Life-changing Lessons from Genesis 1 and Learning to Read the Biblical Languages

Well the pro-abortion camp is upset with Hillary Clinton calling a fetus a person! 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 going to open the door once again. for Christians to call me.

to tell me how you could personally justify Voting for either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or Barack Obama in the past, based on their views on abortion alone. based on their views of the shedding of innocent blood in the womb. based on God's hatred of the shedding of innocent blood, based on God judging Israel and Judah because of the shedding of innocent blood, in particular the innocent blood of children and babies. How you as a follower of Jesus could justify voting for someone who is an aggressive pro-abortion candidate. And I want to go to Genesis 1 for some important lessons as well.

866-34TRUTH, 866-348-7427. Eight. Is the number to call. This is Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Hillary Clinton got some people upset.

She she got uh pro-wife people upset. When she referred to the baby in the womb as an unborn person. Unborn person, but with no constitutional rights. She got the pro-abortion crowd upset. By referring to the baby in the womb as a person.

How dare she! I want to talk about that today. I want to discuss that. We'll play some actual clips from Hillary Clinton as well for you. And I want to show you how a right understanding of Genesis 1.

Destroys the pro-abortion mentality.

Now, if you've got a larger question about Genesis One, Unrelated to this issue, I may take some calls on that as well. 866-348-7884. But surely There are some in my large listening audience that voted for Barack Obama and say, yes, I'm a follower of Jesus. Or that plan to vote for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders and say, yes, I'm a follower of Jesus. I profoundly differ with you on that, but I want to have a civil, public discussion.

About it. Fair enough. 866-348-7884. I was doing a radio interview last week.

So in addition to This daily show, I'm doing many radio interviews over the course of the month for different outlets, different stations on different subjects. I was doing an interview. in Detroit last week. on Detroit radio last week. And the host told me about a call he got.

He's been on talk radio. even longer than I have. And He said that he got a call the likes of which he'd never received before. Are you ready for this? I'm sitting down, so you may want to be sitting down.

The caller There's a man. And said that he was not going to say a word to his child, presumably married. But he was not going to say a word to his child about whether the child was a boy or a girl. I was not going to say a word to the child about being male or female. was gonna let the child figure it out.

for himself or herself. I didn't know what the child was.

Okay, crazy enough. Crazy enough. But he referred to the child as a carbon unit Yeah. A carbon unit. Hey, hey, look, if the baby in the womb is no different than a mass of cells.

The baby in the womb is just like a tumor that needs to be. removed, then Hey, maybe once out of the womb, it's just a carbon unit. Genesis one destroys that mentality. We'll be right back. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.

Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. The unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights.

What a telling little quote. the unborn uh person. Yeah. The unborn uh person. person.

There was Hillary Clinton speaking, and sh it's not natural for her to refer to the baby in the womb as a person, but she did. She did refer to the unborn baby as a person. And again, pro-lifers were upset, saying, how can you say that that person does not have constitutional rights? And then a Planned Parenthood executive slammed Hillary Clinton for calling a fetus an unborn child. Oh, let's just see what she tweeted out.

Yeah, I mean, this then humanizes. This humanizes the child in the womb, and that's the worst possible thing. Remember earlier in the year? The the uh national Uh the the uh uh NARAL. the Action League, Abortion Rights Action League, that they were super critical of the Doritos commercial, where a woman's having an ultrasound and her husband is mindlessly munching on Doritos.

It's like, you know, I'm having an ultrasound here. And then he dangles one like over his stomach and it's next thing you think, okay, it looks like the baby's, you see everybody react like the baby's jumping out of the womb to grab the Doritos. Doritos was guilty of, quote, humanizing a fetus. humanizing a fetus. How dare they do that?

That little baby. carefully formed by God. That little baby that is a direct product of the mother and the father, and that in a unique way bears the image of the mother and the father. That baby, in the ultrasound, they say it's a boy, it's a girl, that baby with features, with feelings, with future, that baby, don't you dare humanize it. How could you possibly do it?

There is a pro-abortion activist. who when she was in France in the mid sixties her name is Floren excuse me Florence Thomas, a pro abortion feminist. She had an abortion in France in the mid sixties. And when she did, she felt, quote, a relief, an immense relief. This tumor went away disappeared I could go back, and to living.

Well, hey. If the fetus is nothing more than the mass of cells, the tumor, then the the baby is nothing more than a carbon unit. And that's why the National Abortion Rights Action League, NARAL, was so upset with Doritos, using quote, the anti-choice tactic of humanizing fetuses. And I wrote in response to NAROL's madness, there's a reason that the vast majority of women who see their ultrasound choose not to abort their babies. There's a reason that expectant pregnant moms send out pictures of that ultrasound with the exciting news, it's a boy or it's a girl, putting out the little hands and feet, nose, and ears.

There's a reason the wife grabs her husband's hands and puts it on her stomach as the baby jumps inside so he can experience a little of what she feels as that bundle of new life moves around. There is a reason many parents pick a name for their child as soon as they hear whether they're having a boy or girl, even though there are a few months to go before the little one makes its appearance. There is a reason some woman will mourn for years over a miscarriage, even if it took place in the early months of her pregnancy. And there's a reason that pro-abortionists fight so strenuously against laws requiring abortion clinics to show the mother an ultrasound before going ahead with the murderous act. It's because the fetus is a human being carefully formed and made full of life and potential, the unique creation of God and that mother and father.

And quote, humanizing fetuses is no more an anti-choice tactic than wanting to humanize Jews during the Holocaust in Germany or wanting to humanize Africans during the slave trade in America. 866-34-TRUTH.

Now, I haven't gotten yet to Genesis 1. I will in a moment, but I've put this question out before. I understand that many Christians had a problem voting for Mitt Romney because they said he's a Mormon and we don't know how his beliefs will influence his policies or if he's going to try to make those known to the nation or how that influences personal life. And there are others who said, look, I don't like to vote for Republicans because I think they get us involved in war more or they're not good for the economy, for the poor, or whatever. Understand those uh issues and questions, problems, but My issue is How can a follower of Jesus vote for a candidate that they know.

Supports, stands for, promotes abortion, the shedding of innocent blood in the womb. I see no more possibility of a Christian voting for a pro-abortion President than I see a possibility of a Christian voting for a pro-slavery president. let alone adding in a president who's going to be aggressively pro-homosexual activist and therefore directly attack the religious liberties of Americans. I would rather sit out the presidential part of an election and vote for all of the other candidates I could vote for than vote for someone that I knew would be complicit in the shedding of innocent blood and stand against our religious liberties and for homosexual activism.

Now, I'm being candid with you. You can be candid with me. I won't yell at you, but you know how deeply I feel about these things. I want to give you an opportunity to address them. 866-34TRUTH.

We start on Long Island with Kevin. Welcome, sir, to the line of fire. Hello. Hello. Yeah, I'm here.

Um It's like this.

Some of the things you you basically stated as far as An election goes. You know, I look at when you go back to Roe v. Wade, you know, you've had Democratic candidates, Republican Presidents and Democratic Presidents and administration. where they've had control over the House and Senate during that time period. Central V Way, you've had conservative courts, liberal courts.

And the bottom line is They have not significantly defunded Planned Parenthood. Uh So it really doesn't matter who's going to be in the White House as far as Abortion as far as whether it's going to take place, it is going to take place. As far as funding, a lot of times Republican candidates, they use that as a platform. But when they get actually in the White House, when they actually get in a position, they make all kinds of side bets and side deals.

So You really I can't trust Yeah. Decision How would much like if for not to have abortions in the world, but The reality of it is Our politics is corrupted. And our government gets it there's a level of corruption that until that Is he race? You're voting for the lesser few evils, and I don't. Really see Republican candidates in recent history that, you know, as far as as as as living up to their moral uh uh uh uh ideals.

You know, I don't see that uh They've really shown that. I don't I I couldn't have voted for Mitt Romney. You know, I mean, he lied numerous times. I mean, if you if you go back in his record, And I feel like a lot of these politicians, you know, they say what they need to say to get elected. I mean, uh Donald Trump is is is is lying every other day Yes, people are still saying, well, I'm going to still vote for him if he becomes the party's candidate.

I mean, it's crazy. It's absolutely insane. Got it. And and and like I say, I would like Planned Parenthood as far as far as the services that they use for abortion to be defunded, but The way the government is set up, the way the the party structures are set up, it doesn't seem like it's going to happen. It hasn't happened.

This Roe v. Wade. Right. All right, so Kevin, let me just jump in. You make a lot of great points.

