You Can Trust the Word of God

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

Like we do on Friday. So phone lines open 866-34-TRUTH. But in particular, we've talked about these subjects in recent weeks.

I want to come back to it. If there's something in the Bible you struggle with, major questions about the Bible you've been asked that you have a hard time with, then in particular, I'd love to hear from you. 866-34-TRUTH. Maybe these are your own questions. Maybe these are questions that you're getting confronted with in a university campus. Maybe these are questions that your kids have asked you. So if they're your questions or other people's questions, all the same, I'm happy to take them. 866-34-TRUTH. So with my book, Has God Failed You?

coming out in May, I've been putting this on the table a lot more for discussion. Why people struggle with faith in God. Why people struggle with faith in the Bible as God's word.

Specific biblically related questions that come up that ultimately tie in with the trustworthiness of God. If you are a Christian or a Jew and you are a religious person, so your faith begins with Scripture. In other words, if the Scriptures were not true, if as a Jewish person you didn't believe that the Torah was true, you thought the Torah was complete myths, then you will not have a strong faith in the God of Israel as revealed in the Torah. Same way, if you say, well I'm a Christian, but you really don't believe the Gospels, don't really think Jesus was a historical character, or generally rose from the devil, obviously you're a Christian in name only. There's no substance to it. So if we have real serious questions about the Bible, can it be trusted?

I mean all the translations and textual issues, or the historical errors, the scientific errors, or can I really trust what's there? That's going to mess with your faith in God. And sometimes we're in situations where we can't get answers to all of our questions and we just doggedly hold on and believe and kind of come through the storm, but you can't live your whole life like that, like turn off your mind, disengage your mind, and just believe. And God doesn't want us to. He wants us to worship him in spirit and truth.

He wants us to love him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength. So it's not that we will have answers for everything because God is transcendent and we as puny human beings can't figure a lot of things out, and hey look, what scientists were sure about 500 years ago, then people changed that 400 years ago, then changed that 300 years ago, and so on and so forth. So we keep growing in knowledge of certain things, more discoveries, more insight, more understanding, and then as human beings there's only so much capacity we have to understand certain things. So I might want to explain complex mathematical issues to a three-year-old, but I can't do that. The same way there's much we don't understand and we always walk by faith trusting God, but we don't turn our brains off.

We don't prize ignorance. We don't think the only way to be strong in faith is just don't read much, because if you read much, then you lose your faith. You say, well, why is it that people have experiences like Dr. Josh Bowen talked about so candidly yesterday, being in seminary, going to Christian university, years of being in ministry, teaching Hebrew, teaching the Bible, now going on to grad school, he's going to win all these people to Jesus, and suddenly he gets hit with stuff he'd never been hit with before. Now, he did say in a very candid interview, and if you missed yesterday's show, please, please listen. If not, if for no other reason than to honor Josh Bowen, who was open enough and honest enough to come on the air, even volunteer to come on the air, and say, hey, you can ask me about my struggles, I'm open with them, that to me is extraordinary. That to me is very humble, and that to me is someone saying, hey, I would love, and he said it quite clearly, I would love to believe again. Please, please watch, listen to yesterday's broadcast, and pray.

I truly believe God is working in Josh's life, and I feel such a love for him and such respect for him that I really believe God's at work. So if you missed yesterday's show, please tune in, but I asked him, what's the difference between someone like you and your wife, who's also a scholar, she's a Semitic scholar, but she's a Christian, she's still a believer. Or I mentioned others who are Semitic scholars or Egyptologists, so scholars in the ancient Near East and things like that, and they are committed Christians. They believe the Bible.

Of course, it's my own journey. Why is it that we were confronted with the same evidence? We were confronted with the same reasons not to believe, but we processed all of them, and we still believe, just as we did before. We still believe in the inspiration of Scripture, we still believe in the existence and truth and goodness of God, we still believe in salvation through Jesus.

How is that? And Josh's response was an interesting one, that he thinks in our case, perhaps, it was that these things were processed over a period of years. In other words, got hit with this objection here, got hit with these issues here, got hit with this. So over a different period of life experience, worked these things through, came to understanding, came to, you know, okay, I see the objection, here's the answer. But for him, it was like an avalanche hitting him all at once, not being into apologetics before that, not dealing a lot with the defense of the faith, because he was in a very committed, fundamentalist, Bible, God's word environment, a seminary, in that way. And by fundamentalist, I don't mean ignorant, I just mean holding very clearly and without question to the fundamentals of the faith, and then hit with what seems like contrary evidence all at once, it just kind of took him out.

