Dr. Brown Tackles Your Toughest Questions

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network.

Phone lines are open. You've got questions. We've got answers. 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. Well, thanks for joining us on this Friday.

What happened to my voice? There we go. Thanks for joining us on this Friday. You've got questions. We've got answers. It's my delight to get to as many of your questions as I can. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. If you're just tuning in, you differ with me on something or need clarification as long as it relates to any of the subject matter we cover on The Line of Fire.

By all means, give us a call. And please, friends, take a moment to read my latest article on Stream.org or on our website, AskDrBrown.org, about an absolute outrage in Canada, the father of a 14-year-old girl who objects to her transitioning hormone supplements, sex change surgery in the years ahead. He's been put in jail. He is in jail. Why?

Because he referred to his daughter as his daughter, as she. In jail for that. Read the article. Oh, there's a lot more. Shocking, grievous.

So it's at AskDrBrown.org or Stream.org. Okay, with that, we go to the phones. Let's start with Steve in Central Connecticut. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Hey, happy Friday.

Thank you, sir. So it's somewhat of a hypothetical question. I know nothing can be added or taken away from Scripture, but in light of the recent findings of the fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, I just have trouble understanding that if we hold Paul's writings to the level that we do, if some of his known-to-be-missing letters to either the Corinthians or Ephesians were to be discovered, how would those not be held at the same level as the rest of his writings? Right, for the very reason that they're not in the Bible. In other words, those were not lost letters in Paul's day.

Those were not lost letters or completely lost in circulation. You know, when he mentions, writing to Philippians or Colossians with Thessalonians, you know, and here's the letter to the Laodiceans that I wrote, et cetera, and a letter, apparently a first letter to the Corinthians before 1 Corinthians, those were not lost letters, but those were not chosen in God's providence. It's not that everything that Paul wrote was at the level of Scripture. It's not that every word that came from the amounts of the apostles was at the level of Scripture.

Or here, take a book like Haggai. You've got prophecies from a couple of days, a couple of periods of time in this life, and that's it. You don't have any other prophecies. It's not that all of the prophecies were lost, but that they were not all considered worthy of being part of Scripture, or in God's plan, necessary to be part of Scripture. So if words of Paul were rediscovered in ancient letters, it would be amazing.

That would be incredible. That would be one of the greatest discoveries in world history. But it wouldn't be adding to the Bible, because from the start, God providentially did not have it included in the Bible, nor did the early Christians say, well, how come this is not in the Bible? You know, we don't have any evidence of any of the early church leaders saying, well, why didn't this part get included? Why didn't that part get included once the Scriptures were being canonized? It was just kind of a recognition that certain things stood out, or certain things were recognized in Scripture, and others weren't.

And, you know, we accept that. But again, it would be, even so, looking at Dead Sea Scrolls or some of these recent findings, even there, you're not finding new Scripture, you're just finding new texts or other ancient texts with the same verses, the same words. You know, maybe there's a word variant here and there, but it's not like, for example, you have a Psalm 151 discovered in Quran, but you already had that in Septuagint. You know, the Septuagint canon already had one extra Psalm, so you could debate whether that should be part of the Bible or not. Or the latest variant from Zechariah 8, 16, and 17 that was just discovered, so maybe from about 100 years before the time of Jesus. That's just, there's only one word that's different, streets versus gates, otherwise it's the same text.

So, it's a fascinating question for sure, but that would be my response. Cool, that makes sense. Alright, thank you very much.

Yes, sir, sure thing. 8, 6, 6, 3, 4, 3. Look, we could say the same thing about in the Old Testament says this is written in this book or that book or the book of Yashar or something, and how come it's not in the Bible? The providence of God, the plan of God wasn't meant to be, and that's why we don't have it as part of Scripture.

Let's go to Kathy in St. Louis, Missouri. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown, for taking my question. It's about traditional burial versus cremation. I don't think I've seen where the Scripture speaks on it. Some Christians feel that it's being disrespectful to God about the bodies that he's given us to cremate them, and I was wondering, do you have an opinion or do you care to give about it?

Yeah, surely. Number one, in Scripture, there was care taken for the dead and the dead were buried. I mean, that was the custom that we know, that the dead were buried and that this was considered to be an honorable and right thing. It would be, for example, a terrible judgment and a terrible shame if God said, as a result of your sin, your bodies will be exposed to the elements.

