We're Not Retreating from the Culture Wars

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. We are not backing down. We are not making excuses. We are not retreating. We are not cowering in a corner. We are going to continue to speak the truth in love. We are going to continue to confront what is wrong and crazy in our culture with the word and truth of God. We are going to continue to stand as your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Welcome to the broadcast.

Michael Brown delighted as always to be with you. Here's the number to call. 866-34-TRUTH. If you want to weigh in, discuss culture war issues with me. If you think I'm wrong about the church's involvement in the culture wars, if you think that this is politics, not gospel, by all means give me a call. 866-348-7884. Or if you have any question on any Bible theology subject that you want to discuss, we'll get to some calls later in the show.

But if you want to call in, phone lines are open wide. Friends, this month our great emphasis, our thrust is let's get healthy. As the people of God, let's get healthy. We started Monday, I talked about my own journey to health going from 275 pounds to 180 pounds in less than 8 months by radical transformation of my lifestyle. Not by dieting, but by radically transforming the way I eat and live and I've stayed with that with God's grace and help for 8 and a half years now.

So live the same way. If you missed the broadcast, go back to it. Be sure to get our book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food on our website. Go to store.askdrbrown.org and just click on special to find out more about the book and video offer. But we talked about physical health and we'll be talking about it next week. In fact, we're going to be introducing a new sponsor.

I am super excited to share this with you. Some health supplements that could really be a blessing in your life. Our goal is to see you whole and strong, thriving physically, mentally, emotionally and above all, spiritually, right? But I want to focus on the spiritual health of the body. I want to focus on our calling to be salt and light.

I want to focus on our calling to swim against the grain and tide of the world. Parents, please hear me. If you do not disciple your children, the world will do it.

Let me say that again. If you do not disciple your children, the world will do it. And many Christian parents now are absolutely shocked to find out that their 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 year olds do not hold to the values they were raised in.

Why? Because the world did a better job of discipling their kids than the parents did. The parents had no idea about some of the junk they were getting on their cell phones. They had no idea about some of the influence of the TikTok videos. They had no idea about some of the pollution they were getting in school related curricula and on and on.

And even though they were seeking to be good parents and godly parents to bring their kids to church and so on, they didn't realize their kids were getting discipled day and night by other forces with other agendas and other values. And now they're wondering, what in the world do I do? I mean, we get the calls, we get the emails, we get the messages, we get the texts from concerned parents saying, what do I do? My 15 year old daughter now identifies as a boy and wants to be on hormones and wants to get sex change surgery and won't even talk to me because they say I'm being a bigot and hateful.

What do I do? And some are calling us with even worse situations. I was talking to a pastor in California a few years ago in a fine church. I mean, this church had a heart for the lost. Thousands of members had a heart to make disciples seem serious about the gospel. I came in and preached on holiness and they welcomed my messages.

In other words, there's not a compromise group of people. They were serious believers. But but one of the pastors said to me, none of my adult children and they were all adults, all of his kids were either late teens or in their early 20s. He said, none of them agree with me on homosexuality.

What? Raised in the faith, raised in church, raised in a godly environment. Yeah, but they had taken on the values of the world and the mindset of the world. And friends, we can never back down. We can never go in the closet over this. We can never say, well, that's not our battle to fight, because if we don't, then the very kids that God has entrusted with us will be pulled away. Not only so, but our gospel message will be diluted. I have a book coming out next month.

We'll tell you, excuse me, coming out early March. And we'll tell you about it next month on why so many Christians have left the faith. But one of the chapters in the book says this, if gay is good, Christianity is bad.

In other words, there is a general perception in the society that that gay is something to celebrate, that trans is something to celebrate. And because Christians don't hold their values, therefore Christians are the hateful ones. Christians are the bigots. The Bible is the bad book.

God is the bad God. In other words, it's harder to even share the gospel with people because a lot of the presuppositions of the society. And if, in fact, it is our calling to be salt and light, to be God's spokespeople in the earth, to be his prophetic messengers in that we take what is written in the word and declare it to the society around us.

