Confronting the Growing Plague of Baseless Hatred

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The following program is produced by Truth Network. You may want to weigh in on the hatred that's in America, and who is most responsible for spreading it? Is it the media? Is it politicians? Is it social media?

Is it just grassroots? Is it demonic? Is it a combination of all of the above? Who or what is responsible for fueling the fires, fanning the flames of this hatred that is growing? Whites against blacks, blacks against Jews, different groups against Asians, whites against Hispanics, etc. Who is fueling this fire? Blacks against whites. Who is fueling the fire?

Why is it on the increase? Why are we seeing more atrocious shootings and killings in all different directions based on ethnic or racial hatred? Yesterday, Monday, excuse me, when I was talking about the tragic shootings over the weekend, I mentioned at that time, initially the information we had was that an Asian American had gone into a church the Sunday shooting.

We had the clear information about a white supremacist targeting blacks on Saturday in Buffalo. But it seemed it was an Asian American in an Asian American church. Initially, I said it doesn't seem to be an ethnic or racial issue there. It would seem that there may have been some internal dispute or something like that. As happens, you're mad at someone in the church.

Your ex-wife goes there. You're crazed and want to attack and you do this demented thing. But it turns out that the shooter was shooting over racial issues. These were Taiwanese Christians. And according to what I'd read, this man had to go to Taiwan from mainland China and resent it the way he was treated in Taiwan. Therefore, had an ax to grind against Taiwanese Chinese, even though he himself was Chinese.

So the racial hatred or the ethnic hatred is there as well. So I want to talk a little bit more about what we must do as followers of Jesus to swim against this ugly tide. Also, if you want to weigh in at all on the show yesterday with RT Kendall, Dr. RT Kendall and his brand new book, Prophetic Integrity, and some of the issues we were discussing, some points that were raised that you may want to weigh in on, phone lines are open for that as well. Plus, I haven't talked about this at all on the air, but Todd White reached out to me a few weeks back and said, could I do a video with him talking about the meaning of 2 Corinthians 521?

He had made some comments that got people very upset and I didn't watch the video, but I saw I saw quotes of the specific comments and he was trying to explain 2 Corinthians 521, that Jesus became sin for us so that in God's sight he would have become the worst of sinners, guilty of the worst of crimes, and he said certain things that disturb people understandably. We talked by phone, he said, well, this is Dr. Brown, this is what I'm trying to convey. And I said, what you're trying to convey is right.

If you say it a certain way, it could easily be misunderstood. So we talked about it. I sent him more material from a commentary that had good discussion of this. He then got on with me and said, OK, here's what I understand it to be saying.

I said, great, let's take that a little deeper, fine tune that a little bit more. So we posted that video and that's that's gotten a lot of interaction on YouTube. Some people really pleased that I have that relationship to speak into his life. Others saying this is wonderful to see two brothers sharing these things together.

Others saying, why do you give him the time of day? He's a heretic. So feel free to weigh in. I've got a fascinating quote from Martin Luther that one of our YouTube viewers posted. I found the fuller quote here. I'm going to interact with that as well.

866-348-7884. So we have this terrible social madness. We have mass shootings in America, unlike what most of the rest of the world experiences in terms of violent attacks. We have the mass shootings. We've had car attacks. We've had other types of attacks. Knives used, but not as commonly for mass attacks because of the availability of guns. And you have in China mass knife attacks because guns are less available.

So human beings are going to commit atrocities. But it's been for many years now. In my book Revolution, which came out the first edition in the year 2000, I had list after list after list from 1999 of mass shootings. Just that year. I mean, mind boggling, agonizing, horrifying.

We've almost become used to them. But now so many are being tied in with race issues, ethnicity issues. The slaughter in El Paso, a Wal-Mart in El Paso that was aimed against Hispanic Americans. The Buffalo shooting, as we said, aimed against black Americans. And the shooter also hated Jews and wanted to target Jews. If you look at the black shooter in New, you see a white shooter in Buffalo, white shooter in Texas. Then you have a black shooter in the subways of New York City wounding 29. And he was known for his black nationalist, black supremacist writings. You have the Waukesha parade massacre where you where you've got there a black man slaughtering white men and women, a child in cold blood. And he had his own BLM sentiments that were posted. You have a white man walking into a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and slaughtering in cold blood black men and women that are there to worship the Lord.

