Ask Me Anything (Part 1)

The following is a pre-recorded program. It is your day to ask me anything. 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. Hey, friends, Michael Brown here. We've got a special broadcast today. Not going to be talking about breaking news around this, not going to be talking about the culture wars, per se, or politics, or the hottest issue of the moment, unless it's something you want to ask me. Now, I solicited some questions a few days ago on Facebook and Twitter.

Just wanted to have some fun and say, hey, you got an opportunity, ask me anything. A lot of folks are unable to get through call on Fridays or they just can't call in at all. So this is a way to open things up to those of you who listen, who watch in other settings. So sit back, enjoy the broadcast.

I won't be giving out a phone number today, but I'm going to start over on Facebook. And this is from today's narrow way. The question, why is the power of God difficult to see in churches? What happened to tangible healing and deliverance, lame walking, blind seeing, cancer healed, et cetera? What can we do for a revival to take place in America?

So two separate but related questions. I wrote a book that came out in 1991 entitled, Whatever Happened to the Power of God? Is the charismatic church slain in the spirit or down for the count? So this is a question that I myself have asked for many years as well.

Now, some would say the answer is easy. The gifts and power of the spirit are not for today in terms of healing, in terms of miracles. So God works miracles of salvation and transformation, but we cannot expect healing to be normative because those things have ceased. Well, that would be easy for me to believe if not for the Bible and if not for experience.

What do I mean? Well, the Bible categorically in my view, in my understanding, teaches contrary to that, teaches that we should be seeing miraculous healings today. And then on some level, they should be normative, not meaning that we never get sick, not meaning that the moment we're sick, we're instantly healed, not meaning obviously that whoever dies is raised from the dead, that no one would ever die, just keep raising from the dead forever.

Obviously, we don't mean that. But meaning that on a regular basis, we should see miracles of healing taking place, even when going to the lost, even if only going to the lost and people have never heard as a demonstration of God's power and as a sign of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. But also out of God's compassion and goodness in accordance with his character, I believe we should be seeing much more healing according to the word.

That's one thing. And experientially, even though I've only seen a small amount of what I would love to see in terms of divine healing and miracles, there's a chapter in whatever happened to the power of God entitled, has the gift of healing hit a brick wall. There are too many documented healings to deny and they cannot all be painted as exceptions to the rule. God continues to heal and work miracles. So the very valid question, why don't we see more?

I only know part of the answer. Part of the answer is I know there is so much carnality in much of the church of America. There is so much superficiality. There was so much celebrity worship of lifting up people that I don't believe that we could handle some of the really miraculous power in our midst. That we'd either exalt people or that that power would destroy us because we'd misuse it or because God would be drawing so near and we would be so accountable and there is so much sin in our midst that it would bring judgment, not blessing. That being said, certainly around the world, God is moving powerfully, but we wanna see even more than what we've seen.

So I know some of the reason that we don't see more. I can only say we need to be on our faces crying out and very few have really earnestly pursued God to see Him more, work more. Yes, many have pursued Him, but I'm talking about an earnest pursuit that is beyond anything I've ever done in my life to see, okay, it's either a breakthrough here or I don't leave the room kind of thing. So there is more to be had if we would seek God earnestly. I would encourage you to build your faith on what you do see and what God is doing first and foremost, based on what the word says and then based on testimonies, reliable, real testimonies and then press in to God to do more for His glory and for the good of those who are suffering. As to what we can do to cultivate revival, the biggest thing is recognize our need, recognize our spiritual hunger, recognize how much more God wants to work and how far we are from that and then begin to seek Him earnestly.

Get my book, Revival or We Die if you don't have it, Revival or We Die. Okay, Matthew, by the way, I do not see most comments on social media because by God's grace, we do have many hundreds of thousands of followers on our different platforms and there are many thousands of comments and as much as I'd love to read them all and interact with them all, I am unable to do that. But I do see some folks that comment often and Matthew, I've appreciated how many times you've joined in discussions and clearly stirred with good apologetics thinking and challenged people on statements they've made so I appreciate that and I see you don't always agree with me too which is, hey, that's just great but thanks, thanks for being there. Thanks for being active on social media because you're reaching people. Many of you do that as well.

