Why Brady “Phanatic” Goodwin Renounced His Faith

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So, what do we say about another respected Christian leader who has now renounced his faith? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Hey friends, welcome to The Line of Fire. This is Michael Brown. We are going to talk about yet another respected Christian leader who has renounced his faith.

I want to talk about how we respond to these things, how they affect us, how we can most be constructive at a time like this. We'll be talking about Brady Goodman, known as Fanatic, so many of you were blessed by his ministry in years past. He's now renounced his faith. We'll be talking about that if you personally enjoyed his ministry in the past. I was not familiar with him until now, but if you enjoyed his ministry in the past, I'd love to hear from you and hear how it impacts you to hear that he no longer believes what he professed and preached for 30 years. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884.

Before we get to that, there's an urgent matter that I want to discuss. It was not that many weeks back, a few months back, I had Dr. Joseph Nicolosi Jr. on the air with me. His dad was a pioneer in helping men with unwanted same-sex attractions through counseling, through insights into their own life development. Dr. Nicolosi Jr. has carried on with that work and was on the air to talk about some amazing insights that he and his team have developed just as they've applied aspects of trauma counseling, general trauma counseling, to people with unwanted same-sex attractions and seen real fruit in lives being changed. And we've spoken openly about the attack on so-called conversion therapy.

That's the way the critics paint it. But there's a ban now in Canada. Anyone of any age who has unwanted same-sex attraction and wants to get professional help is banned by doing so under the law. We linked to Dr. Nicolosi's videos. We talked about the important work he was doing. And now he himself has suffered the hand of the censor. He has had his own videos banned. Hey, Dr. Nicolosi, thanks for joining us again on the Line of Fire.

Thanks for having me. So tell us what's actually happened. Has YouTube actually removed your videos?

They've banned all of them. The last time I was on your show, you're right. We were talking about this study that had come out in the Journal of Human Sexuality, a five-year study with 75 participants, 75 men. And we found that, these independent researchers found that by doing trauma treatment and tracking these individuals' sexuality, they noticed statistically significant decreases in their homosexual thoughts, feelings, behavior, and identity, and increases in their and increases in their thoughts, feelings, behavior, and identity, and increases in well-being. So we put out videos talking about the study. We did a whole series of videos talking about the research, how there's plenty of published peer-reviewed studies which are being shielded from the public, but they do show this. And then YouTube in the dead of night on Friday night pulled the plug on the entire channel. And I got a single notification from them saying that the entire channel was guilty of so-called hate speech and that every single thing that we had posted would automatically be banned.

And what happened when you tried to appeal? I wrote them. I said, look, we're a 501c3 nonprofit. Every single study that we mentioned, it's evidence-based. It's published in a peer-reviewed journal.

We use these exact same trauma treatments for heterosexuals, for example, with the pornography addiction. And there was no response from them, just a complete shutdown of the channel, and no references of the study exist. They've scrubbed the record of all the scientific materials showing this information. All right, first, how did you feel when that happened? I was shocked. At first, I thought it must be a mistake. It must be a glitch. I've heard of this happening to other people. It must be a misunderstanding.

So I wrote them that one single appeal that they gave me, and then they shut it down without any further discussion. That's when the reality started to set in. It feels like a kick in the gut, doesn't it?

Totally, absolutely. And so how it felt was shocking. But then what really came up for me was, wait a second, this isn't me that they're after. They're shutting down speech, and I'm not the real victim here. The real victim is the client, is the people who are sexually abused, or the people who want to go on the internet and find out their different treatment options. Other than the pop culture ethos of LGBT, they want to hear other... And so ultimately, it's those people who are having their choices robbed from them. All right, you're a Christian, you're a thinking man, you are not looking for some secret bogeyman everywhere trying to attack us. But this is a literal fundamental attack on some of our most fundamental freedoms. Remember, YouTube is supposed to be a neutral platform. And it's one thing if I was telling people how to make a bomb and giving out private addresses to bomb someone's house, of course that should be banned.

But even under YouTube guidelines, you didn't violate anything. There's nothing that could be called hate speech. So what's the larger ideological battle driving this? What are we actually fighting against? I think that you're hitting the nail on the head. There is something larger that's going on, which is that, you know, on these platforms, big tech promotes many scientifically incorrect videos about gender issues.

