Peacemakers or Troublemakers?

Are we called to be peacemakers or troublemakers? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We're going to have an eye-opening Word-based broadcast today. We're going to look at some important Scriptures, ask some challenging questions, and hopefully take each of us deeper in our obedience to the Lord.

This is Michael Brown. Great to be with you today, here to infuse you with faith and truth and courage so you can stand strong in the Lord. I want to come back to that courage word in a moment. But I had a very candid conversation yesterday with Pastor Greg Locke. Hopefully you were able to hear the broadcast.

If you missed it, of course, it's on our website, AskDrBrown.org, or you ever get our podcast, you can listen to the broadcast or watch it afterwards. And if you have questions or comments about yesterday's show, by all means, give us a call. 866-348-7884. I'll also take calls on other subjects, random subjects, a little bit later in the broadcast.

866-34-TRUTH. But one of the things that came out towards the end of the show was Pastor Locke said, he's 46 years old, and he has a tension between the angry prophet and the pastoral shepherd, and how to bring those things together in a healthy way, and perhaps I could be of help to him in that area. Of course, I'm very willing to be, if God opens that door and he desires it, by all means. So the thing is, many times we mistake fleshly anger or even our own indignation with the burden of the Lord. And sometimes the Lord does burden us, and there's a holy outrage against sin and its destructive force. And the question is, how do we present ourselves to the church?

How do we present ourselves to the world? We know that we'll be misunderstood. We know that we'll be hated for the gospel. If we walk in obedience to Jesus, we will be hated.

Right? That's understood. The same world that hated him will hate us. John 15, 18 and following, he says, if the world hates you, remember it hated me first. And if the world knew God, then the world would love you.

But because you are not of the world, I've called you out of the world, therefore the world is going to hate you. The same in Matthew 5, 10 through 12. Truly happy, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed, truly happy are you when you are reviled, when you're spoken against, when you're lied about, because of me, Jesus says.

Rejoice in that day. This is a theme throughout the gospel. 2 Timothy 3, 12. Paul says, hey, I've suffered all these persecutions, but not only me, everyone who lives a godly life in the sight of Jesus will suffer persecution. The world is going to hate us and we will be called troublemakers.

Right? I mean, Acts 17, Paul and his companions are called the ones who've turned the world upside down. They're accused of stirring riots. Acts 16, Paul and Silas are whipped as troublemakers. Paul drives a demon out of a girl and the slave owners lose their income because she can't tell fortunes and things like that anymore. There's an uproar over it.

This is going to happen. We're going to be hated, we're going to be persecuted, we're going to be driven out, we're going to be cast out, and in some parts of the world it is very real living reality. Ongoing. Ongoing. Yes, a real reality.

Ongoing that they are suffering these very things simply because they are followers of Jesus. That's the way it's going to be. The darkness will hate the light, the darkness will persecute the light.

That's all true. Paul, in Acts 24, when he's being accused by other Jewish leaders, they say this man's a pestilence. He's a plague. He disrupts places.

He's a troublemaker. So, when I'm accused of being a troublemaker for the gospel, when I'm accused of the craziest things because of the gospel, I rejoice. I take it as a badge of honor. And if that's the case with you, my brother, my sister, because of the gospel, because of your identification with Jesus, because of your following the master, then rejoice.

It may be painful, rejection may sting, there may be some real difficult, painful consequences, but praise God, we rejoice. The world is treating us the way it treated Jesus. Acts 5, 41, the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing. They've just been flogged. I've never been flogged. It can't be pleasant. They've just been flogged. They leave the Sanhedrin rejoicing.

Why? Because they were counted worthy of suffering reproach for the name. They're suffering the same way he suffered. Praise God.

What a privilege. At the same time, Jesus says this to us, blessed, truly happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Peacemakers. We should seek to be peacemakers. 2 Corinthians 5, we are ambassadors of reconciliation. We go to a lost world and say, be reconciled to God. And the wisdom that comes from above.

Let me read this to you. We're going to go to James, Jacob, chapter 3. Jacob, chapter 3.

And look at what is written at the end of this chapter. James, Jacob, chapter 3, verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. This should characterize us as much as it lies on us.

