A Special ‘Best Of' Broadcast

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Well, Thanksgiving is wonderful. But grumbling and complaining are bad. really bad. In fact, they can be downright deadly. Yeah.

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.

So delighted to be with you on this day after Thanksgiving with a really important teaching from the word that I pray will edify you and bless you and help you if you're listening to it live the day after Thanksgiving or if you're listening to it at a later time. This is a word, a teaching from scripture that is perennially perennially relevant. There we go. Perennially relevant.

So listen in, get as much of this as you can. If you miss any part of it, you can go to our website later today and listen at askdrbrown.org and click on the line of fire. I won't be taking any calls though today. grumbling and complaining. Paul wrote to the Philippians in the second chapter of that book, and said, Do all things without grumbling.

And complaining. And when we look back at Scripture, grumbling and complaining, when we came out of Egypt, even before we came out of Egypt, when God sent Moses to deliver us, but when we came out of Egypt murmuring and complaining and grumbling and we want something to drink, we want something to eat. We don't like what you gave us to eat.

Now I understand their real needs. And real issues. And there's a way to say, Moses, we need some help here. Or God, would you help us? We're tired and there is something very different.

Man, yeah, this is not good not good enough. Not r I don't like this. Not happy. Mm-hmm. Exodus fifteen, twenty-four.

So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What are we to drink? Exodus chapter sixteen, verse two. This is right before the manna. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. Exodus 16, 7, when Moses tells them they're going to see the Lord act.

He says, Who are we that you should grumble against us? What's your gripe with? That was a problem. This is not Moses. We're not happy with this.

Moses. And then the seventeenth chapter, after God supplies the manna. And now there's another water issue. Exodus 17, 3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?

But as much as I say this in a way to highlight. The nature of grumbling and complaining, and I do it in a way that can almost be light-hearted with whining and complaining, just to illustrate the point. The fact is, friends. For the children of Israel, this proved downright deadly. And what happened was persistent grumbling and complaining.

And you see it again right in Numbers the 11th chapter, more grumbling and complaining. Numbers the twelfth chapter. Miriam and Aaron are grumbling and complaining about Moses. What ultimately happens is the grumbling and complaining leads to unbelief. How can it lead to faith?

How can it possibly lead to faith? It led to unbelief. And then to out write Rebellion. Wow, outright rebellion, and it caused a whole generation to die in the wilderness. They didn't die in the wilderness because of their idolatry.

They didn't die in the wilderness because of their sexual immorality. They died in the wilderness because their persistent grumbling and complaining, which led to more unbelief, led ultimately to rebellion.

So that rather than obeying God and believing God and going in to take the promised land, Instead What did they do? They died in the wilderness. Grumbling and complaining rather than trust and thanksgiving was at the very root of it. Friends, stay tuned. This broadcast could be exactly what you need as we come to the end of 2012.

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

Thanks so much, friends, for joining us on this day after Thanksgiving. An attitude of thanksgiving, an attitude of praise, an attitude of gratitude is life-giving, is life-changing, is life-grumbling, complaining, negative. I don't like this. I don't like this show. I don't like the way he talks.

It's static on my radar. It's traffic. I can't get in the store. I don't like the food from yesterday. I ate too much.

That kind of attitude is deadly, friends.

So I want to help you see the danger of having an attitude of grumbling and complaining and help you develop an attitude of thanksgiving. Giving and gratitude. Thank you so much for joining us today on the line of fire. I am not taking calls today, but if you miss any part of today's broadcast, please go to the website askdrbrown.org, click on the line of fire, and you will truly be blessed as you listen. I want to tell you seven things about Grumbler's And complainers.

Seven basic statements, which I'll follow up with another. Four statements, and then a bunch of statements about Thanksgiving, then a bunch of scriptures. Got a lot to say today. Number one. Grumblers and Complainers Open the door to unbelief, which leads to rebellion.

An attitude of faith, friends, is one that says, I believe God. I trust God. Even though things look dark, even though things look difficult, even though things look hopeless, even though there are obstacles to overcome, even though I don't see a way out, even though I have no confidence in myself that things could change. I believe God, and we focus on God's goodness, we focus on God's faithfulness, we focus on who He is and the promises He's made, and that's tremendously faith building. As we put our faith in God, it builds more faith.

But as we grumble and complain like this, never do anything right, that that leads to unbelief. That, yes, there's unbelief behind it, but it leads to more unbelief. That doesn't get us in a position to believe God. That doesn't get us in a position to trust God together. Let's say.

Through no fault of your own, maybe a terrible problem with your company, you lose your job, you find yourself behind on bills, and you sit together with your spouse and you want to believe God together for a way out for provision, for wisdom, so that your finances can get back in order. And instead, it's like, well, if you worked hard and they wouldn't have fired you from your job, oh, well, yeah, well, it takes two to get into debt. Obviously, we didn't need to buy all the stuff you told us about.

Well, you never handled money.

Well, I haven't seen God come through for you. What kind of attitude is going to be produced from that? What's it going to lead to? Unbelief? And then even rebellion, as happened with the children of Israel in the wilderness.

Look, there's a lot to learn from the wilderness wanderings, but just look at the progression from Numbers 11, 12, 13, 14. 11 and 12 marked by grumbling and complaining and negative judgmentalism and then unbelief and then outright rebellion. Number two. Grumblers and complainers never make a quality faith decision to address. and overcome present problems and obstacles by the power of the Spirit and the Word.

Yes, I'll say it again. Grumblers and complainers never make a quality faith decision. to address and overcome present problems and obstacles by the power of the Spirit and Word. When you grumble, when your main comments or frequent comments or underlining comments are negative, when instead of having positive things to say about other people, about situations, and in particular, about God and His promises, when instead we complain, when we do that, we never make a quality faith decision to address and overcome present problems and obstacles by the power of the Spirit and Word.

Okay, we have a problem.

Okay, we have an issue.

Okay, we have some obstacles to overcome. What are we going to do? We lost the game. We lose every game. Our team always loses.

Okay. Our team is not playing well. What are we going to do, team, to overcome the problems? How can we isolate and address the problems and then move forward and make progress? If all we do is grumble, complain, friends, it's going to get worse and we're going to have more to grumble and complain about.

How does grumbling and complaining ever advance the situation in a positive way? How does grumbling and complaining ever get us in an attitude of faith? How does grumbling and complaining ever get us to take advantage of God's help and God's promises so that we can see what's wrong and fix it in Jesus' name? Number three. Grumblers and complainers are unthankful.

and unappreciative. There were Family members on Nancy's side of the family that used to treat us for dinner years ago They'd want to take us to a nice restaurant every so often. And we enjoyed that, especially when we didn't have so much money. And not that we're filthy rich now or anywhere near that, obviously. But we can certainly go out to a nice restaurant if we want to.

But In those days i it it was a special treat. But at a certain point we quit. We just said we're not it's not worth it. It is not worth going out to a restaurant to hear complaints about everything, to see the staff mistreated. It's it's just not worth it.

And we ended up declining invitations because of that. Grumblers and complainers are unthankful and unappreciative. They always do this wrong. Never get this right. I I remember with with one particular gentleman that we'd sometimes eat with, the very best, best compliment I ever heard him pay to his own wife, Or or or to uh to a server in a restaurant, the very best compliment I ever heard him pay was Not bad, not bad.

Grumblers and complainers are unthankful and unappreciative, always pointing out what's wrong and and even when there's good and there's positive, they they underwhelm you with their response. They're not thankful. They just take it for granted if you're going to do good, if if you're going to bless them, if you're going to help them, it's almost like they had it coming to them anyway. But what does it matter? Everything's negative anyhow.

They're unthankful. they're unappreciative. They're not the kind of people you want to hang out with. They're not the kind of people you want to work with. They're they're not the kind of people that that lift the spirit in the room.

In fact, it's the exact opposite opposite. And then it produces more negativity, breeds it.

So, number one, grumblers and complainers open the door to unbelief, which leads to rebellion. Number two, grumblers and complainers never make a quality faith decision to address and overcome present problems and obstacles by the power of the Spirit. and the word. Number three, grumblers and complainers are unthankful. and unappreciative.

Number four. Grumblers and complainers are fault finders and tear down rather than build up. Constructive criticism and constructive input. is wonderful. When someone sits you down and says, let's Assess the situation here.

Let's take a look at what's going on. Let's see what's wrong here so we can fix it. You know, I really appreciated the message that you brought, but since you asked me for my input, I think here's where you lost people, and this is where the message could have been so much better. Yeah. You know, I really like what you wrote.

