Well, I'm going to share with you why I wrote an open letter to Katy Perry. A lot more to cover. More on the travel ban and the courts and your calls today. 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.
Hey friends, it is great to be with you today on the line of fire. My joy, my privilege to spend this time together with you. Here's a number to call 866-866666666666 34 truth 866-348-7884. I've got some interviews coming up this week and some special things I want to cover.
So, to make sure that you have time to call in and ask questions, even random questions on random subjects, then I'm going to give out the number now. And if you want to call during the show, even if it's completely off topic, but this is your opportunity to call me. The phone lines are open: 866-6666. 348-7884. And over the course of the show, I'm going to try to answer some questions that have been emailed to us or posted on social media or.
come in in other ways as well as take your call.
So I will weave everything together into a seamless garment while you sit back and enjoy. Again, 866 348-7884. By the way, a couple of weeks ago, I got a call about the movie The Shack. I bought the Shack book years ago, started to read it, put it down, never read more of it, but I knew the controversy surrounding it. Since then, we've known clearly that William Young, the author of The Shack, does hold to some.
heretical beliefs. including a universal salvation belief, basically, that everyone ultimately gets in to God's eternal, loving kingdom. But at that time, when the book came out, there was a question: is it heretical or not? Is it just getting a great message? Of course, it became a mega bestseller.
Then it came out in the movie. I didn't see the movie either. I've had friends say to me, it's heretical, it's terrible. Stay away from that. It's poison.
And others say it was powerful. I wept through it. God really used it to speak to me. And others said, How could you be so blind? And the other ones say, How could you be so blind?
Anyway. I was asked for my take on it, discussed it with someone who saw it. And I just said, hey, from what I can tell, if an unbeliever goes to see it, it might be something that points them in the right direction, points them to God's love. And the errors, the doctrinal errors are stated more subtly. And you're not expecting Hollywood to nail the picture anyway, you know, nail doctrine and have it exactly right anyway, and use it maybe as a stepping stone.
And if a Christians minister to it, fine, just make sure that they're aware of some of the error in it.
So that little interaction that I had on the radio got posted on our YouTube channel, on the S. Dr. Brown YouTube channel. And I think it got posted yesterday. It's stirring up a bit of controversy.
And I could be totally wrong on it. You know, it could be a movie you just stay away from. I hadn't seen it. I was only going based on what people said. That's it, based on what you're saying.
This is the advice that I would give, right? And I think everybody pretty much agrees that the parts that would be heretical and deviant are more subplot, even from the critics would say that, and that which is more obvious is maybe teach on the love of God, but of course mixed with poison. Anyway, I've got no dog in this fight. I could be totally wrong. I could have given Beautiful, wise advice.
It could just be: hey, you got your opinion, I've got mine. But when you have a minute, go to askdrbrown.org. Just click the digital library for the latest videos, or go straight to YouTube, the Ask Dr. Brown channel on YouTube, ASKDR Brown on YouTube. And listen, it's just a short answer, just a few minutes long, and weigh in there.
Especially if you saw the movie. Weigh in with your opinion. If you think I gave wise counsel or unwise counsel, again, I was obviously not being dogmatic on it because I hadn't seen the movie or read the book. I was just interacting and giving what wisdom I thought I could give.
Sometimes I say, hey, I have no answer. I can't answer you. I haven't looked at that study that. Here I thought I had some constructive thoughts, but you can weigh in. All right, we come back.
So why in the world? Did I write an open letter? to Katie. Perry. What's in it?
And what's the message for each of us? Stay tuned. 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 so much for being part of the Line of Fire broadcast, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Let me say again, thank you to those of you who posted reviews on the Ask Dr. Brown Facebook page, which we did for the benefit of those that are looking and trying to find out should they spend time on the page or not.
Thanks for doing it. I was not looking for personal encouragement or validation. That comes from my walk with the Lord and from seeing over a period of many years good fruit coming forth in the lives of God's people through his word, not through my grace, through his grace. But I was kind of blown away by what so many of you posted there and your gracious words.
So thank you. Thank you for letting us know that we're making a difference.
So why did I write this open letter to Katie Perry? You can read it on our website, askdrbrown.org. Why did I write it? Why do I write any of these open letters?
Well, I write them first because I'm burdened to do so. It's on my heart to do so. It's on my mind to do so. And I write an open letter because I don't have direct access to the person.
Now, I did meet a couple of years back some folks that were close to Katy Perry, but I don't presume on having a relationship with them. And I'm there to serve them and be a blessing to them, not to use them as a conduit to her. But I did send the article to one of them and said, hey, maybe you can get this to her. But in my thinking, when I write an open letter, I have a burden to do it, and I have no direct access to that person. If I have access to them, Let's say, for example, we're friends.
And you say something that I feel was very, very wrong from the pulpit.
Someone sends me a clip and says, Hey, look at this. Do you know this guy? You know Billy, Pastor Billy? Listen to what he said. and they send me a clip and it's actually you and I thought, what in the world?
That's way off.
Well, what am I going to do? Write an open letter to you? Get on the radio and talk about it. No, I'm going to call you. I'm going to email you and say, hey, Billy, could we talk?
And then. Discussion. What happened? And hopefully I can help you with that error. But if I don't have access to the person and their life is public.
Then if I feel burdened, I will write an open letter to them.
Now Do I think it's going to get to them? I always pray and hope that it will. And I know in some cases it has, and it's led to constructive dialogue afterwards. And in some cases, it has, and it's led to the door being shut in my face because they didn't want constructive dialogue. That's okay either way.
I'm simply seeking to be obedient to the Lord. but not only do I want to reach the person. I want to educate the reader. A few weeks back when I felt led to write this open letter to Miley Cyrus, I also wrote it knowing that some of her followers would read it. I also knew it, wrote it.
