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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 866-34TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to the line of fire today. This is Michael Brown. In case you're wondering with the holiday season, yes, we are live.

Remember to call with your questions, 866-348-7884. That's 866-34TRUT. Any question under the sun you want to ask me, as long as it is appropriate for Christian radio, go for it. 866-34Truth. A few things first before I get into some of your questions, email questions, and Cool.

38 years ago, today. Nancy gave birth to our younger daughter, Megan.

So happy, happy birthday, Meg. You're an amazing, wonderful daughter, wife, mother. Thrilled to have you and your family, husband and kids, as part of our family.

So, happy birthday. If you're not listening, well, someone who knows may tell her we just said happy birthday to her on the air. Also, some major news that. Involves Israel, President Obama, President-elect Trump, America, Israel, Egypt, the UN. Yesterday, there was supposed to be a vote.

going before the Security Council on a resolution that was a pro-Palestinian anti-resolution banning Israel from building settlements in the so-called Palestinian territories, which would include East Jerusalem, calling them illegal. Which means basically that although you have over a million and a half Arabs living in Israel. As part of the Israeli society, they can vote, they serve in the Supreme Court, they can be professors at universities, CEOs of companies, whatever, right? A million and a half Palestinian Arabs living there as part of Israel. That the Palestinians don't want any Jews in their midst.

And generally speaking, the settlements are considered to be one of the chief obstacles to peace.

So. This resolution was going forward rather than America stopping it as the reports go, America worked with the Palestinians, according to accusations from Israel that President Obama actually worked with the Palestinians as kind of a final zinger against Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu, with whom he had a stormy relationship. As sources seem to indicate, it seems pretty well understood that President-elect Trump got involved, reached out to Egypt's Prime Minister al-Sisi, asked him not to back this. And according to the reports, he said, okay, fine, back down from this because he wants to even potentially work with Israel against the Muslim Brotherhood and against ISIS and radical Islam. And Prime Minister El-Sisi, General El-Sisi, has boldly called as a devout Muslim himself for reform within Islam.

So in any case, the vote did not go forward yesterday, but it's supposed to go forward now, perhaps within an hour. And this is now being put forward. Egypt withdrew it as reports go under pressure from Israel and U.S. President-elect Trump. But now New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela, and Senegal, who were co-sponsors, have requested the vote to take place somewhere in the next hour.

And the only right thing for America to do is to veto this. They have veto power.

So pray that America will do the right thing. And what a contrast. What a contrast already. between President Obama and President-elect Trump in terms of standing with Israel. As much as you may have problems and issues with President-elect Trump, his stances towards Israel thus far have been very positive and very encouraging.

All right, phone lines are open. 866-348-7884. Any questions you want to ask me right now, now is the day to do it. 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 for joining us on the line of fire. May I wish you a blessed Christmas and Hanukkah season over the weekend and beyond.

866-348-7884. You've got questions. We've got answers. Before I go to the phones, let me grab this email. I meant to get to it yesterday on Thursday, Jewish Thursday, but failed to.

Here's an email. I'm a Jewish believer coming to know Jesus is my Messiah 35 years ago, along with my husband a year after that.

So the wife is writing. Sadly, he has for the past 20 years denied Jesus as the promised Messiah and spends his time watching and reading everything he can to refute any Christian claims as to the truth of who Jesus is. From serving God together for 15 years to the lonely walk of the last 20 years, to this spiritual battle that is ongoing in our lives, I'm beginning to lose heart and just become so weary of trying to keep my own faith as it is constantly being torn down. How does one deal with an antichrist spirit on a daily basis? There are so many changes in my husband over the 20 years that he has walked away from Jesus.

I so desperately want my beloved husband back in the fellowship that we once shared in Yeshua. Uh my dear sister, Uh th this is a such a weighty situation and I don't pretend to understand what it feels like to be in your shoes, because I'm absolutely not in your shoes. What agony of heart you must experience, and what loneliness you must experience. First and foremost. I encourage you to take refuge in God.

to take refuge in God. If you will Look to him in your desperation. and cry out to him in your desperation when you come to the end of yourself, you'll find grace. I know that because I know it in my own life in different circumstances, and I know it in the lives of people who have been through the most heart-wrenching, agonizing losses imaginable, and they found God's grace there. S number one If you take refuge in the Lord, cry out to him, lean on him, look to him.

I know you've done it, but put all your trust in him, not in your husband, not in your local assembly, none in any other person. He will meet you, he will give you grace, and the fellowship you enjoy with him. will be so precious, it will make up for the other losses in a way that only God can. And in that place of intimacy, that's where you also pour out your heart for your husband, whatever the root cause is that has caused this to rise in his heart, be it disappointment, be it bitterness, be it rebellion, whatever it is. Pray that God would bring him to the end of himself and to a place of humility and conviction.

And pray, God, whatever. It takes. And then if you haven't used my materials, take advantage of them. We've written five volumes on answering Jewish objections to Jesus that will demolish the type of stuff your husband is coming up with. We have debates on YouTube and other places.

If you go to my Jewish outreach website, realmessiah.com, you'll find concise answers in writing and on video to most of the principal objections. That's realmessiah.com.

So you can be helped there. And maybe, maybe, if your husband's open to the truth, you expose him to some of these things. And maybe it'll make him realize, hey, I'm in error. I'm I'm barking up the wrong tree. But above all, when you are weak, then you find strength in the Lord, His grace.

will be Sufficient. And friends, let's pray for this dear woman that God would meet her traumatically. And that her husband would come to repentance. 866. 348-78.

884. We go to Rick in Erie, Pennsylvania. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Doctor Brown. Thank you for all you do.

And um I have a situation that happened to me this week. and need your advison as a Christian American. I'm an artist, professional artist, and I was asked by a Whole Foods Co-op. uh grocery store in Pennsylvania. to display my paintings for a month.

And I brought in landscape portraiture. And the last painting I brought in was a nativity scene. Uh piece of art hung the paintings before I even got home. The Whole Foods emailed me and said that my painting of any activity is an offense. and had to be taken down because it's a Christian.

Uh Christmas Painting. In capitals and quotations, a Christian Christmas painting and could not be It was, you know Whatever.

So I'm like, how are we supposed to handle where they're constantly trying to shove that agenda down our throats basically to keep us from being who we are. Yes. And Rick, it's no surprise If that would be the mentality of Whole Foods, I I shop there. Oh, probably once every few weeks because of the largely organic diet that my wife and I are on and so on. And it really is very much an ideological store.

I mean, it's not just organic foods, but you've got Eastern religion stuff. Even the folks at the checkout counters are quite a bit more avant-garde than your average checkout folks at grocery stores. And in fact, earlier this year, a guy claimed, a gay guy, that someone at Whole Foods had mocked his gay wedding on a cake. And my immediately thought was not Whole Foods. And of course, the guy fabricated the whole thing.

And people are like, you picked on the wrong store for this.

So, yeah, their ideology, I would say.

So let me ask you a question. Is this any different? Then the photographer and the baker out west that was fined threatened with prison sentence, tens of thousands of dollars because they wouldn't bake the cake. They wouldn't take the pictures. And now, when it's reversed and shoes on the other foot, they won't take my artwork.

Of course, of course. It's complete hypocrisy. It's one thing if they said, hey, the baker doesn't want to. Make a gay wedding cake, that's his business. The photographer doesn't want to shoot same-sex wedding, that's her business.

Whole Foods doesn't want to display a nativity scene, that's their business. At least be consistent. No, it's completely. Exactly. Be consistent.

It's complete hypocrisy, sir.

So I would suggest two things, all right? First, I would go through the store. And C, do they sell books? Do they have anything that's a message that is a religious message? Oh, they do.

They do.

Okay.

So what I do is I would document it, walk around the store with your cell phone, take pictures of each item. And then I would go back to them. and say it appears that you are specifically discriminating against Christianity, The majority faith in America, and instead. Seeking to advance or promote these other religions. I would follow through in that way.

Obviously, document everything that's taking place, their emails to you, etc. And Based on what you're saying right now, standing up for what's right. Is more important to you than selling a few pictures, I would think. Exactly, absolutely. And that's my dilemma here as a Christian.

Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world. If it was, my servants would fight. I could call 10,000 angels, all that.

So might it be silent? Or am I to say, hey, if somebody doesn't start standing up to this rhetoric, When's it ever going to end? We're all going to be in slavery. 100%.