If we are not healthy and strong, if we are not vibrant, if we are not doing what God called us to do, then how can we possibly be faithful witnesses to the world? How can we possibly push back the darkness? You say, well, it's just going to get darker.

That's inevitable. Can I ask you for the chapter and verse that says, as of today, as I speak to in January 2023, it will only get worse. Can I just ask you for the chapter and the verse? What about 1 John 2 telling us that the true light is already shining?

What about Romans 13 telling us that the night is almost over? In other words, you get these varied perspectives because we are in a war here, but the light of the gospel is shining on more people around the world than ever before in human history. And more people have come to faith in Jesus in the last 50 years than ever before in human history. More Muslims have turned from Islam to the gospel in the last 50 years than in probably all the centuries of Islam combined before that.

More people around the world read the word of God and revere the word of God as God's word than any other time in human history. And at the same time, wickedness abounds in unprecedented ways because of internet and other means. Human depravity continues to increase in terms of the most bizarre things being manifest all around the world.

There is a constant battle between light and darkness that will continue until Jesus comes. We're responsible for our generation. And if we don't speak and we don't act, then we'll create an impossible environment for the next generation or a very difficult environment. Do you want a generation where when your kids or your grandkids are raising their kids that their kids could be taken away from them for the gospel? This happens in other countries.

It does. Who's to say it can't happen here? I just saw an editorial by a friend, Dennis Prager, and he said something he never would have believed, but there are other countries where it's easier and better to raise your kids than here in America, meaning with righteous values and things like that. Others would say no surprise at all, but Dennis Prager, who's a forward thinker, also has had a lot of confidence in America. He's saying there are other countries now where it's safer and healthier to raise your kids than in America, something he didn't think he'd say. Let me give you an example from the UK.

If we don't stand, if we don't speak, if we don't do what's right, something like this could happen in America. I've got an article. This is on our Ask Dr. Brown website, or if you have the app, Ask Dr. Brown Ministries, A.S.K.

Deere Brown Ministries. Right on the app, just read latest articles and you'll find it. The article's entitled, When Thinking a Prayer Became a Crime.

That's the title of the article. When Thinking a Prayer Became a Crime. So someone sends me a text with a link and it tells me a Christian pro-life leader in England was arrested not simply for standing in front of an abortion clinic. She was also arrested for the crime of praying while standing there, even though she was simply praying in her own head. You think, oh, no, that didn't happen. Come on, Dr. Brown, you're exaggerating. But here's the actual clip, the unedited clip of the arrest of Isabel Vaughan Spruce.

She's the leader of the UK March for Life. Let's listen. Before I ask you any questions about what's going on today, I have to caution you, which is just your rights, which is you do not have to say anything.

It may harm your defense if you do not mention one question, something that you later on in court. Anything you do say may give you more. What are you here for today? Physically, I'm just standing here. Why here of all places?

I know you don't live nearby. But this is an abortion, something. OK, that's why you're standing here. Is you standing here part of the protest? No, I'm not protesting. Are you praying?

I might be praying in my head about that. So I'll ask you once more, will you voluntarily come with us now to the police station for me to ask you some questions about today and other days where there are allegations that you've broken the Public Space Protection Order? If I've got a choice, then no. OK, well, then you're under arrest against suspicion of failing to comply with the Public Space Protection Order, which is under the Antisocial Behaviour Court on Policing Act 2014. Now, I'll caution you again, you do not have to say anything. It may harm your defense if you do not mention one question, something that you later on in court. Anything you do say may give you more. Do you understand the caution?

I don't, yes. Your arrest is necessary in order for the prompt and effective investigation into the offense. What that means is that I can ask you some questions, which you can then monitor and also to protect vulnerable people, namely service users in the clinic. OK, so you'll come here now to the police station and you get booked in from the custody sergeant. And then if you want a solicitor, I'm limited. OK, I don't intend to handcuff you.

But obviously, my colleague will search you because you're going to get into the police department. All right. Yeah, this is beyond outrageous. If someone made this up in a Christian movie, this is happening in English.

