Who is Justice Neil Gorsuch? And an Interview with Joseph Farah About the End of the World

I've got some thoughts about revival in America, and yes, we're going to focus on the new Supreme Court justice.

Okay. 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. Welcome, welcome to the line of fire today. President Trump announcing Neil Gorsuch as his nominee for the Supreme Court, a man who was unanimously confirmed earlier by the Senate when he was appointed as a Circuit Court Justice.

We've got a lot to talk about with him, and I want to reflect as well with you on revival. America needs revival, and America needs spiritual and moral restoration. I want to give you some hope in that regard as well. 866-372-365-3. 34 Truth number to call 866-348-7884.

Democrats are saying that they will block this nominee and fight against him. Hollywood elites weighing in in the harshest terms against this justice. Pro-abortionists upset. All of that is a very good sign. All of that is a very good sign, meaning that Donald Trump has done what he promised he would do.

And I posted this yesterday that during the Republican primaries, I questioned how deeply committed he was to pro-life. And I said, is he waffling on this? He says, one thing one day and another thing another day. What's his real position? As time went on, he convinced me that he had had a change of heart regarding this and that he was pro-life.

And he has done exactly what he said he would do. He promised he would appoint a strong constitutionalist, someone in the mold of Antonin Scalia, although again he was a unique man in many ways, and someone who would be strongly pro-life. And even though Justice Gorshitz has not ruled on an abortion-related case, he has written extensively on the intrinsic value of every human life, for example, writing against euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

So Donald Trump is done. Let's give him credit. He has done exactly what he promised he would do, and he's done it very quickly. And I do believe I'm reading an article in the New York Post that says the same thing, that the Democrats are digging their own grave by constantly trying to oppose every step that Donald Trump is taking, and here by trying to oppose this justice.

So again, I'll have more to say on that in a little while. And you can weigh in with your calls, 866-348-7884. But let me first say this. Today's February 1st. If you're listening to the show live, it's February 1st, 2017.

So yesterday was January 31st. And January 31st, 1997, so 20 years ago yesterday. was one of the most sacred services I've ever been in in my entire life, and I've been in countless thousands of meetings over the years. And yet this was one of the most sacred services I was ever in in the midst of the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida, which lasted from 1995 to 2000, and the fruit of it remains around the world to this day. But that knight stood out among other knights.

There is a video. With an excerpt of the service that is two hours long. It is an excerpt of the altar call. and the altar ministry. Yeah, it is that's how intense and long the service was.

People are on their knees during this video for a couple of hours repenting and seeking God and praying and encountering the love of God and encountering the beauty of Jesus the Savior and running from their sins and from the judgment of hell. It's very, very intense to watch. We posted on our Facebook page after a grad had referenced how he went there 20 years ago, grad from a ministry school, and how God changed his life then. And uh Anyway, once I posted it People began to post that, yeah, I was there and my life changed 20 years ago. Yeah, I was there and God put a fire in my heart to go to the nations.

I've been to 48 nations preaching Jesus since then. Yeah, I was there and I repented and I've never been the same. People say, well, what was really going on? I remember the critics said, what was really going on? It's a lot of emotion, a lot of weeping, a lot of, it's just a.

manifestations of no no no. God was mating people. God was meeting people in a lasting, powerful way. If we see the Holy Spirit poured out in that dimension in different parts of America, the whole nation, can be shaken. We'll be right back.

It's fire we want, for fire we please. 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. Thank you so much for being part of the broadcast. We really are serious about gospel-based moral and cultural revolution. Not the way the world does it, not with guns and knives and anger and hatred and brutality and force and intimidation, but rather... through the power of the Spirit, overcoming evil with good, overcoming lies with truth, overcoming darkness with light.

Seeing the gospel triumph in hearts and lives, and through that, bringing about a moral and cultural revolution. I'm committed to it. I live with this. Following Jesus makes me into a counterculture revolutionary, living by principles of another kingdom that we believe. are in the best interest of everybody.

And that when people really turn to the Lord and know him, it is liberating and freeing, and we come into our real purposes, the purposes for which God made us. And the reason that we need revival. And seasons of awakening and refreshing. The reason that we need these things is because, as human beings, we get cold. As human beings, we have ups and downs.

As human beings, we get discouraged. As human beings, we can lose ground. We can get caught up by the things of the world or the flesh. And we need renewal. That's why America has had seasons of awakening, the Great Awakening in the 1730s and 40s, and the Second Great Awakening at the beginning of the 19th century, the early 1800s, and the prayer revival of 1857, 58, and various outpourings, Azusa Street in the early 20th century, the Browns Revival in 1995, 2000, other movements.

We're not talking about a series of special meetings that we call revival meetings. You have that a lot in the South. Hey, we're holding a revival next month. You can no more hold a revival than you can hold a hurricane. You can no more schedule a revival than you can schedule an earthquake.

Revival is not something that people work up. Revival is something God sends down. But right now There is something happening in America. Interestingly enough, The election of Donald Trump, even though he was certainly not looked at as a bastion of Christianity and a moral example himself over the years, His pushing back against the system, his pushing back against what seemed to be the inevitable direction America was going, has encouraged others that there can be pushback as well, whether you voted for Donald Trump or not. Seize the moment and recognize the hour in which we're living and this season of real.

Change. 8663487884. Just a few comments on Neil Gorsuch. As the president's nominee for Supreme Court, North Carolina Values Coalition says they are thrilled by President Trump's nomination tonight. This was posted last night.

All North Carolinians should appreciate Judge Gorsuch's immense respect for our founding documents and his support for the values of life, liberty, and religious freedom. Again, to make sure you understand. Probably most of you are familiar with this, but perhaps some are not. The concept of a constitutionalist. a textualist, an originalist.

The question is, is the Constitution a living document? Guidelines from the Founding Fathers to now be reinterpreted and reapplied in every generation, and as American morality changes and American sensibility changes, that we now change our understanding of this document so that it's reinterpreted with every generation, and that's what the courts should do. Or are the courts beholden? To the intent of the founding fathers, who had a vision for America, and their job is not to interpret the Constitution in a new way, but rather to apply the principles of the Constitution. Conservatives would say, just like with Scripture, we apply the principles of Scripture to our lives.

And then in the secondary way, we apply the principles of the Constitution to American life. A liberal would say, no, no, we look at the Bible, but now through the lens of modernity. And that We're going to change moral standards and things like that because we know better now. We're more enlightened.

So we're more enlightened. We know more. We see things better than the founding fathers did.

So the Constitution, in that sense, is going to be a living document that reinterpreted. That's where we have a lot of the conflicts that we do. And that's why Judge Gorschutz is such a good pick from everything I understand. is such a good pick because he is a strong constitutionalist. Like Kelly.

Yeah. with um firstliberty.org. It says, as I'm sure you know, President Trump just announced his nomination. I wanted you to know as one of our closest Liberty friends that our attorneys have for weeks poured over Gorsuch's record on religious freedom. This is the email they sent out.

As I've recently written to you, this is part of our ongoing effort to give analysis and input. And he says this, the big question they asked, does this candidate have a proven record of upholding the Constitution, especially as it relates to religious freedom? He says, I'm pleased to tell you that Judge Gorschritz has just such a promising record. In fact, he has authored or joined multiple landmark opinions upholding religious freedom.

So they feel very good about him as someone who would uphold religious freedom. And LifeNews.com, so a strong pro-life website, they're also very, very positive on him as well. A Jim Garrity writing on National Review says, Gore such a good pick. For any Trump fan who thought I was incapable of writing this because he's been hostile, Neil Gorsuch is a terrific pick, and President Trump should be congratulated for making it. He said this, I've never seen Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, do a cartwheel before, but I think the Gorsuch nomination might spur him to try.

Quote, while he's rightly recognized that no one could ever replace Justice Scalia, there are strong reasons to expect Justice Gorschritz to be an eminent, worthy, eminently worthy successor to the great justice, and goes on and on.

So a lot of positive... reports, positive feelings about this justice. And what I would say very, very important for us to take hold of is this. You never know what's gonna happen. Once someone is Appoint it.

And as the years go on. Justice Kennedy. who ended up being the horrific Swing vote in the disastrous swing vote, I should say, in the Oberjefell case. the redefining marriage case in 2015. Uh He was appointed.

decades ago by a conservative president. And there's some who thought, well, there could have been a better choice than him, but in point of fact, he was appointed as a conservative. and eventually his views swung.

