A Call to Courage

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Friends, you and I are here for such a time as this. This broadcast today is here for such a time as this.

I am here by God's grace and empowerment to infuse you with faith and truth and courage. We must take our stand today. It is a critical moment in American and world history. There is much that is at stake. There is massive upheaval all around us and the stand of God's people is what is going to make a dramatic difference in our society and will have an impact if Jesus doesn't return for generations to come.

This is Michael Brown. Welcome to the broadcast coming your way from our studio in Dallas at Christ for the Nations where I'm teaching this week. Be coming your way from here the next couple of days before heading back home to North Carolina. If you have a question of any kind relating to the Bible, theology, morality, church, and politics, any of those things, any things that we talk about here on the line of fire, give me a call 866-348-7884. We've got a very focused topic I'm going to talk to you about today, but you may have a question that's totally unrelated and I hope to get to some calls as well today. 866-348-7884.

That is the number to call. Also, if you have been involved in a situation where maybe you were the one to take a courageous stand, you were the one to push back, you were the one to speak out, and that launched others. Others became bold or strong. Maybe you're a pastor and in your denomination things were going in the wrong way and it seemed privately everybody felt the same way, but no one was saying it publicly. It was too dangerous to speak up and you spoke up and then others joined in. Or maybe you were one of those that followed another courageous voice. You have a testimony.

I'd love to hear from you as well 866-348-7884. Billy Graham said this, courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened. Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.

How many times have we seen that happen? I'm afraid it's too costly to speak. I can't. I'm going to speak.

I'm not going to stand for this. And because one person stands, suddenly I'll stand, I'll stand, I'll stand, I'll stand. Many, many years ago, oh I'm thinking back 30 years, I was in the midst of a very intense travel schedule and I was off one flight on another international travel, national travel. I was just a little bit worn out. Living in the Maryland D.C. area, on my way to the airport in the morning, and I say to myself, okay, I'm going to leave extra early because the last thing I want is to be rushing and parking my car and running from here and getting to the airport and barely on time. I've been going day and night. So I leave early, but there's a lot of traffic, Maryland D.C., Virginia area. So a lot more traffic than I expected. And I'm looking at my watch thinking, okay, I'm still going to get there early, but not nearly as early as I planned. Now we start moving, traffic starts moving, another bad traffic jam.

And I'm looking at my watch thinking, oh no, this is going to be tight to get there and just, it's going to be a push. So I think to myself, okay, the shoulder, I'm not advocating this. I'm just using this as an example. I notice that the shoulder, of course, let's say you've got three or four lane highway, you've got that extra shoulder lane that's done for driving. It's wide open.

It's empty. And I thought, well, maybe it's late. I don't want to get to the airport late. I've got to catch a flight. I've got to minister. I thought, you know what, I'm going to drop into that lane and start driving. And if a policeman stops me, I'll just tell him the truth and whatever happens, happens. I just, but I got to get there. So I do that, whether it's justified or not, it's not the issue. Okay. Technically I shouldn't have done it, but I'm giving you a story here. So I'm driving there and to my surprise, immediately I look at my rear view mirror and there's what looks like an older woman.

She drops in right behind me and someone behind her. And so the moment I did it, now everybody, it was always open. It was open, but nobody was willing to do it. The moment I did it, now everybody did it.

It was not safe. Well, finally traffic starts to, to fill in and I realized, okay, I got to get back in and into the main highway here. So I, I, I, a car start pulling in as their gap. So I figured, you know what, I'm going to pull in and leave room. I'm going to slow down and let the woman behind me get ahead of me. I'll make sure she has room to get in.

So I do that to be polite. Well, we're driving further because the, the shoulder had filled up. Now we're driving further and I see her pointing over to the right, like the shoulder's open because I can't see. She can see better. She's ahead of me. She points over. The shoulder's open and I, I think, oh, she must know I'm in a hurry or something. That's very nice of her.

So I pull out the moment I pull out, she drops behind me. Yeah, she wanted to do it, but somebody else had a lead. Okay. I know it's just a story for the police that are listening.

