Dr. Brown Tackles Your Best Bible Questions

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

You can differ with me on various things. Perfectly fine to call in. We will have a civil discussion.

We will start over in Mexico with David. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, I appreciate you taking my call. Longtime listeners, the second time I've called, and just really enjoy all the wisdom that you bring to the body of Christ. I really appreciate it.

Well, thank you, sir. So my question is about Acts 15, verse 20, where it says that the Council of Jerusalem, they decided that they should write to them, say, abstain from things polluted by idols, sexual immorality, things that have been strangled, and from blood. But what is the location today? How do you see that? Because I know that you don't think that Christians, for example, have to keep the dietary laws of the Old Testament. How does that apply today?

Right. Most people don't ask how it applies today, which is really an important question. So for the context, all the first believers were Jews, and there were customary things they did, whether it was out of deep religious devotion or just out of their tradition, that they observed many of the laws of Israel and some more devoutly than others. So they would keep the Sabbath. They would observe the dietary laws and things like this. Now you have Gentiles coming to the faith. They are part of the same community with these Jewish believers and the men. There's no requirement to circumcise them. There's no requirement for the men and women to observe the seventh-day Sabbath or to keep all the dietary laws. So it created a conflict. It created a bit of a crisis.

Well, how do we live together? And as Craig Keener says, Professor Keener in his IVP Bible background commentary, quote, The few requirements that James Jacob suggests they impose are representative of the handful of laws Jewish tradition declared that God gave Noah. According to the more lenient Jewish position, any righteous Gentiles who kept those basic laws would ever share in the world to come because even stricter Pharisees had to get along with the majority of the more lenient people.

These teachers did not try to invalidate other teachers' rulings if they had majority consent. So back then, it's clear that there were certain things laid out, the most fundamental requirements that would be expected of a Gentile God-fearing person. So in other words, this is not a matter of a full convert. You had in the ancient world what Jews called God-fearers, and they would turn away from idols, they would turn away from adultery, they would turn away from eating blood of animals and things like that. But they were not required to keep all the Jewish law, but they weren't considered full converts. Now through Jesus, Jew and Gentile, equal playing field in the Messiah, even though the Gentile Christians are not keeping all the laws that Jews would.

So that's the ancient context. As far as today, I believe it applies just the same, not for salvation, but for practical God-fearing reasons. The idea about not eating a limb of an animal that died on its own or strangled or something like that, that's found in Genesis 9, and that was before the law was given. The sacredness of blood, even though we understand that what we put in our mouths ultimately doesn't spiritually defile us, right? You know, if you were blindfolded and your hands were tied and someone poured something in your mouth and it was blood or it was something else, that does not spiritually defile you. But because of the sacredness of blood, we should abstain from it. So I believe it applies just the same, even though the circumstances have changed. Do you think that it's really the two things, the sexual immorality and idolatry, that would obviously still be something that as a believer in Christ that we need to renounce, that makes us distinct in this world? Or do you think that there's four separate things, like it mentions four separate things?

Right, right. Okay, so when I was saying the things that don't defile us, I'm talking about food. Obviously sexual immorality and idolatry defile us, and we cannot be practicing followers of Jesus while committing sexual immorality as a lifestyle or worshipping idols as a lifestyle.

Those are things we must repent of. So in that sense, they are clearly of a different hierarchy, right? There are certain things that will exclude us from the kingdom of God, like practicing immorality or practicing idolatry.

But I don't believe that eating something forbidden would exclude us from eternal salvation and the kingdom of God. But at that time, those were the basics of the basics for everyone. Today, if you want to look at them as four separate things, that's fine. Because again, this was just for table fellowship, for Gentile followers of Jesus to be able to sit together with Jewish followers of Jesus.

And these were the basics of the basics. Now you say, what about the rest of the New Testament? The rest of the New Testament tells us how to live, and the rest of the New Testament reinforces sexual purity, reinforces worshipping one God only.

It does not make a major issue of food laws or food regulations in the rest of the New Testament. So there's definitely a more important and a less important. Okay. All right. I really appreciate the answer.

Sure thing. Thank you for your question. And it's relevant. It's not theoretical.

