Answers to Your Questions

Are you ready? Phone lines are open. I'm ready. Let's do it. You've got questions.

We've got answers. It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 Truth.

That's 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. All right, our phone lines are wide open right now. My heart and mind are wide open as we dive into the show together.

Michael Brown, delighted to be with you on this Friday. You've got questions, we've got answers. 866-8666 34 Truth, the number to call. That's 866-348-7884. As always, a reminder: the earlier you're able to call on the program, the better chance we have of getting to your calls during the program.

We try to get to as many as possible. Any question you have in any area of expertise I have, anything you want to challenge me on or differ with me on, anything that we've talked about on the line of fire, a guest has talked about, it's fair game. And all questions, if they're appropriate for Christian Radio, they're appropriate here. No holds barred in that respect. Interestingly, a couple of weeks ago, On a Saturday, I did A webinar for Jonathan McClatchy, Dr.

Jonathan McClatchy, an apologist and scholar in Britain. We had him on as a guest on Line of Fire some months back and plan to have him on again. And I was asked to do a teaching on messianic prophecy. I spoke for, I don't know, 45 minutes or something, and then we had a good two hours of questions. And After that, well, during that two-hour question time, Yusuf Ismail, who's a Muslim debater, whom James White has debated, my friend Dr.

White. And he was trying to demonstrate that Muhammad was prophesied in the Hebrew scriptures. And I have to say, Having debated some top rabbis and counter-missionaries over the years, I was surprised with the arguments he was trying to put forward, with the weakness of the arguments he was trying to put forward, no insult intended. But he since challenged me. You know, I said I'd gladly have a formal debate.

He was just raising questions and issues there during our interaction. And then Zakir Hussein, who is perhaps, I don't know which was a better known Muslim debater among them. He's also challenged me to debate as Muhammad prophesied in the Bible.

So I told him, of course, with great joy, told them both. Looking forward to it. Dr. White has debated them, and it would be my joy to debate them on this subject.

So it may be months and months off because we have to coordinate being in the same country at the same time so it could be a face-to-face debate. But God willing, it'll happen. And it will be my absolute joy to engage in that subject. A couple days ago, I did a national interview with Janet Parshall on her great radio show in the market. And we were talking about my book, The Grace Controversy, and we got a lot of excellent calls.

Of course, only so much time we had to answer the calls.

So there were many questions and callers I'm sure I didn't get to. But I posted on Facebook a video. Facebook now you can go live and instantly you're talking to all of your people that are that are available and that want to listen to what you have to say.

So I had people post questions as I was talking. You glance down, see the questions, and I answered a bunch of questions about Grace during that as well.

So if you go to my Facebook page, ask Dr. Brown, A-S-K-D-R-Brown, it was Wednesday night I did it. I believe it was Wednesday night. Anyway, take a look for it. You'll scroll down and see it.

And I think you'll be blessed by the content and helped by it as well. And we've got so many resources online waiting for you. My latest article: When the NBA Went All Out Gay, yeah, the NBA is now working with a radical church. Children's education, gay activist children's education organization called the Gay, Lisbon, and Straight Education Network. And they are now partnering together so that you can get jerseys of your favorite NBA team in rainbow colors for Gay Pride Month.

So someone suggested to me with the NBA being so aggressively all-out gay that perhaps Perhaps they should now welcome, say, a transgender player. If a man, male athlete, came out as female, she'd play with the WNBA. I mean think if Shaquille O'Neal and his prime came out as Shaquita O'Neil instead. He would have torn things up. He would have been the greatest women's basketball player in history.

Yeah, creates some problems, doesn't it? Your calls, we come back. Join Dr. Michael Brown along with Messianic Jewish pastor Scott Volk for a unique behind-the-scenes tour of Israel February 25th through March 6th, 2017. Space is limited, so we are accepting applications on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information on the trip and to secure your spot, please visit our website at askdrbrown.org and click on the Israel Tour banner or call our office at 704-782-3760. It's fire we want, oh fire we need. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. I do hope you can join me in Israel. Go to askdrbrown.org, A-Sk-D-R-Brown.org, right on the homepage. Click on the banner there to find out more.

I assure you, it will be a trip of a lifetime. 866-348-7884. You've got questions. We've got answers to the phone starting in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ben, welcome to the line of fire.

Hello, Dr. Brown. How are you doing, sir? Doing well, thank you. First, I just want to say thank you for everything that you do.

I listen to a lot of your videos. I'm getting one of your books. I'm just trying to. Get my read on. I'm not very good at reading.

I I like to listen to my Bible rather than Um, just read it so, um, but that's beside the point.

Sorry, I'm babbling. Um, I have a question about the tongues. I uh, I am uh in a Pentecostal church. Um love my church. I love everybody there.

Um but I feel as I I had a conversation as I I was with a group of men and um I was talking about how we need to go out and evangelize and and you know and and spread the gospel and and to people and Somebody asked me about tongues, and I told them that I did not speak the tongues when I got saved. Um I told him that I was in church before and I I'm not going to lie, doctor Brown, I did fake it. I was like fourteen and I did I don't know if I was pressured or what, but I did not really have the gift of the Holy Spirit and I didn't get it until about um a year and a half ago. Actually it's it'll be two years in November. And somebody was like, Well, I don't think that you're saved.

because you never have spoken tongues. And I wanted to get your input on it because I definitely like I love your teachings. It seems like you're not very biased on either, but you. you take the the authority of the word and I and I really, really do value that.

So I wanted to get your opinion on that. Yes, sir, Ben. And of course, I do my best to let the word dictate what I believe and humble myself before God and keep learning. We all have to do that. It is very, very, very wrong to.

Tell someone if they don't speak in tongues, they're not saved. It's completely unscriptural, and it puts all types of pressure on people, which is inexcusable. Number one, there's nowhere in scripture where this is used as a test for salvation. It's seen as a proof that the Holy Spirit was given to Gentiles when everyone was thinking, what, Gentiles? And that was how it was seen.

The Holy Spirit came on them in Acts 10, and they spoke with tongues. But for example, in Acts the 8th chapter, the people have come to faith. The Samaritans, through the preaching of Philip, they've come to faith, but the Holy Spirit has not come upon them yet. And that's when the apostles come and lay hands on them. There is no evidence of others in scripture where they believed and then they were baptized, say the jailer and his household in Acts 16, that it says that they spoke in tongues.

Tongues is a gift that's given, it's a sign of spiritual empowerment. But even there, Paul says, don't forbid speaking in tongues at the end of 1 Corinthians 14, but he doesn't command it as a sign of salvation.

Some would say, yeah, but Romans 8, it says, if you don't have the Spirit, you don't belong to him. Yeah, the moment you're born again, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within us, and we have the witness of the Spirit, the assurance of the Spirit, that we are children of God. That's the moment we're born again. But the endument of power... or the manifestation of tongues, that's something a separate.

It can happen at the moment of salvation. It happened for me weeks after I was born again. For some, they never speak in tongues their entire lives, and they love the Lord dearly.

Some of the godliest people who've ever lived have never spoken in tongues.

So there's no scripture saying that you must or you need to. It's a blessing and gift to do so, but it's absolutely not a sign of salvation. Never in Scripture is that the case, and it does put people under all types of wrong pressure. Yes, sir. And that was my concern.

And that was what I was telling them. I was telling them, I had a false sense of the Holy Spirit. I didn't even understand the gospel at the time. I didn't understand why exactly I knew I needed to be saved. I just knew if I didn't have Jesus, I was going to hell.

And if I kept living a life, and when I actually did get saved, now I actually have. a thirst for God that is is wonderful now. Right, and that's the great That's the great sign of salvation. You've been born again. You're a different person.

You knew you were lost. God saved you. That's the proof. And it'd be great if you're baptized in the Spirit and speak in tongues. And if you never do, you're going to enjoy Jesus and have a wonderful, blessed life as a child of God, saved and set apart.

And that's what matters most.

So don't let anybody put you under any pressure. You're thirsty for the Lord and love Him, and that's the greatest sign of the new birth. Thank you, sir, for the call. Uh hold on, Dr. Brown.

I'm sorry. Can I ask you one more question? Go ahead.

Okay, I'm sorry. But my um cousin, she's also um a homosexual. And I I I want I I love her so much. I do love her dearly and I and I never come at her like, you know, and tell her that she's the worst person. I never do that What?

I I do also I don't want to get to where I am Compromising and affirming of her actions, either. And I I'm just trying to see where I can come at her where I'm not pushing her away. Yeah. But I'm not sure what I'm saying. Does she claim to be a follower of Jesus?