And warmly welcome this fellow in their midst. It is it is so much on the increase, so many ongoing violent crimes against Jews because they are Jews. You had the Jersey shooting, Jersey City shooting a couple of years ago targeting Jews as Jews by black supremacists.

So you've got it in all directions. Now, the way the mainstream media often talks about it, it is just an issue of white supremacy. And it ties in with January 6th. If you're a Republican, you're a white supremacist. If you're a Republican, if you voted for Donald Trump, you're an insurrectionist. That is irresponsible rhetoric, very irresponsible rhetoric to group all these people together. In fact, we get an article on Newsweek posted on Newsweek by let's see by it's Angie Speaks. The left is using the Buffalo shooting to demonize its political opponents. She's an African-American or Hispanic American looking at the picture. And she said the white supremacist arrested for killing 10 people at Buffalo supermarket on Sunday did not leave much room for doubt as to why he allegedly carry out such a heinous and horrific act in a lengthy and unhinged manifesto.

He made reference to the great replacement theory, a racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that accuses Jews of importing black and brown immigrants to replace the nation's native born whites. Then she says, rather than taking this horrifying incident as an opportunity to unite against such an ugly fringe view, the left instead seized on the tragedy as an opportunity to blame their political opponents and liken them all to the Buffalo shooter. And just again, one example of this after another, maybe the most glaring Rolling Stone magazine published a piece titled The Buffalo Shooter is an Alone Wolf. He's a mainstream Republican. You might as well say, well, the shooter of Steve Scalise, Congressman Steve Scalise and other Republicans at a baseball game.

He's just a typical Democrat. And on and on with this type of rhetoric. Here's an article on Fox Buffalo shooting MSNBC, ABC, Rolling Stone, others exploiting pain using tragedy to trash opponents. Senator Chuck Schumer spoken up in this way and directly accused Tucker Carlson. And by the way, I'm not here to defend Tucker Carlson or Fox News.

It's really not on my mind whatsoever. But the shooter, although he held to this great replacement theory, this demented anti-immigrant, anti-black, anti-brown, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, which is vile. Although he held to that, he hated Fox News.

He considered himself to the left, authoritarian but leftist. So to paint with these broad brushes is destructive, but the reason I bring it up is to say that political leaders are being irresponsible in further inflaming tensions. Others in the media are being irresponsible, talking heads being irresponsible. And all it's doing is provoking more hatred, marginalizing more and more people. And then when you have these really evil people or these mentally ill people or a combination of both, it doesn't take much to to push them over. It doesn't take much to push them over to a point where they are now committing these horrific acts. This each shooter, each one that acts, each murderer is responsible alone for his or her actions.

Almost always his when it comes to these mass killings. But but each one is responsible for their own actions. But we who are communicators, we must think through the implications of what we say. We must think through if we speak on the platforms that we have. If you're a pastor preaching from behind the pulpit, if you're a school teacher with a school full of children, if you are if you are speaking on the radio, if you are a social media influencer, if you are a political leader, whoever you are, if you have an audience that you're influencing, you need to think through the implications of your words. That's why when I had Catholic scholar E. Michael Jones on our show a few years ago, not to debate, but have a discussion. And I said to him, your words could lead to violence.

And so how can that be? Because I hold to the do no harm view of the of the Catholic Church. So while he has all these anti-Jewish views in my views, blatantly anti-Semitic views, he said, I absolutely say do no harm.

I said, but the words you're speaking are irresponsible. And it wasn't long after that, that there was the Poway synagogue shooting. And even though there's no connection that is known between E. Michael Jones and the shooter, the talking points were the same major talking points. Many of them, many of them.

