Dr. Brown Tackles Your Questions and Calls

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Phone lines are wide open. 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. Dr. Michael Brown. Now is the time to call. Beginning of the show gives you the best shot of getting your question answered during the course of the broadcast.

This is Michael Brown. I am delighted to be with you. A question you're asking for somebody else. It could be something where you want to differ with me or probe my views on a particular subject. It can be friendly. It can be unfriendly. As long as it's appropriate for Christian radio, right?

Got to control your language and that kind of thing. Phone lines are open 866-348-7884. My latest article up on the stream and elsewhere asks the question, what if Biden-Harris win? I don't know what's going to happen on November 3rd.

I want to paint some pictures for us to consider in terms of implications so you can read that. It's up on our website, AskDrBrown.org. 866-344-TRUTH.

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It just gives us an idea of where people are watching, listening, and makes it easier for us to reach more and more folks. All right, 866-3-4-TRUTH. Let's go to Robert. Can't go there quite yet. Let's go to Robert in Mountain Home, Texas. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Hi, Dr. Brown. I called a couple of weeks ago about the seventh season of Israel. I've been trying to clean up my diet and get it more biblical. One of the shocking things was that corn is not on there. And I looked in the Scriptures, and where occasionally where it's corn, it's actually green. And when I think of all the chips and Fritos and dips and popcorn, am I seeing all that correctly? I mean, is corn not consumed in Israel?

No, no. Corn is consumed. The Hebrew word dagan, I think King James was translated corn not subsequently. Others translate it with grain. I've never really looked into it in much depth, to be honest, in terms of the specifics of why it's, you know, that particular word dagan translated the way it was. I'm just looking at a website that notes King James translates the Hebrew word dagan as corn in Genesis 27, 28, 37, etc. It's a term representing all the types of seeds, kernels, and grains, including wheat, barley, spelt, peas, beans, and other seeds.

So it doesn't seem that it was pulled out. Now, when King James says a corn of wheat, like in John 12, that really just means a grain. So it does not seem that it was, Robert, that it was specified in the same way that it was specified the way we would specify corn today, but rather, excuse me, rather include it in the word dagan. That being said, there are those, you know, makers of Ezekiel bread that would say you follow very specific biblical guidelines. The eating guidelines that we've really lived by, I've lived by basically without exception the last six plus years, are those of Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

He's a Jewish doctor, but not a believer and not basing things on Scripture. But if you read his book, The End of Dieting, that'll just give you some idea of where we're coming from. But otherwise, you know, you've got the Hallelujah Diet and these other things that really seek to look more at Scripture and go from there in terms of how we should eat and live.

But for sure, the contemporary American diet in many ways is very different than the way people would have eaten in the ancient biblical world. 866-34-TRUTH. We'll stay in Texas, but go over to Temple, Texas. Jacob, welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, sir. It's a pleasure to speak with you.

Thank you. My question today is, I just want to know how your response would be to somebody like Bart Ehrman, who would say that there's so many textual variants in the New Testament for it to be reliable. Yeah, so it's actually, it's quite the opposite, and it's a matter of perspective. The question is, would you rather have three ancient manuscripts that between them had 15 errors over the course of the New Testament? Would you rather have over 5,000 manuscripts?

And if you look at everything from the discrepancy, say between, say in English, it would be like a comma versus a semicolon, you know, or spelling and A-N-D or just using the and sign or Mr. M-R dot versus M-I-S-T-E-R. And you have hundreds of thousands of those variants. If you're a scholar, what would you rather have? Well, you'd rather have the 5,000 manuscripts. So it's that we have so much that's there, so much evidence.

It's an embarrassment of riches. And then when you actually sort things out, the areas of major substance that are going to determine the meaning of reverse, there are very, very few of these. The vast, vast, vast majority are very, very minor, which is why when you look at different translations from the Greek, you'll see in terms of substance that the vast majority are reading the same way. So the actual differences, if you look at like a Daniel Wallace and he gives a discussion of this, you know, as being one of the top evangelical textual scholars, you know, he'll come to the opposite conclusion that we have so much, so much evidence, so many manuscripts, and that the variations are so, so minor that it's a treasure trove.