Again, continue to pray and believe that God's going to work in his life and restore him heart, mind, and soul, and that he'll be stronger and deeper than ever before. But let me tell you about my own journey, and hopefully that'll be helpful and encouraging to you as well. Because if you know anything about me, I've never stuck my head in the sand. I've never just said, well, I believe, I believe, that's it, don't tell me anything, I just believe, I believe, you're not going to… I've never done that.

Quite the opposite. In fact, shortly before radio, I was interacting with an ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbi. I've interacted with him on and off for many, many years now, challenging me to think afresh about certain issues, and that he wants to think afresh about them as well, and can we dialogue about it? I said, well, I've committed decades ago to the fault of the truth, wherever it leads.

I mean, to this day, I'm interacting with people who differ with me, and they're challenging me, and I'm challenging them. But as a brand-new believer, so I'm wonderfully, miraculously delivered from drugs. December 17th of 71, after weeks of the Holy Spirit convicting me of my sin and faith coming alive in my heart, I surrender to the Lord.

I truly said, Lord, I want to live for you and serve you. I'll never put a needle in my arm again, because that was the sticking point. That's where I knew I had to lay down. I'll never put a needle in my arm again.

And instantly free, and all drug use gone within a few days, and now my dad sees the change. I mean, initially, you know what to make of it. You know, it's what? Hallelujah, you're going to church, right? We're Jews. He sees the change in my life, and I remember when he said to me, Michael, it's wonderful to see you off drugs, but we're Jews.

We don't believe this. So he wants me to talk to the local rabbi. Of course I want to talk to the local rabbi.

Why? Because I want to witness to everybody. I want the whole world to be saved. I'm brand-new. I'm not really thinking he's a rabbi, and you're brand-new, and he knows Hebrew, and you don't, and he's been studying since before you were born. I don't really think of that, because I want to tell everybody about Jesus. So the rabbi and I begin to meet.

I mean, this is early on. I'm a brand-new believer. I was only weeks old in the Lord when we met briefly the first time, and months old when we started talking regularly.

And then he started bringing me to meet other rabbis. So right out of the gate, I was challenged. New Testament misinterprets the oath. New Testament mistranslates the oath. These stories aren't real, or this or that.

Look at church history and persecution of Jews in Jesus' name, and so on and so forth. So I met with this out of the gate. He said, well, how did you make it through?

Because it was years before I had studied enough and learned enough to begin to formulate really solid answers to the questions I was being challenged with. But the first thing was I had a real glorious conversion experience and wonderful fellowship with Jesus as a believer. In other words, I got really gloriously saved.

God intervened in my life in such a way that would be impossible for me to deny without denying reality itself. So that experience, that was bedrock. That was foundational. But it didn't stop there. It wasn't just that I got gloriously, wonderfully converted.

I'm not giving you the whole backdrop to my conversion. But it wasn't just that I got gloriously, wonderfully born again. But then I enjoyed wonderful fellowship with the Lord. I was in church services multiple times a week, and every single time, this little church with a handful of believers, maybe 50, 60 people during or 30, 40 during a night service during the week, and seeing these little ditty hymns, experiencing the joy of the Lord and communion with God. And the more I would pray alone in my home and the more I'd read the word alone in my home, the more I'd experienced God. So I was fellowshipping with Him in a deep and rich and real way. And then as I was hit with questions, I started to study.

I thought, okay, I don't have the answer. Let me study. Let me learn. You say, did you go through a crisis? Yeah, I did go through a few crises.

I did. And one of the times after spending hours with ultra-orthodox rabbis in New York, I went through a very intense crisis. And I was on my face alone with God in my bedroom.

And, you know, in the home where I grew up, my parents' home. And I was so pulled. Are these rabbis right?

Or are they wrong? Is Jesus the Messiah? It was agony. And I laid down my face before God and I said, I just want to follow you as an obedient Jew. I just want to follow you as an obedient Jew and honor you. And if that means renouncing my faith in Jesus, if He's not really the Messiah, then I'll do it and take the reproach of the whole church community, you know, saying, what happened to Him?

