Dr. Brown Tackles Your Toughest Questions

Phone lines are wide open. You've got questions.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Well, thank you for joining us on the Line of Fire. It's the Friday broadcast, which means you've got questions, we've got answers. No agenda on this end, no major stories. I plan on covering, although we're in the midst of the impeachment hearing now, the Republican side presented their rebuttal. Always a lot going on in the world around us, but this is totally your calls today.

866-348-7884. Any question of any kind that relates in any way to any subject matter we touch on here or any area where I have any expertise at all. Love to take your questions. And as I do all the time, although I get very few takers, those who differ with me strongly, those who are critical of our ministry or things we teach or preach, love to hear from you as well.

All right, we will start with Christopher in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, can you hear me okay? I can. Hey, I've been listening for several years now and I really enjoy the program.

Huge blessing. I'll try and be as brief as I can. So you probably remember Henry from Zachary, who's called in a couple of times and there's been a lot of stuff with nudism, et cetera, that comes up with him.

The famous call about nudist colonists. Yeah, back in November. Got it, okay. I'm his friend. I've been hearing that there was a little bit of confusion about whether it was him talking about himself or not, and that's me.

Christopher, I'm his friend. Okay. I wanted to call in and do two things. I wanted to clear that up and then do two things. One, I wanted to thank you for your gracious.

So many people that touch on this subject treated with just disdain and dismissal or even anger or meanness and there was none of that from you. It was all love and grace and I wanted to thank you from my heart for your gracious treatment of the issue. Well, you're very welcome. We just speak the truth in love. We don't water it down, but do our best to speak the truth in love. Well, thank you.

Great guy. My question, you as a debater, I hope will appreciate the question. I was curious to see what you think, someone from the other side, how they might respond to your words, and they made some points from the Old and New Testaments, but I was curious to see what you think someone on the other side might respond with. So someone that would claim that it's fine for Christians to go to nudist colonies and the like. Well, obviously, since as I pointed out that Adam and Eve covered themselves and then God covered them after the fall, and that we are in that fallen state, and that throughout scripture being naked is a shameful thing, and even in the Book of Revelation, Jesus says to Laodicea spiritually, you'll be able to hear me but not talk.

We just don't want the baby upset there on the other side if your little one doesn't like my answer here. But even in the Book of Revelation, when Jesus is rebuking Laodicea spiritually speaking, Laodicea is naked, and Jesus urges them to get clothes to cover their nakedness. So even in a spiritual sense, being naked is a negative thing.

The argument I imagine, Adam might try to bring as well, God had Isaiah walking around stripped naked for three years as a sign. Number one, if that really happened, that it was naked versus just wearing like underwear kind of thing, it was a horrible judgment. It was a shameful thing.

It was symbolic of how the children of Israel, others would go into exile and stripped. But it simply could well mean in that context, just like, you know, walking around in the equivalent of underwear. But either way, shameful and negative. Another potential argument might be, well, we have moved beyond the fallen nature into a sanctified mindset, and therefore we are not touched by these things, which is just pure self-deception.

You know, nothing less than self-deception. When people say, well, that's how holy I am, I say, that's how hard-hearted you are. So just because we get used to a particular thing, and it doesn't have any sexual meaning to us, doesn't mean that the thing is good or right. And again, throughout scripture, we're called to modesty, and that means clothes on, not clothes off.

One of my friends many years ago said the purpose of clothes is not what we're trying to reveal, but what we're trying to cover. So those are ways that I would respond to potential responses from, I've never debated that, and I imagine that I'll be doing debates on that subject in the future. Hey, thank you, Christopher, for the call. I appreciate it. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Jeanette in Durham, North Carolina.

Welcome to The Line of Fire. Well, thank you, Dr. Brown. This is Brown Sugar Jeanette from Durham. I'm so glad to connect with you again. I thank you for the book that you sent to me. I appreciate it.

