Dr. Brown Tackles Your Most Pressing Questions

Let's do it! Phone lines are open. You've got questions. We've got answers.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us on our Friday broadcast on The Line of Fire. You've got questions. We've got answers. Phone lines wide open.

866-344-866-348-7884. The earlier that you call, the better chance we have of getting to your calls during the show. Also, right after the broadcast, literally immediately after the broadcast, I run out the door, probably literally run out the door.

To the airport, flying out of town, and I'm getting away for a week. I've not done this in a very, very long time, but I'll be getting away for a week, just alone, to seek the Lord, do some writing, but really just to be before Him as we come to the end of this extraordinary year, a very difficult year for so many. And every day next week, we have a specially recorded broadcast. You're going to be blessed. We've got one great interview with Sean McDowell, other special broadcasts I've prepared. So prepare to be blessed every day next week, but I won't be taking calls, but we'll be interacting with you in other ways.

All right. 866-344-TRUTH. And I'm going to go straight to the phone, starting in Baltimore, Maryland with Tom. Welcome to the line of fire.

Good evening, Dr. Brown. I have a question in regards to a question that someone posed to me, and it kind of stuck with me ever since they asked me a kind of challenge. I am a Christian, and it kind of challenged my own faith and belief in, you know, in the foundation of Christianity. What they asked was, they asked, they said that if Christianity is real and, you know, if it's authentic, why is it that you have to believe in it for it to be real? So, for example, they said that you and I, you and I as an individual or as a human being, we are real, and I don't have to believe in you for you to be real. You're real whether I believe in you or not. And essentially what they said was belief is only there when something cannot be proven, so if something cannot be proven, then it's not true. If something is true, it doesn't have to be believed in it or to be true. And ever since they posed that question to me, they really got to me and challenged my own views in Christianity and things like that. So I was just wondering about that. Sure.

Well, thank you for asking the question, sir, and for your honesty. It's the exact opposite of what they're saying. Believing it doesn't make it real. It's real whether you believe it or not. Believing it enables you to experience it.

Let's look at a few different possible examples, all right? How can I prove to you that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead 2,000 years ago? How can I prove to you that Julius Caesar died the way history says he died? How can I prove to you that King Shalmaneser of Assyria… In other words, we have no video records, right?

We can't try and travel back. But here, if you'll put your trust in the living God because Jesus did die for our sins and rise from the dead, God will make himself real in your own life. In other words, you'll get to experience the reality that all the other ancient events, you just have to rely on historians and what they say, etc.

And we have all the history verifying what happened as well about Jesus, right? But what we're saying is, no, contrary to everything that happened in previous generations, you can experience it for yourself as if you were there when you open your heart to God. You say, well, why do I have to open my heart to God? Okay, so you meet a beautiful woman, great personality, wonderful lady. She's single, you're single, you think, I could really spend the rest of my life with her, let's go have sex. No, you don't do that because you have to build a relationship. You're not going to give your bodies to one another until you're joined together in the bond of marriage. So the same way, God's not going to share his treasures with people who mock him and despise him. But when we honestly say, God, I want to believe if it's true, make yourself real. He'll do that.

Here's one other example. All right. You're a fireman, right? You are at the scene of a fire. There's somebody, a kid in a bedroom screaming, fires coming close.

You get up on the ladder. You are real and the kid is real. Correct?

No one's debating that. But in order for that kid to come in your arms, he has to trust you. And then from there you can rescue him. So trust just makes what is real personal. Trust what makes what really happened experiential. And trust is not, okay, make believe, make believe, make believe. And now a fantasy will become real.

And now you are LeBron James and you are a superstar basketball player. No, that's what we're saying. We're saying that God's there to help you and bless you. And if you look to him, he'll make himself real. And the things that literally happened in the past, you can experience because Jesus is alive.

So contrary to other dead religions and dead history, ours is the exact opposite. You can experience Jesus for yourself. Absolutely. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.

You are very welcome. And last thing, if someone says, I don't know if it's true or not, say, well, study the evidence, study the history, the archaeology, the arguments. But then ask God if you're really there.

And this is true. I'm sincere. If you make me to know, then I will follow you. Hey, Tom, God bless you. Thank you for the question. And I trust the Lord's grace will reaffirm what I just said. All right.

Let us go to Portland, Oregon. Aaron, welcome to the line of fire. Hey there, Dr. Brown. Can you hear me OK? Oh, yes, I can.