So you don't know what's going to happen. Justice John Roberts, who's been a strong conservative and the Chief Justice, he was the key vote in the President's Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. That was a shocker. People felt like that was a betrayal.

So President Trump has done his job. He has done his job by appointing Neil Gorsuch, he has kept his word. He has taken someone from the list of 21 justices that he said he would pick from, and he has very quickly acted on that. All right? That's number one.

The Senate needs to do its job and approve him. And if the Democrats put up a fuss here, I think... It's going to be worse for them that they're going to shoot themselves in the foot. for doing it. And if things continue, if President Trump makes less mistakes and does more good things, and the Democrats are seen as just trying to stand in his way, then more American sympathies will turn against them.

Democrats did badly enough in the last election already.

So The Senate has to do its job. and confirm him. But then we as believers need to do our job and pray for him. and pray for the other justices. You can't take anything for granted here.

And it is so, so important that we pray for our justices. And I would dare say it's something I very rarely think about. I gotta confess that. I think about praying for the president more, of course, for many other things. But praying for the justices to do what's right.

We may pray for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, we may pray for justice, we may pray for compassion for the unborn and hope for mothers and things like that, but often, I just want to confess this.

Well, I have friends of mine who've been involved in 24-7 prayer before the Supreme Court concerning the Supreme Court appealing to the highest court of all, court of heaven. My friend Lou Engel with Justice House of Prayer and the Bound for Life movement that came out of these things and constant prayer for the Supreme Court. I just have to say, honestly. I'm more conscious of praying for the President when President Obama was president, now President Trump, more conscious of that than I am praying for the Supreme Court. And it strikes me now that with all of the glowing praise about Neil Gorsh such, And with a fellow Slaphly son being a rare voice questioning whether he's real pro-life, and others saying, No, no, we are very confident that he is, that we need to be praying for these justices.

And if he does make it in, that he will be what we are expecting him to be-a champion of religious liberty and a champion of life because he is a strong constitutionalist. I'm going to take some calls. We come back 866-348-7884. I'll give you some more facts about. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorschutz, nominee.

And I wrote an article last night. It's up on the screen. You can read it on our website, lineofire.org. Who are the real Bible-quoting hypocrites? All that and more.

What is that? Gains the world O God of burning, cleansing flesh. Yeah. 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. Shoot. Thank you so much for joining us on the line of fire.

This is Michael Brown, 86634Truth is. the number to call. Have you downloaded our app yet? Have you downloaded the Ask Doctor Brown app? Yeah, just it's available on Android phones, iPhone, any day now.

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So if you've got an Android phone, then just get on your cell phone, go to the Play Store, and type in ASKDR Brown. The app will come up immediately. Download it. You'll have access to all of our articles, all of our videos, everything right at your fingertips. And again, if there's ever a programming change, if we switch to a different hour, if you lose coverage in a certain area, if you want to catch all two hours of the radio show, it'll be right there on your cell phone.

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So get the app. Get the app today. And if you haven't joined our support team. Yeah, you can do that on the app. Just click on Torch Bearers.

Find out more about joining our support team and the special offer free books that you get when you sign up to stand with us so we can pour back into you. 866-34Truth. Let's go to Janet in Capinsville, Maryland. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, doctor Brown.

Thanks for taking my call. You're welcome. Yes.

So I'd like when I call into radio stations, I want to make sure that I'm speaking in a place of peace and love and hope that whatever we're discussing can reach someone else, that it's useful. And I called in today because of the appointment or the nomination for the Chief Justice. And just give a perspective that perhaps Christians may not be evaluating. you know, he's excellent on paper, he is, and he has def Are you there? We lost you.

All right. Hopefully Janet is reconnecting. Just a few facts. About Uh Neil Gorsuch's religion. This is on stream.org.

He attended a Catholic school. Studied at Oxford under the Catholic philosopher John Finnis. Uh but he identifies now as Protestant, not Uh Catholic. He'll be the only Protestant on the court. He now attends St.

John's Episcopal Church in Boulder. Colorado. He opposes the legalization of euthanasia. And he's taken to be an opponent of abortion. There was never written a court decision on the matter.

He wrote in this book, quote, that all human beings are intrinsically valuable and the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong. He also wrote, to act intentionally against life is to suggest that its value rests only on its transient, instrumental usefulness for other ends.

Now, the church he attends... Describes itself as, quote, an inclusive, Christ-centered community reaching out to all who are seeking a deeper spirituality and relationship with God and one another. The question is: what does inclusive mean? We'll have to find that out. 866-34-Truth.

All right, well, it looks like we have officially lost our caller from Maryland. Let's go to Ebony in Northern Virginia. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to make a comment about the justices that we're talking about today.

Just from an African American perspective, you know, We really have come a long way from Zurgood Marsh up to Clarence Thomas and I just feel like our voice is completely silenced on the Supreme Court. And it's been silent. basically since the the Daddy Bush administration. I just feel like it's it's a tragedy what's happened um today and for a long period of time. And I just don't see how Our views are going to be really reflected on that level of.

Damn it. I just wanted to state my my opinion. Yeah. So let me ask you a couple of questions. Do you think you speak for all African Americans?

Um, I don't. But I believe that uh with the work that Sergio Marshall did for civil rights was just Phenomenal. And we've lost that and I I just feel like That our interests are just ignored. And there's so many issues with. the the whole s the the whole justice system in general the the number of blacks in prisons, young black men, I just feel like there needs to be an overhaul and I just don't know if there if anything is going to get done.

Now, why would you think, though, that this justice would not care about those things. In other words, how much do you know about him? to make the assumption that he would not be a good judge for the African American community.

Well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray for him. I'm going to pray for everybody, including our President. And I'm just going to trust that other believers will have some conviction and know That at some point, if Trump goes too far, you have to at some point say to yourself. You know There's got to be some checks and balances and I just don't think that there is any.

Right now.

Well, do you think that, I mean, in my view, we went the exact opposite direction under President Obama in a disastrous way. with radical pro-abortion legislation and pro-Planned Parenthood mentality and radical redefining of marriage and radical transgender activism. That that And that was going out of control in one way, and I feel like there's a pushback against that. But here's what I'm just trying to sort out. I'm all for addressing larger justice issues and the larger question of why is it that there's such a disproportionate number of black Americans in the prisons, and to what extent is that the issue of the entire society?

But here's what. What hurts me As a fellow American, That With the great progress of the civil rights movement, if you go back to the early 60s, and I've had African-American guests on who've reiterated these things. If you go back to the early 60s, the. the African-American household was tons more stable. than it is today in terms of two-parent families, in terms of lower crime rates.

Someone said it was more stable than white families at that time in the early 60s.

So it seems a lot of the government policies that were meant to help African Americans or help the poor, help inner cities have actually hurt. more than they've helped and created kind of a welfare dependent state. Do you believe that's true to any extent? I can see where you can come up with that idea. I mean, you look at statistics, numbers don't lie.

I can see where that is. Is a valid opinion. My concern is that there's such a spike in hate crimes against blacks. ever since Obama became president, it seemed like It was something that we were, well, blacks were just punished for his election in a sense that. It just it hit records that I've never seen before.

I think about the parishioners in the church in South Carolina that were just killed. I mean, after a prayer service, And I just feel like, you know, Yeah, it probably hasn't gotten any better, but with The hate rhetoric that our President, I think, I don't think he means to, but he incites I just feel like it's so dangerous and so toxic. Right.

Well, let me just say this. There's a lot you said I'd like to interact with, but we're out of break here. Thank you for. Thank you. Yeah, let me just say this, though, in response.

I don't believe that President Obama was a racist. I don't believe that President Trump is a racist. But I believe there's a lot of rhetoric. and a lot of uncareful words. That can stir up all kinds of problems.

So let us, let us as believers, let's agree on this. Let us as believers set the tone. 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. Thank you so much for being part of the line of fire. Yeah, there's a lot I could say in response to Ebony.

We ran out of time. The fact that she's hurting, the fact that she feels pain as an African American, that hurts me as a fellow believer and as a fellow American. I don't believe that we had a rise in hate crimes against blacks during the Obama administration. I believe what happened was certain concerns that African Americans had in terms of what they felt was mistreatment at the hands of police got captured on video. I don't think that there was a spike or an increase, but some of these things got captured on video and the nation could see it.

