The Connection Between Tabernacles (Sukkot) and Ecclesiastes (Koheleth)

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So, why is it during the festival celebration of Sukkot Tabernacles that Ecclesiastes Kohelet is read in the synagogues? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity.

Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Thank you so much for joining us on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Michael Brown, thrilled to be back in our home studio in North Carolina with all of you today, but of course we don't miss a beat being on the road with our studios in Texas, but great to be back home.

No place like home. The phone lines are open for your Jewish-related calls of all kinds. You can be a Jewish person who differs with me about Yeshua, Jesus. You can be a Christian with a question about the Hebrew Bible or the law.

You could want to talk about modern Israel today or a question about Jewish beliefs or traditions. Go for it. Phone lines are open. 866-348-7884. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

That is the number to call. I want to play a clip for you from Kanye West, just to give you an idea of what is circulating now, some bizarre comments that he made having to do with the Jewish people. We'll talk about that, and I've got some larger reflections that tie in with that. Also ties in with some things he said about Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood, and related topics.

So, somebody came up in a show yesterday with my guest, Kevin McGarry, where Margaret Sanger was mentioned. So we'll talk about that, some interesting content that we're going to cover today. But first, we start with Sukkot, Tabernacles. So this is the last celebration, Holy Day, on the Biblical calendar, starting on the 15th day of the seventh month. So the first day is Yom Teruah, the sounding of the trumpet blast, the blowing of the shofar, which in Jewish tradition becomes Rosh Hashanah, the New Year. Then 10 days later, Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement.

Then five days after that, the week-long celebration of Sukkot with the final eighth day tacked on. So, we're going to talk in a moment about why Kohelet, why Ecclesiastes is read in the synagogue. With each Sabbath, there are portions of the Torah read, and then other portions from the Hebrew Bible read each week that tie in content-wise. And then in daily prayers, there are scriptures that are read, and then at different times of the year, like Passover, you also read from Song of Solomon, because Passover is seen as a love song between God and Israel. Or at Yom Kippur, Jonah is read as a great book on repentance.

So, why is it Kohelet read at Sukkot? We'll come to that. But first, this has become, in Jewish tradition, the time of the celebration of the giving of the Torah. And the question is, where does that come from? Where does the Bible talk about that? I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm asking where it comes from.

It doesn't come from the Bible, it comes from rabbinic tradition. So, we're going to go over to the Sepharia website, which is a terrific website for Jewish studies, traditional Jewish studies. So again, it's not a messianic site, it does not believe what we believe about Jesus. It is a traditional site with a vast amount of resources available free online.

I actually contribute to it because I use it regularly, so ethically, with the hard work they do, I want to help. So, Shemini Atzeret, what is it, and how do we relate to this kog, this festival, this holiday, in the diaspora? So, not being in the land of Israel. So, we'll put that up for you. This is by Torah Tours 2015, and it's on the Sepharia website.

So, it shows this. This is the first time Shemini Atzeret, which is the eighth day of the festival, is mentioned. So, it's quoting from Leviticus, the 23rd chapter, seven days you shall bring an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation, you shall bring an offering made by fire to the Lord, it's a day of solemn assembly, due no matter of servile work. And then again, Leviticus 23 39, the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you've gathered in the fruits of the land, you shall keep, excuse me, the feast of the Lord seven days, the first day shall be a solemn rest, on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And then it goes through with passage after passage about the offerings to be given, etc. But you'll notice, in all the passages cited, and we'll step away from the website for a moment, with all the passages cited, there's nothing mentioned about the giving of the Torah. And this does not tie in with the historic date when traditional Jews believe the Torah was given, which they tie in with Shavuot, alright, after Passover.

That's when they tie that in. Chronologically, it doesn't work, but that's when that gets tied in in Jewish tradition. So, how is it here that you've got something which is a festival having to do with the harvest, bringing in crops and the fruits of the land, and now it gets changed to a celebration about the giving of the Torah? So, let me read to you a quote which is on this, on the same page if we scroll down to it.

It says this, it's Rav Anon Barak, translated by David Silverberg. So, it asks the question, we can see that Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day of the festival, was originally created as an agricultural holiday, marking the end of the agricultural year. How do we relate to this holiday and the diaspora, right in exile, outside the land?

