'God' in the Bible

To the same apostles also, after his suffering, he presented himself alive with many convincing proofs. He was seen by them over a forty-day period and spoke about matters concerning the kingdom of God.

both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs -- we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great deeds God has done!"

And in the last days it will be,' God says, 'that I will pour out my Spirit on all people, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man clearly attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know --

this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles.

But God raised him up, having released him from the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held in its power.

So then, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne,

This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it.

So then, exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he has poured out what you both see and hear.

Therefore let all the house of Israel know beyond a doubt that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ."

For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself."

praising God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved.

He jumped up, stood and began walking around, and he entered the temple courts with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

All the people saw him walking and praising God,

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our forefathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate after he had decided to release him.

You killed the Originator of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this fact we are witnesses!

But the things God foretold long ago through all the prophets -- that his Christ would suffer -- he has fulfilled in this way.

This one heaven must receive until the time all things are restored, which God declared from times long ago through his holy prophets.

Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must obey him in everything he tells you.

You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, 'And in your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.'

God raised up his servant and sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each one of you from your iniquities."

let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, this man stands before you healthy.

But Peter and John replied, "Whether it is right before God to obey you rather than God, you decide,

After threatening them further, they released them, for they could not find how to punish them on account of the people, because they were all praising God for what had happened.

When they heard this, they raised their voices to God with one mind and said, "Master of all, you who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them,

When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God courageously.

Before it was sold, did it not belong to you? And when it was sold, was the money not at your disposal? How have you thought up this deed in your heart? You have not lied to people but to God!"

But Peter and the apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than people.

The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you seized and killed by hanging him on a tree.

God exalted him to his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

And we are witnesses of these events, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."

but if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them, or you may even be found fighting against God." He convinced them,

So the twelve called the whole group of the disciples together and said, "It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to wait on tables.

The word of God continued to spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.

Then they secretly instigated some men to say, "We have heard this man speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God."

So he replied, "Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our forefather Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

Then he went out from the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God made him move to this country where you now live.

He did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, not even a foot of ground, yet God promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, even though Abraham as yet had no child.

But God spoke as follows: 'Your descendants will be foreigners in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years.

But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,' said God, 'and after these things they will come out of there and worship me in this place.'

Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

The patriarchs, because they were jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. But God was with him,

"But as the time drew near for God to fulfill the promise he had declared to Abraham, the people increased greatly in number in Egypt,

At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful to God. For three months he was brought up in his father's house,

He thought his own people would understand that God was delivering them through him, but they did not understand.

I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look more closely.

This same Moses they had rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and judge?' God sent as both ruler and deliverer through the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, 'God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.'

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.