Come on, get a life. These things don't happen. Why exaggerate this action? Were you were you. Why ask the woman if she's praying since when is it against the law to pray? Were you praying in your head?

Well, I might have been in my head. OK, you're going to be arrested. Listen, this is this is what she said.

I want to quote directly. Oh, so in her in her own words, it is apparently wrong that I was searched, arrested, interrogated by police and charged simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind. Nobody should be criminalized for thinking and for praying in a public space in the UK. So there is a link to that.

That was a video we played from Twitter and there was someone else posted this. The woman in this video, Isabelle Vaughn Spruce, was not arrested for silently praying. She was arrested for breaking a temporary public space protection order on four separate occasions, which was used to ban protests outside of an abortion clinic due to safety concerns. So here, just standing independently in front of the clinic. We're just outside it.

Safety concerns are nonsense. But her attorneys, the Alliance Defending Freedom in the UK, said absolutely not. There was no ordinance against her. She was not breaking the ordinance.

And in fact, while she was being interrogated, they showed her pictures. Were you praying at this point? Were you praying at this point? Were you praying silently? Friends, if we don't speak up here in America, the same thing could happen.

You want that on you? You want to look at the next generation and say it's because we were too passive. We were too afraid. We were too concerned. We rocked the boat. We just wanted to talk about Jesus. You want that on you when your kids say, what were you doing when these laws were being passed? Friends, time to wake up. We'll be right back.

Friends, for joining us on the line of fire, 866-34-TRUTH. We talk about the church's health in the midst of the culture wars. Going back to the situation in the UK where a pro-life leader was arrested for praying silently in front of an abortion clinic. Here's what her attorneys say. Whilst in the police station, Vaughn Spruce was showing pictures of herself outside the abortion facility. She said she could not recall from the pictures whether she was praying at these specific moments or whether these had been taken at times that she was distracted and thought about other things such as her lunch. She maintains that all her thoughts were equally peaceful and imperceptible and that none should be criminalized.

Were you praying or were you thinking about something else? Who goes to jail for what they're thinking? This is incomprehensible. Friends, this is also what happens when the church is largely silent on the life and death issues of the day. The ADF of the UK stated, Isabel's experience should be deeply concerning to all those who believe that our hard fought fundamental rights are worth protecting.

It is truly astonishing that the law has granted local authorities such wide and unaccountable discretion that now even thoughts deemed, quote, wrong can lead to a humiliating arrest and a criminal charge. I wrote another article. It's on our Web site. This was posted December 27th. It's entitled No, no, no.

I will never accept this as normal. And I wrote this article to shout out again. We are being bombarded in so many ways in our culture. We are being bombarded day and night. Be it media, be it social media, be it Hollywood, be TV, be it articles in newspapers in the way there were whatever it is.

We are being bombarded day and night, day and night, day and night in such a way as to indoctrinate us in such a way as to brainwash us. When I debated Professor Eric Smaw over 10 years ago on the question of should same sex, quote, marriage be legal. This is being debated in Florida at the time that it was illegal in Florida before the court overturned.

Supreme Court overturned the votes of the people in many states of America. But I said, you know, you're going to have marriage ceremonies. It wasn't a biblical debate.

It was just a legal debate, the cultural debate. You're going to have you're going to have ceremonies and I pronounce you husband and husband and wife and wife, whatever. And Professor Smaw said, well, people get used to it. They get used to it. And the problem is, you can get used to all kinds of things. You can get used to racism. You can get used to segregation. You get used to slavery. You can get used to demonizing groups of people. You can get used to all kinds of things. The fact you can get used to it doesn't make it right.

But here's what I wrote in this article. And again, it's it's a pledge I'm renewing to you as listeners to the line of fire. But the grace of God, as long as I have breath, I will never accept as normal. And this is going to be graphic what I read a sentence like this.

Back in June, a group of women complained that Darren A.G. Merager, 53, who identifies as female, allegedly exposed her penis at the wee spa in Los Angeles today. Now, I'm not going to accept that sentence. A biological woman does not have the genitalia of a biological male.

