Dr. Brown Answers All Your Questions

Phone lines are open. You've got questions. Again, is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome friends to the line of fire on this Friday. You've got questions. We've got answers.

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We'll start with Bruce in Belgrade, Montana. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi, Dr. Brown, thanks for taking my call.

You're welcome. My question has to do with what you've been talking a lot about, the Trump prophecies, and I don't want to speak about those specifically, but just the whole idea of prophecy in the Church today, you know, under the model of what we see in the New Testament. So here's, I just want to bounce this off you and get your opinion. So when we read this scripture, when we read the New Testament scriptures, we see, of course, Yeshua Himself being the first example, speaking prophetically at times, Matthew 24 and elsewhere. And then we'll, you know, see, although I can't think of anything real specific, but in a sense, I think maybe there's some scriptures that deal with some of the apostles that maybe spoke prophetically here and there, like in Acts or whatever. We have those, if I remember the story right, the daughters of the man who prophesied over Paul that he would be bound when he goes into Jerusalem.

Yes. Let me give you a quick review of examples of prophecy we have in the New Testament. So we have Jesus knowing the thoughts of hearts. John 4, the Samaritan woman says, you know, I perceive you're a prophet. We have Jesus predicting future things, be it Peter's betrayal or be it the destruction of Jerusalem. You have two examples in the book of Acts in terms of people identified as prophets, the company of prophets in Acts 11 with Agabus saying that there's a famine that's going to be coming. And then again, in Acts 21, Agabus prophesied to Paul about him being bound in Jerusalem.

So you have those specific examples. Then you have the teaching about prophetic ministry mentioned in Romans, the 12th chapter, those that prophesied in 1 Corinthians 12 and then at greater length in 1 Corinthians 14. And there, as the prophets speak, sin in people's lives is uncovered, the unbeliever, the outsider, and they fall on their face saying, surely God is in your midst. And then the greatest example of New Testament prophecy we have is in Revelation 2 and 3 as Jesus speaks by the Spirit to the churches. So those are prophetic words to the churches. And then the book of Revelation, prophetic apocalyptic literature. And then certain prophecies like Paul saying, for example, in 1 Timothy 4 that the Spirit speaks expressly about deception in latter times and things like that.

So, you know, they'll speak prophetically. So the apostles in some of their letters are speaking prophetically. The identification of people as prophets, you have Acts 11. Acts 13, it mentions prophets and teachers that were there. Acts 21, again, prophetic ministry. And then Ephesians 4, you have fivefold ministry prophets along with apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. So that's a broad overview of what's in the New Testament. Yeah. So I have a specific question in light of those examples.

And this is a little bit of a, you know, my own opinion on this, and this is what I want to hear from you. It seems to me, so we have the Trump prophecies and, you know, the failure of those. But it seems even outside of that, and by the way, I am charismatic, so I fully believe in the gifts for today. So it seems to me, though, in those examples, primarily, if we're painting with a broad brush, that those are, the New Testament examples are primarily for, other than Yeshua not speaking to the whole people of Israel that heard him, but like in Paul's letters and whatnot, and of course the book of Revelation, which is to the whole church, that some of those other... More specific, individual words and individual application. Right. And it seems to me that, and I don't mean this to sound harsh, but that some of the modern prophets seem to speak presumptuously for the entire church, where it seems like we'd be better off to do it in their individual congregations, and as God might give them words for specific individuals. Yeah, so let me just jump in for time's sake and say this. We have people speaking to the whole body, and we have for decades, Charles Spurgeon, my preacher's sermon, then it gets published in a book, and then everyone's reading the book, right?

A.W. Tozer would write something, and people are reading what he's writing, or weekly columns, or things like that. We had radio preachers, TV preachers. So we have radio prophets, TV prophets.

In other words, anybody can speak to the whole body now. I potentially could speak to every believer in the world if they had access to this broadcast right now. What has to happen is, number one, things should be filtered through our local congregational life. We shouldn't just be following a TV preacher or TV evangelist, et cetera. We should take what we're getting from all different sources, but filter it through our local congregational life and through the wisdom we have there.

