THE SECRET A Necessary Critique

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THE SECRETA Necessary Critique

• Dr. Jobe Martin
• Biblical Discipleship Ministries
• www.evolutionofacreationist.com
• www.biblicaldiscipleship.org

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• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, 2006
• (Atria Books 1230 Avenue of the Americas NY, NY
  10020/Beyond Words Publishing, Inc. 20827 N.W.
  Cornell Road Suite 500, Hillsboro, OR 97124-9808)
  www.beyondword.com.
• Rhonda Byrnes little book The Secret is an
  unprecedented international success.
• The Big Question is Why?

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PROVERBS 1412

• There is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
  but the end thereof are the ways of death.

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• Something remarkable is underway. It is moving
  with almost dizzying speed, but it has no name
  and eludes description.
• Marilyn Ferguson,
  The Aquarian Conspiracy, p.18

5

• Its all about
• YOU!!!!

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• The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans
  ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The
  sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out
  for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every
  wondrous thing you experience, is all there, for
  You. Take a look around. None of it can exist
  without You. No matter who you thought you were,
  now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You
  are the master of the Universe. You are the heir
  to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life.
  And now you know The Secret.
• May the joy be with you!
• The Secret, p. 183

7

• Were really now moving into a new era. Its the
  era where the last frontier is not space, as
  Star Trek would say, but its going to be Mind.
  Dr. Fred Alan Wolf, The Secret, p. 181

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• Why would a little 199 page book achieve
  international attention and skyrocketing success
  within a few weeks of its entrance on the scene
  of books in print?

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• What does The Secret say and teach that generates
  so much excitement and vigorous approval among
  its readers?

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• Even Oprah Winfrey has helped to spread the
  secret. Oprahs first program on The Secret
  received such a huge response that eight days
  later she aired an unprecedented follow-up show
  called One Week Later The Huge reaction to The
  Secret. The book and DVD have also been
  featured on a variety of network talk shows,
  including CNNs Larry King Live and The Ellen
  DeGeneres Show.
• James K. Walker and Bob Waldrep, The Truth
  Behind The Secret (Eugene, Oregon Harvest House
  Publishers, 2007), p. 10

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• Many centuries ago the following words were
  written

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EZEKIEL 283-5

• Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel there is no
  secret that they can hide from thee With thy
  wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast
  gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and
  silver into thy treasures By thy great wisdom
  and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy
  riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of
  thy riches.

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• We often get distracted with this thing called
  our body and our physical being. That just holds
  your spirit. And your spirit is so big it fills a
  room. You are eternal life. You are God
  manifested in human form, made to perfection.
• Lisa Nichols, The Secret, p. 164 (emphasis mine)
• 2006

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APRIL, 1984
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Susan Taylor, Editor in Chief, Essence, April
1984

• Get quiet, and ask the power within for ways to
  change stressful conditions in your life. Then
  listen to your inner intelligence.With this
  inner power we are also masters of ourselves.
• You are a child of the universe, part of a divine
  process. The degree to which you accept your
  divinity determines how much It can work for you.
  Get busy practicing the Presence within. Be still
  and know that you are God. (emphasis hers)

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PSALM 4610

• Be still, and know that I am God I will be
  exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in
  the earth.

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• But Rhonda Byrne writes
• You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit
  in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing
  itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are
  all power. You are all wisdom. You are all
  intelligence. You are the creator, and you are
  creating the creation of You on this planet.
• The Secret, p. 164.
• (emphasis mine)

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• Twenty-two years after Essence, The Secret is
  teaching the same occult deceptions.
• And much of this is sounding more and more like
  the faddish Emerging and Emergent Church. (more
  on the Emergent Church later), also go to
  www.lighthousetrails.com.

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• Rhonda Byrne says (The Secret, p. 173)
• You must focus on the presence inside of You.
  Take a moment and sit still. Focus on feeling the
  life presence inside you. As you focus on the
  presence within, it will begin to reveal itself
  to You. It is a feeling of pure love, and bliss,
  and it is perfection. That presence is the
  perfection of You. That presence is the real You.
  (emphasis hers)

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Susan Taylor, Editor in Chief, Essence, April
1984

• Get quiet, and ask the power within for ways to
  change stressful conditions in your life. Then
  listen to your inner intelligence.With this
  inner power we are also masters of ourselves.
• You are a child of the universe, part of a divine
  process. The degree to which you accept your
  divinity determines how much It can work for you.
  Get busy practicing the Presence within. Be still
  and know that you are God. (emphasis hers)
• Also sounds like Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey
  (Djwhul Khul, Morya), Sri Chinmoy, Annie Besant,
  Meister Ekhart, Donald Keyes, Maurice Strong, etc.