You know, the birds will eat your flesh or the dogs will devour your flesh. That was a judgment, so to not be buried was considered to be a terrible dishonor. There are instances, really one or two that come to mind, where the bones of ancient Israelites were exhumed and then burned for some reason, not in the judgment way, but for some reason. And some have said, well, that would be like cremation, but that's different than right from the start, burning the body and cremating the body in that regard.

This is a little bit different incident. So here's my own opinion. There are relatives of mine who have been cremated, including believers. There are believers I know who say that they want to be cremated, and I don't believe that will affect their future resurrection. I don't believe that God will negatively judge them for it, but I don't believe personally, again, this is not to offend those that differ here or just lost a loved one and loved one was cremated.

Now it's like I'm stabbing you in the back. Honestly, I do believe in the preservation of the body. We understand if it's buried over a period of time, it'll decompose itself.

We understand that. It's not like God can't resurrect the body that's completely decomposed. But to me, the understanding of honoring the dead and of honoring the bodies of the dead, even looking forward to future resurrection, that it is right and proper to bury and have a a funeral service as best as possible. But I can't be dogmatic about it.

I would not judge someone. As I said to me, it's simply the right and better way to do it. And that's why that's been done in Judaism and Christianity and Islam through the centuries. But it's it's again, it's not to judge those who do it or God forbid to suggest that it affects their afterlife in any way. So that's my own view.

Yeah. It helps me a lot. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

Sure thing. You know, Kathy, I had a friend of mine wrote a little track laying out all the reasons against cremation. And then another another friend had actually written a mini book really with arguments against cremation.

And I felt the argument strong, but not to the point of being dogmatic. And again, as I said, I have I have relatives who've been cremated or plan to be want to be once they leave this world. Hey, thank you for the question.

Eight, six, six, three, four, two. So listen, for those who are thinking about this moving forward, cremation versus burial, they give a thought, look at scripture, give a thought, pray about it. For those for whom this is in the rearview mirror. Don't don't let me mess with you in terms of, oh, no, what did I do that? Just just move forward. All right, move forward.

Let's see. Let's go over to Sherry in Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome to the line of fire. Thanks so much for calling. Hi, Dr. Brown. Thank you.

You're welcome. I have a twofold question. I have to deal with the same issues. One is beyond the book that you recommended that your brother in law wrote that I heard you talk about once on the show. Are there any other resources or tools you can recommend to me regarding moving past a sense of literal terror? The Lord, even though I felt very intense moments of closeness and love and fellowship with him. And the second part that intertwines with it is how can I know and understand where the responsibility of my abusers in and mine begins? Because I have habitual been three particular areas that are really just tormenting me and have pretty much my whole life. And I feel very guilty for them. And I think, am I ever going to move beyond this? God help me.

You know, people who set me on a pathway of certain things when I was eight years old and also have two mental illnesses on top of it. So I just I'm really struggling in where I'm at with the word right now and very afraid of him that he's just going to give up, not give up, but lose his patience with me. All right. Yeah.

Yeah. Sherry, I'm so sorry that you heard you're going through all this. And obviously, you know, we're sitting at a distance by phone as two strangers.

And and it's difficult for me to to know exactly the right words to say at the right moment. So I'm praying for wisdom even as I as I speak. But I just want to encourage everyone that's listening or watching to pray for Sherry.

Would you do that? Especially some of you who've been through something similar. So, yes, of course, I would have immediately encourage you to read my son in law, my son in law's book. Yeah. Yeah. Living loved.

So that's Ryan Bruss. I think it's it's it's so ideal to just bathe you in the word and what God says about you in the word. So for anyone else going through this, Ryan Bruss, Living Loved, I think you find it a life giving book.

I would say I would say this, Sherry. First and foremost, renewing your mind by the word of God and just bathing yourself in what God says and his nature and reading passages like Psalm 103 over and over and over again. And Luke 15 and in Romans five, just over and over and over and praying over them and writing them out and putting them before the Lord, asking God to help you to see the truth of his love for you. That's that's where I would start with just immersing myself.

Just yes, in a positive way, brainwashing, washing my brain with the truth of the word. And then the second thing is, is that there are whatever responsibilities others have in your life. They'll have to give account to God for that. You have to free them and release them and then know wherever you are. God can help you. Someone may have pointed you in a certain direction, but you're a responsible adult. God can help you from here. I would look to get Godly professional counseling and sit down with people who are gifted, who are anointed. I would recommend every Christian, even those who aren't struggling these ways, gets it at some point in your life to dig deeper. Look into groups like Restoring the Foundations and others that kind of dig deep, help you to sort through things of the past and move forward.