Perfect. Hey, I wanted to ask you a question about Genesis chapter two, verse three. It's in regards to the seventh day Sabbath. I have family members who are observant of the seventh day Sabbath. And I really don't have an answer for the fact that God, before the giving of the law, blessed and sanctified or made holy the seventh day of the week, and he even rested on that seventh day of the week.

I wanted to hear your thoughts about that. If I am to believe that I can esteem every day alike. What what what's my answer to Genesis chapter two, verse three? Right. So first, Romans 14, as Paul is writing to a community of Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus living together, he makes very clear that some esteem every day the same and others esteem one day higher than another.

That's so he makes clear that you have these differences within the same community. That's one to in the second chapter of Colossians, he warns against pressure of being put on people to observe a seventh day Sabbath saying that's the shadow, the substance, the reality is found in the Messiah. And then Matthew 11, verses 28 to 30.

Jesus has come to me and find rest. He's the ultimate fulfillment of Sabbath rest. And Hebrews points to us finding ultimate rest in him. So God did sanctify the seventh day, and it could also be a symbol of eternal order of God of 6000 years of humanity and 1000 years of rest.

You know, whatever people want to make symbolically from it. But the bottom line is that from there until Exodus, the 16th chapter, there's no reference to a Sabbath. There's no reference to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, knowing anything about it. And when you get to Exodus 16, the children of Israel, they're like, what is this?

Why did we get double manna? And it's like, oh, well, tomorrow's a Sabbath. Oh, they didn't know about it.

It was brand new. So if this is something that God instituted for humanity, why is there in the reference of it? And then with within the Torah itself and then reiterated in Ezekiel, the Sabbath was a unique sign between God and Israel. He never gave it to the whole world as a command. And in the early church, especially in the Roman world, you didn't unless you were a Jew living in the Jewish community, you didn't have a seven day week cycle where you could get off and not work.

You know, you were working. It could be 10 days or whatever the cycles were. And there's no evidence anywhere in the early church that the Gentile believers observed the seventh day Sabbath. In fact, they didn't understand why the Jewish believers did that baffled them.

You know, that they got somewhat disconnected from the roots. So it's nowhere given as a command until Exodus 16. And even then, and what follows explicitly for the children of Israel. So it's perfectly fine for a Christian to observe the seventh day Sabbath. God never commanded the eighth day or the first day of the week Sunday. He never commanded that as the new Sabbath, but it's absolutely not required. And what it points to, we now find rest in Yeshua. So, you know, you could just say, hey, could you show me specifically anywhere where it tells Gentile believers to observe the seventh day Sabbath? You have examples of people joining themselves to Israel, the eunuchs that do this, you know, Isaiah 56 and things like that and being honored. But does it say anywhere that the Gentile world is commanded to keep the seventh day Sabbath in this age?

No, it doesn't. So you can't go beyond what scripture says, you know, and if their logic was true, why does Israel just find out about it in Exodus 16? So that's how I'd approach it, all right? Thank you for that. I guess my hanging point is, because I do esteem, you know, I do esteem the Old Testament, I do esteem every, you know, verse in the Bible the same, it seems like if God is saying, I bless this day, this day is holy, I don't want to go against something God said.

So that's what I'm struggling with. Well, he's now made every day holy in Jesus. That's the whole thing, we've entered into a new and better covenant, he's made every day holy in him. And our holiness is found in being in Messiah, not in a day, not in a location. And again, that's what Paul explicitly says in Romans 14. And then if your parents have an issue, say, hey, take it up with Paul, because he said, don't judge another man's servant, and I'm just being obedient to the Lord. And again, the other thing is, there's so many things God gave to Israel to make them holy, to set them apart from the nations, and many of them wouldn't even dream of practicing today, because that was given for a specific purpose at a specific time. So I love every syllable of God's Word, but it must be rightly applied.

Hey, thank you for the question, 866-342. Hey, let me mention two new articles to you, one is up on the stream, my official position on electoral fraud. If you want to know why I'm not shouting from the rooftops, this election has been stolen, we must do something about it, and why I'm not shouting from the rooftops, stop listening to these conspiracy theories, everyone knows the election was not stolen. Read the article, it'll express the real concerns I do have, and the real mandate for the church, and I'm not downplaying the seriousness of the moment at all, but that'll explain it, right? My official position on election fraud over at stream.org, and at our own website, askdrbrown.org, another article just posted today that asks the question, since when is loyalty to Trump the test for conservatives? Yeah, it's bizarre when people call me, quote, a leftist, because they say, hey, look, don't put too much trust in a man, so then I become a leftist, it's weird, but anyway, we'll straighten it out. Bottom line is the political leaders have to come to us, we hold to our positions, they come to us, and then we stand with them.

