Dr. Brown Is Here to Answer All Your Questions

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It is our delight to be with you. 866-344-866-348-7884 is the number to call. You've got questions, we've got answers. Any question of any kind that relates in any way to anything we discuss on the show or with a guest, you name it.

866-348-7884. It is our delight to answer your questions today. Before I get to the phones, I just want to give you an exciting announcement, especially if you're listening live. So, March 25th, 2022, if you're listening live, my book from October, Revival or We Die, which I believe is the most important book I wrote on the subject of revival probably for 25 years.

Revival or We Die, Great Awakenings and Our Own Hope, speaking about the nation of America. It's now on sale on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents. The book only sells for $16.99. It's on sale with Amazon Kindle for 99 cents. You say, I don't have a Kindle reader. You don't need it.

You can download the Kindle app on your smartphone, on your tablet, on your PC, on your Mac, either way. Take advantage of it. You know, I write books so people will read them. I write books because I want to get the message out.

I burn with it. If I could press a button and download the material into your hearts and minds, I would do it in a heartbeat. So, when I see that the books are virtually being given away, take advantage of it.

Spread the word on social media. This book is a must read. This book will help spark something fresh in your own heart. So, go to Amazon.com, Revival or We Die.

Certainly in America, maybe in some other countries where this is on sale. I have no idea how long it will last. I just stumbled on it the other day.

So, I have no idea how long it will last. Can I just tell you what I do personally? I get a notice from some publisher, whatever it is, some service every day with books that are on sale in my field or area of interest at radically low prices on Amazon.

You know, a dollar, two dollars. And if I'm remotely interested in the book, I get it because it's just going to store there on my phone or wherever it's in their library. I can access it whenever I want. If I'm going to use it in six months or a year when it's that cheap, I do it. So, I've got tons of books. I've done that with them. I just grab them later. So, Revival or We Die, the Kindle edition.

I have no idea how long this will last. So, take advantage of it. And I believe your heart will be stirred the moment you begin reading the book. All right. Let us start and go to Nashville, Tennessee. Katja, welcome to the line of fire. Yes, hi, Dr. Brown. Hello.

Big fan. Yes, hi. Can you hear me okay?

Yes, I can. Thank you. Okay. Do you have any word from the Lord, any revelation from God about any future revival for America? And has the Lord spoke with you about revival for the Jewish people?

Okay, thank you for asking. As far as the former, revival in America, I have great hope. I have great expectation. I certainly believe God desires to do this. If he wasn't desiring to pour out his Spirit one more time, in other words, if it was too late for us and there was no repentance possible, I don't believe he would have put the desire into so many of our hearts to pray for revival. I don't believe he would have burdened me and so many others to preach about revival or to write books like Revival or We Die.

So it's interesting you ask about that as I was just talking about it. I don't know that I know. I had a word clearly years back that I would be involved in a revival that would touch the world. I felt it clearly in 1983 and in 1996 God called me to be part of the Brownsville Revival, a great historic move of God. I don't have that same level of assurance now, but I have great hope.

I have great expectation. Might we hit bottom first? Might we have revival then hit bottom?

May both happen at the same time? I don't know. I just have great expectation. And with that, a word I've carried in my heart, not Bible, but something I believe God spoke to my heart years back, that I would get to be on the front lines of a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution in America.

We see that happening on different levels, but what I'm expecting is far greater than that. As for Israel, there is definitely a promise of national salvation at the end of the age. It's the plain meaning of Romans 11, 25, and 26. It's the plain meaning of passages like Jeremiah 31, 1.

It's the plain sense of Zechariah, the 12th chapter. There are other indications like Acts 3 beginning in verse 19 that Jewish repentance will bring the Messiah back. So I have great assurance because of Scripture that ultimately there will be a master revival among the Jewish people worldwide. Now, that doesn't guarantee the salvation of a single Jewish person today. And as much as I would like to say I can prove it from Scripture, I can't prove that there will be an increasing number of Jewish people coming to faith in Messiah more and more and more and more until it culminates with all Israel being saved. I'd like to believe that to be true, but I can't demonstrate that scripturally. So what I do know is that we've had times in history where many, many Jews, a disproportionate number to other times, came to faith like the late 60s, early 70s in the Jesus people movement when I got saved. I'm really expecting to see things like that in the coming days, but I can't say I know it. And it's certainly not written clearly in Scripture. What is written clearly is a final turning of Jewish people, but even then in the midst of world upheaval and chaos and attack, we don't know what world numbers of Jews will be.

