You've Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Well, let's do it. You've got questions. We've got answers. It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution.

Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 Truth. That's 866-34 Truth. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Well, I'm ready. I've got my stack of email questions as always. And I'm eager to take your calls on any subject relevant to the line of fire whatsoever. This is Michael Brown. Welcome to the broadcast.

If you want to talk to me about scores in the Dutch Soccer League, sorry, no comment, no expertise. If you want to talk with me about the life cycle of the earthworm, sorry, not what we talk about on the air and haven't studied that. But if you want to talk about anything biblical, theological, moral, cultural, having to do with Israel, political, We will talk about it today. If you've got a question for me of any kind, remember to call 866-348-7884. Four.

Yes, Steve Bannon is now out. There was a lot of speculation this could be coming, but after he called a reporter and gave an interview a few days back, I read that and thought, well, that probably is going to seal his fate. Because the way he's talking about himself and his power and his influence and what he's doing and talking about others, I thought that is not. Going to sit well, and apparently it hasn't, so this may have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, but Steve Bannon is out and I guess for the man famous for The Apprentice, the words you're fired have been quite common in the current White House. Remember there was a book written by Lance Waldow about Donald Trump called God's Chaos candidate That's why we really need to pray.

He can do much good, he can do much harm. It could go either way. He could do Both And right now we need to be praying for him. Pray that he will listen to wisdom. That is available to him Men and women of God-wise counselors surely wanted to speak to Him right now.

If you did not read my open letter to the President, Please read it. It was done prayerfully with a burden from the Lord. I know it has been read by numerous Christian leaders and has been passed on to different government leaders. We are praying that it will get into the hands of President Trump if it hasn't already, and that he will hear wisdom and in it will also sit with some of the key leaders of the Faith Advisory Council that they can give him wisdom and speak into his life right now. 866-348-7884.

That is the number to call. You've got questions. We've got answers. Oh, if you didn't see our video that we posted on Facebook about what happened last night with our YouTube videos, I got to tell you that. It's just absolutely remarkable.

And we come back, you know, I'm asked lots of specific questions about different churches and individuals and things like that. I have to answer it with wisdom and decide what I want to answer or not because I am not God's policeman. I am not the infallible standard of orthodoxy. Dr. Brown.

Do you like this ministry? Yes. Oh, they are good. Do you not like them? I don't like oh, they're bad.

Uh If someone is a brother or sister, Then I will do my best to address questions about what they've taught or believe, or movements or denominations. But I'm not here. To pontificate and to say, well, this one is saved because they agree with all of my books. This one is not saved because they question this peripheral point. No, people are wolves and heretics.

False prophets, false teachers that are outside of the body, we'll do our best to expose. But I want to be constructive in answers that I give and rather than just give an answer, equip you to come up with some of the answers.

So we're going to do that.

Someone's asking me about Hill Song and Bethel.

So here's how I would evaluate those church movements, which are massive worldwide today. We'll take your calls, 866-348-7884. That is number to call. We'll go to your calls, answer some email questions, and talk to you about what happened to us on YouTube when we come right back right here. on the line of fire.

God of light, hear our cry, send a fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks, friends, for joining us on the line of fire. You've got questions. We've got answers. 866-766. 348-7884 is the number to call.

All of you watching right now on Facebook Live, if you'd like to get in the broadcast, give me a call, 866-34Truth. Before I go to your emails, before I tell you what happened to us on YouTube last night, let's go to the phones and let's see. We will start in Yakimau, Washington. Neil, welcome to the line of fire. Thanks, Dr.

Brown. How are you? Very well, I'm blessed. How about you? I'm doing great, thank you.

I actually sent you a tweet yesterday about a book for new fathers, and I'm calling to follow up with something if you have a well, obviously, have a moment.

So, I guess my concern is as when I start reading stories and everything to my upcoming child, what. What is a good way you would think to differentiate between when you're reading Bible stories, like, hey, this is Jesus, this is real, versus, you know, like cat in the hat kind of a thing? What would your advice be on something like that? Yeah, sure. When kids are real, real little, there's not a big difference in their minds between fantasy and reality.

You know, when you're on your knees barking at your two-year-old, and your two-year-old is barking back, and yeah, they know they're playing. But they don't understand the degree to which they're playing. You know, in their mind, they're really acting like a little doggy then, you know? And so obviously, initially, you're not. distinguishing between the two things as far as now cat in a hat, you know, one-year-old learning, you know, the first syllables and sentences, you know, the cat in the hat is just a story.

But as you're just explaining these things, I would explain them based on reality. In other words, when you're opening up the Bible, you're saying, isn't Jesus wonderful? Is it amazing? And showing his reality in your daily life. And okay, let's pray.

We're going to get down on our knees and pray right now. And God listens to every word we say. And this is real. This is part of your life. This is how you and your wife live and operate.

This is just normal, right?

So this is how you live. This is how you live your lives. It's perfectly normal. It's real. And your child growing up begins to see God as real.

And then when you're reading the other stuff, isn't that a silly story? That is such a silly story. I wonder who made that story up.

So from day one, as they begin to get exposed to these things, it's self-evident. And raising our kids, I don't remember ever where we had to tell them there was a difference. You know, once they understood there was a difference between fantasy and reality, and again, little kids, even kindergartners, often don't fully distinguish between the two. You know, for example, during the horror of the Sandy Hook massacre, there was a little kindergartner boy, and I think he told the teacher, Don't worry, I'll protect you. I know karate or something like that.

You know, he actually thought he could fight off someone with a gun.

So And that's why I was even looking at kids that age and what they understood and experienced when I was mourning over that terrible situation. But all that to say, when you just live out one thing is real, one thing's not, they understand.

So, you know, you're driving in the car.

Okay, we're going to pretend we're this. They understand.

Okay, now we're just pretending. We're detectives and we're looking for the bad guy in the street, you know, or we're looking for, you know, and just having fun. And, oh, that car there, oh, that's a fast car. Oh, that's a detective car. They understand that.

They catch on early enough. And because God is real, because he's real in your lives, becomes real in your child's life. At some point, they may ask the question. like one of our daughters I remember as a little girl, Daddy, how do I tell the difference between my brain and the devil's voice and God's voice? And that's where you, you know, you try to give them principles and light versus darkness and kind of learning to recognize when the Holy Spirit's speaking to you.

But it's just reality versus fantasy lived out. It's that simple. By the way, I do remember the tweet. I don't get to respond to a lot of them, but I saw yours about going to have a child and one of the books to recommend.

So the Gordon McDonald book, The Effective Father. I read many years ago when our daughters were little, our oldest is 40, our youngest 38. And the one chapter, never a day wasted. Is one that stuck with me for many, many years.

So, God bless you, Neil, on your journey into fatherhood. And may this be the most amazing season for you and your wife. 866-34TRUTH. Let's go to Pastor Eric in Chicopee, Massachusetts. Welcome to the line of fire.

Oh, Dr. Brown, great to speak with you again. It's always a pleasure. Thank you. My question is regarding what some people refer to as generational sin or generational curse.

Yeah. And, you know, specifically, if run, you know, I mean, I'm a Pentecostal pastor, so I, you know, run into it frequently and Even recently, somebody from a ministry that they say is a healing ministry, and they really focus on people. Uh forgiving the the uh You know, the uh taking responsibility for the unforgiveness of their ancestors towards others. Mm. And and I've never really bought into that.

And in particular, in Ezekiel eighteen, it speaks of it says the soul that sins shall die. Yes. And that really seems to kind of Speak against the concept of what some people call generational sin or generational curse. And real quick, one other point is that. When it speaks of that in Exodus, it says that the Lord will visit the sin upon the children because the Third and fourth generation of those who hate me.

So it seems to me that when we come to faith in Christ, that's broken. Right. And I'll do it in several different categories. Ezekiel 18 is in the context of the Babylonian exile. And the point that the prophet is making speaking for the Lord is that the parents' sin.

is not visited on the children and that the parents sin and now the children die. And God was saying there, it wasn't so much a mercy thing, but rather, no, no, no, you sin, you're going to die. In other words, it's not that you sin and your kids die. No, you sin and you die. I'm going to exercise swift judgment.

judgment. That's the first thing in the context of Ezekiel 18, because there was the old proverb that the parents have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. And God's saying, your teeth are going to be set on edge. In other words, punishment is coming to the people that committed the sin. Swift judgment.

That's number one. Number two, legally, Children are not put to death for the sins of the fathers. Deuteronomy 24, 16 lays that out as Israelite law.