I don't mean to advocate driving on the shoulder unless there's a life and death emergency. Okay. So I repent of that, but you get the point when one person just said, I'm going to do it. It needs to be done.

I'm going to do it. Everybody else follows. I've been in situations like that where, no, we're all going to do it this way. And I say, look, I'm so sorry, but I just don't feel that's right.

And we shouldn't do it like this. You know, with a leadership meeting with a bunch of, of solid leaders and, and the senior guy will say, but everybody agreed to this, Mike, you're the outlier. And then one will say, you know, actually, I, I never felt right about it, but in deference, cause you guys agreed, I, I went along. And then the next guy, you know, actually I never felt right about it either, but because he did it, it's like, so there's only one person in the room that wanted to go in that direction.

That was the senior leader. Everybody else had a problem with it, but because this one agreed, that one agreed they all agreed. And then, but I wasn't so courageous. I just didn't agree honestly. I said, I just can't go along with this. I don't need to be disruptor. I just can't go along with it.

It turns out everybody felt the same way, but no one would speak up until one person spoke up. This might be you at school. You might be in class and they want to know your preferred gender pronouns and you just don't feel right going along with that. Hi, I'm, I'm, I'm Mike.

That's it. I'm not Mike and my PGPs are he, him. I'm Mike. Or you tell the professor privately, I'm really sorry, but I can't call Sally him. I can't do that. I can't do that in good conscience. And maybe you speak up and next thing students across the campus start to speak up, maybe some faculty begin to say, you know, we can't impose this on the students even if we think it's right. And next thing parents chime in, you might change the whole policy by just being the one.

All right. So during the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King was nonviolent, but he was an activist. He would do different things. There would be public protests, but they would all be nonviolent. There would be boycotts and things, but they were all nonviolent. But the people that were against them were violent. So the nonviolent protesters are getting attacked.

They're, you know, there's all kinds of risk to their lives, to their jobs and things like that. So some of the leaders with Dr. King said, maybe we should change our strategy. No, we shouldn't get violent, but maybe we shouldn't be so activist and confrontational. Maybe just wait for things to change more gradually. Maybe it's more pragmatic.

So it is March 8th, 1965. It's a great scene. Those watching will see it. Otherwise, as you're listening, picture a church building Dr. King speaking inside of it, and a giant crowd listening by loudspeaker. This is what Dr. King says as he addresses these very real concerns.

There are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true that they're worth dying for. And if a man happens to be 36 years old, as I happen to be, some great truth stands before the door of his life, some great opportunity to stand up for that which is right. He's afraid his home will get bombed. He's afraid that he will lose his job.

He's afraid that he will get shot or beat down by state troopers. He may go on and live until he's 80, but he's just as dead as 36 as he would be at 80. And the cessation of breathing in his life is merely the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

He died. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice.

A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. So we're going to stand up right here amid horses. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama amid billy clubs. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama amid police dogs if they have them. We're going to stand up amid tear gas. We're going to stand up amid anything that they can muster up, letting the world know that we are determined to be free.

Come on. Is that not stirring? Is that not a speech of speeches? Is that not the message that we die when we refuse to stand up for that which is right and true and just? That we can go on breathing, we can go on surviving, but are we really living when you lose your self-respect, when you lose your dignity, when you lose your value as a human being, when you have to violate your convictions and compromise your conscience for the sake of a promotion on your job or to not lose friends on social media or not lose tithing support in your church?

Are we really living? Isn't this what Jesus was talking about when he said that if you save your life, you lose it? If you lose your life for my sake and the gospel, you find it? Isn't that place of courage the place that you and I need to be? What does the word of God say?

Ephesians 6, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Maybe by nature you're timid. Maybe by nature you're soft-spoken and reserved. Maybe by nature you hate confrontation, but by calling you are bold. Remember, Joshua, four times in Joshua 1 is told, be strong and courageous. Three times by the Lord, one time by the people. That would indicate to me that either by nature this man who was a general and a conqueror and a leader, maybe by nature he was not that strong, or now in his 60s or older he needs a little encouragement. Be strong in the Lord.