So here's what you do, Rick, okay? Um Next step.

Next step. is uh document where they promote other religious beliefs all right Go back to whoever sent you the email. And say Um I'm confused. You banned the nativity scene, which is seen throughout America at this time. Uh, right, right, you know, the Christmas theme, and you know, universal theme, and recognized throughout America.

You ban that, but you have others please explain. And once you've gone through dialogue, all right, if they have... Uh if they have backed away Or, if they said, you know, whatever answer they gave, okay? Let's follow through with it then. Let's bring attention to it, document it all, all right.

and then write to us. right through the website, info at askdrbrown.org. And say, okay, here's what happened. Asked to connect with my assistant, Dylan, D-Y-L-A-N, and he'll take things from there. And let's follow through.

And then at the least, I'll tell the story to folks. We'll let folks know. And not to make Whole Foods look bad, but simply to say, hey, Yeah. That's all we ask. In their terms, in their verbiage, in their words, is this then not the same thing, a hate crime to me that they're saying that we're doing to them?

Yeah, I mean, look, my position is that's their call to make. They're an independent retailer, just like the baker, just like the photographer. And if people like it, they like it. If people don't like it, they don't like it. That's the world we're in.

Right, exactly. But if you're going to say the other thing is a hate crime or the other thing is punishable, it's just like with Melania Trump, fashion designers.

Well, we're not going to design for her. And they're being applauded for it. It's like, well, what utter hypocrisy. But here, because Whole Foods does have that religious side to it, yes, so I go through the store, Rick, take pictures of the various items, okay? and then just get right back to them and say, hey, with all respect, You didn't want Christianity promoted through the nativity scene, but you've got all these other things.

Don't these promote Hinduism or Buddhism or New Age religion? And see how they respond, and then email info at askdrbrown.org, ask to connect with my assistant Dylan, and let's get the story. told. God bless you, man. Thanks for your stand.

Give us strength to always do what's right. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Welcome, friends, to the line of fire.

Now is the time to call. If you've got a biblical, theological, moral, cultural, practical, spiritual question for me, 866-348-7884. Check this out. Just got word from the publisher, and I'm absolutely thrilled. I had no idea this was coming, but it's for a limited time.

time only. Go to stronghold of food.com. Strongholdoffood.com. You can read the first chapter of our book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food, absolutely free online. But there's more.

Hang on. When you order the paperback today, and there are links there order on Amazon, all right. When you order the paperback today through the website, when the book comes out, you'll get the e-book. Free. Yeah, I I just found out about this from the publisher and you'll also get the first three chapters in PDF format.

sent to you immediately. Yeah, so I just found out about this, just posting it now. Strongholdoffood.com. Go there, ASAP, and take advantage of this. 866-348-7884.

You've got questions, we've got Answers, we go to the phones in Cranford, New Jersey. Christian, welcome to the line of fire. Uh doctor Dr. Brown, thank you so much for taking my call. My question is coming from Fest Samuel.

Chapter twenty eight From verse eleven to verse twenty. But my question. primarily is on verse nineteen. Verse nineteen, Samuel said you and your sons will be with me. The camp of Israel God will deliver to Philistines.

Now my question is two parts.

Okay, I'm thinking that because Samuel was a prophet, I am believing that he was a holy man. And therefore he is in heaven.

So now my confusion is when he said Saul and his sons will be with him. Does that mean? that as God delivered the Israelites today, uh Philistines that they g that they went to hell Is that what uh is that is that accurate? I'm not sure. Yeah, so that's that's uh that excuse me, that's uh part one.

Then part two is this. What is the application to draw from this? Right. Thank you.

Okay, appreciate the question.

So, this is the famous. passage about Saul, Samuel, and the witch of Endor. Saul had banned spiritists, mediums, witches from the land of Israel when he was in a. More God-fearing frame of mind.

Now he's desperate. What's going to happen? Samuel is dead. Samuel the prophet's no longer there to consult. Philistines are at war with Israel.

So he goes to this witch privately. It doesn't say that he saw He's and obviously not everyone knew what Saul looked like, and goes there and persuades this witch to try to call up Samuel from the dead.

Now, um You know, she's reluctant to do it because Saul's banned people like her from the land, so she's still secretly doing what she's doing. And no, no, go ahead, go ahead and do it. She says, Who shall I bring up for you? He says, Bring up Samuel. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice.

And the woman said to Saul, Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.

Now, that could indicate. That God intervened here because you are not allowed to consult the spirits of the dead. The law was explicit on this. Deuteronomy 18 and other passages. Necromancy was absolutely forbidden.

So the fact that the woman screams when she sees him means that God may have actually intervened. And said, Okay, I'm actually going to do this. And when she actually saw Samuel and realized it was Samuel, she was terrified because otherwise what she did was just false. It was just manipulation, it was consulting demonic spirits and them appearing as if they were spirits of the dead.

So if in fact God intervenes here, And Samuel was really raised up by God to speak Then uh is what actually happened. In other words, Samuel is actually speaking the spirit of Samuel. We know that Moses and Elijah met with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, right? And Jesus makes clear that all live to him. Right?

So Samuel is a living spirit at this moment. God could bring him into a room to speak if he chose to.

So if that's what's actually happened, then it was not a demonic spirit, which some scholars still believe it was not a demonic spirit masquerading as Samuel. Then When he says to her or to Saul, and you know, you and your sons are going to be with me, all right? You know, tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me, all he means is, you're all going to be in the place of the dead together with me. It's not talking about heaven or hell, it's talking about you're all going to be in the place of the dead. We're all going to be dead.

I'm dead, and you're all going to be dead. That's all it means to read more into it. You're going to be in heaven. Or are you going to be at hell, or where Samuel was? Wouldn't read that part into it.

I would say that would not be the focus of the Old Testament mentality. Basically, saying. you know, you're gonna be dead here with me tomorrow.

Now, what's the larger lesson? The larger lesson is if you utterly turn away from God, you can get to a point where God turns away from you. and abandons you to your sin and your flesh. And without true repentance and returning to God, you will not find deliverance and you will not hear his voice. His voice will only be calling you back.

Because here Saul has done everything he can to try to get a word, but he has not humbled himself and repented and turned back to God. Because of his forsaking of the Lord, Now, God won't speak to him the way he used to. To me, that's the greatest lesson. To me, that's the greatest painful thing to come away with. and to recognize and say, man.

How tragic. Look at how Saul ends up. This man who was once chosen by God and humble. Look at how he ends up because of his rejection of God. And God is not here just some tool that you push a button and he speaks and gives you words.

No, no, it doesn't work like that. Doesn't work like that. That's not who he is. That's not how he operates.

So. We fear God and we love God and we have a relationship with Him. And if we turn our backs on him and refuse his grace, woe be. To us. Hey, thank you for the call.

I do appreciate it. 866-3487. Eight eight four, the number to call, by the way. How many of you watch God TV? You have it on your cable network, I believe on DirecTV in America, and of course it's all around the world.

God TV. We are launching a brand new broadcast exclusively for God TV. called Ask Me Anything. Yep, on God TV starting January 2nd. It'll be five minutes a day.

Five days a week, so I'll be answering questions that are sent in to God TV. You can go to God TV on Facebook and post your questions. You could post them on the God TV page on Twitter. Use the hashtag AMADR Brown as an Ask Me Anything Dr. Brown.

Or you You can email God TV, ask at God.tv. and send in your questions and I'll be answering them.

So in addition to our radio broadcast here, we've now got an exclusive God TV broadcast coming away starting January 2nd. Hey, for those of you leaving me now. Keep the Lord central during the special season of the year. For everyone else, you've got questions. We've got answers.

Let's do it. 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 joining us on the line of fire today, right before Christmas Eve, Christmas and Hanukkah, all coming at the same time of the year. I talked to some about Hanukkah yesterday on 30 to Jewish Thursday. I had a great interview with my friend J.B.

Parker. Bernstein talking about ways that Gentile believers, followers of Jesus, can provoke Jewish people to spiritual jealousy and the importance of all of us. Sharing our faith and how God wants to use us. If you missed that broadcast, just go to the line of fire. Click on listen, and you can hear yesterday's broadcast.

866-866666666666 348-7884. You've got questions, we've got answers. And let us go to Janine outside Baltimore. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr.

