Dr. Brown Answers Your Questions Live from Nashville

Phone lines are open. You've got questions. We've got answers.

Let's do it. Welcome, welcome to The Line of Fire. This is Michael Brown coming to you live from Nashville. We are audio only, and I may sound a little different today because my radio equipment, which was part of my checked luggage, did not make it. Amazingly, it was put on the wrong plane. Yes, and with my suit for tonight as I do some recording for the Huckabee show in Nashville, Tennessee that aired this weekend. So they put it on the next flight.

Don't ask me why, but that's what happened. And normally my radio equipment when I'm traveling, I will physically take with me, carry on the plane, but I had a little extra room in my checked luggage. Today it was a short trip and I thought, hey, what could go wrong? Yep. And also you got to wear the mask the whole time.

You get extra things to think about. I thought, ah, I'll just check that in my luggage. Anyway, hopefully you can hear me loudly and clearly just the same.

Same phone number as always, 866-342-866-348-7884. And picture the mustache, big nose, the smiling face, yours truly, glad to be with you. So as we always do on Friday, any question, as long as it's appropriate for Christian radio, any question of any kind that relates to anything we ever talk about here, by all means, give us a call. And before we take your calls, it is beginning tonight, the Sabbath, the traditional Jewish New Year. In the Bible it's Yom Teruah, so the day of the trumpet blast, the sounding of the shofar. In traditional Judaism, this has become Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, but not a time for pardoning, a time for introspection and repentance and seeking the face of God in the 10 days leading up to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. So we wish you Jewish New Year's greetings, and we pray for God's blessing on the Jewish people this year, on our people, in particular for returning to the Messiah. 866-344-TRUTH.

Let's start with Corinne in Baltimore, Maryland. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown. You're welcome.

Yes, so although I'm not directly reformed, I really enjoy your program. I'm 39 years old. My husband is 49 years old. We've been married for a little less than a year. Neither of us has any children.

I desire to have birth children. What do you say to my husband who is reluctant to have children, especially through the lens of us being called to put our feet in God? There are some other reasons that he gives, his age, his income or income prospects, and the state of the world. Those are like three of the top reasons.

Right, so those are all serious issues, obviously. On the other hand, children are a blessing from the Lord. From the day that we were put on the planet, we were told to be fruitful and multiply. Throughout the Bible, an open womb is considered a blessing. An inability to have children is considered to be a hardship, a difficulty. As husband and wife, you come together as one, so in that sense, you don't own your own bodies. You now have come together as one.

What I would do is this. I would appeal to him as a man of God and say, let's read Scripture together. Let's read Psalm 127 and 128 and look at what it says about children and children being a blessing, and this being a way that we can extend our lives and our impact through others. Right now, around the world, in the midst of challenging times, children are being born every day, which means that God is blessing people and bringing them into the world.

Your window of being able to have your own physical children is getting smaller because you did marry as an older couple. I would appeal to him the joy that a child brings, the refreshing that it brings, the ability that you have to pour into that new life, and then I would say, listen, we both want the will of God. Can we pray about it and then give it over to him?

If he does not want us to have children, we're older, there's no guarantee we'd have children anyway, especially if you're getting closer to 40. Would you appeal to him and say, can we give this to the Lord? God is more than able to supply, he's more than able to meet the needs.

You know, when my wife and I were married and thought of having children, honestly, it was never a question could we afford to bring a child into the world because we knew children were a blessing from the Lord. So I would say the same God who will open my womb and give us a child is the same God who will supply, and we need a generation of children raised up who will honor the Lord and make his message known. So I would appeal to him as a man of God, I would appeal to him based on scripture, again, read Psalms 127 and 128 together and ask him, what do you think God's heart is here regarding children? And then ask him, would you be willing to let's not try to use birth control and let the Lord decide, let the Lord make the choice for us here, and if he brings a child into the world, he'll certainly supply. And then lastly, I'd ask him, is your response based on faith or based on fear?

If it's based on fear, then it's not from above. And ultimately, if this becomes a time of real contention and difficulty and you cannot come to peace about this, then I would ask, okay, could we sit down with our pastor and pray about that with our pastor or with another couple that we respect? But appeal to him based on scripture, appeal to him based on the blessing that children are, appeal to him based on the joy that a child would bring into this world, and that he does not want to respond in fear, but in faith. And may the will of the Lord be done. May God surprise you a year from now. May you be blessed beyond measure. That's my prayer for you.

