Shabbat Shuvah

So what is Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath of repentance and return? Friends, right now we are in the holiest season on the Jewish calendar and on the biblical calendar we are right about to come into Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. That begins Sunday night and then through Monday, so evening to evening, Sunday to Monday, a time when even non-religious Jews will be in the temple, be in the synagogue, many will fast, and of course religious Jews for days leading up to this time, searching their hearts, seeking God, seeking to have their good deeds outweigh their bad, pleading for mercy individually and corporately. It's a great time to be praying for Jewish people. It's a great time to be praying for God to open hearts, open minds.

We'll talk about that more as we go on. Michael Brown, welcome to the Line of Fire broadcast 866-34-TRUTH 86634 87884. I'm looking down at the phone lines now and I want to do my best today to give extra time to your calls. We've had a lot of stuff going on in recent days and weeks and haven't had quite as much time as normal for phone calls, so I want to do that today and of course all day tomorrow on the broadcast. So any Jewish related questions, as long as it fits in that category, we're happy to take your calls today.

You're welcome to call in 86634 87884. Before I talk about Shabbat Shuvah, this coming Sabbath, so Saturday, not just what's happening in the Christian world, but in particular what this means on the biblical calendar, look at some of the key passages involved in that. Before I do that, I just want to mention this very very briefly. I'm introduced every day on the air as your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution, and I seek to be your voice. I seek to speak for you. I seek to speak for the Lord and honor Him, but often I can articulate with the platform we have, with the millions that we can reach, I can articulate and get out a message that's important to you as well. But not only do I seek to serve as your voice in that way, but in the midst of the shaking and craziness of the world around us, all the ups and downs and upheaval, we do our best to come as your servants honoring the Lord and present truth and sort through controversies and try to come with a level head when people are upset on every side. So yesterday, of course, another momentous day with the grand jury verdict being announced in the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and as expected, riots, protests following, and things like that. How do we sort this out? What actually happened? What's myth?

What's fact? Who's guilty? Is anyone guilty? Where is reform needed? What should our response be? So I wrote an article, and I really rested with it carefully. I thought about it. I talked with a black colleague late last night, just interacting further. We happened to call.

We got to talk about some of the details here. Please read it and share it with others. You can find it at AskDr.Brown.org.

You can find it at Stream.org and other websites. Please read it. Think about it. Don't respond without reading it. In other words, don't just post a comment.

Read. Try to understand from different perspectives. My only goal is truth. When I stand for truth, it means I'm going to get hit from either side. You know, when I talk about political issues where you're not strong enough for Trump, why do you always criticize Trump? How come you just follow Trump?

It's like, whatever you do, you're going to get slammed either way. That's okay because my goal is to please the Lord, honor him, and speak the truth. But we're committed to doing that.

So please use this resource. I think you'll find it really helpful. Okay, God willing, this Saturday, I will be in DC for one of two major events that is taking place. Franklin Graham has a prayer march that will be taking place in DC. I will be participating in The Return, which begins Friday night and runs through Saturday night. I'm scheduled to speak early Saturday night, so a little after 6 p.m. Eastern time for those who will be watching.

And the thrust will ultimately be on Israel in terms of that time of the day and when I'm speaking. But it's going to be especially important to me, especially significant because 20 years ago, this very month, September 2nd of 2000, so 20 years ago to the month I stood in DC, there were about 300,000 young people present from around America. We brought the largest single group, 17 buses, 780 people roughly came up from Pensacola, Florida to be part of the event. The call DC, 12 hours of prayer and fasting and crying out to God for the nation.

And I was given 30 minutes to bring a keynote message, one of several over the course of the day, but it was a very sacred entrustment. And we cried out and said now is the time for a Jesus revolution, for complete dedication of our lives to the gospel. And we warned about the cultural crisis we were in back then. And we were so moved and stirred, God provided supernatural, we gave away 70,000 copies of the revolution book, which had just come out literally the day before, was shipped there on two 18 wheelers. If you can imagine this, as far as you can see, stacks of 100,000 books, there's a lot of books, mark revolution, revolution, revolution. Seeds were planted, much happened at that time.

