“The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail Against the Church”

The following program is recorded content created by Truth Network. 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Well thanks friends for joining us on the line of fire. I believe you will be encouraged and strengthened on today's broadcast. It is something very important to me to be here for you to impart courage and strength in the midst of the storm, in the midst of opposition, in the midst of challenging times. We want to encourage you to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might, which means if you yourself are weak, timid, fearful, you can find strength in God. Your weakness becomes the platform for his strength.

Your weakness becomes the outlet for his strength because rather than relying on yourself, you're relying on him. Welcome friends to the broadcast. Here's a number to call. And I want to just look into the phone lines here which we have wide open for you. I'm going to give you some words of encouragement. I'll give you the phone number in a moment. But I'm going to give you some words of encouragement and strength right in the midst of the battle from some folks on the front lines.

Then a few minutes from now I'm going to speak with Matt Staver of Liberty Council about some major court victories to encourage you as well. And then second half of the broadcast, along with some other things I'll share with you, I'm going to open up the phone lines. 866-34-TRUTH.

866-34-87884. So you can call at any point during the first half of the broadcast. To get on and speak with me in the second half of the broadcast. But I want to give you a particular invitation, alright?

A specific invitation. Now I'll open the phone lines in general if you want to ask me a question about anything. But in particular, if you think I'm wrong on a doctrine, if you think that some of my beliefs are heretical, or I should be put in the category of a false teacher. But I want to give you an opportunity to call in and say why you believe that. Now I'll tell you what prompts that and then I'm going to get right into the scripture and some encouragement. I know that I get attacked for what I believe all the time. It's fine. Public figure, right?

And tackling controversial issues. So I often say it comes with a turf, right? If I wasn't getting attacked, then it would mean no one's listening. So that's fine.

It comes with a turf. By God's grace, I'm not going to be obnoxious or nasty or mean-spirited. And of course, every core thing I believe I can defend scripturally and would gladly do it. But obviously I'm going to be attacked.

No problem. So if I was looking online, if I was searching for attacks, I could find them left and right if I was looking for the latest attack on me for whatever reason. They're abundantly out there. But what happens on my personal Facebook page is that if anybody posts something and it's got a picture with me or a quote from me, it will come up in my feed saying so-and-so tagged you or so-and-so posted. So the vast majority I just ignore. Someone's copying one of my posts or copying one of my articles or videos or so on. But then they'll be, you know, so-and-so posted a photo of you. So sometimes I'll check because it could be I was out on the road preaching and I took a picture with a family and they said, kids listen to you on the air, you know, they're six and eight and they'd love the line of fire.

We take a family picture together. And so I like it if I see it. But what often happens is there are these these memes that go out like false teachers stay away from these people. And what's funny is some of them are people that I've exposed and gone after. But I'm on the list there. You know, I'm in that group.

Or another woman out recently attacking the profits of election fraud and the false Trump profits and stuff. And it's like, actually, I was calling the false prophecies out. But I'm on that. So I'll see that. And then the other day, somebody posts something.

And I'm saying it with a smile because I guess people mean well. They're just misguided. But I saw somebody was doing some competition, apologists, competition, whatever.

Who do you like more? And I guess the guy's Facebook page was reform. So Calvinistic and cessationist, non charismatic, anti charismatic. But somehow because the Jewish apologetics or cultural apologetics, whatever, I was I was one of the people. So it was me versus James White. I'm thinking I was like a million to one because James is Calvinist and James is cessationist.

Of course, it's going to be totally in favor. James, just out of curiosity, I took a look at the page, you know, and I was looking at why do you have a charlatan like Brown here? Why do you have a false teacher like Brown? I thought I'm amazed they even put me there. I got a few votes anyway.

Well, this happens a lot. And I want to give you the opportunity. If you're one of those that say, you know, Dr. Brown, I respect your knowledge of Hebrew or rabbinic literature or you're strong on cultural issues, but you're so wrong on this charismatic things. Give me a call. I'm happy to talk with you. Fair enough.

866-348-7884. Okay. Now for some really, really serious issues, but encouragement in the midst of it. I want to read to you from a newsletter and this was hang on. We just get this up on my screen here.

Here we go. One of our missionaries serving in Nigeria. She's a single woman. She's closer to my age than to someone in their 30s.

