Dr. Brown Takes Your Calls And Answers Your Questions

I can't wait. Phone lines are open. You've got questions. We've got answers.

Any question on any subject that in any way relates to anything we ever discuss on the line of fire, which is a whole lot of topics. Phone lines are open. Your calls are welcomed.

We'll start with Stephanie in Ball Ground, Georgia. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown.

What a privilege to speak to you. Oh my gosh. Well, here we are. Okay, so my question is, there are 12 tribes of Israel, the sons of Jacob, listed in Genesis. And in Revelation 7, they list the 12 tribes again, but two of those tribes are missing. I'd like for you to explain to me what happened to, okay, so I know that Joseph had two sons that were brought in, and then sometimes the Levites are left out because they are the priesthood. But in Revelation 7, Dan and Ephraim are missing.

Right. So the Dan one is the mystery. That's the one that scholars debate, and it's very difficult to find a good reason for.

We do know exactly what you said. Joseph has two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and then they displace him. And then even though the Levites, so the tribe of Levi, that was one of the 12 tribes, they did not get their own inheritance as a separate tribe. Rather, they shared inheritances with the rest of the tribes. And then Joseph is displaced by Ephraim and Manasseh.

So let's say you get the 12. But it is a mystery as to why specifically Dan is missing in Revelation 7, and the list is repeated a few chapters later. There are different arguments and idolatry in Dan's history and things like that, but we simply don't know. It's one of those things that obviously doesn't affect everyday life, that you could have that question to the day you die and still love God and love your neighbor. But it's a curiosity. It's one of those things we simply don't know. I've reviewed the arguments left and right. Sometimes, Stephanie, when you're looking at a subject of debate, you can read like 10 different arguments.

It's like, yeah, one or two are strong and the rest are weak. But this, there don't seem to be any strong answers. So it's one of those mysteries that perhaps as we get closer to the end or once we're done, we'll find out. You know, I remember when our younger daughter, Megan, whose oldest child now is 20 in college, when she was a little girl, she asked me a question about a bug or an insect or something like that. And I said, honey, I don't know. So she wrote down a piece of paper and put it in her pocket.

She goes, well, when I see Jesus, I'll ask him. So this is what we got to kind of write down and wait to see him. And again, they're different arguments, but none of them seem to have a lot of weight.

Nothing compelling to me. All right, well, I'll just wait till I get to the other side then. Thank you so much.

That's all speculation. 866-34-TRUTH, we go to Brian in Birmingham, Alabama. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brian. Before I get to my question, I want to say I'm excited to see you speaking in the Kingdom event on March 19th with speakers such as Brian Dawkins and Chris Broussard. And I was looking at the floor and I was like, hey, I know.

Yeah, it's a real yeah. Chris and I connected. He reached out to me a few months back. So we've had some great fellowship by phone. I really got in the heart for our brother. And he's so well connected as a sports commentator.

But all these different men of God in sports and leading pastors and things. My only regret is it's a virtual conference. Yeah, I'd love to be hanging out with the brothers face to face.

But yeah, we recorded the interview a few weeks back, prerecorded it. I think you really enjoy it. Find edifying. So I'm so glad you're connected with those guys. Oh, yeah. That's really a blessing. I was really happy to see your face on the flyer.

But I guess I don't think it's a question, it's more like advice. I was a member of my mother-in-law's church. And it's a small church, Pentecostal church. At one point I was a deacon and I was playing keyboard. And I have a connection with this church.

I really love the members. And I was there for about five, six years. And then all of a sudden I stopped going because I was so confused about the women pastoring.

I was confused about that. I ultimately believe that in a role such as a pastor, I believe that God ordained a man to lead in that area. Every time I try to find myself to try to find another church, I just can't for some kind of reason. I don't know, it seems like I've got a pool and I don't know if it's an emotional pool or I don't know if it's God telling me. Or to me I know it's going to be my decision. I know I've got to pray about it. But I just don't know, man.

It's kind of hard. I don't want to make the wrong decision by moving on. Or I don't want to make the wrong decision by staying. It's just one of those things. And especially when you have a history with people there and in a smaller church if you're actively involved and on a worship team. So your presence or absence makes a big difference.

