Dr. Brown Tackles Your Questions

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network Podcast. That is the number to call.

We have a complex system. I can't go into all the details, but the way we are doing things is that my team texts me the calls as they are coming in. I then look at my texts as they are coming in and as I talk to you, our studio in a third location is getting you on the air. I will go straight to the phones, starting with Melissa in Indiana. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hi, thank you. My question is in Isaiah 24-5. He says the earth has also deviled under its inhabitants because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

I have a two-part question. What is that everlasting covenant that he is speaking of there, and how is it broken? The other part of my question would be in reference to the new covenant. Apart from completely renouncing Jesus, would a born-again person do something to break the covenant in Jesus' blood?

As to your first question, the text is not clear. It is a very interesting passage because it is talking about judgment on the whole world. Isaiah 24-27.

It is not just about Israel. Some call it the apocalypse of Isaiah. It is this word about judgment coming on the world and destruction coming. What everlasting covenant did God make with the world? Is it stuff that goes back to the flood? That is possible, but more specifically, it could be taken that even though it is an oracle about the world, it is rebuking Israel for Israel's disobedience and Israel breaking the Sinai covenant, which was an eternal covenant.

If they had kept it, it would have been for all generations. That is the best way to understand it. It is not entirely clear from the text, but because of the covenantal emphasis in the book of Isaiah with the people of Israel, that is the most logical reading. They broke God's covenant and with that judgment comes on the whole world as the world is in rebellion as well.

If it is something broader, it is hard to really understand because we don't have specific details. As for us breaking the covenantal relationship with Yeshua, let's just say someone is a believer. Let's talk about Joe. He is a believer and he is driving down the road. He is having a bad day. A guy cuts him off in the car and he just loses it. He loses his temper. He starts screaming using profanity.

Next thing decides I am going to teach this guy a lesson and speeds by him and in the process loses control of the car, flips the car and dies. He doesn't go to hell for that as I understand scripture. In other words, just because he died in a state of sinfulness or he died acting out some fleshly things does not mean he forfeits eternal life. There are some people who live with this notion that if I do one wrong thing and I don't confess it and get it right, then I am damned to hell. If when I go to sleep at night I don't find every sin I committed that day and confess it, if I die in my sleep I go to hell. That is a terrible way to live.

It is bondage. It is not understanding our sonship and daughtership in God. It is not understanding the power of the blood of Jesus. That being said, if we cast off the lordship of Jesus, right? Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, and Jesus said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom and only those who do the will of my Father. There are many passages in the New Testament which make clear that we must persevere in the faith. So if someone walks away from Jesus, as you said, denies him, becomes an atheist, a Buddhist, walks away, or if they refuse to have him as Lord, they may know he is real, but they refuse to have him as Lord. I am going to sin, I am going to walk in sin, and I am not going to repent. Then, yes, they can walk away. God has promised to keep us, but he does not force us to stay in his house. So a shortcoming, times of doubt, struggles, ups and downs, battling something over a period of months, that does not cause us to forfeit our salvation.

We have to willingly walk away. Would he forgive even if you build up hatred in your heart toward someone and then you repent of it? Does he forgive even that? Did Jesus die for that?

Yes. I guess because it is the unforgiveness in the heart. This is where I get confused because in Scripture it talks about if a person has hatred in their heart, there is no eternal life in them.

So I did not know, and then Jesus is talking and saying, If you do not forgive, my Father will not forgive you. So if you, in a time of hurt, walked where it built up over years to become hatred in your heart, and you had horrible things happen because of that, if you saw the error of your ways and you cried out to God and you repented and you turned from it, is he always willing to restore? Always. Always. So no matter what we have done, he is always willing to restore.

Always. What does it say in 1 John 1-9, If we confess our sins, verses 8 and 10 on either side say, Don't deceive yourself thinking you have no sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What is written in 1 John 2, I write these things to you so that you will not sin, but if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Look in 2 Corinthians where Paul is dealing with someone who would sin grievously in the body in the first two chapters, and this person had truly repented. And he said, look, we know Satan's devices.

