Antisemitism in the PCUSA

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Antisemitism has raised its head in the church again, this time in the PC USA. 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. Welcome, friends, to The Line of Fire.

This is Michael Brown. It is Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. That is our focus today. If you have a Jewish related question of any kind, it can relate to the Hebrew Bible, it can relate to messianic prophecy, it can relate to Israel today or the Jewish religion. Any Jewish question, Jewish related question, 866-348-7884. In a moment, I want to bring on a friend and colleague from Israel, Orthodox Jewish leader Jonathan Feldstein, and we're going to address this issue of antisemitism in the PC USA, Presbyterian Church USA, which has been bleeding in members for some years now.

But I just want to give you this very brief background. I did not grow up around a lot of antisemitism, the neighborhood where I grew up, just Jewish kids, Gentile kids, hanging out together, didn't run into a lot of it. When I came to faith in a little Italian Pentecostal church in late 71, these people prayed for Israel and loved the Jewish people. So as a brand new believer, it was a shock to be given a book by the local rabbi about antisemitism in church history.

It was an absolute shock. And my most translated book sought to open the eyes of Christians around the world to the horrible realities of antisemitism in church history. Post-Holocaust, there's been a tremendous amount of recognition of this, a tremendous amount of repentance of this, with the restoration of the modern state of Israel. You've got a large evangelical movement in America and worldwide standing strongly with Israel. Nonetheless, antisemitism still exists within the church, in particular in the liberal wings of the church that depart from the plain sense of scripture. So a few days ago, Jonathan reached out to me and pointed out some very shocking statements from a leader in the PCUSA, and this is in conjunction with Martin Luther King Day.

And there were attacks on Israel that you would have to call antisemitic. So Jonathan, thanks so much for staying up late and calling us from Israel tonight. Welcome to the broadcast. Thank you.

It's always great to be with you. All right, so Jonathan, how does it feel to you, as an Orthodox Jew in Israel, working with Christians worldwide who are friends of Israel when you see this kind of stuff? It makes me nauseous. It makes me want to vomit, because I know the history, yet I'm blessed with countless Christian friends who grew up in an experience like you did, that you don't even know that there's such a thing as antisemitism. And then you have this so-to-speak church leader, and it's ironic, as you're introducing the piece talking about the acronym for the church being PCUSA, it's really not very PC, is it? It's terribly gross, the antisemitism that the head of the church espoused, and nothing more to call it other than antisemitic, and to call it out at every possibility, and I'm grateful for you for partnering with me and getting this article out to let people know how bad it is.

Yeah, absolutely. Friends, you can read it at AskDrBrown.org and other places, Theological Antisemitism at Home in the Presbyterian Church, and a great picture of Jonathan and me together there. I want to read a quote that you can respond to.

This is the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II, stated clerk of the General Assembly of the PCUSA, quote, the continued occupation in Palestine-Israel is 21st century slavery and should be abolished immediately. Given the history of Jewish humble beginnings and persecution, there should be no ambiguities to the ethical, moral, and dehumanizing marginalization and enslavement of other human beings. The United States of America must be a major influence of calling this injustice both immoral and intolerable. I hope that the Jewish community in the United States would influence the call to join the Jewish government in ending the immoral enslavement. Please respond from the heart.

From the heart. Yeah. There's no more immoral than what this man wrote. First of all, to mention anything regarding slavery and the state of Israel is a gross aberration. It's a lie. It's not the case.

If he's referring to how Israel, certainly not its own Arab citizen, where just today I read that Israel's allocating $70 million to integrate Israeli Arabs into technology. You don't do that for slaves. You don't elect your slaves to your parliament.

