Dr. Brown Tackles Your Questions

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to the Line of Fire. It's Friday, which means you've got questions, we've got answers.

Phone lines open 866-34-TRUTH. I'm going right to the phones after this one announcement. A major tragedy in Jerusalem last night. There is a celebration called Lagba Omer, the 33rd day in the counting of the Omer, which is the end of Passover to Pentecost, to Shavuot. There is a gathering at the grave site of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, 2nd century, one of the leading sages in rabbinic Judaism, and Israel is getting past COVID issues now as far as public going out and no mass and and just going back to normal life much more. And the ultra-orthodox community, they've been pushing back against many of the restrictions all along, but now this is something where they could gather in public. Maybe 10,000 could be better accommodated in the location there. There's a narrow tunnel through which people pass at a certain point, but there are a hundred thousand there celebrating, lighting fires, and there was a stampede as people trying to get through the tunnel.

Some claimed that police had one area barricaded. Whatever happened, about 45 people died. Yeah, about 45 people died, many others injured. So when you think of the size of Israel, 6 million people, 6 million Jews, not many people total, but 6, roughly 6 million Jews there. So it's less than 1 50th the population of America. So you multiply this. This would be, you know, several thousand people dying, being injured, and these are all ultra-orthodox Jews. So it's really rocked the nation.

Immediately after the celebration, life back to normal. So pray in the midst of this that God's grace and mercy would be revealed. All right, we go to the phones. 866-34-TRUTH.

Sims in McAllen, Texas. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown, I appreciate the ministry.

Thank you for taking my call again. I have a question concerning Psalm 109. I've reached that point in sort of our weekly Bible study, and the way I've always tried to approach these type of Psalms, you know, which have these sort of imprecatory prayers in them, is that the primary concern of the author is, you know, the justice of God, that righteousness would reign in the land, in this case amongst Israel, and that wickedness would be blotted out. So I'm trying to think about sort of how I would apply this in sort of our post-New Testament sort of context, and obviously I would agree with you from a few weeks ago, when you talk about President Biden, that we should not be praying that, you know, his children be followed by his wife or widow and these things, but my thought is that it is appropriate to ask and to pray that, you know, wickedness itself be removed. In other words, not that the Lord would kill somebody or whatnot.

Right, exactly, Sims. So on the one hand, the psalmist at times may be expressing his own frustration, his own anguish and anger. You know, you have Jeremiah lashing out, you know, wipe them out, Lord, and so there are human beings, right, and, you know, just as the psalmist is saying, how long, and I wet my pillow with tears, that these could be human expressions, but let's say that they were inspired prayers. Then it's exactly what you're saying.

It wasn't personal vengeance, he hurt me, I want to hurt him. Rather, it was saying there must be justice, and if there's no justice in the world, there's going to be more destruction. And the Hebrew mind, you're not praying in the abstract, you're praying very specifically. So if you're praying for judgment to fall on a guilty sinner, then that's going to mean that that man's wife will be a widow, that his kids will will be orphaned from their father, and so on and so forth. So there's going to be vividness to it, but clearly the New Testament teaches us to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who persecute us. Jesus hanging on the cross says, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they do. Stephen getting stoned to death says, Lord, don't lay the sin at their charge.

So they are not following the suit of praying down judgment on their enemies. So I agree with you that we pray in general for God to establish his righteousness and to put an end to wickedness. But as I'm doing it, I'm praying for the salvation of the wicked, right? As I'm doing it, I'm praying for God's intervention. So what I like to do is pattern things on the Lord's prayer and begin by praying for God's name to be hallowed in the earth, and then you flesh that out.

What would it mean? It would mean people of all nations and religions to recognize the one true God, etc., and then you pray it right down into your own family, your own life, and then, Lord, your kingdom come. That's a heavy prayer, because when God's kingdom fully arrives, it's gonna be great judgment. Jesus, even if we say, Even so, come Lord Jesus, we're praying for him to return in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who don't know God. So I agree with you in spirit, absolutely.

And let's say you live in a community and there's high crime rate and kids are getting killed. Lord, bring your kingdom to this community. Lord, bring repentance, bring salvation, bring deliverance.