You asked me to review that post of yours. I think you made some great points, but it got very confused and off track in the middle. I constantly ask for constructive criticism, especially from Nancy, from my wife Nancy. I don't always welcome it immediately. When I think I've just written a masterpiece and I ask her to look at it, she's got it all marked up.

And I said, you know, she think I should post it. No, no, you've got to work on it.

Well, work on it. I mean, this is a great piece.

Well, not the way it is now. I don't initially welcome that, but she just wants me to do my best and to represent the Lord the best possible way and to communicate truth in the strongest way.

So I know her only reason for taking the time to painstakingly look at something is to help the quality of what we're doing for the glory of the Lord. We should all welcome constructive input, whether it's from a friend or from someone that's not a friend. If it's constructive and helpful, we should welcome it. But grumblers and complainers, they're fault finders and they tear down rather than build up. All they do is point out the negative.

All they do is point out what's wrong.

Now, I know some people are so touchy that they can't take a single word of correction, but but That's not the issue here. That's a whole other issue. Grumblers and complainers, fault finders, they tear down rather than build up. I know some of you I'm speaking with are getting really uncomfortable because that's you. Listen, if you know Jesus, he's called you higher.

If you know the Lord, he's called you to something different. If you're really a child of God. then the fault-finding, complaining, negative, grumbling, tearing-down attitude is completely inappropriate. All right. Much more to come.

Stay with us on this day after Thanksgiving broadcast right here on the line of fire. Game score. You are listening to a previously recorded broadcast.

God of Light Yeah. Hear our cry. 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 back, friends, to the Line of Fire broadcast. We are doing a special day after Thanksgiving teaching on The deadly effects of grumbling and complaining, and then.

Well and the show talking about the power and beauty Thanksgiving. Thank you for joining us. See, there we go. Thanksgiving. Thank you for joining us, being part of the program.

I'm not taking calls today. I realize that some of you are in and out of the car and catching a few minutes here and there.

So make sure you go to my website later, ask Dr. Brown.org, and just click on the line of fire and you can listen to the show for today in its entirety. Grumblers and complainers open the door to unbelief, which leads to rebellion. That was my first point based on Israel in the wilderness. Number two, grumblers and complainers never make a quality faith decision to address and overcome present problems and obstacles by the power of the Spirit and Word.

Number three, grumblers and complainers are unthankful. and unappreciative. Grumblers and complainers, number four, are fault finders and tear down rather than build up. There is a way to point out something wrong with the goal of building up. And there is a way to say, I really appreciate you and I appreciate what you're trying to do.

Can I encourage you to consider this so that you can do what you do? Even better. That's very different from tearing down. Look, there are... Ways that families joke with each other.

When I was in Israel with my friend Michael Radelnik and his wife Eva and one of their sons, Seth, we were joking about the Jewish or New York way, a certain sarcasm. And, you know, you can do this, New Yorkers, we can do it with each other. You kind of. in a joking way insult each other. It's just a sign of affection.

And Michael was saying, yeah, he and his family could write a book or write a book about Jewish parenting or New York Jewish parenting, building self-esteem through ridicule. And we were all laughing about it. This son Seth was laughing about it. It's just in love and jest. And oh, yeah, dad, you're doing great with your diet now.

You know, that kind of stuff. But look, there is an ugly tearing down that hurts. There is an ugly tearing down that is so destructive, friends. And may I urge you as parents, even if you've got a challenging kid, don't tear that kid down all the time. Don't find so much fault with that kid.

Some some parenting experts have said uh for every negative thing you say to your kid, say ten things positive.

So you're thinking, How in the world am I gonna uh Listen. Do what you can even to make a little list of positive things about your kid or about your spouse or about your boss. Make a list if you can, if you need to do that, and review it and say, okay, I'm going to say the positive. And if I point out something wrong, it's with the goal of helping this person grow or seeing the work get done better. Grumblers and complainers are fault finders, and they tear down rather than build up.

Number five. Grumblers and complainers are joyless. and therefore question the joy of others. They project their own misery on others. How are you going to get joy?

When when as as rough as life can sometimes be, you choose to look at the negative side. I remember talking to one man, and his son told me that his dad was really a pessimist. And when I was talking to his dad and saying, look, there's light at the end of the tunnel, he said, yeah, it's another train coming right at me. I mean, that was his attitude. Instead of saying the best is yet to come in God, instead of saying there's always hope as long as there's breath and God sits on the throne, there's hope.

No, it's just negative and the wrong and the bad. That produces. Depression? That produces hopelessness. That produces anxiety.

I mean, if we could chart this in the physical realm, you know, maybe you you drop some some pill that you drop in water and you see it Fizzle, like Alka-Celta or something like that, or these vitamin C pills to help with your immunity and stuff. I'll drop them in some water, and they, shh, you can see the thing fizzing, that's fizzling, fizzing, sizzling, fizzing, whatever it is. And then, you know, the water changes color. If we could see in the spirit, in the spiritual realm, how our negative attitudes affect things and pssh. just pollutes the environment and changes things and and and fizzes out unbelief and negativity, it's going to produce joylessness.

And when someone else is joyful, rather than saying, Man, I need joy in my life, you know what they're going to say instead? You know, instead they're they're gonna say to you, Man, what's the matter with you and I have something the matter with you? I I was Let's see. I was at the airport, O'Hare Airport. It was Monday morning.

I was leaving this past Monday morning, got up. The hotel about 7:15 in the morning, got to my plane. I'm now got to the airport, going to security. And there was a woman there as I'm just on my way to walk through security. And she said, How are you doing today?

I said, I am blessed. And by the way, I just tell you flat honest, she was an African-American woman, and I find that generally speaking, I can much more easily assume that they're positive to spiritual talk and talk about Jesus, that it's much more common. Just being straight with you, I get so many more positive smiles and amens and stuff.

Sorry, I'm just telling you the truth. I tell other people I'm blessed. I just get more positive responses with my African-American friends. And here's another friend, just a stranger. And she said, How you doing?

I said, I am blessed. She said, Could you give some of that blessing to me? And even though I know you're not supposed to do this, you know, going through security, I just touched her shoulder and I said, be blessed in Jesus' name. I mean, there's joy in me. I want to spread that joy to others.

Grumblers and complainers, they deflate everything and whatever spiritual air you've got in your your sails. Man, they just suck it right out and the life goes. Grumblers and complainers are never content with the present. This would be number six. They're never content with the president.

Yes, Jay was always better. Today needs to change. Of course, they quickly forget their attitude to yesterday when yesterday was today. Grumblers and complainers qualify as fools. according to the standard of Proverbs.

Friends, I've got a half hour more to go. But I want to encourage you, if you're only able to catch this first half hour, go to my website, askdrbrown.org, and click on the line of fire. And you can listen to the entire broadcast, either the rest of it live now or later today. You can catch it. Share it with your friends.

There's a link you can just click to share it on Facebook or other social media so that your friends can be blessed by this as well. And if you have not yet taken advantage of this week's special offer, today's the last day. My book, 60 Questions, Christians Ask About Jewish Beliefs and Practices, one of the most practical, enjoyable, edifying, and informative books ever wrote. Together with our Think It Through TV show, the episode is Christianity Jewish, the two together. It saves over 50% for you.

$15 postage paid. Go to my website, askdrbrown.org. Click on the online bookstore, and you can order right online. Be blessed. Be thankful.

You are listening to a previously recorded broadcast.

God of the life Yeah. Hear our cries. 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 back, friends, to the Line of Fire broadcast. We are doing a special day after Thanksgiving teaching on the deadly effects of grumbling and complaining, and then.

Well and the show talking about the power and beauty Of Thanksgiving. Thank you for joining us. See, there we go. Thanksgiving. Thank you for joining us, being part of the program.

I'm not taking calls today. I realize that some of you are in and out of the car and catching a few minutes here and there.

So make sure you go to my website later, askdrbrown.org, and just click on the line of fire and you can listen to the show for today in its entirety. Grumblers and complainers open the door to unbelief, which leads to rebellion. That was my first point based on Israel in the wilderness. Number two, grumblers and complainers never make a quality faith decision to address and overcome present problems and obstacles by the power of the Spirit and Word. Number three, grumblers and complainers are unthankful.

and unappreciative. Grumblers and complainers, number four, are fault finders and tear down rather than build up. There is a way to point out something wrong with the goal of building up. And there is a way to say I really appreciate you, and I appreciate what you're trying to do. Can I encourage you to consider this so that you can do what you do?