All right. Thank you so much, Dr. Brown. You are very welcome. God bless you. 866-344-TRUTH.

Let us go to Philip in Chicago. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

You're welcome. The question I ask is, you know, I converted to evangelical Christianity many years ago, coming from an extremely secular, non-believing Jewish background. Now it's going to be Yom Kippur. You know, I read the book of Hebrews. Now, because I converted to Christianity over 20 years ago, is Yom Kippur still relevant?

You know, I'm redeemed by the blood of Christ, not the blood of bullocks and sheep. You know, because they stopped sacrificing animals, you know, around 70 A.D. when the temple was destroyed by the Romans. Right, so Yom Kippur is relevant in a different way. Yom Kippur is not the time when you, as a Jewish follower of Jesus, need to receive forgiveness of sins afresh or need to look anywhere other than the cross and the Messiah's sacrifice. It's not relevant in that way, but it's relevant in that our people around the world will be seeking God more, reflecting on personal sin, non-religious Jews will become more religious, religious Jews will be really focused on repentance. Yeah, so Philip, the fact is that this is a time when Jews around the world will be thinking about these spiritual issues even more. So it's a time for us to be interceding for our people, for God to open up their hearts and their minds to give them a revelation of the death of their sin, just as we received when we came to faith, and of salvation being found only in Jesus, Yeshua. So it's relevant not for us to receive forgiveness afresh, we have that at the cross, it's relevant for us to be interceding for our people, and I do believe in a prophetic sense that in the future this will be relevant, that this will be a time with the Messiah's return that will symbolize national repentance and national salvation. So a good time to be praying for our people, it's a very good time to pray, God, open their eyes, may they see there's no atonement outside of the blood of the Messiah, and if we join in, it's not for us to be praying for our own forgiveness, but it's always good to examine our own lives before the Lord in terms of our commitment. May God bring salvation to many of our people during this season. Thank you, Philip, for the call.

866-348-7884. Let's go to Todd in Dothan, Alabama. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hey, Dr. Brown, thanks for having me on. I had a question. It's kind of in regards to the Feast of Trumpets, but in the Bible it says no man knows the day or the hour, and I keep hearing from folks saying that it might be a Hebrew idiom because it's the only feast day to where, like I guess, it doesn't have a set date because they have to wait until the first of the month or the new moon or something, and then they say something about they had in traditions, I guess, or whatever, that folks would sit out there and wait for the moon, and when they've seen it, that's when the Feast of Trumpets, I guess, started. Yeah, Todd, it's an internet myth. It's an internet myth.

100% false. There is no such ancient Jewish tradition about this day, Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets, being the time when no one knows the day or the hour. It's an internet myth. Everything you ever heard just about Jesus saying that no one knows the day or the hour of his return, that's accurate, that's correct, but it has nothing to do with the Feast of Trumpets, nothing to do with this alleged Jewish tradition. But trust me, a few years ago, I began hearing the same stuff.

I searched everywhere I could through every ancient Jewish source, researched it everywhere I knew how, talked to learned rabbis that knew all the sources by heart. You don't know where this came from, but it is an internet myth. Hey, thank you for the Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back to the line of fire.

This is Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us. We're live from Nashville, Tennessee. My voice sounds a little different.

Yeah, my radio equipment did not make it with me because of an airline error, so we've had to use a secondary connection, but hopefully you can hear me loud and clear. I guess I sound like one of you calling in, 866-34-87884. Be sure to check out my latest article, my latest article that you do not sexually exploit children to teach that the sexual exploitation of children is wrong. You can find that on our website, AskDrBrown.org.

You can find it on Stream.org and other locations as well. All right, back to the phone. Let's go to Jonathan in Clarkston, Washington. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hey, Dr. Brown. I had a question about love. So when the Pharisees in the synoptic gospels, I don't recall if it's all three or not, but I don't think it was.

Never mind. So the Pharisees, they asked Jesus, what is the most important command? And of course, he says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And then he says, the second is love your neighbor as yourself. But then in John's gospel, he says, now I give you a new commandment.

You shall love one another as I have loved you. Would you say that what Jesus was answering the Pharisees was the most important, two most important commands, for the entire Old Testament? And then in John's gospel, this new commandment isn't the same as loving your neighbor, but is actually calling us to love one another at a higher standard than the Old Testament.