So Restoring the Foundations, you may want to look into that. Lord, I pray you help Sherry and reveal the depth of your love for her. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire. 866-34-TRUTH is the number to call. You've got questions, we've got answers. Let's go over to Kevin in Moreno Valley, California. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. Thanks for taking my question.

Sure thing. So I wanted to ask you, because I have friends who aren't saved yet and will sometimes engage in discussions, and one of the topics that usually comes up is saying that the Bible has corruption, and they'll use verses such as 1 John 5-7, or the one in 1 Timothy, stating that that's evidence that the Bible has been corrupted. What I wanted to ask is, how should we view those verses? Let me first address the larger issue of the Bible being corrupted, and then specifically 1 John 5-7, and I think you're thinking of 1 Timothy 3-16. So it's quite the opposite in terms of the Bible being corrupted. What it is is we have so much evidence, the Bible has been so well preserved that we have so many thousands of manuscripts that we're going to have variants among them, and you use the science called textual criticism to sort through all the manuscripts and then decide which is the most accurate reading.

So look at it like this. The reason that we don't have as much dispute about wording in the Qur'an is because in the early decades of Qur'anic development, when there were so many different manuscripts and traditions and complete textual variants, that basically authorities gathered together all the variants and burned them and just left one. Or if you go to ancient history and what we know about Caesar or the Iliad and the Odyssey and things, the reason we don't have so many textual discussions is because we hardly have any manuscripts. So I'd ask the person, what would you rather have? Two copies of the Declaration of Independence that were copies of copies of copies, and they were written in about 1850 and they're exactly the same, or 4,000 copies of the Declaration of Independence that were written within the first 20 years of its existence, but they have a lot of little variants between them.

Which situation would you rather have? Which would make you feel more confident of the accuracy and the historicity and antiquity of the texts? And the answer is obviously the second one, because now you can sort through all the things. So that's all we're doing. We have so many manuscripts.

We have so much evidence that we can then sift through to see what's really there. So 1 John 5, 7, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. Those do not occur in a single ancient Greek manuscript anywhere in the world. Period.

Gone. It's a later variant. You don't even have an ancient Latin manuscript. And the history of it getting added in is really five, six hundred years old before it's added into a Greek text that anyone thought had authority. So that's just out. There's not even debate, dispute about that.

It's just gone. It is something that became famous in the King James. But in point of fact, if you go back to all the early manuscripts, it isn't there.

Period. So that's just something that happened through King James. Now, here's the other thing. It's in absolute harmony with the rest of scripture, though. There's nothing false about it.

It's not like it had George Washington, Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the manuscripts. Like, how could that be in Bible? No, no, it's not. There's nothing false about it.

It's just not an original. So that's one thing. 1 Timothy 3, 16 is immaterial either way. Does it say God was manifest in the flesh or he was manifest in the flesh? Paul's saying the greatest mystery of godliness.

That's what he's talking about, right? And now he explains this mystery about God, about his nature. He was manifest in the flesh or God was manifest in the flesh, saying the same thing.

And either way, we don't just rely on that verse for proof. So this is a matter of scholars will evaluate it. They will look at all the variants.

They'll see which are the earliest. It's a science. You know, just just ask them, hey, do you trust the science of geology? Do you trust the science of archaeology where people dig through ruins and they say, ah, here, for example, let's say you're digging through what's called a tell. So in the in the ancient Near East, it's like just a heap, a mound, just looks like nothing. You start to dig, you realize, oh, there are ancient civilizations here. So you can say, ah, the top layer that dates from 600 years ago. Oh, the next layer down, that's from seven to 900 years ago. And then the next layer down is from a thousand to 1400 years ago. And they lay in ruins for 100 years in the midst of it. And then you find pieces of pottery in each level.

And as you find those pieces of pottery, it's like, ah, you know, this one is from 500 years later, but it must have slid down a little bit. You can figure these things out. It's not a mystery. It's science. Same thing with textual variants. You can see how a scribe miscopied something, how a variant came in. You can see sometimes what part of the world the manuscript came from, where things came in, et cetera.

So it's a science. And that's why you'll have such overwhelming harmony between different Bible versions. And any of the differences will be beyond minor. Overall, there's not a single major doctrinal point that's in debate over any of these things. Yeah. And in short, the Bible is the best preserved book from the ancient world, hands down.