Paul writes it in Romans 12. If your enemy's hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink, quoting from Proverbs 25. Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. Bless those who curse you. Hebrews 12 writes about it, as much as it lies in you, be at peace with all people.

So this is the kind of wisdom we need to demonstrate. Now, let me make this plain. By God's grace, I have sought to be gracious in my opposition to those I differ with. I have sought to be loving, kind, merciful, while clearly speaking out against evil and clearly laying down the line of this is right and this is wrong. Yes, I'm hated for it. No, I'm not super popular among many sectors of the population. They don't like me. They hate my guts. They think I'm an evil, vile person. I'm not trying to escape the hatred.

I wear that again as a badge of honor while my heart breaks for the people. But I would be shattered if they hated me because I acted like a jerk. I would be shattered if they hated me because I was obnoxious.

I would be shattered if they hated me because I had a foul temper. So let's take the reproach of the cross, but let's not bring reproach to the cross by our foul behavior. Do you hear what I'm saying? And this is some of the dialogue with Pastor Locke yesterday that we're saying there is a way to stand boldly and speak righteously and there's a way to do it in the flesh. Here, another important passage. Paul's writing to Timothy, especially for leaders. This is really, really important. So 2 Timothy 2, he says this.

2 Timothy 2, verse 24. Now remember, I'm a debater. It's in my blood to debate.

I was raised in a home with my dad as a senior lawyer in the New York Supreme Court. And, you know, I might say, well, they say, who's they? He'd ask me, who's they?

I would use the word. He goes, there's no such word. You know, he challenged my thinking. My sister remembered this.

I didn't remember it as well. But my sister remembered him kind of putting subjects on the table over dinner for us to have these mini debates over. I grew up in that environment and I'm Jewish and I'm a New Yorker and I'm called to apologetics. So debating's in my blood. It's just, it's natural for me that if you say X and I differ with you, that my first thing is, okay, I'm going to push Y. In other words, rather than, I'm just saying my first reaction, rather than, okay, let me make sure I understand you. Let me open up your position better.

Please, please tell me why you feel this. Okay, now here, let me give you some of those to think about. My, if I'm just in the flesh, my immediate response is you're wrong, here's why. Boom.

Okay? Now look at what Paul writes here. 2 Timothy chapter 2, beginning in verse 24. And the Lord's servant, he's talking about a leader here, must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. Now there are different styles of ministry, okay? I can preach with passion and get, you know, energized and I'm strong, but I've never been a screamer.

I was on a TV show with some evangelist friends and they were saying, yeah, we're screamers, you're not. That was just their style. They, I preach like that! That was just too, that was their style. There's nothing wrong with it, nothing right with it. It was just their style, my style's different.

And obviously sitting behind a mic doing radio is different than preaching behind a pulpit, lecturing a seminary class is different than doing outreach with no amplification in a village somewhere. Each setting is different and then we're all wired differently. We're all made different. I'm not comparing styles. I'm not talking style, okay? I'm talking demeanor. I'm talking attitude. I'm talking who we are in God. And I'm doing this for a reason because what I see many times is we mistake boldness for natural aggression. We mistake courage for being dogmatic. This is a discussion I've wanted to have for a while and it's really constructive to have it after my talk with Pastor Locke yesterday where there were so many important points that were brought out in the midst of our discussion. And with Pastor Locke being very humble in terms of his own presentation, alright? So, let me read this again. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

Why, this is with the hope then that God will give them repentance so that they turn back. 866-342. I'm going to take some calls. I want to talk to you more about this courage issue. I want to post some things I think you'll find very interesting and then talk with you about Christians voting, Republican Christians voting, Democrat.

I'm going to stir a controversy but for a purpose. You get my emails. You get announcements when we're coming to your area, latest resources.

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Click on emails. Sign up so we can stay in touch with you, pouring into you on a regular basis. We'll be right back. 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. Right before the radio show today, I was talking to my buddy John Cooper, lead singer, frontman of Skillet that you just heard a moment ago. We're talking about my book, The Silencing of the Lambs. If you don't have it yet, let me strongly encourage you to get it.