It's what we'd want to have. And then when you realize that it's not all, you know, professional scribes or not everyone just, you know, totally trained copying things. So you're going to have copyist errors and those kinds of things. But there's an actual science, textual criticism, as Dr. Ehrman knows. And you sort through these things and then you evaluate, which is the most reliable, where, you know, you have principles. You know, there's one, Lectio Difficile, where the more difficult reading is to be preferred. You know, you have things where you weigh numbers of manuscripts versus antiquity of manuscripts, and you sort these things out. I remember, Jacob, when I was studying ancient Semitic languages at New York University, that we'd be reading an ancient text in the original script and you can say, ah, I see how the scribe made an error here. In other words, you read it's like, ah, I see where the error came from because it looked like this and he thought this. So there's a science to it.

And when you're all said and done, there are very, very few verses where things are uncertain in terms of what exactly the author was seeking to convey. All right. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you. Yep.

You're very welcome. Is there any books that you would recommend me to about textual criticism? Yeah. If you just search for Daniel Wallace, I mean, there are some very specific responses. But, you know, for example, Daniel Wallace revisiting the corruption of the New Testament manuscript, patristic and apocryphal evidence. That's a good one. Revisiting the corruption of the New Testament. Bart Ehrman would talk about the corruption of the New Testament. He's saying, let's revisit that. That would be a good place to start.

And he's got a lot of articles online as well. OK. All right. Thank you so much, sir.

You're very welcome. Now, one last thing you might say. Well, a Muslim can say we just have this, the Koran.

That's it. We don't have textual discrepancies. Well, the truth of the matter is that there were many, many different versions. And at one point, Islamic leadership, basically one leader in particular, took all the other variants, burned them all, got rid of everything and just said, this is the one. That's why there is one. And even there, you still have some variation. It's not because nothing else existed.

It's because the competing ones were destroyed. Check it out. You'll find it to be fact. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let's go to Eric in Alabama. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, I just want to say thank you and I appreciate your ministry. It's really blessed me.

Thank you. I grew up with a lot of charismatic and Pentecostals, even though I was independent Baptist in the day. And now I'm reformed Baptist. But you you make me really, really respect where I saw those those people who I fell in love with back then. More because I see the depth of theology that can come out of that movement. So I really appreciate it.

So. So but my question was, I finished my year. I'm working on my year through the Bible again, and I've been working through the minor prophets. And I and I noticed something that I really had a question and begin that you are a scholar in the area of the Old Testament, especially in and in ancient Jewish writings. My question was, I know that when Daniel wrote about the 70 weeks. And what about the last week?

I grew up as a dispensationalist, but I've kind of walked away from that. But I still have my my claim to it. You know, I still think about it. But I noticed that I can't remember if it was in Zephaniah or Zachariah or whatever now, because it's been about six weeks ago where he spoke about the 70 weeks that Daniel wrote about in his place. And he mentioned an end to it.

And then you have Malachi writing, who was a post-exile writer. He wrote after they had already returned to Jerusalem and the walls have been built. My question is, was that 70 weeks fulfilled in that time frame leading up to the birth of Jesus in the Incarnation? Or am I missing that?

Yeah, you got a couple of things confused, but that happens to the best of us. Yes, Malachi writes after the return from exile and the rebuilding of the temple. Daniel's 70 weeks were not fulfilled until the coming of Jesus and the destruction of the Second Temple. Some would still put the 70th week as future.

I believe it came to its end with the destruction of the Second Temple. So the 70 weeks fulfilled then at 70 AD. That being said, Zechariah and Zephaniah do not mention Daniel's 70 weeks. What I think you're thinking about is Daniel 9. He mentions Jeremiah's 70 years that the children of Israel and Jewish people would be in exile for 70 years. And God says, no, I want to tell you about a period of 70 times 7.

Neither Zephaniah nor Zechariah mention Daniel's 70 weeks. We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Hey friends, just want to alert you, the new edition of Revolution is now out. Yes, Revolution, an urgent call to a holy uprising.

