Dr. Brown Tackles Your Best Questions

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The phone lines are wide open. Let's do it. You've got questions. We've got answers. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, friends, to the Line of Fire broadcast 866-34-TRUTH. This number to call 866-34-87-884. You've got questions. We've got answers. Any question of any kind that relates in any way to the radio broadcast, to any of the things we talk about, write about, guess we've had on controversial subjects of any kind.

Our joy to tackle your questions. Now's a great time to call. The earlier in the show you call, the better chance we have of getting to your calls.

866-348-7884. Before I go to the phones, did you get our email this week announcing our latest ministry resource? My newest book, Revival or We Die, A Great Awakening Is Our Only Hope, is due out October 19th. It's coming out in paperback and e-book. But we have purchased a special printing of hardcover editions at a great price. And I'm going to sign them.

They'll be numbered copies. And then I've recorded a special video message where I take you through each chapter of the book and give you further background to the history of the book. I believe this will really stir you. I believe as you read it that something is going to ignite in you to go after God more earnestly. I believe that there's going to be a hunger and thirst that rises, a faith for revival, an understanding of what this is all about. I've been really blessed to hear from some of those who've been reading advanced copies that they're saying it's kind of the Ravenhill type style, the writing I did in the late 80s and early 90s, especially of stirring hearts for revival back then. I felt the Lord stir me to do this again.

Revival or we die. You can pre-order at AskDrBrown.org. A-S-K-D-R Brown.org.

You can pre-order there. I believe you'll be richly blessed as you do. All right. We go to the phones.

Let's start in Canyon Lake, California. David, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. Thanks for taking my call. Sure thing.

All right. So I have a question about, I guess it relates to the appointing of Saul as the first king over Israel and David as his predecessor following after him. So I've often heard sermons about how Israel's decision to appoint a king over them was sinful and all that stuff, and I know that we have the text in the Bible and how the posture of their hearts and all that, but I was just wondering if that had not happened, do you think that David still would have been king afterwards? Because just going back to Genesis chapter 17, God says to Abraham, I have made you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. So oftentimes when I have heard people talk about Israel's sin and appointing a king over them because God ultimately wanted to be their king, they won't actually reference this passage about Abraham and kings coming forth from his lineage and then Deuteronomy 17 and about kings being appointed. So I just want to hear your thoughts on that. Yeah, I've got an even better passage to add. How about Deuteronomy 17, where it's in the law, right, in terms of having a king.

So there are two sides to it. God certainly knew that the people would need an earthly king. He fully understood, given their nature, that they would not simply have him as their god and their king. But ideally, if they had obeyed as a nation, they could have been a priestly nation. You know, Exodus 19, God says I'll make you into a priestly nation. The idea of just having one tribe, the Levites, become the priests out of that tribe was not the way it started.

In other words, this happens after Exodus 32 in the golden calf, then Levi, the tribe of Levi is separated. But God knows all of this in advance. He knows human nature. He knows we'll need a king. He knows the whole nation will not, when I say we need a king, I don't mean all human beings, but Israel would need a king.

He knew that they would need to have a priestly caste among them because the whole nation would not live up to this. So he has to rebuke them for the wrong. He has to rebuke them because even in Deuteronomy 17, when you say, let's be like the other nations, right, that was not ideal. But God, recognizing it being pragmatic, has worked it all out in advance to the point of having Jesus be the son of David who dies for the sins of the world. So on the one hand, it was always his plan, but it was never the absolute ideal.

But human beings being who they are, this is the reality. You know, on another level, you have Matthew 19, where Jesus explains that divorce was given by God because of the hardness of human hearts. It was never his ideal, but it was part of the law and has been part of human history and is even part of culture within the New Testament. So that's God being pragmatic and then based on his foreknowledge, constructing a plan. So this would be one of those moments of just talking about God's sovereignty overall.

Yes. And having a king would not necessarily be sinful the way divorce can often be sinful or destructive. In other words, having a king, if that king is godly and points people to the Lord, that's positive. But through most of Israel's history, the kings were not good. They led in the wrong direction, led the people further away from God.