So on a legal basis, if parents commit a certain sin, if a father murders, the son is not put to death for the father's act of murder.

So that's the second principle, and that's reiterated later in the Bible. That's quoted saying the reason they didn't put the sons to death is because you don't put the sons to death for the father's sake.

So that's number two. Number three. Lamentations, the fifth chapter, mourns the fact that our fathers sinned and we've suffered the punishment. That is because even when God judges the fathers, if the fathers sin terribly, it hurts the sons. For example, if we had a whole generation of Americans that were wasteful and destructive and poor stewards and ended our nation up in massive, massive debt and crisis, the kids growing up in the next generation pay for that.

They suffer the consequences.

So even if God judges the older generation, the consequences of that are felt for potentially generations to come.

So that's another category.

Now, As to the spiritual question of Exodus 20, So God visits the sins of those who hate him to the third and fourth generation.

So you can see things get worse and worse. People get harder and harder.

So you have an alcoholic abusive Father, and then the mother fights back and does this and that, then the kids end up even worse. And if there's no repentance there, those kids end up even worse.

So we can see that. We can see the effects of that over generations, how things go from worse to worse to worse to worse, until there's repentance and turning to God. And then He shows mercy to a thousand or to a thousand generations, depending on how we understand the Hebrew.

So, as to your practical question, if the effects of the bad decisions and bad actions of the previous generations are still hanging over us, maybe there's reproach on our name because of what our parents or grandparents did. Maybe it's impossible to get a job in our community because of what our parents or grandparents did. That's where you ask God, break the power of these curses. Whatever it is that is coming down through the sin of these previous generations that's affecting me, that's affecting my family. Lord, I renounce this in Jesus' name.

Break these curses and break them. blessing.

Okay. You may get wonderfully saved and right then and there, everything is broken. Or you may still be holding bitterness in your heart for things that were done by previous generations. Even if they're not here, you want to clear your heart and say, Lord, I forgive them for that. Obviously, their fate is settled, but I clear my heart so I don't walk in bitterness towards them all the days of my life.

I think those are all good things to do.

So, for me, the operative principle is. If the results The effects of of what past generations did. If those are still coming down and haunting me and affecting me, then I deal with them spiritually. Otherwise, the past is the past and we move on with a fresh slate in Jesus. Thank you, sir.

It's an important question. 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 866-34TRUTH Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks friends for joining us on the line of fire 866-3487.

Okay, I've got a question here for Gerald. Hi, Doctor Brown. What is your honest opinion regarding the two mega churches around Hilsong and Bethel?

Now they're two of many megachurches, but Hilsong and Bethel are really leaders of movements. As I attend the Charismatic Church we have affiliations with them, and I along with many other Christians listen to their music.

However, I've heard speculations of false teachers and controversial stuff happening among those churches. It's been so common that it's hard to ignore, with that in mind, what's your take on this issue.

Okay. I have never listened to a full message from Brian Houston. the leader of Hillsong. I've never read one of his books. I've had some great private interaction with Carl Lenz, who pastors Hill Song in New York City.

So we've talked by phone and we've interacted by email and text. I have raised concerns about certain things that have happened at times. I have straightened out an issue when I felt they were misrepresented. I have read more of Bill Johnson's material and listened to a bit more of his message. The same with Chris Vallatin at Bethel.

I preached at Bethel several years ago, a Friday night and Sunday night service, and spoke three times to their students and turned completely loose. I spoke about suffering for the gospel. I spoke about the fire of God and purity. I spoke about God's purposes for Israel. and was warmly received.

And there have been issues that have come up with Bethel's teaching, some things I've differed with, and some practices that have raised concerns. But Here's what you have to do. And some of you will like what I say, some of you will not like what I say. I encourage you. rather than reading the latest report on the internet.

I encourage you, rather than watching some hit piece on YouTube, because I'm subject to those all the time and the few I've even glanced at completely misrepresent me or present things in false light, sometimes blatant false information. In any case, What I'd encourage you to do Read? The main books written by the main leaders. At least one or two. Or sit down and listen to a series of messages from Brian Houston.

I'm sure if you go to a place like God TV, God.tv, Brian Houston's on there. They have archives of shows. Watch a month's worth of shows. How long will it take you? A couple hours if there's one new show a week or something like that?

Watch 'em. And decide that, all right, he's preaching Jesus, I see what he's saying. Do the same with Bill Johnson. read some of his key books. Read books by some of the other leaders, Chris Valladon, Danny Silk, Watch some videos of actual services from Bethel, Not a conglomeration of pieces put together, but actual services from Bethel.

Watch. and come to your own conclusion. Watch, listen, examined by Scripture, And come to your own conclusion. To me, that is the best way that I can encourage you. to decide for yourself.

I'd encourage you not to listen, I have seen crazy attacks on leaders in Bethel and Hillsaw that I know firsthand to be false. And I have seen concerns raised, and I would echo those concerns. All right? But when I hear people say false teacher, that means introducing damnable heresy and therefore being hellbound, and that's when I say no. You're not going to call a brother in the Lord a false teacher or a false prophet.

If you say I don't agree with their teaching, yeah, well. Who agrees with everything anyone says? But there's a difference between that and being a false teacher. and a false prophet. You might also want to go to askdrbrown.org.

And click on line of fire, just search in our archives for my interview with Pastor Bill Johnson. All right, let's go. All right, let's go back to the phones in Chicago. Could you tell me how to pronounce your name? My name is Tolo, Po L O E.

Last name is three. Awesome. Tolo, welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Doctor. I've been listening to you for quite a few years.

My question is: do you believe in last day revival? Or is America just lost? We've a lot of preachers saying that. Um Some don't, but some do believe that the Lord is going to move in these last days. And there's going to be a great pouring out of his spirit, and he's going to redeem his people here in America.

Do you believe that?

Okay. A threefold answer. Number one, scripturally, around the world. I believe before Jesus comes that there will be great outpouring and great harvest. I believe that we'll see the fullness of the Gentiles coming in that Paul speaks of in Romans 11, 25, and the churning of many hearts in Israel.

I believe, as Peter said in Acts 2, that the outpouring of the Spirit is for the last days, so we've been in those last days for 2,000 years. Jesus gives prophecy that the harvest is like the end of the age. At the same time, I believe that there will be great, great calamity so that there will be apostasy and blessing. In other words, great light, great darkness at the same time at the end of the world. That's number one.

Number two, speaking about America itself, I can't say where we are. In other words, do we have five years left? Do we have 50 years left? God knows. Do we have 500 years left or 50 minutes left?

God knows. So I can't look at America in terms of, okay, the end time prophecy, because, sir, when I got saved in 1971, we were told Jesus is coming any moment. And it's all over right then. That was 45 years ago when I didn't have gray hair and I didn't have a 16-year-old grandchild and I hadn't been married 41 years, you know?

So we always know we're right at the edge, but but how where that edge actually is, we don't know.

So third and last, do I have hope? that there will be a great outpouring of the Spirit here in America. Yes, sir, I do. And I believe God put the hope in my heart. We're messed up as a nation.

We deserve judgment. In certain ways, we're under judgment now. We are in really, really critical condition. But I believe God is hearing the prayers of millions of his people crying out to him day and night. And I believe he's going to have mercy on our land.

Now, what that's going to mean, there could be great revival. Which then is followed by great judgment, right? There could be great revival and the nation terribly divided over what's happening. Will the whole nation Be saved in that sense? No, but my newest book, which comes out September 26th, is called Saving a Sick America, a Prescription for Moral and Cultural Transformation.

And here's what I felt in my own heart. I can't prove this scripturally, right? But here's what I felt in my own heart, Tolo. I heard the Lord say to me, write a book on the fall and rise of America. In other words, not just how bad things are, because trust me, I could talk about that all day, right?

Not just all the problems in the society, not just how messed up. Everything is. But We could have our best days yet ahead. I truly and firmly believe we could have a massive awakening that shakes the nation. It could be very costly in many ways, and it could be before or after great persecution.

It could be when we hit rock bottom that we cry out. I don't say these things lightly, but I do believe there is going to be a great outpouring. I can't prove it, but you can't prove it won't happen. No one can give me chapter and verse in the Bible that says there will be no revival in America. Thank you, sir, for the call.

I appreciate it. 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 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

So if you haven't heard this Let me tell you what happened to us. last night.