Would you agree with that statement? Yeah, in other words, Jesus is not making a distinction between Old Testament and New Testament, because there was no New Testament in terms of a body of writings or something at that time, and he's there teaching, you know, everything that Moses and the prophets spoke about is now here. We're now in this time.

It's here and now. I've come in fulfillment of scripture. So when he's being asked by the Jewish teachers, what's the most important commandment, of course, he's going to lay out, yeah, love God with all your heart, love the neighbor as yourself. Now with his disciples, because he's about to lay down his life for his people, he can call them slash us to something higher. So yes, the new covenant takes things to a deeper level. So just as the old covenant, the Sinai covenant to don't commit adultery, and Jesus says that's true, but don't do it in your heart.

Don't murder, yeah, that's true, but don't have hatred in your heart. Yeah, love your neighbor as yourself, that's true, but I'm going to show you an even higher ethic, love one another as I have loved you. So it's taking the moral imperative of the Sinai covenant in the Hebrew Bible and the prophets, taking it to a new level, because that's what the Messiah brings us into, is a new level. So you're understanding it correctly.

It's not undoing the first, it's saying that's true, now let's go even further. And of course elsewhere in the New Testament, we're called to love our neighbors ourselves. So that call remains, and yet we have an even higher example of what love looks like through Jesus and the cross. All right, thank you, that was my question. You are, yep, you're very welcome. Appreciate the question. 866-348-7884. Let us go to Paul in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire.

Thanks for taking my call, Dr. Brown. My question is regarding the Orthodox Jewish position on the divinity of the Messiah. Do they see the coming Messiah as being divine or a mere mortal?

And I want to couple the question with just a reference to Zechariah 14. Do they take that as messianic, and do they recognize that as the Messiah who returns is to be worshipped? Yeah, so the traditional Jewish view of the Messiah, that has come down through the ages, is that the Messiah is a human being, is a descendant of David, that he will be mightily anointed by the Spirit, but he'll be a human being like everyone else, that he will function in certain ways that will identify him as the Messiah, regathering the Jewish exiles, bringing the Jewish people into obedience to God's Torah, fighting the wars of the Lord, rebuilding the temple, establishing peace on earth. But he will do that as a highly exalted human being. So someone like Moses or Abraham or one of the prophets, but even greater. And not to be worshipped any more than an ancient king was worshipped. You will see that language in the Hebrew Bible, you know, they worshiped the Lord and the King, meaning they bowed down before. So he would be honored and exalted and revered, but in terms of ultimate worship, only the Lord himself would be worshipped in that way in traditional Judaism, which is one reason traditional Jews have an issue with our view of Jesus as the divine Messiah.

Now, there's no question that he's highly exalted in Jewish literature, and there are some Messianic Jews who've tried to argue that the Messiah is divine in Jewish tradition, but that's not the accepted traditional Jewish view. As for Zechariah 14, that the Lord's feet will come on the Mount of Olives and things like that, that would not be taken as literal. Either the Messiah as the divine agent will be revealed, but because the Messiah is not going to be coming down from heaven in traditional Judaism, he'll be a man on the earth that is greatly used by God. That would just be a metaphorical image of God's visitation, God's kingdom coming, not his literal return. As we understand it, we say, hey, that's what it says, it's his literal return.

He's literally coming. And Jesus left the Mount of Olives and will return there. That's a proof to us about the divinity of the Messiah, but Jews would just read it as kind of a figurative description of God coming to the earth.

I see. And so as a follow-up, what would they say to the objection that the Messiah comes, he has an incredible reign, greater than that of Saul, greater than David and all the Jewish legacy of kings, but ultimately he dies. Doesn't the nation eventually resort back to the cycle of sin and rebellion, and then it's kind of all done?

That's the part I just don't get philosophically. Yes, so in other words, what brings about the lasting change of heart? What we say is the Messiah first had to come and deal with sin, the Messiah first had to come and make atonement, and make the way for us to be right with God and give us a new heart, which in all experience, the fullness of that in the world to come. Somehow what would be understood would be this, that there would be repentance from Israel, and that as the Jewish people repent, God would give them a new heart as spoken of in Jeremiah 31 or Ezekiel 36, and then with that new heart, then when this age is over, we go into the eternal age. So I agree that there's not an adequate answer in terms of how sin is ultimately dealt with, but the tradition of Jew would say is we turn to God, look at Deuteronomy 30, God will circumcise our hearts, so he will do that supernatural work, and then even without the Messiah, you know, from generation to generation to generation, we enjoy the Kingdom of God on this earth, and then we go into eternity.