On the flip side, if what I believe about Jesus is true and He really is the Messiah, if the whole Jewish community rejects me, so be it. But I have to follow the truth wherever it leads. It was immediately after that that scriptures just jumped at me. In fact, it was Isaiah 53 jumping at me, shouting at me the Messiah-ship of Jesus. But I made that determination in God's sight. As an obedient Jew, I must follow you in your truth wherever it leads.

I've sought to live like that for 50 years now. Give us strength to always do what's right. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire. Really, if you're struggling with questions, don't be afraid to ask. If they're your questions or the questions of others, you say, I don't have answers, this would be so simple, I should have answers. No, a lot of the simplest questions are the most difficult questions. To be candid with you, over the years, it's very, very rare that a question challenges me like, how do I answer that?

Either there's just confidence in scriptures that I know or truths I understand or things I've learned over the years. Otherwise, I wouldn't be on the radio answering your questions. The calls, the questions that have challenged me the most are often little children calling in with just the real basic questions. Like, that's a serious one. That's a serious one. So, don't think your question is stupid.

Well, I should know the answer to this, but no, don't do that. Got a question? Call in. 866-342.

I'm going to go to the phones in a little while. But first, that experience decades ago, somewhere around 1975, was very important for me. Because I know, to the core of my being, I know with all possible sincerity, I was telling God, I must follow you and your truth. And if it means leaving everything, bear in mind, in those days, I didn't have some ministry or a job associated with this or anything like that or finances. It's just me and God, understand?

But that's been my heart. And I've made ministry choices over the years where we've pretty much lost everything, had to start afresh, but it's like, I have to obey God. I have to obey God.

Sorry, I can't. If the only way I can continue working with this group or doing this or that is to violate one of my convictions, sorry, I can't do it. It's the same today. If I had to go offline, if I had to shut down radio, if we had to shut down everything we were doing, because I'd have to compromise convictions in order to do it, our whole team would feel the same, shut it down. We have to obey God.

It's simple. But all I can say is, with all sincerity, I was willing to renounce what I believed if what I believed was false. So that's one level of attack, faith crisis I've lived through, and of course of dialogue endlessly with rabbis, counter missionaries for decades now, many of them brilliant, brilliant men, deep thinkers, learned, and they've challenged me many a time and forced me to dig deeper and think many a time, but I can tell you in the sight of God, it has only strengthened my faith. It has only given me more confidence, not less. And I think if you follow me for any length of time, you know I'm a straight shooter.

You know I'm not trying to be politically correct. I say things that cost me followers and cost me finances, but I got to be as truthful as I understand I can be. The other way that I got hit was going to college, and one of the very first classes I had was on ancient history and the guys bashing the Bible. Well, you can't believe Genesis for this reason, that reason.

So I'm thinking, okay, well, where do I go? The little church I was in was totally non-intellectual. It was read the Bible, pray, love Jesus, and it was wonderful. I mean, intellectual in that regard, but in terms of studying commentaries, exegeting the Hebrew and the Greek, getting into deep theology, we were quite the opposite of that. So I couldn't go to folks at my church to ask. I was not in an environment where I was around academic believers. All of my studies were at secular schools, college and then grad school after that, college, university. I never studied with a believer in terms of an academic level. I never had a professor that was a believer.

So I'm getting hit from every angle. The Bible's not true, your faith in Jesus isn't. You know, the rabbis attacking my faith in Jesus as a Jew, these professors attacking the Bible and the existence of God. So I had to dig.

I had to study. I found out the world of Christian scholarship. And there was some world of apologetics and Jewish ministry, but really almost nothing that was contemporary. That's why God moved on me to write a series of books on answering Jewish objections to Jesus and things like that. So I know the ancient Near Eastern objections to the text.

I know the historical objections to the text. I know the questions that come up, and I've looked at the objections. We have solid answers. So here's the deal. Let's just say, let's say this.

Let's say that for 20 years you are. You are studying objections to the Bible and objections to the faith and everyone you take on. OK, let's see.

Let's see if there's validity to it. After 20 years, you've studied, say, 10 objections. So 200 objections and you found an answer every single time. Now you hit 201.

It's like, hmm, I don't have an answer for that one. Are you going to throw out your faith? No. Are you going to throw out the answers to the previous 200? No.