But in terms of crimes, if you could point to a spike in black-on-white crimes, I don't think that that's the issue. I think the problem was that there was an emphasis on identity politics.

So let the injustice be exposed, where there's injustice among the police, where there's injustice in the courts, where a 20-year-old black man gets a higher sentence than a 20-year-old white man. To the extent that happens, let that be exposed, let that be addressed. Amen. Absolutely. But to me, the problem was identity politics dividing us over race, dividing us.

And in that regard, I feel President Obama. did that. And I feel that President Trump, while not being a racist himself, I don't think he is, has been uncareful with things he said or how he said them, which have opened them up to further criticism. He's going to be criticized either way. But the way I feel about it, let me be criticized for what I do wrong, not for what I don't do wrong.

In other words, go ahead and blast me day and night if I do something wrong. But I'll take it on the chin for that. But my goal is I'm going to do what's right. And if you want to attack me for doing what's right, that's just fine.

So that let that be the goal. Let's do what's right, and if we get attacked for that, fine. And if I'm going to be criticized for doing wrong, well, let me take that on the chin and grow from it. That reminds me though. Uh Maybe there's something definitive.

You can find it online and tell me. But the initial reports of the horrific shooting of the mosque in Quebec. or Quebec, Canada, depending on how you pronounce it. The murder of, was it, six Muslims during prayer time in a mosque in Quebec? Initial reports said that it was some white supremacist who had done it.

Then I saw on some conservative sites: no, no, no, that's just fake news. That's fake news. There was a Muslim arrested. And there was another man arrested who was probably a convert to Islam, and this was probably a Muslim-Muslim violence.

So that's what I read and that's what I shared on the radio. Then last night, I read another report that the other Muslim was questioned but not arrested. That There was only one man arrested, and that he was a sympathizer of Trump and of Le Pen in France, another right-wing conservative. And when I say another right-wing conservative, part of a rising populist movement in In uh Europe And in certain ways, more of a conservative and more of a right-winger than Donald Trump. In any case, Uh if that's true then that's the very thing that people were afraid of happening and concerned about.

And if that is true, we need to renounce it in the loudest possible terms. And just because you don't have that hatred for Muslims. Although I had a caller Monday who said he's a Christian and he hates Muslims.

Well, something's wrong with your relationship with God if that's the case. Uh Something's wrong in your intimacy with Jesus, if that's the case, because Jesus died for those people. It's one thing to hate terrorism. It's one thing to oppose radical Islam and ISIS and things like that. It's another thing to hate your Muslim neighbor.

God forbid But to the extent that those attitudes are out there whether it's anti-black attitudes or anti-Muslim attitude. or anti-Hispanic attitude, or anti-Asian attitude, or anti-Jewish attitude, whatever it is, we need to rise above that fray and we need to demonstrate the love of God to the nation and we need to demonstrate the character of Jesus to the nation and we need to demonstrate that there is a better way. And we better not get caught up in partisan politics where we divide over Trump or we divide over Republican, Democrat. Going to divide, let it be over the truth of the gospel. We'll be right back.

Change the world. 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. Thank you for joining us on the line of fire, 866-348-665. 7884, the number to call. Just want to let you know in the second hour, which if you don't get it on your local stations, you can get it on the Ask Dr. Brown app, A-S-K-D-R-Brown, for your cell phone.

If you have an Android, iPhones will be out any day now. But this way, you can listen to any of the show right in the convenience of your cell phone. If you're in and out of coverage area, if you want to get the two full hours and your local station doesn't carry it, you can listen in that way.

So let me just tell you what's coming. The second hour. Second hour, I'm going to be speaking with a couple of conservative journalists about Justice Neil Gorsuch and raising some questions for them. And then I'm going to speak with Joseph Farah, who is the founder of WorldNet Daily. Many of you go to wnd.com, kind of a pioneer, strongly conservative website.

And we'll talk to him about his new book, The Restitution of All Things.

So that's coming your way. in the second hour. When We Look at Donald Trump. in terms of where he's taken strong stands.

Well, he's obviously taken a strong stand in terms of national security. in terms of America first in that regard. And hopefully that will work out to a compassionate solution for refugees in real need that we can take in and care for, along with keeping out those that want to destroy our nation. He's obviously taken a strong stand on pro life. And his appointment of Neil Gorsuch to, or his nomination of Justice Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, is in keeping with that.

He's obviously been strong on that. Obviously, he wants to help revitalize our economy. This is something he's committed to. When it comes to LGBT issues, he wants, on the one hand, to be a friend of all Americans, and he feels bad if he feels there's mistreatment of LGBT individuals or discrimination against them. At the same time, he wants to be a champion of religious liberty very, very deeply.

And Justice Gorsuch has voted in that way, for example, voted in favor of Hobby Lobby and against the government imposing its own values on Hobby Lobby and other Christian businesses or organizations that would have required them to violate their own ethics. By implementing certain aspects of Obamacare.

So, We know that Donald Trump stands strongly for religious liberty, and he has assured evangelicals about this over and again, and he wants to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which makes it illegal for churches, ministries, nonprofit Christian organizations to take a public stand on political issues. There's the possible loss of tax exemption if they do. By the way, That's not what's silencing many preachers across America. It's fear of man and fear of losing finances and fear of losing people. Let's own up to it and let's do better as leaders in the body.

But That being said, From everything I understand. From friends of mine who were in closed-door meetings, 30, 40 people. I was supposed to be one of them, but couldn't make it because of scheduling. But 30, 40 people. meeting with President Trump when he was candidate Trump.

When they press the issue of what happens when there is a conflict. between religious liberties and LGBT liberties, religious rights, and gay rights. And you can put whichever one in scare quotes, rights and scare quotes for both, or rights and scare quotes for either or. Say, well, these aren't really rights.

Okay, we can discuss that. But what happens when you have a conflict? What happens when it is a Christian baker who says, Oh, in good conscience, I can't bake a gay wedding cake? I'm a Christian photographer, and I can't shoot a gay wedding in a good conscience. Just like we wouldn't expect a Muslim to cater a wedding with pork, just like we couldn't expect a religious Jew to shoot a wedding on a Saturday, the Sabbath, just like we couldn't expect a secular a gay T-shirt company to be required to print verses from the Bible that spoke against homosexual practice, to make five hundred T-shirts for some outreach for a church.

They could expect to say, Sorry, we we don't agree with this. That's your prerogative. All the more is your prerogative when it's a deep, deeply held religious conviction.

So as much as these issues have been pressed on the president. I don't believe he has fully worked through the issues or what the right response is. And my appeal to the President would be look at the founding of our nation, look at the importance of freedom of religion and anything that curtails that curtails what makes America great. Because the Founding Fathers presupposed that America would be a moral and religious nation. No, it would not be one faith only.

It would look early on George Washington was asked by a synagogue, you know, what are we going to have liberties here? You know, what should we expect? And you had, you know, one colony was Catholic and one colony was Presbyterian and maybe one was Baptist and you had these issues they had to work through and that's why it was made clear there was no one state church. That was the purpose of separation of church and state. There's not a state church, and the state does not tell the church what to do.

That was the purpose of separation, not to keep the church out of the state, but to keep the state out of the church. That being said, Here, look at it like this. Look at it like this. How much liberty do you give to your four-year-old? At home.

How much responsibility do you give to your four-year-old? Do you let that four-year-old be around knives and guns? Do you put that four-year-old behind the wheels of a car? Do you go out of the house and leave the four-year-old with the two-year-old? No, of course not.

But If you have an 18-year-old, responsible 18 year old, that 18 year old probably driving. That 18, you can say, hey, hey, could you bring Tommy to school? I'm late today. And that 18-year-old can drive his 10-year-old brother to school. And you're confident with that because he's a good, conscientious driver.

and your 16-year-old daughter You can leave her with her two twin sisters who are eight years old and say, all right, we'll be back in a few hours. We're going out to dinner with some friends. All right, mom, we got everything under control because she's 16 and she's more responsible. And, sir, you may go hunting with your son and you're fifty and your son is twenty-five and he has his own guns, but when he was five he couldn't touch a gun.

