Dr. Brown Answers Your Toughest Questions

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Let's do it. Phone lines are wide open. You've got questions.

We've got answers. 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. Welcome. Welcome to the broadcast, Michael Brown. Delighted to be with you. The number to call with any question of any kind that relates in any way to anything we've ever talked about on the Line of Fire. Sometimes the comments of those watching online, they get pretty heated, pretty intense. Give me a call. Tell me why you have a difference. Ask me the question that you're burning to ask.

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You did not know that. So our apologies for that couple of little glitches we have addressed. So wonderful to have this time together. Phone lines are open and we start off.

Let's go to Raleigh, North Carolina. Joe, you are on the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown, thank you so much for taking my call, I appreciate it.

Sure thing. I had a question. I was listening to a sermon from a pastor and he was discussing Benny Elohim, the sons of God, is what he was calling it. Yeah, Benny Elohim. Benny Elohim. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Benny Elohim, and he mentioned in Genesis 6 and Job and Deuteronomy and Psalms where it's been mentioned. And he was saying they are the sons of God. And he started out by saying, you all are going to burn me at a stake for heresy. But I'm about to say, did Jesus have any brothers? And the answer is going to be yes. These are the sons of God. And it kind of didn't sit well with me, but I don't want to reject anything either that I'm ignorant to.

Ignorance isn't bliss. So I wanted to get your take on it. It's mostly the Old Testament, Hebrew, and you're my source. Yes, thanks. And by the way, the only reason that I corrected the Hebrew was just because it's often mispronounced and, you know, with foreign languages, when any of us read them or hear them, sometimes the pastor says it wrong. So just for the benefit of everyone listening, I didn't need to be rude by correcting the Hebrew, but that's how you heard it.

Right, right. So I just, for everyone's sake, just wanted that to be clear. So the idea that Jesus has brothers or that the angels, the Bnei Elohim, the sons of God or the divine being are brothers. That's a concept not found in the Bible. We have become his brothers and his sisters.

We are joint heirs with him and part of his family. And Hebrews 2 says he's not ashamed to call us brothers, but he is uniquely set apart because he is an uncreated being. He is the eternal son who proceeds forth from the father. So in that sense, no, it's not that he is the son of God and they are other sons of God and therefore brothers.

And I don't know why the pastor would say that. In other words, how that helps, what edification we get from that, what we learn from it, the fact that we have become his brothers. He's our Lord. He's our master. He's also our friend and he's our brother.

He's the elder brother. And we are now being conformed to his likeness with the same Romans eight, that he may be the first born among many brothers. So we're the ones called brothers and sisters with him and brothers uniquely in that relationship.

And that that's amazing. That gives us an insight and understanding of what we're being raised up to be and conformed to be and like him and joint heirs with him as brothers and sisters of the Messiah, the son of God. That's wonderful, glorious, edifying, life changing to say that he had brothers, namely the angels know that in in Hebrew, a son of something means someone who possesses a particular thing or has a particular nature. For example, Judas in the New Testament, Jesus refers to him as the son of perdition, in other words, the one doomed to destruction, the one marked by this characteristic. So these are ones who are created by God, but they share in the heavenly nature.

That's the whole point of it. Jesus is uniquely set apart as the one and only son of God, who Hebrews one says is distinct from the angels. So he doesn't take on the nature of angels. He takes on the nature of human beings and we become his brothers. So unless the pastor is trying to say, hey, God created angels, too, and they're his sons in a certain way and Jesus wasn't alone.

Again, I don't get get the point of that. Jesus has not created and he was not a brother with these. So it baffles me why he would say that. And there's certainly no scriptural concept that say Michael or Gabriel looked at the son as a brother, an older brother. They looked at him as their creator and Lord.

So I don't know why he would say it or what his point would be. Well, he separated angels from the sons of God and said they weren't the same. Oh, no, no, they certainly are.

They're certainly angels. And I think that's where the disconnect starts, because he was talking about, and I'm going to pronounce this wrong, I apologize, the Nephilim and how God has appointed different demonic entities, possibly for different parts of the world or different cities or different states. And then when we kick Christ out, that vacuum is going to get filled by something. And that vacuum is normally it's filled by evil if you don't have God there. And these sons of God could be filling those roles or I don't know, it kind of went off the rails in my mind. Right, so he might have read some of the things of Dr. Michael Heiser, Unseen Realm, and then gotten some wrong deductions from it.