Knowing that there would be Christian parents, and these parents know that their kids are really into Miley Cyrus, and they would say, hey, why don't you read this?
So I wrote it for their benefit as well. In the case of the open letter to Katy Perry, I also wrote it for all of us to stop and reflect. And of course I seek to set a model with what I write and how I do it or how we interact on radio with people so that it's a good constructive model so that you can follow that example and hopefully speak grace and truth and love in a forthright way all together. Speaking the truth without compromise, walking in love without compromise.
So there's also a reason for it, but there's a reminder in this open letter, and it's for everybody. that riches and fame don't bring you happiness. Riches and fame Don't put bring you happiness. Contentment comes primarily from within more than it comes from without. Let me ask you a question.
Where do you think there are more divorces? Where do you think there are more psychiatric appointments needed? Where do you think there are more drugs being taken to get through the day. in the Hollywood celebrity elite. making more money than most of us could even relate to?
Or And say um Happily married. lower middle class Christian home. I think the answer is self-evident. It doesn't mean that believers don't have problems. It doesn't mean that you're sinning if you've had to see a psychologist or psychiatrist.
That doesn't mean that you're evil if your kids are struggling. No, no, no, not at all, not at all, not at all. But if you look at, say, the book of Proverbs. you'll see that there are principles of life. principles that we live by.
And if you live by these... Over time. you will see that God's ways are ways of life. you will see that God's ways bring much lasting fruit. You will see that over a period of time, one thing tends to long life, the other thing tends to short life.
Life. Does that make sense? 866-34-TRUTH.
So someone sent me a link to an article that Katy Perry had. Done like a live session with her therapist, and in it. I saw this quote from her. I so badly want to be Catherine Hudson. That I don't even want to look like Katy Perry anymore.
And sometimes, and like that's a little bit of why I cut my hair because I really want to be my authentic. Self.
Now, I know people are praying for her. I know she was raised in the Lord, raised in the faith. And I felt led to reach out with this open letter.
So, if you haven't read it, read it. I think you'll be edified. She wrote a song called The Grace of God, saying that. She feels that's the only way she's made it this far. And I haven't followed her career.
I'm not familiar with the song. But others said, yeah, it's got a strong message, or you could tell she's crying out in the midst of it. Either way, God knows her heart. But I said it, you know, in the midst of your struggles. You're sending an important message to all your fans that riches and fame, popularity, all the riches, fame, popularity in the world, can't buy you true happiness or any contentment.
And I want to say that to all of you that are thinking, if I could just get this raise, if I could just get this job, if I could just get in this house. If I could just have this, if I could just have this possession, if more people knew my name, or whatever the thing is. Those outward things do play a role in our lives. In other words, if you are constantly in serious debt, Let's say you had a medical crisis and you've lost everything and you're in constant debt. Yeah, that weighs on you.
I understand that. And God's provision can be a lifeline. And you might just be going through a situation where all your friends have rejected you, and you're really on the outside, and you're in emotional pain. I understand that. I am saying overall.
that true peace And true joy does not come from outward possessions. It does not come from the affirmation of others. It ultimately comes from being in right relationship with God. as I wrote to her to go to sleep at night without sleeping pills? being at peace with God and yourself.
to get up in the morning full of excitement for the new day, to live with a sense of joyful purpose no amount of money in the world can buy those things.
So I I quoted some scriptures to Katy Perry. Proverbs 15, 16. Better is a little. With the fear of the Lord, than great treasure. And trouble with it.
And better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife These verses, Proverbs 15, 16, Proverbs 17, 1, probably make more sense when you have everything you can imagine and think, man, we used to be happier when we had very little. We used to be happy when we'd sit down and have a meal together. I remember one of my friends, oh, This is... Late 70s, early 80s. He Ended up.
taking all kinds of overtime on his job. Because he could make an incredible amount of money. And he thought this would be an awesome thing to do for his family.
So he took all this overtime. and work so much. that he missed out on a tremendous amount of time that he'd normally have with his wife and kids.
So as to make it up. They would go out and do special things all the time and go to restaurants extra and do extracurricular things that cost extra money. And at the end of the year, he realized that he worked all those extra hours. but then spent his extra money to make up for the time he didn't have with his family, and they used to have better quality time before.
So he realized, okay, so much for that mentality.
Now, I read that Johnny Depp. Famous actor Johnny Depp has a full-time staff of 40. 40 people. It costs him $300,000 per month. This is what I read.
And that he spends $30,000 on wine every month.
Now, if that's true, that's a lot of money.
Some of you don't make $30,000 in a year.
Okay, very few of us make $300,000 in a year, let alone in a month.
Alright? Hey. I certainly don't make anywhere near that. Probably you're saying, yeah, same here. Count me in.
All right. But by the way, it's not a virtue to make less. I'm just making a point. It's hard to relate to that kind of money, spending that kind of money. And you must have people every day so you're amazed and your acting is amazing.
But I bet he'd be the first to tell you he's got more inner turmoil than inner peace.
So read this letter, pray that it'll get to Katie Perry, and pray above all that God will touch her. We'll be right back. Game to the world It's fire we want for fire we want. 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 so much for joining us. On the line of fire, broadcast 866-348-7884.
Yesterday, Later in the afternoon after my radio show, I did a one-hour interview. On another radio broadcast, and it was about the book Nancy and I wrote, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. And I was telling Nancy on the way home, talking on the phone, I said, I can really sell that book, meaning I just have to talk about the life transformation. I just have to talk about how incredible it is to be in the body I'm in now, healthy, thriving, my right weight just amazing. Energy level, immune system, just the strength to travel and run the race I run.
And I was working on a major project for Jewish outreach, working on this project. I got an email from the gentleman involved with it and he said, can you be finished by tomorrow? I thought. No way, man. I'm planning on getting this finished by the end of the week, and that's going to be a push.
