Dr. Brown Answers All Your Questions

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Before I go to the phones I just want to thank each you and we'll start with Eugene in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Thanks for calling the line of fire. So when I was listening to the MacArthur, James White, Jeff Durbin people in the Reform community, and listening to you debate charismatic issues and discuss this type of issue, one thing I would like your, I guess your opinion on, is I feel like there is a, almost a double standard when it comes to how Reform teachers would look at certain people or certain ministries and critique them. and I understand I do have very real differences, and some of them very serious differences with people like Bill Johnson and Todd White, but I don't think it's the right answer would be to discredit their entire ministry over a theological error. But I feel like a lot of people in the Reformed community do just that with a lot of people they have differences with in the charismatic community, but when I see certain Reformed teachers like John Calvin who has said and taught some things that that are definitely wrong, it's almost as if they are willing to shed grace, love, and understanding when they critique their own people, but it's very not true for people in the charismatic community, and I just feel like there's almost like a sense of theological politics involved when it comes to critiquing and speaking about certain people or ministries, and I just kind of wanted to hear your thoughts on that, sir. Yeah, so the first thing is we tend to all do the same thing, which is be more lenient towards people in our own camp and more stringent with people outside our camp. If you hear a report about someone that you you strongly differ with, let's say you hear that brother so-and-so from this group that you really think is suspect has been caught in a financial scandal or a sexual scandal, you might think, yeah, I'm not surprised.

I'm not surprised. Then you hear it's someone in your own camp like, well, well, let's wait to find out all the facts, and so in other words, we're more judgmental and quick to criticize those that are outside our group and more apt to defend those inside our group, so everyone can do that, but I at the same time absolutely did challenge what I felt were double standards in, for example, Pastor McCarthy's Strange Fire book or the Strange Fire conference and did my best to interact with them accordingly with respect for the wonderful good that comes out of the ministry and then with strong differences as well, so I did raise that and to say, okay, let's look at one of the ones that you would call, you know, one of the magisterial reformers, Martin Luther, who's a hero in reform circles and his Bondage of the Will is still looked as a classic book going after Erasmus and things like that, and, you know, Luther said things that would make the worst charismatic, semi-corrupt or corrupt televangelist sound like a prince. I mean, Luther said things that were beyond despicable and beyond inexcusable, and that led to bloodshed, but it's Luther. It's Luther.

So, yes, there often is a double standard, but let me go one step further. It is a strength of many charismatics to step out in faith, to believe God, to do things that seem impossible and counterintuitive, but they know the voice of the Lord, and they're people of faith, and they step out, and they do it, and God blesses and, you know, I've seen this for decades now, my own life and the lives of charismatic Pentecostal friends. At the same time, charismatics can be very gullible and believe the most ridiculous, stupid, impossible things. It's like, come on, where's your brain? Did you check your brain at the door?

What happened? So, a strength, and I get into this in my authentic fire book, a strength of charismatic Pentecostals is believing God, getting out on what would seem to be a limb, but they're convinced it's the Lord, and it is the Lord, and he comes through, and it's amazing. The weakness is gullibility. The weakness is believing all kinds of nonsensical and stupid and even unscriptural things. On the other side, the the cessation aside, or I'd say much of the reform side, there's a real strength of being circumspect, of being word people, of being reasoned, of being thinking in their faith. The weakness is it can lead to cynicism and skepticism.

So, here's the example I use in authentic fire, and I've used many times on the air. Let's say that you are a Reformed person, right, you are watching TV, and you happen to come on some Christian network, and here's some charismatic, and the Lord gave me, it's July 7th, and the Lord just showed me, I saw seven, I saw seven seven, in fact I saw four sevens, and the Lord showed me that if you're, if you will write four checks of seventy seven dollars each, one each month for the next four months, the Lord showed me that seven thousand seven hundred dollars is going to be put into your bank account. And you're watching that thinking, what a fraud, what a, or a self-deceived person, whatever, yuck, I can't believe anybody would give him money. And there's some charismatic, you know, a husband and wife in real financial need, and they say, I feel the Lord wants us to do it, let's write that check.

