Dr. Brown Answers All Your Questions

The following program is recorded content created by Truth Network. All your questions and get in as many as we can in the next hour. So any question that relates in any way shapes us or form to anything we ever discuss on the line of fire, anything ever right, anything that relates to any expertise I have. Faux minds are open, friend and foe alike can call in 866-348-7884. That's 866-344-TRUTH.

Go into the phones momentarily, but I have to make a quick confession. I said a couple weeks ago on the air that I had looked at a book I had signed for someone and was kind of embarrassed at the signature. It almost looked like a caricature, like the side of a face or something. I thought I gotta, I gotta try to recapture my old signature, which actually looked like Michael L then B and you know, couldn't really see it was brown, but anyway, you could make out the words and it just kind of morphed into it.

And anyway, I, it just didn't work. It is my signature. It's the way I signed, but all the Silencing the Lambs book that we've signed and sent out, I couldn't quite recover that signature. Just to let you know. 866-344-TRUTH. Let's go to Joseph in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hi there, Dr. Michael Brown. Hey. So I got a question about Nehemiah chapter 10. Okay. Particularly verses 3 and 7.

All right. It lists a number of, a number of people who had returned from exile. And in that list it mentions Jeremiah in verse 3, and in verse 7, Daniel. I know it's quite a lapse of time from the books of Jeremiah and Daniel. I'm just wondering, especially since it references priests, I know that Jeremiah descends from the priest lineage. So I'm just wondering, is there any possibility that these are actually the biblical people that we know to be Daniel or Jeremiah, or are these just different people with the same name?

And presumably different people with the same name because of the chronology, because of how old they would have to be. So if you look at, by the way, it's not just Jeremiah. The next verse is Paschor. He appears in Jeremiah chapter 20. And then in verse 7, Baruch. So he is, of course, Jeremiah's scribe, and he gets a special word in Jeremiah 45. But no, since these men lived for many, many years before the exile, Daniel taken into, the return from exile, excuse me. So Daniel is taken into captivity as a young man, and then he's in captivity 70 years. So could he have potentially have returned? Yeah, that's possible. He's certainly praying about there's no record of that or hint of it. And he is now serving under the next government, right?

So it would make it unlikely, but not impossible. Jeremiah, we don't know exactly how old he was. My assumption as a teenager, my understanding of the Hebrew text in Jeremiah 1, and now he starts prophesying in 627, the 13th year of Josiah, 627 BC. The return from exiles is almost 100 years later, so God assume it's not that Jeremiah. Plus we read that he's taken into Egypt at the end of the book of Jeremiah. So it's just interesting, but these were not uncommon names. I mean, if you look before it, you have Zedekiah, who was the last king, but we know he's exiled, there's no account of him returning. So yeah, it's an interesting observation, but they were not uncommon names, hence they occur in the list here. Understood. And that makes sense, because there are other people in scripture who have the same name, and it's just a part of biblical understanding that people sometimes name their children the same names as some people that have lived before.

No, it's not just that. How many Josephs are there today? How many Michael Browns are there?

How many Michael L. Brown? Just certain names are common. For example, the name Yeshua, which we would translate into English as Jesus, but Yeshua is a name for at least five different people in the Old Testament. The most prominent, Yehoshua ben Yehoshadak, the high priest, but common name, very common name in the first century. There were many, many, many issues. How many Marys slash Miriams are there in the New Testament?

So just common names, but interesting observation. I appreciate it. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Todd in Seagrove, North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

I had a little bit of background to my question. In J. Bernard McGee's study in the book of Exodus, he was in Chapter 7, recalling the account of Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh and the account of Aaron casting down his rod and the magicians casting down their rods and turning into serpents. Anyway, Dr. McGee was saying that the Hebrew word that is translated serpent there is tanin, and he was saying that there was another Hebrew word that was translated serpent. So he was hypothesizing, probably half serious, half joking, about that instead of turning into a serpent, it could have been a crocodile—I hope you don't get too big of a laugh out of that—because of the crocodile being somewhat of a revered animal in Egypt at that time. So I just want to get your input. No, it's not a joke.