What do you do? You think it's a good question. Think about that. There are there are questions now that I've had about the book of Isaiah pretty much from my earliest days in the Lord. I'd say these questions came up since I was a few months old in the Lord.

I was challenged about some of these things and I've had some levels of answer. But now that I'm doing a commentary and Isaiah and digging deeper, I feel a clarity beyond what I've seen before. And it's very exciting.

It's very exciting. I had answers. That's solid answers to objections that were raised. But now I feel I've got even more understanding. Neat.

So you must use wisdom in terms of what you expose yourself to. So Dr. Bowen yesterday was honest enough to say he was going in to grad school. He's going to win all these souls for Christ.

Little realized. And he's going to be around all these brilliant professors who know far more than he knows in these different areas. And immediately when they're presenting their worldview, even if not being hostile, they're just presenting things. It's going to be a massive assault on his faith that he never had and obviously wasn't ready for. I don't say it in any critical way.

I think he would say, yeah, he was not ready for that barrage. So you have to use wisdom. I know all these people. It's like, I'm going to be starting to witness to Rabbi so-and-so. It's like, do you understand that you know like one one-thousandth of what he knows? And that he has dealt with people like me and others for years and years and years and still rejects the faith.

Oh no, no, I'm going to win him. Here, why don't you just pray for him? Pray that the Holy Spirit would work in his heart and study all the materials we've put together for a few years. And then if you want to try to reach out, you'll have a better foundation. So a lot of times we come in, we're going to save the whole world and all these skeptics and mockers and these professors, we're going to get them to change. Hey, they heard your argument already. They're aware of your information and they still don't believe.

What makes you think you're going to be the one to change it? Sometimes it's our own immaturity or ignorance or a zeal, but without right foundations. So here, just like Islam. I've got three years of classical Arabic, although my Arabic is pretty weak right now. I can read the Quran slowly, but it's slow going. I've got very limited knowledge of Islamic apologetics. I am not going to engage in a two hour debate with a Muslim scholar about an Islamic topic. That would be foolishness, utter foolishness. Would it hit my face?

No, not for a split second. I'm not going to raise anything that's going to throw me at this stage of life. But they might make me look bad, which makes the gospel look bad. It makes it look as if the Bible is not true because here's this guy can't even answer this and here's this guy can't even answer. So I'm going to do a debate with a Muslim.

It's going to be very specific. And within a field where I know I can rightly glorify the Lord and represent him and not hurt the faith of others. I'm going to debate this one online and that one. It's like, oh man, you just brought massive approach to the gospel.

And that video is going to be used for years and years. Muslim defeats Christian, rabbi defeats Christian, Mormon defeats Christian, whatever it is. Even though you had no business being up there. When I debated an atheist recently, I said, hey, just up front, I want you to know. I understand that my arguments you're going to mock that most you're going to hear these arguments in my head. I know the way it sounds to you. So I am not trying to persuade you. I'm simply telling you why I believe what I believe.

That's my approach. Go ahead. Mock all you want. I stand behind every word I said.

And it will bring honor to the Lord. But hey, just want to be honest with you. I know I'm going to present arguments that to me are very strong and you're going to mock them.

Most are going to mock them. So be it. That's fine. I'm not here to win a debate. I'm here simply to explain why I believe and respond to questions and objections. You've got to know your territory. You've got to know your turf. So after all these decades of study, I keep tackling new issues and seeing the things. But it's not for the viewpoint of, well, maybe I'm wrong.

No, no. It's 50 years in, my friend. A little later this year will be 50 years in Jesus by his grace. So I've been tested and I pick up the Bible to read it with absolute confidence. I'm reading God's word. Absolute confidence. Let's just see. Nico has a question.

It's a practical one. What about when you repent of something, accept God's forgiveness, but the devil continues to ambush you with condemnation? And you rest with whether or not you fall in knowing full well God is faithful, but the attack makes you temporarily feel condemned. You must renew your mind. A lot of us, our mind is our worst enemy because we do not renew it based on scripture.

We do not renew it based on divine truth. We have to meditate. We have to pray over these things at other times, not just after we sin and repent. But when we're feeling great, we need to meditate on truths of God's grace. We need to ask him for revelation. If we'll do that regularly, meditate on truths of love and forgiveness through the cross. Ask God to renew our heart and mind, not allow our minds to run in any different directions. We have to rein in our thinking.