And that's the thing. I haven't asked her. I've always brought it up like well as if just assuming that she's not saved. But then she'll say things like about her girlfriend or ass, like, should we be doing this? And she'll say things like, Well, you need to figure that out by yourself, or you need to pray about it or something.

And I've never actually asked her, like, well, do you think you're saved? Because she's never said that she was saved, but. Right.

So if she doesn't profess to know the Lord at all. Then that's the big issue. You share the gospel with her like anybody else who's lost, and you don't have to tell them what you think about their lifestyle or behavior or actions. You preach the gospel to them and ask the Holy Spirit to convict them. And if an issue comes up, you tell them the truth about what Scripture says.

If she claims to be a follower of Jesus, then say, Hey, would you ever watch a video, you know, non-condemning video, or read a non-condemning book? That will, you know, that talks about can you be gay and Christian. See if she's open. I've got a book by that title, Can You Be Gay and Christian? Or on my YouTube channel, I've got a message by that title, Can You Be Gay and Christian?

That I speak it to the church. But yeah, so you can just, if she claims to be a follower of Jesus, say, Now, how do you feel? What do you think God feels about your relationship with your girlfriend and all this? And she says, Well, you know, I know it's wrong.

Okay, that's that's a step in the right direction. Then you can help her there. She says, Oh, it's fine. God blesses us. And, you know, we're the church is just misinterpreting the Bible.

Then say, Hey, I. I don't, you know, it depends on the closeness of your relationship, how far you can go, but say, hey, would you watch something and give me your opinion, give me your impressions on it? You know, it's someone talking about these issues. And then you pray. The biggest thing is you pray in secret that the Holy Spirit will convict her of sin and make her deeply uncomfortable, bringing her to repentance.

And may the Lord touch her and use you, Ben. Thank you for the call. 866-348-787. 884. We go to Brooklyn.

Jeremiah, welcome to the line of fire. Hello, good afternoon. How are you doing? Thank you for your call. Yeah.

Doctor Mike, I have a question about Isaiah nine six and Galatians one, one. My question is what's the difference between God the Father and everlasting Father? Yeah, throughout the New Testament God is is referred to as the Father. And Jesus even prays to him as the Father and calls him Abba. And that is the primary way that he is revealing himself to us in the New Testament as the Father.

So the question is: Isaiah 9:6, which is a messianic prophecy. It calls the Son to be born, or the Son who's just been born, El Gibor, which is mighty God. It also calls him Aviad, which is normally translated Everlasting Father. Those who are called Jesus-only believers, they say that Jesus is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and this is a proof of it. But it's really a misunderstanding of Isaiah 9:6.

Aviyad can either mean Father forever. Or It can mean in a Hebrew idiom the father of eternity, meaning possessor of eternity. And as possessor of eternity, that could rightly speak of Jesus the Son of God, or as the king of the people. He is the father of the nation in that respect.

So. In short, there's no contradiction. Jesus is the Son. God is the Father. This is how they're revealed through Scripture.

1 Corinthians 15 even says that the Son, at the end, when everything has been put under his feet, will submit himself to the Father, that God may be all in all.

So one God, Father, Son, and Spirit. But when the Son is referred to there as Father forever or Father of eternity, it's either speaking of him in terms of his eternal existence, he is the possessor of eternity, or it is speaking of him as the king of the nation and therefore father forever because the king would be the father of the nation. I hope that helps you, sir. God bless you. We'll be right back with more of your calls.

It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Hey, this is the last day to call in.

Your gift of any size would go a long way in helping us with our radio obligations. We so appreciate those who've shared with us and helped us in the last two weeks. I hope you were blessed by the special programming that we prepared for you while I was in Italy, along with my updates live from Italy. But thank you.

So many have given, so many have responded. It's a great blessing to us and really helps us in so many ways. We have some major needs still before us. We pray for them to be met, and perhaps they'll be met through your generosity.

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Go to ask Dr. Brown, ASKDRBrown.org, and just click on donate. All right, back to the phones. Let's go to Charlotte, North Carolina. Norman, welcome to the line of fire.

I like what you're doing. I just wanna know, if you have any idea whatever happened, to the Ark of the Covenant. No, sir. I have read theories that it is housed in Ethiopia under guard by the Christians there, by the traditional Ethiopic church. I have zero confirmation of that whatsoever.

We do know that in the book of Jeremiah, it's prophesied that in the future, no one would even talk about it anymore. But we do know that after the Babylonian exile, so that's over 2,500 years ago now, it was lost. It was not brought back when the temple was rebuilt in the days of Haggai and Zechariah. It was not. part of the second temple.

So it was not in the second temple when Jesus ministered there. And there's been no trace of it.

So there are different traditions. But if my life depended on it, my answer is I have no clue whatsoever. Do do you think it will ever come uh come back when gauges will come back? Yeah, you know, that's I I would think That if it was anywhere to be found and restored, that it would be restored, you know, as part of the ancient heritage. But because of the scripture that says it won't even be remembered or thought about It it's a good chance that'll never happen again.

That was something that had to do with the The first covenant, the Sinai covenant, and the Sinai covenant was broken. God established a new and better covenant, and that's the end of it.

So it could be Norman. It would be kind of amazing. And you've got, you know, the whole Raiders of the Lost Ark and all the movies with the mystique of it and making it into this magical thing. But honestly, sir. I really, I really don't know.

What I read about it being in Ethiopia, and you know, the watchmen that guard it, you know, sweat profusely standing there with the intensity of their job. I mean, it's interesting, but I don't have any proof whatsoever of its validity. Maybe somebody listening is friends with someone who claims to have found the Ark or something like that. They can come on the air with us one day. But beyond that, sir.

Uh I don't have a clue and will it be found could be But the jury's out on that one. And uh That's where I just have to leave it. All right. Thank you, though. I do appreciate the questions very much.

866-34Truth. We'll stay in Charlotte for a moment and go to Carson. Welcome to the line of fire. Dr. Brown.

Hey. My my name is Carson and I'm having a real problem with Revelations 2:9 and Revelations 3:9. Just by listening to you, I realized that I have to read the Old Testament. In Hebrew, a little bit.

So, I've been trying to just use my phone to get a Hebrew dictionary.

So, I'm trying to explain. what does what does Jesus mean when he prophesies the people that say that they are Jews are not Jews and they re represent the synagogue of Satan? Has that prophecy come out yet? Or was it come eventually in time? Because it's really confusing to me.

Yes, sir. And thank you for taking the words so seriously, Carson. Number one, Jesus was speaking to real churches in his day. It wasn't a prophecy of the future. He was speaking to two different congregations that were under attack and persecution.

So one of them, the congregation in Smyrna, the church in the city of Smyrna in Asia Minor, and the other one, the church in Philadelphia. Also in Asia Minor. Both of them were suffering opposition. From people who claim to be Jews, and Jesus said they're not, but they're of the synagogue of Satan.

So there are two possible ways to read that. One way is. That they weren't Jews at all. In other words, that they were some false religion cult, just like you have black Hebrews today or black Hebrew Israelites who are not Jews at all, but they claim to be. And they have a very angry message that's often completely heretical.

So it could have been people like that. I know them. Yeah, yeah.

So it could have been people like that, Carson. They claimed to be Jews, but they were not. Instead, they were synagogue of Satan. Or it could have been People who were Jews They were genuinely Jews, but they were not acting as Jews because they were persecuting the church. It's just like when God would rebuke Israel and say, you're not my children.

Even though they were his children, those you're not acting like my children now. Or when he would say, okay, you're called by the name of Israel, but it's just a name because you're not living it out. It would be like you telling maybe your brother or brother-in-law, let's say he was mistreating your sister and he wasn't bringing home the money, and you tell him, You're not a man. You're not a man. You're not a husband.

You're not a father.

So, how you're taking it is that they're basically saying that they're degrading people. When they say they're fake Jews. When you say you're not a man, you're not a father. Yeah, in other words, if Jesus is saying to them, they say they're Jews, but they're really not. No, they're claiming to be Jews, and they are truly descendants of the Jewish people, but the way they're acting.

Is not acting the way a Jew should act. Rather than fearing God and honoring God and praising God, they're persecuting the people of God, they're persecuting the Christians.

So it's like my question is though. When I was watching this PBS documentary. Where professors from Duke went to the Igmo tribe. Have you ever heard of the Igmo tribe? Yes.