It's not laughable. It's not the normal word for snake or serpent. You would have expected nachash. There could be other words of specific snakes, you know, an adder or cobra, but none of those words were used. And tanin is used in Genesis 1 for the great sea creatures, the taninim, the great sea creatures. And there is argument that it was a crocodile. You don't see it in many translations, but a case can be made for it, and then it would be a further mockery of Egyptian reverence for crocodiles and things like that in terms of deity status or special power.

So no, it's something seriously to look at, and I have to confess that I didn't even notice that until somewhere within the last five years, probably, that Josiah never focused on it. You know, when I read the Hebrew, I was thinking serpent, and it didn't dawn on me, wait, it doesn't say serpent. It doesn't say serpent.

So there are reasons why it gets translated serpent, but a strong case can be made to reconsider that. So thanks for calling in, and no joke, nothing tongue-in-cheek at all. So appreciate you raising the question. Thank you. You are very welcome. 866-348-7884.

We go to Brian in Leander, Texas. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown. Just a little background. In 2009, there was discovered a synagogue in Migdal or Magdala, and they're in Palestine or Israel, and it's believed to be one of the earliest Second Temple period synagogues found, and according to what I read, it says the walls were decorated with elaborately designed colored frescoes and on the floor partially made of mosaics. The reason why I mention that is because, like a lot of Eastern Orthodox apologists and Catholics, they justify their use of icons on that, saying that they just carried that over from the Jews of the Second Temple period. I would like to hear your thoughts on that.

Yeah, so there's a distinct difference. I would differ with Eastern Orthodox and Catholic on that. This was more artwork. This was simply beautifying the synagogue. You know, Solomon having cherubim on the walls and things like that of the temple. There was no worship. There was no bowing down to.

There was no honoring, revering, anything like that. It was simply a way of beautifying, and again, it would certainly not be universal because some would have issues with it, but because of the very, very strong stand in Judaism against idolatry and against making images for any kind of worship, and I believe the very synagogue you're speaking about, I've seen, I've been in, otherwise seen pictures of others, and it's simply artwork. Now, you might say, okay, here's a church building, and it's just got paintings of Jesus, or etc., on the walls, and it's a Protestant building.

Okay, I'm not into that. That would not be my style for many reasons, but no one is bowing down in front of that image and praying to it as representing Jesus. So, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, would say we're not venerating the physical being. That statue is just a representation of the God that we're worshiping or the one that we're praying to, but when you bow down in front of it and pray words in front of it, there is veneration towards that, which I absolutely reject as wrong, and there is no connection between that and having a synagogue adorn in these various ways. That's simply beautiful. Just like the mosaic on the floor, you're walking on that, right?

That's just having nice tile on the floor, like a nice carpet in your home. So, I don't believe there's an analogy that can be made, and there is no tradition, like I said, of looking at the image, praying towards it, addressing it, kneeling before it, which you would have in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox circles. Yes, sure, and not to take up too much of your time, and thank you for your answer, sure. A follow-up question?

Yeah. I saw a podcast of a guy who was, I think he said he was Reform Jew, but he became a Catholic, and one of his justifications of how praying to saints and stuff was, is part of, like, he said that his Reform Jewish belief was, and they take it from the Maccabees to pray for the deceased, that they had prayers for that. Do a lot of Jews practice praying for those who passed on? Oh yeah, the more religious you are, but you are praying for them and you're not.

Let me explain. You pray something that's called the kaddish, the mourner's kaddish, kaddish meaning it's a holy prayer and utterance, and you pray that daily for 11 months after a loved one dies, a close relative dies. You're supposed to be in the synagogue and pray it daily, and when you read the prayer it's just exalting God. It doesn't refer to a dead person. You're not praying to get them out of some kind of purgatory. You are honoring them, and there is some belief that in doing that will help ease their way into the heavenly kingdom. So it's related to purgatory, but it's different. The thought is that the most wicked person on the earth would be punished or go through a purging for 12 months, and because no one's that bad, it's only 11 months, etc. But when you read the actual prayer, you're not praying for that person. You're simply exalting God, honoring God. But yes, religious Jews, Reform Jews don't practice a lot of this religiously.