And many touched have gone around the world and made an impact for the Lord. And yet there's so much more we long to see happen. And we knew we were at this crisis moment in America. Now, 20 years later, everything is intensified, accelerated. We literally are hanging in the balance, just like Tishrei, the month we're in now, this Jewish month, which is the seventh month on the biblical calendar, but the first month in the traditional Jewish calendar.

So here we are in this month. And it's a time when in Jewish tradition, we are weighed in the balance and stand before God. I want to take you back 20 years.

This was a scene from the call DC, Lou Engle's son, then a young man, what, 12, 13 years old, Jesse Engle. He was praying and let the long hairs arise, meaning the Nazarites, those that have dedicated themselves completely to the Lord. He's praying. Then I come up after that and call everyone to cry out to the Lord. I just want to take you back 20 years to Washington, DC, 20 years ago this very month.

We would have no side issues, Lord. I just pray you would raise them up in the name of Jesus at this young age, Lord. At 12 instead of 21, Lord.

At a young age, Lord. And cry out. Raise them up, Lord. Raise them up. Raise them up over this whole fall, Lord. I just pray that the long hairs arise.

Let the long hairs arise. Let the White House know. Let the media know. Let Hollywood know. Let the churches know. Let the world know. We are here to start a Jesus revolution right now.

If you are absolutely serious about enlisting in the army, if you are absolutely serious about giving your life for a Jesus revolution, if you're absolutely serious about putting your life on the line, whatever the cost, whatever the consequence, if you say, God, I'm serious, use me. I want you to stand to your feet right now. If that's you, stand up. Raise your hands. Raise your hands.

If you mean it, begin to lift your voices. Cry out. Cry out.

Cry out. Here I am. Here I am.

Send me. Here I am. It was a sacred moment, obviously. Many were deeply touched at that time and made that fresh dedication to the Lord. Others cried out to God and are crying out to this day because there's more that we want to see happen.

There was a young man there from the Philippines, Jerome Ocampo. He got one of the copies of the revolution book. And by the way, the new edition of the book comes out October 6th. Yeah, and I was quite stirred writing this 20 years later.

It's difficult to even convey how it felt going back, reading things, revising things, updating things, punctuating things. Yes, amen. We said it then. How much more is it true now? Jerome Ocampo got that book, went back to the Philippines with it. God stirred his heart. He started the JREV, Jesus Revolution movement. I was with him a few years ago in the Philippines. He's more like a statesman now, you know, these many years later with the church and a movement that's international.

And he told me people that have been saved through the ministry there and touched and discipled and mentored are now in places of government, high places of business, and making impact for the Lord. Now 20 years later, we come back to DC. Of course, much has happened in the interim and many other events there. But for me, it's a 20-year-later significant moment. And it seems like I hadn't snapped my fingers and go back a second.

That's 20 years ago. And this time, it is during this Sabbath Shabbat Shavuol and Jonathan Cahn, one of the organizers of the return, when he was on the air with me, he said that they picked this particular date and positioned it between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So it's the Sabbath between the blessing of the shofar and the day of atonement without realizing what that meant. It's Shabbat Shuvah, the event called the return. And this shuvah is repentance, return. It's a turning back to God. The root shuv is a turnaround. It's not just, you know, we get from the Greek metanoia, metanaeho, the Greek words associated with repentance that we most commonly use, the idea that can just be a change of mind. But that's not even what the Greek means in the New Testament and most of its uses. It's just somehow a change of heart and mind and direction.

It's an about face. It's, I was going in the wrong way and now turned back to going the right way. Do you understand the concept? That's why God says, shuva elavah, shuva aleichem, or shuva adavah, shuva dechem, turn back to me and I will turn back to you. You turn away, children of Israel, you turn away from your sin, from your disobedience, from your rebellion. Turn away from that and turn back to me in obedience and repentance. And I will turn away from my anger and turn back to you. As it's often been put, man repents and God relents.