You know how to do it, Lord. Save as opposed to, Lord, destroy the wicked. So we're praying in that same direction and then leaving it to God to apply that as he sees fit.

Would you say that it would be a violation, let's say, of 1st Timothy 2, 1-4, to, let's say, to pray that, Lord, if this, you know, particular person in power, whether it be in government, in business, or whatnot, Lord, if they continue to sort of propagate things that are contrary to your word, to remove them from power. In other words, it's to eliminate their ability to bring about that which is displeasing to your side, eliminate their ability to persecute your people, not destroy them in hell, but, you know, Lord, bring them to repentance. I would rather, yeah, Sims, I appreciate that, and it's certainly a righteous prayer, but I would say, God, your will be done.

Your will be done. Because, look, Manasseh, the most wicked king in Judah's history, he repents at the end of his life, but he reigns the longest of any king, 55 years. Why didn't God remember? Maybe God was keeping him alive to give him time to repent. 2nd Peter 3-9, God's not slack, as we consider slackness, but is patient, lowering suffering towards us, not only that any should perish, but also repent, come to repent.

So, sometimes God will give more grace. Maybe there's a greater purpose in that person staying in power because the person behind them is going to be even worse. You know, look, you remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq, a lot of good comes, but that creates the void into which ISIS came and all the upheaval came and massive suffering. So with the Iraqis, better or worse, under Saddam Hussein, God knows. So I don't presume to know. Now, if I feel specifically led by the Lord to pray for a specific thing in that way, I'll obey that leading, but normally my prayers, Lord, have your way, your best, bring your kingdom, because he knows what he's doing. And again, you get rid of one bad person, a worse one may come up.

Or it may be that if that person stays in power longer, they come to repentance and bring national reformation with them. Great questions. I appreciate it. 6634 Truth. Let's go to Joey in Lewisville, North Carolina.

Welcome to the line of fire. Oh, that's Mooresville, North Carolina. Okay, it's on my screen, it's Lewisville, which I've never heard of, but that's good.

Mooresville it is. Thanks. But I appreciate you taking my call, and I had a quick question. Of all the Hebrew scholars, I know there's a lot of Hebrew, I mean, well, let's say Old Testament scholars, which one of the Old Testament scholars actually wrote a book on Hebrews, because Hebrews is so much of the Old Testament, and it kind of parallels how we should accept the Old Testament. I was just wondering if any Old Testament scholars actually wrote a book on the New Testament book Hebrews.

Yeah, okay, I love the question, and I got a couple of answers for you. Let me first say this, that there's almost kind of a rule in the realm of scholarship that you stay in your lane. So Old Testament scholars work on Old Testament, New Testament scholars work on New Testament.

You may do a larger theology than intersex, but because on a scholarly level so much is required of you, in other words, there has to be so much focus and learning that you can't master everything the same. That being said, Franz Delitzsch was a great Old Testament and Hebrew scholar in the 1800s, together with C.F. Keil, Carl Friedrich Keil, they did the 10-volume commentary on the Old Testament, what's published in 10 volumes, it's more than that in print, but it's a classic to this day. But Delitzsch also wrote a commentary on Hebrews. So Franz Delitzsch, D-E-L-I-T-Z-S-H, got that? I'm just gonna see if it's still in print.

I got it years ago in two volumes. Let's see, Delitzsch, Hebrews, I bet it's still in print. Delitzsch's Hebrew New Testament, Hebrew Gospels, Hebrews, you may have to look for that.

Okay, but that's one. Another is Adolph Safer, and that's S-A-P-H-I-R, and he was a Jewish believer in Jesus. He was not as much of an Old Testament scholar as Delitzsch was, but he was a Jewish believer in Jesus and fluent in Hebrew, so he has a commentary in Hebrews. But here's what I'm gonna also recommend for you, all right?

F.F. Bruce was a New Testament scholar, but very, very strong in Old Testament as well. Very strong in Dead Sea Scrolls, Hebrew, things like that.