We just missed the point. So B'nai Elohim, the sons of God in Genesis six, it most likely refers to fallen angels who then are able to take on human form and literally take wives for themselves and produce the offspring, which ultimately becomes a monstrous thing to be wiped out. Some argue it just means the godly line of Seth intermarried with the ungodly of Cain.

I find that unlikely. In Job, the sons of God are absolutely angels. There's no question about that.

There's no dispute on that. And the whole argument that there are angels that are appointed over different places, so Judeo 32 and then reflected in, say, Daniel 10, where you have Michael is battling with the prince of Persia. Yeah, there could be angelic beings that are regional rulers and some are fallen and some are righteous.

That could be argued again. It's you don't want to go too far with it because the Bible only gives us limited information and just tells us in general that we're in spiritual warfare against the devil. But I don't know why all of that could not be taught by simply saying, look, this is a dark world. When the light shines, the darkness is dispelled. When the light goes off, the darkness swarms again. Or to simply say that Satan is roaming around the Earth.

First Peter five, eight and nine. He's roaming around the Earth looking for those he can destroy. And if we open the door, he's going to come in.

If we shut the door, we push him back. To get into kind of, you know, even if what your pastor said, if you're accurately representing it, which is not accurate biblically. I might not be. Yeah, but let's assume you are. I just always try to give the benefit of the devil.

Let's assume you are. Nowhere does the word say that God appoints demons. God himself appoints demons over certain regions. And that if we are not there in our presence or, quote, Christ is kicked out, that then those demons take over. Nowhere does scripture say that God appointed demons over regions.

But I don't even need that teaching. I understand there are demons looking to take ground. And I understand that the Kingdom of God is pushing them back. And if the Kingdom of God is removed from an area because of the influence of the gospel in Christian people, then of course, darkness is going to swarm. So it doesn't it doesn't even tell me anything, aside from being unscriptural.

It doesn't even tell me anything. I don't know that I couldn't preach without all of that. So anyway, hopefully he'll he'll get that straight now. And thank you for calling in, sir. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right. You bet. Eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four.

Let's go to Kenneth in Louisiana. Welcome to the line of fire. How are you today, Dr. Brown?

Doing very well, thank you. I wanted to try to maybe shed some light with your audience. I'm a Christian author myself and my most recent book titled Wormwood, I teach in it about some of these ancient gods, which are actually dark spirits that are working and operating in our days, and one of those dark spirits is actually very well known to both the ancient Roman and ancient Egyptian empire. And that demon was well known. And that demon's name was Scotus.

And of course, most of your audience should know that is the well-known acronym used by the Supreme Court of the United States. And what I state in the book is people in these days have turned power back on to giving power back to these dark spirits, Scotus was known as it was an ancient pagan god, but he was also considered a spirit of darkness that overshadowed an empire before its fall. It was actually responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire and the Egyptian Empire. When you say it was responsible, right, just so Jonathan Cahn's book, Return of the Gods, deals with certain things about ancient deities that were worshiped, which are obviously demonic powers. My book, Jezebel's War with America, said the same demonic spirits that were at work through Jezebel 3,000 years ago were at work again today and pronounced in clear ways.

So in that sense, there's nothing new under the sun. And as far as the actual name, Scotus, we'll come back to that in a moment. But when you say, how would you know as a historian, if someone's trying to recount what happened in history, how would you know that a particular spirit was actually, quote, responsible for the downfall of an empire? How would you determine that historically? It's written in a lot of the historical books. That's how I did my research, is just on some of the ancient Greek mythology.

And again, that's what they want people to believe. They're trying to get people to believe that a lot of these, what they consider Greek mythology, is just that, just mythology. But if you go to Revelation 9-11, you'll see that Abaddon's Greek name is Apollyon.

And of course, I put all this in my books. So Apollyon, who comes out of the bottomless pit, if you do your research with that spirit, the destroyer, he was also called the spirit of destruction, he had a son and his name, and this goes into the Greek mythology aspect of it. His son's name was Asclepius. Well, the human wife, what I argue in the book is that Apollyon was one of the fallen angels from Genesis 6 that took a wife for himself. And in the Greek mythology, he actually took the wife whose name was Princess Corona. And she was the princess of the Thessalonians. And that's why you have the two letters written to the Thessalonians by Paul.

And that was the letters warning the Thessalonians about their worship of these ancient fallen angels, these dark spirits and their Nephilim offspring. Yeah, I've just got to jump in here. We're out of time.