Even better. That's very different from tearing down. Look, there are ways that families joke with each other. When I was in Israel with my friend Michael Redelnik and his wife Eva and one of their sons, Seth, we were joking about the Jewish or New York way, a certain sarcasm. And, you know, you can do this, New Yorkers, we can do it with each other.

You kind of. In a joking way, insult each other. It's just a sign of affection. And Michael was saying, yeah, he and his family could write a book or write a book about Jewish parenting or New York Jewish parenting, building self-esteem through ridicule. And we were all laughing about it.

This son Seth was laughing about it. It's just in love and jest. And oh, yeah, Dad, you're doing great with your diet now. You know, that kind of stuff. But look, there is an ugly tearing down that hurts.

There is an ugly tearing down that is so destructive, friends. And may I urge you as parents, even if you've got a challenging kid, don't tear that kid down all the time. Don't find so much fault with that kid that some parenting experts have said for every negative thing you say to your kid, say ten things positive.

So you're thinking, how in the world am I going to uh Yeah. Listen. Do what you can even to make a little list of positive things about your kid or about your spouse or about your boss. Make a list if you can, if you need to do that, and review it and say, okay, I'm going to say the positive. And if I point out something wrong, it's with the goal of helping this person grow or seeing the work get done better.

Grumblers and complainers are fault finders, and they tear down rather than build up. Number five. Grumblers and complainers are joyless. and therefore question the joy of others. They project their own misery on others.

How are you going to get joy? when when as as rough as life can sometimes be, you choose to look at the negative side. I remember talking to to one man, and his son told me that his dad was was really a pessimist. And when I was talking to his dad and saying, look, there's light at the end of the tunnel, he said, yeah, it's another train coming right at me. I mean, that was his attitude.

Instead of saying the best is yet to come in God, instead of saying there's always hope as long as there's breath and God sits on the throne, there's hope. No, it's just negative and the wrong and the bad. That produces. depression? That produces hopelessness.

That produces anxiety. I mean, if if we could chart this in the physical realm, you know, ma maybe you you you you drop uh some some pill that you drop in water and you see it fizzle like you know Alka-Seltzer or something like that or these these vitamin C pills to help with your immunity and stuff. I'll drop them in some water and they shh you can see the thing fizzling fizzing, that's fizzling, fizzing, sizzling, fizzing, whatever it is. And then the water changes color. If we could see in the spirit, in the spiritual realm, how our negative attitudes affect things and Just pollutes the environment and changes things and fizzes out unbelief and negativity.

It's going to produce joylessness. And when someone else is joyful, rather than saying, Man, I need joy in my life, you know what they're going to say instead? You know, instead, they're going to say to you, What's the matter with you?

Something the matter with you. I I was Let's see. I was at the airport, O'Hare Airport. It was Monday morning. I was leaving this past Monday morning, got up.

The hotel about 7:15 in the morning, got to my plane. I'm now got to the airport, going to security. And there was a woman there as I'm just on my way to walk through security. And she said, How are you doing today? I said, I am blessed.

And by the way, I just tell you flat honest, she was an African-American woman, and I find that generally speaking, I can much more easily assume that they're positive to spiritual talk and talk about Jesus, that it's much more common. Just being straight with you, I get so many more positive smiles and amens and stuff.

So, sorry, I'm just telling you the truth. I tell other people I'm blessed. I just get more positive responses with my African-American friends. And here's another friend, just a stranger. And she said, How you doing?

I said, I am blessed. She said, Could you give some of that blessing to me? And even though I know you're not supposed to do this, you know, going through security, I just touched her shoulder as I said, be blessed in Jesus' name. I mean, there's joy in me. I want to spread that joy to others.

Grumblers and complainers, they deflate everything and whatever spiritual air you've got in your your sails. Man, they just suck it right out and the life goes. Grumblers and complainers are never content with the present. This would be number six. They're never content with the president.

President yesterday was always better. Today needs to change. Of course, they quickly forget their attitude to yesterday when yesterday was today. Grumblers and complainers qualify as fools. according to the standard of Proverbs.

Friends, I've got a half hour more to go. But I want to encourage you: if you're only able to catch this first half hour, go to my website, ask. Drbrown.org and click on the line of fire, and you can listen to the entire broadcast, either the rest of it live now or later today. You can catch it. Share it with your friends.

There's a link you can just click to share it on Facebook or other social media so that your friends can be blessed by this as well. And if you have not yet taken advantage of this week's special offer, today's the last day. My book, 60 Questions: Christians Ask About Jewish Beliefs and Practices, one of the most practical, enjoyable, edifying, and foreign books ever wrote. Together with our Think It Through TV show, the episode is Christianity Jewish, the two together. It saves over 50% for you.

$15 postage paid. Go to my website, askdrbrown.org. Click on the online bookstore, and you can order right online. Be blessed. Be thankful.

You are listening to a previously recorded broadcast.

Oh God of birth. cleansing flame Shit. 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. Well, here we are the day after Thanksgiving, and my focus and a special teaching here on the line of fire is on the deadly effects of grumbling and complaining and the life-giving positive effects of Thanksgiving and having, as one brother used to put it, an attitude of gratitude. I'm not taking calls, sit back, and enjoy this special broadcast. Seven characteristics of grumblers and complainers. They open the door to unbelief.

which leads to rebellion. That they never make a quality faith decision to address and overcome present problems and obstacles by the power of the Spirit and Word. They're unthankful. and they're unappreciative. They're fault finders and they tear down rather than build up.

They're joyless. and therefore question the joy of others. They're never content with the present. Yesterday was always better. Today needs to change.

Of course They forget their attitude to yesterday, when yesterday was Today. if you follow me. And they qualify as fools. according to the standards of Proverbs. In other words, if you go through Proverbs and you look at speech...

The speech of a fool.

Now, in the book of Proverbs, a fool is someone who is morally deficient, not someone who is lacking in intelligence, but someone who is morally deficient. A fool's speech is negative, is destructive, tears down, hurts, wounds, destroys, whereas the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12.18 lays it out. There's indiscriminate talk that pierces like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12, 18 If you said, well, you just ran through those quickly, go to the website, askdrbrown.org, click on the line of fire.

I actually spent a half hour going through most of those in depth. And now, this second half hour, we're covering some other ground.

So I wanted to repeat those to you. A few more statements about grumblers and complainers. They are Faith killers Faith killers. Friends, if you're going to start an important mission for God, you're going to plant a church, you are believing God for a breakthrough and something the Lord has called you to do, you're married and you're unable to have children and you believe God wants to bless you with children and you're praying for children. You're believing God for funds to help launch a ministry of ministering to the poor in your community.

You don't want to be surrounded by grumblers and complainers, friends. They're faith killers. They'll tell you all the reasons why God won't come through, and He never has. They'll tell you all the reasons why things just aren't right. Grumblers and complainers are faith killers?

They are joy stealers? The atmosphere has changed, friends. When there's thanksgiving and praise and adoration, it lifts your spirit, it lifts your heart. It can even bring the presence of God. It renews you in the truth of God's Word.

Grumbling and complaining just puts a a wet blanket on everything. Grumblers and complainers are faith killers, joy stealers, spirit quenchers When the Holy Spirit's beginning to move and touch and help, and bless, it's not going to continue. I've seen that before. Nothing, no, it's not real. I don't believe that.

Oh, yeah.

Well, you got touched. Sam didn't get touched. Julie didn't get touched. I didn't get touched. How come?

Spirit conscious. And blessing diminishes. When God's blessed you with something special, they'll tell you why it's not so special. When God's blessed you with something special, they'll show you why.

Someone else didn't bless it, and it's not fair, it's not right, or it's not going to last. Grumblers and complainers are faith killers, joy stealers, spirit quenchers, and blessing diminishers. Praisers And worshipers. Ah those who have a very different attitude and approach. Those who say, I I'm going to believe God.

I I'm going to worship God. I'm going to give thanks. Yeah, it's miserable. It's a rainy, miserable Damp. Dank, dark, day, whatever the adjectives are.

Just one of those days we're supposed to have a special family picnic and You can focus on that. Or you could say, it's a miserable day outwardly, but God is good and God is faithful. Hey, let's remember some of the amazing things the Lord has done for us. Hey, let's recall to mind the faithfulness of God. Hey, remember that time when it looked so hopeless and we were just grumbling and God convicted us and we started to praise him and worship him, how he came through?