I wish I could push a button and download the contents into you. You'll find it eye-opening, stirring, disturbing, and yet full of fact-filled, Bible-filled, truth-filled calls to courage and practical strategies to overcome cancel culture. We were talking about the book and he said, look, bottom line of the second half of your book is basically, and we opened it up, if you save your life, you lose it. The words of Jesus, if you lose your life for the gospel, you'll find it. So I work with the persecuted church in different parts of the world. I have dear friends who regularly risk their lives for the gospel. I've had the privilege of risking my own life for the gospel. I mean that literally, not metaphorically, literally. I've had the privilege of doing that and I work with people who are subject to that on a regular basis. And as I said in yesterday's broadcast, it's probably about six, by now it could be higher, people that we personally laid hands on to send out with people we work with in different parts of the world that have now been martyred for the gospel and the next generation is ready to just go out and lay their lives down.

This is reality around the world. The fact that we get deplatformed on Facebook or we get unfriended or something, hey, I want to reach as many as I can and use these platforms, but that's not exactly persecution to get unfriended on Facebook, right? So let's speak out, let's be bold, but let us also be broken. Let us warn with tears. I had the privilege of being very close with Leonard Ravenhill the last five years of his life, from 1989 to 1994, he died at the age of 87. And sometimes he would preach, I remember meetings in January, in Anaheim, January of 1990, with about 4,000, 4,500 people present. And at the end of his message, he couldn't finish it, there were people just on their faces weeping, wailing all over the building. But there's tremendous brokenness and anguish of heart when he preached.

I got to know David Wilkerson, not as well as I got to know Brother Len, but I got to know David Wilkerson and preached for him 40 or 50 times from 91 to 95. And he was as prophetic a man as I knew. Yet also there is this deep brokenness, this anguish of spirit. So our boldness must come out of brokenness. Our strong proclamations must bleed, so to say. There must be the tears of intercession and the laying down of our lives in brokenness for others that will then produce the desired impact that we want. 866-3-4, truth. I'm going to, again, return to the subject of courage and share some really interesting things that I think you'll find very eye-opening. First, we'll go to the phones. Let's start with Jim in Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Hi, Dr. Brown, appreciate you taking my call. Revelation 12, 11, they overcame him, meaning Satan, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. I've always took the word of their testimony to mean just people, Christians, telling others what God has done for them in their life. I believe, don't hold me to this, Dr. Michael Heiser one day talking about this once said that we get this wrong, that we misunderstand it. But he didn't go into detail why or how. I would like to know the word of their testimony. What do you think that is?

And I have a second question if you have the time. Right, so if you think of it, the word of their testimony in context is the testimony of Jesus the Messiah. So it's not so much, here's what the Lord did in my life, but I am testifying to who Jesus is. I'm testifying to him being the risen Savior and the only one that can bring us to God, the one by whose blood our sins are forgiven. So it's not so much, hey praise the Lord, I have a testimony of how the Lord healed me last week.

That has a place and that's wonderful. But the word of their testimony here is the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 19 tells us that the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. And then tying in with what I've been talking about here, for they love not their lives even to the point of death. That this is a key thing that we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony. So testimony of who he is, yes what he's done in our lives, but proclaiming who he is and by not loving our lives even to the point of death. That's how we overcome Satan. So that would be I imagine what Dr. Heiser would have said on that. Certainly that's what the passage is saying. Thank you. May I ask the next question?

Yes, go ahead, go ahead. The book of Revelation, years ago I had somebody tell me that Catholics believe it is mostly fulfilled. My guess is that they believe that the persecutions and the crumbling of the Roman Empire was what the book of Revelation was aimed for, though I don't know that. My question is, is that a plausible explanation? The more I read it, the more it seems to me that their position is at least plausible. Yeah, that's not so much a Catholic position, meaning only Catholics would hold to that.

But Jim, that's the historical view of the book of Revelation that many scholars hold to. Because it had to have context in the first century to the ones that were receiving it. It had to have relevance to them. But on another level, though, so you have to start reading it there. What did it mean to the people hearing it there? Right? And it's very relevant, though, in every generation.

That's the next thing. What does it say to us? What does it say to us in the midst of these life and death conflicts? What does it say to us in the midst of this satanic attack? What does it say to us in the midst of persecution, opposition? So it speaks to us. I believe it also has special relevance to the last generation, because we know Revelation 19, 20, 21, 22 have not yet happened, no matter how you slice the cake. Jesus has not yet returned and set up his kingdom on the earth.

