Are Guns the Problem?

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Well, in light of yet another school shooting, the question always comes up, are guns the problem?

If not, what is? It's time for the Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on the Line of Fire.

And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire. Yeah, more tragedy, more shock in America, shooting of nine-year-olds and 60-plus-year-olds, six people killed, 28-year-old shooter killed by police. More tragedy, more pain, and more questions that come up. What's the cause? What can be done?

How can we address these things? We'll talk about it, but in a way I believe that will ultimately encourage you with light in the midst of the darkness. Thanks, friends, for joining the broadcast. Michael Brown, always here to help infuse you with faith and truth and courage. Friends, I long to see the Church of America rise up in health and strength and the beauty and power and grace and truth of the Lord. As we rise up in health and strength, those hurting, those dying, those lost around us will be touched.

As the light within us shines out, darkness will be pushed back and many will come out of the darkness into the glorious light of liberty. And all of us that have testimonies, you have life-transforming testimonies like I do. Jesus saved me 51-plus years ago as a heroin-shooting, LSD-using hippie rock drummer in rebellion.

No interest in God, no belief in Jesus. Jesus radically changed my life and has enabled me by His grace to touch many people in America and around the world. Many of you have life-transforming testimonies. Think of those being multiplied by the thousands, by the millions. Think of what could happen in America.

That's the hope of the nation. All right, here's the number to call. 866-34-TRUTH.

866-348-7884. If you're president, if you were a governor, if you're a legislator, if you were in a position of power in your city, in your state, in this nation, what would you say could be done to stop such horrible tragedies from taking place, such horrific events? Now I understand there are other tragedies.

A tornado wipes out a small community, everyone just gone. This is also in the last few days and of course every day of the week, every moment of every day, there are tragic things taking place. But when it's something that a human being willfully does, when it involves the cold-blooded murder of others, especially children, when you see the pictures of the families and the pictures of the victims, it's just the pain increases. When you think, is there anything that could be done about this? So immediately when something like this happens, people are going to start talking about gun control. They're immediately going to say, that's the problem we have to deal with.

And they'll point to the fact that you don't have problems like this in many, many, many other countries around the world. You have the same human beings, the same human nature, the same propensity to evil and violence, and yet you don't have these same problems with mass shootings and mass school shootings and things like this happening. And even if it's someone say armed with a knife, yeah, you've had some terrible tragedies say in China where someone with a knife goes out and starts butchering people or many killings in England. You don't have the gun violence, but you have more knife violence, but people would say, hey look, it's a lot easier to stop somebody with a knife than someone with a gun or multiple guns or all kinds of rifles.

It's easier to stop someone with a knife than with this other kind of equipment. So the question of gun control always comes up, all right? And to me, it's a fair question to ask, but that doesn't mean we have to agree that that's the issue or the problem. Sure, let's talk about it in the same way that in this particular case, the shooter, 28-year-old female, has identified, apparently identified as transgender, wanted to use the pronouns he, him, etc. And even though the kids that knew this girl from school are shocked and it's not the way we knew her and all this, you could say, well, was it something related to the trans identity? Because how often do you have female mass shooters? It's very, very rare. And was this person taking hormones?

And were they, you know, male hormones in the dead? That's a fair question to ask, but you're not going to now generalize from that to say, well, trans people are the problem. Obviously, how often do you hear about trans identified people and mass murder, okay? So, yeah, look at the individual situation. Ask questions. It's fine to do it. Look, you want to save lives and you want to understand why people do these horrific things. So, it's perfectly fine to ask the question and you can weigh in. What is the problem?

What is there a solution? I want to play a clip from my friend, Pastor Shane Eidelman, where he addresses this. He's a pastor in California. Pastor Shane is not just Mr. Right-wing Republican conservative. He may vote Republican.

He may be conservative politically, but he is Bible-based in his thinking and it's based on scripture that he makes his social and political observations. Listen to what Pastor Shane has to say about the shooting and the question of gun control. Hey, everyone. Just want to do a quick video. I'm here in Southern California in Los Angeles County. I want to comment a little bit on the mass shootings. I'm actually in an area. When I was a teenager, we would hunt all the time.