It's absolutely relevant. 866-34-TRUTH. By the way, every so often, this will happen on a Friday, when we'll have some phone lines open. We had it yesterday, and then it was too late to take calls with a bunch coming in at the end. But if you call in now, many times before the show starts, we have all the lines lit up. But we have some open lines now. So it's a great time, if you're able to call in, you've got a better chance of getting to your question over the course of the show.

Let's go over to Patrick in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. It is good to have a moment to speak with you. I wanted to reach out today. I had a question for you. It's actually related to some things you've dealt with in the past and some things that you and I have conversed about off the air as well. I wanted to ask about the concept of Shekinah Glory. Now, recently there's been a lot of conversation that I've been involved in, some conversation that you've spoken into regarding the use of feminine pronouns for God. There's been academics and writers that have been promoting that.

And so you've handled that so beautifully in a lot of your writing and in your, I think you had a whole show dedicated to it, in fact, kind of inspired by one of our conversations. That said, recently there's been a resurfacing of the idea that the Jewish concept of Shekinah is a reason that it would be proper and almost only proper, according to some, to use she or her for the Holy Spirit in an Old Testament context. Now, that to me seemed a little confusing, but it seems as if the language is being used as a hiding place for bringing in this concept of the feminine pronouns for God. And then sometimes the mystery of Jewish tradition can be used to conceal things. And so being Open Line Friday, I thought, who do I know that could answer a question about both Jewish tradition and the language and could help us out? So you're the guy. So what are your thoughts on Shekinah glory and that concept of that being a reason to refer to the Holy Spirit as she?

Sure. So let's let's first look into his tradition and then in scripture. So there are thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of recorded prayers in the Bible and and in Jewish tradition, putting them all together. And you will never find in Jewish tradition where people pray to God as she, he is our father and our king and our Lord, etc. So masculine pronouns are used. Now, we understand that God transcends gender and cannot be put in our biological categories. But he revealed himself to us as the Heavenly Father and the father of Israel, who cares for us like a mother, like Paul said about himself, that he he cared for the Thessalonians like a nursing mother.

But he was not identifying as transgender in saying that. So Jewish tradition, you have the Shekinah, which is the manifest presence or the earthly presence of God. And you don't have that noun in the Bible, but you have the verb Shekham, which is to dwell. So, for example, in Exodus 25, Moses, God tells Moses, Vasuli Mikdash, have them make for me a sanctuary, a holy place for Shekham and I will dwell in their midst. Now, in Jewish tradition, it's not in the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible is the Shekinah specifically identified as such. But in Jewish tradition, the Shekinah represents God's presence on the earth and also some of his motherly aspects.

All right. So this is the tender side of God with his people in exile and things like that. But these are just various aspects of God, like God can compare himself also to a mother caring for her children while he is revealed as Heavenly Father and never once prayed to or referred to as the Heavenly Mother.

And that's important because his father, he's the origin and the source of all things. In the same way, if we now want to look at specific aspects of Bible and Jewish tradition, the Holy Spirit in Hebrew, Ruach HaKodesh, is never spoken to or addressed in feminine terms. In later rabbinic literature, there are no prayers to a she. So what it is is a real confusion and misuse of these sources.

It is extrapolating something that you cannot extrapolate. If you wanted to find within Jewish tradition all kinds of aspects of God being referred to as she and prayed to as she and then say, how do these apply? Fine, but they're not there because that's not the way God has been addressed or recognized or understood. So a lot of this is a misapplication of the tradition and misuse of the scripture.

And to me, the biggest thing is pushing in a modern cultural agenda to read scripture in the light of LGBTQ activism. That's what we need to draw a line in the sand. Hey, Patrick, I know you're doing that. God bless, man. Keep up the good work. We'll be right back. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the line of fire.

Eight, six, six, three, four. Truth is the number to call. You've got questions. We've got answers. Hey, just a reminder, my newest book, The Silencing of the Lambs, the ominous rise of cancel culture and how we can overcome it.