Don't let this person be put out. Welcome them back and forgive them. What about the lesson of the prodigal son? What about God's constant dealings with Israel saying turn back.

Even now, turn back, turn back. So our fellowship with God will be broken if we refuse to forgive. So when it says he won't forgive our sins, it doesn't mean in terms of salvation.

It means in terms of our relationship. In terms of our intimacy with God. So the fellowship will be broken. You cannot enjoy intimate fellowship with God and willfully hold on to unforgiveness. You might be struggling, God, I want to forgive, but I don't know how and help me. But to say I'm not going to forgive.

No, you cannot have fellowship with God and enjoy the benefits of forgiveness of sins and fullness when that's the case. What if over a period of years you harden your heart and actually develop hatred for that person? Well, little by little by little you're getting further and further from God. And yes, the Bible does equate hatred with murdering someone in the heart.

So when the hatred gets that deep that you really wish they were dead, that you would kill them if you could, but you're not going to risk doing that, that's severe. And someone that continues to walk in that would ultimately walk away from God. They could keep hardening their heart to the point that they walk away from God. But even then if you humble yourself, he says come back, turn back, turn back. And he will have mercy. He is incredibly long suffering and he forgives our sins far more than we even realize.

In other words, there's a whole lot more mercy that we live in day and night. Hey, one more scripture for you, okay? When I started referencing 1 John 1, it sounds like you're familiar with that. What's written in 1 John 1.7? If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, here's the thing.

The Greek is continuous. In 1 John 1.7, our walking in the light is continuous and God cleansing us from all sin is continuous. So in other words, we're constantly being cleansed as we walk in the light.

Well, here's the question. Why is there any sin if I'm walking in the light? Because even walking in the light is not being perfect. Walking in the light is if I fall short, I recognize it and I turn. The whole thing is God wants us to turn back and he will have mercy over and over again.

Last point. What does Jesus tell Peter when Peter says, How often should I forgive my brother? Seven times? Seven times in a day? Jesus says, no, 70 times seven.

So obviously, not actually counting this, but 490 times. Just keep forgiving. If he instructs us to do that, how much more will he do that through the blood of Jesus? So, receive that. Don't let the enemy lie to you.

Receive his forgiveness. Okay? Amen. Thank you. Thank you so much.

You are very welcome. All right. Let us go to David in Texas. Welcome to the line of fire. Oh, hey, Dr. Brown. How are you doing, brother? Good, buddy. How are you doing? Oh, I'm doing great.

I'm doing great. So my question is, I'm trying to prepare for a sermon for Sunday, so I thought I'd cheat and call in. Okay, not cheating. But it has to do with what God has to say in homosexuality. And I'm curious, you know, I know what the New Testament Greek says about it, but I'm not well versed in the Hebrew, so I want to get your thoughts. What does that mean in the Hebrew when you see sexual immorality in the Old Testament?

Right. So, sexual immorality in the Old Testament is on several levels. On the one hand, there is a general term for immorality, which can be harlotry or can refer to fornication.

And that's more sex outside of marriage for unmarried people. Then there is adultery, so that's sex outside of marriage for married people. And then there are acts that are considered to be detestable or perverse, and homosexual practice is in that category, bestiality is in that category, in other words, it's contrary to God's natural design and plan. So for a man and woman to commit adultery is grievous and sinful in God's sight, but it's not a violation of his order for men and women. For a man to be with a man or a woman to be with a woman would be in that category of out of his created order. But just like the New Testament porneia, the Hebrews can mean sexual immorality in general or fornication in particular. And the Old Testament doesn't have a word for homosexual practice, but it has a description of a man lying with a man, and that is detestable in God's sight. And then you have relationships that are also in the category of being detestable, which would be incestual relationships, so again breaking the family order that God has established.

So it's general and then within that homosexual practice described as something detestable. Leviticus 18 from beginning to end is a good thing to look at. Hey, out of time, we'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on The Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us on The Line of Fire 866-34-TRUTH. Much appreciation to our teams in Winston-Salem and Harrisburg, North Carolina for handling the calls and helping us do this from a remote location.