So you feel it more. It's one thing if you're a member of a 10,000 member church and you don't show up. It's a whole different thing when maybe there are 50 people or 100 in the church and you play a key role. But here's the bottom line.

The bottom line is this. That if convictionally, before God, you don't believe in women pastors, then it's impossible for you to sit under a woman pastor. Especially if she knows that you don't believe it. There's always that tension.

There's always that question. As she's preaching you're wondering, should I be here or not? Did God raise her up?

Is she in proper order? Now, again, if it's something you're not sure about and you've really got to pray through and study and come to a conclusion, that's one thing. But if you have that conviction, then it's dishonoring to that person as well. Because the whole time you're there, especially if she knows you don't believe women pastors, she's up there preaching. And instead of knowing that you're just totally with her, you're partly with her.

Because there's another part of you with a question. And what I would do is I would go before the Lord. So again, that's for you to answer in terms of the depth of your conviction there. But I would go before the Lord and I would say, Father, I belong to you. Your son died for me.

You bought me. I belong to you completely, entirely, 100 percent. Lord, free me from every other tie, emotional, mental, whatever. Free me from every other tie so I can be free to serve you and go wherever you want me to go.

And then be confident that he will lead you. And have you ever sat down with the pastor and discussed these things, your views? Yes, I have. And, you know, it was kind of, because, you know, she's my mother-in-law, too. She's the mother of my wife.

It's kind of an emotional conversation. So the other question then is, how does your wife feel about all this? Oh, man.

Man, man, man. It's almost like, you know, I feel like, you know, if I leave, I'll be almost taking her away from that church. And, you know, I know she don't want to leave, but, you know, we want a fellowship under the same terms, you know, so I don't know, man.

So, yes. So, Brian, trust me, a lot of folks are listening right now thinking, oh, boy, because you have all sincere people based on what you're saying. You, your wife, your mother-in-law, you all love Jesus.

You all want to honor him. You're convinced by Scripture that God does not raise up women pastors. Your mother-in-law can tell you about the call of God on her life and how God's confirmed it. And she's sure.

So you got this. And then you got your daughter, your wife torn between her husband or her mother. So what I'd recommend is that, now, do you believe your mother-in-law is a woman of God? Oh, 100%. And she knows that? Yes. Okay.

So what I'd recommend is the three of you get together, or if there's a fourth, you know, if you've got a father-in-law involved, and you get on your knees and say, Father, we just want to please you. And we all belong to you. We don't belong to anybody. We don't belong to a church. We don't belong to a pastor. We belong to you.

So would you just share your heart with us and lead us together? And, Lord, if we're all supposed to serve together in the same place, then make it known, you know, and, Brian, Father, I just don't see this scripturally. I honor my mother-in-law.

She's a woman of God, you know, but I don't see this scripturally. Honest with the Lord. And then your mother-in-law has to say, Lord, I just want what's best for them, just your blessing. And your wife has to say, Father, I belong to you more than I belong to my husband or my mother, and trust with that. And that's what I'm going to just pray right now. Father, we're asking you for your wisdom. Here are people who love you and are trying to do the right thing, and it's a complex situation. So would you just give a peaceful resolution to your children, whether it be mutual blessing, affirmation on whatever step is taken next? Either way, Lord, may this family serve you together as a family, but may you give wisdom in how this works out in the local church.

Amen. Hey, Brian, thank you for calling, and shoot us a note when the Lord resolves this for us. I'd love to hear what happens.

866-34-TRUTH. I tell you what, we've got a minute before the next break, so we will wait to bring on our next caller. Where are we going next?

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire. By the way, if you're watching on Facebook and want to stand with us for the one-time gift, there's a donate button. Just click on that, and Facebook actually does serve nonprofits in that way, so go ahead and stand with us.

On YouTube, there's a dollar sign beneath the chat box, so you can click on that and stand with us too. All right, let's make our way over to New Brunswick, Canada. Blake, welcome back to the Line of Fire. Hi there, thanks for this, Dr. Brown.

You're welcome. I'm a fairly new listener, so I've got tons of questions, but today I'll stick with something a little more scholarly for myself. This is something that's bothered me since I was in college, and it's the authorship of Daniel.