Yes, and they did DNA research that proved that they have the wide chromosomes. The Y chromosomes come from Moses' brother, which is Aryan, right? There are definitely, yeah, there are tribes, sir, there are tribes in Africa, maybe even in India. that can be traced back to ancient Israel. And then but my whole thing with the the PBS passage is Yeah.

If you have Israel descent, you have the right of passage, correct? The right of return, you mean? The right of return is right. The right of return, right? Yes, yes.

And many of these folks. Yeah. Once they found out that they had the wide chromosome, they didn't want those people basically to come to Israel. Because then if more people will start claiming that they have the blood, Yeah, there are, here's what's happened. The Israeli government has gone out of its way to, and sometimes in very daring ways, to bring back, say, Ethiopian Jews.

They've done that. Operation Moses was one of the famous ones, and they've had others since then. They've brought many, many back to the land, and they continue to work to do so. But many other African refugees have just tried to take refuge in Israel, finding it to be a better country to go to than the surrounding Muslim countries. And Israel is a small nation.

It's unable to take in all these refugees.

So that's part of the problem that arises. But it seems the Lemba tribes in, I think, Zimbabwe, it seems that some of these, they do actually have ancient Israelite roots, and they've kept, they've practiced Sabbath through the centuries, which is very, very interesting. Hey, got a break, but I really appreciate the questions and the interest. It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian Dr. Michael Brown.

Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to the line of fire.

It's Friday, which means you've got questions, we've got answers. 866-348-7884. Again, anything that's appropriate for Christian radio, we'll take on the air here. Anything that we've talked about on the air, anything I've written about, anything that a guest has discussed, those are open topics on Friday on the line of fire. 866-34TRUTH.

We go to Puerto Rico. And Michael, welcome to the line of fire. Doctor Brown, how are you doing today? Very well. Thank you, sir.

Yes, sir. According to First Thessalonians five twenty three, Paul says that we're body, soul and spirit, that man is body, soul and spirit. If we're created in the image of God, And God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Knowing that Yeshua is the body of God and and the fullness of God is in Christ according to Colossians two nine. What's the theological issues with saying that the Father and the Holy Spirit are the soul and spirit of Yeshua?

Are there any theological issues with that? Totally. Yeah. Endless theological issues with it, certainly. First, there are different ways we're described.

The New Testament sometimes describes the inner man and the outer man, so presents us as bipartite. Jesus refers to loving God with heart, soul, mind, strength. Those are four different aspects there. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, as you mentioned, says spirit, soul, body.

So a tripartite distinction. Hebrews 4:12 speaks of separating between joints and marrow and soul and spirit. There are different ways that we are described, but the fact that we're in the image of God does not does If it meant in a literal physical way, then is God male or female or both? Or is that how we're to look at him? Does he have fingernails that grow?

I mean, is that what it means that we're in the image of God, or does it mean that we share his moral likeness and his spiritual likeness? But. Jesus comes forth from the Father. The Son comes forth from the Father. And God has eternally existed as Father, Son, and Spirit.

But to say that the Father and the Spirit are of the soul. The spirit of Yeshua is absolutely wrong. Jesus prays to his heavenly Father while he's on the earth. He speaks of the glory they enjoyed before the foundation of the world. God speaks to and about his Son.

So in no way is is that a valid comparison. Yeah, so what do you base the scripture that the Father, Son, and Spirit were eternal? Like the Trinity was eternal. What are you basing that on? What verse are you basing that on?

Well, I base it on several verses. I base it on the fact that God doesn't change. Malachi the third chapter. I based it on Hebrews nine that speaks of the eternal spirit. I base it on Jesus in John 17 speaking of the glory that He and the Father enjoyed before the foundation of the world.

Um I base it on the fact that in creation that the Father creates all things through the Son, the Son himself is uncreated.

So I would base it on those verses. Uh among others. But that's what I would base things on. Yeah. All right, well, thank you.

I just think it makes logical sense to me that we're body, soul and spirit and Yeshua is and God is known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the fullness of God is in Yeshua.

Now I haven't entered into the Hebrew mindset of Nefesh and And and Ruach and stuff like that. But I don't know uh is there a resource that you could point me to that that deals with the the Nefesh and the Ruach as far as uh There's an older book by a German scholar, Hans Walter Wolff, so it's Wolff, you'd say in English, W-O-L-F-F, you could probably get it online called Anthropology of the Old Testament. Anthropology of the Old Testament. And remember, Jesus is not a body. The Word was made flesh, but the Word is not flesh.

So again, your analogy does break down in many ways. Thank you, sir. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us on the line of fire. You've got questions. We've got answers.

866-34TRUT is the number to call. And I'm going to go straight back to the phones. My friend Eliana in Clinton, Maryland. Just got back from Italy earlier. Good, good.

Got back from Italy Tuesday night with my granddaughter Eliana and her cousin. I know, I know she must. That must have been an incredible experience. Oh, it was. It was an amazing trip.

Amazing trip. In fact, in fact, today is her older sister's birthday.

So, just on the slight chance that, Jen, you're listening, we've already communicated happy birthday by email and other means. But happy birthday, Jen, our firstborn, born in 1977. Yes. Happy birthday, Jan. Wonderful.

Listen. I um Y you're you're you're getting hit w a lot with this, uh with this uh Question today, but you were speaking with a gentleman and you were sharing with him. He was actually asking about the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues, I believe it was that particular call. But he was you were telling him about how Um the people who believe that Jesus is is all It you know, it's everything, I think is how you put it. And you were basically making a contrast.

You were saying how some people believe that. I was curious to know what is your belief regarding the Trinity in comparison to those people that believe that Yeshua is you know, is everything. Yes, uh, modalists, as they would be called, or Jesus-only people, they would often go by the name apostolic. Say that Jesus is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Now, to their credit, they exalt Jesus. to their credit They emphasize that there's one God and one God only. That's very good. That's very positive. But their error is to deny God's triunity.

And for example, they say Matthew 28: baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. What's the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit? Jesus is the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. That's how they would interpret that. And that.

They would also teach if some of them would teach if you're not baptized specifically with the formula in Jesus' name that you're not saved. Others would say if you don't speak in tongues, you're not saved. But the bottom line is that they say That that Jesus, when he prayed to his father, In a sense, he was praying to himself that they would say, Okay, I am a father. of my children. I am a husband to my wife.

I am the son of my parents. I'm a radio host. In other words, I have all of these different identifications, but I'm just one person.

So that Jesus when he's Jesus is in heaven and on earth at the same time then. And when Jesus returns and sends the Spirit, that it's all just different manifestations of himself, different modalities of himself. Whereas I say that God has eternally existed as one God, but is complex in his unity. And the Son comes forth from the Father and is distinct from the Father. And the Son sends the Spirit, and the Spirit is distinct from the Son.

So, one indivisible God, and yet Father, Son, and Spirit, so that Jesus can actually have communion with the Father in that respect. And it's not just like me thinking to myself, okay, Mike, let's think this through, get it together. Come on. No, it's genuine communion like you would have with another person.

So, Jesus in John 17 speaks of the Of the glory that he and his Father enjoyed before the foundation of the world. When Jesus is baptized, the Father speaks from heaven and the Holy Spirit manifests. That's actually speaking of Father and Son and Spirit as three entities, whereas the Jesus-only people would say it's three manifestations of Jesus. You know, I I've been so confused on this subject for so long because generally the people that I hear when they're teaching about the Trinity is the one you were talking about before, the Jesus-only. And that's just totally confused me.

But yet, both doctrines are called, you know, are called Trinities, I mean, or doctrines of the Trinity. I mean, I've never heard anybody refer to it as Jesus-only. But when yeah, let me just say this: the Jesus-only folks are apostolic or whatever name they would go by, deny the Trinity. They deny it very, very strongly. In fact, they'll openly attack beliefs on the Trinity.

Really? Because most of the people that have taught me regarding the Trinity are basically from black churches, and generally it's Baptist. And what they've taught me is what you were just sharing with the Jesus-only people thought. And that's when we usually get into a debate. Because I tell them, I says, no, he prays to his father.

It even says at the end that he's going to turn everything over to his father. He can't be everything. He can't be. He can't be his father if he turns everything over to his father. Exactly.

Exactly. So, but they're calling it the Trinity. And that's why it's you know, it's just been so confusing. But real real quick, that um when Yeshua says, when he talks about how at the end time, you know, that there's gonna be persecution like never before. I mean, no, he says there's gonna be persecution like never um since There has not been since since God.

Created the world.

Okay, and I know that, you know, that generally, you know, it's taught that. you know that that you should work created the world.