We had shotguns in our vehicles all the time. You didn't see any type of mass shooting. So, what is going on? What is going on is we have drifted from God. We have walked away from God.

I hope this is a wake-up call to get back to God. So, it just drives me nuts when they talk about gun control. You can't control depravity. Knives, bombs, cars, people do whatever it takes. The human heart has to change.

Now, I'm all for being careful with who is allowed weapons, of course, and maybe even more good citizens should have conceal and carry to protect. But our nation has drifted from God and we are reaping the whirlwind. If you want to really stop these things, you've got to bring God back into all areas of society. That's the bottom line.

Yeah. So, I absolutely agree with Pastor Shane's bottom line. And on a certain level, how can we disagree with it? We need God.

We need God. At the same time, I just want to address this plainly, okay? Because Pastor Shane's position is my position on this. We absolutely agree on this.

When I saw he posted a video, I thought for sure he's going to say the same thing that I would say. I do not believe we can point to this situation and say it's about a gun control issue. I don't believe we can say that. There may be other situations we could point to and say, how did this person get through the system and get a gun when they shouldn't have?

Is there something wrong with the system? That's a fair question. Or, should all guns of all kinds be allowed to all people? That's a fair question.

Right? We have the right to bear arms in America. And look, I'm not a gun carrying person or part of a gun culture. I didn't grow up hunting. One of my sons-in-law is a hunter.

He's got a great collection of guns. His son grew up in that same environment. Daughter grew up in the same environment. So handling guns and all of that is part of what they're used to, etc., in terms of being out hunting and those kinds of things. That's different from the way I was raised. And I do recognize, having traveled around the world, that the American relationship to guns, given our history, given the Revolutionary War, given the militias, given the concern about tyrannical governments, that our relationship to guns is different than other nations. But to me, that's not the gospel thing. It's not like Jesus and guns, the Bible and guns. Okay, so to me, it's a separate issue and part of our American culture and heritage.

But yes, I've talked to pastors just like Pastor Shane. They've been driving me around when I'm speaking for them, and they'll say, hey, when I went to school, we all brought our guns and our pickup trucks. You brought them into school.

We had a locker where we put the guns during school, and then we went out and went hunting afterwards. And the thought of a mass shooting or danger of guns was completely unknown. It just never dawned on anybody that that was an issue whatsoever. So at the same time, things are different now, whether it's mental illness issues, whether it's broken homes. I mean, a large percentage of these mass shooters, of course, almost all of them male. What happened yesterday even more unusual, but almost all of them male and in many cases, young males with broken homes and without a father, raised without a father. You find that very, very, very commonly as you look at these things, as you look at these tragic events.

So the breakdown in the family and then with mental illness issues and then all kinds of other things come up. So yeah, by all means, make sure that background checks are as thorough as they can be. Make sure that there is a database that is working nationally.

If it takes an extra day to get approved or something because of that, records are being checked properly. Great, fair question to say, should every kind of weapon of any, any, I'm not a guns guy, so I don't want to start giving specifics, but any kind of weapon of any kind be available to anyone that qualifies to have a gun? Those are fair questions to ask. That to me is no one's, in that, asking those questions, no one's trying to take away guns legitimately. No one's trying to take away a weapon that's rightfully held. No one's trying to take away a right that you have as an American citizen, et cetera. That's not my argument.

I'm just saying, yeah, by all means, ask these other questions. But as far as I can tell, there would have been nothing in this woman's past that would preclude her from getting a gun legally. And it wasn't that she was so incredibly well armed with, with all types of so-called assault weapons, et cetera, that she was unstoppable. So that to me does not seem to be the issue.

And sadly, from what I understand, the school being a small school didn't have funds just for an additional resource offer. So someone that could have been there, they potentially could have stopped things before they even happened. Either way, we are looking at a societal crisis. We are looking at an immoral breakdown.