I said, I'll give it my best shot, which meant, you know, many hours put in last night. And he wrote back and said, Hey, thank God you're healthy and vibrant and eating healthily. And you could, it's true. I mean, that just gives me the energy to keep going and even more mental sharpness.
So, if you don't have our book yet, this week when you get it from our website, you'll also get with it a DVD where I preach a message to a great congregation in St. Louis, preach a message about my own story and keys that I've learned along the way. It's the first time I actually preached a whole message on that, on the theme of the book.
So, by all means, go to askdrbrown.org and take advantage of that special offer. Even get it for a friend of yours or family member that could really use some help. 866-348-7884. One last word about. the Katy Perry open letter.
And This, I want to apply to each of us. It's just a slight switch, a slight switch. And yes, I preach the gospel to her clearly. And urge her to surrender her life at the foot of the cross and receive God's gracious gift of new life in Jesus. But.
For many of us, as believers We know. That true peace true satisfaction. is found in our relationship in the Lord. We know that. But when it comes to getting ahead with our calling, with the things God has for us.
we forget the same principle. namely, that God is the one who opens doors and closes doors. That God is the one who causes things to fall into place before us. It doesn't mean we don't work hard. It doesn't mean we don't try hard.
It doesn't mean. We don't knock on the doors that we have available in front of us. But what it does mean is that first and foremost we seek God, What do I mean? I mean this. You are You believe God's called you to do a certain thing.
And it seems people aren't recognizing your calling. And others get picked before you get picked. And others with less ability get asked to do things that you have more ability to do. And it's frustrating.
So what do you do?
Well, the natural thing to do is try harder and push harder and try to show that you're better qualified or look for new open doors. But have you sought God first? Have you put him first? And and said Father, I just want to please you, and then seek to know him better and walk with him more closely. I'm telling you, if you do...
God will supernaturally promote you as He sees fit. He'll open a door that no one else can open. And maybe he'll take you from the back of the line. to the front of the line, whereas with your best efforts, maybe you would have gotten two or three up from the back of the line. He knows how to do that.
And he also may have to deal with pride or ambition, fleshly ambition or other things in your life that get in the way. And then, as you seek him and put your dependence on him, and he molds and shapes your character, now when he does promote you, you will be more ready. The promotion.
So just have that on my heart. I hope that is useful advice for you. 866366666666666 348. Seven eight eight four. Let me grab some Okay, I've got a bunch of questions for one gentleman.
I'll try to answer a couple of them quickly. Arthur, thanks for all your questions.
Okay, number one, St. Thomas Christians, as they're called, Kerala, India, would trace their spiritual lineage back to St. Thomas, whom, according to tradition, was martyred in India. I met a few in the States, but that's it. I had no...
interaction of any depth. I may have met some in India, but no interaction of any depth to make a spiritual comment on that. As for the so-called Assyrian Christians, they're not Okay. They they Could be descendants of the ancient Assyrian people Ancient Babylon and Assyria is basically Iraq today, but there's been a lot of displacement of peoples and people groups over the centuries. Different ones have come in and dominated regions and things like that.
But let's just say. That they have continued physically and are descended from the ancient. Excuse me, Assyrio-Babylonian empires, which go back a couple thousand years plus before the time of Jesus. Let's just say that they go back that far. And they came to faith in the early centuries of the birth of the church.
So they are Christians there with an ancient history. They would refer to themselves as Assyrian and say they use the Assyrian language in their liturgy, but it's really Syriac, not Assyrian. That's just the way it's referred to. It's an ancient Aramaic language or Aramaic dialect, and fairly close to the language that Jesus Yeshua would have spoken.
So when they would refer to themselves as Assyrian, they would potentially be physical descendants of the ancient Assyrians that lived in what is now Iraq. And they would speak Arabic as a first language, but they would also use Syriac, which is a form of Aramaic, in their liturgy. And that relates, it's not exactly the same, but it relates closely to the. Spoken language, Yeshua would have used, Jesus would have used in his home. As for the question about the caste system in India, it's terrible, it's horrific.
It's not quite as pervasive as it was in the past. And initially, it was just different classes of workers and things like that.
So you'll have the caste. It came out of different jobs and things like that in terms of some of the specific names. where they come from, but ultimately it's part of Hinduism, and it's one of the most destructive aspects of Hinduism. And it can be crippling because this is your fate in this life. That's the mentality.
This is your fate in this life, and you are therefore trapped and locked into that.
So, the best thing to do. is to endure that suffering well with the hope of a better reincarnation. And then the wealthy rich somehow have that right to be so and the wealthy and and the indigent poor, that's their destiny. My friend Yesu Pottam grew up in the caste system, and that's what turned him to communism and atheism. Thankfully, Jesus saved him when he's in his early 20s.
But if you want to know how miserable and degrading and demeaning the caste system could be, just listen to his testimony. Go to thelineoffire.org. Thelineoffire.org. Type in Yesu Pottam, Y-E-S-U-P-A-D-A-M, and you can listen to his story with me. We'll be right back.
It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRU. Here again is Dr.
Michael Brown. In the second hour today, I'll be joined by my friend John Zmirak from thestream.org. We'll talk about the court's ruling on the travel ban. uh uh reversing most of the travel ban restrictions uh restrictions against the president's travel ban that lower courts had had uh Put out there. Interestingly, Interestingly.
The dissenting votes The votes that said, or the views that differed with the majority opinion, said the whole thing, all. Opposition to the president's ban should be removed.
So all of them agreed. That the restrictions needed to be removed in part or in full, but some said only in full. You know, this just caught my attention now, but I'm sitting here looking at my screen. on my computer as I always do during the broadcast looking to see what calls are coming in and perhaps pulling up different articles that we're going to talk about and things like that. But I'm just looking at my YouTube channel for some recent comments on some videos.