Excuse me. Filled with Devine. I get choked up talking about the new book filled with divine strategies, things you can put into practice, as well as eye opening data. I really believe this book will bless you, will stir you, will encourage you, will embolden you. Yeah, I really believe that you can still preorder a signed, numbered copy.

We're coming to the end of that window by going to AskDrBrown.org, AskDrBrown.org. Can I encourage you? Get a couple of copies, one for yourself and one for your pastor or for another friend.

And if you want us to sign them to multiple people because each one is signed and numbered, just let us know who we're signing it to and we'll do it personalized for each one. Eight, six, six, three, four. Truth.

Let's go over to CJ in Gulfport, Mississippi. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, how are you today? Doing very well.

Thank you. Hey, I just have a comment. I've heard several times where you, you know, people would say you should call other people out by name. And I've heard, you know, your response quite often, but often wonder, I know you've debated. You've had James White to team up with you and debate other people. Is that correct?

Yes, we've debated each other a bunch of times and we've teamed up against others twice. We do it more, but we haven't had more opportunity. Right.

Well, so the reason I say that or ask that question is that I hate the main parties, but it kind of reminds me of the Democratic Party. What's good for them is, you know, should be good for all of us. But why don't they call out Dr. James White? Not that he shouldn't, you know, team up with you. But my thing is, it seemed like that's a double standard. I don't hear him saying, well, Michael Brown doesn't condemn these people. So James White shouldn't be hanging around with. Oh, actually. Yeah, actually, CJ, he gets a lot of flack for it. There are websites attacking him as a heretic and a false brother because he associates with me.

Yeah. So that's the really troubling thing, sir, that here, James is is a Calvinist. Here, James is non charismatic here. James has not had a history of being a friend or colleague with many of the people I've been a friend or colleague with. And yet, because he's my friend and we work together and we honor the Lord together in the midst of our differences, I consider him a real true friend and I believe he does the same of me that, yes, he is called out. He's called either privately. People have given him flack. Yes. So so he knew that working with me would bring flack now in my circles.

People wouldn't bat an eyelash that I'm working with him because they they don't know him in my circles as as well, just as I may not be as well known in other circles. But yeah, that's how far it goes. And by the way, there are many times when I'll call out specific things when it's appropriate by name. You know, with the with the false Trump prophecies, we played clips from Hank Kunneman and from Kat Kerr and from others. Jeff Jansen played the clips and addressed them when I was writing my hyper grace book.

I interacted at length with different people. And we have the quotes there. And then there are other times you have the same pattern in the New Testament where sometimes names are named. Right. Avoid this one and this one.

And other times it just references false teachers, false apostles, false prophets. So there is there's a place for for both. The other thing, C.J., and I know you're not asking this, but all the time we get people writing to us, what about this one? What about this one?

What about this one? As if that was our ministry to tell you she's good. He's good. She's bad.

He's bad. And it never ends. It never ends.

If we spend all our time doing that, we'd never do the other things. But C.J., sadly, the standard has been kept the hypercritical standard. So I'm not saved, even though there's nothing I've preached or taught that violates anything in fundamental scripture in 50 years in the Lord. And they can't point to books or articles or messages where I've said anything that's allegedly heretical because I was on someone's TV show to get my message out. Therefore, I'm heretic going to hell.

Oh, hang on. And James White, because he's my friend, he's a heretic going to hell. And now you see more and more critics attacking each other, more and more of the hyper critics with putting out videos about others and calling them hypocrites, et cetera. So it's it's an unfortunate circle. Constructive criticism is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. And one of the best ways we expose error is by teaching the truth. Hey, C.J., thank you for the call.

Much appreciated. Eight six six three four truth. Let's go over to Karen. We won't go there.

Let's go over to the anonymous caller in New York. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you. My question is in regards to divorce and remarriage and if it's a continual state of adultery.

I've been hearing a lot of this teaching and it has me so confused. Right. OK, so here's the argument in favor of that view. And then I'll explain why I don't accept that. The argument in favor of that view is in Mark and in Luke. Jesus simply says, if a man divorces his wife and she marries another, she commits adultery. If he marries another, he commits adultery. It doesn't put any any qualification on it. And by the way, you won't be able to speak to me for a moment, but I'm getting some static on your line.

