Could Jesus Return at at Any Moment?

So, how do our end-time beliefs affect the way we live today?

If we think Jesus could be coming at any moment, does it change the way we live? 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.

You know what? We believe the things that we hold to theologically, our eschatology, our end-time beliefs. All of these things affect the way we live day by day.

So, I want to bring together theology and culture, the Word of God, beliefs about spiritual things, and how these things translate out into our day-to-day lives. This is Michael Brown. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Here's the number to call. 866-34-TRUTH. 866-34-87-884. Now, we're going to tie back in with yesterday's broadcast where I had a challenge for evangelicals who identify as pro-lifers who support Joe Biden for president. A very passionate show, very intense show, some very powerful calls, some great responses to the broadcast. In fact, I'm going to share a few of those with you. If you want to call in to continue yesterday's discussion, phone lines are open.

866-34-87-884. If you'd like to challenge my end-time beliefs, I do not believe in a pre-trib rapture. So, while I believe that we should live in readiness of the Lord's return, I do not believe that, according to scripture, we should live as if the second coming could be any moment. We could go to be with the Lord. We could die at any moment. We don't know that. So, we always live in readiness. None of us have a guarantee of our next breath, right? But in terms of the second coming, I do not understand scripturally that Jesus will just suddenly take us out of here and we're gone.

And that does impact the way that we live. I had a very cordial, excellent, in-depth debate on the subject with Pastor Derek Walker from England this past Saturday. You can watch that on our Facebook page, AskDrBrown, or on our YouTube channel, AskDrBrown.

Probably, I don't know, 30,000, 35,000 views so far between the two different venues and lots of great responses and interaction. And I'm probably going to do a live stream, maybe from my home office within the next few days where I just allow folks that differ with me on the end times to post their views and I'll interact with as many as possible. But feel free to call in now.

866-34-TRUTH. What I've often found, though, is that some of us who have an end time belief that everything is going to get worse before Jesus returns and that we are in that final generation, often the mentality is, why bother? Why take a stand? Why bother to speak the truth? Why push back against the culture? The only thing that matters is get as many people saved as possible because we know everything's going downhill.

Forget the culture wars. Others would say, hey, I'm not even thinking like that, but we've got one life only and one life to live, so let's just get as many people saved in that one life, then we're out of here. The question is, if we abdicate our role and responsibility in society, will that not bring about deterioration in the society? Will that not bring about a situation where we can't even preach the Gospel openly or make disciples? And perhaps the Church's failure to properly engage in the culture wars over the years has contributed to the situation in which we find ourselves today where many young people growing up in the Church in Christian homes are falling away, not sharing the belief systems of their parents and grandparents because the culture has drifted so far from God that it's negatively influencing them and impacting them, and they're getting more negative from the culture than they are positive from the Church.

Hence, they're falling away. 866-348-7884. Tonight is also the vice presidential debate, the one and only debate that will take place. I read one report that suggests that Kamala Harris will come after Mike Prince as a homophobe because of his Christian views on homosexuality, and of course, his wife teaching at a Christian school that forbids homosexual practice, and that he'll also be attacked with his role with COVID-19 because he was overseeing the president's team dealing with that. And I wonder if it does go in that direction, if Mike Pence would try to say, actually, this has been a very gay-friendly administration, and give the arguments for that, and try to paint that picture, as opposed to say, hey, we believe in religious liberties, and we believe in biblical values, and etc. So we shall see what happens if these things do come up in the debate. But again, number to call, 866-34-TRUTH.

And yeah, I may just look at it, some potential calls here may open up the phone lines more widely. Okay, yesterday's broadcast, I was more gripped than I thought I would be as we dealt with pro-life issues, as we dealt with the subject of abortion. And as I challenged the debate, challenged the Christian ethic of those who say we are pro-life evangelicals for Biden, if they had said, we despise the Democrats Party's position on abortion, and we feel that there are many things in the Democrat platform that we differ with, but we just think Trump is so bad, and so dangerous, and so destructive, that we have to vote against him, and that's why we're voting Democrat. I would have more respect for that than someone trying to argue a pro-life position and voting Democrat. Follow what I'm saying?

