The New Wave of Terror in Israel

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This is on Israel and the Jewish people on Thursday. Some tragic news to report but it is reality. We need to talk about it. We need to pray. Here's a number to call. Any Jewish related question you have of any kind, whether it ties in with modern Israel, whether it's about messianic prophecy in the Old Testament, whether it's about the Hebrew language or Jewish tradition, or if you're a Jewish person and you differ with my beliefs in Yeshua being our Messiah, same number to call.

866-348-7884. So there's so much going on in the world today. You may have missed the news from Israel, but there are now 11 people killed in the last eight days. That was as of yesterday, 11 people killed in the previous eight days. And it is a clear wave of terror. In other words, there have been several different attacks.

Attackers have made an association with ISIS known plainly. Ramadan, which is the holiest month on the Islamic calendar, begins on Saturday, April 2nd. And there are real concerns with what could happen during Ramadan because terrorism often increases during Ramadan. It's a time of intense spiritual devotion in Islam. It's a time of self-denial in the day and feasting at night.

So from dawn to dusk, no food, no liquids. And the Muslim world, religious Muslim world in particular, will largely live by this, abide by it, and then feasting at night. But during this time, be it the pent-up aggression, be it just this is a time of greater consecration to Islamic principles, terrorism often rises. And there are calls for terrorist acts that often rise at this time. So Israel is really on the alert. This is right now not on the level of the first or second intifada or anything like that. There has not been an open, organized call, say, from Palestinian Authority or Hamas for acts of violence like there would have been in the past. But something is obviously brewing.

Something is going on. And the tragedy is affecting everyone. It's affecting Israeli Jews.

It's affecting Arab Christians. In fact, I'm looking at a headline on allisrael.com where it shows pictures of the funeral of 32-year-old Amir Khouri. So based on the pictures, he was an Orthodox Christian. And even though he had finished his law degree, he loved being a policeman, so he stayed in the police force. He told his girlfriend, one day I'm going to stop a terror attack, and she said it's not worth it. Well, he responded to a terror attack. The terrorist was still firing his M16.

Khouri got there with his partner. There was a shootout. He was killed. His partner killed the terrorist. And he's being hailed as a hero of Israel. And at his funeral, ultra-Orthodox Jews from Bnei Brak, this was the area that the terrorist was shooting in, and into which the police officer Khouri and his partner went, ultra-Orthodox Jews from Bnei Brak came to his funeral, hailing him as a hero. So it is touching many, many lives in Israel.

The randomness of it, the suddenness of it, the fact that it seems like it could come from anyone at any time, makes the situation all the more volatile. So those of you who pray for Israel, pray for God's will, for God's best, for protection, for repentance in the hearts of terrorists, for solutions to many of the problems that the people face there. Because you have to realize that when you've had massive conflict for so many years, and now going on for a few generations, and when you have one group that says, we were just put down, we were just oppressed, we were just marginalized, and you say, well, the reason is because your leaders tried to wipe us out and kill us, right, that would be the Israeli response to Palestinians saying, we've been marginalized, we're second-class citizens, et cetera, especially those in the quote, in the quote, occupied territories. So they, their perspective would be, if you grow up in the Gaza Strip, that the Israelis are tyrants, and they're murderers, and they're oppressing us, and they're stealing our land and living in our land, and the Israeli response would be, we pulled out of Gaza, Gaza Strip, so you could self-determine your destiny. Instead, you elect Hamas, after a bloody civil war with Palestinian authority, you elect Hamas as your leaders, they're terrorists out to destroy us, what do you expect us to do?

If you change your policies, we'll change ours. So it's this back and forth, but if you grow up there, and if you've just been exposed to the educational system, and you've just been exposed to the state-run TV, then you will have the worst possible view of Israel, so when after repeated attacks, repeated attacks, repeated attacks, Israel says, okay, we're going to respond, and we're going to declare war on Hamas in Gaza, and they start bombing, then the world is saying, you're just bombing innocent people in Gaza, what are you doing? And this is the world's largest open prison camp, and this is oppression, and this is terror, Israel says, we're responding to terror, we are fighting back against terror, as any sovereign nation would be. So the things have gone so deep, they are so generationally ingrained, then you have radical Islamic ideology and theology built in, which demonizes the Jewish people, and which says that this land will always belong to Islam. Once Islam has conquered a territory, then in Islamic thought, that territory belongs to it. It would be like, you marry your wife, and then someone else steals her, no, no, that's my wife, you don't have a right to her, that's my wife. Well, they'd say that's our land, that's our territory, and Israel claims, no, no, no, this has always been our land, always been our territory, then there's the Islamic response to that and back and forth it goes.