That's one thing. And the second thing is we have to recognize that New Testament prophets are not going to have a universal word for the whole body. In other words, there is not going to be one person who stands up like an Elijah-like figure and has a word for the entire church. If God indeed is speaking that, he'll speak it through many who are hearing and saying the same thing, and it won't just be those who are called to be prophetic. Your average believer will sense what God is saying as the word is coming forth, and your local shepherds will get it. If there's some national thing God is saying. So I believe that we've set ourselves up for error by asking the prophets, hey, what's the Lord showed you about this?

What's the Lord showed you about this? As if they have the call of being—I'm not criticizing them when they're asked. I'm saying we shouldn't be doing this.

It kind of makes them into spiritual fortune tellers. And that's one of the reasons that we have to have major course corrections. Yes, the prophecies guaranteeing Trump's reelection are wrong. They failed.

Fine, you'll agree on the 20th they failed or whatever reality sets in. You'll recognize that. That's one thing.

But I'm with you, sir. There needs to be larger reformation in the prophetic movement within the charismatic church. So it's not actually just a movement.

It's just part of the larger body. And I've been talking about it a lot. I've written about it some. But God willing, I'm going to do an entire teaching series very soon, put it out on video as a class on prophetic ministry for today that hopefully will be very helpful for God's people. Hey, thank you very much for the call. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Jim in Winston, Georgia. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown.

Appreciate you taking the call. I've got a new Jewish New Testament commentary by David Stern. And he said something at one point in it that I felt was very interesting. He said that there's been over and above Jesus, there's been over 50 different Messiahs that have people who claim to be the Jewish Messiah. And he further added that none of these so-called Messiahs fulfill the Jewish prophecy of being born in Bethlehem. I've never heard that point made, but it strikes me as being very powerful if true.

And I was wondering, do you agree with this? Are there more than 50 Messiahs other than Jesus? And if so, why don't we mention that none of these guys were born in Bethlehem? Yeah, well, this is certainly a conversation that we have in Jewish ministry and Jewish apologetics and interacting with rabbis.

So it is something that does come up. Number one, there have been many false messiahs in Jewish history. Of course, the traditional Jew believes that Jesus Yeshua was a false Messiah. But obviously, as we recognize and understand who he is, we speak about the other false messiahs, most of them very, very minor characters that even the vast majority of religious Jews would not be familiar with. The biggest names really in history were Bar Kochba in the second century, who led the second Jewish revolt against Rome and was ultimately hailed as Messiah by Rabbi Akiva, who is the greatest rabbinic sage of that day and who died as a result of the Jewish revolt and his continuing to teach Torah when it was illegal. But that would be the most prominent name from the ancient world. And then when you get into the sixteen hundreds, Shabbatites, Sve and Smyrna, he was a massive false messiah figure that was followed by large portions of the Jewish world of his day that brought deep spiritual devastation in the aftermath. And then in modern times, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitch of Rebbe, who died in 1994 at the age of ninety two, was widely hailed by his followers as the Messiah. And to this day, many of his most devout followers still believe that he's the Messiah and is spiritually guiding things even after death.

But the vast majority of these figures are minor. I couldn't name the vast majority of them. But David Stern is accurate in saying there have been many, many different players. His Jewish New Testament commentary is a great resource. The Jewish answer to the requirement to be born in Bethlehem is that they would read Micah five two differently. They would say that the Messiah has his origins back in Bethlehem, meaning that he is a descendant of David, who was from Bethlehem, as opposed to the Messiah was required to be born in Bethlehem. So I fully agree with you that it is a messianic requirement. But that would be the rabbinic answer. The rabbinic answer would be that it just means that he goes back to Bethlehem. His origins are in Bethlehem because that's where David came from.

And they wouldn't see it as a messianic requirement. So that's the rabbinic response. All right, friends, we'll be right back with your calls. Eight, six, six, three, four, three. By the way, we have a whole twenty two hour DVD series or just get flash drive.

Twenty two hours with a study guide. Answering the rabbis, countering the counter missionaries. You can find it at our Web site. That's Dr. Brown dot org. 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.

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Let's go to Eugene in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you for having me on your show, Dr. Brown. I appreciate it, sir. Sure thing.