I don't mean remote like I'm in a village in the middle of India, I mean remote as in not in the normal studio. 866-34-8-7-8-8-4, you've got questions, we've got answers. Before I go back to the phones, if you're not getting my emails, this is a great time of the year to sign up because so many things happen towards the end of the year and special announcements and ways you can partner together and opportunities and resources we have and on and on. If you're not getting my emails, go to the website.

Take a minute, if you're not driving and you can do it, do it right now, askdrbrown.org. We want to send you a free mini-ebook on how to pray for America, I want to get you on our welcome tour, tell you more about my own background from LSD to PhD and the three R's of our ministry and how we can be here every day to infuse you with faith and truth and courage and all the other resources. We want to pour into you, we want to help you run your race, the victory that you win in the Lord, that's what we are backing and standing with. Alright, 866-34-truth, we go back to the phones, let's talk to Joel in New York, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown, thank you.

Hey. I'm calling because we're in a very difficult situation and I really need some guidance in terms of how to move forward. My sister was involved in a relationship with my pastor, which is not his wife, and also it happened to be that someone else was involved in a relationship with him for some time, and it kind of like blew up about two weeks ago, some of us had suspicions and when his wife kind of like, I have another sister who was part of the church who was also in leadership, and they were to confront him and he confessed about it, but it was with the intention of just like leaving everything and kind of like running away with my older sister. And he was convinced by his wife to not drop everything and you know, to kind of like go through a restoring process, but the only problem is that the church culture, which I grew upon, is a church culture where if someone was found to be in some similar situation that will not be held accountable necessarily, it would just be like, you know, already happening. And for me, I've had conversations with his wife, not with him directly, because he's just kind of decided to get away for a few weeks and got to be with the Lord and things like that. And my fear is that the process of going through this is, let's not, well his wife didn't want more people to know, just kind of leave it under the rug. And for him to kind of like not probably even step out for a season to restore.

And the last news I've heard from my sister last night is that the wife, I think she said that she's probably going to tell to the leadership of the church, I'm not sure about that yet, but there's no clear decision in terms of his process, well, he's going to step down for a season and he's going to go through counseling. I personally just thought I was really wrong and I was thinking about leaving the church, but it's just very confusing right now, so I need help with it. Yeah, sin always leaves such a terrible, terrible mess and destroys so many lives and it's never worth it. Whatever the romantic thrill might be, the sexual fulfillment, it's never worth it. It bites and everyone's hurt and everyone in the end says, why did I do what I did?

So just a couple of specific questions to be clear. So when you say involved in a relationship, you mean that they were in an actual romantic and sexual relationship? Yeah, with my sister it became romantic. There was another person that, he was doing this before my sister, which it was probably just sexual, but with my sister it became romantic as well. Okay, because it's one thing if a pastor gets too friendly with someone and realizes these texts went too far, so you bring it to the other leaders, you sit down, you deal with it, but it never went beyond that, it's just wow, I should have been more careful.

It's a whole other thing when you're actually in a relationship, romantic, sexual, etc. So for his own good and for the good of the church, for the good of his marriage, for the good of everyone involved, of course he has to step down and go through a period of restoration and even going through a period of restoration is not with the guarantee of being restored. There are some churches, I was talking to Justin Peters about this once, who is a critic of a lot of the things in the charismatic movement, and he said in their circles you're disqualified for life, so in our circles there can be restoration but there has to be proper repentance and the time frame, it could be a year, it could be two, whatever, for someone to be restored, regaining trust and confidence. So of course he has to, otherwise it just brings further reproach to the gospel. The fact that they're in the same church together, the doors can be opened, it's happened to him more in the past based on your description.