So it ended up being counterproductive. Yes, God in his foreknowledge and sovereignty saw this, but he's going to deal with things honestly. Here, think of this. Think of Balaam going to curse Israel. And God tells him initially, don't go. And then he asks again, God says, okay, go and then rebukes him for going.

Well, he rebuked him for going because it was obviously monetary reasons. That's what the rest of the Bible tells us, that Balaam was greedy. And that's why he asked God again when God said, no, it's like, well, they come with more money.

Let me ask again. So God rebukes him for that, but then still sends him on a mission. And some of his words are actually used in the Jewish prayer book to this day.

Interestingly, the words of Balaam are prayed back in terms of the uniqueness of Israel. Hey, thank you for the question. Thank you so much.

Yeah, appreciate it. 866-34-TRUTH. Hey, last couple of Fridays here and there, we've had some phone lines open, which often doesn't happen on a Friday. So if you've tried to call before, for whatever reason, and we understand some of our stations were having phone line questions, problems either earlier, not sure if that's affecting things, but we've had some open lines. So great time to call in 866-34-TRUTH.

All right, let's go to Rudy in Frederick, Maryland. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Yes, hello. Hello. Hello. Yes.

All right, so my question, Dr. Bond, is when Moses went up to the mountain and God told him to take off your sandals for you, you are in holy ground. I'm trying to understand what was the reason behind that he couldn't have sandals on before God. Yeah, it's purely a cultural thing, Rudy. In other words, there's nothing inherent in wearing a sandal or not wearing a sandal. You know, for example, it might be like you go into a restaurant or a store that may say no shoes, no shirts, no service, right? That it would be considered wrong to go into a store barefoot, okay?

And you'd want socks on or shoes or sandals or something like that. And that's our culture. To this day, if I go to preach in Korea, there are certain settings where when you go, maybe you go in and stand up on the platform.

Same in India. We go into the meeting, we take our shoes off before we go into the service. So outside the door, all these piles of shoes. It may still be the fastest growing church in the world.

It was years ago, went from 30 people to over 100,000 in 10 years in Hyderabad, Calvary Chapel there. They have masses of these little boxes where people put their shoes, their sandals on the way into the meeting because they don't wear shoes into a service because it's considered holy ground. So it's all a cultural thing.

In other words, nothing intrinsic about it. So it's different, for example, than murder, which is morally wrong, or seduction, which is morally wrong. In some settings, it would be cover your feet because you're on holy ground. In other settings, uncover your feet because you're on holy ground. All a matter of culture. Oh, okay. So are we talking about Jewish culture in this case?

I mean, since God is asking Moses to do that? I would say more broadly, ancient or eastern culture. There was no such thing really as Jewish culture at that point. I'm sorry.

Yeah, yeah. No, no, I understand what you're saying, but even to call it Israelite culture, no, I would say it was more ancient or eastern culture and a sign of reverence, a sign of respect. It's fascinating though, when you go from culture to culture, you learn certain things. When I was in Finland, I was talking to some of the folks there because the folks would come into the meetings dressed very, very distinctively and they were gypsies. And in that culture, gypsies were of a different status than gypsies and said that I met in Italy that were more outcast. But they were telling me about a lot of the family traditions.

And for example, being on higher ground was very important. So if you had, say, a family gathering, you're having a feast and things like that, and there was like a platform here and then lower seats here, the elders, the respected elders, they would be in the higher place and to not have them there would be very offensive. So we look at things in our own culture often, like I've been overseas and someone has to tell me, by the way, this is not the cultural way to do it.

This is not the cultural way to say this, do this. We don't know. And a lot of this is a learning curve, learning experience. So anyway, thank you. Thank you for the question. So that's always something as we're dealing with biblical truths. Was this purely cultural for the day?

Does it reflect something that is for a certain time? Is this something that is universal and for all time? And that's what we have to distinguish. For example, the food laws, were those for all people for all time? Well, the answer is obviously no, because if you look in Genesis 9, God gives all food to the descendants of Noah as the earth is being repopulated. And then later on, in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, God tells the children of Israel that you can't eat certain foods. So that was separate. That was different.

