Antisemitism on Our College Campuses

It's Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. We're going to look at what's happening on college campuses in America today. 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 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us today on The Line of Fire.

This is Michael Brown. It is Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. If you've got a Jewish-related question, here's the number to call 866-34-TRUTH.

866-34-8-7-8-8-4. That is the number to call with your Jewish-related questions. We're going to talk about the rising tide of anti-Semitism on college campuses in America.

No surprise on the one hand when you think of the spirit on college campuses in general, which is often so anti-God, anti-Bible, anti-faith. So it would be in keeping with that, that that same attitude, that same mindset would be hostile to Israel, not everywhere, not rising everywhere, but rising enough in enough places to be concerned. And we'll talk about that today as it is Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Catch us on some other Jewish-related items and take your calls.

Before we do that, I just want to share this quick bit of information with you. Everyone is taking this broadcast is doing so in different ways. One of the works that airs are podcasts or carries them. Others are listening online subsequently, just listening to the broadcast online. Others are watching live or online on Facebook or YouTube.

The S. Dr. Brown channel on YouTube, the S. Dr. Brown page on Facebook. So you're all getting it different ways. But those who are listening live on radio, you are getting the local advertising that is being played by the local radio station. We have nothing to do with that. If you're listening to a feed on another outlet online and it's a live feed and there are ads playing, we have nothing to do with that. The only ads that we have anything to do with are if you're watching live, then you'll see when there's a two-minute break or a three-minute break, it's a teaching of mine or something else. So we've gotten a number of people who have reached out to us and they were not happy with an ad playing from a woman saying, hey, I go to Joe Biden's church. He's a man of faith.

You should vote for him. We have no control over that. The local station has no control over that. If the Biden campaign buys airtime, then they have to play it at various times in the day.

It's like a federal requirement. So it's not my ad, okay? It's not my ad. By the way, I've never paid for or sponsored or aired a political ad in my life either way.

Now, let me say this. If you consider yourself a biblical disciple, you're committed to following Jesus. I understand that you would have many issues with the character of Donald Trump or the way that he conducts himself or things that he says or things that he might feel reckless. But I would say that on the biggest issues of importance to us, that he's standing where he would need to stand. So I'll vote for him. I don't endorse the candidate, but I'll vote for him. I endorsed Ted Cruz years ago. I felt good about the endorsement, but afterwards said, I don't want to endorse any candidate because it filters what I'm doing. When I'm talking to you about an issue, you think, well, you endorse that one, you endorse that one.

Whereas my goal is to be honoring the Lord and walking as his servant. And if I agree or disagree with a party or candidate, so be it. So be it. That being said, I categorically differ with the idea that you can be a pro-life evangelical or pro-life Catholic and vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

I categorically differ with that. I will challenge that to the core. I will absolutely challenge that. I've done it on the radio. I've done it in writing. You cannot possibly say, well, I'm voting for this candidate and pro-life in my view.

It's between you and God what you do. In my view, when that candidate says Joe Biden, I will waive the law of law. If the Supreme Court overturns it, I'll make it the law of the land. Or Kamala Harris, who, for example, would not sign the Born a Lot of Protection Act.

If a baby survives an abortion, say a late-term abortion, baby survives the abortion, that you do not guarantee that baby medical care. She wouldn't even sign that. That's how radical she is. So that's just my own conviction. So sorry that the ad disturbs some of you.

I have no control over that, nor does the local radio station that is playing it. But I do have control for what I say. And I'm telling you my view about that. All right, 866-34-TRUTH.

And we're going to go to the phone shortly, just looking at some of the questions that are up here already. But first, I want to take you over to a story on campus reform. And it's talking about a California State University professor who runs a boycott Israel resource page on the university website. Now, it's one thing if that's his own position. And maybe he's teaching Middle Eastern studies or something like this. And he's anti-Israel, and he's explaining his views. And you've got all kinds of diverse viewpoints on a college campus. I understand that. I would differ with his position. But as a professor, he's going to teach what he teaches and advocate what he advocates. The issue is when it is. When it is on a university website boycott Israel resource page, that's when things become more precarious. All right. So let's just see here.