That's not how it works. There's a reason in the ultrasound. They say that's a boy. That's a girl. There's a reason when the child is born. They said it's a boy.

That's a girl. So I'm not going to accept these concepts. I'm not going to accept nonsense. Talk about birthing persons instead of mothers. I'm not going to accept nonsense. Talk about men can menstruate, too. And you say, well, why do you keep talking about it? Because every single day, one way or another, we're getting bombarded with this. You're reading a story.

It's about one person, but it's they, them, because that's how the person identifies. And, you know, you're reading about the it's very rare for a woman to be executed. But there was just the execution of a woman, a transgender woman. This is a man.

This is a man. As a man murdered, someone was found guilty of murdering someone. And that was as a man was now found guilty, sentenced to prison.

And then a few years ago in prison, transitions, quote, to be a woman. And now, wow, it's rare to execute women. That was not a woman that was executed. It was a man that was executed for the crime of murder. Richard Levine, known as Rachel. Wow. First four star female admiral. He's not a female.

Changing the name doesn't change your biology, doesn't change your genetics. And on and on it goes. The Daily Mail starts its story and says this. Transgender pervert is arrested 15 months after she exposed herself to women and girls at the Wee Spa in L.A. Trigging violent protests from Antifa goons who branded allegations a bigoted hoax. So Antifa was standing up for this man who exposed himself, who previously was arrested for sex crimes. So the Daily Mail is no problem referring to to him as a pervert, even using that strong language. Says that he was already a registered sex offender, calls him a convicted sex criminal.

And the Mail further reports that the story was then for months swept under the rug by the mainstream media, with many including leftist radical group Antifa defending Marajer. But then it goes on to refer to her male private parts. But because that's how he identifies, you refer to him as she. No, this is madness. This is madness. Don't comply with it.

Don't do it. There are ways around it. Right. If I'm talking to someone, I'm just talking to them directly and we're going back and forth. I don't have to refer to them with certain pronouns and things like that. But if I know this person is a biological male, I'm not going to refer to him as she. If I know this person is a biological female, I'm not going to refer to her as he or them or they.

And we can go on and on with the cultural madness. I'm not going to accept 13 year olds getting full mastectomies simply because they're confused about their gender identity. I'm not going to accept 10 year olds getting out sterilized for life because they're confused about their their sex.

If I was an incoming student in school and was asked for my preferred gender pronoun, I'm not going to go along with that. Friends, we cannot accept these things as normal. And the more we just, well, it's the way it is, it's going to get more and more crazy. It's going to get more and more intense.

And the very assault on biblical foundations will continue at an increased pace. One more point, then we're going to take some calls and then share with you some really interesting insights from a liberal professor who said, you know, years ago, decades ago, I denied there was any kind of liberal takeover, but I see what's happened in the society. This article just posted today on the Astor Brown Web site. Again, read it on our app, Astor Brown Ministries.

A major scientific study confirms what we all knew. Men are different than women. Really?

Are you serious? Uh huh. Yeah. So here's the deal. There was a major survey done sponsored by the University of Cambridge. Over three hundred thousand participants from around the world responded to online interviews.

All right. And here's the revelation. OK, here's a headline that was reported on Fortune Dotcom. Women are more empathetic than men.

Study of hundreds of thousands of people finds at any age and in any country in the world. Is that a revelation? Did we not know that? Are we not aware that, generally speaking, women are more empathetic than men? That's pretty self evident in women who are made to be mothers.

Not every woman is going to be a mother, but women are the ones who can be mothers. There is a certain empathy that's in them, the one that carries the child with it. They're wired certain ways. Men are wired certain ways.

And that's why we're compatible as men and women coming together as one, because we complete each other. But what's interesting is this is reported. Nancy Sowell reported on CNN and nobody even blinked. Yes, very interesting. According to study, women are more empathetic than men. Hang on. Hang on. That means there's such a thing as women. There's such a thing as men. What do you know?