I just want to let you speak. So check out the book Wormwood. Yes, Scotus, primordial guard of darkness in Rome, equivalent to the Greek god Erebus. Of course, does that have a connection to Scotus today?

We'll see. 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.

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I just want to make a couple of comments about the call that just came in. So we know there's all this ancient mythology and this God coming down into Earth in human form and having sex with a woman and having this offspring or this one is actually a deity and so on. So the question is always how much of that reflects demonic activity? How much of that reflects a satanic deception where people are believing all kinds of myths and lies and things? How much is just some historical account which is now transformed into some mythology? But Paul does tell us in 1 Corinthians 10 that the gods that the pagans worship are actually demons. They have power, but it is demonic power.

It is not light. It is not truth. And Asclepius, I studied a lot, not the mythological origins, but Asclepius was the famous healing deity in the Greco-Roman world. And he was also known as Soter, savior, because saving, healing, they were all considered interchangeable concepts, overlapping concepts. And Jesus, as the great healing deity, displaced Asclepius. And there are scholars who said if there was not healing ministry associated with Jesus, they would not have eclipsed Asclepius because of the alleged healing prowess that was associated with this deity, this false god, which is actually demonically empowered. Now, when you want to get into an actual name, SCOTUS, and that's the acronym for the Supreme Court, should you make something out of it?

Is it demons controlling the Supreme Court? And that's obviously the jump, which is the, and I'm not saying our caller was saying that and the author was saying that. Look, there are many words that have one meaning in one language and our profanity in another. The same syllables, the same sounds.

Perfectly fine in one means something else. Or, you know, you have a, what was the Scottish, Scottish Christian leader, SCOTUS was his last name. So, you know, you can't make anything out of that. It's, of course, very interesting. But to say that the Supreme Court is under demonic powers, demons that overturned Roe v. Wade, obviously that's not the argument that is being made.

But it is very interesting when you look at ancient mythologies and realize the demonic deception behind it. Very interesting to see how these things unfold. All right. We go back to the phones. Let's see.

We go to Willie in Kentucky. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Thanks, Dr. Brown, I appreciate everything you do. I actually get a lot of schooling from you.

I listen to you about every day. And so I got the question I've got is James, the Gospel of the Book of James, actually, chronologically, like it was written first, right? Like 50 A.D., maybe, before the Gospels was written. And I'd always heard that that book was actually, James was actually talking to like new believers and telling them, you know, pretty much how to how to use their tongue, pretty much just everyday life, how to live a good, clean life. And I was talking to a guy and he said, well, it had to have been after the Gospels because, you know, how could that have been, you know, how could they have told about Jesus and the resurrection? And I'm like, well, I don't know about that.

I thought I'd ask you. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, it's definitely one of the early books. All virtually all the letters were written before the Gospels were written. But first thing is people came to know the Lord. He died, rose from the dead. They were born again. They were following him. They knew about it. They were preaching to others.

So by the time he's writing somewhere between 45 and 49 A.D., but by the time he's writing, the message of Jesus, Yeshua has been preached now for 15, 20 years. People have heard it. They know the story. And remember, this is an oral culture.

This is a culture that learns most things orally and by memory, not by writing and reading. So I was talking to a colleague about this last night. If you ask me, give me all the cell phone numbers that you know that I've memorized right now. I have my number and I have my wife's number.

I don't know off the top of my head. I don't know anybody else's numbers. If I have to call them because I just press speed dial here or whatever.

Now, when I was in my in my drug days, so over 50 years ago as a drug user, I was famous for every person I met. What's your number? They told me I had everybody's phone numbers memorized. And to this day, I can remember more phone numbers of growing up. My family kids or when I first met Nancy, all these old phone numbers.

And I don't know the current ones because we don't use it. So the message of the Gospel was being passed on 10, 15, 20 years orally. People hearing it and think of this, you get born again. You start telling your family, other family members get saved. Maybe seven people have gotten saved before they've even read the Bible yet because they heard from you. They went to a church service. They heard.

So it's the same in the ancient world. Everyone's hearing the message. The message is circulating widely and they're hearing it getting born again.

And we don't know how much was even being circulated. There may have been other teaching put in writing here and there. The Gospels themselves written down later. And James, actually Jacob in Greek, he's writing to Jewish believers. So these are Jews who've come to faith. He's writing to them to the 12 tribes scattered abroad and giving them teaching about obedience to God and Torah and what it means now through life in Jesus, the Messiah. So, yeah, they were absolutely very familiar with the message. It had been preached, taught in many, many different forms.

