Revival and the Confession of Sin

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

When revival comes, when the Holy Spirit falls, something dramatic happens, and often there is public confession of sin. 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. Oh, we're going to dig deep today, and you're going to be blessed, edified, and challenged as we talk about confession of sin, as we talk about revival, as we talk about cultural transformation. Now, I'm opening the phone lines for any question you might have on any subject.

We may get to different calls at different times, 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. If you have questions on recent revival movements, such as the Brownsville Revival, where I served as a leader from 1996 to 2000, by all means call, because every revival comes with controversy. I've often said you can have controversy without revival, but you can't have revival without controversy through history.

And even when you see fresh moves of God in Scripture, there's often controversy surrounding it, so we want to separate fact from fiction. But you might say, well, yesterday you were talking about politics and what's happening around the world. Oh, that remains of concern, the situation between Russia and Ukraine and the potential of a bloody war and the shaking of Europe and the world.

That is of massive concern. The issues we talked about are of major concern, but that's part of what we talk about on the radio. That's part of what we discuss as we seek to serve as your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. And the subject of revival is always relevant because a healthy church is the key to the health of the nation. When you have multiplied tens of millions of believers in a country like you have in America, a healthy church is the key for a healthy nation, and an unhealthy church will lead to the destruction of the nation because when the light is not shining, the darkness will prevail.

And I know I've been talking a lot about my new book coming out, The Silencing of the Lambs comes out, in fact, a week from today, March 1st. But my last book touches on a subject that's always relevant to me, going back to October when it came out, revival or we die, a great awakening is our only hope. So, when I talk about revival, I'm not separating that from moral and cultural issues, I'm not separating that from world issues, I'm not separating that from the salvation of Israel. To the contrary, if we really want to see a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution in our country, then there needs to be revival in the church first, and then a healthy and revived church will produce change just by doing what God has called it to do, just by being whom God has called us to be. Just by being the light and making a difference and winning the lost and making disciples, change will come around us, as well as hostility will build around us, so be it. And if we really want to see the great commission fulfilled, then whatever our role is as believers in our respective countries and most of you listening and watching in America, then a healthy church will be raising up and sending out more solid labors and we'll be praying more fervently. And if we want to see Israel saved, we want to see, must see revival in the church because it is only a healthy church, a healthy body that will provoke the Jewish people to envy and to say, hey, you have something that belongs to us, you have something that we want. All right, how did I come to this subject today of confession of sin in revival? I was reading late last night an account by Paul Hathaway, who is right now probably the leading authority on what's happening in the demographics in the church in China, or one of the leading authorities, and he's writing about each different province within China and what has happened there, breaking it down.

So in Henon, that is where the greatest growth has come. So reading about the history of the gospel there, I mean, there were centuries with very, very little fruit and great persecution and opposition, and then even the last hundred plus years, slow going, slow going, and then things start to really explode. And he was talking about the ministry of Jonathan Goforth. If you want to name a missionary, you give him the name Goforth, but it was his last name, Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth, and he was known as Goforth of China. He was stirred as a new believer, just about 18 years old. He was living in Canada, and he was stirred when he heard a leader, a Christian leader who was going back and forth through the country, got to where he was and said, for two years, I've been trying to find someone that will go to China as a missionary. They needed to replace someone. For two years, he couldn't find anybody.

What does that say? And when Goforth heard it, he just felt compelled. He had to go. Well, he met Rosalind, and she had really been praying for a man after God's own heart.

And she noticed Jonathan Goforth. He had to step out of a room where several people were, a church service, something. He had to step out, and she saw his Bible sitting on the chair, and she walked over to it.

The few seconds she had flipped through it, it was so marked up, everything marked and written. She said, that's the man I want to marry. And he said, OK, but I always have to put the Lord first.

And she said, yes, I want that. So he had money for her engagement ring. But as he was going, traveling, I believe to purchase the ring, he saw this incredible opportunity for the gospel to be shared with these lost souls. He spent the money on tracts and reached that, and did outreach instead in the area there. So he comes back with no ring, but she accepted. I mean, that's the level of devotion that they had.