So I'll give you a chance to respond in a moment. But. There are plain teachings of Jesus and Mark and Luke that have no exceptions, given that would give the impression that any divorce for any reason, as long as there is remarriage while the original spouse is living, puts you in a continuous state of adultery. And the beginning of Romans seven is used to make that same argument.

Others would push back and say, wait, Matthew five and Matthew 19 do give a clause, do give an exception, sexual immorality. So you can divorce for sexual immorality, which was a known recognized Jewish practice in the first century. And then First Corinthians seven says that if you're married to an unbeliever, let's say you and your husband were not saved, then you came to faith. But your husband wanted nothing to do with you or the faith moves out divorces you moves in with another woman that you're free.

And that would be a legal term there that you're legally free. So I do believe in some circumstances that there is legitimate possibility of remarriage, even when the spouse is still living as long as there were grounds for divorce. Sadly, the tremendous amount of divorces even within the church today have no possible biblical grounds. And therefore, it seems based on what Jesus said that there are people who are in illegitimate marriages and in an ongoing state of adultery. And if someone says, OK, look, my husband and I are married, we're following Jesus, but we have to admit that we we had an affair when we were married to other people. And so we divorced our spouses and now remarried. But we're trying to get serious with God. Well, getting serious with God is going to mean stepping back from that relationship right now and saying, God, OK, what do we do? Because we got married in adultery. So there are cases where that is the situation. And people are going to need to sit down with their pastor, a spiritual leader, and get it sorted out. There are other cases where I believe, let's say, for example, married woman, husband commits adultery multiple times, divorces his wife, remarries someone else.

I believe she is free to remarry. Does that answer your question? Yeah. OK, thank you. Yep.

You are you are very, very welcome. So please hear me. Many of you live under a shadow of divorce. There's divorce. You were you really were a victim.

No, no one's perfect, but you really were a victim. You tried to hold the marriage together repeatedly. You were you were scorned, spurned, multiple adulteries. The person's left you. They've remarried.

And there's that stigma. I'm divorced. I'm divorced. Even though you wanted to preserve the marriage and even though adultery was committed against you. The first thing is in Jesus, let the weight lift off because you're forgiven for your shortcomings. But the divorce was not your doing in any case.

And someone did that to you. So receive that cleansing and wholeness. And I do believe if if you study scripture and say, I believe I'm free, that remarriage is a possibility.

The key thing. Just be sure that you understand what scripture says before moving forward. Hey, thank you for that call. And those who find themselves in a situation where you think, well, yeah, I mean, really didn't do it right and we didn't have legitimate grounds for divorce. And now we're married. What do we do? Well, step back and say, Lord, we just want your will.

Whatever that means. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Robbie in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I may have to answer your question on the other side of the break, but go ahead and get it out. Hey, hey, Dr. Brown. Hey.

Hey, it's Robbie from BRCM. Love you, man. Awesome, man. Awesome.

Good to hear from you, buddy. Yeah. My friend has a question for you. I think it concerns Leviticus 25, 8 through 55 about the year of Jubilee. She was wanting to know what the current or upcoming year of Jubilee is. She wanted an understanding of that from Leviticus, I believe. She wanted to ask you that question. Yes.

Yes, sir. So according to Leviticus 25, every 50th year on the day of atonement. So you have seven times seven. Forty nine years now, the 50th year on the day of atonement, you would proclaim liberty throughout the land. So loans would be canceled if you're an indentured servant or servant for life, you would go free.

If if you had lost your land because of debt to someone else, it would be returned. There's no record of that actually being kept in biblical days. And we actually do not know for sure, even in Jewish tradition, when it's happening today. So there are seventh year Sabbath laws that that many religious Jews in Israel seek to practice. But no one knows for sure where to date it and where that should be. So Jewish tradition may come up with some ideas, but actually when it applies today, we don't know.

We know from Luke four, Jesus spiritually puts it in motion, proclaiming liberty, freedom, forgiveness of spiritual debt in him. Thank you for the call, man. Great to hear from you. 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 back, friends, to The Line of Fire.