I took a course in college, and it didn't matter whether it was atheist scholars or even evangelical scholars who claimed to honor the inerrancy of Scripture. They all said that Daniel wasn't written by Daniel, it was written much later on and just named. It's almost as if it's a fiction, and more recently I saw a lecture from someone at Yale who was more specific with me than that. In Daniel 11, he said basically we could tell where Daniel should be dated because he gets it right up until the time of the Maccabees, and then everything goes wrong.

I've heard a couple answers to that, but nothing's been really satisfying, so I was wondering what you thought. Yeah, so that's basically saying we have a theory, and we're going to put Daniel into our theory, and now we're going to show you how our theory works by changing things. Here's what I mean. What if Daniel 11 is ultimately an end-time prophecy? What if Daniel 11 is ultimately speaking of certain things that happen with the Maccabees or Antiochus Epiphanes and things like that, but that ultimately there are things still to be fulfilled, just like Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, the Olivet Discourse, that there were things that were applicable to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70, and some things that would be applicable to the end of the age and final destruction and return of Jesus. So once you're going to say it has to be this, Daniel wrote it here, now you have to have a certain theory in terms of, well, see, he got it right because there's no predictive prophecy. The whole reason for writing Daniel off and putting it on a later date is not linguistic evidence, because the Aramaic of Daniel could easily be old Aramaic.

That's not the issue. And here and there you say, well, we don't have a historical account that goes hand in hand with that, but we don't have everything documented from the ancient world. You know, we understand that the big issue is predictive prophecy, that Daniel must be dated later because it's detailed predictive prophecy and so much of it is accurate. So the very reason for the fundamental reason for coming up with a later date is the fact that predictive prophecy is rejected. If it is predictive prophecy, often prophecy is mysterious. Often prophecy has layers and certain things applicable here and certain things applicable later.

I mean, for example, Ezekiel 36, right? Ezekiel 36 speaks of the return of the Judean exiles back to the land, God sprinkling clean water on their hearts, bringing the repentance, and the picture that the prophet spoke of was basically a rebuilt glorious temple and the glory of God coming down to an obedient Israel and the nations of the world streaming to Jerusalem. Well, only part of it happened.

There was a return. Temple was rebuilt. These things happened, but not the rest of it. The fall of Babylon predicted in Jeremiah 50 and 51 in great, great massive detail didn't happen. And yet it's recorded as part of scripture, which then leads to understanding, well, there's going to be a future destruction. So if we were going to date things based on this, we'd have to be throwing out large portions of the Bible entirely. And then the other question is, if Daniel was written that recently but claimed antiquity, would it have been included in the Canada scripture reflecting the Septuagint?

Would there have been documents in the Dead Sea Scrolls reflecting it as scripture, which Jesus had referred to it in the scripture way? So those are other questions that come up. But there are evangelicals, you know, Gleason Archer a generation ago or some years ago being one of the staunch ones decades earlier, Robert Dick Wilson, that have defended the early dating of Daniel.

So they are out there. The impression you get that nobody holds to that. This is not right. It's not true. But again, the big issue is predictive prophecy. If it is predictive, then well, maybe you're could it be, sir, with all respect to the scholarship of the Yale professor professor speaking at Yale, that that you pigeonholed this a certain way and it doesn't fit there. So that's that's what I come back to. It doesn't have to be all accurate for that time because it doesn't apply exclusively to that time.

And most of us read it with an end time application as well. So that's that's my response to it. Yeah. All right. No, I appreciate that. That's that's in less detailed terms and with a little less understanding. That's pretty much how I've taught it over the years. So I appreciate your confirmation there.

Yeah. And listen, I studied with critical scholars. There was an Orthodox Jewish scholar I studied with in New York University versus everyone else had a critical reading of scripture and, you know, former rabbis and former Catholic priests and different ones like that. And so I saw the brilliance of their scholarship.

I saw some of these is very sincere people just looking at the Bible through different eyes, not like they were wicked, trying to tear scripture down. So I certainly respect the scholarship, you know, or John J. Collins with his Daniel commentary and Herman. And these are brilliant scholars and learn much from them. But I still have differences in the midst of it.

And then there are brilliant scholars on the other side as well. Hey, break. Thank you for the question. It's six, six, three, four truth.