So why is he saying when he says that, that God created the world.

Well, first, Yeshua is God. That's the first thing. Right.

Father, Son, and Spirit, all God. That's number one. Right, right. He came from the father.

So the father is the source of all things.

Okay. And the son is the one through whom things come. It's a mystery in terms of how that actually works. You know, Jesus is begotten of the Father. What does that actually mean?

But for example, John 1, it says that all things were made through Him or by Him. Without him nothing was made that was made. Look at the language of 1 Corinthians 8, which really lays things out in a very beautiful way as Paul is addressing these issues. He says, Yet for us there is one God, the Father. from whom are all things, and for whom we live.

and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

So the Father creates all things through the Son. That's the mechanism. And we go to the Father in prayer because God wants us to look to Him as the source of everything and to look to Him as our Father. Right.

Right.

Thank you so much, Dr. Brown. You are welcome. I'm about to turn 60, and I mean, this particular issue, you know, I mean, I know I have a relationship with the Almighty, you know, with the Father, and I have a relationship with the Son. And I hear people, you know, there's a lot of people confused on this issue.

And I understand that his son came from him. You know, I mean. There's two reasons for confusion. One is sometimes people don't stand clearly and teach clearly. We're not that theological in this generation.

The other is that God still is mysterious and transcendent. And this is not just mathematics. But here's how Paul closes 2 Corinthians 13: the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Be with you all. And there we see an expression of the Trinity, not mentioning the Father, just mentioning God.

So, grace that comes to us through Jesus, the love that God has for us, and the communion, the fellowship that we enjoy with the Holy Spirit. Hey, um, I'm glad you're getting things around 60. A lot of people never do. But thank you for the call. Always great to hear from you as my granddaughter's namesake.

866-348-7884. Let's see. Let's go to Bronx, the Bronx. Trevor, welcome to the line of fire. Yes, good afternoon, doctor Brown.

Good afternoon. Thank you. Great job. You do your enlighten us, make things simple for us. Thank you.

You have spoken already about the great revival that is coming. And I heard a statement by Sid Roth, and it's so good. He says, we are on the cusp of a great revival. And I would my question is in light of In write us this, what should we be doing as born-again Christians? Just waiting for it or what?

Oh, yeah, thank you for the question. Yeah, number one, God is moving. Powerfully in many parts of the world, great outpouring, many people coming to faith, great moves of the Spirit.

So, even though we see so much backsliding and compromise in America and in Europe, God is moving.

So, we take heart in that. But, first thing, we seek God earnestly in our own lives. We cry out because we're in a desperate time. And if God doesn't come and shake our nation, we're really in for some difficult, ugly times.

So, we passionately cry out to God for revival, for outpouring. Nothing is written in stone in that regard. God will respond to the cries of his people. That's number one. Number two, we search our own lives and ask God to light a fresh fire in our own hearts.

Maybe I've become compromised. Maybe I'm backslidden in a certain area. Maybe I'm out of fellowship with God.

So we ask God to light a fire in us, and then we do what disciples do. Every day we live for God. Every day we seek to be a witness. Every day we seek to minister grace to someone in need. Every day we seek to lift up Jesus and spend quality time with the Lord.

And whether we see great revival immediately or not, If we do that, we will experience revival in our own hearts and lives, and we will bear much fruit, much lasting fruit. I have great hope that great revival is coming, but I don't believe it will come, sir, without real upheaval and shaking, beginning in the church. Church of God, people of God, prepare to be shaken. Angel World. Give us strict to always do what's right.

It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Hey, check this out.

I did a Twitter poll. It has six hours left to go. 531 votes so far.

So It just is reflecting that many people that voted out of my 21.3 thousand Twitter followers.

So we're much stronger in terms of our Facebook presence than Twitter. But Twitter allows you to do these easy polls.

So I asked if the elections were today, who would you vote for?

Now, here's what's interesting. Three person I gave him four choices, Trump, Clinton, other candidate, not vote. All right. 3% said they'd vote for Hillary Clinton. This is not a national poll, it's just a poll of people following me on Twitter.

So obviously, they're going to be very. a very few, a very small percentage that would vote for Hillary Clinton. 37% said they vote for Donald Trump.

So that accounts for 40 percent. The other 60 percent, so the majority. The clear majority. Said they would either vote for another candidate that was 36% or not vote at all. 24%.

So sixty percent Would either sit out the election in terms of the presidential vote or vote for a candidate other than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Fascinating, isn't it?

So if if you had an attractive Third option for them. I believe that that could well be the other candidate, and those who said they wouldn't vote would vote. Which would mean that they would from just my the sampling of my own followers, which is Primarily conservative believers like me, presumably, that they would. They would vote for a candidate more than Donald Trump. It was fascinating.

May the will of God be done in the elections 866366. 348-7884. We go to Kingston, Massachusetts. Dawn, welcome to the line of fire. Hey, doctor Brown.

Thank you for taking my call. And I also just want to thank you, too, for just being the person who always takes the higher moral ground. It's the An influence in my life. And my question to you, I've heard a lot of people talk about. Your position of the Antichrist or the market of the beast.

I just kind of want to get your opinion. It seems like that you think there could be. in Antichrist in the last times where there could be A um A mark that's supposed to come, at least if you read Revelation in a literal sense.

So I guess I want to get your opinion while you may not think it may be literal, there may not be a mark or Antichrist. Sure, well I am assuming that there will be a literal end time satanic world ruler. that Second Thessalonians two speaks of it as while the man of sin That he must be revealed before Jesus returns.

So I am expecting that. Whether that person will be a Muslim or a European or a Jew. I've been completely agnostic on it. There are good arguments that are made for different positions. I just haven't focused on it.

And I know that it's highly debatable. And I don't believe God ever calls us to focus on trying to figure out the identity of the Antichrist. When people say, I think Barack Obama is the Antichrist, now it's Donald Trump who's the Antichrist. No, listen. We're talking about a world ruler who is going to have supernatural satanic powers.

And who is apparently going to rally the whole world behind him? We haven't seen anybody approach anything like that.

So I do expect there to be a literal. Jesus denying Uh end time evil ruler Armed with all types of deceptive power, the likes of which we've not seen yet. We have seen individuals rise up and lead countries in murderous ways, like Adolf Hitler, so we know it can happen, even in a highly educated culture and society, backed with all types of supernatural signs and wonders of a counterfeit nature. And during a time of perhaps extreme economic crisis or military crisis, it's easy to see how a ruler could rise up and get a world following. Human beings can be easily duped.

And 1 John 2 says, as you've heard, the Antichrist is coming, even now there are many.

So there are constantly those that function in an Antichrist position, but there will be a final one. As to whether there will be a literal mark. You know, like if you go, say, to an amusement park and they stamp your hand, and when you come back that same day, you can get back in because your hand is stamped. Whether it's something clear like that. Whether it's some type of a chip.

That's insert it. And without that chip, you can't function in normal society, whether it's a spiritual sign. That submission to Satan and to this world system marks you in a spiritual way. God knows the reason I'm not. dogmatic that it's literal is because the whole book of Revelation is filled with symbolism.

And it tells us right there in the first chapter it's filled with symbolism, and almost everything in the book is communicated with symbolism.

So why would this particular thing be literal? whereas everything else is filled with symbolism. Uh the key thing is that as believers And this is the spiritual lesson. We don't bow down to the spirit of the age and the system of the world. And in order i if if it the only way we can get jobs The only way we can provide for our families is by bowing down to a satanic world system and declaring Caesar as Lord, then we don't do it, and we trust God.

And that's the challenge in every generation. I see it in smaller battles, in cultural battles. Will we stand up and do what's right, or will we bow down to political correctness to keep our reputation, to keep our job, etc.? Uh and W we try to save our income. Or will we try to glorify the Lord?

Will we try to save our reputation? Or will we glorify the Lord? Those are the great challenges. And that'll just, in my view, play up in an intense way at the end of the age. Gotcha.

Really helps.

Okay. Thank you, Dr. Brown. You are very welcome, and thanks also for the kind words. All right, friends, we are out of time for this hour.

However, however. If you've been wanting to get through and talk to me with your question, if you call now. And hold on into the next hour, so just the break at the end of this hour. I will joyfully take your calls at the beginning of the next hour.

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So if you've missed some of my latest articles or latest videos, you just visit there. Go to askdrbrown.org and you will see. Latest articles, latest videos there for you. Our whole digital library, and that's all free. That's all posted there for you free so that we can minister to you.