So this has very, very deep roots. Many in the younger generation, with maybe more access to the truth, and more access to the humanity of others through social media, harder to demonize people when you're interacting with them in a friendly way, many in the younger generation may be more willing to see peace on both sides, but may not be fully aware of the history and the difficulties and the challenges. And then you also have, say, within a place like Gaza Strip, the average age is very young for people.

In other words, oh, let's just see here, I'm going to type this in, all right? Average age, citizen of Gaza, all right? Gaza Strip. Gaza Strip.

Let's see what this comes up with. I'd be shocked here, let's just see, stats, population, weather, average income, demographics, average salary. All right, I'll find this a little later, but if you compare that to Japan, the average age, in fact, guys, see if you can find that, okay? The average age for someone living in Japan and the average age for someone living in Gaza Strip, you'll find it's off probably by several decades difference, that one population aging, the other more and more and more young people. And yes, there are young people who are in touch with each other, Palestinians, Israelis, and they want to be friends, they want to work together, they want to see peace, but then there are many others that have been raised radicalized. And here, what do young men often do?

Fight, right? I remember talking to a Catholic sociologist, got his PhD in sociology 10 years before I got my PhD at NYU, he got his at NYU, and he was saying sociology 101, the reason that you had all the rioting in the 60s, the reason that you had the whole generation gap and counterculture revolution was that you had the baby boomers and after the war, there was just a disproportionate number of young people born that tipped the scale when you have more young people, you have more fighting, and he said that's sociology 101. So you have to factor that in as well. You have a lot of young people, especially young men who have been radicalized growing up, especially in places like Gaza Strip or growing up in the so-called West Bank, biblically, Judea and Samaria, and they see Israel in much more negative, ominous ways, and are much more easily recruited to do battle against Israel, and then you have the more radical elements within Israel. You have that growing as well on the right, and they're more inclined to violence.

So it's a volatile situation. I do not have some peace plan. I do not have some magic, oh, if you just listen to Mike Brown on this, oh, it's all going to be solved. No, I'm saying we've got to pray. Let's pray before more innocent lives are taken.

God, your will. Yes, every person on the planet is important to God. Yes, he cares about conflicts and deaths all over the world. When it comes to Israel, it's something that we pay even more attention to because it is so volatile, because it can affect so many others, because there's such a history of slaughtering of Jewish people and cold blood over the years.

It sensitizes us to that as well. But we are not, okay, we are not pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian. We are pro-people.

We are pro-justice. I stand with Israel. I'm absolutely sure that Israel today is a partial fulfillment of ancient prophecy still coming to pass. That's why I say partial fulfillment.

There's much more still to happen. But my heart is God's best for all the people in the land. 866-34-TRUTH. I'm going to go to the phones momentarily. Yeah, that's what I thought. I was off in Japan, but I had it right for Gaza.

But it seemed so extreme, I wanted to double check. So thanks to my crack team here. Are you ready for this? The median age in Gaza. So you average in the entire population, right? And then you just look for the average age as it balances it.

Are you ready for this? The median age for people living in Gaza Strip is 18 years old. So a lot of families having a lot of kids in a relatively small area and growing up with Hamas misusing funds, growing up without a lot of the benefits that international aid could have given them.

Very, very volatile. What's the average age or the median age for someone in Japan? 48. I thought it was like 56.

That's what was in my mind. But it's close and I told you it's going to be a disparity of decades. Yes. 48. This is an aging culture without support for the elderly because there are not enough kids. Gaza's population growth rate is 2.05.