Maybe you're the one that needs to take a stand, and the spines of others will be stiff. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us, friends, on the Line of Fire.

Remember to call 866-34-TRUTH. Yeah, it sounds like a computer. I'm getting some sound for some reason popping through my earphones here. Not sure where it's coming from. Hopefully you're not hearing it on the air, but it's coming from somewhere.

We will fix it, but when we're on the road in our various studios we can have little glitches come up, but we've got a fabulous team working on it. All right, if you want to comment on today's topic, or you've got a question for me, or you want to challenge me on something, 866-348-7884. Before I go to the phones, I want to talk more about the subject of courage, more about this call to take a stand. I'm not talking about being obnoxious. I'm not talking about being nasty, self-righteous, mean-spirited. I'm simply talking about obeying our convictions. I'm simply talking about doing what's right because it is right.

The problem is it's often costly. There may be many hardships before others rise up and are heard. It may take many rising up before there's a national change. Look, it's happening in Iran right now with women saying we're not wearing the hijab. We're not religious Muslims and we're not wearing the hijab. Many are dying.

Men and women are dying in Iran, but what's going to happen is that the more that die, the more outrage will come, and the more outrage that comes, the more people will stand, and the more people that stand, the more the government is going to have to back down. It's the way that things happen. It can be costly. You might be ostracized by your denomination.

You might be kicked out of your business, but if you'll do what's right before the Lord and honor him, he will have your back. C.T. Studd was a wealthy man in England, came from an aristocratic home and was a top cricket player at Cambridge where he went to school. So cricket being to England what baseball is to America in terms of a great national pastime, and if you were a national star, you were a national star, and he was going to be a great cricket star. God calls him from there to serve as a missionary.

He goes to China but then serves out his life living sacrificially in Africa. He wrote a poem called Chocolate Soldiers where he talked about these Christians who were like chocolate soldiers that melt in the heat. He was like a general calling Christian soldiers to battle not violent war, not with physical weapons, not with hatred and violence, but living radical lives of obedience to Jesus and surrender and overcoming evil with good and overcoming hatred with love. Let me, this is not C.T. Studd's actual voice, but this is reading C.T. Studd's words about manliness, about that type of courage and strength. This will inspire you and stir you as well. Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin. The time for waiting has passed. The hour of God has struck.

War is declared. In God's holy name let us arise and build. The God of heaven, he will fight for us as we for him. We will not build on the sand but on the bedrock of the saints of Christ and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear before the whole world, yes before the sleepless, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God. We will venture our all for him. We will live and we will die for him and we will do it with his joy unspeakable, singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only in our God than live trusting in man.

And when we come to this position, the battle is already won and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts. We will have a masculine holiness, one of daring faith in works for Jesus Christ. Christ's call is to feed the hungry, not the full, to save the lost, not the stiff-neck, not to call the scoffers but sinners to repentance, not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays and stereotype prayers and artistic musical performances, but to raise living churches of souls among the destitute, to capture men for the devil's clutches and snatch them away from the very jaws of hell, to enlist and train them for Jesus and to make them into an almighty army of God. But this can only be accomplished by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered Holy Ghost religion where neither church nor state, neither man nor traditions are worshiped or preached, but only Christ and him crucified.

Not to confess Christ by fancy collars, church steeples, or richly embroidered altar cloths, but by reckless sacrifice and heroism in the foremost trenches. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And that manly holiness, that's for men, that's for women. That's what we're talking about.

And I've got one more clip to play. This is from last year, Dr. Ben Carson on Alex Marlowe's podcast on the Breitbart Network. They're talking about transgender issues. They're talking about things that are being done to children and how much pressure there is for people not to speak up and speak out.

So let's listen here to what Dr. Ben Carson has to say in this interview with Alex Marlowe. But then why do we feel like it's so hard to get a, when it's so clear on this one, it's so hard to get momentum from our perspective, it seems like. It seems like this is one where people are just not being vocal enough. And if you are vocal, your book gets canceled, you get thrown off of social media.