I'll get to my question, because I know how the show rolls. I was calling, I listened to a minister from Texas, I think he's out of, I'm not sure the city, but I know the state's Texas name is G. Craig Lewis, and he's always teaching on creation roles, you know, where Adam and Eve, you know, that's God's plan. But my thing is, I just wanted, if you have heard of him or have an idea, because in my opinion, I just think that's not correct, because he don't live in a, I want to say it right, that every woman doesn't have a man, a husband, we've got single mothers, single fathers, so I was just like, I don't understand how he could teach on that. He has a big following in his church, and I guess I've listened to some of his teachings, it's good, but I just want, I'll be quiet and let you respond. Thank you.

Yeah, you're welcome. Number one, I'm not familiar with the brother or his ministry, so let me just comment directly on the question of, God's design for us in creation, men for women, women for men, be fruitful and multiply, come together, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, that's obviously fundamental for human thriving, without that we go extinct, and obviously a man is made uniquely for a woman, and a woman uniquely for a man in terms of biology and emotions and things like that. At the same time, Jesus was single and represented the fullness of God, Paul was single and said this is a gift that God gives to some, Jeremiah, because of his calling, could never marry, God told him you can't marry, you can't have children, and we know that the image of God is reflected in each of us as well, so I think it's important that the church is always teaching on the importance of marriage, family, because that's under such attack in our society, and so misunderstood, and there's so many designs to tear it down through no-fault divorce, through redefining marriage, through adding partners, things like that. At the same time, it really is essential that singles don't feel that they're second class or just kind of an afterthought, and that does happen in many churches, like hey, you've got great programs for married couples and great series of teaching on this and that, I've heard it from many singles, and look, we're all going to spend a certain part of our lives single, growing up until we are married, if we are married, and then we may not, maybe we outlive our spouse, we're single, and then much of our lives, every day, I mean Nancy and I are going on 45 years of marriage, but every day, we're living our own lives, right, I'm here, she's somewhere else doing what she's doing, so we're each doing that every day, so I think what we have to do, Jeanette, is number one, recognize our personal relationship with God, and that we're each made to thrive as individuals, that the vast majority of us will marry, the vast majority of us will be in a relationship with another human being and have that companionship, but we will all have seasons in our lives without that, and some for life will never have that, and the greatest example of that being Jesus himself, by the Father's design and plan, so I think we have to recognize that God's image, while expressed in male and female, is also expressed in each of us, and when God calls us, he calls us ultimately as individuals, now, if you're married, your individual calling will then interface with your spouse's individual calling, and the two become one, and everything is enhanced, but when God called me to preach, when God called me to minister, everything he's called me to do, he's called me to do as his son, as an individual, and when I stand before God and give an account, it will be as his son, as an individual, I won't get Nancy there to defend me, or, well, less likely to defend me than to point out where I missed it, but anyway, you hear what I'm saying, that we each live as individuals before God, and that needs to be emphasized, that we'll each stand before him as an individual and give account, and there's grace given to us as individuals, which can then be greatly enhanced as couples, but either way, we stand before God as individuals, so hopefully that's helpful, Jeanette, and our churches really need to be strong, that especially with younger people waiting longer to be married now, so there's singles for longer periods of time, it's important to emphasize that. All right, 866-34-TRUTH, let us go to Dan in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Going to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, thank you. Hey, actually your comment to a previous caller kind of ties in, I have an important question for you, and the reason I'm asking is I feel that there's been a need in the church and many believers as far as understanding our role as priests in our own household, whether the household be a single person or a family, but specifically what I wanted to hear from you is, in Jewish tradition and in Scripture, the role, and not just the role, but the responsibility towards children and grandchildren, you know, there's many promises that are spoken to you, your children, and your children's children, and I just would like to hear your perspective on that. Yeah, so the Bible does not speak specifically about the responsibility of grandparents towards grandchildren but rather the great blessing that it is to have grandchildren, because you've lived long enough to have your children and then your children have had their children, so you've lived long enough to see that, so that would be looked at especially as generational blessing. You don't find a mandate to grandparents to make sure you're raising your grandchildren right, that's not your role, that's not your place.

