Tackling the Controversies with Redemption

A whole lot to talk about today. Plus, you've got questions. We've got answers. Let's do it. 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. You know, I have no desire to just rehash what's in the news and just talk about what's in the news and repeat what everybody's saying about the news. We always want to do our best to give you a kingdom perspective, by which I mean a kingdom of God, a God-centered perspective on what's happening, a biblical perspective on what's happening. And any insights that I have that I think would be helpful to you, we want to do.

So that's what we'll be doing on the broadcast today. This is Michael Brown. You're listening to the line of fire. To call this 866-34 Truth, 866-348-7. But I want to give you a heads up.

Tomorrow, I will not be taking calls on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. I will be doing a special extended teaching of the real Jewish Messiah according to the Hebrew scriptures. And then Friday, I will be answering your email questions. I will not be taking calls.

So, what we normally do on Friday, you've got questions, we've got answers. We are going to do today as well.

So, in the midst of news and other things I want to talk to you about happening in the world, we're going to open up the phone lines.

Now's a good time to call 866-348-7884. It can be as random as you like. In other words, it can be completely unrelated to the things I'm talking about. We will weave in calls at the appropriate time through the broadcast.

So. Phone lines open now. All right. The whole to backle with comedian Kathy Griffin. and holding up the the image of a beheaded The chopped-off head of our president, vulgar, vile, sick.

And to whatever extent she did it to get attention, well, she's gotten it, but obviously not the kind of attention that's going to be good for your career. And you get associated with an image like that. You do something that foolish, that ignorant, that ugly. You get associated with that image. Really for years to come.

in many ways for the rest of your life. And yes, she apologized.

Some say, well, it was a feigned apology. It wasn't a real apology.

Well, let's take it on face value and say she genuinely apologized and asked for forgiveness.

So you forgive. Right, so the purpose here is not to condemn. The purpose here is to look at larger issues, larger questions. Here's a big Big perspective to have, the larger perspective. There is some outrage in the mainstream media.

Others have been less outraged. I wonder if someone, some conservative comedian, Did the same thing with the head of Barack Obama, what the reaction would have been. If there would not have been a universal outrage from all the mainstream media and instant calling on this person to be banned for life or whatever, from, you know, and I mean, the reaction I think would have been. off the charts. And by the way, it should be.

It should be for Trump. It should be. For Obama. This is this is.

Something you don't do. But here's a bigger perspective question. I wonder How much The environment, the toxic environment created by the mainstream media plays into this. the constant hysteria The talk of politicians, you know, we've waited too long, we should have impeached him or impeached him for what? I don't care how critical you are of the President.

Impeached him for what? Please! Because you don't like his tweets? Because he's been accused of things? You're going to impeach him?

You kidding me? 'Cause you think he's a buffoon? 'Cause he pushed himself to the front of of a photo op and with G seven countries? Uh you're gonna impeach him? Come on.

the the fixation of some of the media w on Trump as if everything is a disaster and the whole you know next thing we're gonna be this is gonna be nuclear war all over the war and on and on and on and on. Mm-hmm. Come on. There is an environment that's been created so that Kathy Griffin went too far, but not that much further. She probably did what a lot of people wish they could do.

Jesus had the foolishness, not the guts, the foolishness to do it. What do you think? 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, 866-34TRUTH. That is the number to call in the midst of talking about some of the latest things happening in the news today, giving you a spiritual perspective and my own larger thoughts. We will take calls on a wide range of subjects.

Again, I will not be taking your calls tomorrow or Friday. We will have chock-full broadcasts, answering email questions on Friday and getting into in-depth. Search of the Hebrew scriptures tomorrow about the Messiah on Thurley Jewish Thursday, but won't be taking calls.

So today is a great day to call in once more: 866-34TRUTH, the number to call.

So I I have watched now. Say ESPN. Fire Kurt Schilling. He posted a picture on social media, and it was considered to be deeply offensive to transgenders. It was a very, very male man.

I mean, a real, evidently. male individual dressed as a woman and trying to look very much like a woman. Whether it was a mock picture or not, I don't know. But Kurt Schiller's like, you know, somebody like this is not going to come in in the ladies' room. And he gets fired for that.

Okay. And then you have an ESPN commentator. during a tennis match. And he makes a comment about Venus Williams, one of the greatest female players in tennis history, along with her sister Serena, who's even better. It makes a comment about her.

no racist history with him whatsoever. It was interpreted As being racist, he says n not what he meant at all, but he's out of a job. Over that. pretty quick reaction. Uh daily wire points out John Nolte writing that Uh it was what back in 2013 There was a rodeo clown.

Okay? Rodeo Clown in 2013, and during his rodeo performance. He wore the the uh a face, a mask of President Obama. And there was an incredible reaction. It's documented here with link after link after link for a week with CNN, what John Nolte calls its intent insanely intentional overreaction to a nobody rodeo clown.

Who, without a single racial connotation, wore an Obama mask during his act. It should also be noted that in the past, the same rodeo clown had worn a mask of Presidents Reagan and Bush. Nevertheless, until he was properly banished from society and lost all hope of future employment, CNN pushed and pushed and pushed the story, toxified this poor guy as an example, and never mocking the precious. And yet! There's a panel discussion.

I don't know the clip to pull up for you, but a panel discussion I looked at briefly. And One of the panelists on CNN says, I can't get outraged about this. You know, there are more important things to talk about than the Kathy Griffin stunt. Th the The double standard is glaring. But beyond that The media needs to step back.

and say we've helped to create this toxic environment. University professors need to step back and say we've helped create this toxic environment.

social media bloggers and others. Need to say we've helped create this toxic environment.

So she may have done something that people are saying, well, that's ugly, it's too far. Oh she did. was graphically illustrate what a lot of people have been tweeting and saying? Come on You know, Madonna's death wish for the president, and you know. Oh, it went a little too far.

Look. Words have consequences. People do get worked up. Yes, President Trump, as Senator Cruz reluctantly said, some of his problems are self-inflicted. But there's no question.

that the level of hostility A lot of it is just a challenge to the left's regime. and the left's rule. And somebody that's not part of the crowd has broken the rules. And the hostility is over the top extreme.

So so let let me say this. You know I feel very strongly about quite a few issues. You know how strongly I feel about moral and cultural issues. But if you've listened to me with any regularity... or if you've read not just an article here or there, but read me consistently, you know.

That I'm always speaking against violence, that I'm always speaking against anger, that I'm a fleshly anger, that I'm always calling for prayer for those that we differ with, or saying, look, I understand their perspective, but. Consider this. that I'm doing my best to cultivate A spirit of grace. and an attitude of grace towards those we differ with. And I just did a video we'll post over in the coming days warning those.

On the left, that if you try to silence other voices, your voices will soon be silenced. If you try to silence other voices, you're going to reap what you sow. you can expect the same thing to happen to you in the future. When I'm asked to give a talk on a college campus on a Bible subject, or on cultural issues. or either Israel or Islam.

I request that they get someone to debate me. I say that's my preference.

Now, if they just want me to do a lecture and equip people on a certain level, that's fine. You know, an in-house thing. But if it's a public event, I request. that they get someone from the opposite viewpoint to debate me. Why, because I want both sides to be heard.

and I want to do my best to give people an opportunity to hear the best arguments on the other side, then I'll present mine. And let me tear down what I believe is wrong in their arguments, let them try to tear down what they believe is wrong in mine. And normally they can't find anyone to debate. Plenty of campuses. Can't even have me in, don't even try because of the controversy.