If ever it was needed, it is needed now. Just out, we're awaiting our books from the publisher, literally just hot off the press and eager to get them out to you. You can order from our website, AskDrBrown.org, or just go online, Amazon, Christian Book, wherever you like to order, and get your copy. It will stir you. It will stir family members. It is time for God's people to rise up, not in anger, not in hatred, not with violence, not with intimidation, but rather in the fullness of the truth of the Gospel and the love of God and the power of the Spirit, living revolutionary lives changed by Jesus and changing the world around us through the Gospel. 866-348-7884.

We go over to Sam in Greenfield, Indiana. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown. I'm a first-time caller, and I've been studying the gifts of the Spirit, particularly here recently, the gift of tongues or languages. My question for you, sir, is, is there room for both real human and heavenly languages in the Acts 2 chapter on Pentecost, or is it strictly the gift of real human languages in Acts 2? I ask because, I think it's Acts 2, 13, the accusation of some in the crowd that those who are ministering the Spirit are drunk with wine. It just seems strange if they're just speaking in real human languages.

Thank you. Right, yes, so it's a great question, Sam. Obviously, later on, like 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is not speaking about human languages there. He even distinguishes in the Greek from Glosso, which he's talking about tongues and phoney, a language.

He uses two different words there, and he says no one understands you. You're speaking mysteries in the Spirit to God, interpretation as a gift. So he's clearly talking about a language where I'm speaking to God.

My mind doesn't understand it, other people don't understand it, which is why it's more for private edification and worship as opposed to public use. That being said, Acts 2, what we do know is that they spoke foreign languages and that people heard them. You know, some claim the miracle was that the people heard supernaturally, but if you just say, okay, they were speaking foreign languages. If you've got 120 people all speaking exuberantly at the same time, and it references what the people saw and heard. So it's not just what they heard, but what they saw. You know, who knows how excited they might have been. They may have been staggering. I mean, what would make you think they're drunk, right? If suddenly I start, you know, Achshav ha-nimad ha-b'evrit, now I'm speaking Hebrew, you're not going to think I'm drunk, right? So was it slurred speech? That would be odd, you know, that they're speaking the praises of God, praise the Lord. That doesn't seem to be what's going on either. So it could be they were staggering, could be they were jumping up and down or grabbing each other, just hugging each other, just shocked. And, you know, this is a pretty intense event, but for those that just want everything to be lovely and sanctimonious and we worship you, O God.

And that's the only acceptable form. Remember in Acts 3, the lame man, lame his whole life, is instantly healed. He goes into the temple walking and leaping and praising God. You don't go into the temple leaping.

And if we had some hyper critics around, they would say, what are you doing, man? You don't leap. Be reverent. As opposed to saying, what happened to you? How were you? You were healed.

What happened? So that's why it depends what you're looking at. I read an interesting observation, I believe it was by Conrad Cherry, in talking about the history of the Great Awakening. And that he said Charles Chauncey, who was a great critic of the Great Awakening in the 1700s, that he focused on the chaff.

And Jonathan Edwards, who is a great leader in the Great Awakening, focused on the wheat. And when God moves, it's going to reveal what's in people's hearts. John 5.

And I know I'm going beyond what you asked, but to make this point. In John 5, Jesus heals the man who has been lame for 38 years. And then the religious leaders see him walking with his mat. Jesus says, pick up your mat. What's the Sabbath?

What do they say? Who told you to carry it? Who told you to do that? In other words, you're violating the Sabbath laws of carrying, as opposed to, what happened? That's a miracle.

By the way, you shouldn't carry that mat. This is a miracle. What happened? So when God begins to move and the Holy Spirit's poured out, that's what you'll see in terms of it reveals what's in people's hearts. So maybe here's a testimony of a young lady, and she's 17 years old, and she's literally shaking as she talks.

She feels overpowered by God, and she's talking about being delivered from depression and suicidal thoughts, and how Jesus is her all in all, and she's repented of her lukewarmness. And part of the crowd is like, that's beautiful. Oh, praise God.