Nothing else even close to it. So you have confidence with that. Hey, thank you for the call. Appreciate it. It's six six three for truth. Hey, Lisa, the book that I mentioned on the air by my son in law, Ryan Bruce B.R.

U.S.S. Living Loved. It's a rich, scripturally based book that will bless you.

Living Loved by Ryan Bruce. All right. We've got a phone line open, which is rare on a Friday. Great time to call in. Let us go to Nick in Philadelphia. Welcome to the line of fire, Nick.

Yes. Thank you, Dr. Brown. First, I just want to say how blessed and encouraged I am by your ministry. And I just kind of discovered you a couple of weeks ago watching your debates and everything. And I'm just very blessed by what you do with your whole legacy. So I want to say that. Thank you. Yes.

Yes. And also, I just had a question, two poll question about Yeshua's name. And now I feel like I'm seeing a resurgence in his original name, Yeshua, in different fellowships.

I've attended in worship music right now. There's a very prominent song where it just sings his name over and over. Yeshua. And I was wondering if you've seen this as well and if there's any significance to that as far as prophecy or what's going on right now. And then the second part of that question is Yeshua. I've heard Messianic Jews say his name got corrupted as Yeshua, which is an acronym for may his days and his name be blotted out forever.

I don't know if it's completely a myth or if you set that straight. Yep, sure thing. Yep, sure thing.

So let's let's talk about the second thing first. It's not Yeshua. Yeshua. Yeshua. So short for Yeshua. Yeshua.

That's how Jesus, if he's referenced in the Talmud, that's how his name is referenced. Yeshua rather than Yeshua. And if you'll read later rabbinic literature, his name is Yeshua.

If you're in Israel today, that's how your average Israeli would know him. Yeshua. Now, in many orthodox, ultra-orthodox circles, especially those with the most negative views towards Jesus, Yeshua also stands for Yimach Shemov Yisro.

Excuse me, Yimach Shemov Yisro. May his name and memory be obliterated. So there are religious Jews when they say Yeshua that that's what they mean by it. May his name and memory be obliterated when your average Israeli says that that's just the name they know him by.

So you say, is there is there any accuracy to that name? There is a linguistic argument that the the end of Yeshua with an iron got shortened. So it was Yeshua, Yeshua, and then just stopped at Yeshua. There's a linguistic argument for that, in other words, that initially nothing evil was meant by it. But once it was spelled the way it was spelled, then it became an acronym for may his name and memory be obliterated. Others would say from day one, that was the intent.

It was negative intent. Either way, the proper pronunciation is Yeshua. And that's what you try to introduce Israelis to, like what? Yeshua. That's salvation. Yeshua. That's his name. Yeshua. That's the way they know him.

And it can get confusing. That being said, as far as the resurgence of the name, really, this has been happening for a few decades in different ways with messianic Jews, referring to Jesus as Yeshua and Jews for Jesus, helping people know his name is Yeshua. Just to help Jewish people, I say he's one of us. He's not some foreign entity, the god of the Catholic Church or the god of the gentiles. He's one of us. He's Jewish, obviously saying his name.

That's just part of it. On the one hand, in English, we say Jesus, just like in Spanish speaking, say Jesus, or in Italy, say Jesu. So for most English speakers, he's always going to be Jesus, which is great and fine. That's how we relate to him. But to the extent that Yeshua is seen as something beautiful and something that people can use to better relate to the fact that he's a rabbi, the lion of the tribe of Judah is how he'll return, and that he's Jewish, beautiful.

I don't see it necessarily as tied in with a prophecy, but just the church, a good way of reconnecting with Jewish roots. The idea that some would have that you have to say it a certain way for it to have power, that's nonsense. The power's not in the pronunciation, the power's in the person. Let me say it again, the power's not in the pronunciation, the power's in the person. It's knowing who he is and invoking his authority. That's what matters.

But as folks relate to him, as you show, wonderful, it helps recover Jewish roots and break away from some of the wrong ways of thinking. Hey, I appreciate the call very much. 866-344. Hey, listen, friends, 45 minutes from now. That's it, 45 minutes from now.

That's 4.15 Eastern Time. We'll be right back on our YouTube channel, Ask Dr. Brown, A.S.K. D.R. Brown on YouTube just answering the questions that you post there. 45 minutes from now, join us over on Ask Dr. Brown on YouTube. Welcome, friends, to the Line of Fire. On Fridays, well, you may be watching a different day, listening a different day, but on Fridays, we just open the phones for any call on any subject, as long as it relates in some way to the Line of Fire, any way we can be of help to you.