Yes, sir. So my question, I have a family member. We were both kind of raised in the apostolic church, for the most part, and joining the military and going to different churches, I kind of got pulled away from their staunch stance of Acts 2 38, that unless you were baptized specifically in the name of Jesus, then you're not saved, or you have to speak in tongues to be saved. And I thoroughly disagree with that, and I've particularly seen the extensive amount of damage it's done to Christians who, you know, you're going to hell unless you speak in tongues, and it encourages them to fake it. Yeah, it's terrible.

Absolutely terrible. Yes, it's not good, and the atmosphere of churches like that is not particularly healthy. So my question, and even if you want to shotgun scriptures at me, I'll rewatch this video and study it for myself, but what are scriptures that would defeat that type of theology? And I'm just happy to hear from you about it, sir.

Yeah, sure thing, Eugene. So first, obviously there's the larger error of the oneness theology in terms of the nature of God, and obviously we believe in one God and one God only, but the basic teaching that Jesus is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so to be baptized in His name, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, means in the name of Jesus. So just reading through John 14, 15, 16, even into the 17th chapter, where Jesus speaks of the glory He enjoyed with the Father before the world began, it destroys the whole oneness theology.

So I tackle that larger issue there, John 14, 15, 16, into the 17th chapter, that it just doesn't work in different aspects of God, or manifestations, or putting on, like, okay, right now I'm a radio host, but then I get home, I'm a husband, then I see my daughter, I'm a father, then I see my granddaughter, I'm the grandfather, if I saw my mother, she was alive, I'd be a son, and so, I mean, all of that really breaks down terribly when you read these passages. When it comes to the baptismal formula, it's interesting that the earliest church document we have that deals with this outside of the New Testament, the dake, refers specifically to use of the words, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, when immersing people. And if you look in the Greek, in each time it mentions being baptized in the name of Jesus, there are different Greek prepositions used. There is ace, there is epi, so there's baptized upon His name, baptized in, there's end, there's baptized ace into, and you realize there are different aspects of truths being put forth here. It could be baptized while calling on the name of Jesus, so the person baptized is calling on the name of Jesus for salvation. That's what it means. Or being baptized into Jesus, as we have in Romans the sixth chapter, that we're joined with Him in baptism and we die to sin and rise in newness of life.

That would be another aspect of it. Baptized into the body of Christ. So there are all these different things that are taking place, and if it was just one specific formula, the Greek would be identical in every case. So just go through every time it's mentioned in the book of Acts, starting in Acts 2-38, and look to see what the Greek is, and you'll notice those differences in the prepositions, which although minor, are telling. So if I was doing it in Greek, I'd say, well, which one do I use, because I've got several different choices?

So which one do I use? What does it matter? All those precise formulas, it has to matter. No, you realize that there are different aspects of the same thing being put forward there. I mean, obviously, hours and hours we could get into this, but I'd start first with the nature of God, and I'd just go through John 14, 15, 16, into the seventeenth chapter, and there's no possible way that a oneness theology can be supported.

I know there are oneness scholars, but obviously I take strong issue with them over those points. Hey, thank you, as always, for calling 866-34-TRUTH. We go to Philip in Savannah, Georgia. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Happy Friday, Brother Michael. How are you doing today?

Very well, thank you. Well, to make it quick and short, it's an interesting topic for me, just the question about hell, and I intend to never find out for myself the answer, but it is something which I've seen different biblical scholars comment on in recent years, which is I grew up in a church where I grew up in the, I think it's called the eternal damnation view of hell, where people who reject Christ one way or the other go to hell, and they exist forever, but they're eternally tormented for rejecting Christ, and then we know what happens to people in heaven. I recently, over the recent years, have heard different people comment on the annihilation view, and I was curious to get your opinion on it. One example they mentioned is that there's a lot of references to fire when talking about the day of the Lord or God, and we are baptizing fire, and on Pentecost, fire when it comes on Christians, it empowers us and it fuels us, but much like that some things are purified by fire, other things are consumed by fire, so it's not a big deal to me, but it was an interesting kind of conversation, and I wanted to know your opinion on the thoughts on eternal damnation versus annihilation. There's actually a fair biblical debate that should be had whether the Bible teaches final annihilation or eternal conscious torment.

