How to Discover Treasures in God's Word

There are amazing treasures in the Word of God. We'll talk about how to dig them out for yourself today. 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Friends, we're gonna dig into the Word of God today.

You are gonna be enlightened, blessed, encouraged, informed, and if you have a Bible question, especially New Testament related, and even more specifically, New Testament Greek related, I've got a colleague here, just the right man to answer your most difficult questions. 866-34-TRUTH. 866-34-8-7-8-8-4.

This is Michael Brown. I'm joined in studio today by, with my friend, Professor Steve Ault. We've worked together now in school related settings for over 20 years, going back to around 1997. Full-time together, side-by-side, pouring into students, ministry students, training them, teaching, mentoring every way that we could, and now exclusively doing it online at Fire School of Ministry Online. All of our classes, the full audio of the class, with full study notes for each class, with online meetings with different professors, with practical ministry assignments, everything online. We'll tell you more about that. We want to get into the Word during the broadcast, but to find out more, to enroll in our new classes, our new semester just about to start, go to fireschoolofministry.com. fireschoolofministry.com.

Tell a friend, this is the place for you. Hey Steve, welcome back to the Line of Fire. It's been a while, good to have you with us today.

It's great to be here, Dr. Brown. So Steve, how is it that you saved out of the crazy lifestyle, the, you know, the whole sex, drugs, rock and roll, worldly lifestyle, you get wonderfully saved, wonderfully born-again. How is it that you got into the Word of God? What gave you such a passion to be such a gifted teacher of the Scriptures? That really began before I became a Christian. I was in the University, East Carolina University, had a Christian roommate and we would talk a lot and I would ask him questions about the Bible and he once I made the comment that, you know, you could open up and read a verse of Scripture and in a room with ten theologians and they'd give you ten different interpretations.

And I thought, man, that can't be right. Something's wrong there, that word has to mean something and I'm going to know what it means. And when he left the room after our talk, he had a Bible on a shelf and I remember looking at the Bible and I just pointed at it and I said, someday I'm going to know what that book means. And ever since then I've had that hunger for the knowledge of the Word. And you are a gifted and called teacher. You have a pastoral heart, you're a father with a bunch of kids of your own, you and your wife, Sabra. You've been a real spiritual dad to the students that have come through our ministry school but the gift that shines through you day in, day out is teacher of the Word, teacher of the Word.

You love to teach, sometimes you should be doing like five different classes in a week and love to open up the Scriptures. And one thing that you've become really sensitive to over the years is common misinterpretations and the consequences of those common misinterpretations. A massive amount of spiritual error, doctrinal error, practical error, moral error could be avoided if we simply knew the Word better. So give me an example of a common misinterpretation of Scripture or maybe something that has implications when we get it wrong.

Well, yeah, we have a lot to choose from, unfortunately. One of my favorites is whenever someone's preaching on trusting of the Lord and he'll provide for all your needs, usually we teach the right stuff, we preach the right stuff but we don't always find the right verse to teach it. And it's commonly said, well, you know, the Bible says God owns the cattle on a thousand hills so he's got enough to supply your needs. Well, if you look at the verse, it's actually talking about God not needing anything from us.

He doesn't need our sacrifices or offerings, he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. So it's saying pretty near the opposite of what we use it for because we don't read the context. Got it. All right, so talk about context, the importance of context. Context is the essence, the most important thing to study if you want to understand what anything means. It's the same as in speech, the same as anything you read today. If there's one thing that any person doesn't want is to ever be quoted out of context, whether it's a friend or whether it's a political figure or an entertainer.

That's the worst thing that could happen to them. You quoted me out of context and we get misrepresented. Well, if there's anybody we don't want to misrepresent, it's God or the authors of Scripture who are under inspiration to write the truth about God.

We should have more respect for them than any other person, including ourselves, and make sure that we don't misquote and quote out of context and make God to be saying something he's not. All right, so let's look at an example. You just cite it one where we say God owns a cattle on a thousand hills. It's one of these things like, oh, that's a cool verse. And then you discover it one day when you're reading the Psalms or Psalm 50, it's like, oh, it's so true that God provides that he's abundant.

But right, it's the exact opposite of how it's normally applied. So a lot of times we're familiar with a verse kind of like a proverb, birds of a feather flock together. So just this little proverb and then we actually read it in context and it's it's a little bit different.