And of course, I fully understand those who simply feel they can't vote for various reasons, or they have to just vote for a third party or protest vote, whatever. And whatever each of us do, it's between us and God. I looked again today at some of the initial signers to the Pro-Life for Biden Evangelicals website, and one was John Perkins, who's a Christian hero in the civil rights movement with a great heart for reconciliation. I remember hearing him speak late 70s, early 80s in our church, which was so active in so many key social and cultural issues, and he felt very much at home in our midst. He's an icon.

He signed. I certainly respect his Christian profession, but deeply differ with that stance. Nonetheless, each of us give account to God. But I noticed some of these comments on YouTube after the show, which I appreciate.

I don't want to share this. We get our share of hate mail, as you know. Any given day is every kind of vile comment, sometimes death wishes, the most ugly attacks from all different camps, and sometimes right from within the body. So we're used to that. And sometimes we'll share that just for fun and say, hey, seriously, pray for these folks. But I noticed these comments. I wanted to share them with you.

This is Daniel. He said this, I can't thank you enough, Dr. Brown, for the work you're doing. This episode in your recent stream article about pro-life evangelicals have been excellent.

That article put into words the way that I feel better than any I've read. I thank God for the work he's doing with you. God bless you, brother. You're in my prayers.

Well, Daniel, thank you for praying and thank you for posting that. And that is what we're trying to do when we say we are your voice. We're your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution.

We're doing our best to sense what God is saying, to sense what is a biblical interpretation of what's happening in the world around us, and then based on that to write and to speak and hence to service your voice because of the great platform we have. This was posted by Jesse. He said, I'm probably going to get some hate for this, which I'm not used to because I never comment. But I was going to vote for Biden. But after this and all of the facts, I've decided to vote for Trump. I agree I cannot vote for pro-choice, which is not really a choice since the baby doesn't get to choose. Again, if you're going to say that we stand for the sanctity of life and we believe human life begins in the womb, then you have to start there.

You have to start there. And I would much rather sit out an election than vote for someone that has stood against consistently the Born Alive Protection Act that says if a baby survives an abortion, that baby would get the normal medical care that a baby of that stage would get outside the womb. So that was vetoed by or voted against by Senator Barack Obama, Senator Kamala Harris. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I can't vote for you then. If I can't vote for the other candidate, then I cast a protest vote or I sit it out. But I cannot in conscience vote saying, I know that's where you stand or the Pain-Capable Act that Kamala Harris has voted against. Sorry, I can't vote for you if that's your stance, that when it's agreed that a baby can feel pain at a certain point, that you cannot have abortions voted against.

Sorry, I can't vote for you. If I had to sit out the election, I'd sit it out in good conscience before God, rather than say, I helped get that person in office. With candidate Joe Biden saying that if elected, if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, then the responsible thing to do, what he would do is make it federal law.

So if the court struck it down and now individual states can go back to passing the laws they want to pass, and at least individual states doing righteous and compassionate things when it comes to the unborn and families, no, he'd strike that down and pass federal law. I cannot in conscience vote for someone who'd do that. You say, well, I can't vote for Trump for various reasons, then fine, then vote for a third party candidate or cast a protest vote or sit it out. That's just my ethic before God. I'm doing that. That's just my ethic before God. I'm just being totally straight with you. You can't judge me.

I'm not judging you. I'm telling you my ethic. I'm telling you my conviction. I'm telling you what I believe. And I'm glad, Jesse, that those thoughts impacted you. And hearing where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris stand, I'm glad those things impacted you. Just getting facts out, just information.

One more post. This was Yolanda. And Yolanda said, may our great God continue to bless you. Yours is such an essential voice in our world. Your courage and integrity are admirable. Thank you for being who you are and doing what you do, Dr. Brown. You know, I appreciate that and I appreciate kind words about, quote, courage.

To me, it's a matter of, you know, when you're gripped by truth, you speak truth, right? Just like so many, you won't compromise in areas in your personal life. You don't even think of it as courage because this is right. This is wrong. Yeah, there'll be consequences.

I know. But we have to do what's right. So, thank you for those kind words.

Thank you for those words of encouragement. And this is why we do what we do. This is why we address controversial issues. Just got an email from folks that we know. Oh, maybe they're in their 50s. I don't think quite as old as Nancy and I are.