You don't have them sit on your Supreme Court. There's no basis for that. And when he speaks about Palestine-Israel, he's delegitimizing the very existence of the state. And I don't think he mentioned what was particularly gross about this. Because he made this statement calling out all kinds of world evils on Martin Luther King Day, as if he was speaking in the name of Dr. King, who was an avowed Zionist who loved Israel, who visited here, who understood the significance of Israel not just as a Christian, but as a black American. And to tarnish Dr. King's memory and his legacy and the integrity with which Dr. King spoke is tremendously gross. And then he took it a step further, just for people who are listening, but remember a week and a half ago, there was a terrorist hostage incident in a synagogue outside of Dallas. And one of the things that the terrorist was claiming is that we, the Jewish people, have this unlimited control, and by taking Jews hostage, if you call the president of the United States, the president would respond. And this man, this Dr. Nelson, is talking about Jewish control, like the Jews are going to influence Joe Biden to get Israel to back off of its slavery.

This is truly one of the most gross things I've read in recent years. All right, when he was challenged, he pushed back, and he said this, I want to give you an opportunity to respond. He said, no one who is informed regarding the use of military power and racial bias to control the lives of Palestinian citizens can honestly avoid the truth of this situation. He said, I made special reference to the injustices currently suffered by the Palestinian people under Israeli domination, marked by confiscation of rich land they have farmed for generations, destruction of their crops, barriers to access to their holy places of worship, lack of access to certain types of employment and other forms of economic opportunity. So there's obviously a lot there, but what about the confiscation of rich land they have farmed for generations and destruction of their crops? Is Israel basically just going around doing this to the Palestinians because they have the power?

No, for sure not. As a matter of fact, if you were here in my office with me right now, and it were a little lot more light out, we'd look outside my window, and you would see, yeah, I live in the Judean Mountains. Okay, we're over the Green Line. This is the West Bank. I'm the boogeyman settler for those who consider that to be an obstacle to peace or a problem, which I don't. But if you look out this window, you'll see beautiful, cultivated, Palestinian-Arab owned land that's just outside the window to my apartment. Now, let's be honest, yes, there are gross things that happen that Jewish settlers, Jewish residents of Gideon and Samaria and others do from time to time, but if you look around where I live and you drive around and you interact with the Palestinian-Arabs who live and work here and interact and shop with us and shop in the same stores and work in the same stores, you'll see coexistence. You won't be peace with a capital P, but you'll see mutual respect a lot of the time. It doesn't mean we all love each other, but there is no abject confiscation of land.

Someone like Dr. Nelson who's speaking like this should be a little bit more educated. When Israel restored sovereignty in 1967 to Gideon and Samaria, there were various categories of land. There's private Arab-owned land, and then there's state land. Now let's remember the Jordanian king Hussein wasn't such a great Democrat, and he controlled all of the majority of the land and didn't let Palestinian-Arabs control much of the land.

So it's the state land that Israel took over from Jordan that is where I live, where Jewish communities are largely established. Is that always the case? No. Are there mistakes made?

Yes. Those mistakes should be called out. That's the question. But what Dr. Nelson is saying is at best it's tremendous ignorance, which can't be tolerated from somebody in his position, and at worst it's a magic lie. And the fact is, within Israel, you can publicly openly say to the government, we don't like what you did. There's challenges on both sides, always left and right challenging each other. You could be an Israeli Arab and burn a flag, and you're not going to be killed by a mob whereas, under Palestinian control, if you dared challenge anything the government did or individuals did, that could do it for you. You know, when you mentioned Dr. King, he said this, when people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism. So we can all freely say, yeah, Israel could do this better, Israel's not perfect here.

Just like every nation on the planet. But when you delegitimize the nation, when you demonize the nation, when you tell lies about the nation, that's anti-Semitism. Yep, 100 percent. And Dr. Nelson is in a position that, again, he either should know better or he should keep his mouth shut. Yeah, absolutely. And that's why it's a privilege to join Arm & Arm with you in the midst of our differences about Jesus and other things as Jews working with the Christian world to call these things out and speak out against us. So thanks for bringing this to my attention.

