Thoughts on Debating about Jesus the Messiah and a New Way to Learn Biblical Languages

Well it's Thoroughly Jewish Thursday today, Isaiah 62 about Jerusalem. It has special significance for me 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.

Alright, so why is it that Isaiah 62 has special significance to me? What is it about that chapter that is especially important today?

Well, it's my 62nd birthday. That's right. Never knew 62 could feel this year. young by the grace of God. My absolute joy To be with you today, here's the number to call.

On Thursday Jewish Thursday. Any Jewish-related question you have of any kind, 866-342. That's 866-3323. Three four eight. Seven, eight, nine.

Eight four. That is The number two. Call Any Jewish-related question you have? But I I want to read to you from Isaiah 62. I want to talk to you about Some interesting responses that I've gotten to a Jewish debate.

that I'm doing next week. And then in the second hour, We are going to have a fascinating discussion. discussion, an absolutely fascinating discussion with Dr. Randall Bruth. will be calling from Israel.

Uh he he is a linguist and And he trains people. In Bible translation and in learning the biblical languages in a unique way.

So we are going to talk about that as well. 866-26. Three, four truth is the number to call. If I sound a little different today, we are at a different location And because of that, the Sound is a little different, but it is yours truly coming your way. 866.

348-7884. Isaiah 62. Because of Zion. I will not keep silent. and I will not keep still because of Jerusalem.

until her righteousness shines like a bright light. and her salvation. like a flaming torch. Nations will see your righteousness. and all kings your glory.

You will be called by a new name. that the Lord's mouth will announce. You will be a glorious Christian. Crown in the Lord's hand. and a royal diadem in the palm of your god.

You will no longer be called deserted. and your land will not be called desolate. Instead you will be called My Delight is in Her. and your land married. For the Lord delights in you.

and your land will be married. As a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you. As the groom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

Now listen to this. Jerusalem Oh, Jerusalem, I have appointed. This is God speaking. Watchmen on your walls. They will never be silent.

Day four. Night. And then it says this. You who put the Lord in remembrance, All right. Give yourselves no rest.

So it's literally in Hebrew: those who remind the Lord, you who remind the Lord. Give yourselves no rest.

All right. And give him, give God no rest. until he establishes and makes Jerusalem the praise of the earth. Friends, That has still not happened. That is still something we pray for.

How will Jerusalem be the praise of all the earth? It'll be the praise of all the earth. when it embraces Yeshua the Messiah. It'll be the praise of all the earth when the Messiah comes in glory and establishes his kingdom in Jerusalem. And the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the seas.

As all nations come streaming into Jerusalem to learn the ways of God. At that point, it will be the praise of all the earth. What does God say for now? In the mean cont Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen who shall never be silent by day or by night. O you the Lord's remembrancers.

Take no rest. And give no rest to him. Until he established Jerusalem and make her renown on earth. For my birthday, will you join me in prayer? For them.

Change the world. Change the world. Give us strict 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 866. Three, four, eight, seven. Eight. Eight. Four.

Uh before we go to Let me just share.

something very interesting with you. About the debate I'm scheduled to have next week, Kennesaw State University. In Atlanta. There should be a live stream so you can watch it from wherever you are all around the world. And Usher Norman is a serious counter missionary.

He is a lawyer. and obviously a clear thinking man. I categorically differ with his book, 26 Reasons Why Jews Don't Believe in Jesus. Let me say this. You could have one hundred reasons why people don't why atheists don't believe in God, doesn't mean that one of them is right.

You could have a million reasons why Jews don't believe in Jesus, doesn't mean that any of them are right.

So obviously, that's my very strong and clear perspective. But what I found really interesting It's We posted this. My prayer for this debate is not that I would shine as a great debater, but that Jesus Yeshua would shine. as a great messiah. And I found interesting.

that that some folks are are weighing in with these These different comments, um I respectfully ask why would you debate Jesus said, Share the truth: if they receive you, that your peace be on them. If they don't shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them, The idea of debate goes against what the Messiah taught. What? What what are you talking about? I mean, in point of fact, We have numerous instances in the Gos in the Acts The book of Acts.

where Paul goes into synagogue. Acts 9, for example, and is debating there, and that's his way of sharing the truth of the gospel. And it says at the end of the 18th chapter of the book of Acts that Apollos Greatly encouraged the believers there in Corinth because that he refuted, he himself, a Jewish man, he refuted the Jews. And public debate demonstrating from the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.

So this is what's laid out. And and uh Jesus debates those who who differ.

So it's it's just very, very interesting to hear. And then somebody, uh some uh bishop, I don't know who he is whatsoever. Aren't you a little old for a childish debate? What an utterly childish decom uh uh uh comment. What will this accomplish?

Not at all impressed. Very much disappointed. What a ridiculous comment. Sir, I've got no idea who you are. I'm not going to mention your name on the air.

But are are you not familiar with the scriptures? And the debates in Scripture? And God even challenging Israel and saying, Come now, let us reason together. Are you not familiar with how many people have come to faith through debates? Are you not familiar with how many believers have recovered their faith through debates?

How many have been strengthened? In their debate? Are you utterly unfamiliar with that? At what causes you to post something this Bizarre. Aren't you a little old for a childish debate?

About the Debating with an Orthodox Jewish lawyer, is Jesus? The Jewish Messiah. and doing it before Jewish Believers in Jesus and non-believers and Christians. What in the world this child is very, very odd. Uh 866.

three four eight three. Seven Eight eight seven Four.

Well, let's go to the phones. We'll start in Lanham, Maryland. Fuller, welcome to the line of fire. Greetings. Dr.

Brown. How are you? Doing very well. Thank you. Yeah.

I um I had a question about kind of the Jewish Perspective, and I'm sure there's different ones, just like there would be within Christian circles, but kind of the Jewish perspective on King David, and in particular. his sin with Bathsheba. And the reason I ask is because I I read something or saw something that implied that Uh That this particular Jewish perspective, and Again, I don't think it's every, but did not consider Uh his sin with Tashiva. Um adultery. And I'm curious that if you've heard that and what in general would be, I mean, obviously, Davey's going to be held high and you know, as the great king of Israel, but Just curious it ha uh It's one thing to hold someone high.

It's another thing to kind of change what you see.

So I was just curious: is your perspective? Have you heard that anywhere? And kind of what would your take be? What do you know about Jewish pictures of the Jesus coming update? Yeah, yeah, Fuller, I I have no idea whatsoever Where that would come from.

that she was a married woman. David was a married man. to do one thing If he took a single woman. He took a single woman and added her to his wives to his wife. That'd be one thing.

He'd be violating Deuteronomy 17 by multiplying many wives. And he did that actually. but uh not not as badly as the son Solomon did, but often the sins of the next generation are worse than the sins of the first generation. But i in in point of in point of fact, Um Yeah, this is out and out adultery. I don't see anywhere around it.

I haven't heard a Jewish perspective that it was anything else. But it doesn't you know where you heard that, sir? Any any um I'll I'll I'll look it up again and if I can find it I'll I'll send it to you. Yeah, I mean, I honestly have no idea where you would have gotten it from, but if you find it, yeah, just go to askdrbrown.org, ASKDRBrown.org. and click on contact and send it.

I'll check sources, but again, I'm utterly unfamiliar with that. And adultery is adultery. A married man having sex with a married woman, that's adultery, a king or not. And the Scriptures are clear that it cost David dearly and he had to repent deeply because of it. Hey, thank you for the call and the question.

866-34TRUTH. Let's go to Mark in Landover, Maryland. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello, Dr. Brown.

Happy birthday. Hey. How you doing? All right. My question was about a Jewish charitable organization, namely the one headed by Rabbi Eksten, I believe the first name is pronouncing.

Mm-hmm. Um Do you consider that a legitimate organization? On the Internet, I had still had some uh statements made about the organization being fraudulent in the sense. Yes, so you're talking about Yekhael Eckstein International Foundation for Christians and Jews. Um let me say this.