And the fact that the Gospels weren't written didn't mean that the Gospel message was not getting out loudly and clearly for many years. All right. Awesome. Thank you very much.

You are very, very welcome. 866-348-7884. Often this doesn't happen on Friday, but we've got a couple of phone lines open right now. So if you want to get in, we will definitely be able to get to you before the end of the broadcast. Let's go to Brian in Fort Worth, Texas.

Probably miles from where I sit right now in Fort Worth. Go ahead. Hey, how are you doing, Dr. Brown?

Doing great. Well, my question is, so it's more along the lines of God's goodness, and I feel like I know I have and I feel like the church often confuses goodness with righteousness. And so we're often taught anything bad is of Satan and not God. And we insert the verb or adjective, God would never cause this.

So sickness or some sort of disaster. But I don't read that in the scripture. I don't find that consistent with what I read. So, you know, we had examples of the Lord giving Miriam leprosy in Numbers 12. And he says he'll create well-being and create calamity in Isaiah 45. And I will turn feast in the morning in Amos, as calamity comes on a city did not the Lord cause it in Amos 3.

And then even Jesus himself said he would throw profit on his sickbed in Revelation 2. So why do we only associate God with goodness when there is some things that we would deem evil, evil that come about from him, because he's a sovereign God. He may not directly cause these things, every single thing. Now, we read that he does cause some things, but he doesn't cause everything. So if he's sovereign, he has a hand in it.

Or at least he knows about it enough to where it's permissible for him. Yeah, well, let's look at the things that you quoted explicitly. And then I could multiply them by the dozens as well, especially in the Old Testament, but in the New as well, that things that God takes responsibility for as sending and doing, none of them are evil, none of them are ever evil. But absolutely, they may be things that are calamitous. They may be things that are destructive.

They may be things that bring pain. So what's happened is basically we've had a pendulum swing. There was a mentality among many that whatever happens to you must be God's will, and that God delights in making people sick, that days of healing are over, that every bad thing that happens in your life, well, this must be the will of God. And the pendulum swung to say, actually, God revealed his nature through Jesus, who healed all who came to him. And God's desire is to bless, not to curse. And the pendulum swings too far to the point that the first book that I wrote, which we put out in the new edition a couple of years ago, Compassionate Father or Consuming Fire, Who is the God of the Old Testament? I wrote it back in 85 to try to bring a correction in the Word of Faith camp that rejected the very things that you were bringing up that would try to find a way around those verses or they say, well, God would never actually actively send any of this. He would just allow it, et cetera. And they try to create Hebrew nuances that didn't exist.

So here's the bottom line. Everything God does is perfectly good and perfectly righteous. There's never evil.

There's never a taint of darkness whatsoever. And he has revealed his will in scripture, which is to bless his people, not to curse. In other words, you could say that his ideal will for his obedient children is that we're blessed, that we're healthy, that we're thriving. However, we understand that there are many things that happen in this world that are different than what we think is for the best and that God's judgments themselves are good. In other words, the destruction of the wicked is the salvation of the righteous. So God will never murder someone, but he might put someone to death because of sin. God will never take delight in smiting. But the smiting might be the very way to bring someone to healing or to repentance. So everything he does is good and righteous.

But many of the things elves do not strike us as nice or favorable or positive. The book I wrote, Compassionate Father Consuming Fire. Make sure you get the new edition. That'll help sort this out. But Brian, the Benjamin swung too far. We need to bring it to a biblical balance. Thank you, sir, for the question. Welcome back, friends, to The Line of Fire. Hey, just a shout out to all of our faithful supporters or torchbearers, our monthly supporters.

It's from the backbone of our ministry. Thank you so much standing with us a dollar a day or more per month. You help us do so much of what we do, really give wings to the things that God's spoken and called us to do. Others that support with one time gifts. Thank you. Everyone who prays for us.

Thank you. You help put wind in our sails to give you another analogy and enable us to touch so many lives so effectively. And I can say this. I live in total spiritual battle, in a sense, day and night, and that there are always attacks, always assaults coming from every imaginable angle, and I live a blessed life. I don't live a harassed life. I don't live a life where I'm constantly beaten down, discouraged. And I know a major reason is prayer support and people standing with us.