And hey, we've got about a minute and a half before the break. Any project you're involved with that our listeners would be interested in? Well, I want people to go and listen to the podcast that we recorded together that I had the privilege of hosting you. They can listen to Inspiration from Zion podcast on any network. And for sure, for sure, now the tourism is starting to come back where we're launching our Run for Zion program, which is the first Christian program oriented around the Jerusalem Marathon for runners and for walkers and for people like myself who like to sit on the sidelines and applaud all those who are running and walking through the streets of Jerusalem. But it's a really, really exciting, meaningful way, as I say, to bless Israel with every step, to be interactive here, not just to be a spectator.

Excellent. And friends, Inspiration from Zion, we had a tremendous discussion, Jonathan and I, about whether Jesus was a Palestinian martyr. So anyway, we will continue to get the truth out. And all of those who stand with Israel, pray for Israel. Of course, you love the Palestinians as well.

We want to see God's best, a strong and healthy Israel will be the best solution for the Palestinians as well. Hey, Jonathan, thanks so much for calling in from Israel. God bless. Thank you. God bless you.

All right. 866-34-TRUTH. When we come back, we are going to go straight to your calls. I also want to give you an update, anti-Semitic incidents in England and France, we'll do that later in the broadcast. 866-34-TRUTH.

Got to be Jewish related. Call in. This is how we rise up. It's our resistance.

You can't resist us. This is how we rise up. This is how we rise up. This is how we rise up. This is how we rise up. 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. Call me a fanatic. May His grace and His face shine upon me. It is thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Yeah, that's an interesting sound as we fade out of the power of skillets resistance into beautiful messianic hymn.

866-34-TRUTH is the number to call if your question is Jewish related. Today's the day. Otherwise, Friday, tomorrow, God willing, you've got questions, we've got answers on a wide range of subjects.

All right. We start with Pastor Lonnie in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Thank you, doctor. What an honor it is to be on here with you today. Thanks.

I appreciate your ministry, and actually I was in Brownsville years ago, and I've followed you for a long time. Wonderful. My question is, I had preached a sermon here recently in the book of Daniel, when Daniel went to interpret the king's dream, and one of the things that he said was that God raises kings up and sets them down. I was challenged on that particular message about, can God use...because his point to me was, was that God would not put somebody like Joe Biden in office. And so I wanted to hear your take on that as far as God raising up or setting down people. That's the main question, and then there was something I had behind that, if that's okay. Sure.

Absolutely. Scripture is very clear that God at times does raise up wicked kings for certain purposes. Now, some would argue he raises up or sets down every king, in other words, that no one is king or ruler without his sovereign will. But even if we put that aside, in other words, that could be an interpretation of Daniel 2 or just God's sovereignty in general, that God sets up and removes kings, all kings.

But let's just be very specific. He says in Exodus 9, which is then quoted in Romans 9, to Pharaoh, for this very reason, I raised you up and caused you to live so I could display my glory in the land. So by raising up a wicked king, God then further hardened him in his wicked resolve and through that gained glory through the plagues and delivering his people. He calls Nebuchadnezzar, who committed all kinds of atrocities against the people of Judah, he calls him my servant Nebuchadnezzar and explicitly in the book of Jeremiah takes responsibility for raising him up.

You can go to Isaiah the 10th chapter where Assyria is explicitly referred to as the rod of God's anger and that God raised him up to bring judgment and to take certain kingdoms, but he went too far and became proud because of which judgment came on him. So the Bible is very explicit on that. Now, aside from the sovereignty of God and does God determine the outcome of every election and that debate, let's put that aside. In a democratic republic, there's also the issue of we get to vote. So let's say the election was fair.

Let's not debate whether it was stolen or not. Then that would, you could say God appointed Biden, which could be for divine judgment. It could be for chastisement of the church, for getting so carnal and putting such trust in a man, namely Donald Trump. I don't look at it as a good thing. I look at it as a bad thing out of which good can come, but you could say God explicitly raised him up and I would say this, he's committed less atrocities than Nebuchadnezzar or Shalmaneser or Tiglath-Pileser, some of the Assyrian kings or Pharaoh in many ways, but you could say God raised him up in judgment or whatever reason, or you could simply say in a democratic republic, God allows people to vote how they vote and they get what they asked for. We reap what we sell. So that can be debated, but without question, God explicitly at different times raises up certain people for certain purposes, could be for judgment, could be for blessing, but he absolutely does it.