Now, here's the answer. No such historical reference appears in the Torah regarding Shavuot, Feast of Weeks, or Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day of Sukkot. As a result, these holidays ran the risk of having their unique qualities lost throughout the years of national homelessness. In other words, because these were agricultural holidays and were no longer in the land, then what's the celebration?

What are we tying it in with? The oral laws to the traditions of the rabbis, however, proceeded to elucidate an additional aspect latent in these festivals, as opposed to the biblical Jew, for whom agriculture stood as the center of existence. The post-temple Jews, so Jews living without the temple, in exile, concentrates his religious life in the proverbial four cubits of halakhah.

In other words, the space in which you live out Jewish law and tradition, that's where you live, because you're not living in the land anymore. Therefore, the agricultural calendar was replaced by the Torah calendar. In this system, the festival of the first harvest, v'vot, which commemorated the first opportunity to benefit from one's produce, was transformed into the holiday of Matan Torah, which is the giving of the Torah, the first step in the nation's acceptance of the Torah. Shemini Atzeret, which for the agrarian society was celebrated as the end of the year, evolved into the celebration of the completion of the Torah reading, Simchat Torah, the joy and celebration of the Torah. If you are in a traditional Jewish community, Torah will be studied through the night, and then they'll be dancing in the synagogue celebration, holding the scroll of the Torah, because this is when you complete the cycle of reading through the Torah in one year.

That was a cycle done outside of the land of Israel. Within Israel, at the time of Jesus, you would have read through the Torah in a three-year period, so divided into readings for three years. But what prevailed, and is the custom in the Jewish world around the world today, is the custom of reading through in one year. So this is when you come to the end of the cycle and celebrate that you've read through the Torah.

So, make this simple. The biblical Holy Days celebrations here were tied in with specific times and seasons having to do with living in the land. So the Passover, which is on the fourteenth day of the first month of the biblical calendar, it's now the fourth month of the traditional calendar, when that originated, that was in conjunction with the Passover. So you still celebrate the Passover, but Shavuot, Feast of Weeks, tied in with the firstfruits of the land, tied in with an agricultural festival.

Or you're out of the land, you're living in different climates, you're not even agrarian necessarily, you don't even have fields and produce, you're not even producing this stuff, so what's the significance of this? So the rabbis said, well, let's make it the celebration of the giving of the Torah. Now they may have believed that that's when the Torah was actually given on Mount Sinai. Again, chronologically it doesn't work, but that's the logic. Okay, this is the first agricultural season, part of the year, we'll make this the time of the receiving of the Torah.

What's the last agricultural time of the year? We'll make that the time when we finish reading through the Torah. So that's the logic behind the holidays, and it was the rabbis' way of making them relevant in an ongoing way, which is fine.

In other words, if you want to now add other meanings to them and say this is how we find them relevant, and this is how they'll be part of our culture and history, fine. They may believe it goes all the way back to ancient times, which would go back to Moses' day and that, they would have been surprised to hear this. What?

What are you talking about? It would have been news to them. But a traditional Jew, this is the way it's always been done, and this is why we do it like this today.

But that's what it comes to mean. Now, why is Ecclesiastes read at this time of the year? Why is this scroll which is Chava Havelim, Vanity of Vanities, why is this read at this time of the year?

And the emptiness of life and the questions of this world. Well, why do you build a sukkah, little tabernacle, little tent by your house, why do you build that at this time of the year and then have a meal every day in there and sit with family and talk about Torah and things like that? Why do you do that according to traditional Judaism? Well, it's right in the Bible, right?

Because you were living in tents in the wilderness. This is a reminder of that. Well, Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, reminds us that we are kind of living in the tents of this world, that we're just passing through. That just as Israel wandered in the wilderness, that we are just temporarily in this world. So even though it is a holiday of great celebration, that is what is taking place at this time in reading this scroll. One other thing, Kohelet basically means the gatherer, the collector, the convener, which is the same as what Ecclesiastes means which comes our way from Greek and Latin. So it's the same title. It's from the Hebrew Kohelet, is where we get Ecclesiastes, the one that gathers people or gathers sayings or convenes. That's what it means. Alright, 866-348-7884 is the number to call with your Jewish related questions of any kind.