You can go on there right now and hear all sorts of things. But by silencing scientific evidence that they don't like, what they are doing is they are effectively shaping the public conversation about the science of sexuality and about gender. And ultimately, in the name of anti-bullying and stopping medical misinformation, it's big tech themselves who have now become the real bullies. And in doing so, they mislead the very people that they say they're trying to protect, individuals who struggle with trauma and their sexuality.

Yeah. And again, knowing how you present things, how you presented things on the air, I don't even have to watch the videos to know there's not going to be anything that under any reasonable standard could be called hate speech. And again, you're speaking as a professional and reviewing studies and looking at the help that they are bringing to people. We're not talking about kidnapping a 16-year-old teenager who identifies as lesbian and forcing her into some camp to be reprogrammed, God forbid. So the ideological battle is real. I mentioned on the air yesterday that in 2004 is when I first realized that LGBT activism was the principal threat, not would be, but was already the principal threat to freedom of religion, speech and conscience.

And we're seeing it now played out in all these different ways. So what is the big threat to the idea that someone who identifies as homosexual can change? Why is that concept so terribly threatening? That concept and the scientific evidence that undergirds that concept is a threat because we are telling people, particularly children, that they are, if they have a certain form of sexuality for LGBT, they were born that way. They'll always be that way. And their only choice is to celebrate it or live a life of misery and self-denial. And when somebody else presents a third option, that is a major threat to the prevailing narrative. And what about the idea that gay rights are civil rights, that gay is the new black or trans is the new black, that these things are innate and immutable. I'm born this way.

I can't change. So if that gets challenged, doesn't that challenge this whole idea of gay is the new black? That's right. It challenges the foundations of the concept that LGBT rights are automatically civil rights and we can automatically transpose the civil rights victories of the 60s onto the struggles today. And if we realize that sexuality is not necessarily immutable and that for at least some percentage of the population, trauma has an impact on our sexuality, that is a big threat.

Yeah. All right. First, give out your website to those that do want to find out more about what you do and the things that you're talking about here. The website is reintegrativtherapy.com. We can click on the science page to look at the science, look at how there's many studies that have shown that sexuality can change for many people. And it's actually very robust literature.

So reintegrativtherapy.com and we've been able to get the videos up on another platform, a much, much smaller platform, but people can watch the videos that YouTube banned and decide for themselves whether or not this is so-called hate speech. All right. One other question. What happened to your late father and his books? So this is what they call tragicomics.

It's somewhere between funny and tragic. So roughly two years ago, someone created a petition to get all of my father's books banned from Amazon. And someone posted this on one of these websites where you can create petitions and LGBT activists got on board and they got a lot of people to sign it. And Amazon paid and they banned all of my father's books. And then in an interview about a month later, a gay newspaper, they interviewed the man who started the whole petition in the first place. And they said, well, tell us about it.

How did this get started? What about the books did you not like? And the guy admitted he'd never even read the books. He was simply offended by their title. So that was the reason.

Yeah. And again, your dad was a pioneer and highly respected in the field and known for the work that he had done. And yet it actually happens. This is really wild. Your dad's books get banned on Amazon. YouTube bans your channel.

It's really extraordinary. So friends, go to Reintegrative Therapy dot com. Find out more about this research, about how people can be helped.

Spread the word. And because all of my videos do get checked on YouTube, whoever's watching this on YouTube, you need to reconsider the ban. There is no hate speech here whatsoever. All this is, is the kind of heavy handed censorship that really all of us on all sides deplore.

So Dr. Nicolosi, we can't silence the truth. We keep getting the message out, but we're standing with you and we'll do whatever we can to help promote your work. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you so much.

You are very welcome. 866-34-TRUTH. When we come back, I'm going to play some clips for you from a video that was put out, oh, a few days back by a well-known Christian hip hop artist who was also doing apologetics, defending the faith, had gone to seminary. And while in seminary, more and more questions came up and ultimately he has publicly renounced his faith. Now we're scheduled to interact privately and he's very open to interacting privately. So I am not here to attack or criticize. I'm here to be as constructive and helpful as possible.