It is a discussion that should be had within the body. Now, the predominant church view through the centuries has been eternal conscious torment, and the thought of it, even to glimpse it for a split second, is completely overwhelming and makes it difficult to even sit and have a meal in peace by thinking the person sitting next to me might be tormented forever and ever and ever, or lost loved ones might be. On the other hand, if that's what scripture says, that's what makes it so devastating and why people go to the ends of the earth to give them a message to be rescued from hell. The passages that would point most strongly to eternal conscious torment would be Matthew 25, 46, that speak of some going into eternal life, others into eternal punishment. The counter to that from the annihilationist would be it doesn't say eternal punishing, but punishment. You have in Revelation 14 the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.

Revelation 20, people being tormented or being tormented day and night forever and ever. But of course, that's the book of Revelation, which is apocalyptic imagery as well, and not necessarily where you're going to go to just build doctrine. On the flip side, you have John 3, 16, whoever believes will not perish. You have Matthew 10, 28, God can destroy both body and soul in hell. You have 2 Thessalonians 1, where with the return of the Lord, people will be punished with eternal destruction. You have the witness of the Old Testament of people being cut off. So I was saved in a church that taught eternal hell fire, and I preached and taught with passion, that that was what scripture taught, and sometimes with a very intense burden because of it.

Some years into being saved, when I had memorized about 4,000 verses in a little over six months, and had read through the entire Bible about five times the first couple years I was saved, so I had a good grid in my mind even then in terms of sorting through scripture. I heard a Seventh Day Adventist teacher on the radio make the case for annihilation of people ultimately being cut off, and he went through all the scriptures, and as he did, I put it through the grid, and I thought, okay, they can make a case for that. I differ with it based on these other verses and what the church has historically taught, but they can make a case for it.

Now on the one hand, you could say, okay, but what are the practical effects of that? If you believe that ultimately people will be annihilated, destroyed, then it takes away incentive to evangelize, and you know, if you're a Buddhist, you're just looking for some type of cessation of existence as the ultimate goal because life is full of suffering and pain, and so fine, that's what you're looking forward to anyway, some type of annihilation, so it takes away the incentive to go to the lost. Then I've had people call my show and say, no, actually, this has freed me to witness because I was ashamed to witness because the idea of if you reject this message, you're going to be tortured forever and ever, gave a wrong view of God, now I can witness more freely. So the bottom line is, what does scripture say?

And it is a subject that should be studied. It should be actively studied and investigated, and both sides weighed carefully in terms of what does scripture say. The fact that cults like Jehovah's Witnesses hold to annihilation is not the proof that it's wrong, the fact that church tradition has held to eternal conscious torment in much tradition is not the proof that it's right, the question is ultimately what does scripture say. I concluded many, many years ago that I would just quote scripture. In other words, when I was preaching, I would quote scripture and not embellish it, and not go beyond what the Bible said. I would quote it because the words of Jesus are terrifying enough, and the main message I want people to know is that the consequence of willfully rejecting Jesus, or the consequences of willfully rejecting Jesus, are eternal. In other words, the consequence, either annihilation and forfeiture of eternal life, or eternal conscious torment, either way, the consequences of rejecting him are eternal, irreversible, and terrifying. If what you preach is less than that, then you've departed from scripture. If what you preach is in harmony with that, then you're more on the right track of scripture, whether it's annihilation, or eternal conscious torment.

But by all means, it should be studied, and there are actually fine Christian scholars on both sides of that debate today. 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. You've got questions. We've got answers. Michael Brown here. My delight to be with you.

866-348-7884 is the number to call. And you may differ with me on something. You may be hostile. Fine. Anyone can call. Doesn't just have to be friendly or curious.

It could be hostile, negative. Great. Give me a call.

Tell me why. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Terry in Montreal, Canada. Welcome to the Line of Fire. How are you doing today?

Doing very well, thank you. Thank you, thank you. I have a very important question. It's concerning false messiahs. In Matthew 24, the disciples asked them, what would be the sign of his return? And Jesus said, beware that you're not deceived, that many will come in his name.

So, great deception. I heard you say to one of your callers that you would quote verses and not expound on it. So in light of that, how would you reconcile your position with concerning Sabbath-keeping for Gentiles with Isaiah 56, verse 6 and 7, which specifically says the covenant is directly linked to the Sabbath? And he says that those who keep the Sabbath, the Gentiles, will be led to his mountain. So how would you reconcile your position about Sabbath-keeping for Gentiles when Isaiah 56, verse 6 and 7 specifically says the Sabbath is directly linked to the covenant?