I want that to happen to my kid. And the other is saying, that can't be God. She's shaking. So it's very interesting that right out of the gate, as the Holy Spirit's poured out, just as it happened with the ministry of Jesus, it happened there. Some of the people heard the praises of God. Others thought that they were drunk.

So ask that larger question, right? And remember that unless you understand the language, it could just as well be a heavenly tongue, right? So if I'm speaking Arabic and your language is Farsi and your language is Greek and your language is Hebrew, you know, everyone's like, what are they saying?

But it's what they heard and what they saw that made them think they were drunk. And Peter says, no, no, that's not it. But this reminds us that when the Holy Spirit comes, there will be controversy.

And those who have their hearts right before the Lord will see what he is doing as opposed to behavior that may look a little unusual. Hey, thank you for the call, Sam. Appreciate it.

866-34-TRUTH. We go over to Derek in Los Angeles. Welcome to the line of fire. Thanks, Dr. Brown. Thank you for taking my call. You bet.

I don't want to take up too much of your time. My question is in the context of trying to refute pretty common Hebrew-Israelite doctrine, specifically pertaining to the New Covenant, and whether or not Gentile Christians, Gentile believers in Jesus Christ are inaugurated into the New Covenant. So I'm looking at verses in Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31. And these are common phrases that, you know, the elders in my church would throw at me when I was converted three years ago, saying, like, you know, at your conversion, God took out your heart of stone, replaced it with the heart of flesh, so on and so forth.

He's going to write the law on your heart, your conscience. But when I read these scriptures that talk about what God is going to do in the New Covenant, it seems to be pertaining exclusively to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And I'm wondering if it's wrong for Gentile Christians to adopt these sorts of scriptures as descriptors of what happens to them at conversion, when it doesn't seem to be saying that at all. You've asked the question with real theological precision, which I appreciate, because specifically it says, for example, in Jeremiah 31, it's a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And Ezekiel 36 is talking about the people of Judah coming out of exile or the Jewish people coming out of exile in Babylon.

So it's a fair question. And it's God's Torah or his laws and commandments that are then written on the hearts of his people. The answer is that this new covenant is ultimately inaugurated by the Messiah himself. Right.

We agree on that. In other words, we're not rejecting Jesus out of this picture and looking at this like a traditional Jew. And and the Messiah himself makes it clear that this covenant with Israel is now being made available to everyone. So you preach in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the end to the ends of the earth, that the message of forgiveness of sins. So this very message of new life, of forgiveness, you start preaching in Jerusalem and you bring it to all nations. So God is saying these promises that I gave to my people, Israel are now extended to the whole world, offered to Israel, rejected by the nation, extended by God to the whole world. That's what Paul lays out in Romans 11, that that Israel's failing and rejection now brings life to the Gentile world and spiritual riches to the Gentile world. And that Gentile believers should now make Israel envious because you are enjoying those blessings.

So certainly we are enjoying the new and better covenant, which Jesus inaugurates through his death on the cross and his death on the cross is for for everyone. So, you know, there's no disputing that from a New Testament context without the New Testament. Then you can question it right without the New Testament.

You could say, well, are we really sure or you don't really happened or is this just for the Jewish people? But with the Messiah coming into the world, we even recognize, for example, Isaiah two, where all the nations in the millennial kingdom come streaming into Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel and to learn from his Torah, that that it's always that the people of the world will now come to worship the God of Israel and follow his ways. So it's not like a separate different thing for the Gentiles, except that he did not lay all the specifics of the Sinai covenant on the Gentile world. That would be the distinction. But certainly when you look at at how Paul speaks about what happens to all believers, when Jesus speaks of new birth, when Paul speaks of new creation. And I'll leave you with this.

All right. Take a look at Second Corinthians six, verse 14 to Second Corinthians seven one, Second Corinthians six, 14 to Second Corinthians seven one, where Paul takes these specific promises to Israel from Leviticus, from Ezekiel, these very specific promises and applies them to the Gentile believers in Corinth and calls them to holiness based on that. So the the writings that ultimately have come to be known as the New Covenant, Paul speaks of them also in Second Corinthians three. That applies to all of us in Jesus the Messiah.