Probably in their 50s, maybe. And talking about a friend of the family, followed our ministry for years, has my book, Can You Be Gay and Christian, and now their son's coming out as gay. I can't fight this anymore.

And they said, hey, there's so many prodigals out there. Keep doing what you're doing. Friends, we will. We will keep doing what we're doing. We'll keep standing. But pray for us.

Pray for us. It gets hot. It gets intense.

Many obstacles to overcome. But by God's grace, we will continue to speak for the Lord and for you. Whole lot more to discuss, get into.

Very, very interesting comments from Justices Alito and Thomas in a major Supreme Court case that recently came up. Much more to talk about. And then the eschatology.

Do you believe Jesus could literally come any minute? 866-342. We'll be right back. 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. 866-342.

We go into the phones momentarily. The attacks on Amy Coney Barrett as a conservative Catholic are attacks on every Christian in America. I came to faith at the age of 16. You know my testimony. Jewish, hippie, rock drummer from LSD to PhD.

You know my background back then. I came to faith in a little Italian Pentecostal church. The great majority of the church members there were former Catholics.

So this is how I come to faith. Jewish believer in Jesus coming to faith in a church where most of the people are former Catholics. Then over the years, I ministered in Italy many, many different trips, almost 30 trips to Italy alone. And there's a joke among the Italian believers, Italian Pentecostals in Italy that they have one tradition and one tradition only, which is if the Catholics do it, we don't. So all that to say that the environment where I came to faith and then ministering in Italy many times has been an environment that is anything but Catholic.

I've attended services in a Catholic church maybe twice in my life, and it was for a wedding or for something else. So I'm a Catholic. And yet I fully recognize that the attacks on Amy Coney Barrett as a Catholic are attacks on every one of us as followers of Jesus.

Those are the facts. She identifies as a handmaid of the Lord. Yes, servant of the Lord. In the words of Miriam Mary in the New Testament, I'm just the Lord's handmaid. I'm the Lord's servant, right? It's just a female servant. That's all.

It's cold, Mike. It's fanatical. Well, she's part of a group of people who praise committed Christians, charismatic. So just understand that the attacks that come against her, however they're phrased, and to whatever degree the word Catholic comes up, it's not specifically an attack on Catholicism.

It's an attack on committed Christian faith. And it could be someone else. It could be a Protestant evangelical. It could be someone from a different...

It could be an Orthodox, Greek Orthodox or something like that, come from any different background. But if they are known as committed conservative Christians who believe in biblical values, the attack from the left would be the same. Don't be surprised by what comes.

And this is just revealing the level of animosity towards Christian conservative beliefs that exist in some parts of our society. So remember, the attacks on her are attacks on you and me. 866-34-TRUTH. Let us go to Cassie in Iowa. How do you pronounce your home city there, Cassie? Are you there? Thank you. Are you there, Cassie?

I am. All right. How do you pronounce your city? Ankeny, Iowa. Ankeny. All right. Well, thank you for calling from Ankeny, Iowa. What's on your mind?

Well, several things. Oh my goodness, I have been listening to you. One would like to say, your girl Rachel, who answers the phone, is such a doll baby. All right. There you hear it. Three cheers for Rachel there. Thank you.

Yeah. I've tried to get on the show before and I've gotten in the lineup and a myriad of things have happened to support my efforts to get on. So I'm grateful to be on with you and I'm grateful for the broadcast that you engage in and standing up for the love of Christ. I would like to say that as a Christian, we cannot vote for Biden. We can't. The United States of America has killed more babies. New York City has killed more babies than anywhere else in the world. It's insane.

I'm saying that. I was going to say something else, but every time you open your mouth, I want to say 50 million things because you're right on target. I want to thank you for speaking for those of us across the country.

I am right in the middle of the breadbasket, right in the middle of the United States, dead center in Iowa. And it does my heart good to know that I'm not alone because sometimes you can feel alone. And when you get on the air and you stay thinking of what I'm feeling, not that I always 100 percent align, it's the task for you, but it's pretty bad.

Ninety nine point nine nine nine. When you speak, that gives me courage. It gives me strength. It gives me fuel to know because sometimes you look at this world and it just seems so overwhelming and you got to hang on to your face by the skin of your fingernails with tears in your eyes.