Any anyone that you deal with, any Organization that you deal with, you are going to, if they're big enough, you're going to find detractors. All right. Here's my issue with Rabbi Eckstein. Does Rabbi Eckstein do what he says he's going to do? In other words, Is he helping?

needy Jewish refugees coming from different parts of the world to get settled in Israel. Yes, he is. He's doing that. You say, what's my problem? My problem is that most people watching on Christian T V think that he's a messianic Jew.

They think that he's a believer in Yeshua. Which he's not. and it grieves him deeply when a Jew becomes a follower of Jesus. And he would strongly oppose people like me. who would be making efforts to lead other Jews to believe in Jesus.

So The problem I have Is from what I understand, most people that give to his organization. think they're giving to an organization that actually is working with Jewish people who believe in Jesus or is helping Jewish people come to faith in Jesus along with the very real, tangible, important work of helping impoverished Jews, helping Holocaust survivors, helping other Jews make it in the land of Israel. That's my issue. And things are presented in such a way because the evangelical audience is his big, big target audience and they give the great bulk of the giving, what is it, one hundred million dollars or more a year, I think it's somewhere around there. That From what I understand, the majority of them, Mark, Thinking that they are giving to help.

Jewish people also come to faith in Jesus, or that at the least Rabbi Eckstein himself is a believer in Jesus.

So what I give to his organization, I would encourage you instead to donate towards Together for Israel. Go to Together4israel.org. All right? Together4israel.org. It's run by a dear friend of mine, Scott Volff.

And I was just with him in Israel. And Here on the one hand. They're they're now helping to build uh Uh rebuild Children's centers for impoverished children in Israel, and this is anybody. These are Israeli kids. It's no tie directly to faith in Yeshua.

In other words, they're in need, they're going to get help. There may be Arab kids living in Israel that need help. They're going to receive mercy and help through this ministry. But. it is also going to prioritize It is also going to prioritize helping Jewish believers in the land.

And if you remember in the book of Acts, when there was a famine that was prophesied in Acts 11, they said, Okay, what should we do? They immediately said, All right, what we're going to do is we are going to receive uh funds to help the saints in Jerusalem because they seem to get hit the hardest. When Paul was going to different churches, he was collecting an offering to bring that offering. to Jerusalem to help the saints in Jerusalem. Galatians 2.

When when Paul and Peter agree to remember the poor, they mean the poor saints in. Jerusalem.

So if you're going to give Give to someone tangibly helping in Israel, but that's also a messianic to you. I'd encourage you to give to togetherforisrael.org. God bless. 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.

It's worth it ever. Thursday broadcast. This is Michael Brown. Utterly delighted to be with you on my 62nd birthday.

So, this is always a big week. Nancy and I celebrated 41 years of marriage. Forty-one years of wonderful blessed marriage. We celebrated that. On Tuesday, and then today is my birthday on Thursday.

So last night, Wednesday night, we had a family dinner, hung out, had some fun together. And thank God for health and life and vibrancy. Let me just tell you something. I would not be where I am today, as healthy, as vibrant, and strong, as full of energy, life zeal, if not for the radical lifestyle transformation that Nancy and I both took on in our lives a few years back. And for me now, it began August.

24th of 2014, and I have been radically, dramatically, wonderfully changed since then. went from 275 pounds down to 180. Blood pressure went from 149 over 103 down to about 100 or 105 over 65. Cholesterol from a high in the 230s down to 123. Used to have headaches three, four times a week, haven't had a headache in two and a half years.

On and on it goes. If you don't have our book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food, I strongly encourage you to get a copy of the book. It will impact you, it will change your life. We are hearing from readers that are in tears, that are encouraged, that have hope. That I mean, I can't tell you the reports that we're getting.

People within a month off diabetes medicine that had type 2 diabetes, people within two months have lost over 30 pounds and they're not looking back, they're not turning back.

So, get the book if you don't have it, breaking the stronghold of food. I feel so full of life on my 62nd birthday, I feel like it would be wrong for me not to share that with you. 866. Three Fort Troop. Let's go to Maryland in Leonardtown, Maryland.

Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you. I listen to your program every day on WEVA FM. And happy happy sixty-second birthday. I am not a Jewish person, but I love the Jewish people.

And at one point, twenty years ago, I joined a Messianic Jewish Christian group called Orha Olam and learned a lot about Messianic Jewish people. It was beautiful. I love on in I'm looking at the NASB on sixty two verse two. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will designate. You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

And I look forward to the new Jerusalem and being there. With our Lord Jesus Christ and God and all the other people who. are children of God. Yeah, we absolutely have something wonderful and glorious and special to look forward to. Amen.

Absolute absolutely. Hey, Marilyn, thanks for calling. I do appreciate it. very much. 866.

Three four eight. Yeah. Eight, eight, five. Yeah. Uh in a few minutes, I want to play some very disturbing clips for you.

From David Duke. former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. outspoken, anti-Semite. as anti-Israel as as as you're going to find. Got a very disturbing video.

On uh YouTube. And and Google has said, oh, it's not It's not hate speech, we're not going to remove it. I gotta write, hey Matt, remind me, I gotta write on that. When you think that That videos on PragerU. Videos on Prager University.

that we're just talking about Islam. And in fair terms, Come on, you know Dennis Prager. You're not foaming at the mouth. And fair Terms. When they are doing that, and those get banned on YouTube.

And David Dukes is not hate speech. I'm going to come back to that in a minute. First, a little bit more on debate. I I post it when I post it for a reason. And again, I've posted this.

My prayer for this debate. is not that I would shine as a great debater. but that Jesus Yeshua would shine as a great Messiah. The question is not Who's smarter? Osher Norman or me.

or a counter missionary rabbi or me. The question is not who's a better speaker. The question is not Who's a more persuasive speaker? The question is. Who?

is most accurately presenting the truth about the Jewish Messiah. This is our way to strengthen The faith of believers. This is our way to encourage believers. This is our way to reach out to non-believers. Let me ask you something.

If you are a seeker, you're trying to find God. Is there one God? Is he the same God in every religion? Are there many different gods? How do we sort these things out?

Is it the god of the Hindu religion or the gods of Hinduism or kind of the non-god of Buddhism? But in Allah I say or is are we all God? And you have questions. And someone and you come to someone, a follower of Jesus, with your questions. Does that person just say to you, well, those are stupid questions, just believe?

I'm just going to quote scripture to you. No, you sit and you talk with the person. And you reason with the person. And you interact with the person. And and you You, yes, point them to scripture, you quote scripture, you share the word with them, but.

But You want them. to understand what when you get saved, do you shut your mind off? When you get saved, do you do you stop thinking? Wh when when you come to faith in Jesus, does that mean that you now just just bury your head in the sand? No.

How how can you even read the New Testament without thinking? How can you read the Bible without thinking? How can you read the scriptures without being challenged to think about this and wonder about this and try to figure this out? What does this mean and how does this apply? And we go to God and we say, Lord, my understanding is inadequate.

Open my heart, open my mind, give me understanding, give me wisdom. That's what we seek to do in the context of a debate. But I want you to know. That although I am absolutely focused on Jewish outreach, and by God's grace, I want as many Jewish people to hear this debate. As many Jewish people to watch this debate, as many Jewish people to learn from this debate and come to faith in Jesus being the Jewish Messiah, and Asher Norman wants to do the opposite.

He wants to dissuade Jews from believing in Jesus the Messiah. As as Committed as I am to reaching the lost, I also want to strengthen the believer. Because I know. That when you're battered, when you're told your beliefs are wrong, when people that seem to know more than you and better educated than you and smarter than you and they can read the original languages and you can't, and so on and so forth. that when When You are now helped by the by someone who can answer those questions.

Or your faith comes alive. When someone says, The Bible's not true, the Bible's not God's Word. You can't believe in nonsense like this. You've got to be crazy. How do you believe in something that's silly?

And these people seem to know a lot more than you know. And now you meet someone who knows just as much as they know, except. Except They've got solid answers. Except, instead of tearing down your faith, they're building up your faith. That will strengthen you and enable you to be a much more powerful evangelist and soul winner.