We are looking at a social and familial breakdown. We are looking at something that is ultimately spiritual at its root. And therefore, we come back to the same things that we always come back to. There must be a fresh move of God. There must be must be a fresh outpouring of the Spirit. There must be the healing of broken hearts and broken minds and broken lives. There must be a transformation that is so deep and so sweeping that millions and millions and millions of people are transformed, and that families are strengthened, that kids are raised in environments where they don't have two or three strikes against them. I'm not talking about this individual, but I'm talking about so many other situations that kids are brought into a world, into an environment where we're right out of the womb, or within years out of the womb, or within several years of their lives as they start to grow up, things break down and fragment around them.

And then with all the other attacks that come, all the other abuses that they suffer, it's so easy now for people to get on hands. Now, I've said what I've said about the school shooting. I want to switch over as it so happens this individual is transgender.

I'm not accusing transgenders of being mass shooters, okay? But I want to talk about that aspect of things on now a separate level in reaching out to those who may struggle with their own gender identity. Well, take your calls as well. 866-348-7884. If you want to ask me a question on any subject, we'll get your calls a little later in the show.

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome back to the broadcast. Okay, a couple things quickly. To all our friends that are listening now in Phoenix on KPXQ, I want to give you a special opportunity. Make sure you sign up for our emails. That's askdrbrown.org. Askdrbrown.org. Sign up for our emails.

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All the resources we have that can support you. We'll send you a free mini ebook on how to pray for America. That's at askdrbrown.org. Just sign up for the emails.

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Get your wellness consultation and remind them that Dr. Brown told you to call. Okay. I said that I wanted to be very clear that the shooting at the Nashville school yesterday is not the opportunity. Now let's make this about the danger of trans individuals. All right. That is absolutely wrong.

That is taking one tragic thing that happened and now multiplying it as if all trans identified people are most trans identified people are many trans identified people are menaces to the society. You're trying to hurt people. No, no, no, no. Don't go there.

Don't do that. In this particular instance, was there anything that fueled the fire of this individual to do what they did? Is it resent me now that this person is identifying as trans and resent me because this was a Christian school?

Well, you could have those dynamics could happen, but you could have in a thousand different directions where people are grieved or upset and you don't make a generalization based on that. What does concern me is something like this. Look at this. The Daily Wire reported yesterday trans activists called for it quote day of vengeance before Nashville shooting.

And here's their meme. We need more than visibility. Trans day of vengeance. Stop trans genocide. Trans day of vengeance. April 1st, 11 a.m. Now, were these trans activists calling for acts of violence for someone to go and murder people, children and adults in cold blood in a school? No, obviously not.

However, you cannot be so irresponsible. I don't know if there's any connection between this and the shooting whatsoever. All right. I don't know unless there's more information that's been released.

Nobody knows that for sure right now. All right. However, this kind of stuff with any group that feels aggrieved or marginalized or hurt and that is being now now stirred and provoked in different ways. This is utterly irresponsible. You cannot do this kind of thing in the volatile society in which we live.

You simply cannot do it. It's destructive. It's irresponsible.

And it could lead again. I don't know that there's a connection and I am not making a generalization based on what happened with this 28 year old girl who was identifying as a boy or as a man. I am I am not making a generalization about trans people. Let me say that once again, as clearly as I can. And I understand that when transgender activists talk about, quote, trans genocide, what they're saying is you're not you're trying to wipe out trans people because you're not allowing kids to transition in some states. You don't you don't want adults to transition to try to push that.

And we're going to commit suicide. And I understand their viewpoint. Of course, I reject it. But I understand what they're saying, where they're coming from. All right.

That being said, this, to repeat, is utterly irresponsible, especially in this day and age. You don't call for days of vengeance. Rise up. Days of vengeance.

Even if you try to put parameters on them. We mean this. We mean that.

To say we need more than visibility. So don't just show up. Do something.

Do something vengeful. This needs to stop. This absolutely needs to stop.

It is destructive and it could well lead to acts of violence. Want to say that? Then I think I've got time for this so that you end up with compassion for those struggling with gender identity issues. Listen to this story of a woman detransitioning. Thought she was a male.

Detransitioning. Listen to what she had to say. I can't believe this happened. I ruined my life. When you break it down, I decided that I didn't want to be a woman before I had ever even experienced being a woman. I had no idea what being a woman was like because I was a child.