Agnostics, chime in, skeptics, backsliders, people from other religions and you're there to interact with them so thank you. Matthew, how are we to understand the seeming contradiction in the gospels between Mark and Luke against Matthew on Jesus teaching on divorce, Matthew's inclusion of the except for sexual immorality wording. So in Mark and Luke, Jesus says you divorce and it's the, in Luke, the husband divorced the wife, in Mark, it's either way, husband or wife, that you divorce, you're causing that person to commit adultery, the person you divorce, if they're gonna remarry, you remarry, you've committed adultery. But Jesus in Matthew five and Matthew 19 says except for Pornea, sexual immorality. So some explain it that there is no contradiction, that Pornea is fornication, not adultery and that he's not talking about adultery but fornication which would mean if you are betrothed to be married to the person which would in Jewish law is as if you're married legally.

In other words, you are to walk away from that person requires a formal divorce or formal separation. You can't just say, nah, let's not do it. So it's more than engagement, that once you are betrothed, if you find out that the person you betrothed to has committed sin, so it's not technically adultery, it's sexual immorality, that's the only cause for divorce. I personally don't accept that explanation.

I personally think it's too narrow. So one, each gospel author is emphasizing certain points, that's why we have four different gospels. You say, but what if the only teaching you heard was from Mark or from Luke? It could well be that you were familiar also with the fact that in Jewish law that day, the only debate was not about divorce but divorce for what reason? In other words, divorce for any and every reason or divorce only for sexual immorality. So that was the debate. It could just be that Mark and Luke are giving the loud and clear warning because of prevalent or rampant divorce for no good reason. And he wants people to hear that, then when you press in deeper, you get the rest of the answer.

But I don't have a brilliant idea beyond any of those things that have been offered thus far. I just don't believe that the Porneia only meaning betrothed argument, it works personally. All right, Emily, what man or woman do you consider the most influential person in your life? Oh, certainly my wife, Nancy. Certainly Nancy at this moment and through our 46 plus years of marriage and 48 years of friendship.

Yeah, Nancy, absolutely. The most influential person in my life. She has been immovable when it comes to truth. She has never wavered in her high vision and standard of who I am to be in God. She is not impressed by me in the least and is there to help me go deeper. And so aside from the wonderful friendship relationship, love that we have after all these years, it's not just that she keeps me real.

I send out a picture of somebody I met with and just to let folks know, hey, met with someone so I thought you'd wanna know it. She sends me a picture and she's got it circled in red where my shirt was untucked a little. So she's not the one like, oh, wow, you two met. Oh, that's just wonderful.

No, she's like, pay attention, your shirt's untucked. I need that in my life, but on the deeper level, the serious level, she has a vision for who God is and believes in His calling on my life and knows that there are places in God that I can go that I've never been and is not one that makes excuses for herself. She's not one that just accepts excuses because she knows that with God's help, if we wanna get to a certain place, we can't. I mean, there's so, so many other ways she's been the key influence in my life. Now, and I'm just sharing some, but these are the things most dear to me. Now, there are people like James Robinson that God puts in my life. Many years earlier, Leonard Ravenhill, David Wilkerson that have poured into me, James pours into me on a regular basis and sometimes just wanna talk to me and just pour into me for an hour, share his heart and even be weeping on the other end of the phone and just so I value that. I recognize that there've been key people and key times in my life that have been there. In my early days in the Lord, people who were pastors of mine are leaders in different ways that influenced me.

But I'm far more indebted to Nancy than to any other human being on the planet. Bruce, Jeremiah 42, why did the remaining Israelites ask Jeremiah to seek the Lord's will whether they should go to Egypt or stay in Israel only to call him a liar when he said that they should not go to Egypt? They seem sincere first so the response comes off as really bizarre. Also, how's your Isaiah commentary coming along? Isaiah is on hold, I'm in the 10th chapter but I've been there for many months because I'm spending all my time on a massive, all my academic time on a massive project that's gonna be the most important thing I've ever touched but I can't tell you more about it now but it's gonna be, especially for Jewish outreach and helping the church, it's gonna be incredible.

So Isaiah's on hold but I am hoping to start chipping away on it again. As for Jeremiah 42, there are two sides to it. One, they believe they were sincere. They really believed they were sincere. Jeremiah, you go to the Lord for us but God knew their hearts and God knew that if they didn't get what they wanted to hear, they wouldn't listen. So they thought they were sincere because they were self-deceived and Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord, saw through that. It's also possible that they really expected the answer to be one thing so it's gonna be that, that's what we know and of course we'll follow it.

