He Will Make Us Fishers of Men

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. So why bother to fight the culture wars?

Aren't we just bailing water out of a sinking ship? 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. Thanks friends for joining us on The Line of Fire. Michael Brown coming your way live. Ignore that tease you just had.

That was a mistaken clip played from yesterday. We are here live from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania where I'm teaching at the Global Awakening Seminary led by Dr. Randy Clark. We're going to have a wonderful time on the air today. I want to stir your heart with a vision for winning the loss. I want to stir your heart with a vision and passion for touching those who don't know Jesus. I want to renew your zeal to see lives changed through the transforming power of the Gospel. I want to encourage you that you can make a difference in lives, an eternal difference in lives.

So glad to be with you. Oh, I hate to break the news to you, but our phone lines are being completely revamped. Just to give you an idea of the logistics, every day when we broadcast live from our studio in North Carolina, we're a little bit outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. That's where I've got my team. That's where my producers are based and we operate from there. That's where I have my radio studio and our ministry offices. We connect real time obviously to the radio studio in Winston-Salem. They manage things and then get things out via satellite around the country to our other stations. So they handle the phone calls coming in and out. They handle the music going in and out.

They handle basically just the operation of the radio show. So the phone lines are there. There was a breakdown with phones. They got things repaired. It seemed that only two lines were working out of all the phone lines.

So a lot of things are being replaced. Because of that we had some delays today even with getting the right info in to start the show, hence the wrong clip that was played at the beginning. If you're like, didn't you talk about this yesterday?

Yes, we did. But we're not talking about it today. But I can't take calls. And I don't know how long it's going to take for them to revamp the phone system. That's the bad news. The good news is hopefully everything will be in better operating condition moving forward.

That being said, I anticipated this issue. So I posted earlier on Twitter and Facebook saying, hey, if you got a question for me or you want to talk to me about anything, I'm going to be answering questions because I can't take calls. I'm going to be spending the next few days after I share the main things on my heart or talk about what's happening in the society around us. Then from there, I am going to go over to Facebook and Twitter and answer your questions. So if you're like, oh, Dr. Brown, I was planning on calling. I've been waiting. Okay, no problem. I would love to talk to you. But if something you can post, just look for my post on the S. Dr. Brown page, on Facebook, ASKDR Brown, or on Twitter, DR Michael L. Brown.

There are two L's there, Michael L., DR Michael L. Brown on Twitter. Okay, but before I get over to your questions, before I talk about those issues, whatever it is you want to raise and talk to me about, I want to talk to you about a profound statement that Jesus made to his disciples. It struck me when one of our grads, who's now serving as a missionary in Kurdistan and reaching the Muslim people there, he was preaching at our home congregation some years ago, and he made a powerful statement based on what Jesus had said. Remember when Jesus tells his disciples, Peter and the others that are in the boat and have this great catch of fish, or they're mending their nets, a couple of different settings, and he says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And what our grad said was, he didn't say I will make you apostles or prophets or evangelists or pastors or teachers. I will make you fishers of men.

If you follow me, this will happen as a result. You will catch people in the net of the gospel, the good news, the transforming good news. And just as Peter had that miraculous catch of fish in obedience to the command of the Lord in Luke 5, when he began preaching his first day, preaching after the resurrection of Jesus at Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, Shavuoth, in Acts 2, 3,000 Jewish people are added to the kingdom. 3,000 Jewish people are saved. Something very, very glorious.

Fishers of men. At this very moment, think of this, at this very moment, all around the world, by the millions, the gospel is being shared. Someone is talking to a co-worker about Jesus. Someone is getting gospel literature out to a closed village. Someone is sharing the good news via a social media app. Someone is preaching at a gospel outreach somewhere.

A parent is instructing a child that really wants to know what it means to follow Jesus. Millions of people right now as we speak are sharing the gospel. You say, well, how do you know that's true? Well, if there are professing two hundred, excuse me, two billion, professing two billion Christians, let's say half of them aren't really Christians, let's say one billion, right? So a billion is a thousand million. So out of the thousand million, I'm sure there are a few of those million that are sharing the gospel. This is just happening at any time as the gospel is going forward. And friends, as important as it is to stand for righteousness in society, we spent a whole show giving you ten different reasons why we engage in the culture wars as followers of Jesus in this world. As important as those things are, and as much as we are on the front lines of that with the line of fire, and by God's grace serving as your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity, and by God's grace every day infusing you with faith and truth and courage so you can stand strong for the Lord. As glorious as that is, as important as that is, the greatest thing that we can do in the light of eternity is love someone into the kingdom, is care enough about another individual to bring them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, from damnation to salvation, from being under the power of Satan to being in the family of God, to being a slave to sin, to becoming a slave for righteousness, to expecting eternity separated from God, now to have eternity with God.