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What Does God Himself say? Isaiah. 4310f

• Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and My
  servant whom I have chosen that ye may know and
  believe Me, and understand that I am He before
  Me there was no God formed, neither shall there
  be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord and beside
  Me there is no Savior.

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• Divine Mind is the one and only reality.
• Charles Fillmore, The Secret, p. 161

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• All that exists is the One Universal Mind, and
  there is nowhere that the One Mind is not. It
  exists in everything. The One Mind is all
  intelligence, all wisdom, and all perfection,
  and it is everything and everywhere at the same
  time. If everything is the One Universal mind,
  and the whole of it exists everywhere, then it is
  all in You. The Secret, p. 160.

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Colossians 125-27

• Whereof I am made a minister, according to the
  dispensation of God which is given to me for you,
  to fulfil the word of God Even the mystery which
  hath been hid from ages and from generations, but
  now is made manifest to his saints To whom God
  would make known what is the riches of the glory
  of this mystery among the Gentiles which is
  Christ in you, the hope of glory.

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• How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son
  of the morning! how art thou cut down to the
  ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou
  hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into
  heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of
  God I will sit also upon the mount of the
  congregation, in the sides of the north I will
  ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be
  like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought
  down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
  Isaiah 1412-15

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• So your purpose is what you say it is. Your
  mission is the mission you give yourself. Your
  life will be what you create it as, and no one
  will stand in judgment of it, now or ever.
• The Secret, p. 177

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HEBREWS 926b-28

• But now once in the end of the world hath he
  appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
  himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to
  die, but after this the judgment So Christ was
  once offered to bear the sins of many and unto
  them that look for him shall he appear the second
  time without sin unto salvation.

30
JOHN 844-47

• Jesus said, Ye are of your father the devil, and
  the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a
  murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the
  truth, because there is no truth in him. When he
  speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own for he is
  a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell
  you the truth, ye believe me not.
• Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say
  the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is
  of God heareth Gods words ye therefore hear
  them not, because ye are not of God.

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ARE YOU DECEIVED?

• There is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
  but the end thereof are the ways of death.
• Proverbs 1412

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II CORINTHIANS 1113-15

• For such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
  transforming themselves into the apostles of
  Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself is
  transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it
  is no great thing if his ministers also be
  transformed as the ministers of righteousness
  whose end shall be according to their works.

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WHAT IS THE HUMAN ROOT OF THE SECRET?

• In the early pages of The Secret Rhonda Byrne
  acknowledges several people who were
  inspirational to her understanding and writing of
  The Secret.

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FOR THEIR INSPIRATIONAL TEACHINGS

• Jerry and Esther Hicks and the teachings of
  Abraham,
• The Secret, p. xv

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Esther Hicks and Abraham

• It appears that Esther Hicks is a medium or
  transchanneller for an entity (demon) named
  Abraham. She is the amanuensis (secretary) for
  Abe.
• According to Hicks, Abraham is an entity, or
  more accurately, a collection of several
  nonphysical entities who have been in contact
  with her for over two decades. The
  Truth Behind the Secret, p. 28

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• Whereas Rhonda Byrne discovered the secret in
  2004, Esther and her husband Jerry have been
  teaching the Law of Attraction for over 20 years.
  They currently travel the country in a 1.4
  million luxury tour bus conducting Law of
  Attraction workshops in hotel ballrooms and
  charge 195 for each ticket. TTBTS, p. 28

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• The secret can be summarized in this simple
  phrase Thoughts become things. Whether
  positive or negative, good or bad, whatever a
  person thinks about, concentrates on, or
  visualizes will eventually become reality.
• The Truth Behind the Secret (TTBTS), p. 16

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• Thoughts become things is a simple way of
  describing The Law of Attraction.
• If you think bad thoughts, bad things will come.
• If you think good thoughts, good things will
  come.
• This is nothing new! Positive Mental Attitude was
  taught by Andrew Carnegie to Napoleon Hill to
  Earl Nightingale and Robert Schuller (Possibility
  Thinking, create your own reality).
• The idea is Whatever the mind can conceive, man
  can achieve.
• for more info here go to www.bereancall.org

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Whatever the mind can conceive, man can achieve.

• Jesus said, I am the vine, ye are the branches
  He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
  bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can
  do nothing. John 155
• The Holy Bible King James Version. Oak Harbor,
  WA Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995, S.