Praisers and worshipers are faith builders. Joy Getters! Spirit Movers And blessing in creatures. Praise brings God's presence. I don't mean in some mechanical formulaic way, but I mean when from the heart you give thanks to God, when from the heart you determine to speak well of Him and to thank Him for His goodness and His grace and to remember His promises and to remember the things He's done either for you or for others, that brings the presence of God.

Grumbling chases it away. Here, just picture this. You're in a service, you're worshiping together, and someone says, Man, I got an amazing testimony. You've got to hear this. You've got to hear this.

And you bring someone up on the platform with you, and they begin to tell you this thing that God did. And it's mind-boggling, and how He came through, and how He delivered, and how He answered. And there's the sense of faith. And friends, let's pray right now for breakthroughs. I know you can sense God's presence here.

Let's pray for breakthroughs. There's faith right now in our hearts. Let's believe God. You contrast that with being at some business meeting, some church business meeting. Oh, pastor, you're not supposed to do things.

I don't see an anointing on your life when you're, you know, I don't know who takes care of this building, but let me just tell you something. This place is a dive. I'm ashamed to say this is my home church here. And about 10 different people speaking, everyone has something negative to say, and they're exaggerating the problems.

Okay, let's have a time of prayer. You're going to get really far with faith-filled prayer in an atmosphere like that. Praise brings God's presence. Grumbling. Chases it away.

Praise lifts us up Grumbling brings us Down. Oh, I've I've been in some situations sometimes. When everything around me just seemed negative, wrong. You got a physical issue, you got a financial issue, you got an issue with your surroundings, you got an issue with your staff, your team, your friends, your colleagues, your own decisions, your family, whatever it is. Just, wherever you look, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong.

And then it hit me, What are you what are you doing? What are you doing? Don't be a baby Well, the hotel room is not good. The ride is late. I don't I the food is just a cold.

It's always treating me right. Uh Just start to thank him, praise him, worship him. I was in some situations recently. And all these little things were going wrong, and I I was just smiling the whole way through. I just thought, this is just funny.

God is faithful. I'm going to smile all the way through. You know something that really blessed me? and encourage me. When we were in Israel, I don't know if it was from last month, but everything was supposed to be set up in the hotel where I was.

My staff had made numerous calls, checked, emailed, made absolutely sure that things were set up properly so I could do my radio broadcast either from my room or from a business lounge, and I would plug in this cable to my portable radio unit and be able to broadcast without a hitch. And every day there was a problem. I ended up last minute being brought over to some friends' home grads from our school where they had the necessary equipment and they were right there on the spot to get it done or having to run around the hotel, find this place, that place. One night we went to I think eight different locations in the hotel before we finally found something that would work. And and I had peace about it.

There was tension, there was pressure, it sapped a lot of time during some of the days. I did have peace in the midst of it, though. And I want to tell you something, though. Uh I don't know that I exuded some extraordinary attitude. But I I got an email from a team member that was there with the camera crew and that did different things for us every day.

and she just wrote to me How she and others on the team that were involved were so ministered to by the gracious attitude I had during the midst of things, with a joyful attitude during the midst of things. Friends, that's a testimony to the goodness of God, that's a testimony to the grace of God, and it blessed me to hear that in the midst of those situations, rather than saying, Man, you're just negative, okay, I know it's a problem, but. Give people a break and stop complaining all the time. That God's grace was at work with an attitude of gratitude, with a joy, and with a peace that said everything's going to work out. And it did by God's grace.

Praise, being thankful to God, worshiping Him, glorifying Him. Praise lifts us up. Grumbling brings us. down. More to come.

Stay with us.

Some verses on Thanksgiving when we return. You are listening to a previously recorded broadcast.

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.

Bye Welcome back once more to the Line of Fire Broadcast, friends. This has been a special program on Thanksgiving. Oh, the day after Thanksgiving, but on the subject of Thanksgiving and primarily how deadly destructive. grumbling and complaining are, and how life-giving an attitude of praise and thanksgiving is. If you missed any part of this broadcast, we've done one whole hour on this now.

Please go to my website, ask Dr Brown.org, click on the line of fire, and just a few hours after the show, this will be archived. You'll be able to listen to the whole broadcast. The word of God, friends, calls us to be thankful. And look, as God's people, we have every reason to be thankful, don't we? Even on the worst day we could ever imagine, our sins are still forgiven if we're in Jesus.

On the worst day we could ever imagine, we still have eternal life in Jesus if we're believers, if we're God's children. Even on the worst part of God. possible situation we find ourselves in. The best is still yet to come if we know the Lord we're going to be with Him for ever, and He is good, and He is our Father. Lack of faithfulness actually stands out.

in God's sight and is noticeable in the eyes of heaven. Lack of thankfulness stands out. Remember when Jesus heals the ten lepers in Luke the the seventeenth chapter, and only one of them comes back to give praise, and Jesus says, Where are the others? Where the other nine? Where's their praise?

Where's their thanksgiving? I wonder if it's one in ten of us that that stops to give God praise for the good things that He does. Praying Hyde, John Praying Hyde, one of the saintliest men that ever graced God's people. A man of extraordinary devotion to God in prayer. John Hyde, such a man of prayer that he became known as Praying Hyde.

W He covenanted with the Lord to lead one soul to the Lord every day. when he was on the mission field. This is after years of seeing no one saved, no one saved, no success. They had a prayer breakthrough. And he covenanted with the Lord to look for and find and lead to the Lord one person a day.

They'd often fall on their knees right with him on the roadside and pray and repent and cry out to God for mercy. Then he grew in faith to where it was two a day and then three a day. Not some cheap, just repeat after me, but I'm talking about people really coming to the Lord. several times over the years, He would see that the one or two or three, wherever it was in his commitment, they didn't get saved that day. he fell short of his faith goal.

And he said inevitably when he would ask the Lord what the problem was, the Lord would say to him, lack of praise. Lack of praise. Listen to these verses. Ephesians 5, 3 and 4. But among you There must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or it shouldn't even be mentioned among you, or of any kind of impurity or greed, because these are improper for God's holy people, nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, across joking, which are out of place, but rather.

Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving, what a contrast with the list before it. Ephesians 5. 19 and 20 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

Which means either giving thanks to God for everything He does, or whatever happens, whatever comes your way, give thanks to God because He is good. Ephesians 4. six and seven Do not be anxious about anything. but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And The peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Messiah Jesus.

Colossians chapter 1, verses 10 through 12. And we pray this, Paul praying for the Colossians, we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of The saints in the kingdom of of light and then chapter 2 verses 6 and 7 Chapter two, verses six and seven.

So then, just as you receive Messiah Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with Thankfulness! Colossians chapter 3, verses 15 to 17, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you are called to peace. And be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

And then Colossians chapter 4, verse 2, devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and Thankful. Philippi uh 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 sixteen to eighteen. Be joyful always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances.

For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Boy, I'm convicted in a life-giving, positive way that I need to be more thankful and express more thankfulness to God. 1 Timothy 2. Verse 1, I urge them that first of all, requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving. be made for everyone.

In verse two, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness. and holiness Wow. Give thanks for everyone and pray for them. Friends, Grumbling and complaining, death-giving, destroying, harmful fall in the wilderness, grumbling and complaining, rooted in unbelief, but it led to more unbelief and then ultimately outright rebellion. Let's be people of praise.

Let's be people of thanksgiving. Let's be people who are grateful. Let's be people who honor God by speaking well of Him and choose to believe Him and look to Him in the midst of the bleakest of circumstances, in the midst of everyday little hassles, when someone messes up your Arnett McDonald's drive-through. Let's choose to not be I'm blue.

Now we get it red, it's it's cold, you let the pickles off, you put put some Let's not be those kind of people. Let's step higher. Let's step higher and let's emulate the attitude of the Son of God, who was overflowing with joy and thankfulness in the presence of his Father in which he lived. Remember, friends, you can listen to this entire hour of teaching by going to Ask Dr. Brown.

and clicking on the line of fire. Hey, I want to make a direct appeal to you. I want to ask you to go to my website and sew into our ministry and help us reach more people with the Line of Fire broadcast. I want to encourage you to go to ask doctor Brown.org right now. and click on support.