Brown. Yes, thank you so much. My question is, um A friend Of mine worked in a restaurant, and she said Merry Christmas to one of the customers leaving. And, um the customer pulled out her star of David and from her from underneath her coat and Held it up and said that she was very, very offended by her saying Merry Christmas to it.

So I was just wondering, how what's the best way to respond to that? Say, oh, so sorry, happy Hanukkah. That's just with a big smile. In other words, if this woman knew. That the person she was talking to is Jewish, didn't celebrate Christmas, and would be personally offended by it.

She wasn't saying Merry Christmas to be offensive, she was saying Merry Christmas to be polite. and to join in the spirit of the year. And if in her mind, maybe this person's Jewish, maybe this person's Christian, maybe she would have said happy holidays or something like that. If she knew, for example, there was a Muslim in there in Muslim garb, she probably wouldn't have said Merry Christmas to the Muslim.

So it's not like she was trying to proselytize or push her faith. She's assuming the majority of people in there identify as Christian. And I'm an unashamed Christian, so I love to say Merry Christmas to people. But if the woman showed the story of David, just say, Oh, I'm so sorry. Happy Hanukkah.

Happy Hanukkah. And if the woman then smiles, it's like, hey, you know, and Christmas has some, there's a lot of. Jewish stuff about Christmas, too. You know, it's, you know, if the woman's open to hear that. And then in that case, you say, look, it's all about the Jewish Messiah.

You know, that's for Christians all excited about the Jewish Messiah. Yeah, but that, you know, you just say, oh, I'm so sorry to offend you. Happy Hanukkah. And I think with that, the person would smile. And if they didn't smile, they just got a lousy attitude and there's not that much you can do.

Right. Okay, all right. You know what's interesting, though. It's interesting. I have Christian friends, Christian leaders on the front lines of the culture wars, legal battles in the courts over cultural issues, and they have really pushed saying Merry Christmas for some years now.

And of course, President-elect Trump has gone out of his way to say Merry Christmas and we're bringing that back. And I appreciate that. I fully understand what's happening with that and the part of a larger cultural attack on Christianity. At the same time, because I'm a Jewish believer in Jesus, I'm always thinking Hanukkah and Christmas, especially at this time of the year. And I'm trying to judge what I say.

In other words, checking out of a store, the the the grocer yesterday, the young guy checking us out, looked looked very much Uh Gentile. And from what I could see and tell, and name and everything.

So I didn't hesitate to say, you know, have a blessed Christmas or have a Merry Christmas. If I thought the person might be Jewish, you know, I'd say happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas, or it's just happy holidays. In other words, there's the one thing, the sensitivity to the cultural attack on Christianity and why we want to say Merry Christmas. On the other hand, there's the recognition hey. They're Jews celebrating Hanukkah.

And if you're in a Jewish community or a more Jewish community as opposed to some other Hardini Jews, just factor that in. That's all. But the best thing is, your friend cared and you care. That's the biggest thing. Have a Merry Christmas!

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 so much for joining us on the line of fire. This is Michael Brown. You've got questions, we've got answers. Hey, before I go to the phones 866. 348-7884-866-34 TRUTH.

Now, let me ask you a question. News came in earlier today that the Berlin mass killer. from Tunisia. The radical Muslim who was killed, who killed twelve Germans at a Christmas market and injured about fifty more. that he was shot dead in Milan.

So somehow he was able to get out of Germany. make it into Italy and found there by security forces and shot dead. When I heard that, I was glad to hear it. I was glad. to hear it.

You say, yeah, but he's dead. Yeah, yeah. I was glad that someone who He was a mass murderer. intent on murdering more, was stopped before he could kill more people. He is a lost soul.

I grieve for that. But I'm glad that justice was done. and I'm glad that he was stopped before he could get to anybody else. That's positive. And you can have love for all people.

Right?

You have love for all people, want to see everybody saved. and also want to see lives protected.

So let's say, for example. There was a mass murderer, whatever his ideology. And God forbid, but but consider it consider this scenario, all right? Uh you and your friends and your community have a lot of kids in a new Christian school. They've got a great kindergarten program and they're adding grades.

And there are 30 precious little kids. in this school. and this mass murderer, this demented human being, goes in there with a gun, barricades the building. and says he's gonna start killing these kids in one hour. unless he's given $100 million in safe transport to some country.

And as you're praying and crying, because you've got your precious kids there and your friends that you're gathered together and you're praying and crying out to God and working with the authorities, etc., that a sniper With the SWAT team, sees an open shot through a window and takes the man out. Would you not praise God? would you not rejoice? would you not shed tears of gratitude to the Lord? And would you not go to local law enforcement and hug them and thank them?

And this sniper would be a hero in your community, would he not? No, no, he's not a murderer. The murderer was the guy inside. The sniper was the good guy, but All right, using God-given authority to carry the sword, Romans thirteen. This is completely different.

then if you are persecuted for the gospel, that because you know your persecutors are coming, that you uh you look for ways to to uh plant bombs along their way to blow them up as they're coming. This is completely different than before Paul was beheaded, trying to use some MMA move to stop the guys trying to behead him and then grab the sword and chop off the head of his executioner. No, no, no. We're talking about two completely different things. And we absolutely want to reach everybody with the gospel.

and we want to see wickedness stopped. Both represent the heart of God. I am glad this man was caught and killed. Best case scenario would have been he was arrested. and found repentance in jail and become a witness to the Muslim world.

That would have been the best case scenario. That not happening. and that him not being taken alive better than he took other lives his life was taken. You say, yeah, but ISIS is going to get even more angry. Here's the tragic thing about what happened in Berlin.

According to what I've read, this was not so much a security Mess. as much as a legal mess. Figure this out. I'm not German. I don't live in the country of Germany.

I don't know why their legal system does what it does. It just sounds very peculiar to me. The man was not allowed to have German citizenship or be on a path to German citizenship for a number of reasons. And he did not have his papers, passport, whatever legal papers would identify him as a Tunisian. Were these lost?

Were these destroyed intentionally? I don't know. Because he did not have his papers, he could not be sent back to Tunisia.

So he just stayed in Germany. How can that be right? How can that possibly be right? You just destroy your documentation.

Now your original country can't take you back.

Well, we can't take you in, but I guess we have to. There's no way this man should have been in Germany. And there was enough on him. He was on America's no-fly list.

Okay, if he tried to come into America, he would have been stopped. if you've been identified.

So you know for the for the families that lost kids and relatives and the agony is probably only deepened. when they realized how it was this man was in their country. It's good that he cannot take any more lives. It's a shame. That he is lost without Jesus.

866-348-7867. 884. Let's go to San Diego, California. Ed, welcome to the line of fire. Dr.

Brown showed. watch the long merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah. Thank you, sir. Need you to speak right into the phone. A little hard to hear you.

So hard to hear me. Let me see if I can fix it. That for you. Dr. Brown, thank you so much for your ministry and thank you more importantly for your heart of love that you Do you have for those that disagree with you?

I just want to say that right off the bat because that heart of love is going to. many times over in preaching my Jewish friends. and especially the dedication that you've put into the scriptures and and trying to hear their heart and their objections. Yeah. He bridged the gap.

I just want to say thank you for that.

Well, thank you, sir. But I do have a couple of questions regarding Hanukkah real quick, as you might give me a little bit of Jewish insight. I've wondered this in the past. In the time of I find it ironic that Hanukkah not being in the Tanakh or the Jewish Bible, is in the New Testament, what we accept also. But in the New Testament, it only references Jesus walking in the portico of Solomon at the time of Hanukkah.

It doesn't say how he observed it or what.

So my question is Um The lighting the lights of Hanukkah was the legend, legendary miracle of the oil being multiplied to last for eight days of purification. Uh My understanding of history is that didn't come about until later.

So, my question is: this: When Jews today recite uh the blessing over the Hanukkah candles. The blessing includes the words who has commanded us Blessed be the Lord God, King of the universe, demand of us. The light. the candles of Hanukkah. I think that's correct, is it not?

Yeah, Vitzivan Le Hadnik Nehel Hanukkah or Le Hadnik Nehr Shell Shabbat command us to light the lights of Hanukkah or Sabbath.

So here's a very important point that you raise. All right. Let me explain as follows. In Jewish tradition, you you have a distinction between that which is found explicitly in the Law of Moses in writing and that which is later rabbinic tradition. The distinction would be Mida orita in Aramaic from the law, Mida Rabbanon from the rabbis.