So let's take an example of how understanding the context really helps us to get things right. OK, in a book of Revelation, and I've heard this preached a number of times, a lot of times, you know, we don't want to be lukewarm Christians. You know, certainly we want to be on fire for God. So they go to Revelation three in verse 16, which says that because you're neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth. And so you say, well, I mean, even even to be cold, be at least if you're cold, you're against God, then at least you know it. You know, lukewarms are worse when in fact it's talking about the water supply. This is actually cultural content or the historical context that's lying behind it, not just the literary context, but just understanding what they're talking about. The water in that city, Laodicea, was lukewarm because it got piped in from another city and it was just the right temperature of lukewarm, lukewarmness.

If you try to swallow it, there's an involuntary reaction. So that's what the spewing out of the mouth is referring to. But two nearby cities, Hierapolis, had hot, warm water, which is good for for soothing the muscles and ailments. And there was cold water in Colossae where it was very refreshing to drink.

And that's what's being referred to. Everybody knew that water in Laodicea was lukewarm and useless. So it's not talking about not being on fire for God, it's talking about there being useless. So in other words, the wrong application would be rather than being lukewarm, better if you just hate God. Better if you just walk away from God. You know, if you're lukewarm here, better if you just let it be known that you hate God.

No, it's again, it's not the application because you always wonder, like, why would you say it rather than be cold? And that's that's a misapplication. Hey, friends, Steve has taught for years, fabulous classes on how to study God's word, classes on doctrinal foundations, classes on church history, real good, informative classes, as well as inspirational classes and world changes, history makers and things like that. You can study with Steve online, the full class with full study guide, practical application tests and do it at your own pace on our online school.

So check this out. Go to fire school of ministry dot com. It is an actual online school.

You can just audit classes, but you can earn a two year degree. You can transfer credits to some other schools as well. So fire school of ministry dot com. Get registered today. And if you're enjoying Steve here, we've got a ton of time and we'll answer a lot of questions, take calls as well. But check it out. Enroll for one of Steve's classes there. They are first year, second year classes as well.

But take these. You'd be amazed how much things fall into place in the riches of things. So. So, Steve, that's an example of cultural historical background. Commentators readily know that study Bibles will tell you that it's not like you just discovered that. And yet your average reader doesn't know it and kind of puzzles over that. What about when you're laying out principles like how to study God's word and basic principles?

Where do you start? What's the very first thing that you teach someone? When I teach how to understand the Bible, first thing is to read it and read it many times over. We often have the maybe it's a lazy streak or maybe it's just an assumption. We think we read something once and that's it.

We got it. But in fact, the every time you read something, if you read carefully, you're going to see something you didn't see before. God taught me that when I was in Bible college and he had me in Romans 12, one and two, just two verses of scripture.

I would read it every day for about nine months. And every time I went to that passage, I saw something I had never seen before. God just embedded in me the reality that he will open up things I have not seen before. And when I teach biblical exegesis, we spend the most time on observations rather than interpreting the passage. We focus mostly on reading what it actually says, because we often miss that. I can't tell you how many times people have said how Jesus sweated great drops of blood at Gethsemane.

But in fact, the text doesn't say that. It says that he sweated what looked like or as it were, great drops of blood. So it reminded the witness that of what looked like blood from a distance, probably silhouette. It was nighttime and it reminded him of something that in the text may actually serve as a foreshadow because the next day he's going to be dripping blood as he carries the cross to Golgotha. And we miss the author, Luke, who's a great writer, giving us a foreshadow of what's about to happen because we misread the text by not seeing that that was a comparison.

You know, what I discovered some years back, I got saved. King James Bible was the Bible we had. So I read that over and over, memorized thousands of verses from it. And then at a certain point, I started reading other translations as well. And suddenly something I had become so familiar with because I was used to the words and it's kind of like wrote in my mind that I wasn't thinking about it as I read. I read it in another translation and it didn't so much say something different.

It just said the same thing differently. And suddenly, oh, that's what it means. Or even when you talk about Romans 12, one and two, because we're so used to the chapter divisions. Right. I beseech you there for brethren, King James, by the mercies of God. Well, we're just thinking of the mercies he had and us with the cross, which is true. But Paul had mercy in mind the end of the previous chapter, right?

That's correct. He's just been talking about the promises of God and the salvation history of restoring Israel and all Israel will be saved. And looking for the mercy of God in bringing the nation of Israel, as well as all of the nations, to salvation. And it's that mercy that he's just been talking about.