Become a monthly torchbearer. Make a one-time donation. Stand with us so that we can impact more and more people around the country and around the world with a message of life and transformation through Jesus. On the front lines of Jewish ministry, on the front lines of awakening in America, on the front lines of moral cultural revolution, on the front lines of missions, stand with us as we stand together and let us be thankful. Call this number right now, 1-800-278-996.

7-8. My bottom line today: don't grumble, don't complain, don't be mean-spirited, don't be a negative downer. Look to God and be a man or woman of praise and thanksgiving. You are listening to a previously recorded broadcast.

I'm about to talk to one of the world's top New Testament scholars, author of an amazing new book on miracles, a man who says it is unscientific to deny the miraculous. 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. I am a student of the word. For the last 40 years, I've been a student of the Word.

And as a student of the word, I'm convinced that God is continuing to work miraculously in the earth today. Based on scripture, I believe that God continues to work in the earth miraculously today. And those miracles that he does perform confirm what I already believe in Scripture. In other words, I base my beliefs on Scripture. And then the miracles are a confirmation to that belief.

Well, am I rightly interpreting the scripture? How should we approach miracles? I did a debate this morning that'll air in the UK on one of the biggest Christian stations, perhaps the biggest in England. A debate with an atheist about messianic prophecy. And he, of course, questions the existence of God's supernatural power at all.

And I told him I found that to be very unscientific. I've got a great privilege today for two hours to have one of the world's foremost New Testament scholars joining me, a man who loves the Lord, a man of humility. a man of integrity and a man who's probably getting embarrassed by this introduction right now. I'm talking about Professor Craig Keener. Holds his PhD from Duke University and is now a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary and the author of many, many important.

New Testament books, and this most recent two-volume study, which I'm literally holding in my hands here, it's kind of hard to hold in one hand big. Two volumes, almost 1200 pages. Miracles, the credibility. of the New Testament accounts. I will be taking some calls but limited.

So if you have a question for Professor Keener today, remember to call 866-34TRUTH. 866-348-7884. Or you can post it on my Facebook page, Ask Dr. Brown, S.D.R. Brown on Facebook.

And perhaps we'll get to some of those as well. Without further ado, Craig, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today. It's my privilege to be with you. And special time of the year. We did a debate about Christmas yesterday, but what does today mean to you?

How happy Hanukkah. Yeah, so a joint. Happy Hanukkah to all of our listeners. Craig, before we get into the details of this book, Were you always a believer in Jesus? Were you always a believer in the authority of Scripture?

No, I was converted from atheism. At what age? Uh, was fifteen. And what was it that made you an atheist? And what was it that brought you out of atheism?

It's kind of a common theme, isn't it? Yeah. Well, I I had never I hadn't had very much first-hand exposure to Christianity. I mean, I I thought most people were Christians, but I didn't exactly know what they believed. But Since at least the age of nine I had been thinking it was much more smart to be an atheist because I thought.

Uh I wasn't very smart, but I thought that you could explain the universe without recourse to the hypothesis of a God is the way I put it. I I got into a debate about that.

Somebody Said, well, there had to be a first cause. And I said, not if you had infinite time going all the way back, which, of course, now we know is not correct. But anyway. I uh When I was about thirteen though, and I was reading Plato I I started thinking about questions of eternity and things that Plato's answers didn't seem to be that good. His arguments didn't seem to be that good, but he was asking a lot of important questions.

And it got me to to rethink. and start asking what if I'm wrong. And Then A couple of years later I had an encounter with Christ. Hmm.

So there was a desire to hold to truth. That ultimately led you to the Lord. Of course, Craig was not your average 13-year-old reading Plato. But we'll find out about Craig's journey today: what led him to the writing of This book, Miracles. I've never seen a book more highly praised by critics than this book.

You are listening to a previously recorded broadcast.

cleansing flame send the 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.

Thanks, friends, for joining us, my guest for the entire two hours today.

So listen to whatever time you have here in your local stations and then catch the rest later on our website, skrbrown.org. Click on the line of fire. My guest, Professor Craig Keener. from now Asbury Theological Seminary. And many of you listening may have some of his books in your library.

If not, you need to get them. If you've got a question for Professor Keener, 866-34TRUTH, 866-3487. Craig, let's just let our listeners know some of the other major works that you have written over the years because I constantly recommend your stuff to callers that are asking for material. But just to give folks an overview of what you've done, and you're not 80 years old yet, are you, Craig? I am over fifty now.

Over fifty, are you serious? Yeah. All right, but I still got you, but probably like five years or something like that.

Now, your Acts commentary. is on the way out, how many volumes is that going to be? We're estimating four volumes. And something like six thousand pages.

Well, it was 7,000 manuscript pages, but they're doing it in small enough print. I think they'll get it to maybe just over 1,000 pages per volume, something like that. Ah.

So just 4,000 pages of casual reading. What ama I can't wait to see this come out.

Okay, what other commentaries have you written? The one that's the most useful for most readers will be the Bible background commentary. It gives Um cultural background information on each passage of the The New Testament.

So Uh It it it uh it's published by University Press. And it's in one volume. And The purpose of it was When I was a young Christian I I began as I was reading like forty chapters of the Bible a day, I began Realizing as I was getting into it, that there were a lot of things that the writers took for granted that the readers knew that I didn't know. Because it was background that everybody back then knew. Ancient culture Okay.

We're not familiar with that to date.

So I spent like ten years A research together the information so that I could put it at people's fingertips. And that's the most useful one. It doesn't have all the technical details, it just gives like. What will be helpful for interpreting passages? And it's wonderfully useful, totally accessible.

Whenever someone calls me and says, well, I want to know more about Jewish background in the New Testament, or I tell them, hey, one volume, it'll lay it out all for you. You've also written major commentaries on Matthew. John The Acts ones coming out, and then smaller commentaries, what Romans, 1 Corinthians, Revelation.

Well, Revelation's pretty big too. Did I miss anything? Uh I think that's the Right. And then you've recently put out a book on the historicity of the New Testament. What's that one titled?

the historical Jesus of the Gospels. Right, that's another little volume, about 900 pages, right? I'll ring it fifteen hundred. Oh, okay, just sorry. Don't want to exaggerate there.

All right. Now, anyone, I got into all this for a reason. I want people to know about your books, but I got into this for a reason. You're famous for meticulous detail. You're famous for when you write something that sometimes the footnote Is more the page than the text itself.

And you're constantly giving primary sources. In other words, not second, third, fourth-hand scholarship only, but the primary sources, the original sources. And yet you write this two-volume work called Miracles, The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. And some people would question, well, how could a scholar write about miracles? Was there any kind of detachment?

Did you kind of shut off your mind when you worked on this book and just kind of got in a trance and believed all these weird stories? Is there a contradiction between miracles and academic scholarship? No, not at all. In fact it's been a philosophic prejudice against miracles. that has kept scholarship Okay.

actually considering the evidence. in their favor and there's quite a lot of evidence in their favor. Bye. The book before this one, as you mentioned, The Historical Jesus of the Gospels, There I was using rigorous historical methodology and Try not to make any Any assumptions? before I looked at the evidence.

I mean, I had personal assumptions, but I was trying to just you know, look at the evidence and and follow the evidence and Uh And One thing that I did discover you can work within a framework Of certain kinds of assumptions But You need to take Seriously, what they say even if on some details you don't have other corroboratory evidence. In the midst of working on that other book, You know, sometimes my wife would say something to me and I'd say, can you give me evidence for that assertion?

Well I got in a lot of trouble naturally. Because uh your life day to day Well on on that kind of basis.

So in other words, Uh you know, I'm not feeling good about this trip or. You know, something about that conversation we had yesterday with this fellow just wasn't right.

Well, you want documented evidence. You want... Footnotes. Or she would say, I'm going to wash the dishes now, and I would say, can you give me evidence for that assertion? Um Or it w it would be uh I I just I just got into that mindset in such a way that you know, we don't Scholars.

don't live that way outside of are cubicles. And so I brought that into the Miracles book to some extent. But after a while, I was just confronted with so much evidence that I realized you know the rules by which I'm I'm The the academic rules by which We've been approaching the evidence just It doesn't accommodate the evidence. We need a paradigm shift. We need to think in new ways about.

How to approach this. Um And So in other words, there was a... there was something that was so scientific it was no longer realistic. And what about the influence of David Hume? What did he say and how does that play into scholarship really until today?