I reject views that say that we're not in the new heavens and the new earth. So, you start with what did it say to the first century? How does it apply to every generation?

And what's the special application at the end of the age? Check out Craig Keener's NIV application commentary on Revelation. So it's the NIV application commentary series. Check out his commentary on Revelation. I think you'll find it very helpful.

Craig Keener, K-E-E-N-E-R. Thanks for those questions, which are obviously relevant to what we're talking about. That's why I brought it on here.

Let's go over to Austin in Lindale, Texas. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you for having me on, sir.

Sure. My question is on the related topic of boldness and speaking courageously and so forth. 2 Corinthians 10 was coming to mind where the Corinthians are saying that Paul is bold and weighty and demanding in his letters, and then in person is weak or humble or, you know. No, it's not humble. It's an insult. It's an insult. That his letters are bold, but his bodily presence is weak and there's nothing to his speaking. They're insulting him. And they're saying, oh, yeah, big talker. Oh, big, big talker, but the guy's nothing. Nothing to him. There's a little guy. I mean, maybe they're saying he's a little guy. You know, frail or he doesn't speak well.

You know, big talker. So that is an insult as opposed to a pattern that we're supposed to follow. Okay. Yeah, so that's all that's meant there. It's not saying, hey, this is the pattern.

Like, really, really bold if you're not there, but they're really, really meek if you are there. What we have to remember, though, which is very important, is that you can't hear tone necessarily when you read something. And many times you can post something in haste, I've done it, and it doesn't communicate the way you want it to communicate. How can someone hear tears if I'm writing? So I've got to write in a certain way, pray for the Lord's anointing and grace behind it, and then write in a certain way that will minister to the person reading it, that they'll hear my heart and not just the words. Hey, thank you for the call. I appreciate that.

So let me come back to this courage topic for a moment. Some years back, I'm trying to think where we were maybe about 12, 15 years ago. We had a meeting with our Fire School of Ministry staff and with our team from the different parts of Fire, a church missions organization. And we had a really creative gal on our team, and she asked everyone to take a Lego. She gave us each an individual Lego.

And then, you know, with indelible ink, you can write on it, indelible ink pen. Write the one specific thing that you bring to the ministry and to the organization. So we all did it, regardless of whether the person was the secretary answering phones or was a faculty member or the president of the school, as I was. We each wrote something. So I was going to write vision.

And I thought, no, no, no, that's not it. That's not the unique thing I bring. Others bring vision as well.

And I do bring some vision. I know it's not that courage, courage. And I realized in the midst of financial challenges we would often face and ministry challenges we would face and difficulties in going against the grain and difficulties in having to stand for what was right when it was going to cost you everything. That the special, most unique thing that I brought as the leader of the ministry was courage.

And as Billy Graham said, that when a strong man takes a stand, a courageous man takes a stand, then the backbones of others are strengthened. So I know part of my role in the body is to help impart courage. And each one has their role, right?

That's the beauty of the body. And each one is needed. We depend on one another to be the full expression of Jesus to the world. But I know one of the things God's called me to do is impart courage. And as I stand, it helps you stand. As I speak out, it helps you speak out. Or you can simply share and repeat what we've passed on. So when I say we're here to infuse you with faith, truth, and courage, I mean that from the heart.

May you receive courage and strength and stand with boldness and grace mixed together that we may glorify Jesus. Okay, we come back. I'm going to share some very interesting comments with you. Stay right here. Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire. I've got to put my phone out of view here. Just texting my daughter to see who's picking me up at the airport as I fly in tonight for our second graduation of the last couple of weeks.

This time our grandson, Connor, in Maryland. Excited about that. All right.

866-34-TRUTH, the number to call. So here's what I find really interesting, friends. Again, part of my calling is to be involved in controversy.

That's just a reality. So I get hit from lots of different sides. I get hit from atheists. I get hit from radical Muslims. I get hit from traditional Jews. I get hit from gay activists. I get hit from Christians on different sides.

That's fine. That's part of my calling. I address controversial issues by calling not by desire or by design.

In other words, I don't spark a controversy just to spark a controversy. God forbid. That's carnal.

That's fleshly. I don't do something like, ooh, this will get a lot of people talking. No. What's the use of that? We're called to bring peace. I work for unity, for harmony. I really do try to be a peacemaker.