Of course, the shooter alone is responsible, but we give these warnings for a reason. And now things are getting more and more and more inflamed and tensions rising. Friends, you and I, followers of Jesus, let's be peacemakers. What can we do to overcome hatred with love, to overcome evil with good? We must find the 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. Thanks for joining us on The Line of Fire. You can weigh in on anything I've said.

You can take issue with me. You can probe more deeply or any other question on any subject that touches on our Line of Fire broadcast. By all means, give us a call. 866-348-7884. I'm going to be going to the phones pretty soon today.

866-34-TRUTH. Before I do that, just hearing the ad recommending the vitamin supplements of Dr. Mark Stengler. Those of you listening on radio or, yeah, listening on radio, you probably heard the same ad.

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With a 10% discount and then in turn gives a discount back to a donation back to our ministry to help us reach more people and get out more free material. So that's vitaminmission.com. Okay, there's an article that was posted by Glenn Greenwald. Glenn Greenwald and it is called the demented and selective game of instantly blaming political opponents for mass shootings. And he said all ideologies spawn psychopaths who kill innocents in its name.

Yet only some are blamed for their violent adherence by opportunities cravingly exploiting corpses while they still lie on the ground. And what he does is he gets into, it's a lengthy article, it's well documented. Glenn Greenwald is known for doing that in his work as a journalist. And he goes through all these attacks that may not get as much media attention or where blame is not as quickly ascribed.

And to show one example after another after another. For example, they don't fit into the white nationalist, white supremacist viewpoint. They don't fit into the anti-black, anti-Hispanic viewpoint. And he lists all these, one after another after another, major, major events, but you don't hear, well this is all because of black nationalism. Or this is all because of, now you might hear it from some, there may be some fanning the flames in the other direction. For sure there are, in terms of the white supremacists that are fanning the flames of every act of black violence, etc.

So I'm quite aware of that. I'm saying the mainstream media, political leaders, you're not hearing it as much. The fact is we could sit around all day, please hear me, we could sit around all day blaming everybody or we could focus on the real issues. Try to get to the root of these mass killings. Try to see what triggers people to do what they do. Try to look more deeply into our larger healthcare systems, our larger family structure, our larger educational system. Whatever is going on that is fueling the fires of people and helping them cross over these lines, these horrific murderous lines.

We need to be looking at those things rather than just pointing at the Democrats, pointing at the Republicans, pointing at the whites, pointing at the blacks, pointing at the Jews, pointing at the Hispanics. What good does that do? How does that help anything? All it does is just gets people madder. And I know some people, that's their niche. They just get you madder and madder.

They get you more worked up within your little group. I may offend everybody in the process, but I don't have some little group I'm trying to build here or some kind of following I'm trying to gather. My goal is to gather us around Jesus regardless of our ethnicity, our race, our background. But as followers of Jesus to submit all of our lives to God, my goal is to infuse you with faith and truth and courage so you can stand strong for the Lord. To help all of us grow into the fullness of our calling in God. To learn from each other, to sharpen one another, and then to unite to reach a dying sinful world.

To say we're not going to be part of the problem. You're not going to find this anger in us. You're not going to find this hatred in us.

You're not going to find this sectarianism in us. We're part of the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God transcends Republican or Democrat or Libertarian. The kingdom of God transcends race and ethnicity.

That's the kingdom to which we were called. And therefore, when confronted with evil, what does Paul say? Don't be overcome by evil.

Very easy to get overcome. Get caught up in it. Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Right? And how do we respond to hate with love? How do we respond to lies with truth? How do we respond to insult and attack with patience and with grace? And we bless those who curse us and we pray for those who persecute us and despitefully use us.

That's the Jesus method. Friends, let's step higher. Political tensions are only going to rise in the days ahead.

National divisions are only going to rise in the days ahead. I'm appealing to you, my brother, my sister. Let's step higher. And if you say, Mike Brown, you just don't get it. You don't see some of the real issues. You're calling for something good, but you don't see the deeper issues. Well, please share them with me. Please share them with me. Here, I'll give you an example and then I'm going to the phones, alright? I tweeted the other day, let's just see here.