And it can be defined. Unfortunately, when when Justice Katanji Brown Jackson was being interviewed for a Supreme Court nomination and for appointment, and she's asked, what is the woman? I can't answer that. Of course, my follow up question to her would have been, are you a woman? Justice Jackson or Judge Jackson, are you a woman? The whole not always a woman is again, they can't really define that. So it says we can define and everybody knows we can define it. Right. And not only so, the survey confirms to us that there are real differences between women and men. So this is just reported without anybody saying, hey, stop the music here.

Time out. Ideology says we can define a woman here, a man here that's being bigoted, that's being binary and that's being racist. And it's whatever it is, you can't do that. Those those are artificial distinctions. And it's a matter of perception and there's fluidity and on and on and on and on. So here, this survey in great depth confirms what we all knew. And just for a moment, people were talking with a little sanity and say, well, we don't really know what a male or female is. We do know what a male or female is. Now, I went online to check out the the survey.

Right. And it's really quite interesting. So one of the questions is, first is, what is your age? Next, what is your biological sex assigned at birth?

They got to buy into the language assigned at birth. But they want to know the survey has no value to them unless they know what is your biological sex. Otherwise, what's the use of a survey of my sex is whatever I perceive it to be. Right. It's like we're you know, we're doing a survey on the health of people above six feet and under six feet. But height is whatever you perceive it to be.

Know that it's of no use. Of course, they ask the question, you know, what is your sex? No, they can't ask that. Right. So so they they have to ask, you know, what's your gender?

And they give you choices. Female, male, trans female, trans male, non-binary, other. I prefer not to say I do not know. Well, I I don't know my gender.

I know there's even for what's your biological sex code assigned at birth. I don't know. You don't know. You don't know when you were born. If you were told you're a boy or a girl. Seriously.

But they had to ask the question about biological sex because otherwise the survey has no meaning. Wake up to reality, friends. It's the world we're living in. 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 eight six six three four. Truth.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back, friends, to the line of fire. Eight six six three four. Truth is the call.

Eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four. May I encourage you, friends? Do what you need to do.

Do what's in your power to do to get physically healthy. Some it's out of your control, out of your power. You just trust in the mercy of God and you do your best to get by. And you're struggling and our hearts go out to you. We stand with you. All of us who've ever been sick, who've lost loved ones to sickness, who live with people with chronic sickness and pain.

These these are weighty, weighty issues. And and when you read through the New Testament, read through the whole Bible, you see consistently that God is on the side of health and healing, meaning that he's not against medical profession. If medical profession is helping people get healthy.

Right. God's God's promises, good things to his people. And among them are healing and health and sickness is nothing we'll be dealing with in the eternal kingdom. It's a result of the fall of man. It's it's part of this fallen world, just like death is part of this fallen world. And God graciously helps us in the midst of our sickness and pain. But there are many things, many things. In fact, the majority of sicknesses and illnesses that we deal with on average throughout America, the majority relate to diet lifestyle.

And if we radically changed our diets and lifestyles, we would see radical changes in our physical bodies. And friends, you know, when you are healthier physically, you can do a lot more. Maybe you're a mom at home and you got the flu, you got a bad cold or migraine headaches or something. And you're trying to homeschool your kids and you can't even think clearly.

You know, and you want to be there for them. But you're just all you do is lay up in bed for a while. Or maybe you're you're on the mission field and you've given your life to reach the lost. But but you're in such back pain, you can't even move.

You're in excruciating pain, laying in bed. You can't reach the people you want to reach. So obviously, we understand that sickness can be debilitating and even in it, God can work and his grace can be revealed. We understand that and we can learn more about him.

He can work in any situation. But there's so much that's in our power. I don't mean this in insulting.

I'm going to go to the calls momentarily. I don't mean this in an insulting way as someone that was heavy before that was that was obese. Right. I mean, according to the charts, I was clearly obese. Even though I love the Lord and was serious about God and running hard for the Lord.