866-348-7884. So again, all questions, all subjects, all tone of voice, whatever, whether you agree with me or not, as long as your call relates in some way to subject matter on the Line of Fire. I truly wish that the many people that post hateful, intense comments, slamming us and mocking me as this and that, ignorant of this and that, I wish you'd call. I would love to have a conversation with you, because if you're that right, then you can really educate me, and if, as I believe, you're that wrong, I can educate you, or maybe we could just educate those that are listening and watching. So I always invite those that differ with me to call, all right? Just want to put that out again.

I've done it hundreds of times and probably gotten less than five responses of people taking me up on it, but we'll keep trying. All right, 866-344-TRUTH. Let's go to Frank. We're going to Frank, but he's not there. All right, let's go to Glenda.

And Glenda's not there. Hey, did something happen to our phone lines by any chance? Is everybody there? Let's try one more here.

Every so often, something weird happens. Let's go to Caleb in Severville, Tennessee. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Hello, thanks for having me. Hey, how you doing?

I'm doing great. I just want to first honor you and say thank you for all that you've done for the body. It's greatly appreciated. Well, thank you, sir.

It's my joy, really. The question I had was, I had a dream about a week ago that my sister-in-law was in witchcraft and that I was praying for her and casting a demon out of her. And then a week goes by and yesterday we just found out that she actually is in witchcraft and wasn't known to us and I prayed for healing and seen people healed and all of that sort of thing, but I've yet to cast a demon out of anyone. So I was kind of wondering if you could point me in any direction as to kind of help me with this little situation.

What are the steps to do? Caleb, first share with me exactly what your sister's into when you say witchcraft. Well, all we know right now is kind of a backdoor kind of thing.

I don't know a lot of details. All I know is there's crystals involved, kind of like a pagan witchcraft kind of thing. I know it's like, quote unquote, white magic that she's doing and that's kind of all I know at the moment.

Yeah. And it's increasingly common, you know, even cited over a year ago, New York Times article about the rise of the witch and just things becoming more and more normal or normalized in the culture. Does she claim to be a follower of Jesus? No, she hasn't. She actually, it's crazy. We've prayed for her and she's been healed as like several different things. And at one time we were kind of influential in our life and so she claimed that she was and then she kind of back footed and that whole kind of thing.

And she's kind of out and left field now. Yeah. All right. So first thing is you wrote you will put all your focus on praying for her salvation, praying for repentance and waking up to who God is and for God to get to the deepest issues in her life that are standing between her and God.

So that's right. Focus. You know, the witchcraft is dangerous and can open the door to all kinds of other junk. But the fact is, she's separated from God and she needs the Lord.

So I would not focus on the witchcraft. I'd focus on the fact that she's lost and she needs Jesus and pray for God to bring her into repentance. And then as you're praying and and you may feel the Lord stirring your heart and you may feel divine authority as you pray, then you can join with the Lord. Father, in Jesus name, I stand against these demonic forces. You're not you're not driving a demon out of her, but it's just another form of intercession where you're submitting to God and you are pushing back against the forces of darkness in her life. Sometimes that will happen in prayer.

You feel like a real battle as if these things are attacking you and you're pushing them back in Jesus name. But then the key thing would be she really does come to the Lord. Some people need deliverance and others don't. I opened myself to every demonic thing I knew how to open myself up to before I was saved.

When I got saved, I got saved, you know, and that the other stuff just dropped out of my life. Other people really need to go through some type of ministry or deliverance. And that's something really where whatever church you plug her into, she gets ministry there or your home church. You bring it there to get ministry from elders there to really pray over her and bring it to a place of freedom. But put all the focus on helping her come to Jesus and let this witchcraft thing be something very secondary. Obviously, you had a dream and a warning about it. So you pray for her in that regard.

But this is just another evidence of her being lost. And that's where I put the greatest focus. I wouldn't try to personally go over there. I'm going to drive a demon out of you.

I really seek to see her established in the Lord, come to the Lord and then get ministry in that regard. OK. OK. Thank you very much. Yeah. And let me say this last thing. Any believer walking with Jesus theoretically can can drive demons out.

Right. This is an authority we have in Jesus and the idea that it stopped. Well, the demons are still here. The authority in Jesus didn't stop. All authority in heaven and earth is given to him and we go in his name. So believers can drive demons out. It doesn't just have to be a pastor or some religious authority. That being said, that being said.