And it's not controversy because I'm some controversial character. But it's the controversy of the content of challenging a lot of the status quo. But if we can't get someone to debate, then I'll say, can we do open mic QA afterwards? I want people, I have the opportunity. to express their differences.

And I'm not alone, plenty of people, the same thing. We do a talk and it's open like QA. When you try to silence the other side, You're going to reap what you sow and ultimately people are going to rise up and silence you. That's just the way it works in the world. We reap what we sow.

In the same way, In the same way, people have come to lectures I've done, and they're angry, and they are. You know, who is this idiot? We're going to show him up. And when they hear my tone, when they hear my spirit, they say, oh, we differ with you, but we think you were fair. We hear that all the time.

So Uh I remember A couple decades ago, during a talk at Yale University, Jewish Outreach. And then afterwards. And it wasn't just preaching Jesus kind of thing. It was talking about anti-Semitism and world history and so on, and ultimately tying the. the things together and pointing to the gospel.

But I think I feel that questions from brilliant Yale students and others there for maybe two hours. And afterwards, a student came up to me with a sponge that I've never heard the opposition so lovingly dismantled. I'm not going to ridicule and demean people I differ with. I'm going to do my best to expose error and to present the truth as I understand it. but hopefully in a way that's civil.

So, what I'm saying is that if everyone listening to this broadcast, after the show, you went out and started burning down buildings. I'm doing something wrong. If after the if we keep getting reports, you know, people that listen to the line of fire, you know, they're bashing gays or they're doing this or they're doing that or they're burning down mosques, you think, what in the world is this brown character doing? But it's the opposite. It it's the precise opposite.

What you're actually hearing, the fruit of this, is people saying, you know, I have much more love for a gay and lesbian community. But, you know, I'm really praying for Muslims now. Or, you know, the mainstream media, you know, I see their blind spots. I'm praying for them. Yeah, I have issues.

But hopefully we'll present things in a way That bears fruit, not of accepting every viewpoint. I don't accept every viewpoint because I differ with viewpoints, and you should accept every viewpoint. Obviously we have to make decisions and understand what we believe is right, what we believe is wrong. But can we do it in a way that doesn't create a toxic environment? And let me say this, and then I'm going to switch subjects, and I'm going to take some calls.

All right. Yeah. The right wing is guilty of this as well. The right wing is also guilty of creating a toxic environment. and creating an environment that that can provoke all kinds of anger and frustration that can lead to fleshly acts.

Now I don't believe. with all of the opposition that President Obama received from the right, I don't believe that the tone was as hysterical against President Obama as it is against President Trump from the left. But even if they were both equal. equal in their intensity, equal in their hysteria. I disagree with both.

Okay. I take issue with both I take issue with getting people so worked up in the flesh that they then don't think rationally. that they can act irrationally. That their actions towards others may be based on a sense of right and wrong, but are lacking love. and equity.

So here, we're going to have our differences. But let's have them in a way That is appropriate. for a civil society. Instead of trying to blow each other up, then we have a difference, right? Come back and take some calls.

Stay here. 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. Welcome, welcome to the line of fire, 866-348-78. 884. That is the number to call here on the line of fire broadcast. And we're doing something we normally do on Fridays, opening the phones.

You've got questions. We've got answers. So I'm going to be interacting with things on my heart, on my mind taking place in the world today. But in the midst of that, interspersing your calls because I will not be answering calls on the Thursday or Friday broadcast this week. 866-34TRUTH.

Let's go to Kernville, Texas. Anthony, welcome to the line of fire. I tell you what. Um If You heard Anthony okay there. Howard, just let me know.

Uh because I I heard nothing. We had a problem with our phones yesterday. We've gotten word out to everyone that the phones are open today. We had a very strange problem come up.

So we'll see what was going on there. All right, let's try it again. All right, Anthony, are you there? Yes, sir. Can you hear me, Dr.

Brown?

Okay. Guys, whatever problem we thought we had fixed before the broadcast is not fixed.

Sorry to say. It's not fixed, so I'll let our tech guys work that out.

Okay, Anthony, your question I'm going to answer. How did the Jews atone for their sins during the first exile?

So the temple was not standing.

Solomon's temple was destroyed. The people were in exile. They could not offer sacrifices. They could not fulfill the requirements of the Day of Atonement. How?

Did they Atone for their sins. Anthony, there was no national atonement for the Jewish people at that time. There was no national atonement. There was no national assurance of atonement. As a nation, they were under divine judgment.

and individuals could plead for mercy.

Now I'm going to come back to how that applies to today in a moment. All right. They could plead for mercy. That's it. They could not.

Have national atonement. Let me explain why. 2 Chronicles 7. We'll get it straight from the mouth of the Lord. When the Lord appears to Solomon after the dedication of the temple, He says, Second Chronicles 7.12 I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a Beit Zevach, a house or temple.

of sacrifice. If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper or consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people, And my people who are called by my name humble themselves, praise, seek my face, and turn from their evil ways. Then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

So If you sin. And repent. Then I'll have mercy on you. I'll heal your land. I'll restore you.

My eyes now will be open and my ears attentive to prayer from this place. And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name will be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there at all times. As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances, I will establish your royal throne as I promised your father David. You will never fail to have a man ruling in Israel.

So God's saying, I'm establishing. I'm establishing the temple as a house of sacrifice. All right, Beit Zevach. And my eyes are constantly going to be on this place.

So the sacrifices, the offerings, the prayers are going to have my attention. And when you sin and ask for mercy and repent, I'll restore.

Okay? And Solomon, if you walk in my paths, then I'm going to keep my covenant with you as I did with David.

So let's go on.

However, If you turn away and abandon my statutes and my commands that I have set before you, and if you go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from the soil I gave them. And this temple that I have sanctified for my name, I will banish from my presence. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples. As for this temple which was exalted, everyone who passes by will be appalled and will say, why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple? Then they will say, because they abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt, they clung to other gods and worshipped and served them.

Because of this, he brought all this ruin on them.

So, Anthony. There was no national atonement. They were under judgment. That's why they were in exile. You say, well, what would an individual Jew do?

Plead for mercy? Plead for mercy. Look to God for mercy. believe in the God of Scripture and whatever promises he had made. That was all they could do.

You say, well, that's the same for Jews today. They don't need Jesus. I'm not saying you're saying that, but that's what a traditional Jew might raise as an argument. All right, here's the difference. Traditional Judaism says we do have atonement.

We do have national atonement. that that we have prayer. that we have repentance. that when we fast on the Day of Atonement, that's like a sacrifice. that if we suffer in life because of our sins, that's paying for our sins.

good deeds and charity. That's part of our atonement. No, that is a man-made system. Because without the temple and without blood sacrifices, there's no atonement. You say, okay, then we just plead for mercy.

Well, that's not what Jewish people do today. They believe they have a system that has replaced. the the the physical sacrifice system until the temple's rebuilt. And that is contrary to Scripture. That is ultimately human arrogance, however, well intended, saying, We can overcome the judgment of God.

So You plead for individual mercy. But, but here's what is super important. During this very time of exile, God revealed truths. about the suffering Messiah. God revealed that he would bring atonement to his people.

