---
title: Acts 14:15
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-14-15/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-14-15.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Acts 14:15
testament: NT
section: Acts
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Acts 14:15

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Men, why are you doing these things? We too are humans having the same infirmities as you have. And we are declaring the good news to you, for you to turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all the things in them."

## JW Usage

JWs cite Paul's refusal of worship at Lystra as evidence that worship belongs to Jehovah alone — and by extension that Jesus, who accepted worship in the gospels, must not be God in the same sense. The verse also serves as a reminder of the Creator's sole worthiness compared to "vain things" of pagan religion.

## Protestant Usage

Paul's sermon at Lystra is one of the New Testament's clearest common-grace texts. Verse 15 sets up the pivot: turn from vain things to "the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all the things in them". Verses 16-17 continue with the move most relevant to the Watchtower's "Satan also blesses" framing: God "let all the nations go their own way; and yet he did not leave himself without witness in that he did good and gave you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and good cheer". Paul tells PAGANS that the Creator has been giving them rain and harvests as testimony to himself — not Satan, not idols. The doorstep insight is gentle: when a JW sees a non-Witness flourishing, scripture's first attribution is the Father's common grace, not satanic counterfeit. Pair with Matthew 5:45, James 1:17, 1 Timothy 4:4, Genesis 1:31. The pattern is consistent.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- ['Satan Also Blesses' — Common Grace vs Demonic Conspiracy](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/satan-blesses-worldly-success.md) — Matthew 5:45 — He sends rain on the just and the unjust [Epistemology]