And again, I don't mean this in any insulting way. But let's say I develop back problems in my lower back hurt a lot. It was the result of being overweight. In my case, it was the result of being overweight. I remember a chiropractor telling me if I just lost 30 pounds, it would go away. And I probably gained 30 pounds after that rather than lost it. But someone comes up for prayer and they're morbidly obese and they want prayer for their bad back.

I'm going to pray for God's grace and for a miracle. But I also am pretty sure that if they lost a lot of that weight, a lot of those back problems would go away. Same with a lot of our heart disease, a lot of other things.

It's related to the way we eat and live. So I just want to encourage you. I know it's uncomfortable and we can be embarrassing. I just want to encourage you, especially through the anonymity of radio.

You'd be driving in your car. Listen to what no one's looking in right now or sitting there in your podcast. Please, for the glory of God, for your own sake, for the sake of those who love you, do what you can to make a change in your lifestyle. All right. It's six, six, three, four truth. Let's go to Greg in North Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, how you doing?

Good to talk to you. I have a question about Matthew chapter one, where it talks about the genealogy of Joseph back to Abraham, but specifically through David. I was just wondering, I thought that I remember somewhere, some way teaching that there was also the lineage was drawn back from Mary back to David, you know, because she actually gave birth to Jesus and stuff. And I'm not trying to put her on a throne or anything like that, you know, but I was just curious if there was something.

Yes. So so according to that view, which is my view, by the way, that Matthew one gives the genealogy through Joseph. So this is the royal line.

This is the royal line through David, Solomon, et cetera. And it's it's showing you that Joseph would have been in that royal line and that therefore his son would have been that royal line. Of course, he's more than Joseph's son. He's supernaturally the son of God. But that's that's Matthew's genealogy, whereas Luke's genealogy. I believe you can make a good case that this is actually the genealogy of his mother, Mary, Miriam. And here's when you go, it's in Luke three. So, Greg, it's in Luke, the third chapter, and it begins in verse twenty three.

Jesus, when he began his ministry, is about 30 years old, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matad. And it goes all the way down. Then it runs through Nathan, as opposed to through Solomon.

All right. So there are there are a few things in the genealogies which seem to be discrepancies that can pretty easily be resolved. But if this, in fact, was Miriam's genealogy, Mary's genealogy, then the way you would read it is being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph, actually the son of Heli, the son of Matad. So it was supposed he was the son of Joseph, but he was really the son of Heli, which would have then been Miriam's father, Mary's father. So the first male going back because you're going to you're always going to trace the genealogy primarily through the male.

Through the male. Yeah. So being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph and then the son of Heli, because if you look in Matthew's genealogy. Right. In Matthew, the first chapter. So it tells us this about Joseph.

Right. So Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. So here, Jacob is the father of Joseph. In in Luke, it's Heli is the father of Joseph. Now, some would say that means there was a leverage marriage. It meant that one of them they were brothers. Jacob and Heli were brothers. One of them died without having a child. So the other then married the wife and then the the the child that was born could either be traced to either of the brothers. But I don't think you have to go that way there.

I don't think it's necessary. I think the right thing is to say, Jacob, the father of Joseph, that was his literal father in in Matthew one. And it was supposed that Jesus was the son of Joseph, but actually the son of Heli, Mary's father.

And that's the right way to trace it. So and that's that's a solution that some of the early church leaders held to as well. And it makes sense because he was physically descended from David. And you do have an example, like in First Chronicles two, where a genealogy where man has no sons. So the genealogy is now traced through the daughter.

Right. In First Chronicles, the second chapter, I believe, verses thirty four and thirty five. So that would be the way I see it here. The same way inheritance could come by way of the daughters, if there were no sons, the daughters of Siloachad in Numbers twenty seven and Numbers thirty five. So, yeah, I see that he was literally of the physical seat of David through his mother, Miriam, and was the son of God and that he had no earthly father.

