Did Israel Threaten to Outlaw the Gospel?

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So did Israel almost outlaw the preaching of the Gospel? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity.

Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us on this thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Later tonight, a few hours from now, scheduled to debate a Hebrew Israelite leader. I'll tell you more about that in a little while. We'll take your Jewish-related calls at 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884.

But first, we want to go straight over to a situation in Israel where there is real concern that a bill put forward by some ultra-orthodox Jews within the Israeli Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, would outlaw all preaching of the Gospel in Israel. It sounds quite outlandish, but we're going to be joined by my friend, Messianic Jewish leader, Ron Cantor. Hey man, thanks for joining us today. Hey Mike, how are you? Doing good. So you're in Scotland right now, huh? Yes, I am. All right. Reaching the book. Reaching Scottish Jews? Yes, all 100 of them.

Got it. Yeah, that was just in England over the weekend. Is it raining there? No, it's gorgeous. I'm really surprised how beautiful it is. Wow. All right, amazing.

You went at the right moment. Okay, so Ron, first, is this the first time that a bill like this was introduced or has this happened in the past? No, it's not the first time. It happened in the 90s before I even looked at it, and it was not passed. It was introduced by a politician.

His name is Moshe Gafny. He is an ultra-orthodox member and he's now the leader of this party, the United States Hill of Judaism, and they're not big fans of us as Messianic Jews, but it did pass in the 90s. Over the years, he has beat and produced the bill several times, but again, Israel is a liberal democracy. We're signers on to the UN Carter for Human Rights. We can't pass a law like that, even though there are a small minority of Orthodox Jews that would like to see it passed.

So yes, it has been tried in the past, unsuccessfully. And how radical was this bill actually going to be? When I say banning preaching the Gospel, I'm not overstating things, right?

No, you're not. I mean, the bill, if they had it their way, again, you have to understand that Israel has a very small but powerful minority, under 10% of all Orthodox Jews, and they have a big say in the government, because most coalitions need them in the government to have a coalition, so they're able to make big demands. This would be a huge demand, but the text actually says, and I was reading this last week or a week and a half ago alone in my apartment, and I began to get a little bit nervous, you know, as the president of the only Hebrew-speaking gospel channel in the world.

I have to say, I was a little bit nervous, but the more I prayed, the more kind of excited I got. But if I or someone shared the gospel successfully with another Israeli, they would get one year in prison. And if it was with a minor, they would get two years in prison.

Now, already it is illegal to share with minors, and we respect that. Every messianic ministry I know of respects that. It's also illegal to use bribes, try to entice people to believe with money or goods, and we accept that as well. We would never do that. The problem is sometimes that, you know, we have a lot of humanitarian aid, and we are believers, and we share our faith.

But God forbid we would ever use those things to try and get somebody in the kingdom. So one to two years in prison was the potential penalty. Right, so it would be face-to-face, it would be sharing online in different ways. And as much as there was talk about this bill in the past, why is it that this time around more people were concerned? Now, you say there's always going to happen. Of course, premise Netanyahu said it's never going to happen. We'll get to that in a moment. But before he made that very clear statement just yesterday, why was it that there was concern that maybe this time it actually could go through?

Right. It is because we have more religious people in government than ever before. Rather, Prime Minister Netanyahu, over the years he's made a lot of enemies. I mean, when you've been in politics for 30 years, and a good part of that time prime minister, it's very easy to break promises, because you're constantly horse-braving, you're forming coalitions, you're trying to keep your government from falling apart. And so because of that, a lot of his natural allies, people who are either the same view as him politically, or not far away, like Benny Gantz, like Avigdor Lieberman, Naftali Bennett, even Yair Lapid, even though they might claim he's a leftist, he's really a center-right guy. The problem is, is these guys won't work with Netanyahu. They've been, in their minds, they would say we've been burned too many times, we can't trust him. So he had this turn to far extreme-right groups, and I mean, they would be equivalent to the Proud Boys in America.

These are not, in my opinion, not great guys. And they never really dreamed that they would actually be ministers in the government. But here, it would be like Alex Jones suddenly becoming your finance minister. So that's what he's dealing with now. And they're putting a lot of pressure on him to make some sweeping constitutional changes in the government regarding the Supreme Court. Right. And the whole Supreme Court thing, that's an interesting discussion. Obviously, there are questions about how much reform is needed, is the reform good, is it going too far?