You may have a special role praying for them, you know, with the tenderness that a grandparent can, but there's no sense of responsibility, clearly, however, there's a massive responsibility on the mothers and fathers, there's a massive responsibility in Scripture to be role models, there's a massive responsibility to set boundaries, there's a massive responsibility to do our best to bring them to God so they have their own encounter with God, and Jewish tradition would really flow, a lot of that would flow out of Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 6, after the confession, Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone, after that confession, then it's not just a matter of reciting the word, having it in your heart and your mind, but drilling it into your children by repetition, by sharing it, by living it out, and then in the New Testament, the fathers being sought it not to embitter their children, so we want to set God the examples, and kids who were raised in that environment have a much, much, much greater head start in their race for life than those who were raised in the world. Hey Dan, thank you for asking. Thanks for joining us on The Line of Fire, 866-348-7884. You've got questions, we've got answers. Let's go to Weston in King City, Missouri, thanks for calling The Line of Fire. Hey Dr. Brown.

Hey. Okay, I had a Jewish friend who was, well, I was explaining to him about the death and resurrection of Christ, and he quoted Revelation 1.18 and Malachi 6, and he said, well how can God be eternal and then die, and then he also asked how the father and son could be separated from death, and he said the only way that would make sense is if, like, in 1 Corinthians 15, sort of like, the Son of God, like, left him, and then the soul, like, went into Hades or wherever, so how would you respond to him? Yeah, so first I'd tell him I appreciate his interest, glad that he's asking those questions. I would explain that death is physical, that the death that Messiah experienced was physical, but what does he say on the cross right before he dies?

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. So there is no separation in the divine nature, there's no separation in God, rather there is the physical death that is experienced, so just like a human being, if you were in right relationship with God and you died physically, you just go from one realm of relationship to another, in fact you go to a greater communion with God by leaving this body and going to be with him, Paul says absent from the body and present with the Lord, so that's the first thing, that the essence of God doesn't die any more than when God takes on human form in the Old Testament that he ceases to be omnipresent, no, he just limits part of himself in that way, so that's the first thing, death is physical and the physical body is dead, but the spirit remains connected to God, so that's number one. Number two, I would ask him questions about if he believes orthodox Jewish views of God, for example in traditional Judaism, the Shekhinah, which Christians call the Shekinah, the Shekhinah represents an aspect of God, the manifest presence of God on the earth, and when the Jewish people go into exile, the Shekhinah goes into exile, and there are traditional Jews who before they perform a mitzvah, a commandment, they will pray for the reunification of God, because they say that the Shekhinah is in exile with the people of Israel, and when Israel returns from exile, then God is united with himself, so I would point out to him that there are mystical concepts within Judaism that speak of there being some type of dis-rupture or dis-union within God during the present state of things, but our beliefs are that God is in his eternal oneness, his unity is complex, and there is perpetual fellowship between Father, Son, and Spirit, and each one taking on a different role for our salvation. Where would you say this person's at in terms of their own background?

Oh, I think he's kind of a conservative. Yeah, so he might not even know what a traditional Jew believes. Well, what about when Christ descended into, like, the lower regions, and, you know, proclaimed to whatever they were in that time? Right, proclaimed to the spirits that had been in disobedience, right, basically sealing their fate.

It is done. Well, even there, why would there be separation? In other words, that doesn't imply that the Father and Son are not in fellowship. The Son is on a mission now into the netherworld, and just like he was in a mission here on earth. It's the exact same thing. Is God present down there?

What does it say in Psalm 139? Are you familiar with it? No. Yeah. If I go down to Sheol, you were there.

But here's the thing. If the Son is there, then God is present, because the Son is God. So yeah, he is, and Judaism would say that God is omnipresent. Weston, what I'd encourage you to do, if you're able, is get volume two of my series, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, volume two, where I deal with a lot of these issues, and see if your friend will read it, volume two of Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, or my book The Real Kosher Jesus. If you get that, see if he'll read it, The Real Kosher Jesus. You can read it, you'll learn a lot from it, and then I deal with some of these issues in it as well. And then if you can get your friend to read it, I think it'll be a real eye-opener for him.

So either volume two of Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, or The Real Kosher Jesus, and then either one would be great to give to your friend to read. And keep going from there. Hey, thank you for the call, I appreciate it. Thanks, three, four, truth.