So they served for years, not that much fruit. He gets severely beaten, almost killed, miraculously survives, has to recover, now back on the field. And they begin to see God move. He reads about the Welsh revival, and hears what God is doing there, and he's stunned. And he reads Charles Finney's lectures on the revival of religion, and he's thinking, why can't this happen where we are?

Why can't the same principles produce the same results? And he began to see great outpouring. He went to Korea, where the Holy Spirit was being poured out in 1907 in revival there. And so it was happening, and saw the depth of repentance and the depth of conviction and confession.

And that's what he began to see in China. And reading some of the accounts, one of the things that happened frequently is people came under such intense conviction that they had to confess publicly. And there was one leader, a key leader that Goforth was looking to, and God was moving in revival, and many people were being saved. And Goforth asked him to pray, and he can't pray, he has to confess first.

Why? Because he was judging Goforth, and he was judging the revival, and saying it wasn't God, and judging the people who seemed to be receiving, and it's just emotionalism. Goforth's putting them under a spell, so before he can pray, he has to confess.

Then that breaks things open. And I was reminded of how often that happens in times of revival. Now look, public sins are confessed publicly. Private sins are confessed privately unless they are of public relevance. In other words, if I have been living a hypocritical life, and now I'm confessing, so my private life is now of public concern. And there are certain things you just don't say publicly, that's understood. But I have been in many meetings over the years where the Holy Spirit moved so deeply, where the conviction cut so deeply, that people came on the stage, came on the platform, young people, old people, and they came on the platform, and they took the mic, often shaking with conviction and crying, and confessing to things, and then they were surrounded by people loving on them.

In other words, they wouldn't be free unless they came clean. Let me read a passage to you, so I'm going to share some really neat accounts with you. And it could well be, as I'm talking about this, that the Holy Spirit is convicting some of you. And you know I have to make things right. Your husband, you've been struggling with porn for years, you've somehow hidden it from your wife. As far as you know, you've hidden it from your wife. And as I'm talking, you know I've got to go make this right.

I've got to tell her. You may need to confess to a leader. You may need to say, hey look, in our evangelical Protestant traditions, we don't have confession to a priest, right?

That's not part of our spiritual routine or tradition. But there are times where you need to confess to a leader because you need help getting free or for accountability purposes. Don't just confess to someone that's in the same mess you are. Oh, we're terrible, we're so bad, and then you go out and sin more because you're discouraged. Yeah, I'm drinking, I'm drinking, oh, let's confess to each other, I think let's get drunk.

You know, you need to confess either to the person you've sinned against or to someone who can be of help in ministering to you and helping you out of that situation. But I've seen the pressure get so intense and it's beautiful and it's holy and the liberty that comes. Okay, so look at this from Acts, the second chapter, Peter's preaching, right? Peter's preaching, Acts chapter two, and I'm looking at my accordance software as I'm reading here with English on one side, Greek next to it. So Peter finishes his message in Acts, the second chapter with these words, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucify. Now when they, this is the Jewish crowd in Jerusalem, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, a very vivid word, I'll comment on that a bit more a little later in the show. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? In other words, we, especially the leaders and those in Jerusalem that cheered for the Messiah's crucifixion, what do we do? And the others feeling the corporate responsibility, oh, okay, this is dreadful news that you're saying that God's raised him from the dead, but we crucified him or we were complicit in his crucifixion.

And some of us here were actively involved in turning them over to the Romans with our words. What do we do? Oh, cut to the heart, not pray a little prayer and add Jesus into your life.

Pray a little prayer so you can be happy and blessed and prosperous, no, no. This is something much deeper. Cut to the heart. And he said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus, the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. And with many of the words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day, about 3000 souls. That's a picture of revival.

That's a picture of supernatural outpouring. The conviction is that deep. The conversions are that deep.

You better believe those kind of conversions are lasting. We'll be right back. I'm going to go to the phones. We come back and then take you back to Wales, Evan Roberts, the four principles that shook the nation.

We'll be right back to The Magic Static, call me a fanatic, it's our world, they can never have it. This is how we rise up, it's our resistance, you can't resist us, 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. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the line of fire, 866-34-TRUTH. Any questions you have related to the subject of revival, which I define as a season of unusual divine visitation, we'll take those. But any other broad questions, Bible theology related, we want to get to as many calls as we can on wide ranges of subjects.