We've gotten into that a little bit in previous weeks. But basically, you've got Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been a strong friend of evangelicals for many years, and evangelicals have been his strong supporters. He's far, far more popular among evangelical Christians in America than he is among your average Israeli in the land. He's a hero. Without a doubt.

Right. He's a hero in evangelical Christian lore. And of course, he stood strong in many ways. So he's got these historic personal relationships. He's got these collegial relationships, speaking at conferences, et cetera.

And he knows the mass support that he gets from evangelical Christians in America and that Israel gets. So immediately, there were cries to him when this bill came out. And then he just tweeted something out yesterday, one of the shortest major statements I've ever seen. But what did he say?

What did he say? Well, I don't have a right to affirm you, but he pretty much said there will be no laws passed against Christians. Right.

There'll be no anti-Christian bill. Yep. Yeah, right. It seemed like he was a little bit upset. And I think he was. I think he was annoyed and irritated at these people who promoted the bill. It didn't help him in any way politically. It hurt him politically, both nationally, inside of Israel, and internationally. But nobody really would have known. We found out about this as a leadership in the Messianic community, I'd say about two weeks ago, maybe a little bit less. And we have a national conference. And basically, the leaders of the national conference of elders in Israel were going to come up with a way to respond.

Well, before we formulated a way to respond, I'm not on that committee, Joe Rosenberg, who is a Messianic Jew, evangelical in Jerusalem, and he has a great website called allisraelnews.com, he wrote about it. Joe has a very big voice. And it went far and wide. And Newsmax picked it up.

And they have millions of viewers. So the believers were naturally alarmed by this. And it blew up in about 24 hours, and I think within 48 hours, when Prime Minister Netanyahu tweeted out that there would be no bill against Christians. Yeah, the positive thing about all of it is we can never take liberties for granted. And it's always important to thank God for liberties we have, to use them. If we have them, let's use them. And then to remember that there's often a price to pay for preaching the gospel.

And, you know, we consecrate our lives afresh to follow him regardless of consequences. Hey, Ron, we've just got a couple more minutes before we let you go. But can you give us any reports with Shalana TV or anything that you're seeing in the land or young people being open? Any positive things that you're seeing?

Yeah, absolutely. Our TV station that was on cable TV in Israel, which was amazing, for just a few months before they took it off the air. We've been running now for three years. Last year, we made over 300 different videos.

And we are empowering believers throughout the land to be able to share their content and help them create content. But we just got a report from a young, you know, sometimes we get people who are minors that reach out to us, but we have to say, according to the law, we can't really talk to you. And this has happened several times. This kid, he turned 18. And the first thing he does, he doesn't go out and drink, which you can do at 18 in Israel.

He calls us back and wants to know more about you too. That was just about two weeks ago. So, you know, I don't want to overstate anything. Israel is a hard ground right now. The day is coming, I believe, when we will see revival in Israel. You and I were together at a gathering just a few months ago, and I was expressing, we need another Jesus revolution.

That was before Asbury and the Jesus Revolution music, moving rather. But that's really what people should be praying for, that you came into the Kingdom of that time. So many of the leaders in the Messianic movement, the Messianic movement needs an infusion of life that only God can breathe, only God can bring. So, you know, that's what people should pray, and pray that it hits Israel.

Yes, absolutely. There were so many of us that got saved as Jews in the Jesus people movement, disproportionate numbers, in fact, and we were just seeking, we were looking, and God reached down and saved us. When I asked about young people, I was thinking about college age in particular, that time of seeking and evaluating and wondering and things like that, and of course, they're not minors, so they can be spoken to directly. My first time in Israel in 86, I remember Ari and Shira, our hosts there, took us down the street in Tel Aviv, and it was like going back to the 60s in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, you know, the whole hippie thing. And then some years back, you know, Led Zeppelin, old Led Zeppelin songs, become number one, and you've got, you know, the rock eastern religion festivals. I mean, you've had all that stuff happening, but you haven't had the revolutionary Jesus movement, so it's definitely time, and people from around the world are focusing prayer on Israel coming May, so let's really join together. And Ron, we're standing with you on the front lines, man, keep going for it, you're going to see an amazing harvest. All right, thank you so much, Mike, and thank everybody else. Visit RonCantor.com if you'd like to get a free gift from me, join our mailing list, and we'll send you news from Israel, and keep you abreast of all the information. RonCantor.com.

Go there, I get his stuff regularly also. All right, bless you, man, thanks again. Bye-bye. All right, so that's the update from Israel.