So There's responsibility with age, there's responsibility with maturity, there's responsibility with morality. If your 25-year-old was in and out of jail for violent crime, And you're a hunter and you have guns in your house.

Well, those guns are kept in a safe or some other location because you don't trust him around and because he's been irresponsible and he's not been moral.

So the way the American Constitution is laid out. the way our Bill of Rights is laid out. the way our nation was founded. it presupposed that we were a moral and religious people. And that's why it doesn't have as many Not guidelines, we have plenty of guidelines, but it doesn't have as many do's and don'ts as you might expect.

It doesn't have as many rules enforcing every area of conduct. It does not have a monarchy reigning strictly.

So we have to step up. in our moral and spiritual responsibility in order to conduct ourselves effectively as a nation. Does that make sense?

So in the same way When we talk about separation of church and state, yeah. It's not up to the church. to impose itself on the whole society. It's not up to the church to say everyone must attend church on Sunday, or everyone must observe a seventh-day Sabbath on Saturday, or everyone must abide by Old Testament dietary laws, or there will be a penalty on the nation. The church does not have the right to do that.

Now, if you had... uh the whole nation become religious and people said, Hey, You know, we want business closed on Saturday or Sunday. and the vast majority of the people wanted it, then that's what the will of the people would be. We used to have what were called blue laws on Sunday, and very few places were open on Sunday.

Now Sunday for the most part is a day like everybody else. That's the way the people want it.

So these things will shift according to public opinion and public morals and values. But the bottom line is this. If we as a nation become irreligious. If we as a nation cast off the fear of God. If we as a nation cast off biblical morality, We're going to have either anarchy in our society or someone taking over in a totalitarian way to fill the void.

It's going to be one or the other. And again, that's why our founding fathers crafted things as they did with certain assumptions about the character of the people of America. The religious character, the moral character. Even if some of the founding fathers were more skeptical in their faith, were not as orthodox in their faith, even if you had some that were hardly Christian, like Benjamin Franklin, but known for his pragmatic wisdom, they still had presuppositions about the makeup of the American people. And so it is important for us as a nation To turn to God.

And to the extent we do turn to God, to that extent our marriages will be strong, our families will be strong, the next generation will be strong, our security and economy will be strong. It's important, it's the way we're constituted, and we need God in the center. I want to get into an interesting article in the New York Post when we come 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 on the line of fire, 866-3487-884. I do want to get into an article by Michael Goodwin, the New York Post, but before I get into that, I wrote an article last night, who are the real Bible-quoting hypocrites? The essential thesis being this, Hollywood elites, their liberal colleagues, are now quoting the same book that they openly mock.

So we're constantly accused of being hypocrites as evangelical followers of Jesus or as conservative believers, and sometimes we have been. I've said over and again that no fault heterosexual divorce in the church has done more to undermine marriage than all gay activists combined. But for the most part, we believe the Bible is God's word and we're seeking to live by it.

Sometimes we fall short, we're inconsistent, but we affirm Scripture is God's word, we're seeking to live by it.

However, However, there are those that quote the Bible selectively. They all know the verse, Jesus said, don't judge. But they don't listen to the rest of Jesus' teaching, or they don't even rightly understand what Jesus meant when he said, don't judge, and they sit there judging you as they quote it.

Well, what prompted me to write this article was that you have folks now quoting from the Old Testament saying, look, the Old Testament, the Torah, five books of Moses, it's said to care for the refugee and the foreigner. And again, I'm all for that. Absolutely all for it. You cannot... go overseas and minister 150 different trips.

hundreds and hundreds of days spent overseas and thousands of meetings overseas and meet people from the different nations and see the needs of the nations without having a heart for the foreigner. And our missionaries serving around the world have a great heart for the foreigners, especially those suffering in the Middle East. And many of our folks are involved in compassionate outreach in the Muslim world.

So of course we want to reflect that same compassion here in America. and be involved in helping the refugee and the needy. But what's galling to me is the same people quoting those verses mock the other verses where the Israelites were commanded to slaughter the Canaanites. In other words, the hostile idol-worshipping foreigners, they were slaughtered to wipe out, at one time, taking the promised land. But this was the context.

Wipe out the hostile foreigners, the idol-worshipping foreigners who are going to seduce you into their way of life. And if a refugee from somewhere else comes and wants to take refuge under your wings and become part of your community and live by your laws, take them in.

So, the very people who attack the Bible for its command to dispossess. the Canaanites and slaughter the Canaanites after God waited hundreds of years until the iniquity of the Amorites, the Canaanites, those living in the land, until it had reached its full measure, then God said, okay, the wickedness is so great, dispossess them and take the land, that they hate that part of the Bible. But now they're going to quote this other verse. And what about the fact that, for example, homosexual practice and adultery had death penalty under Old Testament law.

Now, the moral standards are reinforced in the New Testament. not with the death penalty, but with spiritual cutting off for those who live in sin and refuse to repent, including homosexual practice and adultery.

So the very people that mock that in the scripture and tell us we're backwards and bigoted and primitive and the Andrewthal and all of this. They're quoting the very same book. You say, well, you pick and choose. No, no. We have a grid.

We have a grid through which you read the Bible. And as we read the Bible through that grid, we see Scripture interpreting Scripture. There were certain laws given for ancient Israel. There were laws for all believers. We now see things in the fullness of Jesus coming into the world, etc.

So that's all very, very clear. But Others, the progressives, the bleeding-heart liberals, as they're sometimes called, will quote so selectively that the very book that they mock, they're now quoting as an authority. That's why I wrote the article. You can read it on thelineofire.org, share it with your friends.

Okay. Michael Goodwin, New York Post yesterday, Democrats are becoming the party of secession. Let's agree, he says that President Trump's travel ban on visitors from seven nations was a sensible idea. hobbled by flaws, especially regarding green card holders and dual citizens. Let's also agree we haven't seen a rollout this clumsy since the debut of Obamacare, which was far more serious because it penalized millions of Americans while Trump's order inconvenienced hundreds of foreign nationals.

Still, We can assume based on past performance that Trump will learn from the mistakes. His fierce determination to be a successful president cannot coexist with rookie blunders. But he says, what about the other players in the drama? Can we say the media? Will now correct its excessive bile and cover Trump as a legitimate president, not as an invasive species.

No, no, no. On the contrary, we must say that Trump aide Steve Bannon was on target when he called the Washington media the opposition party. Don't take his word for it, stick a toe into the toxic sludge that passes for straight news coverage in the Washington Post, New York Times and others. Look for the use of tell words like Muslim ban to describe an executive order that is no such thing. Look for hero worship of protesters, immigrants, refugees, lawyers rushing to the barricades and congressional critics.

Look to at the Twitter feeds of editors and reporters from those papers and the major networks. You'll see their embrace of everything anti-Trump. Further evidence they are part of a movement to obstruct the President, not cover him. Then he goes on a little bit more and says this. If the media is the opposition party, what is the Democratic Party?

It is supposed to be the loyal opposition using checks and balances to restrain the president and the excess of one-party rule. Unfortunately, the Dems are following a dangerously different path. Starting with a wide boycott of the inauguration and including their boycott of committee votes on Trump's Cabinet and their pledge to filibuster any Supreme Court nominee, Democrats resemble a party fomenting a secession movement. In other words, they're going to secede. They're going to break away from the government.

Some call it Trump derangement syndrome, that's what Ted Cruz said, but that's too kind. It's not a temporarily insane reaction. It's a calculated plan to wreck the presidency, whatever the cost to the country. things never seen in the modern era are now rapidly becoming common. Impeachment talk already is rumbling in the party's hothouses, and Trump was met with a lawsuit the minute he took the oath.

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the top Dems in Congress, led a raucous demonstration Monday night as if they are community organizers. And Obama couldn't bear the irrelevance after eight days out of office and felt compelled to encourage disruptions. This is third world behavior, and it's now the MO of one of America's two political parties. He goes on focusing on California, et cetera, et cetera. Basically says this.

My prediction is that the Dems are digging their own grave. and the revolt against his legitimacy will, in the short term at least, boost Trump's popularity. Most Americans will conclude he is honestly trying to fulfill the mandate he won and that the fevered rush to destroy him is neither principled nor patriotic. That's my feeling as well. That's my feeling as well.