We don't go to them and sacrifice our positions, right? We'll be right back. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to the Line of Fire.

My delight to be with you. Do you get my emails? I want to keep reminding you, we've got some neat things set up to share more of my testimony, give you some background to our ministry when you sign up, you immediately get a free mini e-book, Seven Secrets to the Real Messiah, then get updates every week, our latest videos, our latest articles, special resources, so you want to make sure you stay in touch. Plus, you never know, get kicked off Facebook or Twitter or YouTube, these different outlets that we have, and this way we can stay in touch with you. AskDrBrown.org.

A-S-K-D-R Brown dot org. Yeah, by the way, I just seconds ago, literally during the break, I posted this question on Twitter. When did you first learn that the Southern Baptist denomination was formed to break away from Northern Baptists because the southerners wanted to keep their slaves and uphold the practice of slavery? So I have four choices, just learned that now, always knew it within the last two years, within the last ten years. So let's see what responses we get to that. All right, let's go to James in Manhattan. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Doctor, thank you for taking my call.

You're welcome. I have a question about conspiracy theories and Christians. Some of these like QAnon and Flat Earth and anti-vaccine.

My question is, why is it that Christians are seemingly so highly represented as the followers and promoters of these theories? I mean, I don't have data, but many of my brothers and sisters on social media. I share the same feelings.

Yeah, I don't have hard data. Yeah, I share the same feelings and concerns. OK, first, my I have a colleague, a research scholar who has been working feverishly the last couple of months to put together the definitive book on QAnon. It's going to be out sometime this month and hopefully not next week, but the week after we'll be doing a live interview and releasing the book.

We're actually going to publish it with our own publishing company. That's how eager we are to get it right out. He's become like the number one authority on QAnon. And it's it's it's scary.

But I want to save the QAnon discussion for then. So, James, here here are my thoughts as to why it seems that many Christians are even more prone to believe conspiracy theories than the general public. One reason and I'm not giving these in a particular order and it's just it's my speculation, sir. One reason would be we believe the Bible and the Bible often has us questioning the narrative and the direction of the world. We see the world society going in one way. So we're we're counterculture. We're questioning it.

You know, you have your value. You're teaching evolution in the schools. We need evolution. We reject that.

Right. And, you know, you're going the way of of transgender activism based on understanding scripture. We reject it. So we're often going against the popular narrative and questioning it, which obviously can be healthy or it can be unhealthy.

But but you see, you see that, OK, that's one. Two is a lot of Christians think a lot about the end times. And because of that, you know, Antichrist, one world government, those kind of things. So when they hear George H.W. Bush talk about a new world order, woo, when they hear Angela Merkel talk about a new world order, a one world order or the HWO talk about, you know, World Health Organization, you know, one world health. It's like so we're immediately thinking Antichrist vaccine, mark of the beast chip, you know, et cetera. So we can be more prone to conspiracy theories because of certain end time scenarios and theologies. Another is skepticism of secular media and what's being reported to us because of, quote, fake news. And then the last is Donald Trump, in other words, because he, you know, whether it's the birther thing with Obama, whether it's going back to 2012, saying elections are rigged when he when he loses in Ohio to Ted Cruz, it's rigged. Cruz stole this, et cetera. So he's always pushing things and coming up with his own theories and you can't trust anybody.

So a lot of Christians being Trump supporters are now disbelieving everybody else unless Trump says it. I'm exaggerating a bit. But I think those are some of the factors. And it's very concerning to me because.

OK, how shall I say this? I'll say it bluntly. It makes us look like idiots.

It makes us look like fools. There's a healthy skepticism. Wonderful. A healthy skepticism. You hear some say, OK, let me check it out. Let me study.

In that sense, the spirit of the Bereans in Acts 17, when Paul comes and says Jesus is the Messiah to these Jewish people, they welcome a more like that would be wonderful news. But now we have to study it out. Now we have to see. So now make a secular application of that, like, wow, that's a serious concern. Let me look into it. So you're saying this about the vaccine. OK, let me check. That's very serious. Or you're saying that this happened with the voting. And that's a very serious charge.

Let me look into it. But but we have to be able to evaluate things soberly. And I guess the last thing.

This is for everybody. But this is Internet. Anything's out there.