And now I feel like I will never entirely know. I want to say that I really feel like some people in the trans community and the trans medicalists and the doctors really, really target the most vulnerable of us. I have borderline personality disorder and I know for a fact that this is the reason for my transition.

It's a very difficult mental illness and one of the core features is not having any sense of self or identity. And my doctors knew this. I told them, even though they didn't ask, that I had been diagnosed with BPD and it was all fine to them.

I wasn't happy as a girl so that meant I was a boy and I was trans. And so I just took the cure that was handed to me. I was told that I was being given a cure and I wouldn't want to kill myself anymore.

And it wasn't true. I didn't want to cry in this video, but this is such a hard thing to talk about. I lost a lot of things to this and I just hope that anyone else who's going through what I went through as a young girl will not be prescribed hormones and surgery because of other things. There are so many mental health disorders that make you hit your body and the solution isn't to change your body, it's to fix your brain.

And the solution isn't to change your body, it's to fix your brain. I just don't want anyone else to ever feel this way. I lost my voice. I lost my chest. I don't know if I'm going to be able to have kids.

I feel like no one wants to date me or love me because I'm ruined. So this is what we're talking about, friends. This is the agony we're trying to stop. This is the medical child abuse we're trying to stop. This is why we stand. This is why we speak up because so many lives are being destroyed. So again, as the subject of transgender individuals is back in the headlines, we do not generalize and blame transgender-identified individuals as you're the source of violence, you're the killer. No, we don't do that.

No, no, no. But we do call for others to be responsible with the rhetoric. And we do say we will stand against the transitioning of children in particular.

It is abusive and wrong and destructive. May God have mercy in the store. May this young woman find absolute wholeness and blessing and a right partner for life.

Hey friends, Michael Brown here. It seems the whole country now is talking about revival. Could it be that a fresh wave of revival is here? Friends, I've said for decades, without a fresh wave of revival in the church and awakening in society, it's over for America as we know it. And that's where I wrote the book, Revival or We Die.

A great awakening is our only hope. Friends, when you read this book, it won't just give you a vision of what revival can do in society, in the church, but in your own heart, in your own life. It'll light a fresh fire in you. It'll ignite something in you, a hunger, a desire, a vision of what God can do through a yielded life. Revival or We Die. Even have a whole chapter where I share intimate, open prayers I've prayed to God, even in recent years, to ignite a fresh, a first love in me. I believe as you read it, something will be ignited within you as well. But you know, whenever revival comes, there's controversy. And that's why I wrote the Revival Answer book.

I wrote it in the midst of the Brownsboro revival, answering the many honest questions. Is there too much emotion? What about shaky?

What about falling? What about unusual things that happen in revival? And can we really expect revival in the last days?

Will things only get worse? When you order this hardcover edition of Revival or We Die, I want to give you this book, the Revival Answer book, 300-page book. I want to give it to you absolutely free. So here's the number to call. 1-800-538-5275. That's 1-800-538-5275. Or go to AskDrBrown.org.

Just click on shop. And when you do, you'll see the special offer, the hardcover edition of Revival or We Die. A Great Awakening is our only hope, along with the Revival Answer book as our free gift to you when you order. One more time, the number to call, 1-800-538-5275.

The time for revival is now. 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. We have posted the debate on our YouTube channel with the Hebrew Israelite leader from last week. That's on our YouTube channel. So Ask Dr. Brown. Ask Dr. Brown is just on the app. Ask Dr. Brown Ministries app. You'll find it there.

We are shortly going to post the debate I had with Muslim apologist Shakir Hussain from a week ago Monday in London. We should have that up on our website very, very soon. If you're on our email list, AskDrBrown.org. We'll notify you about things like this.

But again, if you have the app, just look at latest videos and you will see them. All right, let us go to the phone. So just got some openings now.

Some folks have dropped out. If you want to call in with a question of any kind on any subject as we switch subjects. 866-3-4-TRUTH. Thursday show, God willing, we'll talk about the recent events in Israel, some major shifts, a lot going on in that country, but we'll save that for Thoroughly Jewish Thursday.

Let's go to Alberto in Georgia. Welcome to the line of fire. Yes, good afternoon, Michael Brown. Hey.