Japan's is minus 0.03. Yeah. So it's a volatile situation with Ramadan coming, even more volatile, especially as you get to the end of Ramadan. So father, your will be done. Your kingdom come to Israel and the surrounding territories and the surrounding nations. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And may all the peoples of that region, Jew and Gentile alike, look to you as their hope, as their salvation. All right, we'll be right back. I'm going to go straight to your call. 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. What beautiful sounds, what beautiful music, the great call from God to the Jewish people and to all of us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength. It's Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Have you visited the Real Messiah website? Oh, it's chock full of incredible information. Many debates I've had with rabbis, super informative answers to about a hundred of the key questions and objections that are raised both on video and in writing.

My whole Think It Through TV series, two seasons of that, all there. Other materials that will enrich your life. And it's all free. Why is it free? Because people like you help donate, support us. So stand with us, realmessiah.com. First, check it out. Enjoy it.

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Think of it. Your giving helps us share the good news of Jesus, the Messiah with a Jewish person or with Jewish people who've never heard. Your giving will store up eternal treasure. You know, some people say, if you give this, you'll get this much back. How about this? You give this and you get to meet people throughout eternity that have come to faith through your generosity.

That, that to me is, that's a reward. All right. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Ryan in Yukon, Oklahoma. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Hi, Dr. Brown. I had a question that I'm sure that you have answered many times, and it is a question that a lot of people that get serious about studying their Bible will come across. And the question is, and I've got an example, the question is, why are there so many times when the writers of the New Testament, including Jesus himself, and of course Apostle Paul, would quote the Old Testament, but they would go out of their way, perhaps, to quote the Greek instead of the Hebrew, the Septuagint, that was translated, I guess, about a hundred years before Christ. And in so doing, there are many times where I get frustrated because I try to square the New Testament with the Old Testament reference, and they don't come out quite the same. And the classic example I found was Jeremiah 31-32 and Hebrews 8-9, and I'll just be real brief, the clause in Hebrews 31-32 finishes by saying, my covenant would stay broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. But in Hebrews 8-9, it says, for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. And so that's a classic example of where the Greek New Testament or the Greek New Testament is quoting the Greek Old Testament, but it's at odds with the Old Testament of Hebrew, and I wanted to see what you could talk to us about along those lines.

Yeah, of course, thank you for the question, and it is an important one, and of course it's one that anyone that just studies the Bible carefully, and as you say, tries to dig deeper into the original text, will raise. So the simple answer is, because the New Testament writers were writing in Greek, they quoted the Greek Bible that was most widely used in their day. Later revisions, Theodosians, Symmachus, Aquila, those would postdate New Testament for the most part in terms of being widely distributed or used. So it would be just like in the days when the King James Bible was the English Bible, right? And let's say I'm a pastor and I've got congregations in several different states, maybe it's the 1700s, and I'm writing a letter and I'm quoting scripture to them, maybe I can read it perfectly from the Greek or from the Hebrew, but I'm quoting it to them and say, hey, read this, look this up in your Bible. The Bible they have is the King James Bible, so that's what I'm going to quote from.

As long as the overall substance of it is accurate, then I'm going to leave it like that. So that was the Bible that people had access to, that was the Bible that they would check for references and things like that. So that's why they quoted it. As far as Jesus, I don't believe that he would have referenced or quoted the Septuagint, because he would have been quoting the scriptures in Hebrew. And if he was teaching in a colloquial way, he would have been teaching in Aramaic. So it's simply if a Gospel writer, say Luke, writing in Greek, is quoting Jesus, he's now going to use the Septuagint the same way, because that's the Bible of the people, the one they're familiar with, and the one that they can reference and look things up, you know, if they can get to a scroll or someone has it memorized, etc.

The lesson would be that if the overall force of the message is coming across accurately, then that's what matters. That there may be a couple of different traditions in terms of how a word is translated, or what the original text said. Did it say Ba'alti for that passage in Jeremiah 31? I was a husband to them, as in the Hebrew. Could it have been a variant, maybe Ga'alti?

I rejected them, as others might render it. Is that what the Septuagint saw? Did the Septuagint have a different understanding of the Hebrew word?