You can't say a man is a man and a woman is a woman, or else you're risking cancellation. Where are we going wrong here in terms of our activism? Well, you know, it's in our national anthem. And the last line of the first stanza, it says, the land of the free and the home of the brave. You cannot be the land of the free. If you're not the home of the brave, you've got to be willing to stand up.

Yes. Maybe there are some consequences. So what there were consequences for our founders, but if they weren't willing to accept those consequences, we would still be under British rule. So, you know, stop being chickens and get out there and fight for what we believe in. If we just allow them to have a platform, and to dictate everything without resistance, then they win.

Hmm. Stop being chickens. So we have the inspirational words of Dr. King spoken with power and force. We know ultimately his stand cost him his life. We have the words of CT Stud with this powerful music carrying it along.

And then we've got Dr. Ben Carson calmly in an interview saying, stop being chickens. Yes, there will be consequences to obedience. There will be consequences to doing what is right.

But that is why we are here. Didn't Jesus say to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Matthew 6 33. Didn't he say in Matthew 5 10, blessed, truly happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for great is the reward in heaven, for in the same way that your forefathers persecuted the prophets who were before them. Doesn't Paul say in Romans 14 17 that the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit? Isn't it our calling to do what is right and stand for what is right? Isn't that a theme that runs through the entire Bible? So I want to encourage you. Some of you, this is divinely timed.

Any day I would talk about this, it's relevant. But for some of you, as you're listening, listening live on radio or a week later on podcast or watching a live stream hours after the show, however you're taking this in, this is the moment that God's getting it into your hands. And for some, it's really providential because you're facing a difficult decision. If I do what's right, it's going to be costly. Do what's right, honor God, and perhaps you will spark something where others follow, where others are strengthened. To repeat what Billy Graham said, courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others will be stiffened. Maybe you're maybe you're the one to do it in your community, in your business, in your school, in your church, in your denomination, in your organization.

Maybe you're the one to take that stand because you cannot live with the compromise. And when you do what's right, you can be sure of this, God will be pleased and you will be positively changed. It may be that you end up losing a lot in the short term, but gaining a lot in the long term. It could be that what you do will spark reformation and change.

And all you were trying to do is do what's right in one little thing, but it has a domino effect of bringing about change at a massive level. But I want to encourage you, courage is contagious. You know, the flip side to that is cowardice is contagious.

And when you're thinking, maybe I'm going to stand, maybe, and then this one won't, that one won't, that one won't, you're like, ah, why bother? So are you going to lead the way in courage or are you going to lead the way in cowardice? May it be courage.

May it be strength. If you say, Lord, I don't have this in me, but I want to do what's right. You step out in obedience and He will give you what you need. He will help you.

If you say, Lord, I don't even know how to take that step, but I'm yours. He will give you the wisdom. He will give you the platform.

He'll give you the opportunity. Courage is contagious. Let's be the brave man, the brave woman that takes a stand for it. And that's why we're on radio here, to help spark a Gospel-based moral and cultural revolution through seeing a healthy, revived church.

And out of that, seeing the Gospel, go to the nations and out of that, seeing Israel saved. That's why we're here. All right, we come back. I'm going to start with your calls.

We'll start with, go to Minnesota, Israel, Delaware, 866-348-7884. And a big announcement, we come back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on The Line of Fire by calling 866-344-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. I was about to make a major announcement, but I'm just confirming that I can announce that I'm not premature, so hang on. We've got a major announcement coming sometime this week. I thought it was today, but I'm just waiting for confirmation on that. But you'll be excited when we do give it. 866-348-7884.

One quick thing, then we're going to the phones. I became aware of the music group Skillet through something that John Cooper had written. Of course, they were very, very well known in the Christian rock scene and known just in general as a rock band, but very well known as Christian rockers and with over 2 billion downloads online and things and best-selling albums, projects. But I didn't know them. This is a lot of music that I'm unaware of today for years. But when a Hillsong worship leader said that he no longer believed what he used to believe, there was a really strong, clear-headed response from a fellow named John Cooper who led this group Skillet.