I know that's a major reason. It's not just my calling and the grace that comes with that calling. But there's a lot of prayer support. So thank you. Thank you all so much.

I want to make another comment just on the heels of the call that we got. I do not personally look at everything that happens in the world, every situation and attribute it to the will of God, because he has given us freedom of choice. Obviously, there are only certain things. We have parameters in terms of what we're able to choose or not choose.

But we have freedom of choice, freedom of self determination. God has not determined that every event, as I read scripture, he has not determined that every single event that happens is explicitly ordained. If you're playing a game of chess, that he ordained each chess move that you made. If you're going to charge some of the credit card, he ordained that you pulled out one credit card versus another credit card.

If you're brushing your hair and Mr hair that he ordained that you missed. I do not read scripture saying that at all. In fact, I see many things in scripture where God says I had nothing to do with that. I was absolutely not my plan for you. This is not what I wanted, or even Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and speaking to the leadership, how often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks in her wings. But you weren't willing. I was willing. You weren't willing. Or the end of Romans 10, quoting from the book of Isaiah. All day long, I've stretched out my hands to a disobedient, rebellious people. God said, I'm willing.

You weren't willing. So the many things that happen in this world that actually grieve God. They grieve his heart. And Jesus gives articulation to that by weeping over these things. It's not that he's powerless. He has all power, but he is determined to give us certain freedom. And there's even certain freedom with which spiritual beings operate because of which there are various consequences. So I don't look at everything that happens and just say, well, God ordained that. However, I know as a believer, my life is fully in his hands.

And if I am not playing games with sin and playing games with the devil and opening up my life to destruction, then I'm absolutely trusting God. My life belongs to you. My family belongs to you. We're given over to you. And I'm not just saying, well, the devil can just come in and sweep in and take anything and do anything.

No, he doesn't have that kind of power. John Kilpatrick, the pastor of Brownsville Sunday during the revival, used to say that in our lives, everything is father filtered. That's a good way of looking at it. But if I come down sick, I don't say, God, why did you send the sickness on me? I think, okay, did I get run down? Did I allow something to happen?

Is it just I was around people? They all had a cold. I caught a cold, whatever. But I asked for healing and I do my best to get healthy as quickly as I can. Rather than say, okay, God, what are you trying to teach me through the sickness? I'm not attributing everything that happens to the hand of God. And I'm saying he's revealed himself as healer. He's revealing himself as forgiver. He's revealed himself in his goodness. But many times he will bring us through certain things that don't feel good to us at all, but they are for our eternal good.

They are for our eternal good. And that's where we just trust him. I don't understand this.

I don't know why this happened. It's very painful. It's very difficult, but I trust you and honor you. And as we do, he will bring it out.

Ultimately, he will bring it out for good. Let's go to Kevin, also in Dallas, Fort Worth. Welcome to the line of fire. Kevin, are you there? Sounds like someone's there, but I guess not.

All right. Let us go over to Mylan in Kansas City, Missouri. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. Hey.

Hey there. So my question is about the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians. Obviously, you know, chapters 12 through 14. Mm hmm.

So my question is, so my wife and I are new to the gifts. We kind of we've only been saved for, like, two years, and we kind of had a bad experience with a super weird, charismatic place. And just you understand you've heard that story a million times. Yes, sir.

Sorry about that. Yeah. But we have experienced the spiritual gifts in a biblical way and very powerful, and it hit us like a freight train. So we are trying to learn and interpret as well as we can and use them the way that the Spirit wants us to. And so our question is, is when Paul says, earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, and then he says, especially that you may prophesy because it builds up others and et cetera. When the Holy Spirit distributes a gift, like he's given me the gift of teaching, for example, it's insane. Like when I'm teaching scripture, certain scriptures will just float in my head and he'll bring them to me and I can connect the pieces and it's insane.

I get in this zone and it's crazy. So if he's given me the gift of teaching, is that like, quote, my gift and and like that he's distributed to me and I won't get tongues and I won't get prophecy because I've been given my individual gift? Like it says he distributes them individually. Or is it like anyone can get any gift whenever he wants?

You see what I'm saying? Right. It's in between the two. In other words, the gift of teaching is one aspect of life in ministry. But you have now a whole other category.