In other words, if you have a wacky, crazy, idiotic theory that no publisher in the world is going to look at and no media publicist is going to give attention to. Well, if it's 30 years ago, how do you get your message out? 50, 100 years ago, how do you get it out? Now sit down in your basement, you know, with the dog sniffing around in the background. Right. You know, and you're in your pajamas and you're like, I got something.

I dug something up. And the whole world can be watching it in 24 hours. Now, that's for everybody. So when you add that environment in and put Christians in the middle of it, it can be very toxic. And it's, you know, you think, should our beliefs in Jesus be taken seriously or are we just a bunch of wackos?

So serious concerns. Absolutely. Yeah, thank you. It really kind of answered what my next question was. But I guess disturbingly, you know, is it we embrace faith because we're gullible to, you know, this sort of worldview and theory of events?

I think it's gotten me very nervous in that regard. Yeah. Then flip right. Flip it over. Yeah. So flip it over and say this.

That's another element. We are faith people, but we have reason to be faith people in my book Playing with Holy Fire. A wake up call to the Pentecostal Charismatic Church. I talk about our gullibility. I talk about how foolish we can be and the crazy things we believe. But then I talk about the crazy things in the Bible that we know happened and then experiences that we've all had in our lives. And many of us have had that completely defy reason, logic. But we know it was God and it's documented. It's undeniable, you know?

Yeah. So the fact is, we have to be people of faith, but people who are grounded in truth. So in other words, by all means, let us be people of faith. But let it be a faith that can be tested, a faith that can be tried, a faith that can be grounded intellectually as well as experientially. Then we have the answer.

Skepticism is not a fruit of the Spirit, neither is gullibility. Hey, thank you for the call. By the way, that's if this really was James from Manhattan and not an alien invader claiming to be James from Manhattan.

Hey, you never know. All right. Just a little fun there. A little smile. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let us go to Michael in Everett, Washington. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Hello, Doctor, how are you? Very well, thank you.

Glad to hear it. My question is, at the end of—I mean, at the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jews were scattered because they rejected Jesus. Then in 1948, God brought them back to the land. And so my question is, if God scattered them because they did not accept Jesus as his son, why would he bring them back to that same land when they still do not accept Jesus?

Great question. And it's called mercy. And it's called the sovereignty of God. And it's called God having a larger plan and wanting to bring glory to his own name. So, yeah, the Jewish people, there was destruction of Jerusalem in 70, then 135, a further destruction and scattering.

And there were a number of factors. The big, big one, rejection of the Messiah, of course. But there is obviously rebellion against God in other ways. But we already have the exact same situation happening with the exile of the Jewish people to Babylon in 586 B.C. Now, there's a previous exile 19 years earlier, and then 586, the major one, that's when the temple is destroyed, right? So God's people reject the law of Moses, mock his prophets, and are scattered. Then God begins to bring them back about 50 years after that, 70 years from the earliest captivity.

All right, so in the 530s, he begins to bring them back. But what does he say in Ezekiel 36? So this is the passage that you really want to look at, Michael. He says, my name is being blasphemed because of you. In other words, it looks bad, like Israel's God is a weak God.

The God of the Jewish people can't even guard his own people, can't even protect his own temple, and his people are in exile. So he said, I'm not doing this for your sake. I'm doing this for my name's sake. And he brings them back to the land, and he says, there in the land, I'll sprinkle clean water on you and cleanse you. So first I'm going to bring you back in your unbelief, and then I'm going to have mercy on you there. And I'm doing it for my name's sake.

So for a period of, you know, from the late 1800s right up through 1948, Jewish people were coming back to the land more and more, and there was always some presence there. But Michael, it's mercy. You know what it's like, sir? God gives us promises about healing, right? To trust him, believe him, and the prayer offered in faith to make the sick person well. But if God wants, he can heal an atheist, right? And sometimes in our own lives, we mess up, and then God pours out goodness on us to say, hey, it's my goodness, not yours. And that's the only possible answer, because if God scatters, no one can regather. If God says, I'm scattering you in my wrath, no one can regather. If he blesses, no one can curse. If he curses, no one can bless. If he smites, no one can heal. If he heals, no one can smite. If he opens the door, no one can close it.

If he closes the door, no one can open it. If he scatters in his anger, no one can regather. So his regathering, if the Jewish people came back, Satan couldn't do it, wouldn't do it. The nations of the world wouldn't do it.

