Acts 14:15
Acts 14:1515“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.
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.
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 , , , . The pattern is consistent.