Our forty-fifth president. Donald Trump. It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and President of Fire School of Ministry.
Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Hey friends, Michael Brown.
It is so good to be back with you. As you listen to my voice right now, I am somewhere in the air en route from Singapore back to the United States.
So delighted to be with you. Had an awesome week of ministry in Singapore. I hope you enjoyed the special guest host we had last week. I hope they were blessing to you. We had some great gifted folks and confident they did a really good job.
Had a great time ministering in Singapore. I'll give you a report on that in a moment. But it was somewhat surreal to be in Singapore and what it was like around midnight Singapore time because we were 13 hours ahead of East Coast time.
So it was either midnight, maybe one in the morning when President Trump was officially inaugurated. And for many, I know it's surreal.
Some never thought it would happen. Surreal positively, surreal negatively. I understand the great range of emotions that's out there. And it was just even more interesting for me being so far removed, I mean, a long, long distance from Washington, D.C., being in Singapore watching, and then, you know, with international news coverage and things like that, you know, international BBC and news coverage like that, it was really, really interesting. And of course, America is massively divided.
Yeah, we've been divided over past presidents, but I'd say we're in an even more fractured, divided state right now. And obviously, as God's people, the one thing we don't want to do is be reactionary. We want to be fair-minded. We want to be prayerful. We want to do our best to not get caught up in partisan politics.
And we want to unify among ourselves, regardless of whether we're happy or not with President Donald Trump being our 40th president, 45th president. I'm going to go through some of his inaugural speech. and share some thoughts with you and talk about some of the things happening in response to Donald Trump's inaugural speech. Let me first say something. To everyone listening, if you consider yourself a Bible believer, if God's word has authority in your life, and you know the calling that is on our lives to honor and respect authorities, Peter could even write, and Paul could write, exhorting us to even honor the emperor of Rome and things like that.
When you're talking about parentally a wicked, often vilely wicked leader, and yet the office was to be honored. I absolutely opposed many of Barack Obama's policies. I warned before he was elected, and you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to see this, that he would be the most radically pro-gay activist, pro-abortion president in our history, and I questioned where he stood on the nation of Israel. But he was still my president. Like it or not, he was our elected president under our system, and that makes him my president.
Every election. There are millions and millions of people, almost half the nation, in some cases, numbers-wise, over half the nation in terms of those who voted, who say, well, I didn't vote for the man. I didn't vote for that person. Understood. That's the way it works.
Nonetheless, that person is your president. I just want to encourage you to recognize that. and to have an attitude of respect for the office. If you profoundly differ with the man, if you're profoundly concerned about his policies, his words, if you are grieved, pray for him, but he's your president. If you say, that's not my president, well, if that's what half of America did with every election, then we'd have no government, we'd have no country, we wouldn't function at all.
So I did not like Barack Obama being our president, but he was our president, and he was my president. And if I differed with him, I differed with him with the respect that the presidential office deserves.
So let's do the same regardless of what side we're on with President Trump from a scriptural level. Does that make sense to you?
So I'm going to look at the inaugural speech of Donald Trump. This is Michael Brown, your voice of moral. cultural and spiritual revolution. It's fire we want for fire we want. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.
Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us on the line of fire.
This is Michael Brown. Delighted to be with you. For all of you who prayed for me while ministering in Singapore, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. We had a great series of meetings.
The first night, I met with a number of business leaders, key business people in Singapore, church leaders, and just gave a call for courage to stand, to do the right thing, not to be confrontational in a provocatory way, but where there are righteousness issues, to stand for righteousness and to be people of courage and people of wisdom. We had a great time there. And then the next morning, I was asked to prepare a three-hour PowerPoint presentation that was going to be videotaped and shown to youth pastors and leaders throughout Asia as to questions of redefining marriage, questions of LGBT activism. Scriptural principles, how to respond. And I close the presentation with five warnings: five things we've done wrong in the Church of America in terms of dealing with gay activist issues, beginning with failing to have a real baptism of love for the LGBT community.
And then, secondly, our own failings in the church, no-fault divorce in the church, and scandals among leaders and things like that, that took away our moral authority and opened the door for other changes to come. And then our failure to speak up boldly, often our cowardice as leaders that we'd rather have our reputation, we'd rather have our secure people giving in our church, you know, have our money secure and our giving secure and our numbers secure rather than speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may.
So, gone into that, had a great time with the folks there. And then the next night, after some other meetings during the day, the next night, I got to speak on Israel and the resurrection of the dead. I'm hoping to get that video of the message and put it on YouTube. But you may have watched it on Facebook Live. Just during the course of the message, we reached over 300,000 people on our Ask Dr.
Brown Facebook page. And I think it's a real eye-opening message, Israel and the Resurrection of the Dead. Then spoke at all five services for Cornerstone Community Church. They have 19 different services over the weekend in multiple languages and locations. Great bunch of folks.
So I brought five messages on why we don't have more revival. And each message was a different message, but on the same theme.
So we're hoping to get some of those up on YouTube as well. But thank you for praying. A fruitful trip. About, oh, roughly 30 hours travel in each direction. And looking forward to taking your calls on the broadcast again tomorrow.
But today, because of travel, back from... from Singapore, not taking any calls, sharing my thoughts about Donald Trump's inaugural speech. Let me also lay out a principle for you, which is don't use unequal weights and measures. Don't use unequal weights and measures. What do I mean?
Well, just hold the same standard. for people you like as for people you don't like. Hold the same standard for your own camp. As for another camp. Don't evaluate harshly those that you differ with and then let off the hook those you agree with and like.
Just be fair and equal. Throughout the Old Testament, there were warnings about using unequal weights and measures, unequal stones. You'd have these things supposed to weigh the same amount, but one was heavy and the other was light, and you would tip the scales accordingly. No, no, don't. Do that that's unjust, and God hates that.
So, let me just give you an example. There are people who are calling Donald Trump a sexual predator, and they take literally comments that he made. He claimed it was just locker talk. Either way, it was gross, vulgar. He apologized for it either way, horrific and unacceptable from what, 10, 11 years ago.
Let's just say he did the things that he talked about. And let's say that women who made charges against him that he groped them or things like that, let's just say that those are true. He claims they're false. He was going to sue if he wasn't. I was told if he wasn't elected, he was going to sue those people.
And if he was elected, he was going to let it go. But either way, if those things were true. And if people are outraged and how can a man like that be in the White House, I understand that. I just hope that you were equally outraged about Bill Clinton. And from what I can tell, there was more evidence and more damning evidence against Bill Clinton than against Donald Trump in that regard.
I'm not justifying, I'm not saying well one was really, really, really bad, the other was kind of bad. No, no, I'm simply saying that if you have outrage over one, that's fine as long as you have outrage over the other. Or look at this. How do you evaluate evidence? How do you evaluate evidence?
If there's negative evidence presented against someone you like, you're going to look for ways to dismiss it and disprove it. No, I don't think that's accurate. You hear a news report against someone that that, or excuse me, someone that you do like. You hear a news report, negative news report about someone that you do like. You're I don't know.
I question that. I wonder. But if that negative news report was about someone you don't like, you go, uh-huh, yeah, that's right.
So I just want to encourage you to be equal-handed. even handed excuse me equal weights equal measures even handed is is that too much to ask for and hey I'm asking it of myself. It's not always easy. because we as human beings can easily become partisan. we can do it.
So I'm just saying if if every day you were on Barack Obama's case and you criticized him and you looked at him a certain way and and he was you know the antichrist to you and now people say well Donald Trump is like Hitler and you get outraged. Hey. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Alright, so all I'm saying is... Be even handed, be level. headache. Is that too much to ask for those of us who are supposed to be the people of God? All right.
The Donald Trump speech I read one report that said, wow, this was a great speech because he only used the word I just a few times, but he kept saying we, we, we, we throughout the speech. And they said, you know, that's different than Barack Obama, who often talked about himself and it was I, I, I.