We just can't predict that. So we reach out to everyone with great burden today to help them know the Lord. And we know the final end of the story is great between here and there. I have hope, but I can't say I have a word. Thank you. You are very welcome. And by all means, let's appeal to God, to the nature of God who loves to bless, who loves to save, who says in Ezekiel 18, Ezekiel 33, that he has no delight, no desire to see the wicked die, but rather they repent. Hey, heads up, normally the beginning of the show is the busiest time, but we've got some open phone lines now. So it's a great time to call in those of you who've wanted to get through 866-34-TRUTH. And for those of you who will just post series of attacks on me or a ministry work online and rebuke me with various videos and call me names, we'll call in and enlighten all of our listeners. Let them know who I really am, this terrible fraud and heretic.

Why not have a public conversation rather than hiding behind some Internet name and trying to take over whole threads with attacks? I'm smiling. We can have a friendly conversation.

Do I think it'll happen? Nah. Let me give it a shot anyway.

All right. Let us go to Isaiah in Gainesville, Florida. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Isaiah, are you there? I don't know if we've lost you or something else happened. Let's go to Gregory in Darien, Connecticut. Welcome to the line of fire.

Dr. Brown. Hi. Thank you for taking my phone call.

Sure. I've got to say, I think you're great. I'm a newcomer to your ministry. I've been watching, you know, I get into sometimes looking on different threads through the YouTube for debates, and I thought this was wonderful because I am a Catholic. I love everything you've done.

I can't get enough of it, okay? Thank you. Thrilled to hear that. Dr. Brown, so in one of the debates or, you know, a couple of the arguments you've had with the Orthodox Jewish rabbis, they brought up very quickly the prophecy of Elijah coming before the Messiah, Yeshua. And so, you know, I haven't had your full response. I've seen you have, because maybe you're in the heat of debate, you've only been able to give it a quick go there. But do you have a more complete response to that? And I would love to hear that. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.

And thanks for your enthusiasm and listening and watching. So the end of Malachi, it's the end of the fourth chapter in our English Bibles and the Hebrew Bible, the end of the third chapter, just different numbering. God does say, urges the people of Israel to remember the law of Moses, and that he's going to send Elijah the prophet before that great and dreadful day. So we know from the New Testament writings that John the Immerser, John the Baptist, came in the spirit and power of Elijah. He himself, in John 1, denies that he is Elijah. But Jesus does tell us that he comes in the spirit and power of Elijah.

So he is a forerunner. He does prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. But the Messiah's first coming was not that dreadful day of the Lord, was not that time of fierce judgment.

And of course, there's fierce judgment that comes to Jerusalem in the year 70, so roughly 40 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. But my own view is that there was John the Immerser as a prototype, as a forerunner, but that there will be something similar at the end of the age before the Lord's second coming. Will it literally be Elijah? Will it be someone else in the spirit and power of Elijah? Will it be a company of prophetic voices like Elijah?

That's all open to interpretation to me. In other words, just like Ezekiel 37, God references David as the king who will reign over Israel in the future. Well, we know it's not literally King David. It is the Messiah who is the greater David, right? So could there be a greater Elijah in the same way? And by the analogy of scripture and many Jewish interpreters, the great majority recognize that it's not David himself risen from the dead there, but rather the Messiah called David. The same in Hosea 3 where the Messiah is called David. So I don't know if there'll be a literal Elijah or an individual in the spirit and power of Elijah like John the Immerser. In my mind, it's more likely that it's a company of people representing him simply because of the nature of the body today. But that remains a question mark. I don't see it as completely fulfilled with the first coming just because of the nature of what's described. Now, when Jesus says, now, if you had received him, then he would have been Elijah. Well, in other words, you would have recognized the role that he was playing if you had spiritual eyes to see, but you didn't. So that's my view.

That's my expectation. So great. Thank you so much. Yeah, you are very, very welcome.

And obviously, in the context of a debate about the massage ship of Jesus, some of these future events are relevant, but a bit secondary. So we may not answer as fully there. But thank you so much for asking the question. 866-348-7884. We'll come right back and go from, oh, Florida to New Zealand, Texas, D.C. We'll go all around right here. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, get on the line of fire by calling 866-342.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thank you so much for joining us on one of my favorite hours of the week when you call in with any question of any kind. I love it. I wish we could do this day and night. I wish I could just stop time and sit here and take your questions.