That's my question. First, why did you tie that in with the question about false messiahs? Since Jesus Christ said he is the Lord of the Sabbath, it's like if I said Donald Trump is the President of the United States, if the United States doesn't exist, then his presidency is of no value. Right, but what does that have to do with me and the question of false messiahs? Since he is the Lord of the Sabbath, if you deny the Sabbath, you deny his lordship. That's a false messiah. All right, but what does that have to do with me? Oh, because don't you preach that Gentiles are not supposed to keep the Sabbath? Not required to. In other words, I'm a hell-bound deceiver if I say that Gentiles are not required to keep the Sabbath.

But what you quoted has nothing to do with this issue, so that's what I'm pushing for. Here, Philip, Terry, excuse me. Just be forthright. Don't play games here.

I'm not playing games. I quoted Isaiah 56, verse 6 and 7. But that has nothing to do with Matthew 24 and the question of false messiahs deceiving people, okay? My question is, are you—I'm asking you a direct question, all right?

Go ahead. Are you saying that because I do not say that it is mandatory for Gentile Christians to observe the Sabbath, that therefore I am denying Jesus and a false teacher? I would refer you to what God said.

Terry, Terry, what is your view? I don't have a view. I don't lean on my own understanding. Okay, got it. All right, so I'm going to help you.

I'm going to help you. You are deceived. You are deceived in your position that Gentiles are required to keep the Sabbath and that those who teach otherwise are hell-bound deceivers, okay, based on your understanding of Scripture. Isaiah 56 mentions nothing about the new and better covenant, does it? No, it doesn't.

Not a syllable. So under Sinai covenant, that is how a Gentile would be joined to the people of Israel and would receive the covenantal blessings because that person was not a Jew. That does not—it is not repeated anywhere in the New Testament. And the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath says that the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. He was attacking some of the traditions of his day. Colossians 2 explicitly warns against those who would put believers under pressure to observe the Sabbath, saying the Sabbath is only the shadow.

The substance is found in the Messiah. There is no evidence from any early church writing that Gentile Christians were expected to keep a seventh-day Sabbath. In fact, it wasn't even feasible in the world in which they lived in the work requirements that were put upon them. In fact, the Gentile church didn't understand why Jewish believers continued to observe the Sabbath as Jews. So, simple question for you. Since Isaiah 56 does not mention a syllable about the new and better covenant, all right, and it is written in the context of the Sinai covenant, please give me one verse explicitly in the New Testament that commands a Gentile believer to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Just one explicit verse from the New Testament.

Okay, I'll do that. You didn't answer Isaiah 56 that talks about a future prophecy, not a past, not Sinai, future. You didn't answer that, that's no problem. I will answer your question. It was spoken under the Sinai covenant. But go ahead. Go ahead.

Isaiah 56, anybody could read in English, it's a future prophecy. But I will answer your question. I will answer your question because it says, I will bring you to my mountain, to the strangers.

So, to say it's a Sinai covenant when it's... Great. All right, Terry, I'm going to give you one more shot. I got other callers, all right, and obviously you're not teachable. You didn't call to get clarification, you called to accuse, which is fine. I welcome that, all right?

So, just one more shot. Give me one explicit verse from the New Testament that commands Gentile believers to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Go ahead. Well, Acts 15. Acts 15 says that Peter, of all the Gentiles that were supposed to come inside of the congregation, he says, let them in. They don't eat meat with blood and etc., etc.

And he says, why? Because every Sabbath they preach the law of Moses. So that was a mandate from the very apostles of Jesus Christ. All right, so now I'm just going to tell you openly, you're twisting Scripture. You're twisting Scripture. And I'm saying this, I don't know that you're going to listen at all, I pray you will, but for others who are confused, what Terry just did is turn the Bible upside down to fit a wrong theology, which is sad, okay?

And he's listening to me, but he's not here to push back because we can only have one of us speak at the same time. All right, so Acts 15 says the exact opposite. It wasn't Peter, it was James, Jacob, speaking on behalf of the apostles. And what's written there is to only lay certain basic requirements on them, okay? Only lay these basic requirements on them, certain things having to do with blood and food and sexual immorality, all right? And then when it says for Moses has been preached in the synagogues, Sabbath after Sabbath, what's being said there is those Gentiles who have been in the synagogue, God-fearing Gentiles, they're familiar with this.