I'm so glad that you had the wisdom not to give further details so we can talk freely here. Are you, I don't want to know the specifics, but are you part of a denomination? It's a concilio, it's kind of like, it's free from denomination, but he's a bishop, he just got a non-fiction bishop maybe like four months ago and there's other churches that have come into the concilio, I don't know how to say that word in English, it's kind of like, it's not a denomination right now. Are there leaders that have authority over him or a board to whom he's accountable even beyond the church? Yeah, so when I spoke to his wife about the whole thing, she said that he has a bishop, which we know him personally, but the bishop is the one that started the whole culture of just don't worry about it and just keep going type of thing, you know, in his church he used to just give the mic to someone, push next week, don't worry about what just happened, forget about it.

So that's the authority, that's how they operate. So in this situation, obviously you pray, your sister, is she repentant for her sin? Unfortunately, she's in a place where she got so, she was willing to go and once she decided to do that, send her back home because they were together last week, she's just her. So you've got this whole thing ready to explode potentially and it could well be that he ends up, the pastor wants to leave and leave his wife, I mean the whole thing is, as you're describing it, a deep, deep mess and everybody needs to get to a place of real repentance. So what I would say is this, you have to, I would go to them and appeal to them and just say listen, there's only one right way to deal with this in God's sight, otherwise it's only going to get worse, otherwise the wound is only going to go deeper, otherwise it's going to happen again and it's going to bring reproach to the name of Jesus, it's going to destroy the lives of people in the church and as painful as it is, this is the step that has to be taken. If he refuses, then you can, I would write a letter to the other, are there elders in the church along with the pastor?

Yeah. Yeah, I would write to them and just say look, you know the whole situation, your sister involved, you're urging them to call him to step down and get to a place of family, personal restoration, repentance, family restoration and it's God's church, he can watch out for the flock and care for them. If they say no, we don't do this or you become an accuser of the brethren or whatever, then you just have to quietly leave, you don't announce it to the whole church, you don't go on Facebook and talk about it, you don't try to take matters into your own hands, you just say alright, you're making a real mistake and it's very sad because I love the church and I love the pastor but I'm going to have to leave and you do that and you can't force it, you can't make it happen but at least you can do what you know how to do and make an appeal and again, the warning would be that if they don't get this right, it's only going to get worse, it's only going to get worse and you know what it's like? It's like an athlete who gets injured in a game but then comes back to play prematurely and they end up destroying their whole career because the injury gets worse, it's the same kind of thing, again, if it was something less severe, if it was something that could be covered internally without embarrassment, without bringing things up and even if it is confessed publicly, you don't have to go into details of who and what and where, just that there were moral failings and you're stepping down and getting help. Normally when someone humbles themselves, the congregation really rallies behind them with love, we tend to be forgiving people when we see genuine repentance but whoever covers the sins, Proverbs says, will not prosper. So smaller issues can be dealt with in-house, they can be dealt with privately, they can be covered because they haven't crossed a line but other things cross that line and have to be dealt with a certain way so yeah, may the Lord give you wisdom, may there be humility and a spirit of repentance. Hey thank you sir for the call, God bless you.

Alright I'm looking at my clock, Jamar I'm sorry that I will not be able to get to your call now. I've got to transition over to social media questions because I have to leave a little early to catch your flight but I did see posted a question about blessed are the meek. I'm not sure if this is what you're asking but meek people are humble in heart, are not aggressively trying to make God's will happen. They live in dependence on God and are happy to let God fight their battles but they may be people of incredible courage and strength and fortitude and perseverance and faith but they're not trying to make things happen by force. Going back to Psalm 37 where the verse comes from where the meek are spoken of as inheriting the earth.