His commentary on Hebrews fits that bill in many ways as well, even though he was not an Old Testament scholar per se, he did work in a lot of Old Testament circles, and he's got a great commentary in Hebrew, so that would be from more recent decades, Safer and Delitzsch would be from the 1800s. Hey, thanks for asking, Jody, I appreciate the question. 86634truth, tell you what, we've just got 45 seconds before the break, so we will come back. We'll start with Sebastian in Mexico, then we'll go to Jonathan in Washington, Cassie in St. Louis, Alan in Canada.

We'll get to many calls as we can. Have you seen the prophetic standards statement yet? This was issued yesterday, it already has several hundred signatures, we had 85 initial signatories, so leaders from denominations, megachurch pastors, leaders of prophetic networks, apostolic leaders, a wide range, and now probably 130 something folks have signed on since it's been up. If you're a leader, a ministry leader, go there propheticstandards.com. If you believe in prophetic ministry today, look at the statement, and if you affirm it, add your name to it. This seems to be a historic document as things are unfolding, it's a joint document produced by a number of leaders together, and we believe it's a critical time to put out standards. propheticstandards.com. Check it out. 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. Hey, for our last caller for Jody, I did find on Amazon commentary on the epistle to the Hebrews, Delich, in print.

Looks like it's a reproduction, facsimile reproduction of the original. All right, we go to Sebastian in Mexico. Thanks for calling the Line of Fire. Hello, Dr. Brown. Hello. I wanted to ask two things mainly, and I always been in search of the truth.

Whatever God wants from me, that's what I will want. Mm-hmm. And, well, I know a lot of the Jewish objections to Jesus' messiahship. I watch a lot of Jews for Judaism and Rabbi Toby Singer videos, I have talked with a local Chabad rabbi, and I still don't know how to answer some of them. Like, the main ones, they say that he hasn't brought world peace, the world is not covered with the knowledge of the Torah, and, well, you know which ones. Mm-hmm.

So, yeah, go ahead, go ahead. I don't know which, in case of Jesus being the Messiah, I don't know what is, like, the right path to follow him. I, like, almost all Mexicans, I grew up Roman Catholic, from a very devout family, but I have some of the doubts of my faith in, like, the Roman church. I don't know if it's the one church that they claim, so, yeah, I have also a thousand.

What's, like, the right path to follow Jesus? Well, Sebastian, I appreciate your honesty. So, I'm not sure if you're aware of the five books that I've written that demolish the counter-missionary arguments, and then the 32 lecture series that we have free online, or another 22-hour DVD course on Countering the Counter-Missionaries. Have you, and then my videos specifically refuting Tovias Singer, have you taken advantage of these and you still have the questions, or you haven't heard the answers that we've brought to these questions? I have heard some of them, not all. Ah, all right, okay. Well, we've got the answers for you.

There's nothing difficult whatsoever. The Hebrew Bible makes plain that there are two phases to the Messiah's work. The Talmud even asks, is he coming in the clouds of heaven, as per Daniel 7, or is he coming meek and lowly riding on a donkey, as per Zechariah 9? And the Talmud says if we repent, we're righteous, he'll come in the clouds of heaven.

If not, he'll come riding on a donkey. Whereas the Bible doesn't say either or. The Bible says both. The Bible speaks of his great exaltation, and the Bible speaks of his great suffering. And it indicates there are two phases to his work. First, he had to come and die for our sins and rise from the dead before the second temple was destroyed, according to biblical prophecy.

He would then be rejected by his own people and become a light to the nations, and it was only then that he would come in the clouds of heaven and establish his kingdom on the earth, at which point there would be peace. So the Bible clearly lays out two different aspects of his mission. It speaks of him as being a priestly king, remember Psalm 110, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and the man whose name is the branch in Zechariah, the sixth chapter.

Who is it? It's Yahushua the high priest, also known in the Hebrew Bible as Yahushua, Jesus. Yahushua the high priest sits on a throne with a crown on his head, symbolizing the branch. So the Messiah is symbolized as a priestly king. So as a priest he deals with our sin, as a priest he suffers for us and makes atonement, and then when he returns and establishes his kingdom he fulfills his royal role. And traditional Judaism is forgotten by and large about the priestly role of the Messiah. So the reason he has an established peace on earth is it's not time for that part of the mission yet. You say well how maybe it's someone else, no, the only possible candidate had to live, die, be rejected, rise from the dead before the second temple was destroyed almost 2,000 years ago. So there's only one possible candidate for that. Who was it that was rejected by his people and has become a light to the world?