So that's what I found out about it. I thought, wow, I like what he's saying and how he's saying it. Excellent.

But I still didn't know much about their music. Then Dr. James White said, hey, I'm friends with John Cooper. I think you two guys need to connect. And he's charismatic also. So he gave us contact info. John reached out to me. We got to know each other and he is rock solid.

He is taking controversial stands. And it was getting to know John first, then the music. So maybe some of the music is a little different for you.

Get to know John, get to know the others in the band, hear their hearts, and then listen back to the music, maybe with fresh ears. But I am confrontational by nature. In other words, if there's a controversy and I know an answer to it or some, I run towards it by nature. So I have to be obedient to the Lord and be full of his love and grace so when I do address something, it's not because I want to, but because he wants me to, and I want to do it in a gracious Christ-like way while confronting error clearly. John doesn't like confrontation, but he speaks boldly because he must. Because fire burns in his heart, he must.

So some of you are wired like me. So in that case, what you need is wisdom, when to speak, when not to. Not to think that you're supposed to fix and correct everything all the time. To make sure you have God's heart of love for those you differ with and that you're full of the Spirit.

Those that may be really timid, or it's just confrontation gets you so tense. Okay, that's how you are by nature. So you really need God's grace to embolden you and realize it's not about you, it's about others. Remember that. Doesn't matter how you or I feel, it's not about us, it's about others.

So look, it's the same deal. You're in a crowded building, you see a fire breaks out one part of the building. I'm a shy- It doesn't matter, others need to be warned to get out of the building. So you go against your timid nature and you scream at the top of your lungs, fire! Why?

Because you want to save other people's lives. That's what it comes down to. All right, we go to the phones. Ah, wait, hang on!

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Do it now and shoot us a note and let us know how you like it and post a review or rate it just to help others find out as well. Okay, without further ado, we go to the phones. Jesse in Twin City, Minnesota. Thanks for holding. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. So I just wanted to say that this broadcast especially is speaking to me in a rather profound way, but I do have a question about that, and that is that, you know, two weeks ago on Sunday I basically came clean and I said in church, I said, you know, I want God to purify my motives and I know I'm not perfect in that and all that, and then that caused me to make a video that later that day about holiness and how we ought to live as holy people, and then the next week on Saturday I decided to give up smoking. Now I was doing so good and I was just really on fire and I think I got past the hardest part, but then, you know, I was starting to, like, have bad sweetie patterns and these are all withdrawal symptoms and I messed up. So I'm just wondering, I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm trying to, you know, inspire people to be holy as Christians, and what do you do when you mess up? What do you do when you take a step backwards?

What do you do then? So I'm sure you know this is not, you're not the first person that's happened with, right? That you've made a decision, you feel backed by God, you're excited, you share publicly, and then you fall back.

It happens to many. Now one thing is it's normally wise to, if you're going to just do something initially, you can get up publicly and say, hey, I've made a decision to stop smoking and just pray for grace and strength for me. And before you really talk about it more and proclaim it more, it's often good to live it out first, to live it out to prove it. And, like, when I wrote my book about Transformed Lifestyle and all the weight that I'd lost and all that, I had done it, and then I was writing about it, as opposed to I have an idea, or I've just taken a stand for days.

So you don't want to widely circulate a testimony or exhort others to follow in your steps until you're more established for strength's sake. But number one, of course, first and foremost, you go to the Lord, right? First and foremost, you go to the Lord, you confess to Him, and of course, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Obviously, you didn't lose your salvation smoking a cigarette, but Lord, I blew it. Forgive me.

Wash me. That's the first thing. The second thing is if you see that you continue strong and that a week goes by, a month goes by, a year goes by, and you haven't fallen back, and the further you go, the easier it is to stay strong. Praise God! The fact you messed up once. Later on, you can talk about it. Say, yeah, you know, the first week I really struggled and I messed up one day, but, you know, by God's grace, got back on track. You don't need to now go public again, which is your obvious question, and say, I just want to confess.