Okay. And she sold everything she had basically sold home to go serve the poorest of the poor in Nigeria and has been in very, very dangerous areas. And is educating children and then teaching educators how to educate children and good learning experiences. Try to raise funds to build a little schoolhouse. You know, I'm talking about very, very simple, even primitive settings, trying to reach out and going into Muslim areas and saying, hey, we can educate your children, but it'll be Christian education.

Just just bold and full of love. So in her most recent newsletter, she says, she says this, the increase in killings and kidnappings is unfathomable numbers of the past weeks. Atrocities are headlining every Monday with killings, usually in the hundreds and kidnappings not far behind. These are primarily Fulani herdsmen, Islamic herdsmen. It is being claimed that this is just dispute over land. It is ultimately jihadist. It is ultimately Islamist.

It is ultimately Muslims attacking, killing, kidnapping Christians and then using the kidnapping for ransoms and things like that. And then, of course, you've had Boko Haram doing this for years as well. So this is the reality of life there.

I mean, think of that. You go out in the field to work and part of the family doesn't come back because they're kidnapped and then others are killed. This is reality, friends in Nigeria, other parts of the world, but it's very intense in Nigeria right now. And this is from the front lines. All right. Things got so bad that the leaders there in Nigeria that this sister is working with, they said, you've got to get out of the country. This was right before Covid. You've got to get out.

It's just not safe to be here. And then as soon as planes, flights opened up again for Nigeria, the first flight she could get on, she was back on not that many weeks ago to get back to Nigeria. So this this makes it all the more poignant.

All right. She knows exactly what she's getting into. So she writes this. The statistic was brought home hard this past Sunday.

So she just means a few days ago. As my host shared that a fine young man whom he had served alongside for a month of training had been shot and killed by Fulani herdsmen. The attacks took several lives, among them his friend and the two year old he was carrying. In case you are wondering, all caps, I have no plans to leave. That's what she says. Let me repeat that. As friends, colleagues are being kidnapped or being killed. Not that long ago, a pastor friend of hers was kidnapped and she said they're praying, trying to work out something to get him back. And then the praise report, when he came back, he was only missing a few fingers and only had some gashes on his head. Only, only.

Only missing a few fingers, only a few gashes on his head. We're praising God because he's back and he's alive. She said, no one will talk me into that again, into leaving again for such a time as this. So this is the spirit of the overcomer, friends. This is someone on the front lines in dangerous territory saying, hey, Jesus put me here. I care about the people here. I care about serving the Christians here. I care about serving the Muslims here.

I care about these lives. And she's been through different kinds of attack and different challenges and many obstacles to overcome. It's a very, very difficult life.

Many obstacles to overcome. And her spirit and the spirit of the local Christians is we are overcomers. We are going to continue to live for Jesus.

We are going to continue to preach Jesus. Now, I have an article. It's on different websites already. It is about Leah Sharibu. And some of the articles will be entitled, Leah Sharibu, Don't Forget Her Name. Others entitled because the titles that the websites choose when they put them up.

That's why you might see the same article with different titles. Leah Sharibu, Say Her Name. Who is she? She was one of many Christian girls kidnapped in 2018. Remember back in 2014, where several hundred girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram and Michelle Obama led a campaign to not forget their names. And many of them did make it back out.

Some died and some still to this day are living with their Muslim captors. Leah Sharibu is from another group captured in 2018, would not deny her faith. So they said, OK, we're going to make her into a lifetime slave.

So this is now from 2018 till today. Just read that she passed her 18th birthday now in captivity. And according to a friend, has just given birth to her second child. So she's obviously more than just a slave to the people there, but has been raped as well. This is for her faith. And recently, some Nigerian Christians and friends put out a video singing her story, telling her story and saying, let us not forget her name. So this is another black life that matters.

This in Nigeria. And tragically, she's one of many. She's one of many either still held hostage or others who've been killed or others who were kidnapped, traumatized and released.

Who knows how they're traumatized for life. This is our family. These are our brothers and sisters. These are people precious in God's sight. And here's a young woman of faith who wouldn't compromise, who wouldn't cave in. Let us not forget her name. When you see this article, post it on your social media or get it via email for me. Would you please share it with others so that we can make her case known and we can pray for a miracle for her release and for the salvation of her captors. We'll be right back. 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. Jesus said that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. That means even the powers of death themselves will not prevail against the church, that the gospel will continue to march forward. And while it's true that we are not being beheaded here in America for following Jesus, that we are not being killed and tortured for our faith, there really is opposition. There really is an attempt to censor us and to silence us.