We'll be right back. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us friends on the line of fire. How do we respond when yet another respected Christian leader renounces his faith? If you were personally blessed by cross movement and the music and lyrics and message of Brady Goodwin, known as Fanatic, if you were personally blessed by his ministry, and now I've heard the report that he has not said he's renounced, actually denounced his faith and his words. Give me a call. I'd like to know how that news impacted you.

866-348-7884. But I want to be clear, the purpose of discussing this publicly is not to attack Brady. It is not to criticize him. It is not to speculate what might have been going on in his life. If you have questions, pray to God about those things and pray for him. I certainly pray for him because I'm sure he's wrong.

He may be sure I'm wrong right now, but I'm sure he's wrong and a burden for him. I was totally unfamiliar with his ministry and work. It doesn't mean he wasn't touching a lot of people.

It just is a big church and a lot of stuff out there. So many of us are completely unfamiliar with one another. So I didn't know anything about him. But as I began to read reports, the things I read spoke very highly of him and he was respected and loved and obviously serious enough not just to go to Lancaster Bible College but seminary as well. So I take someone at their word. When they tell their story, the first thing I do is take them at their word. Now everybody has different perspectives and sometimes our perspectives shift over the years. A guy tells his wife after 30 years of marriage, I never loved you.

Well, he's fallen in love with somebody else and he's now projecting his current feelings back on 30 years. But I don't come in with a skeptical judgmental attitude. When someone shares their story, I take them at face value.

So he said he started seminary full of faith and the more he studied, the more questions came up and he finally had to realize he didn't believe what he once believed. Now if you're active in Christian ministry and doing all these kinds of things, that means you've lived with a certain amount of pain over the years. That hurts me. That's real to me.

In other words, how could you possibly turn your back and do that? You get angry with him. Well, maybe you're angry because you're hurt. Don't take that anger out on someone that we should be praying for and loving and listening to in the sense of let's interact. If a lot of serious intellectual things are the things that are troubling you, I'm sure there are plenty of people he can interact with but he wants to interact with me.

No, it's great. Let's do it. Let's do it and we're going to interact with issues. So again, I want to be very clear. The purpose of this broadcast is not to throw stones and not to judge. I want to play a few clips from the video that he put up and then I want to look at a scripture that's commonly raised and tell you why I do not immediately go to this verse. Again, this is a video of what, 25-30 minutes long, that he posted on Facebook.

Here's the first clip. It's been a crazy journey for me over the last couple of years. I've sort of been trying to throw out little hints to kind of just advertise or at least let people know I'm not where I once was. I'm not where I used to be.

Even when I didn't know where I was, I knew I wasn't totally where I used to be. That just is on some social matters, political matters. Not even theological, just I don't see things the way some folks in my Christian community do, a lot of folks in my Christian community do. But then there were others who were in the Christian community who I did see eye to eye with you, even when I was wrestling with the theology.

So what am I saying? I'm really making this video because I know the word has kind of gone out from some people who were part of the church that I was at for the last maybe four or five years. I recently sent a letter to the church withdrawing my membership from the church.

It was a heavy, heavy letter because, as I said in the letter, I was not just withdrawing my membership from this local body. It's actually the universal church that I said, you know what, I really can't amen what I used to amen. I take him at his word that he wrestled with things for years. Have you ever wrestled with doubts? You ever wrestled with questions? You ever struggled with, boy, I thought this was true, but I'm not sure. It's painful.

It's agonizing. And when your whole life identity is being a follower of Jesus and being a minister of the gospel, everything gets shaken. So I hear this and I feel compassion. No, not because I'm sitting here safe and secure in my faith and this terrible person is now wasting away. No, no.

He probably says, hey, I feel free now or I can, I feel something new in front of me. I'm not saying that in a demeaning way. I'm just saying because I love Jesus and I love the body and I respect that people can go through struggles and doubts. In Jude, it says, have mercy on those who doubt. So there's a doubt that's sinful where we know the Lord and we are double-minded and we don't put our trust in him when we have every reason to. There's another doubt where you're wrestling.

Mark 9, the father of the boy having seizures, what does he say? Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. There are different kinds of doubt. So first thing when I hear this is I feel compassion. Okay, let's get into a little bit more of the why he no longer believes what he used to believe.