So as I'm speaking now, it is Friday the 18th. Let me tell you what happened last night. I was looking at something on our YouTube channel. And and I noticed a note From YouTube saying, if you see that your video income has gone down, What you need to do is see if some of your videos have been flagged as not suitable for advertisers.

Now you may have heard this happening. YouTube engaging either in censorship, removing videos like it did with Dennis Prager's Prager You, every video fine, high quality with a qualified expert, and every video balanced in tone. And some of those got removed, or they were put in status where you really wouldn't see them. And you have to realize, YouTube is the second biggest website in the world: Google number one, YouTube number two, and Google owns YouTube. They have incredible power.

If they do something, they can just set things up a certain way, and your video is no longer recommended. In other words, that if you watch a similar video, they're going to recommend: hey, watch this, you may be interested in this. They just drop that.

So your views can go way down. And if you see at the beginning of a video, say an ad pops up, you know, you can skip this ad after five seconds.

So whenever you see that, the the that video gets fractions of a penny when it's viewed.

So it has to be viewed hundreds and hundreds of thousands, really millions of times before it really generates income. But we as a nonprofit ministry take any of the money that comes in through YouTube and put it right back into ministry. That's where it goes.

So we've got over 900 videos on the Ask Dr. Brown channel, and we work hard on them. And some of them are spontaneous and fun, but otherwise we work hard, we produce them properly and do our best to be a blessing to you. And if a little money comes in, a stream of income, great, we put that right back into ministry, of course, as a nonprofit organization.

So we've noticed that, can't figure out why the income had just dropped less than half. And for a ministry, you feel that.

Well, I noticed yesterday that we had just posted a powerful testimony from KKK Grand Dragon to associate pastor at a black church. and that got flagged as unsuitable for advertisers. What?

Well, okay, maybe 'cause it said KKK in the headline in the subject.

So you can click on something, and when you click on it, it says now that that it will be reviewed. Request a manual review. In other words, it got flagged. And then I start looking down the page, like, wait, wait, this, this, this, this, this, virtually. Every single one on the page.

When I went back subsequently and looked I saw a few here and there that that weren't flagged, but otherwise What? Lee Strobel shares his testimony got flagged? What?

An offer for our book, Breaking the Stronghold of Frugal, where we talk about the book? That got flagged as un What? Are you kidding me? Jesus heals a severely burned Muslim woman, got flagged? What?

Answering questions, why don't more Jews believe in Jesus or debating rabbit? That got flag are you kidding? And it started going down. And you've got, I don't know, like thirty something videos listed on each page. And we have over thirty pages.

They basically flagged our entire account. Here and there something slipped, you know, crept through. Like we we take up Google's intolerance, somehow that one crept through. But every imaginable video. I remember we're talking about how to overcome food addictions, flagged.

See, it used to be if you had something like radical Islam, they'd immediately flag that. All right, or if you talk about the Holocaust, they might immediately flag it because they're not sure where you're going on this.

Okay. They basically flagged Almost every single video we have up. What I went through again and saw some pages, some some weren't flagged. How the preface of the King James translators refutes King James Eldenism. That gets flagged.

So we will do our best to challenge YouTube on this. I mean, you can't click on every single video and say, we request a manual review and then, oh, we don't like this and the title. It's crazy. It's happened to others.

Now it's coming our way.

So stand with us. We have a plan to get more videos out, more messages out, but we need your help in doing it.

So go to our website, askdrbrown.org, A-S-K-D-R-Brown.org, click on Donate. And let us send the message to YouTube of the world. You're not. going to silence us. 866-34Truth, back with your calls.

It's fire we want for fire we want. We please stand to the fire. 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. You've got questions, we've got answers. 866-342. three four eight seven 884 is the number to call. I want to go straight back to the phones in the Chicago suburbs.

Drew, welcome to the line of fire. Hi Hey. This is funny. I can't believe I'm actually talking to Dr. Brown.

Oh, hi. I'm Drew.

Okay, so did they telling you my question Well, you tell us, you tell all of our listeners.

Okay. Well, I I honestly, um, I have quite a few. if I could give you a brief background really quick. Yeah. Tell you what, just hang on one second.

If you could turn down if you have radio up or computer up or anything like that, because we're hearing everything echoing back, so it's just a little hard to get everything clear.

So if you just make sure that everything is just turned off and you're just talking directly into your phone or however you're calling me, with anything else turned down, that'd be great.

Okay, so yeah, your own background, Drew, please. Is it still echoing? No, we're good. Go ahead.

Okay. So, a quick background. I'm going to try and go as quickly as possible. When I grew up, Um I was sexually abused Right in the beginning, basically, of my life. And then there was a like a false religion.

It didn't happen in the false religion, but basically one side of my family, Jehovah's Witnesses. The other side of my family is, um, you know, kind of more into medium, like um ship and stuff like that. Um And then my dad, who was a Jehovah's Witness, kind of like left, you know, 'cause I think that he, you know, deep down didn't like it.

So he's always been kind of searching and, you know, now I'm just finding out the stuff that he was getting into is is really more New Age occultish too.

So both my parents are kind of into the New Age occult. Whether they know it or not. And then as I got older, I kind of got into the new age and the occult because I didn't want anything to do with the Bible. I think, really, after being in the Jehovah's Witnesses or, you know, kind of seeing it, I just felt like they didn't know God, and I really needed to know God, especially with the abuse that had happened. Like, I really, really needed to know God.

I didn't need a step-by-step, I wanted to know God. Um so So I went the occult route. That went awful. Um, obviously.

So it's the occult route. And Drew, how how how old are you now? I'm twenty-three now. Twenty-three.

Okay. Yeah. Please continue.

So then, when I was younger, I always had homosexual attractions, and then as I got older, I got in a car accident, and basically, after my car accident, I was like, well, I'm not gonna just, you know, I'm not gonna keep secrets anymore in my life, so I'm gonna talk about this. Um and then um then everything got really bad. I got in a r you know, like a homosexual relationship. Um Just started really getting into the occult. And then And then it was like there was all these different Christians in my life.

Um, there had always been a few in my life, um, like four probably pretty solid Christians, but you know, if they I mean, I was like eight when I met them, so they weren't like shoving the Bible down my throat. Um But I I imagine they were always kind of there praying for me. Um, and some people had told me not to get and see a cult, but I just kinda thought they were religious weirdos and I was like, What is the harm of meditating and breathing in a hill on a hill? you know, like there Yeah, um But there's a lot of harm in it. And, um And basically, I don't know where I was going with that.

All right, so yes, so you were exposed to other Christians and you you got in a bad relationship. Yes, so so where where are you now? How where have you arrived and how can we help you? Um well basically um Um Like I said, all the Christians told me to start reading the Bible.

So, um And I was in California backpacking, doing awful things, and they had all told me, like, you know, you need to go home, you need to read the Bible and that was the first time that I was like, I think I really need to read and I think I really need to know Jesus. Like, I think this is true. Um, so I came home and I, you know, um, I stopped, like, smoking any drugs that I was doing. I stopped, um, being in any homosexual relationship. Um I started reading the Bible.

Um, and I basically have come to this point where I just don't, I still don't think I'm safe. Does that make sense? Like, I just still just don't think I'm safe because people say, Do you believe? you know this And and I and I I feel like I can't say it with a hundred percent certainty, like how Paul says it. Like, I think Paul said it somewhere recently, like, he just knew he knew.

And I don't know. Like, I have an inkling. Yeah, let let's let's start yeah, let let's start here, all right? And I think we can actually help you get some degree of certainty. along with put you in the path to get other questions answered.

But first thing, you realize that the sexual abuse as a child can lead to confusion sexually and things like that.

So the fact you ended up in homosexual relations after being abused as a child is actually terribly common.

So many, virtually every person that I know that came out of homosexuality when they share their story about being same-sex attracted, if not everyone, the vast majority has some pattern of abuse or something in their past. But these are all things that God can resolve and that God makes us whole through. But let's find out a few things. Do you feel sure in your heart that God exists? Um Yeah.

that God exists. Um I would say yes. I would I mean I I would say the more I teach them, I start to question it. All right, no, I understand. But see, there's what I'm just trying to discern is sometimes God really puts faith in our heart.

and we we we know he's real. And we know Jesus really died for our sins and rose from the dead. We somehow just know it. We know the Bible is different, we know it's God's Word. But then we have a million questions.