Many times it's hard to get through on Fridays when we do that. We always want to give you extra time, so feel free a little later in the show, I'll be taking other questions unrelated to revival, so you don't have to stay on topic there, 866-34-TRUTH. Okay, before I go to the phones and I'm going momentarily, let me say this again. Our ministry emphasizes three main points, revival in the church, gospel-based moral and cultural revolution in society, redemption in Israel. So we are actively involved in a great commission, I've had the privilege of preaching all around the world on a regular basis, we are producing resources to help with Jewish outreach.

The first fruits of all the income that comes into our ministry goes right back out to our missionaries, people we've had the privilege of pouring into and training and sending out, and they're doing incredible work all around the world. So I burn with that 24-7, but I know that the key to see the cultural changes we want to see, to see the pushback against extremism in our culture that's ripping us apart and taking us in many, many wrong directions, that as I want to see those things happen, as I want to see that gospel-based moral and cultural revolution, as I want to see more and more of my Jewish people saved, I know that the key is revival in the church because, as Watchman Nee said many years ago, Chinese-Christian leader, as Watchman Nee said, by the time the average Christian gets his temperature up to normal, everybody thinks he's got a fever. And what happens when revival begins to come is his eyes are opened.

You think, hey, I'm pretty good, I'm a pretty good person, yeah, I'm really solid in the Lord, I'm devoted. And then the Holy Spirit begins to reveal our sin, to hurt us, no, to help us. Just like Isaiah comes in the presence of a holy God and next thing realizes I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips and my eyes, they've seen the King, the Lord of hosts, oh no, I'm undone. And then he's cleansed with holy fire from the altar, with coals from the altar, burning coals. So God's purpose in revealing sin by the conviction of the Holy Spirit is not to condemn us, there is no condemnation in the Messiah. It's not to drive us away, it's to draw us to. And when that sin is purged away, it's just like if you were terribly overweight and got down to your normal weight, oh, you feel like a new person. Or when you've had pounding headache day and night, you can't even think and now it's gone, oh, feel like a new person. That's how it is when the sin is confessed and you turn from it, this beautiful freedom comes. And that's why revival often brings confession of sin.

Look at it as a spiritual cancer that's in our system and eating away at us and now it gets, it's cut out and removed and we are free. Okay, over to the phones. Let's go to Marcos in Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome to the line of fire. Can you hear me, doctor? Yes, I can, sir. Okay, now thank you for taking my call. I wanted to speak with you about the subject of revival, actually. One of the, I was going to ask you, what are the signs that you see currently in America that revival is building up primarily in America?

Yes. Well, I see some signs, but I have concerns. Let me share the concerns first. I believe that there is way too little urgency in most of our churches and way too little urgency in most of our pulpits that we are not living and responding as we should in light of the current crisis. And much of it is because we don't realize how far we are off track, how much sin is in our midst, how little prayer is in our midst, how little burden there is for the lost. There are many churches in America that go a whole year without baptizing a new convert. I don't say this to condemn, but just to be honest, many pastors in a deep struggle with pornography and they're still preaching and ministering is no fault, divorce, rampant in the church, our kids not walking with the Lord and the nation just falling apart morally and spiritually.

So on the one hand, I'm not seeing the level of desperation that I feel we need to see, but the positive is there are places where people have been crying out. God will come where he's welcomed, right? Jesus is born in the manger because there's no room in the inn. So he's the sovereign Lord, but if he's going to come and visit, there has to be room.

Otherwise his visitation is just going to bring judgment on us because we'll reject it. So I see many places across America, some I know firsthand and I know the people involved or I've been to them where God's really moving, where many people are coming to faith, where meetings are packed out and they're trying to figure out what do we do because we're completely out of space already. So amazing things are happening in lots of different places and that's the most encouraging sign to me. The spiritual hunger that's been going on in some cases for years, prayer, fasting, cry out, not that we earn it, but we're preparing or repentance prepares the way for the Lord. It straightens things out and clears the path and that fasting and prayer, it deepens the well so to say.

So when the water is poured out, there's a place for them to go. So that's very positive and I see it in a lot of places. I just wish I saw it more.