Well, I haven't timed that well. We'll be right back. I'm going to give you an update about tonight's debate, and then straight to the phones, Levi, you will be first up. That's a good name. The Third Eager is Thursday.

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Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back, friends, to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday.

Michael Brown, thanks for joining us. We've got some phone lines open if you'd like to call in with a Jewish-related question, maybe a question that ties in with tonight's debate, 866-348-7884. So it's been a busy debate week. Monday in London debating Zakir Hussain, where the Muhammad is prophesied in the Bible. Again, in my view, not even a debate to have because the answer is so obvious, but because that isn't a Quran and there are Muslims who believe it strongly and I respect their zeal and faith and devotion, so fair enough, we had the debate and we should have the video up very soon. The different people that videotaped are pooling the resources to get the best quality video together and then as soon as our Muslim friends put it up, then we'll put it up right after that.

So we'll let you know about that. Tonight's debate, you can watch, we'll be posting links on Instagram, on YouTube, excuse me, on Facebook and Twitter, posting links for you, but it is Berean TV, so B-E-R-E-A-N-T-V, if you search for that on YouTube, 730 p.m. Eastern Time. So just to give a little history, here and there something would come up about Hebrew Israelites, or as some have called them, black Hebrew Israelites, and I would answer the questions and discuss things every so often, very rarely get a phone call, but then I see sometimes in social media comments these challenges, you know, Brown, you white Edomite devil, you're ducking us, you're terrified, and I'd say, I'm glad to talk to someone, call in or someone qualified, it needs to be qualified to be fair to the other side, right? In any debate, you want to have a qualified spokesperson, so no one ever stepped forward, and then I came up again with some of the recent controversies with some celebrities espousing similar ideas and things like that, so when Al-Azhar stepped forward and said he'd do the debate, by all means, I looked into it a little bit, definitely qualified in terms of a leader within the Hebrew Israelite movement. Now I know you have different groups, you have different sects within it, but he's definitely a leader and his views are representative views of many others, so absolutely, and I have no question that he's done his homework, that he's going to be really prepared tonight, you say, come on, Dr. Brown, the guy's a street thug, he's a racist, it's inflammatory stuff, why debate? Well, I categorically reject the inflammatory rhetoric, absolutely, I don't expect to hear that tonight, I expect to hear him come and do his best to bring academic arguments and things like that, I'm certainly going to do that on my end, I've taken this very seriously, but let me just give you a contrast and put a couple of thoughts forward for you. So first, Al-Azhar is talking about the debate, this is on his channel, a friend sent me the link yesterday, I guess, so let's just take a listen as he sets things up.

Do we have it? Oh, we seem to have stalled somehow. Okay, let's see, are we ready to go? All right, let's try again and listen to Al-Azhar talking about the debate the other day. We're starting it all, praise to the Most High. You know, Most High will, something very monumental is going to be taking place in here, and that thing that's going to be taking place is a meeting of minds, a debate, a battle of information, scriptural, historical, and whatever else, between one of the premier scholars on the planet, acclaimed by some, PhD doctor, Michael Brown, a Jewish Christian, a Jew for Jesus, and again, a top theological scholar in the world. We'll be debating myself, Chief Priest Al-Azhar, my lawyer, aka the Guerrilla Hebrew, this will all be happening on Berean TV right here on YouTube, free for the viewing audience.

The stream will start at 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific, that is next Thursday, March the 23rd, make sure to mark your calendar, make sure to go and subscribe to Berean TV, set your notifications. This will be one Lord willing, for the record books, we will be debating who are the legit children of Israel, the Ashkenazi Jews, or the 12 tribes chart. All right, so he goes on, there's more to his video, obviously, I play a fair clip, sorry, we had something else running in the background there for a moment, so his position, his position is that there are these, the 12 tribes of Israel can all be located, for example, Mexico is the tribe of Issachar, or Haiti is the tribe of Levi, where different Native American tribes are Gauden, Rouvain, and that African Americans are the tribe of Judah, etc.

So I find that utterly completely bogus, of course, there's no question they're black Jews, there's no question they're Hispanic Jews, no question about that, I'm not debating that whatsoever, but the chart itself I find to be completely bogus, then challenges, well, how Ashkenazi Jews are not real Jews, or later converts, or whatever, so that will come up, that's what we'll be discussing, and it's a fair topic to discuss. There are other things I put forward as potential things to discuss, some of my colleagues involved said, hey, take a look at these, maybe he wants to debate some of these, so he has his reasons for not wanting to debate those, and this is something we can agree on, that's perfectly fine. So I know he's obviously speaking very highly of me, more highly of me than I'd speak of myself, right? Speaking very highly of me to tell everyone, hey, this is a serious debate with a serious scholar, to be taken seriously. Okay, I'm all in, I'm taking it seriously on my end, and on the other hand, you do have, so here's some of his street preaching from February of 2022, which takes on a different tone, let's listen to this.