And therefore, it is critically important that we stand for our freedoms, especially for the sake of the coming generations. And one of the men on the front lines of doing that, he's been on the air with us before, Matt Staver, is the senior pastor, founder and chairman of Liberty Council. He's involved right now in some of the key cases taking place in America, and there are victories taking place.

So Matt's time is precious. I just wanted him to join us for a few minutes today and to let all of you know of some major victories taking place. Hey, Matt, thanks again for joining us on the line of fire.

Oh, thank you. It's always my privilege and pleasure to be with you. So let's talk about some good news. We know there's a lot of bad stuff happening. What's some of the big good news that you've been involved with recently? Well, some of the really big news that we've been involved with is the fact that we've got a permanent statewide injunction against Governor Gavin Newsom in the state of California so that they can never ever again impose discriminatory restrictions on churches and places of worship. They've treated abortion clinics and liquor stores preferentially, but churches and places of worship literally for almost a year.

I mean, this is hard to believe. Almost a year in California, even having one person in church or one person in your home that doesn't live there or your apartment condo to have worship or Bible study was illegal. Criminal activity chargeable by up to one year in prison and daily fine. So that has come to an end. It's the first one in the entire country, and California has now had to pay $1.35 million as a result of their unconstitutional actions. In addition, all the other churches in California won that has been fined over $3 million.

All of that's coming to an end, and California will have to pay up on those as well. We're using that particular victory to move throughout the rest of the country to free up other churches from these discriminatory restrictions. Now, you were involved in Florida with a situation with Rodney Howard Brown right at the beginning, and Rodney Howard Brown said, hey, it's discriminatory when you've got one set of laws for one group of people and a different set of laws for churches. And then that immediately changed. So is this a trend that you see potentially happening around the country?

Yes, it is. In fact, he got arrested. He got mugged, shot, and sent to jail on the last Monday of March 2020. There was no statewide lockdown, but it was something that just happened at 10 o'clock p.m. on Friday night from the county, and that was discriminatory. He got arrested for that, but then Governor Ron DeSantis, he changed that on April 1 and issued an executive order and freed up places of worship and churches and attendance there at. But this is happening around the country. However, we're still, for example, litigating in a number of states, including Maine. Maine has the most restrictive laws now in the country. And every day, because in Maine, you know, they think of churches as a myopic thing that you can just download it as a podcast.

And for maybe some, that might be true, but many of them are not. Like, for example, the one in Maine, it has 24 men, 24 women, residential, on property, that are there for the discipleship program to free them in Jesus Christ from drugs and alcohol addiction. It's a 12-month program, and so they can meet.

There's 48 men and women. They can meet, but they can't have Bible studies or worship because their size kicks them over the limit. And so every single time that they've ever met in the church for Bible studies and worship since March has been illegal.

And that doesn't even count all the other, you know, people that are part of the church that are not part of the residential program. So they think of church as this myopic, non-essential kind of net that's in the way, and they put it to the side. And it's mostly based on worldview. And in fact, if you go back and look at the governors who have imposed the worst restriction, there is a commonality. One, they're very radically pro-abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. And two, they're very, very pro-pushing an LGBT and Q agenda.

And consequently, if they're not respecting, you know, your freedom in some of these places, they don't respect your faith because to them it's just non-essential. So that's where a lot of these battles are really focused on. It's really based, and it comes down to worldview and these situations that we're litigating. So in other words, the COVID situation brought to light how much of the society viewed the church. The COVID restrictions, which, okay, everyone's trying to work for the health and well-being of America, vaccines, good or bad, masks, good or bad. You know, everyone's trying to sort this out.

They have their opinions. But it was the uneven playing field, that a liquor store was an essential service or abortion clinics were providing essential services, but churches weren't. In Nevada, you know, a gambling casino can meet at half capacity, but you could have a church building that seats 4,000.