Now, he has made speeches. There's no question he's made speeches where he perpetually refers to himself. And people would count, you know, in this one speech, he used the word I, you know, 63 times or something like that. But I decided to do a check. Because someone said to me, well, who cares what Donald Trump said at the inauguration?
All of his other speeches were all about him and me, me, me, and that. And that was their criticism.
So I decided to do a check. And I Easily found a website that has all the inaugural speeches of all of our presidents. I'm sure there are bunches of websites that have that.
So I didn't search for me, I just searched for I. I.
So I searched for I with a space after it, so it would be the word I. And then look through it and to count it, and then look the same way for we. And over and over and over and over, president after president after president, in our inaugural speech, they say I a few times and overwhelmingly say we, we, we, we. And in fact, Barack Obama's first speech, which was one of the ones I checked, so his inauguration 2009 after being elected in 2008. He said we, if I got my facts right, he said we more than Donald Trump did and I less than Donald Trump.
So let's not make these superficial comparisons. Donald Trump did what president after president after president, what they have done in their inaugural speeches, which is constantly put the emphasis on we, we, we, we the people, you, all of you, and very little said about themselves.
So what he did was in keeping with that custom and obviously any good speechwriter would be fully aware of that. But here's what I find very striking. All right. He addresses Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, people of the world, thank you. We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild.
Rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people.
So you're sitting there, you're outgoing President Obama, and the new guy coming in is talking about rebuilding our country. That means it is fallen down. That means it is collapsed. That means it needs to be built back up again. And you say, well, what happened the last eight years?
Yeah.
So listen. Again, he is not the first one to use expressions like that. You go back to JFK and it's time to renew the nation and things. And what is coming in after Eisenhower? And there's Eisenhower, the country's being rebuilt after World War II and things like that.
Eisenhower and others in the aftermath here. It was not unusual to do it, but you think, boom, talk about a slap in the face of the previous president and the previous administration saying we have to rebuild our nation. I mean picture this. I'm on radio for eight years and then I go off the air and you come on as the new radio host and you say it's time to rebuild this radio hour. It's time to rebuild this station.
Yeah, it's a slap. Obviously, it's thought through. Obviously, it is done with intent. But yeah, I believe America in many critical ways has gone backwards in the last eight years under President Obama. And some would say we've gone backwards longer than that under other presidents.
That's fine.
So I'm all for that. Just give me my comments. I'm weighing in with my thoughts that to start your speech saying it is time to rebuild America is certainly a slap in the face of the previous president. Either way, let it be a time of national rebuilding and restoration with the grace of God. This is Michael Brown.
I'll be right back on the other side of the break. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.
Welcome, welcome to the line of fire. This is Michael Brown. Again, I hope you enjoyed the guest hosts for last week as I was ministering in Singapore. A great fruitful trip with some great, precious believers in Singapore. Not taking any calls today, but we'll be back to take your calls tomorrow.
But I am analyzing just parts of Donald Trump's inaugural speech, talking about some of the response to it. And I mentioned in the last segment that. He started talking about, beginning of his speech, talking about time to rebuild and restore our nation, which obviously seems like a slap on the previous administration. Listen to how John F. Kennedy began his speech January 20th, 1961.
Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, honorable addresses everyone there. Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens, we observe today. not a victory of party, But a celebration of Freedom. symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal.
as well as change.
So again, this is not an uncommon theme, but it does in many ways say that we need renewal, we need rebuilding, we need change after the previous administration. But enough with that. Let's read a few more segments here. He says today will determine the course of America and the world for years to come. We'll face challenges, confront hardships, but will get the job done.
He commends the president and first lady for their gracious aid through the transition, said they've been significant. But he says, we're not merely transferring power today from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the American people.
Now, this is really a frontal assault on the D.C. political establishment. This is really very clearly saying that there are changes that must come because Washington politics have dominated the nation and have been for their good, not for the good of the nation.
Now, we'll see how he delivers on the promise. I do believe he's serious about it. But look at what he says. I mean, he's talking about some of the people. You know, Chuck Schumer, who gave a brief speech just a few minutes earlier.
He's got to be one of the people that Donald Trump includes in this. For too long, a small group at our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. This is boom, a slap in the face of the political establishment.
The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. And he does this right in Washington, D.C. Again, you're talking about divine wrecking ball or wrecking ball, however you want to look at it. You're talking about taking on the world right here. And earlier in the day, Pastor Robert Jefferson, a brief message that he gave, Dr.
Dobson spoke and James Robinson spoke and prayed. Different key leaders were involved in this prayer service on the morning of the inauguration. It's striking that Robert Jeffers talked about the opposition to Nehemiah building the walls of Jerusalem, building the city up Sanbala and Tobiah, these enemies of Judah, and he compared that to today's mainstream media.
So you're talking about war is being declared in that regard. And he says the whole thing is the government must be controlled by the people. January 20th, 2017 will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.
Well, let it be so. Let our elected officials carry out our bidding. Uh it is quite striking. That he talked about the case of the inner cities. Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, an education system flushed with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge of the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.
This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. Uh that's not your normal tone. whether you liked it or not. That's not your normal tone. It's normally a much more positive picture that's being painted.
And for those who question whether Trump cares about the inner cities, whether Trump has a heart for the inner cities and things like that. I just want to say that it seems he does care about this. He says this American carnage stops right here and stops right now. We're one nation, and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams.
Their success will be our success. And he says: the oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all. Americans.
Now, strikingly, You've got this march for women against Trump that took place getting massive coverage. You've got Madonna talking about how she'd like to bomb the White House and dropping F-bombs on national TV. You've got Ashley Judd saying profane and ugly things about Donald Trump. The opposition, in that respect, whether you're pro-Trump or not, you've got to be ashamed of the opposition. And the media, of course, gives this wall-to-wall coverage.
How about the March for Life? What kind of coverage does that get? Doesn't matter if the numbers are five or ten times bigger. No, no. What's going to get the coverage is the radical left attacking the president.
That's what's going to get the coverage, not a pro-life march. And again, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know this. Chris Matthews referred to the Hitlerian tone of the speech. Again, if you look at it in the worst possible construct that we are becoming more and more nationalistic, we are becoming more and more America-centric to the expense of the rest of the world. To the world, and we've elected someone who's like this demagogue, and what's he going to do, and so on, and so forth.
Yeah, I could understand that you have this worst-case scenario, but please. look at things soberly, Give honest reflection. and assessment. Don't react emotionally. Ask yourself about the people that are surrounding Donald Trump.
Ask about his cabinet picks. Ask about other choices he's made. And ask yourself, yeah, I understand your concern. What's he going to do with an executive order? Is he going to spark a world war with one of his tweets or something like that?
I understand the concerns, and I don't minimize your concerns. I would only say this. Do not be reactionary. Do not be hysterical. When Barack Obama was elected and people are calling and telling me he's a Muslim and he's the Antichrist and this and that, as much as I abhorred some of his policies, I rejected those ideas and those theories.
And yeah, he's got great sympathy for Islam. I was even an apologist for Islam. I didn't look at him as a Muslim. I didn't believe he was a Muslim. And he certainly wasn't the Antichrist.
Oh no, it wasn't the Antichrist because Donald Trump is it. Drop it. Drop it, drop it. He is our president, and even if you are shocked and grieved, Pray for him and do not be reactionary. And by the way, In his very first speech as president, he says three words that Barack Obama basically would not say for eight years, radical.
Islamic. Terrorism. I'm not going through the speech and saying great speech, bad speech. I'm just going through some points with you. Be on the lookout.
We're going to be announcing this very soon. The Dr. Brown app, the Ask Dr. Brown app at long last. Be on the lookout for it.