The Jewish people couldn't do it. The only way we're regathered is because God did it. But this is by his mercy and by his grace and for his namesake.

He will never do less than what he promised, but he often does more than he promised, because that's who he is. And that, to me, gives me encouragement that it's not just up to me that I serve a merciful God. Thank you, sir, for the question. I really appreciate it. So check this out. By the way, we've got a couple phone lines open.

It doesn't often happen on a Friday. 866-34-Truth, 866-348-7884. Welcome to the broadcast. So this is interesting. I just posted this a few minutes ago. Got our first hundred-something-votes poll responses on Twitter.

I asked the question, when did you first learn that the Southern Baptist denomination was formed to break away from Northern Baptists because the Southerners wanted to keep their slaves and uphold the practice of slavery? So, so far, just first hundred responses. 68.3 percent just learned that now. 12.9 percent always knew it. 6.9 percent within the last two years.

11.9 percent within the last 10 years. I'm embarrassed to tell you I only learned about this in the last few years. This was not something that I knew for decades. Yeah. I'm not surprised in the least just knowing history in America and pervasive nature of slavery and so on. And even wrong ideologies in the North where slavery was not practiced in the same way.

But that specific, which I should have known, didn't until fairly recently. Yeah. Anyway, anyway.

866-34-TRUTH. Let us go to Scott in. Hang on. Just got to read you something on my computer here and get me properly in. I tell you what, since something stalled on my end, if we could put Scott from Winston-Salem on the line, if you guys could do that for me, that would be great.

Just let me know when you're there, sir. Ah. OK. Somehow. We seem to have lost something somewhere and not sure what's going on.

Anybody know? Are we connected? Are we still on? Should I be smiling?

Should I be talking? Are you watching? Are you watching on Facebook? YouTube? Still on. All right. So can anybody at the truth side of things in the truth studio put Scott on the air with me? Is that possible?

If not. Well, it's very interesting because I get all right, so let's try this. Let's see if we're still live on Facebook.

No clue what just happened on our radio stations. Let's just try that. Let's see if we're live on Facebook still. And I'll wave to myself and find out.

Yeah, this is this is odd. OK, we're watching or am I there? Let's see if we're all together here.

All right. So somebody has to reboot. We're still live.

We're still live. But I can't see your questions, though. Oh, I can't.

So maybe, team, if we could grab a question from YouTube or from Facebook, I'll do my best to answer that. Let me just go back to the Southern Baptist issue. Southern Baptists have addressed these issues for years now. I just was not following things carefully. Dr. Al Molars made some major statements. They had a major investigation done within the denomination of the Southern Baptist Convention to really dig down and really go for. Really see what was going on.

If you just had an explosion in your ears, so did I. So in any case, in any case, the all the founders of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary were slave owners. And some of the great Southern Baptist theologians were slave owners and they had their various reasons for justifying it.

Of course, we rightly say it's utterly inexcusable and reprehensible, and the Southern Baptist denomination have dealt with that in very clear and definitive ways. But what I always wonder about is what blind spots do we have? What blind spots do we have where we're not seeing?

What areas are there where we are blind and we are justifying? You know, any Christian that's well, abortion is fine. It's going to be the same thing. It's going to be the exact same thing. Let's see here. OK, so I'm I'm still here.

Lauren. Yes. So thanks for putting up with this little question. You realize we as we do. We've done live radio. So on various radio stations live across America for 12 plus years, sometimes an hour a day, sometimes two, sometimes blanketing cities like New York and D.C. and sometimes with smaller outlets. But we've been on the air this whole time. What we what we did, though, is that a couple of years ago, we added a live stream on video so we could be live with you on Facebook and on YouTube.

All right. And everything is broadcast. We have our team right right over to my left, right through that window over there. And they're putting our clips in and checking levels and doing everything else and pull up references for me, whatever we need. And then we have our other team in Winston-Salem and they're actually broadcasting the feed out across the country on audio, on radio. All right. And they have the team there answering questions, taking calls and all of that.

And somehow system fell on their on their end. All right. Yeah, my I'm sure there's still a blind spot with racism in many hearts in America. But, you know, there's there's blind spots of there are all kinds of different blind spots that we have. And that's why we have to really come with with humility before the Lord and say, Lord, shine your light on me. Shine your light on me, because it's very easy to find blind spots in others. And they're there. I mean, I'm constantly asking people to help me see blind spots in my own life. And I've learned so much from callers and from folks I've interacted with. And then I hope to reveal blind spots to others.