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Let's do it. You've got questions. We've got answers. It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution.

Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 Truth. That's 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Well, let's do this. This is Michael Brown. I am delighted to be with you. We had a great first hour with lots of interesting calls and interaction. And our phone lines are open with any question of any kind you want to ask me in any area of expertise that I have.

Maybe it's something we've talked about under the line of fire. Maybe it's something a guest brought up. Maybe it's an area where you differ with something that I wrote or put out in a video. This is your opportunity for us to talk as close to face-to-face as we can get when we're scattered. Scattered all around the country and around the world.

Remember to call to get in on the program 866-348-7884 or 866-34TRUTH. If it's appropriate to talk about on Christian radio, then it is appropriate for us to talk about here. Let me answer some email questions. And then we'll get to your calls. Michael asks, Are you a proponent of the NAR movement, the new apostolic reformation?

I read on a website you are friends with the leader of IHOP and others, as well as a supporter of Beanie Hinn, typo for Benny. I am no reporter. I'm just a regular guy who respects Dr. Brown. Hey, Michael, we're all regular guys, but thank you for the respect.

I'm not a supporter of Benny Hinn. I appeared on his TV broadcast. And I was glad to be his guest and appreciated the generosity of his time to have, what, four days of broadcasts? And I believe the broadcasts themselves have excellent content. But there are many things that Benny Himmler would engage in, fundraising things, guests he'd have on a show that I would differ with.

So, no, I'm not a supporter of Benny Him, but I was on his TV show. Yes, I'm good friends with Mike Bickel. I'm definitely a supporter of Mike Bickel, who leads International House of Prayer. Listen to what he actually has to say. Mike has a lot of critics.

But you'd be hard pressed to find a guy who's more Jesus centered. a guy who's more in love with the Word, a guy who's more given to prayer, A guy who majors on the majors than Mike.

So his critics will pull quotes out and things like that. Listen to some of his teaching series on books of the Bible. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and challenged. Or Read some of his books. Read his books on prayer or loving Jesus or things like that.

As far as the new apostolic reformation, I have friends who are part of what would be called the new apostolic reformation, which is saying that the church has operated in a wrong way in just saying we have pastors and evangelists without recognizing that there are apostles and prophets today, just as there were in the early church, not like the 12 apostles, but others like Barnabas in the New Testament who are called apostles. And that if we recognize this better, we can see how people are called, what they're called to do. For example, my friend Yesu Padam in India, he doesn't call himself an apostle, but he's clearly an apostolic man. He's planted more than 8,000 churches. He's established works in different nations.

The Spirit of God is upon his life. Jesus appeared to him when he got saved. He's a genuinely apostolic man. When you recognize a calling, it helps you to live out that calling. But I differ with some of the new apostolic.

Reformation movement, and that everybody gets called an apostle, and it's now something on your business card. I'm apostle this, or I'm apostle that.

Somebody attacked me the other day, calling myself an apostle, which is bogus, completely bogus. But anyway, you get it. Most of the stuff I get attacked for has nothing to do with reality.

So there are things I agree with in terms of what they teach. I have friends who are involved in that, and there are other things they teach I don't agree with. Uh uh but I'm not an official part of of it. For the record, if that matters. I participate in a group in America called Apostolic Leaders in America, but it has a broad meaning.

It's a broad meaning and broad application. And some of the top pastors and leaders in the nation are part of that. I hope that helps. But do you identify me with the NAR? I wouldn't be a primary player in that regard.

It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back friends to the line of fire 866.

Refor truth number to call. You've got questions. We've got answers. Anything you want to raise to me, any question you want to raise, any discussion you want to have in an area of difference, by all means, give me a call. We'll start in Eilitt, Virginia.

Uh, how is it pronounced? Sharon, is it Ailt or Eilitt? Aylt. Aylit. All right, Eilitt, Virginia.

Sharon, welcome to the line of fire. Thank you so much for taking my call. I've called earlier, and I have two questions, so I don't know if I can ask both, but I'll start with the first one. Um we're attending we've started attending a church. Um And they were recently preaching on Romans 8, 26, and 27.

Um Uh I understand just from this particular sermon that they're not spirit filled, but I've always Thought that this scripture, which says the Spirit helps our weaknesses, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes with us with groanings too deep for words. I always thought that to mean that, you know, when we pray in the spirit, That's what's happening. This particular pastor said it is not an unintelligible prayer language. And I I don't know freaks. And I was just wondering if you could give me some insight on that, because that's what I'd always Thought it was blood.

Well it was certainly Whether it's speaking about tongues or not, it's 100% unintelligible. In other words, the Greek just speaks about groans. It's the same word that Stephen uses in Acts 7, quoting from Exodus 2, that the children of Israel groaned and their groans were heard.

So there have been times when I pray. In fact, for me, and this may seem foreign to some that don't speak in tongues or believe in this, but I'll just speak as clearly as I can. Many times when I'm praying in tongues and the burden becomes greater. whatever I'm praying for, the person I'm praying for, the life and death situation, revival in the church, that I actually begin to groan. That the pain and the burden is so great.

And many have experienced that that don't believe in tongues or never spoke in tongues that it's just, oh, and that's actually a prayer. And sometimes, I don't just mean when you're worried and like, oh, oh, what's gonna happen? But when the Holy Spirit moves on us sometimes, that he prays through us. And that it comes out sometimes as these groans that can't be articulated in human speech.

So it is certainly. Speaking of that, now can tongues be included in that? I think so, and that it's the same principle. That we don't understand with our minds, but the Spirit is praying through us. And Paul says that the Spirit is giving thanks.

Or in this case, Romans 8, making intercession.

So I think, as I understand it, it's the same principle. That when I'm praying in tongues, there's a deep communion with God in my spirit, even if my mind doesn't understand. And I can honestly say, Sharon, that some of the most major things that have happened in my life-new direction in ministry, writing a new book. taking on a major issue. Ministering to someone that was in serious bondage.

The great breakthroughs have come. out of this type of very intense prayer. Where you feel like you're going to explode on the inside. The burden is so great, and there are no articulate words that you can say. It's not like you can say, Oh, Father, help in this situation.

It's beyond that. It's deeper. It's that crying and sighing and groaning that comes with great pain and great travail. And it is a form of tremendously powerful intercession. And would to God that everyone would experience that burden and experience the Spirit praying through us.

So, it's not talking about intelligible words. Whether it's talking about tongues or not can be debated, but certainly it's. pretty straightforward in the Greek.

Okay. Um which If if I have time for another question. Yeah, go ahead. Sure.

Okay. Which leads to this, because this has caused me great travail. Um, I guess about a month ago I called and explained about my Christian son interested in a Mormon young lady.

Okay. And you had advised us to invite her over and to talk to her. I remember. I remember. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So we did that and it didn't go so well. Um, we invite, you know, we talked with her and tell her how we've rejected the Mormon faith and uh you know, that they have the same language, but it means very different things. And we you know, invited her to watch a deba debate that you mentioned.

Well, she Her family is very involved in the Mormon religion, and she considers herself a Christian, and she was very put off by the discussion.

So I don't know how to proceed at this point. My son is still interested in her. But I just certainly have I don't know what to do as a believer. Yeah. Her up to my home, even though I don't approve of their relationship, I just need some really good counsel.

Yeah, and how seriously committed is your son to the Lord? I mean, I I thought he was very committed, but I think this has totally flown him. Or a loop. you know, the love for the flesh and As far as I know, he's still a very moral young man. He has lived a devoted life to Christ.

I mean, we've been told him Alice is uh academic years, I don't know what to do with this. We've talked to him about the seriousness of this relationship and how we disapprove, and we don't want to keep nagging, but I don't know what else to do. I want to pray and prevail. Um what What about His uh the young lady. which she's put off by.

Does she deny certain Mormon doctrine? Does she... Um Well, yeah, I mean, they would all say they are. I know. But they're two different forms of Christian.

I mean, what they call Christian is not what we call Christian. Um It's like I can't get any further with her because she's not open and now she's hurt and here's what I suggest then. Let's let's bump this up, all right, and make it a little more theological. Uh get the book by my friend Dr. James White.

Is the Mormon my brother? All right. And Ask your son to read it. And then at that point, if he's willing to say, look, this is a serious thing. This is very serious.

And you could have tremendous conflicts. If you end up getting married, you're going to go one way or the other. And it's going to be a big conflict between families. And uh and and Both of you individually. And then how do you raise your kids?

So this is very big and very serious and can't be glossed over.