If we are not experienced in something, then we don't just want to go jumping in without getting prepared and getting equipped because there are real demonic powers and we can get attacked. So it's good to to to know your authority, to walk in it, to learn to experience that authority. And then from there you can minister freedom to others. Hey, Caleb, your prayers can make a great difference in your sister's life. 866-34-TRUTH.

We go to Ria in Woodland Park, Colorado. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you. Blessed to be on here.

Thanks. Well, Dr. Brown, recently, you know, I got tuned into your ministry and really through a lot of your preaching got freed from carnal prosperity stuff. So I just wanted to say thank you for that and sure of what you're saying.

Coming out of some of that stuff, I still, you know, I'm learning a lot. And one thing is, I heard you say that you believe it's always. Oh, no, you didn't say you believe it is. We should always take the position that it is God's will to heal. But taking the position that it's God's will to heal could be different than necessarily believing it's always God's will to heal. So I actually had two brief questions, but I wanted to ask, do you believe it's literally always God's will to heal still?

OK, yes, so the simple answer is God's ideal will for his obedient children is healing and health as revealed in scripture, when everything is best, when we are in right relationship with God and under his blessing, we are healed and healthy. Nowhere in the Bible is sickness and disease seen as a sign of blessing for an obedient child of God. Now, some of the godliest people on the planet are sick. Some of the most spiritual people on the planet are sick. So I'm not making a judgment on people.

I'm making that general statement. So my default mentality is, if I'm introduced to someone that's sick, especially a believer, the first thing I'm going to do is pray. If they say, could you pray for my healing? I would say yes, rather than, well, maybe God wants you sick. Or perhaps the Lord's trying to teach you something with this sickness. Or maybe you sin and that's why you're sick.

I'm not going to start there. If this is a child of God, I'm going to start with that presupposition. So that is always my general outlook based on scripture and based on the scriptural mandate to pray for the sick. Now, if we pray and someone's not healed, which happens many times, the question is, well, do they go to a doctor? Well, why would they go to a doctor if it's God's will for them to be sick? If we pray and conclude that God sent the sickness on them, then why on earth would we say, well, go to a doctor? So even the fact that we encourage them to go to a doctor is because we believe that health is a good thing. Now, it could be we're sick because of lifelong unhealthy treatment of our body.

We've been ignorant of it. There are all those other things. But even that would point to health and healing being a positive. That's where I start. That remains my default mentality based on the revelation of scripture. Amen. I think I'm in full cahoots with that.

Thank you, brother. My second question, just as I've been kind of learning stuff and unlearning stuff, is recently I've kind of changed my mind about confessions of faith. I used to really be into that, but now I'm wondering if it's actually new age in disguise. I wanted to ask what your view on that was. Right, so when you were putting together confessions of faith, belief in divine healing, and then we referred to as carnal prosperity. So that would be found commonly in what we call word of faith teaching.

So there's a lot that I find valuable and good that I agree with and others that I find dangerous and wrong and then in some cases heretical teaching with bizarre things about the atonement, etc. So we certainly believe in the blessing of God. We believe in generosity. We believe that as we give and honor the Lord that it releases blessing in different ways. We sow what we reap. So there's a lot of truth to what word of faith teaching says about giving and finances, but the error is that financial wealth is a sign of spirituality, that the poor cannot truly be blessed unless they're financially prosperous, that Jesus died to make us wealthy. That's the sin of the carnal prosperity message.

But we don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. So when it comes to confessions of faith, here's what I agree with, here's what I don't agree with. When we are speaking what the word says, when we were declaring what the word of God says about God, when we were declaring what the word of God says about us, that's always good, that's healthy, that's a great strength. So, you know, if I say, Lord, according to your word in you I'm an overcomer, Lord, according to your word in you I'm more than a conqueror, Lord, according to your word, you know, and you just go through scripture, especially in New Testament scripture, about yourself as a believer and about who God is. That's wonderful, that's speaking the word, that's speaking truth, and the Bible is filled with others speaking the word about themselves or about others. The error would be that we think just by speaking it we create a reality or that if we say anything contrary to that we're in unbelief. Those are if I say, man, I'm just feeling down today, I'm not feeling it today, I'm just, oh, no, no, man, you're speaking unbelief and you're speaking death, or if I say, oh, man, I'm in pain, no, you are healed, speak that, that's when it becomes an error.