It's like, how did it be so gullible? Then you flip it around, and that same reform or cessationist person is in the mall, and there's someone in a wheelchair, and they get this idea, why don't you pray for them, why don't you lay hands on them, and Jesus seems to be crazy, God doesn't do that, not here in a mall, you're crazy, it's not God, but then that same charismatic that wrote out the check, maybe that husband and wife in the mall, and the husband says, honey, the Lord just told me to lay hands on that man, he's gonna be healed, and they go up to him, pray, and the man's healed right in the mall, and then that guy goes to tell the charismatic what happened, it's a miracle, or tell the reform guy it's a miracle, and the guy won't even believe it. So each side has strengths and weaknesses, and obviously I hold to what I hold to as biblical, and there are hills I'll die on, and there are other things I feel strongly, but we can have our differences on, but each group has their strength.

Look, there are aspects of word of faith that have been downright heretical over the years, and then there are others that are exaggerated in error, and then others are great principles, like the principle of speaking the word and having the word in your heart and mind, and declaring scripture, you know, God you said this, God you're faithful, this is who you are, and those kinds of things. So you have to separate the wheat from the chaff, you have to separate the truth from the error, and then you have to see, okay, what can each within the body, I'm talking about save people, what can each group bring, what are the strengths, what can I learn from them, and this way there's an overall health that comes out of it. And then the other thing is, whoever it is, be it John MacArthur, be it James White, be it Bill Johnson, be it Todd White, find out exactly what they believe.

Don't just listen to a video clip here or there, read their books, watch their messages in context, and then find out who the people really are, and what they really believe. Hey, thank you for the call. 866-3-4-TRUTH.

Let's go to Blaine in Taiwan. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Thank you for taking my call, Dr. Brown. I just have a quick question about, well, two quick questions about denominations and Christianity, because I'm 33 and I had always went to a Pentecostal church in the U.S., and until I was in my 30s, I believe that my whole family was Pentecostal, until I talked with my grandmother. And she told me, she said, no, no, we're Protestants. And I said, what? So now I'm researching denominations in a way I've never done before, trying to figure out which one, you know, what resource would be good to read into all that Christian denomination.

I've already kind of weeded through some. Yeah, so Blaine, in all candor, you really need, it's kind of, I would do this in an absolute reverse form. I'll explain what I mean. Of course, Pentecostals are Protestants, that you had the Protestant Reformation breaking away from the Catholic Church and claiming to go back to biblical roots, and Methodists and Presbyterians and many, many others, they're Protestants, and Pentecostals are another branch of Protestants coming out of the Holiness movement and Wesleyan Renewal movements and things like that. But what I would do, sir, is not be reading a lot about denominations and origin of denominations. Each one that you look at is going to claim some authenticity going back to the real gospel.

You know, the Catholic Church will say it's the true church, the Greek Russian Orthodox Church will say no, they have the real biblical and Jewish roots, and then Protestants would say, look, we go right back to the scripture and believe what the first believers held to. So what I would do is this, I would really read through the scriptures, especially the New Testament, and pour through and see what seems normative. What are the main emphases? What are the key things?

What are the strongest points? That may end you up in a Pentecostal megachurch, it may end you up in a non-denominational small group, it may end you up in some other church, a denominational church, but what I would do again is, okay, write out what are the things that I believe are most important, the things most important in God's sight, the things most important, the themes that, what a church should be, what we should believe, what we should be doing based on what I'm reading in the New Testament, and then I'd look for a group that at least seeks to affirm those things. It's always a challenge to live them all out, but that's what I do. I look at scripture, scripture, scripture, I'd ask my own life, just get away from the Bible for a second and sit down after reading it, reading it. Okay, what do I think of the priorities in God's sight? If I was looking for some of them, what would they be?

And then from there, look for a group that their, their website, their statement of faith, their emphases seem to be in harmony with that, and then you may just have a certain preference based on your own background and calling. Hey, God bless. 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. Thanks so much for joining us on the Line of Fire. A little less than an hour from now, so 4.15 Eastern Time, we'll be right back on the Ask Dr. Brown YouTube channel, A.S.K.

D.R. Brown, and we'll be doing our exclusive weekly YouTube chat. All right, so join me, especially if you're unable to call, it's easier to just type questions, even just to sit in and watch and listen and observe. So that'll be on our YouTube channel, Ask Dr. Brown at 4.15 Eastern Time, so a little less than an hour from now.