You make a lot of very great and fair points. Uh and and I have no confidence in the political system. Either.

So, just two quick questions. If we have to go beyond the break, we'll just continue this. Here's the first question. Let's expand this. Before Mr.

Obama was elected as president, when he was a senator, based on his record, based on written statements he had made, I warned that he would be the most radical pro-gay activist president that we had. Do you think that by him publicly saying he changed his views on this, publicly pushing for the redefining of marriage. having Attorney General Holder tell Attorneys General not to defend laws in their states upholding marriage. Do you think that he helped move that forward to redefine marriage? And if there was a conservative president, that we wouldn't be where we are today.

I really don't think so. I really I I don't really I don't I don't think I don't I don't think he U One man, one woman, as far as the Christian ideal of marriage, which is God's view on marriage, I don't think He helped. Uh but as far as whether If he did not Uh Take the political position that he took as far as. Uh t tell you what, hat hand right there. I mean look he's got a bully pulpit.

He's got a bully pulpit, alright? And he used that very, very effectively to push gay activism and to push against our religious liberties. President does have power. All right, stay right there. I want to continue the dialogue on the other side of the break.

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

Welcome back to the line of fire. 866-34 TRUTH. Talking about abortion, I haven't gotten into Genesis 1 yet, but the major point there is that human beings are created in the image of God. And because we're created in the image of God, whether we're rich or poor, whether we're old or young, whether we seem important or unimportant, every life has dignity, Every life has value. Speaking with those who, as Christians, feel justification for voting for a pro-abortion candidate.

Kevin, who I'm on the phone with now, has said, Hey, look, we've had conservatives, liberals, Democrats, Republicans in the White House since 1973. Roe v. Wade is still there. The Republicans controlling the houses of Congress, they didn't get Planned Parenthood effectively defunded, etc.

So Whoever's in office, it's not going to make a difference. Again, Kevin, those are fair points. Let me ask you one last question. I know there's a lot you could say, but let me ask you this one other question, sir. Uh whoever Is our next president, has the potential of electing three or even four Supreme Court justices.

And groups like Planned Parenthood and others are very concerned that Roe v. Wade could be overturned and sent back to states. And we do know. that that Senator Cruz did stand strong. To defund Planned Parenthood, even when it was a costly stance to take.

He took the stance. On my, as I look at it, if I'm looking for someone that's going to stand for life and stand for marriage and stand for religious liberties, I do have a candidate I could vote for. I couldn't vote for Donald Trump for many, many reasons. I couldn't vote for Bernie or Hillary, but right now there is a candidate I could vote for. What about that, the fact that the next president could elect strong conservative or strong liberal Supreme Court justices and they could turn the tide one way or another for the next generation?

What's your take on that?

Well, that that's very true. But uh Even in that, Unfortunately, it's not going to come down to him just being a president. It's going to come down to. the uh senatorial races and and and who has the power. Of the House and Senate.

I mean, if the Republicans have a Republican president, and they also still have the House and the Senate. Then we'll see if They will live up. But shouldn't we try for that then? Shouldn't we vote for it? In other words, many said, look, we want to vote for Democrats because it's better for the poor.

Well, there are more African Americans unemployed now than at the beginning of the Obama administration, percentage-wise, and poverty levels are worse now. Here are a lot of that has A lot of that has to do with just It's just that the the the the way the economy is structured right now.

Well, it could be. It certainly hasn't. Look, there are a lot of African-American leaders who were expecting more and hoping for it. But look, let's be candid. White evangelicals, they have all these expectations when the new Republican guy's in.

We almost are always disappointed once the guy gets in, Republican or Democrat, to be candid. But let me do this just to get to another caller. I appreciate your sentiment, sir. There is there you are pragmatic, even though you're cynical, it's a pragmatic cynicism. There's a reason for it.

Yes, sir. That's why I said it's a pragmatic. Yeah, it's a pragmatic cynicism, and I share a lot of it with you. Just my closing thought for you to Malan. If we have the possibility.

Of electing somebody who might just take on the system, because that's what Senator Cruz did. That's why Congress hates him, right? He calls it the Washington Cartel.

So he took on the system. And he's a strong moral conservative. He's our best chance of appointing justices who will put us in the right direction in terms of Roe v. Wade and other things and protect our religious liberties. Shouldn't we go in that direction to give it our best shot?

Anyway, a pleasure talking to you, sir. I appreciate it. 866-34TRUTH. I was going to stay on Long Island. Tell you what, let's listen to Hillary.

I may jump in, being interviewed on NBC's Meet the Press April 3rd. Go ahead, Johnny, play clip number one. position on the issue of abortion. My position is in line with Roe v. Wade, that women have a constitutional right to make these most intimate and personal and difficult decisions based on their conscience, their faith, their family, their doctor, and that it is something that really goes to the core of privacy.

And I want to maintain that constitutional protection. Under Roe v. Wade, as you know, there is room for reasonable kinds of restrictions after a certain point in time. All right, so let me just jump in there. Yeah, she, of course, it's all about protecting the woman.

It's not about protecting the baby. And then she said, well, you know, there are reasonable restrictions.

Well, that got the pro-abortion crowd very upset. reasonable restrictions. No, they don't want any restrictions. But what's interesting is that in the past, Hillary Clinton plainly spoke of the right to abortion basically right up till childbirth. right up right up to the baby coming out of the womb, if if needs be.

Uh not only so. Not only so, we got to. We've got to look at the reality. of fifty five plus million babies killed in the womb. in in the most horrific ways.

and many of them late term. We have to look at the horror of this and what it does and how it brings about a destructive culture of death. And when she refers to the baby in the womb as an unborn person, ooh, she is in big, big trouble with the pro-abortion law. crowd.

So So Couple of things. Couple of things. You go back to Genesis 1. You see that it's not a pantheon of gods in a cosmic battle. and one of them survives as the chief god, and the others are chopped up, cut in pieces, and make the components of the universes and some of the ancient Eastern myths know one God, sovereign, independent, perfect, creates a perfect world.

And creates human beings, not animals, not anything else, creates human beings. in his image and in his likeness. Only human beings. That's why Genesis 9, 6, whoever sheds man's blood By man shall this blood be shed. in the image of God.

He made man. In other words, a human life is is of inestimable value. because human being is created. in the image of God. Friends, if you didn't hear our special announcement yesterday, I've got a new book coming out.

Less than one month from now, the grace controversy. Answering twelve of the most common questions about grace. Setting the record straight about what grace is and isn't in the most edifying, practical, clear ways. The first edition, here's what we do. I sign them and we number them so it's a collector's item.

Signed, numbered, first edition, only $20 postage paid for the pre-order. To order, call 1-800-278-9978. 1-800 278 9978 or go to ask Dr. Brown, A-S-K-D-R-Brown.org. It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian Dr.

Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRU. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Welcome, welcome to the line of fire, 86634Truth. Do you have a question, perhaps, on Genesis, the first chapter? I'll gladly take your questions today. Because I believe we must recover the truths of Genesis 1. We must recover the meaning.

of Genesis 1. We must recover the implications of Genesis 1. If we are to have a right view of humanity, in other words, if we don't understand God, if we don't understand our origins, if we don't understand our creation, we will not rightly understand who we are. are. of an ancient creation myth.

Okay. There is one ancient creation myth that scholars call the Babylonian Genesis, in other words, from ancient Babylon and the Akkadian language. Cuneiform script, if you've ever seen an ancient inscription, a tablet, and it looks like chicken feet, you know, scroll like that. That's cuneiform, the language of the Babylonians and Assyrians called Akkadian. I really enjoyed studying that in grad school.

Very challenging but incredible language. Sadly, I haven't been able to keep up my Babylonian because of other pressing ministry responsibilities over the years, but I still do use it in my academic studies.

So, this is an ancient Mesopotamian creation story. Here's a summary. Mm-hmm. In the beginning neither heaven nor earth had names Apsu, the god of fresh waters, and Tiamat, the goddess of the salt oceans, and Mumu, the god of the mist that rises from both of them, were still mingled as one. There were no mountains, there is no pasture land, and not even a reed marsh could be found to break the surface of the waters.

It was then that Apsu and Tiamat parented two gods, and then two more who outgrew the first pair. These further parented gods until Ea, who was the god of rivers and was Tiamat Apsu's great grandson, was born. Eo was the cleverest of the gods, and with his magic Eo became the most powerful of the gods, ruling even his forebears. Apsu and Tiamat's descendants became an unruly crowd. Eventually Apsu, in his frustration and inability to sleep with the clamor, went to Tiamat, and he proposed to her that he slay their noisy offs offspring.