Excellent. I appreciate that so much, only because I sense completely that there's an undercurrent in the United States right now to where there are so many things taking place, and so God is, I believe, trying to get the church to where it needs to be at by any means necessary. Yeah, the number one need in America is for the church to be the church. The number one need in America is for God's people to return to their first love, to love God with all our heart, to love the neighbors as themselves, to live out their faith according to the word and the fullness of the Spirit. That's the critical need in America, and ultimately because of God's love for the world, because of God's love for his people, he will often allow us to go through difficult things so that we can become the people we're supposed to be. Look, I believe that if Donald Trump had humbled himself and just been a decent human being and not been the kind of character that he was, and if so many in the church did not look to him in an idolatrous way, I mean, as if he was the only man that could save America, I believe we could be having four more years of Trump, and there'd be a lot of good that would come out of it, but given the state of the church and how politicized and divided and carnal we became, and given the behavior of Donald Trump, that was not to be. That's just my viewpoint.

No, I completely agree. And do you have any suggestions on any books on church government as far as leadership, board members, deacons, and elders, and everything? No, okay, number one, we now stray away from Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, but because you're on the phone, no, I just, I don't read a lot about that. I really don't know what the latest and best literature is on that. I'll just say this, and the Bible does lay certain things out with clarity, but with a lot of flexibility, because the leadership structure that God raises up has to work in all different cultures and in all different ages, so there's going to be a lot of flexibility within a certain pattern. So I'm sure there are a lot of good books out there. I just want to mention on a related level, a book I read years ago, I don't read a lot of leadership books, but I read one, Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham. It was a real surprise to glean a lot from this. This is a very separate answer, but so at least I can bring you something constructive.

You might enjoy that book and find some value, although it won't address the question of specific church government structure. Hey, thanks for calling. May God's blessing be on you. 866-348-7884. Let's go to Luke in San Antonio, Texas. Welcome, sir, to the line of fire.

Hey, Dr. Brown. Thank you for taking my call today. My question is, I'm trying to get a little bit of rebuttal to those who would take water as somehow salvific in the act of baptism, so looking at 1 Peter 3.20, it goes on to talk about how the Christians have been persecuted, and he talks about how just like Noah was persecuted in his day, Noah constructed the ark, and he and eight souls were saved through water. Some commentators will take the through water part and say, see, it's through water, so water essentially was the means of salvation for them, but that doesn't seem to me to jive with the context of the flood story, because it was the ark that was the means of Noah's salvation coming delivered through the water, if you'll take my meeting, sir, so I'm hoping to get you a comment on that. Yeah, I mean, the next verse is the stronger one. Baptism which corresponds to this now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But number one, you're entirely right. Verse 21 goes back to verse 20. And Noah was not saved by the medium of water, or through the medium of water. He was saved through the water. But it's not like the flood saved him.

The flood destroyed the wicked, and the flood brought a separation. But it's not like the flood, Noah would say, God saved me by the flood, no, God preserved me in the midst of the flood. So to try to say that Noah was saved by water, like we're saved by baptism, obviously that that analogy would not work, and yet it's the very analogy Peter's making here. So Peter is obviously not saying that just as Noah was saved from sin by the flood, we are saved from sin by baptism. Baptism is very important in salvation. Baptism is fundamental, and it's something that should be taking place within a short period of time, ideally, when someone is truly born again.

And among the early believers, as fellow Jews are hearing the message, that was an immediate in other words, they knew to respond immediately and to be immersed in water. And when we look, though, through the rest of the New Testament, the entire emphasis is salvation through the blood of Jesus, salvation through faith, salvation through the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection, and our believing in him and confessing him as Lord. That's where salvation is from beginning to end. And baptism now is the outward sign. And Peter's saying, hey, it's not that our bodies are being cleansed from dirt, but rather this is now the reality.