And there is there it is, YouTube. Dylan, just get a copy of this on our see if it comes up when you go to our YouTube channel. That's YouTube, and there's the gay pride flag. Has it been there all month and I'm just noticing it now? All right.
I think I would have noticed it. But there it is, just celebrating gay pride so ev even on my YouTube channel. Of course, I don't own the channel, but you know what I'm saying. What do you know? And it is conspicuous, yes, it is conspicuous that President Trump did not.
Call this. Gay Pride Month. 866-34Truth. All right, before I go back to some of your social media questions and some other news items, let's go to the phones. We'll start in Washington, D.C.
Brother Joe. How you doing? Just game. Michael Brown. Um I have a question.
Um, I was talking to a Christian friend of mine and we were You know, we're talking, and he told me he felt like a reprobate, and I felt so bad, and I said, I don't know what to say. And he said that. He's having a problem that when he sends, he doesn't feel bad about the sent per se, per se. but that he knows that what he's doing is a sin, so that that bothers him, but not the sin itself. And I was wondering, do Christians do that?
Or is that a something that only a false convert would deal with them. Oh, no, no. There are Christians that feel the same way. There are Christians that are just not walking in class. close enough intimacy with the Lord.
And uh because of that they uh They're more concerned with how they feel or how something affects them than with the nature of sin against God. All of this is cured, Joe. by getting closer to him. and spending more time with him. Uh it's it's just the reality of human nature.
And in point of fact When you spend more time in his presence. More time in his word, more time in prayer, more time in worship, then you begin to get his heart. I'm sure you've experienced that too. The things that are important to him become important to you. That when you're walking at a greater distance, you're going to be more selfish.
How does this affect my life? What's good and bad for me? When you're closer to him, you'll now be struck with how does this affect the Lord? How does this affect my relationship with God? How does he feel about this?
So, what your friend really needs to do. is spend time pressing into the Lord. Spend time reading the word, not just going through chapters, but asking God to speak to you and through the word. Spend time in worship. And as he does.
he will become more acutely aware of God's heart. He will become more acutely aware of the things that matter to the Lord, and because he'll love the Lord more. then it will burden him and hurt him. If he feels he's hurt. The Lord.
The person that's totally distant from their spouse, they're playing around with an adulterous relationship and trying to think if they're going to get caught or not. The person that has renewed love for their spouse will be absolutely heart sick that they even entertain the possibility of adultery.
So, may your friend have a fresh encounter with the Lord. Thank you, sir. for your question.
Now he may be a false convert, but that doesn't mean that he is just because of this. 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. We are weaving your phone calls into the broadcast today, 866-348-7884. Before I go to a caller in Hawaii, we were on the air for about three years in a Great Salem station in Hawaii, but we're unable to continue to broadcast there.
However, if you live in Hawaii, you don't need to miss a split second of the broadcast. And rather than just getting part of it, which used to be broadcast to Hawaii, you can get every minute of it.
So here's what you do. And by the way, you don't have to live in Hawaii to do this anywhere in the world. Take a minute to download the Line of Fire app. Truly, it's an amazingly useful functional app that you will really enjoy having so get it for your iphone for your android phone just search in the app store or the play store for the line of fire with dr michael brown all right if you have it tell your friends tell five ten friends post it on social media tell them to get it if it's been a blessing to you share that blessing with others it's free of course and when you download it you can listen live while the show is live two hours every day 2 to 4 p.m monday to friday eastern standard time you can listen live right on your cell phone and you'll have a crystal clear signal so if you're out of radio range or another part of the country or the world you can listen easily you want to catch yesterday's show the week before you missed one right there on your phone click of a button clear as day i'll be sitting in the car with you as you drive or jogging alongside of you as you run at night i'll be right there okay then you can also connect to our website or link to us on facebook YouTube or Twitter. And if you want to stand with us and support us, if you want to call on the show, all right there on the app.
So download it today, The Line of Fire with Dr. Michael Brown. Get it from the App Store and be blessed. All right. Having said that, we go to Hawaii.
Derek, welcome to The Line of Fire. Hi. Aloha, Doctor Brown. Hey, by the way, the um That's actually what I'm working off of: is the line of fire app right now, and it works really great. I encourage everybody to get it.
Great. Yeah, I had a question, and I know this is your fourth day. Um The scripture tells us that, um, you know, in the end, uh, all Israel will be saved to the glory of God. Uh my question is If in the end all Israel will be saved, what is our incentive to preach the gospel to them?
Now. Yes, sir. The very best A case Scenario. that we can look forward to. is that at the end of the age there will be a turning of the Jewish people who are here on the earth.
In other words, that the final generation of Jewish people And God only knows how much shaking there'll be on the earth and war and calamity, whatever the future holds, God knows. But it looks like a time of suffering over the whole earth as God moves mightily in the midst of it as we get closer and closer to the end. But what we believe is that there will be a turning of that final generation. Number one, it doesn't mean every single Jew, but it does mean a national turning of that final generation.
So even if that is true, even if that's a correct interpretation of the verse, Romans 11:26, which I believe it is, and other verses would support that as well, Derek. The fact is, every Jew who lives and dies before then. It needs to hear the gospel like everybody else. In other words, this is not retroactive that every Jew who lived in history will miraculously be saved. Otherwise, then, yeah, of course, why preach?
Why share the gospel? If you know that every single group somewhere is going to be saved, then why go preach the gospel? If you knew, for example, that one day God was going to save everyone in Isis, that after they all died, he was going to resurrect them and share the gospel with them and they'd all be saved, then why risk your life bringing the gospel to them? Or if you knew that every Catholic or every Hindu or every Protestant or every whoever was going to be saved, then you don't share the gospel.
So the fact is Paul's heart was broken in Romans 9, even though he knew that his people still had the covenantal promises, his heart was broken because they were cut off from the Messiah.