You know what's funny? Sometimes, like a Friday, we're flooded with calls only through the entire broadcast. And depending on subject matter, we can be flooded with calls. And other times, people are just listening, not calling in. And you know, sending in questions, emailing in questions.

But it's an odd thing when we will get so many calls at a certain part of the broadcast where we don't have enough time to take the calls and when we have time to take them, people are just listening. So feel free to call in. You can call them and you just listen while you're on hold.

The sooner you call, the better we can get to your questions. And if it's easier if you're watching on YouTube and it's easier just to post a question, go ahead and do that. We'll see if we can grab some of your questions off YouTube. They just have to be Jewish related. Feel free to go ahead and post one of your questions and we'll see if we can answer some of those on the air today as well. We'll be right back. Well, welcome back to Thirdly Jewish Thursday.

Michael Brown delighted to be with you, 866-34-TRUTH, the number to call. Let's pray for Kanye West. He obviously has a massive following. He is highly influential in many parts of the culture. If he has come to know the Lord, he is very new and very young and very confused.

The very person that you do not want to give a platform to or look to as some type of cultural icon. So we should be praying for him. Everything I say is not to bash him, but to bring some public correction to some tremendous misinformation that's out there and to call you to pray for him. Now, I'm going to play a clip for you and then give you the background to it, but we have to be very careful when someone makes a statement that we really like and we get behind them, yay, cheering them on, right? Like Elon Musk, who is not a believer, doesn't claim to be a believer, no one that I know claims that he's a believer, has given no impression that he's a believer, but in his mind the Democratic Party that he used to support, vote for for years, has slid so far to the left that by him just staying where he is, he's now looked at as a conservative and has said he'll vote Republican. So he's made some statements, he's got some great perceptions, genius, obviously the world's richest man for a reason, and I've been picked up at the airport a few times in a Tesla vehicle, it is a pretty amazing vehicle, you know, he obviously is a brilliant, brilliant guy, and he's been very perceptive about woke America and the dangers of leftism and things like that, and makes some great comments, but you don't want to look to him like he's the great cultural conservative icon, no, no, he's also said that if people in this company want to have an abortion and they're in a state where they can't, that he'd pay for the expenses to have it elsewhere, so I've said that at least once, yeah, the same guy, well, he's not a believer. So, you know, Kanye West is having these gospel meetings and concerts, and apparently there's some pastors, serious pastors working with him in a serious way, trying to disciple him, but Christians all look like it's gospel music, if he knows the Lord, he's very new still, he's a child in the Lord, if he knows the Lord, and he's very confused. We make a terrible mistake, a terrible mistake when we look to these people, so he's on Tucker Carlson the other day, of course any full interview's going to be edited for time's sake and things, but there's some embarrassing comments that did make it on the air, they absolutely did not make it on the air, and now that those have leaked, it makes the interview look bad as a whole, because he did say some very good things, and he wore these White Lives Matter shirts, and when he was asked why, it's obviously because they do, can't you say that that is the case as well, and that creates, you know, firestorm and uproar and all of that.