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Thanks in advance. 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 so much for joining us today on the line of fire. Michael Brown, delighted to be back with you. After a wonderful and intensive week of ministry in Singapore, I won't be taking your calls today, but looking forward to taking your calls the rest of the week on the broadcast. I want to weigh in with some thoughts on the inaugural speech of Donald Trump, some reaction to the speech, and the first Press conference. where the new White House press secretary basically ripped into the media for what he said was false reporting and issues like that.
Wrong reporting on the numbers of the people and the crowd at the inauguration day, and this is the most viewed inauguration ever, and things like that. Let me just say this. I don't know the man, the press secretary, obviously I have no access to him. But common sense tells you when you come in with a certain tone, you're going to get a certain reaction. And these are people that you're going to be working with in years to come.
So a good verse for the new White House press secretary is Proverbs 15, verse 1, that a harsh word stirs up strife. But a gentle tongue. breaks the bone. That, or gentle tongue, excuse me, it's Proverbs 25, breaks the bone.
Soft answer, gentle tongue turns away wrath. It softens things.
So you can say, hey, we're just getting started here. This is, you know, the first day, our first days is this administration. And already there's some inaccurate reporting and things like that.
So, hey, can I... Ask you, let's do our best to just be truthful. You may like President Trump, you may not like President Trump, but how about we all commit to doing our best to be truthful? How does that work? Obviously, you're going to be combative.
Everything is going to explode, and it's not going to make you look good. I was frankly shocked by the tone. This is just how the thing starts. It's like if you're a co-worker or employer or something, you call someone in your office, hey, can we just have a chat for a minute? And you come in next to say, man, you were wrong.
I just wanted you to, and you lay into them. It's like, okay, maybe, maybe not the best way to start and to be constructive.
So let the false reports be exposed. Let the, quote, fake news be exposed. Let the media biases be exposed. And obviously, you've got people in the media flipping out over the Donald Trump speech. Perhaps one of the more extreme remarks to Chris Matthews, MSNBC, referring to the tone as Hitlerian.
Well, yeah, I... I Those reactions, extreme, need to be exposed, need to be confronted, need to be addressed for sure. And then those who make it like Donald Trump the savior, they are also looking at things wrongly. And look, you can make all kinds of promises in your inaugural speech. You know, Donald Trump talking about the carnage of the inner cities.
President Trump saying this American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
Well, it's in the midst of his inaugural speech. The very most he could possibly mean, and the very most we should take him to mean is we're going to deal with this in the coming years and we're going to do our best to put an end to this in our inner cities. That's obviously what he's saying. And some of you say, I didn't hear positive. That means like militarism.
That means he's going to take over and police us like never before and crush our. You may have heard it in different ways. But it's inaugural speech rhetoric. We understand that. He was not stopping the whole thing right then.
Nothing changed in the inner city at that moment. It's not like the gang said, okay, we throw away our weapons and turn in our drugs and families suddenly got reunited and jobs suddenly appeared. We understand that. So let's not get our hopes in a wrong place. Let us pray hard for our president because he is our president, like it or not, just like Barack Obama was my president, like it or not.
And then let's do what we're supposed to do as God's people to make a difference. Be right back. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUT.
Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. All right, let's dive back into the inaugural speech of Donald Trump. If you missed any part of the broadcast, go to my radio website, thelineofire.org, and just click on listen. Within a few hours of the broadcast being completed, our great team has it online for you to listen to.
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Okay. One of the biggest controversies with Donald Trump's inaugural speech was the America First emphasis. And of course, this is part of the populism that got Donald Trump elected. This is part of the populism that's rising up in Europe. I was speaking to one of our grads who leads our ministry in Holland, leads fire school of ministry and fire church in Holland.
He was talking about the rising tide of nationalism in Europe and what could be happening in France and what could be happening in Holland. And there's a pushback. It's not an immigrant hating thing. It's a pushback against the loss of the nation. It's a pushback against the sense that the nation is being taken from us, so that others with other interests are taking over the country and we don't like it, so we're taking back our country.
That's a rising tide, not just in America, but in other nations. Donald Trump says, for many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military. We've defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own, and spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon. One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind.
The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and redistributed across the entire world. He says, but that is the past.
Now we're looking only to the future. We assembled here today. We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city and every foreign capital and every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it's going to be America first.
Now On the one hand, That can sound very threatening and very scary. Look at this. We assembled here today. are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power. That they said you hear me in London, hear me.
In Moscow. And hear me in Paris and hear me in Tehran, and hear us, America, around the world. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land from this moment on. It's going to be America first.
Now, that can seem selfish. That can seem separatist. That can seem threatening. I understand all of that. But I have more to say.
He says, every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries, making our products, stealing our countries, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I'll fight through with every breath in my body. I'll never, ever let you down.
By the way, I believe he's going to give himself wholeheartedly to the cause. He's going to work hard and give himself to it, like it or not. But he goes on and says this. He says this. We'll bring our jobs back, bring back our borders, bring back our wealth, bring back our dreams.
We'll build new roads, highways, bridges, airports, tunnels, railways all across our wonderful nation. I mean, these are kinds of things that presidents are going to say are going to rebuild the country and do all these wonderful things. We'll follow two simple rules, buy American and hire American.
Well, American income is used all around the world, and American products are sold around the world.
Okay, that's to our benefit, but we're buying from around the world. What's he actually saying? What does that mean as far as importing cars and importing so many things that we use?
Well, it's obviously questions to come up. Then he says this, we'll seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. Uh two different reactions. to the America First Statement. The strength of it can sound a little scary.
The strength of it can make you wonder, okay, what does this actually mean? What is actually going to happen? If I live in another country, I'm a leader in another country, and we've been producing goods and sending them into America for many, many years, and we have a lot of immigration going on into America. Let's say you're a doctor in India, you get educated there, you often come to America or finish your education here, and then work as a doctor in America. You could make more money, and the system works better for you.
What's that going to mean? I can understand all these questions coming up, and we shall see what it means. On the flip side. What nation does not have their own best interests first? I mean, what's so radical?
about saying America first. Doesn't Mexico say Mexico first? Doesn't Canada say Canada first? Doesn't England say England first? Doesn't Russia say Russia first?
Doesn't Israel say Israel first? Doesn't Egypt say Egypt first? I mean, go around the world. What nation has as their motto our country second?
So again, Notice what he says, we will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We expect you to do the same thing we're doing, and let's see how we can work together.
So it remains to be seen how this will actually play out. And here's the other thing. The world needs America to be strong. America remains an incredibly influential nation on the planet, the most influential nation on the planet. The people in Singapore that I spoke to were quite with me on the fact that as America goes, the world goes.
And America has a tremendous worldwide influence. Look, I've been overseas and ministry trips overseas more than 150 different times. It's a lot of travel. Trust me, I've spent three years of my life probably jet-lagged.
Okay, I've spent several years of my life ministering overseas and meeting with believers in other countries and working with leaders and talking to leaders and secular leaders as well as Christian leaders and things like that. America is massively influential. And as our nation goes, for better or worse, the whole world is affected.
So the world needs America to be strong, but America to be strong also means America that cares about the rest of the world and says, how can we help the rest of the world?
So we got ourselves strong and now we help the rest of the world. That's good. We got ourselves strong and let the rest of the world suffer. That's not good. that's not good.
So hopefully it will be the former rather than the latter. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow. Let America shine, because there's a lot of good in our nation and a lot that is not good. A lot that's wonderful and a lot that's grievous. We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.
Now, if that actually happened, that would be a miracle. That would be. beyond expectation. To pare it back dramatically would be amazing enough. But notice in his inaugural speech, he said the three words which Barack Obama, our former president, and Hillary Clinton, who wanted to be our president now, former Secretary of State Clinton, these were three words they basically refused to say.