And I'm just going to say totally natural illustration. Theologians don't get upset with me over this. But it's like if you go to a restaurant, OK, and you've got here's the category of appetizers and here's the category of main courses and here's the category of desserts. So the gift of teaching is or being called to be a teacher is is a particular category. Tongues, prophecy, healing, that's a different category. In other words, let's say someone is is gifted to be an evangelist.

Well, it could well be that with that evangelistic calling is also a gift of healing because it ties directly in with with their ministry. So look at them as different categories. The fact that you have a grace to teach that's on you and a joy in teaching.

You like to break things down in practical ways and love to study and learn. That's one category. The things that Paul lists in First Corinthians 12. He doesn't lift this teaching there, does he? He doesn't list evangelism now.

Right. So that's that's a different category. Just like someone's calling may be a pastor. But with that calling, there may be other gifts that God has given them. Maybe that pastor also operates in the gift of faith and and they he can take on these massive impossible projects that have vision to transform a city that seems utterly ridiculous and yet gift of faith operates in him.

So look at those aspects. Pastor, teacher, evangelist, those kind of giftings as as one category. And then these others is another category.

However, there's there's overlap. Those are all graces from God. So I've spoken in tongues since January 24th, 1972.

God's used me and some other gifts with some regularity. And then there are aspects of my life in terms of of being a prophetic wake up call to the church and having a teaching ministry, being an evangelist to my Jewish people so that we function in different things at different times. But I would pray always God manifest in my life what you see best, what fits best to maximize your kingdom work, get the maximum glory through me. And because the Corinthians were so into tongues, he had to really urge them. Hey, prophecy is more important because that speaks to others. And if you're delivering messages in tongues in public, no one's helped. That's for your private prayer and edification. So there are different views about tongues also. In other words, there is the view that when we're baptized in the Spirit, that we can now potentially speak in tongues or that's the initial sign.

But not everyone is gifted to deliver messages in tongues or speaking tongues publicly, there are others who say the tongues are for some, not for others. I would say, Father, give me everything you have so I can make the maximum impact for you. It's not up to us to say, okay, I'm going to operate in this gift today or that gift today. Or I can do this or it's just whatever I want. It's whatever God wants.

But as a coworker, he's calling us to seek him. So, Lord, use me if you choose to use me to prophesy, Lord, that's wonderful. Whatever gift, whatever you want to manifest through me for your glory in your sovereign will, because we are told to pursue these things, do it for your purposes and then just trust that things will flow naturally. And I remember many, many years ago reading a testimony of a brother, a pastor who was one of the early megachurch pastors that ended up with a network of hundreds of thousands of believers that he oversaw. And in some of his stories, you heard about miraculous healings and him having words for people and miracles taking place, and he said he really asked God to give him the gift of healing. But God never did.

And I thought, wow, you had all those things happening. And his answer was, no, no, that's like a trickle. But he said he operated. He had gifts of faith in administration, and that's what he flowed in. And when I went to his home country and visited his church one day, I was floored. It's like, you better believe these are gifts of faith and administration. So he was used in the other things. But that that was not really who he was. So when you have one of these gifts operating, it really flows through you.

It becomes part of who you are. It's a very natural thing that happens, whereas anyone in the Spirit could potentially see the sick healed. Anyone in the Spirit potentially could have a word of prophecy. But that doesn't mean the gift is operating.

All right. So hopefully that's okay, because like we call sorry, yeah, we call some, like, prophets. So does that mean, you know, like, you know, like modern day prophets, like, not just, I got an occasional prophecy from the Holy Spirit.

Like, yeah, yeah, so what exactly. So that's what we would refer to as fivefold or fourfold ministry. Ephesians four, beginning in verse eight, that Jesus appoints in the body until we reach full maturity. Some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. So that is a life calling.

That is not just a gift you operate. That is who you are. So everyone can evangelize. Timothy is told, do the work of an evangelist. But he was not an evangelist. When I'm with an evangelist, like, you know, one said, an evangelist preaching to a meeting of all believers. That's hell for an evangelist, an evangelist preaching. And no one is the audience to say that's heaven to an evangelist.

So this is the same thing. Anyone can teach elders, Paul said, should be apt to teach. But not everyone has the calling of teacher. Everyone can be a shepherd, but not everyone's called to be a pastor. So that is now a life consuming thing, a life controlling calling, it's part of who you are.

And it's your overall outlook and life flows out of that as well. Hey, thank you for the questions. And as you continue in the word and prayer, I'm sure you'll continue to grow in all these ways. God bless. 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. Hey, we are now looking actively to expand our radio outreach around the nation.