And that's going to be the focus this weekend in DC. But it's a great time to be praying for your Jewish friends around the world. Lord, may the intense conviction of sin, the reality of sin be deeper in the hearts of our people than it's ever been, out of which there will be a deeper repentance and out of which there'll be a recognition of atonement that has been made, the sacrificed lamb that pays for our sins, the one that carries our sins away. May Jewish eyes be opened to the one and only Savior and Messiah. You're going to come back to your calls on the other side of the break. And then we're going to get into some of the scripture that is going to be recited in the synagogue this Saturday. Stay right here. Thanks so much for joining us on the Line of Fire on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, 866-34-TRUTH is the number to call. So as promised, we're going straight to the phones.

And we start in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Joseph, welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi there, Michael Brown. How are you today? Doing well, thank you. Wonderful.

So I do have a question. It's in Ezra chapter 2 verse 2, and also it's in Nehemiah chapter 7 verse 7. And it mentions there's an Israelite by the name of Mordecai returning with a group of other Jews to Jerusalem. Now my question today is, is this the same Mordecai that's mentioned in the book of Esther? That would be highly unlikely. It would be highly unlikely chronologically in terms of when this is happening and when he would have been there in the Persian Empire. And it would be odd that there's no recognition of which Mordecai that that was. It's not impossible. You'd have to again figure out exactly chronologically how it would work. And sometimes it's hard to pinpoint exactly when certain things happen, say with a book like Esther.

But yeah, there's no indication that it's the same person. What's interesting is the name Mordecai actually relates to the pagan god Marduk. So it would have been something that would be picked up in captivity or something like that, not a typical Israelite name. But an interesting question.

There's probably rabbinic tradition on it. In fact, during the next break I'm going to see what rabbinic tradition has to say about it because sometimes they'll find a name and make it into somebody even if it's not, you know, just kind of in a homiletical way. But my assumption is it's not the same person. It's not impossible.

I would just say it's unlikely. Yep, so we'll if there's, you know, we'll dig more. Somehow, here's what's funny, Joseph. You know, I've been reading the Bible for a lifetime. And you read certain things and just not pay as close attention. And I never looked into this with any depth. I never looked into it. So thanks for forcing me just to see what other traditions exist about it. Appreciate it.

866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Robert in Mountain Home, Texas. I don't recall in 12 years getting a call from Mountain Home, Texas.

The name would have stuck with me. But anyway, welcome to the broadcast, man. Well, thank you. This is actually my third. And you've called always with Mountain Home is the name, right?

Yes, one time I did Curvill. All right. All right. So it's OK. But anyway, I should have remembered that better.

It's a nice sounding name, actually. I started searching the scripture for cleaning up our family's diet, you know, 35 years ago, maybe, and, you know, was doing a really decent job and just discovered like two or three weeks ago, the list of the seven fruits of Israel. And the list is wheat, barley, olives, grapes, dates, figs and pomegranates.

And I'm thankful that I had implemented most of those except barley bread. But anyway, is that a legitimate list that the only fruits, first fruits had to be from that list of seven? Yes. So there there is what's known as the seven species.

You can even look as I'm just, you know, typing various various accounts of this. So for example, if you go to Deuteronomy, the eighth chapter, this thing was readily available. It mentions land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey. So it lists seven items there and just different websites, seven fruits of Israel associated with Israel, olives, pomegranates, figs, dates, grapes, barley, wheat. There's something called the seven species.

That's also the same thing. So again, based on Deuteronomy 8-8. So it's not the comprehensive list, obviously, but it's just drawn from Deuteronomy 8-8 and becomes proverbial as seven species or seven fruits of Israel.

Okay. Well, it's my understanding that the first fruits went to the Levites, that that was their supply. Am I not correct on that?

Well, yes and no. In other words, you didn't, Levites, not every Israelite lived side by side with with Levites, right? Wherever that happened, yes, there were first fruits and this was general, you know, the tithe that would be brought periodically to Jerusalem.

You convert stuff into money and then go to Jerusalem with it and then there would be a first fruits that would be given there for the maintenance of the temple, the tabernacle before that and for the priests and the Levites. And then with each harvest, yes, there were first fruits offering. The point is, not everyone had the ability to immediately take the first fruits of what they had and make it available to local Levites.

That's my only point. But yes, that was part of the sustenance of the Levites. The first fruits of the produce, the first fruits of the prophet of the children of Israel supported the system of priests and Levites in Israel. Just like in our local church, you support your pastor and pastoral staff with tithes. It would be a similar principle, but it just wasn't like that transaction the same as, okay, I put the offering in the bucket.