All right, bottom line is, you have to take it from where it's coming, from someone that may have some good observations and good things to say, and otherwise is confused, and you know, it's just like making Donald Trump into the Savior, he was doing what he said he was going to do, he was who he was, we voted for him with our eyes wide open, knowing who he was, right, but we can't make him look, he's our champion, because he's, same thing with him, if he knows the Lord, he's got to be very, very young and very new and very immature in the Lord, if he knows the Lord, even though he's this billionaire and mover shaker and probably the best known person on the planet in terms of just living people, you can't make these people into your champions if you're a believer, except to say, hey, I vote for this one politically, or I appreciate one song this person put out, but obviously I don't agree with other things they've said, or yeah, Elon Musk, I really like that tweet, but I'm praying for him to be saved, and we can't look to them the way we'd look to someone who's been in the Lord for 20 or 30 or 60 years and has been preaching Jesus and knows the word well and has proven in the Lord in a consistent way, it's folly for us to do that, yet we often do, we make this one the champion of the moment, so after the Tucker Carlson interview aired, Kanye West was interacting with one other hip hop star and made a comment, and he's going Death Con on Jewish people, Death Con 3, was that a typo for Death Con 3, which is military readiness, did he mean something else, immediately he was banned from Instagram, Twitter account got shut down again, Elon Musk did welcome him back on Twitter, and account got shut down again, anti-Semitic, and then Candace Owens says, well, is it anti-Semitic, do we really know what he even said, do we even know what he meant, well, how about this clip, and he's doubling down, he's saying these things even more firmly, is glad that comments have gotten out, let's listen to what he said. Planned Parenthood was made by Margaret Sanger, a known eugenics, with the KKK, to control the Jew population, when I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the race, the people known as the race black, really are, this is who our people are, the blood of Christ, this as a Christian is my belief, and I believe that if we saw ourselves as more, alright, that's the gist of it, that's the key part of it, and nothing he says after that undoes that quote, whatever he means by the blood of Christ, I guess he means the bloodline, so what you have to understand is what he is espousing is black Hebrew Israelite heresy, what he is espousing is fantasy, that the true Jews are not those who have been persecuted as Jews from country to country for centuries, the ones who were seeking to honor the God of Israel and follow the Torah of Moses but have been very wrong on Jesus the Messiah, or those that Hitler tried to slaughter, even the very secular Jews as well, and those that the church persecuted, you know with the Crusades in the Middle Ages, and those who the early church fathers demonized or dehumanized, these Jews, we entrace them, and scattered all over the world, to the point that you have white Jews and black Jews and Asian Jews, Jews from all these different groups, but what he's saying is the Jews are not people like me, or Sephardic Jews, or Yemenite Jews living in Israel, the Jews are supposedly 12 tribes, that's the black race, the black race on the planet today, that's the Jewish people, now I've said for decades that we have a commonality, blacks and Jews, and that we've both been oppressed people, and we've both been enslaved people, and we've both had a certain divine calling and heart for God, so I found great commonality there, and yes there are black Jews as there are white Jews, although far more white Jews than black Jews probably, but you never really know with numbers, some of the history, who's found tracing roots in Africa, we don't know, but for sure, the average black person just around the world is not of Jewish descent, that's absolutely sure, but there are blacks who are of Jewish descent, and there are whites who are of Jewish descent, and we're both small parts of the black population and the white population, but now people are scrambling to try to, you made a mistake by looking to Kanye West as a cultural icon as your Christian voice, okay, you can see how confused he is, now, did Margaret Sanger actually say those things? Was she a eugenicist? Was she one who believed in superiority of races? Okay, here's the quote, let me put this up first, this quote is commonly attributed to Margaret Sanger, I'm going to read it for you, Slavs, Latin, and Hebrew immigrants are human weeds, a dead weight of human waste, black soldiers and Jews are a menace to the race, did she actually say that?