Clip number two. And I'm reading all the trusted sources, the people who are bona fide, born again believers. I'm reading them first because there's some other people I could believe, more liberal sources that I could start reading.

And I know where they're going to take it. I want to read the safe people first. I'm reading the safe folks. And even the safe folks are making me say, it's not what I thought. There's a reason why people have been rethinking these issues. And then I begin to venture out and read the less safe people, the liberal theologians that I'd always been warned, you don't want to go that way.

But eventually it got to the point where the liberal dudes were the ones bringing the most comfort because they were the ones that were being the most honest about the issues. All that to say, I got to the point where I said, you know what? I can no longer in good conscience, amen, preach what I preached, believe what I believe.

All right, so here's the question. Isn't it integrity to be honest, even if your honesty points you in a direction away from God? In other words, being honest before God has great value. Would God rather that I publicly get up every day and preach Jesus and preach the Bible when I no longer believe it? Would he rather I do that or rather that I openly say I'm struggling, I don't believe this anymore.

Now, again, I'm grieved as to Brady's conclusions right now, and I really look forward to getting to know him and hearing more about his journey and if I can provide helpful interaction, wonderful, but I'm not going in there as the answer man who's going to fix everything. All right, but I just want to emphasize that honesty and integrity are really important in God's sight. In fact, you know, many of you know, I wrote a commentary in the book of Job and Job worships God in the midst of all kinds of hardship and losing everything continues to worship God no matter what the Lord gave the Lord took away. May the name of the Lord be praised.

Shall we receive only good from the Lord and not bad? And in all this, he doesn't sin with his lips. He then begins to grieve and wish he were dead and he was never born, and his friends begin to lovingly reach out and say, hey, Job, come on, you've been the strong guy.

What are you doing now? Look, obviously there was some issue in your life and God's disciplining you, and the goal is that you come out even stronger. So he pushes back, you know, he doesn't say it quite like this, but come on, don't tell me because there is some little issue in my life, God kills my 10 kids, come on.

So he pushes back. As the dialogue ensues, the more they hear Job push back, the more scandalized they are, and it's like, you're wicked, your kids died because you're wicked. And Job pushes back and then, well, then God's a monster and I want to have my day in court with God. I want to argue it out with God because I know I don't deserve this.

I'm suffering the punishment through the wicked and I don't deserve this. Now, the friends wrongly judge Job, and God rebukes them at the end of the book for that. Job wrongly judged God and God rebukes him for that. Like, Job, you don't know anything.

You don't know anything. You have no idea about my goodness as well as my majesty and power and wisdom. But God also rebukes the friends. In fact, he specifically rebukes them for not speaking rightly about God as Job did.

What? Job called God a moral monster. Job also said, I know my Redeemer lives. Job also said, I know that there's justice in God's universe and I'm going to be vindicated. So on the one hand, God severely rebukes Job for speaking out of turn and Job deeply humbles himself and says, I recant.

I'm nothing. And then Job commends him and says, three times calls him my servant and twice says, he spoke rightly about me. How? Because Job knew this couldn't be right. Because Job knew the God he worshipped and loved all those years would not do those terrible things to him. And it was actually Satan who was involved with it. And he knew and professed that ultimately because God was a God of justice, he would have to be vindicated. God himself commends him and commends him for his integrity. So even though I grieve over where Brady is at and categorically differ with his conclusions about the trustworthiness of scripture, I appreciate his honesty and integrity.

Those are important things. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on The Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to the broadcast, Michael Brown.

Delighted to be with you. Well, in the last few years, I can think of a Christian rock singer who has renounced his faith. Think of a seminary professor who's renounced his faith. Think of a well-known pastor who's renounced his faith. And I think of a worship leader who has publicly questioned his faith. Or we end the final falling away, the final apostasy Jesus speaks of in Matthew 24 and Paul speaks of in 2 Thessalonians 2.

Perhaps. If so, this is barely the tip of the iceberg. But Jesus did say, because iniquity will abound, the love of many will wax cold. So in many of these cases, it's not so much iniquity abounding as much as questions, issues, other things arising. Sometimes you hear about someone who's lost their faith or renounced their faith. And then as the months and years go on, they will come out, say, as publicly gay or they'll come out as publicly holding to something very else, very different in terms of moral standards.