Let us go to Ant- We won't. Let's go to Gavin, and- Oh, what is happening to our- Is this something happening to our lines there, or are we good? Let's try one more here. All right, looks like we have a problem on our phone line system here.

Every phone lit up, but obviously, something just happened to our phone lines, everybody's got busy signals. I apologize from the heart, so they may have to do a reboot on the other side. When I say they, okay, let me just tell you how our things run. Those who are looking at this, and not just listening on radio or podcast, you're looking at me, and when I raise my left hand and point over there, through the glass pane, our faithful team of Kai and Chris, and they're monitoring things, and if I'm pulling up a video, hey, let's look at this, or let's read this article, or let's look at this verse, they're pulling up all that for me, setting our levels, checking all that out.

Now, about an hour and a quarter from here, about an hour and a quarter from here, is the main radio studio of Truth Radio Network in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And there, they are connecting us by satellite to all the other stations where we're airing live, and they're also there answering the phones, and they've got their whole system set up there. Something obviously happened to that system. I apologize to everyone who was on hold, as soon as we're rebooted, do your best to call back, and I'll try to get you in that order. There were some great questions there, I was eager to get to every one of them, but obviously, something happened with our last caller, so we don't control the phones over here.

Those are controlled at another location, Rachel faithfully answering the phones there, and then different team members running the operation, bringing the ads and different parts of things, so that's what happens. So I'm waiting for the word that the reboot has been successful, and then we'll go back. I don't remember, we've had issues, but on the radio daily for 12 plus years, so things come up, but this was a little different one, with the sudden busy signals taking over. So as soon as we get rebooted, we will be back with your calls, but that means, that means I have to add Lib. What am I going to find to talk about? Just joking with you.

You know, I've had shows where I'm about to go on the air, right, and I've got to have a guest, an important guest on a major subject for an entire hour, and we can't find them, and they got their time zones wrong, and they have no idea they're supposed to be on, so we're ready to start. It's like, okay, we have a free hour, but I do want to say this, because I've been thinking about it so much. Please hear me in the most candid, clear way that I can speak.

I don't want to be offensive. I don't want to, I don't want to seem insensitive to concerns you may have had about the elections, or being upset about the way things are, or you don't like the way the new administration is taking things, or, I don't want to be insensitive to those concerns or issues, however, however, I will say this, okay, ah, you know what, I've got to restart on my end. We really need to reset, friends. We really need a reset.

What do I mean? I mean, we need to get back to gospel basics. We need to get back to the basics of the gospel and be known as Jesus people, not Republicans, not Democrats, not supporters of Trump, not supporters of Biden. We need to get back to being known as the Jesus people, and our message, the message that the world hears from us needs to be about the Lord, first and foremost, 100 to 1.

Everything else has to be secondary to that. All right, let's go to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jordan, welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, how are you? Doing well, thank you. Hey, I just had a question. I'm going through Romans 6-11, and I'm grateful, I love Jesus, I'm thankful that I believe that I am saved by grace, you know, through faith, as Paul discusses later on in chapter 3. But I've read some commentaries discussing how salvation, I've heard it described as, you know, an umbrella with, you know, sanctification, justification, and perseverance kind of underneath that. I just kind of wanted to get your thoughts on that, because I've heard that every man will be judged by the same, I guess, scale, you know, right, so the big question, yeah, the big question that comes up is with, in Romans 2, is Paul suggesting that some people are saved by their good works, and they will be commended for it, Jew first, also Gentile, and others will be judged for their sinful works. Obviously we know, because Paul argues it decisively in the chapters that follow, that we've all fallen short, so I believe this is more of a theoretical construct that's being put forward, though God's going to be a fair judge, you live righteously enough, you get in. That's what I'll tell any rabbi, if you're righteous enough and good enough and holy enough to get in by your own works, more power to you. But Paul now goes on to say, ultimately though, everyone falls short, ultimately every one of us is guilty in God's sight, and we're only saved by grace, however, those who are truly saved will live godly lives. Those who are truly saved will not persevere in unrepentant sin.