I'm just going to scroll down. California State University Northridge professor David Klein runs a boycott Israel resource page on the university's website domain to endorse the BDS, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, and spread awareness about Israel's, quote, crimes against humanity. You go study there. You're an easily influenced student. Your professors carry a lot of weight in your life. And they know all this. And they're brilliant. And they're smart. You're learning from them.

Plus, you have good grades and learn what they're saying. And this is what this professor believes. The website, which uses the university's web server, directly endorses BDS, linking the official website and encouraging people to, quote, add their name to its list of supporters. The website, according to the campus Israeli advocacy group Camera on Campus, has been in operation since at least 2013. The page begins with laying out resources condemning the Jewish occupation of Israel, making an opinion article written by Klein in 2019, titled Boycotts, Benjamins, and American University Leaders. And the piece Klein takes issue with university presidents who do not support BDS, calling them staunch advocates of Zionism, the ideology of Jewish supremacy, and being worried about crossing the Israel lobby or offending wealthy donors. So all the stereotypes, all of the anti-Semitic stereotypes. He concludes by siding with the anti-Semitic 2019 tweet by Minnesota rep Ilhan Omar, saying school presidents do not support BDS because, quote, of the Benjamins, meaning Jewish money behind them. Congresswoman Omar undoubtedly got it right when she wrote, it's all about the Benjamins, baby. So it's not out of conviction.

It's not out of a sense of right and wrong. It's that these university presidents are owned by the Jewish lobby. That's it. Owned by Jewish donors.

That's, friends, what's out there? You say, well, how widespread is it? I'm looking at cameraoncampus.org. Camera, if you just go to camera.org, it's a website that for many years has fact-checked the news, has looked at misreporting about Israel, looked at accurate reporting on the Middle East. And the camera on campus website obviously focuses on what's happening on these campuses.

And I'm just looking at headlines from recent months. Anti-racism can't be a pretext for anti-Semitism. Contagion of scapegoating spreads from higher education into the streets. Anti-Israel animus has run amok among young Americans. Bias and bigotry on the Syracuse University campus. Student Instagram pages broadcast anti-Semitic beliefs at Syracuse University. Virulent anti-Semitism at Florida State defended by students and on and on and on it goes. And then the AMCHA Initiative, AMCHA is your people, the amcha-initiative.org, it has a list of over 200 anti-Israel Middle East studies professors. So remember, it's not just an anti-Israel, you're an English prof, you're a history prof, you're an Arabic prof. No, this is Middle East teaching. So this is your focus. So people are coming from Middle East studies to university and they are going to get bombarded with views that are extremely hostile to Israel. Many standing for boycott divestment sanctions. Okay, so Bard College has one, Boston University one, Brown University three.

Just looking, you know, different names here, California State, Columbia. Look at this, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. I've been interacting with a student getting her master's degree at Columbia and she's telling me about the incredible hostility towards Israel on campus and the incredible one-sidedness of what she's hearing concerning Israel. It's remarkable, remarkable. And then a lot of things, you know, race issues come up, ends up Israel gets bashed, Jewish people get bashed.

It's just, it's the way it works. Why so many there? City University of New York, one, two, three, four, five profs. Duke University, four. These are again labeled anti-Semitic professors of Middle East studies at major universities. Georgetown, how about this?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. There's one professor at Georgetown, a scholar of Islam. When you read his treatment of Islam, you think why is there Islamic terrorism? Why has there been so much violence in the name of Islam? In other words, it almost whitewashes it.

It comes out with this very different version of it. George Washington University, four there. Harvard, a couple listed there. I mean, on and on. Here, New York University. Why so much New York? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

And on and on the list goes. Princeton, three. Rutgers, five. So, you know, you can check the bios.

Check what's being written. University of California, Berkeley, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. You go study there. You study in these environments. You'll come out thinking that Israel is genocidal, that Israel is the most wicked nation on the earth, that we should delegitimize Israel every way we know how.