So we want to strengthen the faith of believers. And we want to reach out to non-believers. Pray that Jesus Yeshua would be mightily glorified. Pray that he will be supernaturally glorified. By the way, make sure you go to thelineoffire.org today and check out my newest article, Menstruating Men and the Latest Examples of Trans Sanity, and my latest video.

Disney's Gay Fairy Tale. 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.

See me at Cora Welcome, welcome to the Jewish Thursday. This is Michael Brown. Delighted to be with you. If you've got a Jewish-related question, that is our specific parameter. If you've got a Jewish-related question, give me a call, 866-348-668-868-866-8.

That is the number to call for your Jewish-related questions.

Okay. What you're about to hear is disturbing. I I just want to tell you up front. Uh this is a YouTube video. Narrated by the former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, David.

Duke? All right, I I want you to hear some of what is on this video. It's called Jews Admit organizing white genocide. And according to Google, which uh oversees, which owns YouTube. Uh this does not constitute Hate speech.

While it is, quote, deeply offensive and shocking, it does not violate YouTube rules against hate speech and will remain on the site. according to Google Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs, Peter. Barren And this is in England that this discussion is taking place.

So let's listen. for some of these clips. We'll start with clip Number two. Again. This is ugly stuff.

This is David Duke. Why won't the media expose Israel as it condemned South African segregation? Actually, comparing Israel to apartheid is like comparing an atomic bomb to a BB gun. Unlike Israel, South Africa never dropped tens of thousands of bombs. that have burnt children alive while they slept in their beds.

Israel was founded by terror and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Imagine if your children were murdered or blinded or burned or crippled by these Jewish weapons of mass destruction. Oh my. Not hate speech. It's not hate speech.

You have videos banned from YouTube that are one one hundredth as offensive. And 1 100th as inaccurate. Yeah. Let's go to clip number three, more from David Duke. Remember, Google, which owns YouTube, is saying it's not hate speech, we won't remove the video.

Go ahead. It is not the Muslims who've changed the immigration policies of Europe and America. Muslims don't run the media that tells Swedes and Germans and Britons and Americans that they must let themselves be ethnically cleansed in our own homelands. Arabs don't run the kosher Hollywood media that teaches Europeans to hate themselves so much that some even celebrate our own extinction. All right, let's let's keep listening.

Clip number four. You're not allowed to know any of this because you might then realize that you have a competitor in your midst who has a different agenda than you have. You might learn that Jews are indoctrinated from birth to act instinctively as a team to take over any company, any organization, any political party, any country. In pursuit of Jewish interests. Every Jew has seen the evils of the Holocaust a thousand times in the media.

Every Jew learns how they must stick together against the Gentiles. Who are portrayed as evil, who might fire up the ovens at any time, a few Jews. have been able to overcome this brainwashing by the Jewish religion and by the Jewish extremist media. All right, one more. This is not hate speech, according to Google, YouTube.

This is not hate speech, but to pray your videos. Talking in a dispassionate and realistic way about Islam. Those get. Band and And blocked.

Okay, last clip. I'm speaking here not only for my fellow Europeans, whom I do dearly love. But I'm also speaking for the Asians, the Indians, and the Africans of the world. Every people on earth should have the right to live, to preserve its heritage and character, and be free and independent. Don't let Jewish globalism destroy the life and freedom of your people.

If you don't stand up for yourself, Then do it. for your children. You heard it. Not HP. God of burning, cleansing.

Yeah. Send the fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

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

We just got a tweet from the President of the United States. This is what he said. He said, see you in court. The security of our nation is at stake. Ah, Wolf Blitzer reporting on Donald Trump's response to the latest court overreach.

Seeking to stop his temporary travel ban. On uh refugees coming in from six countries. And in Donald Trump's own words, Johnny Gribb clip number seven This is what President Trump had to say. The best way to keep foreign terrorists, or as some people would say, in certain instances, radical Islamic terrorists from attacking our country is to stop them from entering our country in the first place. All right.

How in the world is it? that a federal judge in Hawaii, this happened yesterday, and because we're dealing with Islam, because we're dealing with refugees, we'll talk about this. It's important news here on Thurley Jewish Thursday. How is it a federal judge in Hawaii? could issue nationwide a temporary restraining order.

that bars the implementation of the President's revised executive order on immigration and refugees. How can he do this? We are joined on the air by Jordan Lawrence, who is Senior Counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom. Jordan, great to have you on the air. Thanks for joining us today.

Glad to be here, Michael.

So first tell us How this happened? Is this overreach? Is this the courts working properly? How how does this happen?

Well, I think that it is definitely judicial overreach in this instance. And I want to stress that I am not a foreign policy expert. But I am a religious liberty expert, which is highly relevant To this decision, because the judge essentially found that it violated the establishment clause. the separation of church and state, you know, people sometimes wrongly use that. And that's something I'm familiar with.

So if people You know, are pro-immigrants or anti-immigrants or whatever. That to me should not be influencing this. It is an amazingly bad. Uh uh uh Just misapplying establishment clause precedent. to basically enjoy them.

So the state of Hawaii brought this. And this was definitely, this judge wanted to issue a temporary restraining order. And it's just sh Shoddy trampling of legal principles on getting a temporary restraining order. And this establishment clause grounds, I just kind of slap my head in amazement. And essentially, what they did, and then I'll give it back to you, is they say, Uh well, because We don't really have to read the executive order because during the campaign, President Trump made all these anti-Muslim statements and he wanted to ban all Muslims.

So we have to interpret. The much, much, much more restrained executive order in light of his prior statements and his prior statements Just taint everything, and therefore we're striking it down. And I'm just like slapping my head in disbelief. of this kind of reasoning. All right, so so so help me here.

My dad was the senior lawyer in the New York Supreme Court, but I'm not a lawyer myself.

So I'm just looking at this in a common sense way. This is a federal judge. It sounds like something being made up. it it it sounds like uh someone is a suspect in a murder uh because they said really nasty things about somebody else. But it turns out the day of the murder, they were in another country completely they have a perfect alibi.

Yeah, but you said nasty things, so we're gonna find you guil I mean, it it sounds that bizarre. Is there any precedent? Is there any possible legal justification for what he's saying? I mean, is there yeah, this is commonly done in the courts and I'm just too ignorant to know it?

Well, the no, it is not commonly done. But there has been from time to time in cases, I can think in the mid-80s with the the moment of silence case from Alabama. where the Supreme Court has invalidated a law based on the intentions expressed by some of the lawmakers. And in that case, it was like, we want to bring prayer back to school.

So a moment of silence, that does it. And they invalidated it, even though you think like a moment of silence means it's a room full of silent kids, not Uh you know, and if they're praying, you know, the the contours of their skulls form a significant wall of separation between church and state. But no matter. I mean, and so from time to time there are decisions like this. The Hawaii federal judge.

took this to a whole new level.

So he said basically, even though, I mean, now this is my paraphrase of it. Even though the executive order is a legitimate exercise of the president Authority under Article two of the Constitution for foreign affairs and immigration and executing laws on immigration. And if you know, like Obama had done this, that would be okay, but because Candidate Trump made all these extravagant statements about banning Muslims. We're going to read this ban on just. several Muslim countries.

I mean, 90% of the Muslims in the world are not included in this ban. I mean, that's one thing.

So it's a poor fit if the president really wants to ban all Muslims, he skipped over like Indonesia, the largest. Yes, exactly. Things like this.

So, but he just says these negative statements taint the whole thing. And he then disregards the fact. That these are all the nations that are being talked about, Yemen, et cetera, are all. Uh uh you know, the the uh where the terrorist groups ISIS And Al-Qaeda are located.

So there's some logic, there's a nexus between the point of the executive order and What the goal is, and it's not a ban on all Muslims.

So it would be kind of like, I mean, to put this in a different context. If a state legislature or Congress voted to increase welfare spending And somebody stood up and said. I'm voting yes on this because Jesus said, help poor people. Would that invalidate it? Because This guy had a religious motive for voting for it.

And and so this is very poorly thought through. There's really no coherence to it because I just doubt that the kind of reasoning they're using here. They would apply. I mean, did somebody say, hey, you know, the nuns and Hobby Lobby, Obama was making negative statements about Christians.