All right, so that's the rhetoric that I find ugly, dangerous, inflammatory. Is Jesus coming back and flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who don't know God? Yes, but it's not going to be based on race, it's going to be based on those who reject Him, and reject the Gospel, and reject God, they'll come into His judgment. But it's not going to be based on race or ethnicity, it's going to be based on those who've accepted His mercy and grace through the cross, and are now living to please and honor Him, be they Jew, Gentile, be they black, white, red, yellow, brown, etc. So I don't expect him to come with that rhetoric tonight, I don't expect him to come with that attitude, but obviously want to probe to the extent that it's relevant, and we're going to stay within the parameters of the debate, of course, but to the extent that it's relevant, I want to understand how that ties in with being legit Israelites. I'm not, that's not something that comes up in the main part of the debate, back and forth, but if it's relevant at any point, those are the things that I find very disturbing, so I'm very happy to do the debate for the sake of truth, and I encourage everyone, if you're tuning in, you might say, I'm not listening to that guy, he's just some thug. No, no, hear what he has to say, hear what he has to say, and evaluate it based on truth. And somebody said, man, I'm not listening to what this brown guy has to say, he's a white man. No, no, listen to what I have to say based on truth, because, you know, 2 plus 2 equals 4 is not a black equation or white equation, Hispanic equation, a Jewish equation, a Gentile equation, it's just mathematics, it's just truth. So we're pursuing truth at any cost, at any consequence, and praying that Jesus, Yeshua, will be highly lifted up. You say, where'd they get that Hebrew from? It's a complete invention, a modern invention that they call Ashoan Qarash, it's a complete modern invention.

It violates principles of Semitic morphology and phonology, going back through history, and yeah, we can trace vocalizations back and know how things were pronounced in the ancient world fairly closely, and it's absolutely not that. So if you're wondering where in the world that come from, that's what that is. In any case, make sure to tune in and be praying that Jesus, Yeshua, would be exalted, that many eyes would be opened, that truth would triumph over lies. All right, as soon as we come back, literally, as soon as we come back, we are going straight to the phones, and Radar Apologetics, thanks for your donation on YouTube, we do appreciate it. And yeah, you know, when you do a debate, you're gonna get all the stuff that comes up on all sides. Let's see the spirit and tone of the comments as well. That'll be very interesting. That'll be very revealing, won't it? All right, we'll be right back, straight to the phones.

Hey friends, Michael Brown here. You know, it seems the whole country now is talking about revival. Could it be that a fresh wave of revival is here? Friends, I've said for decades, without a fresh wave of revival in the church and awakening in society, it's over for Americans, we know it. And that's why I wrote the book, Revival or We Die. A great awakening is our only hope. Friends, when you read this book, it won't just give you a vision of what revival can do in society, in the church, but in your own heart, in your own life, in a light of fresh fire and you either ignite something in you, a hunger or desire, a vision of what God can do through a yielded life, revival or we die.

Even have a whole chapter where I share intimate, open prayers I've prayed to God, even in recent years, to ignite a fresh, a first love in me, I believe, as you read it, something will be ignited within you as well. But you know, whenever revival comes, there's controversy. And that's why I wrote the Revival Answer book.

I wrote it in the midst of the Brownsboro revival, answering the many honest questions. Is there too much emotion? What about shaking?

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Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome back to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us. Shout out to all of our new listeners in greater Phoenix. So glad to be on this terrific station with you five days a week at this same hour. All right, let us go over to Levi and Telsa. Thanks for holding. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Thank you for taking my call. And I was watching your debate with Dr. White a couple of days ago, and it's really just stirred my brain since then. So I am also on a journey right now of reading the Bible over again. But I read Kings and Chronicles recently. And so when I read those, it kept echoing during the debate in my mind. One, being with King Hezekiah, whenever he gets sick, I believe it's Isaiah that goes to him and tells him he's going to die.