Hey, just, just one more comment to Blaine in Taiwan, hopefully if you're still listening. When I said personal preference, I mean that within doctrinal orthodoxy, within foundations of Christian living and things that, that you're looking for in a church home, there is also your own background. There may be a certain type of music you're more familiar with, or for a certain style of ministry that you're more familiar with, and that's why we have so many different expressions, just like we do in the natural world from, from music to hairstyle to style of dress to, to various things, you know, what type of cuisine and on and on and on. The same way in the body, they're just things that we're more used to, so there are the foundations and basic truths and things that are non-negotiable.

Then there are other things that maybe just, hey, the, the more young people here, and I really love being with young people, or they're more older people, or they're people that speak my language better, you know, they're those kind of factors as well. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Scott in St. Louis, Missouri. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, doctor. Yeah, I was on hold yesterday, and one of the things you don't want to hear on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday is, welcome, Manny, to the air. Ah, Manny, yeah, yeah, my religious history, yeah, well, we've given them kind of like a whole segment, but yeah, yeah, glad to do it. No, it's great. Good, good.

Okay, quick question. In talking with my, my Reformed friend, Genesis comes up in my conversation, and Genesis 4, where he's speaking to Cain, and he uses the phrase that sends desire, well, I'm reading Rashi, since desire is toward you, a similar phrase that he used in talking to Eve, speaking about her desire, so Rashi explains it as, you know, here's Cain, his sin is desiring him, so I always use that to say, look, Cain is not born as sinful, rebellious, he has an opportunity to do the right thing. God actually speaks to him and says, you should rule over it.

He doesn't. But yet my Reformed friend says, no, God is again giving him something like following the law he can't do. So how does Rashi, or how does the Hebrew wording actually fit the idea of Cain truthfully being able to rule over that sinful desire? That he eventually doesn't, but what does God say?

Thank you. Yeah, it's, it's a great question, and to make sure everybody understands it, there would be the emphasis on total depravity of human beings that our Reformed friends, our Calvinist friends, emphasize very, very strongly, and it's, it's ultimately saying there's nothing in me in my flesh that can please God, and in myself I cannot follow God or do good, and of course in myself I cannot save myself. Now every follower of Jesus that's a real follower of Jesus will agree with some of that, and recognize we cannot save ourselves, in and of ourselves, we cannot present ourselves righteous to God.

The question would be how far does that go? I have no problem whatsoever recognizing that Cain was born with a sinful fallen nature, but that doesn't mean that, that you have to yield to every temptation. In other words, before I was saved as a lost rebel, there are things I said no to, and there's things I said yes to, and, and every human being on the planet is making choices every day. If not for that case, then the world would have destroyed itself completely.

Within, within days of the first human beings, everyone would have been killing each other, completely wiping each other out. So specifically, in this case, there's obviously Cain's jealousy and his envy towards his brother being favored, and he obviously has murderous intent. He was not forced to do that. There was nothing that said he had to do that, and, and the Hebrews is very clear, you know, you must rule over it. So there is that, it's not saying you can live a life of perfect sinlessness, that's not the issue. It's not to say that any sin at any time is, is always resistible and you'll never fall, but it's saying look, you are in the grip of this, and it's trying to bring you down, and, and you've got to master it.

So it's kind of honestly in between both positions. You can't use it dogmatically either way. It certainly doesn't help the reform position, and it's, the most natural reading in Hebrew is certainly not, hey, I'm telling you to do something you can't do.

So my, my Jewish friends will always bring that up to say Christian doctrine is wrong, and I would say no, it's talking about specific sin that's trying to drag you down. You do not have to yield to it. Look, I can talk to a lost sinner that's contemplating, you know, robbing a bank or not, saying, man, you don't want to do this. You don't want to do it.

What's gonna happen to you? Your kids don't ever see you're going to be in jail, and they think twice about it and don't do it. So we all make decisions, even outside of Jesus, to say the flesh can't please God means in, in myself, living, living under that power, I cannot live a life that is pleasing to God. Doesn't mean that I'm incapable of doing any good or incapable of saying no to certain temptation. And then another passage I'd point to is in Genesis, the 20th chapter, where God restrains Abimelech from sleeping with Sarah. Now on the one hand, a Reformed person could say, you see, God restrained. Well, we, we believe God restrains different times, not all the time obviously, but at different times. But why did God restrain? Because he saw the uprightness of Abimelech's heart. So he saw that there was something in him, and when Paul says, in my flesh there's no good thing, he doesn't mean in my humanity nothing good exists, but in, in my aspect of sinful nature and trying to live by my human nature, there's nothing pleasing there.

