Dr. Brown Takes Your Calls and Answers Your Toughest Questions

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. You've got questions. We've got answers.

Let's do it. It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. I'm looking at our screen here, and we've actually got some open phone lines. Many a time on Friday, the moment the show starts, every phone line is lit up. But we've got maybe a phone line still open, so that's a good time. Well, anyway, it was a good time to call, but we'll get as many calls as we can. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884.

This is Michael Brown. Welcome to The Line of Fire. It being Friday, you've got questions. We've got answers. But I just want to say this first. Sunday is a special day for Nancy, and for me, 45 years of marriage. Just, it's amazing.

It's mind-boggling. We met at the age of 19, and we're married. She had just turned 21.

I was two days shy of turning 21. 45 years together. Just amazing. So I'll post a special tribute on social media this weekend, but since this is the last day before that, I just wanted to express my appreciation to the Lord for giving me. Nancy wouldn't be who I am where I am without her, nor would our kids be who they are, our grandkids. All right, we will go straight to the phones.

Let's start with Paul in Roseau, Minnesota. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Congratulations on 45 years. Thank you for taking my call. I appreciate everything you do.

Thanks. Recently, I heard a couple gentlemen with information about the Essenes that I'd never heard before. They said things about Essenes believed the coming Messiah would atone for sins and believed in the triune nature of God, believed in the deity of the Messiah. This gentleman said there were at least 500,000 Jewish believers at the end of the first century, maybe as many as a million. And another gentleman said the Essenes predicted that the Messiah would die in 32 AD and predicted a Benjamite would explain everything to the Gentiles. In other words, the apostle Paul.

I'm wondering what your take is on this. Have you heard these things? Who were the folks that were teaching this? One was a Dr. Robert Fisher, and another was a gentleman named Josh Peck.

Right. Okay, so in terms of general scholarship and what we know about the Essenes, we know the description of the Essenes from Josephus in the first century, and the Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees being the three major Jewish subdivisions at that time. We have references to what they believe.

Philo as well would comment on the Jewish philosopher. And then we have the writings of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which most scholars believe to be of Essene origin. So the idea that they believed in the deity of the Messiah, God's triune nature, predicted the Messiah dying to atone for our sins, resurrection, I would say that's all far-fetched. That is reading things into an obscure text or two far beyond what's actually there. In other words, there's no new material that nobody knows about that these gentlemen would have somehow discovered. So in other words, it's not like, hey, this is out there, and the scholarly world is reacting to it, but folks haven't heard about it. When those types of things do come about, you know, scrolls discovered, and is this speaking of a dying, rising Messiah? And this happened a few years ago with one new scroll that was found, and could it be? And it's debatable.

Maybe this word should be read this way or not. And, you know, we do know that there were certain clear parallels. It's been known for decades between the Dead Sea Scroll community and New Covenant beliefs.

You know, the war of the sons of light with the sons of darkness, or the people of the New Covenant, or a priestly Messiah along with the Davidic Messiah. Those are beliefs that seem to be plainly found there. But these other things would be based on an obscure text being read in a way that now projects something back into it. So I would say far-fetched in all this. Now, as to the number of believers, we know in the book of Acts, in the 21st chapter, that Jacob James is telling Paul about the myriads of Jews who believe and are zealous for the Torah.

And he's talking about multiplied tens of thousands. And there is debate about how many did come to faith, and could the numbers have been that high by the end of the first century, a half million or a million now? I would say most scholars would not accept that view, but there are those who really do believe it. But what happened then would have been they were largely assimilated into the church and lost Jewish identity. Whereas those that continued to live with distinct Jewish identity, there were some heretical groups like the Corinthians or the Ebionites. Not Corinthians, but Corinthians or Ebionites that were heretical groups. But then there were the Nazarenes who held to the basics of New Testament faith and continued to live as Jews. And we know of their existence, you know, Jerome interacts with them in the fourth century. And other church leaders don't quite know what to do with them because they're Orthodox believers, but they're living as Jews, just like the apostles did. And, you know, they even seem to have a copy of Matthew in Hebrew or of Hebrews in Hebrew. You know, Jerome talks about seeing that. So if there were these large numbers, then they assimilated into the Gentile church or killed some of them in the destruction of Jerusalem and things like that.