And soon, get your affairs in order. And so he tears his clothes, and he's like, God, please, please, please, I repent. Pretty much, he didn't say the word, I repent. But he's begging for mercy and saying, I don't feel like I deserve this. And if I do, you know, he's putting it in his hands, but praying to him, and then God sees that, is pleased by it, and extends his light, and says, you know what, here you go. And so I read that, and then I read the divine council with, forgive me, I can't remember the king's name, but where the king was sinning, and God was put up with it. And so he has the divine council, and he's like, hey, guys, what do you think is going to tempt him? And then one comes up and says, I think this will tempt him.

He said, go, go and do that, you know, it's going to work. But just those points right there, it's hard for me to grip any concept of predestination whenever I feel like God is constantly weighing our decision. And if they're not our decision, then I don't get what is being weighed there constantly, and why repentance would even matter. Right, I appreciate that. So obviously, I'm not going to defend the predestination position, because it's not my own.

No. Right, right. But to explain how someone like Dr. White might answer it, so the first example is 2 Kings, the 20th chapter with King Hezekiah, and Isaiah goes to him, and he weeps bitterly, and then God sends Isaiah back, okay, I've extended your life 15 years. And then the other case is 1 Kings 22 with King Ahab, and Micaiah is the true prophet who reveals what's happening. So the answer would be that God, and I think I'm being fair in terms of how a Calvinist might answer, that God does in fact foreknow everything, that he has set the future in motion based on his plan and decree, so that he does X, knowing that we will do Y, and in response to us doing Y, he will do Z, which was his plan in the first place. So it would almost be like a parent who knows a child will react in a certain way, that they can truly let that child make a choice, but they know that given a certain situation, the child will make a certain choice, and that will tie in with a plan. So it's not in a predestination view that God just takes over our will all the time, and I'm about to say yes, and God makes me say no, and I'm about to jump, and God makes me sit.

It's not like that. It's more that he is interacting with our wills, but always to get his predetermined plan across. So the idea would be he tells Moses, I'm going to destroy Israel, because he knows that Moses will now intercede a certain way that will now give him an excuse, you could say, to have mercy, which was his end goal, etc. Now again, I agree with you. I read it much more organically that these things are really unfolding. Of course, God does foresee everything that's going to happen, but he foresees it also based on choices that we make in real time. So... And that's where...

So, sorry to interrupt, I just... No, no, go ahead. And that's where Solomon confused me, because I just, like I said, I'm an Isaiah, so I recently read a Cleopasian, and it says, you know, everything that... I'm paraphrasing, of course, because I'm on my own to break it on my Bible, but everything that is, is, you know, pretty much everything's already written, essentially, and that's what he says in Ecclesiastes.

Everything that's happened has already happened, and everything that... Well, let's not prove this in Arian. That's simply saying that history repeats itself. There's nothing new. Yeah.

En kadash tachara shemesh. There's nothing new under the sun. And elsewhere in Ecclesiastes, there are a lot of reflections also, kind of like walking through life and stopping and thinking, and then coming to the final conclusion. So, you know, one of the reflections is, like, time and chance happens to anybody. It's just all random.

There's no plan, but then he reflects more, and ultimately, no, no, fear God, keep his commandments, is what's said. So hopefully that's helpful for you, all right? Yes, thank you, thank you.

And can I make a joke real quick? I think that the debate, white versus brown, was very colorful. Thank you. God bless it. Yeah, yeah, you could get more color, right?

Could be a little brighter colors, but yeah, thank you. All right, let us go to Tony in Greensboro, North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. What's up, Dr. Brown?

Hey. I saw you were debating a black Israelite, and I read the Midrash, and they say you are a Jew based on your mother. Is it by mother or father? Because I'm a little confused. Right, so, Midrash is homiletical commentary.

You're thinking of something else. So traditional Judaism says that you are a Jew based on matrilineal descent, right, coming through your mother. Now if you're determined to be a priest, that would come through your father, but of course you'd have to marry an Israelite woman. But traditional Judaism teaches that descent in terms of Jewishness is through the mother. Ahazara will say, no, it's through the father. You could make a very good biblical case that descent should be traced through the father rather than the mother, and I'm perfectly happy to argue that tonight.

In other words, to say fine, we trace things through the father. So traditional Judaism, based on some passages in the Bible, has said that Jewishness is determined by the mother, because you have, for example, in the book of Ezra, where the priests and others married foreign women, and then they had to divorce them and send the children away as well, the idea being that the children of these marriages were unacceptable as well, that they weren't truly Jewish, so that would trace descent through the mother. I think in that context, it's more a matter of interacting with pagans, and especially for a priest, if a priest married a non-Israelite, then that would disqualify the children from being priests as well. But I'm perfectly fine to go with patrilineal.

