The people from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh answered the eleven men. They said, "The LORD is our God! Again we say that the LORD is our God! And God knows why we did this thing. We want you to know also. You can judge what we did. If you think we did it because we are against the LORD or refuse to obey him, you can kill us today. Do you think we built our own altar because we want to turn away from the LORD? Do you think we built another altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fellowship offerings? If that is why we built this altar, we ask the LORD himself to punish us. "So we decided to build this altar. But we did not plan to use it for burning offerings and sacrifices.

The real reason we wanted our altar was to show our people that we worship the same God you do. This altar will be the proof to you and us and to all our future children that we worship the LORD. We give our sacrifices, grain offerings, and fellowship offerings to the LORD. We wanted your children to grow up and know that we are also Israelites like yourselves. In the future, if it happens that your children say that we don't belong to Israel, then our children can say, 'Look, our fathers who lived before us made an altar. That altar is exactly like the LORD'S altar at the Holy Tent. We don't use this altar for sacrifices—this altar is proof that we are part of Israel.' "The truth is, we don't want to be against the LORD. We don't want to stop following him now. We know that the only true altar is the one that is in front of the Holy Tent. That altar belongs to the LORD our God."

God was very pleased with David. He asked God to let him build a Temple for the people of Jacob. But Solomon was the one who built the Temple. "But the Most High God does not live in houses built by human hands. This is what the prophet writes: 'The Lord says, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is where I rest my feet. So do you think you can build a house for me? Do I need a place to rest? Remember, I made all these things!'"

Then Stephen said, "You stubborn Jewish leaders! You refuse to give your hearts to God or even listen to him. You are always against what the Holy Spirit wants you to do. That's how your ancestors were, and you are just like them! They persecuted every prophet who ever lived. They even killed those who long ago said that the Righteous One would come. And now you have turned against that Righteous One and killed him. You are the people who received God's law, which he gave you through his angels. But you don't obey it!"

Then Paul stood up before the meeting of the Areopagus council and said, "Men of Athens, everything I see here tells me you are very religious. I was going through your city and I saw the things you worship. I found an altar that had these words written on it: 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' You worship a god that you don't know. This is the God I want to tell you about. "He is the God who made the whole world and everything in it. He is the Lord of the land and the sky. He does not live in temples built by human hands. He is the one who gives people life, breath, and everything else they need. He does not need any help from them. He has everything he needs. God began by making one man, and from him he made all the different people who live everywhere in the world. He decided exactly when and where they would live.

"God wanted people to look for him, and perhaps in searching all around for him, they would find him. But he is not far from any of us. It is through him that we are able to live, to do what we do, and to be who we are. As your own poets have said, 'We all come from him.' "That's right. We all come from God. So you must not think that he is like something people imagine or make. He is not made of gold, silver, or stone. In the past people did not understand God, and he overlooked this. But now he is telling everyone in the world to change and turn to him. He has decided on a day when he will judge all the people in the world in a way that is fair. To do this he will use a man he chose long ago. And he has proved to everyone that this is the man to do it. He proved it by raising him from death!" When the people heard about Jesus being raised from death, some of them laughed. But others said, "We will hear more about this from you later."