Yeah, exactly. All right, friends, we're going to come back, take some of your calls. We'll talk about the importance of knowing church history. We'll get some Greek insights as I sit with Professor Steve Ault. And if you'd like him to be teaching you right in your own home at your convenience, your time schedule, go to fire school of ministry dot com.

Oh, yeah. My class is there as well. Others, every faculty member will bless you, help you strengthen you for formal ministry preparation or just to get deeper in the word to grow in God.

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. We're going to go to your class shortly, 866-34-87884. Any Bible question, theology question, but especially if you have a New Testament question or a Greek question.

Today's a great day to call in as I sit with my friend and colleague of many years, Professor Steve Ault. So, Steve, you have specialized in Greek in terms of biblical languages, studied Greek for many years, taught Greek for many years. Give me an example of something that comes alive like, wow, or what an insight when you're able to read in the Greek and dig deeper into the New Testament text. Well, one verse that we're all familiar with is the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all the nations. And we are always told and it's preached, you know, go, go, go, you got to go. But when you look into the Greek, the main there's only one verb in that that whole verse. And the verb is not go. The verb is teach, make disciples.

And so the go is actually a participle that's known as attendant circumstance participle, which means it's something that happens alongside of the main action. The main action is make disciples. So it's assuming that you're going to go because you have to go to do what the verb says to do, probably be better translated, go make disciples so that the idea is to make disciples.

But as a result, we think, you know, if we can just get people to to, you know, go to the nations, we'll be we'll be OK. But there are a lot of missionaries aren't really doing much where they are. And if we think that the main idea is just to get people say, well, once we lead them to the Lord, we got a notch in our belt.

But the Great Commission isn't to get people saved. It's to disciple them. And that's something that we have a real weakness in the church today about people being discipled. We get them saved and then we think, well, now they're OK, the Lord's got them. But in fact, it's our job to disciple these people. It's actually one of the reasons why we have a school, because people need to be trained up in the ways of being a Christian, having a good prayer life, worshiping God on a daily basis and reading and understanding the word.

Yeah. And in point of fact, there's a discipleship crisis, especially in the Church of America, other nations as well. But tremendous sallowness, real lack of doctrinal foundations, real lack of solid foundations in the word in general, daily disciplines, holy living.

It's really a crisis level. And that's why we're seeing so much deception and error. And each group will have its weaknesses. You may have Baptist circles and they may be stronger in teaching the Bible, but weaker in the life and power of the Spirit. And in charismatic circles, they may be stronger in life and power of the Spirit, but weaker in teaching the Bible. But as a charismatic, Steve, as you Pentecostal Charismatic yourself, we're seeing a real crisis in terms of lack of foundational Bible knowledge now in charismatic circles, leading to a lot of error. And before we go to the phones, tell me about the Greek word mathetes, disciple or the verb for making disciples. Is there anything we can get from that? How much does it tie in with the with learning, being students?

What does it mean? Well, a disciple is to be a follower, a student in the time when when the New Testament was written, people would sit at the feet of philosophers, literally, and they would be full fledged followers of that that person that they were studying under. You know, of course, in Judaism, the rabbis had people that would that would sit and learn from them. They didn't just learn facts and and a set of doctrines, but they actually learned the life of that person. And when Jesus says, follow me, he didn't just say that to 12 disciples, he got a following of 12 disciples. And there were a lot of other people that also followed him. But he talked about being his disciple. You have to, you know, pick up your cross and follow him if you want to be his disciple. That means a total sacrifice of your life for the sake of living for that other one that you're following. I remember seeing cult people do that were guru or this leader, and they would leave everything and just sit at their feet and learn from them.

And it was obviously extreme to us and it was a cult. But the idea of you leave what you're doing to full time learn and grow under the master teacher, that would be normal. So question for us in the midst of our lives, families, working jobs, how to really be disciples.

And that's where we have to dig deeper and find ways to be more purposeful. Again, you can take classes with us. You can take one at a time. You can take full time program as if you were in college or seminary and our online school. fireschoolofministry.com. You have to apply. You have to be qualified to be a student. All that's clear when you contact us.

But check it out. Take a course or two. When you do, take Dave Harwood's class on the love of God or Steve Ault's class on doctrinal foundations or one of my classes on prayer or Jewish roots.

I think your eyes will be open and you'll want to dig in more. All right, let's take some calls. We'll start with Christian in Toledo, Ohio. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, what's going on, Dr. Brown?