So the, while the fundamental idea of total depravity is right, that we cannot save ourselves and are hopelessly sinful outside of Jesus, it can be presented in a way that, to me, is exaggerated beyond scripture, and these would be good examples in my view. You, you are very welcome, Scott. Oh, by the way, Rashi, he was referencing Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, lived 1040 to 1105, the foremost traditional Jewish commentator. Hey, thanks for your contribution on YouTube, unashamed apologetics. Are you Calvinist? No, no, I'm not. Just stay in the Word and come to conclusions.

As you see fit, I was a Calvinist from 70-70-82, got great respect for many of my Calvinistic friends and their beliefs and Calvinistic leaders through the centuries, but no, I don't see it in harmony with the totality of Scripture and Revelation of God, which is why I'm not a Calvinist, and my Calvinist friends differ with me, which is why they are. All right, let's go to Martin in El Paso, Texas. Welcome to the line of fire. Good afternoon, Dr. Bantalo, how are you doing? Very well, thank you. Yes, I have, I have two questions. My first question would be, since you've subscribed to a more charismatic slash Pentecostal view, how would you explain particularly praying in tongues, or speaking in tongues in general, specifically Acts 2, since I'm someone that grew up in a Pentecostal household, Pentecostal church, I was always told that if you didn't speak in tongues, you didn't have the Holy Spirit, which is a little more extreme, but when I dug into the Scriptures for myself, I found a more sensationalist view of that. How would you explain why you believe in speaking in tongues?

Yes, thanks for the question. Reading the Bible, it's very clear to me that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, spoken of in Acts the second chapter by Peter, beginning in verse 14, when he explains what's happening and then begins quoting Joel in 2.17 of the book of Acts, is that the outpouring of the Spirit is for the end times. It is to be for an outpouring the entire body until Jesus returns. It says that in the last days, and Peter adds those words into Joel's quote, in the last days, God says, I'll pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters were prophesied.

It goes on from there. So this is something, activity, that's going to happen during the Spirit of the last days, which is between the cross and the return of Jesus. And then Acts the second chapter, repent be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call.

So the gift of the Spirit, not just the indwelling Spirit, but the empowerment of the Spirit, is to be for the entire body until Jesus returns. And then Paul makes plain in 1st Corinthians 13 that these things will continue until we see the Lord face to face, so until his return, and then he gives direct mandates. He says, don't forbid speaking in tongues, and I would wish that all of you would prophesy. So since I'm a word person, I need something in the Bible telling me that that somebody changed that. Somebody with scriptural authority changed that. When when when Paul writes in 1st Thessalonians 5, don't despise prophecy.

Test everything, hold fast to the good, don't put out the Spirit's fire. Who overrules that? Where is that overruled in the Bible?

Not only so, even something, I know you asked about tongues, but praying for the sick and expecting miracles in Jacob James the fifth chapter, that the prayer offered in faith to make the sick person well, who changed that? Who has authority to change something outside of Scripture? I'm not Roman Catholic, so I don't believe in the authority of Church tradition.

I'm not something even further out. I'm a Mormon, believing in other holy books afterwards. I don't believe that there can be prophecy after the Bible that changes the meaning of the Bible. So since it's explicit in the New Testament to expect these things, to experience these things, to believe for these things, not to forbid these things, that they're to continue until Jesus returns, and that these are gifts of grace that God gives us to enable us to more effectively minister for him, that the moment we're saved we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But there's the empowering of the Spirit for service. And if you believe that happens at salvation or as Pentecostal to do subsequent to salvation, the whole thing is empowerment for service. You will receive the Spirit and be witnesses. And it's through the Spirit that miracles are done in Jesus' name. So I would need explicit Scripture.

Number one, who changed it? Where does the Bible say no more tongues, no more prophecy, disregard the previous commands, right? No more praying for the sick, expecting healing. Number two, when did the nature of the Spirit's power change?