God will deal with that, so sanctification is absolutely part of the fruit of salvation. Oh God of burning, cleansing flame, send the fire. 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, 866-348-7884. You've got questions, we've got answers.

Jordan and Philadelphia, I just wanted to make one further comment. So when I say that those who are truly saved will live different lives, it doesn't mean that we may not have ups and downs. It may not even guarantee that someone won't fall away or turn away from the Lord, but for sure, if someone is genuinely born again, it has to have an effect on the life. So if I knew someone, let's say I had a close friend that wasn't saved, and the guy slept around with a lot of women, heavy drug user, nasty, abusive character, liar, just go down the list, right?

Come up with a few more things. When this person said they had this incredible born-again experience, God showed them their need for the Lord and who Jesus was, and they cried out, He saved me, I know He's forgiven my sins. Well, you'll see change then. You know, that person would have to become a new person on some level. And if they continue to live exactly the same, not even consciousness of sin, not even a desire to move away from it, not even a recognition of wrong and steps taken in the right direction, I'd question whether that person ever met with the Lord, because you cannot be born from above, born anew, born again, get a new heart, a new spirit. That will not happen unless you've been truly saved. If you're truly saved, you're going to live differently. You're going to live differently.

James Edmund Orr, Revival Scholar, said the only proof of the new birth is the new life. The other, last, oh, okay, George is not there, so he's just listening on the other side of the break there. So I just wanted to put that out for you.

Let us go to Ashley in Topeka, Kansas. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, can you hear me okay? Yes, I can. Okay, so I was calling, because I wanted to get your thoughts on something. Have you read the statement that was released by Ravi Zacharias' ministry about the sexual abuse that he did? Yes, I have. You have?

Okay. So obviously you're probably heartbroken by it. I haven't heard you talk about it, so that's why I asked if you had known. So it's heartbreaking for me for a lot of reasons. I looked up to Ravi Zacharias, I read him in high school, I went to a Christian high school, and I learned a lot from him. I've watched his apologetics online, and I'm sad for the victims, but I'm also sad, like crushed, that this could happen from such a seemingly great Christian leader. And I guess my questions are, what are your general thoughts when this happens with leaders, and do you think that Ravi was maybe even unsaved now that the truth is being told?

Right. Okay, number one, I've known this was coming for quite some time. Someone that I know had reached out to me, knew about the research, knew what was going on. So I was hoping against hope it wasn't true, but it was expecting the findings to be like this. I was just waiting for everything to come out, you know, I don't need to offer my opinion on everything.

I was waiting for everything to come out, and even just today talking to Nancy saying, I'm going to have to address this now that it's out, and just praying for a redemptive way to do it. So let me say a few things. So those not familiar, the report does say there was all types of sexual misconduct, allegedly with Ravi, for many, many, many years. So I'm terribly grieved for the reputation of the Lord, because this makes Jesus look bad. And the millions of people Ravi touched, there are going to be many now who question the message of Jesus because of the exposure of Ravi's sin. So it's a terribly grievous thing. Here I'm a leader in the body, I have a certain stature. If I was found to be a hypocrite, how does that affect others?

The same with others we look to, and obviously Ravi was a giant. So it's a very sobering thing. It's a tragic thing. And that's the first thing, when I hear this, my first thought is, oh no, the reputation of Jesus. And then I think all the people that could be hurt, and how the mockers will use this to disparage our message. And then of course, the women who were victimized, because we who are in leadership, whether it's a boss on the job, pastor in a church, someone that's looked at as charismatic, you have a certain power.

That's why there can be abusive relationships that are examined in that regard. So the women who've been victims, and I feel quite sure that God gave opportunities to Ravi and his ministry to fix this years ago, before it got so public. So first thing, grieve for the reputation of the Lord, grieve for those whose faith will be hurt, grieve for the women who were victims in different ways.

And you say, okay, where do we go for, what do we learn from this? First thing is, whoever you are listening to me now, watching, especially in leadership or ministry, if there are problems going on, come clean, get help, get low. Every one of us falls short, one way or another.