Now that goes for, it wasn't always that simple to do. Hey, Robert, thank you for the call. It turns out one of our team members here has been to Mountain Home, Texas. Appreciate the call. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let us go to Joe in Kent Island, Maryland. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hello. Thank you, Dr. Brown, for taking my call.

You're welcome. So, yeah, I have just a simple question. Could the Jewish Messiah be considered one and the same as the Christian Antichrist? Meaning the one that Jewish people in the future will embrace as the Messiah. Could that be the one?

Yeah. Yeah, there's absolutely a possibility for that. In other words, a leader of such caliber that the Jewish people will embrace him as the Messiah and a leader of such caliber that he will deceive the entire world and that the entire world will believe that he's the one. I mean, you could certainly make a case for it because if you say that he'll just be like a European leader and he'll be the Antichrist, then obviously he will be the one. He will be Antichrist, then obviously he wouldn't be the one that Jews would be deceived into following as the Messiah unless he was also a religious Jewish leader, right?

So, the Antichrist, it could be a political leader, a political world leader that rises into prominence in the midst of chaos and crisis and rises to bring all the nations together and everyone follows that one as the Antichrist, and that is separate from what Jewish people are praying for as the Messiah, or it could be one and the same. It could be one and the same. It's certainly a possibility. Yeah. Okay, very, very good. I appreciate that. I'm a little hesitant to bring up the next, just like a follow-up to that. Go ahead. I don't want to compromise your time. No, go ahead. But I could probably speak for the next couple hours on this.

No, no, no. Just ask quick because we've got a break coming up. Go ahead.

Okay, so if you're already aware of this, just let me know. But there's a reason I asked that question. Okay, so there's an image off of a NASA photo. Are you familiar with that, off of the International Space Station of the Giza Plateau?

No. Okay, so what it is, it's the International Space Station took a picture of the Giza Plateau. You zoom into that picture and you begin to see Hebrew writing near the Great Pyramid. Okay. And it's a combination of markings on the ground and shadows.

And I sent, actually, I sent a picture to your email address, which I'm sure you're inundated, of this. It's a paleo, I'm pronouncing that right, paleo Hebrew. And from what I understand from different scholars that have interpreted it, it's supposed to say, I'm not on my computer, I am who I am, creator of all things, God and Lord of the underworld. So that was my question.

That was the, yeah, Joe, okay, got it. I have never heard of any verified inscription of that kind in paleo Hebrew, so the ancient Hebrew script. They're at that location saying any such thing. As far as I know, that's an internet myth. Now, that being said, we'll always look at where it's coming from.

Where did people get that idea? There's been recent discussion about ancient inscriptions that were found at Sinai and one prominent Semitic scholar arguing that that's actually an early form of Hebrew, but even the deciphering of that, no one's agreed on to this day. So that could not be it because, again, the deciphering and the meaning of those texts, no one's even agreed on. But those have been, we've been aware of those for many, many, many years.

But otherwise, it sounds to me like an internet myth that, hey, Kai, Chris, see if you dig anything up on that during the break. All right, I appreciate the call, 866-344-TRUTH. When we come back, we're going to get into the key texts that are going to be read in the synagogue, this Shabbat, this Saturday, and then back to your phone calls here on Thursday. If you appreciate our work and want to help us reach the lost sheep of the house of Israel and educate the church on these key issues, if you're watching on Facebook, click on the donate button.

Any gift of any size is warmly welcomed and appreciated. If you're watching on YouTube, there's a dollar sign underneath the chat window. Click on that. You can give or you can go to our website, AskDrBrownASKDRBrown.org. Click on donate. You can designate your gift for Jewish ministers.