If it was a certain expression in the Bible, when did the Holy Spirit change? So we'll come back to the other side of the break. 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. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire. Remember, if you've not yet ordered a copy of my brand-new book, Christian Anti-Semitism, you'll find it an eye-opener. And we get in depth into Scripture, Romans 9, 10, and 11, to rebut the error of replacement theology and supersessionism. We get in depth in terms of anti-Semitic lies and misconceptions spread around Israel. We talk about the significance of Jesus returning to Jerusalem. We set aside myths from fact with the the Noahide laws. So you'll find it to be a real eye-opener.

We even take time to explain the origin of the term anti-Semitism and why I spell it the way I do and others do, which is with no hyphen, so A-N-T-I and then small s the rest of the words. So anyway, you can get it on our website if you'd like a signed copy. AskDrBrown.org. Otherwise, just go wherever you order your books, Christian book, Amazon, Barnes & Noble. You can get the paperback, the e-book, and then soon enough the audiobook.

Alright, so back to Martin in El Paso. If you want to get just a sustained treatment of why I hold to what I hold to based on Scripture, I'd strongly recommend you get my book, Authentic Fire. It came out a few a few years back and there's a chapter in it that is called Sola Scriptura and Therefore Charismatic, because the Scriptures are my ultimate and final authority for faith in life. That's why I'm Charismatic.

Okay, thank you, Dr. Brown. My second part of my question would be subsequently about books. How would I go about writing a book about specifically Christian faith since since the last time we spoke on the show about half a year ago, I thought the Lord put in my heart to write a book. I have a good chunk of it on a doc, but I don't know more or less what to do with it, what a publisher, who to reach out to to sponsor it, all these sort of questions, and I wanted to ask you since you have obviously a ton of books, you go out and you talk, you do debate.

Here's what I would counsel Martin. It's very difficult to, as a first-time author, to get a publisher behind your books, so that's the question, how do you get the first book out, right? Especially if you don't have connections of any kind, and you know, I started at that same place as well and then God opened up the doors and then from there things changed over the years, but in this day and age, what I would do honestly, is I would use social media, so whatever social media you use or just start a blog online, and start raising questions, the kind of questions that you think people need answers to, because there are lots of apologetic books out, why write another one?

There must be a certain thing you want to answer or help people with, so you know, you put out an initial blog, you know, 800, a thousand words, hey have you ever wondered about this? Have you ever thought about this? What about this?

What about that? And I've been coming up with some answers, and then see if people are interested, start to publish things in short form, and just a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit here, if there's enough interest, then what I would do is, once I felt the book was finished, I would inquire about Christian editors, and if even if you get online and search, you'll find people, and I've never just done it freelance, I've worked with people that I know through publishers and things like that, but otherwise, what you do is you would hire a Christian editor, and then these days it's amazing, so you have to pay a person to do this, so God would have to bring in some funds, or you have to have funds for that, but what's amazing is that you can now do something print on demand, say with Amazon for example, and someone formats it, does a cover for you, so there's some money involved in that, but not a lot, but then you don't have to pay for initial printing. I remember when I wrote my first book on revival in 1989, End of the American Gospel Enterprise, it was like co-published with the publisher, that they would edit it, do the cover work, distribute it through their catalogue, get it into bookstores, do what they could do, but I had to buy 10,000 copies of the book, yeah, and of course at a big discount, so we had people pre-order, and different friends, ministries bought, you know, thousand, but whatever, that's how we paid for it, but all that to say, you don't have to do that now, because you can do something with Amazon, Kindle, and KDP, and again, just you look up self-publishing on Amazon, and they'll publish an e-book, and then as books are ordered, they print them, and then you'll get a certain percentage, they get a certain percentage, so you don't need all that funding, but I would start with a blog, I'd see if people are interested, if they like what I'm writing, if it's hitting home, and then if so, I go to that next stage, and like anything else, you get on your knees, Lord, if you're in this, if you're backing this, you can supply, and I've watched him do seemingly impossible, amazing things for 49 years. Hey, God bless you, may the Lord guide you, 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Brian in Foley, Alabama. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Braun, thank you for taking my call, man. It's been a long time, no later. All right, well here we are, doing good, man. Right, right, right, okay, good. So I have a quick question. I have a lot going on in the background, so I'm just going to ask my question to Angel. Okay, you got it.

I have a question. Okay, I have a question of Mark 4, verses 11 and 12, right after Jesus tells the parable of the sower, I get the parable, but right after that, you know, the disciples were alone, and the disciples asked, you know, what did the parable mean, and basically Jesus was saying, the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those on the outside, everything gets said in parables, so that they may be ever seen, but never perceiving, and ever hearing, but never understanding. Otherwise, they might turn and be forgiven.