So therefore, we're going to strike down those parts of Obamacare. Due to the establishment clause. The logic is, it just seems like it's sort of this one-case-only logic that they're using that I cannot imagine being applied anywhere else. No, I I really can't. And you've got again, this is coming from the president.

whether you like Donald Trump or not, he is the president. And you've got a carefully worded order. And the six nations that are being singled out were already being singled out under the Obama administration. This is not some new creation here. That's right.

And again, as you said, the Muslims from the vast majority of the rest of the world can can come in just like always.

So obviously, this you'd imagine, unless there's complete corporate legal insanity, this thing will get quickly shot down. But Jordan, let's just look at this on a larger level and focus back to the religious liberties issue. Help us with this. Is it within the religious liberties of any group Let's say it's a white supremacist group that claims to be Christian. or a radical Islamic group.

And they are preaching from their pulpits. Death to America. And they are explaining how to make Suicide bombs and blow yourself up and take out these evil unbelievers. Is that within? their their religious rights, uh does the government have a right to to uh survey what they're doing or s surveil what they're doing.

Is that an infringement of rights? This is how the Supreme Court differentiates between this. Back in, I think it was the late 1960s. The Supreme Court had a case called Brandenburg versus Ohio, which involved A Ku Klux Klan. like Grand Dragon or Imperial Dragon or whatever they're called.

Basically, making statements like what you're saying. It's sort of like, but they were all kind of generalized. Death to America, and I did some racist things, and I can't remember exactly what they were. But the Supreme Court said in order to criminalize them, they have to be basically talking about imminent lawless action.

So they have to say, let's go beat up that black guy right now. Let's go blow up that Jewish synagogue right now. But a generalized statement about black people being bad or Jewish people being bad or something like that, the Supreme Court said is not punishable.

So if there's actual criminal conspiracy terroristic killing people, blowing up buildings, that could all be prosecuted, that sort of thing. And so that's domestically how that would be handled with the freedom of speech. The one thing, too, that this judge, which I think, at least, you know, again, I'm no expert in foreign policy or foreign affairs. But generally, I do know from law school and from my studies since then. The courts give all sorts of deference to the President.

On foreign affairs, military affairs, things like this.

So, for this judge, just step into this. Based on campaign rhetoric, it's shocking to me. Yeah, it is shocking. And as a lawyer, I know you're speaking carefully, but you are not overstating. And it is shocking.

Hey, Jordan, thanks for joining us on short notice. Much appreciate it. It's fire we want, for fire we eat. 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.

Shouts, shouts of joy, and get your leaders down in the tents of the righteous of the Lord. Thanks for joining us on Thurly Jewish Thursday, Michael Brown here. The voice of my good friend Paul Wilbur leading us in Here's a little bit of what President Trump had to say at a rally last night in Nashville. And he's rightly outraged over this. He called this an unprecedented judicial overreach.

Even some have said, well, maybe not unprecedented, because judges have done crazy things, but absolute judicial overreach. But as Jordan Lawrence explained it to us from the ADF, It seems the nature of this and because it's from the President, it seems to me I'm not claiming to be expert in this either. an unprecedented judicial overreach. Um Speaking of supporters at a rally in Nashville Time reports. Um The President said the latest iteration was, quote, a watered-down version of the original executive order and that he would challenge the ruling up to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Quote, we're going to fight this terrible ruling. We're going to take our case as far as it needs to go in the Supreme Court, Trump said. We're going to win. We're going to keep our citizens safe. And regardless, we're going to keep our citizens safe.

Believe me. You don't think this was done by a judge for political reasons? No. This really makes us look weak, which by the way, we no longer are, believe me. Trump said he wanted to return to the first ban, which targeted even more immigrants and was also blocked by a federal court.

I think we ought to go back to the first ban and go all the way. That's what I wanted to do in the first place.

Now In the meantime, an interesting development is we just focus on radical Islam for a moment as we focus on the rise of populism, all right, where different nations are thinking in more nationalistic terms, for good or for bad. It can be very good to say America first We have to take care of our own people first, and then this way we can be a strong America and help the rest of the world. Great, that's fine. Good. Because if you, let's say, if you give away all your resources to help others and you end up with no resources of your own, how are you helping anyone long term?

You're not. On the other hand, populism, nationalism can be wrong. It can be xenophobic. It can be where America first means America first let the rest of the world rot. America first, who cares about the rest of the world?

And that's certainly wrong, and that's certainly contrary to God's ideal, and it's certainly contrary to even to the founding of our nation where we are going to be, we're intended to be a light to the world.

So There is a rising tide of nationalism in other countries, especially in Europe, as well, because of this feeling of. We're losing our country. There's so many immigrants bringing in another culture that we're losing our country. We can't be free to be who we are. As we look ahead to the future and the next generations, we don't see a future for our country.

So there's a rise of nationalism.

Some of it can be healthy, some of it can be very unhealthy. Obviously it was nationalism, a hyper nationalism that led to the rise of the Nazis, which in German Nazi is short for national.

So there can be a hyper-nationalism that's destructive, and there's a push. Strong nationalistic push with Marine Le Pen in France. Will she become the next prime minister? In that case, it would be a strong shift in a nationalistic way. In some ways, that would be helpful.

In recognizing that there's a dangerous Islamic invasion in terms of the future of France. On the other hand, it would tell a Jew, an Israeli Jew living there, you can't be a dual citizen. You either have to be French or Israeli, but you can't be both. That's an unhealthy nationalism in that respect. Uh in Germany, what's going to happen with Angela Merkel?

And will there be a backlash against her policies?

Well, the latest test was in Holland. And Geert Velders Was very close, and there was the possibility of his party actually winning the election.

Well, there was a massively large turnout.

Well, we d what did we have? Around 60% of Americans voted. of eligible voters voted in our last election, something like that, which is one of our lower turnouts, but we're never up like 80%.

Well, the Netherlands was over 80% in people voting. And what happened is There were strong gains for Vilder's Party. But not strong enough for him to lead.

Now, the party that won is going to have to make a coalition. And the the very Liberal Party took a real blow and went way down. But but but why don't I bring this up? I bring it up because builders wanted to shut down the mosques. in in in in the Netherlands.

builders wanted to make clear the the Muslims, the Moroccans that are coming in here and are raping our people and hurting our people, the bad ones, they're not welcome and so on. And we're a Dutch culture and a Dutch country, and that's who we're going to be. And On the one hand, he rose strongly, his party rose. On the other hand, he didn't win the victory, which some thought that he might. He became well known not just for his sharp.

shock of of blonde hair, which causes him to stand out. But he became well known for a video he put out some years ago, where he had verses from the Quran, followed by horrific violent acts carried out by professing Muslims around the world. Tremendously controversial. He's been under constant death threats since then, has to live under security at all times. And he's he's been banned from speaking in England and things like that.

So, on the one hand, I believe a lot of what he's saying is true and accurate. I believe a lot of his concerns are valid. On the other hand, things are so extreme. That may have turned off some of the other voters. Either they think it's fear-mongering and they don't believe that they could potentially lose their heritage and their nation and their distinctness to a complete other culture and other religion, or They like Vilger's nationalism, but it went too far for them.

We shall see. Uh everything is still in motion in terms of This battle is going to be going on for years. But Representative Stephen King Came under a lot of controversy by saying you can't grow your country with other people's babies. And he, yes, he could have phrased things better. He immediately clarified it on the news the next day, but what he was saying was this.

that Europe recognizes they have a declining birth rate. a precipitously declining birth rate. And it is well under the 2.1 babies. per woman during childbearing Age, which is roughly 18 to 44 years old, that for a civilization to sustain itself, it needs roughly two. Two point one.

Babies born to every woman during her years of childbearing. Otherwise, you do not have a sufficient. uh support system as the one generation goes older grows older, and you just have one cho child per couple or no children, there's no support base, there's no income coming in for Social Security, there's no ability for the younger generation to care for the older, and it means the extinction of a country. And you've got, from Russia to Japan to countries all over Europe, you've got birth rates 1.6, 1.5 lower.