So, if you are a Jew in exile, what do you do? You put your trust in the mercy of God 2,500 years ago. God, we've sinned, we're guilty. And you know, as a nation, you're under judgment. But you ask God individually, Lord, forgive my sin, wash me, cleanse me.

And you put your trust in Him and what He has revealed to that point. You're believing Him, yes? And we're justified by faith. Abraham believed the gospel. Genesis 15.

What did he hear about the gospel? Through his seed, the whole world would be blessed. That's what he knew, that's what he believed.

So they believe the revelation that's given. Ultimately, all sin is forgiven based on the Messiah's death on the cross.

Now that He has come.

Now that he has come and fulfilled that which was written, to reject that is to reject God's mercy. God is the judge of every individual Jew. To a religious Jew raged in a religious home, repenting and asking God for mercy and atonement and not believing in Jesus. God is that person's judge, not me. What I'm telling you is this, if they reject the mercy of God expressed through the Messiah, there is no mercy outside of that.

If if they knowingly and wilfully reject what God has given them, then there is no mercy outside. You say, what if they do it in ignorance? God is their judge. God is their judge, but if they do it in ignorance, then I would trust that God would reveal the Messiah to them just as He did to Saul of Tarsus. Who said that God had mercy on him because he acted ignorantly in unbelief?

Not that he was going to die and go to heaven anyway, rejecting the Messiah because he acted in ignorance, but no, rather, God had mercy on him and revealed the Messiah to him and granted him repentance because he was acting in ignorance. Hey, Anthony, thank you for the call.

Sorry I couldn't bring you on the air to answer your question, but it's an important one. For sure. All right, we'll be right back, friends. Feel free to call in. We will get our tech issues resolved.

We'll be taking your calls right here on the line of fire. Shake the name. Shame floor. 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. Thanks, friends, for joining us today on the line of fire, 866-348-7884.

We've been on live. talk radio now. Let's see. I think I did my first broadcast. and Saturday, a Saturday in March.

in 2008 Then we went to five days a week beginning in June. 2008, is that right?

So like nine years now? Um It's the rarest of rare. That we have a technical issue like this, like we had yesterday, and we thought we had fixed before the show.

So, my apologies, but. By all means, Call with any questions you have, and we will get your questions to me. Hopefully, we'll be able to talk freely on the air. We're just testing things during our one-minute break we had.

So, anything you want to raise to me, any question of any kind, any subject you want to take issue with me on, go for it, 866-348-7867. Yeah. You know, when I was talking earlier in the show about having a. A toxic negative influence on people where you incite them into a frenzy, you work them into a hysteria. You get them thinking in an irrational way.

It's terribly destructive. And I want to stir people. I want to stir people towards God. I want to stir people to give their lives for a good cause. If I can stir you in such a way, That you now go, say, from being a hopeless drug addict to being a happily married dad and great father.

And strong citizen in your community. If I can stir you to do that, that's great. I'm thrilled. If I can stir you to give up carnality and narcissism and go serve the poor in another part of the world, hey, I'm glad for. that.

Uh that's Just Excellent. Wonderful. But if I stir you to think irrationally, If I stir you in such a way that you make decisions that are foolish in the long term, I'm not helping you. I'm not helping anyone. And that's why when I see things, and I'm going to address something in a moment, some rhetoric from From another Perhaps right-wing question, you could say, some rhetoric that concerns me.

When I see it out there, I draw attention to it. when I see some pastor who's rejoicing when gay men and women are killed. shot up in a bar in in Orlando. I take issue with that. I get on the air and denounce it.

I write articles about it. I invite the person on my show and say, okay, go ahead and defend your views, and I do my best to expose those views. I don't want to have anything to do. with junk like that. I I don't want to have any association whatsoever.

with someone who's guilty of that kind of trash. And I want to especially say this has absolutely nothing to do with the name of Jesus.

So, what I'm saying now to the secular media. to the mainstream media, to college professors, to to bloggers and others. to tweeters. who have been so vile. And so despicable in their attacks on the president.

And yes, In the past, people were vile and despicable in their attacks on President Obama. And you never, ever, ever, ever heard that from me, ever. And you never would.

So what I'm saying now, I'm just being even-handed. I'm taking issue with the left and the radical left here, just like I take issue with the right or the radical right if I heard the same type of things from those sides. and when they come to my attention, I address them. And I address them not because I'm always right and everybody's wrong. No, I dress them because I want to do my best.

to sow a different kind of seed, to reap a different kind of harvest. That's what I want to do my best to do. And I'll address the issue of a call for violent Christianity. when we come back on the other side of the break right here. on the line of fire.

We're the new time. Shake the nation. Change the world. Change the world. Give us strength to always do what's right.

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 today.

This is Michael Brown and I am delighted to be with you number to call 866-342. truth so Let me give an example of something. I'm not going to mention the name yet because I haven't tried to contact this individual and I do want to see if I can make contact first and see if they'll maybe come on the show with me and have a discussion. But Someone, a right-wing Christian commentator, was talking about the. Uh elections uh where the Republican candidate Allegedly, he body slammed a reporter, and they ended up winning over the Democratic candidate.

Apparently, a lot of votes were done in advance, so this didn't show up in terms of hurting his chances that much, you know, because it was right before the election that actually happened. But anyway. The commentator made reference to this. And I believe made reference to President Trump pushing himself ahead. It was a very embarrassing moment for the president, very childish, pushed ahead of a guy that shouldn't have been there in terms of for the photo op right in the front.

But the president pushed his way, then kind of puffed his chest and stood in a stately way. And like I said, it's an embarrassing moment for the president. But this right-wing Christian Commentator said that we need more stuff like that. That was the backdrop, a more violent Christianity.

Now, obviously, he's not calling for Christians to go out killing people. But when you are using something, a physically violent. Act. Take another person, throw him down on the ground. If that's the way it happened, body slamming him or punching him, if that's what happened.

And then you're giving any justification to that. or in any way tying that together with being strong as believers. To me that's dangerous talk. That's dangerous talk. And we should say, no, no, no, we don't believe in that.

No, we don't engage in that. No, that's not who we are. Yes, there is violent talk in the New Testament, but it's very clear. that it is spiritual. In other words, pulling down strongholds.

And Paul writing in 2 Corinthians 10 that we don't war as people war in the flesh, in this world. Rather, it's a spiritual war.

Alright, so we are we believe we're wrestling with demonic powers. that it's not just people doing things, but that there's spiritual forces behind that. We are pulling down strongholds, meaning thoughts, wrong patterns of thought, ideology, and exposing their error. That's what we do. The Israelites drove out the Canaanites.

In the New Testament, we don't drive out people. We we drive out demons. In the Old Testament, Under the Sinai covenant, if an Israelite committed adultery, they were put to death.

Now, if they're part of the church and they're living in adultery and won't repent, we put them out of the church. We don't put them to death, we put them out of the church.

So we understand that Jesus did not take people's lives. Jesus did not. blow people up and kill them, he died for us. Even the example of Muhammad is radically different than the example of Jesus. Muhammad was first a spiritual leader, then a political leader, then a military leader, and himself was a violent military leader.

Jesus, in contrast, laid his life down and was crucified and would not let his servants fight for him and would not call on the angels of heaven to fight for him.

So the example is very different. Yeah, I talk about revolution all the time, all the time, all the time. And I always talk about what I mean. Always talk about what I mean. Not Talking about violence, intimidation, Hatred?