For me, that's not going to be an argument, and I know it's Ahazara's position, so I'm good with that. I don't think that's going to come up as a point of dispute about Jewish descent. So what does the Bible teach about this? I think you could make a better biblical case that it comes through the father, personally, so I disagree with traditional Judaism on that. That being said, so I mean, both my mother and father are Jewish, that's not an issue in my own life, and going back, you know, as far back as I can trace it. But you could also potentially, it's not my argument, all right, but some would argue that if you're either a Jewish father or Jewish mother and grow up identifying as a Jewish person seeking to follow the God of Israel, that that would qualify as being a Jew. But I don't think you can prove that biblically.

To me, the strongest biblical argument is that it does come through the father. All right, well that's all I have for you, I appreciate your time. Yeah, sure thing. So at that point, we're not going to have a big debate on that one point.

There are plenty of things we'll differ on, but not that one. Thank you for asking, it's a very important question, sir. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Eric in Fort Mill, South Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Thanks, Dr. Brown. Do you know anything about this rumor in Israel? There are some Jews who are recognizing someone that they refer to as the Messiah or a Messiah.

Are you familiar with any of that rumbling rumor? Yeah, it's pretty much an internet legend in Christian circles, for the most part. So there's a young guy, a brilliant scholar, an ultra-orthodox Jew, and when someone is known for this amazing scholarship and is supposed to be incredibly saintly and all of this, it gets attention in the Jewish world.

They get greatly hailed, they have big followings, so that's just what's happened. So people have seen pictures of, he's at the wall in Israel, he's teaching and crowds coming and all, they all think he's the Messiah. No, they think he's a he's a phenomenal young teacher.

That's all it is. Called the Yanuka, which just means a prodigy, you know, someone that's very brilliant as a young man. And yeah, there's no movement, oh, this is the Messiah, we've discovered that this is the real Messiah, we're getting behind him.

He's just a very popular teacher right now. You might have, now, remember though, Eric, that in traditional Judaism, there's a belief that the Messiah, there's a potential Messiah in every generation, right? Some great, righteous rabbi who's ready to be revealed. Of course, we reject this view, but that he's ready to be revealed, and if the generation will be worthy, then he'll be revealed.

And if not, then it goes on to the next generation, and some even believe in some type of reincarnation where the soul goes, you know, to the next person. So, if you think that the Messiah could be here, potentially, and you wonder, hey, could this be the Messiah? Could that be the Messiah?

Ooh, this one. But all the talk and the hubbub that I've seen, because I get asked about this endlessly in social media comments, so I tried to dig in, all I can see is that this is a Christian internet sensation blowing something up about a guy that's a very popular young teacher rabbi in Israel. That's the best I can see. And is Anukkah a name, is a word with a meaning in it?

It means like, young scholar. Okay, so there are no people who are looking at him as a potential, the potential Messiah? Not to my knowledge. If there's anything, yeah, if there's a handful of people out there somewhere, and you know, there's somebody believing anything anywhere, but is there some? But to my knowledge, no. I've not uncovered anything within Jewish sources that indicate that, other than he's a really popular young Jewish teacher who's a brilliant, genius guy.

All right, thank you so much. I pray for you regarding your debate. You know you're dealing with people who are demonically influenced, and it's full of lies.

These people, they just lie, lie, lie, and their father is, you know, they're the father of the devil, and who's the father of lies, you know. So, you've got a big channel. Yeah, well listen Eric, thank you so much. There's no question, when I see people reacting with irrational hatred, when I see people posting things, probably I don't see 99% of what's out there in terms of the negative, hateful, ugly stuff, but I will get sent things and I'll see periodic comments. My heart goes out to people.

I don't get mad. Why in the world would I get mad that someone is deceived and lost and is ultimately hurting themselves in this world and the world to come? My heart goes out to them. I'm concerned for them and their well-being. So there's no question, a lot of deception. May the Holy Spirit work to open hearts and minds to overcome prejudices, whatever else blinds eyes.

The Holy Spirit can do it. That's why I'm doing it. Let's help people. Let's get the truth out.

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Or call 800-811-9628. Let's hear what customers are saying. A couple months ago I discovered Nopalea and I started taking it every day like they suggested and I started to have more movement and not feel the same stiffness. It keeps me going. I don't have to take days off anymore. I don't have to wear the brace around my back.