When you cannot speak about present realities in your own life because you always have to be confessing a certain thing, that brings bondage, superficiality, and really deception. But when we are going to speak what the word says as true over ourselves, go for it, that's a good thing to do, and then bring your reality in line with what the word says. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire. By the way, if you continually post blatant falsehoods on social media, not a difference of opinion, but blatant falsehoods on our social media accounts and that comes to our attention and we correct them, we delete them, and you continue to do it and then seek to back that up with calling in, that won't work. In other words, we don't allow people to post lies about others on our social media accounts.

Once we spot them and if we connect that to someone calling in, you won't be welcome. But we love honest debate and dialogue. We love difference of opinion.

We welcome it. On our social media pages, we just request civility. So, fine, let's differ, differ politically, differ culturally, differ morally, differ theologically, differ biblically, that's fine. But just try to be civil towards others because we don't want to have a platform where, literally, we reach millions of people on social media every week and we are now providing a platform for hateful, venomous, ugly speech.

We don't want to do that before the Lord. But disagreement with me, you can disagree with me a thousand times a month on social media and as long as you don't violate our guidelines and try to take over threads and put it in your own direction or lie about others or engage in personal attack, that's fine. We welcome the disagreement. Let's learn from each other and let others interact.

That's great. Let's just do it with civilian respect and if we see a pattern of posting blatant falsehoods, lies, misinformation, we try to help people and they won't be helped, then they get blocked. We have to draw a line somewhere and I trust you don't understand that. All right, let us go over to Joseph in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Welcome to the line of fire. How you doing, Dr. Brown?

Doing great things. First question has to do with the Nephilim, okay? Do you believe, everything you say I believe, you're right. These other guys are wrong, okay?

A lot of them are wrong, believe me. Okay, the Nephilim. Now, they were unholy union between angels and the women of earth, right? Correct? As best as we can tell, Genesis 6, yes, speaks of the- Oh, they're part human.

Excuse me? They're part human. They've got human, this is where I'm going with this. I heard a guy talk, he said they could be saved because the human part wasn't, like say a woman, you know, gets raped. Yeah, but they weren't, right.

So here's the deal. They were wiped out. In other words, they're unknown- I'm not talking about that. The thing I'm trying to, something I'm trying to make is they're demons and that's why they look for a human body because they were once in a human body. They're different than angels. Some will say that the demons are fallen angels or not. They're different entities. Right, that would be the view of Dr. Michael Heiser and his demons book that demon spirits are the spirits of Nephilim, so this mixed breed of angel and human, and once those were destroyed that the spirits of those beings are demons.

Hey, it's as good an explanation as other. You just can't be dogmatic because the Bible doesn't make that. The Bible never tells us explicitly where demons came from. To say they're not fallen angels, you could make that argument, right, but we don't- The demoniac, right, he was possessed by demons. He put us in the pit because they wanted to go in the flesh. Right.

I mean, I'm just using common sense here. That's that question, okay. Now the other question has to do with the rapture, you know, and Thessalonians, I believe what you say, they rambled this thing that Margaret Macdonald had that dream, Darby and that other guy, posted it, and they're looking for answers and something they're not going to find. Fortunately, I read the subject of Thessalonians, which was the second coming, correct?

That was the subject. It wasn't the rapture per se, it was a rapture, but the way you said it, in the accesses, this same Jesus you see grow up will come back in a light manner. Right. The dead were already with him, they were already risen. The absence of the body will be pleasant with the Lord, correct? So they're already there with God, they're already in Heaven, right? So when he comes back to land on the Mount of Olives, we're going to look up, we're going to be transformed at the blink of an eye, and we're going to land on the Mount of Olives with him, and then he's going to set his millennial kingdom up. Is that correct?

Does that sound correct to you? So this rapture thing, door number one, door number two, door number three, I mean, that's why they can't find an answer. Yeah, so here's the thing. There are many fine Christians, I appreciate you, my brother, there are many fine Christians who believe in a pre-trib rapture. They believe they see scripture, Evelyn's for it. The church where I came to faith held to that. I thought I could argue for it scripturally. Once I stood back and looked at the word again, I realized that I was putting things into a system that the Bible didn't have. Yeah, so I read it the same way as you are, of course, the departed spirits. There's still those that have previously died in the Lord waiting for the physical resurrection, right?

So there is that aspect of things. They're physically raised, we're caught up to meet them in the air. And whether we blink our eyes around the Mount of Olives, as I understand it, we're caught up and we descend together as Jesus. So he appears for the whole world to see we're caught up to meet him and we descend together with him.