Chalmut was furious at his suggestion to kill their clan, but after leaving her Opse resolved to proceed with his murderous plan. When the young gods heard of his plot against them they were silent and fearful, but soon Ale was hatching a scheme. he cast a spell on Apsu, pulled Opsu's crown from his head, and slew him. Ea then built his palace on Apsu's waters, and it was there that, with the goddess Damkina, he fathered Marduk, the four eared, four eyed giant, who was the god of the rain and storms. The other gods, however, went to Tiamat and complained of how Ea had slain her husband aroused.

She collected an army of dragons and monsters, and at its head she placed the god Kingu to whom she gave magical powers as well. Even Eao was at a loss how to combat such a host until he finally called on his son Marduk. Marduk gladly agreed to take on his father's battle on condition that he, Marduk, would rule the gods after achieving this victory. The other gods agreed, and at a banquet they gave him his royal robes and sceptre. Marduk armed himself with bow and arrows, a club and lightning, and he went in search of Kiyamat's Masrid's army.

Rolling his thunder and storms in front of him, he attacked, and Kingu's battle plan soon disintegrated. Tiamat was left alone to fight Marduk, and she howled as they closed for battle. They struggled as Marduk caught her in his nets. When she opened her mouth to devour him, he filled her with the evil wind that served him. She could not close her mouth with his gale blasting in it.

And he shot an arrow down her throat, it split her heart, and she was slain. After subduing the rest of her host, he took his club and split Tiamat's water-laden body in half like a clamshell. Half he put in the sky and made the heavens. And he posted guards there to make sure that Tiamat's salt waters could not escape. Across the heavens, he made stations and the stars for the gods, and he made the moon and set it forth on its schedule across the heavens.

And on and on it goes.

So we get a heaven and earth from the bloody of the goddess, the body of the goddess Tiamat split in two. Those were the pagan myths of the ancient world. How, without inspiration, did an author say? God. created the heavens and the earth.

Wow. 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.

So, Genesis 1, it stands out from ancient Near Eastern creation myths and even Greek mythology and things like that, or the Greek philosophical idea that the universe is eternal. The The ancient Israelite account in Genesis just stands out completely like light. From darkness, one God, transcendent, sovereign, all-powerful. And how does it create? Simply by his word, and For Yoma Elohim, Yehi or And God said, Let there be light.

But he or And there was light. Boom. By his word, he speaks it. And then, after creating everything in the world, and all of it with the seed of life within it to reproduce trees, plants, plants, animals, fish. birds in the air.

All with the ability to reproduce their seed within themselves. He then says, Na se adam, but salmenu kid muteno, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Some see that as Trinitarian, God speaking. As We.

Some see that as so-called plural of deliberation, let's do this.

Some see it as majestic, royal language, let us do this. In any case, it is God saying that human beings are created uniquely in His image. That means that we in in complete distinction from the animal world. We have the ability to be rational. To be moral?

to love what is good, to hate what is evil. to reflect to to have consciousness and so many other things. to understand mercy and compassion. and kindness and holiness and purity, Only human beings can do this because we're created in God's image. That means.

if the person is ugly or pretty. if the person is tall or short. if the person is rich or poor. if the person is black or white. if the person is Jew or Gentile.

if the person is sickly or healthy. Every human being has value in God's sight because we are all uniquely created in His image and likeness. Eight six six. Three four truth, the number to call. And that life, according to scripture, is formed, knitted together in.

the womb has personhood in the womb. the womb. Let's go to East Orange, New Jersey. Michelle, welcome to the line of fire. Uh hi, I speak you.

Thank you for having me. Great to have you on the air.

Okay. Well, you know, speaking you're talking to someone who's had an abortion before. And I I think I was so glad. That I had the right. To go ahead and do that instead of going to some back alley place trying to have an abortion.

I was not ready to have a baby. You know, I mean, you're placing judgment on someone. I don't understand as a man of God how you can sit up and place judgment on people.

Furthermore, I don't think people of God should be involved in politics. Not all.

Well, well, ha ha what what does politics have to do with killing a baby in the womb? I I don't follow. How is that political? Exactly, exactly. It has nothing to do with it.

No one has the has the uh has the right to tell someone what they can do with their body. Oh, but but we're not talking about your body, we're talking about your baby, not your body, your baby. Your baby. Uh because I had an abortion. And Michelle, what if, hang on, hang on.

If you, let's say you had the baby. And realized you weren't able to care for the baby, then it would be fine to kill the baby and throw it away, right? I knew I wasn't able to camp with it. No, no, no, no, but plenty of people would gladly adopt your baby. They're on long waiting lists to adopt baby.

They would have adopted your child and cared for your child and nurtured that child. If it's a child, what is it a child in your womb? That's what that I think we do need to be talking about. How we can help them. Michelle, we talk I'm involved with ministries that help women day and night.

day and night. They are they they they help the mothers, they help the fathers if they don't want the baby, they have adoption agencies, they help financially. I'm involved with ministries that do this literally day and night. But Michelle, a simple question. Are you talking into the phone?

Because speakerphone, I'm having a hard time hearing you.

Okay, well, I'm not gonna speak up. Oh, okay. I'm just having a hard time hearing you.

Okay, I live.

Well In the ghetto, I don't see people like you, not even the Hillary Clintons, not even Obama for that matter, down in the ghettos trying to help these young people, trying to help poor people.

Okay? I don't I don't see that happening. Yeah, yeah.

Someone, there's plenty of people out here having abortions and out here having abortions with babies in their stomachs. I don't. I don't see the Bernie Sanders. I don't see the Hillary Clintons. I don't see the Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is Sitting on his throne talking a bunch of mess, but he's not here in the ghettos trying to help people. Michelle, there there are no churches in the middle of the companies, as you say. in their stomach Is is is is giving them minimum wage jobs and then getting on the podium talking about they killed people. All right, but Michelle, h han hang on for a second. Were were you were you raped, by the way?

No, I was not raped. Oh, okay, so you did make a decision to be with someone, right? That was a decision that you made. No, I'm A conscious decision to go and have an abortion.

Well, but was the baby just conceived in your womb without a man? How do you think it was conceived?

Okay, so you made a choice to sleep with sex. You had sex, you chucked.

Alright, you choose to make a mistake. Oh okay, but you don't kill the baby 'cause you made a mistake. Yeah. I did have an abortion. And if you're calling the killing.

Yeah. Yes, I did kill the baby because I I felt I made a mistake. I made a mistake. But what if the baby was born? Why not kill it then?

Time there was no one to help me raise a child. A child needs to be in a two-parent home. And I did want to be on welfare. All right, Michelle, listen. That's the first thing that that someone will say.

Oh, a welfare or something like that. Are you speaking of welfare is there to help you? I didn't want welfare. I didn't want a baby to be raised on welfare. All right, Michelle, but hang on for a second.

I'm not saying it was an easy decision.

Okay, and I want you to know. And playing.

Okay, great. And Michelle, Jesus died for the sin of abortion just like he died for every other sin. And here's time for a whole bunch of other Sins. A whole bunch of other sins, and if we recognize them as sin and ask for forgiveness, He'll forgive us. Cocaine coming to the coming to the poor neighborhoods and these young kids thinking that it's okay to sell poison to their people.

Yeah, think about those things. Michelle, listen, I have a neighborhood. All right, hang on. No, no politician, not even you, are in the in the poor neighborhoods. Right here in North.

Where we this killing going on every day. Michelle, there are church schools here. I wrote an article as a white man. A few weeks ago, and I've done this quite a few times, saying the problem in the inner cities of America is our problem as Americans, and we should be ashamed that the family has been that broken down and that politicians. Uh Helping.

All right, listen. We have to be there to help. Yellow and And mostly Whatever. We all have to help each other. And there's not going to be anything.

Peace in this world and to love each other. Michelle, I agree. But please hear me, please hear me. When you dehumanize the baby in the womb, okay, when it's something that can be eliminated when you make a mistake, that leads to a larger culture of death, and it's part of the larger destruction of the family.

Now, look. I'd be the first to say if you're killing Eddie Black. A hundred percent when that happens, that's abhorrent, that's e when when that happens.

Someone being killed innocently for no reason. They are both evil and they are both wrong and I condemn. Both of them. If it's planned, it's even more. But you also made a decision and you planned to do it.

I'm not saying it was easy, I'm not condemning you for it. What? I didn't plan to do it. I didn't want to do it. Right.