This is Michael Brown, delighted to be with you. You've got questions. We've got answers.

We'll get to as many phone calls as we can. By the way, those that were listening right before the break, young man identified himself as Robbie from BRSN. And I recognized who it was immediately. You say BRSN wasn't at Brownsville Revival School of Ministry. Yep.

And didn't you have at the largest point, eleven hundred seventy five full time students? Yep. So how do you know Robbie from BRSN? Robbie was maybe one of our few, certainly first Native American students. And just over the years, we've been in touch here and there.

So when I heard Robbie and I identified, I said, it's got to be that Robbie. Now, it's interesting. He asked for a friend about the year of Jubilee today.

So during the break, I pulled up a Web site. So this is Chabad Ultra Orthodox Jewish Web site with tons of information, but all from an ultra orthodox Jewish perspective and highly revering their founder or their last great rabbi, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in nineteen ninety four at the age of ninety two. But here's what it says. In short, the answer to your question is that the Jubilee year is currently not observed or commemorated. And then it goes down through the belief that in biblical times it was, et cetera, which which I see no evidence that it actually was. But then it says, and now for the answer to your question at the end, when is the next Jubilee year? We eagerly await the day when God will bring our entire nation back to our homeland, including the ten lost tribes. And we will again resume observing the Jubilee year as well as so many other Mitzvot commandments which were incapable of performing until that awaited day. So, again, there is no fiftieth Jubilee year that is observed in Israel. And there hasn't even been an attempt to, of course, being out of the land through the centuries.

This is a land based commandment. Eight six six three four truth. Let's go over to Steven in Tampa, Florida. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, thank you for taking my call. I wanted to first say, you know, you've been a real blessing in my life.

I've gone through four years of college, a four year internship, and now I'm married. And all throughout those years you've been a real encouragement to me, so I appreciate you. Well, thank you so much.

Glad to hear that. My question is, is God giving us the ability to have a memory? You know, I've actually been thinking about that and reflecting on my life and then it kind of just simply dawned on me. I'm like, man, it's it's a real blessing to be able to reflect on the past or things that have happened. And you see the power of memory and the power of things happening in people's lives.

I mean, you definitely see that in Jesus reflecting back to the Old Testament all throughout the Bible. The power of God giving us the gift to remember something, you know, that happened. And I just kind of wanted to get your opinion, maybe, you know, why that might be. Because, I mean, I could think of a thousand reasons, but it just seems very, very special.

Right. So first, on a functional level, we couldn't exist without memory. I mean, how do you know how to communicate? How do you know what words mean? How do you know how to drive a car? How do you know what food to eat or not eat?

What's poison and what's not poison? How do you learn anything? So obviously, just to exist, we have to have memory. Look, when someone wakes up from some brain trauma and they have amnesia, complete amnesia, they have no idea who they are. As human beings, like, who am I?

What am I? So on that level, just to function, just to live in this world, you have to have memory. I mean, even animals remember certain things.

That's how they don't just all die out instantly. But from a spiritual point of view, it's really, really important. I mean, over and over, God tells us, remember, remember, never forget. It's a motto in Judaism, never forget, you know, the history of the past and the suffering of the past and what happened. Never forget. So Scripture is very plain. Romans 15 for whatever was written beforehand was written for us to give us comfort and hope and assurance in who God is. So memory is very important spiritually to remember who God is, to remember his faithfulness, to remember mistakes we've made and learn from them, to remember the past, to repeat the good and avoid the bad, to remember the lives of others so that they live on in our hearts and lives by the deposits that they've made in us.

So it is, again, you think of not having memory, you have a perfectly functioning brain, but you don't remember anything. I mean, think of how far it could go. Someone hands you a meal and hands you a spoon. It's like, what do I do with this?

Right. And, you know, where am I? You're in a hospital.

What's a hospital? You know, you think of how far the thing could go. So we don't really think about it a lot.

Yeah, but memory is very, very important. Can I ask you one quick thing? Yeah. One quick question. Whenever it's time for God to call you home, what is the one thing that you want everybody to know that you want to leave behind?