Hey, man. I was in the Word this morning in Genesis, and I have a couple questions. I want to start with Genesis chapter 4, where it speaks about how, you know, after Cain killed Abel, God put a mark on him and he sent him off. And if they say Cain, you know, he finds his wife, has a child, and builds a city.

My question is, if it was only Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel at the time, how could he build a city and what wife did he find to have a son with? Right. Steve, you want to answer that first or you want me to? Oh, sure.

I'd be happy to. We have to be aware that the Book of Genesis doesn't tell us everything. It tells us the important things and the things that God wanted to inform us. So it's not a complete history of everything that happened in the ancient world. So we're told that Adam and Eve had Cain and had Abel as sons does not tell us about their other children, which I'm sure that over the course of 900 plus years, they had quite a few. So they would continue having children and their children would have children. And it's estimated that in the lifetime of Adam and Eve, people have done the math and suggested that as many as 25 million people could have been on the earth over the course of that much time. Yeah, and it does mention in the fifth chapter, you know, other sons and daughters being born. It even says in the fourth chapter when Cain kills Abel. So at this point, they're full grown men.

They're working, they're doing what they're doing. In Hebrew, it's literally, which is at the end of days. So obviously it means after a period of time, but you've had years and years going on. And as Steve always just said, it doesn't record every detail, especially in chronological order. So there are plenty of other people on the planet at that time, cities could be built, a population could be going. Remember when generations later, God wipes out the human race because of the flood. The human race was all over the earth at that point. So, yeah, it's a common question, but that's the answer.

It gives us the key select details about family and genealogy and things like that without filling in all the other blanks there. So question number two. Yeah, OK, and number two is Genesis chapter nine, verse twenty five, where Noah, you know, he has his three sons and the youngest sees him naked, you know, while Noah is drunk asleep and then the older two come and, you know, they cover him up.

My question is this. Noah puts a curse on his youngest child, but blesses the other two. And I'm just wondering how, why is it the youngest child fought that he thinks you're naked and you're thin? It wasn't his fault, one of them was going to see him naked, one of them had to walk in the tent. So why did he have to be cursed?

Yep, Steve, you go first, then I'll go. Well, first thing is, as I was mentioning earlier, observation of the text is very important. And as we look at the text, it actually says cursed be Canaan does not say that any of his three sons were cursed, but actually was a grandson. So obviously something's going on that we're not told and his involvement must have brought the curse on him. So it's a grandson that receives the curse. And this verse has been misread and misinterpreted historically as a justification for slavery, because they would say that the son was cursed, who gave birth to the African peoples.

That's not even true. Canaan is the one who went to the area that became known as Canaan, where a lot of ungodly people live that fell under God's judgment. And that's the land that God gave to the Israelites. And it was an act of judgment against those people and fulfillment of this curse on Canaan that the conquest took place. Right. And the other aspects with it.

Yes. So the idea of using it to justify slavery is a horrific abuse of text. But the very thing we're talking about, the implications of wrong interpretation to justify enslaving dark skinned people, it's a monstrous abuse of the text.

And it's nothing to do with what's written. The question is, you said someone had to see him naked. Obviously, there was a mockery. The son came out mocking and I just saw that whatever. Or there are ancient traditions that allege more happened that he either raped him or castrated him.

Hard to demonstrate that from the text, but certainly there's some mocking because the others go in backwards, cover them to dishonor your father's nakedness is extreme. But it could even be more of a sexual implication. The question as to why that particular son was cursed, it could be that that was the one that was deserving of it. It could be that that was the one that was fathering, following in the father's footsteps in an ungodly behavior. And we know later that the Canaanites are characterized by sexual immorality. But we can only glean so much. And the rest is speculation. Hey, thanks for the call.

Hey, Steve, we've just got a minute before the break. But there are other biblical texts that have been used to claim that dark skinned people were somehow inferior, even that Cain was cursed and the curse on Cain was dark skin. I mean, it's completely manufactured out of whole cloth, correct? That's absolutely right. God values all people the same and as the saying goes, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. And God wants all people to be saved.

And he loves everyone equally. Yeah. And the idea that you can find any of this in the text. Well, the curse of Cain, Genesis four, and it's a dark skin.

It's it's completely manufactured. You might as well say is cursed with white skin or Chris was red skin or cursed with a lot of hair or no hair. I mean, there's zero basis in the text. And yet people are abused and hurt and mistreated because of the Bible being butchered. These are sacred words. But when we understand these are God's words, it's really important to get them right. That's why James Jacob, the third chapter warns not many of you should be teachers.