If you want more understanding of that read all of Psalm 37 and then go back to Matthew 5. Alright we've got some fascinating questions to tackle on the other side of the break. Stay right here. It's the line of fire with your host Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. This is Michael Brown. Okay a few days ago when our phone system and radio studio was being massively revamped we were unable to take calls so because of that I solicited questions online on Twitter and Facebook and then the phone lines were back in order but I had solicited all these questions so in order to be fair to those I said I'd be answering on the air I want to take the rest of the broadcast now to answer these questions that have been posted on social media so I won't be taking any more calls but I'm just going to go to these questions I had solicited a few days back so we got a lot of them I answered some on Facebook now I'm going to go over to Twitter and answer. Also one other dynamic is I've been broadcasting from Mechanicsburg Pennsylvania and boy what a again what a beautiful night we had what a beautiful week I had at the Global Awakening Seminary what precious students and hearts open to the spirit my flight is leaving it's such a time that I can't finish doing the broadcast live and catch the flight so if the mic sounds different yeah there's what I've done is I'm pre-recording these before the show so the first half hour answering the calls we were live and I'll pre-record it we've never mixed this out of pink before but we'll get to as many questions as we can okay enough of that here we go this is on Twitter uh allegiance state of mind what are effective formats to exercise a healthy prophetic ministry grew up with prayer prophetic time at the altar currently my church has prophetic ministry once a month three folks minister with three congregants in a private room not in the main sanctuary all right so private prophetic ministry and having several people together prophetic brothers and sisters ministering to individuals that's wonderful because here people are getting individual ministry and see if the Lord is saying something to them and you've got three different prophetic people so it's an amazing thing I haven't done a lot of these over the years but when I have it's incredible that you you get the same words like wow you get the same scripture there's a lot of confirmation that comes so that can be a very excellent practice you just don't want to ever rely on that to hear from God like I have to wait till I go to the prophets but prophetic ministry is also spontaneous so during a service depends on how many people there are in the format of the service or in a house group meeting where someone gets a word and they speak it and then the the others there with discernment weigh what the Lord is saying through that or you process it that's something that's healthy also if someone feels they have something they can submit it to a leader I feel the Lord is saying sometimes they write it out it can be shared like that there can be someone who's a recognized prophetic brother or sister that comes in and ministers but again everything else is tested just like someone preaches from the Bible we want to test what they're saying based on scripture so the prophetic words are tested as well but these are different ways to cultivate healthy prophetic ministry what you want to do is say Lord we believe this is important we ask for the full release of it in our body for your glory and for the good of your people Jared how do we ensure that theology is not overshadowing our walk with the Lord so the first thing is to even have that consciousness right the first thing is to recognize that this can happen see it's one thing if you get so obsessed with sports that you quit praying and reading the Bible it's like okay I'm wasting my time what am I doing it's one thing if you you are just pulled away by other interests that are not themselves spiritual but theology is very spiritual so you want to first and foremost be sure that nothing gets in the way of your personal communion with God meaning that you're not reading the Bible mainly to learn theology as much as to learn about God for your own life right one thing can potentially be abstract the other is always practical you want to be sure that you're not just praying Lord I'm confused about Calvinism Arminianism so all you're praying is about this and you want to make sure that your study of theology doesn't get so consuming that it takes you away from intimacy with God that's one thing a second thing is to periodically look at your heart journal how you feel before the Lord your love for him your desire for him your passion for him your hunger for him see what your burden is like for the lost for those who don't know him and and and see if over time those are deepening or those are lessening and a healthy study of theology should deepen our love for God and our appreciation for the Lord but I know personally these things can become idols in themselves just like learning the biblical languages you're studying the Bible not so much to grow in God but to learn the languages better and so on and these things can happen it happened to me where I left my first love by getting theologically intellectually proud in the late 70s and early 80s so I've carefully worked to be sure that relationship with God intimacy with the Lord bearing fruit comes first Miss K why most clergy why most clergy do not preach about fornication which is very relevant among many of today's so-called behaviors well it's hard to know what most do and don't do in other words I can't tell you what's being preached in thousands of pulpits around America and many times when a pastor is preaching he may be doing expository preaching going through the Bible