Okay, shit. No choice. All right, if you had known. All right, so Michelle, hang on one second. We got a break coming up, so you've got to give a quick answer.

Maybe I'll come to you. to have saved. We could have We could have absolutely hooked you up with folks that would have helped you make the best decision and gotten someone to adopt that child if you didn't want to. All right, so Michelle. All right, Michelle.

All right, that's why we try to get pregnancy crisis centers in the inner city so that someone like you as a young woman. Is the crisis center going to be with the people? Until they're 18. I mean, what do you think? No, no, no.

They are gonna. Hang on. We got a break. Hang on. They are going to work with the mother.

Helping her make an informed decision, and if she wants to have her baby adopted. Then when she delivers that baby, a family will adopt that baby and care for it all their lives and keep that mother posted on how that child is doing. I mean that. Oh God of burning, clean. 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 for joining us on the line of fire.

866-348-7884. Remember to call. Hey, Michelle, I need to get to some other callers, but I. I just want to say this again. I just want to say this again.

Jesus died for the sin of abortion, like every other sin. I would encourage you to confess it as a sin to God rather than justify it. and ask him to forgive you. And absolutely, I believe it is our shared responsibility as Americans and human beings to address the serious problems in the inner city. I was born in Manhattan, Michelle, but I grew up on suburban Long Island.

I cannot relate to the struggles you've been through personally. I cannot relate to being racially profiled because I haven't been. I cannot relate to how many kids are born out of wedlock and born without a responsible dad. And have two strikes against them out of the womb. I know these are grave and serious and painful problems.

I don't minimize them. I have addressed them as a white Christian leader saying, together we have to look at these issues and see what we can do to solve them. The problem is that Planned Parenthood puts its clinics in poor neighborhoods for a reason. Margaret Sanger did not want blacks and other minorities to flourish in America. She even had what was called the Negro Project, where they hired black ministers, the goal being to try to get the black population to be more open to abortion.

So Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was anything but a friend, anything but a friend of Of African Americans and other minorities. And that's why you have a disproportionate number of clinics in the inner city.

So We may differ on some points very strongly, but thank you. For raising a cry From the inner city, for a national audience to hear. Thank you for doing that, Michele. Maybe we can talk again. 866-34TRUT.

Let's go to Jacksonville, Florida. Sean, welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Michael Brown, how you doing today? Doing well, thanks.

Good, good. Actually, I was crawling, you know, I see that the topic what I kind of have to say about this is when it comes to politics and I guess abortions and you tying that into scripture. I'm not necessarily one that believes that the two Okay. per se, like I know there's a terrible, terrible plague within the inner cities regarding abortion. But if one is so disconnected from scripture, it's kind of hard to.

to kind of govern that if you understand where I'm coming from. It's one thing to kind of implement that amongst believers. But when it comes to politics and trying to put our views into the politics, I think there's kind of a dynamic that doesn't really work out.

Alright, so let's go.

So I'll just say. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, go away. Yeah, let's flesh that out, sir. What if we had the same view about slavery? That not everyone shares our biblical values, so we can't impose those on other.

parts of America that want to practice slavery. Would you have had the same view about that?

Well, in regards to it, of course, you know, I'm a I'm a black man here in America or whatever, so of course, I've looked into slavery. I mean, in a lot of ways, when it comes to slavery, it wasn't like the it was abolished due to It wasn't abolishing. Within our best interest, so to speak. If it was something that Abraham Lincoln could have rolled with, he would have continued to do it. And that's been documented.

And we're still kind of under the gun in a lot of ways. Is it is it physical slavery here? No. No, no, but here's my point. And let's just say I differ with what you said about Lincoln, but here's my point.

That we are responsible citizens in a democratic republic, and we advocate for what we believe is best, right?

So, for example, no, I cannot force a non-Christian to hold to my view of Scripture, but I can advocate for a pro-life position, and I can advocate for an elected official who stands for pro-life, and I can advocate for judges to be appointed who stand for pro-life to turn the culture in a pro-life direction. No, we can't just advocate.

So that's what we're doing. In other words, I, as one voice, I'm going to use whatever platform I have to advocate for life and to show why God's ways are best. In other words, even to an atheist, I want to show why God's ways are ways of life and why they're best for America. And then I vote accordingly, and the atheist votes accordingly, and the secular person votes accordingly. And then.

We come to our conclusions and we elect officials accordingly and we govern the cities and states and nation accordingly.

So it's not a matter, Sean, of us trying to impose this on society. It's a matter of being a positive influence. And that's why the anti-slavery movement came out of the church. The civil rights movement came out of the church. And the pro-life movement comes out of the church.

As Dr. King said, the church must be reminded it's not the master of the state or the servant of the state, but the conscience of the state.

So that's what I'm trying to be, and that's what we're seeking to be as salt of the earth and light of the world. The problem is we've got a messed up political system, a lot of corruption, but we do our best to advance our values through society, as opposed to say, I'm hitting you over the head with the Bible. Can you see the difference?

Well, I I hear it I definitely hear it from the green. And of course, if that's the work that God has given you to do, by all means, I would never try to come against any work that God has given someone. It's just my own personal outlook and the way I view things or whatever. I think it's just these Much more where the church shakes hold amongst believers because, again, when you look at the inner city, most of these young girls that's having these abortions. And coming from broken homes are believers.

They're coming from believers also with not.

So I think that the people that get to them the most will be the churches. But the thing with the churches is. The education is not being It's not thorough enough to educate these young girls and these families. And I think that's where I think that's where the heart of it should really be at, where we speak about these really deep issues, but being in an inner city, gets shied away from. It's almost like, Okay, I'm gonna make you feel good on Sunday.

And then I'm going to let you live the rest of your life for the next six days. I'm speaking generally. I'm not speaking of every church. No, it's very, no, it's very common. And look, let's face it: white evangelical churches in the suburbs have the same mentality.

You know, let's avoid the controversial issues and keep you happy. Yeah, we're failing in that regard. And hey, just last point.

So, Sean, I'm with you on that. And there are genuine needs that need to be addressed. And for those who choose to have abortion, we need to reach out with compassion because of the background, because of the culture, because of what they've been exposed to. But what's important is just remember: most of my listening audience is Christian. I have people who don't agree who listen, and then wide, wide ranges of Christian commitment and background.

But that's where I'm primarily talking to Sean: trying to stir hearts accordingly.

So, hey, I got to run, but thank you for the call. I'm with you. May God bring awakening beginning in the church, in the inner city, and in the suburbs. All right, friends. Be sure to check out this week's special resource offer at askdrbrown.org, a special numbered signed collector's edition of my brand new book, The Grace Controversy, which will be out in less than a month.

My bottom line today: because we are created in the image of God, that means every single human life. is of extraordinary value, dignity, and honor. All right, a lot of you want to learn how to read the biblical languages, biblical Greek, biblical Hebrew. We'll talk about how to do it today. It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr.

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

Michael Brown. Uh have you heard the latest? Have you heard the latest? PayPal. PayPal was going to be moving into North Carolina.

Got a lot of money. State incentives was going to be moving into North Carolina with apparently a $300. excuse me, 400 new jobs. And they said now because North Carolina has overturned Charlotte's bathroom bill. Because North Carolina has said, hey, we want to keep our bathrooms, locker rooms, shower rooms.

separate it, men from women and women from men. Because we want to stand for the religious liberties of the people of the state of North Carolina. PayPal has said we're not going to expand into North Carolina now. Instead, Or Not necessarily instead, but here's where we are expanding. Cuba We're expanding into Cuba Did you get that?

Talk about moral, cultural, insanity And think of it for a minute, friends. Think of it. And by the way, I'm going to bring on a guest and we're going to talk about learning to read New Testament Greek and approaches to the biblical language and practical tools like that.

So we're going to have a great discussion. We're going to have a fun time together with Professor David Black. But I just need to sound the alarm on this latest nonsense.

Now, I just got an email and the governor of Mississippi has signed The Religious Freedoms Bell. Into into law.

So now Now you have another state standing up. It's a crying shame that the state of Georgia didn't. It's a crying shame that the state of Virginia didn't. It's a crying shame that the state of Arkansas didn't. Maybe they'll reconsider.

All we need is a series of states to say. We are standing together for religious liberties and for public safety and accommodations. That's all. it takes and the bullies will have to back down. The governor said, I am signing HB 1523 into law, Governor of Mississippi.

