Welcome, friends, to the Line of Fire. Michael Brown, my joy to be here with you to help equip you and empower you so you can engage on the front lines as we are all in the Line of Fire today, in this age, in this world, as followers of Jesus, Yeshua.
But he is in us. We are in him, in him. We are more than conquerors. It's my goal, my calling, my great privilege to stand with you and help infuse you with faith. With truth, with courage, you are called to do the will of God.
We each play a role and we want to strengthen you in that role. If you're not getting our front lines newsletter, absolutely edifying, life-giving, life-changing reading, you will not want to miss our next edition, which will be coming out later this month. Go to thelineoffire.org right now. If you're not getting our emails, go there right now.
Go to thelineoffire.org and sign up for our brand new front line newsletter. We are continuing through this entire month talking about the Jewish roots of the faith, talking about why the Gospel is to the Jew first, talking about why Israel's salvation should matter to all of us today. And we have emphasized over and again there's only one way to salvation and forgiveness, and that's through the cross, that's through the Messiah's blood. We've emphasized that Jew and Gentile in Jesus' Yeshua form one family, and just like men are not higher than women or women higher than men, the same Jews are not higher than Gentiles and Gentiles higher than Jews, we come with our own unique identity and background and form one holy body in the Messiah.
We may have certain different practices and emphases, but we are one body, one family, and yet the Church has often misunderstood this. Now, in the next couple of days, you're going to hear some beautiful, wonderful quotes from Christian leaders. They're edifying quotes from Christian leaders about Israel and the Jewish people, and these quotes go back centuries. Your heart will be warmed.
You'll say, oh, I never knew they said that. Every single one of the quotes will be found in my book. Our hands are stained with blood, the tragic story of the Church and the Jewish people. Every quote I share with you on the air is found in the book, so anything you miss will be in the book. We'll tell you how you can get a copy of it for yourself a little later.
Here's a little bit more of the bad history, of the sad history. What's so painful is that in Romans 11, a passage we'll get into in greater depth in the weeks ahead. In Romans 11, Paul said to the Gentile believers there, I'm writing to you, Gentiles, as much as I'm the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. So I keep passage Romans 11 verses 11 to 15, Romans 11 verses 11 to 15.
And in that passage, he says that by the gospel going to the Gentiles, he wanted them to provoke his own people Israel to envy with the hope of saving some of them before the final day came of Israel's salvation and turning to the Lord. In other words, that the Jewish people should look at Christians and say, you have the blessings of our God. You have the presence of our God. You're enjoying the covenants of our God. You've received the forgiveness of sins from our God. You have what was promised us. You have our Messiah.
We want what you have. You know, I was flying on the plane years ago, and I'm in the air all the time. And in the old days, they used to come by and offer you a newspaper, a magazine for reading.
And they'd walk down the aisle like this. So I grabbed the USA Today. The fellow to my right was sleeping. And I grabbed the USA Today. And I'm flipping through.
Not much here interests me. Ah, whatever. And I put it down. Well, the guy woke up, noticed the USA Today in the pouch in front of my seat and said, Oh, are you done with that? I said, Sure, sure. He picks it up and start reading it, starts reading it.
Next thing I'm looking over his shoulder. Oh, how did I miss that story? Wow. Can I have it back? I didn't ask for it back, but I wanted it back. When I had it, I didn't care about it. But when he had it, I wanted it back. Well, now magnify that in terms of infinite spiritual things and think that Jewish people see the followers of Jesus, Gentile followers of Jesus, enjoying their Messiah and their God.
We want to have. And they're provoked to envy. Tragically, instead, in many ways, the church drove Jewish people away from Jesus and away from the God of Israel. Listen to what historian Daniel Jonah Goldhagen said. A compendium of Martin Luther's anti-Semitic vitriol shortly after Kristallnacht's orgy of anti-Jewish violence. We talked about this last week, the horrific anti-Jewish writings that Luther wrote towards the end of his life, vulgar, ugly, destructive, even calling for synagogues to be set on fire, rabbis to be forbidden to teach under the penalty of death.