Anger? No, no. not talking about any of that, always repudiating that, rather. Overcoming evil with good. How many times have you heard me say that?

Overcoming hatred with love. Overcoming error. And lies with truth, overcoming the power of the flesh with the power of the Spirit. That's the Jesus revolution. Jesus radically changes us, and we go and radically change our world.

I'll give an example of something. A few years ago, a gay activist that was regularly attacking me in writing. Wrote an article claiming that I was seeking to start a physical confrontation. I mean, it's a real, real sick piece, real sick descriptions of me and things like that. And said, you know, that I'm basically getting my thugs ready for a physical confrontation.

And what had happened was we helped lead an event with 2,500 Uh ex excuse me with with um several hundred believers. that went to a gay pride event. This is men, women, children, moms, dads, grandparents. And we handed out about 2,500 bottles of water. at the event.

We had shirts that said got us a better way. And the bottles of water said Jesus loves you, and a link to a website with testimonies. and people's life stories and things like that. And we just loved on people. That's what we did.

Some of them needed prayer, we prayed for them. Others just talked to them. That's what we did.

And as a result of that, and because the event for the most part was tame enough, you could bring kids in the midst of it and You just knew you're going to see a lot of same-sex couples, but just tell the kids they're confused, just pray for them. And we just went and handed out bottles of water. And did what we did, okay? As a result of that, This guy writes this horrific article. attacking me.

and calling me an anti-gay monster. This is for handing out 2,500 bottles of Jesus Loves You water at a gay pride event, right? And and the thugs were these great families. You know, we t we posted pictures of them. Here are the thugs he's talking about.

So we ended up on Another show. a a liberal host show. And I said it's this guy's rhetoric that's dangerous. When he keeps telling people that we're trying to start a violent confrontation. Then I have this messiah conflicts and just trying to start this violent confrontation.

He's the one with the dangerous rhetoric. All right? And uh i in in point of fact In point of fact, we are combating that with words of love and truth. And by the way, Howard, we are going to try to bring folks on Uh Onto the air, and if we can't connect, we successfully connect it during a break. If we can't connect, then we will.

Just answer the questions as they give them to you. But, Howard, leave the folks on, and we'll do our best to connect with them by phone. And if we can't make the phone connection, then You can type out the question, I'll respond.

Sorry to have to do that. That housekeeping work in here. All right, so. We were on the show together. And I said, answer a question for me.

Why is it? That my home congregation, where I preach about once a month, I'm not the pastor, but founder of the ministry, I preach about once a month. Why is it? that when we had a gay pride protest outside of our church. that after fifteen minutes The people said, you guys are too nice.

and you don't deserve a protest. We had our folks outside greeting them with refreshments and asking them to come into the service. to join us in the service. And we did it from the heart. And the next day the organizer of the event called me.

He called a radio show. And he apologized. And and he said he said this, He said we got to your church service And he said, we met. With the love of God, it was perfect. He was blown away.

He apologized on the air and subsequently he and his partner had had dinner with a friend and with me. What's the point? we sow seeds of love towards those we differ with. we sow seeds of love towards those we pray for. And I said, why is it that my students have the same heart?

And wherever I go and speak, if I'm asked to speak on these issues, plenty of other things we speak on. People say, we so appreciate the way you bring grace and truth together. I'm not setting myself up as a hero. There are plenty of people who do this. My point is.

that if we were Creating this toxic, hateful environment, you would expect the exact opposite fruit. the exact opposite results. And in fact, in point of fact, that what we see is people who end up saying, hey, I've got a greater love for those who identify as LGBT, or I've got a greater love for this group or that group. Where do you think The largest percentage of our grads have gone in the last few years, grads from our ministry school and those associated with our ministry. into the Muslim world.

Into the Muslim world to serve, to work with the poorest of the poor. to teach English. and to reach out with the good news of the gospel. Why? Because we don't cultivate hatred for Muslims.

We speak against radical Islam. and we talk about how radical Islam can rightly trace its roots back to the Quran and to Muhammad. It's not the only expression of Islam, but it is an expression of Islam. But we do in a way, ultimately, that calls for loving outreach to the Muslim. World.

All right, we come back. I'm going to go back to your calls. And again, like we normally do on Friday, we're doing today. You've got questions, we've got answers. 866-348-7884 is the number to call.

Have you read my latest article? Does Manchester need a concert with Ariana Grande? Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry. I think not. Read the article, and then you can weigh in.

It's at askdrbrown.org, A-S-K-D-R-Brown. 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. Here we go. I got whatever you just did, I have the echo, guys. Whatever you're doing.

Alright. I've got the echo back in my ears, so whatever setting you just changed, that's just what happened. Just letting you know. All right. 86634TRUTH.

Okay. Uh let's just see what I can do here.

Okay. All right. Let's get to Ron's question. Uh Ron asks, he's got the victim mentality. What can he do to change that?

What can he do to change the victim mentality? And The the answer is very simple. First you recognize that you have it. And and you Recognize the problem and bring it to God. That is the first thing that we have to deal with, okay?

that, okay, I have a problem. and I recognize the problem. That's the beginning. of the solution. to recognize the problem in the sight of God.

Now the second thing is to work against it. What you need to do is feed in the opposite. of that wrong thinking with biblical thinking. Let me give you an example. I never have enough money.

Yeah, I never can afford anything.

Okay, what you need to do is develop the mentality of a giver. What you need to do is look for opportunities and say, okay, how can I what can I do to... to uh to give. All right, I'm going to save money and take someone out for a meal. When we go out, I'm not going to wait for them to pay the bill, I'm going to pay it.

You know, when the offering comes by, I'm not going to expect someone else to give, I'm going to give. You start to do the opposite, and you start to meditate on those kinds of truths.

Well, you know, nobody likes me and I'll be friends well then be a friend. then be a friend.

So with the victim mentality, You need to start to soak in the truths of God's Word. You need to soak in the fact that in Jesus you are an overcomer. You need to soak in the fact that if God is for you, no one can be against you. Here, I'll give you an example. In my own thinking before God.

In my my own thinking. Uh They're um I get attacked all the time, right? I get attacked day and night. The most ugly things posted about me, the grossest insults day and night, because I'm a public figure and we're active online, so I can see a lot of the responses, right? I never feel like the poor victim.

Uh sometimes sometimes I will I will post something.

Sometimes I will post something online. Talking about, hey, here's the latest attack on me. And people said, almost, Dr. Brown, don't be discouraged. Like, oh, no, I didn't mean that because I need encouragement.

I wasn't doing any encouragement. Thanks for the encouragement. I just was like taking you into my world. I was taking you into my world and just giving an example of some of the craziness that's out there. I said, let's pray for these people.

All right, so the the bottom line, the bottom line is this. That I know God is with me. And I know that fundamentally, whatever flaws I have and shortcomings I have, which are many. I'm on the right side. In other words, I'm believing in the one true God.

I'm believing in the Savior. I'm with him and I'm going to be with him forever. That's what I need to know. You follow me? That's all I need to know that if.

If I know that, I'm good.

So I feel bad for people who attack me. Not because I'm special, not because I'm smarter, not because I have a platform. No, because I have this deep sense, I've had it for decades. of being in right relationship with God.