And you say, ah, so they were wrestling with this for years. And that's part of what fueled the fire. Others, it could just be praying and believing for the healing of a child and the child died. Or it could be getting burned in church over and again. It's like, where's Christianity? Or it could be questions and doubts about the Bible. I had Dr. Josh Bowen on last year, a very moving interview.

It was just in tears about the loss of his baby son some years back and how he wishes he could know he's going to see him in the world to come. But he doesn't have faith anymore, would love to have faith again. And it was in his case after Bible College, the seminary strong in faith, he went on to grad school, secular grad school, do doctoral work. And it was completely new to be in this environment of virtual unbelief about the Scriptures. And he lost his faith.

So there are many situations like that. If you haven't read my book, Has God Failed You? Finding faith when you're not even sure God is real. I think you'll find it really helpful.

Came out last May. Has God failed you? Finding faith when you're not even sure God is real. You'll find it dealing with experiences, questions about wrong theology, questions about social issues in the Bible, questions about unanswered prayer.

So check it out. Has God failed you? 866-34-TRUTH specifically and only to talk about people leaving the faith, losing their faith. And even more specifically, if you had been blessed by the ministry of Brady Goodman known as Fanatic and heard his announcement that he no longer believes what he used to believe, I'd like to know how that impacted you.

We're not here to criticize him, okay? But I'd like to know how that news impacted you. 866-34-TRUTH. When I hear about a leader who no longer believes, the first thing immediately is my heart goes out to that person.

Again, they may not want my sympathy or compassion, but I'm just saying immediately, even if I have no idea who the person is, I'm so sad. It's such sad news, just like it's wonderful, glorious. After we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin. So is particular verse applying to like the loss of salvation? Yeah, as I understand it, it absolutely is, but we need to understand it rightly. It's not saying if you sin, you're saved and you think, I don't know, I'm getting drunk.

I just, I'm depressed. And now you lose your quote, lose your salvation. No, it's not saying that. Remember, he's talking to Jews there in context, Jewish believers, and they are being pulled to deny Jesus to walk away from their faith. And he's saying if you are going to go on and sin willfully, if you're going to reject him and go on and sin willfully, the temple sacrifices are not going to avail. Going back and practicing the day of atonement, there's no sacrifice for sin that remains. You reject, so your willful sin is rejecting the Messiah and now living your life however you want to live it. And it says when you've done that, as you keep reading, that you've trampled on your foot the Son of God.

So it is someone who makes a beautiful choice. I want to go to a verse that is commonly cited when you hear someone left the faith. I want to look at that. And then I want to tell you about how we should respond, some constructive thoughts to build, strengthen, and encourage our own faith and our own walk. Here's the last clip from Brady. I got to a point where I said, you know what? I think I get it now. I think I understand. When I hold the Bible in my hands, I think I understand what I'm holding now. I think I understand it now better than I ever have. And I don't believe it, but I understand it. And I actually still love the Gospel. I actually still love the way that the message has been massaged and presented to us.

The way that the Scriptures present themselves, the various authors. I get it. I just don't believe it.

All right. So again, being candid, and obviously 50 years in the Lord, I believe things as deeply as I ever have. And my heart, my mind, my soul are all in harmony. In other words, I don't have to turn off my mind to follow the Lord.

It's mind, heart, soul, all in one. Now, why exactly Brady came to these conclusions? He's explained some things, hopefully as we get to interact. And that's very positive to me, his willingness to interact. I don't mean positive like I'm going to convince him. I mean positive that he's not shutting people out.

I said, sure, of course I'll interact. That's very positive. And that to me is part of an honest search before God.

I'm always open to interact with people that differ with me. And I'm absolutely confident there's nothing they could say or present that's going to shake my faith. But if they raise a good question, then I know there's a good answer out there. But many people immediately go to 1 John 2.19. And 1 John 2.19 says this.

It's a well-known verse in 1 John. So when someone no longer believes, many people go here. And John writes, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain, that they all are not of us. So there were people who were part of these different house churches, part of these groups that John was writing to. And they used to be part of the congregations. And then they left.

They held to certain beliefs that were not biblical, orthodox, true. And ultimately, they left. And John says that proves they were never really among us.