No, no, no. Deal with that between you and the Lord. If you are struggling and you're up and down, you've got a video posted somewhere. By all means, pull that video, all right? But if it's just a momentary lapse, you fell one day or another day, and now that's a week later, two weeks, a month, etc.

Praise God. Then what I would do if I had a video up, I'd just post something and say, hey, it's been six months. I've been great.

I messed up one time in that first week, and I've been great. It's been six months. Say, it's a year, and praise God, and be strong, and be encouraged, and march forward. And others will be, as we're saying, others will be encouraged by that.

866-34-TRUTH. You know, somebody gets radically set free from drugs one day, and you're all excited. You're pastoring your congregation.

You're having extended evangelistic meetings, and God's saving people, right? And now here's this young fellow, Joey. He's 19 years old. He's been struggling with drug addiction for two years, and he's weeping at the earth. He's radically set free.

He's changed. You don't want to bring Joey up on the platform the next night and the next week, and that he becomes a bit of a celebrity, and everybody. No, no, what you want to do is you may want to say, praise God, last night young man got set free from drugs, and let's pray, or call him up, let's pray for him. But then you cover that person, because they're going to come under more attack if you put them forward first.

You cover them, because there's a much better chance of them falling back if you make them into a bit of a celebrity in the church. So just a word of warning and caution there. All right, let us go over to Israel. Martin, thanks for calling the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. I hope you can hear me calling you from Israel.

Yeah, like you're right next to me. Wow, that's great. Well, I'm really honored to speak to you and communicate with you by messenger. It takes a lot of courage to be a believer here in Israel, and I've talked to you about the counter-missionary voices, especially Rabbi Singer here, who I've personally encountered on the streets of Jerusalem. And I guess I'm calling you because he recently had a video where he was talking about how the Antichrist, the whole concept of the Antichrist, is just pagan, dualistic. And I did some surface research, and I mean, you have Daniel chapter 7, you have Daniel chapter 11, the king who magnifies himself above all gods and speaks things against the God of God. And then just a little research that I did into Midrashim and things like that, you have this figure, Armillis, who's this end-time figure who... And Rabbi Singer said, oh, well, that's just Rome.

It's a code word for Rome. But I read the Midrashim, and they even describe Armillis like his personal appearance. So I know this show is about courage, and as I said, it takes a lot of courage to be a believer here in Israel. So I just kind of wanted your take on, specifically when Rabbi Singer said that the Antichrist is just pagan, dualism, and it seems so much that it comes from Judaism, not from... Yeah. So here's, and Martin, may the Lord strengthen you and encourage you, and again, we did open the phone lines for a wide range of subjects, so I'm very, very happy to address this. But Rabbi Singer is not an honest guy. There are counter-missionaries that I know that act with integrity, that I've interacted with some for 20 years or more, and what you read, even though we differ strongly, they're really acting in integrity. Unfortunately, because of the level of deception involved, Rabbi Singer is not one of those.

Of course, I'd say it to his face and once again say, I'm here to debate any issue you present, sir, as I have been for over 20 years. But I'm going to set the record straight and tell you what the issue is with Rabbi Singer's methodology that is so deceptive when we come back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on The Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Well, did you do it yet? Did you download the app? Oh, okay. Again, if you're listening in such a way that you can't do it, but as soon as you get a chance, Apple, Android, download the Ask Dr. Brown app.

If you enjoy it, rate it and tell your friends about it. Okay, so back to Martin and Israel. So there are counter missionary rabbis that put out their material, and they will differ with me, and we've had exchanges sometimes in the hundreds of pages back and forth, and they're operating in integrity. In other words, they're not withholding information from you. They're not giving you a false impression.