Asking God to remind you that He has us in Him. And so when you speak and you speak the truth, you do for so many, but I don't necessarily know that you do, which is you give us fuel for another day when the world just looks so. I want to thank you for that.

And I would like to say a comment, if I might. Yeah, first, Cassie, let me just thank you for those words. And that's a that's a big, big, big part of why we're on the radio.

Big, big part of our team does what it does. Big, big part of of why we pray and raise funds to do this very thing, to be your voice and to be your voice and to give you encouragement and hope, because the fact of the matter is, in Jesus, we overcome. The fact of the matter is, I feel terrible for those in the world who are on the wrong side of God's issues, who oppose Him, who reject Him. I feel terrible for them when, you know, atheists gathered a few years back in D.C. and had a big rally and, you know, I felt bad for them.

It's just so wrong. And so many of them are so sincere. So we will get through whatever crisis is here. And in Jesus name, as we walk with Him, we'll come out better through it.

And everything that Satan or the world or circumstances mean for evil, God will turn for good. But thank you. Thank you for sharing that. All right. So comment. Go ahead.

Yeah, sure thing. And this is and I know this doesn't have to do with the pro-life movement. And I know what you're hitting on. And I'm so grateful for it. I'm so grateful that you're talking about that. You're talking about how you vote.

And you're talking about if you are pro-life, if you are a Christian, if you believe in God and you are a Christian and you are, you know, to vote your faith. Thank you for that. I would like to say that until 2019, we live in the most racially integrated society of all of mankind.

Now I'm going to say this in Ankeny, Iowa. I am a coach. And I coach children. I coach all races of children. I don't see children with their color as a define of who they are.

Who they are is who they show me. But I would like the world to just take note of the fact that slavery has been around since Babylon, Egypt, Rome, Greece, Medo-Persia. We've had slavery. Slavery is not a black issue. So I just want to say that. And then I want to say.

Yeah, Cassie, let me just jump in and say one thing. Obviously, in America, it's been a black issue. And for blacks that go back generations into slavery in America, it's a black issue.

But the answer is not a color issue. The answer is righteousness and justice and compassion and truth, because that's going to deal with the sin of slavery, as you say, which has been worldwide and part of humanity. Blacks have enslaved whites. Whites have enslaved blacks. Whites have enslaved whites. Blacks have enslaved back. It's a sin issue.

But in America, of course, it's been a black issue. We recognize that and we address it. But yeah. So real quick, the last comment you're going to make. Go ahead.

Thank you. My comment was that, you know, are you going to have ignorant people? Are you going to have people that are deluded by Satan in every walk of life, in every profession?

You're going to have them. But I'm going to tell you that the people living today in today's day and age, while racism is out there, it isn't in every single person, every single day, every single town, every single where. When it happens, it's wrong. It should be stamped out. It is of Satan. It is not of God. God said love one another. His greatest commandment was to love one another. I just want to ask everybody to ask themselves this question.

What is the agenda that is being driven to divide our country? We need to think about that. I'm not saying that racism doesn't exist anywhere. But I am saying that it isn't now. Not that it hasn't been.

And not that it wasn't agreed. What happens is, right, it gets exaggerated. It becomes the issue everywhere you turn. And in fact, my latest article, just posted on the stream and should be on the Ask Dr. Brown website, it says the hostile takeover we're resisting has to do with ideology, not race. There's the claim if you're a conservative white American, you want to make America white again, and your issue is race.

I'm sure there's a tiny minority where that's the case. But our issue is hostile ideologies. Our issue is radical left forces and those that we deeply differ with taking over our universities, taking over the internet, taking over children's schools and things like that. And when you think of the main players involved with that, they're often white on the left, or issues with ideology. I would in a heartbeat joyfully vote for a black conservative over a white liberal. I mean, joyfully considered a privilege, joyfully. Or Hispanic conservative, or a nation conservative, or a Native American conservative. Joyfully, if they held to values I thought were righteous, you better believe they get my vote. I'm not gonna think, I'm gonna vote for the white guy. What? What? All right, we'll be right back.

Thank you for that call. Do our end time beliefs affect the way we live today? Well, surely they do.