So the national promises remain in terms of God still deals with the people of Israel as chosen people. But we are under judgment like everyone else outside of the Messiah. Salvation only comes through the blood of the Messiah. We're not good enough to get forgiveness for ourselves without God's mercy. And.
On the day we stand before him, we can't claim, well, I'm a Jew, I have a special privilege. No, that won't work.
So we bring the gospel of fact not just to the Jewish people, but to the Jewish people first. That's Paul's mandate as he writes to the Romans in Romans 1.16 to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. And then we continue to pray for Israel's salvation, praying for more and more Jewish people to be saved. And we long for the day when that final turning will come. But again, that doesn't have any effect on all the Jewish people who have died up until this point.
and all the Jewish people who will live and die before that time. And then even then, we don't know what that final number will be, just that there will be a national turning by God's grace.
So with a sense of urgency and burden, we share the gospel with Jewish people, knowing that they need the Savior just as much as everybody else. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you, Doctor. You are very welcome.
And by the way, I've heard that question from others. Derek's not the first to ask that, which means that others also have that impression.
So just look at it like this. It's not automatic for anybody. It's not automatic for anybody. I'm going to give you the most ridiculously trivial illustration, but... It's the one that came to mind.
Uh I am not good with video games. There was a time in the late 70s and early 80s when they were first coming out that I really got into them and I was pretty good at them. And because I got into them so intensely and wasted so many hours with them that when God really brought revival into my heart and into my soul, when He did that, I just. Put the games aside and played here and there very little for fun with family or over the years.
So I. you know, whatever the the sports games are and things like that, the the males in my side of the family, my sons-in-law and grandsons, are are much better at the games than I am.
So one time, years ago, vacation, I'm playing my son in law Jimmy. And we're playing whatever the Madden game is, and he's like 10 times better than me. But I. I'm winning the game somehow. I'm somehow winning the game, and all I have to do to to seal the game with the time left is just make a pretty simple kick.
But because I'm so bad at the game, even though I was winning, it was hit or miss, and I missed. And he comes back with this amazing short-time comeback and beats me. And as he said, that's why they play the game. In other words, you may be the big favorite, right, and you still lose when the game comes.
Okay, I know. That's a ridiculously trivial illustration, but it'll stay with you. That's why they play the game. In other words, it's not automatic. It's not guaranteed, well this one's going to be saved, that one's going to be saved, therefore I don't need to do anything.
God is the Savior. God is the one who knows those who are his.
So What we do is we look to him, we lean on him, and we do our part. We do what we know how to do. I'm not a Calvinist. Calvinists believe that God has predestined those who are going to be saved before the foundation of the world, and that it's fixed and certain, and it's going to happen and surely God is God. That's what they believe.
But a consistent Calvinist believes. that it is his or her job to bring the gospel to everyone they have opportunity to, because only God knows those who will be saved.
So you cast the life-giving message out to everyone. and pray for God to open their hearts and minds and leave the saving To him.
So, in practical effect, I'm still gonna reach out to everyone, and the Calvinists should still reach out to everyone. I mean, everyone we have opportunity or feel led to bring the gospel to, knowing that God is the Savior and that God ultimately knows the ones who are gonna be saved.
So, even if you had a theology, That said, well, it's fixed. Who's going to be safe according to your own understanding? You don't know who those people are going to be, and therefore God calls you to go preach to everyone. and therefore you do it in obedience to him.
So in particular with the Jewish people, we know right now that the vast majority of Jewish people around the world are not believers, not believers in Jesus Yeshua, the Messiah. Maybe, maybe 2%. Of the Jewish people worldwide are believers. Maybe it's that high?
Some would put it a little higher, most would put it. lower, but let's say it is. That's still a tiny remnant.
So by all means we should ask God for His heart, that He would share His heart with us for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 866-348-7884. Oh, let me just Look down here. Uh Harold. Hey brother, do we have any idea what the temple of Nisrach, where Sennikerib was killed, looked like?
Sennikerib being killed. There's some ambiguity in terms of what exactly happened where. In terms of the sources, but if you just want to look at ancient temples of Assyria. in terms of okay what what actually do we do we know uh And and um There are certain things that have been unearthed and certain that haven't, and that's that is. Really, really easy to just search for.
Say, okay, what information do we have? Just get online and type in, say Nisroch, the name of a Syrian deity, all right. And see, okay. And yeah, so most traditions would say he was worshiping there when assassinated by his sons. Do we have that exact location?
Easy to check. 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, 866-348-7884. I just want to clarify something. When I mentioned, responded to a question about the assassination of King Sennacherib, yes, scripture, 2 Kings, the 19th chapter, for example, tells us in verse 37 that he was assassinated, Sennacherib was assassinated, while worshiping in the temple of his God Nisroch. In ancient Babylonian Assyrian sources, there's a bit more ambiguity in terms of what exactly took place or where.
So, hence my initial answer. But yes, scripture does reference that explicitly. But you can... You can get online these days, and just so you type in Nisroch, right? N-I-S-R-O-C-H and then you can you find just a little bit about it.
And you could so let's say let's say you type it in, all right, and you look for images. And, all right, is apparently what the God looked like? You know, you've got different images there. You say, well, how do I separate truth from fiction?
Sometimes there are more. There are websites that are more reliable than others. But if you're not sure, see how well the thing is documented. See what they refer you to. Do they refer you to the works of other scholars?
Do they refer you to standard reference works? For me, having spent years doing research in biblical languages and literature and earning my PhD in a secular university, You get a feel for good sources versus bad sources, right? Just like anything else. Whatever your field is. Maybe you're in the medical field.
And I'll say, how about this website? You go, no, that's quack.
Well that's your field, but you can put it. I said, could you check this out within a few seconds if that's your field? You can only say this is reliable, this isn't. You know, for example, right before the show today, a friend of mine Asked me to check out somebody's Hebrew, the person supposedly an expert, and to check out their Hebrew online.