But his earthly father was Joseph, who would have been in the royal line. And that's to me the best way to understand these genealogies. Fascinating. All right. You got it. And if you need to dig more, more sources, volume four of my series in answering Jewish objections to Jesus, I really dig deep into this volume four of answering Jewish objections to Jesus. Hey, great. Thank you very much for the question. Much appreciated. Let us go to Jesse in Twin Cities, Minnesota. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Braun. Thanks for having me on.

Sure. So my question is about eschatology, and I just wanted to know where you stand on that issue or the millennial kingdom. I don't know if you're more historic pre-millennial or if you're more dispensational or a combination of the two. And I know I've heard you talk about the third temple, and I'm just curious because I'm looking into this issue.

I kind of put it off for a while, but now I'm kind of feeling like something I should look into. So where do you stand on that? So I am historic pre-millennial. I'm absolutely not dispensationalist. I'm absolutely not a millennial.

I'm absolutely not post-millennial. However, I do believe that on a certain level, we have to hold to these things with conviction and yet with grace, because when we're talking about the future, it's always possible that there are verses that we struggle with or we're not rightly interpreting. So the dispensational idea of a pre-trib rapture, I categorically reject. I don't believe anyone would ever come up with that, reading the Bible completely on their own with no further background.

I don't believe anyone would come up with that. I don't believe it was ever taught systematically as it's taught in dispensationalism before the 1830s and after that. I'm absolutely not a dispensationalist, and there are other dispensational aspects of belief that I don't hold to. But it seems clear to me that there are literal promises about a physical kingdom on the earth that God will bring to completion. Acts 3, Peter says that Jesus will remain in heaven until the time of the restoration of all things spoken by the prophets.

So they spoke of the restoration of the Jewish people back to the land. They spoke of the day that the knowledge of the glory of God would cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. But we're not yet in the eternal time. They speak of a time when all the nations will come up to the Lord in Jerusalem to worship, and there will be punishment for those that don't. So again, we're not in the eternal kingdom. There's still death, there's still judgment, but these things will be fulfilled. I believe the six-fold reference to thousand years in Revelation, the 20th chapter, is telling that this is something literal that we can expect. I reject the amillennial view that the kingdom is only spiritual, the postmillennial view that the whole world will come under the influence of the gospel and basically be Christian before Jesus returns. Yet I do believe that there are truths in each of these different systems. In other words, I do believe that the spiritual emphasis of the kingdom is an important New Testament theme. I do believe that the gospel will spread throughout the whole earth before Jesus returns, and yet there will still be wickedness and opposition. And I do believe that dispensationalists have done well to emphasize the promises to Israel and to remind people about the importance of the return of Jesus.

But as I look at scripture overall, and as I understand what the early church fathers held to, it would be the historical premillennial position. Okay, thanks. So just one last thing. Do you have any book or resource that you think would be a good thing to dig into? Yes, sir. Craig Keener and I wrote it together, Professor Craig Keener, Not Afraid of the Antichrist, Why We Don't Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Not Afraid of the Antichrist, Why We Don't Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture.

I think you'll find it helpful, a good place to start. We do our best to be fair and gracious to those we differ with, but that'll lay out our beliefs clearly on this. Well, Jesse, thank you for the call. We came back. Boy, this liberal professor, retired professor of history at UCLA, says, I was wrong.

Yeah, got it wrong. We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire. Let's just check the latest news to see, has there been a breakthrough in the House voting? Yeah, not at this point. The House of Representatives voting for Speaker Kevin McCarthy or someone else. I really don't have any comment on it. I have no interest in a lot of political developments in terms of my focus and energy. I focus on them when they're impacting directly moral, cultural, spiritual issues and things like that. Otherwise, as you know, I'm not a political commentator. I'm not a political pundit. The media is not contacting me. Dr. Brown, what are your views on what's happening in the House?

They'll contact me, second to the media, about other subjects where my expertise intersects. Obviously, it doesn't look good, right? You know, the division. Talk about a House. Here you've got the House of Representatives. The House, divided against itself, won't stand. The nation's massively divided now, division within the Republican Party is at the fruit of Trump's influence. Let's see where things land. Let's see where things land.