Surely they do. If I believe, for example, that Jesus might be coming back in four or five hundred years, that there is a whole process to unfold and that the gospel will spread through the whole world and the whole world will come basically to faith before he returns, then I'm gonna live one way. If I'm convinced that Jesus is coming in the next ten years, I feel quite sure of that.

I'm gonna live differently. So obviously, our end time beliefs do affect the way we live. If I have an end time belief of overcoming and victory, if I have an end time belief that, hey, the word is clear, things are only going to deteriorate, if I have a worldview that says this world is just passing and the only thing that matters is eternity, or I have a worldview that says because what we do in this world has eternal implications, therefore it matters even more, these things affect how we live, what we believe. And for me, as I understand scripture, we should always have a mentality of victory and faith and confidence because in Jesus we overcome. So when Paul tells us we'll have tribulation but that can't separate us from God's love, when Jesus says in this world we'll have tribulation but be of good cheer he's overcome the world, that gives me courage to stand and as I'm sitting here, they're brothers and sisters in other parts of the world being tortured for their faith, being imprisoned for their faith, being killed for their faith. As I sit here and speak to you, as you watch, as you listen, that's literally happening. This has happened for 2,000 years steadily and yet there's victory, there's grace, there's overcoming and the church spreads in the midst of terror and hostility and difficulty.

I understand that. And I also understand that Christians have been driven out of whole regions and Islam has taken over and the Christian witness was almost lost in those areas. So these are real battles that are genuinely fought in this world. But to me, even though we live in a fallen world that's been fallen since Adam and Eve sinned and since Cain killed Abel, the firstborn son murdered the secondborn son.

I mean, that's a picture of human wickedness right there. Even though that's the case, I have confidence in God because he's God. And if Donald Trump is president or Joe Biden is president or we're in Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany or Pol Pot's Cambodia or Mao Zedong's China or Nero's Rome, Jesus is still Lord. God is still King. And we still have a message of eternal life and eternal truth.

And we don't fear man, we fear God. So our attitude remains the same. Our faith remains the same. But then what we believe about our role here, the end of the world, these things often tie in with our attitude, with our approach. So while we can differ on eschatology, I want to urge everyone, have the mentality of an overcomer, have the mentality of a man or woman of faith that Jesus is Lord, period. That all authority in heaven and earth is given to him, period.

That he's with us to the end of the age, period. These are truths that we walk with and that nothing can stand against the power of the gospel. And that through prayer we have the greatest weapon of all. We may be persecuted, we may be hated, we may be killed for our faith, but in doing so in him we overcome.

And as Tertullian said many centuries ago, the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church. I want to encourage you to have that attitude of faith and confidence in God despite surroundings. And regardless of what you believe about the end, have the attitude of an overcomer and live with a sense of urgency. Because we're in a wicked world, everyday people are dying without God and at best we have 80 or 90 years to serve him and go for it.

And then that's gone in a heartbeat. So we live with urgency, we live with expectancy, we live with confidence. 866-344-TRUTH.

Let us go to Jason in Mansfield, Ohio. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown. Appreciate you very much. And yesterday I was so impressed with your article in the stream entitled, My Message to Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden, that I chose to share it on social media. I was like, man, this is great.

People need to see this. And I was really surprised at some of the oppositional responses that I received on social media from people who claim to be Christians. And one of the issues that they brought up is that God does not rank thin and you can't base the election on abortion.

And so I always try to lovingly respond and something that you lead by example in trying to love people and win hearts, not necessarily win arguments as much as winning hearts. And I shared about how, you know, if God doesn't rank thin, then what did Jesus mean by saying that the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven? And I said if the Bible doesn't rank thin, then why was Paul's letter to the Galatian church so harsh compared to his letter to the Corinthian church when their behavior was just really weird? And so Paul was obviously ranking their sin. And I know you've commented a little bit on God's ranking of sin in the past, but in light of your article, the Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden, I was just surprised at some of the things that the Christians were, people who say they're Christians were responding with. And one of the things I included in my reply, I said here's a weird bit of trivia, but Satan worshipers are in perfect agreement about abortion. They don't question each other one bit on their view of abortion and how wonderful they think it is.