We go to Mike in Burlington, North Carolina. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Thank you for having me on, Dr. Brown. I really enjoy your show. It's really been a blessing to me. I got so blessed. I decided to support you. I'm a torchbearer for you. Well, thank you. God bless you. My question is, how would you witness to a person who's gay? I know you probably had some experience with that.

How would you handle it? Sure. Well, first, like any other human being, in other words, what I'm looking at is here is someone who needs Jesus, whether they're an atheist, whether they're a nominal Christian, whether they're heterosexual, doesn't know the Lord, homosexual. All I'm looking at first is here's here's a human being for whom Jesus died. Here's someone who needs the Lord.

And just like if I'm talking to someone who's a money obsessed business person or somebody else who's into porn or somebody who's just a very nice person that's Buddhist, you know, whatever. They're all lost. They all need Jesus. And that's where I'd start. I talk to them about the Lord. I talk to them about relationship with God. I talk about we've all sinned and fallen short and so on.

Just just go through all of those basic things. And then if the question comes up, well, I'm gay. Say, hey, listen, every one of us who follows Jesus has to die. That every one of us has to recognize that we are fundamentally sinful and fallen and that to follow Jesus means we died our old lives and we live new lives in him. So you say what it means is you receive forgiveness for every sin.

It means that God touches you to the core of your being, forgives you, gives you eternal life. You become his child. And now it's a matter of finding out what his will is. And you just have to trust that if his intent is not for you to be in the same sex relationship, then he has something better for you. But you have to be willing to leave everything. It doesn't matter what it is in your life.

You die to everything and you now start a brand new life in God. So I press those issues. I wouldn't make homosexuality the big issue if the person made it the big issue. I would just say, listen, God did not make men for men and women for women. And he has something better. And he can change this to the very core of our being. The question is, are you going to do your thing or serve God? And I would press it back.

I press it back to self will versus surrender. And my book, Can You Be Gay and Christian gets into the details in depth. So if you're talking to someone and they need it more info, that's that's a great thing to do to say, hey, once you read this or let's read it together. Can you be gay and Christian also jot this down in his image dot movie in his image dot movie. It's a free, free, excuse me, free movie documentary by American Family Studios. I hosted it with them, so I was involved in the entire production.

It's amazingly well done, powerful, moving, great stories. You could say, hey, maybe we could watch that or we could talk about it and let the Lord minister to their heart. So major like you would with anyone else, we're sinners estranged from God through the blood of Jesus. We can be saved to start a new life.

And then when that person is genuinely born again, they're going to want what God wants. And then you can help them step by step from there. All right. OK. Got one quick question. Yeah.

Go ahead. Did the snake have legs in the garden? Well, you could read it like that. Right. That he used to have legs and he was cursed. And from there on, he had a slither. So you could absolutely read it like that.

And then some I've read people say, oh, biologically, you could argue for it. Hey, Mike, once once again, thanks for being part of our support team. Greatly appreciate it.

It's six, six, three, four truth. All right. I'm going to be down this weekend in.

You know what? I'm going to make that announcement in a few seconds, because right after the break, we pick up our great station in the Dallas Fort Worth area. So I'll make that announcement then. I have an article online stream dot org, Esther Brown dot org. I have an article online that you don't want to read unless you're willing to be disturbed. And if you have a life, a love for the unborn, let's have a love for the unborn and you're willing to be challenged. Don't read the article. Oh, yeah, that's my invitation. Please read it.

It's titled Some Inconvenient Truths About Abortion in America. Eight, six, six, three, four truth. When we come back, we'll get to more of your calls and do our best to give you scriptural wisdom, scriptural answers.

Be your voice of moral sanity and spiritual clarity in the midst of a society and chaos in a church all too often and compromise. 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 eight, six, six, three, four truth.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Hey, friends, if you are in the DFW area, I'm scheduled to be with my young colleague, Pastor Landon shot this Sunday Mercy Culture to Sunday morning services, then a Sunday evening service with a special prophetic spontaneous ministry. Different ones will be involved ministering and then for 30 in the afternoon, a Q&A session about a new school that Pastor Landon will be launching, a spiritual leadership school there in Fort Worth. So join me if you're anywhere near there this Sunday. The details are on our website, askdrbrown.org. All right.