I understand that Donald Trump during the campaign carried himself in a certain way that he created more enemies. I understand that there have been, quote, rookie blunders since he's come in in terms of how certain things were done. At the same time, There's no question that he's doing what he was elected to do. that he is aggressively working for what he believes is the best of the American people, and that the Democrats are simply, many of them, simply seeking to undermine him. I believe it will hurt them more than help them, and certainly hurt America more than help.

America and I think Americans are going to see that As well. Hey, remember, when you join our support team as a torch bearer, we do need your help. It would be great to have you standing with us. When you join our support team as a torch bearer, you get two free books this month: Revolution and Revolution in the Church. I mean, life-changing resources, along with the laminated card 10 commitments of a Jesus Revolutionary, that'll talk about how to live this out every day.

Go to the lineofire.org to stand with us. My bottom line today: don't be for Trump, against Trump, for Dems, against Dems. Be with the Lord. We've got some special guests that will weigh in on our new Supreme Court justice and the subject of the restitution of all things according to Scripture. It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr.

Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr.

Michael Brown. Well, Rick Tillerson has been confirmed as Secretary of State. What will happen when Donald Trump's appointee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, is brought before the Senate, the Democrats planning to block, planning to filibuster? What are the implications of that? A whole lot going on.

This much we know, Donald Trump has kept his word and has nominated a Supreme Court justice that the views of many is in the lines of Antonine Scalia, and he has picked from the list. He said he would pick from, what's Congress going to do? And what should we make of Justice Gorset? Joining me on the line of fire, Guy Benson, the political editor of townhall.com. You may have seen him on Fox News.

You may have read his book, The End of Discussion. You may have heard him on UUIT's national radio show. I write regularly for Town Hall. My latest Town Hall article is Who Are the Real Bible quoting hypocrites. Guy, it's great to have you on the line of fire.

Oh, we lost Guy. Let's try to reconnect with Guy Benson. We just had a little window to get him on for a couple of minutes.

So, Betsy, can you reconnect with Guy? Not sure what happened there. But want to get his take. Are there any red flags? Is there any reason for us to think that Neil Gorsuch will not be who we think he is?

Is there any reason for us to think that Perhaps He's elected one way, but he will surprise us along the way. We're going to hear some other voices over the next hour. And then I'm going to speak with Joseph Farah. He is a pioneer of conservative media and websites. We'll be talking to him in a bit.

Hey guy, not sure what happened. We got cut off there. Welcome to the line of fire. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Very, very glad to have you. Guy, we've been disappointed in the past. Justice Kennedy, who was looked at as a conservative, ends up being a swing vote on the redefinition of marriage. Justice John Roberts, consistent conservative, goes the other way on Obamacare. Do you have any red flags when it comes to Neil Gorsuch in terms of being a constitutionalist, in terms of being in the mold of Scalia, or do you feel good about him?

I feel very good about him. And that's not just based on what I've read about him, Uh over the last really week or two as his name began to percolate as one of the favorites, I've also had a chance to talk to a few people who know him and know his record very well, people of the Federalist Society, very conservative folks. who care about originalism. who say unanimously, basically. that Neil Gorsuch is as good as it gets.

from that perspective. He has sterling credentials. He is a strong courageous Constitutionalist who's devoted to textualism and originalism. He has come down on the the correct side in my view, the legal side, the constitutional side, on a bunch of Uh important issues. He also Is seen by many as a great and worthy inheritor of.

The Scolia legacy. He knew Scolia. He loved Sculia. He paid great tribute to Scolia after he passed away. And people say that he's such a skilled writer and pays so much attention to his writing, it reminds them stylistically a lot of the time of Zulia.

So I think all around, this is a home run selection. by the President. All right, we've just got a very short window, and I appreciate you weighing in so quickly and so clearly. 30 seconds, if the Democrats try to filibuster, is this going to hurt them more than help them? Yes, I think my guess is they won't eventually mount a successful filibuster against this judge.

There's already enough dissension in the ranks among the Democrats about whether to proceed that way, and a number of Democrats say no, they aren't inclined to filibuster. But if they do, it will get blown up and it will be their own making. All right, Guy, I'm with you on that.

So glad to have you, Wayne. We'll have to get you back on. We've got a bit more time, but thank you so much. Guy Benson, go to Town Hall. Yeah.

Yeah, God of light, hear our cry, send the fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

We're going to shift gears, not totally, but we're going to shift gears somewhat as we've been talking about the president's appointment to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, and some other relevant news with President Trump. We're going to switch gears and speak with Joseph Farrer, founder and editor, CEO of WorldNetDaily.com, the internet's largest independent news site, veteran newspaper, editor, publisher, WorldNet Daily. published my book. Outlasting the Gay Revolution in 2015. It's on its way out in Korean right now, that same book.

And Joseph has written a book, The Restitution of All Things, which is a book that looks to reconnect believers to the Jewish roots of the faith and thereby better understand the end of the world.

So we're going to have a fascinating conversation. Joseph, great to have you on the Line of Fire. Thanks for joining us today. Hey, it's such a great privilege to be with you, Michael. I'm a huge fan.

And uh love you very much and you know I just want to tell your audience, I'm not the scholar that Michael Brown is. I'm just a layman doing his best to make it through the scriptures and try to sort things out.

So Uh God bless you, brother.

Well, I appreciate that the kind words. And I'll tell you what, I won't challenge you on the meaning of every Hebrew word that we discuss. But before we get into your book, Let's just step back and talk for a minute about WND.com, WorldNet Daily. You've been a pioneer of sorts. Of course, you were one of those that questioned President Obama's credentials and birther issues, taking on all kinds of controversial subjects.

So tell me about the origin of WorldNet Daily and the role it plays today. Yeah, we're in our 20th year, if you can believe that. We were the first independent. news site on the uh internet And uh w way back before I I think there were about a million people total, Michael, on the internet when we started in 1997. And people thought we were like insane.

Um And uh you know uh the A couple of things different about WND, as we call it now, than the other independent sites, is we have a really strong Christian worldview that we bring to the table. And secondly, Um We're probably the only site that actually. employs veteran journalists from the olden days before there was an internet, you know.

So people think of often refer to what we do as the blog. It's not a blog. You know, we're doing the same thing w I was doing running daily newspapers uh thirty years ago And most of our staff are veteran reporters, T V news producers, radio news people from way before the internet was even around. And you're not afraid to take on controversy. No, not at all.

I mean, I think the birth certificate kind of proves that. And the funny thing about that, Michael, is who's in the White House right now President Trump, who really began His his political foray. In twenty eleven by questioning Obama's birth certificate. And so, you know, and he has attributed that to his a huge boost in popularity that even convinced him to run for president.

So if we haven't gotten satisfaction any other way, we get it that way. All right, now when I was writing articles that were more critical of candidate Trump and raising concerns, and then once he got the Republican nomination, I said, okay, look, I hope I'm wrong in the concerns that I've had. And my articles were appearing as they do weekly on on WNT.com that that I I realize that you seem to have more sympathy for Donald Trump or see something more positive or redeeming or why he could be a good leader. Obviously, he had his blemishes. and questionable past, what was it that you saw in him that got your attention in a positive way?

Well, you know, I should say that I began a Fed Cruise supporter. He was, you know, my first choice. And uh But you know, there were so many good candidates seeking the Republican nomination. Uh but you know as soon as it became clear that to me that Donald Trump was uniquely popular among uh the Republican bases, he was seeking that nomination, you know, I started taking a a real hard look at him. I I did know him from years before.

We we we we talked about the the whole eligibility eligibility question in 2011. He was very you know serious about that. Um but you know, he was not my first choice, but I listened to him I mean, he's unlike he was unlike any other candidate that ever sought the Republican nomination, certainly in my lifetime. He just said what was on his mind. He wasn't always exactly accurate, but he had a passion for his country.

I think that's the thing that set him apart. With his constituency and why he got the nomination and why he eventually won the presidency. And you know, I got on board at some point when it became clear that he was He was the frontrunner. Yeah, and again, I had endorsed Senator Cruz as well. And then what happened with me is the popularity, I couldn't just say everybody's wrong.