At the beginning of the Enlightenment, there were a lot of. scholars who used miracles in the Bible To argue for the Christian faith, A number of the early Enlightenment thinkers actually believed that, including early English scientists. But David Hume a Scottish uh sceptic philosopher uh came along and said, well, no, We we uh We can't believe those things. And He made an argument against miracles which To Really truncate the argument, make it very uh concise We can't believe in miracles. They're against the ordinary course of nature.

We can't at least trust. witnesses who claim miracles And the reason he gives is because We have no credible eyewitnesses for miracles.

So it's a it's an entirely circular argument. And yet his argument which had been adopted from deists before. For him. His argument. has become the unspoken basis for just the assumption today we're You know, if I say, well, A friend of mine saw somebody Yeah, S somebody who thinks they're being intellectual will laugh and say, ah.

Well, I know that's not true. Without even thinking about it because we we know people are not raised from the dead because those things don't happen and we don't have credible eyewitnesses and if someone is an eyewitness to it then they're not credible. Precisely.

So that's the whole argument ultimately behind Behind the common presupposition today that miracles don't happen. Yeah, so so this then breeds its way into scholarship. Would you say even in the evangelical world, even in the Christian believing world that says Jesus died for our sins, he rose from the dead, messianic prophecies are true, he really performed miracles, we believe all this? Is that David Yume philosophy still felt even in evangelical circles, do you think? Yeah.

I think I mean, not to the same extent. But I think that it still has its influence in the back of our minds. It's it's so much part of our Western culture that it's all right to believe that God will heal you spiritually, You hear that God healed somebody physically.

Well, I guess they could explain that psychosomatically. Maybe God did that. But you get to something like blind eyes being opened or somebody being raised from the dead, Then hesitant about that and yet There are so many eyewitness claims for these things taking place all over the world. All right, so again, it's so important for our listeners to realize that this originates out of doing. historic scholarship in the book of Acts.

and looking for evidence and the question of how we get evidence. And you realize that we're being unscientific because of a presupposition. That certain things don't happen. And Craig, when I was debating this atheist today, it was a very pleasant debate on Christian Radio in the UK. It'll air Christmas Eve.

He just explained why certain things couldn't happen, like prophecy or like a virgin birth, because. These things don't happen. And I said, you know, when I look at the evidence of prophecy, especially with Jewish people and things that have happened through history and with the Messiah, I said, it takes a whole lot more faith to not believe it. All right, we come back. There's an interesting...

question I want to take from a caller. We'll continue to discuss the important book, Craig Keener, Miracles. The sound. You are listening to a previously recorded broadcast.

Yeah. 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. Thanks for joining us today, my special guest, Professor Craig Keener. He is Professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary, the author of many crucially important New Testament books. And his most recent two-volume book, Miracles. The credibility of the New Testament accounts.

I told Craig when I saw the reviews before I got the books, I cannot remember hearing scholars Praising books like this, or praising a book like this, with the enthusiasm and excitement that they did. Craig, how long did it take you to? to write this book. I know you were involved in other projects at the same time. But how long were you working on this?

Yeah, because of the overlap with other projects, this is just estimate but I I'm guessing maybe three years. Mm. I drew in material from my We search for other other projects too, but Um But it did take a lot of concerted extra time to to work on this subject. And were you surprised at all at the level of praise that this book is getting from some of the most respected New Testament scholars out there? I I was I was very pleased by it.

I I I uh I guess one of the things I thought was, wow, They never did this with one of my other books. Yeah, I was thrilled to see it. And I knew even the difficulty of getting it published is we even prayed for that over the years.

So we'll talk more, get into more detail about it. If you've got a question for Professor Keener, we'll bring in some questions here and there. I'm going to hog, though, most of the time so we can just talk through these issues about miracles. Remember to call 86634Truth, 86634Truth. Jack in Union City, New Jersey, what's your question for Dr.

Keener? Oh, hi, Dr. Brown, Dr. Keener. I guess my question is I've been I didn't Delving into the uh relationship between philosophy and religion lately to try and become more a keen to apologetics and everything.

Some models. Confusing. But I guess I I just am a little confused as to how much influence Um I guess Pre- or Platonic philosophy, or philosophy of Aristotle, has had on Christian thought as opposed to what. Pre platonic influence there was. And where I don't know where one begins and one end ends, I guess, when I try and kind of understand the evolution.

And is it is it really safe to kind of take pagan influences into Christian thought. All you, Craig. All right. Yeah. Time of the New Testament.

The dominant Not not the only, but the dominant Form of Greek philosophy was Stoicism. and you see Paul engaging the Stoics on their own terms. He he doesn't compromise what what scripture teaches, but he He communicates the message of Scripture in terms that the Stoics would have understood. But Later on uh Platonism became the dominant uh approach, uh phil philosophical approach came back into vogue That was true in the time of many of the church fathers. Uh and Yeah, I think it's a very good idea.

And the later Middle Ages, through the influence of Arab thinkers who were engaging with Aristotle, Um Thomas Aquinas and others brought um an emphasis on Aristotle back into into theological thought. But In the New Testament, there's really not as much engagement with Plato and certainly not with Aristotle. as there is with Um communicating in a way that That um Amelia that understood stoicism would would be able to to comprehend. All right, so Craig, and Jack, thank you for the question. I appreciate it.

Has there been any diluting? of New Testament truth. Through the lens of human philosophy. Have we But is it up? remove the reproach of the cross or is there an anti-supernaturalism in any of this philosophy either in past or present?

Certainly. I mean, certainly. People are influenced by the values of their culture, even when they don't realize that they are. Uh often in the West I hear people criticize Um Certain mixing of traditional African values with Christianity in Africa and they call it syncretism. They say you can't do that.

But but we fail to see how thoroughly syncretized Western Christianity has become. In the case of what we're talking about at the moment, the subject of miracles. We've kind of made a syncretistic pact between Christianity and Deism.

So we have a God who can Do anything so long as it doesn't interact with the physical world, you end up with a with a God who, in effect, Sometimes there's active in the world, less powerful in the world than human beings are. And That's not the God that we see in Scripture. The the Lord who reigns over the universe. Yeah, it i the point you made though, we we look at other countries and you see African or or maybe and i th they'll they'll mix ancestor worship in with Christian faith or or there'll be something here's a witch doctor in Christianity like It's syncretistic. They're mixing worldly and pagan spiritualism and.

Ungodly beliefs with the gospel, and we think somehow because we're in the West, and in a sense, we're further removed. Africans, in many ways, reading scripture relate to the culture milieu better than we often do here in the West. But we look at things and think, oh, we are unaffected. We are unaffected by the philosophy of the age. And we're just reading the New Testament and God's Word the way it was intended.

And really, it is quite a wake-up call to us, isn't it? Especially when we go overseas more and then look from that perspective back here at the West.

So we just got a minute before the break, but Craig. Your wife is African. How do some of the African Christians look at our Western interpretation of Scripture?

Sometimes they shake their heads. The the uh Sometimes they're very polite about it, very respectful. but they walk away shaking their heads like Things that are obvious in the New Testament.

Some of the missionaries brought teachings that miracles don't happen, you can't expect these things to happen. And as soon as the missionaries left or weren't there, The African Christians started praying about what they found in Scripture and in other parts of the world too. and and seeing God work the way He worked in Scripture. Yeah, so funny.

So once the missionaries left and they read the word for themselves and started to deal with God, God said, Of course I still do these things. Look, it's a challenge for every one of us. It's a daily challenge to me. Where do I have blind spots? Where am I reading the word through the lens of my own experience and my own culture?

All right, we're going to continue this conversation with Professor Craig Keener. We'll be taking some calls as well. And Craig, I know you liked my book on Israel's Divine Healer. You had some kind words to say.

So in your honor, and in honor of the Miracles book, we're offering that this week, my book, Israel's Divine Healer, together with a 24-hour class that I taught.

So 16 lectures on one CD on divine healing. Is it for today? What does the word say? Where is their error? What can we expect?

How do these things work? Very in-depth in Scripture. I don't know what $70, $80 of material if you got it all separately, but $30 postage paid. Call today to order 1-800. 278-9978.

If you've got questions about the subject of healing, great resources for you. 1-800-800-800-800 278-9978 to order. And we're not offering Craigsbook Miracles, so go online, any of the online bookstores, ChristianBook.com, Amazon.com. Go to your Christian bookstore, get his book, Miracles, The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. God is at work in the earth today.

Change it. You are listening to a previously recorded broadcast.