They're much more liberal, but the more religious you are, you would absolutely do this. Just look up mourner's kaddish, k-a-d-d-i-s-h, mourner's kaddish. This is what a religious Jew will pray daily after a close loved one, parent, sibling, child, has passed away.

They'll be here for 11 months. But read the prayer. It'll remind you more of the Lord's Prayer than anything else. We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us on the Friday broadcast of The Line of Fire, 866-34-TRUTH. You may be watching or listening on another day, but if you're listening live, give us a call with your question, 866-348-7884. Hey, mark 4-14, April 14th on your calendar. Just put a mark on it, April 14th, make a note, then read Esther 4-14. So mark April 14th on your calendar, read Esther 4-14, and we'll tell you exactly what that is all about in the days ahead. All right, we go over to Mark in Stoughton, Massachusetts.

Marko, welcome to The Line of Fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. I have a question about Clement of Alexandria and the pronunciation of a divine name.

Okay. There's somewhere in his work called Stromata that he says that the Tetragrammaton was pronounced Yahweh. He spells it with the Greek letters.

Just wanted to know what your thoughts are on that. Right, so this is one of the witnesses that we have. You have other Semitic names from the ancient world, Amorite, other related languages to Hebrew. Then you have various writings. How does the Septuagint translate it at any point? Or do others, church fathers, reference it? Is there any hint we can get from the rabbinic writings? And then you put all the evidence together and that's why the great majority of scholars would use the vocalization Yahweh to pronounce the divine name.

So this is one of the witnesses. Now you have other witnesses with other pronunciations and then you have the evidence of how names are handled within the Hebrew Bible. You have names that end with part or all of the divine name or I should say a smaller part or a larger part of the divine name like Eliyahu. So that's my God is Yahweh which is apparently shortened from Yahweh. You have names that change at the beginning. How do you get a form like Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, where does that come from?