But those that distinctly live as Jews were a much smaller number, for sure. But it's a fascinating conversation. Was there a particular book that you were seeing this in or a website where you were seeing this? No, it was just interviews on YouTube.

Got it. So those would be, especially the first things you mentioned, super, super controversial, highly disputed, and widely rejected by other scholars. I was wondering why I had never heard these things before. How about you mentioned Matthew being in Hebrew. Is there much of a chance that that was actually written in Hebrew? Right, so the Matthew that we have now in Greek, from all that we can tell, was written in Greek. In other words, it was not a translation from Hebrew into Greek, so that Matthew wrote it in Greek. The best Greek scholars, New Testament Matthew scholars, agree on that.

Not universally, but overwhelmingly. However, there is a clear tradition of Matthew compiling the sayings of Jesus in Hebrew or Aramaic. Big scholarly debate about that. Is that the same as the Gospel of Matthew, or is that a compilation of teachings of Jesus?

So that's disputed. And then what Jerome and others actually saw, was it a copy of Matthew in Hebrew or a copy of this compilation? So there seems to be something that Matthew did write in Hebrew.

The idea of it being preserved through the generations, we have no record of that. The documents that we do have from many centuries later, medieval documents, are used by the rabbis to refute the Christians. So they had, because most of them wouldn't know Greek, but they'd know Hebrew, so they'd have Matthew translated into Hebrew so they could then understand it and better refute the Christians. However, there are some of these manuscripts that seem to have Hebrew plays on words and things that would go back to a Hebrew original.

In other words, if you're hostile and you're translating from Greek into Hebrew, you're not going to find beautiful plays on words in Hebrew and all of this. So some have claimed that we have remnants of the original Hebrew Matthew that are preserved, but the Matthew that we have is a Greek document and from all we can tell was not translated from Hebrew into Greek. But was there a separate Hebrew Matthew or a compilation of the sayings of Jesus in Hebrew slash Aramaic? It seems that there was, and it was associated with Matthew. So these are big, interesting, fascinating discussions. And here and there you can say, hey, Hebrew Matthew that we've had for later manuscripts says this. Could that give us insight into the Greek text, you know, or what Jesus would have originally said? And there are questions and debates about it.

But if you ever see someone saying this is a translation of the original Hebrew Matthew, bogus, this is translation of the original Aramaic Matthew, bogus. Don't buy it. Don't believe it. Hey, Paul, thank you for the calls. Much appreciated. The questions, one call, but questions. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Trevor in Corona, California. Thanks for calling the line of fire.

Yo, what's up, Dr. Brown? Love the ministry. Got a call from one of your ministry team members, Christa, the other week, and she prayed for my girlfriend whose name is also Christa. So shout out to Christa. I have a question about what is your favorite Bible passage and why?

I mean, I saw your question posted on my screen here. Give me a topic, like a subject within the Bible. Oh, man. How about like things that like edified you and brought you closer to God?

Okay. Well, that's like the whole Bible. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let me tell you this. There are passages that at certain moments God used, opened up to me, that have had special or extraordinary meaning. You know, I remember in college just going through a real crisis of tremendous pressure. I was studying liberal arts, but I hated it. I ended up leaving that, started as a music major, switched to liberal arts, ended up becoming a Hebrew major, and that was so important for God's plan for my life. But I remember I just I couldn't take it. I couldn't I didn't want to write the papers.

I had no interest in the stuff and and was just struggling, you know, wrestling with things. And and and, you know, I remember the enemy tormenting me. You're going crazy. You're having a breakdown.

What a stupid thing. I was like 19, 20 years old. And somehow, Romans 828, God working all things for the good for those who love. It became overwhelmingly true and real to me and gave me the supernatural confidence that God's plan was going to work itself out. And then I end up another school originally there because I was going to be a music major.

When I'm there, I kind of look around. It's like they have all these Hebrew classes and just kind of innocently make the shift to build on what I've been taking the first couple of years. And it being pivotal, you know, sometimes a verse like that would jump out at me or, you know, Malachi three. God coming as a refiner's fire as I would preach and the Holy Spirit would fall in repentance and people would begin confessing sin and crying out and weeping before God.