This is now living it out, acting it out. I am saved from sin. I am cleansed. Now through baptism is a public statement of going down in the water, dying to sin, and coming up in newness of life. So it is very closely related to the message of salvation, something that we should emphasize, something that was strongly emphasized in the early church. But clearly, if you say, what must I do to be saved, then it is to turn from sin and call out to Jesus for salvation, cleansing, forgiveness, and baptism then is the seal and sign of that. We have de-emphasized it in many ways and need to re-emphasize it, but those who teach baptismal regeneration, those who teach that there is no salvation without baptism go beyond the scripture. They take a few verses and go beyond the overall testimony of scripture, which often happens. That's how our wrong doctrine can arise. So again, the simple illustration, you're flying on a plane with someone and the plane's on its way down and this person is crying out for mercy and salvation.

Can they not be saved if there's no way to baptize them on the plane? Obviously, the answer is no. My friends, we'll be right back on the other side of the break with your Jewish related calls. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-344-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. You know what shalom aleichem means? Literally peace upon you and it's a way of saying greetings. And if someone says that to you in Hebrew, you respond the lechem shalom and that's saying it backwards to the person upon you. Peace and it's interestingly, it's in the plural as if you're speaking to many people. By the way, that's the exact same as in Arabic with Muslims.

We greet with salaam aleichem and then aleichem salaam, just slightly different pronunciations because of differences between Hebrew and Arabic. Michael Brown, welcome to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. If you have a Jewish related question of any kind, give me a call 866-344-866-348-7884. Before I go back to the phones, I want to draw your attention to the ongoing rising tide of antisemitism in Europe. For some years now, it has been at levels very similar to the levels before the Holocaust, which is just so shocking and unreal.

I mean, we're talking 60, 70, 80 years later and we find ourselves in this situation yet again. And really, my understanding, the way I see things is because of fallen human nature and because of Satan's desire to destroy the Jewish people, that antisemitism is kind of the default human attitude and that it takes the truth of God or it takes personal relationships or it takes the gospel to overcome and turn that. Now, I've said this before, any group that has been persecuted, that has been beaten down, that has been a minority, that has been hated, that has been hunted, that has been killed, any minority like that could be paranoid or could pull out a card, hey, we're getting persecuted again, when it's really not the case.

All right. So as a Jew, I say that sometimes we can pull the antisemitism card when it's not really valid. Look, I believe it can happen with black Americans because of the suffering, the history, because of issues that remain to this day, that sometimes the race card can be pulled when it's not legitimate. And even as a Jew about antisemitism, I understand how this can happen. But there's also stuff that's just undeniable.

There are tides, there are trends, there are stats, there are anecdotes that are just undeniable. And more and more things happen like this. So in the UK today, the 27th of January is Holocaust Memorial Day, was just sent a headline in the Daily Mail from a Christian colleague in England. And he said, look at this, this is on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK. And the headline says this, it's got a video embedded in the article, it's a video, terrifying moment Jewish shop owners, excuse me, are beaten up on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson calls attack on two men in a London street despicable. And Preeti Patel, not familiar with, obviously an official there, says antisemitic abuse will not be tolerated. Shocking video shows the pair locking up their shop in South Tottenham, they're religious Jews, so it's obvious they're Jews, when they're attacked in the street. As the man walks past, words appear to be exchanged with the Jewish men who prepare to defend themselves. Video then shows the man launching an astonishing attack on the two men, one of which is hit to the ground. Metropolitan police are investigating incidents of hate crime and an 18-year-old man is currently in custody. So that's just one incident.