Yeah, I got a question. Why is it going to cost so much to speak in tongues and churches and speak about evangelical tongues? And if I would say that Paul speaks, he's speaking hyperbole. And yet we don't need to speak in tongues because there are all these translations in different languages already. And so why is he speaking in tongues in church and we need to speak Latino among ourselves or English among ourselves? What's the purpose of speaking in tongues? And sometimes when people speak in tongues, they have no real spiritual spirit in their life. They're real nasty, that's a gossip. Alberto, let me ask you a question. Do you know people in non-Pentecostal churches who talk about the Bible a lot, but they're really nasty?

Me, the Pentecostal church, I've been a Pentecostal church, a church of black, here in Tennessee for 10 years. Okay, but I'm asking you a question. Yeah, I'm asking you a question.

Hang on. Do you know people that go to churches that are not Pentecostal, they talk about the Bible all the time, they talk about Jesus all the time, and they're nasty also, and they gossip also? Of course, we're all... Okay, so it's everywhere. It's everywhere.

There's hypocrisy everywhere. Right, right. So tongues is a beautiful gift from God. The big debate is not angelic or not, and yeah, Paul could be speaking with hyperbole there, but Paul told the Corinthians, I speak in tongues more than all of you.

And he said that the one who speaks in tongues edifies himself, speaks mysteries in the Spirit to God. So it's a beautiful part of prayer, and it helps me in my own intimate time with God to get closer to Him, to commune with Him better, to hear His voice more clearly, to be more equipped for ministry. So it's something beautiful that enables me, if I'm edified and strengthened, to now come and serve others effectively. So like anything, some churches, you know, almost every church can swing a little bit and overemphasize something. You know, you're really big on this subject or this subject or this subject, but it's a beautiful gift from God. It's part of being filled with the Spirit, as I understand Scripture. So to me, I want to use this to the full, but like anything else, sir, you're absolutely right.

Let's see the difference in your life. And that's why Paul says, I'd speak in tongues, you know, day and night, right? I could prophesy, I could work miracles, but if I don't walk in love, it's all nothing. I could quote the Bible to you by heart, and if I don't walk in love, it's nothing. I can say I led 30 people to Jesus last week, but if I don't walk in love, my accomplishments are nothing. So it's the same with everything, and I think in fairness, Alberto, wherever church we're in for years, we're going to know pretty well. We're going to know the strengths and the weaknesses, but for me, the tongues has been a beautiful gift. It's something that's used for me 99.9% of the time in private, in my private prayer times, and I'm edified by it, I'm strengthened by it, I commune with God through it, and it enables me to better serve you and others, to be a better radio host, to be a better writer, so it's all in service of others for the glory of God.

That's a great question. But how come it's always predominant in most Pentecostal churches, not in other denominations, if the gift is for the whole body of Christ, why it's so predominant in Pentecostal churches? And sometimes the Pentecostal members are basically literally concerned with salvation, but the pastor one time said that God told him that 70% of church members would stay behind because they're not living right.

That's like an extra biblical revelation, the cannons would be closed. Yeah, so Alberto, first thing, it sounds like you may not want to be in that church. If you believe that God doesn't speak anymore today, then why would you be in a Pentecostal church? But Alberto, the reason that you find tongues speaking in Pentecostal charismatic churches and not in others is because the others reject it, the others don't accept it. It's like if I knock on 10 doors and I've got a gift for 10 people, right, I knock on 10 doors, I've got a gift for you, and five of them say, wonderful, thank you for the gift, and the other five either aren't home or they say, nah, we don't believe it's real.

Well, they don't get the gift, so that's common sense there. As for the pastor in the church, he may know the people better, I don't know. He may know that many of the people are really not walking with God, and to his credit, he's giving a challenge. In other words, you can show up in church, you can raise your hands, you can speak in tongues, you can dance and shout, but that doesn't mean you're right with God.

In any case, that may not be the best place for you if you have these differences, but those are my honest answers to you. Hey, I appreciate the call very much. Let's keep our focus on Jesus, and let's grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Amen? All right, let us go over to Daniel in Michigan, where I just was. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Hey, Daniel, you're on the air.

