Dr. Brown Answers All Your Questions

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network.

Let's do it phone lines are wide open. 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 86634TRUTH. That's 86634TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Well, thanks for joining us on today's broadcast. You've got questions.

We've got answers. 86634TRUTH. If you're listening on podcast or watching on TV after the live broadcast, we'll sit back and enjoy. But everyone watching live, phone lines are open.

8663487884. Any question of any kind that relates in any way to any subject matter we ever cover in our ministry, online, writing, talking, books, calls, radio, guests, as long as it ties in on any level. Glad to take your calls.

All right, let us start over in New Brunswick, Canada. Blake, welcome to The Line of Fire. Thank you, sir.

You're welcome. I believe this is a heart issue on my part, but I want to start with, as I understand it, anytime we misrepresent God, the character of God, the attributes of God, saying that God isn't all-powerful, for instance, in the letters of John, saying that Christ didn't come in the flesh, things like that, this is heresy, right? Yeah, I mean, it depends. It depends what level of misrepresentation. In other words, you may have a theology that's a little defective in one area, and it's not heresy to the point of denying fundamental nature of God or excluding you from the Kingdom.

Other things would be much more serious, of course. Okay, and my understanding of the context of blasphemy of the Spirit, it's calling something the Holy Spirit does demonic. Yeah, as I understand it, willfully and knowingly, because Paul says in 1 Peter 1 that when he was a blasphemer, when he was persecuting the Church, that God had mercy on him because he acted ignorantly and in unbelief. So, people can blaspheme, they can even blaspheme the Spirit, but so many people have done it in ignorance, and God has mercy on them and works in their lives, so it would be a knowing, and otherwise, why cross, why would that line be such a severe line to cross? Why would it be so incredibly dangerous that there's no forgiveness ever in this world, the world to come?

Certainly, it can't be based on ignorance, so it has to be a willful knowing, and that's why it's such a heinous sin. My heart issue is this. I'm really struggling. I don't identify as a charismatic myself, but I'm really struggling with the interaction with certain camps in the Evangelical Church. I've had people disassociate themselves from us in ministry, and now it's come down to a relative after reading Charismatic Chaos or the newer one, Strange Fire, and I've been wounded. I've been struggling to try to deal with that in myself, and then men that I really respect, I've heard Mike Bickle, who I don't know, Lauren Sanford, who I do, and yourself, all have talked about how much they respect MacArthur and the things that he does, and I can't get my head and my heart around it.

Yeah, so here's the thing. We want to give honor where honor is due, and John MacArthur has been a fine expository preacher of the word for decades. He has stood fearlessly in the midst of the culture, saying that Jesus is the only way. He's never apologized for scriptural standards, and all those things I honor and appreciate. Where I believe he has sinned against the body, where he has spoken in very ugly ways about some people who are fine believers, or suggested that someone like a Mike Bickle, who's one of the finest Christian men you'll meet, the more you get to know him and spend time with him and watch how he lives, the more you'd see that. And to suggest that he's worshiping at the Golden Calf or at the Altar of Ba'al, that's terribly unfortunate, but I genuinely believe it's based on ignorance on his part. Now, wherever there's hardness of heart, where he's not been willing to sit in dialogue with people or hear out other sides, we all have some level of pride or hardness or something that God's dealing with, so I think it's terribly unfortunate. I think he's done a lot of harm in that regard, that's why I wrote Authentic Fire as a response, but here's the other thing, it's not our style either to do what John MacArthur does to those we differ with. Even within his own circles, he can be extreme in the nature of some of his attacks, so I look at that as a weakness in his life, and I pray for God's best for him, but I honor and respect the good that he's done and the orthodox things that he has held to.

And with Mike Bickel, you could sit with him for a year and you're not going to hear him bash other people in that way. It's just not who he is. Do you have my book, Authentic Fire? No, I just finished your other one, Playing with Holy Fire. Playing with Holy Fire.