You'll be amazed to see how your experience has transformed. OK, we come back. I'm going to go to the phones.

866-348-7884. But I can honestly tell you for many, many years as a believer, every new objection, I would hear to the biblical text or biblical history or something else or Jesus being the Messiah said, OK, let's let's tackle it. Let's see if there's truth to it rather than I'm going to find a convenient answer for this. I was confident enough. The God that I served was not threatened by questions and objections. Be right back. 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 today on the line of fire. The more I've studied scripture over the years, the more my mind and heart have been in harmony. In other words, I know God spiritually. I experience him spiritually at the witness of the spirit in my own life. I have the evidence of a transformed life. I have many examples of divine intervention and answers to prayer and supernatural leading and things like that. At the same time, there are many intellectual questions that come up reading the word of God and questions about history and questions about textual reliability.

And questions about theological consistency and questions about the goodness of God and the problem of evil, etc. The more I've studied, the more my heart and mind have been in even deeper harmony, the more I've been able to love God with heart and mind together. And of course, that's been something foundational in my life for decades and decades.

It's only grown and deepened. And I want to encourage and help you in the same way. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-34-87-884. Let me say one more thing and then I want to open up the phones.

Go to the phone lines and take some of your questions. So, by God's grace, I've been raised up as a key leader in Messianic Jewish apologetics. For years, I'd be introduced as the world's foremost Messianic Jewish apologist, and my joke used to be a number one among one. I'd say it's like playing center on the pygmy basketball team.

You don't have to be that tall to do it. In other words, there was a need. There was a void. There was no one in our generation who was putting together solid academic work based on Hebrew scholarship, understanding of rabbinic literature, clear faith in Jesus Yeshua being our Messiah, and dealing with objections, countering the counter missionaries, answering the rabbis in a systematic and clear way, in written form and on a major level.

There's nobody there. So, God called me to help fill that void. And thankfully, so many others have done their work. Now, there are many others doing all kinds of other work that I wasn't doing and work that I couldn't do.

But this was just an area of need. And when you go to all the seminaries, what are you doing in Jewish apologetics? It didn't exist. But to this day, even in top apologetic seminaries, often there's nothing about Jewish apologetics. You get Islamic apologetics. You can get, you know, dealing with science. You can get dealing with history, dealing with philosophy, etc.

The cults, the Jewish apologetics, which you think would be number one on the list because of starting with Israel and wanting to see Jewish people saved in the end. And now, well, it's a massive void. Here's the thing now. There are others that have built on what I've done and done their own work and gone beyond me. There are others that have been inspired by it and done their own work. So, by God's grace, good things have happened, right?

But here's the thing. I know that if my material had been around when I was a new believer, it would have helped me immensely. In fact, the first reason I began to take all the time to put into writing Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, that five-volume series and other related writings over the years. The first reason I did it was to strengthen other Jewish believers so they wouldn't have to go through the same crisis I did.

They wouldn't have to look around and say, well, who's answering these questions and where do I get the information? And that's why it's been so gratifying. And this is all to the glory of the Lord. We each have our task. We each have our role to play. And any good that comes out of it is to God's glory.

So I deeply appreciate the entrustment that he gave me and I take it as a sacred entrustment. But I've run into so many people over the years, believers, Jewish believers, who say I'm still in the faith because of your writings or because your debates. Yet many came to faith through them. But what especially gratifies me is hearing about those who are still in the faith because, in other words, they got hit with the same objections I got hit with. They got hit with the same challenges.

They got hit with the same questions. They found my material and it was a godsend for them because they found it full of truth and it strengthened their faith and they endured the conflict and now they've gone on. Okay, so in the same way, there are others in other areas where I am totally ignorant, completely ignorant. I don't know anything about the field whatsoever or whatever I know about it can be encapsulated in like two minutes. But there are others that are like I am in Jewish apologetics.

They are in this area or this area or this area and they're absolutely brilliant. So all I need to know is that they're out there. In other words, I don't have to learn all these other fields. I can't. You can't learn everything. Specialize in everything, right? I know they're there and I know they've done the hard work and they've gone through the challenges and the pain and wrestled and they're not living in denial.

They're not shutting off their brain to keep their faith strong. So I just need to know, hey, I don't have the answer to that. But here, check out this website. Check out this book.