Okay, thank you so much. I was just calling because when I came out of prison, I got saved in there, and I started attending a Pentecostal church, and I still do. I got married to my wife, you know, we've been involved for five years in the church. Her dad's a pastor, so my question is, I basically came to the realization I never really believed in the pre-tribulation rapture, but this church does, and, you know, and they preach it, and I guess my question is, every time they preach it, I just kind of get a little uncomfortable, because what if the rapture doesn't happen for them, and then they begin to question their faith, you know?

I don't know, I guess, like, is it wrong for me to stay there? Because I believe they're genuinely saved, you know? They're good, loving Christians, and, you know, I don't know, what do you think about that?

Yeah, so, Daniel, first, thank God for his mercy in your life, and thrilled to hear that he met you in prison, and ultimately, you know, and ultimately, this is a question you have to answer yourself about staying there or not. You know, at the last caller, when I saw he had what seemed to be some major issues with the church he was in, then that's why I said it may not be the best place. You're already asking that question, so I've worked with Christians who were pre-trib believers around the world for decades, and when God called me to serve in the Brownsboro Revival in 96, I knew that Pastor John Kilpatrick held strongly to a pre-trib rapture, I knew that evangelist Steve Hill held strongly to a pre-trib rapture, and I didn't. So I asked the Lord, was that going to be an issue, and I felt, no, this is something I just put aside in terms of these differences in order to serve in something so special and sacred, and then I told them what I believed but made clear I don't divide over it, and because that's what the senior pastor taught, and the revival was ultimately under his leadership, if students asked us the question at our school of ministry, we would simply say, here are their different views. The church holds this, here are the different views.

When they'd say, Dr. Brown, what are your views? I would say, here are the different views that are taught, and this is what the church believes, because I was not going to be a source of division or disruption in the midst of it. Now, I've since written a book with Craig Keaner, Not Afraid of the Antichrist, Why We Don't Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, because we were asked to do it and thought, okay, it is an important issue, and yes, if people have a wrong mentality, they're expecting to be rescued out and it's not going to happen, or they're even just thinking in general we're supposed to be rescued out before things get really bad, you know, those are things that could be dangerous mentalities, but if you love the church otherwise, have good friends there, believe in the doctrine overall, can serve there, and you don't feel hindered, and this is not like a constant, constant, constant, constant theme, and it's not something that is hurting the church in a regular way, then it might be great to stay there, and you just do your best not to be a source of division, you know, if the pastor raises something you don't want to be posting on social media that afternoon, man, he's wrong about this. On the other hand, if it's something that's emphasized a lot and that ties in with a deeper mentality, you know, of like an escapism, are we going to get out of here before real trouble comes, that could be a little difficult, and what I might do, how big a congregation is it, Daniel? Oh, well, the church that we're a part of, it was in McAllen, they're about over 300, close to four, but my father-in-law got sent out to Michigan, and we came with him to help him, basically, build a church, and, you know, he doesn't preach it all the time, you know, and I know where I stand. Yeah, well, that's a key thing.

I was going to ask you that. They know where you stand, and because you've got a deeper investment there, you know, I would hate for this to be the dividing point, because in so many ways, you know, we live our lives the same, you know what I'm saying? We live our lives to please the Lord day by day, and so on, but you might ask him, just if he would check out the book that we wrote, Not Afraid of the Antichrist, so it's myself and Craig Keener, K-E-E-N-E-R, just say, hey, you know where I stand, I'm not trying to argue a point, but I'd love for you to take a look at this and give me your thoughts, and maybe it'll influence him, maybe he'll get more entrenched in what he believes, but again, because you've made an investment there, because it's family, etc., and he knows where you stand, unless it's really, really disturbing and frequent, it wouldn't be an issue to divide over or to leave over, again, the Lord will have to give you clarity and wisdom specifically, but let me say this last thing, bear in mind that if he knows how you feel, and he's preaching about it, he's got that in mind too, in other words, he's thinking about it, it's not that easy for him, right? He's like, okay, Daniel doesn't agree with this, you know, so he could be a little uncomfortable, but if you're working together for the Lord and lives are being touched, I would try to preserve that as much as I can, and unless you're... Yeah, and I was gonna, I am gonna get the book, not was I, I am gonna get the book... Well, I'll tell you what, stay right there, stay right there, I want our call screen to get your number, I want to send you a free copy of the book, you can take a look at it and give it to your father-in-law to take a look at, all right? So, Truth, if you could get Daniel's info, we'll send him the book as a gift, all right?