You couldn't have more than 50 people. So this is a battle that you've been on the front lines for many years now. In your view, are we reaching tipping points where there's a pushback for our freedoms, or is it that every day we're losing our freedoms? I think that there's a combination of that, and I think that there is a combination of there are more attempts to restrict our faith and our freedom. And at the same time, that particular agenda or that worldview or this freedom-killing, crushing agenda is becoming more evident, and that ultimately results in more people pushing back. Now, obviously, with regards to the churches, everyone wants to protect their people. Churches are going to protect their community, their family, but these governors just literally wrote them off by this word of essential or not essential.

They literally really think that they're completely not essential, and that's why they elevated abortion clinics, killing children, over saving people's lives. And as a result, what we've seen happen, like for example, you go back to Maine again, what has happened in this one year? Substance abuse and drug abuse have skyrocketed. Suicides among even teens and young people younger than that have skyrocketed. Domestic abuse, violence, and all these other social ills have gone through the roof. One poll came out and said the only group of people in 2020 that did not decline in mental health were people who were able to attend church.

And everyone else, every other category, declined across the board, and that's happening around the world. But it's this worldview clash, and I think the more we see that, the more people see that unfolding, and especially now with all the things that are coming out with H.R. 5 and all the other things that we are dealing with in Washington, D.C., people are saying, you know, enough. We literally can't take our freedom or our faith for granted anymore.

We have to fight for it. Yeah, and my feeling, Matt, obviously like you, I've been tracking things over the years and sounding the alarm, but COVID really brought a lot of stuff to the head for many Americans in terms of government restrictions or government overreach. And then with the Equality Act and where that's going now, different states saying no to biological boys competing side by side with biological girls, it really seems that those with a different agenda are overplaying their hand and that this is the perfect time for us to say, look, this is what we've been talking about all along.

You're exactly right. You know, instead of looking at this time as an oh, woe is me, it's certainly a difficult, challenging time. It's really a time to say, here's an opportunity, because people can see what this real agenda is. It's literally like Satan is removing the mask, if you will.

The evil is really showing clearly. And what we're seeing is not only people pushing back, but why do you see these states pushing back? Because the people are pushing the states. And so like, you know, this week in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill, and he's joined now a number of other states that said, no, boys are not going to compete in girls' sports. We're going to protect their privacy, their opportunity, and their safety and health.

And, you know, here we are in 2021. What we're starting to see is the states in many places around the country are becoming the firewall of freedom. Even on, you know, the mandatory COVID vaccines, or should say vaccine passports, you're seeing states draw the line and say, no, not in my state.

It's not going to happen, either through executive order or through statute. And you're starting to see more and more of this happening on the state level. Well, where does that come from? It's percolating up from the people, and it's percolating up from, I think, the churches as well. I think in addition to that, it's really caused us, you know, just like with regards to marriage, when same-sex marriage began to come about, and people began to wonder, well, what is the importance of marriage?

It makes you really think about the real meaning biblically, spiritually, emotionally, in all different kinds of ways that marriage really is intended to be when it's challenged. And I think now, when churches and faith and freedom are challenged, people then come back and say, what is this all about, and should we be doing this better? And we must fight on our watch, because this is a critical moment for both our faith and freedom. Yeah, and when you have big tech overstepping its bounds with censorship, and people, you know, I've written, said, look, we built this platform together. We all got involved, we shared information, we invited friends thinking we had this open platform, you know, work hard for years and years to develop your platform, to reach people and share with people, and then suddenly they changed the rules on you, and then rise of cancel culture, you've got all these secular people, Hollywood entertainers, and others saying, hey, this is going too far. So it really is, friends, the opportune time, and the church has to lead the way in this.

Visit LC.org, find out how you can get involved, support the work that Matt Staver and others are doing, or just be informed, stay informed. And Matt, 30 seconds, the Romanian Christians, what's happening with their case? Oh, it's amazing. You know, it's still going on, but these individuals, you know, they fled communism and Marxism, they know what it's like, and they love the United States of America. Their case is still going on, but just two Sundays ago, the Romanian church had the worst persecution in all the country, just now opened up a brand new 1,200 seat beautiful sanctuary, just was dedicated. So everywhere that they have been persecuted, whether it's those churches in Rome, the Romanian churches, or everywhere else that have stood strong, you are seeing revival of unprecedented levels in these communities.

It's unbelievable. That's it, friends. It is time to stand. Matt, God bless. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Thank you, my pleasure. The courage, friends, the church of Jesus cannot be canceled. 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. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire. 866-34-TRUTH.