And that that reality of wherever I went, that there was that refiner's fire ministry, that became kind of a life thing. Or, you know, just just a scripture jumping at you. I sung the hymn, great is your faithfulness as a new believer, but didn't know it was from a verse in Lamentations. And I remember discovering it Lamentations three. That's in the Bible. And it's been in the middle of Lamentations of exile and pain. And then, you know, living for years in John 15, biting in the vine. So the whole Bible.

Yeah. So much. So many verses. And yes, Krista and our team, she loves to pray with our friends and supporters.

And so glad she reached out to you. We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to The Line of Fire.

This is Michael Brown. Delighted to be with you. 866-34-TRUTH. Hey, did you get my emails?

You get them a few times a week, two, three times a week. Edifying content, updates on latest videos, articles, free resources, new resources becoming available, special packages. Insight into what we do in ministry and why, how we can be a blessing to you. If you don't take a minute, go to the website.

AskDrBrown.org and click to receive our emails. You will be blessed as you do. And we would love to connect with you. We'd love to be able to be in regular contact and be in touch and minister to you in many, many different ways. All right. Let us go to Jeff in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Welcome to The Line of Fire.

Thank you very much. There is a bill out there called HB1, the People's Bill. If this passes the Senate, it would nationalize mail-in voting, which pro-biblical politicians will never get into office again. If this happens, we are completely done. The church should prepare to go underground after that point because we will lose our footing. We will lose our voice. This bill is no joke. All right.

So, Jeff, let me ask this. You know, we've spoken out plainly against the so-called Equality Act and related bills. Of course, the Equality Act would gut and remove religious freedoms.

You're right. But I would say it's highly unlikely that it can get past the Senate because it needs 60 votes there. But we have to take it very seriously as if it could. But here's my approach that would be different, is that if something this draconian does pass and something that guts religious freedoms because you don't have religious exemption. In other words, you can't say, well, as a church or as a Christian school or as followers of Jesus, we hold to this for these reasons.

No, that would be gone. That's one of the biggest issues with the so-called Equality Act. But to me, that's when you go all the more overground. In other words, the more the government tries to shut you down, the more you stand up and speak what's true and right. So that's what we have to do. We overcome by refusing to be canceled, by refusing to be silenced, by standing and speaking.

The more the world tries to silence us, the more we shout, not in anger, but the more we get our message out loudly and clearly. What in the bill concerns you the most? Well, the mail-in balloting, for one thing, because if you have mail-in ballots, you will have all kinds of voter fraud out there. Because the gist of it is, if people are able to mail in their votes, you don't know who is really voting. There is no system to which the mail-in ballot can be properly identified, and if you have that, it will completely water down elections as we know it. And the Democrats will be able to ram in their candidates time in and time again.

It'll be like a mob horse race to where the Mafia horse will win every single time. Right, so you're mentioning H.R. 1. I was drawing attention. Immediately, my mind went to the Equality Act, so I was speaking to something different, so I apologize for that. The thing that is important is that there must be election integrity. This was one of the biggest concerns, Jeff, that many Republicans and conservatives had that felt that there was fraud or something was done wrong in the elections. And that once it shifted in this direction, that by opening the borders so that you now have more and more immigrants coming in that really don't have the legal right to be here, but would be coming in at large numbers and would be immediately, at least the first generation, inclined to vote Democrat.

Then making, say, D.C. into a state, and now you further shift the Electoral College because D.C. is overwhelmingly liberal Democrat. And then you add in on top of that more mail-in ballots and stuff that it's like, hey, it's just going to go this direction and you can't push a candidate through. So let us all work together. Every American of conscience should work together for election integrity.

And whatever can be done to minimize fraud, even if you're sure there was no fraud, don't you want everything in the light? So let's be aware of these issues. Hey, Jeff, thank you for calling and raising these issues.

866-342. By the way, we were on a roll here with three Jeffs and a John. I was wondering if we were going to get five straight with a J, but no, we didn't. But let's go on from Jeff.

We go to John in Wilmington, Delaware. Welcome to the line of fire. How are you doing, Dr. Brown? And congratulations on your interview. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Great to hear.

I've been reading Mark Nanos. I'm pretty sure. Are you familiar with him? Yeah, of course. Sure.

I figured you would. That was probably not a Mark question, but I know you're out there with all things. But what do you how do you feel about his writings with Paul, with the Jews?