So that's what's debated. There's a German word forlaga, which means the text that is before you. In other words, when the Septuagint translators were translating that, did their text, did their forlaga say Ba'alti, or did it say something else, or did they have a different understanding of the word? Either way, they translated it differently, and they were very close to it, right? They were 2200 years before us in terms of closeness to the text. So that would be the lesson, which would also tell me that when the Bible is translated into multiple languages, that's a good thing. For example, the Qur'an you're supposed to read in the original Arabic, and if it's translated, it's called the translation of the Qur'an.

Or the meaning of the Qur'an, because the Qur'an technically is only in Arabic. That was not God's intent with the Bible. And therefore, as long as the overall message gets out, then we can debate very specific words and details, but that's what we learn from the New Testament usage. Dr. Brown, I think there was a great point that you said, thank you very much, especially about how the Gospel writers are quoting Jesus. Jesus himself, perhaps, likely like you said, did not quote from the Septuagint, but the Gospel writers, taking the material that he spoke with, and when they would reference the Old Testament, it seems that that would be the time. Especially, it seems like Matthew takes a lot of liberty, we would say, with some of those Old Testament Scriptures. But you know what's interesting, though? What's interesting, Ryan, is that, for example, Matthew 8.17, that's Matthew's own translation from the Hebrew.

We don't have anything like it in the Targums, and we don't have anything like it in the Septuagint. In the same way, in the 27th chapter where he's quoting from Zechariah 11 with reference to probably Jeremiah 19 as well, but he's quoting that, he seems to provide his own translation there as well. So when he felt it was important for a point that was being made to emphasize that, he would do it. But if you think, for example, the quotation in Hebrews 8 of Jeremiah 31 verses 31-34, which, by the way, is the longest quotation of any passage from the Old Testament in the New, all four verses quoted, the whole emphasis is the New Covenant, New Covenant, New Covenant, New Covenant.

That's the emphasis, and that comes across loudly and clearly. Hey, again, thank you for the questions. Feel free to call us again with more.

866-348-7884. Let's go to Isaac in Westville, Oklahoma. Hey, do you know where Yukon, Oklahoma is?

I have no idea. Yeah, I never heard of it either. I thought it was Yukon, Alaska. But anyway, Westville, Oklahoma. Welcome to the broadcast.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, we're new to the area. Last time I got to speak with you, we were getting ready to leave Indiana to Oklahoma, and I was giving a little bit of my testimony about Jesus, but my wife and I realized that there's a lot of Christians out there who believe in the flat earth, and they say the Bible backs it, and when you get down to Hebrew translation, Greek translation, they had no word for sphere, so of course they would use, like, circle, but in your opinion, when you read Isaiah, is there any proof that would explain that the earth is either a sphere or is it flat? Well, certainly, there's nothing in the Hebrew words for earth or land that has anything to do with flatness or roundness. For example, the word eretz has nothing to, which can be earth or land or even world at times, that has nothing to do with flatness or roundness. Adamah, which is just the earth itself, right?

Adam is created from the Adamah. There's nothing in that word or any of the words, and to my knowledge, in Greek, you know, ge for earth and things like that, that has anything to do with flatness or roundness, any more than our words world, earth, land have anything to do with flatness or roundness. The question is, when we see the observational language of the Bible, the ends of the earth, or the four corners, the winds coming from the four corners of the world, does that indicate flatness?

Well, obviously not. It's just observational. When we read in Isaiah about the hug, the sphere of the earth or the circle of the earth, does that mean that the earth is a sphere? Or when speaking of the circle of the earth, is it just talking about looking out at the horizon, which can have that spherical look? There's debate about it.

But let me just say this. If someone is going to try to use the Hebrew Bible to prove flatness, then we can use the verse where it speaks of the hug of the earth to say no, it's quite the opposite. It's circular. It's round. It's really a battle that the Bible does not address, to be frank.

But if it did address it, then I would push back with that. The root hug likely coming from a root chagag, which means to circumambulate. You've heard of the Hajj. So why is the Hajj called the Hajj in Arabic? It's because the people go to Mecca and they circumambulate. They walk around in a circular way.

They walk around the Kaaba in Mecca. So it's that same root from whence this comes. So it does have to do with spherical or circular nature.

So if you want to use the Hebrew, push back with that and then abandon trying to prove this from the Bible and just look at reality of science. All right. Hey, thank you for the call. We'll come right back straight to your calls. Now's a great time to call in.