And then, when I had believing friends that saw something or saw how God could use him. Uh, I thought, yeah, there could be something to this. And before we get to your book, do you feel though? That that it's all too easy. for evangelicals, especially white evangelicals, to just get in bed with the Republican Party as if that's our allegiance, that we can do that too easily and then we fail to be a prophetic voice to the White House.

Absolutely. It was a huge frustration For me personally, through eight years of George W. Bush, I felt like most of you know, the evan evangelicals I knew just believed whatever George Bush did. couldn't be wrong. And we were extremely critical of many of the things push it done.

And we paid a price for it. Those were really tough eight years for us because here we were. uh this you know uh certainly evangelical News operation, and we were often at a step with. you know, our main constituency. But, you know, it's all about seeking the truth, no matter.

I mean, you know, the. The central role of a free press in a free society is to serve as a watchdog on government. And we've got to do that no matter who's in office. But with regard to Trump, on the basis of his first two weeks in office, I have to say that it's The most exciting uh White House administration in my lifetime, and that even includes Ronald Reagan. I think he has even during the campaign, defeated political correctness in this country.

You know, people laugh at political correctness now. That's You can pretty much Thank Donald Trump for that. And do you think that The liberal media that is incessantly attacking him and putting out more and more, quote, fake news, do you think that they're shooting themselves in the foot in the process? They are. There's no question about it.

If you look at let's just take CNN as an example, CNN's ratings plummeting. Uh Donald Trump, you know Doing something no other President would ever have thought of doing, and that is criticizing the press. ridiculing the press. And it is having an impact. Certainly, I mean, you know, half the country voted for him.

And uh that has to have an impact I know people, by the way, who relatives, close relatives of mine who voted for Obama. twice, two thousand eight and twenty twelve. And they are on fire for Trump today. And they are questioning the media. And I I scratch my head, I said, How how is this possible?

He has a knack for relating, I think, to The uh the real heartbeat of America. And uh and he's winning people over. And I think it's just great. What I didn't give him sufficient credit for was how smart he was as a marketer. Obviously, if the Trump name is that big and people actually pay to put his name on a building or something, and that is not going to draw people in or raise its credibility.

So I didn't. You could look at him as doing stupid things. And obviously, certain things I wish he didn't do. You know, the attack on Heidi Cruz or Raphael Cruz or these other things that I think were just wrong and stupid. But a lot of what he did was quite calculated.

And to be able to do something in a calculated way that almost looks as if it's. haphazard to get a certain result. You gotta be smarter to do that. And in that sense, he's succeeded in doing it, as you said, taking on the media in an unprecedented way.

Well, he's always on offense, and that is something unique you know, uh certainly with the recent uh uh Republican presidents and Republican leaders. You know, there tends to be among them more of a defensiveness, you know, oh, you know, you no, that's not me, that's not me. And and Trump is just out there Firing on all cylinders, making accusations, some of which are true, some of which are maybe off base. He puts his opposition, they're on defense. And that is the big difference that I see.

It is. All right, we come back. We've got to focus on the book, Joseph Pharah, his new book, The Restitution of All Things, from the words of Peter in Acts chapter 3. Oh God of burning, cleansing flame. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.

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

Be sure to To download the Ask Dr. Brown app, A-S-K-D-R-Brown, you can get all my latest articles, videos, listen to the radio program, catch past shows. All on the app, it's available for Android phones now.

So go to the Google or Android Play Store at Samsun Play Store. Download it, A-S-K-D-R-Brown. It should be out for your iPhones any day now. My guest, Joseph Farah, he is the founder of the WorldNet Daily website, WND.com, author of the brand new book, The Restitution of All Things. Joseph, one of the things that I discovered about you over the years, I knew about your strong conservative base and your strong Christian values driving things and your journalist background.

I didn't know about your heart for Jewish roots and reconnecting the church with some of the lost roots of the faith until that I learned some years after.

So how does your new book, The Restitution of All Things, tie in with the issue of reconnecting with the roots of our faith? Yeah, well, you know, it At the end of the day, this is really a prophecy book. But it's a different kind of prophecy book than I've really ever read before because most prophecy books Look at what's coming up next, what's the next thing that's going to happen, and they focus on seven-year tribulation and those kinds of things. Uh This is a book that looks at the kingdom of God. It looks at the you know the thousand year reign of Jesus, Yeshua.

Over the whole earth, reigning and ruling from Jerusalem. I wanted to know more about that personally. And in order to do that, you've got to look at the prophetic scriptures. Uh because it's an amazing thing how many of them are devoted to that specific Topic, just as Peter said in Acts 3, that all the prophets from the beginning to the end. Focused on this particular development.

Now, in that context, you know, Chris Church today. Um has not focused on. In fact, I've never heard a sermon. A single sermon in my whole life, and I've been in church for 40 years. devoted to the kingdom.

Now that's shocking to me. And you know, I'd never read any books about it. I never was in any Bible studies that focused on it. And I've been in some good churches. And so I thought this is an avenue really want to explore.

And it's been so rewarding for me. Uh one of the things that it becomes uh critical to it. is These are Hebrew scriptures we're looking at for the most part, although certainly Jesus talked a lot about the kingdom as well. and the Apostles Duke. But These are scriptures telling us what the kingdom is going to be like.

And one of the things you find, you can't ignore it. is that It's not weird. Today. It appears to me, Michael, and you may disagree, that we're all going to be observing the Sabbath. And we're all going to be observing in one way or another the Feast of Tabernacles and the other feasts.

And uh there's a strong suggestion that the dietary laws of the Torah will be uh In effect at that time? Will they be in effect only for Jews? I don't know. You tell me. You're the expert, you're Jewish, but it's a, you know, we also read in the Bible that.

There's the wall between the Gentiles and the Jews is going to be torn down. One new man, we're told.

So are the rules going to be different? I don't see that in scripture. And so that ties in. With the whole question of the Hebrew roots of our faith, have we abandoned them to such a point? That we can't see clearly anymore.

One of the books that was very inspirational to me, by the way, was one of your books. called hypergrace. When I when I found out that so much of the church, big part parts of the church, Don't even believe it's possible that Christians once. saved. Once they do their one act of contrition, That they have to they shouldn't even be concerned with sin anymore because they're incapable of sin.

I don't see those kinds of things as scriptural, and I think much of the church. is deceiving itself. I think that there's not enough focus on holiness, obedience. you know, doing our best Uh Uh to uh God. And making, I think, one of the fundamental errors of the Pharisees.

Which was And th this this confrontation you see all through the Gospels. observing man's teaching, putting man's teaching in even a higher place than Scripture. And so this book is trying to do a bunch of things at one time, but I think It's something that is desperately needed to to get the ch church questioning its fundamental assumptions. All right, so obviously there's a lot we could talk about. Will there be a thousand-year millennial kingdom?

On this earth, where Jesus rules and reigns out of Jerusalem, as I understand scripture, the answer is yes. Will the seventh-day Sabbath be observed during that time? Will the feasts of Israel be observed during that time? Will the dietary laws be observed during that time? Who will that apply to?

If so, how does that apply to us today? These are all fascinating questions to discuss. But just to major on a couple of points here. The ideas of holiness and obedience are are absolutely central to the entire New Testament. Yet we can have this idea, well, that's old, that's Old Testament, that's law, as if living a holy life or living obedient to God is somehow legalistic.

And now in the New Testament, we just have grace and faith, but that's a totally false dichotomy, correct? Absolutely, it is. And you know, one of the things I you know what started me on this journey 10 years ago? was My wife and I and our family, we did Bible studies every week, deep Bible studies. And we'd, well, they'd begin with somebody.

proposing a question. And the question was, How come we don't ob observe the fourth commandment? anymore. I mean we We certainly tried to observe the other nine. But wha what about the what about the Sabbath?

And that's what plunged us into this exploration. And yeah. Eventually we came to the conclusion we couldn't find anything in Scripture. that ki you know, that said the Sabbath had been done away with. for new new believers, Gentile believers.

And then we began to look at some of the other assumptions that the church had. And the history of it as well. You know, the persecution that. Juice. And Maybe Gentiles who acted like Jews by observing the Sabbath.

uh the persecution that they faced in the Roman Empire and and and later.