I have words of encouragement for you. Just had a great segment with Matt Staver, attorney, leader of Liberty Council. So much good is happening around America where Christians and others are saying, hey, we're talking about fundamental freedoms. We're talking about freedom of speech and religion and conscience, and that's been a great issue. The loss of freedoms, the attack on freedoms. And I've always felt very deeply that Americans are freedom-loving people very fundamentally, very fundamentally. And therefore, when these freedoms get challenged enough, there will be a pushback.

And when our freedoms as followers of Jesus are threatened, the pushback needs to be with us standing up for our faith all the more, being true to our faith all the more. All right. Phone lines are open. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-34-87-884. And can I take you into my world just for a minute here? Because this show is not about me, but I want to take you into my world so we can talk about all of you. So earlier in the broadcast, some of you are just tuning in now, but earlier in the broadcast, oh, about 20 something minutes ago, I said, or even longer, I said, listen, if you disagree with me on something, you disagree with me doctrinally, or you circulate these pictures with lists of false teachers and I'm on there, then call and tell me why. Where do you differ?

What do you think is wrong? Because any core thing I hold to, I'll defend from scripture in a heartbeat, in depth, in a heartbeat. Any core belief that I have, anything that is a hill I'm going to die on, anything that's fundamental that I preach and teach and believe and I'm known for, you can wake me up from a sound sleep in the middle of the night, I'm happy to debate that issue, all right?

Very glad to debate it, discuss it, or just have a friendly dialogue about it. So I gave that invitation and said, by all means, give me a call. And the phone lines were wide open to do it because I was talking about other things. I had a guest, you know, on a Friday, often way before the show starts, the phone lines are all jammed, people calling in with questions. Many times thoroughly Jewish Thursdays, the phone lines just get totally jammed as we open the phones for Jewish related questions. But here I knew phone lines would be open, so I gave the invitation and I look up now and still not a single, people have called or are calling with other questions, but not a single person has called to take me up on that offer. It has happened if I've done it a hundred times instead of if you're a critic, if you believe I'm an error for this reason or that reason, you're blasting me on social media, by all means call. I've done it specifically for black Hebrew Israelites.

I've done it specifically with different groups. Invariably, we don't get calls. You say, well, that's because people don't know who you are. No, I'm talking about I get attacked day and night. I get lied about day and night.

I get misrepresented day and night. My faith and things I hold to, many things you hold to get attacked. But when we open the door and say, all right, if you're attacking us on social media or a critic, there are even people who put out whole videos attacking me. We've reached out to them privately and said, hey, let's have dialogue. No, no, we won't talk with you. So just know that we make the effort and just know that we open the door and just know I am absolutely sure that I can defend what I believe scripturally, that we may have some differences within the body, but I will back what I believe scripturally.

The hills I'm willing to die in, I will back what I believe scripturally. So you have a question trying to figure it out or want to challenge me. That's why that's why we pay for air time so you can call in. Now you say, well, I'm posting all kinds of things on social media. Unfortunately, we can't respond to everything on social media.

You know, just picture. We have a lot of people that follow us and interact with us. You know, maybe you've got like 3000 friends. If all those friends emailed you every day and had questions for you, how many could you respond to?

Even if you love all of them, only a certain amount. So the same with us. But we pay for air time so you can call and air your differences and we can discuss them. Fair enough. I can't do more than that, can I?

866-3-4-truth. You see, decades ago I determined to follow the truth wherever it led. Now, I can't say I've done it perfectly. I can't say that at every point that everything on every verse or interpretation that I hold to is ultimately going to stand scrutiny.

Right? That we may differ on a point here or a verse there. I understand that. But I determined, as a Jewish follower of Jesus, challenged by the rabbis, by brilliant rabbis, by learned rabbis, by people. If my Hebrew level was a two, then theirs was a thousand.

Okay? If my knowledge of Jewish tradition then was a three, theirs was a ten thousand. I mean, we're in different worlds and they're challenging me. Who are you to tell us what to believe? But I knew Jesus changed my life. I said, okay, if this is real, if what I believe is real and true, then it can withstand opposition question. And if it's not real and true, I don't want to follow it. Jesus said he's the truth with either he is or he isn't.