By the way, we can take some more calls. 866-348-7884. 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 to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, sometimes when the music starts.

I just want to just sit back and take it in, drink it in. Welcome, welcome to the broadcast. Hey, if you've got any Jewish-related question of any kind, be it Hebrew language, be it messianic prophecy, Jewish background to New Testament, those kind of questions, be it about Jewish beliefs and traditions, be it about modern state of Israel, by all means, give us a call. We've got a couple phone lines open. And the earlier you call in, the better chance we have of getting to your call. 866-348-7884.

Go into the phones momentarily. I'm often asked the question, what is the best translation of the Bible? Number one, that's completely subjective.

So we're talking into English, right? That's completely subjective. You talk to different biblical scholars, different linguists, different ministers of the gospel, and they'll have different opinions. So it is highly subjective.

That's number one. Number two, in my view, there is no such thing as the best translation because different translations are better at different things or have a certain purpose. So I've dealt with that. If you want to dig in deeper, go to AskDrBrown.org, A-S-K-D-R Brown.org, and just type in translations or Bible translations in the search box, and you'll get past broadcasts where we've talked about this.

Maybe another day we'll do it. It's been a few years since I've just devoted a whole broadcast to it. So I could give you a list of what I believe are the best translations overall. And among them, this one may be better for certain people, or this one may be considered more reliable or more accurate, et cetera.

That I can easily do. But in my view, there is no such thing as the best translation. Hey, I did a translation of the Book of Job for my Job commentary.

I started one in the Book of Isaiah for a commentary I'll be writing God willing over a period of years on the Book of Isaiah. I did not do a translation for Jeremiah when I wrote a commentary on that just because it was not required that the commentators did that in that series. But is my translation of Job the best translation of Job that's been done? No, I did it.

I did it. But I wouldn't say it's the best. That would be foolish.

That would be arrogant. In my mind, it's the most accurate based on my interpretation of Job, but there's so many other Job scholars and Hebrew scholars that have other views, and maybe the translations read much better than mine. Maybe mine's really good here, but weak there. Maybe someone can convince me that their translation of a word is better. Even the one that I did myself, I can't say, oh, it's the best. I can say you'll find it in harmony with my commentary, and hopefully you'll find it useful.

But there's so many things that go into Bible translation. So you may have your favorite. You may be a scholar and say, I think this is the most accurate. You may say, hey, for study, this is the most useful. Or for preaching, this works best.

But there's a lot of room for discussion there. Okay, that's a wide-ranging. All right, let's go over to Ladin in Alberta. Welcome to the line of fire. Thanks for calling. Hi, Dr. Brown. Thank you for taking my phone call.

Sure. I was wondering if it is in fact true if you take the Hebrew symbols of the Hebrew alphabet if using the name of Yahweh that it actually does mean behold the nail, behold the hand. That is gratuitous. That is as if the letters still had symbolic meanings, which they have not since they became an alphabet.

If you go to my website and just search for the word paleo, you'll see a whole video where I absolutely debunk that notion. First, the idea that the first symbol stands for behold is completely gratuitous. You have to read much into that. But just to explain, the earliest forms of language were written in pictographs, right? So you'd have thousands of different pictures to convey things. Maybe you have a foot, and that can mean foot, or it can mean walk, or it can mean kick, or it can mean a word related to that.

So you need thousands of them, right? And then from pictograph, in many cases you went to what's called cuneiform. That's the wedge shape that looks like chicken feet when you see it. And you'll see tablets, stone and cuneiform on it. So that was able to take the pictographs and now reduce them to sounds like boo, ba, lee, loo, etc.

So you could maybe deal with 600-something sounds. Then the alphabet was developed out of that ultimately. And the oldest that we have in terms of relevant to Hebrew would be the Phoenician alphabet.

Some claim there's an earlier Hebrew before that, but the Phoenician alphabet said, okay, and this was the philosophy with other alphabets. We'll take the first letter of this word and just take the sound, right? So the first letter of bayit, house, buh, or the first letter of aleph, ox, which is kind of a silent sound. So you'd have those, or the first letter of yod, hand. So that's a y, a y. So if you just put these together, now you actually have words.