We go to the phones, starting with Sam in Fort Myers, Florida. All right, Sam, just need you to turn the radio down there. All right. All right. We good, Sam?

Are you there? Yeah, a little bit. I need you to talk right in the phone. Go ahead. All right.

Yeah. I'm calling about Enoch. About two weeks ago, I was listening to a couple of preachers, and they were speaking on the book of Enoch. And they had some interesting theories that, you know, since the book of Enoch is referenced in the Bible in the book of Jude verses four and five, they said that, okay, we can see the book of Enoch as sort of reliable. And it talks about how after the flood, demons were, demons actually came from the spirits of giants, because they are technically demigods.

It was a whole slew of interesting theories. So what are your thoughts on that specific? What are your thoughts on the book of Enoch itself and the origin of demons, if I want to phrase it that way?

Yes, sir. So there's been an increased interest in Enoch in recent years. If you go to my website, AskDrBrown.org and just type in Enoch, you'll see a whole video that we do, a short video talking about it, AskDrBrown.org. Enoch is really a collection of several different books that were all called part of the book of Enoch or book of Enoch as a whole. Most of it is preserved in much, much later manuscripts in Ethiopic, so Semitic language that would be spoken in Africa. And it is preserved there. Some of it we have in Aramaic manuscripts from Qumran from the Dead Sea Scrolls. But otherwise, it's in an Ethiopic dialect that we have most of it. And we don't have every bit of the book of Enoch.

And there are some very odd things in it. It was it was highly respected in the early church and among early Jews, but it was not received as scripture. There's only one sect really or part of the church that recognizes the description.

That's the Ethiopic. Otherwise, it wasn't received as scripture by any major Christian or Jewish group in antiquity. But it was highly regarded. The fact that Jude quotes it doesn't mean that it's scripture. The New Testament, Paul quotes pagan poets and things like that. So just because it's quoted doesn't mean it's scripture. So it can be read with interest, but not as scripture. It can be read with interest as a book that does have some spiritual insight, but that can certainly not all be traced back to Enoch himself.

That's one thing. And secondly, should not be read at the level of scripture. As far as the origin of demons, that's an interesting possibility. In other words, if we distinguish between demons and fallen angels, then the question is, where did demons come from? And that theory is as good as any theory. In other words, we don't know definitively. But if these are spirits that can dwell within human beings, then that would suggest that they once did dwell within human beings or a mixed race, you know, these giants.

So it's a possibility. If you want to dig deeper into this, Sam, check out the work of Dr. Michael Heiser, if you're not familiar with it, H-E-I-S-E-I, Michael Heiser. Just type in his name online and Enoch or his name and demons, and you'll see where he'll get more into this. So you can check out his book, Reversing Hermon, H-E-R-M-O-N, which deals a lot with the Book of Enoch. So he's a solid scholar.

He does not believe it's scripture, but he does believe it preserves some very interesting and important traditions. So check out Michael Heiser, H-E-I-S-E-R, Reversing Hermon, H-E-R-M-O-N. God bless you, Sam. I appreciate the call. And of course, our Enoch video on our website, AskDrBrown.org. Let us go over to our friend Todd in Seagrove, North Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire.

Thank you, Dr. Brown. I know that after Rome put down the final Jewish revolt in 135 AD, that the land was renamed to Palestine. But the pet peeve I've had for several years now, I've heard pastors and teachers from the past and present that tend to refer to Israel and Palestine interchangeably, because I think the words that really just get me set off is to hear why today in Palestine, or in Palestine today, and I'm curious, I would think that they would know better, tend to use them interchangeably, but I just want to get your view about why they tend to do that. Right.

They shouldn't. There is no Palestine today. There is Israel. And to call it Palestine, to talk about Jerusalem as Palestine, or Tel Aviv as Palestine, is blatantly false. There is no Palestine. Either they're doing it innocently, because it was known as Palestine through the centuries, and, you know, look, the Jerusalem Post, a famous newspaper in Israel, was originally the Palestine Post, because Jews lived in Palestine. The National Orchestra was the Palestinian Orchestra.

That was the Jewish Orchestra, because they did not have statehood yet before 1947-48. So for some, it's just, it's an innocent mistake. I've even seen it talking about Jesus being born in Palestine. There's no such thing as Palestine in the land of Judah.