So when people attack me wrongly, I feel bad for them. Yeah, I'll give you an example. when there is an atheist rally. All right in DC. when there's an atheist rally there.

Uh w how do I feel? I feel bad for the atheists. I feel bad for them.

Some of them very sincere, and some of them full of anger and hatred. But but many of them very, very sincere. and thinking that religion is is detrimental to the world and that belief in God is harmful, I feel bad for them. Because they're wrong and they're lost. I feel bad for them.

When I see counter-missionary rabbis, or let's say a crowd of counter-missionaries in Israel. Protesting in front of the house of a messianic believer and chanting for hours to try to discourage them and drive them out. I feel bad for the people. They're fighting us the light. They're opposing the truth.

So The fact of the matter is This is This is an attitude we must have. Sir Ron, I encourage you. to meditate on the truths of God. Until it becomes real to you, if God is for me, who can be against me? If God is for me, who can be against me?

If God is for me, who can be against me? And if. I get singled out. If I get taken advantage of, I feel bad for the people.

Okay. I feel bad for the people. Uh Okay. And rather than Rather than saying, okay. Uh you know, I'm always getting picked on or or people are doing things and And they get credit for what I do and that kind of thing.

I think that's the only thing. I don't feel poor me. I think, all right, isn't that funny? You know, isn't that funny? You know, I can actually.

I can actually see that I'm going to get the reward in heaven. They're getting the reward down here.

So Ron, I encourage you. Give prayerful thought. to these truths. If God is for me, who can be? against me.

All right? And if you have that mindset, if you have that attitude, it will really wipe out the victim mentality. And then. Actively seek to put others first. Actively seek to bless others.

If you get no return for it, laugh, smile, okay? Hey, we're just going to do a quick test of the phones here, and we'll go to Bob and Chattanooga. Bob, you're on the line of fire. Go ahead, sir. Hey, Doctor Brown.

You probably answered this question. I've got your question. I just wanted to test. Same issue. Yeah, absolute silence team.

I'm not hearing a syllable. from Bob as he goes to speak.

So Bob, I'm going to answer your question. On the other side of the break, The sovereignty of God versus the free will of man. And salvation. It's a big question, but I'm going to get into it on the other side of the break.

So you can stay right there and keep. Listening. And as you do, I want to refer you to my debate with Dr. James White on this very subject.

So if you go to my website, Ask Dr. Brown. And just in the digital library, search for white or search for sovereignty. Also, my debate with Pastor Bruce Bennett. On who has the last word in salvation, God or man.

So you can search for White, you can search for Bennett in our digital library, and you'll be able to check that. Out. All right, friends, on the website also, when you sign up for my emails. When you sign up for my emails, You'll get a free e-book, Seven Secrets of the Real Asylum. Trust me, it'll be an eye-opener and it's free.

use. Change the world. A whole lot to talk about today. Plus, you've got questions. We've got answers.

Let's do it. 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. You know, sometimes I write an article. I touch on something on the radio and think, oh, I'm going to get it here.

The response is going to be intense, but I feel it's important. and I do my best not to be misunderstood. I do my best to explain. I'm not saying this, I'm not saying this, but I am saying this.

So we're going to have a little controversy today. That's okay. That's okay because we're going to do it in a constructive way. This is Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to the line of fire.

Here's the number to call: 866-34THRUTH, 866-348-7884. I will not be taking calls on the broadcast tomorrow, Thurly, Jewish Thursday, or the Friday broadcast.

Now I know many of you listen on podcasts, so you can't call in anyway because you're listening after the show. But for everyone listening live, today's the day to call with your questions. Tomorrow, we're going to go in depth. into the Hebrew Bible and ask what does it say about the real Jewish Messiah. And then Friday, I'm going to be answering your email questions.

So if you have a question you wanted to ask, as long as it's appropriate for Christian radio, then by all means, Give us a call, 866-348-7. Eight eight four.

Okay. Before I answer questions, I'm going to start with Bob from Chattanooga. And this is a biggie. It's a biggie question. I'm going to get to that shortly.

Let me just throw something out. for you. All right. I Saw an article sent to me last night. Touched on this briefly earlier, but I want to return to it.

And it was about the Lyrics of Ariana Grande.

Now I I don't know much about her career. Seeing little snippets of her here and there, she obviously has a tremendous singing voice. But she, you know, the outfits I saw were these really, you know, girly, little girl kind of outfits. I thought she was a teenager first, found out she's in her 20s, but she's very young looking. And after the Manchester bombing, And people saying, yeah, this would be the kind of place that a radical Muslim would bomb thinking that the morals of the youth are going to be corrupted, and therefore it's right to kill the men, women, and children that are there, you know, sick, demented mentality like that.

It's right to blow them up because you think that you take moral issue with the concert.

So Nancy wasn't familiar with the artist either. I mean she's very well known, but just neither of us were familiar with her and we don't have little kids in the house we didn't know her growing up in Nickelodeon or anything like that.

So, uh Nancy asked me about it. I said, I I don't think she's that bad. Just got seen a few pictures, and she said it's not like Britney Spears type, and with real vulgar sexual type performances. And I said, I don't think so. And then I saw, wait, the concert was called Dangerous Woman.

That was the tour, and that was based on one of her. newest hits And and then I saw this article that was was posted last night. about one of her songs, uh was it Side to Side? And I didn't know what the lyrics meant. They had to be explained, basically, you know, because there are certain idioms that were used.

I thought, this is one of the more gross.

Songs I've seen now, there are probably tons of them out there, I'm just not familiar with them. I know a lot of the rap stuff can be real vulgar and and very degrading to women and just describing their bodies and what people want to do to them in degrading ways. this was the young lady singing about herself in those ways. And then you realize that her target audience is the kids. I mean, they're like eight to eighteen, but maybe the bulk of them on on the prepubescent side.

and they say under twelve or thirteen side. No, no, no, no. It doesn't mean you blow people up. It doesn't mean you bomb the performance. No, no, no, no, a million times.

No. But you realize Boy, there's a lot more corrupting of our young people. out there than we even know. Eight, nine-year-olds singing songs, they don't even know what the lyrics mean. But they're getting sexualized early on because they're going to learn a whole lot earlier than they should.

and they're going to learn the most wrong ways. We'll be right back. Oh God of burning, cleansing flame. Send 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. Thanks friends for joining us on the broadcast today.

We're opening the phones on this Wednesday. You've got questions, we've got answers. 866-348-7884 is the number to call. So Bob in Chattanooga. I want to get to your question.

about the sovereignty of God versus the free will of man and salvation. A Calvinist would believe that before the foundation of the world. when God decided to create the world, create the universe. That he decreed that he would have a specific people that would be his people. that he decreed that man would be created.

that man would fall and that in our lost estate, he would choose some by his own free will For reasons unknown to us, but not because of anything in us, not because we're better than anyone else, he would choose some. as his people And put within them faith to receive him and follow him and love him. And the others he would pass over, and therefore they would be eternally damned. In other words, it was ultimately decreed that some would be saved. and that others would be lost.

And it has nothing to do with our choice. It has nothing to do with our... Free will. It has nothing to do with our response. Our response in faith is solely because God put it there.

And you say, doesn't that make us robots?

Some look at it like that, but the Calvinists would say no, because it becomes our response when God puts it in us.