So they do recognize that distinction. For example, if you say to a traditional Jew, why are you wearing a yarmulka? That's nowhere commanded in the Torah. That's not even commanded in the Talmud. They would say we have it by way of tradition.

We do it by way of tradition. And they would not look at that as carrying the same authority as, say, the commandment to observe the Sabbath or the commandment to worship God alone and not worship idols and other gods.

So they would make that distinction.

However, There are aspects Of tradition that are so intertwined with the written law that the rabbis believe that the traditions were given along with the written law. That they were given by way of oral law, along with the written law.

So the way a traditional Jew will observe Sabbath and what's believed to be the 39 subdivisions of labor of Sabbath, a traditional Jew believes God gave the written law, saying don't do work on the Sabbath to Moses, and then God gave the oral law to Moses as well, saying here's what work constitutes, or here's what constitutes work on the Sabbath.

However, one more, however, there are seven rabbinic commandments. that are recognized as rabbinic. In other words, they are post- Bible. They are recognized as rabbinic, except they are considered to be divine commandments. Lighting of the Hanukkah candles, lighting of the Sabbath candles, seven rabbinic commandments that even though They are not written in the Bible.

They are considered to be divine commandments, hence the Hebrew vitzivano, and you have commanded us. If I ever pray those prayers, a Sabbath prayer or Hanukkah prayer, I change them. Because I don't believe that God commanded Israel to light the Sabbath candles or God commanded Israel to light the Hanak candles.

So we can do these things by way of tradition, a tradition we appreciate, that we find beauty in, but we change the wording. Normally, we change it to: you have commanded us to be a light to the world. That is a command. Thank you for the question and the kind words. Oh God of burning, cleansing flame.

Say And the fire. 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, so I appreciate the clarification here that we just got another caller, Michael from Boston. to say that our first caller today, Rick, Was speaking of the Whole Foods Cooperative Stores, which are small customer-owned stores and which do display artist work. In order to get better buys, they're related to each other as a co-op. He says that there are five locations in Pennsylvania.

He believes the one our first caller was speaking about is Whole Foods Cooperative in Erie, as opposed to the large chain of Whole Foods at which I shop that I was describing earlier.

So I appreciate that distinction. I was unaware of it. Of course, same point, exact same point holds as far as hypocrisy or as far as double standards or as far as saying, well, display this religion, but not that religion. And you can rightly call someone out on that. Uh say we display no religion.

Fine.

Now if again, if it's a Muslim shop, And you want to put up a star of David and say, No, sorry, we're Muslims here. It's their prerogative, totally their prerogative. And if it's a Jewish store and you want to put up a nativity scene and say, no, sorry, we're Jewish, we don't celebrate Christmas, their prerogative. Totally their prerogative. And in a country that is dominant Christian in terms of the historic faith professed in our nation.

Uh then Hey, great. If nativity scenes, the public, there's no conflict between separation of church and state there. Again, the separation of church and state was to keep the state out of the church, to say there will not be one state religion.

So Presbyterianism or Baptist faith or Catholicism will be the faith of America because it was Christianity that was universally presupposed as the faith. All right, but there will not be a specific denomination, there will not be a state church, and the state will stay out of church business. Not to say that the government can't sponsor nativity centers never the thought, or to say the government can't sponsor a Hanukkah. uh uh display. Yeah, so uh Back to Whole Foods.

Betsy, thanks for catching that, bringing it to my attention, and thanks to Michael of Boston to confirming what you thought wouldn't have even had a clue. And in that respect, if I made a generalization about Whole Foods Based on this one case, Forgive me for that. I believe what I said about Whole Foods that was based on my own experience and my own being in the store. And it wouldn't surprise me that they wouldn't have an activity scene. In any case, just want to cover that.

866-348-7884. Oh, let me get to some emails. From Kenneth. Hello, Dr. Brown.

I'm new to your site. Recently saw you with Rick Joyner on prophetic perspectives on current events. My question is why Kim Clement is not being acknowledged all through the church for his prophecy of Donald Trump back in April of two thousand seven. There's also a prophecy about Hillary Clinton that is pretty amazing in 2006. Kim Clement has recently passed away, but very few in the church world are even acknowledging the fact that he might just have heard from God.

Your thoughts, please. Yeah, thank you for raising that. Actually, I would say that within certain charismatic circles, Kim Clement was very well known. And in other charismatic circles, he wasn't known. And then in the the non-charismatic church, he was very virtually unknown.

So he definitely had a high profile in many camps, and other camps didn't know about him at all.

So it's no surprise. That quote: The whole church doesn't know about his prophetic word about Donald Trump in 2007. I'm not familiar with the one about Hillary Clinton in 2006. Not in detail, anyway.

So the main reason why the whole church of America is not saying, wow, Kim Clement had a prophecy about Donald Trump way back in 2007 and not acknowledging that is because the majority of the church wouldn't know who Kim Clement is, despite his very high profile in certain circles. It's like there are plenty of parts of the church that have no clue who I am. Not the slightest clue who I am. There are plenty of us like that, well known in certain areas, completely unknown in other areas.

So that'd be the biggest reason. The second thing would be That If some one has delivered many prophecies, That and it's not clear have they come to pass, have they not come to pass, how have they come to pass? That, unless it was really striking and heard in a loud and clear way. It it gets lost in the shuffle. You know what I'm saying?

Sometimes in our charismatic circles we have lots and lots of prophetic words and it's easy for things to get lost in the shuffle. And sometimes the words are not clear. They're somewhat ambiguous, as in prophetic words in the Bible. And it's only over a period of time that we look back and understand them. That being said, the Charisma News website and and Charisma website in general Absolutely.

featured the Kim Khmer prophecy. Uh Months back. And now with his passing or with the election of of uh Donald Trump, to presidency. Has specially featured it and is shouting it out.

So, those that you would expect to feature it and shout it out. They have. They have. And those that you would expect to not be aware of it, they're not aware of it.

Now, I was in dialogue with a very, very sincere cessationist who is a critic of the charismatic movement, recognizes me as a brother. I recognize him as a brother, but he's a very strong critic of the movement. He doesn't believe people like Benny Hann are saved, for example. and would question the salvation or at least the spiritual discernment of friends of mine, co-workers of mine. And When we were discussing prophecies about Donald Trump, Before his election.

Saying that he was going to be the next president and God was raising him up, etc. This gentleman asked me, rightly so. If these prophetic words do not come to pass, if in fact people are saying. That the Lord has shown them this, the Lord has shown them that, and that Donald Trump will be the president, or God will use Donald Trump in this way or that. And it doesn't happen.

He ends up not getting elected. Would I then call that out? Would I then say, okay, here is a public prophecy. by someone that I recognize as a brother. Or someone who's a recognized leader in the charismatic movement, and this individual.

Prophesied that Donald Trump would be the President of the United States, and he wasn't. It didn't happen, and it was not a conditional prophecy, it was a definite prophecy. Would I then say, okay, it's clear. That this individual did not hear from the Lord on this, all right? And I said, absolutely.

Absolutely. And at that point, I think to the very sincere brother asking me this, it was self-evident to him. My guess that Donald Trump would not be The next president.

Well, the fact that he our president-elect and that he's already done some pretty surprising things. I'd sanction everything he says or does or is, obviously. But he's done some pretty significant things already. or my cessationist friends who were perhaps mocking this. Or are they willing to look again and say maybe There's something to this.

Maybe In fact, There Is Maybe there there is a uh true prophetic word that was given. Maybe prophecy does exist today. That's fair, right? If I'm expected to to call out error. which I I hope I do.

Do they consistently as appropriate? Then, do those who rejected things and call them error when they're wrong, are they willing to say, Hey, it looks like I was wrong? Or they're just going to say, well, it just happened. There's nothing prophetic about it. And let's be fair in what we do, right?

Hey, remember. All of our digital downloads, 40%. Percent off. As in 40% no strings attached. Right now to the end of the year, so your time is limited.

Go to thelineoffire.org and take advantage of these great resources. We know they'll bless you. My bottom line today, you know, there's never a reason to stumble and fall. Keep your eyes fixed on the Lord. Hey, you know what time it is here on the line of fire?