That was new. And you say what Noah was told about clean and unclean animals, it most likely means animals that could be sacrificed versus animals that couldn't be sacrificed, hence there were more of the clean because they could be sacrificed. But in any case, as in Genesis 9, it said everything that moves, you can eat. So there was nothing morally wrong in and of itself in eating one food versus another. But God gave the food laws for certain reasons.

We have to understand those reasons and then ask how they apply to us today. Okay, we'll be right back. Here's the number to call.

866-348-7884. You've got the questions, we've got answers. 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. Welcome, welcome to The Line of Fire.

This is Michael Brown. We've got questions, we've got answers. 866-344-TRUTH.

We go to an anonymous caller in Kentucky. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Michael Brown. I really love your program and appreciate your ministry. I had a question. It's really more of an issue. I have developed, and I feel kind of silly saying this, I've developed almost what I would consider a phobia of the rapture. And I know I've heard some of your stuff on it before, and to be honest, it's actually led to panic attacks and other things, but I just wanted to get your take on the whole situation.

So yeah, I'm sorry to hear that, but thank you for calling. So when you say panic attacks, do you mean the idea that the rapture could happen at any second, and you're going to miss it? Yeah.

Ah, okay. Yeah, so the Bible doesn't teach that, though. The Bible doesn't teach that, and therefore there's no reason for that fear. But let me come back to that.

Let me hit from another angle first, then I'll come back to that, okay? Do you fear death in general, that you might die at any moment and somehow not be perfect with God at that moment and maybe go to hell? Yes, and I used to not. I used to pray. And I believe more of a post-tribulation rapture now. But I used to believe in pre-tribulation, pretty, you know, pretty—I thought that was really the only way to believe. And I used to pray for it, and now—it was actually after a car accident—now I just have the panic attacks and the kind of a fear of death, health anxiety. Got it, yeah, yeah. I kind of rolled into one.

Got it. Yeah, I'm so sorry to hear that. That's got to be tormenting. So I'm going to give you answers, but then somehow the Holy Spirit has to make this real to you, because panic attacks are not rational. And I can give you truth, and the panic attack can still hit. So it's good to ask the Lord, get with some godly friends, a pastor, some good counselors, and pray to get to the root. You know, you can trace things back to the car accident.

Maybe there's something deeper than that. But you don't stand or fall based on your specific obedience of the moment. You stand or fall based on what Jesus did on the cross.

Unless you willfully walk away from Him and determine to never come back, then you rest in His grace and His goodness. In other words—so we just heard a little child in the background, right? That child is your child— The out-rat, yeah, sorry.

No, that's fine. We'll illustrate a point. That child is your child on a good day or a bad day. That child is still your child if the kid's good, if the kid's not good. If you have to discipline the child or not, or praise the child, still your child. So we're God's children by His grace. And let's just say that you were in a car, and somebody cut you off, and you lost your temper, and you started leaning on the horn, and you started to use profanity.

You idiot! You started to curse him out, and then you lost—and next thing you crashed your car and died. You're not going to go to hell for that. You don't go to hell for a momentary bad act.

You go to hell for rejecting Jesus, for refusing His lordship. So somehow there needs to be an assurance. You've got to ask God to make this real to you by His Word and Spirit, that you're saved by His grace, that you're a child by His goodness. As I said, unless you determine, I'm leaving the house, I'm leaving the family, and I'm not coming back, then that grace is the very thing that carries you as a child. So for that assurance to come, to know to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord. That the worst case scenario is the best case scenario, because I'm with Jesus forever and ever in the most unimaginably beautiful, wonderful setting, and that's for all eternity.