But the key thing is to walk in humility before the Lord and to really ask the Lord to search our hearts by his word, by his spirit. All right. So we're just getting everything rebooted and back up with us. And yeah.

OK. Guys, just look at some of your comments and interacting. But I'm going to retry this. Let's go back to Scott in Winston Sale of North Carolina. Thanks, man.

We had a system shut down. But welcome back to the line of fire. Well, thank you, Dr. Brown. I appreciate it.

I've got a thing. Anything that God wants me to do, I want to do it. But there's a couple of verses that I have in mind that Romans 3, 31. I'm reading in the new revised version.

My revised standard, I'm not sure. But anyway, it says, do we then overthrow the law by this fate? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. There's one other one that might shed some light on it.

I'm hoping you've said it before. But it is in Luke 16, 17. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. And like I said, I know he warned us about quals about the law, but I'm not trying to say I'm trying to keep it. You got any wisdom on that?

I can— Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so, yeah, just to explain, Scott, the law's there for a certain purpose. And Paul says that the law itself teaches justification by faith. Genesis 15, 6 being the preeminent passage that Abraham believed the Lord that was counted to him for righteousness, and that the law is not there to make us righteous, but to expose our sin and to show us God's standards. So when we put our faith in the Messiah, we're upholding the law. When we recognize, when we look at our lives by the mirror of the law and see our sin, we're upholding it.

That's the purpose of it. So everything must be fulfilled. Everything must fall into place that God said. So certain passages have to be fulfilled, like the whole sacrificial system is pointing to the Messiah. Now that he's fulfilled that, we don't need those sacrifices anymore. We don't need to have a rebuilt temple and sacrifices to receive atonement or cleansing. We receive it all through the Messiah's blood.

The standards, the ethical standards of the law are not taken to a higher level in the Messiah. That which the law is pointing to finds its goal in him. So we don't nullify it. We say it's served its purpose. We agree with that purpose, and now we live as new covenant believers. So that's how we need to understand that. As opposed to, as opposed to understanding it in terms of that everything that's written under the law of Moses, we have to follow that explicitly today.

Otherwise, why do we need a new and better covenant, if that was the case? Hey, thank you, sir, for the question. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to... I was going to go to Andrew, but I guess I won't.

Let's go to Carolyn in Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Thank you. I have a question about the genealogy of Jesus. It talks about Jesus as the son of David, but in the genealogy, it gives the history, the ancestry of Joseph. And I was always wondering about that, since he was his stepfather.

Right. So the royal line would have come through Joseph. The Messiah had to be son of David, but also greater than David, as per Psalm 110 and other passages. If he had merely been David's physical son through Joseph, then he would have been lesser than David in other ways. So the line does come through Joseph in terms of this is the royal line that would have existed from David to Joseph. So Joseph was the descendant of David.

But you're right. If he is the foster father, you would say, then how does the genealogy come from? You could make a good argument that Luke's genealogy is ultimately pointing to coming through Miriam, Mary, his mother, so that biologically it comes through her. And it's a complex argument, but I believe it's the right argument.

Biologically, it comes through her. And then Joseph's adoptive father is in the line of David. So he's physically a descendant of David.

And then through his adoptive father, an heir to the throne. But because he is greater than David, he is not simply a physical descendant of David through his father. And if you say, well, what's the law in the Old Testament according to miraculous birth or virgin birth?

The laws are dealing with normal earthly births. The Messiah transcends that. But the best way to understand it is Luke 3 is understood as coming through Miriam, and that therefore she was also a descendant of David. So Jesus is physically a descendant of David, but then physically not as well. So he is the son of David and yet greater than David. And that's an argument he himself makes in a different way in Matthew 22. If you need more info on this, go to volume four of my series answering Jewish objections to Jesus. And I get into an in-depth discussion of the genealogies and what's required of the lineage of the Messiah.

Volume four of answering Jewish objections to Jesus. All right. Thank you so much.

You are very welcome, Carolyn. 866-34-TRUTH. So just, Maya, your request there about Southern Baptists said that it cut out.

Yes. So the Southern Baptist denomination broke away from Northern Baptists over the issue of slavery. That Southern Baptists wanted to maintain slaves and uphold slavery and justify it biblically. The founders of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary were slave owners. Some of the great theologians were slaveholders.