I tweeted this, something very simple. I said, when it comes to the demographics of our country, skin color and ethnic origin are of no concern to me at all. I have no desire to see America must be a white nation or it's utterly immaterial to me. The color of the skin of the people that live here and the ethnic background is immaterial to me. When it comes to the demographics of our country, skin color and ethnic origin are of no concern to me at all. What's important to me is that the people who live and move here share the best of our American values and want to work together for the common good.

That's what matters to me. So someone said, well, what exactly are the best of American values? Are they different from the best of values displayed by people from other countries? And I said, yeah, the best of them would be the loftiest moral values of the founders. The things that we all agree on, boy, these are important.

These are good. And then sometimes people moving from other countries bring something very good. Sometimes they leave the bad behind. So I explained that. And then one brother responded, Dr. Brown, whilst your statement is commendable, it is at the same time the epitome of white privilege. So I wrote back and said in candor, sir, that sounds like a blatantly racist statement on your part, but since I don't believe that is your intent, please be kind enough to explain your point. And he said my intent was to highlight how white privilege would enable you to make such a declaration, but because the impact of my statement was for you to consider it racist, I apologize in response to your question. Consider reject reading caste by so and so. Both describe why skin color and ethnicity should matter to you.

Okay, so I appreciate his humility and apologizing, but I understand now I get his point. I reject it. It has nothing to do with white privilege. In other words, I could be a tiny minority here, or I could be in the majority, and as a Jewish follower of Jesus, I'm in the tiny minority, okay? I'm in a very, very small minority in America, maybe 100,000 of us in the whole country, 150,000. So in any case, in any case, I always speak from the viewpoint not just as a white American, but a messianic Jew and then charismatic on top of it. So it's a real, real small circle that I'm ultimately part of, but my sentiments are what they are. My sentiments are what they are, that to me the issue is not what countries you're coming from to be part of America. It's that you want to be part of America. You want to help make America better, and you hold to the most important values in our culture. All right, let me go to the phones, and I'm going to take a bunch more calls the rest of the show.

We'll start with Charles in Raleigh, North Carolina. Yeah, what are your thoughts on all this? Well, I have a minor quibble with your characterization of the media as irresponsible in reporting about the white supremacists and tying that shooter to Trump or to Republicans or to people who were on January 6th. It's not irresponsible. It's absolutely intentional. And it was done for the lowest of political craft attempts to smear and to guide future legislation, future elections, to alienate people from others. So the result may be irresponsible in its impact, but the intent was not irresponsibility. The intent was absolute partisanship. Well, I agree it's intentional. I don't argue at all. You swerved into that a little bit, actually, while I've been on hold.

No, no, no. The fact is I appreciate the call to clarify that. When I say irresponsible, it can be intentional, but it's quite irresponsible. In other words, you may be trying to get political gains or you may be playing this for a reason. Now, some genuinely believe it. In other words, some genuinely think this is the case. Their mindset is such, the circle of people with whom they associate is such, they are so out of touch with people in other groups and things like that, that they absolutely believe this to be true. And what they are saying is with a sincere but deluded heart. In other cases, there's no question that people are intentionally pushing buttons, that there is a well-oiled machine that says we play it like this, we get these reactions, we get these results. When you think of the end implications of that, when you think of where that could go, that's the part that's utterly irresponsible.

But, yeah, Charles, for the most part, I absolutely agree with you. Thanks for calling and clarifying that. We're going to get to your calls on the other side of the break. If you'd like to talk to me, now's a good time to call, because we'll definitely have time to get to a bunch more calls over the course of the rest of the broadcast. Let's let Skillet lead us out of this segment. 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. Friends, we are here to build you up, strengthen you, help you, be a resource to you. Be sure to get my emails on a weekly basis.

This way you won't miss an article, you won't miss a video. The controversial world in which we live, we're here to give you the resources. We'll do the hard work, we'll do the digging and the plowing through the rough stuff and the getting attacked for it. That's our calling, that's our joy. And then provide it for you, because you've got to live it out in your house, you've got to live it out in your neighborhood, in the workplace, in the school.