So that's the first thing. The second thing is, the Bible makes very, very clear that there will be ample signs leading up to the Lord's return, and that that day will not catch us unaware because we're children of God. And the whole idea that we're talking is suddenly we're just out of here with all respect to my pre-trib friends. That's not what the Bible says. It's not what the Bible says. So be at peace on the score in terms of your life rests in God because of His grace and goodness, and be at peace because the idea of just any moment you may get zapped out and you just don't know when it might happen, that's not biblical.

I'll tell you this last thing, sir. When I was a new believer, and the Pentecostal church filled with the Spirit began to speak in tongues, and then understood the teaching of the church about the rapture. I heard about the rapture before I was even saved. I heard that before I probably heard the gospel clearly. And then we were taught when the rapture happens that the people of God will be pulled out, and with them the Holy Spirit. So the church will leave with the Holy Spirit. So I realized, okay, if the Holy Spirit leaves, then I wouldn't be able to speak in tongues. So if I miss the rapture, then I wouldn't be able to speak in tongues. And let's say I did something wrong, thought some wrong thought, and Lord forgive me, wash me, and then I'd instantly speak in tongues to make sure I didn't miss the rapture. That's not how God wants us to live.

That's not the security He's given us. And there are many pre-tribbers, I'm sure, who don't live like that, but let's be at peace. Hey, may God's grace minister to you, my brother. Thank you for calling with such a personal situation. I appreciate it. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Greg in Cary, North Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hey, good afternoon to you, Dr. Brown. I have a question about where Paul was instructed to, I believe it was Paul, was instructed to knock the sandals together and dust off the feet of their sandals from the place where they were rejected. Could you explain the significance of that? I heard somebody say, I don't know who it was, I can't remember where I heard it from, but they said that maybe that dust was going to be collected and put as a witness to the person who rejected Christ and probably, I guess, at the great white throne of judgment if they didn't accept Jesus before that time, before their death.

Have you heard anything about that? No, it's simply, it shakes the dust off your feet. It is utterly and completely disassociating yourself with those people. It would almost be like we shook hands and, you know, maybe my hand was sweaty when we shook hands and then you found out I betrayed you. It's like I'm wiping that off my hand.

I'm having nothing to do with you. So it's what Jesus commissions the disciples to do in Matthew 10 and then symbolically, you know, when Paul says, OK, we, you know, we're leaving the, you know, the Jewish community, going to the Gentile community. But Jesus told his disciples, if you're rejected, shake the dust off your feet.

It's not to say that it couldn't have other meanings or their applications in certain cultural settings. But the plain and obvious thing is just you're completely disassociating yourself. So it would it would be like, you know, somebody had gifts from from someone and this person betrayed them and they threw that stuff away or they had pictures with them.

And you ever been to someone's home and they were in a relationship with someone and they're no longer in a relationship and you see they cut that face out of the picture. You know, these just these different ways of people saying I'm completely breaking all ties with you. I'm I have nothing to do with you. So the very dust that's on my feet from from walking into your your house, I'm shaking that off. And that's that's that's a testimony against you as opposed to something more homiletical, like the dust is going to be stirred up on the day of judgment. It's more simple than that.

OK, can I ask one more real quick question? I thought I heard you say something. I thought you heard I heard you say that. And I know that there was when I had been I was saved in on a on a base with our Pentecostal Holiness Church chaplain was was there. And but as far as some of the Pentecostals believe that in order to be saved, you have to speak in tongues. It seemed like you were alluding or you were alluding to the fact that you believe that that you. Oh, no, no.

It's not like that. It's one this Pentecostals believe this. It's a it's a very dangerous doctrine that you're not saved unless you speak in tongues.

I say it's dangerous because, number one, it takes the assurance of salvation away from many people who are saved. And number two creates an environment where you're going to manufacture something under pressure to somehow give the impression that you're speaking in tongues. Know what I was saying was as a Pentecostal, I believed in being filled with the Spirit and speaking tongues as a believer. In other words, as a saved person, I believe you could be filled with the Spirit and speak in tongues, which I believe until this day. But we were taught back then that there's going to be a pre-trib rapture. Jesus comes at any moment and and zaps the church out that we suddenly disappear and we go to be with the Lord and that when he does that, he will take the Holy Spirit with him. So if somehow you missed the rapture, this is how I used to think. If you missed the rapture, then you'll no longer have the Holy Spirit. And if you don't have the Holy Spirit, then you can't speak in tongues.