When it was concrete or what they were expecting, they were prepared for that but deep down, ultimately, I believe they were self-deceived and Jeremiah, whatever you say will do it but they didn't really mean it and they didn't even know it and that's why when he spoke to them, they wouldn't hear what he had to say. This is how we rise up. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Come be a fanatic. Welcome back, friends, to a special Ask Me Anything broadcast here on The Line of Fire. Again, not talking about what's happening in the news.

Not talking about what's happening in the world around us. Not talking about political elections unless it's a question that someone happened to post. Instead, we are taking your questions. I asked for these earlier on social media. You know, we have our phone lines open most every day on the radio and some days just specifically for your questions, normally on Fridays, of course but I often like to give folks on social media that don't have the ability to call in or just works better to post a question, give them opportunity, and you get to sit back and enjoy this. A reminder, if you didn't download our app yet, do it today.

What are you waiting for? You got all these other millions of apps that don't even know what some of them are on your phone. This is one that will edify you, bless you, will infuse you with faith and truth and courage, will allow me to be your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity 24-7 whenever needed. So download it. It's Ask Dr. Brown Ministries. Make sure you have that whole name.

A-S-K-D-R Brown Ministries on Android or on Apple. And then tell some friends. If you're enjoying it, tell some friends and rate it, give it a good review because we want this to serve as many as we can. All right, I'm going back to questions that were posted on Facebook.

Then I'm gonna switch over to Twitter. Isep, have you ever met or spoken to John MacArthur? No, I'd love to, haven't made efforts two years ago before and after the Strange Fire Conference and did my best through public appeal and through reaching out privately to John MacArthur's right-hand man to meet with Pastor MacArthur, but that never happened. Why did it not happen from his perspective?

I don't know. I don't know if he was told Dr. Brown would like to meet with you. And Pastor MacArthur said, I'm not interested or if people didn't bring it to him or if he didn't understand the full context of it. I don't know, but I'd love to meet with him. I honor and respect him on so many fronts. We have some strong differences on charismatic issues. We agree on various extremes being negative and destructive. We disagree on what is real and beautiful and powerful or not, but I have the utmost esteem and respect for him on so many other fronts. All right, Josh.

Hello, Dr. Brown. I followed your discussions on Hebrew word pictures and thoroughly agree with you. And now I have a semi-related question. Okay, so let me just back up and say there is a myth that every Hebrew letter still in the Bible represents a word or a concept. And you can put these things together to get all kinds of meaning out of the Bible.

That is a myth. The letters are letters, not symbols for words. They originally, when there were thousands of pictographs, they would have represented a word or a concept like foot would have represented foot or walking or something like that. I would have represented an I for seeing. Now you just end up with 22 letters. They are letters. They are not words in themselves, representing all kinds of concepts when they are found. And so you've got the first word of Genesis, brachit.

Well, the bait is house and the r-racious head and the olive is ox. No, no, no, no, no, myth, myth. If there's anything I can tell you with authority, with a PhD in the Eastern languages and literatures, it is that this is myth.

Okay, so Josh continues. Is it possible to exegete the Bible through anagrams and Hebrew words? Like for example, in the word brachit, using the letters we can scramble them or choose certain letters to make others words like wife or wife of the son. I recently came across someone teaching that the gospel is in the first word of the Torah kind of Hebrew word picturesque. Is this a valid form of exegesis? There is just, is this just another way to make the Bible say whatever you want it to say? It is another way to make the Bible say whatever you want it to say.

It is absolute rubbish nonsense. It would be just like me taking what Josh wrote here, okay? And saying, okay, well, let's just, hello, Dr. Brown. Let's take that first sentence. Hello, Dr. Brown and let's scramble it and let's make it into this or that or no, you can't do that. The words are communicating with clarity.

No, you can't mix and match and sorry, doesn't work. So thanks for asking Josh, but that is the answer to your question. It is just another way to make the Bible say what you want it to say. It is nonsense. It is an abuse of the Bible. All right, Blake or images of Jesus, like the chosen a second commandment violation. No, I don't believe that if you have someone as an actor and they are portraying Jesus, even works of art where people are drawing pictures of what they believed he looked like. I don't believe that's a violation of the second commandment because you are depicting someone who lived on this earth. Now I would not bow down in front of the picture or pray to it.

That would then become idolatrous or become an unhealthy mixture in my view. But for sure, it's talking about making an image of the invisible God, not saying that the incarnate Jesus looked a certain way. Of course, we don't know exactly what he looked like, but look, bottom line is that Jesus did walk on the earth. God did come in the flesh, right? So the entire time he was there, it was not idolatrous. People looked at him and saw him, but they saw him walking in the tent of this body as a human being. They did not see him as the invisible God enthroned in heaven. If you made an image of that and bow down to that, yes, that is idolatrous for sure.