Hmm. That I love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. That's if that's something yet to attain to. In other words, we all are seeking to do that on one level or another. But if I could have any goal that that would be the ultimate goal.

And obviously, if I truly love God with all my heart, soul, strength, and it would mean I love my neighbor as myself, starting with my own family. But on that day, what I want to hear is not good job writing all these books or a great job doing all these radio shows or hey, you travel the world. That's amazing.

Or good job on the debates. No, no, no. Well done. Good and faithful servant.

That's what I want to hear. By the way, this reminds me of a story a brother told. He he had never married, felt that marriage would distract him from God's call in his life. He felt he had sacrificed a lot for the Lord. He had a dream. And in the dream, he was appearing before God and went to say, well, Lord, you know, I've done this and I've sacrificed this and Lord, you know, I've never married and and to be devoted to you. And and the Lord said to him, come a little closer. I want to see how much of my son I could see in you.

And he woke up in a cold sweat. All right. Back to the phones. Stu in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Welcome to the line of fire. Stu, are you there? Yes. Yes, I'm sorry.

My my phone glitched out. I didn't hear the name. I was like, is that me? That's you.

If you are Stu, go ahead. Yeah. So I'm I'm curious, the gentleman that brought up the Shekinah glory question earlier.

Yeah. And this idea of like the, you know, visible manifestation of God. And then as it relates to Jesus, like in Colossians, him being the fullness of deity and bodily form. And Hebrews talks about him being like the radiance of of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And then I wanted to specifically tie that to the New Jerusalem and this idea of a throne in heaven and him. I think it's I think it's twenty one and twenty two.

Right. Where it talks about the throne and and like God sitting there and wiping the tears from our eyes. And I'm just I've just had this like question in my heart now for like a couple of years of like, who? I know Jesus says he's going to judge and he sits on a throne. But like, how is God going to manifest in the New Jerusalem, like when we get to see him face to face?

That was kind of so. Does that relate to the Shekinah glory? I don't believe it relates to the Shekinah glory in Hebrew Shekhinah. That is dealing with the issue of of God being enthroned in heaven and yet manifesting himself here on earth.

So that would be in a different way. One rabbi decades ago when we were talking about this and he was understanding my views. He said, so Jesus is like a walking Shekinah.

I said, yeah, that's a that's a great way of of putting it. But here's what's fascinating. You can ask Christians in eternity. So New Jerusalem being with the Lord forever. Do you expect to see father, son and Holy Spirit? Just father, just son, just Holy Spirit or father and son or only the son, et cetera.

You get many, many different answers. There are no references to seeing the Spirit, which is interesting because his role is to work invisibly behind the scenes and point everyone to the son. But here's what we do see in Revelation 22. So I want you to read it through when we're off off the call, but read through all of Revelation 22. You'll see throughout Revelation there's reference to the throne of God and the throne of the lamb. And the lamb sits in the center of God's throne. But it's always seems to be two separate thrones. But when you get to Revelation 22, it speaks of the throne of God and the lamb. One throne for God and the lamb. And then it says his servants will see his face, not their faces.

So it's it remains mysterious on a certain level. First Corinthians 15 seeks seems to speak to this as well, where the son fully submits to the father. God may be all in all. So it could be on that day that we see one God and one God only. Others would say that the father is always hidden in glory and the one that we see is the son.

I would say for sure that's how he has been revealed up until now. John 1 18. No one has seen God at any time, but the one and only God who's in the bosom of the father, he's made him known. 1 Timothy 6 16 that God dwells in unapproachable light, which no man has seen or can see. And yet we know God has been seen.

So it's something that can be argued or debated. Maybe I'll do a little Twitter poll later and see what kind of response that I get. In eternity with God, if you're a Christian, do you expect to see the Father, Son and Spirit?

Go through the options. I've only got four choices on Twitter, but I'll try to make it work. Thank you for the question and meditate on Revelation 22. 866-348-7884. Let's go over to Eric in Greensboro, North Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, thanks so much, Dr. Brown. Longtime listener, first-time caller.