and just whatever the text says that's what he's talking about or he may be doing series okay we're strengthening families here or we're growing and understanding of this doctrine here or we're cultivating outreach here and because of that he may not be speaking as much about specific sins and things like that that being said of course it's important that we preach the whole Council of God there's a lot of immorality as always there is in the world porn has made things much more ubiquitous much more dangerous in terms of just out there things that would be unimaginable for past generations to access there just click on a cell phone or tablet or computer and everything is there things we can't even imagine are there so it's important if a pastor is speaking to his flock that he is speaking honestly about sexual immorality that at least some content over the course of the year deals with some of the real sin issues that we're facing in the society so if in fact many don't speak sometimes pastors want to avoid controversy because there's enough pressure on them already and it's challenging enough to kind of keep the people going in a good direction and keep them healthy and healthy and unified some are just afraid that they don't get people upset others it's it's as it comes up in the in the course of their whatever they're preaching through but for sure it's important that leaders should address these things because this is the world that we live in and the Bible addresses sin left and right because this is the world that we live in let's see Jason can you explain in more detail what the respect for marriage act means for society when it comes to both short-term and long-term consequences all right it's it's bad respect for marriage act that's being put forward in in congress now with the sponsorship of 12 republicans and of course the democrats solidly behind it it's bad what it's saying is it enshrines legally so that the supreme court theoretically would not have the right to overturn this it enshrines this as part of the very fabric of american belief that that there must that we recognize as a nation not just interracial marriages which no one's been arguing about for a long time right and it's not there's no one threatening to not recognize that okay in terms of any serious way but that we recognize same-sex quote marriage saying hey the supreme court ruled on this new burchfield case in 2015 and therefore we we recognize this and affirm it and also we affirm people's rights to differ and you can have religious liberty so some of the senators signing on conservative senators signing on is saying hey look it is the law of the land let's at least put in writing that that we have the right to differ and that people can have religious exemptions and things like that the problem is that you are now enshrining this even more deeply see as it stands now the supreme court could say what a what a wrong decision we had no right to meddle in the meaning of marriage it's not our purview to do that so we we are going to reverse this decision just as they reverse the wrong decision of roe v wade so be it go ahead and do it so it enshrines things more deeply and to me digs a further dagger into the heart of america i know people say you know we mean well and we love and we respect etc but this is not something that god ordained god set up and it's ultimately wrong no matter how much the people love each other care for each other it's wrong in the sight of god you say yeah but the respect for marriage act it would also push back against polygamy well polygamy continues to rise but polygamy is not the big issue the redefining of marriage in terms of male male female female that's the biggest issue so long term congress could change it it's just much harder to do it uh short term it's well let's say this short term it would have to be overturned by congress long term it's just another downward uh step in the spiral for america and all the more reason to be concerned and look i say that i know if you're listening and you're gay or lesbian you're upset with me and you like to beg it you just don't understand you don't understand love i'm not saying you don't love each other i'm not saying you don't care for each other i'm not saying you wouldn't give your blood for each other i'm simply saying it's not it's not what god intended for marriage and it can't shouldn't be called marriage i i know that hurts you when i say i don't mean it on a personal level it's it's just reality and what am i saying i didn't come up with this it's not my idea i'm following what god outlined in scripture uh e martin what is your view on divine impassibility in other words does god actually experience pain and pleasure as a result of the actions of humans yes i believe he does so i do not personally believe in divine impassibility so divine impassibility would say that if god experiences joy sorrow then he's changing at that moment and because he never changes that divine impassibility is the doctrine brilliant theologians have held to that no i take the words of scripture very seriously and and jesus is the one who makes the father known right if you see me you've seen the father and and he grieves and he rejoices and he weeps so we know that it wasn't metaphorical language when it came to yeshua we know that he actually experienced these things you simply experienced him as a man but as a man who represented god and as god in the flesh so it wasn't like getting physically tired as a man and god isn't that tired but it was as feeling the emotions that someone feels because we're creating god's image so again i was teaching on this wednesday night and mentioned it on the show yesterday about god's pain god's heart and he wants to share that with his people so yes i believe he genuinely experiences