And you can spell anything with 22, 25 different letters. So originally the letter for bayit, house, looked like a house. Or the letter for aleph, ox, looked like an ox.

Or the letter for dalit, door, looked like a door. But very quickly as the alphabet developed, it no longer looked like that at all. So the Greeks borrowed their alphabet from the Phoenicians, the Romans from the Greeks.

Ultimately we got things from Latin. So our alphabet goes back to the Phoenician alphabet. The American English goes back to Phoenician ultimately. The Hebrew goes back to Phoenician.

The Greek goes back to Phoenician. The thing is, once it became an alphabet, just like, what does the letter a stand for? What symbol?

Nothing. It's a sound. It's a vowel. What does b stand for?

B is nothing. It's the same thing with the Hebrew alphabet. So it is completely gratuitous. People have made whole ministries, based their whole ministries on discovering the original Hebrew meaning based on the pictographs. It's completely bogus. It is terribly misleading. There's not any evidence that any ancient Hebrew ever, in reading the Hebrew Bible, said, oh, this alphabet letter actually stands for this pictorial symbol which stands for this word. That's basically something with people who don't know Hebrew, don't really understand it, advocating for this. It's become very popular, but it is completely bogus and 100% gratuitous to say that the divine name has that gospel message in it.

So sorry to disappoint, but that's the truth. No problem. That's exactly what I wanted to know, because I wanted to use it as an argument that, you know, Jesus is God, and I'm glad I asked you first. Yeah, and here's the other thing. Where do the biblical writers ever point to that? Where does the New Testament ever point to that? Where do the disciples of the apostles ever point to that? Nowhere.

Nowhere. So in any case, check out, and paleo, by the way, is just a type of script. It's not a phase of the language. It's just the old way of writing the script. That's all it is.

So just search for paleo on the YouTube channel with Ask Dr. Brown, AskJera Brown, or on our website, AskDrBrown.org. Thank you for the call. By the way, the hostility towards my video for setting the record straight and the people mocking me for not knowing Hebrew. It's like, it's frustrating because I want people to know the truth.

And again, people have built their whole ministries on this. And someone asked me the other day, is this a good website? I said, just stay away from it. Terrible. But what grieved me is the site's still up.

The ministry is still going, despite it being based completely on falsehood. Yeah, sadly. All right. Let's go to Imana in North Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Brown, for taking my call.

You're welcome. I have a couple of questions, and I'm just curious, actually. And my first question is, when the Bible was written, so after how many years after Jesus, the Bible was written, and who wrote it, and how many versions of Bibles are there, and why are they so different than each other? And Imana, are you a Christian yourself? I am not Christian. Are you Muslim? Yes, I'm Muslim. Ah, okay. Are you aware that there were many, many, many different versions of the Quran passed on orally, and then when they were written out, that they were so, so different that one of the early caliphs had them destroyed so that there was only one left?

But you're aware of that, correct? No, there are not any different versions of the Quran. Oh, no, no. Actually, there are. Yeah, Imana, there are. There are different translations, but not the versions. No, no, no, different versions. There were manuscripts found in Yemen a few years back, and those differed as well. Whenever you find older versions of the Quran, yeah, Imana, I'm just telling you the truth.

I'm telling you the truth. Yeah, now, here's a big difference. Let's say the New Testament. The New Testament was largely written by eyewitnesses of the crucifixion, right, like Matthew or John. So how many years after the crucifixion, according to the crucifixion? So the oral traditions were passed on immediately.

They were put in writing within 30 to 60 years, which is very fast. But here's what's interesting. The eyewitnesses recorded that Jesus was crucified. Six hundred years later, the Quran says he wasn't crucified. So who do I believe? The eyewitnesses who saw it with their own eyes, saw him die, saw him rise, or someone who wasn't there six hundred years later.

Who should I believe? So you say 60 years after the... 30 to 60 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, the Gospels were written, but the oral traditions passed on immediately. Remember, the Quran was originally passed on orally. And then in addition to that immana, the letters of Paul start to be written within 15 or 20 years of the crucifixion.