We'll be right back. Thanks, friends, for joining us on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. So back to a question that was asked earlier about Ezra 2-2 and then parallel in Nehemiah that mentions the Mordecai coming back from exile with Zerubbabel, so coming back to Jerusalem from Babylonian slash Persian exile. So I said I'd check on rabbinic tradition because I just never paid attention to that before. So there are some opinions, rabbinic traditions, that say it's one of the same, Mordecai, but then it says the next name, Bilshon, was actually the same person. So it's Mordecai Bilshon speaking of the same person allegedly because of his knowledge of many languages, Bilshon relating to the root lashon, which is tongue or language. According to another opinion, Mordecai is identical with the prophet Malachi, the latter name having been given to him after he became viceroy, but all the rabbis agree that Mordecai was a prophet that he prophesied in the second year of Darius. So in any case, just different rabbinic positions and traditions about it.

866-34-TRUTH. We're going to go back to the phone shortly, but every week in the synagogue, a portion from the Torah is read, and it is divided up so it's read over the course of the year. So it just happened that I was listening to the Bible on audio driving up, and the passage that I listened to, Ha'azinu, which is listen, give ear, starting to get around 32.1, that's the passage and the Pentateuch that's read in the synagogue because we're coming to the end of the year and the beginning of the new cycle.

So this is what is read. Then Yom Kippur begins Sunday night through Monday, Jews around the world fasting, praying, asking God for forgiveness and mercy. And then five days later, Sukkot, Tabernacle's time of celebration and joy. So along with the Torah portion that's chanted in the synagogue each week, there's what's called the haftarah, some call it haftarah, but the haftarah, which is supplemental portions where you read other passages from the Bible that tie in in some way with the theme. So there are three key passages that will be read, and you'll see the common theme in all of them. So the first is Hosea chapter 14.

So let's just take a look. Hosea 14, you will see there's a slight difference in the versification off by one from English to Hebrew. Samaria, but spare her guilt, for she's to fight her God. They shall fall by the sword. Their infant shall be dashed to death.

Their women with child ripped open. So terrible judgment on Israel. But then what comes next? Shuvah Yisrael, Adonai Elohecha, kichashalt avavenecha. So here's Shabbat Shuvah, the Sabbath of repentance, of turning back. Shuvah Yisrael, turn back Israel. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have fallen because of your sin. Take words with you.

Return to the Lord and say to him, Forgive all guilt and accept what is good. Traditional translations, instead of bulls, we will pay the offering of our lips. But the text is really saying something different than that. It's not saying that we're replacing animal sacrifices with our lips, but rather our words of repentance. This is our paying of our vows.

And it goes on from there, but that's the key to it. Assyria will not save us. No more will we ride on steeds, nor ever again will we call our handiwork our gods, since you alone orphans find pity. And then God speaks, I will heal their backsliding.

I will love them freely. For my anger has turned away from them. So you have, in these few verses here in Hosea 14, you have the Shuv root, turn back Shuvah, turn back Israel. Then God says, I will heal your Mishuvotah, I will heal your backslidings. And then God says, I will turn Shavah, I will turn from my anger.

This is all connected. Joel, the second chapter, is another passage that's read. Joel, chapter two. Let's look at what's there, because this too is an urgent call. And here in the midst of this, in the call for prayer, for fasting, for crying out for mercy, what does it say?

Who knows? As we're crying out and repenting and asking for mercy, who knows? But he may turn and relent. There we have turn again. He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind for meal offering and drink offering to the Lord your God. And this is the great urgent prophetic message. The great urgent prophetic message is turn back. Turn back and God will turn back. You repent, God will relent.

Turn away from your sin and turn to God and repent. God will turn away from his anger and turn back in mercy. And as I read these words, I think of our people, Israel, but then I think of America right now, hanging in the balance, hanging as it were by a thread. Needing merciful divine intervention. And then that brings us to Micah, the seventh chapter.

And it's just extraordinary the way this ends. And let's scroll down to verse 18. Micah, chapter seven, verse 18. Who is a God like you?

The very name Micah is Micah, probably short for Michael. Who is like Yahweh? Who is like God? Who forgives iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance, remnant of his people. He doesn't hold on to his anger forever. Because he delights in showing mercy. He delights in covenant kindness. He will turn back. He will have mercy. He will subdue, he will conquer our iniquities. And you will cast, oh Lord, you will cast into the depths of the sea all of their sins. He will grant truth or keep faith to Jacob. Loving kindness, covenant kindness to Abraham. Which you have sworn to our fathers from ancient days. Wow. A promise of the goodness and mercy of God.