One and only Jesus the Messiah. What I'd encourage you to do, Sebastian, is on my YouTube channel there's a whole series and it's free for everyone. Anyone can watch this. So if you look for the videos there's a video series answering your toughest questions and it's actually 32 half-hour lectures that we recorded just answering your toughest questions specifically on Jesus being the Messiah. So watch those. They're all free.

That's at AskDr.Brown.org or just Ask Dr. Brown on YouTube, A-S-K-D-R Brown. And then search for the word Tovia and you'll see videos. We put out about four or five so far exposing his lies. I'm talking about lies. I'm talking about deception.

I'm talking about when he's telling you one thing and the truth is somewhere else. So take advantage of those. If any questions come up along the way just email us and I've got a team member who just focuses on answering Jewish related questions. So that'll help you.

There's no reason for the doubts. I was hit with all these. I studied the Scriptures. I got on my face and I said, God, I'm a Jew. I'm a Jew and I'm gonna follow you whatever the cost to the consequence. And if Jesus is really the Messiah as I believe, I don't care if the whole Jewish community rejects me, I've got to honor you. If he's not the Messiah, I don't care what reproach I suffer, I'm gonna reject him. I only want the truth and the more I studied and prayed the clearer everything became. So take advantage of those resources.

If you can't find them just shoot us an email via the website. As for the church you want to be part of, examine everything based on the grid of Scripture. So if you see the practices of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope, the veneration of Mary, the mass, if you see that taught in the Bible, especially the New Testament, then that's where you want to be. If you see that's not taught, then you would seek out an evangelical church, gospel preaching church, that is just based on Scripture minus church tradition. And the Lord will lead you. And then above all, get really close to God in your personal life.

Last thought for you, Sebastian, all right. If Jesus is not the Messiah, then what has God done in a redemptive way to reach out to the whole world to reveal himself? He said, well he chose Israel. He chose Israel. Israel is not revealing God to the world and Israel itself is quite mixed. So what has God done to reveal his love for the whole world if Jesus is not the Messiah?

He hasn't. Which is an abhorrent thought that he's waited all this time and has not revealed himself to the whole world and given the whole world an opportunity to believe in him. So our faith is on a very, very firm foundation. So Sebastian, check out those resources.

Go through the videos. I believe your faith will really be built up as you do. And then just consider which church follows the Scriptures most accurately, all right? I got one little more question.

Yeah, go ahead. Do you have a scripture that can refute the Jehovah Witness position on Jesus? Yeah, well I mean, the whole Bible refutes Jehovah's Witness doctrine.

What in particular? Well, Jesus being in the Bible, of course. Yeah, how about John 2028 when Thomas, after the resurrection, says to him, He's my Lord and my God.

How's that work? How about Hebrews 1.8 where the Son is explicitly called God? And he was 1.8. Yeah, because I have quoted that one, though, when Thomas called Jesus my Lord and my God and they would say, well, I don't know, but the Bible has to be taken into consideration, not just one scripture. Right, so Isaiah 9.6 that the Messiah is called mighty God. That John 1.1, the Word was God, not a God. John 8.58, before Abraham was, I am. John 20.28, my Lord and my God. Hebrews 1.8, that the Son is called God explicitly.

And then in the book of Revelation, the Father and the Son are both called the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. So the whole Bible utterly demolishes Jehovah's Witnesses. If you want more on that, go to CARM, C-A-R-M dot org, CARM dot org, and just click on Jehovah's Witnesses. Hey, it's pretty clear they're chatting with you that you need to spend more time reading the Word, getting closer to God, than watching stuff from cults, false religions, countermissionary rabbis.

What you want to do is be building yourself up in God more, eating food that is healthy for your soul, that will nourish you and nurture you and strengthen you, and then you'll be able to reach the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Jewish community and others. Sometimes we can get so absorbed with, okay, I want to be sure I'm following the truth, so let me check out what this one says, this one says, that one says that you never get built up. Put down good deep roots for yourself. Put down solid spiritual roots. You say, but I have a lot of questions.