Go watch that debate. It's been done. It's been done. So sometimes you just need to know, hey, you've been through the fire, you've been tested and you come out strong. It's the same way experientially, right? I said this last thing and then to the phone.

866-348-7884. Some of you have gone through pain, suffering, loss in this world that I couldn't imagine. I could not imagine living through what you live through. And yet you're standing strong and you're testifying to the goodness of God. You're not denying the loss, the pain. In fact, the pain's with you to this moment. But you've come out stronger through it. You've come out better through it. You've come out closer to God through it. Boy, you speak volumes. You speak louder than any of my books because you can tell someone else in the midst of pain and terrible loss.

It's never going to be the same. The darkness is never going to leave. And you're there to say, hey, I lived through that. I've been through that. I'm telling you, there's light on the other side of the tunnel.

In fact, there's light even within the tunnel. And I'm standing here to tell you God's faithful and he's going to show you his faithfulness. So never downplay the importance of a testimony, be it one of spiritual experience, be it one of intellectual experience.

Never downplay the importance of that. All right, 866-34-TRUTH. Let's start with Stephen in Vogel, West Virginia. Welcome to the Light of Fire.

Hello, Dr. Brown. Concerning Matthew chapter 24, I don't know if you've ever dealt with any preterists, but I don't know. It seems it has a strong argument, at least at the beginning of that chapter, about the destruction of the temple. What do you think about their view of 70 AD?

Right. So I believe they have some things right about 70 AD, but many things wrong. So for those not familiar with preterists, they're full preterists and partial preterists. Let's just deal with a partial preterist. Preterists says certain things are past. So we would all agree the prophecies about the virgin birth of Jesus, his death and resurrection.

Those are all past. Those have already come to pass. What about his coming in the clouds, his coming in glory and power? What about us being caught up to meet him in the air and descending with him as he sets up his kingdom? What about our resurrection from the dead and being raised in glory?

Are those promises still future or are they past? Now, a full preterist holds to heretical views. A full preterist says that the second coming of Jesus is in the past. A full preterist says there will be no future second coming. A full preterist says there will be no future resurrection of the dead. So these are heretical positions. But a partial preterist says that many of the prophecies that we think are end of the world prophecies about the second coming of Jesus really refer to him coming in power to destroy Jerusalem in the year 70.

So here's what is right. Much of Matthew 24 clearly does apply to the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70. That's confirmed in Luke 21 and Mark 13 as well. Secondly, they emphasize the traumatic nature of that event and how important it was in biblical history. But they absolutely misread the text to see that referring in any way to the second coming.

Matthew 24 is answering three questions by the disciples. When will these things happen, namely the destruction of the temple? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? So even if you say the sign of your coming and the end of the age, that's together. The destruction of the temple was clearly something separate. Jesus answers all their questions at once.

So they're kind of layers in his answer. If you read Luke 21, Luke 21 seems to come to a clearer stop. This is about the destruction of Jerusalem. Now I'm going to tell you about the future and the end of the world. So the preters would say, yes, but Jesus says that the generation that sees these things, this generation will not pass until everything comes to pass, until everything is fulfilled. Well, as I read it, there are two different ways to understand it. The generation that's listening to Jesus now will see the destruction of the temple.

Yes, that is true. However, there are other things that are being spoken of there that are clearly of the end of the age that have not happened yet. The sign of the coming of the Son of Man, all the clouds of heaven and all the world mourning over him, and many of the New Testament texts about him coming soon and how it's going to shake the whole world. That was not the destruction of the temple. In other words, when Peter's writing in 1 Peter 4, the end of all things is at hand and a predator says, if you see, that must mean the destruction of the temple.

That's what he was talking about. That was not the end of all things. That was not of concern to the whole world. In other words, the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem did not affect the whole world back then, did not affect Christians all over the world. So it exaggerates things and it fails to see different layers of meaning in Matthew 24. Now you might say, well, where else is that in the Bible?

Oh, it's common. In other words, Ezekiel 36, that's a passage about the return of the Jews from Babylonian exile 2,500 years ago. But when you read it, some of it was fulfilled then, the rest of it hasn't been fulfilled yet. It's still being fulfilled as Jews are regathered from all around the world. You say, why do I say it's still being fulfilled?

Because many of the things that are promised there haven't happened yet. Yet its context is 2,500 years ago. So some of Matthew 24 applies to the destruction of the temple and the generation that will see that happen. Others refer to the end of the age and the generation that sees those final things will see the Lord's return.