So, that's been my posture. I studied with people who didn't believe. All my studies were in secular universities. So, my bachelor's, my master's, my PhD, I never studied with a single person who believed what I believe. And, you know, you might have had some that were nominally Christian. You might have had some that were nominally Jewish, some religiously Jewish, some, you know, with other perspectives, Islamic, et cetera. But some were downright hostile, aggressive against people of faith.

And I studied under them. So, for decades I've had my faith challenged. And then I branch into other areas and dealing with atheists and dealing with others. And I try to understand what they're saying and where they're coming from and feel the weight of it. And they'll be able to answer, hey, if you haven't yet read Has God Failed You?

Check the book out. Has God Failed You? Finding faith when you're not even sure God is real. It'll help you help those struggling.

If you are struggling, it'll help you directly. And we deal with the various issues. Experiential, it seems like God let you down, he failed you, he wasn't there, the promises didn't come to pass. Or intellectual, you know, objections to the Bible or the God of the Bible.

Or philosophical, how could a good God create a world with so much suffering and pain? We tackle these, but even if you differ with me, I think you'll see that I tackle them seriously. That I don't give you lightweight answers or convenient answers. And some of the answers leave us with a certain degree of pain and tension because that is reality. So I'm determined to follow the truth wherever it leads. That's why we had a broadcast yesterday. If you missed it, by all means, check out yesterday's show on our Ask Dr. Brown YouTube channel, A.S.K.D.

or Brown, or go over to our website AskDrBrown.org. Check out yesterday's show with Professor Egal Jerimam, where we talked about the apologetics declaration that he and others have put together. The need for sound doctrine, the need for refuting the cults, that's what I live for. That's what I stand for. So let's dig into the Word together and let's tell God, Lord, we want to follow you in your truth wherever it leads, regardless of cost or consequence. Okay, with that, let's go to the phones and we'll start with David in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you for taking my call, Dr. Brown.

You're welcome. I don't know if you covered this earlier in the conversation regarding COVID. I just got off work, but I'm an avid pro-life supporter. I've been out on the sidewalks for years and naturally, like yourself and other believers, during the COVID pandemic, we were naturally upset that churches were shut down while the abortion facilities remained open. So that said, I still have to be able to honor, if I can say it that way, the pro-abortion response to me, and that is being decidedly pro-abortion, their response would be, but for them to not have access to abortion has a lifelong consequence for the mother, whereas us not having access to our churches is provisional on the pandemic. So I guess I'm not quite sure how I would honestly be able to respond to their rebuttal.

I'm kind of curious to see how you might answer to it. So the soundbite is, from our perspective, you're saying that killing babies is more important than saving souls. And then when you want to flesh that out, you could say, actually, Matt Staver and I did discuss this, that there was a spike during COVID in suicides, right down to teenagers, suicide attempts, depression, substance abuse, all kinds of things like that, and the one group that did not show a decline was the group of those that were able to attend church together regularly. So what you want to say is, no, actually, churches provide essential services to the community, and spiritual well-being, mental well-being, and with that, physical well-being, it is a direct consequence of us gathering together, being together, worshipping God together, praying for one another. So the church provides essential services for people's well-being. Also, the church is often the key place where people are coming in the midst of drug rehab, or overcoming alcohol or other addictions, or they're coming together in groups to strengthen marriages and things like that, support groups for people dealing with porn addictions, and it's being together face-to-face in one another's presence, praying for one another, that help is provided. And then, it's the place where many people who are away from God, we believe in souls being eternal, in terms of you're going to be with God or be lost forever, one or the other, and that when buildings are open, we can reach people more with the good news and their lives can be changed.

They walk into our buildings on the streets, they see the service going on, they walk in, they don't know we exist online. So the church provides essential services. The abortion clinic is providing the service of terminating the life of a living human being, so that argument you know well enough. But the church is providing the essential service of life, health, hope, mental, spiritual, dealing with addictions, dealing with all kinds of things. It's not just a matter of a bunch of people coming into a room and speaking to an invisible deity and going home.

So you need to press that. Yeah, here, here, and I think that's a really good angle because, well, fundamentally, to be able to say that's a termination of life, which you and I would be able to well argue, that is the ongoing debate. And that given, I like the re-emphasizing, I might be able to say to them, all right, good and well, if you say that it is essential to be able to keep the abortion facility open, which we'll fundamentally disagree with, but let's just, you know, take that as a given because it's a lifetime effect.