So, with all of our heart, we do want to serve Him and love Him. Others say that's contrary to the nature of God and testimony of Scripture. And that when God created the world, His desire was to have a people that would follow him. He decreed, he determined that he would have a people who would know him through his son. and then worked in such a way that there would be a response, And that those that put their trust in Him, those who responded to His loving call with a, Yes, Lord, have mercy on me.

Yes, Lord, save me. Forgive me. There's nothing good I can do to save myself. That they would become his people. A Calvinist says, Well, then, it's the will of man that determines things.

And the Arminian would say, God has sovereignly determined that we can say yes or no.

Now, I was a Calvinist from 77 to 82. There are fine Christian leaders who are Calvinists, dear friends of mine who are Calvinists. I'm not a Calvinist, but I'm not a Calvinist basher. Seeing the best side of Calvinism rather than the worst side of Calvinism. I have Calvinist friends that think Arminianism exalts man and exalts human will.

and now makes man saviors and and obviously, obviously, I deeply differ with their negative assessments. But in short, this quote from A. W. Tozer reflects What I believe and understand is from his book, The Knowledge of the Holy. And he said this, God sovereignly decreed.

that man should be free to exercise moral choice, And man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. Let me expand on that for a moment. Let me expand on that. What I mean and what Kozi means is this. that God set up the universe in such a way that we can say yes or no to him.

That was by his sovereign decree. And that every day we make choices, and He holds us responsible for those choices.

Now, doesn't it follow? that if He holds us responsible for those choices, then we are moral agents. In other words, if the only thing I could do by my nature is wrong, And God is the one behind me having that nature. then you could say that I'm not responsible. In other words, if God made me crippled, That he can't then tell me to walk without empowering me to walk.

If I don't walk, if he says to me, get up and run, but he made me crippled by his design, and I can't get up and run, then can he righteously find fault with me? If we hold To God, the standards that He sets. In other words, that He is a good and righteous God, that He is consistent in His standards, that we define goodness and rightness and justice and ethical morality. We define that by who God is and how He acts. Right?

We seek to reflect his justice, his goodness, his values. Then you could argue that if God made me in such a way, That by my very nature I can only go down, then can he hold me morally responsible for not going up? yet throughout the Scriptures we find him holding us morally responsible. In the same way, We find in the scriptures the apostles and others being grieved. Being angered in a holy anger when people refuse the message and say, fine.

Go ahead then. You bring judgment on your own head. You're not going to listen. Go ahead. We find Jesus weeping over Jerusalem because the leadership was not willing to do what God was calling them to do, and he grieved over that.

And that's why we have many passages in the Bible where God expresses his regret. If only you had obeyed, if only you had listened, if only you had repented, then I would have done these things for you.

So that means that with his help and grace, we can repent. With his help and grace, we can. Believe. with his help. And grace.

We can say yes. No, not in ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. But with his help and grace, we can respond. That is what I see as the consistent testimony of Scripture.

So Tozier says this, God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God, but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make, but that he should be free to make it. If in his absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, Who is there to stay his hand or say, What doest thou? Man's will is free because God is sovereign. a God less than sovereign Could not bestow moral freedom upon his creatures, he would be afraid to do so.

In other words, If God was less than the all-sovereign God that we believe him to be, then he could not risk giving us freedom, because it would mess up his plan. But he is so sovereign that in the midst of our free choices And again, we cannot save ourselves. We cannot choose to save ourselves without God's grace intervening, God's grace helping, God's grace enabling. All right. But we can't say yes or no.

And again we make moral choices all day long. make decisions all day long, many with moral implications. It's in that sense that God sets up the chess match. And gives freedom of choice within certain parameters to billions of chess pieces all moving at the same time. And at the end, still gets his victory.

at the end, still has a people. Whom he has seen and known and predestined before the foundation of the world and planned out. Where they will go, he still has his will worked out. He is that sovereign.

So did Joseph's brothers sin against him? when they sold them into slavery in Egypt. Yes. Were they guilty? Yes.

Did they suffer for it? Yes. Were they morally responsible? Yes. But God used it.

to save many lives.

So in that sense, Ultimately, God sent him. But God sent him through sinful human hands, making sinful human choices. I don't believe. that God moved on the brothers This is my own view. and stirred up their hearts to do evil, In other words, when they saw Joseph, they were going to greet him.

They were like, hey, that's our kid brother. He's a little wacky sometimes. He's got these crazy dreams, but that's our kid brother. Again, just my view is I understand Scripture. I don't think as I read it, because of the hostility they had towards him in the past and how often these guys sinned, the sons of Jacob.

the other evil things they did in the scripture. I don't think that Joseph was on his way out to meet them. And they were about, hey, that's our buddy Joseph. Come on, this I guess dad's wondering where we are, and sent out Joseph to look for us. And maybe mock him, oh, it's the dreamer.

Let's sit down and have a meal together. And tell dad everything's good, we're fine. But then God put it in our heart: no, no, no. Try to kill them. No, don't try to kill them.

Maybe some try to kill them. Others come up with a plan, sell them into slavery. And that's how I'm going to get them into Egypt. I don't look at it like that. I look at that God sent him through the The sinful actions of the brothers.

Our sovereign God knew exactly how they would act at that moment. And our sovereign God destined for Joseph to be right there because it was going to be for Joseph's good, too.

So God was going to use Joseph's presumption and foolishness And because of that, he was going to have to learn his lessons in the dungeon, in the prison, so to say, to be raised up as a leader.

So God did not predestined Joseph to be presumptuous or foolish as a kid. He worked through it, and he worked through the jealousy and the wickedness of the brothers to accomplish his will, which was to get Joseph into Egypt.

So it's not like that was the only way to get him there. It's how God sovereignly took human evil and used it for good. I don't know that I'm saying anything different than a Calvinist would say in some of it, in some of what I'm saying. You hear the point though? Our sovereign God.

is able to do this. We'll be right back. It's fire we want, for fire we It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRU.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks friends for joining us on the line of fire 866-34 for truth. If you have a question you'd like to ask me today, give us a call. I'm taking questions on a broad range of subjects.

Okay, a question that I was asked trying to sort out during the break about the finite nature of Jesus. Can I explain more if I if I rightly understood the question? We believe that when Jesus the Messiah was on the earth, that he was fully human. and fully divine. Right?

It is a mystery as to how that could be. We don't downplay the mystery. We glory in the mystery. In fact, it's one of the things about our God that's nice: that you can't put him in a little theological box. And work out all the details.

The more you meditate on who God is, the more you're on your face before Him, worshiping Him. the more you're caught up in the majesty of his mystery. Oh, he reveals himself to us in such ways that we can love him and serve him and adore him and do his will here on the earth. But But At the same time, we don't just put everything in a little box that we can now handle and we just work out all the truths about the nature of God. No, no.

Not at all.

Okay, so.

So It is a mystery in terms of beyond our human ability to fully comprehend because we're only. are only humans, right?

So our capacity to understand these divine things is limit. But we understand that the Son of God came into this world. That he remained the Son of God, he remained eternal deity, but he obviously self. Limited. himself, or I should say limited himself.

That when he was born. He was born as a human being. In other words, I don't believe. that he faked being a baby. That when he was a few months old and making sounds like that, that he was faking it.

Then actually he could have said, Hey, mom, I don't want to surprise you, you know, but I actually I could actually speak every language on the earth right now, but you ju that would surprise you a little, so instead I'm gonna go No, no, he was he was genuinely a baby. in terms of his mortality, in terms of his flesh.