these things when it says in genesis six that he was grieved at his heart that he made man i believe he genuinely experiences that i believe in zephaniah three which says that he sings over us with joy that he genuinely feels that way and how within the infinite being of god there can be joy sorrow these different things simultaneously because of his relationship to all of us that that is just as mysterious as the fact that he can relate to all of us at the same time and give all of himself to all of us at the same time with with his love and devotion that's part of him being gone but i do take those scriptures as who he is and i believe even though he knows eternity he knows the future before it happens that that emotion is a human word he incarnates himself in our world and feels the pain feels the joy and feels disappointment and feels exhilaration of a life well lived i believe those things are genuine and it makes me draw even more closely to it right 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 all right one last segment taking your social media questions now thank you so much for joining us can i remind you that we have answers to probably thousands of questions already on our website if you've not been there ask dr brown.org askdrbrown.org check things out you will you'll be richly richly blessed search for things you're interested in search for topics you're interested in we have so many thousands of resources that we transfer from our old website over to our new that it's still taking time to to migrate everything over i think it was 9000 resources or something like that so we keep migrating moreover but search you'll find articles you'll find videos you'll find teachings that we've done a bunch of my free resources and then of course our library of books over 40 books that i've written online courses that you can take our jewish outreach website so much more so ask dr brown.org askdrbrown.org and if you're struggling with something we can't offer personal pastoral counseling obviously we can't take the role of of a local pastor or leader in that regard but if you're wrestling with something in scripture or trying to process a situation or maybe things you've come up with the culture wars and how it works out in your home by all means write to us we have a team that answers questions and then some are brought to me directly and and and we we do our best to respond so you can do all that by contacting us at askdrbrown.org all right i'm gonna go back over to facebook where i solicited questions a couple days ago julia asks why blood what is it about physical blood that covers animal sacrifice prior to jesus and removes with jesus blood sin by the way it's it's a bit of a misnomer to say that in the old testament sins were covered in the new testament they're removed that's that's based on an older etymological understanding of the of the the root of the caper to or the verb liquor pair to atone to expiate it does not mean to cover that being said the efficacy of of animal blood sacrifices is not the efficacy of the blood of jesus right and and one ultimately could not change the heart and the life whereas the blood of jesus does and the one the animal sacrifices could not bring the same forgiveness that the cross brings and that eternal salvation so you are right in making that distinction uh so why why the blood and and the question goes on so the blood symbolizes the life it's that simple the the breath leaving you don't see that happen right but when the blood is poured out the victim dies and and blood is also a very vivid image of death and a very image vivid image of being wounded and suffering so the blood symbolizes the life uh look at leviticus chapter 17 verse 11 leviticus chapter 17 verse 11 that the life of the flesh is in the blood therefore god gives it on the altar to make atonement for our souls because it is the the life the blood which has the life in it which atones you say well why the life ah life for life right substitute that we're guilty and and the innocent victim dies in our behalf we're guilty the son of god takes our sin on his shoulders so the blood represents the life and the atonement system is based ultimately on life for life now there are other aspects to atone but in terms of our forgiveness redemption is based on life for life uh daniel draws attention to the two gospel heresy uh aka bellingerism after ew bellinger or the mid-acts hyper dispensationalism this idea that basically of the gospels just a small part is for today otherwise it's the letters of paul and things that are for believers today and that the rest was for the first century for the jewish people before the cross that has come up not in quite that full form but close to it in the hyper grace message and in the hyper grace message everything jesus said before the cross was for the jewish people then and none of it applies to us today which is absolutely patently absurd and dangerous and a stealing away of those things which are most precious remember jesus says in john 15 7 if you abide in me and my words abide in you ask which will only be done for you this is an ongoing thing to have the words of jesus abiding in our hearts and lives so yeah daniel it has risen up especially in the hyper grace circles thank you for your kind words aj really appreciate those uh let's see louis hey grad from our ministry school good to see you remember our trip to india together i remember on the bus ride as we were going into one of these uh villages very poor villages and share the gospel and i i think you joking with me asked if i was going to talk about like upgrading to the latest microsoft product you know i mean in other words it was so far in their life and what they lived with and what they suffered was so foreign to us it was it was so much more