Let's see. Steven asked Dr. Brown, do you see Revelation 1 for him who is and who was and who is to come as a reference to the divine name, Exodus 3, 14, and the Septuagint. What other references to the divine name Yer'ahweh are there in Revelation outside of Kurios in some context? No, I don't see it as an explication of or revelation of the divine name.

So some would point to the Hebrew, the consonants Yer'ahweh, vav'hay, which come out as Yahweh, as we have learned to pronounce it, although no one can say they're 100% sure of the pronunciation. In any case, some would say that within that you have hayah, he was, hoveh, he is, yet he will be, or variation of that. But I do not see that as the meaning of the word that's like a good preaching from it, that's expanding on it, but that's not the meaning of it itself. So the one who was and is and is to come, that doesn't work with the Greek. The Greek doesn't have all of that contained within the divine name either. Just him being referenced as the first and the last and the alpha and the omega and all of those things, we know who it's talking about. And it's talking in those terms, even about father and son as well. But I don't see this as a secret opening up of the meaning of Yahweh, the meaning of the divine name in the book of Revelation. Now I've not studied in depth all the claims that it's found. I've just never found anything that would hint in that direction for me and all the 50 plus years of reading Revelation.

Okay, Mark. I have a friend that believes the Bible teaches us to come out from Babylon. So he won't use a driver's license or vote that we're only to obey Romans 13 if there's a godly government because society is so ungodly he refuses to be part of what he calls Babylon, the USA, even the whole world. I've tried to get him to see things in a more balanced approach, but he just refuses to be part of society because it's too evil. Here's the funny part, he's addicted to politics. That is ironic.

What advice can you offer me to get my friend a little more balanced in his understanding of scripture and government? First, I'd encourage you to help your friends see that we're in this world. We're not other, but we're in it and we're to participate in it. Taken to 1 Corinthians 5, which talks about excommunicating someone who claims to be a believer but is living in unrepentant sin that we're to separate from them, but then Paul says, now I'm not talking about the people of the world.

I'm not talking about the people of the world. The other is you have to leave the world entirely. You're gonna be around foreign educators. You're gonna be around adult groups.

You're gonna be around extortioners and on and on. That's the first thing. Second thing, I would remind him that Jesus said, give to Caesar, who is an ungodly man. Give to Caesar but belongs to Caesar and to God but belongs to God. So he's not giving to Caesar in these different ways.

That's the second thing. Third thing, I would remind him that you had ungodly emperors and power and ungodly emperor specifically when Paul wrote 1 Timothy 2 in terms of praying for our leaders and even praying for their salvation. So we relate to them as our leaders, this case kings, whether or not they're godly or not. And we pray for their salvation.

And 1 Peter 2 tells us to honor them. Just as Romans 13, when Paul wrote Romans, there were ungodly leaders. But in fact, the government still does exist to stop evil. So in other words, even in the Roman empire, it was there to stop all types of anarchy and chaos. If the ruling authority tells you to do evil, you don't do evil, right?

But otherwise you submit to the ruling authorities. As for Babylon, we come out of the sins of the world. I don't believe America is Babylon, but either way, we come out of the sins of the world, but we live in this world and participated in it. Again, rendering to Caesar, that which is do Caesar, rendering taxes to those that collect taxes, right? So Romans 13 and Matthew 22 and then 1 Peter 2, these various passages that call us to do these things and we function as salt and life. So don't partake of the sins, but having your driver's license is not partaking of the sins. And some of the other things, voting is not partaking of the sins. In fact, voting is saying, I want to get better people in office. If we're praying, right? Don't you think that Paul would say if we had the ability to vote, pray and vote wisely? They didn't have the ability to vote.

That wasn't an option and it's an option for us. So he's actually participating in making the world worse and in making it a more difficult environment for Christians to live and witness by not voting and by not participating. So share these thoughts with him. By all means, come out of the sins of the world. Don't partake of the sins of the world and come out of those systems that force us to sin. If they force us to sin, we come out of them.

Getting a driver's license or voting, these are privileges so we can exercise our rights and freedoms here. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. 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. Now you may be scoring very differently than I am today, which is okay. I'm just giving you my evaluation.

If you want to get more in depth, get the book, The Political Seduction of the Church, which not only lays out what we got wrong, but what our high and lofty and glorious calling in Jesus is. That's the biggest thing. Friends, if we could see ourselves the way God sees us, not just that which needs correction and rebuke, but who we are in him and what we're called to in him and what our potential is in him, if we could see that, we'd act differently. Let me give you an example, all right?