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. My special guest today on the line of five, Professor Craig Keener. He's a dear friend and brother in the Lord and an esteemed New Testament scholar from whom I've learned so much. His latest book, two amazing volumes, Miracles, the Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. We'll also be taking some questions for Dr.

Keener, 866-34TRUTH-866-3423. 3487-884. Online, you can post your questions at askdrbrown.org. Click on the line of fire. Craig, in the midst of Your busy schedule, you're a professor, and then you're constantly researching and writing.

And we mentioned your Acts commentary, which was 7,000 manuscript pages, and it'll be in fairly small print, 4,000 pages when it comes out over the next few years. Yet you spent, say, what would be roughly three years of time writing about miracles. Why did you write it? Why take this much time? And you know you're going to get some flack for writing it too.

Why did you do it? Yeah. Um It was actually it began as a footnote in my acts commentary. Where I was So, reliability of acts. And I You know, one of the quest one of the objections people always raise against historical reliability of the Gospels and Acts.

is that they recount miracles and people say, well, You know, this This material couldn't go back to eyewitnesses. And so I was just going to dispense with that objection in a footnote saying, well, Actually, there are quite a lot of eyewitnesses who do say these things today. And I was just going to say that A massive amount of documentation would would include lots of interviews with people and Initially I didn't find those books. Initially I found books that included something here and there. Yeah.

put different things into the footnote and that Footnote grew and grew, and after about 100 or 200 pages, obviously, no longer a footnote at that point. I uh approached the publisher and asked if I could just make that a separate book. And that's That's uh of course it grew a lot from there to Yeah, and I've had some footnotes that grew into books, but I would have to say that it was well before it got to 100 or 200 pages that I realized it was no longer a note. All right, there's someone called in but wanted to ask this question off the air. But it ties in with where we're going.

The question is: Can you logically explain the miracle? Of opening a blind man's eyes. How do you even address that question the way it's worded? How do you respond to that? But it depends on what you mean by logically.

I mean in terms of If if God can create the universe, If God can raise His Son Jesus from the dead, then it's certainly not logically impossible for him to do anything else this As Paul said when he was Uh Being Uh tried for his His convictions, he said, Why should it be thought incredible among you, or unbelievable to you, that God should raise the dead? But in terms of logic like explaining How God does it. that kind of knowledge that I could possibly Explain that. You know, something that I think about, Craig. I am scientifically weak.

I try to make up for that lack in my learning and life experience, but I. When I was in high school, When we were taking serious science classes, I was getting high. And when I got saved, we had a special school that we had went on strike for right before I got saved. We didn't have formal classes with the normal class schedule. And then when I went to college, I didn't take science classes.

So I've been trying to fill in the gaps here. But I know enough to know that there are things we understand scientifically today that would have almost sounded like a myth. A century ago, and that we have more information.

So I think a lot of this is if we can see what happens in the spiritual realm. and the interface with the spiritual and the natural then it would all make perfect sense that that What seems to defy laws that we're used to is just God operating. By his own laws. But I've got a larger question I want to get into when we get back. And Donovan and Brooklyn, hang on, we'll get you your call as well.

I want to probe a larger question that's going to get a little bit uncomfortable, but let's do it. You are listening to a previously recorded broadcast.

Yeah. cleansing flame See? 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. We're talking about miracles today. We're talking about the book called Miracles, the Credibility of the New Testament Accounts by Professor Craig Keener, who's with me for two entire... hours Amos Young, Regent University.

This is vintage keener, exhaustive research, expert command and thoughtful interaction with both ancient and modern sources, impeccable analyses of all sides of the argument, and deft handling of the controversial issues, plus some. David DeSilva, Ashland Theological Seminary. This monumental study combines historical inquiry into late antiquity, philosophical and existential criticism of anti-supernaturalism, and the legacy of David Hume's epistemological skepticism and ethnographic study of the phenomenon of the miraculous throughout the majority. world Craig Evans, Acadia Divinity College, Craig Keener has written arguably the best book ever. on the subject of Miracles.

These are scholars who don't normally talk like this. 866-34-TRUTH. If you've got a question for Dr. Keener. All right, Craig, before we take another question.

Uh and I know Some of these quotes, some of the listeners don't even understand the reviews, but the book is very clearly written. I want to press an issue here.

Now we're just giving an opinion, that's all. But does it strike you as contradictory? That someone says that they fully believe in the miracles of the New Testament. They don't doubt that Jesus really did these things. They don't doubt that he really rose from the dead and ascended to heaven and is returning in the clouds.

They don't doubt any of that. They're 100% sure that it's true. They fully believe it. And yet when you tell them about a miracle happening today, They're totally skeptical. and question whether such a thing could happen.

We're talking about a miracle in Jesus' name. Does that ever strike you as inconsistent? We're just giving an opinion. Yeah, yes. I did not write the book to challenge those people so much as the people who.

who don't believe that the miracles happened back then Right. Eyewitness accounts from today to The the uh recognition that that People eyewitnesses can report these things and therefore we we can give more credence to to what happened back then. But having said all that, Yes, I think that we have a real problem and it and it's not just with miracles. Because Our entire life. is to be supernatural.

We're supposed to walk in the Spirit. We're supposed to bear the fruit of the Spirit. I mean, even the basic essence of our Christian life, when we share Christ with people, that's supposed to be empowered by the Spirit.

So Everything in our life is supposed to be infused with With God's activity. And if we If we're so hesitant to believe that God does those things, We might want to ask Why Uh what what is it?

Okay. That we've embraced in our culture that makes us think we can do everything on our own. Without God acting. Right, so even if we're not talking about physical healing, The preaching of the word should have miraculous, convicting, life-changing power. The ability to walk in the spirit and overcome sin.

is supernatural. Yeah. that i look if you take the supernatural out of the book of acts where you have uh you don't have much happening you have somebody in prison but they don't get out you have somebody whipped and they rot but you'd have you know a shipwreck and that's it uh but that's acts but The epistles make clear that that our life in the Spirit is is of another order. It's not just earthly life trying harder. How would you respond to this?

Guest on, a dear Jewish friend of mine, Messianic Jewish leader, and he talked about how he came to faith and what God was doing in his life, and Jesus appeared to him when he was in Jerusalem. And he may have shared that with me before, but not in this detail.

So I was blessed and stunned to hear his testimony on the air. I guess it was the next day a guy called up who was very upset with the idea and said we walk by faith, not by sight. He then misquoted 2 Corinthians 5 that we don't know Christ after the flesh anymore as if it meant we can't know him in human form. He was upset with this idea that Jesus would appear to anyone today and said that would be contrary to the life of faith.

So of course I differed with him strongly, but how would you respond to something like that, the idea that Jesus couldn't appear to someone and it would somehow be contrary to New Testament teaching or to the life of faith.

Well, aside from the fact that the Apostle Paul himself was uh called and converted through a Um revelation of Christ on the road to Damascus, I mean, Paul talks about continuing visions and revelations in 2 Corinthians 12. It was part of his continuing life. That's in the same epistle. Where he says we work. Not by Not not we walk by faith and not by sight.

In the context of that, in 2 Corinthians 5, is is talking about The Lord hasn't come back yet. We haven't come before the Day of Judgment yet. We don't have our resurrection bodies yet. But but we still we live in this world We face the sufferings that we face, the persecution that we face, all these things. Because we trust God, even though we haven't seen the Yeah.

And as you did research... and looked into miracle accounts and things happening in what you refer to the as the two-thirds world or the majority world. Did you Find many accounts of people coming to faith or being changed through a divine appearance. Yes, I wasn't focusing on visions because that's a different kind of question. I have an appendix on that.

But there are I I did come across these and I you know, kind of summarize them and Yeah, there are just countless. Uh countless uh accounts of this. In fact, people will sometimes tell me uh their own experiences of of uh come into Christ that way. Yeah, so again, you know, I said to him: so many Muslims coming to faith through Jesus appearing to them, you'd hate to just discount. All of this, but obviously, we walk by faith our entire lives until we leave this world and we see God face to face.

But I asked this gentleman, Have you ever experienced the Holy Spirit? Because he was giving this whole non-experiential argument. And I pressed him, Have you ever? and he would not give me a yes or no answer. We had to end the conversation there.