I've spoken on campuses and run into this very attitude. So, let's get the truth out. Let's get the truth out in fairness to all sides of the world. We come back. We go to your Jewish-related calls on Thirdly Jewish Thursday. Host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. What happened to our music?

What happened to our Jewish-related music? Hello, hello. Can you even hear me? Hello, hello. We're here. We're talking. But are you there? All right.

866-348-7884. We are having all kinds of interesting experiences right here today. We've had, let's see, one, two, three issues come up with just doing our broadcast. So, I guess, in the midst of this, everybody's scrambling. They forgot our Jewish music today. So, I didn't even know if you were hearing me.

But you are. Interestingly, our live stream on Facebook and YouTube, which enables us to reach a whole lot of people, that's down. But we're here on radio.

And if you're listening on podcasts, the same as always. So, let's go to the phones. And we start with Chuck in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Welcome to the broadcast. Hey, Dr. Brown.

I hope you're doing well. Chuck, are you there? Yeah, go ahead. Awesome, awesome.

Yeah. Proverbs, it speaks of a man's gift making room for him and bringing him before a great man. Now, you know that anybody, regardless of what the nomination form, it's like a scripture and twisted. So, what would have been the Jewish or the Hebraic understanding of that scripture?

Because what I've heard coming up is something like a man's gift, like him being able to play basketball well, can bring him before men, and so on and so forth. So, that's all. That's the whole question, man.

Yeah. And I'm glad you asked it because many people never even think of asking it. So, I'll read ESV is fine translation. A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before the great. The Hebrew word there, matan, just means a gift, okay? So, if you isolate this from other verses in Proverbs, it could mean exactly the way we heard it all our lives. If you have a particular gift, then that gift will open a door for you. If God's given you this gift, then that will open a door and that will bring you before great people, etc., you know, whatever.

Okay. So, there is truth to that. And we know that God opens doors, He closes doors, etc., etc. So, we understand that. And the Hebrew word matan just means gift.

There's nothing negative about it. But generally speaking, in Proverbs, when it's addressing this issue, it's talking about bribes. It's talking about, I give you a gift, so you get me a meeting with so-and-so. So, the verse in and of itself, and each verse in Proverbs is an individual verse, right? So, you have to take it as, you know, once you get to the 10th chapter Proverbs, they're just individual verses for the most part.

So, you just have to take this in and of itself. Yes, there is truth to this concept. If God has given you a gift, then that gift will open doors for you, etc. But if you look at other times in Proverbs that it talks in similar language, it will be talking about a shochad, for example, a bribe. So, that's the kind of gift that this is most likely talking about.

Like, hey man, I gotta slip you some money if you can get me in with the big boys there. So, in the context of other verses in Proverbs, that's probably what it's talking about. In isolation, it could be the way we always heard it. Okay. That's all I needed to know, man. I just wanted clarity, because I saw what you just explained where it speaks of a man giving something to someone to bring them before people, but I had never, you know, heard it preached or taught that specific way. That's all.

Yeah, most people don't really make the connection with the other verses and think it through in that report. So, that's why I said I'm glad you actually asked the question. All right, God bless you, Chuck. Thank you, man. Yvette, 866-34-TRUTH is the number to call. Let us go over to Carson in Greenville, South Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Hey, Dr. Brown. Thank you. So, my question is, I was talking to a practicing Jew the other day, and he was just very serious about how, you know, they're the children of God, they're the chosen people, and they really rely on that. And I kept telling him, well, actually, since Jesus has come, those are the ones who put their trust in Christ are the true children of God. They're the heirs, like Galatians 3 says, and the promise belongs to them, and he would not accept that. And how do you talk to a Jew? How do you explain that to them and kind of help them to see that?

Well, yeah, a few things. First, there's truth on both sides. The calling of the Jewish people remains. Paul's emphatic about that in Romans the 11th chapter. Even if they're currently enemies because of the gospel, they're still loved because of the fathers, for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. He says that in Romans 11, 28, and 29. And then in Romans 9, verses 1 through 5, after speaking of the great grief he carries for his people, he says, theirs are the promises. So the promises and the covenant still belong to the Jewish people, and God still has a purpose for the Jewish people, which is why we still exist on the earth, which is why he regathered us back to the land of Israel, which is why there are future promises for us. So those promises remain.