That's what got me to say massive blind spots there. What blind spots do we have today on many issues? We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome. Welcome to The Line of Fire. 866-34-TRUTH. J.P. on YouTube, thanks for the donation kind words and the fist bump. All right. To the phones. Let's go to Kindleville, Indiana. Brett, welcome to The Line of Fire. Oh, thank you. Hi. Nice to be here. I'm calling in reference to a conversation you had with a fellow last week.

His name was David. He called in saying he thought you were being too even-handed with a Democrat. Well, I listen, I actually agreed more with his sentiment on this, although I don't know that he stated it how I would have stated it. But I you know, he kind of came across like the Democrats are very wicked. You know, Republicans, you know, we're the good guys. I would have said the Democratic platform is wicked.

Democrats. But because the way I see this, if it's anti-God or anti-Christ or anti-Constitution, I mean, if it's sodomy or abortion or globalist, everything that I would say that is bad, they're for it. Yeah, that's why I've categorically rejected the Democratic platform, written against it, spoken against it, categorically said I cannot understand how you could cast a vote for a pro-abortion candidate.

I'm not saying you're not saved, but I could never do that in good conscience before God laid out the potential agenda of where the left could be going next and shout it at the top of my lungs, the dangers of it. So you want to be nasty about people or call them names? OK, so what's the problem? I think, and I get you, because I listen to you a lot and you're very impartial and you try to be fair-minded. But it seems to me, I think what he's getting at is maybe you're playing the devil's advocate.

Even in his call, you put the situation forward to him. Well, what if you're a Democrat or just a person, a Christian, and you quote a verse in the Bible that God hates, you know, lying. And so, and Donald Trump, he's a liar.

And can you understand someone who wouldn't vote for him? And in my perspective, no, absolutely not. I think it's inexcusable. When I hear that argument, what I think is the first thing that came to my mind was that just seems very sanctimonious to me.

It's like a person saying, I am so righteous. I cannot possibly vote for a liar because that would be very beneath me. And I'm sitting here thinking, that's nonsense. It's the platform that's important. It doesn't matter how great or bad Donald Trump is.

So hang on, you actually, alright, so Brett, let's have this conversation. It doesn't matter how bad Donald Trump is. How can you say, you're saying the most powerful man on the planet, the leader of the free world, politically speaking.

It doesn't matter how bad he is, as long as he has a good platform. I mean, what if he was Adolf Hitler? What if he was, what if he was, right, so in other words, here's the issue.

I must, okay, I was going to say, I misspoke on that. I would prefer, what I'm saying, if he has personal, you know, he likes women, and he's a fornicator, and he has all this. And let's say Joe Biden's just a decent guy.

I actually think this. I actually think personally, I could be friends with Joe Biden and not Donald Trump. But that is not the issue.

It's where they platform. They have thousands, tens of thousands. Well, that's why I voted for Trump. I've got massive issues with a lot of Trump's personality, but that's why I voted for him in 2016 and 2020. But at the same time, I'm gravely concerned about people putting too much trust in him, saying he's the only man that can save America. They'll believe him.

They'll turn on friends. I mean, here, when I tell people, look, we got to be careful. Don't put too much trust in a man. I voted for him. I've supported him. I've argued for voting for him. But we're putting dangerous levels of trust in a man.

I've got the same people who've known me for years. Some of them now call me a leftist, a communist, a sellout. In other words, the issue now is not platform. It's loyalty to Trump. And that's that's what I'll shout warnings about. That's very dangerous because we're doing the very thing you're saying we shouldn't do. We're getting away from the platform and looking to the person rather than calling for the person to uphold the platform.

But let me ask you this. If Clinton if the Democrat policy during the days of Bill Clinton was a good policy and and Clinton himself was upholding that policy, it wouldn't have mattered to you that he was committing adultery with Monica Lewinsky in the White House, because, hey, that's that's not my concern. No, I wouldn't go that far. But I'm saying that I think I think we like Jesus says, you know, you strain at the net and swallow the camel. I think we have to have our priorities correct. Obviously, both things are important. But the one the platform is just much more important. But I vote based on that.

So and that's and I challenge people to vote based on that. No, no, I agree with you personally, but it sounded like you were saying, can you understand when a Christian has trouble voting? They just they abstain or say they do vote Democrat because Trump is personally his character. They don't they don't vote Democrat.

Many vote Democrat because there are many black evangelicals that vote Democrat and they're fine people and they love Jesus. And and they are poor abortion and they are poor homosexual marriage. But they feel like you had. Yeah. So so let me finish.

OK, here's where we need to understand each other. All right. Now, I differ with their vote.