Hey, can I just speak to each of you individually? If you've sinned, if you've grieved the heart of God, if you live under that burden, if you think you could never forgive me, I've gone too far. He delights in showing mercy. He does not hold on to his anger forever. Because he delights in showing mercy and covenant kindness. If you'll turn to him in repentance and ask him to cleanse you and wash you and put your faith in what Messiah has done in your place, God will give you a new heart. He'll restore you so that you can live for him.

If there's breath, there's hope, friends. All right, to the phones. 866-3-4-TRUTH.

Let's start in Raleigh, North Carolina, with Howard. Welcome to the line of fire. Dr. Brown, thank you so much, and incredible Torah portion, and such a blessing your ministry is. My question is on Malachi 3-16, and so I have my family. Half of it is Christian, half is Jewish.

Parents born and came here from Germany after World War II, and so I have a lot of uncles and aunts, you know, still Jewish. They're distant cousins now in the land, Orthodox, and I've constantly struggled with the idea of those who were seeking, you know, the Lord before the Messiah, and supposedly being remembered in the Book of Remembrance, being lost, and I go through Malachi, you know, 3-16, 17, and 18, and say, is there, is there a, is that pointing us to a forgiveness and a, you know, quote-unquote, way of Jewish people seeking to be saved? Right, so for those that didn't exactly follow your question just because of lack of background, how can it be that an Orthodox Jew praying daily, crying out to God for mercy, praying prayers from Scripture, reading the Scripture, wanting to honor God, being willing to die rather than deny the Lord, that someone like that, seeking to walk into obedience to the commands that God gave Moses, whose only real knowledge of Jesus comes through like the Holocaust or Crusades or inquisitions and things like that, how could that person be lost? Or we just say, well, you just go to hell because you didn't say the prayer. Then you got some other person living a compromised double life.

Well, they prayed the prayer they're in. You know, something doesn't seem right with that. Let me say first that it's a question we should wrestle with if we have a heart. In other words, these things should concern us. These things should burden us.

In my book, Our Hands Are Staying with Blood, I have a chapter called So Near and Yet So Far, where I get into this very issue. I look at the prayers that are prayed, and look, there is a colleague of mine, an ultra-orthodox rabbi who's a counter-missionary. We've been going back and forth with each other for many, many years now, sometimes multiple emails in a week, but have been in dialogue for years and years and years. And we agreed many years ago to pray a prayer. So if I'm praying for him and for myself, I pray for him and I pray for me that God would give us the courage to follow him and his truth wherever it leads, regardless of cost or consequence, whether by life or by death.

He said, I like that. I'll pray that. So you've got someone that's praying that prayer to God.

I'm praying that prayer to God. And yet at the same time, I'm 100 percent sure that there's no forgiveness outside of Messiah's blood. I'm 100 percent sure that if there was any other way for us to get to God or be righteous, he wouldn't have died.

As Paul wrote, if righteousness comes by the law, then he dies in vain and we frustrate the grace of God. Not only so, remember that Yeshua came to his own people first. That's where he started. And it started with religious people and with secular people. And then after he died and rose from the dead, that's the ones to whom the message was preached, the Jewish people.

And then Paul for years, when he go into a new city, would start there. So I know we've had church history. Two thousand years have intervened and much of the church has put forth a very negative witness. And again, those with memory of the Holocaust, think of it as a Christian event. I asked my friend, the rabbi, who lives in a very religious community outside of New York, and I said to him, in your neighborhood, do the people there associate the Holocaust with Christianity?

He said, yeah, of course. So how has that overcome? Here's what I've done, Howard. I leave them to God, trusting that God will do what is right, that his sense of justice and compassion is far greater than mine. I pray for God to open their eyes. I pray for them as if they're lost without him. I seek to reach them as if they're lost without him. I assume that, looking at the history of Israel, that we we all fall short and need mercy. And yet I leave the verdict and the result to God.

God knows every heart. So my assumption is they're lost. My heart breaks for them.