So you can have a million questions while still having that basic sense of certainty. In other words, if right now you had to jump off a building, And there's one net saying, hey, figure it out on your own and you'll work it out, and the other net saying, The hands of the Lord. I think if you had to jump one way, you'd jump. into the hands of the Lord. And again, I do want to help with questions, but Next thing, do do you feel confident that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead.

Um And that's where the all the questions kind of start. Like I've watched I'm sure I've been watching your your um your debates with like um the rabbis and stuff. Yeah. Um Because, like, I just feel like I'm scared. I just want to know what the truth is because I've been surrounded by lies my entire life.

And I've realized that if I don't go and try and find it, that I'm just going to get fed lies.

So what are you unsure fundamentally? Do you believe that Jesus actually lived on this earth? Yeah. Okay. Uh do you believe that he died and rose from the dead?

Um, most likely, yes. I think that's kinda I think that he died. I can't really think of a solid way that they can explain his body disappearing. Right. Got it.

And that's a sound response, Drew. And the fact is, around the world, every single day, miracles happen in the name of Jesus. Lives are dramatically changed, indicating He's still alive and doing these things. That's why we use His name. Do you believe?

that God is willing to forgive you for the sins you committed. Um I kinda hope so. Um, but I've like I've I'm sure y I know you know who Steve Anderson is, so I've heard some of his like things. And I always like wonder, like, do I just have a reprobate mind? Here's what you need to do.

You need to not. Listen to him. He is in serious error on many, many fronts. and teaches some ugly, ugly things, He may have a remark here or there that's worth listening to. But here's what Jesus said.

Whoever comes to me I will not cast out. If you had a reprobate mind, Drew, you would not be on the phone talking to me, wanting to find the Lord. It says. In Ezekiel, God says this. He has no delight in the death of the wicked, but rather desires that they repent.

Paul said to Timothy, God wants all men to be saved, and whoever Calls out, and the name of the Lord will be saved. Not only so, Peter says God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. The end of the book of Revelation. Whoever wills, let him come. And drink of the water of life.

So here's where I'd like us to start, all right? As someone who's been walking with the Lord more than 45 years now, has seen God forgive the worst of sinners and idiots and jerks like me doing all the crazy things I was doing before the Lord saved me and merciful to me in the 45 plus years since. I want to encourage you to do two things. Number one, When we get off the phone Just say God. Yeah.

I don't care what it takes. I have to know you. I have to know you and I want to live for you. Store it there. All right.

Because he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And Drew, he has great things planned to bless your life in many wonderful ways. That's where you start. Number one, with all my heart. I want to I I want to know you.

and I want my life to count for you. And then, God, forgive me. For all my sins through the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus will cleanse you from every single sin. Ask Him to do that.

Start there. Within a couple weeks. Call me back, we're gonna talk from here and I wanna send you a video. Howard is gonna get your mailing info right now. Oh God of burning, cleansing flame, send the fire.

It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Welcome back to the line of fire. I hope you are praying for Drew to really find mercy and assurance and cleansing and new life. In Jesus the Messiah. Michael Brown here. Delighted to be with you.

866-348-7884. You know, a lot of folks that listen to the radio show say they hear the smile in my voice.

Well, as we're also doing this on Facebook Live video, you can see the smile on my face because it's a joy to be on the air with you. All right, let us go to Samantha in McConnellsville, Ohio. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello. Hello.

It's nice to be speaking with you.

Well, thank you, Samantha. Um had a question. I had a question regarding church leadership. Mm-hmm. Um I am actually a church leader myself.

And just to give you a little background. I grew up as a pastor's daughter. And we were a part of an organization that um I guess the best way I could put it was just very kind of religious, um They were They were very ordered. And um So, my father was one of many pastors, like a network of pastors. Yeah.

all had someone over them. and someone under them And kind of like um Yeah. Had a watchful eye on one another, if that makes any sense. Yep. And so my question is When I'm reading the scriptures, I am Having a hard time finding this idea of undercover.

And it seems to be a really primary theme in the Chur Christian Church. Um and I was wondering if maybe you could shed some light on that for me, because for me, I'm fi I'm not finding that within the scriptures. I see relationships between people, obviously, like Paul and Timothy. But this idea of serving leaders just because they're called leaders and like. You know, being like David was with Saul and not, you know, not questioning leadership simply because they are leadership.

I'm finding that to be like a really central theme in a lot of churches that I'm involved with, but I'm not finding that in the scriptures. Yeah, so here's the issue. Authority is very important. Authority is a gift from God. And all of us are people under authority.

Every single human being on the planet were people under authority. And that means even if you're a person of authority, you're under someone else's authority. And that's why Paul reminded masters with slaves, remember, you're a slave of the Lord Jesus. And reminded slaves, you're a free person, but you're a servant of the Lord as well. We know clearly.

that the New Testament teaches the importance of leadership, of elders and other figures leading the body. And it does teach clearly that believers should be in submission to leaders, passages like Hebrews 13, 17, to obey those who have the rule over you and to submit yourselves. But the attitude of the leader is the leader is here to serve. The greatest of all is the servant of all. That authority does not run in God's house the way it does in the world, which is why Jesus tells his apostles, it's not like the world.

The Gentiles, they lord it over one another.

So, 1 Peter 5, the elders are to lead, and the older men, elders are to lead, and the younger men are to submit, but the elders are to do it with a servant heart, not lording it over the flock.

So, I think it's great if every pastor, along with being senior pastor, has a board of elders that are also godly men that can hold him to account if he's straying, or that can be there to bless him and strengthen him and hold his hand up the rest of the time. That's very important. And if you're part of, say, a local network of believers, say in Ephesus, Timothy was the head man. And Paul tells Timothy, set up elders, do this, do that. And they were accountable to Timothy, and Timothy was accountable to Paul.

And Paul had a team and then was accountable to the Lord. You may be part of a denomination. There's got to be accountability somewhere. You know, either a leader with his team of leaders or in a denomination or maybe a citywide leader that people respect. But it's how things operate.

It is there for accountability if there is serious error. In other words, the idea that just there's an independent church here and the church in the city can't speak to that, that's a problem. because we're one body and one family.

So if there is moral failure, there's accountability. If there's serious doctrinal error, there's accountability. Otherwise, the whole thing leaders do is serve. the leaders equip, the leaders strengthen.

So if I had people looking to me, As a leader, which I do, right? I'm there to help them, strengthen them, help them to run their race, give them wisdom and counsel when needed. And if they ever needed a rebuke or discipline, I'm there for that. But that may not happen in 20 years. You know what I'm saying?

Right. And only if they have really fallen into sin Or in serious error, do you have to crack down with the whip and say, okay, you repent or you're out? Or we have to remove you because of adultery or doctrinal heresy or something like that. Everyone should have some accountability to someone who has the power to remove them if they deviate from the path. Otherwise, it's not for other leaders to be.

Here, if someone says, who's my covering?

Well, I have older men of God that speak into my life that I honor. But basically, I don't have a specific covering. I have other leaders with me, and if I fell in even though I'm the senior leader of our team, if God forbid I fell into sin, or Dr. Leonard, they have full power to remove me. The same with, I don't have the power to remove my board, but the board has the power to remove me.

So there's accountability there, but I'm the singularly this idea that everybody needs a pastor, well, in the sense that it's good to have someone like that in your life, that even leaders need someone they can go to, great. A denomination, a structure, it runs a certain way, that you have kind of a hierarchy. It's not the way I see scriptural authority, but fine. If that works well, great. The Bible is kind of ambiguous about specifics because it has to work in many different cultures and many different systems.

So I think the biggest problem you're running into, reading between the lines, Samantha, is the nature of the way authority is carried out, as opposed to should everyone have leadership in their lives? Should we be submitting to leadership and submitting one to another? Those are all healthy things. Should we be unaccountable? No.

But there's nobody that's supposed to be. If you're, let's say, your husband is pastoring a church and someone's saying, well, I don't like the way you did this. I don't like the way.

Well, if you're the senior leader, then lead. And, you know, and let there be people around you that empower you. And then have a place to go for wisdom and counsel and have people to whom you're accountable so that just in case you get off the tracks or start to, there are people who can speak into your life. Lone Rangers, totally unscriptural. But this whole thing that everything's done by committee and that everybody has to run things past the leader, that's also unscriptural.