Some fact checkers have said no, that's not her actual quote disputed, well here's what she did say for sure, New York Times, April 8th, 1923, you can actually see the old picture of the New York Times article, I'm going to jump into this, this is what she says, succinctly and with telling brevity and precision, quote birth control summed up our whole philosophy, birth control is not contraception, indiscriminately and thoughtlessly practiced, it means the release and cultivation of the better racial elements in our society and the gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extirpation of defective stocks, those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization, that is racism, that is eugenics, that is absolutely exactly what she has been accused of doing and we also know that she worked with black preachers in the south to try to get people in the black community to be more open to abortion, these are obviously some of the weeds, some of the defective stock according to her that must be pulled out, uprooted so the better parts of American civilization can thrive, yeah that's how evil this is and yes there are other groups, immigrant groups, Jews would have been among them, that would have been considered among the weeds, everything we can see in terms of her philosophy but for sure even though the one quote definitely attributed to her, there's debate about others and so we won't even address those, say okay she didn't say that but for sure she said this and it's clear she looked at some races as defective stock, weeds, so Kanye West is correct about that and blacks and Jews would have been the targets of that for sure as some of the defective stock, the immigrants, the ones that were not part of the superior race, so remember pray for Kanye, he's got a loud voice that speaks to many, really needs the Lord in his life in a deeper way and needs the truth, 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 friends for joining us, think of how amazing it will be to be together in the land of Israel in May of next year, God willing, yeah can hardly wait for the trip, I picture it in my mind's eye already, being with all of you there at certain sites, praying together, in fact the leader of a house of prayer with his wife, also on the front lines of the house of prayer, there's some of our key armor bearers, hey big smile as you're listening now to the broadcast, I know you do regularly, so they're going to be on the tour with us which means that we'll have some special prayer time, that we'll grab some time, nights, different times and really go after the Lord together, so that's another highlight added in, but if you're planning on going, we do have some additional seats available but as soon as you sign up, the better, I'm about to announce this in a few larger venues and that could close it out there, so if you're able to come, askdrbrown.org, askdrbrown.org, just head right over there and you will be able to find out everything you need to know about the trip and then get your deposit in, alright. I want to say something very plainly to counter missionary rabbis I have dialogued with over the years, men like Yisrael Blumenthal and Moshe Shulman and Elie Cohn, I hold you gentlemen in the highest regard, I deeply respect you, I believe in your sincerity, you have always acted in integrity towards me, we've had our differences and there are probably hundreds thousands of pages of differences exchanged between us or video commentary at times, it's done at the highest level, some of it's done in private interaction, so when I take exception to material from counter missionary rabbi, Tovia Singer, call it blatantly deceptive, challenge it for not telling everyone how the answers are there to refute everything that's been said but hey, if I withhold that information, you may not know it. When I do that, when I speak of demolishing the falsehoods and the lies, that is directed to one individual and his methodology, it is never directed to all of you in general, are there other counter missionaries that are deceptive, could be, there could be Christian missionaries that are deceptive, there are a lot of people doing a lot of things that we can't speak to all of that but the gentleman that I've interacted with for many, many years, I hold in high regard and of course, they differ with me profoundly and may take issue with me on point after point after point on every level but I've never in my dialogue seen anything that I would say is unethical, if we've had a difference, we've clarified it, if I've had a question, it's been clear, it's exact opposite when I'm dealing with the material of Rabbi Tovia Singer so when I speak about demolishing the falsehoods, when we're answering the counter missionaries, the only one that I will expose in this way is Rabbi Singer, why? Because he is aggressively seeking to destroy the faith, not simply of Jews who are following Jesus but of Christians in general, Gentile Christians and seeking to destroy their faith and I know that God can use false teachers and deceivers that even though God despises the methodology and the lies, he will work through those to test his people.

Just as in Deuteronomy 13, he said that a prophet may come to you who prophesies accurately or works a miracle and then he says follow other gods, don't follow him, the Lord is testing you to see if you'll cleave to the Lord. So in that sense, a false teacher, a counter missionary rabbi who is deceptive and does not present material to you in an honest way, God can use that, God can work through that to sift, God can work through that as people are turned away from the faith, in the end it's only going to strengthen the body, in the end it's only going to strengthen the church, in the end it's ultimately going to strengthen Jewish believers because the answers have always been there. The rebuttals to his positions are so easily given, we've had them available, we continue to produce new videos to make them available and for example, this came up in a recent phone call earlier this week, just to give you one other example, Tobiah Singer contradicts the rabbis constantly, in other words, the sources that in Jewish tradition are light ears beyond where he is, there's a Jewish concept that if the previous generations were angels we're men, if the previous generations were men we're just like donkeys, in other words that every generation away from Moses is on a spiritual decline, an intellectual decline that that's why you so revere the previous generations because they sat on the shoulders of the previous generations and so on going back. So when Tobiah Singer will attack a certain position and say look, just be biblical, be biblical, be biblical, it's like well Tobiah why don't you tell people you're disagreeing with the rabbis there, why don't you tell people you're disagreeing with your own authorities there to make a point, no he's not going to because that would undermine his whole position. The rabbis that I've mentioned won't do that, they're fully aware of Jewish tradition says this and they will bring it in, they'll say some Jewish tradition interprets it this way, others interpret it this way, we're siding with this because they're going to do it with integrity so I just felt it was important because I take such exception to the deceptive nature of his work, it comes up over and over and over again, I don't watch his videos but I get sent clips constantly and then as we're preparing to refute more of them then I'll look to see okay which are the ones that seem to be the most popular, get the most circulation and then I'll look at those specifically and then we'll put together a video in a very high quality, serious, researched way to demolish the lies, the misinformation, the deception. These other gentlemen I deal with, they wouldn't do that whether they like Toby Singer or not, I'm not here to say it, that's not the issue but what I can say is I take issue to deception, I take issue to misleading information especially when I see it confusing a sincere Christian who loves the Lord, is walking with the Lord and now hears Rabbi Singer's material and then ends up falling away from the faith, of course the number of those coming into the faith versus those leaving, it's vast, vast number going in versus a small number going out but I'm talking about worldwide obviously but when those people now are left with nothing, when those people are just what they had is gone and now they have nothing, that grieves me, that grieves me even if there's a divine sifting taking place so I continue to pray for Rabbi Singer's repentance but when I blast the deceptive nature of his material, I'm not talking about these other counter missionary rabbis that I know that I've interacted with, I found to be men of integrity in the midst of our differences.