So there are little pockets of moving of the spirit and some things that on a mini level you could call revival because something unusual is happening and people are being drawn and people are being changed. But to be candid, this was a concern I've carried for years now because things are so messed up. We have so many scandals among our leaders and I don't say this to condemn. We have so many things that are wrong and yet the desperation wasn't there. I began to see a shift as I was observing it late in 2019, early 2020 when COVID hit that brought more desperation because now everything's wrong. You can't meet together.

Everything's different. People are fearful. Am I going to die of this disease? And I felt a deepening hunger thirst. And then my impression is that during the elections and the buildup to the 2020 elections that we got so caught up with that and Trump versus Biden and was the election stolen that we, we lost our focus and I felt we'd been regaining it, but, but not at the level we, we need to be. So I, I still, I live with that, that holy tension that there's a sense of urgency and God's something has to change and I just don't feel as a body nationally, we're desperate enough.

Thank God for the good, but it's got to go deeper. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to try and get your understanding or your, at least your perspective on what what signs there may be or may not be in regards to revival happening here in America. I personally take, I would say I would agree mostly with the kind of post millennial perspective that eventually, you know, the faith will rip the Christian side of the, of the world will win over. It's just that also kind of thinking is there going to be this situation where one day God's going to visit America on such a powerful scale that it's going to seem like a complete nationwide revival or is it going to be like you were explaining earlier, like little mini pockets, you know, this little thing here, little thing there and it just builds and builds.

Yeah. So I, I am believing for the greatest awakening America's ever seen and we need it because in many ways we're, we're, we're falling in ways we haven't been full yet. There's definitely improvement and progress in other ways. But I, what I see and I'm praying for is so many places all over America that it becomes national, right? That it, that it is a great awakening. So here's interesting things.

Final comment and thanks for, thanks for weighing in and thanks for your questions. So the post millennial view has a tremendous optimism that ultimately the gospel will triumph, that ultimately the, the masses of humanity will turn to Jesus and be saved, which will bring in a millennial kingdom, this glorious rule of Jesus over the earth at the end of which Jesus comes. So post millennium he comes, of course, you know this, Marcos, but I'm just explaining it for others. So there's this tremendous optimism that can come with that. And then with those expecting in any moment rapture, there's the expectation that things are going to get really bad, worse than they've ever been before Jesus returned.

So he's, he's going to rapture us out first and then all hell's going to break loose on the earth. And many say, Hey, it's only going to get worse. Why bother trying?

But here's, here's the problem. Each side can have a fatal flaw. The pre-trip side or the pessimistic end time side says it's all getting worse. Why bother trying? Jesus is coming at any minute where the last generation it's going downhill from here.

Why bother trying? And of course that's a false way of thinking and unbiblical way of thinking and, and not every pre-tripper thinks like that, but many do. So that's a danger. There's there's the fact that we're living in light of Jesus return and there's urgency, which is good. And there's an urgency to see the great commission fulfilled, which is good. And there's prayer for Israel salvation, which is good, but the bad thing is in escapism, it's going downhill from here.

We're out of here any minute on the post-millennial side, I mentioned the positive optimism, but there can be a complacency that's going to happen sooner or later. Well, it's, it's all going to fall into place. Well, we know how the story ends.

The story only ends a certain way if the church becomes what it's called to be. So I live with the same urgency either way. I live with the same urgency as a historical pre-millennial believer, not, not a pre-tripper, but I live with the same urgency because I've only got one life. That's it. That's all you have. And we've got this generation to touch. So this generation is responsible for this generation. And when I stand before the Lord, I want to be able to say, I finished the course, I ran the race, I fought the fight. I wanted to say, well done, good and certain faith in the servant, I only got one shot at it. That's all we have.

So we live with urgency. Either way, 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. All lines are open.

Anything you want to ask me about, talk with me about 866-348-7884. I was ministering in Korea, probably was in Seoul in the early 1990s, and we were having all these different meetings in different buildings, some large churches, et cetera. But this particular meeting was in a room where I don't know how many people you could squeeze in the room, but it wasn't hundreds. And what I remember distinctly is everyone sitting on the floor as I ministered just crowded in body to body. And because it was the place where we were meeting and worshiping and hearing the word in Korean Christian culture, not universally, but widely, that in that setting, you wouldn't have your shoes on, just out of respect. Like if you walk into someone's home, you would take your shoes off commonly. Or if you were going up to the pulpit to speak, you would take your shoes off.