They should be held greater accountability. 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.

Welcome. Welcome to the line of fire. Michael Brown here digging into the word of God with my colleague, Professor Steve Ball, dear friend and brother. We've worked side by side for many years and he has just been a rock in our community. Steady, strong, teaching, leading, mentoring, setting an example. And it's amazing to see our grads now, ministry school grads all around the world bearing fruit, making a difference, starting schools, planning churches, helping the poor and the needy.

A lot of the ground that they got is with my friend Steve. All you can study with him full time online, part time. You can be 50 years old digging deeper into the word. You can be 18 years old, supplementing your college studies. You can be 25 years old, preparing for ministry. Great place to go. We've put our entire school of ministry online. Our full two year program with additional elective classes.

Put it online. If you're training for the mission field and want to be sent out and equipped a great place to go as well, fire school of ministry.com. If you have a question, especially a Greek question, New Testament, but any Bible question for Steve, all or me, 866-34-TRUTH. All right, Steve, Book of Romans is one of your favorite books to teach and go through. And we know that the Hebrew vocabulary can have a little different meaning than Greek and then the same with English. So if we say flesh, right, if we say basar in Hebrew, that has a certain meaning. If if we talk about the spirit being poured out on all flesh, that means a particular thing when we think New Testament, sarx flesh, we're thinking more carnal, sinful nature. Romans gets into this.

And of course, the seventh chapter in particular. But tell me about the meaning of flesh, especially in the New Testament context. Romans, why do we need to get this right? There's a particular use of the word flesh that Paul uses. That's of a theological nature. It's mostly found in Romans and in Galatians, where he's referring to a way of life. And this is important because he's talking about the way a Christian is supposed to live their life. So he talks about the flesh and how futile it is to to live that way in Chapter seven. And in Chapter eight, when he's explaining it, he makes the comment, so that so then so then those who are walking according to the flesh cannot please God. Now, what's interesting is that when we talk about what it means to be in the flesh, you know, don't be in the flesh, we often think about, you know, like the sin list at the end of Chapter five of Galatians, all these evil, horrible things that people do.

That's the flesh. I mean, obviously, those are fleshly acts. But that's not what Paul is talking about when he's referring to the flesh. Obviously, if he's talking about evil things, he doesn't have to tell us you can't please God doing those. So it must be that what he's referring to is something that people might think they could do and please God.

And in Chapter seven, he's talking about living under the law. And then he starts comparing that and using it synonymously with the word flesh. This is more evident even in Chapter five of Galatians, where he says, beginning in verse 16, I say, walk by the Spirit. You will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and spirit against the flesh.

These are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not. And at that point, we're all expecting him to say not in the flesh, because that's the contrast he's drawing. But he says, if you are in the spirit, you're not under the law. So for Paul to operate in the flesh is to operate according to one's own ability to live the best life you can live apart from God without the supernatural assistance of God in your life. And that's what living under the law is.

The list of rules of what to do and what not to do, and you do your best. And to live under the law is not, it's not possible to please God this way because it's contrary to grace and because it's impossible for any person to live sinlessly and be perfect before God. So we have to live according to the spirit. And unfortunately, a lot of Christians, we get saved, we receive the spirit, we may even be filled with the spirit and speak in tongues. But we live a life where we're just trying our best to please God instead of trusting in God to produce the life of the spirit in us. Paul said it in Galatians 2 20, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And it's Christ living his life out of us that is at the essence of living under the law, living the Christian life.

All right, so let me press in a little deeper on that and then we'll take some more calls. I remember in college listening to Christian radio as I was driving to and from school and there was one brother and he was saying, I've died with Christ. I know it's now not me who lives. It's Christ who lives in me and Galatians 2 and these other passages. And he said, when I get up in the morning, it's not me, it's Christ living in me. When I do this, it's Christ living in me. And I said, Lord, when I get up in the morning, it feels like me. So how do I what's that magical trail?

How does this happen? So, Steve, you're a teacher. You're obviously bringing people to a point where they can walk with God. And at a certain level, it's like the bird getting out of the nest and it learns it can fly. But what what would be a practical step to tell someone how to not live in the flesh?

Obviously, we know blatant disobedience. We understand that's part of the flesh. But living in the flesh, like my effort to to please God and do my best.

How do I learn to live in the spirit? Well, you got to be careful even even asking that question, because, you know, if we can get told, you know, here are three steps how to do this, we're just going to go out and do those three steps and accomplish it. OK. And that is that is the flesh.