It is my delight to do it. 866-342. Truth, if you can't get through by phone or it doesn't work out with your schedule, don't forget you can always write to our ministry at AskDrBrown.org. AskDrBrown.org. And remember, sign up for e-mails.

If you don't get them, the moment you sign up, you get a really neat, free mini e-book. And then you'll get more stuff about my testimony from LSD to PhD, more stuff about the different ways our ministry can serve you. So make sure you sign up when you're there.

AskDrBrown.org. All right, let us try to go back to Isaiah in Gainesville, Florida. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hi, thank you. I have a question. Besides the passages in the Old Testament like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, I'm just asking because I'm trying to make sure that my faith is in the right place. What passages in the Old Testament show that the Messiah is supposed to be a suffering servant just like Isaiah?

Sure, absolutely. Great question. So we can start going through the Torah and we notice the very first prophetic word that comes about the judgment on the serpent and that the seed of the woman will crush his head and he'll strike at the heel. So there is a battle and that battle is a costly one in terms of injury or damage to the seed of the woman. You say, was that a direct messianic prophecy?

We could debate that. When you get to the binding of Isaac, throughout Jewish literature, that's depicted of Isaac's heroism. He's 37 years old in Jewish tradition.

He goes like a lamb to the slaughter and he's willing to lay his life down. That's the way it's understood in Jewish tradition. Again, in many ways, that's a foreshadowing of the death of the Messiah, God's one and only son, just as he asked of Abraham as a test, his one and only son, meaning the one through him and Sarah. The sufferings of Joseph also as a prototype.

I'm just looking at types and shadows and figures here. So we have that weaved in as well and we see there that Joseph is rejected by his own people then becomes the savior of the Gentile world and it's only the second time around that his people recognize him. The whole sacrificial system of the innocent for the guilty, of life for life, is pointing in this direction. And later Jewish tradition says that the concept of the atoning power of the death of the righteous also goes back to the sacrificial system into the binding of Isaac. The death of the high priest carrying atoning power in Numbers 35, if someone unintentionally kills someone, the blood has still been shed.

And that means that people have a right to put that person to death because nothing can pay for the shedding of that blood. But they can be released from the city of exile where they've gone for refuge when the high priest dies and comment again that the Talmud says that it was his death that atoned, not just the person being in exile. So you have those images in Torah. You have Messiah being one with his people and our own peoples hate it, reject it, cast away and he's one with us in our history. You have other passages in the Psalms where there is betrayal and so as it happened to David, so it happens to the Messiah like Psalm 41.

So you have other passages like that again with analogies, with types, with shadows. You also have in Isaiah the 49th chapter that the Messiah seems to have failed in his mission to Israel only to be told by God that he'll be a light to the nations. Then in the 50th chapter, the servant of the Lord, they're the same servants, the Messiah is smitten and beaten but he doesn't back down. So you have it in the 49th chapter, the 50th chapter, the end of the 52nd into the 53rd.

I mean these are lengthy passages here. Him coming, meek and lowly, riding on a donkey, Zechariah 9, which the rabbis in the Talmud contrast with him coming in the clouds of heaven in Daniel the 7th chapter and you know which will it be. Of course it's both and the smiting of the shepherd in Zechariah 13, betrayal in the 11th chapter, these various passages could also point to his suffering. So those are just a number that are relevant and there's a whole picture in terms of suffering of our own people and Messiah being one with us. It's therefore not surprising that traditional Judaism developed the idea of the Messiah son of Joseph, one who is suffering, waiting for redemption, then dies in the last great war, even though look to him and they pierce, Zechariah 12. So there's the piercing of the Messiah there which rabbinic literature, some of it applies to the Messiah son of Joseph. So there's really quite a rich tradition on this, not only so because the Messiah is priestly as well as royal, a priest forever after they're of Melchizedek according to Psalm 110, then what did the priest do?

The priest made atonement for sin, the priest interceded for Israel, the priest took the place of the sinning nation in their intercession and then their atonement rights, so obviously that's part of the Messiah's mission. So there's really quite a lot, Isaiah, when you look at it, a tremendous amount. And then you say, OK, how many passages are there that specifically speak of the Messiah being a king who will rule and reign on the earth to bring about peace? Only a handful.