They had me kind of shook. I can't get my head wrapped around that one, but I don't know. Yeah, Brian, I understand the question, in that you're thinking, well, doesn't Jesus want to reach everybody? Doesn't he care about everybody? Doesn't he meet people in their weakness? Right, so yeah, so all clear on the question, and I'm glad to answer, and I'll make sure you're listening offline here as we do, but here's here's the long and the short of it, all right, that he's quoting from Isaiah 6, and it's a judgment passage, where God tells Isaiah to harden the hearts of the people, and to cover their ears and their eyes, so they can't hear, and they can't see, and it's because of judgment, because of them having rejected God, so here's what I want you to consider.

This was the analogy used by early church leaders centuries ago, that the same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. In other words, it's the identical sun, but because of the nature of the substance that is being impacted, one melts, the other gets harder, so the same way the love of God can be expressed to two different people, and one, they break and they weep and they repent and they get right with God, and the other, they don't talk to me about that, and I don't want to hear, and they get angry and furious, so God is not wanting to push people away. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son to die for us. He's the propitiation, not just for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. John 3 16, 1 John 2 2, 2 Peter 3 9, is not willing that any should perish, 1 Timothy 2 4. God wants all men to be saved. Ezekiel 18, Ezekiel 33, he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Jesus says to Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered your children together as a hand gathers her chicks under her wings, but you weren't willing, the end of Matthew 23, so there in verse 38. So all this expresses God's heart, but he also knows those whose hearts are not right, those who aren't really serious.

For them, they're on the outside, they're not going to hear the real nuggets, which they despise anyway. You know what it reminds me of? Many years ago, there was a colleague of mine who committed adultery, ministry colleague, so we wept together, and then I said, okay, let's get you on a path of restoration, get your marriage healthy, your family healthy, get you out of the pulpit for a year, let's find a way to get funds to help support you, you go through counseling, and then little by little can be restored, and then in the future return to ministry. And he was like, let's let's do it, let's do it, you know, I messed up, I can't believe, you know, destroyed my life.

And okay, we then go, I said, there's one person I know that can help, a senior leader, man full of wisdom, let's go meet with him. So we did, and you could tell by my friend's body language, he didn't want to be there, and he was like, yeah, okay, we'll do that, okay, I gotta go, I gotta go pick up my family, whatever. And my friend said, he's not repentant, he hasn't repented at all, he doesn't want to be here.

So we only went so far, and my friend only extended a certain amount of help to him, it was clear, my other colleague, the elder here, was clear, the other fellow didn't really want it. So Jesus sees what's in the heart, and the crowds coming, and oh, and the miracles, and the time, but they didn't really want him. So they're gonna hear his words, but they won't really get it. So it's not God consciously, well, no, you don't get in, but these do, but God who knows our hearts, saying, no, you don't, you haven't opened up, you're not humble, you're not willing to receive, therefore you don't get it. As many as received him, to them he gave power to become the children of God. Or how about God gives grace to the humble, he resists the proud, so James, Jacob, the fourth chapter, 1st Peter 5, he gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud.

866-34-TRUTH, we go to Tim in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown, good afternoon. Can you hear me? Oh yeah, loud and clear.

I'm trucking right now, so I'm driving. My question for you, I'll try to get you what I'm getting at here. What Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61 and Luke 4 17, what I'm curious about is where he stopped. Is there, would he have been reading, I'm assuming he would have been reading Hebrew from a Torah scroll, is there any real explanation to why he would have stopped?

Is there a break there? Because all I see is a comma in the English. No, it's it's entirely theological, right? So he starts quoting, he would have been reading not from a Torah scroll, but from a scroll of one of the books of the prophets, so you're right on that. He would have been reading in Hebrew.

It starts with the words, Ruach Adonai Elohim, Eloah Ya'amah Shachadonai O'teel V'Serenavim, so the Spirit of the Lord God is on me because he's anointed me to proclaim good news to the meek, the poor. He stops theologically, right in the middle, before saying to the day of vengeance, because it wasn't time for that yet. He was here to proclaim mercy, he was here to proclaim amnesty, he was here to offer forgiveness through the cross. The day of judgment would come later, and even at the end of his ministry, even in Luke's Gospel, the 19th chapter, 21st chapter, he talks about coming judgment and judgment on Jerusalem, and in Luke 19, if you had only known the day of God's coming to the time of your visitation, these terrible things wouldn't happen, but there's no break.