I mean, they might have said, look, I can say the words too and say them, but they would not ever say them in a strategic way. They would never ever address them.
So I'm glad that President Trump said that in his very first speech. Again, you can hear it as a hyper-prepatriotism, a hyper-populism, a hyper-nationalism that is dangerous. But at the same time, he says, when you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. Of course, Psalm 133, exactly when brethren grant.
Dwell together, live together in unity, but that's a perfectly acceptable paraphrase: how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. Unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is. totally unstoppable.
Of course, reactions to that from the liberal elite have been.
Well, they're not going to take anything positive with that because they see him as a divisive, dangerous figure, a new president. And filmmaker Michael Moore is left-wing as they come in in Hollywood. Spoke at the Women's Watch on Washington Saturday saying we're here to vow to end the Trump carnage. And on Monday, call this number, call your representative senators. Number one, we do not accept Betsy D Betty DeVos as our Secretary of Education.
That's day one, make it part of your daily routine. Hey. Make the phone calls. It's not going to stop anything. It's not going to change anything.
But it would not surprise me. if for years to come People are saying, that's not my president. We got to impeach him. We got to get rid of him. Just remember this, though.
If you were one who said, Barack Obama's not my president, then don't you dare criticize someone who says Donald Trump is not my president. How about equal weights and measures and standards? We come back, we're going to shift gears and share something fascinating with you. 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. All right, we've got this last segment today here on the line of fire. This is Michael Brown.
Thanks for praying for the Singapore trip. It was great. It was a blessed time. It was a fruitful time. And we trust that there'll be a lot of good reports coming out of the meetings here and some things we'll be able to share with you about some great progress as a result of us coming to Singapore.
And we appreciate the believers there standing with us, a very generous, giving people, the people who've been prospered in amazing ways and who love to share in the work of the Lord. Hey, The people of Singapore are helping us broadcast in America. Think of that. How about you standing with us to pray with us, join our support team? We are indebted to you as we work together for the gospel.
Well, I've weighed in with some thoughts on the speech of our new president, Donald Trump. And again, I remind you, I remind you that for eight years, in the midst of my issues with Barack Obama as president, I said emphatically, he's my president. This is just the way it works.
So if for eight years you say Barack Obama's not my president, and now you're upset with people saying Trump's not my president.
Well, you're a hypocrite. You're a hypocrite.
Sorry to say you're a hypocrite. And if you said for eight years Barack Obama is my president, then you can expect other people to say Donald Trump is my president. You can oppose their policies, you can speak against their policies, you can resist them, you can say this is wrong and I'm going to stand for righteousness fine. He's their president. That's the reality.
Get used to it. President Donald Trump. Get used to it. That is the reality, as far-fetched and impossible as it seemed. And pray.
Because even those that voted for Donald Trump with some reluctance, we know there's great potential. We see how God could use him in a fearless way to take on things like radical Islam and take on the political establishment and take on the radical left and all these things. We see that, you know, and help to defund Planned Parenthood and appoint righteous justices to the Supreme Court and things like that. We see how it can be used, but we fully understand the potential dangers of how divisions can be intensified and dignity and respect can be lost. Who knows what kind of conflict could be started just by a tweet?
So, pray either way, you need to pray. Would you agree? And let me just say this on a speech and. Donald Trump is learning to use the teleprompter better. His speeches for months were just more kind of like winging it and a lot of spontaneous and flow of conscience, consciousness kind of thing.
Is that what it's called? Flow of consciousness.
Well, you know what I mean. Just kind of let the things out and say what's on his mind. And he speaks much better like that, but he was too. It was too volatile, and as people worked with him towards the end, they pulled him in more so he'd just be reading speeches, and his extemporaneous comments wouldn't get him in trouble. But reading from the teleprompter was painful for me as a speaker to often to listen.
And, you know, just very stiff and look to one side for all look to the other. Whereas Barack Obama was seamless. I mean, he was an absolute master of the teleprompter and eloquent in the way he would deliver it. And he was much weaker extemporaneously. But at the end of Trump's speech, I think that's the best I've heard him of the teleprompter, where he starts to build up and get some energy going.
You'll never be ignored again. You know, together we'll make America strong again. You know what's coming. He's going to end with great, right? We will make wealthy again.
So we left out America. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And yes, together we'll make America great again. Thank you.
God bless you. God bless America.
So I thought he ended as powerfully as he had before. And yes, he had a number of born-again believers praying over him. Probably Paula White, the most controversial, but when she was criticized by Dr. Michael Horton, a respected theologian, when he criticized her and as an example of extreme prosperity preaching and denying gospel fundamentals, I think it was the New York Times op-ed piece. She responded with a very strong statement saying she only doesn't respond to critics, but that's absolutely false.
And you find God in suffering in the same way you find him in prosperity. And she holds to the fundamentals of the gospel and so on and so forth. But probably the most controversial of those that prayed. But you had people boldly praying in the name of Jesus and quite a difference from President Obama's last inauguration where he had an openly gay minister pray. Quite a...
quite a difference or a gay affirming minister pray but i i just want to shift gears for for the couple minutes i have and dennis prager great radio host uh great thinker uh jewish thinker uh dennis prager on dennisprager.com put out a guide to basic differences between left and right And I just want to run through some of these quickly because it does help sort through some of the ideologies that we're looking at in our country today. When it comes to the source of human rights, For the left, you said it's government. For the right, it's the creator. Human nature. The view of the left, basically good.
Therefore, society is primarily responsible for evil. The right not basically good, therefore, the individual. is primarily responsible for evil. Economic goal for the left, equality for the right, prosperity. Primary role of the state, left, increase and protect equality.
For the right, increase and protect liberty. The government for the left as large as possible, for the right as small as possible. The family ideal, the left, any loving unit of people, for the right, a married father and mother and children. The guiding trinity of the left, race, gender, and class. The guiding trinity for the right, liberty and God we trust, and E pluribus unum.
good and evil for the left relative to individual. And or society.
So, in the view of the left, good and evil are relative to the individual or society. For the right, based on universal absolutes, humanity's primary divisions, for the left, rich and poor, strong and weak, for the right, good and evil. Let's see if I've got time for a few more of these. The ideal primary identity of an American, for the left, the world citizen. for the right of the American citizen.
How to make a good society for the left, abolish inequality for the right, develop each citizen's moral character. View of America. For the left, profoundly morally flawed, inferior to any number of European countries. For the right, greatest force for good among nations in world history. Comes to gender for the left, a social contract, for the right, a construct, excuse me, for the right, male and female.
Worth of the human fetus for the left, determined by the mother, for the right determined by society, rooted in Judeo-Christian values. Great insights, good analysis, obviously simplified, but certainly worthwhile. Hey, when I was in Singapore, what got a lot of talk was my weight loss because when I last ministered for this church two and a half years ago, I had just started my lifestyle transformation.
So here I come back, what, almost 90 pounds lighter because I'd lost a few pounds before I got there. And every meal, I mean, Singaporeans, it's great food in Singapore, and they love to cook and eat. And every meal, I'm having my big salads and things like that. We went to Ruth's Chris one night, you know, special dinner. The pastor took us out, and everybody's having these fabulous steaks and drooling over them.
And I was thrilled. I got two salads. One is an appetite, one first, one with a mess. I was thrilled, didn't feel deprived at all. And anyway, if you don't have our Book yet, Breaking the Stronghold of Food that Nancy and I wrote, get it, go to amazon.com and order it.
And then, if you have it, if it's been a blessing to you, go to Amazon and post your review there. All right, we're getting rave reviews from folks, people's lives are being changed.
So, if it's helped you, go. Go to amazon.com, post a review there. Let others be encouraged as well. And be sure to check out our special resource offers. We've got fabulous discounts on thelineofire.org.