So the way I'd approach it is this. I'd say, yes, God did choose the Jewish people, but he chose the Jewish people to be a light to the world and to make the knowledge of God known to the world. And how has that happened? It's happened through Jesus the Jew. In other words, the Jewish calling has been fulfilled through the Jewish Messiah, who has become a light to the nations of the world. And through him, the whole world, millions, billions of people now worship the God of Israel through the Jewish Messiah. And so, the Jewish Messiah. So you can say, look, it's not through Judaism that the world has come to know God, that hundreds of millions of people have turned away from idolatry and sin to worship the God of Israel. It's through the Jewish Messiah. And try to get him coming from that viewpoint.

And then the other thing is, like you would do with anyone else, talk to him about his own relationship with God. Well, okay, if you've been chosen by God, he's given certain commandments, and if you fall short, you fail to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you fail to love your neighbors yourself, then therefore you're guilty in God's sight. That's why Messiah came, to pay for our sins. So approach it from that direction. Yeah, you are chosen.

That means there's more accountability. And how is it that our chosenness was realized? Through Jesus the Messiah. And then really pray that the Holy Spirit will work in his life. If he's really serious in his seeking and has questions, then just send them our way.

Send them to AskDrBrown.org and we'll be glad to help him with his questions and on his journey. Yeah, that's an awesome answer. Thank you, Dr. Brown. I appreciate that.

You are very, very welcome. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Joseph in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Michael Brown. How are you today? Doing well. Thank you, Joseph.

Wonderful. So this is a follow-up on our last conversation on Ezra 2-2 and Nehemiah 7-7 about Mordecai. There was another passage that was brought to my remembrance, which is Daniel chapter 9, verse 1. And it says that in the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus. Now, my wondering is, is this the same Ahasuerus that is mentioned in Esther? And if so, could this give kind of a blueprint as to the time frame? Could this point to Mordecai's yes or no as far as is it the same Mordecai that is in the book of Esther that was returning with a group of Jews to Jerusalem?

Right. So you have references, for example, Ezra 4 in the reign of Ahasuerus. It's a funny name to pronounce in English, so we use the Hebrew. So in the reign of Ahasuerus, the beginning of his reign, et cetera, then you have him in Esther numerous times, of course. So as I'm just looking at my list here, Ezra 4-6, and then bunch of times in Esther, and then Daniel 9-1. There is debate as to exactly who this Darius is, but when it says son of Ahasuerus, it could mean son, it could be grandson, it could be great grandson in Hebrew. In other words, it does not necessarily mean an immediate ancestry, it would just mean that this is a notable person in the lineage. So it could tie it in potentially, you know, the time frame, and okay, you got Daniel there, and how does that work? You know, with Mordecai, is it the same person or not? And it could be that same Ahasuerus that works out potentially, but the fact it says son of does not necessarily mean literal son.

Like in Isaiah 39, Hezekiah is told that his own sons will go into Babylonian captivity, and that doesn't happen for, you know, roughly a hundred years. So it's grandsons, great grandsons, just like Jesus is the son of Abraham, the son of David. So it does not necessarily mean immediate son, it could simply mean descendant, and therefore you can't press it for chronology.

So what you're thinking and the way you're going about it is right. You just can't press it too much because of the Hebrew usage of son. Does that make sense? No, it does. It makes me wonder as far as whether or not this is the same Mordecai. I mean, I've kind of debated whether it's yes or no on either part. I mean, most likely not because of the time frame, but then at the same time there's always that chance that there might be a possibility, and I just want to... Yeah, I mean, I don't know, honestly, yeah, Joseph, I don't know, honestly, you can get beyond that indefinitely in terms of knowing for sure, for sure, for sure, if this is the same Mordecai that's mentioned in the book of Esther in Ezra 2, 2 and Nehemiah 7, 7 as we discussed. But even when we went online and looked and said, okay, let's look at the rabbinic commentaries and things like that, some say yes, some say no. It's the same with Christian commentaries because we simply don't have any more data. Come up with anything else, great, but I think we kind of ran this rabbit trail to the end.