So you put everything together. You look at how things get shortened in different settings and this is one of the witnesses and it would indicate that that the pronunciation was preserved at least in some circles. In other circles you were forbidden to pronounce it. It was considered too sacred but it seems in other circles it was passed down so we can't be dogmatic but we can we can be fairly confident that that was the right pronunciation. That being said, Marko, it doesn't bother me that there's still mystery associated with it and that it is God's name and he's revealed himself most fully through his son so we relate in that way right and he exalts the name of Jesus Yeshua as the highest name in the universe. At the same time there's some mystery that that God is always in this place just like his nature we understand but it's beyond our understanding at the same time so I don't mind the fact that we can't be utterly dogmatic and that sometimes we just write out the consonants y h w h to represent the name but Clemens that is definitely a witness yep awesome could I ask a quick follow-up question sure thing yeah so I've heard that the English rendering of Jehovah is a misunderstanding like a mix of the consonants of Yahweh or y h w h and the addition of the vowels for Adonai is that true or right that that would be what I have understood and the vast vast majority of Jewish and Christian scholars have understood for many many years now you have Nehemiah Gordon who is a Karaite Jew so he's not a rabbinic Jew he's spent a lot of time studying this got a PhD in in Israel in focused on this and he believes that is the right pronunciation and they preserve the right pronunciation so he's in minority but he's literate in other words he he he knows the language well he knows the arguments well to me there's an overwhelming amount of data against it but you have in the Hebrew Bible a tradition called Kari Kativ which is one is read the other is it is written so when you're reading through the Hebrew Bible sometimes you'll see it can be in different ways you may have no vowels under a particular word then you look in the margin and you've got a different word there and and it's got vowels that say okay read this instead here's what's written in the text but don't say it we don't want to say that word in the synagogue it's it's to suggest or whatever read this instead that's in the margin or we have another reading here and then sometimes they put the vowels from the other word in the margin in the the text that's in the main text you think huh that doesn't make any sense what are those doing there and then you look in the margin ah that's the word and the vowels go with that word when it came to the when it came to the divine name which occurs over 6 300 times in the Hebrew Bible it was just understood that's called the Kari Perpetuum this is always read a particular way so we're just going to put the vowels in when you see it you say Adonai if you have it next to God then you have the word the vowels for Elohim there instead so it changes but yeah this is this is the right understanding that Christian scholars in late middle ages the renaissance period as they began to use the Hebrew Bible more were not familiar with this tradition thought this is the vocalization and came up with Yehovah which in English is Jehovah but aside from a tiny tiny minority of scholars who argue against this it's fully understood that was never the pronunciation that was two words put together and it was saying when you see this say Adonai Lord so thank you for the questions appreciate it eight six six three four truth let's go to Jay in Boise Idaho welcome to the line of fire thanks for taking my poll sure thing um so um my question is on determinism um not to not just in the in the uh in the air of honesty I want to just let you know I am both a Calvinist and an apologist so okay not exactly um as open-minded as another caller might be um but so I am a compatibilist and of course that means that I do agree with the free will and the end the determinism finding them to be compatible and I've had a couple debates with mulanists and others um you know across this this platform and I've got a question that if I may just be honest been consistently stumping and I'd like to see if if it's if it remains consistently stumping the higher up the echelon to go okay which which would be you the higher echelon um but that's not too much bragging on your name um but so it seems to me like if God is all-knowing and also is the uncaused first cause that it isn't possible for anything other than determinism in other words not just for Christians but I don't see how a Sikh or a Zoroastrian or anybody else who believes in a tri-omni creator god could get away from this and my reason for saying that is because I want I'm struggling to find out how a being could create another being even endowing that being with free will and know everything that it will freely choose to do but then decide to go down that path anyway but I don't see how that's not determinism and my analogy that I often give is if I somehow manage to have a lion in a room and I had complete knowledge of what the lion would do in the room and then I let it go there is no law scholar no lawyer no judge on the entire planet that would blame the lion they would all put the now and I'm not saying that God is deriving the direct blame but when we're talking about something like determinism versus the actual agent being the cause here it just seems to me like it's it's just like a simple one plus two equals three right you let the lion go you're the determining cause so in other words even if we are completely free how is God not the determining cause for allowing us to do things freely right so the first thing is I go to scripture and scripture plainly tells me in many many verses that God did not want certain things to happen that it was not his desire that he actually desired the opposite but he did not force it to happen that he grieves over certain things and makes it clear this was not my intent this is not what I wanted so I