So the Muslims, on the other hand, have high birth rates.

So how are you going to preserve your civilization? Easy. Bring in, just bring in immigrants and let them have lots of babies. The problem is they have a different culture. The problem is they have different goals.

The problem is they have different vision. And and if they grow and proliferate, And you have Muslims from other countries having lots of children. I'm not saying it's an evil thing for them to have lots of children. I'm simply saying that if you do that, And that's how your population stays strong, you'll end up with a different country. you'll end up with a different culture.

That's what Europe is looking at right now. And by the way, Uh do you know that in America right now The only way that we are able to sustain our proper birth rate. is by is by immigrant. That's just the reality right now. All right, friends, this is thelineoffire.org.

Check out our latest resources. It's my bottom line. I'm 62. Make Isaiah 62 your prayer. chapter for this day.

You're about to have your eyes and ears open to a whole new way to learn the biblical languages. 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.

Thanks so much for joining us on this thoroughly Jewish Thursday. I've been asking folks to read Isaiah 62, verses 1 through 7, and make it their prayer for Jerusalem, because today, It's my joyous day of turning 62. Never knew 62 could feel this young, and I'm blessed to be with you. On my birthday, 866-166. 348-7884 is the number to call 866-34 TRUTH.

If you have a Jewish Relate it. Question. All right. In a few minutes, we are going to connect with Israel was Dr. Randall Booth, a linguist, a Bible translator, a language teacher.

And we're going to talk about learning Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, learning Biblical Greek in a brand new way. It's going to be a fascinating discussion. I have been really looking forward to having Dr. Booth with me for a long time now. But let's just talk about this for a minute.

Learning the Biblical Languages. Should we bother with it? Should, I mean, God called me especially to focus on Old Testament-related languages, so Hebrew, Aramaic, and then the ancient Semitic languages. And as part of my calling as a Jewish believer, and for biblical scholarship, it's been invaluable. I I know some Greek, but I'm much stronger in Hebrew than Greek.

But these things can take a lifetime of study. Should we bother? It's so forbidding and foreboding and challenging. How do we go about it? Different scripts and different pronunciations and different sounds and different grammar.

Well, I think you're going to be encouraged today. And we're going to refer you to an online website where you can actually learn. The biblical languages online with these great courses.

So, we're gonna find out about that shortly. And if you've got questions regarding Hebrew or Greek, or how the languages work, or you've heard this, or you've heard that. We're going to have a fascinating discussion. You can call in 866-3666-8666-66. Hey, my dear friend Scott Volk.

Hey, buddy. Thanks for calling. Hey man, I was just in my car listening to you and I heard your challenge. At the end of the hour, for everybody to read Isaiah 62 for your birthday, I'd like to wish you a happy birthday. and encourage your listeners to do something that I'm going to do.

I think for your sixty-second birthday, Everybody that loves you and listens to you should send $62 to ask Dr. Brown to help keep you on the air. What do you think about that?

Well, that's awesome, man. If I said that, that would have been the flakiest thing in history. And I I once heard a guy when he turned forty asked everyone to send in forty dollars, but I thought, oh, come on. But for someone else to call in unsolicited. And suggest it.

I love it. I think that's an awesome thing. I think it's an awesome thing. I'm going to do it as soon as I hang up, and I just want to tell you, man. 62 never looks so good on anybody, and what you're doing on the radio and around the world is super inspiring to me.

Happy birthday, and I want to encourage all your listeners to do what I'm doing. 62 would be a great amount of money to send to help keep you on the air. Hey, hey, you should post it on Facebook and send it out to everyone you know. That's not a bad idea. And what you don't know, Scott, What you don't know is that I just referred someone to give to your ministry in the last hour.

So you didn't know that. But he called up and he wanted to know about Yeh Yehi uh Rabbi uh Yehhil Eckstein's work. And I said, Oh, it's genuine. It does go where it says, but he's not a believer in Yeshua. And if you're going to give, give through a believer in Jesus there.

So I just just suggested by the way, Scott, Yeah. Actually, I'm lying about my age. I'm 162. I'm actually 162. You may want to revise that.

Hey, thanks for the iPod. Happy birthday. Thanks. Shake the nation, change the world, change the world 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.

Have you heard it? of the Institute for Biblical Languages and Translation. Have you heard about it? You're about to hear about it. You're about to get introduced to a whole new way of learning.

And I'm thrilled to finally get on the air with me, Dr. Randall Booth, calling from Israel. Dr. Booth, thanks so much for joining us on the broadcast today. Um Are you hearing me?

I should ask. I'm hearing you. Can you hear me? Yes, fine.

Okay. And I'm calling you blanked out. I'm calling from Jerusalem. And I'm hearing you loud and clear, so that's good. Excellent.

Excellent. Before we talk about the Institute for Biblical Languages and Translation. Tell us a little bit about your background, not just as a linguistics scholar. But serving as a Bible translator, where did you serve? How did you get a passion to do this?

We could be here a long time, but in. In standing on one leg. Um The Lord said Saved me out of the end of the 60s. And I spent time witnessing on the street, wondered what to do, ended up going back to school, learning Greek and Hebrew, prayed about what to do, ended up in Bible translation. The Lord led through a number of different ways and ended up in Jerusalem learning Hebrew in the early seventies.

And then into Africa where uh We served in Sudan, Kenya, and Chad. All right. So when when you were in these countries, We're talking about a whole different aspect of Bible translating. in that There are different cultures that don't have things in common. You've got words like snow and they've never seen snow.

You can talk about a lamb of God, but does a lamb have the same sacrificial Aspects, qualities there. You may be talking about a much lower level of literacy in general.

So you've got a whole bunch of obstacles. What were some of the greatest challenges you faced in an environment like that? Uh oh my goodness. B Well, first of all, you should know that most translations are done as a team. It isn't just one person goes in probably even William Carey.

I don't I haven't read his biography, but two hundred years ago, I'm sure he had Language helpers that were helping him in his translation, and you have a team, so. As an outsider, You do not control a language as a mother tongue, so you're working with mother tongue translators and. You want them trained Um The The specifics of Yeah. How to translate a foreign item in a language, there's a lot of ways to handle that. Those are probably not.

the big thing, but Um Well, one of them is just being in a country and staying alive. In Sudan, there was a civil war that got started. that was probably more crucial than whether to have snow. And yes, in Southern Sudan, they didn't have snow, but it did hail a couple of times while we were there. Uh-huh.

Yes, so the amazing challenges. Obviously, you said just staying alive. Was there a great hunger for the word of God that you encountered among the people there? Um I wish I could say yes. but most of the people didn't know what we were doing there.

At the beginning. Oh, it's like it's really nice, but how many how many Western Pale-faced families come and live in the middle of nowhere and. And so they were just I think they were happy to have us there. But they didn't really have a um They didn't really have a hunger for the Word of God. It was an unchurched area.

Well, no, wait, I'm sorry, I misspoke totally. Yeah. there was not a lot of evangelism going on. We were in a Catholic area, so we were working with the Catholic Church in the translation project. And there already was a Catholic Church, so.

So they're very liturgical and and They're not They were happy as pieces of translation came out. You could hear wonderful testimonies. I remember hearing an old man as the book of James was read, he says, Wow, we hear that, we know that's the word of God.

So that's nice, but they weren't expecting it ahead of time. They didn't know what to expect. All right, so you labored there for many years. And then you end up doing ad advanced studies. Where did you get your PhD?

I went to UCLA because I was from California. And uh that For Semitic languages and Hebrew, it's a nice school, a good school, but The thing that made it really work for me is that I had already been in Israel. about a decade earlier. And Had internalized and learned Hebrew while I was in Israel. And so that made the training, you know, the technical training you get when you do a doctorate is to learn how to.

How to apply methodologies to critically analyze problems, et cetera. but the foundation needs to be a good grasp of the language. And I already had that before I did the doctoral training. And I would always I always have been telling people for forty years that, that's crucial. All right.