Yeah, well, let me strongly encourage you, Blake, not just to try to sell you a book, but check out When You Count Authentic Fire. I think it'll bring healing to your heart, I think as a direct response to Strange Fire, it will gird you up more biblically, and then it will help you even have a heart to pray for someone like a John MacArthur, to encounter God in deeper ways than he ever has. By the way, I know of people that actually call charismatic leaders witches, that publicly mock their teaching on their media outlets, only to be healed under the ministry of those very people, and then to go on in powerful charismatic ministry themselves, so God's very, very merciful towards us in our ignorance, and again, it's what Paul says about himself. He was a blasphemer. I have no question but that many people who joined in this blasphemy gimmick years ago and got on YouTube and posted a video saying they blaspheme the spirit, even little kids, as I was watching, I thought, no question some of these are going to be believers in the future and embarrassed of what they did in their foolishness. That being said, too much is given, much is required, and there will be things required of me, required of John MacArthur because of the platforms we have, and because we're teachers in the body is part of our calling.

Also, there's plenty of ugly, flaky, despicable things in the charismatic movement that must be addressed, that I've sought to address and others have sought to address, and if you look at the worst and think that that's the whole, then you're going to come to these wrong conclusions. Hey, thank you for the call and for your tender heart. 866-34-TRUTH. We go to Jim in Reno, Nevada. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hello, Dr. Brown. Just a couple quick questions for you. The first question, the Ezekiel 38-39 war, do you believe that war will take place before the Tribulation, and will that be the catalyst for Israel reclaiming the Temple Mount and rebuilding the Temple? And my second question is, Ezekiel 39 verse 6, it says that God will rain fire on those who dwell carelessly in the isles. Could that be a reference to the United States? And those are my three questions, and I thank you very much for answering them.

You're very welcome. My understanding of Ezekiel 38, the war of Gog and Magog, even though Revelation 20 speaks of it as after the Millennial Kingdom, so after the Messiah's thousand-year rule and reign on the earth, which I take to be a physical and literal reign, I'm premillennial, I believe that's just Revelation using Old Testament imagery, not chronology. So I see this as prior to the return of Jesus, as you do, but to me something that would be part and parcel of final Tribulation and then God fighting for his people and delivering them. So I wouldn't see it as, quote, pre-Tribulation, but part of the final Tribulation period, Zechariah 12, Zechariah 14, all the nations coming up against Jerusalem and Judah, God fighting for them, part of that larger picture. As far as Ezekiel 39, 6, coastlands, no, America would not qualify as that.

You'd be talking about outlying islands, or you'd be, you know, not whole continents like this, or those dwelling on the coastlands of the Land of Israel or other neighboring areas, so no, I wouldn't see that as specifically relating to America at all. Hey Jim, thank you for the questions. Much appreciated.

866-34-TRUTH, let's go to Sean in League City, Texas. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey Dr. Brown, how you doing today? Doing well, thanks.

Good, good. Quick question on 2 Peter 1, verse 10. The last word in that verse is stumble.

Now, when I've looked at stumble, and I'm not going through anything, I've just always had it in the back of my head. When I look at the, when I look at the, in the Greek and the Greek lexicon has, and I don't really understand, I understand how to navigate a little bit through lexicon or strong or whatever, but it's G4417, and in that word, when it's referring to, it says that it's to fall into misery, becoming wretched. It says, of the loss of salvation, and would that be, is that what it's saying? Because there's another, apparently another Greek word that's tied to it, because there's another G something right next to it.

Is that how I would, how to look at that? Right, so the, when Thayer's saying about losing your salvation, that is an interpretation that he's then giving. He's explaining the verse in context. The Greek is just literally to fall, to fail, to fall, fall short, stumble in that sense. So it's either, there are one of two ways to read it, and you're not going to decide it just based on the Greek here, okay?

Any more than you could just based on the English word stumble, okay? There are one of two ways to read it. One is that you will stumble in this world, in other words, in your walk with God, that you'll stumble and fall. You're still saved, you're still a believer, but you're going to stumble, you're going to go through difficult times, you're going to have ups and downs and failings on your way to being with God for eternity. The other way to read it is that you actually lose sight of your salvation, that you lose sight of the God that you're serving, and that you will not richly enter, because verse 11, for in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So we know later in 2 Peter 2 that it does seem to be taught plainly that it's possible for someone to start walking with the Lord and then willfully turn away, or through neglect, you end up turning away from the Lord and forfeiting your salvation.