Obviously, it's not going to be a thousand stations overnight, but we have an aggressive plan. We are full of faith. This is something God has burdened me to pray for for many, many, many, many years, because I know it is time that God's given us a mission, God's given us a message. And together we can see America rocked. We can see the church get healthy. We can see the nation change our role.

One person among many, one ministry among many, our role, our contribution. So one great way that you can help with our radio expansion and bless your own life with wellness as well is to go to TriVita.com, check out the great wellness supplements there. TriVita.com and use the code Brown25, capital B, Brown25. You get 25% off your order. You can get monthly subscriptions, get the discount. And remember, 100% of your first order is donated to our line of fire fund to expand across the nation and all future orders TriVita will give more than a tithe back to what we are doing. So it's a great way as we get on new stations, introduce new listeners.

It's a great way to partner together and make sure you look at your own life lifestyle. Yeah, it all starts with personal lifestyle, healthy eating, healthy living. Check out these supplements as well.

TriVita.com or call 800-771-5584. That's 800-771-5584. Tell them Dr. Brown sent you.

So not only will you enjoy the benefit of these supplements, you'll be helping us strategically. It's in process. I mean, stations are being spoken to and we could be on the radio and a station near you very soon, so it's all unfolding. OK, let us go to our buddy Eddie in Connecticut. Yes, sir. What's on your mind? Dr. Brown, how are you doing today? Doing great.

Thanks. Real quick, two real quick points. One was where it says, I guess, in Hebrews that Jesus was tempted at all points like we are. But yeah, he didn't sin.

So I just said, you're telling me something that like, what does that mean? He's God. Of course, he didn't sin. We're going to we make the mistakes. But you're saying God didn't make the mistake.

I'm trying to get what do you mean by that? Like, I'm not like, am I shocked? Oh, he didn't sin. He's God. Of course, he didn't sin. It's almost like saying Dr. Brown, Eddie and Jesus ran a mile.

They're both breathing, they're dying, breathing at the end and Jesus ain't breathing at all. Of course not. He's God.

He's going to be he's not the same as us is what I'm saying. So I got a question for you. I got a question for you. Does the Bible ever say he was hungry? Yes. Does the Bible ever say he was sleeping? Yes. OK, why?

Well, that's what I'm trying to decipher. Yeah, because he was also right. He was also fully human. So he's fully God and fully human. And as a human being, he was tempted.

Now, as God, it's true. He never sinned. But the point is not that he never sinned.

We know he never sinned. The point is that he understands what it is to experience temptation. Look, let's just say before you were saved, you were tempted to do something wrong and you're trying to fight it and fight it. Your heart beat is like, oh, I got to have this drink and you do it. Now you get saved and you get tempted the same way. It's like, oh, it's like, no, I'm not going to do it.

And you don't do it. The temptation was real. Even though you didn't sin, the temptation is real. So the gospels are telling, excuse me, Hebrews is telling us that he understands he can.

We know that he can relate to life in this world because he lived here. You know, it's just like anything you've experienced in life. You've got a friend that's gone through a divorce and you'd gone through a divorce. Like, man, I understand. Or, yeah, you lost your son.

I lost. But there's an understanding having lived through it. So he was here as a human being, experienced joy and sorrow and pain, was tired, could be tempted.

But because he is God, he never sinned. Yet he can relate. He understands because he's been here with us and suffered with us. Great answer, Dr. Brown, and my next quick one was this we spoke about and greater works will you do? Yeah, that believes in me to do the work side doing greater. And I'm saying, OK, anybody see anything lately?

Anybody in history? I don't know. I didn't see it. And I'm not saying there's a doubt with unbelief, but I'm just being honest. And anybody see anything lately greater than Jesus did?

I didn't see nothing. Yeah. So again, a good, fair question. There are some who claim that was just for the apostles. But no, it's it's a universal promise. John 14, 12, whoever believes in me, study out, look up to Greek, because that phrase you'll see whenever it occurs, it's a universal promise.

Whoever believes in me, the works that I do, will he do also in greater works than these will you do because I go to the Father? That is something that we should say, OK, the same works. So obviously we're not dying for people's sins.

OK, not that. But the miraculous works, that's what it's talking about in context that we should expect to see not every day. But over the course of our lives or through the church as a whole, we should expect to see miracles of healing, miracles of deliverance, because Jesus said that we should expect to see the same things and even things greater. So someone says, well, look, you're talking to more people on radio than Jesus talked to in his lifetime.