That's us doing it. So you really can't have a three step process. Do this, do this, do that. And you're in the spirit because those three things you're doing are not the spirit and the flesh cannot produce the spirit. Flesh produces flesh. So you can't have that three step process that the book, how to how to walk in a spirit. You just repeat after me and you'll do it. In fact, it's a relationship.

We live out of relationship. And when we're living, you know, according to, you know, just doing our best, you know, why do we why do you read the Bible? Well, I have to you know, God wants me to read the Bible. And, you know, the word of God is something I you know, I have to pray. I'm supposed to be praying all the time. So why do you pray? Well, because the Bible says to I'm obeying the Bible. Well, I mean, what if I had a marriage that was like that? Somebody says, why do you why do you talk to your wife? Well, you know, Bible commands me to.

So I talked to her. You know, I don't I don't know that God is all that impressed if we're dedicated to prayer just because we're told we have to. I think he wants us to pray because we want to, because we love him and we want to build that relationship. That's what's going to produce that life that's in the spirit. Got it. Got it.

All right. So building relationship is always going to be key. It's not just head knowledge or practical steps, because it was like, tell me, tell me how just write it down. Step one, step two, step three. Step one is build relationships. Step two is build relationships. Step three, build relationships. Things flow from there. All right. Let's let's take some more calls and we go over to let's see.

Let's go to Liat in Sunnyvale, California. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. Can you hear me?

Yes, I can. Thank you. Hi, Shalom.

Wow, I have so much to tell you, but I know there's other colors. So I am new to faith. I'm an Israeli Jewish Sephardic woman that came to faith three years ago.

My husband is Christian, was always Christian. And for years he tried to convince me why Yeshua was my Messiah. And he used all of your books and he studied you and he tried to explain to me through you.

But I was just hateful towards you and actually a little something. My son was listening to you with Rabbi Shmueli, one debate. And I told him that I remember listening to your debate before I came to faith. And I thought you were just all you said was nonsense. And then and then basically I listened to it and I was like, well, of course. So I came to faith for dreams and not because I asked through logic. Amazing. And I'm pretty new.

Yeah, God, thank you. But what you and one for Israel are my rabbis, because I couldn't hear it from any Christian three person, why Yeshua is my Messiah. And one of the things, so I'm reading through the Bible, I'm a lot more familiar with the Hebrew scripture because of the Tanakh, because, you know, growing up in Israel and also I spent many years in Chabad and but. So the New Covenant is new to me.

I only read it twice. And my question is, I really didn't. So my question was, is I feel as I read through the Tanakh is that, you know, there is, you know, prophets and God and Moses, they're all angry at the Israelites for doing something wrong on their own militia, their own decision they're making, why are you not doing wine? And it feels to me now I'm not I'm really I don't have scripture. I'm not a scholar.

I'm just really a baby. But it feels to me that Christianity and growing up in like being an Orthodox Judaism. And, you know, the Satan is so much more pronounced in Christian in it with the Christian. I mean, right now I'm, you know, I'm a messianic, so I count as Christian. But I don't know how to explain it. It feels that in the Hebrew scripture, there was blaming of the Israelites for doing wrong.

And it feels like there was a shift somehow in the New Covenant toward Satan is the reason for me doing wrong. Is that the question? Yeah, so let me let me jump in.

And then, Steve, if you want to add something, but just the nature of this call, let me jump in. Firstly, it's it's amazing to hear your story. And yeah, just an Israeli and someone that was in Chabad and all this coming to faith.

It's amazing. One day when you have time, write out your testimony for us. You can write in Hebrew if you like and send it to us through our website.

I'd love to hear more, find out more. But the New Testament, the New Covenant writings are just as strong in terms of personal responsibility and accountability and the fact that we will be judged. But do you remember what happened in the Torah in Numbers 21 when the children of Israel were sinning and they were dying and God had them? He said, make a bronze snake and put it on a pole.

And then when you look to the snake, you'll be healed. So we read about that. And then when we get to 2 Kings, Malachim Beit, 2 Kings, the 18th chapter, it tells us that Hezekiah had to chop it up into little pieces because the Israelites were worshiping it. So the big problem in the days of the Tanakh, the Old Testament, was Israel constantly looking to other gods, idolatry, following other gods. So Hasatan, Satan, was only revealed later. After the Babylonian exile, after they had been purged from their idolatry, God began to reveal more what was happening behind the scenes spiritually. And the New Covenant writings, in common with rabbinic literature that day, they do talk about more about Hasatan and Shaddim, so Satan and demons. So it's just that once the foundation was sufficiently laid, then God can give further revelation about what's happening behind the scenes in the spiritual.