And you know, Jason, my prayer. Yeah, Jason, if you do pro-life work in front of an abortion clinic, you'll be amazed at the people that show up, yell at you in protest. And it's often, if you put them in three groups, you'll have atheists, you'll have Satanists, and you'll have gays and lesbians.

You think, why are they here protesting? And it's something that's been a pattern for many, many years that, and again, if you'll survey atheists overwhelmingly, they'll be pro-abortionist or pro-life. Obviously, Satanists will be 100%. And gay and lesbian community overwhelmingly. You think, why is that?

What's the connection? It's ultimately an anti-life stance. But Jason, the only counsel I want to give you is not to be surprised by the surprising answers, because there's a tremendous amount of ignorance in the body, a tremendous amount of scriptural ignorance. Of course, God ranks sins.

Of course he does. You know, Jesus tells Pilate that the ones that turn me over to have committed to greater sin. Jesus rebuked the religious leaders, you know, you tithe on mental and kumen, but have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. 1 John 5 speaks about a sin that is unto death. Some are unto death, others are not unto death. There are penalties in the Old Testament that had the death penalty, others did not. So you murder someone, there's a death penalty.

If you ate food you weren't supposed to eat, there was not a death penalty for that. And common sense tells us that God ranks sins. I mean, you mean to tell me that if a man confesses to his wife and says, honey, I have to confess to you, I've allowed myself to think lustful thoughts about the pretty neighbor next door.

I'm so sorry. I had these thoughts for a few seconds, but I feel I need to confess them to you. Do you think she'd respond to that the same way that he said, I've been having a five-year-long affair with four different women in the community here? Oh, and by the way, also I'm a serial rapist that hasn't been caught yet. So I mean, it's utterly absurd to say that God does not rank sin. Now, he said, now he says that if you've broken the law in one place, then you're a lawbreaker. That's written in Jacob, James the fourth chapter. So if you say, well, I committed adultery, but I didn't murder, well, you're a lawbreaker.

You need mercy, otherwise you're going to face God's judgment. But of course, that's why certain sins are brought up over and over. That's why shedding of innocent blood is one of the things that's brought up over and over. Sacrificing children to idols is brought up as something key because of which God destroys the earth and judges cities and nations.

Of course, of course. I mean, which is more serious in God's sight, that you promised your kid you're going to take him out for ice cream today and you got busy and you made an excuse and you lied. That's bad. You broke your word and you're like that or that when the kid responded, you are going to say it. I mean, did something horrific to the child. I mean, obviously, we all know that.

Just to me, a cheap cop out because we don't want to reckon with the fact that we are complicit, many of us, in the sin of abortion nationally. Hey, Jason, thank you for the call. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go over to Debbie in Fort Worth, Texas. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

I really appreciate you being our moral standard and giving us lots of information. In Daniel's historical visions and dreams, I have been taught that the Daniel timeline at the end of it has some room for the rapture and the seven-year tribulation. How do you feel about that or what do you know? Yeah, Debbie, in all candor, that's the last thing I'm going to try to figure out based on days given at the end of Daniel. What I mean is we have a whole Bible that talks about certain things very plainly and then a lot of other things are harder to understand, right? You know, for example, if I'm trying to figure out a detail about doctrinal belief, I'll try to find it outside of the book of Revelation initially, just because Revelation has so many symbols and visions and things like that, and then I'll go to Revelation and look, you know, in terms of how it plays out or the larger picture. So when it comes to the book of Daniel, I have a whole Bible in the entire New Testament talking about the one and only second coming, which is a glorious appearing, which Jesus says is after the tribulation of those days, and it is the time when he appears in glory and we are caught up to meet him and escort him back to earth as he returns. I see that taught overwhelmingly throughout the scripture. I don't see room for a second coming and a third coming where Jesus comes near the earth, turns around, goes back with us for seven years, for three and a half years, and then comes. I see one and only second coming, his glorious appearing at the end of the tribulation, and he comes in flaming fire.

We accompany him as he sets up his kingdom on the earth. Therefore, whatever the exact meaning of the different days given in Daniel, we'll let that play out as it does. In other words, there's nowhere that God says, you better count those days, you better get those exactly right. In other words, you're going to miss the rapture, misunderstand. No, so what those mean as we get closer to it, that'll unfold. That'll become clear. What we need to do is keep our eyes set on the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of Jesus with the great and final trumpet.