And forever and ever and ever that fruit will remain. And as much as I believe in praying for the sick, and as much as I believe in miracles, I was talking to a man yesterday with an extraordinary story who has spent years in the Muslim world reaching Muslims with the gospel, who has suffered for it, who has suffered physically for it, who has had to sow for decades to build relationships and see the fruit that he's seen. I was sitting having lunch with him yesterday and speaking to another sister that knew him well, and they were telling me how he has seen four quadriplegics. He had four quadriplegics in the Muslim world that he's ministered to. Four quadriplegics.

That's four more than I've seen. As glorious as that is, and as Jesus exalting as that is, and as spectacular as that is, the thing that's even more glorious is all of the hundreds of thousands of Muslims over these years that he has seen come to the Lord in different settings. That is even more glorious. Remember, when the disciples came back to Jesus in Luke 10, he had sent them out to preach, given them authority over unclean spirits and over sickness, and he sent them out to preach, and they came back rejoicing, saying, Lord, even the spirits are subject to us in your name. I mean, it must have been amazing seeing demons leave in B'shem Yeshua, in the name of Jesus, when they'd speak his name.

That must have been stunning. Sickness leaves. Demons leave. People are set free. It's miraculous. It's extraordinary.

It's whoa. But Jesus said, Don't rejoice that the demons are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. That's even better news. The miracle of a transformed body is wonderful, but it's temporary. Yes, it can relieve terrible suffering.

Yes, it can be the difference between life and death. Think of rather than losing a three-year-old to leukemia, that child is healed and lives a full life and knows the Lord and has a family of their own. How wonderful.

How glorious. And think of the pain and the suffering that's relieved through physical healing. And think of how it brings glory to God when people hear the testimony of what Jesus did. But better still is a transformed heart. But better still is the eternal life that comes to someone.

And now forever and ever and ever they are with Jesus. A physical healing at best is still temporary, right? A physical healing at best is temporary because that person is ultimately going to die physically unless they live to see Jesus return. And even someone being raised from the dead, as spectacular as that is, as rare as it is, but as spectacular as it is, even that is temporary because they are going to die eventually, right?

That is reality. But if you're born from above and truly come into the family of God, you will never die. Your body may die, but your spirit will never die. You will be with the Lord forever and ever and ever. You know, people have talked about if a bird flew from one part of the world to another and it picked up in its beak one grain of sand and flew to the other side of the world and deposited that grain of sand there and then went back and did it again until it had moved every grain of sand on all of the beaches on one side of the world to the beaches on the other side of the world, it wouldn't make a dent in eternity. How can we even relate to the concept of eternity that is so beyond our understanding we can theoretically get it, but to grasp it?

But that's what happens. Your sins are forgiven forever. No condemnation forever.

Rejoicing without sickness and pain forever. We have that message. You may not have a divine healing ministry. You may not have a prophetic ministry. You may not have a pulpit ministry.

You may not be a great speaker. You may not be any of those things, but if you know the Lord, you have a testimony. And if you know the Lord, you can love somebody else. And that wonderful news that was shared with you, you can share with others. I want to encourage you every day, say, Lord, use me to be a soul winner.

You say, you don't understand. I'm at home with three little kids all in diapers. I know I go out of the house for a few minutes, get groceries back in. I'm in a church service. The ladies, I'm not around the world all the time.

It doesn't matter. I'm shut in. Dr. Brown, you don't understand. I'm shut in. People come and care for me. Pray every day. It could be through your prayers.

It could be through you influencing someone else who influences someone. But let's open our eyes. The harvest is ripe. It's the greatest thing we could do. All the other things are important, but winning someone to Jesus, seeing them truly saved, forgiven, transformed, new life, eternal life. There's nothing more wonderful, important, and it's something every one of us can engage in. And if we could be soul winners, just win one person, one person to the Lord, right?

Literally, if we could just win one person to the Lord each year, it would change the world. All right, we will 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 on The Line of Fire. Hey, my friendly daily reminder, if you haven't downloaded our app yet, it's amazing. All the resources right at your fingertips, wherever you are, you can listen to the radio show live. Just click on the app to tune in. If you're connected by your phone, you can listen to us.