By God's grace, reaching out to people behind the scenes, talking things through. If I can do that, I'll do it. But I'm gonna get hit from all sides.

That's fine. There's no boasting and no complaining. It's just like I have a big nose. That's reality, okay? I'm in the midst of controversy all the time. That's just part of my calling, part of my life.

And I thrive in it because it's what God called me to do and made me to do. And we got a ton of prayer support. Thank you for all. Thank you. Thank you.

If you pray for me for a ministry regularly or when you're burdened to, thank you. Trust me. It makes a big, big difference. What's interesting to me, though, is when I will challenge certain prevailing narratives or call something out, suddenly I've become a compromiser or a coward. That's what I find really interesting. In other words, when I do the difficult thing of calling out something that's been wrong, like the failed Trump prophecies and the false prophecies, and call them out, try to reach some of the people privately behind the scenes, they wouldn't talk to me. Okay, fine. So then I publicly played the clips and called them out, said, you're wrong.

This is false. You need to repent of this and humble yourself, right? So that's not an easy thing to do, because you know you're going to get hated for it.

But I don't think twice. It has to be done. I feel prompted to do it. I'm going to do it.

I don't calculate what we call it. No, you obey. And to me, it's not a matter of personal courage. It's just obedience, right? Here, you're a mom, and your kid runs into the street. You see a car coming, and you run and risk your own life and grab him.

It wasn't so much courageous. You're just being a mom. It's like, that's my kid! Right?

So you just do that. So the same way, you know, when you know something's right, it's like, we just have to do what's right. We don't get a prize for that, right? I don't think God looks down at me and says, oh, Mike, you are so courageous.

No! It's like, it's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to obey and honor the Lord. But what I find fascinating is when I'll do that, or when we expose QAnon conspiracies. As I mentioned yesterday, we probably lost, like, calling out the false Trump prophecies, and calling for accountability, and calling out the QAnon conspiracy nonsense. And people say, we're not believing QAnon, and it was like every QAnon talking point, right?

We probably lost like 10,000 followers on Facebook, and it's not about numbers. It's a matter of, these were people that were coming to me and learning and receiving, but now it's like, we want nothing to do with you. So, I just want you to see what happened. And I'm not blaming Pastor Locke. This is not on him.

This is not on him. We had our conversation yesterday. I just want you to see some of what I deal with when I call these things out, and it's to say, look, you gotta do what's right, you're gonna get blasted, you're gonna get misunderstood, but you have to do what's right, and then pray for the people that come against you. So here, just a few examples, all right? So, this was, again, when I said, when I took exception to Pastor Locke's comments, they could easily have sounded like he was calling for violence.

He very, very clearly said no, no, no on the radio show yesterday and has said it in other settings since then, since he made the first comments, all right? And that's why I went public with it immediately, because I was concerned it could sound like a call to violence. So for doing that, a guy named Jordan posts on Facebook, lol, sounds like Dr. Brown is a coward.

So, I just find this interesting, because I got a lot of that. You coward. It's like, well, so hang on. So for calling out something said irresponsibly that could be very dangerous in today's climate, that makes me a coward. In other words, to not be a coward is to scream at the top of your lungs, let's go to war with the government, right, which again, Pastor Locke was not saying to do violently, all right?

Here, here's, again, this is, I could give you one after another, how about this? Patrick asked Dr. Brown, but what are you doing to save America? I mean, he might be unhinged, but at least he's doing something. You were like Franklin Graham that just likes to go down the middle and chill for both sides without ever taking a real stand as long as you keep increasing followers and views. It's the weirdest, you gotta understand, friends. It's really weird to read stuff like that, because the gentleman who posted it, again, posted it publicly, believes what he posted, right?

And thinking, what world does he live in? It's just, you could accuse me of being too controversial or taking too many controversial stands. You know, on the culture wars or in things within the church or of calling for accountability in the charismatic church or of challenging the critics or of exposing hyper-grace or of confronting counter-missionary rabbis or whatever, you could accuse me of taking too many controversial stands and of being too much involved in the culture wars. On the front lines of the pro-life movement, working with leaders for years, one of my closest pro-life friends has been arrested over a hundred times and owes more than $25 million in fines.