To protect sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions of individuals, organizations, and private associations from discriminatory action by state government or its political subdivisions, which would include counties, cities, institutions, etc. This bill merely reinforces the rights which currently exist to the exercise of religious freedoms as stated in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Good job, Governor Bryant, and continue to stand strong, Governor McCrory. If you live in any of these states, by all means, by all means.

Let the governors, let the elected officials know we appreciate you standing for what's right. We appreciate you standing for liberty. We appreciate you fighting against discrimination. Express your appreciation to them for doing that. All right?

866-348-7884. When we come back, I am going to speak with Professor David Black. His most famous work is Learn to Read New Testament Greek. He's written many scholarly articles. He is professor of New Testament Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Well, check this out Avid horseman, he and his wife live on a one hundred twenty three acre working farm in southern Virginia. and our self-supporting missionaries to Mecklenburg County, Virginia, And Ethiopia. What do you know? He's going to join us. We're going to talk about learning biblical languages because, look, If we know the word, if we're grounded in the word, a lot of the junk, a lot of the error, a lot of the wrong thinking will disappear.

Shake me. Change the world. Change the world. Oh, fire we stand. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.

Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-343. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Let's face the facts.

One of the great, great problems we have in the church today is biblical illiteracy. Yeah, there's a general cultural illiteracy. There is a general problem in the culture. where people don't know history, they don't know geography, they don't know literature. With our increasingly digital soundbite culture, it's harder and harder to get young people, children, to just read through books and think through issues.

And I've found that for years, using a calculator, on the phone, on the computer, that I don't calculate nearly as well in my head. Uh and and I've just been Looking at that recently saying, What's happening? You're slow on figures that you'd normally be very quick on. I thought, okay.

Okay, I got I gotta get my brain working better mathematically. The same way uh sometimes with spelling, I realize I've forgotten to how to spell certain words, or let's say I have to think about it. Because you rely on spell checker. When you misspell, it corrects the thing for you.

So that's just the tiniest, tiniest symptom. But in point of fact, this is a real issue we have. It's a real problem that we have with widespread illiteracy in our culture. And it is plainly seen in the church as well. plainly seen In the church as well.

By the way, we are having a slight problem connecting with Professor Black.

So, tell you what I'm going to do. Tell you what I'm going to do because he'll join in with this as well. Let me give you an opportunity to. Uh Join me with any biblically related question that you have. Whenever we open up the phones on Friday, we have more people calling than we're able to answer, of course.

If you've got a biblically related question. or something about the Hebrew language. or something about the Greek language. Or Good ways to study the Bible. Or good ways to Good ways to learn languages or memorize scripture.

I'll gladly give you some insights, give you some help on that. 866-348-7884 is the number to call. On a very, very fundamental level. Our lack of knowledge of the scriptures in the church today. is Absolutely.

Appalling. Absolutely appalling. There are fundamental biblical truths, doctrines, stories, verses that previous generations knew well. And that are our generations today Basically Don't know. There's often a lack of depth in teaching, preaching.

Often it's just more motivational. And sometimes people come on a Sunday morning, they hear a motivational sermon based on one verse. They don't even carefully go through the text. They don't even carefully exegete the text from the pulpit.

So the only thing you get is maybe a motivational sermon based on one verse, okay? And then that's the main scriptural diet for the whole week. That in other words, people are not in a Sunday school class or a home Bible study where they're going deeper in the Word, and they're not doing a lot of reading of the Scripture on their own either. And it's no wonder that there's so much scriptural illiteracy.

Now, let me throw something out to you that's going to surprise you. Are you ready? Hmm. All right, I have. Let me just grab my cell phone and look.

I have on my cell phone, let's see. I've got Hebrew Bible software.

So it's Hebrew Bible, then with an English translation, and then with what's known as Rashi's commentary, the foremost Jewish commentator on the scriptures in Hebrew and then an English translation. I have that. I have the Holy Bible software where you have multiple versions and multiple. Yeah. Bible reading plans, I have that.

Then I have olive tree software where I can get into the Hebrew and the Greek or Latin or other German or other languages like that. And if I wanted, I could put Logos software on here as well and have reference to other books. And let's see. Oh, and then I have other stuff with Jewish literature, etc. Right here in my cell phone, like many of you.

I have access to to many, many Bible translations. as well as the original Hebrew and the original Greek.

Okay. So So All of us, potentially, just on our cell phone or on a computer or a tablet, have access to more Bible versions. than any other human beings in history. and more access to study tools. that get us into The original.

Texts so that we can, without knowing the Hebrew or Greek in a secondary way, find these things out, look into them.

Okay. So we have We have all this at our fingertips. And yet the more access we have, the less for reading the Bible. Yeah. The more access we have, the less we're memorizing scripture.

The more access we have, the less we are Digging into the Word of God. It really is a terrible, terrible plague. And we've got to address it. We've got to figure out a way. To To restore, to reinvigorate careful study of the Scripture, love for study of the scripture among God's people so that we can recapture biblical literacy.

We have finally connected with my guest, Professor David Black. I gave you some of his background earlier, but I know him best for his scholarly articles. on New Testament subjects. And Probably Everyone would know him best for his book on Learn to Read New Testament Greek. And now we have a great, tremendous color fest as black joins brown on the radio.

Hey, Professor, great to have you on the air. It's good to be with you.

Alright, glad that we tried it. Tracked you down, sir. How did you come to be a professor of New Testament Greek? What's the story in your own life? Oh, goodness.

Yeah, that's that's I almost missed that calling because I was born and raised in Hawaii. And went to Biola in California to be a Bible major, and they required two years of Greek. The last thing I wanted to do was take Greek. And when I en had to enroll, I dropped after my first three weeks.

So I mean, no one is more surprised that I ended up being a Greek teacher than me, to be honest with you.

Now what what was it in the biology Yeah, all right. What was it that caught your interest about Greek? Because maybe you had to take a certain amount of it, but obviously something captivated your interest. Yeah, I guess I just, you know, I fell in love with the Bible when I was 16 years old. You probably remember that too, Dr.

Brown, when. The Bible became a living book for you. And I've been a Christian since I was eight. But when I was 16, I fell in love with the Bible. I couldn't put it down.

At that time, it was called The Good News for Modern Man. Do you remember that one? Oh, yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. I couldn't put it down.

So. When I went to college at Biola, I mean, it was a no brainer for me to be a Bible major. You know, and so all I wanted to do was study the Bible. I had no idea what God wanted to do with my life. It really didn't matter.

I just wanted to study the scriptures. And of course, as a Bible major, though, you had to take Greek. And as I say, I dropped out of my first year of Greek. You know, it was much too difficult for me. Mm.

And uh So, um I ended up actually taking my first year of Greek as a correspondent student with Mui Bible Institute. And they had a very simple program. Can I just jump in? Yeah, let me just jump in for one second. I came to faith at the age of 16.

Different than you that you were, believer, younger years. I was a heroine shooting LSD using Jewish hippie rock drummer. Came to faith at the age of 16, radically saved, so now the Bible became a living book to me. Loved to study it, loved to read it. And when I was in college, I was taking Hebrew and Arabic and other things like that.

But I wanted to take Greek. I wanted to take New Testament Greek. They only had classical Greek there, so I took the same moody course. No, you're kidding me. Yes, I did.

Yes, I did. Well, you know, our first year at Biola was classical. The five hundred three. You know, and it was way over my head.

Okay. Well, this was, as you know, it was a very simple class. It was based on a very simple textbook. They sent you a little Greek New Testament. Do you remember that?

And uh within four months Within four months, I had completed both semesters and gotten an A in both classes because it was not at my level. You know, I was treated like the dumb stupid idiot that I was. Uh-huh. And that saved my life. And I I fell in love with Greek.

Then I and a year later, a year later, Biola University hired me to teach Greek. 11 hours of Greek. I mean, are you serious? That's a miracle story right there. And I've been teaching it now for 40 years.

That was in 1976 when I started to teach.

So. You know, I look back and I think I literally came that close to missing what has become a huge part of my life. It's been Greek, but. Isn't that amazing? Then let's talk about why it's so off-putting.

for some people to tackle the languages and then the practical tools you've developed, learn to read New Testament Greek and maybe beyond that.

So we'll be right back with Professor David Black. Shame in me. 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 to the line of fire. I'm delighted to have as my guest New Testament Greek professor David Black. The book that he's most known for in the larger Christian academic world. Is learned to read New Testament Greek, but he is an accomplished Greek scholar, written many scholarly articles, and as you can hear, is a genuinely nice, humble guy.

Welcome back to the show. Thanks for joining us. Thank you, sir. Good to be back. All right.