There is a picture of this era that's coming, but there are only a handful of passages that speak of that way as well. So there are a lot really on both sides once you understand it correctly. So is that helpful to you, sir? Yes, thank you very much.

I appreciate what you're doing, too. I'm trying to figure out, you know, if this is right. Just like you're saying, there's a lot that's just like in Isaiah 9, chapter 9, where it says that the kingdom, the government will be upon its shoulders. I just see those images throughout the Bible.

I'm just curious, like, how is he suffering? I understand that idea. Breathe. OK. Yeah. Yeah, but I appreciate it.

Thank you very much. Yes. So, Isaiah, two things. One, visit our Jewish website, RealMessiah.com. Watch the debates with the rabbis where we hash these things out. Look up the various objections and questions. Look at the other resources there. RealMessiah.com.

You'll find it super helpful. The other thing is we have the answer that resolves how the servant of the Lord at the end of Isaiah 52 is going to be so highly exalted that people will be stunned and bow down before him. Yet, first, he suffers terrible disfigurement. It's not two different Messiahs.

It's one. First, the suffering, then the exaltation. Hey, I appreciate the question.

866-34-TRUTH. Let's go over to Phil in New Zealand. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hi, Dr. Brown. Hey, I love your ministry. We had a son who went through cancer a few years ago.

Thankfully, he came through really well. But that whole experience challenged my faith a bit. I've got a question that's kind of been crystallizing in my heart and mind for a few years now. It touches on the problems of suffering and hell and God's sovereignty, but I'll try and pose it as succinctly as I can. Is that okay?

Sure, please. So God's will is that none should perish, but all come to a saving knowledge of him. But Yeshua said, Broad is the road, and wide is the gate that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. Narrow is the gate that leads to life, and few there are that find it. So my question has sort of got two legs. One is, how is God's sovereign will ultimately achieved, if that's the case? And how can the eternal punishment of the majority make the salvation of the few worth it?

Got it. Two very important questions, and I'm glad that you and your family came through this battle with cancer. And obviously when it's your own kids, these things are very trying, very difficult.

So thank God that you've come through together. So let's start with your first question about God's sovereign will. Calvinists will talk about God's secret will versus his open will. So his secret will is that he may be doing something behind the scenes to accomplish certain things, but his open will is just declaring what he desires or what's right or wrong.

I don't like to use those terms, and for various reasons I don't put it like that. But certainly God does not ordain or bring about everything that he desires. In other words, he truly desires all people to know him and love him and serve him. But he does not ordain it that that comes to pass necessarily. That there are many things he desires, and scripture makes clear that we did the opposite of what he desired. And one of the verses we quote most frequently from Matthew 23, Jesus says to Jerusalem, so speaking to the city, speaking to the leaders, how often I longed to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

So I wanted to bless you. You weren't willing, and now terrible judgment is going to fall on you. You have that expressed in the Pentateuch. Moses saying it, you know, if only you would keep the commandments in Deuteronomy. You have God saying it in Isaiah. If you would listen, you would have been blessed. So God's will in the midst of all this is not to make everyone a believer or force everyone to be a believer or ordained before the foundation of the world.

You get in and you don't get in. I don't believe that is what scripture teaches. Rather, his sovereign will is that in the midst of the entire human race, he will get for himself a people who respond to his gracious call, who have chosen by grace to love him.

Love cannot be coerced and who will be with him forever and ever. So in Ephesians 1, when we're told he works out everything according to the purpose of his will, it doesn't mean that everything that happens on the earth is his will, is his desire, but rather in the midst of human choice of sin, rebellion, all of that, he is carrying out his will to get himself a people for himself. So now, your second question, which is, well, how can you justify if the bulk of the human race will not be saved, if that's what Jesus was saying brought us away to destruction? How can it possibly be worth it for God to create a world universe knowing this is going to happen, and now some, the majority, are going to be punished forever so that what, there can be a minority with God forever?

How does that work? I'll answer that as best as I can on the other side of the break. We've got questions. We're doing our best to give you the best biblical answers we can.

866-348-7884. Another reminder, Revival Or We Die. As I've said, I believe the most important book I've written on revival in over 25 years.

I believe it will stir your heart, burn in your heart, increase your faith, challenge you to go deeper in God as you read it. We're virtually giving it away right now on Amazon Kindle. 99 cents. I have no idea how long the publisher will keep this going. It's $16.99, so grab it. I love to give things away. Whatever we do to get them out to you, by all means, it's worth buying.