If they had never really been among us, they would have stayed. So from that, people have deduced, and I understand you can't read the text in this way. From that, people have deduced that if anyone leaves the faith, they were never truly in the faith. If they were truly in the faith, that they would continue to believe.

That's one possible way to read it. But since the entire New Testament gives warnings in harmony with the Old Testament, that someone can leave the faith, that someone can be a believer and turn away. I'm not going to go through all the warnings about that and debate, quote, once they'd always saved. We've done that many, many times.

You can go to our website, askdrbrown.org, and look at shows where we've discussed that issue respectfully with others. But I do believe that we are absolutely 100% secure in Jesus, that he has promised to keep us, and that no one can pluck us out of his Father's hand. I also believe he doesn't force us to stay in his house, and that it is possible to turn away from the Lord. In other words, you could be genuinely born again, know the Lord, indwelt by the Spirit, and turn away, and no longer follow him.

Now, since I see all these other verses in the New Testament saying that, I'm going to interpret 1 John 2 in the midst of that, and say, yeah, there are some who weren't really among us, okay? You know, it's just like, here, I'm going to put it on a very, very basic, natural level. You're a football fan, and, you know, you've rooted for your team for years and years, even when they had terrible losing records, and were just in the basement, you know, and just doing badly. And then, something happens, they fire your favorite coach, I'm never going to follow them again. And someone says, ah, you were never really a fan.

Come on, if you're really a fan, you wouldn't just follow them when they have the coach that you like or something. You'd follow them through thick and thin, okay? So, there are people who seemed to be among us.

Every church, every group has it, right? They seemed to be among us for a while, but then they all left. It was clear they were never really among us. If they were really part of us, they would have stayed. It's not saying it's impossible for someone to leave. It's not saying this is the case with anyone who ever leaves. You're talking about a group of people that were known in their midst that left and said, obviously, they're never really among us, or they would have stayed.

I mean, if you really dig deep, and then when you dig deeper, it's like, oh yeah, they always had questions, or yeah, they were always challenging, or yeah, they never really agreed with it, or they were always rebellious or something. It's like, ah, see, they were never really among us. But again, the New Testament is filled with warnings about the real danger and possibility of someone willfully renouncing their faith. Let me say again, I am 100% secure in the Lord. I never for a split second worry about backsliding, worry about losing my salvation.

For a split second, it doesn't dawn on me. At the same time, I know that God will not force me to follow Him. And if I willfully turn away, willfully choose sin, willfully choose unbelief, He's not going to force me to stay. Now, here's what troubles me when people immediately raise this verse. Oh, well, then this guy's never really saved. Well, this Brady guy was obviously never really saved, or he'd still be saved.

Do you understand what you're doing when you say that? I could turn around and say, maybe you're not really saved. Maybe six months from now, you'll end up renouncing your faith, and it'll prove that you were never really saved. It undermines and undercuts the promises that we have.

It undermines and undercuts our ability to look at others as brothers and sisters. Well, maybe you're not really saved. Maybe you're not really saved. Maybe in a year, you'll come out as an unbeliever.

So don't just go there. Sometimes it's because we're insecure in our own faith. We're insecure in our own walk, and therefore we've got to put these barriers.

Well, there's something wrong with them. I take, I keep wanting to call him this brother, but he's a fellow human, right? Brother of the human race. But right now, not a professing brother in the faith. You say, well, if he's really saved, he'll come back.

Well, if you're Calvinist and that's your theology, and I respect that, perseverance of the saints, then you can be confident. If he's truly saved, he'll be back. My view is he may have really been an on-fire believer. He may have really loved Jesus. I don't know him. I don't know his history. I don't know about his born-again testimony. I don't know about his walk with the Lord. I don't know what he's seen God do and experience over the years.

But my theological view would be he well could have been a committed Christian, serving God, trying to reach others with all sincerity, and he's now fallen away. I pray for him to come back. I pray for him to return.

I pray for God to seek him out and bring him back. We'll be right back. If you have just tuned in today and you're watching on Facebook or YouTube, shoot us a note on Facebook or YouTube. Let us know how you like our brand new studio, which we just debuted yesterday. And let us know how you enjoy the new musical intro of Skillet.

I explained the whole background to that yesterday. So just post a note on YouTube or Facebook if you're just tuning in today, missed yesterday's broadcast. Let us know how you like the new studio. Let us know how you like the new music and intro.