It doesn't come until 100 years later. So for some, it's just an innocent mistake, and when you lovingly point it out, it's like, oh, oh, I've got to correct that. I've got to fix that. For others, it's intentional, because they refuse to believe in and acknowledge the existence of the modern state of Israel. And that's bad. That's anti-Semitic, and that's contrary to God's word in terms of having that attitude. So that would be problematic. So I would hope it's just innocent, and it's nothing to read into, and just a little correction would fix that. For those, and Palestine should not be in any Bible translation, because that land was not known as Palestine in biblical times, period. So if you've got study notes and things with it, that shouldn't be there.

However, if it is ominous, if they are making a conscious statement, then that would be very strong replacement theology and demonization of the modern state of Israel, which is flat out anti-Semitism. So I certainly hope, my brother, that it's not the case, and that it's more than the pet peeve you should have. That's a serious issue. I appreciate it. 866-344-TRUTH. Let's go to Jesus in Chicago. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello, sir. Thank you once again for having me on, I appreciate it.

Sure thing. I would like, recently, there has been, due to a response to a death in the family, and that family being mostly Catholic, I was just, it kind of spurred me to ask this question just in the back of my mind. And in your walk with the Lord and in your meditations, could you, you know, tell me if you think that, you know, Catholicism or Catholics, can we say that they're brothers and sisters in Christ, or are they, you know, like what a lot of people like to say are like heretical, you know, they aren't actually saved or following a different Jesus, this and that, you know, because this and that. Right. So it's not just a theoretical question, it's practical.

When you have family members and you're dealing with funerals and death and things like that together. Okay, short answer, I'm sure that there are saved Catholics, but I do not believe that Catholicism overall is teaching an accurate way of salvation. Now, as I'm doing this broadcast, I'm sure there are saved Catholics listening to me, and you're not happy with my answer, entirely happy, but you would believe the same about me, that I'm saved despite not being Catholic. Oh, no, wait, no, I'm not Catholic. No, no, no, no, no. I'm just talking to general listeners. Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just speaking for a moment to general listeners, to Catholic listeners right now, that I would say to Catholic listeners that are born again, I recognize you as brothers and sisters in Jesus, despite errors inherent in Catholicism, and you might say to me, well, I recognize you as a brother in Jesus, despite errors in your Protestantism. If you talk to a really traditional Catholic, they do not believe there's salvation outside of the Catholic Church. In other words, Jesus, they would say you and I are not saved because we're not Catholic. I came to faith in an Italian Pentecostal church where almost all of the people there were former Catholics who were saved, and they really didn't think that you could be saved and stay in the Catholic Church. And over the years, I've met Catholic brothers and sisters that are born again. They have clear evidence of being born again in relationship with God and their sins forgiven. So I do absolutely believe there are born-again Catholics, people that I'll be together with forever, and they're born-again Baptists, and they're born-again Methodists, and Lutherans, and Greek Orthodox, and others, yet I do believe there is serious error that's been taught within Catholicism, from the role of the Pope, to the role of Mary, to aspects of justification by faith, to purgatory, to the nature of the Mass. I would differ with all these, and yet Jesus can be exalted in such a way and pointed to in such a way that a Catholic can ask God to forgive them, receive cleansing through the blood of Jesus, and be genuinely born again, despite some of the other errors.

So yes, from my own view, that's my own view. And when I would do Jesus on a practical level, if you are talking with someone, forget whether they're Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, or whatever. You're talking with this person, and it's clear to you, hey, they look at Scripture the same way I do. They look at God the same way I do. They talk about the forgiveness of sin and new life in Jesus, and they seem to love the Lord the same way I do. Well, I begin to fellowship with them, and see if, wow, we are in harmony in Jesus.

And if you dig deeper, you might find some areas of difference. But if I'm talking to someone, I don't care if they call themselves a Catholic or a Protestant, and as I'm interacting, it's clear, you've got a head knowledge, but you don't know the Lord. You're part of a church, but you have not been born again.