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Our Jewish outreach websites, it's all there, and it's all free, so by all means take advantage of it and tell your friends about it. All right, we go back to the phones with Trista in Idaho. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Hi Dr. Brown, thanks for taking my call. So my question is, I recently went to a church with a sister and she's at the Catholic Pentecostal, and I would just love to hear your take on what Scripture says about the dress code and modest dressing and all of that. I was wondering what your take is on that. Right, well for sure we are called to modesty rather than sensuality, right? That the Bible warns against trying to be seductive or look seductive or the dangers of that, and if we are seeking to draw attention to ourselves in a sexual way, I'm not talking about a husband and wife in a private relationship, but if someone is dressing publicly so as to draw sexual attention to themselves, then they're becoming a stumbling block and Scripture is strongly against that as well, and we know that God clothed Adam and Eve after the fall, that nakedness was shameful, but beyond that you cannot legislate from the Bible a something more specific, meaning you can't say for example that if a woman wears a skirt that it has to be past the knee or to the ankle. Now you may have a private Christian school and say that girls wearing skirts it has to touch the knee, that's fine, you can set up a dress code, you just can't say that's what the Bible says, you can just say that's our standard, right? But the idea that you can't wear short sleeve shirt or sleeveless shirt, it has to be this or that, or that a man can't wear a wedding ring because that's wearing jewelry, those are things that go above and beyond Scripture.

So Scripture gives us principles and again in every society it's going to be different, you know what I'm saying? That you may grow up one way and think wow I'm being really modest and someone else looks at that, you know you may grow up one way and say hey the way we grew up, ladies would only go to the beach wearing a modest one-piece bathing suit in some other culture, it's like what? You wear a bathing suit in public?

How could you do that? And to some others it's a modest bikini, you know? So obviously I think things have gone way out of control and Christians have really lost a sense of modesty, but if a church has a particular culture, right, and this is how they do things and this is what they encourage in their congregation based on their understanding of modesty, they're free to do that, they just can't say if you don't do this you're sinning against God, if you don't do this you're in rebellion. That's where it gets dicey and that's where legalism often sets in.

Now was there something specific you ran into that that caused you to to call and say okay what about this, what about that? No, well when I went to her church she said that, you know, everybody has their own, everybody gets convicted at their own time but everybody does wear, you know, long skirts, body rolls, like you have to wear, I mean obviously like, you know, not just revealing and showing your body, I get that that's modesty, but for them like what I've learned in my studies is, and I was just wondering on your tape because I respect your opinion and I believe that it's of God, but I think that they say you have to wear long skirts, you can't go, your shirt can't go, you know, below your collar, your sleeves have to go, you know, below your elbows and they feel like when they go to her church or if I'm around her and I'm not dressed like that it makes me feel like I'm sinning, but I know in my heart, you know, that I'm, you know, my heart is for God, but just being around them it makes me feel like I'm doing wrong, if that makes sense, I don't know. Yeah, oh of course, of course, that happens to any of us when I'm in a traditional Jewish community and I'm not dressed like a traditional Jew, even though I reject many of the traditions, I feel like, oh, I'm not being Jewish enough, so yeah, that's, that just happens, so if I was in their midst, if I were you, right, if I was visiting a service and you dress according to their dress code, fine, you know, because you don't want to stand out or draw attention to yourself, etc, but you should also know that many kids who grow up in that will end up leaving the church because of legalism, because of rules, because of man-made things that are being put on them, so it's one thing to say, I was in this church and the gal leading worship had this, you know, tight shirt and, you know, showing off her, you know, physical form and all of this in these skin-tight pants and it was a distraction, okay, that's wrong, that's immodest, that's not being considerate of others, right, then you go to the other extreme and you legislate what it has to be, so the good thing is for leaders to model things, to show, you know, women can have a beauty that's modest and men can look dignified without being sensual, you know, you can do all that and there's absolutely zero in scripture that says that to be godly, your woman's shirt must be up to the collar or sleeves must be down to the wrist, that's just a human tradition, that's all there is, you cannot prove that, make that explicit case from scripture, so don't let it bother you, don't let it weigh on you, and I can say that based on scripture, you're just walking away that honors the Lord and seeks to be modest, when you're in that culture, hey, dress in such a way that fits in, you know, but, you know, let's say someone's coming over from that church to visit you, you don't have to put on a show, you be you, they're in your territory now, you know, so I would just do it to whatever can best preserve relationships and remove tension, but by no means allow it to make you feel like you're not being spiritual or holy enough, all right? Okay, thank you, yeah, that definitely helps because I did not find that in scripture, like modesty equals, you know, long skirt, long shirt, high shirt, whatever, I was like, I just, modesty, you know, it has its own definition and it's not, you know, written out as long skirts and all that, or not shaved face for men, but thank you so much, I really appreciate you answering my question, that helps me a lot. Great, you are very, very welcome, thanks for the call.