Let us be a blessing to you. My bottom line, we are about to enter into some of the most volatile days in American history. Pray and then act as the people of God. Our forty-fifth president. Donald Trump.
It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and President of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH.
Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Hey friends, Michael Brown. It is so good to be back with you. As you listen to my voice right now, I am somewhere in the air en route from Singapore back to the United States.
So delighted to be with you. Had an awesome week of ministry in Singapore. I hope you enjoyed the special guest host we had last week. I hope they were blessing to you. We had some great gifted folks and confident they did a really good job.
Had a great time ministering in Singapore. I'll give you a report on that in a moment. But it was somewhat surreal to be in Singapore and what it was like around midnight Singapore time because we were 13 hours ahead of East Coast time.
So it was either midnight, maybe one in the morning when President Trump was officially inaugurated. And for many, I know it's surreal.
Some never thought it would happen. Surreal, positively, surreal. Negatively, I understand the great range of emotions that's out there. And it was just even more interesting for me being so far removed, I mean, a long, long distance from Washington, D.C., being in Singapore watching, and then, you know, with international news coverage and things like that, you know, international BBC and news coverage like that, it was really, really interesting. And of course, America is massively divided.
Yeah, we've been divided over past presidents, but I'd say we're in an even more fractured, divided state right now. And obviously, as God's people, the one thing we don't want to do is be reactionary. We want to be fair-minded. We want to be prayerful. We want to do our best to not get caught up in partisan politics.
And we want to unify among ourselves, regardless of whether we're happy or not with President Donald Trump being our 40th president, 45th president. I'm going to go through some of his inaugural speeches. And share some thoughts with you and talk about some of the things happening in response to Donald Trump's inaugural speech. Let me first say something. To everyone listening, if you consider yourself a Bible believer, if God's word has authority in your life, and you know the calling that is on our lives to honor and respect authorities, Peter could even write, and Paul could write, exhorting us to even honor the emperor of Rome and things like that when you're talking about parentally a wicked, often vilely wicked leader, and yet the office was to be honored.
I absolutely opposed many of Barack Obama's policies. I warned before he was elected, and you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to see this, that he would be the most radically pro-gay activist, pro-abortion president in our history. And I questioned where he stood on the nation of Israel. But he was still my president. Like it or not, he was our elected president under our system, and that makes him my president.
Every election. There are millions and millions of people, almost half the nation, in some cases, numbers-wise, over half the nation in terms of those who voted, who say, well, I didn't vote for the man. I didn't vote for that person. Understood. That's the way it works.
Nonetheless, that person is your president. I just want to encourage you to recognize that. and to have an attitude of respect for the office. If you profoundly differ with the man, if you're profoundly concerned about his policies, his words, if you are grieved, pray for him, but he's your president. If you say, that's not my president, well, if that's what half of America did with every election, then we'd have no government, we'd have no country, we wouldn't function at all.
So I did not. like Barack Obama being our president, but he was our president and he was my president. And if I differed with him, I differed with him with the respect that the presidential office deserves.
So let's do the same regardless of what side we're on with President Trump from a scriptural level. Does that make sense to you?
So we're going to look at the inaugural speech of Donald Trump. This is Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUTH.
Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us on the line of fire. This is Michael Brown. Delighted to be with you.
For all of you who prayed for me while ministering in Singapore, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. We had a great series of meetings. The first night, I met with a number of business leaders, key business people in Singapore, church leaders, and just gave a call for courage to stand, to do the right thing, not to be confrontational in a provocatory way, but were there righteousness issues to stand for righteousness and to be people of courage and people of wisdom. We had a great time there.
And then the next morning, I was asked to prepare a three-hour PowerPoint presentation that was going to be videotaped and shown to youth pastors and leaders throughout Asia as to questions of redefining marriage, questions of LGBT activism. Scriptural principles, how to respond. And I close the presentation with five warnings: five things we've done wrong in the Church of America in terms of dealing with gay activist issues, beginning with failing to have a real baptism of love for the LGBT community. And then, secondly, our own failings in the church, no-fault divorce in the church, and scandals among leaders and things like that, that took away our moral authority and opened the door for other changes to come. And then, our failure to speak up boldly, often our cowardice as leaders that we'd rather have our reputation, we'd rather have our secure people giving in our church, you know, have our money secure and our giving secure and our numbers secure rather than speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may.
So, gone into that, had a great time with the folks there. And then the next night, after some other meetings during the day, the next night, I got to speak on Israel and the resurrection of the dead. I'm hoping to get that video of the message and put it on YouTube. But you may have watched it on Facebook Live. Just during the course of the message, we reached over 300,000 people on our Ask Dr.
Brown Facebook page. And I think it's a real eye-opening message, Israel and the Resurrection of the Dead. Then spoke at all five services for Cornerstone Community Church. They have 19 different services over the weekend in multiple languages and locations. Great bunch of folks.
So I brought five messages on why we don't have more revival. And each message was a different message, but on the same theme.
So we're hoping to get some of those up on YouTube as well. But thank you for praying. A fruitful trip. About, oh, roughly 30 hours travel in each direction. And looking forward to taking your calls on the broadcast again tomorrow.
But today, because of travel, back from... From Singapore, not taking any calls, sharing my thoughts about Donald Trump's inaugural speech. Let me also lay out a principle for you, which is don't use unequal weights and measures. Don't use unequal weights and measures. What do I mean?
Well, just hold the same standard. for people you like as for people you don't like. Hold the same standard for your own camp. As for another camp. Don't evaluate harshly those that you differ with and then let off the hook those you agree with and like.
Just be fair and equal. Throughout the Old Testament, there were warnings about using unequal weights and measures, unequal stones. You'd have these things supposed to weigh the same amount, but one was heavy and the other was light, and you would tip the scales accordingly. No, no, don't. Do that that's unjust, and God hates that.
So, let me just give you an example. There are people who are calling Donald Trump a sexual predator, and they take literally comments that he made. He claimed it was just locker talk. Either way, it was gross, vulgar. He apologized for it either way, horrific and unacceptable from what, 10, 11 years ago.
Let's just say he did the things that he talked about. And let's say that women who made charges against him, that he groped them, or things like that, let's just say that those are true. He claims they're false. He was going to sue if he wasn't. I was told if he wasn't elected, he was going to sue those people.
And if he was elected, he was going to let it go. But either way, if those things were true. And if people are outraged at how could a man like that be in the White House, I understand that. I just hope that you were equally outraged about Bill Clinton. And from what I can tell, there was more evidence and more damning evidence against Bill Clinton than against Donald Trump in that regard.
I'm not justifying, I'm not saying well one was really, really, really bad, the other was kind of bad. No, no, I'm simply saying that if you have outrage over one, that's fine as long as you have outrage over the other. Or look at this. How do you evaluate evidence? How do you evaluate evidence?
If there's negative evidence presented against someone you like, you're going to look for ways to dismiss it and disprove it. No, I don't think that's accurate. You hear a news report against someone that that, or excuse me, someone that you do like. You hear a news report, negative news report about someone that you do like. You're, I don't know, I question that.
I wonder. But if that negative news report was about someone you don't like, you go, uh-huh, yeah, that's right.
So I just want to encourage you to be equal-handed. Even handed, excuse me, equal weights, equal measures, even handed. Is that too much to ask for? And hey, I'm asking it of myself. It's not always easy.
because we as human beings can easily become partisan. we can do it.
So I'm just saying if if every day you were on Barack Obama's case and you criticized him and you looked at him a certain way and and he was you know the antichrist to you and now people say well Donald Trump is like Hitler and you get outraged. Hey. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Alright, so all I'm saying is... Be even, hand it, be level. headache. Is that too much to ask for those of us who are supposed to be the people of God? All right.
The Donald Trump speech Uh I read one report that said, wow, this was a great speech because he only used the word I just a few times, but he kept saying we, we, we, we throughout the speech. And they said, you know, that's different than Barack Obama, who often talked about himself and it was I, I, I.