No, it's not greater. Anyone can do that. But Peter's shadow healed the sick or Peter preached a message and three thousand people were converted on the spot. Neither of those things happened through the ministry of Jesus on the earth.

So God continues to work around the world. Check out the book by Randy Clark, Eyewitness to Miracles. Eyewitness to Miracles by Randy Clark or Craig Keener, Miracles. There's a two volume one that's a heavy, big, heavy read. There's just one volume in paperback, Miracles, where he just documents miraculous accounts. So around the world, God is doing amazing things. But I personally believe we should see even more here in our own lives, even in America.

So that to me is not a condemning pressure, but an invitation to keep believing because it's the Holy Spirit doing the work. Not us. Hey, as always, thanks for your question. Hey, real quick. Last night I was calling some of our our team members to discuss some things. And they had three couples over some of our oldest and best friends. We've worked together for 25 plus years, and she'd given them each a copy of my brand new book.

Why so many Christians have left the faith. You say it's out already. Well, only through us.

It's not out to the general public till next month. But she'd given them copies. And I was so glad. And as I was on speakerphone with everyone because they were all there, one of the wives said, I was I was hoping you'd write a book on the subject. The whole issue of deconstruction and people wondering, is the Bible really true? Can we really trust it? Is the church reliable? And what should we do with these things? So it's it's a it's an eye opener, but it's super practical, edifying, helpful.

Why so many Christians have left the faith. So let me give you a different special number. If you'd like to get a signed, numbered copy. This is a preorder exclusively through our ministry, a signed, numbered copy.

It's also a way to help us expand our outreach as well. Call 800-538-5275. 800-538-5275.

It's also 800-535, excuse me, 5385. And ask or go to the website and go to AskDrBrown.org, click on store. And you can go ahead and order, get as many copies preordered as you want.

My joy to sign them and send them out as soon as I get back home from being on the road. All right. Do I have time for one more question? Let's go to Lana in Los Angeles.

All right. We just lost Lana, but she wanted to know if the Israeli government has recognized the Armenian genocide, and that is a question that I'm going to look up. Israeli government and then Armenian genocide. And see if this is something officially recognized, how Israel. Ah, OK, so this is the story here is from over a year ago.

And this is a left, left, strongly left leaning publication, and it's how Israel quashed efforts to recognize the Armenian genocide, to please Turkey decades before the year. OK, so this is going back in the summer of 82. So this is apparently something in the past. And I'm not sure what's changed with that. So I will have to I'll have to get current on this. This is an older article here, so not aware.

I wanted to find out on the fly here with you. So I can't answer that in terms of OK, one more. Why is Israel not yet recognized here? Israel's failure to recognize the Armenian genocide is indefensible. These are all Jewish publications, all Jewish publications from within the last few years, some within Israel saying why hasn't Israel recognized the Armenian genocide yet? So I have to look into that. I was not aware of that.

I don't. But this is obviously a controversy that Israelis are saying, why hasn't it been recognized as has that been addressed? Not sure what's happened. And Israel and Turkey are not friends now. There would be no reason that Israel would say, well, we want to suppress the evil things that Turkey did in the in the horrific Armenian genocide.

But I have to look into that. This could be a a blemish on Israel. And as a friend of Israel, you address issues. The fact that I am 100 percent convinced that is God who brought the Jewish people back to the land doesn't mean that I agree with everything Israel does or that that if Israel has a certain policy with the Palestinians, that I automatically side with the Israelis and against the Palestinians because I believe that God brought the Jewish people back to the land. No, I I could believe God brought a couple together, his husband and wife, and tell them they're going in the wrong direction or doing wrong things. I can believe God called you to to plant a church and tell you you're making serious mistakes. So as a friend, we tell the truth and we call things out. So if there is an issue here and a blemish, then I just need to dig into it and discover what's going on so I can address it. And please just make this appeal because we have a few seconds left. Let's make an appeal to you.

Just because Israel is not perfect does not mean that God has not brought the Jewish people back to any more than the fact that the church is not perfect means that God has not saved us and called us with a purpose. Hey, I couldn't get your question. You can always write to us at ask Dr. Brown Dog, A.S.K. Brown Dog. God bless. They call me a fanatic, it's our world, they can never have it, this is how we rise, oh, it's our resistance, you can't resist us. Another program powered by the Truth Network.