So we're totally responsible for our actions to God. But now we understand more of the spiritual battle behind the scenes. Stay here.

I'll finish on the other side of the break. 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.

If you say to me, you know, Dr. Brown, it's frustrating. We only have so much time for calls and teaching. Yeah, that's why we've had a full-time school for years.

You say, yeah, I can't uproot myself and come to your school. We've put it entirely online. Every class, the full audio of every class you can listen if you're driving and privacy your home, whatever works for you on your treadmill, whatever. And then full study guides to go in deeper, to look at the notes, tests that you can take. You can audit classes.

You can take them for credit. Go to fireschoolofministry.com and let us dig into the word even more deeply together. All right, before we get a question for my colleague, Steve Ault. So Liat, again, one day call in. We have more time to talk. Maybe on a Thursday where we have a Jewish focus.

I'd love to hear more of your story and ask some questions. But one last thing about the revelation of Hasatan, Satan in the scriptures. If you look in 2 Samuel 24 one, it says the anger of the Lord incited David to number Israel. God was angry with David and the anger of the Lord incited David to number Israel. So 2 Samuel, that was written.

That's that's older in our history. Then a few hundred years later, after the exile, first and second chronicles were written. Do you read how you mean in Hebrew and first Chronicles 21 one is the exact same account, but it says there Satan incited David to number Israel. So the older text, a few hundred years earlier, says the anger of the Lord, because God did not want to talk too much about Satan because people would start to worship him then.

They would start to follow him as this powerful being. After the exile, God purged idolatry from us. So now God starts to tell us more behind the scenes. And just like you found a contrast between you felt old covenant, new covenant, here within Tanakh itself, the older text tells us the anger of the Lord incited David. The later text, so the one closer to new covenant times, tells us Satan did it. So it was God's anger, but Satan was the vessel that provoked it. So it's just the veil is lifted and we get more insight as to what's happening in the spiritual realm. But we're always directly responsible to God either way.

No one can ever say the devil made me do it because we make the ultimate decision to say yes or no. So is that helpful? Yeah, so do you find that Christian people that grew up in Christian faith sometimes give, you know, like all the the sins that they commit blame Satan for it more than take responsibility? I mean, should there be more balance?

No, here's what it is. Because you're coming from a certain perspective, it's striking you a certain way, right? Just like someone who's not Orthodox, they look at it from the outside and say you have a million rules for everything.

Like, well, it's my normal life. So because there's so much in the New Testament about personal responsibility, somebody calls for repentance, God disciplining us if we disobey and calling us deeper, that you will very rarely hear a Christian blaming their sin on the devil. They may give the devil too much credit as if he's everywhere trying to attack all the time. But no, you're coming from a certain perspective. And because of that, it is coloring the way you look at things.

The more you become familiar with it, just next time you read through the Brit Kaddisha, and of course there's some great Hebrew translations, modern Hebrew translations, but next time you read through it, just look at how much personal responsibility is put on us in the teaching of Yeshua, the teaching of the Shelekhim, the apostles, and you'll see over and over, personal responsibility, personal responsibility. Take note of it next time through. Hey, thank you much for the call. All right, let's go to Mo in Raleigh, North Carolina. What's your question for us? Hello, Dr. Brown. Good to hear you. Hey. And to your guests.

A quick question, I guess one eight, one and one eight. In John 1 18, I think it says, no man has ever seen God at any time. And yet I'm reading through Exodus 24 around verse 10. It talks about some of the children of Israel went up the mount with Moses and they saw God and they ate with them or something like that. They saw God and they ate and drank.

74 people, actually, yeah. Yeah, so that seems like a contradiction. What am I missing? I know I'm missing something. Ah, no, what you're missing is actually wonderful. In other words, what will open up to you, will really bless you. But you asked the perfectly right question.

So, Steve, dive in. Okay, first of all, I'm really intrigued when you read verse 10 that it says they saw the God of Israel ate. I really love to see what they eat and how God eats with them. But aside from that, it says what was beneath was a pavement that was like sapphire. And I'm thinking, I mean, you see God and you describe the pavement that He was on. You know, if I'm invited to the White House and sit in the Oval Office, I'm not going to come home and write a blog about the color of the carpet. Unless it was actually sapphire. I'd be like, whoa, sapphire carpet here.