So what's the difference between going on and getting advanced academic degrees and really having a grasp of the primary language you're dealing with itself. Um The I think you're asking me to clarify what I was talking about. And when a person does an advanced degree, a graduate degree, you are learning how to engage in the world of scholarship.

So you are Um You are learning. what has been studied, what has been said before, and you're learning how to critically evaluate ideas for strengths and weaknesses. Dark. the raw material are the ancient texts. And Nothing can replace A good grasp of the ancient texts.

Imagine somebody that's writing a dissertation on the family life in the age of Shakespeare, and he goes to some of Shakespeare's plays and tries to extract what do we learn about family life. From a play of Shakespeare. But he can't speak English. Um And it's painful for him to parse the verbs in Shakespeare or whatever. That's what I was talking about in terms of the difference between learning methodologies, which is what you do in a graduate school, and learning a language, which is Um Um In most literatures, you do that at an earlier level high school, university, But with biblical languages, for some reason, we save that.

Or um our seminaries and graduate schools. Yeah, and then in a way that pretty much everyone could understand that's been to a an academic school, Bible school, seminary. Instead of really learning the word better and being more familiar with the scriptures and more immersed in the scriptures, you become more immersed in theology. and various scholars' opinions about various subjects.

So it's the same parallel that with With language study, we could do the same thing. Instead of really immersing ourselves in the languages, We immerse ourselves in the critical scholarly discussion, which again, as you say, should come. second So There's no substitute. for knowing the languages well. And over the years, because you've not just translated, you've taught.

You've seen what what works better.

So, we're going to have time to explore this. We'll refer people to the website for the online school. But we've just got about two minutes now. In short, How have you been able to take an ancient text And help people to learn it in a living way, an ancient language, and help them to learn it in a living way. Um Well God has one very simple rule for language learning.

It is: you learn a language. by using a language. Ingrained in every child as they grow up. And I've shared that with many people, especially monolinguals. And I will meet Americans and they'll raise their hands and they'll say, wait a minute.

That sounds nice. You learn a language by using a language, but how can you use the language if you don't already know it? And that's the ironic kind of twist to the whole problem. And so with an ancient language, it's no different than any other language. Every language is equally dead in a classroom.

If you're in a classroom learning French, And inside those walls, nobody knows French, maybe except the teacher. then that's as if it were a dead language. And finding a way to get that language inside the person is. The trick. And in that sense, Dead languages are no different from living languages.

Although we do have the option with living languages, there are communities that use it. People can go visit, spend a year, spend a summer. And we cannot go visit Isaiah, unfortunately, but we can read his word. Got it. All right, we come back.

We're going to unpack that more. How to do it. And I've got some questions for Dr. Booth. I want to know his perspective about the language of Jesus, Yeshua.

and backgrounds to the New Testament and It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

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

Again, for joining us on this Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, this is Michael Brown. I'm speaking with Dr. Randall Booth. who is calling us from Jerusalem.

So it's uh 10.20 or is it is it 9.20? What time is it now for you? It's only 9:20. You had a time change. Yeah, daylight savings time.

Yeah, because I was in Israel two weeks ago and it was seven hours difference.

Now it's back to six.

Okay, good. I was feeling bad. You go back to seven in a couple of weeks. All right. Got it, got it.

Okay, so uh As we think about learning languages, So the languages that we know best are the languages we learned growing up. And when you were six months old, a year old, two years old, no one was telling you, okay, here's the grammatical function and this is the subject, this is the object, and this is the perfect form of the verb. You just learned it by being in that environment. And to this day, if someone really wants to learn a language, they go and immerse themselves. They live in another country.

They live with people who only speak another language. They're immersed, they're around it all the time. That's the best way to do it.

So, the challenge is. Because we don't have Speakers of Biblical Hebrew today. We don't have speakers of Koine Greek or classical Greek for Satujan. We don't have any of that today. How then can we help people, and what have you developed in your institute, to help them to learn these languages, these ancient languages, in a more living way?

Excellent questions. First of all, in the early stages in our classrooms, we've discovered that it helps to have two teachers. Uh so we have Two p People that control the language in the classroom. And it's true we don't have mother tongue speakers of these ancient languages today, but that doesn't mean we can't speak and use them in the classroom in the same way that in many places of the world someone might study, let's say, French or Russian in the United States, and the teacher may not be mother tongue French or Russian.

So imagine you're learning Russian and you have two Americans. speaking Russian in the classroom. Uh so that's Trick number one is we have multiple teachers and There are actually many techniques that second language acquisition Researchers have come up with over the years. Last hundred and fifty years has seen some pretty major shifts. In how people learn languages, developments in techniques.

That have gone far beyond the old grammar translation method that was used, say, 200 years ago. Uh All You can simply ask the question: what helps a human being learn a language? Prevents a language, what prevents a person or slows down the language learning process, and so you And amass a number of techniques that enhance language learning, and you stay away from the different Obstacles that prevent people from learning a language rapidly and internalizing it. And Um That's, I mean, that's on, again, that's just a fast answer. People write whole books on this, so I don't know how much detail to go into.

No, no, this is great. This is helpful. And to make sure I do this, and don't forget, if people want to go to a website, To find out how they can actually download online classes for Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Greek. What's the website to go to? For online classes, Well if they want if they want to download if they want to download classes I was I I I downloaded uh a free uh introductory module module to Koine Greek.

I thought that was just the same site I was downloading it from, and then you you download everything.

So you're not learning in a live on online way, but you're watching the slides, you're hearing the words spoken, you're learning through pictures and things like that. Oh. Is there a way to do it? Or is it your program that they need to be there in Jerusalem? The program we have at the Institute for Biblical Languages and Translation is an immersion live in program.

That's an eight point five month program. In some senses, you might say it's modeled after the Monterey Institute. It's like um If you've got an emergency and you're going to pull out all the stops, And do whatever it takes to make sure the language learning is as efficient as possible, what do you do?

So that's how we built that eight and a half month program. Um That's in Israel. If you wanted to download a first picture series, I would go to the Biblical Language Center, and there's a program both for Greek and also for Biblical Hebrew, and it is based on pictures and listening. That would be Biblical Language Center. Dot com And Those will take you in, and the languages is accurate and authentic as.

As far as we are able to know the ancient language.

So um That's what I would recommend. Excellent. And what kind of results do you see when somebody's with you for eight and a half months? And they're say an average learner When when they leave, what what kind of fluency do they have, say, with with Biblical Hebrew or reading the the the Bible in the original Hebrew? Um The The The first time the full eight and a half month program is going to run is going to be this year.

We have done different modules. Ah In place. Before this, Um So so All of the things we're doing are things that we've known, but we have not put it together in an eight and a half month package before. The eight and a half months has been designed so that when they leave, we expect them to be reading the Hebrew Bible and have reached a level of Hebrew so that they could read a commentary, say something like Da'at Mikra, and they would be able to read that. which is written in Hebrew.

And that's sort of a test. Um Can not just to read the Biblical Hebrew text, but can they start thinking in Hebrew? Have they reached that first plateau to be thinking in Hebrew? And so that's what we're aiming at. What would I like to see?

The expected outcome is, let's say, two-thirds of the class will will reach that level successfully. The other third, it's not like they're going to be unsuccessful, but you always have a you know, you always have a a slope and a um different kinds of Curves that will cover a whole group of people.

So if you have 20 people, then some of them are still going to be struggling at the end of eight and a half months. And uh but they still will have a massive amount of Hebrew learning in place. Excellent. Excellent. And if folks want to find out about that program, do they go to the same place?

If they want to find out about that program, they would go to IBLT.ac Should get you there, but the simpler, another simple way is. called Four two twenty Foundation Four two two zero foundation dot com All right, then side. That's the foundation that is Supporting this new program. It's made up of people, seed company you may have heard of, different people that have been interested in seeing Hebrew training for Bible translators.

So, this could be right, this could be a very major breakthrough for a lot of folks. I've got some questions. For Dr. Booth. here.

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.

Welcome, friends, to the line of fire on this Thursday Jewish Thursday broadcast. This is Michael Brown. I'm speaking with Dr. Randall Booth. He is a Semitic scholar.