All right, let us go to Rob in Texas, welcome to the line of fire. Yeah, Dr. Brown, I've, you know, my prayer, I've had an active prayer a lot, including in tongues, and I've heard testimonies of people, you know, they said they prayed through the salvation of a family member for 30 years or so forth, and there's a guy, one of the guys had an affliction for 38 years, and I had Romans 8, 26, deep groanings of intercession, the whole verse, you know, I've got some prayers that I thought I had the deep groaning, you know, I was a spiritual whatever place that I had deep groanings of intercession, but you know, I've got some where I've got, you know, here we are 30 years later, and 35 years later, and they haven't been answered. Is there something that I'm not getting there, that the deep groanings of intercessions that I had were not sufficient, or am I just misunderstanding? Could you enlighten me?

Yes, thank you so much for asking the question, sir. So Romans 8, 26 says that we don't even know what we should pray as we walk, but the Spirit helps us, he makes intercession for us with groanings that human words can't express. There's nothing mystical about the word itself, you've expressed it rightly, it's just one that the prayer is so deep that it just comes out with, oh, this groan, it can lead to tears, it can lead to articulate prayer in English, but it's sometimes when that happens, it's not just our own pain, burden, emotion, but the Holy Spirit expressing the depth of that pain, of that prayer to God. So number one, when we're praying for other people, especially for their salvation and transformation, there's no guarantee that they will respond rightly. Many times the prayers that take the longest to be answered are the ones that you're praying for someone else because their own will is involved. And, Rob, this may be discouraging, but I hope it's encouraging. My closest friend, before I was saved, then once I was saved, I was best man in his wedding, he was best man in my wedding, I often refer to him, Jonathan, we played in a band together, then a third friend, we're very close with Kerry, who's with the Lord now, and Jonathan, after a few years in the Lord, Nancy knew him, the early years of the Lord after she was saved, and then he fell away and was very, very, very much away from God for over 40 years. And, Rob, sometimes I would be moved to pray for him with real pain and with tears, and a few years ago, God started working in his life, we started getting back in touch, we're talking almost 45 years, and he was saying, hey, Mike, I'm starting to doubt my doubts, starting to read the Bible again, this man is on fire, he is absolutely on fire, I hardly know anyone whose faith is stronger than his, just got diagnosed with liver cancer, and he's completely undaunted, trusting God for healing, if he's not healed, he'll go be with Jesus, it's an amazing transformation, and we were texting the other day, I said, it feels like God's multiplying the faith in you to make up for all these lost years, so there are things that can take decades to pray for and other things that in this world we don't get an answer to and we don't know why, but this much I know, Rob, when I feel deeply moved on to pray, and it gets to that point of groaning, of travailing, of feeling that pain from the Spirit and my heart being expressed in a sigh, a groan, a weeping that is beyond what I can even express with articulate words, I know that something is happening, I know that I'm in deep harmony with the Spirit, and I know that something good will come out of it, so all I can encourage you to do is continue to honor the Lord, thank God for his faithfulness, and be encouraged that God hears every prayer, and that prayers that are prayed with agony of heart are prayers in particular that are heard by this moment.