Say that as a Jew, as a Gentile, we share that New Covenant life in him. Hey, thank you for the question, sir. 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. You know, I've been doing live radio now more than 12 years live talk radio and always look forward to coming into the studio. And Fridays, I kind of have like this childlike joy just to sit and answer your questions. Take your call. So you may be listening on podcast on another day. You may be watching on TV, Dove Network or NRB TV or PTL Network or elsewhere. Let us know how you're connecting with us. We'll be watching on Facebook or YouTube, but it's helpful for us to know that. So go to my website, AskDrBrown.org, sign up for emails. You'll get a really neat free mini book called Seven Secrets of the Real Messiah. We'll send you that as an e-book immediately. And then let us know where you are watching, listening, how you connect it with us. It's right there on the website. Eight, six, six, three, four truth.

We go to Winston in Queens, New York. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown.

Good afternoon. I'm watching you. I'm watching you on Facebook, basically. And I've actually heard and I've seen on a Christian program that you are very supportive of the re-election of President Trump, who I actually agree 100 percent with your position. I'm just struggling a lot with understanding why so many, and let me just say up front, I agree with you that we should, believers should support the re-election of the president. My struggle is understanding why so many leaders are afraid to come out openly and say what you're willing to say publicly about this, because to me, I cannot comprehend any true believer and follower of Jesus Christ and somebody who wants to support anybody for office who is going to be openly fighting for and openly allowing and continuing to allow the abortion of unborn babies. And so my struggle is why so many people? And even when I make comments on Facebook about, I have been very open that I support the president.

I've made statements on Facebook about it. And I get this sort of like almost ritual and almost hateful responses, like somehow I'm wed and that I am not fully understanding that people should vote however they vote. It doesn't matter how a Christian votes.

And that to me sounds very contradictory to scripture. If we want our nation to be free and if we want our nation to continue proclaiming the gospel freely and having church services and being able to do what we can do now, I think it's a very critical election for everybody, Christian and non-Christian. Yeah, so Winston, thank you for sharing that, and let me give you an honest response. I would refer folks to some of my recent articles. One is what if Biden-Harris win? Another is a message to pro-life evangelicals for Biden, which I find to be deeply contradictory in terms of saying you're pro-life evangelical and yet for Biden.

But let me let me respond. One thing is that many pastors and leaders recognize that the moment they take a political stand, it takes the focus off preaching Jesus, winning the lost, and that if if they want to minister to the flock, maybe they have a multiethnic, multiracial flock with very different political beliefs within it. And they begin to talk about Trump or this candidate from the pulpit or why we should vote or support that. It's it's going to detract from the unity of the gospel or from the focus of our message.

That's that's one thing. The second thing is that we have been known evangelical followers of Jesus for years as the values voters, as the ones who say that character counts and morality matters. And there are many feel that just the way Donald Trump conducts himself.

You know, now post debate, post Pence, Harris debate, you know, calling Kamala Harris a monster, attacking people the way he does, you know, calling this one a dog. Maybe what they would feel are reckless statements about the virus and that could endanger other people. The way he throws people under the bus and treats them, that for us to stand with someone like that compromises our own testimony. And that they would say ultimately, even though abortion is important, other things are important, if we lose our witness, that's the worst thing of all. Now, having said that, I everyone has to come to their own view before God and vote accordingly. And and I I do understand why some Christians feel that in conscience they can't vote for Trump because of the damage he does with his his tongue. You know, life and death are in the power of the tongue and that therefore they're going to not vote for president or cast a third party vote. I understand that. I do not understand how they could vote for Biden. Harris simply because of the abortion issue and then the religious liberty issue, the very things that you mentioned. That's that's what I don't understand. I've read people's explanations and they're so utterly weak to me.