You've got questions. We've got answers. We're live. Let's do it. Um 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. Thank you so much for joining us today on the line of fire. Mayor, I wish you a happy Hanukkah and a Merry Christmas. As we come into this time of the year, that is very sacred for hundreds of millions of people. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and blessings on your family.

At the very least, I hope you get to slow down, rest, and get some extra time with the Lord. We are live. It is Friday, which means you've got questions, we've got answers. We've got some fascinating questions in our first hour. Looking forward to one more hour of broadcasting for you, our listeners.

Here's the number to call with your questions: 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-348-8. Seven. Eight. Eight six.

four. the number to call anything under the sun that you want to ask me. If it's appropriate for Christian radio. Anything under the sun, whether it's biblical, theological, spiritual, practical, cultural, moral, political. Your questions are warmly welcome.

866-348-7. 884. Ah, so glad to hear from an earlier call in the first hour of Janine that Janine is reading my book, The Real Kosher Jesus. I highly recommend it at this time of the year with Hanukkah and Christmas. Falling at the same time.

I couldn't think of a better book to read than. I wrote it, but I Trust me, I was blessed in writing it. The real kosher Jesus will bring together who Jesus really is in a Jewish context. 866. Three, four, truth.

Uh Marcina asks I love your show.

Well, thank you. First, thank you, Marcina. I would like to do a deep study on Jesus, but I don't know how or where to start. Can you lead me how to do this? I've been a disciple for a long time.

I feel like I need to get close to the Lord again. I prayed that the Lord would help me. I truly want to breathe his breath. I want to breathe every word. I'm lost in what is going on in my life.

Please help me. I need healing. I need to feel the Lord in my bones. Ah, God. Boy, you've said a lot there, Marcina, and my heart goes out to you to experience the fullness of God.

I would recommend to you as a starting point Spending extra time reading the Gospels in the next few months. Just go through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John over and over. When you can. Read them. on your knees if you're able to.

And say, God, open my heart. open my mind. Show me who Jesus really is. and as you're reading the Gospels, talk to the Lord about them. Lord, that's amazing.

God, I want to experience you in that way. Lord, I want to understand you. Give me insight into what this means. And I believe as you do that, you'll encounter him more deeply. And Jesus said, if you've seen the Father, You've seen me, it is the way to most fully Encounter and experience God.

So let me just encourage you to do that. Read the Gospels over and over. Go all the way through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All right. And and then finished, go do it again.

Finish, go do it again until you feel well some steps have been taken in my life. until you feel okay something's going on Where I've encountered God more deeply. And then keep reading the rest of the word, and don't make it a lifelong habit to neglect the rest of the Bible. but give yourself an immersion in the Gospels. That's the best place to start.

Oh, there are so many books and commentaries and other things that I could recommend, but start there. Start there. And pray every time, God, open my eyes. God, help me to see Jesus in a fresh new way. And as you do, your love for Him will deepen.

Your adoration for Him will deepen. Your desire to serve Him will deepen. Your desire to be His friend will deepen. Your desire to serve Him will deepen. Trust me, the Word of God will not come back forth.

Shake the nation, change the world. Change the world. 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 866-342. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Let me say this in the most measured concept. clear tones.

that I can. Shame. On President Obama. Shame. On President Obama For the first time for the first time The United States has let a militantly anti Israel resolution Pass.

by abstaining from voting in the Security Council.

Okay.

This was put forth yesterday. put forth yesterday This anti-Israel vote before the Security Council that would say all. Settlements that have been built in so-called Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.

So, West Bank, East Jerusalem, would be considered illegal. All right. And Egypt was part of this resolution. From what we understand, President-elect Trump intervened. asked Egypt to back away from this.

They did. Instead, Other nations, New Zealand, Malaysia, other nations put this forward together to the Security Council. And all we had to do was veto the vote. That's all we had to do. And that's what we have done for years.

And that's what righteousness requires. in the highly anti-Semitic atmosphere of the UN. And in a last ugly gesture. from our President. A shameful gesture.

a despicable gesture. A jester gesture that will Live on in infamy in the legacy of President Obama. He directed our People in the UN to abstain from voting. Because of which the resolution Past. Shame.

on President Obama. And what a dramatic contrast already between our outgoing President and our incoming president. I assure you In the sight of God, this is an ugly day for President Obama. and the people of America. but a day that can be redeemed through our incoming administration doing the right thing.

Same. 866-34TRUTH, the number to call. Let's start in Salt Lake City, Utah. Pat, welcome to the line of fire. Uh yes, Michael.

Last night I was reading Levit Le Leviticus, the first two chapters. And I was just trying to visualize out incredibly brutal and bloody and Filthy all that business was. And yet God kept saying how holy those acts were. And of course, in our sensibilities of the twenty first century, it just seems so Over the top. And then and then when Now, can I just ask you, Pat, are you a vegetarian or a vegan?

No. Uh-uh. Ah, all right.

Well, then something thousand times worse takes place all the time in slaughterhouses. Oh, I know it does. Got it. But you eat meat, though. It's supposed to be holy.

No, no, I understand that because there's nothing intrinsically unholy. about offering an animal up to the Lord. In other words, as much as, look, I grew up in New York City and Long Island. I'm not a hunter. One of my sons-in-law is a hunter.

And he'll he'll you know, he and his son will will you know, prepare an animal to be eaten. It's you know, I Probably get sick to my stomach watching them.

Okay.

And obviously, in slaughterhouses, there are certain rules in place that are supposed to be humane and killing the animals in the best way possible. And look, we have pets. And we relate to our sweet pets and can't imagine, like in the Philippines, that they eat dogs and stuff like that. But, or, you know, Italy, they eat horses or different cultures eat these things. We can't relate to it in our culture.

But the fact of the matter was. that and is that the animals are given for the human race. They were given for food. And they were given also to be subdued by the human race. That doesn't mean put in little cages and left to rot like they might be in a zoo.

But they're not human beings. They don't have souls as human beings do. And in a culture in which animal sacrifice is normal, in a culture in which, you know, hunting to kill animals for food is Uh is normal, then there it wouldn't strike That part of the world, the same way it would strike me growing up as a New York Jew, you know, and unexposed to these kinds of things. Ah. Or say to a butcher, you know, working in a butchery, this is like normal life.

But I think what we have to recognize is the gravity of it. And I think your point is well taken in terms of the gravity of this. that when when you would go and and say Put your head, your hands on the head of an animal and confess your sins over it, and that animal would then have its neck slit and it would be offered up on the altar. That's a very sobering thing. That's a very real revelation of life.

for life. And in many cases animals live very closely. to human beings. When I go to India every year, when you go further out from the big cities, you've got the animals walking in the streets, the water buffalo can sleep right near where a villager sleeps, and there's a certain connection there and tenderness between them.

So, yeah, there's gravity to it, Pat. This was a sacred thing. This was life. for life. and and the the innocent taking the place of the guilty.

And an animal now giving itself to be offered up to God as representative of us. As believers, Giving ourselves up to God.

So while on the one hand, Pat, If we find this repulsive, it's just part of our culture. Because again, killing animals for food. and killing animals that are trying to to attack. is part of life in much of the world. And where animal sacrifices play a sacred part in religions over the years around the world to this day in Islam.

Well, we don't want to relate to it based on our culture where we're more distant from this. And the flip side lets recognize the gravity of it. Life. for life. ultimately pointing to Jesus.

and that's the ultimate holy death of all and one where he sacrificed himself for our good and look at the brutality and ugliness of it Showing the horror of sin and the punishment of sin. Hey, thank you for raising the point and weighing in. 866-866666666666 Three four truth. We go to Brent in Raleigh, North Carolina. Thanks for calling the line of fire.

Oh, thank you. Good to talk to you. I guess my question is, I've been going to church since I was a kid and moving and stuff. You go to new churches. And with growing up and reading the scripture, the the The letters from Paul in the New Testament.

He emphasizes on how important it is for everyone to basically be on the same page. as a Christian. And I feel like the denominational aspect of all these churches kind of tears us all apart. With that, you know, with one preaching about how the one down the road isn't doing it right, that we're doing it right. And um I just I kind of wanted to get your thoughts on that and how to approach it, speaking to someone without, you know, m I I mean, some people even get mad when you talk about it.

How it it shouldn't be that important. And I mean, am I even right in all that? Yeah, and look, if we're called to be one. Why is there such tremendous division in our midst? Yeah, these are important issues to raise.