And for everyone listening on radio, yeah, you could shoot us a note through the website askdrbrown.org, listening on podcast askdrbrown.org, and let us know how you like the new sounds of the line of fire. Okay, so interacting a little bit more with Brady Fanatic Goodwin's video where he talks about reading reliable sources, right? So in other words, you're reading the Bible and someone says, well, it can't be true because of these contradictions in the gospels. Well, look at the contradictions in the resurrection accounts. Or how could God call the Israelites to kill the Canaanites? Or, you know, the Bible says it's hateful against other people, it's misogynistic or whatever. So you hear these things.

Or it contradicts science and so on. So you're a believer, where do you go? Well, you go to the books by other believers or you talk to maybe your pastor's educatedness, or you get on some apologetics website.

In other words, you go to people you think will help you, right? And what happens when you're reading their answers and their answers don't convince you? That the more you read, the more you question. That's what Brady said happened with him. So, well, let's see what the others say. The liberals who don't accept the authority of scripture and don't believe there's just one way to God through Jesus and who believe there are many different authors who may have contradicted each other and, oh, okay, I'm reading what they say, that makes sense.

Well, that's what happened to Brady. Here's where I'm not going to challenge his own walk, his own life, his own experience, because I don't know that. It's not for me to say.

As I said from the beginning of the broadcast, as I said from the beginning of the broadcast, I'm not here to criticize. But I had the exact opposite experience. So I get gloriously, wonderfully born again in 71. Heroin shooting, LSD using, proud of it, playing drums in a rock band. I was going to be a rock star. The last thing.

No, no, it wasn't even on the list of things. But the last thing, beyond the last thing that I wanted to do was stop doing drugs. I was just enjoying getting high.

Stop the whole pursuit of being a rock star. I started going to church and living a holy life. I was a 16-year-old rebel, sinner, one of the fulfilled lusts and desires of the flesh. And I believed that God existed, but he had no role in my life. Jesus meant nothing to me as a Jew, but God really got hold of me when I didn't believe, deeply convicted me of my sin as people were praying for.

I didn't even know they were praying for me. I didn't know what conviction was and then revealed his love to me. And I was gloriously, wonderfully born again. I cannot describe in human words, except to quote from Peter, who says, inexpressible and glorious joy or in the King James, joy unspeakable and full of glory. When his love was revealed to me through this overwhelming supernatural joy of the Lord, different than anything I had ever experienced. And I knew his love was real. And at that moment said, I'll never put a needle in my arm again.

It was instantly set free, instantly set free. My life dramatically transformed. And not long after that, I had had hives before I was a believer. And it's just, you know, it's this condition, these like blotches pop up over your skin and they itch terribly. And I got all over my back and legs and arm.

It was, it was like torture. And, you know, went to the doctor with my parents and was put on meds. And I was told it's going to take 24 hours before the thing takes effect. And it's going to take days before it totally takes effect. And then it will be gone. So when everything disappeared, I stopped taking the meds.

I was on my way to school at this point, a believer, because I got saved right in this time. And suddenly the hives, it was winter and I started feeling the scratching on my arm. I'm like, oh no. And I roll up my sleeve and I think, oh gosh, I didn't even have a pill on me.

Even if I did, it's gonna be 24 hours to have effect. By the time I get to the school a few minutes later, the blotches are all over my arms. And I'm now in a panic.

It's like, oh, the itch is terrible. And there's another guy, a new believer, had come into the room where I was. I was one of the first ones in there.

And I said, just agree with me in prayer for healing. And the next thing the room filled, maybe a minute went by, maybe two max, because it's just the busyness and thinking about everybody else. And I look, what, what happened? Not just the itch stopped, but every blotch. I'm talking about ugly, large blotches.

They all disappeared. I mean, those are real things that you can't just dismiss. But my dad said, Michael, it's great. We're off drugs. You're off drugs, but we're Jews.

We don't believe this. We need to talk to the local rabbi. Well, here I am, 16 years old, barely even read the Bible, a little Hebrew that I'd learned from my bar mitzvah.

I didn't remember that. Now I'm sitting down talking to a brilliant guy, fresh out of Jewish Theological Seminary, actually was sometimes a professor there. And he's immediately challenging me.