Let us consider whether the church itself is essential and then be able to argue from the essential nature of the church itself. I think that's a good take. Yeah, and here's the last thing. You might say, well, here's this woman, she mentally, emotionally cannot handle another pregnancy. She has to have an abortion. It's all about her mental health. Well, what about the mental health of those who are helped through the gospel, helped through church, helped through the truth that's presented and by gathering together?

So obviously, you know the arguments against abortion. We're already involved in it. This is how we argue for church providing essential services. Hey, David, thanks for your call. Be right back.

Take some more calls on the other side of the break. 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. These three words tell me everything I need to know. Give me peace, give me comfort, give me courage, give me faith, give me a spirit of the overcomer, give me confidence.

Three simple words. Jesus is Lord. That's it. That's all I need to know. If he's Lord, then he rose from the dead. If he's Lord, then he's coming again. If he's Lord, one day he will vindicate his followers and destroy the wicked on the earth.

That's all I need to know. And with that confidence being in him, that means that God is for me, not against me. That means that whatever the world does to hurt me or to put me down as a follower of Jesus, God can use to amplify the message the same for each of us, the same for you. If truly you have bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus and truly receive cleansing from him and forgiveness and a new life, and truly you seek to honor him and live for him, then be encouraged. The worst people can do is kill you.

Right? Jesus said, don't fear those who kill the body but can't kill the soul, but rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. If I'm taken out of this world, I go to a better place. If the enemy tries to silence me, God will use that to get the message out all the more loudly.

If they kill us, our blood becomes the seed of a new generation of believers. Be encouraged. And please take a moment to read my latest article, Leah Shariaboo, Say Her Name. You can find it on my website, AskDrBrown.org.

You can find it on Stream.org. It's posted on Charisma News, on Christian Post, other places, many other places that carry our articles. Share it.

Wherever you see it, share it. The testimony of a courageous Christian teen, kidnapped in Nigeria by Islamic terrorists, would not deny her faith, for they said, we'll make her a slave for life. She's now spent a few years in captivity, reportedly just given birth to a second child, so obviously to the Islamic terrorists. Let it be known before God and this world that she's not forgotten. And tragically, she's one of a number, many who've been kidnapped, killed and some still hostages to this day. So let's not forget our brothers and sisters suffering. The occasion for me sharing this is a video was just released that sings her testimony.

Different Christian artists and others, I don't know who the folks are from different parts of the world, have joined together. And when that was sent to me, I thought, OK, I've got to say something. I've got to do my tiny, tiny minuscule part, at least to stand with our sister in Nigeria.

So check out the article. Please share it. And with that, let's get back to the phones and we go to Paul in Knoxville, Tennessee. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown, for taking my call. Sure.

I had a just question. Me and my wife, we're in ministry and we're in our 30s. And we're just seeing more and more of our ministry school friends starting to, because it is Pride Month now, June is now, that. And so we've been seeing more and more of them posting rainbow flags, posting things about how they've done their research and that homosexuality isn't a sin. And so it's just been on our hearts this last couple of days, just sadness with that.

What would you recommend for us and how do we reach out to our other fellow believers who are who are walking this line of maybe they're not struggling with it, but they are definitely not helping and blurring the lines on the truth, what Jesus and the gospel say about this subject? Yeah. So first thing is you don't want to be reactionary.

Right. And just by your tone, I feel confident that's not who you are. Sometimes what we do is we now become the extreme caricature of everything they they they reject. In other words, we post on social media all caps, you know, Leviticus 18, 22 for the King James. And we think that's going to settle it or we just yell or the more clearly homosexuality is a sin. And that's not going to help reach the people we want to reach.

I'm not saying we compromise an inch of truth, but that's not going to help reach the people that we want to reach. And some of them have compromised their sin in their own lives. That's why they've changed their views. Others are misguided. In other words, they think they're doing something really compassionate. They think they're doing something really good. They're saying, hey, we we we've misjudged and misunderstood. And there's so many fine gay Christians and and godly gay couples. And boy, we've been wrong on this. And gay kids were committing suicide and we hurt them with our words. So they're trying to do the right thing, but they're misguided. So you want you want to assume that that's the case with many of them. Of course, there's many caught up with the spirit of the age.

