go before us;
for [as for] this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
we wot not what is become of him.
Note from Geneva Bible on that verse:
The root of Idolatry
is when men think that God is not present, unless they see him physically.
People become idolaters when they think God is not there just because
they can’t see Him.
The people assumed
that because they didn’t see Moses, he didn’t exist
anymore. Further, they assumed that
since Mt. Sinai was not all ablaze, Yahweh was not there anymore, either.
To think that God does
not exist just because you can’t see Him is an arrogant, egocentric view. It is presumptive, presuming that a human can
see everything, and that humans are all knowing.
Arrogant humans say
that if I can’t
see God, then he can’t be there. But if He is God, then God won’t be subject to the limits of
our physical senses, else He would be human and not divine.
Isaiah talks about the
folly of physical idols.
Isa 44:9-20, CEV, Contemporary English
Version.
(9)
Those people who make idols are nothing themselves, and the idols they
treasure are just as worthless. Worshipers of idols
are blind, stupid, and foolish.
(10)
Why make an idol or an image that can't do a
thing?
(11)
Everyone who makes idols and all who worship them are mere humans, who
will end up sadly disappointed. Let them face me in court and be terrified.
(12)
A metalworker shapes an idol by using a hammer and heat from the fire. In his powerful hand he holds a hammer, as he pounds the
metal into the proper shape. But he gets hungry and
thirsty and loses his strength.
(13)
Some woodcarver measures a piece of wood, then draws an outline. The idol is carefully carved with each detail exact. At last it looks like a person
and is placed in a temple.
(14)
Either cedar, cypress, oak, or any tree from the forest may be chosen. Or even a pine tree planted by the woodcarver and watered
by the rain.
(15)
Some of the wood is used to make a fire for heating or for cooking. One piece is made into an idol, then
the woodcarver bows down and worships it.
(16)
He enjoys the warm fire and the meat that was roasted
over the burning coals.
(17)
Afterwards, he bows down to worship the wooden idol. "Protect
me!" he says. "You are my god."
(18)
Those who worship idols are stupid and blind!
(19)
They don't have enough sense to say to themselves, "I made a fire
with half of the wood and cooked my bread and meat on it. Then
I made something worthless with the other half. Why
worship a block of wood?"
(20)
How can anyone be stupid enough to trust something that can be burned to
ashes? No one can save themselves like that. Don't they realize that the idols they hold in their hands
are not really gods?
All these
idols are certainly nothing. Yet notice
where the idol comes from.
(10) Why make
an idol or an image that can't do a thing?
(11) Everyone who makes idols and all who worship them are mere humans…
(12) A metalworker
shapes an idol by using a hammer and heat from the fire…
(13) Some woodcarver
measures a piece of wood, then draws an
outline…
…At last it looks like a
person and is placed in a temple.
All idols are
just a physical extension of the rebellious human spirit
which makes all idols.
1Co 8:4
(4)
So then, about eating the food offered to idols: we know that an idol
stands for something that does not really exist; we know that there is only the
one God.
Idolatry is serving the creation as opposed to the
Creator.
All idolatry comes from the human heart,
as the human
spirit refuses to subject itself to God and His law.
Ultimately that part
of creation which humans seek to serve is itself.
Chapter 4
What Did Idolatry Do?
What
specifically did iconic idolatry do?
First – Idolatry taught that Yahweh, the Creator God, is
not God.
I Kings 18:21, WEB
Elijah came near to all the people, and said,
"How long will you waver between two sides? If
Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him."
The question there was
–
Who is really God? Who has the power?
Elijah said that
Yahweh was God. Jezebel’s people said
that Baal was god.
Idolatry taught that
Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is not God.
Second – Idolatry taught that since Yahweh is not God, His
law does not exist.
1Ki 18:17-18
(17)
It happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, Is it you, you troubler of Israel?
(18)
He answered, I have not troubled Israel; but
you, and your father's house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of
Yahweh, and you have followed the Baals.
Idolatry
said that Yahweh the God of the Bible is not God, and His law is not law.
In Athens,
the apostle Paul ran into the idol capitol of the world.
Act 17:16
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit
was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.
In Athens, the capitol
of all idolatry, Paul was confronting what was considered
the greatest human wisdom in the world.
Robinson’s Word Pictures
says about Acts 17:16:
“Paul is probably here
about a.d. 50. Politically
Athens is no longer of
importance when Paul
comes though it is still the university seat of the world with all its rich
environment and traditions. Rackham grows eloquent over
Paul the Jew of Tarsus being in the city of Pericles and Demosthenes, Socrates
and Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Euripides. In
its Agora Socrates had taught, here was the Academy of Plato, the Lyceum of
Aristotle, the Porch of Zeno, the Garden of Epicurus. Here
men still talked about philosophy, poetry, politics, religion, anything and
everything. It was the art centre of the world. The Parthenon, the most beautiful of temples, crowned the
Acropolis.
…Xenophon (de Republ. Ath.) calls the city hole
“bomos, hole” thuma theois kai anathe”ma
(all altar, all sacrifice and offering to the gods). These
statues were beautiful, but Paul was not deceived by the mere art for art’s
sake. The idolatry and sensualism
of it all glared at him.
…Pliny states that in
the time of Nero Athens had over 30,000 public statues besides countless
private ones in the homes. Petronius sneers that it
was easier to find a god than a man in Athens. Every
gateway or porch had its protecting god. They lined
the street from the Piraeus and caught the eye at every place of prominence on
wall or in the agora.”
The People’s New
Testament says about this verse:
“Paul stood in the
midst of Mars' hill. In the Areopagus. Let the reader keep in mind that this address was spoken in the
literary capital of the ancient world, the most cultured city of the earth to
which every Roman who sought a finished education resorted to complete his
studies, the home of the philosophers, orators, sculptors, painters and poets,
and the great university where many thousands of strangers were gathered for
study.”
This was the center of
human learning and the center of human idolatry.
The most important thing
to remember about the idol is not the idol itself but the idiot who makes the
idol.
I have a Larousse’s
Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology.
This is a thick book filled with nothing but made up gods of the Greeks,
which were absorbed and amplified by the Romans. It is a whole encyclopedia of nothing but
made up human gods.
Think about this. If you have a whole
encyclopedic collection of gods filling hundreds of pages, just how much is
each god worth?
Shouldn’t the idol worshipers
catch a hint from that?
In Athens, Paul gave
the idolatrous Greeks more than a hint.
Act 17:16-31
(16) Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was
provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.
(17)
So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met
him.
(18)
Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with
him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to
say?" Others said, "He seems to be
advocating foreign deities," because he preached Jesus (Yeshua) and the resurrection.
(19)
They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus,
saying, "May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you?
(20)
For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We
want to know therefore what these things mean."
(21)
Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in
nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
(22)
Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and
said, "You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all
things.
(23)
For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found
also an altar with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' What
therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to
you.
(24)
The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of
heaven and earth, doesn't dwell in temples made with
hands,
(25)
neither is he served by men's hands, as though
he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all
things.
(26)
He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface
of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their
dwellings,
(27)
that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they
might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
(28) 'For in him we live, and move, and ha