So so ask him To take the time, it's not a heavy, big read. Ask him to take the time to read Is The Mormon, My Brother? by James White. All right. And or you know, get read it yourself, ask him to read it.

And then say, okay, these are conversations he needs to have with her. Either she's going to truly be born again and leave the Mormon church, or. They're going to break up or he's going to become a Mormon. You know, the only real choices. You know, you you're not going to be able to move forward together on this, you know, without one going one way or the other, without it without him losing her his faith or her losing her wrong faith.

So Get the book, Is The Mormon, My Brother. There are also debates. If you go on YouTube, just type in Dr. James White, Mormon, and you'll see debates where they can actually watch them. But let's push it to the doctrinal issue and put the things on the table.

All right?

Okay. Okay. God bless you. Thank you so much. Sure thing.

God bless. All right, 866-34TRUTH. Let's go to Ames, Iowa. Rick, welcome to the line of fire. Larique.

We lost Rick. Let us go to Wilmington, Delaware. John, welcome to the line of fire. How are you doing, Dr. Brown?

Doing great, thanks. Um so uh when the Sinai covenant took place. That I had a friend who's a rabbi said that's what defines him being Jewish, is the Sinai covenant. When did The new covenant transition over from the Sinai covenant to the new covenant? Was it at the cross, at the resurrection?

When was that transition? When did that I guess switch, you would say Jesus inaugurates it in his earthly ministry. He comes preaching the good news of the kingdom. The law was given by Moses, grace and truth come by Jesus. John 1, Luke 16, the law and the prophets were until John.

Since then, the kingdom of God is preached.

So Jesus then seals it, officially institutes it with his blood, but he's inaugurating it with his preaching, with his teaching, and with his ministry. He's proclaiming the gospel. He now officially seals it with his blood, and it is still in its. beginning stage. And it's in its beginning stage in that it has not spread through all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah.

And we have not yet come perfectly into 100% total obedience. From a Jewish perspective, that will happen when the Messiah comes, and all of Israel will live in complete obedience to the Torah, and there will be a supernatural change of heart to do so. And in the Jewish mind, it will not be Different than the contents of the Sinai Covenant, but rather that Jews will now supernaturally be able to live perfectly by the Sinai Covenant.

So the laws will be written in their hearts so that they keep it automatically.

Okay, thank you very much. You are very welcome. Friends, we'll be right back with more of your calls. Stay right here. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.

Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUT. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Here we are.

You've got questions. We've got answers. 866-348-7-884. Let's go to Seagrove, North Carolina. Todd, welcome to the line of fire.

Thank you, Dr. Brown. I've got a question about Moses that's been on my mind for a while. In Exodus, it talks about his early life in Egypt, he was mighty in words and in deeds. But later on, whenever the Lord calls him to return to Egypt to the lever of Israelites, it speaks about him being slow of speech.

And I was I wonder if you could reconcile those two passages. Uh yeah, well Let's take a look in Exodus the excuse me in Acts the seventh chapter. And Uh it doesn't say he was eloquent though.

Okay. It doesn't say that he was eloquent in speech, but mighty in words indeed.

So what he spoke came to pass powerfully, right? What he spoke, I mean, you would think of him as mighty in word indeed because he spoke and And um God's word came to pass.

So in in Acts the seventh chapter The 20th verse, at that time, Moses was born. He was beautiful to God. For three months, he was brought up in his father's house. We had been abandoned. Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own.

So Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.

So speaking there of obviously his time in Egypt before he was raised up by God as a deliverer, that is a fair question because then it says, but when he was about 40 years old, it entered his mind to visit his fellow countrymen to the Israelites.

So it could be that he was powerful. But not eloquent, that he was powerful and he had great authority, even though he either had a speech impediment. or was slow of speech. There's debate as to exactly what the Hebrew means in Exodus, the fourth chapter. The other possibility is that he developed that in his 40 years, that maybe he became shy, or maybe he became fearful, or maybe he used to have a certain confidence he didn't have.

Um But either is possible. Either he was powerful in words, even though he wasn't eloquent. or uh the problems that he had with speech uh came later on. Hard to say which it is.

Well I wonder about that 'cause I knew with the you know, being in the the desert for forty years, you know, pretty much in isolation, you sort of wonder if your uh speaking skills might not, you know, deteriorate a little bit. Yeah, I mean he makes it like he has a legitimate problem. uh that he's he's slow in speech, you know, he's he's heavy in in speech. Was he a stammerer? Maybe under pressure.

You know, we really don't know. Maybe it was a weakness he was aware of that he overcame in normal life, but now that he's put under pressure, he's looking for an excuse. You know, there are all types of possibilities. It's a fascinating question, though, Todd, for sure, and others have asked it.

So, to the degree to which Moses is just trying to cop out, or the degree to which he has a genuine problem, God responds as if he has a genuine problem by saying, Who makes man's mouth? Because if I made you, I can heal you. But beyond that, we don't know. But I do appreciate the question. It is an interesting one for sure.

And thank you for the call. 3487884. We go over to Winston-Salem. Kim, welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr.

Brown. Uh my question is uh In Timothy and in Titus, it gives us the qualifications for. An elder and and a past. and these are offices of authority. And the Bible speaks that a woman should have authority over a man.

So if you see a woman that's a past Or an elder. She be in that office. Mm-hmm. What we see in the New Testament is that the twelve apostles that were chosen were male. We know that senior leadership say in the synagogue would have been male.

and we see that the ones that are appointed are presumably male, because it speaks about an elder having one wife. as opposed to just uh an elder having one wife or if it's a woman having one husband. No, it just says one wife.

So the presupposition is that they are male. We know that there were women that were used by God in prominent ways that Paul refers to. When the Bible talks about Priscilla and Aquila, in most cases, it puts her name first, which is interesting. And the two of them, Priscilla and Aquila, teach Apollos. And women are allowed to prophesy under the right setting, which would mean that they're speaking the word to men.

That's in 1 Corinthians the 11th chapter. And we have women like Deborah raised up, who are the exception to the rule in the Old Testament. I see women pastors or elders as the exception to the rule. I'm all for couples.

So if you have an elder, that the elder and his wife minister together. And that they serve in that leadership role. I'm all for that. I'm all for the wife of a pastor being actively involved in ministry. But governmental authority I see as being entrusted to men, not exclusively, but primarily.

And that that's why the vast majority of churches are led by men. That's just the way it works out, and I do believe that's God's economy. I've preached in churches where there were women pastors and they were powerful leaders, and they shared their testimony of God sending them somewhere to minister, and they didn't want to. They said, I'm a woman, I can't. And he sent them, and they've been used by the Lord, and there's been great fruit.

But I don't see that as the primary or normal pattern. In 1 Timothy 2, it seems that he's dealing with a problem with false teaching because of which he is all the more cautious about women who have been led astray. I don't see that as universal in every case. That warning is given as strongly. But I do see the general pattern throughout the New Testament.

Uh of Of senior authority being male and headship being male, but with women having tremendous outlets for ministry, for preaching, for teaching, for leading and sharing, and for leadership roles in particular with other women, for serving along with their husbands in ministry. And often their influence is more important than the male influence, but not as I see it in a senior governmental way. Thank you, Dr. Brown. You are very welcome, sir.

I know there's tremendous debate about this. You might say, how can there be debate? The passages are so clear. I just got a book. I was reading and let's just see, what's the name of it?

I grabbed it and I started reading it. And uh you know what, hang on, hang on, let's see if I can find it here. Is it Philip Payne, man and woman, one in Christ? an exegetical and theological study of Paul's letters. It came out in 2009, Philip Barton Payne.

And he would come to very different conclusions than I did. He would much more see women able to have these senior roles. And he's a Greek scholar, and he really gets into the text in great depth.

So, those who differ with me, that book will give you good ammunition. Then you can read books by men like Wayne Grudem or Oh, uh Let me just think of some. Yeah, well, just Wayne Gruden's books on these issues are terrific dealing with these. Kustenberger has some excellent studies as well that would be more in harmony with what I just said. But let's continue to discuss it scripturally.

We'll be right back with more of your calls. God changed the world. It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRU. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Well, here we are. It is Friday on the line of fire.

That means you've got questions. We've got answers. The phone lines are open. Any question in any area of expertise I have, by all means give me a call. Will you take issue with something that I've said, or want clarification, give me a call.

If a guest said something that you want to probe more or challenge me on, Give me a call. And Anything you're struggling with, wondering about, if it's appropriate for Christian Radio, we're glad to talk about it here on the line of fire. The number to call 866-348-7884. 866-34TRUTH. And we will go right to the phone starting in Charlotte, North Carolina.