And you've got those challenges around it. Let us be a resource to you. Go to AskDrBrown, askdrbrown.org, sign up for our emails. We want to also send you a free mini book, an ebook, How to Pray for America. Talking about overcoming evil with good, talking about the rising tensions in America, and asking the question, what can we do to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem? Before we switch subjects and go on to some other subjects, let's talk to Bill in Fort Mill, South Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello. Hey there.

Fort Mill, South Carolina, I've got a quick question for you. It's a little bit of a long one, but the question is this. Do you believe that young Christians and Messianic Jews should be encouraged to enter into careers in civil service, mental health, education, child protective services, and law enforcement to counter the hatred and violence in some of these potential shooters so that we can catch them before they go on their rampage?

Yeah, I would say yes to that, but an even larger level. In other words, these are frontline assignments where you're helping people in real need, you are helping stop the crisis before it happens. In other cases, you're dealing with the crisis as it's happening. But in all of these different careers that you just referenced, lives are being affected. And the more believers we can have in the education system, in the mental health system, in child protective services, the more believers we can have involved in the foster care system, the more believers we can have in law enforcement.

These types of areas, even the more believers that we can have within the judicial system, within the prison system, absolutely, for sure, we can make a positive difference. Bill, one thing I've noticed over the years is the high percentage of believers who are nurses in hospitals. And when my mom was sick a number of times before she passed away at 94 a few years back, and just seeing some of the nurses, I'm thinking, man, you're caring for my mom.

You don't know her at all, she's weak, she's frail, you've got to wash or clean or whatever. And you're doing that because it's not just your job, I mean, you chose this job. And many of them were believers, a good percentage of them. And just seeing that over the years, interacting, or I'm getting my annual physical, get my blood tested and just start chatting with the nurse, taking my blood, and a higher percentage of them seem to be believers than other professions. But obviously, it's a way of them caring for people.

It's a way of them getting involved. So yes, whatever we can do as believers to serve in practical ways, to help the society that's part of us being salt and light. And in some cases, we get to share our faith outwardly with words. In other cases, we just get to live it out around people and serve and bring the wisdom and the counsel and the spirit of God to people in practical service. So absolutely, that's definitely something we can do. Friends, as we switch subjects now, phone lines open to anything under the sun you want to talk to me about. And like I said, I've got a fascinating quote from Martin Luther I want to share with you in a moment about substitutionary atonement. Before I do that, I just want to remind you of our resource this month and how it can be a blessing to you or to people that you love. And maybe we don't have it ready.

Maybe we just had a glitch in playing it for you. Folks, just give me the nod as soon as we're ready with our experts. Are you struggling in your faith? Do you have doubts and questions and you really don't know where to go with them? Or maybe you have a friend or a loved one that's completely fallen away from the Lord.

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It asks the difficult questions. What happens when prayer doesn't seem to work? What happens when that loving we're praying for isn't healed? And what about those passages in the Old Testament? It looks like God is an angry, vengeful God.

What do we do with those? There's even a whole chapter called Permission to Doubt. And what can we learn from the book of Job? And what's unique about this book is we invite the questions and then we speak to the heart without bypassing the mind. As you read this book, faith will rise inside of you. As you read this book, confidence and hope will be restored.

As you read this book, questions will be answered and your mind will be at ease. This could really be the lifeline for a loved one that has fallen away from the Lord. So order your copy of Has God Failed You today. AskDrBrown.org. That's A-S-K-D-R Brown dot org. Order today. And when you do, I want to give you free, instant access to a powerful video I preached on why so many Christians are leaving the faith. So order Has God Failed You today at AskDrBrown.org. You know, we want to be a safe place for you here. We want to be a safe place. You can call in, if there's something very, very personal, you can call in anonymously.

You can write to us. I remember, oh, when was it, 2002. Some months earlier, one of my colleagues had spent a week with a couple just receiving ministry, opening up his heart, them kind of probing his life. And he said, Mike, you pushed so hard and you've been involved in so much, you've been going so hard. When did you ever receive ministry like this?