If it was just one, then I'd agree. But these things are happening with increasing commonness in America and in Europe and in other countries here. Here's a report from France. This is in the Algemeiner, published yesterday. This report shines light on endemic nature of antisemitism in France. There's a reason many French Jews are leaving and emigrating to Israel. It says this, an in-depth study of antisemitism in France has revealed that the vast majority of French Jews, 74%, have experienced some form of, quote, antisemitic behavior during their lives, from mockery to physical aggression, including insults or verbal threats. Published on Tuesday, the study jointly conducted by the American Jewish Committee and the Paris-based Fond de Paul think tank surveyed more than 1,500 non-Jews on their understanding of the death and extent of antisemitism and over 500 Jews on their experiences of bigotry. The study found common agreement that antisemitism in France is on an upward trajectory with 64% of non-Jewish and 73% of Jewish respondents acknowledging the steep rise in prejudice targeting Jews over the last decade. Now, there's one obvious reason a lot of this is happening, which is that there are more and more religious Muslims in France and in England, and religious Muslims by and large will be hostile to Jews, extremely hostile to Israel as a whole, and then Jews around the world get blamed for any perceived injustice within Israel.

So it's not a surprise. But as you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray for God's best purposes for Jews around the world. And of course, the number one greatest prayer that they would come to know Jesus as Yeshua, their Messiah, 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Thomas in Webb City, Missouri. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello, Dr. Brown.

Hey. I have a quick question for you about Judas Iscariot. I came across a minor discrepancy, and like I told the lady, this hasn't shaken my faith one bit.

I've seen too much to turn back now. My father was healed from pancreatitis, an uncurable disease, that medical science just, they can treat it, but they can never throw it out. God healed him just like that, people were rolling in the floor, we were at a youth camp. But this thing right here is in Matthew 27, verse 6, it talks about how the chief priest, after Judas storms out, after he throws the silver on the ground, storms out, he goes and hangs himself. But in the book of Acts, it talks about how Judas went and bought the field.

It talks about how he didn't storm out. He actually took the money and went and bought the field instead of the chief priest. Many times you'll find in Scripture, Old and New Testament, it's very, very common, that if someone is the agent in doing something, even if another, or if someone is the one who begins the process and someone else finishes it, they may just cite the one who begins the process, they may cite the one who finishes the process. For example, God commissions Elijah the prophet in the Old Testament to anoint the next king of Syria, Aram, then to anoint the next king of Israel, and then to anoint Elisha as a prophet in his stead, those three, right? It turns out he only anoints Elisha, who then anoints the next king of Syria, and then who sends someone to anoint the next king of Israel.

So Elijah only anoints one of the three, and yet Scripture speaks of him doing all of them, because ultimately it comes through Elisha and then through someone Elisha sends. So in the same way here, because Judas was given the money and the money actually went towards that field, it's just written like that. But it's very common. We've got lots of examples like this in the Bible. One account may say that someone sent a messenger to ask thus and such.

The other account may just say the person themselves asked. And especially in ancient writing, bringing these things together would be very, very common. So you find it not just there, but in other passages as well, because it's just a way of writing it, just a way of kind of combining things together in simple form. And remember that these documents were often known to one another. In other words, Luke, who wrote Luke's Gospel and Acts, was a careful researcher. So he would know about what the early gospel traditions said and things like that. And he's certainly not just going to write something that's blatantly contradictory to what's out there. So that's the simple explanation for you.

Okay? Also, I have one other real quick question about Judas. It refers to him as the son of Simon. And I remember reading it, I'm like, wait, the only Simon I know of is Peter. No, no, it's a common name. It's a common name. Yeah, I was just like, wait, is he Peter's son?

No, no, no, no, no, it wasn't Peter's son, they were peers as opposed to father's son. You know, there are plenty of Simons in the interworld, Shimon would be the name, 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go over to Natalie in Detroit, Michigan. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hi, Dr. Brown. It's such a blessing to talk with you today. And I just got to say your new setup looks great. Come on. Yeah, our guys did an amazing job. Thank you so much. It feels great.

It's like very warm and nice. And here's the other thing. I'm nearsighted, right, and for many years, just because of lighting, things like that, we've always done the show without me wearing glasses. And so my computers were just set back a little and it was always like slightly blurred.