So your average person You know, they want to read the word and then, wow, if I could dig in, you know, learn the Greek, the Hebrew. They get really excited and then they start hitting obstacles.

So let's just talk about some of the obstacles that they face.

Okay. Okay, well I think I think you when you study Greek you're learning at the same time at least two other things. Time management. And self-discipline.

Okay? You know, and those are things that they'll come automatically. Those are things you have to build into your character. you know.

So that's that's that's icing on the cake. In in addition to getting Greek, you get all this other stuff too. And then, of course, you learn English for the same time. Am I right about that? Oh yeah, I mean yeah, what's subjunctive and what sometimes you don't even know what's the difference between the object and the subject and the so English grammar, right, I found out how little English grammar I knew when I started learning Greek, exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

I see my textbook, they can get the information at 149. The job of the professor to me is not to disseminate information, it's to motivate the student, it's to encourage the student. is to show them by example how exciting the language is.

So that's what I try to do in the class.

So we actually spend very little time in the grammar in the class. We're usually exegeting a passage of scripture. Today in Greek class, we talked about. Tell you. The nature of tongues, the cessation of tongues, that whole issue came up.

because we were studying Greek questions. You know what I'm saying?

So It all depends on how you do the class time. And the book itself is written for dummies, okay? I don't assume the student knows anything about any language, including their own. All right, so uh and again, it is it it has trained many, many people. Do you have any idea how many copies of the the book are in you know, I have no idea, but you know, it's now in Spanish and it's also published this year in Mandarin, which Are you serious?

I'm serious. And the thing about it is The three most widely spoken languages in the world just happen to be you know, English, Spanish and Mandarin.

So God has just blessed this book and is being used all over You know, the world to teach people how to read their Bible in the original language, which is why I love teaching Greek so much, because it empowers people. it equips people with a tool that can begin to wean them from our sometimes overdependent On translation. All right, so let's talk about this for a moment. There's a lot of software available, thankfully, that wasn't available when you and I were studying the scriptures as teenagers and as college students and things like that. And you can, you know, say, have a software and you're reading an English translation and you hover over a word and it'll tell you it's this Greek word or it's this Hebrew word and their definition.

So that's great. That's very helpful. But how is that still not the same as reading the original text for yourself? Because to me, now this is my opinion, but to me, the ability to interpret the New Testament is dependent not only on my ability to read. the Greek language, but to a degree to begin to think in the language.

Does that make any sense? Begin to think in the language. And that's why my students not only do Greek to English translation, guess what else they do? They do English to Greek translation. We do proposition.

And, you know, when you begin to think in language, like a modern lear German like German, for example, I studied in a German-speaking university in Durham for my doctorate.

Okay, that's called an active knowledge of the language, you know, where you have to use it. And I find students that are able to use their language And they have acquired Greek, that Greek stays with them a lot longer than someone who's only been limited to learning. Passively, you know what I'm saying? Passively some of the rules of grammar.

So my challenge to my students is is to begin to think to a degree in the language. How did the Greeks express this particular construction? You know what I'm saying?

The same thing with Hebrew. The same thing with Hebrew. You know, Hebrew is actually a modern spoken language, as you well know. You know. Whereas Greek, now Koine Greek is a little bit different because, you know, we don't have any living speakers of Koine Greek, unfortunately.

Right. Um, so yeah, I I I really want them to get what we call an active knowledge of the language in in as much as that's possible. You know what I found very interesting? I didn't go to seminary, I went to secular university. And both in college and university, I had a good number of professors who were Jewish, and some of them had been very religious when they were younger.

So they had mastered the Hebrew Bible and a lot of rabbinic literature. Others were Israelis, so Hebrew was their spoken language, even though it's very different than ancient Hebrew, still there was that commonality. And it's a habit when rabbis quote scripture that you quote them in Hebrew. Even if you're speaking in English, you quote them in Hebrew, and then you translate. And then you'll go back and forth like that.

There is that living dimension. It became my habit as well in my studies and things. And even though it was separate from speaking Hebrew, there was this whole living tradition of studying it, of saying it out loud, of dialoguing about it in the original language and back and forth. And you're absolutely right. That gets in you so much more deeply.

I learned Arabic like that a little bit. I had to learn to write compositions in Arabic, even though I learned classical Arabic. And I found some of my compositions from grad school, and I have a hard time figuring out what I wrote because I didn't keep it up as much. But that's the thing when you're in it, when it's not just something you learned in a book, but when you're in it, now it becomes much more a way of life. And yeah, the text, of course it's going to open up.

Well, I have two Hebrew New Testaments. That I read all the time. Which editions? Which ones? I've got the Dalits, and then I've got the Good News for Modern Man, which I picked up when I was a student at Jerusalem University College.

And I read them all the time, especially in the Gospels, because we know that Jesus was not teaching in Greek. Yeah. Jesus is our teaching a Greek.

Now, the gospel writers, of course, being Jews, with the exception of possibly Luke. you know, they translated everything into Greek. But there's a Semitic substratum to all of the gospel. You know, and occasionally, occasionally the original will will peek out, right? Khalifa Kumi.

Ali, Ali, La Maza Bakhtani, but most of the time we don't have the original. There. And so I think it's very helpful to know both of the languages, actually, the Hebrew and the Greek, both, to be able to interpret the New Testament, especially when you're in the Gospels. Right. And then, of course, you had Aramaic in and the Syriac Teshita.

So right, it's that same thing. And it is interesting because the Franz Delich translation was before modern Hebrew, so it was more in the style of rabbinic literature, which would then point it back closer To the type of thought structure that you might have found. But I will find that sometimes when I'm looking at a passage in the New Testament and my Greek never moved much beyond that first moody year just because of other things I focused on. But when I'm looking at the Greek and then I'm looking at other translations and then I'll look at Dalich, the Hebrew, it's like, ah, okay, I suddenly see it from another angle and it connects me a little bit more back with Old Testament thought. All right, listen, we are going to continue this absolutely delightful discussion with Professor David Black.

Listen. I'm sitting here talking to him, thinking, I got to brush up on my Greek more. Boy, I want to dig into the Greek more because there's so much to be had.

So we're going to continue speaking with Professor David Black. You're going to be blessed, edified as we talk. Shaking it out. Shape. 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.

Alright check this out. My guest has been an avid surfer in Hawaii. a lifeguard in California. climb pyramids in Egypt. explored the Great Wall in China.

the Par the Parthenon, Eiffel Tower. Fifteen years did cross-country riding on fantastic horses. Born in Honolulu. And on and on it goes, enjoyed big wave writing, it's such famous speeches as Makahan Pipeline, etc. In his teen years, he was involved in the Jesus movement and is now.

Professor of New Testament Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. We're talking about learning. The original languages studying the Bible in Greek and in Hebrew. Professor David Black, welcome to the line of fire. Thanks so much for your time.

All right, let's just take three or four minutes, because we've got a little short segment here, and throw out some nuggets. That can only be discovered reading the New Testament if you can read it in the Greek language. I'll give you a cl classic example, because I was the New Testament editor for the International Standard Version of the New Testament.

So I I had the job of re of translating all twenty seven New Testament books from the Greek. into the English without consulting English translation. The the ISV? ISD.org. Wow.

All right, so then you did, you had, say, the Carmen Christi of Philippians 2, the Hymn to Christ. You put that in poetic form. That's you. We did. That was brilliant.

What about the novel translation? Here's the novel idea. If it's poetry in Greek, why don't we make it poetry in English? And you often had Messiah instead of Christ where that was appropriate. Right.

Yeah. And you did that all from the Greek without consulting other English translations. The base translation was done that way. Yes. And, of course, we had a committee meeting and we had to send it off to scholars and so on and so forth.

That's amazing. Go ahead. A classic example is Hebrews 6.1, which your Bible says let us press on to maturity. Or let's go on to maturity. And the verb there is pharaoh.

The verb in the Greek it means bear or carry or bring. That's what the verb means. Secondly, it's in a passive voice. It means it's not something you're doing, but something you're allowing to be done to you. And then it's in a subjunctive mood, which means let us do this.

So it's not let us carry, it's let us be carried. And finally, it's in the present tense, which means that it's continuous action.

So, literally, the Greek verb pherometha in that passage, whereas it's translated in your Bible as press on. carries the opposite idea. It's not let us press on, it's let us be carried along to maturity. Do you see the word picture? It's the metaphor.

The author is using a nautical metaphor, a sailing metaphor. And the idea is, let us raise our sails, as it were, and allow ourselves by the Holy Spirit to be moved along to perfection. And then, You look at that same verb as it's used in Second Peter 1 21, for example, right? Holy men of old spoke as they were being what? Same verb, passive voice, as they were being what?