It's worth paying full price for five times over, I believe. It's an important book, but get it now. Amazon.com, Revival Or We Die. Make sure you click on Kindle. You say, I don't have a Kindle reader. Just download the app. Computer, PC, Mac, doesn't matter.

Smartphone, any format. Basically, you can get Kindle for tablet. So grab hold of it. Take advantage of that. You'll be blessed. That's where we write the books to help bless and stir you.

Okay, I want to go over to Phil in New Zealand. So Phil, first part of your question in terms of how God's sovereign will is accomplished. We recognize that human beings still have a choice. That's why we get judged by a moral God based on the choices that we make. But that God is always working out his will in the midst of our choices and in the midst of our rebellion or obedience.

He's working out his will. Does that part of the equation make sense to you? Yeah, I understand that, although combined with the fact that only a few come to salvation, I don't understand how overall God's sovereign will is achieved unless his sovereign will does not include everyone being saved.

Right, so his sovereign will is not that every human being will be saved, but that Jesus will die for every human being and that he will give a choice to every human being as to what they do with him. So that opens up a million questions. What about those who never heard? What about those who lived at different times in the world?

What about someone raised in a religious Jewish family in the midst of a corrupt Catholic church? Or in the midst of, you know, whatever it is, all these questions. So those are all great questions and totally fair. So that leads to the second part, the second part being, how can you justify, okay, we're going to have this beautiful family that's going to be with God forever and ever and ever, loving him, enjoying him, seeing everything for which human beings have been fashioned and glorifying him in the process. But the price of that is the majority of human beings being tortured forever and ever and ever and ever.

So that would that would be a very logical question. So here's where I start. I start with the nature of God, which is expressed most fully in Jesus.

He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I start with the compassion of God seen throughout the Bible, where he always seems to wait and be patient and long suffering before bringing national judgment. And that the culmination of who he is is seen on the cross, that he enters into our world and suffers for us rather than condemns us.

We didn't have to do any of that. So that gives me confidence that we're not dealing with some demented dictator, tyrant megalomaniac who takes joy in hurting people. That's the way some would present it. So I want to start with the nature of God. Secondly, I want to say that he is perfectly just. And whatever happens, whatever the fate of every human being, those who never heard, those who heard a wrong gospel, those who were scandalized by sin in the church, whatever it is, that he will deal with them with perfect justice. I'm not going to tell you what happens to every human being because I don't know every human being. I know God and his word, but I don't know every human being.

So that's my next point. Whatever he does is going to be based in his nature, which we see fully expressed in the cross, and will be perfectly just. What is clear in the Bible is that there is an end to the wicked, to the rebellious, to those who refuse to follow him. There is a final destruction. You have language about eternal punishment in some passages in the Bible, most notably Matthew 25, 46. You have many other passages that speak about destruction. For example, John 3.16, those who don't believe will perish, or many times in the Old Testament people will be cut off.

So I know that future judgment will be horrible, will be irreversible, and will have eternal consequences. But is that final judgment a just punishment, followed by final destruction? 2 Thessalonians 1, where Jesus returns, the disobedient will suffer eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord. Is that what happens, or is the punishment eternal because people continue to rebel eternally? Those are questions that we can debate, but my point is that whatever happens is going to be absolutely in harmony with the nature of God, and even expressed in his desire that all would be saved. So if it is that there is punishment and final destruction, some would refer to that as annihilation, that's a position that can be argued scripturally. And that means that the only thing that will last forever and ever and ever and ever is God's family enjoying him forever and ever, and he shows his justice by judging those who wouldn't believe. The other thing, some have said that through eternity as people continue to rebel they lose human consciousness, and what's just demonstrated is God's fair judgment. But because I know him through his word and personal relationship as you do, I have a certain confidence in his goodness, his grace, his nature, his patience, and therefore while I warn people about the consequences of rejecting him, I'm not painting a Dante's Inferno. You know, and the people being held by their toe and swung over the flames as God's laughing at it, and we're supposed to say, oh, that's beautiful, oh, that's wonderful.

I don't see that, and I don't think we need to go there. And if someone really presses it, say, look, I would give both potential arguments in terms of eternal punishment or final destruction. And say, hey, some say there's final judgment and that's it, but what about your soul?