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We just had all kinds of resistance. So the app is out. People are getting it, enjoying it, loving it. Download it for yourself.

If you like it, give it a good rating and tell your friends. All right, again, can't take calls, but I'm going to go to some questions that were posted on social media. Okay, let's just check one thing here before I go a little further. Okay. All right. All good. All good. Just checking on a couple things here. Make sure our systems are working properly with all the upheaval and transformation going on internally. Okay.

Another word about winning the loss. And then I want to go to some interesting questions that have been posted on social media. And you go ahead and do that on the Ask Dr. Brown Facebook page or my Twitter page, drmichaellbrown. Again, you'll see a post where I'm soliciting questions. You can do that today, tomorrow, even Thursday, maybe even through Friday, we may be doing this. So go ahead and post until I get to as many as I can.

Look, the biggest thing that we have when it comes to winning the loss is relationships. Yes, people do get saved in a random way. You know, someone handing out tracks on a street corner. I know people have gotten saved through that. Or at a big gospel beating. Yeah, I know people have gotten saved through that. Watching Christian TV, I know that as well. But the great majority, as I've surveyed people over the decades, it's always the same story. They heard the gospel through a friend, loved one, colleague. It was relational.

It was someone that knew them. You know, the stat, excuse me, it says the vast majority of car accidents occur within a couple miles of your house. That's because the place where you are the most is closer to your house. So that's why the most car accidents happen.

It's not that it's especially dangerous, but it's just the place where you always are and you're driving and coming back, going out, just wherever you're around there, running local errands and things like that. So it's the same thing with the gospel. And you say, but I don't know how to talk to people. Well, pray first. Pray for people regularly. Pray for family members, coworkers, those who don't know the Lord. Pray for them regularly. Ask God, Lord, share your heart with me.

Share your heart. And just pray good prayers, Lord. Open their heart, Lord. Let them know how much you love them, Lord. Show them their sin, their guilt, their need for you. Show them who Jesus really is.

People from other religions often have misconceptions of him or raised in wrong church settings have misconceptions and things like that. So that's one thing. Pray. Oh God, open their heart. Turn their heart.

You can do that. And then Lord, give me open doors. Give me opportunities. Maybe you're shy. Well, is your shyness a good reason for that person to perish? Shouldn't your desire to see them saved and in right relationship with God and forgiven and whole, should now outweigh your shyness? If you're a shy person, but you saw someone walking into the street and a truck was coming, barreling around the street and they didn't see it, and if you could scream out at the top of your lungs, they could stop and jump back.

Look out! You'd scream out, wouldn't you? I'm a shy person.

It doesn't matter because someone's life is at stake. So when the Lord burdens you, when you feel that in your heart, when you're moved by that compassion, that ought to be your shyness. Another thing to say is, Lord, I'm shy by nature, but I believe you've given me a spirit of boldness. I believe you've given me grace. One of the great soul winners of the last century was Dawson Trotman, soul winner, disciple maker, founder of the Navigators.

Amazing story, born to reproduce, kind of tells the story of his life. And it's interesting that, and he shared the Gospel daily and sometimes multiple times a day with strangers, but he wouldn't just lead the person to the Lord. He'd make sure, okay, you're getting steps to be discipled. Now, who are you leading to, Lord?

Who are you discipling? And that was his lifestyle for him. That was always in his life. But he said that always before he'd witness, he had this little fear and he had to pray. And it reminded him to rely on the Lord.

So as many times as he did it, he still had to deal with it. So, Lord, give me compassion. Give me a heart that's willing to obey. And I believe, according to your word, that you haven't given me a spirit of timidity and fear. But you've given me a spirit of boldness and grace to speak. And then your love compels you.

And then ask the Lord for opportunities. Sometimes it's just planting a seed. Sometimes it's just your kindness, your grace, your care for someone opens the door where you gain their trust. Sometimes it's taking interest in someone's life and sitting with them and letting them tell you what's going on.

And then as they see that you really care about them, say, hey, let me share my own story with you. Say, I'm not a theologian. Do you have a testimony? Do you have a testimony? Did Jesus save you? Did he transform you? Did he heal you? Did he set you free?

Did he do something in your life that you can share with someone else? And maybe just sharing that story opens the door. They say, well, what if they come with lots of questions? Well, then say, hey, let me just get a friend who can answer these. Or, hey, let me just ask someone and I'll get back to you. You don't have to have answers to everything. What if it's someone that wants to debate? Say, hey, I'm really not a debater, but I know what God did in my life. It's just amazing to live this out. I'd love to see you experience the same thing.