So that's obviously we could talk for hours about this, and I'm trying to be as general as I can. And last thing, because I'm out of time. If you're in a system. that you find is constantly inhibiting and destructive. And in your heart, you love the Lord and you love authority and you're glad to submit to authority, but you find this self constricting and hindering and hurting.

then it's probably not the right fit. And rather than try to fight the whole system, pray, Lord, where can I serve somewhere else and be effective? Hey, folks, remember, ask drbrown.org, A-S-K-D-RBrown.org, to stand with us, to help us get the message out. Click on donate.

Well, let's do it. You've got questions. We've got answers. It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution.

Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 Truth. That's 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Well, here we are. You've got questions. We've got answers. That's what we do on this broadcast on the line of fire, 866-348-7884. Any question of any kind in any area of expertise I have, my joy to answer your question, do my best to dig in the word, get wisdom so that we can help you.

Hey, just one quick word, and then I want to go straight to the phones. One quick word. There is so much constant turmoil all around us. Even if your own life Is it peace? Even if things are going well with your family, In point of fact, this is an urgent shaking time.

So many things happening all around the world, all the time. Can I encourage you, if you ever feel your blood starting to boil and you're getting anxious, read Psalm 46. Step back. God is our refuge and strength. Take it in.

Read it. Even the whole world collapses all around us. We will not be shown. shaken. There is a city, an unshakable city from which God's stream flows and we, spiritually speaking, are citizens of that city.

Jesus says in John 14, 27, Peace I leave with you. My peace, I guess you not as the world. I give to you. I'm giving you my peace in a lasting way. You know what?

No one is telling me the peace that is in God's heart. He Puts in our hearts. It's His peace. And therefore, it transcends the storm of circumstances all around us.

Okay, just wanted to share that with you. 866-34TRUTH. And we go to AJ. In Chickafee, Ohio, is is that is that the pronunciation? Yeah.

No, sir, it's Chilla Coffee. It's an old Chilla. Chilla coffee. Yeah. It looked a little longer.

Sometimes with the screen, letters blur, but it looked like chill of coffee. I have just learned something today. And I want to ask everyone listening and watching, have you ever heard of Chili Coffee? Ohio Well, now we all have. Go ahead, sir.

Uh well I I Um I love your program. I'm a regular podcast listener. Thank you so much for taking my call. I wanted to. Uh when you picked up the phone, I wanted to say Shalom, Dr.

Brown, Mashalom Cha. That would have been good. Good, good. Yep. So that would have been shalom and how are you in Hebrew for our listeners.

Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Um my uh the um The head of my ministerial association introduces me to people as the Jewish Methodist. Ah Um I I love Hebrew. I love the Hebrew roots movement.

Um And so I wanted to talk to you just briefly. Uh about your uh your pronunciation of the divine name. Mm-hmm. Um I'm not here to correct anybody. I'm no expert, of course.

I've got one semester of Hebrew under my belt. Um But uh You use you use Yahweh and that's because of the the the W pronunciation on the on the above. Um, why why is that, sir? Meaning why do I pronounce it with the W for the vov? Yeah, I've always heard, I mean, I've heard from the other side of the city.

The the valve was pronounced wow. And you'll still have it like that in Arabic, for example.

So we would say, you know, walada, you know, to give birth or walad would be Hebrew yalad.

So it's just the more ancient pronunciation. And that's why, since we're trying to recover the original pronunciation, can't be 100% sure. But if we're trying to say this is how it was originally pronounced in Hebrew, then yes, it would have been Yahweh, as best as we understand. Tell you what, AJ. Go to My website, sdartyourbrown.org, A-Sk Drbrown.org.

Type in Jehovah. And you'll see a little bit more about the pronunciation there. Hope that helps. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks, friends, for joining us today on the line of fire. You've got questions, we've got answers: 866-348-789. 884. That is the number to call. Anything in any area of expertise I have, anything where you want to differ with me or probe something I've said or written or that's come up with a guest interview, by all means, give me a call: 866-3487-884.

I don't get excited about controversy just for controversy's sake. I get excited because I know I'm here for such a time as this. When I see things shaking in the society, in the world, in the news, all around us, I don't just have adrenaline flowing because, oh, it's another conflict. No, it's because we can speak truth to power, because we can shine like lights in dark places. It would be, picture it like this.

You're an emergency room doctor. You're trained for this. You have given years and years and years of your life to be ready for these very life and death situations. And suddenly, there's a bad accident up the road, and ambulances are coming in with three or four or five or six different people in all kinds of critical condition. You get charged and excited.

You hate the carnage. You hate the fact that people are suffering, but that's what you're there for. That's what you do. This is what, all right, come on, team, this is give yourself, be sharp, and let, and because you can save lives.

So that's how it is with me in the gospel. What a messed up world all around us, society and chaos, and church often in so much confusion. When I see these things happening, God stirs me right, speak because we have the antidote. We are the doctors in the emergency room for such a time as this. 866-348-7884.

Let's go to Justice in New York City. Justice, nice to have you on the air today. How are you doing, Dr. Brown? Doing very well, thank you, sir.

Hey, Dr. Brown. So I'm a huge fan of your show. I'm just a huge fan of your writing. Um, just a little uh thing.

So I used to be um It was funny. I grew up in Pentecostal. I used to I became a cessationist, not because of, like, theology, but because of, you know. Bad experience. experience, yeah.

And uh and also like just church, you know, hurt. Like and you know, just because people hurt me in the church, I became a cessationist twenty fourteen. I go up to a conference in Michigan and Nathan Morris is actually preaching and, you know, the fire of God falls and the word kind of touches me. And um ever since, like, I've just like been s so on fire for God and I really want to see a revival. And you know, one of the things is like I used to be so bad because I used to rebuke my mom for speaking in tongues, and it was really bad, Dr.

Brock. But you know, now you know, the Lord has kind of changed my heart on all of it, and I really am seeking for revival here in New York. And I'm 21 here, I'm very young. Still learning, but it's whatever. And let me just say this, Justice.

That zeal is a good thing. As much as you were mistaken in rebuking your mother, obviously, and as much as you were mistaken in denying what God's doing by His Spirit today, that zeal meant that you weren't just indifferent. You didn't just walk away from God, leave the church, and say, Who needs this? You knew He was real.

So the zeal was expressed in some hurtful ways, but that zeal. Can be redeemed. And, you know, people will say to me, Dr. Brown, you're so balanced. Like, you don't know.

I hit the left wall, I hit the right wall, and kind of got back more in the middle.

So that happens with all of us. But now your foundation could be even stronger because the word says what it says about the gifts and power of the Spirit for today. And now that you've seen God working in your life in a confirming way, you have more confidence. But here's what's key for revival, Justice. Great spiritual hunger.

That does not stop asking and knocking and seeking until the breakthrough comes. My brother, sometimes you feel like I can't live another day without God moving. When I lived in the suburbs of Long Island, and then when I taught regularly in New York City and would be in there on a weekly basis, sometimes late at night, I'd walk the streets, suburbs of Long Island, streets of New York City, and just cry out, God, you've got to visit.

Now, He's doing many wonderful things. There are many great things that have been happening in New York in the last 20, 30 years for sure. But when you look at a dying world, When you look at your own life, when you look at just those in your own block, God, there's got to be more. When you look at s so many churches hurting and marriages falling apart and kids falling away and the church is just like the world, I don't say that to condemn, but to say something's missing, something's wrong.

So that's where it starts. And hunger is uncomfortable. Hunger is the kind of thing that you wish you could just satisfy, but it is often The key, spiritual hunger. The number one most intense message that I had preached over the years in terms of my own heart cry for decades has been on spiritual hunger. And we've often seen people crying out to God for hours and then after that for weeks and months and even for years until visitation came.

I can tell you firsthand, that's how I was in revival myself. That's how I was part of a revival that went on for the better part of five years and touched literally millions of people around the world. It was great spiritual hunger. It's not that we earn it. But we are working together with God.

And it's like... How deep is the irrigation ditch that we dug? That's how much rain we can take and use. And Jesus is born in the stable because there's no room in the inn. And many times God moves in the most unlikely places through the most unlikely people because they were hungry.

They were thirsty. The church in Laodicea, Revelation 3, Jesus says, you say, I'm rich, increased in wealth, and have need of nothing. You don't realize you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

So they thought they had it all, and yet they were desperately bankrupt. Yet to Smyrna, He says, I know your poverty and your afflictions, yet you're rich.

So the one that seemed to have so little. They were rich in God. Matthew 5: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled.

So, spiritual hunger. For visitation, it'll drive you to your knees, it'll drive you to fasting.