But yeah, I'm with you on that. The key thing is to have a position of honor and respect for those that differ because they'll give you a lot of reasons scripturally, they believe it sincerely, to them it's an important part of theology. So we want to reason in a scriptural way and say, hey, let's take a look and see if it's really there. If you don't have my book, friends, Not Afraid of the Antichrist, written with Professor Craig Keener. He and I wrote the book, Not Afraid of the Antichrist, Why We Don't Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture.

I think you'll find it to be not only an eye-opening scriptural read, but super encouraging about overcoming faith in the midst of persecution and opposition. All right, let's go to Doug in Salt Lake City, Utah. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown.

Hey. Well, I'm in my 50s and I was born and raised in an LDS home, you know, and I went to church a lot just because that's what I was told to do. I mean, that was, you know, you do what your parents ask of you. And as I've gotten older, you know, my views and how I feel has changed a little bit and I've got friends that are Christian. I find myself, I run a bunch of auto zones and I find myself listening to the radio on, you know, on the way to work or when I'm working and, you know, I'll listen to, you know, Pastor Greg Laurie and a bunch of these guys and just kind of, one of the things I'm having the hardest time with, and this is just, you know, from a Christian sense, as long as I've known or, you know, been raised, you know, parts of the Bible where he's talking about, you know, I'll be on the right hand of God and I haven't not yet ascended to my Father and, you know, that Jesus and God has, you know, has a Father and they are of one mind and, you know, one plan and that plan for all of us, but how do they get that that's one person?

I guess that's where I'm really struggling. Yeah, sure. Well, Doug, first, I'm so glad that you listen to our station in Salt Lake City, Utah. And one reason that Stu Epperson Jr. felt so burdened to launch the Truth Network in Salt Lake City was to reach the many sincere Mormons that are there and those that are maybe listening right now. So the first thing is that the Bible explicitly says in different passages that Jesus himself is God. For example, after his resurrection in John 20, 28, Thomas says to him, my Lord and my God and John one one tells us that in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God. And then the Book of Revelation, both the Father and Jesus referred to themselves as the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, which is titles exclusively used for God. There are even some Old Testament passages where the Messiah, the Son of God, is referred to as mighty God.

So that's very clear. And then we know that the Spirit is referred to as God. For example, in Acts 5, that Ananias and Sapphira lie to God. It says they lied to the Holy Spirit.

They lied to God. And Hebrews 9, the Spirit is called eternal. So what we understand is there is one God, only one God, but he's complex in his unity.

Only one person would be misleading. One God who's complex in his unity. So here's the way Scripture lays it out. The Father is the source from whom all things come. They come through the sun by the Spirit.

So what does that actually mean? So the Father, the source of all things, think of the physical sun in the sky. So when we look at it, we see the radiance of the sun. We don't actually see the brightness of it itself. If we saw that, we'd be instantly blinded.

We see the radiance of it, and then we're touched invisibly by the rays. In the same way, the Father is hidden in glory. The same Bible that talks about people seeing God says that no one has seen God.

John 1.18, no one has seen God. But the only son who's in the bosom of the Father, he's made him known. So the Father is hidden in his glory. The son is the one who makes him known.

Hebrews 1, he's the radiance of God's glory. That's why Jesus says in John 14, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And then the Holy Spirit works secretly, mysteriously, behind the scenes, invisibly to carry out the work, and then he points everyone to Jesus, and Jesus points everyone to the Father. In the book of Revelation, the 22nd chapter, it says that when we're before the throne of God in the New Jerusalem, speaking of God and the Lamb, that we will see his face, not their faces. So there's one God, but he's complex in his unity. So he can sit enthroned in heaven, he can walk among us in bodily form, and he can move invisibly among us by his Spirit. That's why we're baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And I'm way familiar with the Bible. I mean, in a sense, I can't quote into scripture, but, you know, the peace I'm really having, like, I don't remember where it's at, but someone asked if he could be on the right hand of God, and, you know, he says, that's my place, you know what I mean? Like, that's my place. Right, right, right. So just, I gotta jump in, because we have like a couple seconds left.

Please call again, let's talk some more, all right? But, remember, the Son comes in human form through Jesus. So Jesus now mediates between God and man, because he is God, and he is man. So he sits at the right hand of the Father, but then in eternity, we only see one God. Hey, Doug, I'd encourage you to really get to know the Lord personally through the blood of Jesus, so you know him in a personal way, and then ask God for wisdom in these areas. Another program powered by the Truth Network.