So I listened to them reading some verses, and on the one hand, they could read Hebrew, that's nice, but they were getting some of the vowels wrong, they were getting some of the accents wrong, so their knowledge of Hebrew cannot be that significant. Then I could tell instantly. They may have a lot of other good information, but that's easy enough to tell.
So what you want to do is do your best to educate yourself in this way. And what you always want to look for is what's called primary sources. versus secondary sources. What's the difference?
Okay. If you're studying the Bible, Your primary source is the Bible. Your secondary source is what people say about the Bible. Commentaries on the Bible, articles on the Bible, books on the Bible. Those are secondary sources.
That is someone else talking to you about the primary source.
So let's say you're studying Islam.
Well You can read what people say about the Quran, that's secondary. You can read the Quran itself. That's primary. You're reading ancient Greek or Latin literature. you're reading Homer or something like that, you know, one of the classics.
So the primary source would be Homer. If you could read it in its original language, that would be the best, right? If you could read it in Greek. But if you can't, then you read it in an English translation. And then, so again, primary sources, whenever you can be directed to primary sources, that's all better than...
Secondary.
sources. Secondary sources are valuable because there may be a top scholar involved with it. You also, but first and foremost, show it to me in the original. That's where you want to start. And that way you can avoid being misled.
Also, Avoid things that tell you that for the first time something is being revealed or discovered. For the first time, this insight in Scripture is being revealed.
Well, since the Bible. has been studied more carefully. than any book in world history. By more people. putting more hours into it.
And more scholarship in the original languages, and archaeology, and text, and everything else you can imagine, and theology, and interpretation, and on and on and on. that it's highly unlikely that someone has just discovered something that nobody else has known. No, either it's bogus. It's completely bogus. And that's why no one else has ever known it.
It's made up and bogus. Or Another possibility is It's been rejected. It's a fringe view. and it's been rejected. I remember a few years ago people said, look, look, Luke 10, 19, Jesus said, I saw lightning fall from heaven.
And that would be the way, check that out. And if you look at it in Aramaic, originally it would have been Barak, that's lightning, o bama, and that's Barak Obama, lightning falling from heaven. Mm-hmm. First, we can debate whether Barak comes from the Arabic root for bless, in which case it has a different final consonant, or whether it comes from the name of Muhammad's horse, Barak. One you would transliterate with a Q, one with a K, but they'd be two different words.
If it is the former, if it's from bless, it has nothing to do with the Hebrew word for lightning. That's the first thing. The second thing is Second thing. The idea that it was Barack Ooh Bama or Bama and that man heaven. No, at most Bama is a high place like a shrine on a mountain or something like that.
Thus, it has nothing to do with heaven, nothing to do with the sky. Or but even even if it did, the idea that Jesus is secretly saying something in Aramaic that years later is going to point to President Barack Obama because he's associated with the devil, that's crazy, that's idiotic, that's stupid, that's madness. Ugh. And that he would have said it saying, lightning and high place. And that somehow comes into our translations as lightning falling from heaven.
Come on. But but I mean I saw people talk about that videos out. And there was a website, I knew some of the people on it, it was a big website, and they published this. And I wrote to them, I said, please pull this, pull this article, trust me on it, pull it, it's nonsense. And they did.
But that trust me that kind of stuff will get a lot more views on internet than my explaining why it's bogus. That kind of stuff will get a lot more people saying, wow, amazing. But it is so contrary, not just to. biblical logic but the common sense and the words don't work and the oh boy oh boy So, do your best not to just get caught up in the latest amazings that nobody else knows this.
Well, here's a secret. The reason nobody knows it is because it's not true. Oh yeah. And let me tell you something else. Bible translators are not suppressing secret knowledge and keeping it from you.
See, there's this conspiracy of all Bible translators around the world, and they're keeping this information from you because they want to control you and keep your money. That is one 100% focus. lies, nonsense. Forget about it. Yeah, boy.
But you get people are going to believe that what can you do pity them Pity them is about it and hope they don't influence too many others. All right, friends, don't forget to visit my website, askdrbrown.org. We've got a bunch of new videos and articles up in the digital library, so check them out, including most recently my open letter to Katie Perry and some controversial videos all posted there for you. Take advantage of this week's special offer. Our book, Nance, I Wrote Together, Change Your Life: Breaking the Stronghold of Food, together with an important message where I share my story live on video.
Well, I'm going to share with you why I wrote an open letter to Katy Perry. A lot more to cover. More on the travel ban and the courts and your calls today. 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 this is sweet. From Mary Ann, just spotted this review on Amazon a moment ago to our book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. Powerful book. May 29th this year I started eating right while I was reading the book. Lost 11 pounds so far, so that's less than a month.
doctor Brown, along with his wife, were both heavy changed my life. Mary Ann says I drank soda for sixty four years and sweets all that time. I'm 5'7.5. I started 191 pounds. I'll be forever grateful.
Come on, Marianne. Stay with it, and you will never be the same. You will be as blessed as I have been, as Nancy has been. All right, welcome. Welcome to the line of fire.
Here's the number to call 866-348-7884. 866-34TRUTH. Anything in the world you want to talk to me about, I am opening the phone wide to your questions to give you extra opportunity. We've got some extra interviews going on this week. I had a terrific interview with Tony Coster from Canada yesterday.