Right. So so he he reads Romans and Galatians in ways. So he's Jewish scholar. And by the way, John, I appreciate the the assumption that I know a lot of folks, but there's there's a whole world of scholarship and people contributing.

So, you know, we all know some names and others we don't. But Mark Nanos, his name has been known for for a couple of decades now with some very innovative approaches to Romans and to Galatians that kind of turned things upside down in terms of the way that they've been read. And he's he's done it in a literate way, in other words, in a thoughtful way, not some just crazy YouTube video nobody knows anything about. But with good scholarship and research from a Jewish perspective, but one that is not bashing the Christian view, but rather looking at it from a different angle. I I generally differ with his viewpoint.

In other words, the way that he reads things and kind of turns things upside down from my perspective in the historical scholarship, I don't agree with. But because he's reading it through certain Jewish eyes, but in a sympathetic way, I think there's a lot to discuss. In other words, it's opened up a lot of good discussion among Jewish and Christian scholars.

And it's been healthy in that regard. What to you would be the single claim or two claims that are the hardest for you to swallow, either in general or specifically with regard to a particular passage? I, you know, his I've contemplated on the like the when he discusses like in Galatians, like it being more about, you know, conversion, just the circumcision of being converted. But Paul was really not, you know, straying outside of Judaism because the Jews, you know, the Jewish people at the time believe that this was supposed to go to the nation. This was what the Messiah was supposed to do. And that when you were a Gentile or actually doesn't use the word Gentiles, if you were from the nation and you didn't convert through that conversion, you know, you were kind of stuck in a bad place for Rome. You know, you had to you had to participate in the cult. But if you you know, because if you said, no, I'm a child of Abraham and not going through the full conversion, well, then you would have got heat from Rome. But then if you went the full way and that's what Paul was preaching. And so that kind of like, do you find that true or do you like that?

I think that's where I'm I'm trying to. Right. No. So my view would be I find it interesting. I take his scholarship seriously, but I ultimately reject the conclusions. In other words, he may add a nuance. He may challenge the way you're thinking. But ultimately, I don't believe that he overthrows the foundations, the fundamental things, the way that we've read these texts through the years. So get insight from it, nuance certain things, say this may have been part of it.

But ultimately, though, the way we've read it, I believe is the right way to read it. Awesome. And can I have one scriptural question? Yeah, real quick. Go ahead.

Sure. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Genesis 19 24. Is there how do you read that to Lord? Like, you know, God being down with Abraham calling down. Like, how do you interpret that Genesis 24? Yes. So the Lord rain, Yahweh raining down fire and brimstone from Yahweh in heaven.

Rabbinic interpreters just find it as a literary device that they'll give other examples in Hebrew where we can't read it too stiffly. But since you have the Lord on earth, Yahweh on earth in Genesis 18, right, appearing to Abraham. Yep. And we know that Yahweh is also enthroned in heaven that you could you could say what does seem to say that that Yahweh was on earth and Yahweh was in heaven and that that's a legitimate reading of of the text. So definitely can make a case for it. Hey, John, I appreciate the question very much.

Thank you so much. 866-34-TRUTH. Let us go to Jeff in San Angelo, Texas. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Jeff.

Hey, how you doing? I've just been introduced to your ministry just a few weeks ago. I've been serving the Lord for about 40 years, but I've never heard of you until just recently.

But I really have about three questions, but I think I can only ask me one, so I'll just have to call them again. But the blindness of the Jews that spoke of in Romans 11 and 7, where in the Scriptures does it mention that this blindness of the Jews as a nation will be lifted? Yeah, in Romans 11, 25 and 26. Romans 11, 25 and 26.

Yes, sir. So it says, I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, speaking to the Gentile believers, lest you become arrogant. Hardness in part has happened to Israel. So it's not on all Israel. In other words, there's always Jewish believers like me in every generation.

It's not for all time. Hardness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so on the heels of this, all Israel will be saved.

Romans 11, 26. So the blindness is temporary. The blindness will be lifted, as God says in 28, 29, that even though now the Jewish people may be enemies of the Gospel for the sake of the Gentiles, so the message goes to the Gentiles, the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. So there will be a national turning.

The hardness will lift. And then you have other parallel passages like Jeremiah 31, 1. At that time, God would be God of all the nations of Israel.