So These were all very intriguing questions for me. And and I've just developed a passion for sharing this debate and what we've learned over the last ten years. with others. particularly in the church. Yeah, so just as Jesus rebuked some of the religious leaders of his day for being hypocrites because they put the traditions of men above the word of God.

then we could make the same case. and say that we've often done that in the church. And it's just, it's a good thing to ask, a healthy thing to ask. Why do I do this? And what scriptural foundations does it have?

It may be a minor thing, a secondary thing. You know, why does a man wear a jacket and tie to church, or a lady wear a dress? Those may be secondary. But there's things much more foundational. Hey, if we are committed to following the word wherever it goes, go on the journey.

The book by Joseph Pharah, The Restitution of All Things. Hey, Joseph, we'll have to talk again. Thanks for joining us. Michael. 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.

Well, Rex Tillerson has been confirmed as Secretary of State. That was considered to be one of the more controversial nominations. And one of the more controversial men appointed or people appointed to the cabinet by President Trump. He has now been approved as Secretary of State. That perhaps the most important single appointment by the President.

His connections with Russia, business ties, things like that. Was that positive in terms of he knew how to deal with the other nations? Was that negative? His role in the Boy Scouts and opening the door to gay scouts, was that more a compromise? There were different concerns, different issues raised, but he has been officially confirmed.

That's big news. And of course, the big news from last night as Donald Trump points Neil Gorsuch as his nominee. I keep switching appointment nominee. His nominee to the Supreme Court. And I'm reading one article after another, one email after another from conservative leaders.

and overwhelmingly they are positive. We had guy Benson on a little while ago, and he weighed in from townhall.com in very, very positive terms, rave reviews, and someone being in the mold of Antonin Scalia and a real constitutionalist and originalist. In a few minutes, I'm going to be speaking with Ben Shapiro, journalist himself, a lawyer. An Orthodox Jew getting his perspective and asking some questions about where things could be going with just discourses. That's an easy name to pronounce.

I'm going to say it five times on the year, Gorsuch. And then with the... Plural, say possessor, gors such as, gors such as. All right, we'll get it. I keep stumbling on the name.

But. President Trump has kept his word. He has done exactly what he said he would do. He has appointed a pro-life Constitutionalist justice. Justice Gorsuch was so popular and his credentials so strong that he was unanimously approved to his current position.

As a higher court justice. That will not be the case when he comes before the Senate now, but I believe that to the extent he is opposed by Democrats, I don't think there's dirty laundry they're going to dig up. I don't think there's skeletons in his closet they're going to dig up. I think these people are very carefully vetted first. I think his track record stands for itself.

Whatever questions he's asked and litmus test questions he's asked, I assume his answer will be: we just go by constitutional principles, etc. But if the Democrats do try to stop him, do try to filibuster, I think it's only going to hurt them. And for Nancy Pelosi to already be saying he's out of the mainstream and Chuck Schumer and others preparing for a fight and certain Hollywood elite liberals bashing him.

Well, and the New York Times even having this headline, again, just the unabashed. Totally open opposition to President Trump from New York Times and other outlets like that, saying that this is the stolen seat. Trump is now filling the stolen seat. as if it should have been previously filled under the Obama administration. The more that this stuff happens, in my view, in my humble opinion, the more it's going to hurt the credibility of the media attacking the president, and the more it's going to hurt the congressional leaders and politicians attacking him.

It's one thing when honest objections are raised, and honest concerns are raised, and honest issues are raised. That is perfectly fine and understandable. And let the media raise honest concerns and let the opposing Party raise honest concerns and let there be debate about different values. Of course, that's how our country runs. But There is an irrational attack.

There is an attack that is so full of bias that it disqualifies itself. We come back. We'll speak with Ben Shapiro about all these issues. 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. One of my favorite column lists Often read with profit his writings and go to his website, Ben Shapiro, editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He's the host of the Ben Shapiro Show.

His most recent book, True Allegiance, was released in November of last year. We had him on a few years back to talk about his New York Times bestseller, Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America. And Ben is one of these. conservative thinkers who cuts through a lot of the bogus information, be it fake news, be it wrong perceptions, be it liberal presuppositions, and comes with real clarity and courage.

So we appreciate him joining us today. Ben, thanks so much for coming on the line of fire. Hi, thanks so much for having me. Ben, overwhelmingly, I'm reading very, very positive responses to the President's nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch. In fact, I'm having a hard time finding criticisms or concerns.

Are we being a little too starry-eyed, or in your view, is he worthy of this praise? I mean, it looks good so far. I haven't seen any red flags.

So typically what we look at whether a justice ought to be on the court. I look at a couple of factors. One, I look at their actual rulings. Two, I look at their stated judicial philosophy. And three, I look at what they've said about cases they haven't actually ruled on.

So usually now because of because of the Democrats' tendency to bork anybody who is outspoken on the law, it's hard to find judges. who have A long record of speaking about settled cases. Like William Fryer, who is supposedly up for this position. Had said that Rogie waved a terrible decision, that pretty much took him out of the running almost immediately.

So it's hard to find anybody who's. spoken openly about cases that have already been decided. But This, in fact, Borsich has a pretty good track record in controversial cases of ruling on textureless principles and has stated. Judicial philosophy very much mirrors the judicial philosophy of Justice Scullia. When he talks about not just as John Roberts talked about, the the idea of being against judicial activism, he doesn't just say he's against judicial activism.

What he says instead is, it is our obligation to rule according to the original meaning of the Constitution, which is a Scalia philosophy. I'm, by the way, as far as I understand, the only conservative columnist to oppose John Roberts in 2005. specifically because I didn't think that there was enough there, and I thought that he was a cipher. I don't think Gorsuch is quite as much of a cipher. He seems to me more like Justice Alito when he was appointed to the court by George W.

Bush. I think that there's enough of a record there for us to be relatively comfortable with him on most of the major issues of the day, again, because he has a stated judicial philosophy. All right, you're a lawyer. and you understand the issues of being a textualist or originalist constitutionalist. Just for the layman listening without legal background, why is it so important for our country to have justices that are constitutionalists rather than those who are going to reinterpret the Constitution based on the morals of the day?

Well, again, the biggest problem that we have with the Supreme Court is Supreme Court acting as a superlegislature. We don't elect them, and it's not their job to make the laws. Their job, according to the Federalist Papers, is to simply interpret the laws according to their obvious meaning. And the attempt to to turn the Supreme Court into this kind of group of wise moral leaders who are going to substitute their own judgment for the judgment of the people is an anti democratic move in the extreme. It violates the basic separation of powers.

It violates you know, simple justice principles. It's not what the courts are supposed to be doing.

So, having somebody who's going to apply the law as it was written, as opposed to reading it like poetry, so they can achieve. uh predetermined result. That's necessary in the justice. And I think that Gorset should do that. All right, if the Democrats decide that they are going to fight this tooth and nail, even go the way of filibustering, are they going to just disqualify themselves in the 2018 elections?

I'm not sure they'll disqualify themselves. It's such a partisan environment, it's hard to imagine. You know, that resisting something Trump does from a Democrat is going to damage them too much. But there are some Democrats who are in. Red or purple state.

Who could hurt themselves if they stand up too much on this particular issue? It's a mistake, I think, for them. To start with Gorsuch. Remember, Gorsuch is only replacing Scalia, so he's not the balance on the court for the right. The balance on the court for the right is of Anthony Kennedy.

steps down or if or if Invert steps down. Bye. You know, that's, I think, where the Democrats are going to put most of their fire. I think a lot of the sits down in fury is signifying not much. Got it.

Yeah, and that does make sense. They're going to have to pick their battles carefully.

So let's just step back and look at a couple larger pictures. You've been active on campuses. You've been banned from campuses, from speaking. You've had situations come in near riot situations because of the volatility of the issues. This is the younger generation coming up.

Is this just typical of the younger generation and they're going to outgrow this as they get older? You were a rare conservative as a young person and a very liberal campus when you started coming to national attention. With all the trigger warnings and all of the hypersensitivity and the microaggressions, have the campuses just turned in a dangerous direction or is this just another passing phase and we'll get over it? I think that the campuses have definitely turned in a dangerous direction that sort of mirrors the fraying of the social fabric more generally. Yes, I mean, I'm very concerned about the state of the campuses.

It used to be that I could speak on campus without having to have security.