And just keep loving on them. Don't let all the excuses get in the way, because it's through the foolishness of the preaching that people are saying. It's through the foolishness of the cross, not through our wisdom, not through our eloquence. Apologetics has its place. I engage in it all the time. I've been a leader in Messianic Jewish apologetics for decades and cultural politics. And these are things I'm involved with.

They have their place. But ultimately, it's a simple message of the gospel that's going to save. So let me encourage you to be a fisher of men. That means you've got to go fishing. You've got to throw the net out. You've got to throw the fishing rod out. Not the fishing rod, but the line, right?

So that's my great fishing expertise. You've got to do that. Plant the seeds.

Look for open doors. I remember, it was just so illustrative, but I was on my way into New York City, and I knew, okay, I've got X amount of time. It was a long train ride from where I was to get into the city, living way out on Long Island. And I knew, okay, here's what I want to do. I want to rest a little bit, and then I'm going to do some studying on my way into school, grad school. And there was a woman sitting there. I remember she was an older woman, and I just thought, okay, I'm just chilling, resting for a few minutes, and then I've got to get busy.

Because I was tired. But somehow we got to talking, and she was open to the gospel, so I got to share the gospel. I had a great talk with her. It took all the time I was supposed to be resting. I had a great talk with her. She then gets off the plane, and I remember I was just so rejuvenated.

I was so energized, and I thought, isn't that interesting? I gave rather than held on, and I ended up getting even more than I gave. So, I encourage you. Look for opportunities. Friends, you want to see America change? It's not going to happen without evangelism. Don't rely on the evangelist. The evangelist is here not just to win the loss, but to equip you and me to do it. Let me say it once more. The great majority of people who come to faith will come to faith through the witness of friend, neighbor, co-worker.

Alright, with that, I'm going to move over to Facebook questions, and let's see. Doris, years ago I had a dream. In that dream, I was praying for people, and they started to yoke. I think she means throw up.

After they finished, they would give me offering financial not long after it started to happen. I had not known anything about deliverance ministry in recent. I stopped believing Christians could have demons in that manifestation and stopped it.

I do something wrong, man of God. So, let's not try to figure out can a demon be inside a Christian, on top of a Christian, attacking a Christian outside. Let's just say that it's clear that Christians in some way can come under the power of Satan. Listening to lies, opening the door to sin, demonic influences, and that somehow this person becomes bound. It shouldn't happen because we have freedom in Jesus, and we have dominion over Satan in Jesus, but we can open the door, right? A believer can fall back and become a slave to sin, even though they've been liberated from sin through the gospel. So, in the same way this can happen, someone can come under demonic power and need to be set free. Never look for a manifestation. Nowhere does the Bible say when demons leave people throw up.

It may happen. I've heard of it happening and seen some pretty bizarre things. Myself, I saw blood gush out of a guy's mouth once when we drove demons out of him, an unsaved guy. He didn't hear what was happening, but the moment I spoke the name of Jesus, he began to shake and blood gushed out of the side of his mouth. When he stood up 20 minutes later, he fell to the ground shaking. Instead of 20 minutes later, he's like, what happened to me?

I feel 20 pounds lighter. I've been sharing the gospel with him, and God was working deeply in his life. Remember, we drove him back to where he was staying. It was an hour drive, and he was just shaking the whole time. What happened to me?

What happened? I have friends that have been involved in deliverance and seen some really wild things, and again, there's some pretty wild things I've seen, but you never look for the manifestation. You never base any doctrine on that, but do believers fall under satanic power? Yes. Sometimes, do they need deliverance?

Yes. In Jesus' name, by the power of the gospel, so we do that. We don't look for outward manifestation.

If things get weird, it's best to take that person out of the public sight, lest it become some show that they're trying to put on, and bring them freedom. But just go back and say, Lord, I'm not going to try to nitpick every little theological detail, but I am going to preach Jesus. I'm going to preach freedom and deliverance, and as people get set free, so be it, in Jesus' name. Joseph, how do you surrender your life to the Holy Spirit?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this for those that don't know. So it's surrendering my life to God, period. It's going before Him, on my knees, on my face, saying, God, everything I have is Yours. My only desire is to do Your will. I live to do Your will.

Everything, my thoughts, my body, my life, everything that I have, everything that has anything to do with me, belongs to You. And then You cultivate. You cultivate it through the day. You take in the Word.

You meditate on it, chew on it. You live by it. You walk in obedience, and you'll see. And then when God speaks, you act and respond. Here I am, saying, send me.