So that's how it would be understood. By the way, Paul, and great questions, my book, 60 Questions Christians Ask About Jewish Beliefs and Practices. 60 questions Christians ask about Jewish beliefs and practices. You'll find that helpful on many related questions, but thank you for the call. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let's go to Debbie in Fort Worth, Texas. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown. My question is about head coverings. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul talks about the head coverings. Is this totally cultural and traditional for the first or second century Christian, or is there something in this for the Christian woman in the year 2020?

There is something in it in the year 2020 for Christian women, but only once we understand the original cultural context and then make application. So we know in the ancient Jewish world, and in parts of the ancient Greco-Roman world, it was common for a married woman in public to be veiled or to have her head covered to signify that she was a married woman, to signify that she belonged to a man. And the controversy was, in a house meeting, because you have other people in your home, the woman would not normally be wearing a head covering in the home.

That would be out in public. But now you're having a meeting in your home where believers are coming together, so was it appropriate to wear the head covering or not? So that part is not relevant, because it's not part of our culture. But what is relevant in that passage is a certain recognition of gender distinction, and a certain recognition of, you know, for example, it says a woman's hair is given her, it's her glory, it's recovering. To this day, it's just, it's common in most cultures around the world for a woman's hair to be longer than a man or for a woman.

Baldness to a man is less of an issue than baldness to a woman. This still seems to be part of our mindset. So gender distinctions remain real. The other thing is, there's an order. There is an order of authority. And in the home, the husband is the head of the home. And as he is to lay his life down for his wife and love her as Christ loves the church, she is to honor him as she honors the Lord. And 1 Corinthians 11 is also talking about a proper order with God, with the Messiah, with the man, with the woman, and that this proper order is important somehow for the presence of angels in our midst. So what I would say remains important is that gender distinctions do matter, and that there is a proper order with the wife under her husband in the Lord, and that this is something that should be maintained in our meetings and in our spiritual understanding. But it's actually to physically cover our heads would not be culturally relevant unless that was part of the culture in which we live.

In the West, that's not the case. Hey, thank you for the call. 866-34-TRUTH. Doesn't always happen on a Friday, but we do have a line or two open if you want to call. Now's a great time to get in.

by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. You will see all over on the internet the Shabbat Tovah, which is a Happy New Year, literally, for a good year. May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life. This is what is being prayed by Jews around the world today, that as God searches their hearts and looks at their lives, that their names would be inscribed for another year of life. So it's a traditional time of greeting one another with Happy New Year. But in Judaism, not a time to party, but a time for looking at one's life, a time for repentance, a time for preparing for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is 10 days from now.

So traditional Jewish New Year to you as we now enter year 5781 on the Jewish calendar. This is Michael Brown live from Nashville. Yes, the voice sounds a little different. We are audio only. Number one, because we're on the road. And number two, my voice sounded a little different because radio equipment did not make it with me on the flight because of an error by the airlines.

Happens to the best of them. So we have our secondary setup, but hopefully all good. You're still getting answers to your questions and we're able to serve you here. 866-348-7884. There's somebody called 866-344-TRUTH. We have a phone line open. If you want to get in right now, we'll be able to get to you before the show is out. All right, let us go over to Zach in Ontario, Canada.

Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. How are you today? Doing very well.

Thanks. All right, well, I was just wondering if you can tell me about why John the Baptist, or why the scriptures mention that John the Baptist ate locust and wild honey. What's the significance about that? I don't know that there's any deep significance except that he was an ascetic, that this was part of an extreme life of separation, of fasting, of living out in the wilderness. And this is illustrating it.

People might trade it to make more out of it, but I don't know that there really is more to make out of it. So it was extreme asceticism. Remember in Matthew 11 and Luke 7, Jesus says, well, John the Immerser came, and you criticized him and said he's demon-possessed because he's fasting all the time.

And then the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you said he's a glutton and an alcoholic. So as I understand it, it's just a description of the degree of separation he had living in the wilderness and living in an extreme ascetic life. Have you ever heard anything in terms of there's supposed to be some special significance to it?