If you missed it, just go to thelineoffire.org to listen. To yesterday's show. If you have your line of fire app, you can just click and listen on it there. But because of extra interviews and things, I want to open up the phones to give you extra time to call in with any question of any kind you have, or if you have a difference with me you'd like to share or probe with me, 866-348-7884. I said something that you might find very surprising.
in my open letter to Katy Perry. I said to her that When I'll see some headline or article, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio's latest girlfriend. And they'll have some picture of the two of them, you know. walk into some restaurant or whatever the thing is. I'll read the whole thing, but I'll see the picture.
and some stunning model and she replaced the last stunning model or here he's got like 10 ladies out with him and whatever. probably around more beautiful women than most of us have ever seen in an entire lifetime. And I read that as a man and I think, poor guy Poor guy He said, poor guy. Why'd you say that? He's he's got access to more beautiful women than than The vast, vast, you know, 99.999% of all the men on the planet.
And he could be in a relationship with almost any one of them. be with almost any one of them whenever you wanted to. And and Well, I feel sorry for him. Yeah, I feel s I feel sorry for him. If if he only knew the joy that you have, sir.
in your great relationship with your wife of fifteen years. Uh maybe you don't have the looks and the money of Leonardo DiCaprio. And maybe your wife's had three kids and she's not going to be. Wearing a bikini on the beach. But you love each other?
And you are satisfied with each other? And you've got an amazing family you're raising. and the joy of a long term stable relationship, You're ex experiencing something worth far more than all of his riches and fame. I don't mean he's evil to have riches and fame. That's not my point.
But that stuff is just going to leave you with nothing. And And in my book, Saving a Sick America, which is due out in September, I made reference to the fact that many years ago I had seen. a survey that was done. where women, large number of women for major women's magazine were surveyed. and asked about their sex lives and their satisfaction in them.
and the results were quite shocking. Those who were married in a solid long-term relationship. were much more satisfied sexually and emotionally than the women having all kinds of one-night stands and flings and sleeping around and doing their thing. A colleague of mine who wrote an endorsement for the book from Family Research Council shot me a note and said, Mike, here are a bunch of surveys that verify that. Recent government studies.
quite amazing. 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.
So what's new? What's new on the digital library? Let's see. New video where I interact with feminine activist and Muslim apologist Linda Sarsour. The source of picks a battle with the Bible.
My open letter to Katie Perry. A radio conversation from a couple weeks back. How do we approach the shack? Yeah, some people weren't happy with my answer. My interview with Brigitte Gabriel from this week, Fighting Sharia Law in America.
My letter with advice for President Trump. Oh, yeah, I'm just here I am helping President Trump, helping Katie Perry. Yeah, just getting it out. Article I wrote the instant I talked about this a lot. Our Lost God's Pain video on do Jews have a divine right to the promised land, debate between Robert Spencer and James White on what constitutes authentic Islam and on and on, all tons more on the digital library.
It's just right there for you. All these resources, free. We're putting them out for you. It'll be late at night, and I'm tired thinking, now I got to get this article out, and I want to be a blessing. And I do it with joy, with joy.
So let this be a blessing to you. Go to askdrbrown.org, and you'll find this all in the digital. Library, just click to look at everything that's there. Share it with others, share it on Facebook, Twitter, get the word out so we can share together. One other thing before I get to some of your questions, in the second half hour of this hour, I'm going to speak with my friend and colleague John Zmirak from the stream.
And we'll talk about the Supreme Court ruling yesterday, the significance of it. In terms or the last few days with the travel ban, most of the restrictions being rescinded, and why that is so important. See what else is on John's mind.
So that's coming your way. Always fascinating to talk to my friend John Zmirak as we write together regularly on stream.org.
Okay, let me get to some Twitter questions. Scroll down here and see.
Okay, answered that. Gabriel. Gabriel, hope you're still there. Dr. Brown, can you please give your opinion on Molinism?
Thank you.
Okay. I am not an expert. on the subject. Because I have not gotten into philosophical responses to theological issues as much. William Lane Craig holds to this, which would be a so-called middle knowledge.
James White strongly opposes it.
So if you want to get the opposing positions, I think that you'll find articulate spokesmen for and against in Dr. William Lane Craig and Dr. James White.
So if you type in their names, William Lane Craig and James White. and then type in Molinism, you'll you'll be able to hear or read what they both have to say about this. The only comment I would make is this. That I'm told by Calvinists that I cannot consistently hold to what I hold to. and say that God foreknows everything.
And yet there is freedom of choice.
Now obviously you can't save yourself. You need God's salvation to be saved. But within the parameters of choices that we make, there is freedom.
Well, if God has not decreed everything in advance and set everything in motion, to get a desired outcome, how could God foreknow everything?
So the argument is that if you hold to foreknowledge, you can't hold to free will. If you hold to free will, then you have to believe that the future is not yet fully determined, which is what open theists hold to, like Dr. Greg Boyd. And I strongly differ with that view of open theism.
So, how can it be both?
Now, interestingly, in the Mishnah, the earliest Jewish compilation of law, which comes. is put together a couple hundred years after the time of Jesus. but many of the traditions date back to his day and even earlier. The formation or formulation in the Mishnah in this Jewish document is That Uh it in Hebrew it says this, Haqalt Saphui. Everything is foreknown.
Veh uh Rushut Ni Tuna. But free will is given. It sets those two things side by side and seeming contradiction. That's what I hold to. and I hold to it based on Isaiah fifty seven fifteen.
Isaiah fifty seven fifteen says That God inhabits eternity in Hebrew Shochain Od. He inhabits eternity. I understand that to mean that time Like everything else was created. The time did not exist until God created time. God exists.
outside of time, above time, beyond time, while he works within time.
So he can see the final outcome before it happens. In other words, it would be like this, okay? It would be like this. Let's say you miss a football game. The football game is being played, alright?
And Play to the end. And now it's over, but you you you lined it up to be recorded on your video system at home. You come home later that day. and you watch the game for the first time. and everything is fixed, right?
The results are already fixed, but you're watching it for the first time. And do you influence the outcome? No. It's fixed. Can you change the outcome?
No. But is based on the choices that the football players made and what they did well and what they didn't do well. All right? You say, well, God doesn't need to look at the video. He knows everything in advance.