He is a Bible translator, and he is heading up a program to help immerse people in biblical languages in Israel.

so that they can better be equipped to teach scripture and to translate. Scripture. Dr. Booth, my PhD in Near Eastern languages and literatures was from New York University. And although I learned modern Hebrew in college, I was interested in Biblical Hebrew.

So I taught myself Biblical Hebrew out of a textbook. I used Thomas Lambden's book and then kind of struggled to stay up with my modern Hebrew classics because I wasn't so interested in that.

So there was a complete dichotomy. Here's the living language. Here's the ancient language. And then over the years, as learning other languages, whether it was Akkadian or Ugaritic, these other languages, they're ancient. No one thought of.

Teaching anything in living language in a living way, but more and more teaching. Teachers now, even at seminary level, are embracing this. A friend of ours, Helene DeLaire, at Denver Theological Seminary. uh has has had great success teaching people Biblical Hebrew in a more living way. And obviously you're you're doing this, you're living this out.

At the same time, though. We're connecting with an ancient text in that the culture was different. and the ways of thinking were were different.

So do you find That when people learn Hebrew as a living language, that it also helps them somehow connect to the biblical mentality better? Or is that just a whole other leap entirely? Um I think I think something happens at a certain stage, there's a kind of critical mass that happens with the language, Where it comes together and you start working within that language, where the definitions of words. Are themselves and they're against all the other choices that are in that language. You don't go outside of the language to To define or verify something, the language takes over for itself.

And then we have all of these ancient texts, and they become our. our best documentation for the culture. How does the family work? What did they plant? How did they live during the year?

How were they worshiping? We have our biblical texts. We slowly are getting more texts that give us more of the background to understand Antiquity and to understand the way they thought. And there are amusing things that are in the Bible.

Some by accident, some by the fact that the culture. Has Has not developed some of the things that we might hold dear.

Some of them are accident. The Bible has dogs, it doesn't have cats. Uh There's no word for the elephant in the canonical scriptures. Ironically, Maccabees was not put in the Hebrew Bible. The Greeks kept it.

So they've got their word for elephant in their canonical text. The Hebrew Bible doesn't have the word pil because it wasn't canonical. That's an accident. But there are many things that slowly grow, they slowly change. Um but well We could spend a lot of time on that, but uh that will take us off track, I think.

Yeah, yeah, very interesting. And and by the way, one thing I I I should clarify. Because I studied with mainly Jewish scholars, unless I was studying Arabic and or something else. But even then, I often had Jewish scholars teaching. Because they were used to a certain way of learning, and in the yeshiva, some of them had background there in rabbinic study, that they were always quoting the Hebrew.

that when I was in a seminary setting and I would quote Hebrew to other professors, they weren't used to it.

So even though it wasn't conversational Hebrew, it was living in that sense and that did help me to immerse myself in it. We come back. I'd like to ask Dr. Booth his take on some questions about the language of Jesus Yeshua. And was it Hebrew?

Was it Aramaic? Was it both? How does that help us understand the Greek New Testament? 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 Free4Truth. If you have a question for my guest, Dr. Randall Booth. Dr. Booth, I I read some of your Work many years ago when I was interacting with the Jerusalem school and having a little bit different take on some questions of.

of Hebrew background to the New Testament or Aramaic background, et cetera. And I've always respected your scholarship, and you've continued to work in these things over the years.

So in in your view, When the Greek says that this was spoken in the Hebrew language, say Paul. Spoke in the Hebrew language in Acts 22, as an example, or this would be in the Hebrew language. Can that term Sometimes mean in the language of the Hebrews, which would have been Aramaic in some cases or Or, in your view, does it always mean Hebrew?

Well, um The Greek word Um Evraique or Um Evraisti Is a Is a word that refers to Hebrew and I recently done an article with someone else where we surveyed all of the ancient references to that, and I came to the conclusion the only The only thing that we know for sure is that it refers to Hebrew, and there was, we found no example where it. It had to refer to Aramaic. We found many examples of mistakes that are in the scholarly literature, but In Acts twenty-two, when it says that Paul turned to the crowd and spoke in Hebrew and the crowd became quiet, that was a classic trilingual situation. They had a riot. The riot was almost certainly in Aramaic.

In the temple, you have people coming from the futsot from the diaspora, and the Romans come in, they stop it. When they drag Paul away, they're assuming he's an Aramaic speaker because when he turns to them and says in Greek, Can I speak to them? The Roman officer turns and says, What? You speak Greek. He says, Hey, I'm a Roman citizen.

I'm sorry, I got that out of sync, but He's It says, may I speak to the people? And he says yes. And then he turns to the people. Who Are now silenced and quiet because he speaks in Hebrew.

So we had an Aramaic riot, a conversation with the officer in Greek, and a speech in Hebrew. Aramaic would not have surprised anybody because somebody coming from Syria, from today Lebanon, for them to speak Aramaic was nothing. It was a language used all over the Middle East. But he spoke in Hebrew because that was the language that you discussed. How then should a Jew live?

And uh he did it fl fluently. Of course, he studied under Gamliel. What what more would you expect from Uh from someone like that. And so that's just a classic case of Hebrew meaning Hebrew. Got it.

All right, so as far as you understand then, If if Jesus was with his disciples in Galilee. They're sitting around. having a meal together. Would he have most likely been speaking to them in Aramaic, in your view? Would he have.

Use Hebrew, if he was having a debate with Pharisees in Jerusalem. How do you see it? Um well The area. Our records for first century teachers Is pretty much all Hebrew.

So All of our rabbinic parables, they're all in Hebrew.

So I would assume that his teaching, not just a debate with a Pharisee from Jerusalem, but when he He's what is he noted for? He's noted for teaching in parables. What was the language of the parable in antiquity? In Jewish culture, parables were always taught in Hebrew.

Now, all of our records are in Mishnaic Hebrew. It's a developed form. It's a colloquial Hebrew, but nevertheless, I'm assuming his teaching was in Hebrew. When it comes to meals, when it comes to languages, I'm not even sure it was always done in one language.

Some of it would depend on Who you're talking to, maybe what their first language was. I suspect that for many of the disciples, They would switch in and out of Hebrew and Aramaic and would hardly even realize they were doing it. A lot would depend on the situation. Greek, They were probably more limited in, but still they would be fluent in Greek. Any of them that had done business.

Would have Uh, develop some Greek to do business, you want to be a contractor in Sipori, um, you know, renovate a house, build a mikveh, whatever, uh, you're going to contract that out.

Well, the mikveh, maybe you would do it in uh Hebrew or Aramaic, but the uh. the other buildings in Greek.

So You have three languages in use, and people have to know what it's like to live in a tri- or multilingual situation to appreciate that. In southern Sudan, for instance, we had a tribal language. There was a I worked with Luo, there was a greater language around that well, several local languages, but also the national language was Arabic, and then the international school language. Was English? And people, you'd sit down, you'd be having coffee with people, and you would go in and out of all three languages.

I suspect that happened with Jesus as well. Yeah, ab absolutely. You know, you have say countries like Belgium where it's just normal for the people to have three languages And conduct business in multiple languages. It's very different than most Americans relate to. Maybe if they grew up in a bilingual home, And the parents who go from speaking Spanish to English to back and forth to mixing things, and they may have grown up with that, but you're saying it would have been a more flexible.

Sitting there. And when, in your view, when Peter gets up to preach in Acts the second chapter, What language is he speaking? You've got Jews from around the world, barring the supernatural element and the different languages that were spoken at that moment by the disciples. Under the inspiration of the Spirit, would he preach in Greek as the most commonly known language, Aramaic or Hebrew? What's your feeling?

Look here. Before I would want to answer that for the record, I would want to. Reread the whole passage again. because any one of the three were possible, although I would suspect Greek and Aramaic are your main candidates there because of speaking out A pilgrim feast where you've got people coming from all over the world. Right, right.