Or Zechariah 12, 10, where the people of Judah and Jerusalem will repent as they turn to the Lord. Hey, Jeff, stay right there. You can ask another question on the other side of the break. Then we'll get to some other calls. 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. Get into the Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Hey, just a request. If you've read one of my books and it's been a blessing and help to you, take a minute and post a review on Amazon or if you've got a Christian book or another website as well, Christianbook.com. Post the review there as well.

But let folks know about it. We often get folks that hate our ministry, hate our work, and they'll post bogus reviews, one-star reviews, things with false accusations and stuff. You know, you may be going to look for a book and you see all these negative reviews.

I'm not going to get that. So for the sake of truth, we always try to balance out the false reviews with true and honest ones. Well, many of my books are controversial, but my most recent one, Christian Anti-Semitism, has gotten attacked by one of the guys we exposed in the book. So naturally, they're posting lying reviews about it. So counteract those with truthful reviews. Our goal is not to change opinion. Our goal is to get truth out.

In other words, I'm not concerned with whether someone likes me or not. I just want them to hear the truth. And then what they do with it is between them and God. 866-34-TRUTH. Thanks so much for joining us today. So Jeff in San Angelo, Texas, one more question and then we'll go to someone else. Go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Dr. Brown. Today, you know, you have the Christian churches, especially those that hold to the dispensationalist doctrine, and most of them have turned the Jews or the Jewish nation into an object of worship towards them. We know that all men must come through the same door, which is Jesus. Do you hold to the teaching that the temple must be rebuilt and the Jews have to return to animal sacrifices as taught by the dispensationalists such as Mr. Iles, Hitchcock, and Kim LaHaye? Yes. So number one, I'm not a dispensationalist.

I am premillennial. I do believe there'll be a millennial kingdom on the earth, but I'm not I'm not a dispensationalist, so I don't believe in a pre-trib rapture. And I agree with you that let me say this. Through church history, there's been a lot of anti-Semitism in the church, hatred of the Jews, demonizing of the Jews, blaming all Jews of all time for the death of Jesus, banishing non-baptized Jews from their countries and things like that. So there has been anti-Jewish discrimination and hatred in the church that's driven many Jews away from Jesus. On the flip side, there are those who you say kind of make Israel into an idol or so esteem Israel that they forget that there's only salvation through Jesus.

So that's a totally separate thing. In other words, I urge everyone to have a burden to pray for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I believe God himself has brought the Jewish people back to the land, but I absolutely pray for the salvation of Jewish people knowing there's no salvation outside of Jesus Yeshua. As I see scripture, it seems that there will be a temple rebuilt. Certain verses seem to point to that.

2 Thessalonians 2 talks about this man of sin, this anti-Christ figure setting himself up in the temple of God, unless that's meant metaphorically. If there's still future application and some of the warnings of Jesus in Matthew 24, that of time with the temple, that there would be a physical temple. So I expect it to happen before Jesus returns, but to me it's nothing I'm dogmatic on.

I'd say it has to happen. And certainly the idea of Jewish people returning to animal sacrifices would give a false sense of hope or security. The temple's rebuilt all as well.

To me, that would be part of a final deception before the Lord returned. Hey Jeff, thank you for the questions. I appreciate it. And like anything within the body, we're going to have some differences. So we hold fast to the fundamentals. Those are the hills we die on. We have discussion and dialogue about other issues. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let's go to Jeff in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi, thank you for taking my call.

God bless you. I work in the medical field, okay? And I study more in the heart, and I see how the process of somebody, you know, passes away and dies, goes from Agalom to systole, which people call a flat line. And I was looking at a Larry King Live, and I saw an interview with John MacArthur and Rabbi Marvin Hare. Notice that in Judaism, they kind of like, brush off the NDE experiences, okay? And what I've been doing a lot of investigations on the matter of NDE, I saw with your friend, Sid Roth, did an interview with Dean Braxton, which is an amazing testimony. He has his medical records and everything. He passed away for one hour and 45 minutes, and I did also another investigation on Dr. Mary Neal, which is a spine surgeon.

She drowned there for 30 minutes. So my question is, why is it that a lot of times with the Jewish, they kind of like, don't believe in NDEs, you know, near-death experience? I know the rabbi said, well, I don't believe in anybody coming back from death. Right, so let me address this broadly. There is no such thing as the Jewish belief or disbelief in NDEs, just because you have Jews who are ultra-orthodox and super-religious and Jews who are militant atheists and everything in between.