And in any case, what I remember distinctly is this large pile of shoes as I came in, and mine, which were bigger because I'm a bigger guy, I just remember that distinctly. And I ministered from Malachi 3 about God coming as a refiner's fire. And the conviction of sin fell in that room, and people were weeping before God and crying out to God. And I knew that there were some that just needed to come clean then and there publicly. And you have to understand a very high value in Asian culture is saving face. So you would rather overlook something than embarrass someone, right?

You would rather take an offense or even do something a little dishonest to cover up rather than embarrass someone. So I knew that this had to be deep and it had to be the spirit. And I was not going to be insensitive to the culture, but I had to obey the Lord.

So what happened was that I had the translator right next to me because I wanted to hear every word that was being said. So the young woman got up to testify and she said, yeah, I've done a lot of wrong things, but it's not just me. You know, you judge me and you're so immediately sat her down and said, okay, this is not our time to accuse others or point the finger at others.

This is a time to point the finger at ourselves. And a man began to speak and he said, and it's being translated for me, and he's crying. You think I'm a good person. I'm not a good person. I'm an adulterer.

I thought this is, I'm shaking, crying, you know how difficult that must have been? And you know what must have been going on in his life for him to do that. But I've seen that over the years. I've seen where the conviction gets so acute or someone getting baptized in the midst of the Holy Spirit working deeply and they feel the need to make public confession. Now again, there's certain things you don't talk about publicly and there's certain things that are dealt with privately and the general principle again, that private sin is confessed privately, public sin is confessed publicly. But if I have been a public hypocrite, if you have been a public hypocrite, then that is public sin and there are times when it is confessed and the freedom that it brings because you're not carrying that load anymore.

There's certain things you shouldn't say because you embarrass family and again, there has to be a right time and the right setting. But I remember being in California early in 2020 and in fact, talking about God coming as a refiner as far as a Friday night meeting at a congregation about 6,000 so it's a good crowd on a Friday night and the same thing happened. Repentance broke out, God began to move deeply and I knew once again, okay, we've got to open up the mics because some people need to come up and make a public confession and next thing there's a line of people.

I remember a kid, I don't know, was even a teenager, probably younger and he just starts crying, I've been so mean to my mommy and daddy, you don't know the way I treat them and I'm sorry. And next thing they're on the stage hugging him and embracing him and others confessing off him with tears and next thing they're surrounded by people loving on them and praying for them. And here, this is what happens, Evan Roberts, Evan Roberts, God used to ignite the Welsh Revival 1904, 1905, nine months of intensity and spread from there in many ways affected the world. Here he was a 26 year old coal miner, he tells his pastor he has a burden, he has a message he wants to bring and the pastor, well, I'll let you speak to some of the young people, we got a meeting with young people, you can speak to them.

So he's got a four point message, I'm going to read his four points to you, okay? Point number one, all sin must be confessed to God and repented of. The church has to be cleansed, the Lord's bride would be without spots so there could be no room for compromise with sin.

If there's anything in our lives about which there is even doubt as to whether it is good or evil, then cast it off, ooh, if you're not sure if this thing is right or wrong in God's sight, cast it off. Two, there must be no cloud between the believer and God. Have you forgiven everybody? If you don't expect, if you don't, if not, excuse me, don't expect forgiveness for your own sins. The scripture is clear, we cannot be forgiven until we have forgiven. Unforgiveness separates us from God. Number three, we must obey the Holy Spirit.

Do what the Holy Spirit prompts you to do, prompt implicit unquestioning obedience to the Spirit is required if we are going to be used by him. Number four, there must be public confession of Christ the Savior. This is not a one time incident after our salvation experience or baptism for the Christian, it is a way of life.

So these were the four simple points. All sin must be confessed to God and repented of, there must be no cloud between the believer and God, we must obey the Holy Spirit, do what the Holy Spirit prompts you to do, there must be public confession of Christ as Savior and boom, something explodes and now the message is preached to more people and before you know it, the fire has fallen. It's not that you just preach those and automatically you have that level of revival.

