An altar with this inscription: to an unknown god, and this is what I am going to proclaim to you

Acts 17:16-34

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.

Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

Why?

Paul followed the customs of Athens, there was a god called an unknown god. This unknown god is the Lord. Jesus Christ. Paul explained to them.

The real God who created the world and everything in it, God is not served by human hands but gives all men life and breath and everything else.

Some of them sneered, and some of them became followers of Paul and believed. Two different reactions. Those who become followers of Paul are blessed.

Paul did not reject the religions in Athens but explained to them there is a bigger God that was not made by man's hands.

How?

Do the mission of the Lord, be a good witness before men, let people know that I belong to the Lord, and may my life and image can attract others to come to know my Lord. Our God is the real Lord who created this universal and our lives are created by Him. Real God doesn't live in man-made idols.