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Welcome back to the Line of Fire on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Shout out of appreciation to our sponsor TriVita. If you haven't visited TriVita.com, be sure to do it.

Use the code BROWN25. Just a reminder, when you do, 100% of your first order goes to support the Line of Fire. Helps us to get on more and more stations across the country. So thanks for standing with us and you will enjoy these nutraceutical products the same way I do. All right, back to the phone's Reginald in Atlanta.

Welcome to the Line of Fire. Dr. Michael Brown, how are you doing, sir? I'm doing really well, thank you. Thank you. It's a big honor and I have this on handset, but it keeps echoing, but hopefully it's not bad.

No, we're good, we're good. Okay, so definitely watching the debate tonight, actually with a group known as Cross Media, I got a lot of guys going to be watching this. One of the questions we want to ask is how do we pray for you and even pray for Alazar as far as the debate, especially in hopes that people will be transformed. How would you want us as your brothers and sisters to pray about this tonight? Because I saw the video that he did the other day, very disparaging, very concerning, but you know, I also understand and realize that you've been doing it for so long and plus, by the Spirit of God, we have much hopes. Myself, Cross Media, others have much hopes that you're going to do great things, great things are going to be done by God tonight.

So how would you want us to pray with you and for you? Thank you so much, and we know Jesus says you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free, and there are people coming out of the Hebrew Israelite cults all the time and coming to the truth, and one of my colleagues is introducing me to friends that have come out of it. So God's at work, and obviously we've got two very different spirits in contrast in terms of some of the rhetoric and some of the anger and hatred. I mean, you wouldn't be surprised, but to see, to show you the comments that come in, and again, I could say two plus two equals four, and then a Hebrew Israelite will say two plus two equals 11,061, and they'll say, man, Brown is crushed, and that guy doesn't, so you realize, okay, you're not, I'm sure Al-Azhar is going to try to come with solid arguments and it's not going to do that, you know, I would expect him to hear better than that, but the fact is, how do you, that's what I keep praying about. I've got no concern about the truth or where that stands, just like debating the Muslim Monday night about this Muhammad prophesied in the Bible.

I don't have any concern about the debate itself on that level, but I'm concerned about people hearing. So first, let's pray that the Holy Spirit would be on me, that whatever words I speak will be anointed and backed by His Spirit, that the truth will literally set people free, that eyes will open, and of course, you're going to have a lot of people, a lot of Hebrew Israelites don't even accept the 12 tribes chart at all, so they may not accept me, but they don't accept the 12 tribes chart, but maybe this will help them. Maybe coming across in a different spirit will open hearts and minds, and perhaps God will work in Al-Azhar's heart, you know, if you're going to use that kind of rhetoric on the streets and then want to be received as a serious proponent or academic or something, you really can't do both effectively, you know, so maybe there'll be the shedding of some of the rhetoric, the anger, we shall see, but pray that the Holy Spirit would be upon me and that the truth would set people free, and you know, this is a great prayer from Luke 21 that God would give us the words to speak. Obviously, I've carefully planned out opening comments, but then the rebuttals back and forth, cross-examination going any different way, so that the Lord would really give me words that would honor Him, the right words at the right moment, because I don't come in depending on me or I'm a scholar this or that, I do a debate, I come in on my face depending on God, and let's compare notes afterwards, all right? Yes sir, yes sir, definitely know that I'm praying for you across media groups, praying for you, you've got a lot of people praying for you and for the both of you, so we definitely do that, sir. Please, please thank your colleagues at Cross Media for praying, please do, okay? No problem. All right, thank you so much. Okay, so a quick question, Nick called in, is not on the phone, I'll answer it just very quickly, because it's not totally 30 Jewish Thursday related, the war in heaven, Revelation 12, has it happened already, has Satan already been cast down, and he's been doing war with people on the earth for the last 2,000 years or longer, or is it something still future?

Obviously it depends on how you read the book of Revelation, if you look at it as primarily historical or primarily future or primarily typological, but I understand that there is a final casting down of Satan that will lead to the final conflict on the earth that has not yet happened, so I would still see aspects of Revelation 12 awaiting a future fulfillment. I'm not dogmatic on it, but that's how I would understand it. All right, let's go to Miguel in Richmond, Virginia, welcome to the line of fire. Oh hi, Dr. Brown, I am so delighted I came across your program. Well thank you, sir.