And like I said, compromise in their own lives. So I would start first by watching the movie in his image. I don't know if you and your wife have watched that yet, but it's available. OK, it's available for free viewing. You can also have a viewing for your whole church. In fact, tonight I'm scheduled to be in Monroe, North Carolina, to meet with a church group that has already shown the movie. And now this is a follow up Q&A with me. So I hosted this for American Family Studios.

They did an amazing job on it. It's called In His Image. So go to InHisImage.Movie.

InHisImage.Movie. You will see it deals with the issues compassionately. It deals with the scriptures in depth.

And the best thing is it tells stories that interweaves powerful personal testimonies that that are really stirring and moving. And we've heard testimonies of of young people who had embraced talking points of transgender activism and things like that within a Christian school. They embraced these wrong talking points from the society. Watch the movie and all their views changed. They went back to scripture views.

So watch that first and then ask your friends, hey, could you watch this and can we chat about it? It will challenge them to the core. It will challenge them theologically.

It will challenge them experientially. And then if you've not read my book, Can You Be Gay and Christian? I think you'll find that super helpful as well. You can you can read that and have all the ammunition you need to answer your friends.

Deal with them and then ask them, hey, tell you what, let's make a deal. How about you read this book and I'll read a book you recommend. And then the two of you have discussion about it.

So ask them to watch the movie. Exchange books, but you'll be helped by Can You Be Gay and Christian? And then lastly, there's a debate that Dr. James White and I did together against a gay pastor and a lesbian pastor. The title is something like is homosexuality compatible with New Testament obedience, something like that. But you'll find it on the S. Dr. Brown YouTube channel, Ask D.R.

Brown on YouTube. Search for that. It's so clear who is on the side of scriptural truth on that. And that's also something you could share with a friend and say, hey, both sides got to present things. What do you think here? So the documentary in his image, in his Image.Movie, the book, Can You Be Gay and Christian?

And then this debate. These will be tools to equip you, but then to reach out to your friends, especially if you went to ministry school together or they're in ministry themselves and say, hey, check this out. And then open up a dialogue because they are on the wrong side and scriptures are against them. History is against them.

And what God is doing around the world is against them. So hopefully in those ways you can reach them and help stir their hearts back to the truth. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

I will definitely be watching that with my wife. And just thank you so much for everything that you've done. And and I just love listening to you. Well, thank you.

God bless you and your wife and the work that you're doing. And look, there's a reason the Lord called me to begin dealing with these things back in 2004. Think of it to say this was the great issue that would face the church and society. So here we are. Let's rise up and do the right thing. And may grace come to those who are confused. All right. I've got time for one more question.

We go to Jackie in San Diego, California. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello, Dr. Brown.

Thank you for taking my call. This is about this is about the Holy Spirit baptism. And speaking in sign and being slain. And is it actually because I grew up in the Philippines as a charismatic. So I'm used to that. But when we attended a group here in America, so there are people lying down already in the floor and then it's a good call for another person to be whispering some kind of like prophetic words, such as like you're giving you're going to read your family to Christ. I see purple flower. God is removing your depression. And that's and I don't have a depression. And so, like, we don't want to stifle the Holy Spirit, but we want to discern either.

And then that group actually like appeared for a bit right now. So God, I don't know. All right, Jackie, do you have my book playing with holy fire? Not yet. OK.

I want to send it to you as a gift. All right. So you're going to stay right there. Grayson is going to come on in a moment. And grace in the book will be sending is playing with holy fire. Wake up call to the Pentecostal Charismatic Church. Look, the Holy Spirit's moving beautifully, wonderfully, powerfully all around the world. People are being filled with the spirit. People are being healed. People are speaking in tongues. Real prophecies are coming forth.

And there's a lot of human activity. People just getting worked up and claiming it's the Holy Spirit. And there's demonic activity where counterfeit things are happening in the name of the Holy Spirit or their various abuses. So everything must be tested, tested by the word and tested by the fruit. It produces it and tested by truth. If someone says the Lord's going to deliver you from that deep depression and you've never known a depressed day in your life.

Well, then something's wrong with that word. So, Jackie, we're going to send you the book now as a gift playing with holy fire. Friends, if you don't have the book, get it came out in 2018. I think you'll find it super relevant today as we deal with our unaccountable prophecy and abusive leadership and scandals and things like that. The Holy Spirit's moving powerfully around the earth. Let us walk together in spirit and in truth. God bless. Another program powered by the Truth Network.