I'd be reading Hebrew texts sometimes and like stumble on a word because it's like slightly blurred. So now I got everything right up close. So it's, it's sweet. Yeah. Thank you, though. Awesome.

Yes. So my question for you is in regards to the Hebrew word for repentance. Just to give you some context, I'm going to be teaching a lesson to our youth group tonight about faith and repentance. And I understand the Greek word for repent, metanoia, which means to change one's mind.

But if you had some more insight about the Hebrew word for it, any special thing to add that would be great. But metanoia is, is not simply change one's mind. The Utah, the New Testament usage is to change one's mind and life. In other words, it's a recognition of wrong and turn about.

It is a wrong teaching, but it's very common that it simply means to change your mind. For example, if, if I, if I'm in the car with you and we're driving down the road and you say, Dr. Brown, you're going the wrong way. And I say, no, no, I've been this way many times. It's the right way. And I go to 10 more minutes and say, Dr. Brown, look, look at what the signs are saying. You're going the wrong way. And I said, ah, you're right. I now recognize that I'm going the wrong way.

Unless I get off the highway and turn around, that's not metanoia. It is a change of, of heart and mind and life. Okay. So shuv is the fundamental Hebrew root for repent.

Okay. Shuv, which means turn around. So this is the simple concept.

You're going in the wrong direction. You wake up to it. You turn away from sin and you turn back to God and then God says, turn back to me and I'll turn back to you. So the picture is God has turned away from Israel because of Israel's sin. When Israel turns away from it, sin, God turns away from his judgment. You turn back to me, God says, and I will turn back to you. It's an about face. It's a turnaround and the root is shuv.

That's the fundamental root verbal root for repentance. God bless you as you teach that 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. That's a great job on the musical transition, coming to that right beat in Schiller's Resistance and moving over to some beautiful Jewish sounds as we play those Jewish clips on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Thanks for joining us. Hey friends, do you want to reach Jewish people with the gospel? Maybe you don't have a lot of Jewish friends or colleagues or you don't know how to do it, but you believe it's important. You believe that the gospel is to the Jew first. You believe that there's a sacred responsibility that the church has, having received the gospel of the Messiah, himself a Jew, from the Jewish people to reach back out. And you believe that the Jewish people play a key role in ushering back the Messiah. Well, let us be your hands and feet.

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Yes, 2 Peter talks about that, how through our holy living, and obviously through the Great Commission, we can hasten the Lord's return. Let's go over to Paul in Southern California. Welcome to the line of fire. Good afternoon, Dr. Brown.

Good afternoon. So I have a question. A tradition has it that Moses wrote the Torah. I believe Moses lived in the 15th century BC, and in Genesis 11.28, he talks about Abraham being born in Ur of the Chaldeans.

Now, from my quick study that I did, the Chaldeans apparently weren't a people until the 8th century BC, so my question is, if Moses lived in the 15th century and Chaldeans didn't arrive on the scene until the 8th century, how could Moses write the Torah? Right, so let's look at an even more conspicuous example a few verses later in the 12th chapter that says the Canaanite was then in the land, right? It says the Canaanite was then in the land. So that would be like I'm allegedly writing in the year 1300, and I say Columbus hadn't discovered America yet. It's like, what?

How'd you do that? How could Moses say the Canaanite was then in the land when Israel hadn't taken the land yet? Or how about the last 12 verses of Deuteronomy that talk about the death of Moses? So for many, many centuries, and you can go back into the 12th century with the rabbinic commentator Abraham ibn Ezra addressing some of these things, it's always been accepted that Moses did not write every word.

Yes, there are ultra-orthodox Jews who believe that every word of the Torah was dictated by God to Moses, thus he could write anything, right, with any historical reference or pattern. But in point of fact, Paul, it has always been accepted. One of the strongest conservative Christian scholars, Old Testament scholars, late 1800s, early 1900s, Robert Dick Wilson said, of course, you have these additional glosses. You have these additional words or sentences or things like that, explanatory, clarifying that are clearly after Moses, could be centuries after Moses, but clearly after his life.