The Hebrew would not have had those kind of breaks in that way anyway with punctuation, but there is there is no textural break, there is no grammatical break, it's entirely theological. Jesus is stopping to say it's not time now to proclaim the day of vengeance. I'm here to offer mercy and forgiveness. Great question, Tim.

Thanks. 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, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire. So, a little less than a half hour from now, we'll continue the conversation just answering your YouTube questions.

That's all I do. So, Ask Dr. Brown YouTube channel, ASKDR Brown, and if you're watching there, if you haven't subscribed, make sure you do that so that we can stay in regular touch with you, and every time there's a new video, you will know about it. Here we get some really neat videos coming your way, some really neat, exciting, and some fun videos as well. So, join me, 4.15 Eastern Time, on the Ask Dr. Brown YouTube channel.

So, a little less than half hour from now. Let's go over to Jordan in Beaumont, California. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hello, Jordan. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you now. Good to hear from you.

Good to talk to you. My question is regarding Matthew 25, particularly verse 45, whatever you did for the least of my brethren. The Hebrew word for brethren, ach, translates to various forms, kinsmen, relatives, and from a study I've done, I've taken that to mean his fellow Jewish brethren, and doing the time of the tribulation. It'll be known as a church by the way we treat the Jewish people. Is that a correct understanding?

I could be wrong. Yeah, so, Jordan, there's a lot of scholarly discussion and debate, and preachers and teachers will read that differently. The Hebrew ach, or if it was in Greek, adel phos, or just even English brother or brethren, brothers, it is somewhat generic. In other words, it's not necessarily, it's good to do the Hebrew study, but it's fairly generic in meaning, and does it mean a blood brother?

Does it mean somewhat of like spirit? Is it talking about followers of Jesus being persecuted? Is it talking about the poor and the needy with whom he identifies? Certainly there's an ethic that comes out of that in the passage Matthew 25 31 to 46. There's an ethic that the church has held to through the years of caring for the poor and the needy and the suffering and the hurting and the marginalized, just generally. So that's a big lesson from the teaching that should mark us.

I remember during the refugee crisis from South Vietnam when South Vietnam fell to the north and America kind of abandoned the cause and refugees were pouring out of the country and and dying at sea and so on. And we heard about this, the church that I fellowshiped in, and the pastor just read this passage and said, what are we going to do? It's like we got to take in refugees because that's what Jesus told us to do.

So we opened our homes and we did it. So there's the the larger generic interpretation, but specifically is he talking about persecuted believers who are in jail for their faith and and who are hurting and and suffering physically because of their faith? It certainly includes that. But is it ultimately an end time passage? It's talking about the Jewish people in time of world upheaval, that the true followers of Jesus will be marked based on how they treat persecuted Jews. Just like Corrie ten boom showed her faith, many Messianic Jews read it like that. Some biblical scholars read it like that. It may not be the meaning you could absolutely argue for, but is certainly a fair application. It might be the ultimate point that Jesus is making at a judgment at the end of this world when there has been so much world upheaval and attack on the Jewish people. So as long as we allow it to have broader application, my safe way of arguing at Jordan, I would say at the very least it has to include them.

At the very least it has to include Yeshua's own blood brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution, hardship, difficulty, that true followers of Jesus will be marked by how they treat them and how they are willing to give themselves on their behalf. So there is scholarly and popular debate as to which is the best interpretation, but that is certainly one and at the very least must be included among among ways to apply it. So that to me is a way no one could argue against.

You know presented hey I believe this is the best application, but at the very least it has to be one application. Make sense? All right. Hey good talking to you. God bless you Jordan, I appreciate it. 866-34-TRUTH.

And let's go to Henry in Zachary, Louisiana. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey Dr. Brown. I'm the guy who caught about a nudist a while back. Ah well here was the controversy that it triggered. The controversy was, there was controversy afterwards I found out, that people said okay you said you were calling for a friend who thought it was fine for Christians to go to nudist camps, so we demolished that view. But the question was were you calling for a friend or were you actually calling for yourself?