What about your life? And come back to that. That's how I'd approach it, sir. That's great. Thanks so much, Dr. Brown. I understand that. All right, great. You are very, very welcome. And look, I could give a shorter answer, obviously, but these are such weighty issues, such life and death issues.

I think it merits taking a little bit more time here. All right, let us go over to show in Cambridge, England, the United Kingdom, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown.

Hello. Thank you very much. I thank God for your ministry, which has been a great help in articulation of biblical truth and answering questions. Thank you so much.

Well, you're very welcome. My question today is about the basis of the Masoretic text. In my personal time of studying the scriptures, church history, and history of the Bible, one of the things I'm still trying to figure out is the basis of the Masoretic text. Because I'm aware of the Septuagint, which came, I think, three centuries B.C. I'm aware of the Dead Sea Scrolls I was discovered a few decades back, which goes as far back as well, closer to the time of the Septuagint, but then I'm aware of the Masoretic text by the Masoretic family and how they incorporated the vows and stuff.

I wanted to know what the basis of their writings is. Was it a thing of it being passed down? Yes.

Yes. So Septuagint, third, second century B.C., some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, second, first century B.C., then a little bit after. Think of the Masoretic text as the Masoretic textual tradition. It's not just one text, but a textual tradition among the various families of Masoretes.

And you had several different ones with many thousands of manuscripts between them. And Masara means that which is preserved by tradition. So the idea of something being passed on by tradition, Masara is to is to pass on to to transmit the vowel.

Excuse me, the verb. There are texts that follow the Masoretic textual tradition among the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, for example, you have the Isaiah A scroll, which is the whole book of Isaiah, and it's written in more of a freehand scribal style.

The Isaiah B scroll, which is only parts of Isaiah, that is in most places letter for letter, the same as Masoretic texts from a thousand plus years later. So we know that this was an early tradition of the text that was passed on in terms of the consonants, the spelling and things like that. And then, obviously, when you're reading it, you're pronouncing it just because it's written without vowels doesn't mean it's spoken without vowels. So when you're an Israeli today reading a book, reading a newspaper, it's without vowels. But you say the vowels in your mind.

And if you're if you're reading it out loud, you read them out loud. So the specific vocalization, which has minor variations, thousands of minor variations in the various Masoretic texts, the accents to say, here's where you pause or if you're chanting it, here's where you say things a certain way. All of that comes about centuries later, and it is simply passed on by tradition.

So we can take issue. We can say we believe in the text, the letters that have been passed on and believe that that is the most accurate text. So all modern translations based themselves on the Masoretic textual tradition.

Nobody argues with that. And then you look at where Septuagint varies, where Dead Sea Scrolls vary, things like that. And you try to say, OK, what seems to be the most accurate reading here? The vowels in terms of putting them with the letters is more secondary. There's more debate about that. So scholars, even conservative scholars who believe in the inerrancy of scripture will say we differ with the Masoretic vowel here or we differ with the placing of an accent here. But overall, the recognition is that the Masoretes preserve things with great accuracy and great care.

And then the vast majority of cases are giving us accurate vocalization and things like that. So it's something that's been passed down through the Jewish community, which is so devoted to the scriptures and the transmission of the scriptures through the centuries. And then the more you have people memorizing scripture, reciting scripture, the more you have a common tradition. It's just like singing the ABCs. It's hard to get that wrong.

A, B, C, F, G. No, no, because you catch it. So oral tradition is very strong in Jewish circles. So the adding in the vowels was not some foreign thing just coming in later. But again, we don't look at the vowels and then the accents even more secondarily as being infallible or inerrant. We understand this is part of a of an oral tradition. Things being spoken, being spoken, being spoken, and now finally finding a way to to write that out to bring greater clarity. So the tradition itself, Masoretextual tradition is ancient, as ancient as any that we have preserved.

And we can tell sometimes where the Septuagint got something wrong or deviated, there was a scribal error based on that very Masoretextual tradition. Hey, thank you, sir, for the call from Cambridge. We'll come back and let's see where we're going next.

We'll go to D.C. next, then North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, if we have time. Stay right here. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for joining us on the line of fire. I want to go straight to the phones, 866-34-TRUTH.

Sean in Washington, D.C., thanks for holding. Welcome to the broadcast. Thank you so much, Dr. Brown. My man, it is so good to talk to you again.