Well, first of all, I think I agree with you. But for me, all the research I've done online, really nothing too in-depth. I've seen things where people have referred to some passages in Joel where locusts represent false teachers of Israel, and him tearing them apart and eating them sort of represents him, you know, correcting them or rebuking them. And then someone else said something about how we're supposed to live a minimalistic life like him or something.

But I don't know, it seems like maybe I'm just reaching too deep. You might be just right, like it's just explaining his lifestyle, you know? Yeah, for example, Craig Keener in his Bible background commentary to the New Testament simply says, John's diet is that of the very poor. Although domestic beekeepers were common, John eats only wild honey. And he was normally procured by smoking the bees out and then breaking open the honeycomb. Honey was the only sweetener for food and was considered the sweetest of tests. But Essenes and other pious Israelites ate such diets to avoid unclean food.

John dressed like Elijah and other people lived outside society. So again, that's all I take it to mean. It's fine to, you know, to dig and to try to find more, but a lot of times we end up, to be candid, on wild goose chases that have really nothing to do with what the Scripture is about. So I just come up with the simplest answer there. It was part of his extreme asceticism and sacrificial way of living and part of just living out, aside from and apart from most of the rest of the population. Hey, thank you for the call.

866-342. Not everything has deeper spiritual meaning. Not everything has symbolic meaning. Not everything has another level of understanding.

So sometimes you need to take it. That's what it says and that's what we understand. All right, let's go over to Mark in Louisville, North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Oh, thank you, Dr. Brown. This is a privilege for me to talk to you.

Thank you, sir. I've heard a lot of your teachings, but forgive me. I don't believe you believe in a pre-trib rapture. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't either. And the Millennial Kingdom, the 1,000 year literal, do you believe that that is literal? Yes, I do. I am a historic premillennialist, so I do not believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, but I believe that Jesus will return and establish his 1,000 year kingdom on the earth. As best as we can tell, the disciples of the apostles held to that.

The earliest church teachers seem to speak about that and believe in that. The idea of 1,000 years is mentioned about five times in Revelation 20, so even though it's a book filled with symbolism, we know that there were other Jewish leaders at that time that expected 1,000 year reign, and then we know that there are literal promises that God gave in the Old Testament, and Peter preaching in Acts 3 says that the Messiah will remain in heaven until the time for the restoration of all things spoken of by the prophet. So when you go back and read the prophets, they're talking about literal restoration, about the Jewish people back in the land, about the knowledge of the glory of the Lord filling the earth as the waters fill the seas.

It talks about the wolf lying down with the lamb, about people beating their swords into plowshares, and the universal worship of God. So I understand that those passages will be literally fulfilled, and the book of Revelation, along with ancient Jewish tradition, pictures it as a 1,000 year reign. So I am historic premillennial, which means not dispensational, not pre-trib, but I do believe in a literal millennial kingdom.

Okay, well that would bring up some questions for me, because like I say, I don't believe in a literal 1,000 year reign. My questions would be, in Luke 17, 27 through 29, and the Lord's talking about in the days of Noah, you know, and he said, and the floods came and destroyed them all. And the same thing in Luke 29, the same day that Lot went out of Sodom and rained, rained, fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

Is that not everybody? And not only there, when you go to 2 Peter, what is the day of the Lord? If you go to 2 Peter 3, 10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, which the heavens shall pass away, where the great noise and the elements shall melt, and the works therein shall be burned up.

What is the day of the Lord if it's not the day when the Lord returns? Right, so to answer your questions, which are great questions, Zechariah 14 tells us explicitly that the survivors of the nations that attacked Jerusalem will enter the millennial kingdom. It says it explicitly, they will come and worship the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem. It's detailed, it gives geography. If the Bible doesn't mean what it says, and this is a whole passage of Zechariah 12 and Zechariah 14, then what do those verses mean? What's it talking about?

It gives the geography of what's going to happen, how it's going to happen. So all of those that attacked Jerusalem, all of them will be destroyed, just like all of Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, but not the entire world was destroyed. So all those that attacked Jerusalem, they will be destroyed when the Lord returns, but the survivors of the nations that attacked will populate the millennial kingdom, according to Zechariah the 14th chapter.