So that's that was the confused thinking that I had back then. But no, I never believed that you had to speak in tongues in order to be saved. And clearly that's that's not a scriptural teaching on any level. And as I said, it can be dangerous because it can take true assurance away from believers because, well, I never spoke in tongues. Does that mean I'm not saved or put you under pressure? I kind of speak in tongues. I got to I got to make this happen.

And that's obviously dangerous as well. Hey, thanks for your questions, Greg. Appreciate it. All right. Good day. Sure. God bless. 866-34-TRUTH. Hey, have you visited vitaminmission.com?

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866-342. 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. Welcome, welcome to the Line of Fire broadcast.

This is Michael Brown. We've got questions, we've got answers, 866-34-TRUTH. You know, we've been doing live radio five days a week now for more than 13 years.

I come in excited to do the show every single day. I look forward to this particular broadcast where you just call in with your questions. So thanks for your great questions. We'll do our best to give you solid answers.

And we start in Tupelo, Mississippi. Clay, welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi, thank you for taking my call, and good afternoon.

Good afternoon. I have a question concerning the book of Luke, chapter 18. In verse 31, Jesus describes that he must go and have all the things written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man accomplished. But in verse 34, it states that they understood none of these things, the saying was hid from them. Can you explain that? Was it literally kept as in being hid from them, or they just did not understand it?

Yeah, so you could understand this in one of two ways, more. But simply, one would be they didn't get it, and he didn't help them see it. In other words, without his help, they weren't going to see it. Without him sitting down and saying, okay, let me show you these prophecies.

Let me open these up for you. And now you say, oh, now we get it. You could either mean that, or that he actively blinded them, or that God actively blinded them. In my view, it's more the former. In other words, it's hid from them because they're not getting it.

It doesn't fit in with their paradigm. In their view, the Messiah is going to rule and reign, not be crucified, not be killed and rejected, die a criminal's death. I was going to do that and fulfill his mission. It would be like you're on your way to the Super Bowl. You're the quarterback of the team, and there are all these prophecies over you. You're going to win the Super Bowl in dramatic fashion and lead your team to the greatest victory in Super Bowl history.

And then you keep telling the team, by the way, I'm going to die in a car accident before the Super Bowl. How? How? That makes no sense. So I don't believe it was hidden in terms of God having to actively blind their minds as much as God not giving them the ability to see. It was already outside of their paradigm. It made no sense to them, and it was hidden from them because God had to open their minds to see. When you get to Luke 24 and Jesus explains all the prophecies, it says that he opened their minds to understand, but he didn't open their minds there. That's how I would take it. Does that make sense? That makes sense to me more. I was just trying to understand that scripture, and that they couldn't understand the event of his crucifixion, and they didn't know that he was going to rise. Even though he told them he was going to rise, it just didn't register. Because you're not going to die. You can't die. You're the Messiah.

So what's this rise thing? So if you look in Luke 24, verse 44, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. So it was reminding them, I told you all this, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And this is, you know, you have with the children of Israel that God says you weren't given a mind and heart to see until now. So sometimes God leaves us in our ignorance, things remain hidden. And then at the right time, he opens our eyes.

Ah, now we see it. And by the way, if you believe it's prophesied someone's going to die a certain way, it's very easy to try to make it happen or set up other circumstances or not. Like if you know, okay, this relative of yours is going to die of a serious illness. Well, when they catch a cold, you think, well, should they even pray? You know, should they go to the doctor if they're sick?