I may differ with their research and their conclusions, but they're doing it honestly, ethically. The issue with Tovia Singer is he doesn't tell you what Judaism believes. For example, he'll say the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 53, it's Israel, and it's always Israel. Well, does he tell you that the Targum, which is the recognized translation paraphrase of the Hebrew Bible in Aramaic, that the Targum to Isaiah 42-1 says the servant there is the Messiah? Does he tell you that Raddak, one of the big three medieval commentaries, Jewish leading commentaries, that he says it's the Messiah? Does he tell you that rabbinic interpretation largely, says Isaiah 49, is the prophet, and the reason he's called Israel in verse 3 is because he represents the nation? Does he tell you that they recognize Isaiah 50 is about the prophet or prophets in general? No.

Why? Because that would undermine his arguments. And does he tell you that Isaiah 52, 13-15, that major Midrash, which is then cited or referenced by one of the great preachers about 500 years ago, Rabbi Moshe Alshech, that he says all the rabbis with one voice interpret this about the Messiah, and then it shifts through Isaiah 53? No, he can't tell you any of that because it undermines his position. So what he's effectively doing is being like a Karaite Jew, a Jew who just accepts the authority of scripture and rejects rabbinic tradition. But he'll present it all as a rabbi, and he is an Orthodox rabbi, of course, legitimately. He's an ordained Orthodox rabbi. And he'll present it in such a way with appeal to Jewish people and with citation from the prayer book and exhortations without telling you, by the way, my position here is at variance with traditional commentaries, or is it variance with the Talmud? He's not going to tell you that, because why in the world would someone listen to Rabbi Singer as opposed to recognize Jewish tradition?

So when it comes to the question of Antichrist, which he's presenting in such a way to say it's just a dualistic idea and it's a Christian idea, etc., right? So your research is correct. Anybody here, check, don't listen to me.

Just type this in. It's a free resource online, respected scholarly resource, over 100 years old, highly respected in Jewish scholarship. Type in the words Jewish Encyclopedia and then Antichrist, okay?

So when you, and as you were talking, I was typing this in so I could pull this up myself, by Louis Ginsberg, one of the great Jewish scholars of a century ago, the compiler of the legends of the Jews. I mean, an absolute brilliant scholar. Highly, highly respected in Jewish academia to this day. So let me read to you what Louis Ginsberg said, and in the academic world, no disrespect to Rabbi Singer, but just realism. If you're talking about a respected scholar in the rabbinic world, if Ginsberg would be 100, Rabbi Singer wouldn't be on the charts. He's not a scholar in the rabbinic world.

It wouldn't be there. So this is what Louis Ginsberg says, origin of the idea. As to the idea of the Antichrist, like Jewish eschatology itself, it is derived from three sources. Prophetical teachings, meaning in the Bible. Later Midrash, so later homiletical interpretations of the rabbis, and in a mixture of heathen mythology. So now in Judaism, other views come in as well.

Into Judaism, right? So Ezekiel 38-39, speaking of a last great outpouring of the heathen powers against Israel, which outpouring is to introduce the new period foretold by the ancient prophets, names Gog, the prince of the land of Magog, as the representative of those powers. The same idea amplified is found in Zechariah 12-14, where God is described as appearing upon Zion at the last hour with his host of angels to protect his own from the attacks of the heathen and to give them victory. When therefore in the Maccabean period, the Jews first perceived the chasm between Judaism and heathenism, the idea of a presentation of the philosophy of a world's history was conceived and aridly carried out in Daniel. So he's a liberal scholar and believes that Daniel's written later, but same thing. Sources within Daniel, or in the seventh chapter, the eighth chapter mentioned in the eleventh chapter. It was no more a question of the salvation of Israel in the future, but of the redemption of the whole world.

So it goes on and on. So this is a thoroughly Jewish concept, and now look at this. Okay, just as the Haggadah, so the homiletical literature, through its interpretation of ancient prophecies, endeavored to furnish a close description of the personality of Messiah, similarly, Antichrist received more and more definite forms derived from the descriptions and conceptions of the Old Testament. He was, for instance, so this is Antichrist in Jewish literature, very early identified with Gog, Gog and Magog, so Ezekiel 38 and 39. Such a midrash is clearly evident in the Septuagint translation of Numbers 14.7, so this is translation, Septuagint that Tobiah recognizes, Rabbi Sigur recognizes, for the five books of Moses, right? The Septuagint translation of Numbers 14.7, compare also Avodah, Zerah, 3b, so in the Talmud, and Sanhedrin 94a, in the Talmud, and his death expounded, as already remarked, according to Isaiah 11.4. So this is what grieves me.