Alright, let's go over to Kentucky, Clay, welcome to the line of fire, thanks for calling. Yes, thanks Dr. Brown, this is Clay, so I have a question, it's in regard to just, well I have an ongoing dialogue, it's me and two other people and a couple, a Jewish couple, they're friendly, it's a friendly dialogue, I'm just, I can't really articulate his view very much, I just know that my Jewish friend doesn't believe in the afterlife or the resurrection and we get on that topic every once in a while and I don't really know what key points I should start with or end with on that but I would just like to be able to go further along on that topic than I have. The big issue is to just start with him and God because he's not a traditional Jew, a traditional Jew believes in the resurrection of the dead and confesses it regularly, a traditional Jew believes in the afterlife, the whole focus is daily life, pleasing God today, observing the commandments today, helping to bring redemption to the world through observing the Torah and being a light, etc.

That would be the daily emphasis of a traditional Jewish person, to honor God today, not to be thinking about heaven or the world to come but traditional Judaism absolutely believes in that, the resurrection of the dead, the world to come and then afterlife, all these things are believed in, they're part and parcel of traditional Judaism, the reason a traditional Jew prays a special prayer every day for a year, technically for 11 months, after a loved one dies, it's called the mortis kaddish, it doesn't talk so much about the dead but it's honoring God, it's a daily prayer, the reason you're doing that is to help that person in the afterlife because you believe that they may go through a period of purging and sifting that could last up to 11 months before they move on and then you're waiting for the final resurrection of the dead. So the problem is he doesn't believe Judaism, you know, he's a secular Jew, just like there are plenty of secular Christians in America, they say they're Christian but they don't believe the Bible, so the issue is who is God, what about God, what about the Bible, what about his own life, does he believe in the ten commandments, you know, is there, and that's where I would start, so does he believe in the existence of God? Yes, he does, he does believe in God.

Alright, and who is this God? I mean he believes in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yes. Okay, so he, alright, so he believes in the ten commandments?

Yes, yes he does. Does he live by them? I would, to the best he can, yes, yes, and it's reformed Judaism, actually. Yeah, yeah, so right, it's liberal Judaism and really he's, so liberal Jews just don't believe in Jewish tradition, so you could ask him, okay, when the Bible speaks about the resurrection of the dead, like Daniel chapter 12 verse 2, what does he do with that? Or Isaiah 26 where it says your dead will live and corpses will arise, what does he do with that? So if he's claiming to believe it, which again, reformed Judaism is very liberal and whatever he does with Sabbath observance does not resemble, you know, not working and putting aside, putting aside a day, making it holy to the Lord, you know, reformed Jews just don't do it on that full level, but yeah, I would say, okay, it says this and I'm determined it's a death penalty for not observing the Sabbath, so where do you stand with that? And then, show him Daniel 12 too, this is in your Bible, forget Jewish tradition, this is in your Bible, do you believe that? or read through Isaiah 26 with him where it speaks plainly of your corpses arise, do you, do you accept what's in the Bible? That's where he's got to press because ultimately he doesn't accept his own Bible, maybe he'll see that, it'll start to stir something in him and then ask him, okay, how do you get right with God? If you believe in this God and you know that you sin, fall short, how do you get right with this God, and just pray for the Holy Spirit to work through you to touch his life.