So a lot of things we can't know in advance because we would mess with it if we did. Hey, thank you for the call. Much appreciated. 866-344-TRUTH. We go to Scott. Nope, we were going to Scott, but we won't. Let's go to Mo in Sacramento, California. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hi. I had a question about Exodus 4, verse 24. It's about when Moses was going after he saw the burning bush and he was going back into Egypt, and then there's this passage talking about how God was going to come and kill Moses, and this was a very strange passage to me, and I was wondering if you had any insights into this and if there was any rabbinic tradition commentating on this? Yeah, so it is a very interesting passage. I've been asked about it many times over the years for good reason. I mean, you're reading it, it's like, what? God sought to kill him as he was, what's that about? So it is, you, like many, many others have asked about it for good reason.

In the larger scheme of things, we understand what's happening. There was one covenantal sign that God gave to Israel, going back to Abram in Genesis 17, which was circumcision. This is before Sabbath laws and all the other things that God gave to Israel to separate them from the nations. There was one thing that was required as a physical sign, and that was circumcision. Moses is about to go to Pharaoh and speak on behalf of God, let my son go that he may worship me, and God is going to judge all of Egypt if they don't obey here, and Moses himself hasn't obeyed.

Moses himself has not circumcised his sons. So because of that, it's a major issue, and God's seeking to kill him. Obviously, God had no intention of killing him, but it's basically God telling Moses, you're a dead man unless you do this. You are in violation, you are supposed to be cut off. If you fail to do this, you are cut off. Those are the terms that God gave, and now you're going to go as the leader to try to liberate Israel as God's son, and you haven't obeyed.

So it's pretty much saying this is very, very serious. So God had no intention of actually killing him, but Moses knew, you're a dead man if you don't do this. Of course, God knew that he would rightly respond. As to rabbinic tradition, it has also drawn interesting commentary here as well, and I'm just going back to the passage here, and I'm going to read you what Rashi, who's the foremost rabbinic commentator, says about this, where it says he sought to put him to death because he had not circumcised the son of a liaison, because he had showed himself remiss in this, for he brought upon himself the pronouncement of death. And then some traditions say, God forbid that this was so, Moses had never been remiss in this day, but he thought if I circumcised him and immediately proceed onto the journey, the child's life would be in danger for those dead. So some try to rationalize it. There's some rabbinic tradition that tries to rationalize it and say, well, he had done it, or he had to wait.

He was waiting for the right moment because of travel concerns and other things like that. But the plain text is what Rashi first says it is, which is what I also said. But the idea in verse 26, a bridegroom of blood, Rashi says, my bridegroom was on the point of being killed on account of the circumcision. So when Zipporah calls Moses a bridegroom of blood, what she's saying is, you're almost killed because you didn't circumcise the son. Others take the plain text to me and this is a bloody right.

Yeah, I married you, but I didn't sign up for this bloody right, so you're a bridegroom of blood. Those are some of the interpretations that are offered. But yeah, interesting passage for sure. All right. Well, thank you.

You are very welcome. 866-34-TRUTH. All right, we have another anonymous... All right.

Wanted to get to that. It was an anonymous call with a question about homosexuality, which would lead me to think that the caller either was dealing with a situation in their own personal lives and struggling and wanted insight and help, or someone they're close to, family member or friend. So sorry, you're not there. Hey, if you call back in, if you're able to get on, I'll get your call as quickly as I can and protect your anonymity as best as possible. In other words, it's your voice, and otherwise, no state, no location, nothing. We welcome your call.

Let's go to Mike in Durham, North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Yes, sir, thank you very much. I have a quick question. In the Old Testament, specifically around Sodom and Gomorrah, talking with Abraham, and it says the Lord, capital L-O-R-D, my understanding that this is God Himself, correct? Yeah, it's Yahweh, capital L, and then small caps O-R-D, over 6,000 times in most English translation. That represents the Hebrew, yud-hay-vav-hay, normally vocalized as Yahweh. Yes.

Gotcha. Okay, and with Colossians 1-15 saying that Jesus is the visible...excuse me, I don't mean to hurt this...the visible representation of an invisible God. Does that mean that those physical representations in the Old Testament is Jesus, as would have been seen maybe on Mount Transfiguration, the true Jesus, not the earthly form of Jesus? Yes, you wouldn't want to say the true Jesus, but the glorified Son.