On our best day, the holiest day we've ever lived, we fall short of God's perfection. And so rather than throwing stones, when I hear a report like this, I search my heart. That's the immediate thing I do after that grief, for these other reasons, then the first thing I do is not throw stones and accuse further, as I search my own heart, I look at my own life. I say, are there areas where I'm leading a double life, are there areas of hypocrisy in my own life? And if so, whoever you are, get low, humble yourself, make yourself accountable, get help. If proper accountability had been followed, if there were not exceptions to the rules made, then none of this would have been able to happen the way it happened. So let us welcome healthy accountability. And again, I'm not throwing stones. Every one of us, as I say, has fallen short on one level or another and had to humble ourselves and say, forgive me or get help. Obviously, there are lines if we cross, then there are terrible, terrible consequences. The other thing is that as much as we want to respect and honor people, and there are plenty of honorable people, I remember talking to David Wilkerson years back when I was preaching at Times Square Church and hearing about yet another pastor, an old colleague of mine who had committed adultery and destroyed his ministry with multiple women. And David said to me, yeah, for everyone that messes up, three or four don't.

I wanted him to say three or four hundred don't, but three or four still. So in other words, Ravi's situation is extreme and it's certainly not the norm. We don't want to suspect everybody. Well, nobody's really living it.

This is extreme and negative. And with it, that's where my mind goes is kind of like who obviously you can't put your trust in men in the Bible makes that clear, but like it's hard to know what ministry to trust because it's hurt my faith because I looked up to him so much. Yeah, well, that's I mean, you want to respect and honor leaders, but still there's the recognition that even those that are living godly lives and I know plenty of people that are that are God seekers and people of integrity and finances in order and personal lives in order and they're not scandals associated with them. Again, I believe that's the majority, not the minority in terms of those in ministry, but never put your absolute trust in that sense in a human being. Let God be true and every man a liar. And the other the other thing, so there are things Robbie said, they're absolutely true and helpful, but it's just going to be very difficult to be ministered to by them or helped by them now because of knowing that on some level he was living a double life. There's a message I've preached for years, and I'll probably link it in an article if I do write on this, which which I'm planning to.

It's called Acherit, and it's one Hebrew word about the final consequences of sin and righteousness. It's a devastating message from the book of Proverbs. I preached it for decades. I preached it to myself.

It saved me from destruction. I'm sure listening to that message and, you know, Nancy was saying to me, just think, you know, you could live your whole life, but if you've been hiding sin and again, if you mess up, come clean, get right, get help, whatever you can deal with privately, deal with privately. If you can fix it privately, it never has to go public. God doesn't want it to go public.

You can fix it privately, do so while you have the opportunity. But our sin will find us out. That's the dreadful thing. If we've humbled ourselves, dealt with things properly before the Lord, he fixes it.

He fixes it. And we can be stronger afterwards for our confession and our humility. But if we hide it and cover it, it'll come back to bite us. And that's the other grave lesson to learn. So it's painful. It's going to bring reproach to the name of the Lord.

It's going to hurt many. But the bottom line is that the Jesus that Ravi preached is the true Jesus. The teaching that he gave about the authority of scripture is true. His wisdom and apologetics came from God, not from him.

So whatever you receive from him, keep that while mourning for what happened in his own life. You can walk, you know, God's his judge, but any of us, here's the other lesson, can potentially lead a double life. It seems impossible, but it can happen to anyone. Any of us can fall.

Any of us can mess up. Any of us can be dominated by our weakness and sin. So let us all take this as a time to get sober before God, to get low. It's obviously a time of great shaking and purging and cleansing in the church.

So let's all get low. Let's all ask for mercy. Let's all run to the cross for cleansing.

And if you're in leadership and there's a real mess in your life, better to get things fixed even if you have to step down for a season. God can restore you in a greater way in the future. And Ashley, may the Lord strengthen your own heart in terms of your trust in the Jesus that we all need in the one and only Savior. And may God's grace somehow use this redemptively, help those who've been victimized and hurt through this, help those whose faith is shaken.