Let's come at it from a little different angle, all right? Um there are within the larger claims of Christendom. The larger divisions between Roman Catholic and Russian and Greek Orthodox. and Protestant And others And then Within Protestantism, there are many, many, many subgroups, hundreds, thousands of different denominations and groups.

So if we just say within Protestantism, then how do we find unity? I believe it's the spirit and the attitude, Brent, more than the specifics. In other words, If I recognize that we're building a sports arena, and in the sports arena, we're going to have basketball, hockey, and then an outdoor field for football and baseball, and then all the different Teams participate and you build the thing together and share the profits. There's a larger unity around sports.

Well, you have the distinctions between the games, baseball, football, hockey, basketball. In the same way, within denominations, if we agree on the fundamentals, We agree on the fundamentals of the authority of scripture and one true God and the Lordship of Jesus, the salvation only found in Him, and there's only one body, and we'll all go to be part of the same family. Then we can say, fine, you emphasize this, I emphasize this. We're more burdened about this, you're more burdened about this. Your denomination sees this as most important.

We see this as most important. It's like different instruments within an orchestra, but we're all playing the same song. If we can recognize who our brothers and sisters are within the body, then we can have an attitude of humility towards one another and say, hey, this is what I believe. This is what I feel is most important. It's like the food court at the mall.

Everyone's there to eat, all right, and it's a cooperative effort, but This one's Italian, this one's Mexican, this one's American food.

So here's what's most important to me, but I recognize we're all part of the same family. Once we determine who that family is, we can have unity. in the midst of our divisions. In fact, that can bring our distinctives. Our distinctives help cultivate our unity.

Oh God of burning, cleansing flames. Say And 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. Thanks for joining us on the line of fire. You've got questions, we've got answers. Michael Brown, delighted to be with you.

So, Brent, just to finish up. There are People that I say are outside the pale of salvation. They deny fundamentals about the Lord, they deny fundamentals about salvation, fundamentals about scripture, and therefore I do not recognize them as brothers and sisters. Within the body, I recognize as brothers and sisters many believers who have differences with me on perhaps baptism. or perhaps the gifts of the Spirit.

were perhaps aspects of the sovereignty of God. These are in-house disputes. These are debates within the family. And it's perfectly fine we have these because I don't know that any one person or one group has all perfect knowledge and revelation on all subjects revealed in scripture.

So we hold to what we do. I hold to what I do firmly, clearly, believing it's true, believing it's right. But I'm not going to die on every hill. On the other hand, there are hills I'll die on. And there are hills I would rather die than deny, and others where we can have debate on that.

So that's the key thing. If I recognize that the pastor in the building next door loves the Lord. And wants to serve and please the Lord, if I believe he's wrong on Calvinism, or I believe he's wrong on gifts of the Spirit, or I believe he's wrong on Israel, or I believe he's wrong on women in ministry, or I believe he's wrong on observing the dietary laws, or whatever, okay, then I can say, hey, here's where we hold to, here's why, and I recognize this man as my brother in the congregation next door as brothers and sisters. And let's pray for one another. And let's periodically do things together.

And let's try to be a witness to the community together. And this is how we work as one body. The fact that we have distinctives does not mean that we can not have unity. To repeat, we can find unity in our distinctives. Thank you for the question.

Let us not be divisive in the midst of our distinctives. And where someone needs to be warned, where someone is outside of the faith or departing from the faith, we need to do our best to make our views known as clearly as possible and call them to repentance as well. Thank you for the call. 866-348-7884. Let's go to Norman in Charlotte.

Welcome to the line of fire. I'm I just want to know if Well President Trump coming in. Will you be will you be able to do anything about that in Israel? Yeah. Okay, um Excellent question.

So the UN Security Council, because And let me say it again, shame on President Obama. Because we abstained From this anti-Israel resolution, rather than vetoing it, and people saw this coming. In fact, there are Israeli sources claiming that President Trump worked with the Palestinians, excuse me, President Obama worked with the Palestinians to craft this anti-Israel resolution. That this was his parting shot at Prime Minister Netanyahu because he couldn't go further. At least he was going to do something very ugly.

and President-elect Trump already working against it.

So this is an outrage and thankfully President-elect Trump coming in with a very different attitude towards Israel than our outgoing president. President had to his shame. Can this be fixed? Uh well, the first thing is Israel is going to reject it. as uh Israel is going to say, we don't care what you say.

We're going to do what we do, and we reject this. That's the first thing. And I believe President-elect Trump will stand with Israel and his ambassador, David Friedman, will stand with Israel and say, we support what you're doing. Keep doing it. How can this ultimately turn?

It can ultimately turn when the UN repents of its anti-Semitism, Norman. The security resolution will only turn when the UN repents of its clear anti-Israel bias and its frequently documented anti-Semitism. And at that point, it'll turn. Until then, and I'm not holding my breath for that either, sir. Until then, Uh we Pray for mercy on the nations involved.

We pray for mercy on America for the foolish decision we made today. And we encourage Israel to do what's right, not to attack Palestinians or harm Palestinians, but to do what Israel needs to do in its best interests of security. And we urge America to stand with Israel and to work together with the Palestinians. For a way that there can be side by side peaceful, prosperous living, a massive mountain to tackle. massive obstacle to overcome.

Only with God's help. What would happen? All right, thank you though for asking.

So, again, in short. I don't see how this will be turned, but Israel will ignore it. And America will stand with Israel ignoring it under President Trump. 86634TRUTH Let me get to one more question here from Randy. Where do demons come from?

The Bible says that fallen angels have already been bound in hell, or disembodied spirits, souls of people who died without making Jesus Lord of their life. Lost spirits seek a shelter roaming the earth, looking for person to oppress them until they're taking away rapture. Since we know Christian spirits go to heaven and be with God, then why wouldn't lost souls be bound to the kingdom of the God of this world until judgment?

Okay.

Randy, there is zero evidence that when human beings die, That now their spirits keep floating around looking for places to inhabit, and that's where demons come from.

So forget that.

Okay, Luke 16 and other passages make clear that upon death there's immediate separation, either in a blessed place or the presence of God or separated in a place of judgment.

So human spirits are not just floating around the earth endlessly looking for places to go.

So where do demons come from?

Some of the spirits who rebelled of old, some of their fallen angels, have been bound in chains. And they are kept in a nether world. Yeah, it's remarkable, but true. 2 Peter 2 talks about that, and Jude points in that direction.

However, it doesn't say that all angels had fell. or in that state.

So some believe that demons are fallen angels. And That's all it is. And they're they or or disembodied spirits. and they're looking for some being to inhabit Hence people being demonized. Others say no, no, no.

And by the way, there's nothing in the Bible that says that demons are angels, except they're both called spirits, which would point in that direction. and their unclean spirits, evil spirits, therefore fallen. The other option that's presented, but it's assuming a lot, is that there was a pre-creation. between Genesis 1.1 and 1.2. or I should say before Genesis 1.2.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and then the earth became formless and void. Verse 2, that's how it's translated. How did it become formless and void?

Well, there was a result of Satan's fall and the first race of human beings sinning. This is before Adam. And then those spirits of those human beings have been roaming the earth. Those are demons. They're disembodied human spirits roaming the earth.

And that God destroyed that world, and that's why there was darkness and chaos. And then he made the second world, and that's where Adam comes from, Adam and Eve. That's why you have these human-like beings who are hundreds of thousands of years old. That's the pre-ademic race. I mean, it tries to answer scientific questions and tries to explain Genesis 1.1 and 1.2.

Presupposes so much that I just don't see in the text that I believe that theory is. I'm like, I can't reject it 100% guaranteed to find it unlikely.

So our demons, fallen angelic spirits, could well be, but we're not 100% sure. We just know they're evil and can be resisted. 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, thanks so much for joining us on this December 23rd, which marks the 38th birthday of our younger daughter, Megan.

So happy birthday again, Meg. What a joy you are to our life and how we love your family, your husband Ryan, and our grandkids, Eliana and Andrew, also known as your kids uh Yeah, we had quite a discussion the other day about with Nancy and I. Nancy was saying that when she was a little girl, she wanted to be a boy, really wanted to be a boy. We're talking about the culture now and what that would mean. And then Eliana, our granddaughter, started saying, Yeah, think of it.

If you had become a boy, yeah, we were all laughing about it. Not condemning those that struggle, but laughing about it. Yeah, then Megan, our daughter, never would have been born because Nancy and I never would have been married. They never had Eliana.