So that's the first thing. And then, you know, for example, you mentioned Sid Roth in interviews he's done. Well, you'll have those, you know, millions that follow his ministry and love it, and then others that think it's crazy and way far out.

You know, Sid's a friend of mine, but you're crazy and way far out. So even among Christians, you're going to have different responses to these things. But, broadly speaking, if there is a different Jewish response than to a born-again Christian response, so I'm making an overgeneralization, or to whatever extent you found it, one would be that your average Jewish person would approach things in a more rational way, and that rationalism would be a very central part of their faith or their non-faith, more so than a Bible-believing Christian. And therefore, you look for a rational explanation before you accept a supernatural explanation.

That's one. If you are a completely liberal Jew, you may not even think there's such a thing as any life after death. When you're dead, it's over. There is a thoroughly atheistic view of things, does not believe in a spiritual afterlife, because we are ultimately physical beings, even though we have emotions and all these sensitivities, we're physical beings, and we don't have a spiritual component. So what is experiencing something in a near-death experience? If you're dead, you're dead.

If you're not dead, you're not dead. But you're not getting a glimpse of the afterlife or the world to come, because there is none. So many Jews would approach things, as I say, in a very rationalistic way that would make them question things. Others simply don't believe in a soul or an afterlife, in which case, well, there's got to be some medical or biological explanation. And then lastly, Judaism does not put as much emphasis on heaven and hell, those kind of concepts, as Christianity does. So it is very possible that, generally speaking, you are running into much more skepticism about these things among Jews than you would among Christians.

Those would be the reasons. You know, he did an interview with Jonathan Bernis on The Jewish Voice, and he brought the stack of medical records to him, and I'm thinking, okay, so there's a lot of Jewish doctors, they have to believe in medical science. You know, I'm going to prove to you that I literally passed away, I died, for an hour or 45 minutes. What are the process, what's going on, resuscitation, all this stuff?

Like with Dr. Mary Neal, she went underwater, she drowned, she was 30 minutes until they were able to take her body out. And one of the things that she did, you know, that kind of like worked, you know, she had a fight within her beliefs and also with her medical, you know, science studies and all this stuff. She said, I made sure that the medication they were giving me, it was nothing that would cause an hallucination. So just to say this, Jeff, I'm not minimizing the reality or the power of some of these testimonies, and I know people that had experiences like this and they have been following Jesus for decades, I mean, they were transformed by the experience. So I'm not denying the power of the testimony, and certainly you're going to have a Jewish doctor that sees this and it gets that person thinking. But I would just say that if your entire worldview is there is no spiritual world, then everything has to have a medical explanation. It's like, well, obviously there's something we don't understand medically yet, we'll have to find out more. Like if someone challenges, you know, the scientist and atheist Richard Dawkins, what about the origins of life?

Well, we haven't figured that out yet, but we will, because there has to be a material explanation. But, Jeff, again, I think some of these are very powerful and to the glory of God. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Vicki in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown.

Hey. Real quick, I have been kind of debating about having the vaccine. I know a lot of people are, you know, of course, gung-ho, and some people are like never going to do it. I'm really, without sincerity, praying and seeking God to whether or not I should take this vaccine. And because of ethical, possibly, reasons, because of fetal lines used, fetal cell lines used in the vaccine.

And I know you probably have talked to more people than I have about this, and search may be for it. And I didn't know if you could just shed some light on this, because without sincerity, I am really praying about it. I mean, about taking it and seeking God about it, because it is something you take into your body, you know. And I don't normally get vaccines.

I don't get a flu vaccine, you know, because God is taking care of me. But I want to see what your opinion is. I'm going to give you an opinion. I'm obviously not giving you medical advice. I'm not a medical doctor. Correct. I understand.

Yeah, absolutely. And, yeah, so, just as I'm interacting with some of my team here that's researched these things, my understanding was that at least one of the vaccines had no connection to fetal lines, aborted fetuses, anything like that. To my knowledge, at least one that I've seen pro-life websites saying, this is perfectly fine. My questions, and just interacting with one of our team members here that's researched this a lot, okay, so, because this has been produced in such a hurry, and because it's not a normal vaccine, there are questions about lasting effects, potential side effects, others, will it really work? And I don't know.