Pray for them, reach out accordingly, and then leave it to God knowing that the God of all the earth, the righteous judge, will do what's right. Welcome to Thirdly Jewish Thursday. Let me just say this one thing quickly. When it comes to issues of heaven and hell, when it comes to issues of final judgment, these are not things we talk about lightly. If you can talk about them in a trivial way, you shouldn't talk about them at all. You know what I'm saying? These are weighty issues.

I appreciate the weight of the call that we just received and the way my brother is feeling the weight of that. You know, look, it's very easy for us to just damn this one and damn that one. And you know, yeah, if you don't repent, you're all just going to hell. And okay, if you believe that, fine. Scripture is clear enough. You know, Jesus said if you don't repent, you'll all perish. But you say that with a broken heart. You say that with tears. You get in your face and agonize before God over that. That's, to me, the real, real issue. 866-34-TRUTH.

Let's go over to Jonathan in Minneapolis. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

You're welcome. Yeah, well, a little bit, I'd like to give you a little bit about my background and my question. So, without your ministry, I don't think I would have made it. So, um, when I got saved, Jewish, obviously, um, my sister became ultra religious Jewish the same week I got saved in a different, different state.

Really? So, uh, yeah. And I ended up moving back in with that family for an extended period of time.

So I use your, I don't, the debates helped me through that process. And, um, anyway, uh, I went through a really difficult stretch and I'm going to, this is, you know, part of reflection. Uh, anyway, later, my sister got married in Israel to, um, I'm taking you from Eishat Torah. Of course. Yes.

Yes. So, um, I was there for the, for the for the wedding. Uh, I met my brother-in-law. Uh, and he, uh, well, I, I waited to after the wedding to share them, share with him what I believe.

And I thought I'd never see him again. They live in Israel. Well, they ended up moving in with me about seven years ago.

Seriously. And I was living with my parents. Yeah. I was living with my parents who were Reform Jewish.

All right. So just so everyone understands this, so Eishat Torah, that's, that's Orthodox Jewish organization, but they, they often reach out to Jewish people that are recovering their faith or help teach the foundations and things like that. Reform Jews are very liberal and, and not, not keep the commandments or anything like that. Right? So you've got liberal Jews who really don't look at the Bible as God's word.

You've got religious Jews who are absolutely devoted to the Torah, but look at Jesus as false prophet or false Messiah, or just someone to be rejected. And we've got you as a Jewish follower of Yeshua, and you're all in the same family here. Yeah. In the same house. Same house.

Yes, sir. So God put me through that. Also, on top of that, God put me into a, like a thorn in the flesh type situation where I got a, it wasn't demon possession, it was demon oppression, where a voice would not stop.

It took four years, every day for four years on top of that. So I, and I, I, my, my pastor as, as well as my, I have a Messianic rabbi as well, there are Christian counselors and they said, initially they said it was demonic. So my, so my question to you is this, um, and I, I did some research on, on it online.

I don't know what, what, what, what you know better than I do. But, um, my question to you is this, um, is, in the New Testament, you know, I know it says in Exodus 20, it says the sins go from the, the generation to generation to generation. Now is there, is there something in the New Testament that is in alignment to that?

Because I, that's, I got in the spirit when I did my, when I did my, just my reflection time. I just want to know if there's, you know, is there any biblical in the New Covenant that says that? Yeah, Jonathan, let me answer that on, on two levels. So generally speaking for human beings, this is the way things work, that the sins and bad habits of, of the mother and father say, get visited down on the next generation.

And if they walk in them, then it just gets deeper. It becomes more entrenched. It becomes more a way of life. You know, children of alcoholics have a much higher percentage of becoming alcoholics. Those things can happen.

If you have a history of you're raised a certain way, that's all you've seen and known. You walk in that, it becomes more deeply entrenched. These things can, can happen in that natural process. And in that sense, what God spoke to Israel can continue to happen just with humanity in general. But in Jesus, in Yeshua, there is a breaking of the past. The cross cancels out the sins of previous generations that, that could be visited down in terms of lifestyle and behavior if we will appropriate it.