I'm not taking the time to to rebut them or respond to other people on Facebook. But that that's what I don't understand when you have Joe Biden saying that if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, that he would then work to make Roe v. Wade the law of the land and force that nationally. When you have Kamala Harris siding with Planned Parenthood against David Daleiden and having his house raided to try to confiscate videos that would document Planned Parenthood being complicit, openly, willingly saving aboard selling aborted baby parts for profit. And and you have Kamala Harris being rated 100 percent by abortion organizations for her pro-abortion stand. And when she's voted against the Born Alive Protection Act, so if a baby survives abortion, maybe a seven month old baby in the womb survives abortion, that you have to guarantee medical treatment. She's voted against that. The Pain Capable Act, where once we know a baby is experiencing pain could be earlier. But let's say folks agree at 20 weeks that you can't abort after that. She's voted against that.

That's what I don't understand, Winston. So I'm with you step for step. I don't understand how someone who loves Jesus and I've read.

I don't want to mock what people have written on Facebook or in other places, but I've read the explanations and they are so unbelievably weak and lacking to me that I'm saying, yes, if you vote for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, you are voting for people who will actively work against the pro-life movement, actively push back against the many gains that have been won in recent years, actively push back against the potential of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, actively vote against even protecting a baby that's born alive and survives abortion, guaranteeing medical care for that baby. I cannot see how you can do that in good conscience. I can see issues with Trump.

I can't see that. I can't see where you just say, you know, I can't vote for him for this reason. I wrote a whole book, Evangelicals at the Crossroads. Read it, folks, if you don't have it.

Read it, get it for your friends. Evangelicals at the Crossroads will be passed the Trump test. And to me, the Trump test is twofold. One, can we vote for him without compromising our testimony? And there are ways to do it, but we must do that rightly. And two, can we unite around Jesus even if we differ over Trump? That, to me, is the test.

Right now, we're not doing so well at it. But Winston, thank you, sir, for the call and articulating this. And if people do respond with hatred or vitriol, respond with grace, overcome evil with good, be a good witness in the midst of it. Thank you for the call. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let me say one other thing. I am called to controversy. I am a talk radio host, an op-ed writer and a preacher of the gospel. Travel around the world preaching.

I've done that for decades. You know, a soul winner and all that, right? But I'm also called to controversies. Not everyone is called to address controversies as much as I do. Your local pastor is not called to address controversies as much as I do. We each have our calling. So let us not shy from controversies, but let us each be faithful to our calling. Don't try to be Mike Brown if you're not called to be Mike Brown. Just like I'm not trying to be a local pastor if I'm not called to be a local pastor. Make sense? 866-34-TRUTH.

Let us go to Norm in Charlotte, North Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you. I appreciate you taking my call. You bet.

My question is a two-part question, but it revolves around Acts 6, 1 and the Hellenists. One is if you could maybe just dig a little bit deeper into that or kind of explain that to me. And then the other part is I've heard that used as a way to give, I guess, validity to Black Lives Matter. And I wanted to know kind of if you could, I guess, go on to that if it does give validity to it. And in all honesty, the person that was saying it wasn't, he was very careful to separate Black Lives Matter from the organization.

Got it. But he did use that to give validity to Black Lives Matter. So I just want to know if you could touch on that. Right. So if you're trying to give validity by saying that if a certain group is neglected, that you focus on that group. For example, when the Black Lives Matter saying that that mantra reappeared very forcefully earlier this year after the after the death of George Floyd, and many would respond and say, well, all lives matter, that one gentleman on Facebook made a really simple but excellent comment. He said, look, if we are campaigning for research to to to cure cancer, you don't jump up and say, but all diseases matter. No one's arguing that. But we're focusing on cancer because it's so deadly and so destructive. So because the perception has been through much of American history and in certain parts of America to this day, that black lives don't matter or they don't matter at the same level that white lives matter.

So it's something that needs to be said. I understand that, which is why I affirmed that while distancing myself from the BLM movement, as as you rightly know and observe. So when it comes to acts, you have a situation where you have the Greek speaking Jews in need, widows and others are being neglected. So you basically got a situation in Jerusalem where the the home crowd is is the Aramaic slash Hebrew speaking Jews, and then you have the Greek speaking Jews. And are they second class citizens? Are they receiving equal treatment? So an effort is made to raise up what we call deacons to make sure that all these needs are met. So if there's a bridge and again, I don't know exactly what the reasoning was, but if you're saying, hey, if you see a group in your midst neglected, then you can single them out. Yeah. If you want to say, oh, yeah, this group's not, you know, the blacks in our midst or the Hispanics in our midst or the Asians in our midst or the Jews in our midst or the whites in our midst or the males or the females or whatever specific group they're being neglected.