I understand that. Trust me, I lived through that as a Jewish believer in Jesus, bombarded by the rabbis in those early years as they lovingly reached out to me to try to change my views, but what I'm saying is spending quality time with God is going to be the key. Having a solid relationship with Him and saying, God, I just want to follow the truth. Give me a heart for truth, praising Him, loving Him, and then taking in scripture, not just intellectually, dealing with objections. Drink in the words of Jesus. Read His words in John 14, 15, 16. Read His words through the New Testament. Read the letters and drink in the wisdom and truth of God.

It'll build you up and then you'll be able to help others all the more effectively. All right, thank you for the call. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the line of fire. Michael Brown, delighted to be with you.

You've got questions, we've got answers, get into as many calls as we can, but taking a little bit more time with some of our callers as needed today, let's go to Cassie in St. Louis, Missouri. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

I want to start off by saying I appreciate the long-term work that you and your associates have done over the years and keeping current and study the research and having the courage to speak hard truth and it's done it for decades and I appreciate it. I was wanting to ask you if you would consider Galatians 611 in light of the Apostle Paul's, Born in the Flesh. It reads, notice what large letters I use as I write these closing words in my handwriting. I know our focus as Christians should not be on what it was, but on Christ's strength in overcoming our weakness, but I'm curious and I heard someone say could it possibly be a type of eye or vision disorder or could it possibly be a persecution? Right, to me the most likely understanding of Paul's thorn that he references in 2 Corinthians 12 is extreme and unusually intense persecution that he endured. If you if you look at the the use of the word weakness through 1 and 2 Corinthians, which is a major theme as opposed to being strong in oneself or super self-confident that that God uses the weak to confound the strong and and the foolish to confound the wise. 1 Corinthians 2, Paul says that he came to the Corinthians in weakness and fear and much trembling. That theme comes up repeatedly. The critics in 2 Corinthians 10 said well his letters are weighty and powerful but his bodily presence is weak and then in the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians he said if I'm gonna boast I'm gonna boast in the things that that show my weaknesses the 11th and 12th chapter and he outlines the persecutions the abuse that he took and then very specifically in 2 Corinthians the 12th chapter 2 Corinthians chapter 12 as as he's talking about this this thorn that was given to torment him and thorn it normally refers to people but it's a messenger of Satan right so this this thorn was given him to harass him to keep him from being conceited three times he pleaded with the Lord about it that it should leave him but the Lord said to him my grace is sufficient you for my powers made perfect in weakness therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon thee for the sake of Christ then I'm content with weaknesses insults hardships persecutions and calamities for when I'm weak then I'm strong so it seemed if the goal of this was Satan was allowed to torment him to keep him humble because of the revelations he got then you think of this you finish preaching your message and instead of going back to the crowd of believers like Paul that was amazing we've never heard a teaching like that that was incredible instead he's getting dragged out of the city in stone or he's getting beaten and thrown in some dungeon pit somewhere that will certainly keep you humble so my view is that that's the most likely understanding of the thorn but this has been debated for centuries through Church history some have pointed to the very verse you did and said that Paul had an eye disorder others thought he suffered from subtype of malaria or you know he mentions early in Galatians that that it was because of a physical weakness that he was with him most interpret that as a bodily infirmity and that he was there at that place because he was sick others say that that's not the right way to interpret the Greek but most translations read it like that there have been many many different understandings that the medieval monks thought that it was sexual temptation because obviously they were dealing with that and projected it back on Paul so it could have been a physical illness you know here one other verse in Galatians that people used to point to that in the fourth chapter when he's talking about the the love that they they had for them he said I testified to you that if possible you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me but I think that's just a figure of speech for like you would have done anything for me so my view intense unusual persecution Satan buffeting him and those are the weaknesses that he speaks of and the 11th and 12th chapters of 2nd Corinthians 12 but we don't know for sure great great well good and key thing look for the word weak weakness through 1st and 2nd Corinthians there are three different forms nominal and verbal that come up but you'll see it in English really is weak weakness and then sometimes in King James infirmity but really it weak in most of the