David, welcome to the line of fire. Thank you very much for having me, doctor Brown. I'm actually hoping if you could just recapitulate, in fact, something you said the other day to in response to one of your guests, because frankly, I had to leave the radio and I couldn't hear it, and I'm interested in hearing what your response was. It was regarding a fellow who was defending the gay values in the Bible. And the crux of his argument was That Paul, the apostle Paul, didn't know Jesus personally.

And essentially, he was, so far as I could gather, was dismissing. um the writings of Paul, especially as regards sexual immorality. And as you're just beginning to respond to him, I had to get off the air. I'm turned the radio off. Do you recall the uh that exchange by chance?

I'm trying to recall it, but I I'm quite familiar with the the arguments that have been raised. They're raised by many people. They're raised, say, by rabbis and counter missionaries who will say that Uh they will Try to argue that Paul started Christianity, that Jesus was just a good Jewish rabbi, and Paul started Christianity as a new religion. There are others who will say, well, Jesus doesn't address homosexuality, the fact that Paul does, what does that prove? He's not Jesus.

So, the way that we respond to that is there are quite a few aspects to it. Number one, we recognize that the writings of Paul were included along with the writings of the other apostles and widely received and recognized by the first believers.

So, that could not happen unless Paul was preaching the same message. For example, if I'm preaching that the NFL is the best sport in America and all true Americans participate in the NFL and you come along and saying the NFL stinks, it's Major League Baseball, and now we're presenting the identical message.

Well, it's not going to happen. We're presenting two different messages and we're going to have divisions among our followers.

So Paul's writings universally received by the disciples of the apostles and things like that. That next generation embraced his writings.

So that's telling you they're preaching the same message. That's one thing. The second thing is that we find essential harmony between their teachings. And that when you go point for point, as I do in volume four of Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, I take that up and I go point for point and demonstrate how, on the key points, what Paul taught is what Jesus also taught.

So. We demonstrate it in that way, and then we show when it comes to sexual immorality that Paul's teaching is exactly what's found in the rest of the Bible. And reinforced by Jesus. And that marriage is the union of a man and woman for life. And that all sexual acts outside of that are forbidden and wrong.

And that homosexual acts are strictly forbidden by God and under his judgment. And the only difference with Paul is in one place he specifically mentions female-female behavior as well.

So that would be the only difference, which is just building on everything else that's there.

So we show how Paul's writings were accepted by the first believers, meaning that he was part of that same fundamental crowd, who was not introducing a new message about a new Jesus. We show how his writings are in harmony with Jesus on all the essential points. And then, when it comes to sexual immorality, we show that Paul absolutely reinforces what is written in Moses and Jesus. Hey, thank you for the question. It's fire we want, for fire we It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.

Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. And I'm going to answer some email questions.

If you'd like to get in on the program, give me a call right now. 866-348-7884. As many years as I've been doing radio, we always have this funny phenomenon. That we'll be answering calls and trying to get everybody in and looking to see how many callers we have on hold at a given moment. And then, when we get, oh, like five minutes left in the show, we'll get a flurry of calls that take about an hour to answer.

Think if you can call earlier, that's always when it's best to call. 866-348-7884. You've got questions, we've got. Answers.

Okay. Uh Daniel asks, Dear Dr. Brown, thank you very much for all your insight and the sharing of that insight with others so they can learn. I do have a question for you that I don't know if you have time to address. I'm engaged with a small group on Facebook about Judaism and Christianity.

The question came up about the arm of God references in the Old Testament and how those point to Jesus Christ. A question came up from a rabbi as to how those references could possibly point to Jesus. He did ask for authority as to how the Old Testament references to the arm of God mean Jesus. Can you point me to any materials or a mode of analysis as to how to address this type of question? Or to address this question specifically?

Thank you again, Dan. Dan, there's no way that we can dogmatically say. that the arm of God references to Uh to Jesus Or uh That the army of God references in the Hebrew Bible, you know, where God will reveal his arm or something like that, that that is an explicit reference to Jesus, and that the prophet would know it, or the people would know it. Rather, God is saying this is his means of saving and delivering his people. His arm is his means of revealing and saving his people.

And so we simply understand that God's means of delivering and saving his people is through Jesus the Messiah. That's all. It's not a major argument that we make. or an interpretive grid that we have that we can be dogmatic about. And the rabbis right to ask on what basis we say it, but our answer is very simple.

That If we ask him, what does the arm of God mean to you? Does that mean God's stretching out his hand in help? Does that mean God's method of helping, God's method of saving, God's method of delivering? And he would answer yes on some level to some of that and say, well, we just see that God does that through the Messiah. That's all, and that's how we understand it in that particular way.

All right, let's um. Let's go down to That's an interesting one. I'm going to pass on that one right now. Yeah, I've got to figure out what that abbreviation stands for. All right, how about this one from Admon?

Hi, Dr. Brown. Just wanted to start by saying, God bless you for all you've done, doing, and will do. There's a cloud in my mind, and listening to you is clearing it up slowly. Oh, I am glad to hear that.

May it clear up totally and completely. I wanted to ask you for one thing. Could you please tell me how you quit your addiction to heroin exactly? I'm not addicted to heroin.

However, I have severe Crohn's disease and I take medication for it which is too strong and would love to quit and be drug-free. I believe in God. I believe He's walked with me at some point in my life. He's helped me with so many things by shaping my life by what it is today. Thank you so much, and I would love to hear it from you about how exactly it worked for you.

Thanks again, and may God forgive us for all our sins in the name of Jesus. First, I'm sorry to hear about the condition that you battle, and may God's grace Prove absolutely sufficient to you in the midst of it. May his healing power touch your body. For me, I was more addicted to the needle than to any one drug. but the idea of saying I will never put a needle in my arm again was a massive stronghold.

It seemed absolutely impossible to contemplate that. And I had to get some drugs in my system. I was addicted to drugs and to the needle in particular, but not to heroin specifically, although heroin had become my drug of choice. There's a misnomer, I don't know about the potency of heroin today. I know there are drugs you can do now one time and get addicted, or it's close to that.

With heroin, it would take shooting heroin daily for weeks before it was a complete physical addiction. And in my case, although I did drugs daily, I would sometimes switch from drug to drug.

So maybe after five days of heroin, each day I had to buy more in order to satisfy the craving and to get high.

So after five days, it was costing me so much, I would just switch to another drug.

So, but I couldn't live without drugs. I was addicted to the needle. And what happened was the Holy Spirit convicted me deeply of my sin. That was part one. I didn't understand it was the conviction of the Spirit, but it was.

I just had no notion of that at that time.

So I felt uncomfortable. I began to realize what I was doing was wrong. That was one thing. The other thing was, I encountered the Lord so deeply and supernaturally. His love became so real to me.

His joy so overwhelming that I realized, and here's the mental picture he gave me, December 17th, 71, as a 16-year-old kid. The mental picture I had. was I I was filthy from head to toe. And Jesus washed me with his blood. I just saw myself completely cleansed, wearing this beautiful white robe.

This is the mental picture I had, and I was going back and playing in the mud. And that's when I said God I'll never put a needle in my arm again. Yeah. What happened after that?

Well, I acted on it. I I threw the the drugs out. Threw the heroin out, threw the needles out, and God set me free. I simply never touched it again. And I didn't go through withdrawal.

I didn't go through a hellish day and night battle. I was supernaturally delivered.

Now that doesn't happen for others. And many have to go through an extensive program, and many have to go through detox. But that's what happened in my own life. He was so real to me? Then he took it away, when I completely surrender to him by his grace.

Uh almost two years ago. beginning in August of 2014. God really helped me change my lifestyle, my eating lifestyle. And I quit eating foods I'd eaten my entire life. I was addicted to chocolate.

I was addicted to sweets. I had to get them in my body a couple of times a day. If I was traveling, I made sure I had certain things with me. I was going a long flight. You know, I wouldn't be wanting to be on a long flight and have a chocolate craving and not have it.

So I was really addicted. I mean, I loved eating it, but I was addicted. And then the other foods, the Pizzas and the pastas and the burgers and the other things that I'd eaten so much or for so many years. When I quit, when I went cold turkey and changed my diet and quit, that was much harder than giving up drugs. You say you're serious?

Yeah, I'm serious. And I talk about it in my new book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food, that is due out in early December. By the way, some readers are reading early chapters of that book and are really excited about it and really feel it's going to be life-changing for many, many people. May it be so. But what happened was I I went cold turkey.