That's what I'm looking forward to. Thank you for the call. Hey friends, before we go back to the phones, I want to dive into an important article you may have missed on the Christian Post. Supreme Court statements, very, very important from Justices Alito and Thomas, reported by Leonardo Blair.

There's a lot of great work there on the Post. Supreme Court Justices Thomas Alito suggests same-sex marriage decision be reconsidered. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. appear to suggest that the court should reconsider the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision that made same-sex marriage a constitutional right because it threatens the religious liberty of Americans who believe, quote, marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman. Justices made the argument in an opinion issued Monday in which the court refused to hear an appeal from former Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis, who's being sued for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because of her sincerely held Christian beliefs.

Davis, who is a devout Pentecostal Christian, was briefly jailed for her actions. This petition implicates important questions about the scope of our decision in Obergefell, but it does not cleanly present them. For that reason, I concur in the denial of a certiorari.

Let's get this correct in Latin, certiorari. Forgive that. Thomas wrote that the statement on the case joined by Alito, despite denying Davis' appeal, Thomas argued, quote, it provides a stark reminder of the consequences of Obergefell by choosing to privilege a novel constitutional right, namely same-sex marriage, over the religious liberty interest explicitly protected in the First Amendment. By doing so undemocratically, the court has created a problem that only it can fix. Oh, that's major, friends.

That's major. That's Supreme Court justices saying there's a problem in that ruling. They see Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was a swing vote and a Reagan appointee, he was a swing vote. He said, look, we absolutely will protect religious rights and freedoms.

And if you have strongly held religious beliefs because of which you cannot affirm this, then you're protected. Well, it's not the way it's played out. So the Kim Davis thing just wasn't phrased rightly, presented rightly. But otherwise, they're saying this should be reevaluated. This Supreme Court saying that the court made a mistake, let the court fix it, then let states decide it, let them vote accordingly as to what they want marriage laws to be. That's major, friends. And again, points to the importance of Amy Coney Barrett potentially being on the Supreme Court.

Yes, you have no idea what people will ultimately do over a period of years, where they'll vote, where they'll stand, but you do your best to appoint justices that you think will do the right thing. 866-3-4-TRUTH. Let's go to Benjamin in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi there, Dr. Brown. Hey. So, I mean, I probably, I feel like I disagree with you more than the rest of the callers into this show so far, but I don't want to fight with you. I want to just kind of ask, what's the relationship between, I want to say, like, eschatology and pessimism?

In August, you wrote an article on The Stand with AFA called, Who Motivates Better Than Pessimism? And you talk a lot about, you know, say, global warming. A lot of people my age that I see on social media, they're like, should we even have kids, you know, because this world is going to, you know, burn in a fire. And I realized listening to some of your other callers that I was assuming that you completely, you know, believe the, I want to say, left behind eschatology.

I see now that you probably don't have a standard. No, categorically reject the pre-trib rapture, have for probably 45 years and have a book on that with Craig Keener, Not Afraid of the Antichrist, Why We Don't Believe in the Pre-Tribulation of the Rapture. I'm premillennial, but not pre-trib. Premillennial as the early church was, but not pre-trib. So my question still, I appreciate the clarification, but my question still like applies to premillennialism.

Isn't premillennialism inherently pessimistic? Isn't it saying that this world is just going to get worse and worse and worse? It's my understanding that like in the late 1800s, there are a lot of Christians who were saying, we're going to make the world better and better and better until we create this utopia that Jesus is going to come back to. And when we started seeing the horrific tragedies of the civil war, of World War I, that's when people started saying, maybe the world's not getting better. We started reading what was written by C.I. Scofield in his Bible based on what John L. Darby said. And people started saying, what if premillennialism is the answer?

What if the world's just going to get worse and worse and worse until Jesus comes back? Yeah. So you've got some right information and some wrong. So let me let me clarify.

But I appreciate you calling and us having this conversation. So the premillennial beliefs, not only do I find them to be scriptural, of course, that's debated, but the best we can tell, that was the consistent view of the disciples of the apostles and of their disciples. So the early church, the first eschatological doctrine I held to was premillennialism. Never heard of a pre-trib rapture.