Sometimes it'll get you frustrated. Let that frustration become desperation And with that, You'll experience God. Hey, quick question, sir. Do you have my book? Do you have my book, Holy Fire?

Yeah. Okay, time for holy fire. Do you have my C D? uh holy desperation. On the fourth wing, no, but I have I think I watched it on YouTube.

Okay, you may have watched it on YouTube. Great, and you see the response at the end. Stay right there, Justice. Howard is going to get your contact info. I want to send you as a gift.

My book. Time for holy fire. and the Holy Desperation C D This is my deposit in your life, Justin, that you too will experience revival. That's my prayer for you, personal and corporate, that you will live to be in an awakening that is beyond just a few lives or a family or a local church. That's my prayer for you.

For you, Justice. God bless you. 86634TRUTH. Uh let us go to Dave in British Columbia, Canada. Welcome to the line of fire.

Yes. Mm-hmm. Thank you very much, doctor Brown. Nice to talk to you. Thank you.

Good to talk to you. Yes, just in listening to you counsel that young man, Um and quoting the scripture from Ezekiel there referring to Yahuwah not delighting in the death of the wicked. but that he should turn from his ways and live Mm-hmm. In when you're counseling people, advising people, talking to people. For them to turn from their ways.

You know, what does that actually mean? Because Yeah. As far as I can tell, my read Tanakh. It is keeping his ways completely. Like Abraham was declared righteous because he walked in his ways.

kept his commandments, guarded everything. Um You know, uh Too often it seems that the council coming from Christian leadership Is just believe, just have faith, and you don't necessarily have to. keep the commandment. But This, I think, is the great disservice because I think it's the seed. of the confusion that exists in the Christian world.

Where are we? that God requires Every follower, Jesus. Jew or Gentile like that God requires everyone to observe the Torah? Yes, 100%, yeah.

Okay, yeah, so that's where I'd have a very, very deep. Fundamental difference with you. Also, difference in the pronunciation of the divine name. I would categorically differ with that. We are under a new and better covenant, not the Sinai covenant.

Yes, there are more commandments in the New Testament than the old in that regard, if you count them all. But to turn from our ways means no more of my will. No more of my saying. No more living for self and sin in the flesh.

Now I live. To do the will of God. It starts with faith in Jesus and it is submission to His Lordship. If he and his lordship said, every Gentile has to observe all the Torah, I'd say amen. But I don't see that.

So, we do have a fundamental difference on it. But thank you, sir, for the call and the question. We'll be right back. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks for joining us today on the line of fire 866-34-TRUTH.

So so just to be clear, and I jumped in because I had a hunch where the call was going. There is nothing in the New Testament Explicitly commanding Gentile believers to observe the Sinai covenant. Nothing. And of course, there are warnings against saying you must be circumcised and obey the law in order to be saved. Strong warnings about that.

and depends on where someone falls. They'll normally say, well, it's not for justification, it's for obedience and so on. Bottom line. When the New Testament talks about Jesus says, keep my commands, for example, in John, the 13th chapter, if you love me, you keep my commands, or the 14th chapter. Go through the Gospel of John, and you'll see the commands Jesus is talking about there are His teachings in the Gospel of John, the things that He taught His disciples.

You say, but he didn't come to abolish, but to fulfill. Yes, he does come to fulfill. He brings things to their highest meaning. He does not abolish the Torah. But let's also remember.

that the Sinai covenant was not given to the Gentile Lord, it was given to Israel.

Now we have a new and better covenant, and this covenant is through the gospel for the whole world. All right, 866-348-7884. Let us go to Paul in Lakeland, Florida. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr.

Brown, good to talk to you again. I actually have met you in person. You came to my home church once. Um at any rate. The question I have is specifically in regards to praying in tongues as a corporate body, specifically prayer language.

I understand the like spiritual aspect and why it's so great, but I do not yet understand the justification in the Bible. Sure.

So the practice that you find in some Pentecostal charismatic churches is that they say, hey, let's all pray in the Spirit, and everybody in the whole building is speaking in tongues. As I understand Scripture. If you have a meeting that is open, to non-believers or to others who are not familiar with your spiritual practices, that's not something we're supposed to do in that setting or context. Because Paul explicitly says if someone comes in that's an unbeliever or ignorant of these things, they'll think you're crazy.

So we always have that concern. That's number one. Number two, so I would say that many times we're out of order in that regard. Number two, if you have a setting where everybody's, you say, hey, let's all pray. Let's all cry out to God together for our nation.

Let's pray for our president. Let's pray for Israel, whatever it is, right? And everyone's crying out and praying, and no one is leading.

Well, you're not listening to the person next to you. Maybe you're praying in German and I'm praying in Spanish and the person next to me is praying in Chinese and the person behind me is praying in tongues. That to me, it could all be speaking in tongues. In other words, it's not a lead prayer with a microphone and that you're just hearing someone thundering in tongues. If you're delivering a message in tongues, it needs to be with interpretation or it shouldn't be.

That's simple. But if everybody's just praying together, let's all pray. And so we're all just praying in our own languages, no one's leading it. then that to me is a separate issue.

So if someone's praying in tongues and someone's praying in English, because I'm not hearing the person next to me, we're all just crying out, oh God, touch, oh God, work, oh God, move, and praying in the language that's most natural or in tongues as we feel led. I'm totally fine with that. As I understand it though, if a message is being delivered publicly. Right, if I am, let's say we're all praying, it's an altar call, and we're all crying out to God and praying.

So what I might do is I put the mic down as I'm leading that meeting, and maybe I'm speaking in tongues, and others are in the building, but we're all just praying and worshiping. You have the worship music playing, so you can't even hear us, right? If I put the mic back to my lips, If I speak in tongues, I need to interpret. Otherwise, I shouldn't do it. It would be no different than if I started to be quoting, I'm quoting from Isaiah 53, 1 in Hebrew.

It doesn't edify anybody, but it's Hebrew. It doesn't edify anybody if there's no interpretation. I'm quoting Genesis 1 in German or something.

Okay, great. But unless you're German speakers, it's not helping. Same with tongues.

So I would say that in many of our charismatic Pentecostal churches, we're a little loose on that. And if it now listen. If you came over to my home. And we're having a prayer meeting with 10 people in the basement of my house. And I say, hey, let's just, let's pray in the Spirit for an hour.

I've done that. I've done that with people. We're just going to pray in the spirit for an hour and then we'll start to pray with our understanding and lead and others will interpret.

So we're all just kind of praying separately but together. But that's a totally different setting. If you've got a public meeting, unsafe people are coming in, people who are non-Pentecostal, charismatic, then... Public messages need interpretation. And if everybody's speaking in tongues and that's what they're hearing, That that's that's a problem.

So I I think y you know, people criticize that, rightly so.

Okay. So I mean, that was exactly where my beliefs laid.

So thank you. Yeah, and again. I think that the big issue is what people are hearing.

So if if you have the worship team playing And that's what you hear through the mics. And others are worshiping and singing, and some are singing in tongues, and some are singing in English. That's just a holy melody and music going up to the Lord. But let's communicate intelligibly. If we are to do it.

If there was a church I was part of that did that, it's not going to run out the door because of it's, but I just say, hey, you know, we need to step a little higher there, just be a little more careful. In case we have unbelievers here or folks that are new and don't believe these things, we want to help them. And here's the best way to do it. All right, thank you, sir, for the call. Can I grab one more call before we are done here?

Let's give it a shot. Let's go to New Brunswick, Canada. Reese, welcome to the line of fire. Uh hi there, how are you today? Doing very well, thank you.

It is good to talk to you again. Um Yeah, I was wondering, uh how do you personally or How can uh we deal with really discouraging times. I'm just finding um with everything that's going on in the news, with Barcelona, with Charlottesville. And in my country as well, with our rights being taken away little by little, it just seems like the discouragement was just overwhelming and it's I find myself uh really struggling to get out of this kind of pit of Not despair, but Yeah. I'm wondering what you do personally and what can I do too.

Yeah. And let me just say this. Many of you are listening to this. or watching this At different times, but this week has been a very intense week nationally in America and internationally as well. And these kind of things can be very grievous.

So, Reese. Number one, I'm not your average person. I do not get discouraged as much as others. Oh, I've hit my valleys, but I'm not your average person.

So here's what I do some of this, but here's what I'd recommend. Number one, Start with the Lord. It's always been a messed up world. The whole world is messed up and it's going to be messed up until Jesus returns. Get your focus on the Lord.