If I see those things are true, then I'm going to witness to that person to lead them to Jesus, regardless of denominational or church affiliation. So may the Lord's grace be there in the midst of grieving process and meeting family, and may you shine brightly for Jesus. Hey, thank you for the question. 866-34-TRUTH, and we will go immediately, straight back to the phones since we come back. Stay right here. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. All right, we go straight back to the phones as quickly as we can, starting with Kathy in Roanoke, Virginia.

Welcome to the line of fire. Hello, thank you for letting me ask you a question. I've actually enjoyed reading your interview by my father, Dr. Culver, and his book on revival. You actually prayed for me when I was 14 in the revival down in Brownsville, I recall it.

Wonderful. Were you impacted as a young teenager there? I was. I brought my class of 10, 11, 12-year-old girls, and they were all laying all around us, playing in the Spirit, and all of them have shown great fruit.

So, yes, it was a big impact. Praise God. Amazing. The Lord is so good.

Yeah, wonderful, wonderful. Here's my question. It's two-part. Are you aware of, and what do you think about, Jonathan Edwards' insistence that even religious revival can be a warning of imminent destruction? Evidently, he believes that if revival doesn't actually produce reformation, then revival is a sign of not God's approval, but the opposite, that he's about to judge. And let me tell you, I've never heard this before, but Gerald McDermott, in his new book, I don't know if you're familiar with it, Race and Covenant, he is laying out this whole national covenant, and he's talking about Jonathan Edwards, and Jonathan Edwards is pretty rough on, you know, what would be New England at the time for their treatment of Native Americans and for slavery. And so the whole Race and the Covenant is a great book, but the whole premise of the first chapter is that Jonathan Edwards is insisting that a worldwide revival, if it doesn't produce reformation, is a sign of God's intending judgment.

And the reason I ask this is because that changes how I pray for revival, so that's why I'm asking it. Yeah, so Gerald McDermott is a colleague. I think we've interacted in different ways. I don't know if we've met face-to-face, but he's a highly respected colleague and a great scholar in Jonathan Edwards. So I've studied Edwards for years, but Gerald McDermott studied him a thousand times more than I have, and he's a reliable guide when it comes to Edwards. And of course, Edwards held to what you'd call a post-millennial view, believing that the gospel could bring in the millennium, and that he really felt that the church in America, if it really stepped into the revival and repented, could actually see God's kingdom manifest on the earth, really move into a millennial kind of setting.

But here's my perspective. We can't live without revival. I have a book coming out in September called Revival or We Die. America's messed up in too many different ways, and the church is compromised in too many different ways that we can't live without a visitation from God. However, with great blessing comes great judgment.

So it's kinda like this. We're in a situation which is life and death, and we must have a visitation from God. Without a visitation from God, we are sunk.

But with a visitation comes greater accountability. With a visitation, God's saying, okay, I'm going to be merciful once more. I'm going to come once more.

I'm going to draw near it once more. Only do not scorn my grace or else. So my book, From Holy Laughter to Holy Fire, which came out in 95, three months before the Brownsville Revival, ends with a warning and a promise, saying that revival could be the one thing that forestalls judgment, or revival could be the one thing that comes before judgment, but either way, we have to have God visit us. Hence the prayer in Habakkuk 3, and wrath, remember mercy, which has become a famous revival prayer. Nancy and I were talking last night over dinner about the reality of God's holiness, and I was reminding her in my book, Whatever Happened to the Power of God, which came out in 91, that there's a chapter called An Outpouring Could Be Fatal, because when God really comes into the midst of his people with holiness, if we don't repent, if we cast it off, then the consequences are even higher. But what else can we do?

We must have visitation. Okay, that does answer the prayer. It just needs to be come anyway, because revival means it's our last hope. We're in exile, and we need him to come and rescue us. Yeah, I mean, you should look at it like that. And again, it doesn't mean that America's going to die in a year, but it could mean that things really get far worse than we ever imagined, and that the church sinks to lower depths than we ever imagined. That's why we say revival or we die.

Yeah. Okay, I love it. Thank you very much. You are very welcome, Kathy. God bless, and how amazing to hear about the power of God working in teenagers and young girls.

It's real. When you really encounter God, something really happens. 866-34-TRUTH, let's go over to Kevin in Reno Valley, California. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. Thanks for having me again.