They'll have no problem getting it. It's not saying, oh no, get the rest, because Terry, you're not living by the rest of the Torah. And if you're going to say that for Seventh-day Sabbath, you have to say that for the rest of the Torah.

If I had any sense that you were teachable and ready to listen, I'd spend more time. Since that's obviously not the case, I want to challenge you to get on your face before God and read through Acts 15 again, and then read through the rest of the New Testament. You will not find a hint of your theology there, quite the opposite. And then the rest of the Torah that you're now insisting that everyone come under, not just Isaiah 56, but according to Acts 15, your view, the rest of the Torah is now condemning you and damning you every day. Flee back to the gospel of grace.

Flee back to the gospel of grace. And every commandment that the New Testament enjoins on us, and those are many, we keep with zeal and joy. And those that feel led by God and desire to keep a Seventh-day Sabbath, God bless you. The Sabbath in my life is a Seventh-day Sabbath.

But the idea that it is mandatory for Gentiles is a dangerous lie. God bless you, sir. I hope God will open your heart to listen. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let's go to Jesus in Chicago. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hello, sir. It's an honor to be able to speak with you. I only really knew you existed until like, maybe a couple of weeks ago. Hey, listen, let me just tell you something, man. I've been existing for almost 66 years now, so glad you caught up to me. Yeah, God bless you, man. Now, there's a lot of people out there, so a lot of us are not known. But anyhow, what's up?

I have a question concerning... I'm a chick in Christ, or a baby in Christ, I feel. I'm 23. But I don't know if this was an event that either he let happen or he made happen, but an event in my life caused me to break down in question and really call me to learn about truth from Scripture. I mean, I already believed in God beforehand, but I could feel that. I realize now it was starting to fall away, or maybe go down a wrong path, so God maybe allowed this to happen, to wake me up, and really it's time for a change in my relationship with Him. Because I was in college, and I just graduated with a Creative Writing major, and I wanted to basically use fiction to write about truths of the world, and then I realized what drew me to Christ, and so what really convicted me back then, was just the beauty and amazing things like this sacrificial love and the amazing blessings of just having dinner with your family, and looking at the beauty of nature, and looking how beautiful the world was expressed through storytelling and stuff. But now I realize that I need to look at truth, not just from the world, because I started making the mistake of having the writing in comics and whatever worldly literature.

It was half-truth, and I started to drift away by accident. And now that I'm here, and I hear many... I look at things like 2 John, where it says, do not love the things of the world, hate the world, for love of the world pushes out the Father, and then I hear... I've heard a lot of really good pastors and preachers, though they scare me, like Paul Washer and this other, I believe, I forgot his name, but I think his name is Kevin, but say that you're not supposed to get questions like, should we have a TV?

And he's like, there's so much worldly nonsense out there, I don't understand. Yeah, so let me jump in, and when it says in 1 John 2, beginning in verse 15, don't love the worldly, the things that are in the world, it tells us what it's talking about, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, right? So what you want to do is really build yourself up in God, let your great nourishment come from your times with God in the word and prayer and worship. Really focus on developing deep spiritual health roots, get a spiritual perspective on things, and then find out from there how that interfaces with every area of life, be it sitting with your family, be it the beauty of nature.

Someone like C.S. Lewis, a brilliant Christian thinker, wrote Chronicles of Narnia, without explicitly saying Christ, cross, et cetera, and brought a message of redemption to tens of millions, probably over 100 million people or more impacted by his writings and messages. So it's not a matter of just cutting ourselves off like in a monastery kind of life, because the world is everywhere around us, right? We are in the world, but not of it.

So what you do is really immerse yourself in God and the word and prayer, and then from that perspective say, okay, what edifies, what's helpful, maybe sitting down with family, join a sports event here and there, maybe going out and having an ice cream, you know, or it may just be locking yourself in with God. 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. You know, just one more word to follow up on what I was saying, Jesus in Chicago. By the way, I don't eat ice cream anymore, I haven't for years, but just throwing that in. There's things you can do that are just family or friends or silly time or whatever, you know, playing games with your kids, and that's great, that's fine. You know, sometimes we can get the idea that unless something is just spiritual, unless I'm just reading the Bible, praying, or sharing my faith with someone that I'm not pleasing God, no, God wants us to thrive in this world.