have to I have to start there I have to start not with philosophy and human logic which is fall so short of the fullness of of God's revelation and who he is so I have to start with scripture when I start with scripture I cannot possibly be a determinist because it would make a mockery of verse after verse after verse look even Jesus saying to Jerusalem and if you say oh he's speaking to the leaders fine how often I long to gather you together as a chick gathers her as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you are not willing I long to do it you are not willing or where it says in Luke about the Pharisees they rejected the will of God you know just on and on God speaking about child sacrifice in Israel and said I never intended this never commanded never had it in mind so you're doing things he's saying that are despicable to me so when I start with scripture I can't possibly be a determinist when I think of the wisdom and majesty of God and as Paul writes in Romans 11 33 so far beyond us possibly finding out and being able to understand that if God says we have freedom I accept it he inhabits eternity he sees the the the end the way we see the beginning except with more clarity he he so he lives and dwells outside of time but interacts with us within time and I I'll give you this analogy just to chew on but I want to encourage you to go back to scripture and wrestle with all the verses where God places I didn't want this I didn't intend this I didn't I didn't ordain this this is not of me I desired something else you rejected it but if if and this doesn't go back to your lion analogy but if I record a sports event right and I don't get to see it till afterwards when I watch it it's all fixed the result can't can't be changed but it recorded choices that people made God has the bill this is part of the mystery of it to give us freedom of choice than to work within us and to work in that environment but remember it's not just a lion there's also the real possibility that we do good and throughout human history God has drawn people to himself and good has come out of evil and then ultimately God's not just looking in this world but what things develop into in the world to come hey maybe we'll continue to chat another day but chew on this with as an open a mind as you can because nothing about this stumps me the list maybe I'm missing the difficulty of it but it doesn't stump me God bless you man bless you man it's the line of fire with your host dr michael brown get on the line of fire by calling eight six six three four truth here again is dr michael brown thanks friends for joining us on the line of fire eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four is the number to call hey one last thought about our previous caller and the question of determinism that that by the nature of things God being almighty and all knowing that the nature of things would be that everything is predetermined in a fixed way so our freedom is a freedom but with inevitable outcome that's just the way I'm defining it the other problem with the analogy of saying if you let loose a lion in the room you know what that lion is going to do well human beings are not lions human beings are created an image of God and yes we cannot save ourselves but Adam and Eve had the genuine potential of saying yes or no and even if God knew in advance what they would do which he did of course and the cross was predestined because that's his answer I'm going to redeem I'm going to redeem but Adam and Eve are not lions and human beings today are not lions that are just inevitably going to bite devour destroy every day every one of us makes choices we each make choices and God is working in the midst of that to carry out his ultimate plan which of course goes by way of the cross eight six six three four truth reminder to visit the site of our friend Dr Mark Stengler more and more of you are taking advantage of the special offer there to get a 10% discount using the Dr Brown code at vitaminmission.com so they're really excellent health supplements quite a few I've used over the years so as you know I eat super super healthily and in a very disciplined way by God's grace and to his glory and for me it's a stewardship matter and it's an obedience matter but the benefits are absolutely wonderful and then where there are lacks or things to add in the health supplements are really terrific so check them out you get a discount and remember when you're doing that you're not only helping yourself you're blessing the line of fire and blessing others because it's helping us reach more people through the radio broadcast all right eight six six three four truth let's go to Jason in upstate New York welcome to the line of fire how you doing Dr Brown thanks for having me on yeah so I recently made friends with a man who is a fairly new pastor and he's a pastor in congregation around here that I'm not really familiar with their theology this is something new to me but I've had a lot of discussions with him recently where he he is trying to it seems like he's making like the the the feasts and dietary laws a requirement instead of something that we're able to do uh in order to bring us closer to our roots um so some of the some of the common things that he's brought up would be you know that the the gentiles have to become Israel um that that was always what we were called to so um he uses the verses like you know the um the Israel or Israel was the natural branches on the tree or on the on the vine and they were taken off so that we would be grafted in and uh he's basically saying like we're not really entitled to the promises of God unless we become Israel because the promises come through Israel yes that's that's a very serious error that could lead to a lot of confusion and bondage and it's flatly the opposite of the New Testament revelation we're saved gentiles and we're saved Gentiles and saved Jews become part of the ecclesia messiah's body what's commonly referred to as the church but gentiles don't become Israel and and Israel doesn't become gentile here here's how Paul expresses it