cases is the right way to read it all right let's see eight six six three four truth let us go to Greg in Archdale North Carolina welcome to the line of fire okay thanks yeah I'm here okay my question is these names like Matthew Mark Luke and John James Peter Paul are these real actual names those don't seem like Israel people have those names seem more like American names like even John the Baptist when when he was born that's it we're gonna name John is like were you coming up this thing there's nobody in the family yeah yeah so let me explain number one Isaiah is not a Hebrew name yeshayahu is the Hebrew name Ezekiel is not a Hebrew name yes kale is a Hebrew name Moses is not that the Hebrew name it's it's Moshe Josiah is not a Hebrew name is Yoshi ah hoo so what we have in English is it is the original names in Hebrew and then in Greek for the New Testament coming into Latin and then to whatever other language and then ultimately into English so originally John was Yohanan originally Matthew was Mati Yahoo originally James was Yaakov now Paul was Paulus he also had the name Shaul so at birth being born in it as a Greek citizen he would have had a Hebrew name and a Greek name at least maybe even a Latin name so he was always Shaul and Paulus when he was in the Jewish world Hebrew speaking or Aramaic speaking world he was Shaul in the Greek speaking world he was Paulus and and then when he goes on his mission to the Gentiles he's always called Paulus Paul so yeah the Mary Mary doesn't exist in the Bible it's Miriam but it's Miriam then as it comes into Greek it changes and then from Greek into Latin Latin ultimately into English so that's how we have these names but originally you know mark would have mark would have been a Greek name not a Hebrew name and that that comes to us pretty close so some are closer than others you know Elijah and Elisha in Hebrew that's Eliyahu and Alicia they sound very different English they sound very similar so that's just the way they get passed from Hebrew Greek Latin into English that's all just like you know in my name Michael is Michael so Michael's not a Hebrew name Michael is but if I was in born in Mexico it'd be Miguel right so same names just as they make their way through but here's the thing you're on to that the the roots of it the New Testament roots are very Jewish that Messiah's name is Yeshua and his mother's name is Miriam and and he has disciples with names like Yaakov and Yohanan and things like that then Yehuda so yeah and the book of James is really the book of Jacob so let's let's recover some of that all right okay all right okay thanks I was thinking it was probably different but I thought maybe the way you explained it yeah yeah and by the way with John not being in the family it wasn't that it was a foreign name Yohanan was a good Hebrew name it's just they didn't have anyone with that name and there's a tradition sometimes that the child would be named after the grandfather not the father but the grandfather so hey thanks for the call it's six six three four truth we go to Jonathan in Clarkston Washington thanks for calling the line of fire hello dr. Brown can you hear me okay yeah I can all right so my oh am I on what's my is that an echo not to me I'm not hearing one are you talking right in your phone okay yeah no I have a I have a mic attached my phone anyway so I was having this conversation with a friend member of my congregation just the other day she said to me that she believes that space aliens exist and so I said to her well that doesn't really make any sense biblically speaking for reasons X Y and D and then she responded with well maybe God had nothing to do with the aliens and so that that kind of threw me off completely because that seems like a very dangerous thing to believe although she does believe in the atonement and the resurrection and all that stuff to say that God had nothing to do with the space aliens that seems very dangerous however I didn't actually confront her any further on that because she's also the legal guardian of the children that I disciple so I I don't want to confront her on it for fear that I would no longer be able to disciple those children but so I guess my first question is how how dangerous is that to believe that and the second question is if I were to address it at all how would I go about doing that right so it's it's dangerous and that it's saying that there are beings out there that God didn't create so that's bizarre the idea that there's anything that exists I'm not talking about a philosophical thing like the existence of evil I'm talking about the earth the universe dogs cats trees angels that there's anything that exists that God didn't create well where did it come from who created it and if God is not the ruler of the universe and the warning the one who knows everything at all times if that's if he's not that then who is he so that would be the bizarre thing I you know I find out what she means like maybe God had nothing to do with it I'd ask well who created the aliens I just ask it's not a hill to die on obviously and you want to be able to minister to these kids but you don't want to you don't want to neglect the legal guardian in terms of her needs so I would just ask well where did they come from who did who created them if God had nothing to do with them then where did they come from now you I agree with you that the idea of aliens is alien to me and that you get this idea of God creating the whole universe