Been a while. So thank you for taking my call. You bet. Dr. Brown, I had a question, and it's not necessarily layered, but I'm going to give you a little commentary to explain it better. The initial question is, do we remember loved ones in eternity? And it's kind of nuanced a little bit because in a glorified state, do we have a purified memory? Meaning, will we only have pure memory, if so, if we do have memory of loved ones and friends and family in eternity?

Yeah, so what if we had bad memories of things we did with people, right? Or what if the thought of this person, wait, they're not here, are they lost? What happened to them brings us grief or confusion or something like that. It's a very fair question, and in fact, when Jesus is talking about the resurrection and the Sadducees are talking about a woman, she's married, her husband dies, marries another husband, dies, so there's seven ultimately, which is the husband in eternity, the Sadducees are trying to be cute to ask a question and disprove the resurrection. But it's a fair question, and of course Jesus responds to it by making clear that God's the God of the living, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will live to him. The fact that he refers to himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would indicate there is memory of loved ones and previous generations. At the same time, he makes clear things are going to be different because this woman isn't going to be married to anybody in the world to come.

So I honestly have more questions than answers when it comes to this. There obviously has to be memory. If there's no memory, if there's no memory of who we are, then we're nobody. It's like someone waking up with amnesia, and there's no purpose, no meaning to our life. What about the relationship that we developed with the Lord all these years?

That ties in with other people. So certainly there must be sufficient memory to know who we are, to understand our relationship with God, to know why he's saying, well done, good and faithful servant, or why there was correction when we were given evaluation before him. Because our lives are intertwined with others, absolutely there'll be some memory, but how far it goes, that's the mystery. In other words, do you remember there's something bad there, but it's blotted out? Do you know, okay, this one never made it in, but I know that God is fair, so I don't grieve over it?

Those are the question marks, and that's why I say I have more questions than answers. But there has to be some memory. There's memory of who we are, there has to be some memory of loved ones. The way scriptures speak of God, the multi-generational way, even in the world to come, indicates that there will be that memory. But it'll be sanctified, and that we won't have unholy thoughts. Some guy won't think, oh wow, I committed adultery with this gal, now she's in heaven, we both repented. No, that won't be there. But what memory will there be?

How will I have a special relationship with Nancy, to whom I've been married for 46 years, without being her husband in the same way? I don't have answers for those things. What I do know is that the presence of God will be so amazing, and our state will be so amazing, that we won't be troubled. But I wish I got help more.

I don't see anything in the Bible that tells me more. Yeah, no, thanks so much, Dr. Brown. No, this helps, this helps. I got some references to continue to meditate on. So talk to you next week, Lord willing.

All right, sounds good. God bless. All right, let's go over to Jonathan in Williamston, North Carolina. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Hey Dr. Brown, good to talk to you again.

I enjoy you and love you. Just real quick to get into it, I'm a pastor, I've been doing a series on 2 Peter. And in 2 Peter 13, he says, I think it's right as long as I'm in this body to stir you by way of reminders, since I know that putting off of my tent will be soon. And one of the correlating verses that my Bible has there is 2 Corinthians 5, where Paul says, For we know that the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed. We have a building from God, a house not made with hand, eternal in the heavens. In this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, not to be naked or unclothed, but to be further clothed, so that the mortal may be swallowed up by the life. So it seems what they're talking about, both Peter and Paul, mentioned the tent being the human body, and that we put off this tent when we enter into glory, we have a new glorified body. And Paul seems to be describing that as a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And, you know, you want to use Scripture to interpret Scripture and use easier passages to help interpret the more difficult passages. So with these two passages in mind, going to John 14, where Jesus says, Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me, my Father's house, or many rooms, if it were not so.

What I have told you is that I go and prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place, I'll come again where I am, maybe also. Now, this section in John 14, is Jesus also referring to the new glorified body? Because we know that every time the Pharisees asked Him for a sign, He would always point to the resurrection.

Always point to the resurrection. And Paul says we have a guarantee, because we have a down payment of the Holy Spirit, and if Christ raised Himself from the dead, we too shall be raised from the dead and have a glorified body like Him. Is that what John 14 is talking about? That in the Father's house or many rooms, is He really saying you will have a new glorified body in Heaven? Yeah, I don't believe that John 14 is talking about that. Many point to it as a pre-trib rapture verse, He's going to come for us, He's got a place prepared for us, He's going to take us to be with Him.