Right, so let's even be more accurate. You're exactly right, but let's say it was the Son, because when we speak of Jesus, that's His identity once He comes into this world, right? In other words, born into this world, you shall call His name Yeshua, for He will save His people from their sins in Matthew the first chapter. But otherwise, the Son is the one who reveals the Father. So John 1-14, that the Word became flesh, we beheld His glory, the glories of the one and only of the Father. John 1-18, no one has ever seen God, the one and only God who's in the Father's bosom, He has made Him known. John 14, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So certainly, all of the visible appearances of God in the Old Testament, be it in Genesis 18, be it in Exodus 24, be it in Isaiah 6, be it in Exodus 3, that would be the Son, the Father, the source of all things hidden in His glory. The Son reveals the Father in visible form in the Old Testament and then in the person of Jesus in the New Testament. The Spirit interacts with us on a personal basis kind of here on the ground, but always invisibly with the goal of pointing us to the Son who then points all to the Father. So absolutely, that explains something like Genesis 32, where Jacob wrestles with a man, according to Genesis 32, according to Hosea 12, it's an angel, but then he says, I'll name the place Peniel, because I've seen God face to face. Panim, face, or pene there, and El, God. So, yeah, the Son is the one who reveals the Father.

That's what He does, the visible manifestation of the invisible God. Thank you. 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.

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This time we go to Paul in Vinemont, Alabama. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown, for taking time to answer my question today.

Sure. Yeah, I wanted to ask you, if we were able to look at the account of Genesis 15.6, and we compare that to statements made about Abraham and his faith in Hebrews 11, if we were able to tell when Abraham was actually justified before God in his life, was it at that point in Genesis 15.6, or was it a point after, or is it, as some people say, a whole process that many justify? So certainly Genesis 15.6 is a landmark.

It's a watershed moment. He believed the Lord and God counted it to him for righteousness. Jewish tradition sees it differently. It's just counted to his merit. In other words, it's not this key moment as much as one of many moments of belief in each of those would be counted to his merit.

I would say that there's truth in both sides. Certainly Abraham had been trusting God as Abraham. Galatians 3 tells us that he believed the gospel. And what was the gospel that he heard?

But you could go back to Genesis 12 when God calls him, tells him to leave his family and his place of living and go to a new place, and through his seed, the whole world would be blessed. And that's the promise that he had. He believed that. So my understanding is that he lived a life of faith over a period of many years, and this was consistent with him being a man who trusted God. And at one particular moment, God counts it, makes the statement it's counted to him, as righteousness. So I would understand that he was justified in God's sight earlier by trusting God and believing God, and this is just one of these moments where God marks it with that statement.

And then Paul goes from there to open up a larger theology through that in terms of justification by faith. All right, let's go to Marlon. All right, somehow okay, I'm not sure what happened. We may have had a problem on our phone lines here, but we had other callers on, and they disappeared. So maybe something happened if someone on our phone board could fill us in. I apologize for that.

Not sure what took place. I'll tell you what, I'll just go over to YouTube for a second. From Mark, do you think God may answer a weird prayer that is growing taller after one has stopped growing, if he's short and that's causing him pain and sadness? I would rather pray, God, your will be done with my physical body and help me to accept your will for my physical body. Now, I'm not talking about that I'm several hundred pounds overweight because of bad dietary habits, and I want God to help me to accept being several hundred pounds overweight because of unhealthy living. But if I would really want to be six foot four and I'm six foot two, or I really want to be five foot eight and I'm five foot three and I'm not growing anymore, I would say, Lord, I would love to be taller. I would really love to be taller. If that's your will, then cause it to happen.

But if not, help me to accept this height that I have with joy. That's how I would approach it. All right, let's try to reconnect on the phones. We'll go to Art, but welcome to The Line of Fire. Thanks for calling.

Hello? Yes, you're on The Line of Fire. Go ahead.

All right, Dr. Brown, thank you. Just had a quick question. As far as the Old Testament, it talks about how we should treat foreigners. How, as a Christian, is that for illegal immigrants as well? As a Christian, how should we...