I asked him for an update when we were chatting the other day, this is one of my buddies. And we've worked together for years for the pro-life cause. I was pushing back by calling against LGBTQ-plus activism before many in our circles were even thinking about it. So I've been working, quote, to save America, one of my books is called Saving a Sick America. But when I call out words that could be understood to be calling for violence, now suddenly I'm a coward who takes no stance.

I'm thinking, what, this is really odd and I'm trying to understand these people so I can minister to them better. And then of course when I do this, I lose a lot of, quote, followers. You know, that's what they call on social media, right? When you do this, you lose followers and then I get, well, he does it to get more views and follow. To the contrary, I know when I do this, I'm gonna lose people. So if you're listening rather than watching, I hope you can hear the smile in my voice because the last thing I do is take this personally.

I just feel bad, like, what are people thinking? What are they thinking boldness is? Is it only to say inflammatory things in an inflammatory way and that's what boldness is?

I mean, is it just to be super patriotic? That's what boldness is? And when our patriotism becomes carnal and we call it out, that's not being bold?

Oh, how about this one from Greg. Hey, Doc Brown, what about your pointy-headed Bette Midler and the Hollywood crowd calling, why is she my pointy-headed Bette Midler and how does insulting her head help anything? And the Hollywood crowd calling for the end of any speech they don't like and the jelling of those people. Remember Hitler's Nazi party, we're famous, did the same thing and you fear a church pastor from Tennessee, really, creating a little subterfuge to create a distraction? Don't look behind that black curtain, look up here, said the Wizard of Oz.

And then another nice way to plug your merchandise. So I'm thinking, what are people thinking? God help these folks.

What in the world are you thinking? My most recent book is The Silencing of the Lambs, The Ominous Rise of Cancel Culture and How We Overcome It. And again, I've been blacklisted by the Southern Poverty Law Center. I was called one of the 30 leaders of the new radical right, one of the 30 new leaders of the new radical right a few years ago. I was along with David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Malik Zulu Shabazz, former leader of the new Black Panthers, skinheads, neo-Nazis. I was there because I was, quote, anti-gay. The Human Rights Campaign, which is the world's largest gay activist organization, they blacklisted me for, quote, exporting evil because I went to Peru at the invitation of leaders there spoke to congressional leaders and university chancellors as to what happens when you normalize same-sex relationships and embrace LGBTQ plus activism. So I got on their hit list for, quote, exporting evil.

And then GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, now just known as GLAAD, I nicknamed them the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Disagreement. They put me, I was on the very first list and I'm still there, Commentator Accountability Project, which is here are people that the secular media should not have on the air. They should not have on the air because our opinions, our viewpoints are too destructive and negative and people should not get our side of the story, only the other side. So I'm used to being blacklisted, hate it. As I've mentioned, one key country I've gone to, the minister I can't go to now because I've spoken out against radical Islam and that's one of the things if you speak against Islam, you can't go into that country even though I'm very careful and lay out what I'm talking about, can't go there. So I mean, this is normal life and yet somehow, somehow when I'm concerned that rhetoric is unhelpful and can bring reproach to the gospel and provoke violence, that makes me a compromised coward. See, that's what concerns me.

That's why I'm talking about this. So yeah, I'm in the middle of this, I'm the example, right, so I'm like the dartboard, right? You kind of, I learn what's in people's hearts because the darts get thrown at me, so I don't mind that. Let me, here, throw the darts, everybody, give me your best ear, look me in the eyes if you're watching, throw the darts, go ahead, it helps me to understand what you're thinking and then I can look at the poison in those darts and see how I can try to help you and minister to you. So I welcome the darts, I welcome them. Let me be the punching bag, go ahead, put my face on your punching bag and go ahead, right?

Nose get a little bigger, that's fine. I'm good with that because now you've gotten it out and now I can see how I can help you. I can see what's wrong, I can see what you're missing. So this is what I'm really trying to understand and see and we got flooded with comments like that and Pastor Locke said that he told his people, hey, stop defending me, et cetera and this is not about me versus him. He had a very important talk yesterday and you can go back and listen to that, all right?