It means a husband and wife taking a vacation together with the kids. It means lots of different things as long as the things in themselves are not sinful. So first you really get with the Lord, you then look at the things that themselves are sinful, destructive, you know, if you're addicted to porn or, you know, enjoy watching movies of people being sliced up and cannibalized, it's like, okay, I can't, you know, this is sick, dark, ugly stuff. And, you know, so you step away from that. And then, okay, we're in this world, and we may have 80 or 90 years here and, you know, whatever, let's live to the full, putting Him first, and then looking at our schedules, what makes sense, what works best, and then coming from there, you know, even creative writing, a degree in that, God can use that without everything being an explicit Jesus message.

There are truths, moral truths, other things that can be conveyed that are helpful and edifying. All right, let's go back to the phones. Michael in Newark, New Jersey, welcome to the line of fire. Hello, Michael Brown, how are you? Doing well, thank you. This is Michael Kahn, author of Exposing the Money Machine, The Untold Nature of Christianity and Angry, Loud, and Clear Truth, and I know you read it at least half of The Untold Nature of Christianity. Well, go ahead, sir. Okay. I've been away from Christian faith and from Christians and pastors for about five or six years now.

And, of course, I've been a researcher on the internet, I do not watch television. Now, I'd like to know, have the pastors been supporting the candidacy of Trump and supporting him? Is that why the Christians don't win it for Trump? Not all Christians, you know, but a lot of Christians win it for Trump. Is that why? Well, 81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump.

I'm not asking about the Christians, I'm asking about the pastors. I'm getting there. Okay. All right. I'm sorry. That's all right.

81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump and a higher percentage of black and Hispanic Christians than in the past voted for a Republican candidate, or in recent past, voted for Trump. The question is, is why? So it's twofold. I know why, because I don't want to understand. I'm aware of what Trump said.

Michael, Michael, Michael, I'm trying to answer your question. All right? Okay. All right. That's two. You don't want to get three strikes.

Okay. So, in short, many voted for Trump because he was standing for things that were important to them. Pro-life, pro-religious liberty, pro-Israel, and therefore they voted for him because they were also voting against Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and the agenda of the left. Others were influenced by major evangelical leaders, people like Robert Jeffress, people like Franklin Graham, and others who publicly stood with Trump and supported what he was doing and were identified with him. So many evangelicals, especially white evangelicals, were influenced by leaders. Most local pastors don't say who they're voting for. They'll talk about values they're standing for. So that's why so many voted for Trump.

Yep. That's what I want to know about the local pastors and the like. I'm well aware of the leading pastors.

Thank you for letting me know. I have a few words to say about that. How do you get a former devout Christian taught Bible for eight years, wrote a book about the Bible, and I'm very scholarly about it, you know, I'm passionate about everything. But basically, the Bible says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. That it's easier for a rich man, that it's easier for Campbell to go through an Ivan Eagle than for a rich man to go to heaven.

And James talks about against rich people also. And we all know that these politicians are all bought. And Trump, being a billionaire, who has never worked a hard day's labor in his life, he reels and deals on the telephone, and who basically had a foundation which hadn't donated any money to anybody for eight years and basically didn't help anybody. Why would people vote for a man like this? Because for words, he used good words. And look at his actions.

His whole life is in ease and comfort and money, money, money for himself. Yeah, but to your question, again, most local pastors don't say who they're voting for, say, vote for this. They may say who they're voting for. Many don't. But they don't say, go vote for this candidate.

They say, here are the issues, here's where each candidate stands, now evaluate accordingly. And many pastors, multi-ethnic congregations, or black congregation may lean one way, Hispanic another way, Asian another way, primarily Caucasian another way, messianic Jewish another way. But let me also say this, though, Michael. First Timothy 6, Paul gives counsel to rich Christians. So it's not a sin to be rich, it's a sin to be attached to riches or to become rich in carnal ways. And many times the rich in this world do become more complacent. It's a valid question is to say, did Trump's moral weaknesses outweigh his good policies?