So yes, it could well be that there are things from the past that have been passed down and, and that you're being attacked by. And the thing to do then is to, to get with your spiritual leaders and to say, let's renounce this together in Yeshua's name. Let's say this has no hold over me. Anything in my life that's following in those habits, we break in Jesus' name and walk ahead and free them. And, and I wouldn't necessarily call this a thorn in the flesh. That was something that God allowed in order to keep Paul humble. But certainly all of us can be attacked by the enemy. 1 Peter 5, the enemy goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Ephesians 6, Ephesians 6, that our battle is with spiritual beings in heavenly places. So there is a battle, but we overcome in the Messiah. So yes, something could have been passed down, but it has no power of you in Messiah, so let it be broken.

Pray together and let that be broken and may your whole family come to faith. I appreciate it, Jonathan. Hey friends, pray. Would you, would you, would you pray for Jonathan, Lord, for victory and breakthrough and freedom for the salvation of his family?

Some of you, may the Lord lay him on your heart. And what Jonathan said, he doesn't think he would have made it without me. When I came to faith, friends, and met with rabbis and Orthodox Jews and scholars, and I was overwhelmed with what they were asking. You know, I knew the Bible in English, but I didn't know Hebrew. I couldn't answer them. It was very intense to have to go through the questions, and I didn't have resources.

There was nothing available that answered all the questions. That's why God had me write five volumes on answering Jewish objections to Jesus and put out a 22-hour teaching series, Countering the Counter missionaries, and many, many, many other materials. But what I heard from Jonathan, I've heard from many, I've met many Messianic Jews who said, I'm in the faith because of you. Now that's all to the glory of the Lord.

He's the one that gets the credit and the honor, all right? But we are on the front lines, so please pray for us. Many, many Jewish people are in the Lord and have either come back to the Lord, come to faith, or stayed in the Lord because our resources were there to help them.

That's why we produced them. So if you're praying, if you give to us, you're part of that. What Jonathan just shared, you're part of that. All right, let's see if we can get to another call or two.

We go to Hickory, North Carolina. Sean, thanks for holding. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Thanks for having me, Dr. Brown.

I really appreciate your show. Thank you. My question is about Lucifer. Actually, the Hebrew underlying Lucifer. Yeah. Jerome is the one that come up with Lucifer, from what I gather.

Yep. But in his commentary, he describes what the word meant was to well or how. And in the Englishman's Concordance, you look at this verse in Isaiah, and it says only one occurrence. But the other two references are Zechariah 11, 2, and Ezekiel 21, 12.

Sorry about that. Right, right. Where both of them are translated as how or well. Right. So what's your thoughts on that?

Yeah, so great articulate question in terms of understanding the issues there. So the Hebrew Hillel ben Shachar is literally shining one, son of the dawn, which Jerome just does translate in the Vulgate as Lucifer, Lucifer, which means light bearer. And then because that was interpreted as speaking of Satan and the fall of Satan, Eichna, Fatim, Mishamayim, Hillel ben Shachar, that this then became the name by which Satan was not Lucifer, but originally simply light bearer. So the word Hillel, there is a related root that means to howl. And you have it, you know, in the book of Joel, you know, when people are howling out or things like that, or a woman, they were howling out.

That root can be used, but this is a related but different root. You have this all over in the Hebrew Bible and English language as well. You know, you have the word wind and wind spelled the same way, pronounced differently, in fact, you know, but there are so many words we have that have the same letters but have different meanings, you know, the bank of a river and the bank where you bring your money and things like that. So it's from a different root is the long and short of it.

But yeah, that's all. So it doesn't mean howling one, it means shining one. Okay, but in the follow-up real quick, people who say Lucifer is a fallen angel, I don't see where El means God in the Hillel. No, Hillel does not have El in it, does not have God in that at all.

Right. Right, but that's unrelated to the fallen angel question. The fallen angel question comes from, is that what we deduced from Isaiah 14? Is that what we deduced from Ezekiel 28? Is that what we deduced from Job 1 and 2?

Is that what we deduced from Revelation 12? That's where that question would come from, but we're out of time. At least we got the question, and hey, I'm just looking at our screen here, as is Rachel, and if you've been holding and we just didn't get to you, you call in tomorrow's show, and we'll do our best to bump you up on our list. All right, friends, great talking with you. Let's be praying for this Sabbath, Shabbat Shuvah, for the turning of many hearts to the Messiah. God bless.