I live here at the border of Laredo, Texas, and there's immigrants coming into the country illegally. As a Christian, how should we respond to this? I know that in Leviticus it says to treat them kindly, however... Now of course, right, the Old Testament also called Israel to kill their enemies, right? So in other words, we have to make right application. Our hearts should always beat for the poor, for the needy, for those that are deprived, for the homeless. We should have a heart for them. But the Bible is very clear that human government is set up for reasons, that these authorities must have a place, otherwise you have chaos.

Romans 13 says that the governing powers are established by God and that they don't bear the sword in vain, meaning the sword of authority. So by all means, we need to have a nation with borders. No nation can exist without borders, and those borders have to be enforced borders. So what we have to do is get things in order to have legal immigration. We've taken in tens of millions of legal immigrants over the years, all of us at one point or another, unless we're Native Americans, we're children of immigrants. So we have a system that works well if there are greater needs and we have the ability to incorporate people into our society in an orderly way without self-destructing in the process, then we look at that. But as far as those who come in illegally, we should have compassion. We're just talking about people coming in now, not talking about someone that's been in the country 25 years and what do we do and all that. That's a separate question, right?

It needs to be asked, but it's a separate question. But in terms of our heart, our heart should beat for them. We should want what's best, but we have to say, look, there is a way to do this.

There is a system. It would be similar to how we should feel about people who are really hungry breaking into stores, grocery stores and robbing them. Okay, we want to do what we can to help you, but you can't break the laws in the process.

It's perfectly Christian to have that attitude. Otherwise, we are saying yes to chaos. We are saying yes to anarchy. We are saying yes to breaking laws. And in some cases, it's a political agenda on top of it. And these people are just pawns in the midst of a larger political agenda.

So that's my understanding. And again, the Bible was not countenancing people that were not playing by the rules, so to say. It was not countenancing people that were living contrary to Israel's requirements. Hey, thank you for asking and may the Lord give wisdom and grace. Yeah, so Paul, yeah, I believe I finished answering that question, Paul and Vinemont about Genesis 15 six. But in case you got cut off in short, I believe that Abraham was a man justified in God's sight earlier on for putting his trust in God. But this is one of those moments where God draws attention to it in Genesis 15 six and in the process makes this statement about being justified by faith, which then Paul leans on in Galatians and Romans and Jacob James quotes as well in dealing with the issue in the second chapter of his book. So again, a lifestyle of faith. That's how he lived his life, justified when he first looked to God and put his trust in God.

And this particular moment being the time when God like puts a signature on it and says, this is what happened here. Hey, thanks for calling. Alright, Marlon in Detroit, thanks for reconnecting really quickly. What's your question, sir?

Hey, Dr. Brown, how are you? So Dr. Brown, let me see, Matthew chapter 23, like verse 8, 9, and 10, around there, Jesus is telling the disciples, hey, you know, nobody else can do this. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so how do you take that?

Yeah, so I'm only jumping in because I wanted to answer your question, but I got like less than a minute. Okay, so when Jesus says don't call anyone rabbi or teacher or father because you have one rabbi, you have one teacher, you have one, so that's me, you have one father, that's God. On the one hand, we understand the big point. You're all brothers, we're equals in the Lord. So in Jesus, I don't go to a pastor to go to God for me. I don't go to, we ask people to pray for us, but that says as peers, as equals, even if someone is called to lead, they're not called to be over me and I'm under them spiritually. I submit to their authority and leadership, but we are equal in the Lord. That's his point for you are all brothers or brothers and sisters. Now, personally, I'm very at home with not using titles, calling someone rabbi, calling someone father. The church which I got saved, you would never call a Catholic priest father just based on that verse, but let's take the spirit of it more than anything, which is the recognition that in Yeshua, we are all brothers and sisters, equally sons and daughters of God, equally members of the body of Christ. We recognize and honor those in leadership and authority and respect that authority, but we recognize we are one body, one family. Hey, thanks for the question. God bless you all. Another program powered by the truth network.