And they are equally inspired. So that's what we need to believe. We also need to believe that anything that says, yeah, and in fact, Paul, I've just got to put you in a way where you can hear me, but not respond because we're just getting a lot of feedback from your call and it's hard to listen, so I apologize for that. But let me say this, number one, whatever the Torah says Moses wrote, then if we accept the authority of scripture, then we believe that, and we can back that up, we have reasons for that. But in any case, you know, it says Moses wrote this in Exodus 24 or in Deuteronomy 33, and Moses wrote everything down. And then Joshua 1.8 is already mentioning the book of the law.

So things are clearly written down. So first, everything it says he wrote, we accept that he wrote. And while there may be certain additions, while there may be certain passages that were then had something added to them or a clarifying remark later on, we have no problem with that. We still refer to them as the five books of Moses, but no, does it mean he wrote every single word? No, it's actually no one in the Bible that it explicitly says that. Is it clear that there are some later additions? Yes, but it's not a problem.

We don't have to defend that. Those were also inspired by whoever wrote them. Hey, thank you for the question.

It's certainly relevant. I appreciate it. Let's go to Eva in Dallas, Texas. You just need to turn the radio down. Can you turn the radio down, Eva? Okay. Maybe you stepped away.

That does happen. Let's go over to Carlos, and Carlos is gone, but it's okay because it wasn't really a thoroughly Jewish question, so that's all right. Let me come back to a point I made a couple of moments ago when I encourage you to stand with us. Jesus brings a strong word of rebuke to the hypocritical religious leaders in Matthew 23 with seven woes on the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees.

It doesn't mean every scribe or every Pharisee was a hypocrite, but he's rebuking the hypocrites in the strongest possible terms. And then when he comes to the end of Matthew 23, beginning verse 37, there's a lament, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. How often I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

I was willing, you were not. I wanted to bless and gather, but you were defiant and refused it. Behold, he says, your house is left to you desolate. So judgment is coming on Jerusalem. He weeps over it in Luke 19. He prophesies the destruction of the temple in the city. He prophesies the destruction of many of his people and many taken captive into the nations.

And think to this day, the temple has still not been rebuilt in Jerusalem 1950 years later. Then he says this, for you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In Hebrew words, you may have heard Baruch haba b'shem Adonai from Psalm 118. It's really, we idiomatically, what it came to mean is we welcome you King Messiah. It was a word of greeting, welcoming the one coming in the name of the Lord. But over time, idiomatically came to mean we welcome you King Messiah. That's why they said that with the triumphal entry of Jesus, just a couple of chapters before that when he came into Jerusalem and they're all hailing him as the Messiah. So it's a negative word.

It's a word of judgment. But notice he is saying that you will see me. You will not see me on till you say blessed to see who comes in the name of the Lord. In other words, you will not see me until you welcome me as King Messiah.

Now here's what's amazing. Psalm 17 says when he comes, right, the second coming, every eye will see him. But Jesus tells us in Matthew 23 39, Jerusalem will not see him until it, meaning the Jewish leadership and the Jewish people, until it welcomes him back.

So if Jerusalem will not see the Messiah until it welcomes him back at which time he will come and every eye will see him when he comes, then no, I will see him until Jerusalem welcomes him back. The Jewish people welcoming back the Messiah is the culmination of the Great Commission. This Gospel of the Kingdom, Matthew 24 14 must be preached as a witness to all nations and then the end will come. So we continue out of love for people and desire to see the Lord return and to glorify the Lord. We bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth and want to see every person have an opportunity to hear the message of salvation. And we fervently pray for the salvation of the Jewish people and reach out because Paul says in Romans 11 that Israel's salvation will be life from the dead.

Put another way, resurrection and what happens with the second coming, resurrection, yes, that is what we are looking forward to and Israel plays a key role. God bless, friends. Visit AskDrBrown.org, check out all the resources with us and remember, stand with us by clicking on donate. God bless, talk to you tomorrow. Bye.