Just have someone minister to you? I said, I haven't. He said, it's great if you and your wife come spend a week. So we did. And it was a real life-changing thing for me, really to have people minister and for me to dig deep in my own life and see areas where God wanted me to grow and help me in other areas. But I remember the first night getting with this couple, a good number of years older than Nancy and me. And the first thing I felt, I felt safe, just like I know I can, I know my heart, I can share freely. And it wasn't, we weren't going for marriage counseling. Nancy and I were doing wonderfully.

That wasn't the issue. But it was just, it was a matter of just receiving ministry. We give all the time, just receiving ministry. And we want to be a safe place for you. So if you need to write to us, if calling in works for you, let us be here. You can raise your questions.

You can have your doubts. You can process these things together. And we're here to help you. That's why we exist.

All right, let's go back to the phones to Finley in Dix-Cal, New York. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, praise the Lord, Dr. Brown.

I want to thank you for everything that you're doing for us, listening to you and hearing you really. I agree with a lot of things that you have said, so praise God for your life. I have a quick question for you. You know, yesterday R.T. Kendall, he was talking about prophecy, and he was talking about why he wrote the book that he did. There was one thing that he said which kind of disturbed me, and I was wondering if you could give me your view on this. He clumped two groups of people together.

Obviously, what was happening with Donald Trump, I don't agree with that. You know, different prophets were coming and saying all these things. But before he was talking about that, he said something. He was calling people. He said he wanted to expose the fraud, because he said there were some people who would go up on stage and they can call out a name. But then later, they didn't know anything about COVID, or they didn't know about violence on the street. So my question is, do you believe that because a prophet gets one revelation or gets but does not get another revelation or word for you that he's a fraud?

Because it was yesterday when he was talking, he was trying to, you know, say, you know, he can call somebody out by name, a prophet, but then he doesn't get a word about COVID. And I don't necessarily agree with that, because I've had a Damascus Road experience myself, and I've surrounded myself with, I've had prophets speaking to my life. And, you know, they've given me words, dates, names, and so forth. But then they're coming to a point in my life where I asked them questions and they said, you know, you need to figure it out. You know, you need to pray. Yep, yep, absolutely.

When he was saying that, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way, and I just wanted to know what you thought. Yes, well, thanks for the question. It's an important question.

I want to answer at some length, and then we can interact, okay? Number one, in the book, R.T. Kendall speaks about thousands of mistakes that he's made over the course of his ministry, and times when he didn't deliver something accurately or properly. So he was absolutely not saying if someone gets one thing wrong, they are necessarily a fraud. That's the first thing. So that I know from writing the foreword to his book, reading every word of the book, I know his position there.

That's number one. Number two, my understanding of a false prophet, according to the words of Jesus in Matthew 7, is that a false prophet is a wolf in sheep's clothing. A false prophet is someone who knowingly and intentionally deceives God's people by claiming to be something that he is not.

That, to me, is totally different from a genuine believer saying, the Lord showed me that you're going to get this raise on your job, and it doesn't happen. I would not call that person a false prophet. I would say they prophesied falsely, or if they call themselves a prophet and are getting things wrong all the time, I will say that they falsely call themselves a prophet. But if it's a genuine believer making a mistake, even a repeated mistake, I do not call that person a false prophet. Just like someone that's a genuine believer but is wrong in some of the things that they're teaching, I don't call them a false teacher. Because according to 2 Peter 2, a false teacher is someone who knowingly brings in damnable heresies. Or, at the least, the things they are teaching are damnable heresies. So, a lot of folks are upset with me that I won't brand this one and this one a false prophet.

I tell them the same thing, well, you're a cessationist. To me, that's a very serious error, denying the gifts and power of the Spirit for today in certain ways. But I don't call you a false teacher because of that.

I reserve false teacher for an absolute heretic and false prophet for a wolf in sheep's clothing. Alright, we'll continue on the other side of the break. 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.

Thank you for joining us on the Line of Fire, 866-34-TRUTH is the number to call. Okay, so back to Finney in Dix-Cal, New York, talking about the issue of false prophet. Also, when RT was referencing someone can call out specific words of knowledge genuine, I've seen it with my own eyes, you've seen it, genuine specific words. That does not necessarily mean the person is prophetically gifted. They may have the gift of the word of knowledge. In other words, we may associate that with being a prophet, but that does not necessarily make the person a prophet.