Use me. 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. Welcome back to The Line of Fire.

Michael Brown, thanks for joining us. I was going to give out the phone number by habit, but our phone systems are being revamped, so I'm answering some questions that have been posted on social media. One more thing, Joseph, about surrendering your life to the Holy Spirit.

When we know the will of God, when we sense He's speaking to us to do something, be it to skip a meal and fast, be it to share the Gospel with someone, be it to step out and give a prophetic word, when we sense the Spirit working or moving, be it conviction in a certain area of our life, what we need to do is have instant obedience. That is best as we can. Lord, I'm available. Lord, I just need to know that that's You.

You really want me to do this, I just need to know that that's You. But that instant, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. That creates a life of greater yieldedness to the Holy Spirit. But it starts with that pouring out of our heart, our life, everything from beginning to end, from beginning to end, just this complete giving over of our life, Lord, before You. And I've done it laying on my face, everything I have, everything I own, everything I could be, aspirations, dreams, everything I possess, everything belongs to You. To the very core of my being, I've been bought with a price, I want to do Your will. And my innermost being, that's who I am, that's what I want more than anything else in this world. And God knows that. And then out of that, and spending that quality time before Him, that relationship is cultivated, and then I want the Holy Spirit's wind in my sails. You follow me? I know my own frailty, my own weakness as a human being, but I want the Holy Spirit's wind in my sails, and as He carries me, boy, it's glorious.

Alright, let's just see here. Dave, are you familiar with the pre-wrath rapture? Yes, I have not studied it in great depth for a number of reasons, but I'm glad that it's not pre-trib, and it's very close to my own views as being post-trib. But my problem with it, as I understand it, now maybe I'm getting it wrong, my problem as I understand it is it still separates on some level our being caught up to meet with the Lord and His physical return. As I see it as He returns in the clouds, we are caught up to meet Him as He is returning. Now if you say, well, it's that final moment He pours out His wrath, I don't have a problem with that. But if there's any disparity of time, if it's days, if it's weeks or whatever, then it's separating us being caught up to meet Him.

Do we just hover in the air together? It's clear we don't go back to heaven, the pre-trib view. But I may not be representing it fairly, so I just put that caveat out. Brian, I'm 72 years old and have been a believer since I was 34. I know for certain I will be spending eternity in heaven. I'd like your opinion, is there a delay after I die in this life before I'll be in heaven or will it happen immediately? As I understand scripture, it will happen immediately. As I understand scripture, the moment we leave this world, we are with the Lord. As Jesus said to the thief on the cross in Luke 23, today you'll be with me in paradise.

That's what I understand. Paul sang in Philippians 1, I desire to depart and be with Jesus, but I'm going to stay here longer, just to serve you. 2 Corinthians 5, if we're absent from the body, we're present from the Lord, even while we are awaiting the resurrection of the body. Now, there are believers who believe in soul sleep, but their perspective is, you close your eyes at death and the next moment you open your eyes in the presence of God. In other words, it's not like fitful sleep, like, oh man, I keep getting up in the middle of the night here, what's going on, how long, how long am I going to be sleeping in death?

No. It's just like anesthesia with surgery, right? You go under, next thing you open your eyes and everyone is standing around the bed and the surgery was a success, like, oh.

Last thing you remember is someone talking to you before you went under. So either way, in our experience, you die and the next thing, the next conscious moment you have, you're in the presence of God. But I do believe that it is actually immediately, as I understand scripture. Keith, hello Dr. Brown, some say that when we are born again, our spirit becomes perfect, not our body or soul, but only our spirit. This theology is based on verses like 2 Corinthians 4.17, so any man in Christ's new creation, Ephesians 4.24, we're being recreated in the image of God, 1 John 4.17, as he is so in this world, Hebrews 10.10.14, those haven't been with our sanctification.

Can you elaborate more on this please? Thank you very much. So, on the one hand, it's clear that when we are born again, all of our sins are forgiven. At that moment, we are declared righteous in God's sight, not guilty. We are in the righteous column. At that moment, we are called children of God. At that moment, we are even called saints, holy ones. We are set apart in the category of those who live to do the will of God, hence holy ones. Now, do we sin only with our body and with our mind or with our whole being?

In other words, when people say, well, it's my body that sinned, not my spirit, that's nonsense, because the spirit is who we are, and when Jesus speaks to the seven churches in ancient mind, he doesn't say, hey, I'm upset with what your minds and with what your souls and your bodies are doing, but I know your spirit is perfect. No, you have sinned. It's not, oh, my fist punched you in the mouth, mister, I'm going to have to talk to my fist about that. No, you punched that person in the mouth using your fist.