Well, if you've experienced the Spirit and you can experience the Spirit and still walk by faith, then the two are not antithetical. All right, let's grab a couple of calls and we will continue our discussion. Donovan in Brooklyn, thanks for calling the line of fire. Hello, Donovan. Hello, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, sir. Yes, I'm calling about um first I want to share my experience with you. When I was about um fifteen years old, I did not believe in God. I used to go to church and curse people out call him the devil. And so one night I went to my bed and I saw angels came to me.

and so I must go be a Christian and so I let my grandma knew no, And I get that video in the three times. I saw the angel came to me, said he must go be a Christian. But my grandma won't Christian honor. Either. And the third time.

Time. The angel said to me, This is the last time I'm coming to you.

So a few years left. that that when someone invited me to a Pentecostal church And I went there. And I prayed and also prayed I said, Lord, if there is anything in my heart that I don't remember, please to forgive me. And when I say that, But I will close. My head was bowed.

Someone walked beside me and said, Must worship the Lord. But I did not know how to worship the Lord, but I find these words started coming to mind. Heart. I love you, Lord. Thank you to forgive me of my sins.

And then right beyond that I start speaking in tongues and magnifying God. And that's all I got saved. Yeah. All right, that's so that you had a very real experience that was obviously not Coerced, but uh, Donovan, just for time's sake, because we're close to a break here. I know you had a question for Dr.

Keener. So, thanks for sharing that. I don't want to diminish the glory of what the Lord's done in your life, but you had a specific question for Dr. Keener. Yes, in John chapter 3, and verse 3.

Jesus said you must be born of the water and in verse 5 he said you must be born of the water and of the Spirit. How do you uh Um Or do someone know that they've been born after And third, namarino. All right, so so what's um What's being spoken of there, Craig and John 3? First, maybe you could explain born again, born anew, born from above, what that means, and then born of water, born of spirit. What does it mean?

Yeah. John? John 3.3 speaks of being born from above Um which was a good Jewish way of speaking. of being born from God And then in three years. three five Of course, there are many different interpretations.

So what I'm giving you is Uh I can't take time to give you all the reasons for why I think this is the strongest one, but I think that's a good idea. I think water and of the Spirit there. Um probably what it means is being born of the water of the Spirit, because in chapter seven, verses thirty-seven to thirty-nine, water is a symbol of the Spirit. Um so Okay. When when Gentiles converted to Judaism, they would be Um they would be immersed in water And then They would be considered to be like as a is a new creation, a new person.

But Nicodemus would say well You can't treat me like a Gentile converting to Judaism. But Jesus is saying to him, Nicodemus, you have to be born of water. But the water of the Spirit that is you have to be uh spiritually transformed. by by God's Spirit coming into you and making you a new person. All right, got it.

Well, thank you, Craig. Thanks, Donald, for your question. Back with a question about healing. Is it guaranteed for today? You are listening to a previously recorded broadcast.

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.

To answer a question from one of our callers, the name of Craig's Bible Background Commentary in the New Testament is just that, Bible Background Commentary, the IVP University Press Bible Background Commentary on the New Testament, 866-34Truth. If you have a question for my guest, Professor Craig Keener, who will be with me amazingly enough in the midst of a crazy busy schedule for the next hour as well.

So you can catch that on our website, askdrbrown.org. click on the line of fire. Craig, I want to take another call. just that raises the question about miracles happening in any kind of guaranteed way.

So Denver from Spring Valley, New York, welcome to the line of fire. Yes, good day, Doctor Brown. Good day. And Doctor Craig. Um okay.

I believe that Jesus is the same. Yeah. and forever. And because of that, I believe that he still feels today. And I also believe that back in the New Testament, Jesus healed Because that authenticate that he was God.

He was the Messiah. Um Now how do you balance that with you know people you know particular the faith movement people. Who says That. All Christians should be healed. based on the misinterpretation of I say uh Fifty three.

where Jesus where where the prophet said he was wounded for a transgression. and he was crushed for iniquity. and upon this chastisement was brought us peace. And with his stripe We are ego.

Now how do you balance that? Is that Is is that is that scripture is saying that all Christians should be healed? All right, yeah, and Dender, I think that word should. is important as if if we're not healed, There's something wrong with us.

So the New Testament testimony, very clear about who Jesus is, what he did. and in some dimensions why he did it. promises remaining throughout the New Testament that are for today. Yet, Craig, what about this idea that we can either just claim our healing or that everyone should be healed? How do you balance these things?

This is a very important question. And one that I think When we talk about miracles, we always need to we need to bring up, especially The history of the past uh century and more than a century of Some people saying that everybody should always get healed. Um You know, we have So many accounts of miracles today, but we also have Perhaps Well, no, not perhaps. We have even more accounts of Time is when People didn't experience miracles. And Uh I think what we see In Jesus' preaching and Jesus' ministry, He's inaugurating the kingdom of God.

He's proclaiming the good news of God's kingdom. And he's demonstrating that with signs and wonders showing God's heart, showing God's compassion, showing that God wants to heal and deliver people. At the same time, What we have with signs and wonders, they don't clear away all the world's injustice. They don't clear away all the world's suffering. We still need to do everything we can in terms of healthcare and and uh alleviating poverty and and And all those things These are just signs of the kingdom.

They're a foretaste. They're samples. Two To wet our appetite. for a time when there'll be no more crying. And he's going to wipe away every tear from our eyes.

When death will be no more, So these These signs in the present Don't don't resolve every issue. but we can look at them. And be assured that God loves us and be assured that there is coming a day when all of us who trust in Him will be healed. Bye. It won't happen.

to all of us necessarily in this life. Um and I mean that's Pretty obvious. from the fact that you know, the first century apostles are all dead and And I mean, we we all do die. we we don't keep getting healed to the point of physical immortality. Once we acknowledge that, We have to understand that these are samples of God's love.

not something that resolves every every struggle in our life. Yeah, Denver, thank you for the important question. And Craig, I appreciate the wise and pastoral response. What if someone said, yeah, but Jesus was moved by compassion to heal? Doesn't that same compassion move him to heal now because he can be at every place at the same time by his spirit?

Doesn't James Jacob 5 say that the peripheral and faith will make the sick person well? Isn't that something universal that we can just... bank on that all of us should be healed at least to the point of death. How would you respond to that? I I do think that those passages show us I think Christ's compassion shows us When we pray We we can appeal to that.

But I think that's a good idea. I think sometimes Uh Something more urgent that he's doing in some people's lives? We should pray with faith. We should pray with expectation. But I don't think that there's any ministry no matter what the theology of healing is, I don't think that there's any ministry where everybody gets healed.

Mm-hmm. Right, and if that's not happening anywhere. And it did happen in the ministry of Jesus with those that were there at a certain period of time, then we have to raise questions about... what we can expect from here on in. But let's just take a minute, and then we've got another hour, we're going to probe more into the contents of the book.

But Craig, as you wrote this two-volume work, Miracles, the Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, What did it do for your own faith and your own expectation in God? It brought me face to face with my own unbelief, I guess. Wow. All the skepticism I'd imbibed. I mean, I'd seen miracles before, but But Somehow in the back of my mind I'd I'd found other ways to say, well, you could maybe explain it this way or But It it it just was too much.

At some point the evidence became overwhelming and I said You know, God is doing miracles. God is God and I have I have uh Sword sayings t My my view of God, he's he's so much bigger. And It it encouraged me to trust God so much more deeply in so many other areas of my life. Yeah, I think you speak to all of us. when you say that uh friends if you've got someone in your family that loves the word of god and loves the nature of God, the reality of God.

You got time to get him a Christmas gift? Get him these two volumes, Miracles, the credibility of the New Testament accounts, and you won't be disappointed. It'll be reading. Took Craig three years to write. It'll probably take a few years to read through and digest all the amazing stuff there.

Also, want to encourage you to get hold of my series on divine healing. 24 hours of teaching on divine healing, so an entire class plus my book, Israel's Divine Healer.

So lots of detailed biblical information. What does scripture say? That's what the whole course is about, to work these things out. What are wrong beliefs, right beliefs? We've reduced the price way down, and we're paying the postage.

It's $30 postage paid for the entire class. the uh the book so call today to order 1-800-278-9978 That's 1-800. 278-9978 for the class on healing on 1 CD for your computer MP3 player, along with the book Israel's Divine Healer. 1-800-200. 278-9978.

My bottom line today is that the God of the Bible is the God of today. That the God of the Bible who worked miracles, who performed signs and wonders, who stretched out his hand and delivered Israel, who stretched out his hand and raised his son from the dead, is the same God living and working in the earth today. Let's believe him. Let's adore him. Let's not sell him short.

Change the world.