So thankfully, thankfully, we did, and we were blessed. And happy birthday again, Meg. If you missed this, let me say it again: shame on President Obama instructing a representative in the U.N. Security Council to abstain from an ugly anti-Israel vote. President-elect Trump has.

Had worked against this happening to his credit. The Obama administration, however, today instructed our representative to abstain from. Voting. And therefore, the UN Security Council passed an ugly anti-Israel resolution that would even make Israeli status in East Jerusalem questionable. Yeah, shame on President Obama.

This is The only positive is it does reveal the degree of antipathy he had towards Prime Minister Netanyahu and the fact that he was not the friend of Israel that he claimed to be. And the other good news is that President-elect Trump has taken a very different stance on this. You may have other problems with our incoming president, but please recognize he is doing some good things. In particular, well among other things, when it comes to Israel. 866-348-7884.

You've got questions. We've got answers. Oh, oh. Don't want to forget this Just heard exciting news from the publisher of Breaking the Stronghold of Food. Go to strongholdoffood.com.

As soon as you get a chance, go to strongholdoffood.com. You can read free the first chapter of our book, which comes out January 3rd, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. But when you order the book via the website today, order on Amazon, wherever you normally order from online, when you order it online, the paperback, you will also get a free copy of the e-book. This only lasts for barely two weeks.

Okay, take advantage of that. You'll also get the first three chapters sent to you via PDF.

So you want to jump on this. This is limited time. Strongholdoffood.com is where you want to go. 866-34 TRUTH. Let us go to the phones beginning with Matt.

No, we won't. Man in Greensboro. I was going to start there. His question was: how can we know if we're really trusting God? Uh results track record is how.

In other words, You might feel that the Lord has really called you. to tell your boss that six months from now you're going to be Leaving your job, and you're going to be going on the mission field, and you really believe God's called you to do it. And you share that, you talk with your spiritual leaders, and they all affirm it. You and your spouse are in harmony.

So, you meet with your boss, give your boss six months' notice. You don't know where your money's coming from, what's coming next, but you feel you're supposed to do that. Then six months later, you do. Resign. From your job, everything works smoothly there.

You have a going-away party, you're sent out, and miraculously, you have your funding. uh to to step out into the mission field. Why, you really were trusting God uh and maybe you had some doubts and questions along the way. But you really were trusting him. Obviously, I like to have an assurance when I step out.

That I'm obeying God. I'm not taking this on myself for doing it. I have various ways that I'll check to be sure about major decisions I make. But when I know that I know, I step out. and found that stepping out in faith is more secure than anything else because we're leaning entirely on God.

And when we see him backing us, we have stepped out in faith. When the opposite happens, then we have to question, okay, what did I do wrong? Was it presumption? It was like just pushing a thing, manufacturing it, we learned from it. and thereby develop a deeper trust in our walk with God.

Why are we walking? For fire we It's the line of fire with your host. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the line of fire. This is Michael Brown. You've got questions.

We've got answers: 866-348-7884. Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas. Let's go to Jimmy in Winston-Salem. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, sir, and Merry Christmas to you all.

Thank you.

Go ahead. Yes, I'm right here. Yeah, well you have a question for me, right? Yes, sir, I certainly do. Uh early in chapter one of Genesis, God created man and woman.

Some people say it's from the dust of the earth. Connection. Not the process that I'm trying to get to. But later on in chapter two, I believe it is, or Later in some time later. God puts Adam into a deep sleep, such as a coma, or But it's important where he doesn't feel anything.

Remove the rib. And Created ease. what happened to the first woman he created when God created Yeah. and then later he took a rib from Adam and created Eve. It w it another Really understood what her name was, the first one.

No, no, there was no. There was no first one. When God created Adam, right, which is Adam. He created Adam, male and female. In other words, within the first man.

Was also the ingredients for the woman. to use that word. There are some rabbinic beliefs that Adam was created. If you've seen like a Siamese twin picture back to back, male on one side, female on the other, you know, androgynous, both male and female. That's that's clearly not indicated in the text.

Rather, God made Adam. who is is man or atom. All right. Uh and made him Zachar und Keva, made him male and female.

So even though he is man, he had within him the seeds of woman. And that's why now in Genesis 2, God takes the Rib or the side from the man, and from that makes The woman.

Okay.

So that out of the man, out of the Ish, comes the Isha. the woman and now when they reunited marriage The two become one.

So there was not another woman that was made first. The first woman is Eve, Chavah, in Hebrew, because she is the mother of all living.

So Genesis 1 gives us the bigger picture. The larger picture And Genesis 2 now gives us the more specific picture of what happened. Genesis 1, the summary. That God created Adam male and female. And now the specifics, God created Adam.

No suitable partner for Adam. He then takes the rib or side from Adam, out of that, makes Chavah the woman. and now the two become one. Hence he made Adam male. and female at Creation.

He made humankind, male and female. That's the right way to understand it. Thank you, sir. For the question, I do appreciate it. 866-348-786.

eight eight four. I wrote a bunch of articles this week. Uh didn't plan on writing as much, but uh kept writing the most recent one today. Why can't I marry the robot I love? The rise of robosexuals.

It's printed over at the stream, posted on the streamstream.org. That leads to the question: are you robophobic? Yeah, you robophobic.

Well, why not? Why not, right? Woman in France loves her robot. Look, people have bonds with pets, right? They've married pets.

There's a growing trend about people marrying themselves. Good ho housekeeping has a whole article about people marrying themselves. Yeah. And they have self-marriage counselors. I mean, think of it.

Seriously, it's it's a it's a growing trend.

So, if you can marry yourself, you can marry a pet. If marriage is now redefined instead of the union of a man and woman, just the union of two people or of people. Why must it have people? For that matter, why couldn't two robots marry? I guess that's where it could go eventually, right?

But if you have a robot and you love the robot, why can't you marry it? You say, how dare you insult gay couples by saying their love isn't real? I didn't say their love wasn't real. It's simply not marriage. But they're just as committed.

It's simply not marriage. Simply not marriage. It's not what God intended, it's not what God ordained, it's not the meaning of marriage through history. Look, there have been people who were same-sex attracted through history. Have they not?

For everything we understand, there have been. Um, why wasn't marriage redefined a million times over, even in places where homosexual practice was um. was welcomed. or celebrated in certain aspects of society. Why did they universally redefine marriage?

Because marriage always had a different purpose, meaning understanding.

So check out the articles. One that I wrote yesterday, The Christmas Story Retold. In light of the ghoulish practices of Planned Parenthood, I think it's a very important, eye-opening, shocking article. You can read that as well. And catch up with my latest videos, articles, all in our digital library at thelineoffire.org, thelineofire.org.

When you're there, remember that this week and right up to the end of the year, So you've still got a little time to do this, but sooner the better. All of our digital resources are. Forty That means many debates that we've done, teaching series, all of our digital downloads, audio extended teachings, video extended teachings, special programs that were prepared or shot in Israel. All digital downloads 40% off, and they're yours to keep. You have them, and then you have to pay more.

They're yours to keep. On the lineofire.org. 866-348-248. Ah, let's all right. Tell you what, let's go right back to the phones and we go to Lynn in Huntersville, North Carolina.

Thanks for calling the line of fire. Hi, I have um I was speaking to a friend of mine who's Jewish. Um I didn't I didn't realize this, but We were joking about someone saying, I'm going to hell. You know, and she goes, Oh, we don't believe in hell. And then She also proceeded and to Yeah.

Um I They don't believe in the resurrection of the body either. No, that's that's not correct. What kind of Jew is she? Do you know the kind of synagogue she goes to, temple? I'm not sure exactly when she started explaining to me all the different.

Types of Jewish people there. Right. Does she, to your knowledge, does she scrupulously observe the dietary laws? No, she doesn't.

Okay, so she's a liberal Jew. She doesn't even know what Jews believe.

Okay.

So, in point of fact. Yeah. 'Cause I said, well I was joking with her and I said with Um when Christ came We used to have a saying, the Sadducees and Pharisees and the Sadducees had to be sad because they didn't believe in the re resurrection, so that's why you remember Sadducee. and fare as these did, so they were fair. Yeah, you say.