Thanks for the call. There we go. There's our Thoroughly Jewish Thursday music. Those are Hasidic Jewish men singing Psalm 121, that he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep, and just beautiful harmony there, and I'm sure with many as they sing, great devotion. And you say, well, they don't believe the way we believe.

Why are you playing that? Well, I'm playing that to remind us of the devotion that is often there in the Jewish community, in the traditional Jewish community. And as I've written, no people are so near and yet so far, and no people are so far. For me, one of the most heart-rending things to do is to go to the wall, the Kotel, called the Wailing Wall by non-Jews, go to the wall in Israel and pray side by side with ultra-orthodox Jews.

Now, they're focused on what they're doing. If they notice me, I'm just to them some secular guy wearing some white yarmulke that they give you as you're walking to the wall to pray because you're required to have your head covered. And I look secular to them. I don't have a beard. I don't have the side curls. I don't have the ritual fringes that tzitzit.

I don't have the outfit. I'm not wearing the traditional head covering as they are. And I just look like some secular guy to them if they even notice me. But I've prayed side by side with many, and they're pouring their hearts out. And whether they're praying for the coming of Messiah, whether they're praying for God's redemption on Israel, along with that, whether they're praying a fervent prayer for themselves. Yeah, I'm sure there's some hypocrites and some people putting on a show just like at any Christian service you go to, but so many so sincere. And it's heart-rending. And I'll just say, God, hear the cries.

Hear the cries, the millions of prayers that have been prayed from this place and from around the world, crying out for mercy, crying out for redemption. I know that many Christians get exposed to parts of the Talmud that are very negative or obscure or even seem to be attacking Jesus. I say seem to because of the fact that there is debate as to whether these passages really speak about Jesus or not. In other words, there's debate whether the Talmud ever mentions Jesus by name. So that's why I say seems to. But if the passages are about Him, yes, they're terribly negative and all of that.

Okay, all clear. However, however, when you look at Jewish literature overall, read the prayer book, the Sidor. And so many of the prayers there, you'll say, these are beautiful prayers. These are wonderful prayers. These are being prayed daily, sometimes two or three times a day by traditional Jews, crying out for mercy, redemption, praising God in His goodness and grace and all of this, you think, well, that's the way they're praying, yet they don't know Messiah. It's heartbreaking and working so hard to please God and keep the commandments and things like that. So I intentionally put that in our list of songs to play at the beginning of the broadcast to remind us to pray for God's very best for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, for His mercy, for His grace. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to AJ in Chillicothe, Ohio. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hey, Dr. Brown. Thank you so much for taking my call. I was at the— You're welcome. I was at the Kotel myself about two years ago, and I prayed and wept alongside the Jews there for about 20 minutes, and it was one of the transformative experiences of my life, so thank you for that. I'm an Orthodox Christian. I'm a United Methodist pastor. I'm one of the conservative ones. I'm a big fan of yours and Dr. White, but I'm also Hebrew roots adjacent.

I'm sure this is a question you get all the time, so I'm sorry for asking. I'm sorry for asking it again, but I keep being told by my Hebrew roots friends that Torah is still binding, and that if I abandon Torah, that I'm willfully abandoning the Messiah. I can't imagine that a piece of pepperoni pizza defeats the cross. You know what I mean?

How should I deal with that? Well, you may need to step back from these folks if they keep pushing this on you, because it's divisive, destructive, and unscriptural, and even when they speak of Torah, they're speaking of a particular interpretation of things that they have chosen to do and not do, because the fact of the matter is there are many commands in Torah that they're not living by, and you say, well, you can't live by them because there's not a temple functioning, or, well, why not have a movement to stone disobedient children, or to burn sorcerers, or to stone adulterers to death? I mean, that's all Torah. So your answer is very simple, that the whole purpose of the law and the prophets, the Torah and the prophets, was to point to the Messiah, and that he brings this into its full meaning, and that we're now under the new and better covenant, and what God requires of a Gentile is explicitly laid out in the New Testament, and nowhere in any of the rules of the New Testament is there any Gentile laws in the Sabbath day of the Sabbath, and your identity is found in Jesus, and yes, the moral requirements of the law are written on our heart, and we learn from everything in the Torah. You know, when you're reading about the requirements of a priest, and the priest couldn't have bodily defect of any kind, it gets very, very detailed.