That's what happened. So what does it say in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1? Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, the promises beginning in 2 Corinthians 6, 14, telling us to not be unable to yoke with the unbelievers, and then from there, God says, if we come out from among them and be separate, that he'll dwell among us and he'll be our God and we'll be his sons and daughters.

Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us, what's the text say? Cleanse ourselves from every saying that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So the moment we're born again, we instantly go from death to life and our spirit, so what's born again is our spirit, our inner being, then we have to renew our minds and discipline our flesh, but our spirit is immediately born again, but now that's who we are.

We can still sin, we can still do wrong. When it says in 1 John 4.17, as he is, so are we in this world, people say, I'm just going to speak that. Oh, so as God is, so are we, so we are now omnipotent, we are now omnipresent, and on and on and on.

We can now create universes? No, it's not what it means. It means that we are to represent him, that as he is, so are we in this world.

That is our mission and our calling in this world. But, even putting that aside, the fact is our spirits can be polluted, cleansing ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, and we now grow in holiness. Last point, there is a parable that's in the Talmud where a Roman leader is talking to a rabbi, and the question comes up about soul or spirit, and which is responsible before God, because hey, the soul, the inner being, using the soul just generically for the inner being, the inner being can't sin on its own, it needs a body, right? The inner being can't sleep with a person out of wedlock, the inner being can't kill someone, the inner being can't steal money, and he's the body.

But the body's not going to do anything without the ideas of the inner being, so who's responsible in judgment day? The rabbi gives this parable that a man hired a blind man and a lame man to guard his orchard, and he notices one day after a while, he notices that a lot of the fruit's disappearing, and it's being stolen. So, he calls the two men in together, he says, you're fired. And the lame man says, what are you talking about, I can't walk, how can I be stealing the fruit? And the blind man says, what are you talking about, I'm blind, I can't see, how can I be stealing the fruit? And the owner of the orchard says, he says to the lame man, the blind man, get the lame man on your shoulders, and then he fired them together. In other words, that's how they did it, that the lame man who walks out on the shoulders of the blind man, that he was guided, went around to steal the fruit. So, the application is that on judgment day, God will put the soul together with the body and judge them both. So, the idea that my spirit doesn't sin anymore, and that if I sin, it's not me, that is completely bogus.

Completely bogus. Todd, strange question, is blind Bartimaeus this man's name or just what he's known by? It seems to me that we don't know his actual name, just that he was blind and he was the son of a man named Timaeus. No, Bartimaeus would be his name, right? Bartimaeus. So, you could be known as the son of someone and that became your name, so he was a blind man with the name Bartimaeus. And Bartimaeus itself is a name. So, yeah, that's who he was.

He was a blind man named Bartimaeus. May, what are some of the most important things your parents taught you that you still to this day apply to your life? Wow, that's an interesting question. And you know, all these decades of answering questions in hundreds of different settings or thousands of different settings, I don't know that that has been asked me in that way. Now, let me tell you what most impacted my life, what most impacted me that I got from my parents, their affirmation of me, their belief in me, their acceptance of me, their love for me. I have no question that that helped me in my relationship with God, receive his love, receive his forgiveness, receive his mercy. That's how my earthly parents treated me. If they believed in me so much and they were willing to forgive me and trust me, how much more could I trust God's mercy and forgiveness? So, it's not that they taught me like words here or words there or my mother would sit me down and give me wise words.

It's who they were. My mother's selfless love for her kids and grandkids over the decades and both my mom and I accepting, affirming, believing in me. You know, I was telling some students last night as I was teaching a story about my mom and I was a new believer. I came home from high school one day and pulled up in the driveway in my car and a Jehovah's Witness was leaving our neighborhood.

She was leaving our front door. She had just been chatting with my mom and she was actually Jewish as well. A Jewish Jehovah's Witness looked down the block for me. So, I began to talk to her and everything she raised I just motored down with Scripture. In those days, I didn't have all the wisdom or compassion but boy, I could quote Scripture.

But it was hitting her. I could see she was stunned and no one had answered her like this and eventually, by God's grace, she left Kingdom Hall. So, I sat with her one day and I said, hey, what did my mom tell you when you talked to her? And she said, oh, your mother said to me, I'm not interested in religion but wait for my son to come home. He'll convert you. He converts everybody. That was my mother, my unsaved Jewish mother.