It could be the gift of the word of knowledge operating. What I agree with RT on is something is wrong when an alleged prophet is supposed to see the major things coming, and this is the most major things. In other words, if we're asking someone to run outside of their lane, someone is a gifted teacher of the word, and we're saying, what's the Lord showing you about the presidential elections? Well, why are we asking a teacher of the word what God's showing them about the presidential elections?

Where is the connection there? Or if someone has a healing ministry, what's the Lord showing you about the presidential elections? Well, why would you go to someone with a healing ministry to ask that question? In the same way, I mean, did you have like a prophetic insight on what's happening? In the same way, someone may have a wonderful word of knowledge ministry, and the Lord gives them lots of specifics about different things, but that doesn't mean necessarily that they can tell you, okay, we're going to have COVID coming here and there. The problem is, and as Justin Peters and other charismatic critics have rightly said, that when someone is being presented as a person to whom God is showing the future, someone is being presented as someone that is receiving regular revelation from God about what's coming in the future, and they miss COVID entirely, and then when it happens, they say it's going to dissipate by April 15th of 2020, and then they say Trump is going to be re-elected and he's going to serve a second consecutive term and that doesn't happen, then you'd say, well, something's wrong here.

Something's very wrong here. And I question the whole format of sitting around with a bunch of prophetic people and saying, what's the Lord showing you? If the Lord wants to speak something, let him speak it.

Let him speak it. But prophets are not spiritual prognosticators. And, Finley, you're absolutely right that we don't go to a prophet to say, what should I do?

I have to make a decision about who I should marry. No, no, that's our own relationship with God and the counsel of the word of God, the counsel of the Spirit of God, their own lives, the counsel of those around us, as opposed to what you have to do in the Old Testament when we didn't hear the voice of God as directly as believers do today. And didn't have the indwelling spirit that we have today, so an Old Testament believer would have to go to the prophet for something like that.

So, yeah, again, in the larger context of his book, I understood the points he was making and those were important points. And we can't speak too strongly about the terrible approach that came with these wrong prophecies about COVID and about President Trump. As I've said many times when I was interviewed by the New York Times about this, at that time I was saved 49 years, I said it's the worst deception I've seen in 49 years. At the same time, I've seen gifted prophecy and prophetic ministry powerfully for decades, beautifully, gloriously, to the honor of Jesus and to the edifying of the believer or the saving of the non-believer. I've seen God use it powerfully. And to me, most importantly, the Bible is very clear that these things are to continue for today.

I mean, absolutely crystal clear to me as I read the scriptures. Say thank you for the call. I appreciate it. All right, one more call on this prophetic subject.

Let's go to Josh in Saginaw, Michigan. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. How are you?

Doing very well, thanks. All right, I have a question. Yesterday, R.T. Kendall talked about how he believed that similar to 1 Kings 22, 21 through 23-ish, that there was a lying spirit, and I was wondering kind of what you think about that and how, as someone who believes in the prophetic and wants to move, how do we avoid being subject to a lying spirit?

Yeah, so I think R.T. referenced 1 Kings 17, but he meant 1 Kings 22, as you correctly pointed out. So there you have a lying spirit. Micaiah the prophet says that the Lord put a lying spirit in the mouths of the false prophets. And it's a terrible, terrible indictment. When I saw so many people so dogmatically saying the same thing, I told one of my closest colleagues, either it's going to come to pass, like they said, or God's put a lying spirit in many of their mouths. I didn't see any other alternative to it when there was so much unanimity from so many. And the ones that have continued to pound this, and yes, it is true, and Trump really did win, and he's the president and God's side are still going to be removed, and they're still pounding this, or, well, no, no, you watch what happens in 2024 and using cop-outs, they are, to me, in real serious deception and error, and really deeply need to repent and step down from what they're doing. Those that recognized how they got things wrong, in other words, they got caught up in a political spirit. They prophesied what they wanted to happen.