and then the center being what he's doing on the earth and with his son Jesus now could it be that they're other universes with other beings but they're not they're more like angels yeah who knows what exists in terms of other angelic creatures and things like that but it seems the whole plan of redemption us being with him forever and everything coming through Jesus would point to us being the the form of rational life here you know just on the earth but either way I would just ask okay where did they come from who are if God had them do it then then is he God is he the God of the Bible that's what I press because it says about he created everything it says in the Bible that he's the king and he rules and he's gonna do them who are they where did they come from may the Lord give you wisdom Jonathan that's a first for me thank you 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 eight six six three four true here again is dr. Michael Brown thanks friends for joining us on the broadcast if you don't get my emails please take a moment go to ask dr. Brown org ask dear Brown org click right there to sign on email should be right on your home page on your tablet or smartphone or computer and then when you do you'll get a few emails from me right off the bat just share more of my testimony with you from LSD to PhD some of the burdens of our ministry the three R's that we emphasize different ways that we can serve you resources available and then you'll hear from us weekly a couple times a week latest videos latest articles latest special resources special offers made available only to our email list so make sure you take a minute and start your brown org sign up for our emails it's six six three four truth let's go to Richard in Manitoba Canada welcome to the line of fire hi dr. Brown how are you doing well thank you sir good well I I have I respect you but there are certain there are certain things that you said in a recent video about the Sabbath that I want to deal with sure if I may please all right so first of all there was an argument that he made that the Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel Exodus 31 verses 13 and 17 now that that's true considering that that Israel was was to be God's special people and they were they were elected to be a light to the Gentiles to show the nations about the the God of Israel mm-hmm the jet but the Gentile the whole reason that God established Israel as he did was was to was to show who he was through his people and and and and the Gentiles were to be grafted into the stock of Israel and we see that next in Isaiah 56 verses 6 through 8 and Romans chapter 11 all right so just just to be clear then all of the commandments of the Torah that was God working through Israel to reveal himself and to call Israel to be a separate nation correct yes right so for example if you get mildew in your house then you follow the prescriptions laid out in Leviticus 14 and if you have a disobedient and rebellious teenager that refused to repent you bring them to the elders of the city and you stone them to death is that correct I'm not making making the case that all of the 613 or so Commandments in the Torah are directly applicable to to God's people today there there were there were changes in in there were changes in the requirements that God had gone for first people whereas Israel was was a nation in in the in the in the the ancient near east now now Israel includes both Jews and Gentiles who worship God all over the world well where does the New Testament ever call Gentiles Israel Paul writes to the Gentiles in Romans 11 and says I'm writing to you Gentiles as much as them impossible to the Gentiles because I want to make my people Israel envious so where does the New Testament ever call Gentiles Israel well I think I think that he may do that in Galatians where he talks about the Israel God versus Israel the flesh oh certainly not no certainly not there Galatians 6 16 he's his peace upon all who follow this rule and the Israel of God in other words Jewish believers in the Messiah he's not throwing them under the bus but he's just spent the whole book of Galatians telling the Galatians that they don't have to come under the law to be justified the last thing he would do is confuse that now and call them the Israel of God and the most natural way to read the Greek is he's someone all those who follow this rule that I've laid out for you Gentiles and also hey I'm not throwing them under the bus the Israel of God Jewish believers the fact the fact is he explicitly calls Gentile Christians in the New Testament Gentiles it's not it's not a bad word it can be negative like pagans or just the people of the nations so it's Jew and Gentile together right but you made a very but right but that's not Israel they're not grafted into Israel they're grafted into the larger Commonwealth of Israel to the larger body to the ecclesia so he never calls them Israel but I mean you just stated as if it was a fact and I just felt it's important to to point it out so anyway so so let's try to focus this in better okay we both agree that as followers of Jesus today that we are not obligated to keep all the 613 commandments and that changes have come for example blood sacrifice fulfilled in Jesus we agree on that correct okay so where in the New Testament does it ever teach Gentiles to keep the seventh-day Sabbath because we know from the early church that the Gentile Christians didn't do this and that they even