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2 Corinthians 35

• Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
  think any thing as of ourselves but our
  sufficiency is of God.

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Esteem Yourself, Take Control of Your Life,
Become a God!

• O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in
  himself it is not in man that walketh to direct
  his steps. Jeremiah 1023
• Thus saith the Lord Cursed be the man that
  trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and
  whose heart departeth from the Lord.
  Jeremiah 175

42

• There is a very important reason why humans are
  not and cannot be little gods as The Secret
  teaches.
• The Secret teaches a wrong view of man.
• Satan wants us to think that we are good and we
  are gods. If we are gods we are not sinners. If
  we are not sinners we do not need a Savior.
• If we do not realize our sinfulness and need for
  a Savior we are on the fast track to an eternity
  separated from the one true God in Hell.

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Demonic Literature Teaches Every Day in Every
Way You are Getting Better and Better!!

• Jesus said, That which cometh out of the man,
  that defileth the man. For from within, out of
  the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
  adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
  covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
  an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness All
  these evil things come from within and defile the
  man. Mark 720-23

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• So the Lord Jesus, The Creator (see John 1
  Colossians 1 Hebrews 1), disagrees with Rhonda
  Byrnes idea that man is good, man is a god.
• The Creator says that man is evil from the inside
  out. Out of the heart proceeds the evil!

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• But the ancient writing of Ezekiel continues

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• Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD Because thou
  hast set thine heart as the heart of God Behold,
  therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the
  terrible of the nations and they shall draw
  their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom,
  and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall
  bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die
  the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of
  the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that
  slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man,
  and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
  Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by
  the hand of strangers for I have spoken it,
  saith the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 286-10

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• Ezekiel 2814-19
• Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth and
  I have set thee so thou wast upon the holy
  mountain of God thou hast walked up and down in
  the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast
  perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast
  created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the
  multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the
  midst of thee with violence, and thou hast
  sinned therefore I will cast thee as profane out
  of the mountain of God and I will destroy thee,
  O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones
  of fire.

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• Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty,
  thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy
  brightness I will cast thee to the ground, I
  will lay thee before kings, that they may behold
  thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the
  multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of
  thy traffick therefore will I bring forth a fire
  from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and
  I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the
  sight of all them that behold thee. All they that
  know thee among the people shall be astonished at
  thee thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt
  thou be any more. Ezekiel 2814-19

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RHONDA BYRNE QUOTES MICHAEL BERNARD BECKWITH

• And you can break yourself free from your
  hereditary patterns, cultural codes, social
  beliefs, and prove once and for all that the
  power within you is greater than the power within
  the world. The Secret, p. 167

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1 JOHN 44-6

• Ye are of God, little children, and have
  overcome them because greater is he (Lord Jesus
  via His Holy Spirit) that is in you, than he that
  is in the world. They are of the world therefore
  speak they of the world, and the world heareth
  them. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth
  us he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby
  know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of
  error.

51
When asked if he and his followers are Christian,
Beckwith says

• No, and yes.No, if by Christian you mean the
  acceptance of Jesus as the only savior and
  Christianity as the only path to God and eternal
  salvation. Yes, in the sense that New
  thought-Ancient Wisdom history includes the
  Gnostic teachings of the earliest Christian
  mystical sects, as well as the founders of the
  uniquely American New Thought Movement including
  Emmanuel Swedenborg, Ernest Holmes, Howard
  Thurman, and trancendentalists such as Ralph
  Waldo Emerson.

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• To learn more about New Thought, Ancient
  Wisdom, Gnostic thought and New Age Thinking
  please go to www.biblicaldiscipleship.org
• and read this writers Masters Thesis A
  Theological Analysis of the New Age Movement.
  There is nothing new in the teachings of The
  Secret.

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HOW DOES THE BIBLE DESCRIBE A CHRISTIAN?

• And this is the record, that God hath given to
  us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He
  that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not
  the Son of God hath not life. These things have I
  written unto you that believe on the name of the
  Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal
  life, and that ye may believe on the name of the
  Son of God. 1 John 511-13

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• That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
  Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
  God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
  saved. For with the heart man believeth unto
  righteousness and with the mouth confession is
  made unto salvation. For the scripture saith,
  Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
  Romans 109-11

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• And almost all things are by the law purged with
  blood and without shedding of blood is no
  remission. Hebrews 922

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JOHN 129

• The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him,
  and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
  away the sin of the world.