But again, there's that repentance and confessing to God and often confessing to men, getting things right. I've held this against you for years. I've judged you for years. And I remember in 82, 83 when we had an outpouring in our church on Long Island that people began to come up to Nancy and me and they said, you know, I've judged you because you had a nicer house than we did. Or I've got to be honest, there were kids in my class that were Jewish and they seem smarter and richer and so I've got an attitude towards Jews and I've had it towards you and Nancy and at a certain point we said, listen, if you've spoken about us to others, if you've gossiped and said wrong things, then by all means come and share. But we don't need to know your thoughts because like, okay, we didn't know anything before you got it right with God, we're good.

But it was shocking, it's like this stuff came up to the surface. I remember before I was saved, now think of this, I was high on drugs and huffing diesel gas, okay? And my friends, they'd been talking to me about the gospel and I have this thought, if there really is a God, he knows I'm a good person. I'm basically a good person.

I remember having that thought distinctly, well, hang on. I had stolen money from my own father on several occasions, lied through my teeth, not just my mother and father, but to my friends. I was a cruel person, I had a terrible temper, I indulged the flesh as much as I could, but if I saw an old woman going into a store, I would grab the door and open it for her. This is what I'm thinking to myself, literally. And when I'm in New York City and I see some beggar on the street, a homeless guy, a bum as they'd be called, I had some change in my pocket, I'd give him something.

I'm basically a good person. Literally, that was my thought process, while high on drugs and huffing diesel gas. Some months after that, as folks in this little church that I'd once attended went to once in August of 71, they began to pray for me and God began to burden them to pray for me. The Holy Spirit began to convict me. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know it was the Holy Spirit, I just started to feel miserable.

The very things I thought I'm so cool at stealing money from my father, lying to my friends and ripping them off and doing this and look at that, I felt miserable about. The Holy Spirit's conviction, and it's under my skin, I couldn't get to it. And then the Lord graciously intervened in my life and saved me.

Let me read something to you from my 1993 book, It's Time to Rock the Boat, 1993. In the past, Holy Spirit meetings were often awesome. Today their Lord's the orchestrated. In the past, there was conviction in the air. Today there's a carnival atmosphere. There used to be lasting results.

Today there are lingering disappointments. Dare we say it is the same Spirit doing the same work? In the past, when the Holy Spirit came, people would fall on their faces and then rise to their feet changed, today they regularly fall on their backs and are helped to their feet unchanged.

The way someone falls is not the issue, it's what happens to their lives that counts. What we think is supernatural is Lord's the superficial. Outwardly things may look exciting, but inwardly they are empty. Is this the Spirit or is it a show? Remember, the Holy Spirit hasn't changed. He is still holy.

He's still convicts of sin. He still comes to glorify Jesus. His presence still evokes holy fear. But today, when we are supposedly experiencing a mighty deluge of the Spirit here in America, remember I wrote this in 1993, when we are told that Joel's prophecy of the last days outpouring is reaching its final fulfillment, when preachers inform us that they are absolutely dripping with the anointing, there is hardly any holy fear. How can it be that God is so near and yet conviction is so distant? How can we claim such familiarity with the Holy One and yet be such strangers to holiness?

Something just doesn't line up. So I talk about Peter's preaching and how the message cuts to the heart. Greek scholar A.T. Robertson explained that the rare Greek verb used in Acts 2.37 for cut to the heart means to pierce, to sting sharply, to stun, to smite, just as a horse would dent and scrape the ground with its hooves.

The servant went home. They felt the sting of Peter's words, compunction. And I wrote this, if we, filled with the same Spirit and separated to the same God, preached the same message of repentance, warning and promise we would get the same results. Here is Jonathan Goforth describing what what or Dr. Walter Phillips describing a scene of what happened in revival with Jonathan Goforth preaching.