wondered why the Jews continued to do it Jewish believers over the centuries but what would be your text where the New Testament explicitly tells and tells Gentile Christians to observe the seventh-day Sabbath what what would you find is the strongest text for that well that actually leads nicely into into the other argument that I have here which is no really New Testament or Gentiles order to keep the seventh-day Sabbath now that that is that is true in in in the sense that there is no single explicit command for Gentiles to to keep to keep the Sabbath but the book of Acts I argue shows that Gentile proselytes to Second Temple Judaism and later to the way were accustomed to keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and continued to do so they were accustomed to keeping the the biblical calendar the feast the holy days all of the calendar etc but it would have been the perfect place acts 15 to say to keep that but they didn't and then elsewhere in Romans 14 in Romans 14 where you had a community of believers of Jew and Gentile together he's very explicit that some sit one day apart others don't honor and respect each other and then Colossians to a warning about anyone pressuring you to keep the Sabbath or a new moon because that these are just the shadow the substance is the Messiah so you have a warning against pressure to keep the Sabbath in Colossians 2 and you have Romans 14 explicitly saying that you have different believers in your midst with different convictions about setting a day aside or not so he does address these things well if I actually have something to say regarding acts chapter 15 is actually in the scriptures that I that I reference in the thing I have written down here about about Gentile proselytes being accustomed to keeping the Sabbath if you read in Acts chapter 15 before the the resolution is is the is written down for the Gentiles James gets up and says wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them from which among the Gentiles are turned to God but we write unto them that they abstain from pollution of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood because Moses of old time hath in every city has in every city then that preach him being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day right and and Paul doesn't get kicked out of the synagogue until later in the book of Acts after this was after James gives this well no Paul's ready kicked out of the synagogue in Acts 9 he's gonna flee for his life yeah it's not no acts 9 he's he's kicked out he's kicked out of the scene or he's got a yeah first place he gets kicked out of yeah I mean not not physically kicked out but he's preaching and then he's got a flee from Damascus for his life he's got to be let down by a basket yes so he's in constant controversy acts 13 he leaves the synagogue and says okay your blood's on your own hands fine I'm going to the Gentiles that's acts 13 but here here sir what's being what's being said is simply that they'll get this in other words what we're telling them about the idolatry and and don't people who buy idols from sexual immorality from what's been strangled from blood they'll get this because they've already heard this stuff in the synagogue that's what he's saying and then everything else gets gets built on that in the rest of the New Testament and and you see in the end of Matthew 11 where Jesus has come to me and find rest that thing goes right into Matthew 12 where there's a dispute about healing on the Sabbath and things so I would I'd encourage you to continue to look at this don't separate the Sabbath and put it just in a special category and then ask yourself why is it that as the church grew and became predominantly Gentile that seventh-day Sabbath it wasn't even an option because in the world they lived that was a workday right why why is it that it was the Jewish followers of the Messiah that continue to keep the Sabbath and the Gentile Christians that didn't well it wasn't a command given to them what other passage to consider and and I appreciate I did try to take some time I know this could go on it is a great debate obviously but we've we've discussed Sabbath so many times that that I want to be respectful of others too but one of the passage make sure you look at this 1st Corinthians 7 where where Paul is writing to the believers there just want to make sure I start with the right reference beginning verse 17 right had it right in my head 1st Corinthians 7 17 only that each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned him into which God has called them this is my rule in all the churches was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised many call to salvation let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised let him not seek circumcision from the the circumcision counselor or anything for anything nor uncircumcision means in terms of salvation but keeping the commandments of God so a Gentile believer does not become a Jew a Jew doesn't become a Gentile but we are one in Jesus the Messiah hey we may have a respectful difference here that's fine and in my own life seventh-day Sabbath unless I'm ministering yeah that is reality for me so we may have a respectful difference here which is fine god bless you man thank you for the call sorry I didn't get to more calls today we took a little more time with some different callers but wolf keep the phones open through the weeks god bless you another program powered by the truth network