Now I have to have security because there's so many threats and and people rushing the stage and that sort of thing. And that's because people on campus now think that the only quote unquote safe space is a space that doesn't include people. Who disagree with you, and they're willing to go out there and commit acts of violence or shut down. everybody who disagrees. And that is, I think, a really negative development.

It also is quite stupid, honestly, for folks on the left, because what they're doing is they're simply drawing attention their own intolerance and they're drawing attention to the points that people they disagree with are trying to make. I mean, their smartest move would probably be to ignore people with whom they disagree and just leave it alone, but instead they feel the necessity to pick up the scab and all they're doing is is bringing them a spotlight to it. All right, now you may want to get into this, you may not, but since we're here for the moment, you used to work for Breitbart.com and broke away when you saw it becoming the equivalent of a Pravda publication, just a partisan political publication for Donald Trump, and broke away certain issues. I know you've had certain disputes with some of the folks there. Are you concerned about any of the conservative right in America?

And where it's going. We see the radical liberal left and problems there. Are you concerned about any direction of the conservative right? Sure. I mean, I think that the greatest danger to the conservative right is that they're so excited by Some of the stuff that the populist nationalists so-called right is doing that they swallow the that they swallow the bait whole along with the hook.

So, you know, I think that We should all be excited about some of the things that President Trump is doing. I think that if that carries over to he pushes a trillion-dollar spending package and suddenly we're all Punky-dory about it because hey, we got our justice. That's not the way this is supposed to work. Politics is not supposed to be a team sport, it's supposed to be a principle. Issue.

And if you're abandoning your principles in order to root for a politician, then I would suggest that you're abandoning your duty as a citizen. Got it. And obviously, the role of journalism on some level should be an independent voice calling for accountability. It becomes all too biased along the way. And again, you've stood out in that to say, hey, here's where I differ with Trump, here's where I praise Trump, and called others to do the same.

Last question for you. Like your colleague Andrew Clavin, I'm a Messianic Jew, you're an Orthodox Jew, but do you feel it is a wise move for the President to relocate our embassy to Jerusalem, or is that too much of a provocation? I mean, I think that he absolutely should. I think it should be a clear position of the United States that That Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Israel. I think it's a slap in the face and has been continued slap in the face by various presidents not to do that.

I'm not aware of any other circumstance on planet Earth where a government that is duly recognized by the entire international world body says this is our capital and the rest of the world goes, Nope. Yeah. Bizarre to me. And all it does is open, it creates the feeling among people who are enemies of Israel and want to destroy Israel that. they can use that as a leverage point in order to justify acts of terrorism and violence.

Yeah, so I'm 100% with you on that, obviously. And the whole idea that basically terrorists can threaten and say, you're not going to do this. If you do this, we're going to react. It's almost like the scenes of a picture of some Muslim activists, a radical Muslim, saying, How dare you call us terrorists? We're going to kill you.

You don't respond to that by backing away. You respond to that by doing the right thing. And, Ben, keep up the great work at dailywire.com. We follow you with interest and appreciate all your labors.

Sounds great. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. All right. Ben Shapiro always has a whole lot to say.

866-348-7884. I'm actually going to take some calls. I've got a few minutes left. I had a few guests in this hour, but I'm going to take some calls. If you want to weigh in on the President's Supreme Court nominee, if you have another question you'd like to ask, we've got a few minutes to go in the broadcast.

I'll take some calls. Remember, check out my latest article. Who are the real Bible quoting Hypocrites, you can read it at thelineoffire.org. And also, be sure when you're there to find out the special benefits that come your way if you join our support team. You can do that just by clicking on donate, and you can find out, yeah, right on the home page, special gift for our torch bearers.

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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.

Thank you for joining us on the line of fire 866-34Truth, the number two call. Got time for a couple of calls, so let's go right to the phones. We start in Detroit, Michigan with Juanita. Welcome to the line of fire. Well, thank you very much.

I was kind of motivated by the lady who called in just a little bit earlier, and then from some of the subsequent conversation with these people, she was talking about her frustration about race relations and whatnot. And it was said to pray. Prayer is so crucial. But I wonder, Dr. Brown, Um My take on it, and I want to ask you whether I'm being a pessimist or a realist, actually, is what my question is.

is that we're told in Scripture that is as in the days of Noah is the way things are going to be, and that people might lose faith if they think that really the world is going to get any better. All we can do is praise. to gird our loins and to be part of the family of God. There was only one family that was saved in Noah's Day, and there's only going to be one family in the end times, and that's. the family of God.

And I'm afraid people might lose their faith when they don't see things really getting better. the political arena has us going up and down, but in the overall picture of things, Things are going to get worse. Don't you think? Yeah, well, let me weigh in on that. Number one, we don't know exactly where we stand in history.

In other words, if people had this thought 100 years ago or 200 years ago or 300 years ago, we never would have abolished slavery. We never would have fought for certain social justice. We never would have opposed segregation, things like that.

So we don't know exactly where we stand in history. What if things are going to turn gloriously for 50 years and then the bottom falls out?

So that's the first thing. We need to do what's right today because this is the time in which we live. The second thing is. The New Testament perspective, 1 John 2, is that the darkness is already passing and the true light is shining.

So the New Testament perspective is the ongoing growth and expansion of the kingdom of God until there's a multitude no one could number. And far more people are following Jesus around the world today than at any other time in world history.

So I'm encouraged by what God is doing, and Jesus said He's with us always, even to the end of the age and to the ends of the earth.

So that's the confidence by which I live and minister, because He's risen, because He's Lord, because all authority in heaven and earth is His. Does the Bible teach that everything will get worse at the end? That's debatable. I see parallel extremes. I see great outpouring.

I see great darkness side by side. And when Jesus talks about as it was in the days of Noah, Matthew 24, it's possible. He's saying it's going to be the way it was then in terms of extreme wickedness on the earth. It's also possible that all he's saying, because when you read his words, is that people were living normal lives. They were marrying, they were giving in marriage, they were just going on with normal life until the flood came.

So they didn't see the warnings, they didn't heed the warnings, they didn't see the danger. And because of that, they were overtaken when it came.

So for me, here's the way I want to live. My expectation is in the Lord. I don't know Juanita. if the world will become a better place or a worse place before Jesus returns. All I know is we have a great commission to go and make disciples of the nations.

We have a calling to stand for what's right and what's true. We have faith that God's power is greater than any power in this world. And we know that God will have for himself a multitude that no one could number from every tribe and tongue around the world.

So I live with that expectation, and I'm going to do what's right for marriage, for family, for social justice, because I know ultimately God's kingdom will rule and reign here on this earth. And if I'm prepared simply for obedience, whatever the cost, meaning... If everything collapses around us and we're martyred, Or if we see a great breakthrough in our society, either way, we stand the same. That's where I think we have to be prepared.

So, Juanita, I'm with you totally, and that we can have a superficial optimism that can be. easily pierced and and easily destroyed. On the flip side, I believe that we should have a toughness to endure, a readiness to go through suffering for the gospel, and yet a great hope and optimism. That God's kingdom is breaking through on this earth, and that there's no reason why we can't expect to see positive change, at least. for the moment.

Hey, I appreciate the call very much. Thank you so much for weighing in. 866-34-TRUTH. By the way, God willing, I'll be ministering in Rochester, Michigan at First Assembly there. It's about an hour outside of Detroit, Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday morning.

All the info is on my itinerary at askdrbrown.org. Let's go to Javon. We won't. We won't go to Javon. All right.

Couple of closing thoughts for you. Couple of closing thoughts. Awesome. I'm not going to take any more calls. As we as we look at The president Trump's cabinet falling into place.

What we must remember is even with the best intentions, and even the best appointed people. They can still do differently than we expected them to do once elected. it is all too possible for them once selected to succumb to other pressure, Or to go the way of political expediency. or to go with the the latest trend Uh so we need to pray. For those elected to do the right thing and then hold their feet to the fire.

to do the right thing. And these days, we can make enough noise. through social media and other ways. and be assured that President Trump and others with him pay attention to these things, that if there's a direction that's wrong and suddenly, I don't mean some unruly protest, but enough voices of supporters rise up, saying, no, no, no, this is not what was promised. I think that will hit home because Donald Trump right now wants the world to know he was elected to do certain things and he's going to do them.

You may like him or not, you may have voted for him or not, but he is putting into practice very quickly one thing after another that he was elected to do. And that is very, very rare.