forthrightly first Corinthians seven beginning verse 17 only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him this is my rule is that the Gentiles were already called to salvation already circumcised let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised let him not seek circumcision for neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision but keeping the commandments of God which in the New Testament are the the basic fundamentals of the gospel so that was his rule Jews don't become Gentiles Gentiles don't become Jews in fact in Romans 11 he directly addresses the Gentiles who are now grafted in to to the olive tree and says I'm speaking to you Gentiles so that you will provoke Israel to jealousy so he distinguishes the Gentiles from Israel quite plainly and the the miracle of what happens in the New Covenant is that in the past for a Gentile to be a full inheritor with Israel that that Gentile had to join the people of Israel and convert that to be fully in receipt of the the blessings and the the relationship with the God of Israel in the fullest way men would have to be circumcised men and women immersed in water you'd have to keep pledge to keep the commandments etc you'd have to fully convert to Judaism and now you were in it's completely changed through the New Covenant and through the blood of Messiah where there is neither Jew nor Greek male nor female uh slaved or free etc those distinctions do not exist in our standing with God there's no caste system there's no class system so through the Messiah now an uncircumcised Gentile is in equal air with a circumcised Jew one together in the Messiah so if he said look I find much beauty in the feasts and God never abolished the biblical calendar and we learn much from it and join together with Jews worldwide and celebrating go for it God bless you just make sure it's it's all Yeshua centered in what you do if you say you know God must have given the dietary laws for reason we know we're not under them and we know that the food that we eat does not bring us closer to God or defile us but you know it must have been some reason for it so we're gonna do it okay you have the liberty you have the liberty to to not eat those things fine but the moment you make it an obligation the moment you say we're called to do it you check back another year or two or five they'll be taking on even more and more and now they'll be trying to look Jewish or they'll be wearing fringes or the men will be growing beards or they'll they'll be getting more you know now which tribe we identify with you never know where it goes and then some actually after a period of years turn away from the Lord entirely just want to be Jews and turn away from Jesus so moment you make it obligatory or something that Gentiles must do you have completely missed the the message of the gospel how Jew and Gentile become one in Messiah without either losing their identity all right can I ask a quick follow-up yep okay so you just kind of hit on that right there in the end uh one of the other arguments that he would make is you know that it does not it says there is neither Jew nor Gentile and that's where he's trying to combine the two where what I'm hearing you say the opposite exactly we're all one right there's neither male nor female so the men start becoming women or women start becoming no men are men women are women but in Messiah we're one and we're equal the moment you get away from the distinction now you no longer have male female coming together in their uniqueness to make something new together so it's the Jew as a Jew and the Gentile as a Gentile becoming one in the Messiah that brings this beautiful powerful unity hey listen direct them the the podcast goes out the videos are up on YouTube after the show I direct them to this I've I've seen this for decades and I've never seen it end well it only deepens confusion the witness of Jesus goes down the worship of the Son of God decreases evangelism goes down it's just inevitable that that things will stray from where they're supposed to be and acts 15 plainly says the opposite people say no no they said you'll be in the synagogues the Gentile believers they'll be in the synagogues and they've heard these things in other words the basic things we're saying they've heard this before they'll get it easily it's not saying take on the rest nowhere does New Testament ever say take on the rest ever ever ever hey thank you for the call eight six six three four truth let's go to Eugene in Los Angeles welcome to the line of fire thank you for taking my call sure thing um quick question in regards to in Timothy yep so timothy uh first timothy okay chapter one in verse four paul makes reference to myths and endless genealogies and he says would give rise to mere speculations so my question is do we have any more information about these myths and genealogies because I was reading some commentaries and they go from all being jewish to being gnostic teachings but then some commentary says this kind of gnostic teaching that they refer doesn't really take effect till you know much later right so some go back through philo and it was not so I wanted to yeah it's it is it is debatable yeah it is debatable in other words that's why the commentaries are going to give you different views because we have what paul wrote here and then we don't have his commentary or explanation so everything comes after it's certainly true that when first timothy is being written that you may have some early seeds of gnosticism but nothing that could be called full-blown gnosticism gnosticism nor did not gnostics as a group exist so it could just be some some emphasis that ultimately became gnosticism so you have to be very careful the way you say it otherwise it's anachronistic it's it's out of time so you you were careful to explain it in that way we know that genealogies are important in the gospels to establish the credentials the background of jesus the messiah and we know that they're throughout the bible so that can't be the issue was the issue about people trying to prove their own genealogies was