Let's make sure that they're not neglected. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Go ahead and do that.

But then you don't start burning down buildings in the process. All right. Thank you for the call. It's The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown.

Your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us, friends, on The Line of Fire. 866-34-TRUTH is the number to call.

We go over to Sweden. Marcus, welcome to The Line of Fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. How are you doing? I'm doing very, very well. It's a little bit colder here, a little bit darker up here in the north of Europe, but it's great.

It's great. How are things with the response to COVID-19? I know Sweden did things a little differently in other countries. Does it look like it's panning out right now?

Yeah. With our neighboring countries, they say that it's not moving much right now because we were not closing up so much to begin with. Now the other countries seem to have a second round, but I hear very different messages.

But it seems like many people try to think more optimistically now and they want to think that maybe this was the right step to take, not closing up because our kids are still going to schools and people are not wearing masks. It's hard. It's a sensitive thing, of course, but compared to other northern European countries, I think our economy has been doing better. Yeah, very complex, difficult. You know, here in America, if we could start and do this all over again, I don't know that we would get it right either because there's so many ambiguities.

And to this day, we're not sure what works, what doesn't work. But anyway, glad that the situation in Sweden is doing pretty well overall. Yes, your question, sir? All right.

So I am very, very excited to ask this question because I can't think of anyone better to ask this to. Because I'm a Pentecostal Charismatic, just like you, and it's hard to find that kind of perspective when it comes to studying Hebrews. I'm thinking of Hebrews chapter six. It talks about the elementary doctrine of Christ.

So I've been studying this for years because I want to systematize what are the basic, most essential things that everything will be built upon. And then I'm looking on this, like, foundation of repentance from dead works, and, you know, instruction about the washings. This is the doctrine of Christ.

I'm thinking this is the gospel. So I'm wondering, are these Jewish things? Because, or are these washings, baptisms, especially King James, can this be the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or are these Jewish things, or are dead works, are they, you know, are they religious works from Judaism, or is it also sins? I saw John Wesley, he would talk about it as being, you know, repenting from sins, and water baptism, baptismary spirit as well.

But what are these things, and what are resources I can use to study these things more deeply? Yeah, you know, there are excellent commentaries on Hebrews over the years that were done by Jewish believers, or those that were engaged in Jewish outreach, like a Franz Delich, you know, or an Adolph Safir in the 1800s, and you have, you know, contemporary messianic Jewish commentaries like David Stern, Jewish New Testament commentary, and some other messianic Jewish work on Hebrews, but distinctly Pentecostal, charismatic, that's definitely been lacking. You know, there's a new series that just started that'll be a Pentecostal commentary on the entire Bible. I'm doing the book of Isaiah now, although at the pace I'm writing, it'll be like 1500 page commentary, it's just so much in Isaiah.

But there's a real need for it. Wayne Grudem's systematic theology is one of the best, and Wayne is a continuationist, he's charismatic, so you might get some of that insight reflected in his commentary. J. Rodman Williams is another charismatic who's done systematic theology, so they will get into these texts, but something that specifically tackles them in depth from a Pentecostal charismatic viewpoint, which would have been the viewpoint of the early church in terms of believing in and functioning in the gifts and power of the Spirit, and Hebrews assumes that reality as well.

I don't know that there's a lot that's out there, and it is fascinating because there's so little teaching on these things. Even if this was primarily Jewish in orientation, it has an application to the whole body, just like the rest of the New Testament writings and letters. It's interesting that when you have the words repentance and faith or repent and believe in the same verse, it's only three times, Mark 1-15, Acts 20-21, and Hebrews 6-1, and each time repent comes before faith or repentance before faith, which is very interesting. At the least, this is talking about repentance from dead works, meaning that we turn away from useless religious rites, but to translate it as repenting from acts that lead to death, I think you have to have that broader concept there. Even in the Jewish world, there are plenty of Jews who weren't religious, plenty of Jews that were just living sinful lives like everybody else, and repenting, as Paul speaks of it in Acts 20-21, it's repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus. Or as Paul articulates in Acts 26-20, I preach that people should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. So we can't just limit that to repentance from dead religious works. It's definitely included in it, but I think it has to be understood more broadly.