May God somehow redeem his own reputation in the world after this and help those that have worked in the ministry with sincere hearts as well. Say thank you, Ashley, for calling, and again, I do plan to write on this as well. 866-34-TRUTH, we'll be right back and go to, okay, Brandon and Joseph, we had you on earlier.

And Gavin, that's where we're going to try to get to all your calls on the other side of the break. Hey, friends, remember to sign up for my emails if you don't get them. Lots of information, special resources, all kinds of good things. Go to my website now.

Ask Dr. Brown, askdrbrown.org. Take a minute during the break, sign up for the emails, and we'll be right back. 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. One last thought in terms of reports of sexual misconduct of Robert Zacharias. Sin is never worth it. It's the message of Aharith that I've preached. Sin is never worth it. When all is said and done, you always wish you didn't do it. When the dust finally settles, when the final accounting is in, you always wish you didn't do it. No matter how intense the pleasure, the satisfaction, the relief, whatever it is that you're experiencing through sin, when it's disobedience, when it's, you always wish you didn't do it afterwards.

Like what, what happened? It wasn't worth it. So for those teeter tottering, for those struggling right now, let that be a reminder to you. In that sense, let Robbie's life speak to us from the grave. Sin is never worth it.

What it brings in the end is shame and disgrace and reproach. All right, back to the phones. Let's go to Joseph in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown.

Hey. Um, my question for you was, um, I've been running into, um, a few people that call themselves pagans and neo-pagans, and I've been trying to speak to them about Christ. The only thing I found kind of confusing, it felt like I was speaking a different language with them, because they're kind of, from what I've seen, it's very postmodern, mixed with older paganism, mixed with a bad experience they had with Christianity in their childhood, it sounds like. So I'm wondering how to share the love of Christ with them, or if you had any experience with that. Well, the first thing is, you know, when you take the gospel to different cultures, if you're preaching in a Buddhist culture and you talk about sin or eternal life or even God, all the concepts are different and the meaning is different. And then today there's very little consciousness of sin in many lives as well, but humans are still humans, people are still broken, something is still missing. So ultimately you want to get them to gospel truths that they've sinned against the God who made them and salvation is only found through the cross.

But like you said, it all sounds like a foreign language to them initially. So I might, I'd be praying for wisdom to say, okay, what makes you tick? What are you living for? Is it just the pleasure of the flesh? Is the sense of destiny purpose? Did anyone put you here? Why are you here?

How do we get here? Is there right or wrong? Is there such a thing as morality? Do you ever feel guilty?

Is there a hole inside? I'd explore it from different ways and then try to get them to understand, okay, God put us here. We're accountable to him. He put destiny and purpose inside of us.

Sin is this thing that we do for self that separates us from him and that's why the negative consequences come and then from their point to Jesus. But I would try to reach them in their humanity and try to take their real life experience and use that to then connect them with biblical concepts. Does that make sense?

It does. The other issue I was running into also is when I've tried explaining different parts of scripture in general about God, I guess from the way I'm making it sound, I guess, is it's like a works righteousness, but I'm not trying to do that. I'm just trying to present it as God does the work in us and he softens our heart. I'd look at it not works righteousness, but okay, you're in a hundred foot ditch with slippery walls and no matter how athletic you are, you can't get out.

Someone needs to throw a rope down to you and you need to put that rope around your waist and the other person pulls you up. So it's not a matter of salvation by works, it's a matter of we need saving because we're lost. Try to present it like that, that we always are going to fall short and this is the only hope that we have to get out of the pit, okay?

Okay. Yeah, and then you pray that the Holy Spirit convicts. Really pray for them in private that the Holy Spirit convicts and that you can bring reality of God to them. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let's go to Gavin in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Welcome back to the line of fire. Thank you so much, sir, for taking my call and I just want to say real quick, thank you so much for your ministry. You've touched my life in a very impactful way and I listen to you every day. Real quick, my question was, I know you were a big part of the Brownsville Revival with evangelist Steve Hill and John Kilpatrick and just an unbelievable outpouring of God and I was just wondering, could you see that happening again today and kind of like your experience with that outpouring and, you know, I'm 21 years old and I'm hungry. I've been raised Pentecostal my whole life and heard about Revival and I know you're somebody who's truly experienced it and I was wondering, you know, some keys to that and could it happen again today?