They know I differ with their vote if they vote Democrat. All right. Whoever they are, black, white, Chinese, Jewish. It doesn't doesn't matter. Whoever. Right.

But here's the point. They say, look, you had eight years of Ronald Reagan. He didn't get rid of abortion. You had four years of George H.W. Bush. You had eight years of George W. Bush. Now, four years of Trump. And we're still aborting hundreds of thousands of babies. That's not going to happen through the president.

That's going to happen through us grassroots and other things. But I find that the judges that you like being appointed to the courts, they're handing down unjust sentences towards black Americans. And I find that the education.

So they're looking at other things that affect them. And and but here's here's my thing. Just you tell me how to deal with this.

All right. I have a black caller calls in last week and he says, I would not hire Donald Trump to run my business. I would not want Donald Trump to marry my daughter.

I don't want him to lead my country. And then he reads from Proverbs six. The Lord hates six things.

Seven are detestable to him. Same word. Abomination to him. Arrogant eyes. So that's Trump.

Proud man. A lying tongue. That's Trump. Hands that shed innocent blood. OK, that would be abortion.

That's the other side. A heart that plucks wicked schemes. Feet eager to run evil.

Run to evil. A lying witness who gives false testimony. One who stirs up trouble among brothers. You can make the case that Trump is guilty of four out of the seven. God hates those.

Those are detestable. Could you understand why someone says, I'm sorry, I can't vote for him. I can't vote Democrat because of the abortion policy, but I can't vote for Trump. Can you at least understand that? But I think he's misapplying that verse. I mean, yes, God hates this.

But here on Earth, humans obviously killing a baby. Well, you should go to prison or have a death sentence. But if you lie, what's the charge? What's the danger?

What's the danger? See, that's what you're missing. That's where I think you're really missing something. And I say this with with with all respect to you. OK, these things are terribly destructive in themselves. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. That's Bible. Meditate on James three and how the tongue can can set all of culture on fire.

All right. So people are saying it's not just that he lies and we don't like lying, but that lying has a destructive effect on the culture as a whole. And that arrogance and pride are things that God's going to judge and bring us down.

So so here's here's my concern. Listen, I'm happy to have the conversation because I'm quite dogmatic on my views. I wrote a very, very strong article to pro-life evangelicals for Biden.

I absolutely blasted the idea that you could be a pro-life evangelical and vote Democrat. And there are respected leaders on that. But I categorically reject that idea. That's my own personal view. But but I think, sir, what you're missing is the larger negative, destructive impact that that can come to a culture here. If you have a church.

Right. And and members of the church believe abortion is OK. Here's a girl that was raped at 15 and and her parents will flip if they find out and never let her out of the house. And she's traumatized.

And the idea of going to school pregnant and she has nightmares about the rapist and hey, we're going to help her get an abortion. I believe it's the wrong decision. But I understand why someone thinks it's OK. We obviously say it's wrong, period.

All right. Well, the church is OK with that. That's wrong. That's definitely wrong. No matter what compassion is put on it, that's wrong. That's a baby.

That's a child. On the flip side, if there is rampant gossip, division in that church, and the pastor walks in real arrogance, that's just going to fall apart. The church is not going to have the blessing of God on it. Well, from God's perspective, these things are terribly damaging.

And that's the point. So, hey, Brett, I appreciate the call and I love it. I love it when people call to differ with me.

And when I push back, they push back. Just like you have, Brett. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm out of time. Otherwise, I would I would go further. But if I see somebody has a difference with me, as long as I'm able to get to them in the show, I do my best to because I welcome the disagreement.

And I love the fact that when I gave Brett my point, he didn't just roll over and say, whatever you say, Dr. Brown, he pushed back. I so appreciate that. But hear what I'm saying, hear what he's saying and think it through. This is as someone who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.

OK. This is someone who wrote the book Evangelicals at the Crossroads Will We Pass the Trump Test, which is meant to lay out both sides of things, then show us how to be able to vote for Trump without compromising our witness and how to unite around Jesus, even if we divide over him. But I had never Trumpers read that book and say, I'm going to vote for Trump now.

When I was on my Huckabee show, he said that's the best explanation he ever heard of why an evangelical should vote for Trump. All right. However, I fully understand why some people feel they can't. I fully understand it. And I accept the fact that there are brothers and sisters in Jesus that vote Democrat.

A totally different with it. But I understand it happens. And I'm not judging your salvation. Hope you're not judging mine. All right, friends. We'll be back to you on Monday.