So it was only as he developed as a human being that he began to understand more and more who he was. and understand more and more of his mission. and of his relationship to the heavenly father. I don't believe that he he faked. learning to walk.

I don't believe he faked that because he could have outrun Usain Bolt because he was God in the flesh. No, no, he was fully human in that regard. Did he genuinely get hungry? Yeah, Bible's clear on that. Do they genuinely get tired?

Yeah, the Bible's clear on that. fell asleep here? was hungry after fasting. Right, so he was fully human in that regard. Did he sigh and groan?

When he was burdened by things, yes. Did he weep? Two occasions where it tells us he weeps, Luke 19 and John 11? Yes. He wept, he shed tears.

Hebrews 5 tells us that he prayed with loud crying and tears, apparently speaking of in Gethsemane. Did he feel tremendous pressure? Did he desire the companionship of the of of his brothers, the apostles? Does he say in Luke 22, I've eagerly desired to eat this meal with you before I suffer? Speaking of the Last Suffer.

Yeah, he eagerly desired that. He he wanted to be with his friends. When he said, I call you friends, he meant that they were his friends and he wanted to spend that time together with them. I mean, it's it's a it's an overwhelming truth.

something to to really meditate on and consider. But but yes. That was his heart. Yes, that was who he was as a full human being. Did he know everything about every human being all the time.

or only what the Spirit showed him. I believe what the Spirit showed him. Why do I say that?

Well, because we know, for example, that he said he drove out demons by the Spirit. We know that he said he could only do what he saw the father doing. We know that he would spend extended periods of time in prayer. being with his father.

Now maybe He kind of had that spiritual x-ray vision and every single person he saw, he knew exactly what was in their hearts.

Okay, that could be, but that would have been by the will of the Father. Because he limited himself. That there's no record of him healing the sick before he began his public ministry. And then he begins his public ministry. Luke 4 says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

So he did what he did. By the Spirit, the demons recognized him as the Son of God. He had the authority of the Son of God. And yet he He operated by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he physically died.

He died a genuine death. And he suffered the pain, and he suffered the agony. And Hebrews 2 tells us that he was in all points tempted as we were, yet without sin.

Now obviously He didn't experience every single temptation that we experience. Did he ever experience fear of crashing in a plane?

Well, there was no such thing as a plane.

Okay. But was he tempted with fear? Sure. Was he tempted with every sexual temptation every human being is tempted with? No, but.

He was certainly tempted with sexual temptation. He was tempted in all points as we are.

Now remember, Temptation for the Son of God came from the outside only. For us, we can be tempted. because we are drawn away by our own lusts and desires. and enticed. We can be tempted.

Outside circumstances, the world around us, Satan, the devil tempting us. We can be tempted in that way. We can be tempted because we open the door to our own heart, and then that opens the door to temptation and evil desire. For Jesus, it was all external to him. But he was tempted.

Satan, called the tempter, tempted him. And it was a genuine temptation. In other words, he felt the pressure of it. He had to make the moral choice to say no, but he was without sin because he was a perfect Savior. There is a debate.

about whether he could have sinned.

Well, it was possible for him to have sinned. And if he could have sinned, then would he have been the Son of God? And someone said it like this: it's like throwing pebbles at a battleship. In other words, the pebbles cannot, it's a genuine attack on that battleship, but it cannot possibly. bring that battleship down.

In this case, I would say the temptations had force, had power.

So that he experienced what we experience in terms of that temptation is powerful. That is a real attack. Nonetheless, He never moved a fraction of an inch in the direction of it because he was the perfect Son of God. He was tempted as we were, yet without sin. That's also why, in terms of his humanity, He spoke of the Father being greater than him.

Now some argue that was always the case, but certainly his humanity. The Father is greater than him. And then... And then he said that he didn't know the time of his return, the day of his return, the hour. Only the father knew.

Why? Because Jesus was still in the flesh. He was still in this world. He was still walking fully in his humanity.

Now he is forever glorified as the eternal Son of God. 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 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Ooh, there's some people who don't like my article. That's okay.

I I knew that would be the case, that's why I gave them the I put words in their mouth right at the beginning of go ahead and blast me first. Uh but yeah, I I want to talk about it. This is Michael Brown. Welcome to the Line of Fire. We do want to talk about Manchester and what would bring the most healing to the people of Manchester, England.

But I also want to talk about the state of young people. And the level Of corrupting influences on our youth today. If you have a question of any kind, though, I'm not taking calls on the broadcast tomorrow or Friday. We're packing in other material.

So, if you have a question, you'd normally call in on a Friday. You've got questions, we've got answers. Give me a call today, even though it is a Wednesday if you're listening live. And if you get the Line of Fire app, not only can you listen to all the show wherever you are in the country, two hours a day, you can conveniently write with just boom with your little thumbnail. Ding, there it is.

You can listen to the recent podcast right there. You can also call. You don't have to dial the full number, just ding, call the shelves.

So if you haven't downloaded the app yet, then it's on the app store for Apple or for Google, Android. It is very simple. Just type in the line of fire. with Michael Brown or the Line of Fire with Dr. Brown.

And you'll scroll down, you'll see it. And download it. Just take a few seconds to download. It's free, of course, and have at it. Enjoy it.

Use it. It's our own app, but I'm impressed by how user-friendly. It is. And this way you can call in very easily, very conveniently, and listen in with a crisp, clear signal to the recent podcast. Or if you're out of radio range, you can pick it up there.

Okay. So Here's my question.

Well we'll we'll go to Manchester, England in a moment. Yeah. But I don't mean the phones, I mean the subject. Here's my question. Moms and Dads.

Do you know What is entertaining your kids. Who is entertaining your kids? what the content of the entertainmentists. Do you know what they're watching? Do you know what they're listening to?

Do you know what video games they're playing? Do you know what they're doing online? You say, well, I don't want to snoop into their privacy.

Well, you have a moral responsibility, don't you? There's certain things you give them privacy and they have parameters and you give them that respect. And there are other things where you have a moral responsibility to know.

Sometimes we don't because we're busy.

Sometimes we don't because we're lazy.

Sometimes we don't because we have a mistaken idea of our role. I think we'll all have to make choices for themselves. A six-year-old is not going to make this all the right choices, nor is a 13-year-old going to make all the right choices, or a 17-year-old without parental help.

Some will make great choices all along, but many won't, and all of them. Whatever parental guidance they can get, that's what moms and dads are there for.

So You may say, Yeah, my son is out, he watches a lot of video games, plays a lot of video games. Have have you ever sat with them and said, Hey, let me let me just watch for a while And let let's put us, you know, wearing headphones, let's listen together. You might be shocked with the vulgarity. You might be shocked with the sex scenes. You might be shocked with the violence, and Especially when you realize he's doing this hours a day.

You may say, oh, you know, my daughter, she really loved Hannah Montana when she was younger, and now Madisara, she still follows. Miley Cyrus. It's nothing you want your daughters to be following. Pray for her, yes. Yeah, but you don't want your daughters to be following her.

Or or Yeah, you know, Nickelodeon, yeah, my daughter loved Ariana Grande. You don't want her following her today. Their examples are vulgar. Their examples are are hyper-sexualized. Their examples are full of degrading lyrics and some degrading outfits and degrading movements.