I'm not taking calls today, but let me give you an example. Let's say that you're a baseball player, thinking of our grandson, Andrew, our second of four grandkids, who's now in his first year of college and is playing baseball, pitching on the team, went to a specific school for that reason. And let's just say he thought, well, yeah, I'm a freshman. It's a two-year school. This goal is to go from there to a good Division I school to play. But it's a two-year school. Let's just say, hey, I'm a newcomer here. I'm a freshman.

I'm in my first semester. And nobody's gonna pay me any attention. Nobody's gonna care about what I have to say. No one's gonna listen to me. No one's looking at me.

I'm just gonna kinda sit in the corner. And let's just say that because of the way God's gifted him and blessed him and anointed him and his red hair on top of it, let's just say he stands out. And let's just say that people are looking at him to lead. People are looking at him to shine.

People are looking at him to show the way. Well, once you know it, you don't put an act on, you say, okay, I gotta be even more responsible. I remember in 1985, Nancy and I flew to Virginia. I was speaking at a church on a Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning. So here we are in 1985, just 30 years old, right? The pastor and his wife, probably in their sixties. I mean, at least in their fifties, but I'm remembering that they were in their sixties. Of course, in those days, people that are younger looked older, right?

But I remember they were like twice our age. So they'd been pastoring. They were generous, maybe 150 people in the church. I remember they were very generous with their offering, which really blessed us and surprised us. And, you know, cause these are early days of traveling. In fact, everywhere I traveled to preach for years, I just driven just, you know, local states around me and things like that. This was one of the first trips where we were flying out, so on and so forth.

So I just remember a lot of the details. And Sunday we finished the last meeting and now we go out to lunch together. There was a diner they loved going to. So we go to this diner and I'm just chatting with them. You know, we finished the meeting just chatting and I'm done preaching and here I'm half their age, right?

So I'm not thinking like I'm the man of God and they're waiting for something from the man of God. So when we finished lunch that day, Nancy said to me they were expecting something. In other words, they were waiting for me to share, okay, having been with the church, here are my thoughts, here are my impressions, or I felt the Lord was saying this, I wanted to share this with you. I didn't, even though I was the guest speaker, I didn't see myself in that way, especially being half their age.

So from then on, ever since I remember that. Now, sometimes people just wanna hang out and chat. But when I go to minister, especially as the years have gone on and God's given me stature and people will look at me as an elder and a father, that I will, when I'm having a meal with someone, I'm thinking, okay, this is an important time. What does this person wanna share with me? What do I need to hear? What can I give them? What are they expecting from me? All right, we got their entire leadership team at the table, there's 20 people here. And it's not just to hang out and have a meal. So what do you want?

What can I give you? So many times we downgrade who we are in the Lord. We don't realize how many people are looking at us. We don't understand the lofty nature of our calling in Jesus. That's why chapter two of the political seduction of the church deals with the transcendent calling of the church.

I felt early on, God wanted me to put a picture there of who he has called us to be and how we are to conduct ourselves. You know, it's one thing at the rehearsal to the wedding, right, everybody's dressed casually and messing around and laughing and joking and somebody gets a line wrong and the bow's like, oh, everybody's laughing. It's a whole different thing. When the groom is in the tux and the bride's in her white gown and the building is packed with family and friends and all of that.

It's like, you may still be smiling, having a good time, but there's a whole awe about it. It's different, it's different. If we can understand who God's made us to be and called us to be and how transcendent we are to be in terms of not getting in the mud, but rather bringing light and truth and grace and wisdom into the midst of chaos, instead of throwing dirt at each other, that's our calling.

All right, so number six in the checklist. Sometimes we must function as the president's loyal opposition, did we? For the most part, no. You know who did? Some of the faith advisory council, numbers of men that were on that told me, we were not yes men. And James Robison is on record for saying that probably 75% of his communication with the president sometimes once or even twice in a day, 75% was rebuke and correction. And yet Trump loved him when they'd see each other, put his arms around him and understand James was not looking for anything from Trump. And James and the men there knew that they were gonna get hit and be attacked for standing with the president because everyone would think, oh, you're just yes men and that's all you are. Whereas they were there to call him to do what was right and to challenge him when he did that was wrong.