Awesome. Yeah, thanks so much for your ministry. We've been blessed for a long time. My question was about Luke 2, verse 12. I know people like Edersheim will point to that and say, you know, this was a signal to the shepherds saying that Yeshua was going to be born in that specific kind of, I guess, pasture or place where they were birthing the Passover lamb. And I like that reading, but I noticed that most of the evangelical commentaries, that's absent.

That's usually not there. So I was just kind of wondering, do you agree with that reading? Is there any basis for that or is that an error? It's not necessarily an error. To me, it's reading something into the text beyond what's written.

And I'm going to have to finish the answer on the other side of the break. Alfred Edersheim was a Hungarian Jew who came to faith in the eighteen hundreds and wrote some tremendously significant works. The most important being this two volume study about fifteen hundred pages, The Life and Times of Jesus, the Messiah.

So he's very, very rich in Jewish background, but sometimes may read something in beyond what the text is saying. We'll be right back. Stay here. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866 three for truth.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us on the line of fire. Boy, I'm loving having the skillet music playing it. There's an energy and a drive to it.

So did John and Corey Cooper and Ledger Seth Morrison. Thanks for doing what you do. And great to have you as part of our daily show.

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So just want to get back over to Eric. So reading Edersheim, they're always rich reads. You know, he's got books on the temple and and other lectures on messianic prophecy and things like that. And he was very learned in rabbinic literature. There is a science of using the text today that was unknown in his day. But again, he he knows the text very, very well. But sometimes there's speculation written as if there was more truth to it.

So I see no evidence or anything compelling that would say that the manger is anything other than a manger or that it was a place where Passover lands were being prepared for for sacrifice, et cetera. You know, that that would that would mean then that he would have been born in April, which, you know, some some believe some believe October. Then, of course, the traditional date with less support in December. But if he said that the way I would have said it would have been if he was born at this time.

Wouldn't it have been amazing if this, this, this. But even the timing of it would seem a little odd. So he argues there. It's been a long time since I've looked at life in times of Jesus, the Messiah. I never read it all the way through anyway. But does he argue for Yeshua being born in April at that time, March, March, April?

That's a great question. I'm trying to see here. It's volume one.

He does the whole Migdal Eater argument, Tower of the Flock, linking it with Micah. Right. Yeah, there's there's always a lot.

Yeah. So so in any event, it seems to be he may have arguments for it on the to review it to be fair to him. But in short, definitely reading something into the text or speculating beyond what the text says. And it's best just to leave it as is with with what Luke does tell us. You'd think that if there was more to it, he might have even mentioned that that point.

That would have been quite a point, wouldn't it? Hey, thank you, sir, for the call and for being a longtime listener. All right. Eight, six, six, three, four, truth. We go over to William in Wilmington, Delaware.

Welcome to the line of fire. Hi. God bless you, Dr. Brown. I read a few of your books. I ordered the new one.

My friend copy and everything. Sweet. Yeah. And I think for you, I have a question.

I am 50 years old. I was 23 when the Pensacola, Florida, revival took place. I was skeptical about it. So I missed it. You know, I regret it.

I got two questions about I researched the revival. It's genuine. It's awesome.

I wish I was there. I'm from New York, by the way. So and I was in New York when it happened. I have two questions.

How why did it end? Right. Number one.

And what mistakes were made that you advice that they won't happen when it happens again? Yes, sir. Yeah.

Right. So so the Brownsville revival was called by church historian Vincent Simon, the longest running local church revival in American history. And it it began Father's Day of 1995. By 2000, it was it was waning. Now, interestingly, early on, I was talking to David Wilkerson and he said the smartest thing you could do was raise up the school because the life of any revival is going to be four or five years, which basically was how long this went. And revival by its very nature cannot go on forever. The point of revival is is to get us back to where we're supposed to be, kind of with a jolt.

It's almost like if you're 50 pounds overweight and in four months you lose 50 pounds. Well, now you want to live in a way that you can maintain healthily at that point. So revival takes us from a point of being compromised or lukewarm or discouraged or lacking power or intimacy with God takes us to a place of being absolutely on fire, burning bright. Now, the goal is to continue to live with fire, with passion. But the intensity of revival you're talking about, I can say in my own life, that between being in the services, teaching at the school, traveling, speaking, writing, other ministry related responsibilities. I was going between 80 and 100 hours a week.