The very air seemed electric. I speak in all seriousness and strange thrills coursed up and down one's body. Then above the sobbing and strain choking tones, a man began to make public confession. Words of mine will fail to describe the awe and terror and pity of these confessions. It was not so much the enormity of the sins disclosed or the depths of iniquity sound at that shock when it was the agony of the penitent, his groans and cries and voice shaken with sobs. It was the sight of men forced to their feet in spite of their struggles, impelled as it seemed to lay bare their hearts that moved one and brought the smarting tears to one's eyes. Never have I experienced anything more heartbreaking, more nerve-wracking than the spectacle of those souls stripped naked before their fellows, spiritually speaking.

That's what happens with confession. We'll be right back. I'm going back to the phone. Stay right here. 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. Hey, just a reminder, one week from now, the Silencing of the Lambs will be released. Recorded an interview earlier today with my friend Eric Metaxas. And yeah, I'm excited to get this out as we talked about the book and the content in it, the urgency of the message and the strategies, the divine strategies in there based on the word biblical principles. So you can still pre-order your signed numbered copy over at AskDrBrown.org, A-S-K-D-R Brown.org. You can order there and you may want to get extra copies for friends, for leaders. It's going to be a very, very important book by God's grace.

So by all means, check that out. Okay. I'm switching subjects, covered key ground I wanted to cover and going back to the phones. David in Chicago, welcome to the line of fire. Shalom, Dr. Brown, how are you?

Doing very well. Thanks, sir. I need, I need to know what is the full definition of Messiah? Okay, so Messiah is Hebrew, Mashiach, which simply means, yeah, Mashiach in Hebrew, Messiah in English, Christos or Christ in Greek.

It simply means its actual definition, anointed one. So you have in the Bible, any of the kings of Israel, they were called Mashiach of the Lord, the anointed one of the Lord. So they were anointed, oil would be poured on them. The high priest was anointed. He was the anointed high priest. So you have different people were called Mashiach in the Bible. In other words, they were not the Messiah, they were just anointed for leadership, priest or king or something like that. But then ultimately it comes to mean the son of David who will rule and reign over the earth, the anointed one of all. So the word itself simply means anointed one. But what is the definition of Messiah as a whole?

It is the anointed son of David, God's vessel on the earth who will rule and reign and establish God's kingdom. Okay, because you know how it has the I, A, H, how the I always represented the Y because there was no Y in Greek or Latin, and that's I am. So I thought it the full definition is I am anointed of Yahweh.

No, no, no, no, not at all. I understand how you got that. The final letter H is actually a ch sound. It's unrelated to the name Yahweh. The verb is Mashiach, Mashiach is to anoint, yeah, Mashiach is to be anointed. So it's just in English, we don't have that sound, and that's why it's spelled the way it is. Now, the reason that you have S instead of sha is because it comes by way of Greek, Latin, and some of those didn't have the sha sound, so it became sa. So the pronunciation is Mashiach, and it's a final het, it's a ch sound, and you have the verb used, for example, Isaiah 61, the spirit of the Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me, right?

So it's unrelated to that, absolutely. Okay, and the other one is when Yeshua said, I came in the name of the Father, he did not recognize me, which means I am salvation in the Father's name, I am who I am, I am that I am. Okay, so the Father's name, David, has two aspects to it. As he revealed himself to Moses, he said, I am who I am, or I will be who I will be. He does say that, but the name by which he's called over 6,000 times in the Hebrew Bible is most likely pronounced Yahweh, incorrectly pronounced Jehovah, but most likely pronounced Yahweh. But by the first century in the Jewish world, that name was considered too holy to pronounce, so you would say Lord instead, you know, in Greek, kurios, in Hebrew, adonai, or something else would be said instead of it. But when he says he came in his Father's name, what he means there is not so much the name Yahweh, because they weren't pronouncing that, but rather in the authority of his Father, representing his Father, and the power of who his Father is. So even when he says to his disciples, I've revealed God's name to you, the Father's name, he doesn't mean there that he whispered how to pronounce it as much as revealed who he is. The name ties in with who that person or that being is, in this case, who God is, and that's how he is revealed.