And it was miserable. I mean, I felt miserable. For for three days. I had a cold too, and I was doing radio. I was like, this is rough.

But I knew there were toxins leaving my body. I knew in my case there were toxins leaving my body. And that This was bad stuff leaving, so I had to get it out sooner or later. One way or another, I had to get it out, and now I'm a day into it, two days into it. I might as well finish, right?

Uh, and The third night, I had a real serious time in prayer and just said, Lord, you delivered me from drugs. Jesus was so real to me, was more than enough for me to get set free from drugs. Surely he's more than enough for me to get set free from Oreos and MMs and all this other stuff. And the next day, I was good. The addiction was broken.

And then it was just a matter of renewing my mind to have a different attitude towards food and all the stuff that I talk about in breaking the stronghold of food.

So in your case, I would encourage you to really Fellowship with the Lord. To do your best to get your mind on other things that can occupy you, and to little by little cut back. Until God heals you of this, if the medicine is needed, that to cut back to the minimum of what's necessary.

so that it doesn't have a negative drug effect on you. And if there's a way to cut back little by little, Uh do that. Do not risk your health. But I think I'm just going to stop taking medication if the medication is needed. but also look into a holistic way of eating.

that may have an effect. I am not a doctor, a medical doctor, or a nutritionist, so I don't know how this interfaces with Crohn's disease. But read a book like The End of Dieting by Dr. Joel Furman. That's what we've relied on in terms of changing our lifestyle, Nancy and I.

F-U-H-R-M-A-N, Joel Fuhrman, the end of dieting. And perhaps that may interface with some larger health issues as you get healthier in your overall body. And you are eating more nutritiously, that should help you get free in other areas as well. Perhaps the Lord will deliver you just the way he delivered me. But that would be my counsel to you as well.

And we pray for complete healing in your life. We'll be right back. Shake the nation, change the world. Change the world. Hey, this is Michael Brown.

I want to invite you to join me for our second ever trip to Israel, February 25th through March 6th, 2017. This is a great opportunity I get to interact with you, our radio listening audience, and our ministry partners as we experience the land of Israel together and it will be a life changer. We've got a great price on the trip and if you're one of our monthly supporters or a torch bearer, you're eligible to receive a special discount for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Space is limited, and we're accepting applications on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information on the trip to secure your spot, go to askdrbrown.org, click on the Israel banner, or call our office at 704-782-3760.

Yeah. Oh God of burning, cleansing flame, send the fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr.

Michael Brown. Welcome back to the line of fire 8663 For truth. Here's an interesting question. I don't think I've ever been asked this before. from Peter.

Hi, Michael. I have a brother who was, like me, raised a Catholic. Whilst I still am and a believer in Jesus as the Messiah, he is one step away from becoming a Muslim. He doesn't really put up a good argument for his decision, instead uses arguments against Christianity to make his decision seem okay. For example, you'd say to me, How old was Joseph and Mary?

not because he's interested, but purely to counter the argument about Bahamed, who married a young girl. I personally see no comparison between Jesus and Muhammad. In fact, I firmly believe Muhammad was the false prophet Jesus talked about. Question is, does he have a point about marrying Joseph? Was Joseph really 90?

I can't see any indications that he was, but it is widely assumed, especially in Muslim circles. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the apocryphal date for Joseph's birth is 90 BC in Bethlehem, and the apocryphal date of his death is July 20th, AD 18, in Nazareth.

Well, that would make him 110 years of age at a time when the average age was very much less. Plus, the fact these are apocryphal texts mean they aren't reliable anyway.

However, I can think of no one better to ask about this than a Hebrew scholar and follower of Jesus.

So, what indications do you have about the age of Joseph? Mary, what advice would you give me to try to persuade my brother he's going down the wrong path? Because I genuinely believe he is. Keep up the good work on Twitter, YouTube, and elsewhere. Peace.

Peter. First, very sorry to hear about your brother and the steps that he's taking. Always praying for him is the first and foremost thing to do. Pray that God will bring him under conviction. Pray that God will bring them into a real relationship with Jesus, which is the greatest antidote for deception.

And say, well, let's sit down and watch some debates together. And my friend Dr. James White has many debates with Muslims.

So let's watch them together. Let's see what they both have to say. Let's see the best that they can both do on either side of the table. and watched him together with him, And then See if he's really open or not. Have discussions.

As for the age of Joseph, of course, these are apocryphal texts. I've never studied them, to be frank, in terms of his age. But the nature of apocryphal texts is often that it has all types of bizarre, exaggerated figures. And you have Jewish traditions where Shem. Lives generation after generation after generation after generation, and then appears later as Melchizedek, Melchizedek.

So you have these wild kinds of things, and that's just part of tradition as it develops, and apocryphal texts as they develop.

So all that we know of Joseph, there's no indication that he was married before. And we know in the Jewish world that it would be common for a man to marry fairly young. I don't mean 10 years old, but I mean not 40. All right. And Mary would have married at a young age.

So it's possible, we don't know. It's possible Joseph could have been 18 or 20, and Miriam could have been 15 or 16. this would have been very much in keeping with with the tradition of the day. Could well, well be the case. Uh so beyond that, we don't we don't have any specifics, we don't have any uh any evidence, anything that's hardcore, but it does appear that uh After fathering a number of children, because Jesus does have brothers and sisters, uh that uh that Joseph dies, the reason we say it.

is because he's not there. He's not there. There's no record of him, but Jesus is known as the son of Joseph and Miriam.

So. Yeah, these, look, if you want to start going by external texts, there are all kinds of external texts that teach all kinds of utterly bizarre things. The question is, what does Scripture say? And if Scripture is silent on something, then you can't make a doctrine out of it. Just because some tradition mentions it.

If Scripture is silent, that's where you have to leave things. And that again would be my take on the age of Joseph. We don't know, but presumably a young man and Miriam a young woman. And even being called a Parthenos, which is translated virgin, going back to Hebrew alma, alma does not primarily emphasize virginity, but youthfulness. usefulness.

So, for the prophet Isaiah to speak of her being an Alma in Isaiah 7:14 would point to her youthfulness, and therefore, in Jewish customs of the day, if she had been a middle or older teenager, that certainly would have been appropriate and possible. And then Joseph, a fairly young man as well. As far as Muhammad, You could also ask your brother, well, why not read what Robert Spencer has written about the life of Muhammad? I mean, that's going to bring up every scandalous accusation and charge against him. Uh and he'll he'll give all of his Islamic sources for it.

And Uh see if we'll read it. See if I'll read it. Just look up Robert Spencer and Muhammad. and you'll you'll have more than enough information. And If he wants to raise these kinds of challenges, well, then come back with your own.

It's not the normal way to attack Muhammad, but maybe if he's still questioning these things, you can shake him on this. All right. Do I have time to get in one more call? I'm going to try. All right.

BJ, you're just getting in the last minute here. Round Rock, Texas. What's on your mind, sir? Yes, um Hi, nice to meet you, Dr. Brown.

Um, I go to a Methodist church. the United Methodist Church. I heard a few weeks ago a lady called and asked about um com kind of complained at the United Methodist Church was Sort of caving in some areas of the gay rights movement. Um And I heard you make a a comment saying um if they support the Bathroom bill. then they're not Christians.

And I was like, Oh, that seemed pretty Pretty straightforward. I was just wondering, like, how far can we go? Like, like a denomination, certain ones. support something and certain other ones don't support it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, God is the judge, BJ. And I'm just jumping in.

Sorry, only because of time being short, sir. Yeah, uh every God is the judge of each individual. There are some who oppose HB2, who are Christians, and who feel it's discriminatory, etc.

So I'm not going to make a dogmatic statement. It's not my place to say that if you oppose the the bathroom bill, if you oppose HB2, you're not a Christian, you're not saved. I would say that that a church taking a stand against it Is doing an unchristian thing. That I would absolutely say. Taking a stand against it is doing an unchristian thing.

But the United Methodists are really struggling with this issue now, and they have still put it on hold because there are strong conservative. Believers, especially in some of the African nations, that are actually pushing the church in a more conservative way.

So recently, they've stepped back from some of their anti-Israel stand. And they have stepped back from and strengthened their pro-life stand.

So they've taken two steps in the right direction. Maybe they'll take another step in the right direction, in which case the thing will probably split and the liberals will go their own way, which might be the best. All right, we're out of time. Thank you for the call. My bottom line today: denominations will come and go.

The word is here forever. Uh