That was the controversy. So you can set it straight for everybody here man, because afterwards people were joking with me. They said I think that guy called, so you just be honest man. We can move on.

I called for my buddy and he he loved it that I called in, but earlier I got out the shower and I called in and I was gonna be a joke and tell my buddy that I was talking to you. But my question is, oh there it is. So I'm just amazed and I'm just curious, how do you keep your cool with all these people attacking you as you're going out and you're dealing with things that that not every pastor is dealing with, you know, and these cultural problems and these things with divisions within the body.

That's my first question. How do you keep your cool? My second question is, do you have any friends that are close to you, like Jesus with his clothes, with those three guys that were really close to him?

Do you have anybody like that? Yes, the second question, yeah I do. Of course, you know, Nancy and I are soul mates and she's the most important human being on the planet to me, obviously, and I've got great relations with other family members that, you know, I can really open my heart with. But yeah, I've got some dear friends, I've got some close friends, people that have been close with for decades, and if I really needed to open my heart and just share or needed help or I wasn't doing well or something, yeah, I've got some some good, good friends for decades, by God's grace, yeah, which I'm grateful for. So, you know, the other thing, yeah, the attack is pretty wild and it comes from every angle and often unexpectedly. You know, I'll answer something that I think is just a simple question and next thing we're getting bombarded and attacked and hit, but there are a few things.

One is, it's my calling to address controversial issues. So with that, there's a grace, you know, just like a pastor has grace to patiently counsel people, that would wear me out, you know, and a mom has grace to homeschool her kids and that, you know, would wear me out. So we have grace that goes with the calling, that's one thing.

I also know God's been very, very patient with me, very, very long-suffering with me, so that helps me to be patient with others. But then there's an insight that the Lord gave me, which is my calling as a lightning rod is to draw out all the junk and that's what, so it's gonna hit me, but that's gonna help draw it out. So what I'm concerned with is, when it's drawn out, it's like, okay, what do I see?

What can I diagnose in the health of the body? So, you know, it's just, think of it like the the dentist, you've got a problem with the tooth, you don't know which one, so he takes this little metal instrument and taps and you hit the one and you scream. It's like, okay, so that's part of what's happening. So I hate to see it, I hate to see how much junk and how many problems are out there, but I know ultimately that when I see it now, I can do better to bring health and healing.

So there's a redemptive side of it as well and then a lot of people pray for me, so it does make a difference. But, hey, Henry, thanks for asking and we clarified the previous call. God bless you, man. Be well.

All right, let's try to get to one more call. Patricia in New York City, thanks for calling the line of fire. Is it Patrick? I'm so sorry, Patrick, my apologies. Thank you, Patrick.

So, good question here. On the 10th of January, my wife committed suicide and she took my five-year-old daughter with her. She jumped off a building.

Oh, no. Made suicide, yeah. And I am so sorry, I am so terribly sorry to hear that, Patrick. She believed in God and I just want to know, do you think she's in heaven? Patrick, I would absolutely, well, my hope would be that she was not thinking rationally and that something had happened to her. She was on medication, antidepressants, different things like that that I knew nothing about. Patrick, do you think that, how long were you married, Patrick?

Twelve years. Do you think that the woman you've known for twelve years would ever willingly hurt your daughter? No, and I don't blame her. Yeah, Patrick, I am so terribly, I can't imagine, and this is less than a month out, I cannot imagine the trauma you've lived with, but my hope would absolutely be that she was not rational, that she was not responsible for her actions.

Look, there are other people that make willful, sinful, ugly choices. People on medication and other things to do something that crazed and with your daughter, but let's just do this, Patrick. Can we pray, folks, can you pray?

I mean, I can't imagine this, not just your wife, but your five-year-old daughter. Let's just pray for supernatural grace in Patrick's life and for the Lord to somehow visit him in the midst of something I can't imagine and most of us could never wrap our eyes around. So, Father, I just pray for your grace to so fill Patrick's heart, for your love and comfort to be with him, and in the days ahead as he rebuilds his life, that you bring purpose and meaning and even something redemptive out of this horrific loss where he'll be able to help others. And, Father, for those struggling right now, depression, suicide, pour out grace and they realize there is a better way. Hey, Patrick, God's grace to you. Please, friends, let's remember to pray for a friend. God bless you, friends.