Well, what's that telling you? Is it saying that you can't serve the Lord if you have a bodily defect? You know, if you've got some big scar, or you're crippled here or there, you can't serve—no, no, you learn from it spiritually, that these things are all written for our benefit, but as Paul writes at the end of Romans 3, that faith does not annul the law, it establishes it because it puts it in its proper perspective, and you really have to stand on your head and read Galatians differently and Romans differently to come up with a different mindset and interpretation. So you say that the whole purpose of Torah is to point to Yeshua, that He brings it to its fulfillment, that's why we don't have blood sacrifices today, that's why we've become a spiritual priesthood and a spiritual temple, that's why the moral requirements have been taken to a higher standard and written on our hearts, and that's how Jew and Gentile together in Jesus can be one, even with different practices and backgrounds.

Also, my assumption is that these Hebrew roots people are not even Jews, is that correct? That is correct, sir, thank you. Yep, yes, you just assume that, and all the more is it artificial and incorrect, and if you just needed one verse, okay, just one verse alone, I would go to 1 Corinthians, the seventh chapter, where Paul is dealing with how we came to faith and his rule, and he says, verse 17, 1 Corinthians 7, 17, only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the congregations. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of uncircumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised?

Let him not seek circumcision, for neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. And then in Galatians 6, he says this, and of course they'll have some twisted interpretation of it, but this is what Paul's saying is very clear. Paul says in 614, but far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world, for neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

So what you're emphasizing is true and correct. You are free to keep the dietary laws or not, but it does not affect your inner being whatsoever. Jesus makes clear in Matthew 15 and Mark 7 in principle that nothing that you eat can spiritually defile you, and then in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 we learn how to live together in the midst of dietary differences as long as we honor the Lord with our whole lives. So can we say that circumcision in those passages is synecdoche or stand-in for the entirety of the law? Yeah, well what's the whole thing about being circumcised?

Exactly. In other words, it's Jewish identity, and Jewish identity has Jewish requirements because Paul says in Galatians 5, if you become circumcised, then you're obligated to keep the whole law, right? So he's already addressed that, and if you just watch these guys over time, they will either try to become more and more Jewish, take on more and more law, even find some kind of Jewish identity, or they'll kind of trace themselves back to some kind of tribe, or take on more and more customs that are dangerous, maybe even start to struggle with parts of the New Testament or some of the writings of Paul, they'll either go more and more extreme, they'll start to question the deity of Yeshua, they'll go in the direction of sacred names, or they'll swing more towards the center and maybe have an appreciation for the biblical calendar, wonderful, have a sense of being joined together with the people of Israel, and hey, why don't we celebrate with them? Great, fine, no problem with Yeshua being central.

So it's likely going to go one direction or the other, either more schismatic, dangerous, and off-center, or swinging back in a way that's more healthy. Thank you so much, sir. I really appreciate it. You are very welcome. God bless you.

866-348-7884. There is a world of difference, friends, between the Messianic Jewish movement and the Hebrew Roots movement. Messianic Jewish movement is Jewish believers saying, hey, we're Jews.

We're Jews, and we're going to follow Jesus as Jews, and we are going to continue to live as Jews, because we are, and Jesus never changed that. He never said stop having Sabbath on Saturday, the seventh day of the week, and start having it on Sunday, the first day of the week, or the eighth day. He never said substitute Easter for Passover. He never said that.

He never said go out and start eating pork. So we continue to live as Jews, to identify as Jews in the midst of our community, and to bring into light the fullness of the New Covenant and the benefits and blessings that come with it. And Gentiles, believers joined together with us as one family and body, wonderful, just like many Jewish believers joined together with Gentile believers in churches.