God bless you, Clay. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Welcome, welcome to the line of fire during the holiday, the festival of Sukkot. All right, I've got my cell phone in hand as I'm talking to you right now, I'm going to answer a YouTube question in a moment, but the reason that I've got my cell phone in hand as I'm talking to you is because I'm going to open the Ask Dr. Brown app on my cell phone, and I'm going to scroll down and see what I find. So after reminding you that we are your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity, subscribe for weekly updates, visit our website, itinerary.

Now what's the first big thing you come to? The real Messiah! Yeah, our Jewish website, but you just click on it on the app, and if you want to see our videos demolishing the deceptive tactics of Rabbi Todia Singer, or you want to watch some of the debates that I've had, my friend Rabbi Shmuley, in the midst of our interaction, maybe 20 debates we've done, and private interaction, he's always acted with integrity towards me, and I love him, care for him dearly as a real friend. Our debates are on there, you can watch our Think It Through TV shows we did on the streets of New York and other places, it's all on the Real Messiah website, so that's just there, it's right there on the app, boom, and click on it, and you've got all those resources waiting for you for free! Answers to the top Jewish objections and things like that, yeah, so there you go, explore, investigate, seek, find, it's all there, wow, one of the keys to Messianic prophecy, secrets of the Messiah, answering the rabbis, full-length debates, so if you haven't done this yet, download the app, Apple, Android, we spent years trying to get our app through on Apple, finally got it through, so Apple or Android, ask Dr. Brown Ministries, make sure you have your ministries in there, ASKDRBrown, ask Dr. Brown Ministries, download the app today, and if you're blessed by it, share it with all your friends, it's free, right? That's why you put the app out to minister to people, to make the material available, you're on the fly, you're talking to someone, a Jewish person, an objection comes up, it's like, you know, I'm not sure, but let's go to the app and see, and then you click on Real Messiah and look at objections, it's like, oh, here's Dr. Brown's got a video on that, oh, he just raised us here, he's written about it right here, there it is, in the palm of your hand, so download the app today, ASKDRBrown, ask Dr. Brown Ministries on Apple, Android, Google Play Store, wherever you get it, also, also, you can just listen to the show daily from there, boom, right in the palm of your hand. All right, Brett asked on YouTube, do you know if GK Chesterton seriously held antisemitic views, it seems to me that he did, but wonder if you're aware. I have not encountered that, if that is the truth, in fact, I'm just curious to see, if I type in Chesterton, I've absolutely loved his writings and his sayings for years, Chesterton antisemitic, was, ah, here you go, was GK Chesterton antisemitic, excuse me, antisemitic, so this is on the website, Chesterton.org, so if you wanna find out officially, was GK Chesterton antisemitic, just type in Chesterton antisemitic, it'll take you to Chesterton.org, I was unaware of it, it's apparently known enough that this discussion was GK Chesterton antisemitic, so it's a question that was posed May 11th, 2012, for those of us who love Chesterton, we always are distressed to see him falsely accused of something vile, but we have gotten a little tired of the charge of antisemitism, he has been absolved of that charge too many times for us to count, from the tribute by Rabbi Stephen Wise, who would have actually been a reformed rabbi back in that day, to the official statements of the Wyner Library, the archives of antisemitism in Holocaust history in London, the charges usually made thoughtlessly or ignorantly, but in some cases it is made knowingly and deceitfully, it's a calumny against the man who said, the world owes God to the Jews, and Chesterton, I will die defending the last Jew in Europe, who was sought out by Jewish leaders in the support for Zionism, a man who hated racism and racial theories and who fought for him in dignity and always affirmed the brotherhood of all men, the American Chesterton Society devoted an entire issue of Gilbert to address the charge of antisemitism against Chesterton, we bring out the facts and we also then defend themself in his own words, we'd be happy to debate anyone on a point by point basis who insists on repeating the false charge, and you can download a free copy of the issue there, so, was he an antisemite?