And I do believe it'll be, on a certain level, a repeat, meaning that there will be a temple in Jerusalem, that there will be final battles, that there will even be a future destruction of the temple, and yet God coming in power to rescue his people. Hey, stay right there. If you've got questions on what I said, we'll take it on the other side of the break.

And then Bob in Napa Valley, you're up next. So stay on the line. 866-3-4-TRUTH. The Word of God is trusted. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-3-4-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Alright, well, since Stephen hung up during the break, it looks like we answered Stephen's question, so hopefully that's the case. In short, there's language in Matthew 24 that simply cannot be applied to the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70. Or to try to make the whole New Testament turn around the destruction of the Jerusalem in the year 70. It just doesn't work. It just doesn't work. And often, it opens the door to a theology that downplays the ongoing promises to Israel and the Jewish people. That's another issue I have with Preterism.

And does not sufficiently emphasize the hope. What we are looking forward to is the appearing of Jesus. 866-3-4-TRUTH. Let's go to Bob in Napa Valley, California. Welcome to the line of fire.

Thank you, Dr. Brown. My question relates to the Flood, which is a common objection that, when we're witnessing, we have to deal with. The historicity of it. And I'm wondering if the Hebrew in Genesis 7 and other references possibly allows for the Flood to be to the extent that humans had migrated by that point as opposed to all the way around the globe. Right, so the first thing is, even if there were human beings all around the globe at that point, could the Flood speak of a localized Flood?

Let's ask it in that way. Because the Bible could simply be focusing on a particular part of the world, and therefore that's the context. Now, if I was going to argue for a localized Flood, I would want to argue the way you are. In other words, that human beings were not all over the globe at that point, because it does seem to speak quite universally about the wickedness of the human race, right?

So it does seem to be speaking of wiping out the whole human race. But the only real way that you could say that the Hebrew supports the potential of a localized Flood more than the English is the Hebrew word Eretz. So the word Eretz can mean earth, like the whole world, or earth meaning the land of Canaan, the area, a particular area. So, for example, in Genesis 1-1 where God creates et ha'shamayim, et ha'aretz, he creates the heavens and the earth, so the earth is the whole world. But then often Eretz is used in a more specialized way for a particular country, you know, the Eretz of this, or Eretz mitzrayim, the land of Egypt, right? So that would be the only thing in Hebrew that Eretz itself, which is constantly used here, could refer to a specific area of territory as opposed to the whole planet.

It could be used for either, but the Hebrew would be, it'd be easier to think in those terms than in English terms. Now, if I was debating with someone, and they were, or I'm just sharing the Gospel with someone, and they raised this, this would be my approach. I have read some studies by geologists where they make very compelling cases for a universal Flood. The problem is, I'm not a geologist, right? I have read studies by archaeologists who have made a compelling argument for a universal Flood. And then the fact that you have Flood traditions all around the world would either suggest that everybody's had bad Floods, or that there was a universal Flood, just so from folklore and literature around the world.

But the problem is, I do not have the scientific ability to argue these points. If someone really challenged me, or, you know, it's just not feasible, you couldn't have an ark with this, or the water's here, how could the waters cover the whole, even though I've read the stuff, it's not my area. So, if this was a big sticking point for someone, and I was talking with them, I would say, there are some Biblical scholars who think it was a localized Flood, and there are others who think it's universal, and there are scientists who argue it both ways, I wouldn't get hung up on it.

Follow me? In other words- But the Scripture itself doesn't stand in the way of that view, you would say? No, I read it, to me, it is clearly universal, but there are other top scholars, Biblical scholars, believers, who believe Scripture speaking of a localized Flood, and that's the right way to read it. So, that would be the point. In other words, I'm not trying to get out of an argument, follow?

I'm not trying to come up with a cheapo answer. I'm simply not going to get into a battle over that, knowing that a universal Flood can be scientifically supported, and there are brilliant scholars, I mean PhDs in geology and other fields, that will give you all their reasons why there's a universal Flood. Creation.com, for example, you'll run into that, or Answers in Genesis, you know, these kind of sites where people will lay that out. However, there are Biblical scholars who, completely aside from science, say we should read this as localized. I don't read it like that, but it is, let's just say, more possible to read like that in Hebrew because of the usage of Eretz, but you would have to argue that it's a point in history when there had not been migration all over the world, because that seems to be the sticking point. The sinfulness of the human race, as opposed to the sinfulness of people living in a certain area. Perfect, thank you.