I honestly don't know. The fetal line thing, to the best of my knowledge, at least one of the vaccines, is free from that, and that should not be the concern. The bigger concern is, is it needed, or are you in a high-risk health group where it would be needed? And is it safe?

That's even the biggest thing. Right now, I'm not taking it, by God's grace, I'm super healthy and thriving, about to turn 66, no underlying conditions. I'm not confident enough to say, oh, definitely put this in my system, but I do not know. 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 866-342.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire, 866-342. So, Vicki, I wish I had more to say, but something this personal, this important, keep praying, keep looking at things research-wise, and make a decision.

But don't do something just because of pressure of those around you. Make sure you know what you're doing, and hopefully, look, I hope the vaccine is safe, and I hope it works. Obviously, I'm not against it. I hope it's safe. I hope it works. I hope it's helping millions of people.

I hope so. Thanks for there to be problems, though, that arise from it, that we're unforeseen, just because there has not been sufficient time to test and work things through and see long-term studies and things like that. All right, back to the phones.

Let's go to Spencer in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Hello, Dr. Brown. How are you doing? Doing well, thanks. Great.

Yep. I guess it's pretty brief, the questions I have, I believe. The first part is, have you ever heard of, and if you have, what is your opinion on the Karabis text or scroll?

I believe Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan is supposed to have the scroll. And how do you spell that? I'm trying. I don't have the vowel points with me.

It's in Aramaic, I believe, so it'd be like, code, race. Got it. Yep, yep.

Oh, you found it already? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay, so... It's supposed to predate the Koine Greek.

I don't know if I'm correct in here, if that's actually correct. Okay, yeah, so actually when I said, yeah, I got it, because I was not familiar with this off the top of my head, it came up with everything but that. In other words, nothing was recognized with that spelling, and it's just given me all these other ancient Aramaic texts.

Okay. So I can't speak to that specifically. What I can say is that I don't believe in Aramaic primacy, meaning I don't believe the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic, and then the Greek came after that. So even if Jesus taught primarily in Aramaic, maybe some in Hebrew, even if there were accounts that were copied down in Aramaic, that when things began to be written for the larger audience that was being reached, they were written in Greek. And then when we have the Peshitta, which is the Syriac Aramaic, that's a translation from the Greek. So it may preserve, just because you're going from Aramaic into Greek back to Aramaic, it may preserve certain sayings and insights and things like that.

There's great value in studying it, but not in a way of primacy. So when you get the right spelling, and maybe I'll be able to figure it out afterwards, and you said which seminary? Western Theological Seminary. I believe it's there in Holland, Michigan. All right. Aramaic manuscript.

Out of all places. Yeah, okay. Anyway, I'm not seeing anything. When you find the exact spelling and thing you're talking about, just shoot us a note through the website and get to me. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Because I was struggling.

The consonants I have, but I struggle with the vowel points. I'm still learning. Anyways, my other point is, my Hebrew instructor, he is messianic. However, he's saying that since the New Testament being written in Greek, it's supposedly considered to be unkosher.

And I write off, it kind of threw a flag up for me. I'm not so certain, it doesn't make sense to me, that with God accusing the Koine Greek for the Gospel message to be preached and spread so vastly, I just don't see how that would be. Well, first thing, who says that Hebrew was a holy language? Hebrew is Canaanite dialect. In Isaiah 19, it's called S'fat Kanaan, the language of Canaan. So this was the language that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob took on moving to the land of Canaan, which is why when Jacob, in Genesis 31, is dealing with Laban, and they make a covenant, and so Jacob calls it Gal-aid, a heap of witness, and Laban calls it Yegor-sahadutha, which is the Aramaic, but that's what they would have spoken originally. So Hebrew in itself is not this perfectly holy language, that's one.

Two, even in rabbinic tradition, when the Septuagint of the Torah was translated, that was a holy and sacred event and inspired by God. But bottom line is, God's heart for the whole world, to reach the whole world with this message, the idea that writing in Greek would be on kosher is completely ridiculous. It's without scriptural support, completely ridiculous, and fails to recognize the holiness in the content of the words. God can speak through any language on the planet, so big caution in terms of where the gentleman may be going. All right, appreciate the call, Spencer. That's what I thought was the light to the Gentiles, or goyim.