Ah, that's the point. He can see the game. After it was completed, As if It just happened in front of his eyes. He can look back at something that hasn't happened yet because he inhabits eternity. That's how I understand it.
Therefore, he can give you freedom of choice. You can make your choice, but he knows in advance what that choice will be, and he knows the final outcome.
So he can tell in advance what the final outcome will be. He can announce it in advance, but he doesn't announce it all in advance, lest he influence choices and things like that. All right? So he. does not need what would be called middle knowledge, in my view and understanding.
And he does not need to fix everything in advance. To me, it's an inconsistency that people can't recognize this biblical principle. of God existing above and beyond time. Therefore, he can see what you have already done tomorrow, even though you haven't done it yet. and therefore the outcome is fixed in his sight.
But it is fixed based on the choice you you make. to the extent that he lets you make that choice.
So that's my take. It doesn't directly interact with Mullenism. It explains why I don't look to that as an explanation to reconcile these areas of foreknowledge and Free will. 866-348-7884. Uh okay, event.
Dr. Brown, a two-fold question. What or who were the giants in the Tanach? All right, so Genesis the sixth chapter. We've talked about that quite a few times on the air.
So I would just encourage you to go to askdrbrown.org and type in Nifilim, N-E-P-H-I-L-I-M, as best as I understand it. They are the offspring of The fallen angels that were able to take on human form and procreated with women. And this was their offspring that produced giants. Most were destroyed at the flood, but this also apparently happened after the flood, if we read Genesis 6 correctly, which is why you'll see the descendants of the Niphileim, these other giants, Anachim or Riphaim, in the scriptures. But from what we can tell, they were wiped out and ceased to exist many, many centuries ago.
Regarding Genesis 1.28, how should we understand that in terms of environmentalism? Let me first say that the Bible has a healthy view of the earth, and the book of Revelation even speaks against those who destroy the earth, but it does not worship the earth. the earth. Everything in the earth has been given to us for God's glory and for our good.
So in Genesis 1.28, God blesses Adam, here speaking of man and woman together, humankind, and says to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that creeps on the earth.
So we are to rule over the earth. The earth has been given to us for our good and for God's glory, but we are to be good stewards of the earth, just like everything else that God has given us. And in keeping with Biblical principles of justice and compassion and kindness: that a righteous person is kind even to their animal, and that an animal would also rest on the Sabbath from work while the people were resting from work, right? If you're not working, your animal is not going to be working. We would understand that cruelty, wanton cruelty against animals, just to torture or kill or for our purposes, would be wrong.
But to the extent animals are given for us, whether it's to power field, whether it's to eat as meat, whether it's to use in some other ways, as long as we're good stewards, these things have been given to us.
So a healthy environmentalism is in keeping with scripture. The modern environmentalist movement tends to worship Mother Earth. God of light, hear our cry, send us 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, 866-348-7884. Before we switch over to some news items, taking your calls on different subjects and responding to questions on social media. Hey, I've got a question for you that leads in with the next question I'm going to answer on social media.
Have you appreciated the writings of A.W. Tozer? Have you found them to be of great spiritual depth? And and of a real penetrating insight. My problem reading Toesher is I want to underline every sentence.
It's like, yep, yep, yep, yep. That's it. Speaks to me. Powerful, convicting, life-giving. Do you know that he was charismatic?
Did you know that? He believed in speaking in tongues and divine healing. A.W. Toser. Hey, have you ever used the devotional by Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest?
I read a few years ago that it was still the best-selling devotional out there. what a hundred years after its publication or so and and based on compilations his wife put together of his teachings over the years he he died as a as a young man just in his forties but she had been taking notes of all of his lectures and then was able to put these together incredible incredible spiritual Penetration in Oswald Chambers. You know, he was part of the early Pentecostal movement. And the turn of the 20th century. Didn't know if you knew that.
Just uh Just thought you should know that.
So I've been asked this question by Brian on Twitter. I know you believe in healing, but not like F.F. Bosworth in his book, Christ the Healer. At what point did Bosworth err? He taught healings and atonement.
Just like God wanted to save all, he also wanted to heal all.
Now, why did I mention Tozer? because they had a close mentoring relationship, A.W. Tozer. and F.F. Bosworth.
Uh-huh. That's right. That's right. I agree with Bosworth and Christ the Healer. that healing was purchased for us in the atonement.
I believe that all of our redemption was purchased at the cross, right? including eternal life in the world to come, including our resurrection. It was all purchased at the cross.
Some say, I don't know if healing's in the atonement.
Well, is salvation in redemption? You think, well, how do you separate those concepts? Ah, the same way. The same way. I understand.
when Jesus Yeshua died on the cross. that he paid for all of our sins, And And for the result. of those sins meaning Physical death, spiritual death, Sickness, disease, Demonization, alienation, depression, fear, all the consequences of our sin. All the things that came into the world because of sin. You might be sick today, and it's not because of your personal sin, but if we were not in the fallen, sinful world, there wouldn't be sickness at all.
All right? So that's what I understand. That's what I lay out in academic detail in my book, Israel's Divine Healer. Just a warning. It is, I believe, the most comprehensive study of God the Healer in English or probably any language that's been done.
465 pages. Most of the text goes in the endnotes.
So it's a technical scholarly read, just as a warning to you. But if you're into that subject, then by all means, it's the book to get and get into what the Hebrew means and what the Greek means. And especially it focuses on the Old Testament revelation of God the healer. Israel's Divine Healer is the title that came out in 95.
So you'll see that I lay it out there as well. But we understand though. that we will not experience physical resurrection. We will not experience that until the Lord returns. Yet, that too was purchased in the atonement and is included.
in the atonement. Right? Wh where else do we get that from?
So everything has been purchased for us, but not everything is fully realized. in this world.
However,