And he was humble and gracious. My point is that we often mistake human anger, carnal partisanship, hyper patriotism that drives us beyond the kingdom of God. We often equate those things with boldness and when maybe someone, maybe a young lady with a quiet voice says, I believe we're in the wrong spirit. Oh, she's the coward. No, she's actually the bold one. She's actually the one being a prophetic witness in the midst of our carnality.

That's why I show you these quotes and again, it's floods of them, one after another after another and it's the same thing when I called out the false Trump prophecies. We got blasted, blasted, blasted but friends, that's what you have to do. You're gonna be blasted but that reveals the spiritual sickness so now we can deal with it.

We'll be right back. 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. Don't forget to visit vitaminmission.com, actually as I did last night looking for a particular supplement from Dr. Stangler.

We've got a special code you can use that gets you a 10% discount and then when you order, a donation is made to our ministry as well, vitaminmission.com, 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Michael in Bourbonet, Illinois. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello, Dr. Brown. How are you?

Doing very well, thank you. I don't really have a question. I have more of a... You know how you did a show recently about Target celebrates queer? Yeah.

Okay. Pastor Locke, years ago, we're talking back in 2015, he kind of started something amongst people who street preach and I had started to street preach in my area because I just simply read my Bible and it said, go ye and preach and I said, hmm, okay. And well, Pastor Locke said that that was when they started to open the bathrooms. And well, I went to my Target and I did the exact same thing as Pastor Locke. I asked questions.

I just said, okay, are you seriously doing this? And well, a week later, a whole bunch of us, you know, there were street preachers. They all abandoned me, by the way, they all, yeah. They rejected me. Tell you what, Michael, just for time's sake, and because I have other callers, if you could just get to the focal point, then we can comment on it, okay? Yeah. So I went in there and we, I pretty much yelled, repent on the way out and, you know, telling people to repent and I didn't have the same exact idea, ideology as, you know, Pastor Locke. I, you know, wasn't big on either candidates, you know what I mean?

Tell you what, let me just comment here because it may take a little while to get to the point. I have good friends who have street preached for many, many years. I've done it here and there, but I have good friends that do it very, very regularly. There are colleagues that lead street preaching ministries around America and they will sometimes have a different style than I would have. They would sometimes have a different delivery than I would have, but they've seen fruit, they've seen people fall to their knees and repent right on the street and God's used them, even if their style is different than mine. I have other friends that put an emphasis on looking for sick people and those in need and they minister to them and God heals them and touches them and they very clearly share the gospel with them, very clearly share with them the need to repent and will get right on their knees on the street and lead those people to Jesus and then work to follow up with them.

So there are different methods in which the message can be preached. I would just say that to a person working in a store, they're an employee or manager of the store, they're under orders to do certain things and they don't know the Lord, that I'm not yelling at them to repent of opening up bathrooms to people's perceived gender. I'm telling you it's wrong and it's destructive and you won't have my business because of that, but they need the Lord, they need to know Jesus and that's the main thing I'm calling them to repent of. Now there may be a time that we're called to tell people, it's the top of our lungs, you need to repent and God's gonna judge you.

There are times for that, but we really need to be in harmony with the Holy Spirit and really need to know his voice and his prompting because sometimes we can just do that and think we've been very bold and it's the flesh. I mean, without knowing more and seeing a situation, I can't say which is which, but let everyone know that we love them, that the reason we're telling the truth is out of love, that if we're one of them about hell, let it be with tears. Hey, thank you, thank you for the call.

Let's go to Sherry in Atlanta, welcome to the line of fire. Hi Dr. Brown, thank you so much for you, your family, your ministry, you're such a blessing and I just want to, you know, honor you and thank you for that. Quick question for you, I've seen a lot of people say that how Greg Locke talks and the things he said, it's like Jesus turning over the tables in the temple, and to me those are vastly different things. What's your view on that, what are your thoughts? Right, so Pastor Locke was our subject yesterday and people got to hear from him, so I want to answer it in that way rather than making a direct comparison, especially in his absence when he was willing to come on the air and speak openly and let me speak openly to him. So I will say this, number one, we, all of us, we are not Jesus and our indignation is often mixed. James, Jacob 1 says that the anger of man does not accomplish God's righteous will, therefore we should be slow to anger, or in Ephesians 4, in your anger do not sin, because often we do sin and our anger, I'm saying we, us. So that's the first thing, we're not Jesus and he was doing things, he said he could only do what he saw the Father doing, right?