So I failed to mention that in the book in terms of, in this context, elsewhere in the book, I talked about their role, all right? But I was looking at the bodies of all those of us who were considered Trump supporters. How many would openly and vocally differ with him? Very, very few.

Why? Well, because he was being so savage by the left and so misrepresented by the secular media and because the stakes were so high and we didn't wanna give fuel to the fire of his opponents or we just got so partisan, we became blinded, but either way, we really failed there in my view. So in my view, we've got four fails and two passes so far. All right, number seven, our calling goes beyond patriotism. I think we knew that, but we merged them. Again, in my view, if I have to do a pass or fail here, in my view, we got so absorbed with America first or make America great again or if Trump's done in America collapses, that we deeply merged our national identity with our Christian identity. And the two are not the same. The two are not the same. And remember, when you say MAGA, make America great again, it means one thing to a white Christian audience in America, another thing to a black Christian audience in America, another thing to a Native American Christian audience, or forget the Christian part, make America great again can mean one thing to white Americans, black Americans, Native Americans, something very different to each, yes? I mean, look, what was the best part of our history?

We look at the founding and there's so much good and so much wonderful and so much excellent and so much Christian and so much unique and so much from God and so much that wasn't, right? Those are just realities. Those are realities.

So it depends on what lens you look at things. And please hear me. I risk offending everybody here, but please hear me. I'm not trying to be offensive. And the last thing I'm trying to do is stir controversy to get more people to listen or watch. I don't do that, that's carnality.

That's the flesh, that's the flesh. If I say something that stirs up controversy, either it's because it needs to be said, it's truthful, God's burdened me, or because I'm not even aware that what I'm saying is controversial. That's happened as well, but please hear me. You can either write off your brothers and sisters as ignorant, as unspiritual, as stupid. How can you possibly be a Christian and vote Democrat? How can you possibly be a Christian and vote Republican? Now, I was talking to a black colleague and this brother said to me, Christian brother said to me, how is it that there are pastors, black pastors, who preach against homosexuality, who preach against abortion, and yet they are in the Democrat party. Some of them are politicians in the Democrat party.

How is that? My perspective, they're hypocrites, right? I don't know who he's talking about specifically, but generically speaking, my perspective, they're hypocrites because I'm not seeing why they're Democrats.

Now, please hear me. I cannot for the life of me understand in today's climate with the stakes at hand, how a Christian could vote for Joe Biden. I don't get it.

I don't see it. If you're a pro-life biblical Christian, I don't see how that's possible. And right now, with President Biden saying if he gets a majority in the Senate that he wants to codify Roe v. Wade, so he's put that on the table. And with a radical trans activism that he's pushing and the assault that's gonna be on religious freedoms and on and on, let us put aside issues of inflation and international security and all those things. Put that aside. I don't see how someone could vote Democrat. However, I know there are godly Christians, people who love Jesus, who are Democrats. I don't understand it, but either I just have to condemn my brothers, just say, nope, can't be wrong, period, either I have to do that, or I have to say, okay, let's interact.

I wanna understand why. I still may not agree, but I'm not gonna condemn you. Conversely, I remember being in New York City getting ready to launch our radio broadcast on the biggest station that we had, biggest Christian station in the city with vast reach. And the network set up a meeting with some of the key local pastors, bishops, and things like that. And one black brother really thrilled to have me in the city and loved my voice and what I was saying and the stands that I was taking for righteousness and things like that. And he gave me this newspaper.

He had a political newspaper that he put out from his church, and he was a major leader in the city. And I was reading one thing, and it was mocking the idea that you could be Christian and vote Republican. He was mocking that idea. And I've heard, you know, people have called my show and said, it's not possible that you could be a Christian and the right thing to do is vote for Donald Trump, him being the kind of man that he is. Now, look, I've explained why I voted for him, and I've explained my reservations.

But why do I say this? We could either judge each other and say you can't be, there's no way that a Christian should vote here. There's no way a Christian should vote here. I'm not talking about an issue. I'm talking about a candidate, right? Or a party, party affiliation. We can either condemn each other to hell, or we could sit down and say, okay, I don't get it.

I don't see it. I'm strongly convicted, but I know you love the Lord also. I've walked with you. Let's just say you put politics out of the way for a while, and you just fellowshiped together and read the word together and prayed together and did outreach together. You'd say, well, we love Jesus together and you worship together and the spirit moves. And then you say, by the way, how'd you vote? What, what?