So you have many people, you have to remember, there were so many people who saw this happen, and knew that Jesus died, and knew that he rose. So the Bible is incredibly reliable, incredibly trustworthy. So who wrote it? Oh, there are many, many different people who wrote it inspired by the Lord, like Moses, and Isaiah, and Matthew, and Paul. They were inspired by the Lord to write these things. Supernaturally, God gave them the words, put the words in their heart and their mind.

So they were, like Moses wrote about the exodus from Egypt. He was there. He saw it.

He was part of it. Hey, stay right there. We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on The Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us, friends, on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Let me go right back to Imana. Imana, I'm so glad you called with these questions. May I ask you something? Are you open to finding out more about the Bible, or are you primarily calling as a devoted Muslim wanting to show why the Bible is wrong? No, I am very curious. You know, I am.

This is such a coincidental that I turn on my daughter, and you know when you move your thing, the radio, and you read the song. Got it. When I saw your name, which looked like an obvious Arabic name, when I saw that, and I studied classical Arabic for three years in college and university, so I could read the Qur'an in Arabic, so when I saw the name and the questions, that's why I asked, so can I do this? Can I send you something to read that'll answer a lot of these questions, and then once you read it, you can call again. We can talk some more. Can I do that? Yes, yeah. All right, so do this. I'm a very, very open-minded person.

I am very curious, and I get lots of questions, you know? Good, good, good. I love it. I love it.

And look, I'm a Jew who believes in Jesus, so I had to go against a lot of my own family traditions and background. So listen, we're not going to put you on any mailing list or anything like that. I just need your address to send you a book, all right? I want to think about the right book to send you. Once you read it, then call in with further questions, okay? So our call screener is going to go in and get your address, and then we're going to send you a book within the next couple of weeks, all right?

And then we can continue the conversation. Let's pray for Yamana. Isn't that providential that she called in?

And as a Muslim, she believes in divine providence, yes? So let's pray that the Lord will open our heart and mind, and as we answer a lot of the questions, then our heart will be more open to the good news about Jesus the Messiah. Awesome.

Thank you so much. All right, let's go to Paul in Richmond, Virginia. Welcome to the line of fire. Well, good afternoon, Dr. Brown. How are you?

Doing very well, thank you. Well, thank you for taking my call. Thank you for your ministry. So just reading about Luke 21, listening to different expositors, I wanted to get your perspective as a scholar. Luke 21, specifically verses 22 through 24. And 22, when Jesus says that, he said, for this is the time of punishment and fulfillment of all that has been written. And then the 24, he says, they will fall by the sword, and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. So the first question is, I think it when it says, please correct me if I'm wrong, but when it says the time of punishment for this people, it's talking about, I'm assuming the Jews, but specifically Judah, but when it says taken as prisoners to all the nations, did Jesus mean, first question, did he mean all the nations? And if so, do we have a record historically or, you know, either secular or Christian historians of where, was it literally all the nations?

Right. So the first thing is definitely a judgment on the people of Judah, Jerusalem, so the Jewish people as a whole, culminating with the destruction of Jerusalem. That's certainly what's spoken of. And when it says, among the nations, among all nations, ESV translates among all nations. Many, many times when the Bible speaks of all the world, all nations, it's making a general statement as opposed to every single nation in the world. In other words, you've got some island nation, you know, with a population of 1100 people, 3000 miles away from every other civilization, that it must include that.

Now it just means all around the world. And for sure, Jewish people were sold into slavery, were taken captive, were exiled all around the world. So it's happened in striking ways, and many times Jews have been expelled from different countries because they refused to be baptized, or they didn't fit in with Islamic law and things like that. What's glorious though is, until the times that the Gentiles are fulfilled, it's one of these New Testament untils that says there will be a restoration, there will be a transformation. So it doesn't happen, for example, in one specific moment. It doesn't happen that it's just, oh, here's the second. But we can see this transition has been taking place, especially as the old city of Jerusalem, and that which is under Jordanian control, from 48 to 67, that that is back in Jewish hands and not being trampled underfoot the way it was in an abusive way.

So it definitely applies to the Jewish people, but there is a restoration and we're watching it unfold. Hey, thank you. Thank you, Paul, for the call. Hey, listen, Imanah, if you're still listening, I understand that we were trying to get your address and your phone was dying. So if you're still listening, Imanah, just go to my website, AskDrBrown.org. A-S-K-D-R-Brown.org. Just go to the website. It says contact and just shoot a note.