So I hope that helps you. Yeah, but he said, I am, which means Yah, for sure, no? No. And he reveals his name, I am? No, I am would be Eheh, Eheh, not Yah, yeah, Eheh, yeah, that is, yeah, so here, spell it like this, E-H, and then Y-E-H, but with a little E next to the first H, so Eheh, Eheh, right? That is, so the root is Hayah, to be, and then Eheh is I am, or I will be. So David, thank you for the call, I appreciate it very much. So let me just clarify something, since we're talking about this. You say, well, hang on, why are you saying Yahweh, if it's the same root, if it has to do with to be, and the root for to be is Hayah, and now we're saying that this root here with Yahweh is Hawah, why do you have a Y in the middle of the one and a W in the middle of the other?

Basically, it would go back to an older form. There are many words in Hebrew that have a yud, that have a Y, that originally had a wow, a W sound, and then it shifted, and it would be the same principle here, but that takes us too far afield. Speaking of that, speaking of that, since we have totally changed subjects, which I said we were gonna do, there's a video that has gone viral on Facebook, and I got so many people asking me about it, and people posting it that I know, I thought, you know, I'm gonna do something about this.

So Saturday night, I did a video, it's on our Facebook page, Ask Dr. Brian A.S.K. Dearbrand, and we should have it up soon on YouTube as well, where I rebut this notion that the divine name was originally given without vowels, which is complete and utter nonsense. Every word in Hebrew has to have vowels. You can't just have p, t, k, they have to be vowels. You said that the vowels weren't written, yeah, but they were spoken. The writing system, you didn't need to write all the vowels, you could understand without vowels and with other consonants used to point to certain vowels. So to this day, if you read a book in Hebrew, you're just a Hebrew reader, right? You're in school, you're reading a book, it doesn't have vowels. In Arabic, you read it, it doesn't have vowels, and everybody understands what they're reading.

Okay? So, and just like in English, we know how to pronounce all these words and sounds, and a foreigner comes in, they get them all wrong, but we just learned it growing up, right? So in any case, it is complete nonsense, complete utter nonsense, that the name of God was revealed to Moses as breathing sounds. God says to Moses, tell them, has sent me, that I'm the one sending you. I mean, it's 100% absurd, and every line, except for the last line that Yeshua, as Yahweh says, or the Lord says, every line in it was erroneous. Every single statement it made about the Hebrew language, about the name of the Lord, this was erroneous, completely erroneous. He said, but it really ministered to me, but it was false. The baby's first breath, he's saying God's name, false. Every time an atheist breathes, he's saying God's name, false, bogus nonsense. Now look, if I spent my time just refuting internet nonsense, I would not get through a fraction of it if I did it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So that's not my goal, that's not my calling to be the chief policeman, or the gatekeeper of all doctrine, or the gatekeeper of the charismatic movement.

We talked about that a week, two ago, something like that. But there are certain things that go so viral, or that are so grievous, or that are so wrong, or a combination of the above, that I feel prompted, okay, I'm going to address this. Can't address everything. So we do our best to honor the Lord, to seek his face earnestly, and to do what we feel he's calling us to do. Just as you do as a pastor, hey, why aren't you preaching on this, why aren't you teaching on this? Well, you can't teach on everything, you can't preach on everything. So you meet with the Lord, you do your best to be balanced through the word, you pray, and you sense what the Lord's laying on your heart, you sense what the needs of the people are, and then you minister accordingly. So that's what we do.

You know, I saw somebody posted a comment on Facebook, I don't see the vast majority, I wish I could interact with everyone. But he's saying, why are you wasting your time writing about politics, which I did in a recent article, but it was also to refute a wrong statement about Christians. So why are you wasting your time doing this, you should just be involved in the Great Commission.

Well, if I was going to write back, I would have said, why did you waste your time reading the article and writing this comment, you should just be involved in the Great Commission. The fact is, we are super involved in the Great Commission, super involved. And the people we raise up and support and send out day and night, they're preaching the gospel around the world.

We are super involved in the Great Commission. And because we live in this world, we're doing our best to get God's heart and mind and address the issues around us with wisdom so that we can navigate these things for ourselves. So friends, don't get all worked up over the latest error that's out there.

When things come to your attention and you have the opportunity to correct them, go ahead and do it. We'll be back with you tomorrow. Don't forget, askdr.brown.org. Last chances now to get your pre-ordered, signed, numbered copy of The Silencing of the Lines comes out one week. This is how we rise up. It's our resistance. You can't resist us. Another program powered by The Truth Network.