And my dad, just the way he forgave me for the crazy things I did and loved me and believed in me, those things made a deep life impression on me and I'm indebted to them for that among many other things. All right, we'll be right back. Call me a fanatic. It's our world. They can never have it. This is how we rise up. It's our resistance.

You can't resist us. 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. Hey, would you like to be even more equipped with resources at your fingertips so a question comes up about, can you be gay and Christian?

Or a question comes up, how come the Book of Enoch isn't in the Bible? Or maybe you're wondering, okay, there's a lot of political stuff going on, Dr. Brown, what do you have to say? I can't listen to the show every day. Well, make sure you get my emails.

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All right, so you got the app, you get the emails, you get the website. We're here for you. We got your back. All right, Jesse, what significance did could the blood moon have had for our nation on November 8th? I don't know that it was a massive dramatic phenomenon that got world attention, like, wow, staggering. But if there are unusual things that happened at unusual times, it could just be an attention-getter. This is another significant moment. Now, here's the thing.

I think we knew that the elections were a significant moment, yes, that the midterms were significant. But if there was some sign in the heavens just saying, hey, this is big stuff, that's all I would take it to mean, nothing more. All right, Matthew. I've heard an argument about the angels in Sodom that goes like this.

In Genesis 19, 24, the reference to a second Lord is not a reference to the Trinity, but is actually to the two angels that are already in Sodom. Please help me understand this. Well, I admit I've lost the reference to the name of the scholar who made the argument. It doesn't seem to be just some internet myth. Thank you, Dr. Brown. And so to hear that you're having tech problems.

Yeah, we're sorry, too, but God willing, we'll come out better on the other side. Okay, so, Genesis 18, it says Yahweh, the Lord, appeared to Abraham. Then he looks up, he sees three men. As you read through the account, Abraham and Sarah have interaction with one of the three who is identified as Yahweh, identified as the Lord himself, God himself.

Clear reading of the text. That one individual has an extended conversation with Abraham, telling him what he's going to do with Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham intercedes, and then, what happens? When they're done talking, Yahweh, the Lord, leaves. Now, Genesis 19, 1, then says, and the two angels came to Sodom. So, my understanding of the text is that Yahweh, along with two angels, appeared to Abraham. The rabbinic understanding is that there were three angels that appeared to Abraham, each with a different mission, but that doesn't work. One of them is clearly Yahweh. It's just a plain reading of the text, it has to say that.

One of them is clearly Yahweh. And now two angels come to Sodom. So, that's how I understand the text very plainly.

Now, it says in Genesis 19, 24, that the Lord rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom from the Lord in heaven. Now, rabbinic interpreters say that's just a grammatical expression, that you can have that elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, it doesn't mean two different Lords, right? Others would say, no, no, it's talking about the Lord, Yahweh, who is here on earth, raining down fire and brimstone from Yahweh in heaven, because it's one God, but he's Father, Son, and Spirit, so the Father sits enthroned in heaven, the Spirit works invisibly among us, and the Son makes himself known in visible physical appearance, ultimately in the incarnation of Jesus.

So, that is one way of reading it. The rabbinic interpretation is possible, but seems to miss the force of the text. The other view is that when Yahweh appeared, that the three men were all Yahweh, that it was just the Lord appearing in the form of three men, and some of the Church Fathers said, yeah, it represented Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and I reject that part, that it represented Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, hence three men, because the Father is hidden in his glory, he is not the one that manifests himself on the earth, and the Spirit does not take on a human form, right? It's the Son that does that and reveals himself and reveals God in that way. But could it be that it's just the way God manifested himself was in three men, and that when the other two, who appeared to be angels, got to Son, it was actually the Lord himself there as well, because he can be present in many different places at the same time.

Is that possible? So, as the two angels rained down fire and brimstone from the Lord in heaven, those two angels also were a manifestation of the Lord. That would be the way it's taught, as I understand, and my colleague Dr. Al Garza teaches it like that if I'm rightly representing his position.

It's still not the way I see it. I would read it, even if it is the Lord on earth, raining down fire and brimstone from the Lord in heaven, hence pointing to God's complex unity. I would just understand that the Lord who was on earth talking to Abraham was still there on earth, and was involved with bringing down the fire and brimstone from the Lord in heaven. And it is a verse that points to God's triune nature. All right, I hope that was clear.

Wyatt, God bless you, Dr. Brown. I have a question regarding the sabbatical year in particular, Deuteronomy 15.2. I don't quite understand what was happening at this time, and there seems to be differing views on it. I just wanted to know your thoughts on it.