You're both shocked. So I'm not justifying a vote either way. I'm saying that what we must do is come together. Tell some God wants to do this and sit down across the aisle with our brothers and sisters and children in the Lord and say, please explain why you voted like that, because I don't get it. I don't see it, but I know you love Jesus.

Can we do that? This is how we rise up. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. All right, we got a few more minutes. I want to focus on some more Facebook questions. And then hopefully we'll do another week. I'll get over to the Twitter questions.

Ask me anything. You say, well, I want to call Friday. Friday, the phone lines will be open. Take as many of your calls as possible. And we try to open the phone lines as much as we can. Some days we do this as well.

Sometimes if I've got to travel to another location, this is the only way to do it. We'll pre-record a show, but always our joy to come to you with something that I hope will be edifying, interesting, informative, strengthening in your faith. Okay, George, the Bible said the end of time, the graves will open, the bodies will rise. Why do we get new bodies in heaven?

So why open the graves? Okay, if someone dies right now, a believer, as I understand it, we go in a spiritual presence into God's presence. In other words, we do not receive a resurrected body.

That's clear. I mean, that's absolutely clear from scripture. We do not receive a resurrected body at death. We receive a resurrected body when Jesus returns, okay? So we are in the presence of God, but in a spiritual way.

What Paul would refer to in 2 Corinthians 5 is being unclothed, all right? Outside of the tent of this body. So it's our spirit soul, our very real being, but not in a tangible form as a body.

Whatever that looks like, God knows. Now, some say, no, we just sleep until the resurrection. Either way, the fact of the matter is we are awaiting resurrection. So you say, yeah, but if we're already in heaven, then why are the graves opening? Because that's where our bodies were. So even though there's decomposition and everything else, that's where our bodies were. And wherever our bodies were scattered, if we died in some tragic accident, in a crash in the water, whatever, we understand that bodies can be, you can be burned in a fire and everything's destroyed and so on, and we understand these things can happen. But the symbol is where we were buried, there's going to be a resurrection and bodies, what it actually looks like, how it actually works. You know, if we're with Jesus spiritually and there's a physical resurrection, right?

And then, you know, do we meet? The Bible doesn't tell us any of that. And I'm quite sure it would be beyond our understanding.

So it's an interesting question when you really break it down, but ultimately it's beyond our understanding as to how it works out. The Bible just says these things will take place. Deborah, could you please clarify on the difference between patriotism and nationalism? In other words, where do we as Christians draw the line between having a healthy biblical desire for the nation we live in, to embody the fear of God, 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 4?

Well, at the same time, not using that desire as the license for rebellion has seen examples like the Capitol riots and the Jericho March. Let me encourage you to go online to nar and christianationalism.com, N-A-R and christianationalism.com. Once more, that's NAR. So N-A-R and christianationalism.com. Read that statement. The first part deals with the subject of Apostolic Prophetic Ministry. Today, what we do and don't believe. The second part deals with christianationalism.

What is a benign use of that? I love God, I love my country. America has some excellent christian roots. If we could really live by them, our country would be blessed. What's the difference between that and an unhealthy christianationalism? As you mentioned, Capitol riots.

And of course, there's a lot more of the Capitol riots, but Jericho March would be the perfect illustration of so much that got mixed there. So go there and we really try to lay it out. NAR and christianationalism.com.

Every leader that's listening, if you haven't signed on, read the statement, if you agree, sign it and send it to your colleagues, all right? Also, if you want to go in further depth, Deborah, and you can get my book, The Political Seduction of the Church. Go ahead and do that, The Political Seduction of the Church, because I really dig deep.

I have several chapters really going in depth on this. Okay, and let me just say this, to answer you directly without going to the site, to the extent that we merge Christian identity with national identity, it becomes unhealthy. To the extent that we marry the gospel with politics, it becomes unhealthy. To the extent that we see the future of the kingdom of God and the future of America as one and the same, we're so completely overlapping that we fail to recognize America is of the world, just like other nations of the world and the church are the redeemed within every nation.

To the extent that is blurred, then it becomes dangerous. All right, Andy, has the last full chapter of Malachi already been fulfilled, or is it talking about a future event? Certainly a future event.

Certainly a future event. Now, Jesus made clear that Elijah still would come in the future, even though John, the immerser, John the Baptist, came in the spirit and power of Elijah, that Elijah was still to come. That great and terrible day of the Lord will still come with judgment on the earth. Now, will it be literally Elijah who appears as the final forerunner? Will it be a prophet or a company of prophets in the spirit and power of Elijah? Will it be the body of Messiah, the body of Christ rising up as an Elijah witness?