I want to answer my question once more. All right, great. So first off, I just wanted to quickly say, I know I've heard many people constantly say that there's contradictions in the Bible. Mostly that comes from religions of men, where they claim that the Bible is disordered and such, but I truly believe that the scripture of God has no contradiction.

It's just we fail to understand a bit. Yeah, and look, there are certainly apparent contradictions. In other words, at the surface level, there seem to be contradictions, and then some are resolved by learning more, that we understand more of what actually happened at a given time, and that sheds light, or by further manuscript evidence. You know, we definitely do have contradictions in numbers and certain accounts, like this amount killed in one account, this amount killed in another. We can't seem to reconcile them, but sometimes it's just manuscript evidence. You know, for example, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1940s, and scholars began to study them and look at them, that it resolved some textual issues and questions. So, yeah, we can say, yeah, that's an apparent contradiction, but it's simply based on lack of knowledge on our end, that if someone says, well, that's just a cop-out, we say, no, no, we can resolve most of the contradictions when we study and dig deeper, and those that we can't, because we see the reliability of God in a million other ways and throughout the rest of the Bible, we're willing to say, yeah, that's a question. We don't have the answer for it right now, but we'll keep digging, because it's quite secondary to the larger issues.

Exactly. And I've noticed that in the teachings of men, there's more apparent, like, more obvious contradictions that just can't be resolved, like you said, when it comes to Scripture, stopping, discovering the true solution once we dig deeper. And so that brings me to my question, because of how I've been taught growing up, you know, I was lucky to be born and raised in a Christian family.

I've known God since the beginning, and He's been present throughout my life. So I've been taught that, I believe it's 2 Peter, I could be mistaken, but I believe it's 2 Peter that talks about how Christ, after being crucified, He descended during the three days, and He went to preach to, I believe, they're called the saints of the Old Testament, so everyone from the Old Testament, like Daniel and David. Yeah, yeah, so here, tell you what, just because we're short on time, and you're remembering it, but not remembering it exactly accurately, it doesn't speak of the Old Testament saints. It speaks of the spirits in prison, and that they were there in disobedience.

So if you go to 1 Peter, chapter 3, it says in verse 18, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit. After being made alive, He went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits.

That's what it says. To those who were disobedient long ago, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built, in it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water. It doesn't say He preached the gospel.

It doesn't use that Greek verb that would be used otherwise, but rather He made proclamation to whom? Not to the previous saints or the people of the Old Testament, but to the spirits who were disobedient in the days of Noah. So this would be speaking of fallen angels. So Jesus goes into the netherworld and proclaims His victory, His resurrection, proclaims that their fate is sealed. In other words, the door is forever closed. You are doomed and damned, and it has been sealed by the death and new life of the Messiah. So that's what it's talking about.

It's not that He went and preached to the Old Testament saints and said, okay, you know, now do you receive me? Yeah, all right, every head bowed, great. You all prayed the prayer. Okay, now we go to heaven together.

That's not what that is referring to there. All right, let's, okay, let's go for it. James in Easley, South Carolina. Time is short. Can you give a quick question? Yes, so I've been talking about Catholics, and when I talk to a priest, I'm sorry? Go ahead, go ahead.

Okay, very cool. So in the Catholic view of when Paul talks about works in his Epistles, they say that he's specifically talking about works of the Mosaic law, such as the ritual works and the dietary works. Right, so that we're not saved by the works of the law.

And I'm just jumping in for time's sake. So the Catholic argument would say when Paul speaks to the works of the law, and other scholars would hold to this as well, that he doesn't mean by doing good works. He means by keeping the Sabbath, the dietary laws, practicing circumcision, that doesn't save you.

We all agree on that, that that doesn't save you. But when Paul is writing to Gentiles like Titus, and he says in the first chapter of Titus that we're saying, or writing to others, excuse me, and talking about salvation by grace and by grace through faith, we are saved to good works. But when does the tax collector get forgiven in Luke 18? He gets forgiven when he says, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Repentance is the fruit that is born. We demonstrate our new life through repentance. But salvation comes exclusively as a gift, as the thief on the cross experience. He acknowledges who Jesus is, recognizes his own sin, and that brings him salvation, and he never has a chance to do anything to add to it. God bless your friends, back with you on Monday.