This is instantly. And then I started college at 18. And one of the first classes I take is an ancient history class with a guy who got his PhD in Assyriology. I think it was from Brooklyn College.

I believe his name was Samuel Paley. Brilliant guy and totally demolishing the Bible and all these different accounts and how to contradict. And this is false.

Where did I, I had nowhere to go. I did not know a Christian scholar. I did not know a Messianic Jewish apologist. I did not know a born again theologian. I just knew the people in my little church and it was not a church that emphasized study. In fact, they'd sometimes quote from Acts 4 to 13 that the apostles were ignorant and unlearned men.

Well, if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us. I mean, sometimes with a smile, but cemetery, seminary, that's, that was the concept. So I, I really struggled, but not only that, the bigger struggle was that this rabbi brought me to other rabbis and then other rabbis and other rabbis and other rabbis. And these, some of these guys study like 12, 14 hours, 16 hours a day and pray for hours and very devout. And they're trying to explain, you know, I'm quoting King James because I've memorized at this point as the years went on, you know, hundreds, thousands of verses. I'm just quoting verses to them and like, oh, those translations are terrible. Here, here, look at the Hebrew.

And they're just like, boy, I feel like a little baby. Here, look at this letter, this letter. So I determined I have to follow the truth wherever it leads. And I knew at that point, I knew that being a Jew in God's sight meant something and that there was something that he required of the Jewish people. I knew God was real.

I knew that they required some of the Jewish people. And I earnestly said, God, God, I must follow you and your truth and be a loyal Jew, whatever that means. If that means losing every friend in this church and having to tell everybody I've been wrong, I would sound like in Brady's case where he was well known and been doing this for decades here. I was just somebody in my local church preaching and known in those circles, but still it's difficult to say I'm wrong.

I'm renouncing this. I said, on the other hand, if what I believe about Jesus, the Messiah is true, then, then I don't care if the whole Jewish world rejects me, I've got to follow you. And in that moment, which was part of years and decades of asking the difficult questions and facing up to the difficult issues and sometimes not finding anywhere to go except God and his word, that at that moment, Isaiah 53 jumped off the pages of scripture to me, just the Bible open to that. And it was another reminder to me of the truth of messianic prophecy, of how the word laid out in advance, the death and resurrection of Messiah on our behalf is one of many, many things over the years. But here's what I want to present to you. Here's what I'll present. I am all for pursuing truth wherever it leads.

Second Corinthians 13, eight says we can do nothing against the truth, only for the truth. I believe that's true. I'm not afraid to ask the difficult questions. We've welcomed them for years. Our ministry has asked Dr. Brown. We've, we've asked critics. We've asked people who differ with us to call for years when I'm invited on a college campus to discuss Palestinian-Israeli issues, to discuss LGBT issues, to discuss messianic prophecy, to discuss whatever I always say, can you find someone to debate me? Because I want everyone to hear both sides presented as clearly as possible so that they can really study and think and pray and research and come to conclusions.

Generally, they can't find someone willing to debate me. Then I say, okay, can we have open mic Q&A afterwards so people can raise their questions and interest and, and, and issues. I welcome that. My friends in Christian ministry and apologetics welcome that.

In fact, they love those opportunities for people to ask their questions. But, but here's, here's what I want to just sum up for you. All right. I know that I know that Jesus radically changed my life. No one can take that from me. I know that I know over these last 50 years that I've seen the hand of the Lord move in supernatural ways that cannot possibly be rationalistically or logically explained apart from God. I could give example after example. I know of people around the world who are miraculously healed and it's documented and it's undeniable and friends who've had divine intervention in the lives that the only possible logical explanation is gone. So when I now am looking at scripture and faced with here's a strong argument in favor of the Bible being true and a strong argument against the Bible being true, I don't just weigh it based on that and, and whose philological linguistic hermeneutical acumen is sharper or who has more footnotes. I say, okay, I see the arguments, but I also have my experience in God.

It's not turning off my brain. It's factoring in everything together. It is being logical, rational with faith because faith is my real experience in God. So I'm not struggling, wondering, groping because I know God and I know his truth. Let's pray God's very best for great. Another program powered by the truth network.