Go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, I noticed also that the Targum Yonatan in Isaiah 11.4 mentions Armillis by name. Yeah, exactly. So the issue I have is not with a rabbi not believing in Jesus. The issue I have is not with a rabbi saying, our tradition differs with you here, or our interpretation of Scripture differs. That's fine. I mean, that's why we differ, right?

Yeah, exactly. But here, so I actually spoke to someone on the phone, and he wanted his testimony and story to come out. He himself is battling leukemia. He and his wife, Jewish believers, right? A friend of the family, another Jewish believer, all in the Lord over 30 years. The friend of the family starts watching Tobiah videos, Tobiah videos. It's like this.

You can demolish them. They are so full of falsehood and deception and misinformation and misstatement, especially misrepresenting Jewish tradition in many cases. And as a rabbi doing that, the guy, maybe he doesn't know about all the answers, the guy gets persuaded that Jesus is not the Messiah.

He talks to the wife. She gets persuaded he's not the Messiah. They both divorce their spouses, marry each other, and now they're living as non-religious Jews. They went from Jews for Jesus to Jews for nothing, all right?

This man grieved, broken-hearted. And so, it's one thing if you're dealing with one of my friends, a counter-missionary rabbi, and you say, well, that's a great argument he raised. Yeah, it's a very good argument. Let's look at it, and here's why I don't agree. Here's my counter-argument.

I think you'll think this is even stronger. But it's fair. Let's have the exchange.

Let's be open about it. We've spent hours and hours in dialogue in the midst of our disagreement, but I respect these men. The issue with Rabbi Singer is he will present things in this bombastic way. And what makes it even worse is it's not just trying to get a Jewish person to turn away from Jesus. He is aggressively attacking the faith of Christians around the world. So I've been dealing with this junk. Yeah, I've been dealing with this. But here's the good thing that God dropped in my heart.

False teachers and deceivers have always been used by God. This is sifting the flock, because the answers are all there. The answers are readily available. Folks, go to realmessiah.com, realmessiah.com. Just scroll down to Answering the Rabbis. You'll see 12 videos, one by one demolishing a different video of Tov U. Singer. And we've got, God willing, many, many, many more planned to come in the months ahead.

realmessiah.com. Scroll down to Answering the Rabbis. But here's the thing. It's not my job to stop every false teacher or counter-missionary, obviously. And there always are going to be deceivers out there.

There's always going to be false information. And just like Deuteronomy 13, a prophet comes, a miracle worker comes, and they work a miracle, they give a prophecy. It comes to pass, right? And then they say, let's go, Father of the gods. God is testing. So right now, God is working through the false teachers, the deceivers, the others, people that are only telling you part of the story in a deceptive way like Rabbi Singer.

And as painful as it is to see, it's sifting the body. Listen, I'm out of time, but I'm very happy to chat with you another day, especially if you call in on a Thursday. So give it a few weeks, because we don't like someone to call in within a few weeks to be fair to other callers. But by all means, we can have a more extended chat.

We can talk about what it's like to be a believer in Israel. But as much as this grieves me, this is now sifting. This is now seeing those that have solid roots down, right roots down. And for those with questions, we've dealt with these things for decades. There's nothing new. There's nothing difficult. There are answers that are readily available for those that want the truth. And I can say this, after almost 51 years in the Lord, after studying things seriously enough that I got a Ph.D. in NYU in ancient Semitic languages just to be able to study the Hebrew Bible in this ancient context, the truth of Yeshua being the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world is firmly and eternally established. No need for any of you to be moved in the least. In the least. Another program powered by the Truth Network.