And Kristallnacht, November 9th of 1938, which many historians say was when the Holocaust really began. That's when the Nazis put into practice some of Luther's counsel. They set the synagogues on fire. They destroyed Jewish places of business and homes and things like that. So Martin Zasa published a compendium of Luther's anti-Semitic vitriol shortly after Kristallnacht's orgy of anti-Jewish violence.
So this is a Lutheran bishop. In the foreword to the volume, he applauded the burning of the synagogues and the coincidence of the day on November 10th. So November 9th is Kristallnacht night of broken glass. Next day, Germans wake up, synagogues are still burning and things like that.
And it happens to be Luther's birthday. This is what he writes on November 10th, 1938 on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany. The German people he urged ought to hear these words.
Listen to this. Of the greatest anti-Semite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews. Here is a Lutheran bishop praising Martin Luther as the greatest anti-Semite of his time who warned his German people about the Jews.
Julius Streicher was a Nazi leader. This is how he testified during the war trials after World War II. This is what he said, quote, Dr. Martin Luther would very probably sit in my place in the defendant's dock today if this book had been taken into consideration by the prosecution. In the book, The Jews and Their Lies, Dr. Martin Luther writes that the Jews are a serpent's brood and one should burn down their synagogues and destroy them.
So this is at the Nuremberg war trials that a Nazi leader is saying actually Luther should be sitting here instead of me because he's the one that laid these things out. Professor Eugene Borowitz, Jewish professor, said this, and I know these words are cutting and painful, but for those of you who love Jesus, Yeshua, who love the Jewish people, who pray for the people of Israel, this is your opportunity to tell your Jewish friends this is not who we are. This Jew hatred is not who we are. This anti-Semitism is not who we are.
It's an aberration. Let me show you what a real Christian is like. Let me show you what real Christian love is like. Let me tell you what Jesus really taught. This is what Professor Borowitz said, we might be more inclined to give Christian claims some credence had we seen Christians through the ages behave as models of a redeemed humanity. He said, looking through the window of history, we have found them in as much need of saving as the rest of humankind.
Until sinfulness ceases and well-being prevails, Jews know the Messiah has not yet come. Now, here's what I find extraordinary, and I could give you quote after quote like that. Again, all the quotes are in Our Hands Are Staying with Blood. What's so extraordinary is that when I've shared some of these things with Christians over the years, when I've had ministry school students taking classes where I teach on Jewish roots, and as a textbook they would read Our Hands Are Staying with Blood, now we have the new updated edition, which is really the one to get, the 2019 edition. So, when I would share about these things with these students that love Jesus and love the Jewish people, I'd often have a line of students wanting to talk to me after a class.
You know, we had big classes in one school, a single class could have five or six hundred people in it. And many times the international students had not heard about this and they were from Europe so they felt even more closely connected with this, but they'd be standing on line waiting to talk to me, crying, Dr. Brown had no idea, I'm so sorry. It's like, hey, you haven't done anything. I know your love for Israel and the Jewish people, but they felt the weight of it. It's like, those are my people, that was my nation. And they're weak because they've never heard it. As I've taught on these things around the world, Christian leaders have come to me in tears, Dr. Brown, we never heard about this.
We had no idea this existed. This is not common in our churches. Our churches love the Jewish people and pray for Israel. So on the one hand, there's been this remarkable, beautiful reaction and it's what I've seen and what I've witnessed around the world. I mean, I'll tell you some stories that are absolutely heartwarming.
Sometimes the stories bring me to tears. They're so beautiful and wonderful about Christian love for Israel and the Jewish people. But conversely, I've talked to other Christians.
It's a small minority in terms of the ones that I know, but it's a growing minority and it's often quite rabid in its sentiments. And it's saying, no, no, the Jews deserve this. The Jews are Christ killers. The Jews are evil. There's a reason Jews have been expelled from so many countries.
They're evil, evil, evil. And rather than the church provoking the Jewish people to envy, so much of the church has driven Jewish people away. And then when they get even harder because they've been driven away by this false Christian witness, by this really anti-Christian witness, now Jewish people are hardened even more. You see how hard they are?