That's the first thing. The second thing is, the period that Revelation 20 speaks of where Satan is bound and cannot deceive the nations, well that has not yet happened, and yet it will happen for a thousand years. So that is yet a future thing, but it has an end on it. Then Satan will lead a final rebellion and will be destroyed. As for 2 Peter 3, hasn't Peter just told us that one day with the Lord is like a thousand years? So the day of the Lord can encompass the return of the Lord, the millennial kingdom, and the culmination of all things with the renovations of the heavens and the earth, because one day is with the Lord like a thousand years, and it says that very thing in 2 Peter 3.

So what I'm encouraged is this, sir. We can absolutely differ on this and love the Lord together, honor Jesus together, work together to win the loss. In other words, where we stand on the millennial kingdom is not a matter of salvation or not salvation. But what I'd encourage you to, yeah, I'd encourage, so there are godly people who have differences on these things. We fully understand that, who love the Lord instead of the Scriptures, and the deeper we get into it, we each come up with more ammunition for our own point of view. You know, you'll have more verses, I'll have more verses.

But I just encourage you, check out Peter's message in Acts 3, beginning verse 19, and just ask, when is that time of the restoration of all things that the prophets spoke of if it's not that millennial kingdom? You know, think about it from that angle, and if you still have a different view, hey, we can differ on those things. But those are some of my thoughts in response, okay? There's a, I don't know if I can say that, and I won't if you tell me not to, but I have two little small YouTube videos if somebody wants to check those out. Can I tell people where to get those? Sure, yeah, absolutely, Mark, go ahead.

We love for people to look at all the different pieces. Amen, praise God. It's under Mark Hooser, H-A-U-S-E-R, and you know, there are two videos on there, and it's talking about the pre-Trib rapture and the millennial kingdom, and I have asked a bunch of questions, and I would ask you that. How many, well, you kind of already answered those, how many literal raptures are they in the Bible as far as the future rapture of the Church? Right, so there is, right, there is one, yeah, there is one second coming, but not multiple second comings, there is one second coming, not a second and a third coming. So when Jesus returns, we will be caught up to meet him in the air and descend with him. In other words, his coming, his parousia, his arrival is a literal arrival, and 1 Thessalonians 4, which speaks of us meeting him in the air, it's also the same Greek word that can be used, say, if the emperor was coming to visit a city, the crowd would go out to meet him as he came and escort him back. We get to escort the Lord back. Mark, I challenge you to, not challenge, encourage, encourage as we have our differences, look at Zechariah 14, and ask if it's not meant literally, then what does it mean?

How else could God have communicated any more clearly? 866-348-7884. Give us a call. We'll be right back. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the line of fire.

866-348-7884. If you don't have the book that Craig Keener and I wrote together, Not Afraid of the Antichrist, and you're interested to know more about what we believe about the end times and why we don't believe in a pre-trib rapture, although we were both saved in churches that taught that, I'd encourage you to check the book out. Even if you differ with some of our biblical conclusions, I believe you'll be edified by the book. It's a Jesus-exalting book.

It's a book that will give you courage and strength and help you to understand that in Jesus, we are overcomers, no matter what comes our way. That's one thing that would be very helpful for you. Also, God willing, on October 3rd, I'm going to be having a friendly debate with a British pre-trib teacher.

We will be airing it live online. We'll be getting you more details of that shortly, but that should be really helpful, eye-opening, edifying. All right, let us go over to Kansas City.

TJ, welcome to the line of fire. Hi Dr. Brown, can you hear me? I can hear you, yeah.

Okay. I had a question about Proverbs 18, the last verse, 24. I was just curious if you would be able to explain how different versions come out so differently. Like, the first part of the verse seems to just vary depending on what version you go to, but the last part is pretty consistent.

Like, for instance, in the—oh, go ahead. Yeah, so here's the deal as I'm looking at the verse, which is a well-known verse. King James, a man that hath friends, must she himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

That's the thing that most people are familiar with. There's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. New King James is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. NASB, there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

ESV, the same thing. NIV, I'm just looking, a friend who sticks closer than a brother. And on and on. NET, there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. So what happens, TJ, is that Proverbs are very concise in their wording, okay? And sometimes they're ambiguous because of that, you know, proverbial sayings. For example, we say in English, birds of a feather flock together, right? What if you didn't know what birds of a feather meant and you're trying to translate into another language?