Faith in God, that part's clear enough. So that's in Hebrews 6-1. But then from there, baptism, so it is washings, it's plural in the Greek. Is it talking about water baptism and baptism in the Spirit? Possible, possible. But because of the emphasis there of where you think of washings, especially as a Jewish reader, it could be indicating that there were other aspects of washing. In other words, that there may have been other cleansing rites, or that you have the once and for all baptism, but that you could have rededications and things like that. Is that possible?

It's a very fair question. I was looking at that recently. Last year, I preached at a church in Georgia that had a real outpouring when they began to immerse people, and people were coming from around the country, even other countries, to make a fresh dedication of their lives to the Lord in the water there, and there were many healings and deliverances.

So it goes on from there. Laying on of hands. Yeah, how often do you hear teaching on that? So it's certainly speaking about laying on of hands, separating people from ministry, but why is that so important, so big?

Obviously, there's also the laying on of hands for impartation, either laying on the hands to receive the Holy Spirit, laying on of hands for healing, or other type of impartation, receiving a gift. So that's big. How often do we talk about that? Your average church says we're big into doctrine.

How often do you use this? And then the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. That's big stuff. Fascinating that laying on of hands is in that list as well, and baptisms in the plural.

So that's really the big question. Baptisms in the plural, laying on of hands. For sure, laying on of hands has to include these other aspects. Ordination, impartation, laying on of hands for healing, and laying on of hands for the Holy Spirit, because all of those are clearly mentioned in the New Testament. So yeah, let's get back to the foundations.

Absolutely, I'm with you on that. So then, the solid food. If repentance from dead works would be, you know, legalism and sins or works that lead to death, then what is the solid food?

Solid food is that this is the foundation and you build on it. In other words, I am not daily thinking about, okay, I need to repent of the sins of my past or of dead works. I'm trying to mature in the Lord. Of course, that involves repentance, but these are the foundations. Faith in God. Okay, He's real. He exists. He's a reward of those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11, 6. Now we grow. Now we go deeper. Now we seek to become more like Him.

So those are the things we build on. And hey, Marcus, do this. Shoot a note to us through the website, through AskDrBrown.org.

Click on contact. And say that I asked you to get this to my attention, because I want to check with some of my Charismatic Scholar colleagues to see if they know, maybe a doctoral dissertation somebody wrote, something that focuses on these questions more particularly from our point of view. But thank you, sir, for the question. And everybody listening and watching, when's the last time you heard major teaching on the importance of the laying on of hands and where that functions in the church today? Hebrews says that's one of the foundations.

All right, thank you. 866-34-TRUTH. Matthew in Adelaide, Australia. Time is short, so dive right in with your question.

Are you there? I will tell you what, I'll ask the question for Matthew. He's wondering how to discern what prophecies are from God.

So, number one, if it's some broader prophecy, this one will be elected, this will happen that, well, does it come to pass? If the person speaking it has, excuse me, a solid track record and over a period of years, their prophetic words come to pass, that gives it more credibility. Second thing, does it violate scripture? I mean, that's an obvious one.

You start there. If it's contrary to scripture, throw it out. But if it's in harmony with scripture or not addressed directly in scripture, does it bear witness with your own heart? Do you have a sense?

Yes, that's a true word. The other thing is, if it's something that somebody spoke over you or the Lord showed me this or that, again, what's that person's track record? Tested by the Word, tested by the witness in your spirit, but you never, ever allow anyone to manipulate you, bring you under their control, bring you under their sphere of influence, put you in a situation of obligation, bind you in any way. You never, ever, ever allow anyone to do that with an alleged prophetic word, because that is not from above. All right, friends, I'll see you on our website, 866-342. Be waiting for you there.