Very different from the Hebrew Roots movement, with its legalism, with its doctrinal error, and with some real dangerous tendencies. All right, we've got time for a few more calls. If you get in now, 866-348-7884. We'll be right back. Change the world. Change 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 866-342. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. The worship and praise of our God in Hebrew. Welcome, welcome to the broadcast, Michael Brown. It's Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, 866-348-7884. We are radio only today. Yeah, our live stream, well, we have some issues with our internet and because of that, our Facebook live stream, we've got almost 590,000 over thereabouts, Facebook followers, and our YouTube channel with, what, I don't know, about 115,000 subscribers there. So a nice potential audience we can get to every day on internet. Sorry we couldn't reach you today with our broadcast, but anyone that's listening any other way, you forget out of the way to tune in, 866-344-TRUTH.

Let me just share a few things with you. Now, of course, the fact that we have no internet today for our live stream means that I don't have to look as good as always. Yeah, I mean, because we don't have the cameras, well, the camera's still on, lights are still on, just not broadcasting anything. Now we're already looking the best we can, even though it's radio. But the funny thing is when you're doing radio and video, it's a different dynamic. So I'm reading something to you from the internet and we're showing you that article. Or you're listening on the radio, you're listening to a clip and it just sounds like an audio clip, but online you're actually watching the video of the clip as well.

So there are a lot of dynamics and things going on that you can do with the live stream. But hey, we started just talking to you on radio. I remember when I started live about 13 years ago and I was passionate. I'd done radio many years earlier, but it was just a teaching format.

It wasn't a call-in format, right? So I was doing my first hours on a Saturday. I didn't have anyone there to coach me, just, hey, doc, this is great. You need to be on the air. Let's do this. I said, yeah, let's do this.

So I'm in the studio, which was in Winston-Salem. I'm sitting down to do the show and I was just patting. I got grip with what I was talking about, started kind of preaching and then took a few calls and could preach some more and more and did it the next week.

We started one day a week and then pretty quickly went to five days a week. Anyway, I remember a guy with years, decades of radio experience, he said to me, I appreciate your passion, but you're basically having a talk with one person driving in their car. In other words, tone it down a little.

I still get passionate, but I don't preach at you. Well, sometimes I kind of do, but anyway, just reflecting on that and nice to talk to you, nice to drive in the car with you. Maybe you're jogging and listening later by podcast, but I really appreciate the time we have together. So I tell you what, I'm going to go back to the phone.

I was going to share something else, but we'll go over to Tampa, Florida. Steven, welcome to the line of fire. Hey Dr. Brown, how have you been? Very well, thank you.

Good. Hey, I have a question that I might laugh, but it's a serious question. I was out to lunch with my pastor recently and he asked me, hey Steven, have you heard about the floating oven in Genesis?

And I said, what are you talking about? And then my Jewish question is that in the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 18, God tells Abraham to get all of these animals, right? And a floating pot and a lit torch levitates between the animals that Abraham offered to God. What does that even mean in that time? I have no research I can find or a direct answer to what did that mean to Abraham or what was God trying to show the Jewish people? What was that symbolizing? I've heard Jesus, it is a shadow of what Jesus, the torch in the future, but I can't find anything that could explain that.

Could you help me? Yes, so Genesis 15, 17, when the sun set and it was very dark, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between those pieces. So let's first understand what's happening here, okay? God is entering into a covenantal relationship with Abram, who will soon be called Abraham, all right? And he is giving him a covenantal promise about the land and what he's going to do for his descendants in the future, bring them back to the land, and this will be their land.

So in the ancient Near East, we have it in treaties outside of the Bible, but there's a reference in Jeremiah 34 to passing between the pieces. So the ritual was very simple, that you would divide, you would kill different sacrificial animals, you would then put the parts of these bodies, split them in two, and put one on one side, one on the other. So it's a gory scene. I mean, just picture that. You've got these bodies ripped open, these sacrificial animals, right?