This is Imanah. I spoke with Dr. Brown on the air. He promised me a book. My staff will get it to me. All right. Don't worry about it. Or just call another day and just say, this was this is my address. Dr. Brown promised me a book.

You didn't have to come on the air. We'll get you covered. All right. And in the meantime, visit AskDrBrown.org, AskDrBrown.org.

You'll find a lot of helpful information there. OK, let's go to Nancy in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi. Thank you for taking my call, too.

You're welcome. My questions are just out of curiosity about prayer shawls. And I remember a part in the Bible where, you know, the woman touched his tassel. I assume that was from like a prayer shawl or something. And I just wondered. What do they really use them for? Is it like how the Catholics use a rosary kind of thing or if it's something because of.

You know, how did that ever come about and. Right. OK, so only men wore them, right? Yes, it was initially it was not a shawl. It was just part of the garment. So remember, you're wearing a four cornered garment that's hanging down loosely. Right.

Men are not wearing pants in the ancient world primarily. Right. So they're they're they're they're wearing this four cornered garment. And from the hems, it would have these tassels. Right. That was that was his God gave it in Numbers and Deuteronomy. And the woman with the issue of blood, that's just the extremity, the thing that's hanging out the furthest.

I just touched that. Even that I'll be healed over a period of time as garments changed, then a prayer shawl was developed so that you could put this on and it would have these ritual fringes that remind you that the way the knots were done, ultimately tradition developed at certain knots. This is not originally with Moses, but Jewish tradition developed that reminded you to keep the six hundred thirteen commandments of the Torah. It's not that there's six hundred thirteen knots, but that it's a remembrance to keep the six hundred thirteen commandments of the Torah. That's later Jewish tradition developed that if you see some movie and it's depicting life in ancient Israel and the men are wearing prayer shawls, that's anachronistic.

That's that's not the way it happened then. The actual development of the shawl is later. Now, in some traditions, as it developed in the religious household, you always wear that you wear it's called Talit katan under your garments. So men would wear this and then they would have the fringes sticking out to remind them, always see them. And as it says in Numbers 15, for example, this is a reminder to you to keep the commandments. So it's not that you pray it like the rosary or something like that. And then when you go into the synagogue, there can be the additional prayer shawl that you carry with you and that you put on. Sometimes men will put it over their heads just to absorb themselves in deeper prayer and meditation as they're before the Lord. But it's it is just something that accompanies prayer that reminds a Jewish person of the commandment to keep the the six hundred thirteen commandments of the Lord. And as something that's worn under the so kind of like under your T-shirt, you'd wear it under your shirt and then you just have hanging out from the sides, the the fringes.

That's a reminder all the time. And then when you put it on for prayer, just a further reinforcing. But it's not like the rosary where each bead, I'm not Catholic for this, understand each bead, you know, as you touch it, then you say a certain prayer for that bead. It's not like you touch the fringe here and say this prayer and another work your way down and touch another. By the way, a rabbi once told me this joke that he brought some of his clothes into the local dry cleaner.

It was owned by a Chinese fellow and brought it into the local dry cleaner and comes back and everything's ready except the prayer shawl. And he says, oh, Rabbi, we just had a delay with that. This come back next Friday, we'll have it ready. The rabbi comes back. He said, sorry, we just need till Monday.

We'll get it. It's like, wow, I wonder what happened because like Monday said, yeah, it took us forever to get all those knots out. So anyway, I said, OK, thank you for the call. Hey, listen, those we couldn't get to today, as always, if you're able to call us tomorrow, you've got questions, we've got answers.

Those that don't get through on a Thursday, we try to push up the line for Friday. So by all means, give us a call and let's continue to pray for Israel, for God's grace, for God's goodness in the midst of the conflict there, in the midst of the rising wave wave of terror, especially with Ramadan coming. Let's pray that this is a time when many Jews, many Arabs will look to the Lord. Many Christians have their faith renewed and and in the midst of pain and grieving that people will turn to the Messiah. May the blessing and smile and grace of the Lord be yours in absolute wonderful abundance on this thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time.