Worship Him. Put on worship music and focus on the Lord. Jesus, you're wonderful, you're risen, because in His presence is fullness of joy.

So that's where you start. Worship. Adoration. And then get the word in your heart. Get the word in your mind.

Fill your heart, your mind with that more than the other news sources. That's two. Three. Encourage yourself to things that God has done. Answers to prayer.

Things like that, and then read encouraging testimonies, watch encouraging testimonies. To the extent your eyes are on the Lord and you're rejoicing in Him, the discouragement will. Vanity. 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. You've got questions. We've got answers 866-348-7884. To everyone just tuning in, welcome to the broadcast. And we're back up on Facebook Live.

If you want to see what it actually looks like where I'm sitting and the mic in front of me, and you've never seen that during a show, well, go to the website, right? Excuse me, the Facebook page, Ask Dr. Brown. This little bonus coverage, we didn't plan to be back up there on Facebook, but we are right now. Ask Dr.

Brown, ask K.D.R. Brown on Facebook. I am going straight to the phone.

So any question you want to ask me.

However volatile, difficult, challenging, controversial, if it's in the realm of what we talk about on the radio show or what I write about or any expertise I have, any area like that, by all means, give me a call, 866-348-7884. Let us start in Richmond, Virginia. Lee, welcome to the line of fire. Dr. Michael Brown, thank you very much for taking my phone call.

I'm going to ask you a brief question, and I'm going to hang up and I'm going to listen to your comments.

Alright. In short, I met somebody at a gathering and they had given me a bookmarker and a little card. And on the card, it says And the person who gave me encouraged me to read this particular and go to this particular website. On the card it says church Uh Christian Biblical Church of God. And underneath of it, it has the name of the pastor, the meaning of the pastor.

by the name of Fred or Coulter. I would like to know What their beliefs are and their practices are.

So I'm going to hang up and I'm going to listen to you. All right. Hey, Lee, I am not familiar with the Christian Biblical Church of God. Uh when I Type that in. Online I get a website cbcg.org and it says Truth of God, Restoring Original Christianity for Today.

So I'm looking at this right now. I'm looking at their beliefs, just clicking on that.

So I am finding this out as I am answering you. The true teachings and doctrines of Jesus Christ and his apostles is revealed in the Holy Bible. Here's what concerns me just right off the top. What concerns me is if they are saying they alone have the revelation. They alone are the true church.

I'm saying if. because I'm just looking at this website as we are speaking. If That is their position. That they alone are the true remnant of the original, quote, Christianity. Then I just walk away from them and say, whatever.

Maybe you've got some things right, but you've got that very wrong because Jesus has a people and a body all around the world, and it's not confined to one particular group.

Now, I may not be being fair to them because maybe the way things are presented is not fully what they believe. It looks like they say that everyone has to keep all of the holy days. As I'm looking, it's right on their homepage. Sabbath, Passover, unleavened bread, Pentecost, trumpets, atonement, tabernacles, eighth day calendar. And they're giving you sunset times.

So that would indicate that they are saying that everyone... Jewish Entile has to keep these, and I would say there is great wonder. In terms of what God has laid out, beauty in the holy days, the biblical calendar. It's great for everyone to observe these or recognize them or just understand spiritually what's happening, but it is certainly not a command for Gentile believers to keep all of the feasts or holy days or even the seventh-day Sabbath.

So that would obviously be a difference there. And I'm looking at... Posts here, the mark of the beast is here.

Well, that's a question mark.

So, tell you what. Based on looking at the website, I would say it's possible they believe certain true things and certain orthodox things, but to the extent they claim to be the true church, to that extent it's cult-like and to be... Ignored. God of light, hear our cry, send a fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.

Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Welcome, welcome to the line of fire. Michael Brown, delighted to be with you. 866-348-7884. That is the number to call. All right, Richmond, Virginia.

Jim, welcome to the Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, how are you doing? Doing very well, thank you. Okay.

Uh My question is at a at a recent home Bible study on Jonah A couple of Members of this Questioned whether Jonah repented after God had given him a couple of chances. And you know, he he showed this. against God for you know, relenting the calamity. Uh what's what's your thoughts? Uh that situation is Yeah.

How about uh You know, if there was any repentance, uh Yeah. I I think I think that w we ought not to look at him in black or white terms that either he repented or didn't. He's spoken of as a prophet. In 2 Kings 14, it's clear that he was a... A prophet of the nation who was a patriot because he prophesied the expansion of the borders of northern Israel.

So that was a good word for a sinning kingdom, but one that the Lord obviously gave him. And that seems to be his undoing. That when God says, call Assyria to repentance, he's thinking, I'm not going to call, Assyria's our archenemy. We want to destroy them. We're not going to give them a chance.

Destroy them. You know, it's almost like you've got, you know, terrorists are trying to destroy your country, and God says, hey, if they repent now, I'll have mercy on them.

So hopefully. We want them destroyed. I mean, that's the militaristic kind of mentality.

So, of course, think of this: Jonah is so stubborn. That takes him three days. Before he repents in the belly of the fish. Can you imagine that? That long.

But he obviously cries out to God. You've got in Jonah the second chapter a great psalm. He cries out and the fish spits him out.

So he certainly repented in the belly of the fish, but he had his attitudes. He still had his attitudes. And that's the attitude, kind of the Pharisaical religious attitude, and the better than others attitude, and the attitude that doesn't glory in mercy. You know, Jacob James 2 tells us that mercy triumphs over judgment. And that is part of what Jonah doesn't get.

So I believe he repents, and that's why God sends him then to preach in Nineveh. And then he still has his attitude. He still has his wrong attitude about things, and he's feeling sorry for himself, so he's still a human being.

So yes, he repented of not going to preach, but he still had his issues. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, when he uh got appointed the plant Yeah. The wind and all that stuff.

Yeah, he still Still had that attitude up there, you know. Yeah, yeah. And look, there are some of us that God has to deal with for years and years before we fully surrender. And we think, oh, God just stopped dealing with me about this. No, no, He didn't.

It's just He stepped back because our hearts are so insensitive. He's waiting for another time when we're humbling ourselves more. It's not that He just stopped, it's that He's not just going to keep putting pressure on us when we keep on sinning and pushing back. And sometimes it takes years before a husband repents of His behavior and attitude, or a wife of her behavior and attitude, or it takes years for a kid to grow up and submit to the Lord.

So Jonah repents, but He still has his bad attitudes, and in that sense, unfortunately, join the club. All right, 866-348-7884. Four. Let's go to Sweden. Marcus, welcome to the line of fire.

Thank you, Dr. Rahm. You're welcome, sir. Yes. So I have this question about theology.

I recently ordered some books written with the perspective of new covenant theology.

Now, I know there is the perspective of um dispensationalism and uh covenant theology. Yeah. But uh since since I'm Yeah, getting introduced to the perspective now. This system of thought. I would like to hear what is your comment on New Covenant theology and its And how it's related to Israel.

Yeah, who are some of the authors? Who are some of the authors that you're reading? Uh, I think one of the guys is called uh, was it Steven R uh no, John Raisinger.

Okay. And and uh and anyone else? It comes to mind. There is another one. Blake White, I think one is called.

Can you at all say what their central theses are in any way? Uh what they say themselves is that the dispensationalists can't really get the church uh and Israel apart well and the covenant theology uh it can't get them right either, but and the other way around. Uh so and they they try to be uh some kind of middle ground. picking the best from from both perspectives. Yeah, you know, to be honest, sir, I have to...

read it in more detail to evaluate it. I'm not intimately familiar. With some of the writings that you're referring to, obviously I try to keep track of a lot of different things, but I'm not. intimately familiar with.

So here's what I would I would say is important to look for. If you're talking about Israel. Do they recognize, number one, that God still has future promises for Israel as a nation? Do they still recognize that if they say in any way that there are no promises that remain for the nation. that yeah, individual Jews can be saved, but as a people There are no promises that remain.

I would say that's a serious error. and a serious misreading of the entire Bible. That's number one. Number two, I would look to see what their sentiments are in terms of the Jewish people in the land today. Do they recognize that as something that God has done?

Or do they look at Israel as some type of evil occupier? That would be another thing that I would look at that would be of concern to me. On the flip side, Have they gone so far as to say, well, Jews already have a covenant with God and they don't need Jesus? That would be the most serious error of all.

So, one, Do they recognize there's still future promises for Israel as a people, not just individuals, as a people? That's big. That's one. Two. What do they think of Israel and the land today?