Or because they got it right in 2016, they think they'd get it right again in 2020. There are many reasons we can get things wrongly. They've humbled themselves and received grace from God, and I respect that. But in candor, what we have to do is always walk in humility before the Lord and others.

Never think, well, because God speaks to me, no one can correct me. We always have to be teachable and correctable. Above all, we have to be people who live in real good fellowship with the Lord, people of the word and prayer and moral purity. We have to be accountable parts of a body. We have to have accountable leadership around us, and those are some of the safeguards. And then, to have others test things that we do share before we share them, especially to a national audience. Many words happen in spontaneity, and when they do, you say, hey, test this. Test this by the word, test this by your spirit, the spirit of God within you.

Test this by watching what happens in the days ahead. But those are some of the keys to avoiding error like this. And if we'll follow these principles carefully, we'll make a lot less mistakes and bring a lot less reproach to the name of the Lord.

Hey, thank you for calling. So, really quickly, when Todd White was accused of heresy for saying that on the cross, Jesus became a rapist or a pedophile based on 2 Corinthians 5, 21, that God made him sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Obviously, that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. And he did a broadcast with me, or just a Zoom call with me, where he explained what he does believe and was trying to say, and then I gave further depth to it. What's interesting is others have made similar statements trying to convey the same thing.

So, we have to be very careful in how we convey this. Martin Luther said, this is that mystery which is rich in divine grace to sinners, wherein by a wonderful exchange our sins are no longer ours but Christ's, and the righteousness of Christ's, not Christ's, but ours. And he goes on from there, suffered in our sins, et cetera.

Learned Christ in him, crucified, learned to pray to him in despairing of yourself, say thou, Lord Jesus, art my righteousness, but I am thy sin, goes on from there. All the prophets, this is Martin Luther, all the prophets did foresee in spirit that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, blasphemer, et cetera, that ever was, for he being made a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world is not now an innocent person without sins. Our most merciful father sent his only son into the world and laid upon him the sins of all men, saying, so this is, from Martin Luther, what God said to Jesus on the cross, be thou Peter that denier, Paul that persecutor, blasphemer, and cruel oppressor, David that adulterer, that sinner which did eat the apple in paradise, that thief which hanged upon the cross, and briefly, be thou the person which hath committed the sins of all men. See therefore that thou pay and satisfy for them, here now cometh the law and saith I find him a sinner, therefore let him die upon the cross. So that's what Luther said, which is very similar to what Todd Bentley initially said, without thinking that Jesus in his innermost being ever became sinful or polluted, or that Jesus in his innermost being ever ceased to be God. But you can understand, if you make the statement Jesus became a pornographer or a child pornographer, something horrific like that, that that's going to raise a lot of eyebrows and people are going to think what you're saying is heretical.

Are you saying Jesus actually became that? So that's what Todd asked if he could do a video with me to clarify what he genuinely believes. By the way, I spoke with him after I saw those quotes. People said he said X, Y, Z. I immediately texted him and said, do you believe X, Y, Z? He said, no, no, what I was trying to say was this, this, and this. I would never, I said, okay, because what people heard was this, what you said was this, so now you're clarifying exactly what you meant.

So he wasn't, when he came on with me, he wasn't backpedaling. He was saying, Dr. Brown, let me try to explain more fully what I was trying to convey. Then I said, yes, in some mystical way, Jesus bore our sins on his body on the cross without himself becoming sinful in his nature, without himself becoming polluted in his nature, without himself in any way being defiled as the son of God, even as he literally took our sins on his own shoulders and bore them away and fully paid for them with the blood of the cross, that we might become the righteousness of God and the Messiah, that his righteousness would now clothe us and that God would pronounce us not guilty based on the righteousness of the Messiah.

So that is a glorious divine reality. But others have said things in ways that also sound scandalous. Rather than just write the person off on that or write off Martin Luther, say, okay, what exactly did you mean? Is that what we should do? What exactly did you mean? Friends, we'll be back with you for Thoroughly Jewish Thursday tomorrow.