the was the issue a matter of debating minutia about genealogy of jesus was it trying to prove some spiritual pedigree we don't know for sure if you've read commentaries that give the different options those tend to be the main options there and i don't know that i've heard something that i thought okay this is definitely it it's the spirit of it which i grasp in order to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies was that was that part of jewish tradition that they were battling which promotes speculations rather than stewardship from god that is by faith was it jewish genealogies trying to fill in blanks and connect people to different ones and who this one really was etc it's it's debatable so i i can't i've never written a commentary on a new testament book and then gone through this in sufficient depth to say i'm sure about this so you got to keep digging and see what seems to make the most sense okay so what uh what would you say uh to the best of your ability best of your knowledge is in reference to genealogies like you said there's we have good you know journeys are good whether in the old testament or new testament right so in my in my mind the the things that would most prominently present themselves to me would either be one arguments about spiritual pedigree in one's own life based in genealogy or perhaps more likely various jewish traditions that argued that so-and-so went back to so-and-so and tried to fill in the blanks and paul's saying it's why that's of no value that's of no meaning um i may say one other thing on the other side of the break so just stick around we'll be right back oh 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 friends to the line of fire broadcast hey if you're anywhere near jacksonville florida new life church starting tonight and then through sunday a special origins conference jewish roots all kinds of fascinating scriptural discussion colleagues have been ministering i'm scheduled to speak morning and evening tomorrow so just check my itinerary askdrbrown.org so last comment eugene i was just curious to see what professor craig keener said in his ivp bible background commentary same thing that i just said that the idea of of post-biblical jewish tradition filling in genealogies and debating things like that could be at the center of it and of course you mentioned philo and the myths and genealogies referenced there but yeah we don't know beyond that my suspicion seems to be similar to his as well appreciate the call all right let's go over to mike in londonbury new hampshire thanks for calling the line of fire hey dr brown how's it going going well thank you hey so um i don't i don't know how much um like splitting hairs this question would be but my question is um pertaining to to jesus so if one accepts him as the messiah we know that he's he's not just a man he's far above a human being um how concrete does one have to be on whether he's the son of god or god the son you know what i mean ultimately to understand god rightly we need to understand that that the son of god is eternal and divine hence god the son i don't believe that someone has to fully get that the moment they're born again plenty of jews come to faith believe that jesus is the messiah believe that god has appointed him as lord believe he died for their sins and rose from the dead and it's only over a period of time that they begin to understand god's complex unity it's only over a period of time that they begin to realize that that this eternal son came into the world in the person of jesus so i would say if someone blatantly rejects that in other words they've studied it they've studied it they say no the son is a created being then i say they are believing falsely about him and we would be deeply concerned about the reality of their relationship with god or the foundation on which they stand and many others would say plainly they're obviously not saved but i certainly don't believe that that when peter preached in acts two and three thousand jews came to faith that they all got it right then oh we understand because remember peter's last word acts 236 let all the house of israel know that this jesus whom you crucified god has made lord and messiah so they're hearing god has made this one lord so the the master the one you bow down to and messiah but god is still god i would imagine it's over a period of time that further insight study of scripture revelation came to open that up for them so you have cults like jehovah's witnesses that are cults one reason being that they believe that the son of god is a created being and therefore not eternal and not to be worshipped as god whereas new testament very plainly refers to jesus as god and makes clear that we are to worship him but ultimately everything points to one god and and every knee bowing down to him so it's really it's not splitting hairs there is a difference the question is is if he is a created being then he cannot be worshipped as god he cannot be called god he cannot be prayed to as god and yet all of those things are done in the new testament to say he's a created being would be something that we regard as heretical awesome makes sense um i have also an unrelated question i don't know if you have time for it or not go for it real quick yeah okay um so coming from back in your early days when you um obviously were converting over from uh judaism and stuff like that and people that are just getting into reading scripture and fairly early in the walk where did you ever have um trouble being like a little bit skeptical of paul and his writing no i nothing nothing bothered me about that at all in other words when i got when i got saved i got radically saved and the bible was the bible that's okay the people in this church are telling the truth uh jesus saved my life saved my soul transformed me and um this is the bible so what it says is true and i may have had a question about what it meant or read something like wow i didn't know that i remember reading through the gospels and it was like a mystery novel to me it's like what's gonna happen next it's like what