Now, he has made speeches. There's no question he's made speeches where he perpetually refers to himself. And people would count, you know, in this one speech, he used the word I, you know, 63 times or something like that. But I decided to do a check. Because someone said to me, Well, who cares what Donald Trump said at the inauguration?
All of his other speeches were all about him and me, me, me, and that was their criticism.
So I decided to do a check. And I. Easily found a website that has all the inaugural speeches of all of our presidents. I'm sure there are bunches of websites that have that.
So I didn't search for me, I just searched for I. I.
So I searched for I with a space after it, so it would be the word I. and then look through it and to count it, and then look the same way for we. And over and over and over and over, president after president after president, in our inaugural speech, they say I a few times and overwhelmingly say we, we, we, we. And in fact, Barack Obama's first speech, which was one of the ones I checked, so his inauguration 2009 after being elected in 2008, he said we, if I have got my facts right, he said we more than Donald Trump did and I less than Donald Trump.
So let's not make these superficial comparisons. Donald Trump did what president after president after president, what they have done in their inaugural speeches, which is constantly put the emphasis on we, we, we, we, we the people, you, all of you, and very little said about themselves.
So what he did was in keeping with that custom, and obviously any good speech writer would be fully aware of that. But here's what I find very striking. All right. He addresses Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, people of the world, thank you. We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild.
Rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people.
So you're sitting there, you're outgoing President Obama, and the new guy coming in is talking about rebuilding our country. That means it is fallen down. That means it is collapsed. That means it needs to be built back up again. And you say, well, what happened the last eight years?
Yeah.
So listen. Again, he is not the first one to use expressions like that. You go back to JFK and it's time to renew the nation and things. What is coming in after Eisenhower? And there's Eisenhower, the country's being rebuilt after World War II and things like that.
Eisenhower and others in the aftermath here. It was not unusual to do it, but you think, boom. Talk about a slap in the face of the previous president and the previous administration saying we have to rebuild our nation. I mean, picture this. I'm on radio for eight years, and then I go off the air, and you come on as the new radio host, and you say, it's time to rebuild this radio hour.
It's time to rebuild this station. Yeah, it's a slap. Obviously, it's thought through. Obviously, it is done with intent. But yeah, I believe America in many critical ways has gone backwards in the last eight years under President Obama.
And some would say we've gone backwards longer than that under other presidents. That's fine.
So I'm all for that. Just give me my comments. I'm weighing in with my thoughts that to start your speech saying it is time to rebuild America is certainly a slap in the face of the previous president. Either way, let it be a time of national rebuilding and restoration with the grace of God. This is Michael Brown.
I'll be right back on the other side of the break. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.
Welcome, welcome to the line of fire. This is Michael Brown. Again, I hope you enjoyed the guest host for last week as I was ministering in Singapore. A great fruitful trip with some great precious believers in Singapore. Not taking any calls today, but we'll be back to take your calls tomorrow.
But I am analyzing just parts of Donald Trump's inaugural speech, talking about some of the response to it. And I mentioned in the last segment that. He started talking about, beginning of his speech, talking about time to rebuild and restore our nation, which obviously seems like a slap on the previous administration. Listen to how John F. Kennedy began his speech January 20th, 1961.
Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, honorable addresses everyone there. Reverend clergy, fellow citizens, we observe today. not a victory of party, But a celebration of Freedom. symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal.
As well as change.
So again, this is not an uncommon theme, but it does in many ways say that we need renewal, we need rebuilding, we need change after the previous administration. But enough with that. Let's read a few more segments here. He says today will determine the course of America and the world for years to come. We'll face challenges, confront hardships, but will get the job done.
He commends the president and first lady for their gracious aid through the transition. He said they've been significant. But he says, we're not merely transferring power today from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American people.
Now, this is really a frontal assault on the D.C. political establishment. This is really very clearly saying that there are changes that must come because Washington politics have dominated the nation and have been for their good, not for the good of the nation.
Now, we'll see how he delivers on the promise. I do believe he's serious about it. But look at what he says. I mean, he's talking about some of the people. You know, Chuck Schumer, who gave a brief speech just a few minutes earlier.
He's got to be one of the people that Donald Trump includes in this. For too long, a small group at our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. This is boom, a slap in the face of the political establishment.
The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. And he does this right in Washington, D.C. Again, you're talking about divine wrecking ball or wrecking ball, however you want to look at it. You're talking about taking on the world right here. And earlier in the day, Pastor Robert Jefferson, a brief message that he gave, Dr.
Dobson spoke and James Robinson spoke and prayed. Different key leaders were involved in this prayer service on the morning of the inauguration. It's striking that Robert Jeffers talked about the opposition to Nehemiah building the walls of Jerusalem, building the city up Sanbala and Tobiah, these enemies of Judah, and he compared that to today's mainstream media.
So you're talking about war is being declared in that regard. And he says the whole thing is the government must be controlled by the people. January 20th, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.
Well, let it be so. Let our elected officials carry out our bidding. Uh it is quite striking. That he talked about the case of the inner cities. Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, an education system flushed with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge of the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.
This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. Uh that's not your normal tone. Whether you liked it or not, that's not your normal tone. It's normally a much more positive picture that's being painted. And for those who question whether Trump Cares about the inner cities, whether Trump has a heart for the inner cities and things like that.
I just want to say that it seems he does care about this. He says this American carnage stops right here and stops right now. We're one nation, and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams. Their success will be our success.
And he says: the oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all. Americans.
Now, strikingly, You've got this march for women against Trump that took place getting massive coverage. You've got Madonna talking about how she'd like to bomb the White House and dropping F-bombs on national TV. You've got Ashley Judd saying profane and ugly things about Donald Trump. The opposition, in that respect, whether you're pro-Trump or not, you've got to be ashamed of the opposition. And the media, of course, gives this wall-to-wall coverage.
How about the March for Life? What kind of coverage does that get? Doesn't matter if the numbers are five or ten times bigger. No, no. What's going to get the coverage is the radical left attacking the president.
That's what's going to get the coverage, not a pro-life march. And again, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know this. Chris Matthews referred to the Hitlerian tone of the speech. Again, if you look at it in the worst possible construct that we are becoming more and more nationalistic, we are becoming more and more America-centric to the expense of the rest of the world. Of the world, and we've elected someone who's like this demagogue, and what's he going to do, and so on, and so forth.
Yeah, I could understand that you have this worst-case scenario, but please. Look at things soberly. Give honest reflection. an assessment. Don't react emotionally.
Ask yourself about the people that are surrounding Donald Trump. Ask about his cabinet picks. Ask about other choices he's made and ask yourself, yeah, I understand your concern. What's he going to do with an executive order? Is he going to spark a world war with one of his tweets or something like that?
I understand the concerns and I don't minimize your concerns. I would only say this. Do not be reactionary. Do not be hysterical. When Barack Obama was elected and people are calling and telling me he's a Muslim and he's the Antichrist and this and that, as much as I abhorred some of his policies, I rejected those ideas and those theories.
And yeah, he's got great sympathy for Islam. I was even an apologist for Islam. I didn't look at him as a Muslim. I didn't believe he was a Muslim. And he certainly wasn't the Antichrist.
Oh no, it wasn't the Antichrist because Donald Trump is it. Drop it. Drop it, drop it. He is our president. And even if you are shocked and grieved, pray for him and do not be reactionary.
And by the way, In his very first speech as president, he says three words that Barack Obama basically would not say for eight years, radical. Islamic. Terrorism. I'm not going through the speech and saying great speech, bad speech. I'm just going through some points with you.