There's a lot of debate about that. Anyone that claims that they are Elijah today, anyone that's claimed it thus far, they have been deceived. And I personally do not expect just another person, I am Elijah, unless it was Elijah himself that in the final days, God sent back to earth. Otherwise, there could be other meanings to it, but certainly it has not yet come to pass. A freeman, other than claiming that Christians are to be involved in politics because we are the soldiers. Can you give me an example from the New Testament where the early church was focused on the political agenda?

By the way, praying for those in authority doesn't count. Freeman, can you give me an example in the early church where there is any parallel to voting? No, there was not. They lived in an empire and the emperor was ruthless and the power of Rome was non-negotiable and non-disputable. If you didn't submit to it, you were crushed. So you did not have a parallel.

But you do have give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, right? So in this case, Americans can do that in many ways. Also, don't downplay being salt, right? Is the salt of the earth the light of the world?

Don't downplay that. So shouldn't the salt of the earth, the light of the world have an impact on the culture and doesn't the culture have an impact on politics? I mean, how could it be other? How could you have God's people living as God's people by the tens of millions, shining like life, being a moral conscience without having a tangible effect on the world around us?

How could that possibly happen? That's one. And two, how could that happen without affecting politics? It's just, you know, there's the old line was that Andrew Breitbart that politics is downstream from culture and culture is downstream from the church. And then just being stewards, the whole the principle of stewardship and too much is given, much is required, but we have stewardship as voters here. But that being said, as I've often emphasized and as I lay out in political seduction of the church, when I make my list of top 10 ways for the church to change America, political involvement is way down on my list. Now, for those who are called to be activists and on the front lines and inform you about voting and candidates and lobbying, it's different priority for them. But for your average believer in terms of the, how we are to impact America's followers of Jesus, political involvement is on my top 10 list, but way down.

All right. Okay, Kimberly, he was four, six. I've asked about it and was told to read about 40 scriptures before and 40 after. I've read the whole book many times over and still do not understand four, six.

I was brought back to repentance after 20 plus years. So, ah, you mean six, four. You mean chapter six, four through six.

That's what you mean. Where those who've tasted the goodness of the world to come and those who, from every description, seems to have been generally born again. If they fall away, you can't bring them back to repentance because they are crucifying the Son of God afresh and holding them up to public shame. We know the whole Bible calls backsliders back over and over and over and over and over.

It calls backsliders back. The end of Jacob, James, the fifth chapter. If you see a brother stray and you bring him back, you've saved the soul from death and covered over a multitude of sins, the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin, the lost son, the so-called prodigal son in Luke 15. And God telling Israel in the Old Testament, Jeremiah three and four, I've sent you away, but I'm calling you back.

I'm calling you back. I mean, it's the whole Bible is a call for backsliders to come back. So, I believe the best way to understand that is that this is written to first century Jewish believers who had now departed and gone back to the temple system, gone back to the Old Atonement system, gone back to the systems of Judaism that existed without the Messiah. And Hebrews is saying there is no repentance for them in that system. If you reject the Messiah, you're crucifying him afresh. And as long as you are doing that, there's no repentance. It is a troubling passage to scholars and theologians on all sides of the debate. For the very reasons you mentioned that you fell away, you came back, but how can that be? Some say, no, it's only somebody who completely apostasizes, they can never come back. But to me, you're putting a bit more on the text than it says.

So, I understand it. And the ISV, the International Standard Version comes closest to conveying this in English that as long as you are in that state, so for a Jewish person denying Messiah, thinking, hey, I can repent, I have a system, I don't need him. No, no, no, you're crucifying him all over again.

You're holding him up to public shame. And there is no salvation. There is no forgiveness for you outside of that, unless you repent, unless you come back.

As long as you're in that system. And a traditional Jew does not think he or she needs Jesus. A traditional Jew thinks they have everything they need. They can repent, they can ask God for mercy. They have a system of religion of law. And that is sufficient for them to be in right relationship with God. Hebrews say, no. If you've known, now you go back, you cannot be renewed in repentance as long as you're in that state. You may think you have repentance outside of the Messiah, but you don't.

That's the best that I understand that passage. Hey friends, just another reminder, make sure you get our emails, askdrbrown.org. So many exciting announcements we have to send your way, great resources for you. askdrbrown.org, center for the emails, and then download our app. If you haven't yet on Android and Apple, put the whole name, ask Dr. Brown, ask Dr. Brown ministries on Apple and Android. Another program powered by the Truth Network.