And that's a debate we'll be having for years to come. And I pray that you get plugged back in with God and his people in the days ahead. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let's go to Samuel in Florence, South Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, how you doing? Doing well, thanks. So real quick before my question, I just want to take like a super quick second and just encourage you. I've told my wife multiple times how much I appreciate Dr. Brown because he just sobered approach and balanced approach to try to bring peace and unity in the body in different areas, specifically in terms of kind of like the charismatic and reformed side of things, man, I just really appreciate your voice in that area. And I think this show is a great resource that God can lead people to in that area. Well, thank you.

Appreciate that. So this is my question. Just a curiosity thing, but in our Bible, we have this notation at the bottom on the woman called Nadolche, which is a significant story. And then Luke 23, 34, and then like the ending of Mark would be another example. And they're brought into question, how should we approach them?

Right. So you have you have different issues of textual criticism that you have over 5000 ancient Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, some with fragments, some with with large parts of the New Testament. And there are variations between them. Now, overall, there are hundreds of thousands of minor variations. It would be the difference between spelling Mr. M-I-S-T-E-R or M-R or M-R dot. You know, these completely insignificant differences, most of them.

But then you have larger ones. And the question is, OK, is John 8 part of the Bible or, you know, important verse Luke 22, 34 part of the Bible or the long writing of Mark part of the Bible? Most New Testament scholars, Greek scholars will follow manuscript traditions today that would put question marks next to these, or at least in terms of where they're placed. My view is that John 8 preserves an accurate story from the life and ministry of Jesus. But it's it's found in different parts of John's gospel. It's found in Luke's gospel ancient manuscripts.

So we're not exactly sure where it was placed, but I believe it gives a reliable account. My view of Mark, the longer ending of Mark, is it's clear that it doesn't end where it does in verse eight. It's not the ending of Mark. And nine through 20 that we have in our Bibles contains some different vocabulary.

There's even an immediate verbal change. So I don't believe that was the original ending of Mark. But I do believe that this is a real account, a resurrection account with real teaching of Jesus that was preserved in other manuscripts that is now part of our Bible. And that, in other words, my debate as I look at this is not whether this was really scripture, but is it in the right place?

Was it the original ending? But ultimately, I do receive these things as God's word because of their antiquity and attestation in other places, and harmony with the spirit of Scripture elsewhere. That's how I would look at it. Hey, thank you, sir.

Obviously we go on for many hours, piecing out each of these individually. That's my large review. And let's see. All right, got time for one more call.

Carmen in Dallas, Texas. Thanks for holding. If you could weigh in quickly, I'll try to answer quickly. Yes, Dr. Brown. This topic, people have engaged about it to the point of ad nauseam. It's about the prophecies, and so my question is this, because some of these prophets are maybe your friends, or at least you are familiar with them. If next Wednesday, January 20th, 2021 at noon, indeed Biden and Kamala Harris and Biden sworn in, what do you believe the posture of these prophets should be today?

And some of them might wait, because they may feel that something more is going to happen big in March, but do you think that they should apologize for their explain, leave it alone, lay low? How do you feel about that? Thank you for asking. I wrote under tremendous burden yesterday. I wrote an article with a very direct and strong appeal to those who prophesied falsely to be released on the 21st.

So I wrote it. I'll continue to pray over it, but it is a very, very strong call to say, drop it. It's over. We're going to see different reactions. Some will be deeply repenting and saying, I don't know how I got this wrong.

I don't know how suddenly my friends and colleagues got this wrong, but I'm so terribly sorry. Time for great soul searching. I'm making myself accountable to other leaders, and we're going to get to the root of how I could be so deceived, and I deeply apologize for bringing reproach to the name of the Lord and for hurting so many of you, and we'll see their integrity in doing it. Others who have less integrity will blame. Well, it's the people in them in their faith. Well, they didn't pray.

Well, people like this Mike Brown guy destroyed it. I mean, they'll come up with all kinds of nonsense. So you immediately distance yourself from that type of word, and then the others are going to go into complete delusion and fantasy, and Trump is. He is the president. It's already happened.

He is the spiritual president. No, no, no. Wait till March. Wait till April. It's crazy. It is crazy, and it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. People's lives are being destroyed, and much reproach is coming to the name of the Lord. Washington Post just wrote about this. New York Times is about to write about this. Friends, wake up. Be sober. Donald Trump will not be inaugurated on January 20th. Face it. We'll be here to help when that happens.