Thank you very much. All right, so I don't know the specific nature of the question that you have in terms of when you say what was going on at that time, but the question is, let me just do my best to look at the verse and explain it. So, verse 1, at the end of every seven years you will grant a release, and this is the matter of the release. Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor.

He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. So, you could hold on to a loan to a foreigner. But it was a fellow Israelite, it was a cycle of every seven years. Now that's been lost over history to know exactly when it would have continued.

The Jewish tradition would claim to still have it. But otherwise, what it would be is, at a certain point, so the law is given, so you count seven years. So, I lend you money, and you're paying me back every year. Let's say I lend you money two years into it, and you're paying me at the rate of paying me back over seven years. Well, now, after five years, it's the release year. You still owe me two years' worth of payments.

I forgive you. You're released from your debt. So, what happened by the time of Jesus was that poor people were not getting loans as they needed them from the rich, because the rich were saying, hey, if I keep your loan in the fifth year, you won't be able to pay me back. I'm going to lose all the money. And what Jesus, excuse me, what the Torah says here in Deuteronomy 15 is, don't even think about that.

God will take care of you, right? But the rabbis wanted to be compassionate and trying to help, came up with a human solution, and said, okay, we will have something called the prose bill, and this is a document that's signed where you now owe the money to the court, not to me. And this way, even after seven years, you still have to pay it back. So this way, it was guaranteed that the poor would get their loans, so the money would flow, they'd get their loans, and the rich would be reimbursed, and it was a practical system, like a loophole for the law. It's against this context, I believe, that Yeshua teaches, give freely, and lend, not expecting anything back. In other words, it wasn't just a generic thing about giving loans to people. It was in this context of the seventh year release, and some even believe that he was ministering in the 50th year of Jubilee release when he started his ministry, which would be not just the release of financial debts, but if you had sold properties and lost that because of debt, now you were restored to original land, and slaves, even lifetime slaves, Hebrew slaves, would be set free. So that makes a lot of sense contextually, so when Jesus says, lend, not expecting anything in return, what he means is, hey, it's the fifth year, or it's the sixth year in the seven year cycle, someone needs a loan, you give it to them. Oh, I'm not going to get, just give it to them. It's what the law called for, but he tells us to go even higher, even deeper. So I hope that is helpful in that explanation. Excuse me.

Randy Joe. Hey, Dr. Brown, so grateful for you. Thank you. Quote one, since NAR is a topic again on Alyssa Childress' podcast this week, but looking into that, I've been listening to the podcast you're on with Holly Pivik and Doug Gavett from years ago. I want to know if there's a follow-up interview debate, have you ever corresponded with them since that interview from years ago? I didn't know that Alyssa Childress was talking about NAR again. Maybe I can get someone to look into that and find out what she's talking about, and if she'd like me on the air to chat with her, I'm very happy to do that.

I appreciate the work she does. We may have some differences, I'm sure, here and there. Doug and Holly, we've corresponded, but more importantly, I spent four and a half hours with them recording video interaction and airing out differences and talking about areas of common concerns, and that video footage may actually be available at some time for folks to watch.

We do have our differences, for sure. I still believe they've painted with too broad a brush, and the biggest thing to me is when you talk to people who are alleged leaders in NAR, and I know a lot of them, and they say, Mike, what's this NAR thing? And I tell them, and they go, well, I don't believe that.

No, no, no, you're one of the leaders. They go, what do you mean? I say, well, NAR leaders believe this, that, and that.

They go, I don't believe any of that. In other words, the description is such that the people being described don't even recognize it. Whereas if you say, oh, do you believe this, do you practice this?

They go, oh, yeah, they're not ashamed of that. But the alleged things many of them practice are often inaccurate. You take the worst extreme of one and paint it on all. So my appeal to Doug and Holly was get rid of the NAR name. It's misleading. It paints with too broad a brush. It's become this conspiratorial boogeyman.

Let's speak more accurately, more specifically, and let me help you work with you to deal with the error and to deal with the problem. They felt, no, the name is out, and it's accurate, and their work is carefully researched. So we've had some differences in the midst of our agreement, but go to NAR, N-A-R, and Christiannationalism.com. N-A-R, NAR, and Christiannationalism.com. It's not a response to Doug and Holly, not even thinking about them primarily, but getting our narrative out and our words, this is who we are, this is what we do believe. N-A-R, NAR, and Christiannationalism.com. You can't resist us. Another program powered by the Truth Network.