I was like, how could it be so wrong being written in Greek? Hey, thank you so much. You bet, you bet. 86634truth, a lot of wacky stuff out there, friends.

Folks go from one extreme, you know, anti-Semitism of the church to then an extreme Hebrew roots. Anyway, don't know where this individual's coming from, but a lot of weird stuff out there. All right, let's go to Los Angeles. Felix, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. It's been a while. I called about, like, two years ago, and I'm calling in regards to a question that I actually—if you could expound on it a bit. Mm-hmm. It was regards to—two years ago, I asked something if the church could ever come back again to do, like, another Council of Nicaea, and due to the lack of time, it was just, like, a quick no.

I was wondering if you could expound on the reasons why. And then, just real quick as well, if someone is a heretic, per se, can they still be saved since they're not apostates, there's a distinction there? Or are they all under, like, anathema in those cases? Right.

So, good to hear from you again, Felix. As far as a heretic, by definition, a heretic is believing damnable doctrines. In other words, it's not a difference between believers in the body—I have one view of the end times, you have another view of the end times—a heretic is fundamentally believing things that will exclude them from salvation. So, they might deny the deity of Jesus, or they might deny the authority of Scripture, or they might deny the necessity of salvation through the blood, but they're denying something fundamental, and therefore are heretics. We often throw the term around, just for people we differ with within the body, but the way it's been used historically, we're talking about someone who is a non-believer. Can a heretic be saved?

Of course! Plenty of heretics get saved. Plenty of people that believe wrongly come to faith as opposed to someone that once was in the Lord and has gone apostate. But even then, we see through Scripture the constant invitation for people to turn and come back. So, maybe someone was a true believer, fell into heresy, apostatized, and then has a rude awakening 20 years later.

God will welcome them back. So, the reason I would have responded the way I did, in terms of, could there be a council of Nicaea now, is the inability to fundamentally agree through the worldwide church as to who is a Christian and who is a leader. In other words, a staunch Protestant will not accept the authority of the Pope or of Catholic tradition. A staunch Catholic will believe that the Catholic Church is the Mother Church. A staunch Greek Orthodox will say they have the original faith.

A staunch Messianic Jew will say that we have the original faith. And even though within them you could have certain circles of fellowship. And then let's put aside all those that no longer believe in the inspiration of Scripture. All those that just have, you know, liberal, progressive, we don't know that Jesus really rose from the dead, he's one way among men. You know, put aside all that nonsense, okay, and just think in terms of those that would at least say the Bible is God's word, salvation is through the blood of Jesus, to then bring the diversity of leaders together, you could have pockets. And even there, I mean within Protestant circles, we have so much division. And then you have the liberal and the traditional Catholics, so it's somewhat of a different world now with the spread of the gospel, the spread of Christianity, the spread of human tradition, the spread of heretical beliefs. So, now that being said, Jesus did pray in John 17 for the unity of his people.

And it's something of priceless value in God's sight. So, here's my only option for something different, is if the pressure of the world got so intense, and the persecution got so intense, and the attack on believers got so intense, that it ended up that we were all kind of thrown together. And thrown together, we could find out who the true believers were and not, then maybe something like that could come out of it, but as things are, no, I don't see any way. Is there a chance I could ask one, oh sorry, if I could ask just one more thing, and this is more in regards to your ministry, real quick. Yeah, go ahead.

Hello? Yeah, go ahead. So, first of all, that's sad that it would have to take a tragedy for us to come together, but in regards to your ministry, I enjoyed when you were actually debating that Muslim scholar. I was wondering, are you going to continue into that by any chance, or maybe build up a team that will work, focus on those things? Yeah, so as far as debating Muslims, the one gentleman that came on was really a disgrace to Islamic apologetics. You know, very, very weak and actually lied to our team to get on the show, but I do hope, sir, to do more dialogue with Muslims in the future. I don't know that I'll specialize on it.

To really specialize on it as well requires a tremendous amount of study, and even though I've got three years of classical Arabic and some familiarity with these things, there are others who are so, so far advanced in me in Islamic apologetics that they'll do a ten times better job for many years to come. But, in areas where I can debate and have enough expertise, I do hope to do more of those. So, thanks for the call. God bless, friends. Have an awesome weekend!