Categorically no, it is a calumny, a calumny, so an ugly lie, a defaming lie, according to the official Chesterton website. Alright, got time for another call, let's go to John in South Carolina, welcome to the Ryan of Fire. Hi, this is my first time ever calling in, I've got two quick questions. At the end, before Jesus was crucified, near the end of his life, Peter, the Lord said, blessed are you, when Jesus asked his disciples who he was, and Peter said that he's the Messiah. Ever since the beginning of Jesus' ministry, people have been saying that he was the Messiah, with Nathaniel under the fig tree, if I remember correctly, and the demons and everybody else has been saying that he was the Messiah.

What made this one episode with Peter so special? That's question number one. Question number two is that Jesus healed a man born blind from birth, how is it possible, based on the context of the question, that he was born blind for some sin that he had committed?

Because that seems to be what the disciples are asking. Are those two points clear? Very clear, and thanks for calling in John, great to hear from you. I can hang up and listen.

Okay, sounds good. So number one, it wasn't right at the end of his ministry that the question comes up about being the Messiah. You actually find it in Matthew 16, Mark 8, and Luke 9. And yes, you're right, from early on in the ministry, there was talk about that. And you know, the king of Israel, and you know, the speculation about king of the Jews, even at his birth, how far that circulated is, you know, is debatable.

But with Nathaniel in John the first chapter, and then demons saying you're the Holy One of God. So there was a lot of speculation, or maybe he's the great prophet, like Luke 7, this is the prophet we've been waiting for who came into the world, right? And then speculation is, was he John risen from the dead that, you know, Herod's wondering when he hears these different things.

So there was a lot of speculation. But did they really know? Were they really sure?

Could they really say it? So when Simon Peter says it, it's not that he's the first to say it, but he just says you're blessed, flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you but my Father in Heaven. To know for sure, when he had yet not done all of the things that they were blessed in the Messiah to do, that took revelation.

To know it, to declare it. So when he replies, blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in Heaven, it is because he said it with certainty and declared it, and he knew it. Now, did the others not know it? That's what they believed, but he's the one to speak it and articulate it, for those that knew for sure.

Because it still, it looks like it, you're hoping for it. Wow, this would be amazing, but is it for sure to be able to say that required revelation? That's number one. Number two, the answer to your second question, you know what's really funny? You gave the two questions and they were very easy to remember and whenever I preach, I'll go on all kinds of wild tangents and the moment I'm done, come right back to the point, just pops right back in my mind. So I'm ready to answer your second question, which completely left me as I'm sitting here, but my guys are so sharp, Kai and Chris, about to type back to me what the second question was, and if I sit here long enough, problem is it's live radio and you have to keep talking, but if I sat here long enough, it would pop right back into my mind. And you're all listening, come on, Dr. Rose, it's too, I know I've taken sometimes 10 questions at a time, literally going around with a group of people, taking all the questions and then come back and answer them one after the other.

In fact, I have fun doing that kind of thing and just kind of store them in my brain. So that was the first question. The second question was, all right, here we go. Oh, John, this is, you called it the first time and I do this to you. All right, come on. And the first question was this, and the second question was, I had the answer in my mind before we even started, because it was a good question with a simple answer.

Oh, come on. This is, well, folks would love to play this and highlight, forgetting the second question. And John, sitting back listening, thinking, what is this guy, I can't remember. All right, let's think, everybody corporately think that we'll get this back here. Jesus, gospels, and the clock ticking as we run out of time. And the second question was, team is, oh, here's, here it comes.

Here it comes, yeah. Thank you, yeah, John the ninth chapter. So when they asked, sorry, John, and all the listeners, I apologize, did this man say to his parents that he was born blind? There was some Jewish theology that we can trace back to then that speculated that you could sin in the womb and thus be born blind, born with a defect, something so that you could actually sin in the womb.

It's not reincarnation, it's not a previous life, but there was actually some Jewish thought which is reflected in that, which we have in some, just a few ancient texts that you could sin in the womb, and by sinning in the womb, you would be born with a handicap or disability or something like that. So that's the explanation. Great question. All right, my apologies to take so long to get there. Back with you, ready for all your calls and questions tomorrow. God bless.