Carried along by whom? The Holy Spirit. Or in Hebrews 13, 19, the author says, Don't be carried away, same verb, passive voice, don't be carried away to false teaching.

So why then don't we translate it the way it is? And isn't it A Acts twenty seven, the ship being carried away on the window? You've got these ships being s being carried by the wind.

Now here's the deal. When I was growing up, I always interpreted that six one meaning I've got to bring all of my effort to bear upon making progress in holiness. Yeah. when the author here is just saying the opposite. He said, You can't do it by yourself.

You need the power of God, the Holy Spirit, to move you from where you are to where you ought to be in the Christian life. And the context bears this out because if you look at verse 3, he says, What? This we will do, period? Nope. This we will do if what?

If God permits. If God is in it, if God is doing it.

So that's just one of a gazillion examples of where the Greek sheds beautiful light, and I'm not saying you can't trust your English translation. I'm not saying that at all. But there's no perfect English translation. The ISV certainly isn't perfect. Yeah.

So we need to have access, i if we can, to the original languages. Absolutely. And what a great example. All right.

That was just a nugget. We'll be right back. We've got an extended segment. And I want to ask Professor Black, okay, help me. I don't know anything.

I don't know Hebrew. I don't know Greek. But I want to learn where do I start? What do I do? Give me some encouragement.

Oh, this man will encourage you, for sure. 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. I'm joined by Professor David Black, his best-known book, Learn to Read New Testament Greek. And it's It is a book that will take you right from where you are and get you into the language. And the translation he was mentioning, the International Standard Version, ISV. Professor Black, I have a commentary on Job that'll probably be out next year.

And I did a commentary on Jeremiah for the revised edition of the Expositive Bible commentary for Zondervan. But that was based on NIV.

So even though I went from the Hebrew for my commentary, I had to constantly compare it to NIV, and I didn't have to translate. My Job commentary is a standalone work with an emphasis on theology and theodicy. And the editor and I decided that I should do a translation of Job, which, as you know, is very difficult. And to tell you the truth, without looking at other translations, it's certain parts are almost impossible. And you look at it, and you look at it, you think, okay, what's this saying here?

And then you look at some other translations, and then still you're trying to wrestle with it.

So again, very, very challenging work. And that's why you have teams and committees and all of this. It can be intimidating. Hebrew script, very different than English script. Greek script, Pretty different.

So, someone wants to get started. What do you recommend? How should they get going? Step number one.

Well, there are a lot of good grammar beginning grammars out there, okay? Mine's not the only grammar. But I will say this about my grammar. I take students from where they are. I don't make any assumption, okay?

So I start with this is how it works in English. You know, you're familiar with this. And then we always go from the familiar to the unfamiliar.

Okay? And then we try to keep it as simple as possible. It's a very short grammar, okay? You're not learning any any miscellaneous or extraneous information in your f in your beginning gram Great. Our vocabulary that you're learning is just over 500 words, but guess what?

Those 500 words allow you to read 75% of your Greek New Testament.

So you got to start at the basics. The second thing that I will just say Is that my Greek text is accompanied by a 24-set DVDs of me actually teaching? Six weeks of beginning Greek in Addis Apolla, Ethiopia, not in English, but I mean the D V D's are available. And and the D V D's will it's just like me teaching you personally in the classroom.

So I mean, there's no reason why an individual sitting at home can't teach him or herself how to read the Greek of the New Testament. There's just so many tools available today. Rather than just being dependent upon as you said, the electronic tools, there's no reason why after nine months, you can't begin to read your Greek New Testament with the use of a lexicon. That's one of the things. And obviously, you're not going to be able, as an early Greek student, to critique a translation which is done by scholars.

But first, you have the joy of reading it in the original. You have the joy of reading it the way it was written. And it's just for me, I feel a step closer.

Now, look, I read the English Bible all the time. I preach out of the English Bible, and I know it's God's word, and I feel as if God's speaking directly in that sense. But then there's this deeper certainty, this deeper connection, if you can take that next step. By the way, friends, go to daveblackonline.com. DaveBlackOnline.com to find out about these tools and to find out about even in participating, as you learn, helping the work of missions that Professor Black does in Ethiopia.

All right, let's take an example of something. I'll ask you a general question, then I'll throw a specific verse at you. Explain how the Greek verbal system is more specific and detailed, certainly than the Hebrew, but even more than the English.

Well, in the Greek verb system, Unlike the English, which is pretty much mostly time-based, Okay, so we ask when did it happen? The Greeks also could ask that.

So there are tenses in Greek. We have past, present and future in Greek, just like we have in English. But in addition to that, the Greeks also asked how did it happen? How did it happen? In fact, the how did it happen is more important than the when did it happen question.

And that's called the technical term for that is called verbal aspect.

Okay, so in Greek, when you are using the infinitive, like to go or to sleep or to die or to teach or whatever. You can you can choose How you want to express that action as a simple act or as an ongoing, continuous, continuing, iterative, habitual, whatever. Type of action.

Okay, so let me give you an example. Philippians 1.21, we all know that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Well, one of one of those infinitives has this continuous aspect to it and the other doesn't. Anybody want to guess which one has the continuous?

So it's obviously the first one.

So here's how we did in the ISV. For me, to go on living is Christ. And to die is gay. Can you hear the difference now? Yeah.

And my question is: why don't English translators do that? Why don't we try harder as English translators to bring across What we call the verbal aspect in the Greek. It's so obvious.

Now there's two different tenses are used for the infinitives, that one verse. Yeah, so let me just go with this for one more second, and then I'll give you a specific question where you can illustrate the importance of this for our listeners. The New American Standard Bible sought to convey more of the feel of the Greek in English, but to me it was too stiff in doing it.

Now, look, whatever criticisms I've had of other translations, I've softened a lot with my own Job translation, you know, because once you do the work, you have more respect for the other translators. I mean, let's just say it's easier to critique a verse than to translate a whole book even better. But is there a happy medium where it doesn't seem maybe stiff or unnatural, you have to use caps or something like that, and you can convey these nuances in English? Oh, absolutely. I don't see why we can't work harder at conveying the nuances in the Greek, okay, without at the same time giving up readable English.

And at least that was our goal in the ISV. I don't know how we accomplished it, but that was our goal, was to combine both both both accuracy and readability.

Okay, both, if you will, the NASV and the NIV. I've got to tell you the truth. I didn't know everyone that was behind the ISV. But I was thoroughly impressed with it as I was reading the New Testament, as that came out first, or that's what I had first access to. And I thought it really broke ground.

It didn't, with all respect to other translations, it broke ground where others hadn't. You know, look, I'm doing the Job thing, and I'm thinking, should I go this way or not? Should I use word A or word B? And I'm mulling it over. Probably too much, you know?

And then I look at every English translation I'm looking at, 10 or 12, they all have word A. It's like, do you want to be the one that breaks? Is there a good reason for it?

So you have to weigh all this. But sometimes we are constrained by the habits or preferences of past translators.

So let's take a specific doctrinal point and how knowing the Greek verbal system, how it responds to this.

Well, I'll give you an example. Let me raise one for you, and then you can give me one.

Okay. I wrote a book called Hyper Grace about an exaggerated grace teaching circulating in the body today. It seems to be cyclical in every 40, 50 years these things happen. But it says that 1 John, the first chapter, is kind of John's introduction to the non-believers that were there as these letters were being read. And it's kind of an altar call for the lost.

They're trying to say that Christians are not supposed to confess their sins because we're already forgiven. That's their doctrine.

So they say, 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just forgive us our sins, cleanse from all righteousness. That was John saying to these Gnostic heretics, of course, there weren't Gnostics as a formal group at that time, but to these Gnostic heretics who denied that they had sinned. It's John saying, hey, look, confess your sin, you'll be forgiven.

So that's a salvation altar call. It's not ongoing in the life of the believer. And my response was: anyone who could read Greek would know that's false. What would you say?

Well, I'd absolutely agree. I mean, if you look at that whole context, John's point is sin is inexcusable for the Christian, but it is also inevitable. Just look at chapter two, verses one and two. Yes, sir. You know, I'm writing these things that you don't want.

Stop it. Just stop sinning.

Okay? But but he goes from the perfectionist to the realist. He says, And yet, if anyone does sin. You know, we have an advocate in the face of the Father, Jesus Christ, one who is righteous. And it is He and He alone who is the propitiation for our sins.