Yes, sir. It absolutely could happen again and it could happen in greater measure because God is God and because the needs are great. I have a book scheduled to come out around September called Revival or We Die. So it remains a passionate cry of my heart and as someone who is in the midst of it for four years, so hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of meetings and then hundreds and hundreds more classes and extra sessions and seeing hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people respond to the altar call. I mean just the database of people responding was well over 300,000 different people responding to the altar calls and then seeing the people touched in it.

Some have been on the mission field now over 20 years. I mean I'm talking about lasting, dramatic, glorious fruit and when I'll sit down sometimes, get together with grads or old faculty or leaders we haven't seen each other in years and we just start to reminisce maybe around a table having a meal. Often within minutes we're all sitting there crying.

We just break down weeping because the two things happen. The memories that you share because you don't remember everything. So much happened and you start to remind of this and that. That's one and then the presence of God just comes as you think back. So everything that was cracked up to be absolutely true and real. My hope Gavin is that God's going to pour out his spirit in a greater way but in thousands of different places at the same time. Brownsville was unique and like other places where people would travel around the world to get there. We had cumulatively about 3 million different people walk through the doors from something like 140 countries and then they go back and many take the fire back and churches change and ministries birthed and so many of those things happen gloriously and amazingly.

That's one thing. The other thing is though that I believe God just wants to move in a lot of different places so it's not even here's the place to go. You have to go halfway across the country because it'll be happening all over and God responds to hunger Gavin and I just want to pray Lord take hold of this young man and deepen the fire in his heart and everyone that's watching and listening right now that's hungry and thirsty. Deepen the hunger, deepen the passion, deepen our own consecration Lord, their consecration to you and touch them afresh.

May they be like a burning coal that gets the other coals burning as well. Purge us, refine us, cleanse us, pour out your spirit afresh Father for your name's sake and the good of this nation in Jesus name. We thank you Gavin for the call I appreciate it and let's go to Brandon in Traverse City Michigan thank you for calling the line of fire. Thanks for taking my call Dr. Brown.

You're welcome. I had a question about Matthew 11 12 where Jesus said from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force. What did Jesus mean by violent men take it by force? Are they trying to get into the kingdom through violence or is it referring to something else? Yeah the way that it's often understood especially in Pentecostal charismatic circles is it's positive that from the days of John the Baptist now the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force that we are not through physical violence but that we are through spiritual aggression to take hold of this and to use spiritual weapons and to fight and to stand and to do all that and that that somehow is what it means and even though you might have that warring imagery elsewhere in scripture that's probably not what it's saying there. The Greek and I'm much stronger in Hebrew than I am in Greek in terms of you know nuances and understanding all the ins and outs of the language but I've studied this enough the Greek middle which is not active not passive it's kind of an in-between thing how exactly should that be translated that comes up a lot here and therefore you have translations like NIV the kingdom of heaven has been subject to violence and violent people have been raiding it NET now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and forceful people lay hold of it NLT heaven has been forced kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and violent people are attacking it so it seems that they're one of two ways to understand this one is the kingdom of heaven is now under attack and they're violent people trying to attack God's work on the earth and attack God's people on the earth and and that's what it's saying so persevere and be strong the other way to read it is the first half is it's been advancing forcefully while others on the outside are trying to attack now the other view as I mentioned is we advance it forcefully and we're the forceful ones taking hold of it it's probably more likely to say it's advancing forcefully in the earth but people who are violent are trying to attack and stop it and that would be what we've seen for 2,000 years the kingdom of heaven advancing on the earth through God's people reaching out and and and the kingdom of God being extended through us but in the same process violent attack against us so the violent men taking it by force is most likely not speaking about us but about those who attack and try to destroy from the outside hate we are out of time but that's the full answer I'd give you anyway God bless friends make sure again you get our emails this is a way we can stay in touch if you have questions we can't get to on the air always happy to help you through our website askdrbrown.org God bless.