what would jesus heal there's a blind jesus heal the blind person well and then a couple chapters like he erased someone from the dead i had no idea it's like whoa i didn't know this i knew jesus rose for the dead i didn't know about these other things because brand new but it was written and it was true as the years went on a lot of what i believe was challenged you know day and night for decades been challenged but no especially with paul never never struggled there hey thank you thank you for asking all right um let's go to michelle in cheyenne wyoming isn't it something are you our first woman calling today at the end of the show welcome thank you um thanks for taking my call and two quick well maybe not quick questions one is do you suppose christians would be more effective evangelists towards jewish people if we were better able to articulate the mystery of the red heifer and i'm asking because i witnessed a hasidic you become a christian i witnessed him for three years with no success and then when i tried to explain the red heifer connection to jesus and the light just went on so i'm just curious your thoughts on the value of us learning that yes more and being able to share it better yeah so michelle if the lord used that to bring a hasidic jew an ultra-orthodox jew into knowledge of the messiah that's wonderful again i wouldn't want to think of him as going from jew the christian but but a jew embracing yeshua is the messiah but i've been sharing the gospel for 50 years with my people and never once has that mystery of the red heifer come up as a point in evangelism or theological discussion and i've been in the thick of it and with tons of with with leading orthodox rabbis and lots and lots and lots of interaction with wide ranges of jews so no i i would not look to it if the lord used that worked in a particular way wonderful but i i do not see this as a primary witnessing tool i see other things in terms of sacrificial offerings or the analogy with the binding of isaac and how jewish tradition sees that in Jewish sees that in genesis 22 etc i would see those as much more powerful the death of the high priest and releasing the man slayers the accidental homicide those things the whole analogy of the sacrificial system i find those to be much more powerful arguments and then of course in the new testament the reference to the messiahs the lamb of god so the lord used that wonderful but i would dare say that there was three years of sharing the gospel first planting seeds praying which was really the key and this may have just been some final thing that that the lord used so in my judgment thank god he used that but no i would not say this is a major thing we should learn for sharing the gospel with jewish people thanks for asking for my opinion did we have anyone before michelle call in i just don't remember if we did all right let's see if i get to another call or two uh marcus in orange county california time is short so please dive right in okay sure can you hear me yeah go ahead uh hey dr brown so my question is you know the bible says there's one lord one faith one baptism not that there's two saints or three saints and the whole purpose of israel was to go out and convert the nation to publish the gospel and to convert unbelievers to believers unbelievers in the bible are called gentiles or heat even pagans gentiles so my question for you is do you believe jesus when he says to uh nicodemus you must be born again not of corruptible fee by the incorruptible word of god that liveth and abideth forever and if you don't believe you're not really a jew uh yeah so almost everything well a lot of what you said there was false so but thanks for getting it out so quickly with time being short thank you number one israel's mission was not to convert the nations but to to live as a priestly nation keeping the statutes that god gave to them and not to the rest of the world but to declare the knowledge of god to exalt god in the nations so that the people as the nations could worship god they were not supposed to become israel so look for example in isaiah 19 the end of that chapter that asyria and egypt at the end of the age will worship god together with israel they don't become israel they do not become israel now pagan gentile can be gentile can be synonymous but other times gentile goy just means someone of the nations abram is told he's going to be a great goy a great nation in genesis 12 so read romans 11 paul writes to gentile believers 11 11 to 16 he writes to gentile believers and says i'm writing to you gentiles because i want you to provoke my people israel to believe so gentiles do not become israel i mean the word is explicitly clear on that in the new testament now you could say well i identify as a spiritual jew fine but but if you read in romans get to the end of second chapter keep reading into the third chapter a jew is a jew a physically circumcised person and tracing back to abraham isaac and jacob and what does paul say in the messiah he doesn't say a jew becomes a gentile gentile becomes a jew or everyone becomes israel he says no no in the messiah jew and gentile become one in him how through that new birth that you mentioned so i'm a saved jew you're a saved gentile whatever your background is if you're jewish also we are saved through the blood of messiah we become one but just like when a man gets saved just become a woman when a woman gets saved just become a man but they are now equals in the messiah as i said to a previous caller no cast system no class system and paul warns against it he said if you say uncircumcised don't become circumcised because circumcision is not the issue and if becoming a jew is the issue he would say every male has to be circumcised no he says the opposite and this is one of the modern heresies today that jews are not really jews but that christians are the true jews false false false thank you for the call perhaps we'll talk again in the future god bless your friends and if you're in the jacksonville area hopefully i'll see you this weekend oh another program powered by the truth network