That's helpful. Yeah, and again, let me make this clear. I'm not going to come up with a cheap answer just to drive an objection away. I would rather say, that's a great question, and you know, I don't have an answer for it, let me study that. But here, because I know there are answers, I'm just not going to make that the sticking point.

You know what I'm saying? If I'm trying to get someone to hear the Gospel, and there's need in their own life, and they need to get right with God, they need to be forgiven, and they're hung up over this one point, I'll say, here, there's different options, and there are different possibilities. Now let's focus on other issues. That's my whole approach. So thank you, sir, for the question. All right, tell you what, I am not going to repeat the phone number yet another time with three minutes left in the show and take more calls.

Well, all right, maybe I will. This depends on what comes up on my screen here. When people say there's so many translations of the Bible, that's a wonderful thing, that's a good thing. It doesn't mean there's so many different texts of the Bible, it's translations. Here, I just got this in the mail today.

I think I can hold it up on the screen. It's not afraid of the Antichrist, but we don't believe in the pre-tribulation rapture that Craig Keener and I wrote together. It's translated into Czech. This is a new translation. There's the one text that we wrote, the book we wrote, but now here's another translation into a foreign language.

Wonderful. The fact that there are many, many translations of the Bible, hundreds, thousands into different languages, doesn't mean there are thousands of different texts of the Bible, but translations of the text of the Bible. And when you read, here, read 20 different translations or 50 different English translations of key verses, and you'll see overwhelmingly it's the same message. Overwhelmingly, the translations are saying the same thing. And then here and there, it's like, okay, I wonder what that actually means. Well, you read anything, you have to study it, interpret it, do your best to understand it.

Okay, Solomon in Houston. I'm going to answer your question, but for time's sake, I'm going to ask your question first. Did I know that Jesus was God as soon as I was saved, or must everyone know that?

Not necessarily. I didn't. I knew he died for my sins. I knew he was my Lord, but I hadn't even thought through Trinity or anything like that.

I was brand new, heavy drug user, just getting saved. I remember there was a Jesus movie playing, it was around Christmas, and it ended by saying, and the whole world knew that there was only one Lord, something like that, and my mother said to me, they shouldn't say that Jesus is God. And I thought, oh, is he? I don't know.

It would be kind of bad if he was as a Jew, that wouldn't work well, but is he God? I don't know. And I called a friend, and I asked her, and she said, oh, that's really complicated. It's like Trinity and all that. She said, no one really understands it. I said, oh, okay, good. She goes, but he is God.

Oh, all right. Then I started to study the scripture and concluded that he was, that he was the eternal son, and that God has revealed himself to us as Father, Son, and Spirit. But there are plenty of people, especially Jews, Solomon, that when they come to faith, they don't understand that part. They know he's the Messiah. They believe he's the one who fulfilled the prophecies. They know his miracles and his resurrection, and that God sent him. But it's sometimes only over a period of time that they begin to realize the fullness of what that means. I'm sure it was like that with the first disciples and even a further revelation after his resurrection. And then as they're preaching in the Book of Acts, the light went on in different stages for for Jews as they were hearing the message and coming to faith. However, if someone is fully presented with this, understands it, and rejects it, then I would say they are rejecting something fundamental for their salvation. Hey, Solomon, sorry I couldn't bring on the phone, but this is where I knew I could answer your question in time. Thank you for calling. So you say, but there's so many thousands and thousands of textual variants.

What is this? We have such an abundance of textual material that overwhelmingly the evidence is saying the same thing. And then here and there we have questions like not exactly sure if it's this reading or that, but it is nothing that's going to affect your faith or your walk with God or your understanding of God or you're calling to be obedient to God. So it's just look at it like this. If you're taking directions on the GPS. Right.

And you got 20 directions on there to get where you're going. And one of them is like, I'm not quite sure. Do I turn here or there? It doesn't mean all the other objections aren't 100 percent clear.

They are. And when you have to make that turn that the what you'll it'll be clear then what you need to do. The word of God, the word of God can be trusted. All right. Talk to you tomorrow on Thursday. Another program powered by the Truth Network.