That would have been a completely foreign concept. Never heard of the idea that the church will totally take over the world, that the gospel completely triumphs. Post-millennial views, those come later. Amillennial, that comes later, that it's just a spiritual kingdom. They literally believed that they'd go through hell on earth.

They're already doing it anyway. That there'd be an Antichrist, that they'd continue to see challenging times, and that Jesus would return and set up his earthly kingdom and fulfill his promises to Israel, etc. So, you know, this is pretty consistently taught and fairly well documented, and there's nothing pessimistic in that. In other words, the scriptures plainly teach that there'll be parallel extremes at the end of the age, that when Jesus comes back, he's going to destroy the wicked.

He says it plainly in numerous passages, and he is going to deliver the righteous, but that even in death and martyrdom we overcome, and that he will absolutely keep his promises and establish his kingdom on the earth and rule and reign for a thousand years before we go into eternity. So there's nothing pessimistic about that. The pre-trib view is pessimistic in that it believes that things will get worse and worse before Jesus returns, and there's really nothing you can do to change that. The amillennial view, in many ways, is pessimistic with kind of increasing darkness. The post-millennial view is the totally optimistic one in terms of the gospel triumph over the whole world.

I just don't see that taught anywhere in the Bible. So my confidence, sir, comes from the truth of the gospel and who we are in Jesus, not which way the culture goes. But yes, you're very, very right very, very right in terms of thinking that the post-millennial view was held to say by Jonathan Edwards and by Charles Finney, and they believe that just with greater awakening and culture change that we could usher in the millennial kingdom after which Jesus would return. And yes, you're absolutely right that especially World War I, World War II took a real bite in the post-millennial view because you realize human beings are wicked and the world is not getting any better.

In fact, this is the worst century we've ever had as far as bloodshed, etc. The popular belief in pre-trib beliefs, that sprung up for sure. So I mean, you're accurate in that, but the idea that it was between post-millennialism and dispensationalism, pre-trib rapture, that's the wrong understanding, or that the pre-millennial view is inherently pessimistic.

Why is it pessimistic? So do you also believe in the tribulation then as, you know, commonly conceived or no? Yeah, I don't know that there's a specific seven-year tribulation period or that's just a description of the entire church age as a time of tribulation that gets more intense at the end. I expect everything to get more intense at the end of the age. In other words, Satan holding back nothing, God holding back nothing, the hatred of the world intensifying the growth of the church. I expect us to see the greatest harvest of all time, more people coming to the Lord, greater outpouring, more resistance, more persecution, more opposition, all culminating with the return of Jesus as he gives the parable of the net that the harvest is the end of the age and it's both good and bad fish or the parable of the wheat and the tares that they'll both grow together and then Jesus will weed out the wicked so the righteous will shine.

That's my understanding. All right, and still no not trying to wed that message to global warming, not trying to like jump on that and be like, yeah, you guys got some of the right idea but here's the good news, Jesus' comment. Yeah, so global warming, I have not focused on it for a number of reasons and only so many things you can focus on but I would say, hey, look, the book of Revelation speaks against those who destroy the earth so let's work together for the good of the earth but let's recognize that human beings were put here to have dominion over the earth so let's focus on the state of human beings and getting in right relationship with God and our sin and our sin against one another. Let's focus on that.

By the way, there may be a defined seven-year tribulation period in the future and if I'm debating a pre-trib rapture proponent and that's important that I have no problem with that concept and you may be able to make a scriptural case for it, it's debatable. It's debatable to me and my views would be the same either way and the last comment is that, you know, working with believers around the world, some in the midst of persecution, getting the reports just earlier this week or within the last week, please pray. Here's a brother in Nigeria who works in the midst of Boko Haram sharing the gospel and one of his men was kidnapped and being held hostage and pray and they were able to ransom him out.

You know, when you live in that kind of world, it does color how you look at things overall. Hey friends, we're out of time. Please visit the website AskDrBrown.org and if you're blessed but what we're doing, you appreciate it. Right there on Facebook, there's a dollar sign. You can click on that to contribute. A donate button, dollar sign on YouTube beneath the chat box and always our website AskDrBrown.org. Click on donate. Thanks for standing together. Friends, together we're making a difference. Jesus is Lord.