So that is certainly possible. It is certainly possible based on other scripture to forfeit your salvation, and Thayer could be giving the right interpretation here. However, however, it is not necessitated by the Greek. The Greek could simply mean stumble and fall on your way to being with God forever, or it could mean stumble and fall and you never make it to be with God forever.

The Greek alone wouldn't determine it. You need the context there, and then Lord your biblical theology. Hey, thanks for the question. Welcome, friends, to the Line of Fire. You've got questions, we've got answers, and we head to the phones, starting in Pittsburgh with Aaron. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Hi, Dr. Brown. I was having some trouble understanding the passage in Isaiah 38 that talks about Hezekiah's sickness and how God tells him one thing and then later comes back through the same prophet and tells him something else. How can you trust anything in prophecy if what's apparently going on here is true?

Right. First, you have the principle in Jeremiah 18 that God lays out that whenever he says he's going to bless a nation, if that nation turns and sins, instead of blessing, he'll bring judgment. Or conversely, whenever he says he's going to bring judgment and that nation repents, just like Assyria and Nineveh with Jonah's preaching, then instead of bringing judgment, he'll bring blessing. So he lays that out, and it's the normal thing when you get a death sentence, when you get a negative word, that you appeal, that you go to God. Perhaps if I repent, perhaps if I intercede, perhaps something can change. If someone came and they had a proven prophetic ministry over years and they came and said, so-and-so and your family is going to die in six months, I would immediately go to God. God, if I was convinced it was true. Can I change this?

Is there any option? Is there any—that'd be the immediate thing, and that's what Hezekiah did. He prays and God gives him 15 more years. So God's also looking for a response that, just like—what does Jonah preach?

In Hebrew, it's just five words. ... yet 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. And they go to repentance and God has mercy. So he's revealed that in his nature about himself. And therefore, it's the same way, if someone says the Lord has shown me that in six months' time He's going to raise you up and give you a voice to speak to all of the nation, and you think, cool, great, I'm just going to get drunk at high until then.

You may never speak to the nation again. So every prophecy, unless we were told otherwise, is potentially conditional. And therefore, some of it depends on how we respond. And there are times when there's a negative verdict, like Nathan telling David in 2 Samuel 12 that the son that he conceived in adultery with Bathsheba is going to die, and he prays and prays and the child dies.

Can't reverse it. Moses has told certain things from God and is able to intercede to hold back the wrath for a while, but then it comes. So that's just the nature of prophecy. There's still interaction with it, and we serve a living God. That should encourage us, I hope, in the process. Well, does that mean, then, that if everybody on earth had a change of heart or something, that revelation or something could be staved off?

How does that work? Oh, things could definitely be delayed or hastened. 2 Peter 3 urges us to live godly lives, holy lives, so that we can hasten his return. Isaiah 60, there's a promise from the Lord.

I am the Lord. I will hasten things in their time. I'll hasten it in its time, literally. There are other passages, like Zechariah 10.1 asks the Lord for rain in the time of spring rain.

Jacob, James, the fourth chapter, you don't have because you don't ask. So, for sure, certain things can be slowed down. Certain things can be sped up. I live every day of my life seeking to live a certain way to hasten the second coming through my own obedience and outreach and prayer with the hope of hastening things. Look, even Daniel praying, I'll give you one other example. In the ninth chapter, he sees from the book of Jeremiah that there'd be 70 years of exile. So, he begins to pray, realizing it's about time for the restoration of the captives. But hang on, he was one of the ones that went to captivity 11 years earlier.

He was in the earlier wave. So, the destruction of the temple and the other exile, the larger exile, doesn't happen until 586 B.C., and yet he's praying based on his own exile. It could well be that that's what caused the release to come earlier because of the godly prayers of a godly man.

Otherwise, it would have happened on a slightly different schedule. So, yes, there are ultimate final things. There will be a second coming. There will be the final resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous. There will be God's eternal kingdom. There are things that he has spoken that he will bring to pass.

But in what timing? Yes, a lot of that is in cooperation with us. Absolutely. Alright, I guess I'll just have to think about that some more. Yeah, you bet. And you can go back and listen to the broadcast and go through the examples I gave, study them out. But start in Jeremiah 18. That's where you want to start.