And again, we're, you know, I appreciate you. Speaking with more authority when you've researched something carefully. But you are also, you have a great advantage over me. In that you are fluent in New Testament Greek, and I'm at a much lower level of New Testament Greek. I can use all the scholarly resources and dig in and understand things.

But here you are, you're immersed in Hebrew these many years. You you know Aramaic well, but you've been immersed in Hebrew these many years. And now you're you're immersed in Greek as well. when you're reading this We understand, say, for example, the language of the book of Revelation is an odd kind of Greek. It's clearly a a Semitized Greek.

It's a Greek with. With certain biblical Hebrew grammar and background.

So, as you're reading text, Can you see, oh, okay, you know, the Greek is inspired. God gave us this text. We appreciate it. We reverence it as God's word. But I can hear Hebrew behind it.

I can hear Aramaic behind it. Does that happen? It happens all the time, and it happens in ways people don't always understand. I'll give you a couple examples that Surprise students because they've all heard, oh, John is the easy gospel.

Well, John. Is very smooth Greek. The vocabulary is limited, but it's actually quite nice Greek. And Luke, everybody says, oh, Luke is the best Greek writer.

Well, that's true. The first paragraph of Luke, the first paragraph of Acts are very nice. Typical Greek, the same kind of Greek that Josephus writes. But When you get into the gospel, it's schizophrenic. It is up and down.

You get. You get the strangest kinds of phenomenon sometimes where you're. Seeing good Greek vocabulary, or you'll see You You'll be in one paragraph, and it's very nice Greek. And the next paragraph, all of a sudden, it's like you're reading the Septuagint. And this is Luke.

And he's going um Yeah. You um See how to put it in we're all Let's say you get a quote. From something you can see, he's He's quoting or referring to something very biblical with. Hebrew idiom, and then the word order will be flipped into Greek. And you find things like that happening in Luke.

You go to Matthew. I happen to think Matthew saw Mark as and I think our canonical gospel was written in Greek. But Poppias tells us that the Jerusalem church had a Hebrew gospel. And um Exactly how that gets into our canonical Matthew Gospel of is maybe a little bit longer story, but at any the point I wanted to get to is that Matthew is writing in Greek and he will use a phenomenon from Aramaic storytelling and he's writing Greek.

Alright, stay stay right stay right there. This is fascinating stuff and I hope you're able to follow. We'll be right back with Dr. Randall Booth. 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.

Boy, I wish I had hours to talk with Dr. Random Reed, these sources. Such amazing information regarding the languages of the Bible and the thought process behind them.

So, Dr. Booth, you were saying you can be reading Matthew in Greek, and the New Testament Gospels, we have it, we believe, I agree with you, that it was originally written in Greek, and yet we have an ancient tradition that says that he preserved the Hebrew sayings, a collection perhaps of the sayings of Jesus in Hebrew, that Matthew had that as well. And it seems that some of the early Jewish believers in the opening centuries had Hebrew documents as well. But you say you could be reading Matthew in Greek, and then there's a change in the way the Greek is structured, the feel of it, and to you it goes back to Aramaic story. storytelling Are there things, sir, where you can look at a particular word in Greek?

And yes, it. it it is it is what it is in Greek, it's accurate, but perhaps if we Put it in a more submitted context or Hebraic way of thinking that we get more insight into it. Could you give us perhaps an example of that? Uh Well, Uh I can Um I guess I'll give a simple one. First of all, I'll clarify.

When I was talking about the styles shifting, I was referring to Luke. And the, but when I was referring to the storytelling feature from Aramaic, that was Matthew's Greek style. That's what's so strange is that. Is that this is coming not from a source? This is actually Matthew's way of writing Greek.

He wrote it, he stuck in that edine, edine, bedine, which is Aramaic. The Greek word is tot, and he uses it like glue, like a conjunction in his gospel. Very typical Aramaic style. But You asked for an example. I'm going to give you one that, well, there's lots of them.

You could go to binding and loosing, and people chase all over wondering what it meant. Jesus didn't have to interpret it because within the culture, everybody knew what this means: le esur, lehatio, asur, mutar, what is forbidden, what is permitted. And so there's an idiom. That's in the text. And you can see from the surrounding of the text, the context, that they knew what it meant.

So Um There is the culture. You have to read that Greek text according to the first century Jewish culture. You get the meaning. And that's now in your Greek lexica, but it hasn't been maybe enunciated clearly enough because there's still a lot of people speculating, chasing all over what in the world does this mean to bind and to loose. Another one related, similar, it's also a halakhic legal discussion.

Jesus says that I've not come to. Abolish But two Um For Phil Well, what does fulfil mean? And Again, it's you need to know the cultural background because one rabbi, we have quotes. We have, for instance, Mechilta, some of the early Tanayim. One rabbi turns to the other and says, How do you establish?

Or fulfill the scripture. You know, what do you do? How do you live this out? Or what do you teach about this? What is the deep meaning?

And right after Jesus has talked about this fulfillment, what do we get? You've heard it said.

Now I'm going to tell you what it means. You've heard it said, now I'm going to tell you what it means.

So that is Jesus. Fulfilling scripture. That's a first century Jewish idiom. Yeah, and just for our listeners, really quickly, how would you explain the contextual Jewish meaning of to bind and to loose?

Well, it means to make a decision as to what is What is forbidden and what is permitted. And it's something you see in the book of Hebrews. It says that Christians have to grow in maturity, they have to learn. What it is. To decide what is right and wrong, life on this planet isn't easy, and deciding what is right and wrong is a spiritual challenge that God, in His wisdom, has turned over to His people.

It's really always been this way, and Jesus turned it over to His disciples and said, What you bind is going to be bound in heaven, what you loose is going to be loosed in heaven, and God is going to entrust this with you. It's a spiritual challenge. That's that the church has had to live with for its whole life. This is how God deals with people. We have to, through practice, learn what is good and right, and it's a lifelong struggle.

And it's something that, again, when you read the context, say, of Matthew 16, makes perfect sense. Dr. Bruth, I'm sure there's so much more. we could get into, but it would be wonderful if someone hears this and says, you know, I I want to devote my life to Bible translation. I want to devote my life to learning and teaching the scriptures in the original languages.

And they could start at your new immersion program. program would be great if one of our listeners is one of the first there.

So tell us again where to go to find out about this eight and a half month biblical language emergent program right there in Israel.

Okay, the two. Websites that you can go to are the number four two. Two. Foundation. Dot com And that is a that will house this other website that should take you inside that directly.

And the other one is. I B L T Dot And that's right, and I'm looking at it. Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. I typed in 4220foundation.com, the whole word for the whole world. What I love is that you've got the brilliant scholarship, but it's with a heart for the Lord and a heart to reach the lost.

Thank you so much for your efforts. May God's grace be yours. It's been great talking to you. Thanks for calling us. And you're welcome, and thank you for hosting this.

It's been a pleasure. Dr. Brown. All right, my joy. All right, friends, again, four two two zero foundation.

com. This is Dr. Randall Booth. Check out his writings, Randall Booth, B U T H online. All right, you know what?

I'm going to grab one quick call. George in Dallas, Texas. Real quick, what's your question? Yeah, my question was in the Old Testament where it says that the scribes they explained the scriptures. Scriptures to the people.

Most translations of the Bible says that they explain the scriptures, wouldn't that be better translated that they interpreted or ex uh translated the scriptures from Aramaic to Hebrew or rather from Hebrew to Aramaic? Yeah, so so what happened is after the Babylonian exile, That there were some Jews that had spoken Aramaic.

Now, this became their language because they were. You know, a whole generation or two in exile, and they grew up there.

So when they heard Hebrew being spoken, they didn't understand everything.

So it's Nehemiah 8:8. Different translations they read from the scroll of the teaching of God, translating it and giving the sense.

So they understood the reading. uh another translation that uh they explained it imparting insight, thus the people gain understanding from what was read.

So it either means that they they had to explain it because the people didn't know the language Or They had to explain it because the people just didn't understand.

Okay, explain and it's more just like a teacher or preacher would today. The Hebrew could go in either direction, but it's an excellent question, George. I appreciate it. All right, friends, we are out of time. This is the website, thelineofire.org.

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