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Brown, A-S-K-D-R-Brown.org, and click on Donate. Thanks in advance. 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 so much for joining us today on the line of fire. Michael Brown, delighted to be back with you. After a wonderful and intensive week of ministry in Singapore, I won't be taking your calls today, but looking forward to taking your calls the rest of the week on the broadcast. I want to weigh in with some thoughts on the inaugural speech of Donald Trump, some reaction to the speech, and the first point.
press conference. where the new White House press secretary basically ripped into the media for what he said was false reporting and issues like that. Wrong reporting on the numbers of the people and the crowd at the inauguration day, and this is the most viewed inauguration ever, and things like that. Let me just say this. I don't know the man, the press secretary.
Obviously, I have no access to him. But common sense tells you when you come in with a certain tone, you're going to get a certain reaction. And these are people that you're going to be working with in years to come.
So a good verse for the new White House press secretary is Proverbs 15, verse 1, that a harsh word stirs up strife. but a gentle tongue breaks the bone. that or gentle tongue, excuse me, it's Proverbs 25, breaks the bone.
Soft answer, gentle tongue turns away wrath. It softens things.
So you can say, hey, we're just getting started here. This is the first day, our first days as this administration. And already there's some inaccurate reporting and things like that.
So hey, can I ask you, let's do our best to just be truthful. You may like President Trump, you may not like President Trump, but how about we all commit to doing our best to be truthful? How does that work? And I Obviously, you're going to be combative. Everything is going to explode, and it's not going to make you look good.
I was frankly shocked by the tone. This is just how the thing starts. It's like if you're a co-worker or employer or something, you call someone in your office, hey, can we just have a chat for a minute? And you come in the next day and say, man, you were wrong. I just wanted you to, and you lay into them.
It's like, okay, maybe, maybe not the best way to start and to be constructive.
So let the false reports be exposed. Let the, quote, fake news be exposed. Let the media biases be exposed. And obviously, you've got people in the media flipping out over the Donald Trump speech. Perhaps one of the more extreme remarks to Chris Matthews, MSNBC, referring to the tone as Hitlerian.
Well, yeah, I. Those reactions, extreme, need to be exposed, need to be confronted, need to be addressed for sure. And then those who make it like Donald Trump the savior, they are also looking at things wrongly. And look, you can make all kinds of promises in your inaugural speech. You know, Donald Trump talking about the carnage of the inner cities.
President Trump saying this American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
Well, it's in the midst of his inaugural speech. The very most he could possibly mean, and the very most we should take him to mean is. We're going to deal with this in the coming years, and we're going to do our best to put an end to this in our inner cities. That's obviously what he's saying. And some of you say, I didn't hear positive.
That means like militarism. That means he's going to take over and police us like never before and crush our you may have heard it in different ways. But it's inaugural speech rhetoric. We understand that. He was not stopping the whole thing right then.
Nothing changed in the inner city at that moment. It's not like the gang said, okay, we throw away our weapons and turn in our drugs and families suddenly got reunited and jobs suddenly appeared. We understand that. So let's not get our hopes in a wrong place. Let us pray hard for our president because he is our president, like it or not, just like Barack Obama was my president, like it or not.
And then let's do what we're supposed to do as God's people to make a difference. Be right back. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUT.
Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. All right, let's dive back into the inaugural speech of Donald Trump. If you missed any part of the broadcast, go to my radio website, thelineofire.org, and just click on listen. Within a few hours of the broadcast being completed, our great team has it online for you to listen to.
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Okay. One of the biggest controversies with Donald Trump's inaugural speech was the America first emphasis. And of course, this is part of the populism that got Donald Trump elected. This is part of the populism that's rising up in Europe. I was speaking to one of our grads who leads our ministry in Holland, leads fire school of ministry and fire church in Holland.
He was talking about the rising tide of nationalism in Europe and what could be happening in France and what could be happening in Holland. And there's a pushback. It's not an immigrant hating thing. It's a pushback against the loss of the nation. It's a pushback against the sense that the nation is being taken from us, so that others with other interests are taking over the country and we don't like it, so we're taking back our country.
That's a rising tide, not just in America, but in other nations. Donald Trump says, for many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military. We've defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own, and spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon. One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind.
The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and redistributed across the entire world. He says, but that is the past.
Now we're looking only to the future. We assembled here today. We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city and every foreign capital and every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it's going to be America first.
Now On the one hand, That can sound very threatening and very scary. Look at this. We assembled here today. Are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city and every foreign capital and in every hall of power. That they said you hear me in London, hear me.
In Moscow. And hear me in Paris and hear me in Tehran. Hear us, America, around the world. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land from this moment on. It's going to be America first.
Now, that can seem selfish. That can seem separatist. That can seem threatening. I understand all of that. But I have more to say.
He says, every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries, making our products, stealing our countries, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I'll fight through with every breath in my body. I'll never ever let you down.
By the way, I believe he's going to give himself wholeheartedly to the cause. He's going to work hard and give himself to it, like it or not. But he goes on and says this. He says this. We'll bring our jobs back, bring back our borders, bring back our wealth, bring back our dreams.
We'll build new roads, highways, bridges, airports, tunnels, railways all across our wonderful nation. I mean, these are kinds of things that presidents are going to say are going to rebuild the country and do all these wonderful things. We'll follow two simple rules, buy American and hire American.
Well, American income is used all around the world and American products are sold around the world.
Okay, that's to our benefit, but we're buying from around the world. What's he actually saying? What does that mean as far as importing cars and importing so many things that we use?
Obviously, questions to come up. Then he says, This: We'll seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.
So I have. Uh two different reactions. to the America First Statement. the strength of it can sound a little scary. The strength of it can make you wonder, okay, what does this actually mean?
What is actually going to happen? If I live in another country, I'm a leader in another country, and we've been producing goods and sending them into America for many, many years, and we have a lot of immigration going on into America. Let's say you're a doctor in India, you get educated there, you often come to America, finish your education here, and then work as a doctor in America. You could make more money, and the system works better for you. What's that going to mean?
I can understand all these questions coming up, and we shall see what it means. On the flip side. What nation does not have their own best interests first? I mean, it what's so radical about saying America first. Doesn't Mexico say Mexico first?
Doesn't Canada say Canada first? Doesn't England say England first? Doesn't Russia say Russia first? Doesn't Israel say Israel first? Doesn't Egypt say Egypt first?
I mean, go around the world. What nation has as their motto our country second?
So again, notice what he says. We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We expect you to do the same thing we're doing, and let's see how we can work together.
So it remains to be seen how this will actually play out. And here's the other thing. The world needs America to be strong. America remains an incredibly influential nation on the planet, the most influential nation on the planet. The people in Singapore that I spoke to were quite with me on the fact that as America goes, the world goes.
And America has a tremendous worldwide influence. Look, I've been overseas, ministry trips overseas, more than 150 different times. It's a lot of travel, trust me. I've spent three years of my life probably jet-lagged.
Okay, I've spent several years of my life ministering overseas and meeting with believers in other countries and working with leaders and talking to leaders and secular leaders as well as Christian leaders and things like that. America is massively influential. And as our nation goes, for better or worse, the whole world is affected.
So the world needs America to be strong, but America to be strong also means America that cares about the rest of the world and says, how can we help the rest of the world?
So we got ourselves strong and now we help the rest of the world. That's good. We got ourselves strong and let the rest of the world suffer. That's not good. That's not good.
So hopefully it will be the former rather than the latter. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow. Let America shine, because there's a lot of good in our nation and a lot that is not good. A lot that's wonderful and a lot that's grievous. We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.
Now, if that actually happened, that would be a miracle. That would be. beyond expectation. To pair it back dramatically would be amazing enough. But notice in his inaugural speech, he said the three words which Barack Obama, our former president, and Hillary Clinton, who wanted to be our president now, former Secretary of State Clinton.
These were three words they basically refused to say. I mean, they might have said, look, I can say the words too and say them, but they would not ever say them in a strategic way. They would not ever address them.