And listen. They affect kids. I I I I lived through this myself. I would not have become a drug user if not for the influence of rock music. And the rock starts.

I want to be like them. 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. November 28th. 1968. That's when I went to my first rock concert. 13 years old.

13 years old. And so Jimi Hendrix in concert. with my sister. My sister is three and a half years older than me. And Everything about the night was mind-blowing.

I mean, the band was called a Jimi Hendrix Experience, right? And I assure you, there was not all kinds of vulgarity. In terms of all kinds of horrible things being said, sexualizing of people in the most horrific ways. Probably I wouldn't have understood some of it then, but it was a concert. It was a rock concert.

And you didn't have dancers on the stage and you know parading around, you know, half naked or anything like that. But everything about it broke the rules. Everything about it shouted out Rebellion against the status quo. It was at the New York Philharmonic. The volume is so intense.

I mean, the whole building just filled. with the intensity of the volume. The screaming guitar riffs and the pounding drums and bass and the a building almost shaking with the with the sound. And the the the the way they were dressed, I mean these the the the colors and the outfit and the hairdues and and and and so much of it I didn't even understand connect it with a whole drug culture and mentality. You know, the purple haze type stuff.

And if there were sexual lyrics, I didn't get them or recognize them maybe until years later when I reflected.

So, even without that, the whole music, the feel of it. Was such I wanted to be I wanted to be in a band. I'd been playing drums since I was eight. I played in a band with some guys before that, but it's like I had to be in a band. I remember talking to my sister afterwards, saying, I've got to be in a band.

I've got to be in a band. And I was just so psyched for this. And I want to be like the rockstars. I listen to music day and night, day and night, day and night.

So now I'm 14 years old, right? And you name it, uh just about all the big groups I saw back then. and went to rock concert after rock concert after rock concert.

Soon enough was playing in a band with my best friends and so on. But I'm telling you this story for a reason. 14 years old now.

Somebody asked me if if I want to try getting high. In a smoking pot. And my dad had already warned me about it, said, you know, when now you're going to high school. And and you know, it was junior high, high school in the same Lord's campus w one building over here, another building over here. And you know, somebody may offer you a cigarette or something, and it may not be a cigarette.

You know, it could be pot. No, be careful. Be on the lookout.

Well Someone said you want to try getting high. On the one hand, it had that appeal because you weren't supposed to do it. Hey, hey, hey, how about this? You know how that appeal is there because it's something that you're not allowed to have, right? But I also thought well the rock stars do it.

Rock stars do it. Can I? I kinda wanna be like the rock stars. And and that was the first step. That is what then opened the door.

And then the whole rock scene. was very much conducive to this. You know, a psychedelic man, it was far out.

Some of you know, you're sitting there smiling, like, yeah, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. You know, the saying, if you remember the 60s, you weren't there, right?

So But I I'd go to concerts, say, at the Fillmore East. I know there are these Fillmore auditoriums that are opening up in different parts of the country now. I don't know what they're like. But the Fillmore East, the Fillmore West, that was the sister one out in the West Coast and the Fillmore East in the East Village of New York City. And maybe it seeded a couple thousand.

So it wasn't like Madison Square Garden. I saw Hendricks a second time at Madison Square Garden. I saw the Doors at Madison Square Garden. I saw Janice Joplin at Madison Square Garden.

So I was in these big concert venues. You get like 20,000 people in there. But. The um The Fillmore Easter, maybe 2000. And when you went in there, it was really conducive to concerts.

And the place smelled like pot. I mean, pot smoking going on through the whole building. and then when the music would start, There was a light show.

So of course the lights go out and the whole auditorium is just the stage that's lit up. And you have a light show. It was called the Joshua Light Show. That was the team that did it. And it's this pulsating thing behind them, and it's all these psychedelic colors.

There was this whole effect. And look, how many times have you heard the spirit of the 60s, sex, drugs, and rock and roll? That all went hand in hand. The immorality went hand in hand. with the drug use, went hand in hand with the music.

And I I don't believe I would have gotten high. and gotten to that whole culture if not for the music. In other words, if I had just been into sports and I was I was a real straight laced kid and I'd just been into sports. And my goal was to really do well in basketball because I was tall, you know, 6'3 ⁇. growing to be 6'3.

And I was also the epitome of white men can't jump, by the way. But let's say I was re I was good and I was really gonna get into it. And that was my maybe I would have hung out with the fraternity guys. Maybe I would have started to drink. or something like that.

But the whole getting high thing was it was a different culture. It was a different class of people. You grew your hair long for the most part. And you were, you know, the guys did. And people were much more immoral.

You know, make love, not war, that whole mentality. What I'm saying is I know for myself that the music I listen to and the rock stars that I wanted to emulate. opened the door directly for me getting into drugs. And it wasn't just smoking pot, it was one thing led to another.

So I was quickly doing all kinds of drugs from. pot to hash to ups to downs to LSD and mescaline to speed. to shooting speed. By the time I was fifteen I was shooting heroin. And became, in terms of quantities of drugs, the heaviest drug user in my school, to my shame.

I was called drug bear and Iron Man because these large quantities of drugs I could do and somehow survive. I was stupid enough to think that was something to boast. About Pretty sick, but I was a stupid teenager. And then God graciously saved me at the age of 16. Otherwise, I believe I would have destroyed my life.

Maybe by the time I was 18, I don't know that I would have lived that long because I was so foolish and was such a drug abuser. And if I had my driver's license, which I couldn't get at the age of 16 in New York, if I had my driver's license, I probably would have driven while crazy high. And who knows what happened?

So it's by the mercy of God I'm saved. Period. We're all saved by mercy. But I believe God mercifully intervened when he did in my life before I destroyed myself.

So One of the musicians that that I liked most, one of my favorite musicians I sought to emulate as a drummer, was a real heavy drug user. In fact, Some of my favorite drummers, Ginger Baker, with Cream, and John Bonham with Led Zeppelin. And then Keith Moon with The Who? They were heavy drug users. Bottom dry died of drug-related causes.

Kismoon died of drug-related causes. And it's a wonder that Ginger Baker's lived this long, also a chain smoker. I think it's a wonder that he's lived this long because he was as crazy as they come. But I remember wanting to be like that. I I remember hearing about Ginger Baker.

Probably was a myth or rumor that his hair was falling out, his teeth were falling out because of speed use. And I thought, well, I don't want that, but that's cool, man. He's so into that. Man, that's Ginger Baker.

So Now, w what what what happens now? to a little girl. And she's eight years old, and she loves Ariana Grande, or she loves Miley Cyrus. She She loves these these folks. and she listens to their music.

and she does their dance moves. And and she starts to get a little older. She understands what the dance moves are about. She wants to dress like them. And now she's 13 and she's got a boyfriend, and there's a good chance they're going to be a whole lot more sexually active than they would have just growing up in other circumstances.

So what's this got to do with Manchester?

Okay. Uh I read that in a few days there's going to be a big benefit concert. in Manchester. And obviously the stories involved want to send a message of encouragement to the city. Uh maybe they want to raise funds for victims.

And I appreciate that. I I appreciate the goodwill and the gesture. And it's going to be Miley Cyrus, and it's going to be Katy Perry, and it's going to be Ariana Grande, and others. You can imagine the crowd that's going to be drawn is going to have a lot of younger people. A lot of kids, a lot of girls.

And