Yeah, no, listen, I've heard that. In point of fact, traditional Jews all believe in the resurrection of the body. They believe that that is a final thing that happens. It's not a focus for traditional Jews. Traditional Jews believe in a world to come.

They believe that there is some type of a hell, like a purgatory, where people will go after death. If you ready? She did bring up a type of person. Right, and there are some traditional Jews who believe that some truly wicked people will suffer. In a hell-like condition forever.

Some believe that.

Okay.

But she said it wasn't like it was like you would be tormented in front of everyone knowing that Um no no that's that's just her that's just stuff she's saying from the viewpoint of a liberal humanistic Jew.

Okay? She's not a traditional Jew. would mean that she does not scrupulously observe the Sabbath, refuse to drive on the Sabbath, go to synagogue with her family on the Sabbath, light the Sabbath candles every Friday night, etc. She's right. If she goes to synagogue regularly, it's probably a Reform or Conservative synagogue.

So it's it's and and and they would think that the Orthodox are kind of fanatical. but traditional Jews do not put the same emphasis on heaven and hell that Christians do. They put more of an emphasis on living in this world to follow his commandments and please God. All right, they put more of an emphasis on that. And she she's not emphasizing keeping the commandments that much either 'cause she's not a traditional Jewish woman.

But yeah, it was a typical it sounded like, you know, it's almost like with a Jewish twist. Um Liberal person. Exactly. Exactly. Somebody.

Right. Exactly. Whether you're good, how many. good you know and then you have to before you die You know, not only get right with God, but you have to ask. Right, so there's certain good ethical right, Lynn, there's certain good ethical principles.

that she would hold to as a Jewish woman. And a traditional Jew wants to see their good deeds outweighing their bad deeds. But traditional Jews absolutely believe in the future resurrection of the body. It's a fundamental confession. It's something that they believe in.

It's confessed every day. I encourage you to get my book, 60 Questions. Christians ask about Jewish beliefs and practices. 60 questions. Human Strict to always do what's right.

It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, friends, to the line of fire.

This is Michael Brown. You've got questions, we've got answers. Let me make this a teachable moment on the heels of the call. From Lynn in Huntersville, North Carolina, talking to a Jewish friend about what Jews believe. If you have as a co-worker, let's say you're a Jewish person.

And you have as a co-worker a devout Catholic. All right. Another co-worker is a nominal. Catholic. Another one is a very, very committed Baptist.

and another one is a very liberal Presbyterian. If you ask all four of them separately what do Christians believe, you're going to get very different answers. from the nominal Catholic and the devout Catholic. to the committed Baptist and the liberal Presbyterian. You get very, very different answers.

And then you have to decide, okay, who's really representing the faith? And let's put aside the Catholic-Protestant divide for the moment and say that If you go back to New Testament times, Did the disciples literally believe Jesus rose from the dead? Did they literally believe he died for our sins? Did they literally believe in a virgin birth? Did they literally believe that faith in Jesus was the difference between heaven and hell?

And the answer would be yes to all of the above. And did they literally believe the Hebrew scriptures were the word of God and that God literally brought the children of Israel out of Egypt? Yes. to all the above.

So, when you talk to a liberal Presbyterian today who says, Well, you know, the Bible's inspired, but so are the other ancient religious writings of the Hindus and Buddhism and Judaism, etc. And no, of course they don't believe in a literal bodily resurrection or a real heaven or hell or anything like that.

Well, they have departed from the historic faith. They have departed from the historic faith.

So The same way Uh a a Jew today who departs from traditional Jewish views. they are reflecting more modern views. They are reflecting a more recent humanistic interpretation of the faith. And therefore, they can tell you what they believe in their synagogue. or their temple as they would call it.

Orthodox Jews don't refer to it as a temple because the temple's in Jerusalem. waiting for it to be rebuilt. Reform Jews will say uh this is the temple I go to. And they would say this is the legitimate interpretation of the faith, that the Talmudic rabbis were very liberal in their thinking and understood scripture a certain way, and we're following their footsteps. And traditional Jews would say what you're doing is a new creation, something that's not existed before, and it's wrong.

But if you want to find out what a particular faith Holds to talk to a serious practitioner of the faith, and you may differ with them categorically. But talk to a serious practitioner of the faith. If I want to know what a Muslim believes, I'll talk to someone who prays five times a day and fasts during Ramadan. and and seeks to live by the five pillars of Islam. and takes the Quran as the eternally inspired holy book that is preserved in heaven.

I would talk to that person as opposed to a nominal Muslim who doesn't pray at all. That doesn't mean I'm going to agree with them. It just means I'm going to get a better understanding of what they believe by talking to an actual practitioner. 866-34Truth. We go to Wade in Vienna, Illinois.

Welcome to the line of fire. Fellow, Dr. Brown, it's Pleasure to talk to you. Thank you.

Um I, uh, I go to the church at Bleasden you know, tongues and that that all believers that are filled with the Holy Spirit uh have the ability to talk in tongues. And I have not. And it's been. you know, seven or so years. I started the church.

And so I'm wondering what What could prov do you believe in that? What could I be doing wrong? Or Why am I not speaking in tongues? Yeah, okay. The best thing to do is to take any pressure off yourself.

Or to feel as if you're doing something wrong. I fully understand why you would feel like that in the congregation where you are. And yes, I do believe that tongues is available potentially to all believers.

Some would say, look, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, do all speak in tongues, and he means there that tongues is given to some, not to others. I understand that as a legitimate. Interpretation. It's also possible he's saying that the gift of tongues to deliver public utterances is only given to some, but that any believer can speak in tongues and their own prayer and devotion to the Lord. But first, I would just take any pressure off myself and recognize as a child of God.

You're loved by God, you're saved. You're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You have eternal life, and that's what matters most. And you want to rejoice in that. You want to be glad in that.

You want to make that the primary pattern of your relationship with God. Not what's wrong with me, but it's wonderful to be a son of God and be forgiven of my sins and to have fellowship with God my Father. Start there. And then you want to ask God. to give you everything he has.

so that you can serve him most effectively. That you can touch a dying world most effectively, that you can be intimate with him most deeply. That you can share the gospel most powerfully with us, Lord. Everything you have for me, Lord, give me the fullness of your Spirit.

So I can serve you the best and make you known the best. And then just worship him alone and praise him alone. And if you feel an overflow, And the image of John 7: out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. For me, January 24th of 72, I just felt that overflow in my spirit, as a result of which I just began to utter new words. And as they began to come to my lips, I realized, wow, I'm not making these up.

They're just flowing, and the more I did it, The more naturally it flows.

So sometimes people are waiting for God to take over their mouths. And just like I'm speaking to you in English now, it would be as if my mouth was overtaken, and suddenly I was speaking to you in a language I never learned, and I was just being forced to do it. No, that's not how it works. And Paul says the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. And he gives instructions about when it's appropriate to speak in tongues and when it's not, meaning that it is in our power to do it or not do it once we've been gifted in that way.

Uh so sometimes people have a misunderstanding. because of that, it it it it's like You're laying in bed and God says, get up. And you're waiting for him to physically pull you up. But he says, no, get up. But God, you don't understand.

I'm paralyzed and crippled. You go to get up and you're going to find the power to get up. That's the way it often is. Stand up on your feet, Paul says to a layman in Acts 14. He stands up because he believes.

And suddenly he's empowered to do it.

So perhaps that will help you as you're worshiping the Lord in a prayer group or alone and praying, and you just begin to feel something welling up within you, begin to speak a new language. If it's genuinely the Lord, you'll find a wonderful, beautiful flow of His Spirit. You'll find a joy in praying in tongues. You'll find deeper encounter with God. You'll find even an empowerment in your witness.

Uh but there's nothing to force. Let it flow. And as the Holy Spirit moves on you, and if that's not your experience, worship him and thank him and ask him to manifest the spirit in your life. As he deems best.

So that you can best make him known. Lord, may it be so abundantly in Wade's life. All right, friends, some of you are about to celebrate Hanukkah, some of you are about to celebrate Christmas, some both, some neither. But for all those celebrating Hanukkah or Christmas, I wish you a Happy and blessed Hanukkah. and a merry and blessed Christmas.

We've got a special broadcast for you. I believe will bless you on the day after Christmas on Monday and then back with you live on Tuesday. Remember, visit thelineofire.org website for all of our recent articles, videos, and special resource offers. My bottom line today, thank God, thank God, thank God, Jesus came into the world. Yeah.