Okay, go ahead. But maybe it reflects their posture. Perhaps they fell on their faces in His presence and that's all they were able to see. But maybe we get a little more insight into what God was able to see. But maybe we get a little more insight a few chapters later when Moses asks to see God and God hides him in the cleft of the rock and he passes before him. And it says that he saw the back parts of God. The word is acharit and it's talking about what maybe even his after effects, kind of like the trail of plane leaves in the sky of white cloud because he couldn't see the essence of God and survive it. And he just saw the after effects of God and that made his face glow when he went back to the Israelites.

He had to put a veil over it so that they wouldn't see it fading away. Think about it. Maybe this is not necessarily what's intended in the text, but when you think about if you look at the sun for a while, you could go blind. How much more brilliant than the sun is God? And so our feeble, frail bodies would not be physically capable of withstanding the brilliance and magnificence of the essence of God. So seeing God, there has to be a filter of some sort that helps us to see whatever we can see. And we're not really capable of seeing the essence of God. I don't think God would kill us if he saw him.

I think it would kill us to see him. Yeah, so I mean that's absolutely one part of it that's important to realize and it is the acharai that my back parts related to acharit in Exodus 33. Here's the other side to it, Mo, that I like to emphasize when I'm sharing the good news with Jewish people is that you have John 1 18, no one has seen God at any time. John 5, Jesus re-emphasizes that 1 Timothy 6, no one has seen him. He dwells in unapproachable light and that you have, they saw God next to his 24 or Isaiah saw the Lord in Isaiah 6 or these others. So the other aspect that we understand is that it's the son who makes him known. So God in his full glory, unfiltered glory, no one has seen, but the son has always made him known. So if he is seen, he's seen through the son and that's why Jesus ultimately says, if you've seen me, you've seen the father.

So Hebrews 1, what does it tell us in Hebrews 1 about that very subject, Steve? Oh, he's the exact representation of the father. So Jesus is everything that the father is in manifested form and he's the fullness of the deity in bodily form in Colossians chapter 2. Yeah. And so he, the theological term I think is accommodation, that God has to present himself in a way that we can understand and handle that's far inferior to what he really is. Obviously a physical body limits God beyond his true omnipresence and omnipotence, but it's what we can grasp and that is enough to transform our lives.

Just imagine when we get to heaven and truly see him. Yeah. Mo, so much to unpack there. Thanks. I love the question. Thanks for asking. By the way, we're going to continue, right guys? We're doing YouTube chat, right?

Okay. So 20 minutes from now, we're going to continue Ask Dr. Brown on YouTube, A.S.K. D.R. Brown on YouTube, just fielding your questions, answering you. So those are the questions you'll type in instead of calling, A.S.K. D.R.

Brown on YouTube starting 4.15 Eastern Time. All right. Let's try to get to another question.

Orlando on High Point, North Carolina. Time is short, so please dive right in with your question. Okay. It deals with John 20.

Okay. And it says that on that day you will know that I am in you and you are in me and my father is in me, something like that. I'm just quoting it. And it says today he will reveal to us. What does that mean exactly when it's just from that day? Is something in the future he's going to reveal something? Right. So John chapter 14, verse 20.

What at that day? Is that resurrection? Is that future glory?

What's he talking about there? There are future days that John refers to, that he refers from Jesus beginning in chapter 14 verse 1 is a famous passage where it's quoted at funerals a lot. My father's house are many mansions. I go and prepare a place for you.

It's actually debated. Is that talking about when we die or is it talking about when Jesus returns or when the second coming occurs? So there are, we're going to meet Jesus, one, when we die and two, when he establishes his kingdom. And at both of those moments, we are going to be in a completely different reality.

And that's what's being referred to, that there's a different reality that we are going to meet. We're going to be like him. We're going to see him. When we do, we're going to be like him. We're going to know him even as we are known. Everything's going to change. 1 Corinthians 10, we're told that even the gifts of the spirit are going to pass away because we're going to see face to face. Everything is going to change.

It really happens when Jesus comes and establishes his kingdom on earth, but we get a foretaste of it whenever we die and we beat him. And friends, we're out of time, which means you need more time with Steve Ault in the Word. Let him teach and guide you and equip you to study the Word better. Go to our school website, fireschoolofministry.com. Apply for classes today. We'll be back in 15 minutes. Ask Dr. Brown on YouTube.