And obviously this is what the Father showed him he was to do. And there's no time that anyone else did that, in other words the apostles never did that, the other followers of Jesus never did that, even though the temple stood for 40 more years after his death and resurrection, there's no evidence of them going into idol temples and smashing the idols and things like that. So there is a righteous and holy indignation but let it come in the way that the rest of the New Testament tells, let's be bold, let's be uncompromising, let's be clear, but let us do it with gentleness of spirit, let us gently correct those who oppose us, I mean this is what Paul writes, we looked at it earlier in the broadcast, let us demonstrate the wisdom that comes from above, you know, it's something interesting. So I started preaching when I'm 18 years old, right, full of zeal, in the Word and prayer six to seven hours a day, memorizing 20 verses a day, sharing the gospel with at least one new person every day, going to church services multiple times a week, zealous, passionate, right?

And I preached a real wake-up call to the young people in our church, I said we're not going out enough, evangelizing enough, there were only like 15 young people, so I preached, there was a Tuesday night service and the, you know, it was time when the real die-hard folks were always there, they came to multiple services a week, so we probably had 50, 60 people, many older, and then the young people. And at one point in my message for emphasis, I said I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and I slapped the table with my hand, so I'm not talking about Pastor Greg Locke, I'm not talking about anybody else, I'm talking about me, right? I slapped the, and I thought I was, like that's a good thing to do for emphasis, and I remember as I did the pastor, as he was watching, he kind of jumped, you know, and I thought, hmm. Well, anyway, I instantly, instantly, that split second got a blister on my hand, instantly. I'm talking about the second I hit it, I was like, oh, that stung, which I did not expect.

And then I looked, and I literally, the skin was, instantly had a blister. So when I finished the message, we had an altar call, and the young people weeping at the altar and all this, we finished, I finished the message, and then the pastor got up, and he said, Lord, temper your word that went forth tonight. And I was very offended, like, temper, what do you mean? So when I went to meet with him the next day, he actually spent the day in prayer that I would hear what he had to say, and then I met him before the service, and he said, look, you're a young whippersnapper, you don't know anything, you're wet behind the ears, you're just, whatever, 18, 19 years old, he said, there are men in that meeting last night, he said, and they've sacrificed things you have no idea, they've given away 30, 40% of their income over the years to help the gospel, and you've got no right talking to them like that, to paraphrase what he said.

And he goes, the problem is, the young people, they loved it, they're gonna hear it, and they'll support you, but I'm telling you, you know, you gotta learn something here. Well, that for me was a very formative lesson early on, and I learned that there was a certain, again, I'm talking about me, I'm not talking about anybody else, there was a certain delivery that I thought was, quote, anointed, which was just me getting worked up a little bit, and trying to make some point, and God made it clear enough with the, it was like, ow, the pain and the instant blister, and then the pastor's words, but that's been something, maybe just because I could be so strong-headed, I could be so dogmatic in myself, I could be so contentious in myself, I could be so argumentative in myself, that God's really had to purge me a lot, you know, it says in Proverbs 3 that God corrects those that he loves, Proverbs 3, 11, and 12, and I once told Nancy, I said, I think God loves me more than others, because he corrects me so much. So I think whatever, let it be, let it be, and again, I'm not speaking about Pastor Locker or anyone else, I'm speaking about me, let it be that we really live broken lives before the Lord, that we are really people who take up the cross deeply, that we've really crucified our, either our timidity on the one side, or our fleshly anger on the other, or our wishy-washiness on the one side, or our contentiousness on the other side, that we've crucified those things, and that we live to honor the Lord, and if he tells us, here, I brought one of the most controversial messages of my life at a Palestinian-Christian conference where I was the sole voice that was Zionist and saying, support Israel in these ways, and that's why they invited me, they invite someone every couple of years like that to their conference, and I publicly corrected them, I publicly said, you're wrong on this point, this point, this point, and you need to fix these things if you want our full support, but they also know I did it with brokenness, and they also know I did it with pain in my heart, and that's what allowed us to sit and have fellowship afterwards. Let that be the message that we bring to the church and to the world, boldness, uncompromising words of truth, but with brokenness, and if they cut us, we bleed love. Back with you on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday tomorrow.