basic and and here you know we're weighing the decisions we're looking at with these these other things and they're in these real just you know battle for survival but louis good to hear from you i'm reading through revelation i noticed something i never noticed before i'd always taken new jerusalem to sort of be like new york in the sense that new york is modeled after yorkshire but what i previously read as new jerusalem is actually new jerusalem so small n okay i'm not i checked several versions and they all do not capitalize the n in new to me this applies a renewed restored jerusalem so it's not a new city named after Jerusalem but it's the same Jerusalem only renewed to add to that it's coming out of heaven so Jerusalem's on a plot of land already but it was renewed doesn't go up to heaven come back uh okay so the new the word new is not going to have a capital n in greek because there were manuscripts written with all capitals manuscripts written with small letters uh it's not necessarily going to show up in a manuscript although it was small or large capital or or or not now in some writings that would be the case right but in others it wouldn't be but um yeah so the new Jerusalem like new york both capital and capital j versus small n so it is a new version of Jerusalem the dimensions of it the way it's laid out it cannot be on what the original plot of land of Jerusalem was or is today because you're talking about something immensely larger which would hold billions of people theoretically so uh no i i don't look at it as a new city of Jerusalem that comes down from heaven in the old plot but in in this new heaven and new earth is a new Jerusalem so the new house of God the new place of God the new homeland or capital for the people of God so having the characteristics of the city of Jerusalem in that respect in its spiritual meaning not in its physical dimensions uh marty genesis 128 in the king james version tells adam and eve to replenish the earth how can they replenish refill a new virgin earth yeah it is um it is an interesting translation in in uh in king james but it's not what the hebrew says uh the hebrew milu is just fill all it means is phil so it doesn't mean replant now it could be old english replenish just meant phil but it's nothing re about it just means phil phil the earth yep that's that's simple that's why all translations have it like that hey matthew thanks as always for being a good resource for our folks here tyson another grad great great seeing you and christy and the family just a few weeks ago uh as well as suzanne and james and the family dr brown i've been running into a lot of people recently that don't believe in eternal hell based on the greek word for eternity their stance is they believe it is judgment for an age when i bring up to them if judgment is only for an age and salvation only must be for an age as well which is a great point to make what is the hebrew thought on this it's really sad to see so many people deceiving this issue can you give more clarity from a scholarly standpoint i see there are a bunch of of comments back and forth uh interacting there which i'm not going to go through now okay number one both the hebrew and greek words used for eternity do not necessarily in themselves only mean eternity meaning that unless you say forever and ever or through through all ages or things like that it may not necessarily mean eternal just may be for a long period of time so the context will determine that as well as what further descriptions you're given like in psalm 90 when it says about god from olam to olam you are god olam is clearly eternity there right it's it's not just from way back to way in the future no from everlasting to everlasting thou art god to use a good king james uh translation there but in itself olam can also mean ancient days or for example for a long period of time so uh the the servant that says to his master hey i want to serve you forever right uh a little long just means his entire life it doesn't mean that forever in the world to come he's going to serve him so that's turned by context now if you look at matthew 25 46 it says that some will go to eternal punishment and this to eternal life that your point tyson is well taken that if punishment only means punishment for a certain period of time then eternal life only means life for a certain period of time to me the bigger question is this is hell punishment eternal conscious torment or is hell constant hell punishment eternal destruction meaning that someone is suffers however they suffer for their sins and then as a final penalty is obliterated forever matthew 10 28 don't free those who kill the body but can't kill the soul rather for your hand who can destroy both body and soul and health so destroy both body and soul hell or those who believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life that is something of eternal consequence and that's what we must take hold of whether hell is eternal conscious suffering or whether hell is being cut off forever being destroyed forever out of the presence of god and never enjoying the bounty and the glory of the presence of god forever and suffering a terrible fate of judgment that to me is the debate so the consequences of rejecting god are eternal whether it's eternal conscious suffering or whether it's eternal destruction to me that's where the debate should be held the consequences of rejecting god are irreversible horrific and of eternal consequence that's the case whether it is eternal conscious pain or whether it is being cut off and destroyed destroyed forever most to be are the only two options with that friends we are out of here have a blessed blessed weekend keep putting jesus first in the heart and your mind and your mind another program powered by the truth network