Fend. And not only for hours. Yeah. Yeah, but also for those of the whole world. And then what about the the Greek the the verbal aspect in in 19, if we confess, is that a a one-time act or ongoing?

If we make it, it's not like we're constantly, I'm not confessing my sins right now, I'm talking to you on the radio.

So, am I disobeying the command? You know, if we make it our habit, I will translate, if we make it our habit, okay? Yes, sir. So, when I sin, I have a choice, okay? I have a choice.

I can either rationalize my behavior away, as these people were doing, right? Oh, we've never sinned, we don't sin, we don't commit sins. We're perfect. You know, that's a rationalization. They are sinning.

They just won't admit it, okay? or we can own up to it. We can become responsible for our own moral choices. I think that's what he's saying, okay?

So if we should sin, then we have to do what? We have to make it our practice, rather than rationalizing our sin away, we have to openly confess it and admit it.

Okay? Now before whom? Does he say, before God or before man?

Well, remember in James, he talks about confessing your faults one, two. Another. It doesn't say before whom here. But obviously, before at least before God. Openly acknowledge it before God, and He is of such a faithful character, and He always does what is dikaios.

That means He always does the right thing. Yes. And what he will do is, he will not only forgive you of those sins. We understand the sin is a symptom of something deep in you. He will cleanse you from all uncleanness.

Yeah, and that's the right thing to do because Jesus paid for it at the cross. And the Greek speaks of being in the habit of doing it, not a one-time past event. All right, we've just got a couple more minutes from these jewels from Professor David Black. DaveBlackOnline.com. Learn to read Greek.

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.

All right, if ever I wanted an interview to go longer, it's right now. But here's the good news. Professor David Black. Come on, tell me. Many of you have been in school, college, university, seminary.

Have you ever heard a more enthusiastic professor, more in love with a subject, and more engaging than Professor David Black? Go to DaveBlackOnline.com to find out about learning Greek, learning the biblical languages, find out about the resources that he has both in writing and on DVD. Professor Black, all right, you had an illustration you were going to give us about Greek verbal aspects and things like that. I had jumped in with my question, but back to you. Give us some more nuggets.

Okay. Yeah. In Philippians 1.27, okay? Your Bible says the only thing that matters is to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, okay? You look at that word live there.

That's not Paul's normal use for live or Christian behavior, okay? Paul's normal word is walk. You know, like in Ephesians 4:1, to walk worthily. And of course, walk is a Semitism. You and I both know that, right?

We don't talk about our walk, but we talk about your halakha. And that's a moral or religious term that he adopted from Judaism, okay, that you walk. Here he uses a political term. The verb is actually in Greek polituamai, polit euomai, and the verb means to live as a good citizen.

Now, why would he tell the Philippians of all people, and only the Philippians? to live as good citizens. in a manner worthy of the gospel, because Philipp Philippi was a was a Roman colony for crying out loud. These people were Roman citizens and no there was no greater boast in the ancient world to be able to say, I am a Roman citizen.

So what he's doing is appealing to these Christian sense of civic duty and obligation, and now he wants to transfer that.

So they're heavenly citizenship. As he says in 3.20, our citizenship is where? Our citizenship is in heaven. from which we await a uh a savior.

So, and then the tense that he uses here is talking about the habitual thing. Continue to live as good citizens in a manner required by the gospel. And that's kind of how we did it in the Assembly. Guess why? Because that's sort of what the Greek is saying.

When I when I moved from sou I was in southern California for twenty seven years, okay, at in in La Merada, where Biola is. And then the Lord moved us to the commute to the tobacco fields of Granville County, North Carolina.

Well, I joined the Volunteer Fire Department. As everybody, as every man did in our community, 'cause who's gonna put out your fire? You take care of one and you take care of another. It's your civic duty. That same sense, Paul, is appealing to us.

Just as we have a sense of civic duty as an American.

Now he wants us to take that same concept and apply it to living for the gospel, living for our heavenly kingdom, our heavenly citizenship, and prioritizing that above everything else. He says that's the only thing. That matters. And when Paul says, like, this is the only thing that matters, guess what? It's like the only thing that matters.

And then how did you end up rendering that in the ISV? Yeah, I think we did let us continue to live as good citizens of heaven in a manner required by the gospel. Guess that's exactly what Paul is saying. Yep, got it. And as I'm looking at a bunch of translations here, the only one that seems to go in that direction is the the mildly paraphrastic NLT.

Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. But what you're saying here, oh, okay, so let's just stay here. I mean, I got a million more questions for you, but we're out of time.

So let's just stay here for another minute or two. Paul then says in the third chapter, our citizenship is in heaven. King James said, Our conversation, which obviously is not what it means for us today.

Okay, but. Many people don't get involved in social moral issues because they say our citizenship is in heaven. Are you saying? That Paul was saying we should live on earth in keeping with being citizens of heaven, and therefore. The values of heaven or the ideals of heaven are are supposed to be translated into heaven?

Is is that a right deduction or am I misreading that? I think his point, you look at the whole book of Philippians. I've wrote a I've written an article on this, okay, on the whole discourse structure of Philippians. The theme of the book is not joy. It's not joy.

And you go to your library, and there are tons of books on choice. Oh, yeah, Rejoice Always. Yeah, yeah.

At best, at best, joy is the byproduct. of something else. I tell people who are married: if you're living for marital happiness, you'll be miserable. But if you live for something bigger than your marriage, bigger than yourself, if you live for others, if you live for the gospel, sacrificially. You'll never be happier.

And I have an article on my website. If people read just one article, please read A Great Commission Marriage. Because I'll say, Becky and I didn't always have a great commissioners, okay? We weren't always living for that. We homeschooled and we have the agrarian, we have the farm, we have all that kind of stuff.

I was living for my academic career and reputation, but I said, that's not important. What is really important? Is the gospel living a gospel-centered life, in other words, an other-centered life? That's the whole theme of Philippians. And when you live that way, okay, sacrificially, just like Epaphroditus almost gave his life for the sake of the gospel, okay?

Yeah, then joy will be the byproduct. You know, we serve a serendipitous God. That's how C.S. Lewis put it. You know, he delights us with joy.

Yeah. But our goal isn't joy. Our goal is to live for other people when you're doing that, okay? And that can take many, many shapes and forms, okay? As I see it, just serving other people, serving your community.

And we don't have to just rely on the government to do this for crying out loud. Why can't we, as the church, do it? But we as individuals do it.

So, I do think he's asking us to transfer priorities from things which are temporal to things which are eternal, things which are physical to things which are spiritual, and even. transfer our priorities from our earthly families to our spiritual family, Jesus said, You know, who is my mother? Who's my brother, my sister? There's the one who listened to God's word and then what? Put it into.

Practice obediently, okay?

So I think he's calling us to costly service, scandalous love, scandalous love of our neighbors. You know, if God brings Muslims, we better love on them. If God brings illegal, we better love on these people. We better show. Share with them a love of Jesus Christ.

That's our responsibility. That's what it is. And you know, when I think, okay, obviously I'm always wanting to live as a child of God, always wanting to live as a servant of the Lord, always wanting to live as a friend of Jesus, as a member of the body, but the concept of living as a citizen of heaven, you know, the entertainment. That we're entertained by, the habits that we live by, the activities we give ourselves to, are these in keeping with citizens of heaven? It drills the point home more deeply.

Professor Black, an absolute delight to talk with you. Thanks so much for being our guest today on the Line of Fire. My my joy, my joy. Again, friends, go to DaveBlackOnline.com. Dave Black Online.com.

And you can find out about the great resources they have. To find out about the English translation, of which David Black was the principal translator of the New Testament, ISV, the International Standard Version, ISV. Yeah. All right, and Speaking of resources, I'm really excited to announce that my newest book, The Grace Controversy, written to answer the 12 most common questions I hear about grace and its application to our lives.

Some say, when they say, what is grace, they say grace is a person. Named Jesus. Is that accurate? If not, why not? And what are we missing when we say that?

What about forgiveness of sins? Jesus died on the cross for all my sins, past, present, future. Does that mean my future sins are already forgiven? I tackle all these in a non-technical, edifying, super-in-the-word way, scripture after scripture, grounding you in grace and the love of God. I believe it'll open up to you and help identify the errors of hypergrace.

And it's a total standalone separate book from my hypergrace book. It comes out in less than a month. You can order today assigned numbered copies, collector's edition, from the first printing, $20 postage paid. Call 1-800-278-2028. 9978 or go to askdrbrown.org.

My bottom line today: the treasures of the word are there. Dive in and discover them.