Well, you push them away. And again, this is the exact opposite of the intent. Now listen to what Paul writes in Romans 11 verses 17 and 18. If some of the branches, meaning Jewish believers, that now no longer believe, Jews who no longer believe, if some of the branches have been broken off, and you, Gentile believer, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root. So he's got a picture of a natural olive tree that represents Israel, that represents the promises of God through the Messiah, that represents Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that rich flow there. That's the root of the olive tree. Now the individual branches, those are individual Israelites. Some of them have been broken off. And now you have another olive tree, a wild olive tree, not a cultivated one, and branches from that one representing the Gentiles have been cut off and grafted onto that olive tree. Wow. Now they, the Gentiles, share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, he says, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this, you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
Alright, quick break, important announcement, and we'll be right back. I'm Paul Burnett, a board-certified doctor of holistic health. I have never met anyone deficient in caffeine or sugar, but I have met many people deficient in energy-supporting vitamin B12. Unlike other oral B12 supplements, Alfred Livy's Slow Dissolve Super B12 is fast-acting because the formula is scientifically developed to dissolve under the tongue, bypassing the digestive process, making it immediately available for use in the body. Alfred Livy's Slow Dissolve Super B12 is also formulated with other natural energy-supporting ingredients, such as folate, ginseng root, and other natural ingredients. You deserve to live with greater energy and mental clarity, and now, like millions of others, you can with Alfred Livy's Slow Dissolve Super B12, sold only by your wellness partner, TriVita. To order Alfred Livy's B12 for yourself, call 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. Order today and use promo code BROWN25 to receive 25% off your order. As a new customer, 100% of your order proceeds from your first order will go to support the Line of Fire radio broadcast.
Call 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584, or online at trivita.com. All right, thank you for being with us today. I do hope you're enjoying our emails. As we let you know every week, here are our latest articles, here are our latest videos, here are our newest resources for you. If you're not getting the emails, you want to sign up, especially so we can send you our monthly frontline newsletter. We're just putting finishing touches on it now and can't wait to get it into your hands in another few days.
So go to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org, and sign up today. Before, I give you some really neat reports, some good reports, some beautiful reports, some edifying reports about Christian Lord of Frisbee through history and to this day. Just a little bit more so you can feel the weight, so you can feel the pain. When I wrote Our Hands Are Stained with Blood, the first edition in 92 and then the updated revised edition in 2019, and it's never gone out of print since 92 on. When I wrote it, I felt deeply impressed by the Lord. The church must feel the pain of the Jewish people. The church must feel the pain of the Jewish people. And as I've written the book, we've seen this almost supernatural impartation as the light goes on and Christians realize what's been done to Jewish people in Jesus name so tragically.
And then a great heart of prayer and faith for the redemption of the Jewish people. I believe you'll feel some of that pain even as I share these things, but rather than deny it, recognize it happened, and it's okay. This is how we overcome it. This is how we set the record straight. This is how our unconditional love helps set the record straight.
This is how tears of love remove the stains of blood. Peter the Venerable, known as the meekest of men, a model of Christian charity, 12th century, he said, You, you Jews, I say, do I address you, you who till this very day deny the Son of God? How long, poor wretches, will ye not believe the truth? Truly, I doubt whether a Jew can be really human. What else did Luther say about the Jewish people?
A Jew or a Jewish heart is as hard as stone and iron and cannot be moved by any means. In sum, the devil's children damned to hell. We cannot even convert the majority of Christians and have to be satisfied with a small number.
It is therefore even less possible to convert these children of the devil. Now, let me show you how this theology works itself out in interpreting the Bible. When you have a certain mindset, when you have a certain viewpoint and see the Jewish people through certain eyes or believe that the church has displaced Israel, that whatever promises were given to Old Testament Israel now find their full application through the church and that God is finished with Israel as a nation. What happens when you read familiar portions of Scripture?
You read them differently. So Acts, the first chapter, passage that we'll be looking at. Acts, the first chapter, over a period of 40 days after his resurrection, Yeshua had different times with his disciples. We read about some of the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of Matthew.