So I'm glad that President Trump said that in his very first speech. Again, you can hear it as a hyper-pr uh patriotism, a hyper-populism, a hyper-nationalism that is dangerous. But at the same time, he says, when you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. Of course, Psalm 133, exactly when brethren dwell together, live together in unity.
But that's a perfectly acceptable paraphrase, how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. Unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is. totally unstoppable.
Of course, reactions to that from the liberal elite have been Well, they're not going to take anything positive with that because they see him as a divisive, dangerous figure, a new president. And filmmaker Michael Moore is left-wing as they come in in Hollywood. Spoke of the Women's Watch on Washington Saturday saying, we're here to vow to end the Trump carnage. And on Monday, call this number, call your representative senators. Number one, we do not accept Betty DeVos as our Secretary of Education.
That's day one, make it part of your daily routine. Hey. Make the phone calls. It's not going to stop anything. It's not going to change anything.
But it would not surprise me. if for years to come People are saying, that's not my president. We got to impeach him. We got to get rid of him. Just remember this, though.
If you were one who said, Barack Obama's not my president, then don't you dare criticize someone who says Donald Trump is not my president. How about equal weights and measures and standards? We come back, we're going to shift gears and share something fascinating with you. 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. All right, we've got this last segment today here on the line of fire. This is Michael Brown.
Thanks for praying for the Singapore trip. It was great. It was a blessed time. It was a fruitful time. And we trust that there'll be a lot of good reports coming out of the meetings here and some things we'll be able to share with you about some great progress as a result of us coming to Singapore.
And we appreciate the believers there standing with us, a very generous, giving people, the people who've been prospered in amazing ways and who love to share in the work of the Lord. Hey, The people of Singapore are helping us broadcast in America. Think of that. How about you standing with us to pray with us, join our support team? We are indebted to you as we work together for the gospel.
Well, I've weighed in with some thoughts on the speech of our new president, Donald Trump. And again, I remind you, I remind you that for eight years, in the midst of my issues with Barack Obama as president, I said emphatically, he's my president. This is just the way it works.
So if for eight years you said Barack Obama's not my president, and now you're upset with people saying Trump's not my president.
Well, you're a hypocrite. You're a hypocrite.
Sorry to say you're a hypocrite. And if you said for eight years Barack Obama is my president, then you can expect other people to say Donald Trump is my president. You can oppose their policies, you can speak against their policies, you can resist them, you can say this is wrong and I'm going to stand for righteousness is fine. He's your president. That's the reality.
Get used to it. President Donald Trump. Get used to it. That is the reality, as far-fetched and impossible as it seemed, and pray. Because even those that voted for Donald Trump with some reluctance, we know there's great potential.
We see how God could use him in a fearless way to take on things like radical Islam and take on the political establishment and take on the radical left and all these things. We see that, you know, and help to defund Planned Parenthood and appoint righteous justices to the Supreme Court and things like that. We see how he can be used, but we fully understand the potential dangers of how divisions can be intensified and dignity and respect can be lost. And who knows what kind of conflict could be started just by a tweet?
So, pray either way, you need to pray. Would you agree? And let me just say this on a speech and. Donald Trump is learning to use the teleprompter better. His speeches for months were just more kind of like winging it and a lot of spontaneous and flow of conscience, consciousness kind of thing.
Is that what it's called? Flow of consciousness.
Well, you know what I mean. Just kind of let the things out and say what's on his mind. And he speaks much better like that, but he was too. It was too volatile, and as people worked with him towards the end, they pulled him in more so he'd just be reading speeches, and his extemporaneous comments wouldn't get him in trouble. But reading from the teleprompter was painful for me as a speaker to often to listen.
And, you know, just very stiff and look to one side for all, look to the other. Whereas Barack Obama was seamless. I mean, he was an absolute master of the teleprompter and eloquent in the way he would deliver it. And he was much weaker extemporaneously. But at the end of Trump's speech, I think that's the best I've heard him of the teleprompter, where he starts to build up and get some energy going.
You'll never be ignored again. You know, together we'll make America strong again. You know what's coming. He's going to end with great, right? We will make wealthy again.
So we left out America. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And yes, together we'll make America great again. Thank you.
God bless you. God bless America.
So I thought he ended as powerfully as he had before. And yes, he had a number of born-again believers praying over him. Probably Paula White, the most controversial, but when she was criticized by Dr. Michael Horton, a respected theologian, when he criticized her and as an example of extreme prosperity preaching and denying gospel fundamentals, I think it was the New York Times op-ed piece. She responded with a very strong statement saying she only doesn't respond to critics, but that's absolutely false.
And you find God in suffering in the same way you find him in prosperity. And she holds to the fundamentals of the gospel and so on and so forth. But probably the most controversial of those that prayed. But you had people boldly praying in the name of Jesus and quite a difference from President Obama's last inauguration where he had an openly gay minister pray. Quite a...
quite a difference or a gay affirming minister pray but i i just want to shift gears for for the couple minutes i have and dennis prager great radio host uh great thinker uh jewish thinker uh dennis prager on dennisprager.com put out a guide to basic differences between left and right And I just want to run through some of these quickly because it does help sort through some of the ideologies that we're looking at in our country today. When it comes to the source of human rights, For the left, you said it's government. For the right, it's the creator. Human nature, the view of the left, basically good. Therefore, society is primarily responsible for evil.
The right not basically good, therefore, the individual. is primarily responsible for evil. Economic goal for the left, equality for the right, prosperity. Primary role of the state, left, increase and protect equality. For the right, increase and protect liberty.
The government for the left as large as possible, for the right as small as possible. The family ideal, the left any loving unit of people, for the right a married father and mother and children, the guiding trinity of the left, race, gender, and class, the guiding trinity for the right, liberty in God we trust and e pluribus unum. good and evil for the left relative to individual And/or society.
So, in the view of the left, good and evil are relative to the individual or society, for the right, based on universal absolutes. Humanity's primary divisions, for the left, rich and poor, strong and weak, for the right, good and evil. Let's see if I've got time for a few more of these. The ideal primary identity of an American, for the left, the world citizen. for the right the American citizen.
How to make a good society for the left, abolish inequality for the right, develop each citizen's moral character. View of America. For the left, profoundly morally flawed, inferior to any number of European countries. For the right, greatest force for good among nations in world history. Comes to gender for the left, a social contract, for the right, a construct, excuse me, for the right, male and female.
Worth the human fetus, for the left, determined by the mother, for the right determined by society, rooted in Judeo-Christian values. Great insights, good analysis, obviously simplified, but certainly worthwhile. Hey, when I was in Singapore, what got a lot of talk was my weight loss because when I last ministered for this church two and a half years ago, I had just started my lifestyle transformation.
So here I come back, what, almost 90 pounds lighter because I'd lost a few pounds before I got there. And every meal, I mean, Singaporeans, it's great food in Singapore, and they love to cook and eat. And every meal I'm having my big salads and things like that. We went to Ruth's Chris one night, you know, a special dinner. The pastor took us out, and everybody's having these fabulous steaks and drooling over them.
And I was thrilled. I got two salads. One is an appetite, one first, one with the mouth. I was thrilled. I didn't feel deprived at all.
And anyway, if you don't have our... Book yet, Breaking the Stronghold of Food that Nancy and I wrote. Get it, go to amazon.com and order it. And then, if you have it, if it's been a blessing to you, go to Amazon and post your review there. All right, we're getting rave reviews from folks, people's lives are being changed.
So, if it's helped you, Go to amazon.com, post a review there. Let others be encouraged as well. And be sure to check out our special resource offers. We've got fabulous discounts on thelineofire.org. Let us be a blessing to you.
My bottom line, we are about to enter into some of the most volatile days in American history. Pray and then act as the people of God. Game to the world.