Think of all the different options you could come up with. You know, what are birds of a feather? Do you mean birds that are the same, birds who have feathers? So it's the same with the Hebrew. And if I was looking at this, Yishvayim lehitroah, lehitroah, excuse me, I'd be very confused about what it actually meant. The New Jewish version says there are companions to keep one company.

And there is a friend more devoted than a brother. So it's that the Hebrew is very, very concise. And because of that, it's subject to different interpretations. It's hard to figure out exactly what it says. And that's why you have the differences. So what you have to do then is say, okay, the second half of the verse seems to be much clearer, v'yeshoheh da'vet me'ach, which is literally, and there is one who loves, who is, who clings more closely than a brother.

So you can have a friend that is closer to than a blood relative. You try to say, okay, what's the first part saying? Is it a contrast?

Is it adding to it? And what I would encourage you to do, if you want to study it yourself, type in netbible, okay? Netbible, which is the New English translation. It'll take you to netbible.com.

And then you click on read online. So it's, I actually will take you to netbible.org. So netbible, netbible.org. So you, where it gives you the scripture reference, you go to Proverbs 18, you scroll down to verse 24, and then you'll see a detailed notes about the Hebrew. It's actually giving you very, very detailed notes with Hebrew words, with other Semitic words, and things like that.

And it's trying to wrestle through the different meanings. So netbible, netbible.org. And then you just put in Proverbs 18, 24. And then you'll see in the right column are all the actual notes. And this has multiple notes, four detailed notes explaining this verse. The bottom line is the Hebrew is very concise, and therefore subject to several different interpretations.

And if I was writing and comparing this, this be one of the verses, the first half of this verse, I'd be stuck on for a while. Okay. Well, thank you so much. Sure thing.

Sure thing. 866, 3, 4, truth. That's the nature of proverbial wisdom. You know, here, a stitch in time saves nine.

What is that? What is a stitch in time? You ever think about that? I probably didn't think of it until this moment. What is a stitch in time? What are birds of a feather? Okay, haste makes waste.

You know, these Benjamin Franklin type problems. That, it's concise, three words, incredibly true. But what if we didn't quite get haste makes, what do you mean haste makes? How does haste make something? Or how does it, we understand it, but proverbial wisdom is concisely expressed, and sometimes is not that easy to understand. All right, let's go to Atlanta, Georgia. JD, welcome to the line of fire.

Hey, appreciate it, Dr. Brown. Yes, I had a question regarding the final seven years, and did you know kind of the exact amount of days that could be? I do know that the abomination of desolation from that point on, so around Christ's return, is 1260 days or 1290, kind of depending on Daniel, but I didn't know what that whole range of seven years looked like. Right, so the question is, are we talking about a literal seven-year period? In which case, is it seven solar years, so 365 days? Is it a so-called prophetic year of 360 days? Hence, 2520 days would be seven years, 1260 days would be three and a half years. But are those actual years, is there such a thing as a prophetic year? Or are these numbers symbolic of something?

So it's the question that is debated. Number one, is there a literal seven-year period that we speak of as tribulation, or is seven years symbolic of fullness, speaking of tremendous suffering and shaking and upheaval? Or is it literal, in which case these days should be taken as literal, but it's not exactly seven years, it's seven years of 360? There are examples in the ancient world of people using a 360-day year, 360 divided by 12, so 1230-day months, but they would add in days every year to make up for the number. Hey, it's me, somehow we lost our connection, my profound apologies in the middle of my answer about the days and all of that. Bottom line is, I don't know that there is a literal seven-year future tribulation period.

I don't know that. I don't know that it can be counted in days like that. You say, yeah, but it mentions in Revelation, it mentions in Daniel, yeah, but highly prophetic and symbolic books. One reason that I think that the thousand-year reign of Jesus is to be taken literally is because it's mentioned five times in Revelation 20, and there are ancient Jewish traditions that also look forward to a thousand-year reign, and the concept of 6,000 years of human history, and then the thousandth year, the sabbatical, the millennial reign. But even then, we can't be dogmatic on that. I don't believe that there will be a sequence of events, and in the midst of those we'll say, okay, perfect, we can start counting from this day to this, and we have this many minutes left, and I don't think it's going to be like that, just like people debate now.

People have started, people know, and things, but there'll be enough happening that we'll be able to say we are in this unique time period. Lift your eyes.