Each of the Gospels, they tell us a little bit about some of the meetings that Jesus had with his disciples, his talmidim, after his resurrection. It says in Acts 1 that he was with them over a period of 40 days, eating and drinking, talking about the kingdom of God. That's what he's been talking about, the kingdom of God. So when they met together, Acts chapter 1 verse 6, when they met together they asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it's not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority, but you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes in you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth, right? So how has that verse often been misread and misunderstood?
It's been misread and misunderstood as if Jesus rebuked them for a carnal question, as if he was saying to them, you fools, I've been with you now after my resurrection over a period of 40 days. I've been talking to you about the kingdom of God and you still don't understand that God's finished with Israel. You still don't understand that the kingdom is an entirely spiritual kingdom. You still don't understand that the church is the new Israel.
How can you be asking such a stupid and dumb question? John Calvin, who is a brilliant Bible commentator as well as theologian, I don't agree with all of Calvin's theology, but he's absolutely brilliant and many passages had great insight. Calvin says about the question the disciples asked, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Calvin says that there were more errors than words in their question.
In other words, they completely blew it and completely misunderstood it. But does Yeshua rebuke them? Does Jesus turn around and rebuke them and says to them, the kingdom's not going to be restored to Israel?
It's never going to happen. What are you talking about? How foolish can you be? Remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and his colleagues, some think it was Luke, but the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after Jesus has risen from the dead and he calls them foolish and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken because they didn't understand the Messiah had to die and rise. Does he call the apostles here foolish? Does he rebuke them for being slow to believe? No, he doesn't rebuke them at all. In fact, what he's basically saying is that's a great question, but it's not for you to know the answer now.
That's basically what he's saying. Great question, but it's not for you to know the answer now. Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Hey, that's not for you to know times and dates.
The Father's got that taken care of. Yes, it will happen. Yes, God will keep his promises. Yes, Israel will have a lead role in the millennial kingdom when the messianic kingdom is established on the earth and lead nations to the knowledge of God.
Yes, that will still happen. Acts chapter 3, Peter preaches that very thing. Acts 3 19, he urges his Jewish people, repent and turn to God that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, that he may send the Messiah.
Why? He's going to stay in heaven until the time of the restitution of all things spoken of by the prophets. So what did the prophets speak about? They spoke about all nations streaming to Jerusalem, to the house of the God of Jacob. They spoke of that day when the wolf would lie down with the lamb, when there'd be no war, when no one would harm one another, when the Messiah would rule and reign on the earth out of Jerusalem. They spoke about those things and Peter said he's going to stay in heaven until that time comes when God will fulfill everything that he spoke through his prophets. So Jesus has already opened their minds in Luke 24. He opens their minds so they can understand the scriptures, right? That's already happened.
They're not blinded anymore. He's about to leave the earth and just ten days later, Peter's going to be preaching at Pentecost, the Jewish feast of Shavuot. It's all going to be happening. So he's not saying you fools, you idiots, there are more errors in your question than there are words. He's saying that's a great question. That's a valid question. We've been talking about the kingdom of God all these weeks and now you ask a very valid question. At this time are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And he says it's not for you to know when that's going to happen.
Yes, it's going to happen, but it's not for you to know when. The times, the dates, the fathers set that up. Here's what you concentrate on. You be my witnesses and you bring this message of salvation and forgiveness and repentance. You bring this message about me, the Messiah, to my people and start in Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, then to the ends of the earth and make disciples of the nations. All right, friends, the book we've been referring to with all these quotes and so much more, our hands are stained with blood. There's a reason this book has been translated into more languages than any book that I've written. There's a reason that people read it and never forget it. It opens their eyes, changes their thinking, and in the end brings great hope and inspiration and faith.
It's one of these things, you have to read it because we have to know the history, we have to know what happened if we are to fulfill the mission that God has for us in bringing the good news of Jesus the Messiah to Jewish people around the world. This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener-supported. If we have been a blessing to you, if you're being enriched in the word, in prayer, in your own walk with God through this broadcast, then stand with us so that we can reach many, many more and bless many, many more. Together, friends, we're making a difference. So go to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org, and click donate.