So you have my question, and I'm not sure about what you teach. Let me step this up, I can't believe this is all on. I'm not sure what you teach, or your format, or your background, because I'm new to your program, but the Christian Sabbath as opposed to the biblical Sabbath, as opposed to the biblical Sabbath, what can you tell me? Was there a change? How did this happen? Yes, so there's no, yes, thanks Miguel for the question, and we get lots of questions about Sabbath over the years.

If you don't have my app, everybody download it, Miguel go ahead and download it when you have a moment. Ask Dr. Brown Ministries, ASK, DR Brown Ministries, download the app, you just search for Sabbath when you get it, or just go to our website, askdrbrown.org, askdrbrown.org, just go to the website and search for Sabbath and you'll get further teaching. There's no change within the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, that the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday. There's no change within the Bible. We know that the Lord rises from the dead the first day of the week, but there is no change within the New Testament that explicitly says, or even hints, that things would shift. What happened was, over a period of years, and then developed over centuries, as more and more believers were now Gentile, no longer Jewish believers, and as they would celebrate the resurrection of Jesus either early Sunday morning or later after work on a Sunday night, that this became the day that was set aside, because God gave the seventh-day Sabbath to Israel. He never commanded it for the whole church.

He gave it as a sign between him and Israel. So, it's perfectly fine for a Christian to say, well, why change it? Seventh-day, we'll still honor the Lord on the Sabbath, on a Saturday, as it always was. It's perfectly fine, but the New Testament's also clear this is nothing to judge someone over.

In other words, no one can put you under pressure to do that. And as church tradition then set aside Sunday, perfectly fine to gather to worship the Lord on that day, but to decree that that was the new Sabbath, the church overstepped its bounds. No one ever gave the church the authority to do that. So, there's liberty to do it, but there is never an official change in God's sight from the Sabbath going from Saturday to Sunday.

That's just the result of later church tradition. Hey, thank you, sir, for the call. We appreciate it.

All right, let's go to AJ in Sydney, Australia. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown, how are you going? Doing very well, thanks. That's awesome.

I've got two questions. One's regarding Jordan Peterson's Exodus series on YouTube. I'm not too sure if you've seen it, but I was watching the Dennis Prager and he was thinking about Satan and how he doesn't believe that there is an evil source in the world. Obviously, Jewish and I, I've never heard that before, so I just wanted to see where that comes from and if that's correct.

Right. So, I've seen a few snippets of comments of Jordan Peterson, Genesis, some other things, but no, I haven't watched his series on either Genesis or Exodus. He's obviously a brilliant, profoundly deep thinker that God is using in many positive ways. Today, is he a genuine believer? Does he really know the Lord? Does he have spiritual insight from above?

Those are other questions to ask, but Dennis Prager has his own commentary which on the Torah that's coming out, which is it's the rational Bible commentary. So, he is not an Orthodox or an ultra-Orthodox Jew. He's a conservative Jew and a rationalist. So, he absolutely believes in the existence of God, but it would not surprise me if he doesn't believe in a personified Satan. Does Judaism, traditional Judaism, believe in a personified Satan?

Oh, absolutely. Not in the same way that Christians would in terms of like a rival force against God, as much as someone within God's army, and he carries out certain dirty work. So, the Talmud, Jewish tradition, does believe in Hasatan, the adversary, Satan. It does believe in demons, yes, but the emphasis would be less so than in certain Christian circles in terms of driving out demons, although in some mystical Jewish circles they still talk about it more.

But Dennis Prager would reflect a more rational Jewish viewpoint, not a traditional Jewish viewpoint on Satan, if you've represented it accurately there. Okay, yeah, no, thank you for that. And just quickly, I'm a high school teacher and I usually have kids from 15 to 17 years old, and I don't know if there's any resources or something like that that I can get these kids really thinking about their faith, because it is a Christian school and a lot of them are second, third generation Christians. So yeah, just maybe if you had any tips or books or something to call me in direction of.

Got it. Okay, so in my new book, Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith, we have a link, an online link. I don't have it in front of me, but I'm just going to tell you how to get it, AJ. Shoot a note, go to our website, askdrbrown.org, click on contact, and just ask for the link in our new book that gives resources for people with questions, doubts, because we have some for young people as well. So in my new book, Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith, in the back I've got some references and then a link where you can go online and look at lots and lots of different sources that we recommend. So just write to us, askdrbrown.org, shoot a note for that link in the back of the new book and we'll get it sent to you. God bless. Another program powered by the Truth Network.