So you can only maintain that intensity for so long. Nonetheless, there were ways that the revival ended or waned that I believe could have been avoided. There was a split between John Kilpatrick and me, the pastor who was the senior leader over everything happening and me leading the school. There was a split between us and then, of course, we're reconciled. We've ministered side by side together and endorsed one another's books and things like that.

But we had a split. And as Pastor Kilpatrick said to me when we reconciled, he said, Mike, if we weren't so exhausted, I don't believe the enemy could have gotten in. So exhaustion was definitely one issue. How do you pace yourself better? Can you involve more people on the team?

Can you cut back from other activities? That's that's one thing. Some felt that we spread ourselves too thin.

Steve Hill would not take any preaching engagements at all. He had thousands of them would not take any during the revival. I would take maybe one out of 50, but I was still out a lot. And we would do these events called Awake America, where we would go to different cities where people, for whatever reason, weren't coming to us or we just wanted to reach them in their city. And we go there and reach thousands of people, maybe get a convention center that could see ten, fifteen thousand and hold meetings there Monday, Tuesday. So we'd be going in the revival Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Now traveling out, now doing meetings Monday, Tuesday, now flying back to start again Wednesday. And some said, you know, we're stretching ourselves too thin. That that was, again, part part of it as well. And then whatever can be done to have really, really deeply based relational leadership structures, governmental structures, as it is, God brought different people in together.

And I used to joke with the guys in the midst of it. Hey, the greatest miracle of the revival is that we all get along so well, because in the midst of the tension, the attack and the criticism and the misunderstanding. And you're seeing God move in extraordinary ways. And remember that the lines would form at six in the morning for the doors to open at six at night for the service begin at seven and the service would go to midnight one in the morning.

And that was the level of hunger and thirst. But around the world, around the world, we see the fruit of the revival to this day as those touched in the revival are bearing fruit as missionaries, pastors, leaders, moms, dad, businesspeople living exemplary lives and making an incredible impact for Jesus. William, I trust that God's going to do something fresh and even greater in the days ahead, not just in one location, but in thousands. May we be ready. May we be found worthy. Thank you, sir, for the call. God bless. All right. Let me try to get to one last call.

Baptiste in Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello, Dr. Brown. You can hear me? Yeah. Yeah. I actually wanted my question was concerning second Corinthians chapter chapter 10 or chapters 8 through 11, actually. OK. About repentance. I do worry sometimes if I have been beyond the point of repentance, beyond being able to return back to Christ and I was going to see if you can give me your position on that. Yes, sir.

So Paul in second Corinthians seven does describe true repentance is bringing a godly sorrow that leads to life, whereas the sorrow of the world leads to death. Here's the question. Do you want to serve God?

That's the question. Do you want God as your father? Do you want to be with him forever? Do you want him to be your Lord in in this life?

I would say yes. OK, then you have not sinned beyond the point of recovery. The whole Bible, sir, tells stories of Israel sin and Israel following other gods and God divorcing Israel.

And by the law, Israel could not come back because it had married other lovers. And he said, yet come back, yet come back. Read Jeremiah three and four and see how God keeps offering cut.

Even so, even with all you've done, come back, come back, come back. What's written at the end of of James? Jacob, Chapter five. So just look at the last chapter of James, which I call Jacob.

The last chapter, the last two verses. If someone turns away, brother turns when someone else brings him back, you'll save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. Read Luke 15 over and over and over to saturate your heart and mind that Jesus goes after the one lost sheep, the one lost coin, meaning us when we've turned away, the prodigal son who has lived in all kinds of sin and debauchery.

When he comes back, the father is running to meet him. It's either your own mind or Satan trying to lie to you. But God remains forgiving. Jesus paid for your worst day, your worst sin on the cross. And he says, when you've fallen short, come back to me.

Look to me, not yourself, and I will wash you clean and give you a brand new story. Hey, friends, God bless. Looking forward to talking with you on Monday. Until then, go to AskDrBrown.org. Keep busy with all of our resources there. Another program powered by the Truth Network.