Do they see this as something that God has done, or is this for them just? Just human beings doing it, and it's bad, and Israel is some kind of evil occupier. That would be very enlightening to see. And then, three, which would be the opposite perspective, just that is so pro-Jewish, pro-Israel, that it goes beyond Scripture, and then says Jews don't need Jesus, they already have their own covenant with God. I would look at those things, sir, as templates in terms of evaluating this theology when it pertains to.

Israel. Hey, thank you much for the call from Sweden. 866-34TRUTH. Let us go to Steve in Tonnington, Connecticut. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hey, doctor Brown. Hoping you'll come to New York, New England sometime soon. Yeah. So concerning your conversation with Professor John Walton yesterday, I'm not going to challenge your opinion, but I'd just like to hear what you feel is the weakness or what may be wrong with the way Say Dr. Piper.

presents the solution to that the so-called slaughter of the Canaanites. What do you think would be weak about that? Go ahead.

And the John Walton discussion is fascinating to me and I have to, as a student of Hebrew and the scriptures, evaluate the claims. They're serious claims, and I'm totally open to the points he was making and was thinking through some of them because I didn't have a chance to evaluate the material in any depth in advance.

So I was giving an honest interview. and asking honest questions, and then we'll evaluate. Here's my problem. Do you see in Scripture that And to make clear for everyone listening, watching right now. Dr.

Piper was asked about Basically, the moral problem of God commanding the slaughter of the Canaanites, children, women, men. And he just said God can slaughter men, women, children whenever he wants for any reason. And he's thoroughly justified in doing it. It's mercy that any of us even breathe another breath, basically.

So. While I appreciate his exalting of God as God who does not have to answer to man, God describes his character elsewhere. Does he refer to himself, for example, as the father of the fatherless? in the scriptures. Does he say his compassion is over all of his works?

Does he say he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they would turn? And live. It doesn't say, for example, that he murders and gives life, but that he kills and gives life, because God doesn't murder, right?

So certain things are murder and they are unethical. And yes, on the one hand, we all deserve judgment. Luke 13, unless you repent, you'll all likewise perish. You know, the fact that one person dies in an accident and another does it, we all should have because of our sin. Understood.

But God presents His character in certain ways. Don't touch one of these little ones. Whoever touches one of these little ones is gonna have to answer to me.

So I see this picture, Steve, of God the way He's presented.

So He's the champion of the widow and the orphan and the ones that can't defend themselves.

So to just say, He can slaughter them all if He wants. I would not say it like that. I wouldn't use the word. slaughter as well. Thank you.

Oh God of burning, cleansing flames. Say It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks, friends, for joining us on the line of fire: 866-348-7884. Number to call you've got questions, we've got Answers, hey. Have you download it? The intro and the first chapter to Saving a Sick America. My book coming out in what?

Five weeks, five weeks. Friends, this book will fill you with hope. Oh, the beginning, very sobering. We want to know the condition we're in, but I'm talking about hope. For the future, hope for your kids, hope for your family, and God with prescriptions.

divine prescriptions based on scripture. how we can live differently. By God's grace, and how we can be agents of change in America. All hope is not lost.

So go to savingasickamerica.com, download the intro, the first chapter. If you decide to pre-order any different places online where you order Amazon or wherever else, then you just go back to that site, put in your order number, you'll get the first four chapters of the book sent to you in advance. And you get a free e-book. Five Ways to Pray for America.

So that's if you pre-order. All the instructions are at savingasickamerica.com. Let's go to Sacramento, California. Anna, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Doctor Brown.

Hello. Sure I can. Oh, okay. I I just I'll just ask you guys. Just question and ending.

Yep, 'cause Yeah. Um How do you know you're walking in the perfect will of God? I just wanted to hear that from you.

Alright, how do you know you're walking? In the perfect will of God, the concept of perfect will of God would come from Romans the 12th chapter. And some people read what Paul is saying as if there are three different wills of God: there's the acceptable, there's the good, there's the perfect. I don't take Paul to actually be saying that in Romans 12. I understand him to be saying, Hey, submit yourselves to God and do His will, His good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

But how do you know? How do you know that you are walking in the center of God's will? Let's say it like that. Number one, It's according to Scripture. Right?

So if I am stealing, committing adultery, and worshiping idols, I am not in the center of the will of God. What I'm doing is rank gross disobedience. What I'm doing with my life must be in harmony with the will of God.

So if I was... Oh, a businessman extorting money from others and stealing money from the government, I'm out of the will of God. Even if God called me into that business, I'm out of the will of God, right?

So, what I'm doing with my life must be in harmony with God's will and God's commandments. I mean, it's self-evident, but we want to start there, right?

So, for example, a woman could be a stripper in a strip club, and she's praying a lot and can't understand why God's not blessing her life.

Well, she needs to get out of that job because God didn't call her to do that.

So, that's where we start. The second thing is, we ask God to lead us and guide us. Often we have to make decisions. You pray and you pray and you pray and you have three decisions in front of you to make and you don't know which one is the right one. You ask God for help, close the wrong doors, open the right doors, and all three are still open.

So you make the best decision you can based on the wisdom you have or counsel that you get and say, Lord, Guide me in your paths. Confirm your will in my life. And if, in fact, you're making the right decisions and going in the right direction, you'll see God's encouragement. You'll have a sense of affirmation. Here, can you say the same Spirit That raised Jesus from the dead bears witness with my spirit.

Romans 8:16, the spirit himself bears witness with my spirit that I'm a child of God. Can you say that, that assurance?

Well, I find that witness of the spirit in my life when I'm doing what he called me to do. There's a joy in it, even in the midst of opposition and difficulty. There's a confidence in it. Why? Because God is backing me.

God is blowing on the wind of my sails. You might be the type of person that's very insecure in your decision-making. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he'll direct your path.

So, say, Lord, I'm just a sheep. You're the shepherd. Never been this way before. I don't know the right way to go.

So, Lord, lead me, guide me, show me, direct me. Walk in the light that you have. Walk in the, whatever light you have, walk in that. And the closer you get to the light, the brighter and brighter it'll get. The more you'll know this is right, this is God, there's confirmation, there's blessing on it.

And when you're going the wrong way, it's just, I don't feel right. The more I pray, the more time I spend with God, something feels wrong. In which case, you go to Him and He will redirect your paths. All right. Oh, do I have time?

Yeah, let's go for this in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Brad, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. I love you, and I love your show.

I'll get right to the question. I was wondering if the reason that the epistles don't go into specific descriptions on how to operate in the gifts of the Spirit is that they were already operating in them daily. Basically, saying that since the churches were already prophesying and already speaking in tongues and healing, that Paul or the other writers wouldn't spend a lot of time. teaching them something that they already knew. Yeah, I think so.

I think certainly that's part of it. In other words, you're in an environment where it's the norm. And it's just like here, if you grow up in Canada, all the kids know how to ice skate. You grew up in the West in the 1800s, everybody knew how to ride a horse, and you just, it was part of the culture that you learned it. Growing up.

So I think that's part of it, Brad. But I think another thing is that. Just like healing the sick, Jesus does it differently in different settings. He may lay hands in one, or drive out a spirit in another, or speak a word in another, or tell someone to go and wash in another. And I think the realization is there's not a method to this.

There's not a how-to manual. As much as encounter God. and believe God and ask God to work through you. No one tried to do it. Taught me how to speak in tongues, for example, or taught me how to hear the voice of God.

But as I walked with the Lord, I learned and I was hungry for Him and asked Him to fill me with His Spirit. And one night praying, I just felt this thing bubbling up and began to speak out in a language I didn't know, and then more and more. And I became bold that it was: This is real, this is pouring through me in a very powerful, beautiful, life-giving way.

So I know that some people teach this: hey, here's how to learn to move in the Spirit, or here's how to release this gift. And maybe the Lord's anointed them to do that and helps them minister to others. But I don't like to make a doctrine out of any of these things. And I believe that as we really encounter the Lord, just with some good examples and mentoring, that we'll learn kind of naturally. How to flow in these things.

So, to make it into a method, I think could be an error. But to say that there can be no explanation or no encouragement, well, that would not be natural either, because that's always going to happen in a mentoring, growing. environment. And remember the Bible, God's Word speaking to many people, many cultures, many backgrounds. In that sense, in the secondary things, one shoe does not fit all sizes.

Friends, remember to stay in touch with us at askdrbrown.org.

Some very important articles by open letter to the president. Very important articles and videos on the website. Ain't the world.