So, I don't read it like that either, plus it makes no sense where we're going to be there seven years and that's it. The key there is the Greek word manai, which is used only twice in the entire New Testament. Only twice. The beginning of John 14, in my Father's house are many rooms, right? And then, if you go down to John chapter 14 verse 23, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Same word. The same word there, rooms. So, that seems to be Him saying, I'm preparing a place and we're going to come back and dwell with you in that place. That this is the place of fellowship and relationship that we have with God in an intimate way. That it's actually like He prepared a room where He and His Father could dwell with us here in this world. And that obviously would mean by the Spirit that He does that. So, I would see that as different than 2 Corinthians 5, different than 2 Peter 1, different from some of the heavenly hope to be clothed. 1 Corinthians 15, the mortal puts on immortality. I would see that it's different based on the unique usage there, alright? Okay, so then, because a lot of people say, well, he's talking about a mansion, you know, because King James says, in my Father's house are many mansions, right?

The King James. So, he's not talking about an actual dwelling place in heaven, is he? No, no, I don't, yeah, so, when we have a mansion, right, whatever we're going to have in heaven is going to be better than any earthly mansion. But mansion there would not be the best translation, rather a room or a place. There are many rooms, and we're going to make a room with you.

That's what's being spoken of. So, the mansion is in heaven, hey, I've got a beautiful home here, I'm sure whatever there is in heaven, the very worst, lowest home in heaven, if there was such a thing, would be a trillion times better than anything on this earth. And the big thing is, as we know, and as you preach, I'm sure, we're going to be with the Lord. We're going to be with the Lord! Do I get a mansion?

You get better than a mansion, don't worry about it. Alright, thank you so much for the call, sir. May the Lord's blessing be on your ministry. And, alright, let's go over to David in Florida. Time is short, but maybe we can get your question. Go ahead, please.

Hey, Dr. Brown, thank you, I know time is short, I appreciate you taking the time to answer this. So, I know you've done this before, but my question is on Torah observance, and it's really on kind of how to combat it or argue against it, there's a lot of confusion around. So, John 14 says, if you love me, keep my commandments, and that's kind of a go-to verse for that. Just to give you a little background, I sat down with a Messianic rabbi a few months back, and had a three-hour debate with him over this topic, and just a couple of the high points. Basically, he told me that if the temple was still standing and wouldn't have been destroyed in 70 AD, that we would still be offering sacrifices. You know, the book of Galatians, Hebrews 7, 8, and 9, are very clear to me, as far as how we move away from those things.

But, another one real quick is Zechariah 14, the Feast of Tabernacles. That kind of brings a lot of credit to the argument of it. Yeah, so let me, I'm just going to jump in to respond, only so I can respond.

I'd love to hear more of the point. Okay, number one, it's clear we're under a new and better covenant. If we were still under Torah obligation, then there would be a death penalty for failure to observe the Sabbath.

Then we'd be stoning disobedient and rebellious children. Then Yeshua could not be our high priest, because he comes from a different tribe, from Judah versus Levi. And of course, Hebrews 7, 8, and 9, that's part of the argument there. So, I agree with you, David.

That's very strong. Your typical Messianic Jewish Rabbi is not looking forward to sacrifices being offered in the Temple, because they recognize the once-for-all efficacy of the sacrifice of the Messiah. But, we start there, we're under a new and better covenant. If we were still under Torah law, then we'd be in big, big, big trouble. And then Yeshua could not even be our high priest. And the more you press with a Messianic Rabbi, or someone who says, I'm a Torah observer, there's tons of stuff they don't do that's written in the Torah. That's an aside. That's the first major thing.

The second thing is this. I have no problem with the idea of a rebuilt Temple in the Millennial Kingdom, where Israel can be a light to the nations. I have no problem with the Feast of Tabernacles being celebrated.

I have no problem with memorial sacrifices potentially being offered. In any case, it does not detract from the fact that in this age, this is not required of us, that there's nowhere in the New Testament where Gentile believers are commanded to obey the law of Moses. To the contrary, Acts 15 sets forth a very different agenda there. Paul warns in Colossians the second chapter about anyone putting you under pressure to observe the Sabbath, especially as a Gentile believer, saying that's just the shadow. The substance, the reality, is found in the Messiah.

So we preach Him, we exalt Him, we share Him, we glorify Him, and that is the key to staying away from legalism and wrong teaching about the law. Friends, we'll be back with you on Monday. In the meantime, go to our website, askdirectorbrown.org. Take advantage of the great resources there. Another program powered by the Truth Network.