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1 PETER 118-21

• Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed
  with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from
  your vain conversation received by tradition from
  your fathers But with the precious blood of
  Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
  spot Who verily was foreordained before the
  foundation of the world, but was manifest in
  these last times for you, Who by him do believe
  in God, that raised him up from the dead, and
  gave him glory that your faith and hope might be
  in God.

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REVELATION 512-13

• Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb
  that was slain to receive power, and riches, and
  wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and
  blessing. And every creature which is in heaven,
  and on the earth, and under the earth, and such
  as are in the sea, and all that are in them,
  heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory,
  and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the
  throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

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• ROMANS 57-10
• For scarcely for a righteous man will one die
  yet peradventure for a good man some would even
  dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
  us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
  died for us. Much more then, being now justified
  by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath
  through him. For if, when we were enemies, we
  were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
  much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by
  his life.

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THE SECRET SAYS

• Wouldnt it be a good idea to begin to use the
  two most powerful words, I AM, to your advantage?
  How about, I AM receiving every good thing. I AM
  happy. I AM abundant. I AM healthy. I AM love. I
  AM always on time. I AM eternal youth. I AM
  filled with energy every single day. (I AM in
  capitals in original) Rhonda Byrne, p. 168

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• There is only one I AM and He is the God of the
  Bible! He is the Trinity, God the Father, God the
  Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
• I AM introduces Himself in Genesis 11 in the
  plural (God is Elohim, a Hebrew plural noun)
  and in the singular (the verb created is a 3rd
  person singular verb in the Hebrew text).
• In the beginning God created.

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• And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come
  unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
  them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto
  you and they shall say to me, What is his name?
  what shall I say unto them? And God said unto
  Moses, I AM THAT I AM and he said, Thus shalt
  thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath
  sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto
  Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of
  Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of
  Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
  hath sent me unto you this is my name for ever,
  and this is my memorial unto all generations.
  Exodus 313-15

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I AM is Lord Jesus

• For whosoever shall call upon the name of the
  LORD shall be saved delivered.
• New Testament Romans 1013
• And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall
  call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered
  saved Old Testament Joel 232.
• LORD is Jehovah is Yahweh is LORD JESUS. Call on
  the name of Jesus to be saved! (OTNT)

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HEBREWS I8

• But unto the Son he saith (The Heavenly Father,
  God the Father, says to God the Son, Jesus), Thy
  throne, O God, is for ever and ever a sceptre of
  righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou
  hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity
  therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee
  with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And,
  Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the
  foundation of the earth and the heavens are the
  works of thine hands

65
MATTHEW 46-7

• And Lucifer, Satan, the devil saith unto him
  Lord Jesus, If thou be the Son of God, cast
  thyself down for it is written, He shall give
  his angels charge concerning thee and in their
  hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time
  thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said
  unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not
  tempt the Lord thy God.

66

• According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus Christ
  is Messiah God, He is Jehovah God.
• Lord Jesus is Creator of all. This gives Him and
  Him alone the right and the authority to be the
  Savior (Redeemer) of all!
• It was the blood of Jesus, the Creator, that was
  shed for the remission (forgiveness) of the sins
  of His creation, the race of Adam.

67
JOHN 1033

• The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work
  we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because
  that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
• MATTHEW 123
• Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall
  bring forth a son, and they shall call his name
  Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with
  us.
• The Jews attempted to stone Jesus because He was
  God in the flesh and they knew it.
• (see 1 Corinthians 151-22).

68

• With all respect to Rhonda Byrne, we are not God,
  nor are we gods, nor are we I AM.
• God is God. He is the Great I AM and there is no
  other.

69

• JEREMIAH 1010-12
• But the LORD is the true God, he is the living
  God, and an everlasting king at his wrath the
  earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be
  able to abide his indignation. Thus shall ye say
  unto them, The gods that have not made the
  heavens and the earth, even they shall perish
  from the earth, and from under these heavens. He
  hath made the earth by his power, he hath
  established the world by his wisdom, and hath
  stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

70
REVELATION 223-5

• And there shall be no more curse but the throne
  of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his
  servants shall serve him And they shall see his
  face and his name shall be in their foreheads.
  And there shall be no night there and they need
  no candle, neither light of the sun for the Lord
  God giveth them light and they shall reign for
  ever and ever.

71
ROMANS 1012-13

• For there is no difference between the Jew and
  the Greek gentile for the same Lord over all
  is rich unto all that call upon him. For
  whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
  shall be saved.
• Jesus Christ of the Bible is Lord!