And you've got them on the left and on the right. And then what happens is, so let's say two kings are making a treaty, right? They would then walk between those pieces together. And what they would be saying was, and they might even recite the words, let's say they were idol worshipers, may the gods do thus and such to us. May we be like these torn up body parts if we break the terms of the covenant, all right?

So that was the specific meaning of this. So the first thing we see is that Abram is put into a deep sleep and only God passes through, God being represented by the oven and the torch, okay? So that's the first thing, that Abram is put to sleep, he's in a deep sleep, and only God passes through the pieces. So it's symbolizing the one way nature of this covenant. It's symbolizing that God's promises to the nation before the law were not based on their obedience, were not based on their faithfulness, but were based on the faithfulness of God, period. That's why the Jewish people exist to this day. That's why we've been brought back to the land, because God made a promise, period.

The only condition that was then put on Abraham was circumcision, to include yourself in the people. Otherwise the promise stood. And Paul emphasizes in Galatians 3 17, that the law, the Torah, which was given 430 years after Abraham, does not nullify the promise.

So even though the law was conditional, the promise still stands. Again, that's why the Jewish people remain, not because of our faithfulness, but because of God's faithfulness. Now, what specifically is represented by the furnace and the flame, that is just a picture of God. He's often associated with fire in the Bible.

Is there more that we can get from it? You might have creative interpretation that comes up with different ideas, but it's God himself who passes between the pieces. That's the whole point of it. And he's represented in that. So you just look at all the verses where God is represented with fire, or associated with fire. I preached whole sermons on this, or God is a consuming fire, verse after verse after verse in the Bible, where God is associated with fire. I mean, even right into the New Testament, the baptism of fire, or tongues of fire, or Jesus coming in flaming fire, or the seven lamps burning before the throne of God represented the sevenfold spirit in Revelation, the fourth chapter, and elsewhere in Revelation. So this represents God passing between the covenantal pieces.

It's an interesting picture when you think of it, the way you vividly described it, floating, levitating, et cetera. But the simple meaning is a one-way covenant. God's saying, I'm taking the responsibility for this while Abram is sleeping. And again, that's why we're here today as Jewish people, and that's why the promises are still being fulfilled.

If there's any meaning beyond that, to me, that's just creative interpretation. All right. Yeah.

Sounds good. Thank you, Dr. Brown. You are very welcome. You know what?

I'm just going to give out the phone number, but I'm not going to. So here's just what I want to share with you. My book on Christian antisemitism is due out in February.

Originally, it was coming out this month, October, but we pushed it back to get out the new edition of Revolution, which is so important and urgent for this moment. I'm now doing the final proofreading of the manuscript, and it's intense stuff, friends. It's intense stuff, friends.

It's intense stuff. You would not believe what happens when we expose the Noahide Law hysteria that Jews are going to start beheading Christians around the world. I mean, it's just plainly nonsense.

I know some good people may believe it, but I'm saying it's plainly nonsense. And when I just address these things, honestly, truthfully, systematically and just going through the facts, you would not believe the attack. And I don't mind the attacks.

No one's beheading me at the moment. But you're an anti-Christ. You're denying God. It's crazy.

It's like, what? When I tell the truth about this, therefore, I'm not following Jesus? Or I'll make clear I'm not a Talmudic Jew. I reject Talmudic authority. I don't agree with what's in the Talmud in terms of how to live and so on and so forth.

But no, the Talmud does not sanction pedophilia, for example. When I lay that out, you're an anti-Christ. It's like, where's this coming from?

It's scary to see. And I documented all in this book. So if you have our hands, you're staying with blood, which goes through church history and then some of today, then you definitely want to get Christian anti-Semitism when it comes out in February.

It can be pre-ordered, of course, on Amazon even now. But you'll want to get that because it lays out where we are today. And it's shocking, and it's scary, and it's sobering.

The good news is God will keep the promises that He made to Israel, not because of Israel's faithfulness, but because of the faithfulness of our God. All right, friends, back with you tomorrow. We've got questions. We've got answers. Be blessed.