Dr. Brown Answers Your Best Questions

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

We are live on Good Friday. You've got questions. We've got answers.

Phone lines are open. 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. Thanks friends for joining us on The Line of Fire. Michael Brown, delighted to be with you.

We are live. It's Good Friday, so maybe you've got the day off and you're able to call in and you normally can't call during your work schedule or school schedule. Here's the number to call, 866-348-7884. Any question of any kind that relates in any way to anything we ever talk about on The Line of Fire, anything I've spoken about, anything I've written about. Phone lines are wide open, 866-34-TRUTH.

Those who differ with me, those who regularly attack and bash on YouTube or other social media forums, by all means, tell me why I'm wrong. I would love to interact with you. Before I go to the phones, and I'm going to do that very quickly, it is on the Christian calendar, the church calendar, Good Friday. Thankfully, this falls in the midst of Passover as things would have been 2,000 years ago as opposed to two separate holidays. Last night, I had a wonderful time at the Museum of the Bible in D.C., my first time there. I got a quick tour and then did our Messianic Seder for Messianic Rabbi Aaron Alsbrook of Ohe Viestra El in Virginia.

We had about 400 people in attendance. There were a number of Jewish friends that came that were not believers, maybe 20 or 30. It was a great time with a Messianic Passover Seder. Then I got to preach about 30 minutes, and my message was on Messiah, the Passover Lamb, and the power of the blood. So it is on this day that Christians around the world remember in a special way the sacrifice that was paid, the price that was paid. The ultimate price that could be paid was paid so that you and I could know the Lord and be His forever. Never take it for granted. Never take the blood for granted, and never underestimate the power of the blood to cleanse, to transform the worst of sinners, and to remove the guilt that's eaten at you for years, that no psychology, that no drug, that no drink, that no self-help could deal with. Never underestimate the power of that blood to utterly cleanse you from guilt as you get right with God through what Jesus did on the cross, died for our sins, rose from the dead.

When we truly look to Him to save us from our sins, to give us a new heart, a new life, not so we can fulfill our dreams, but that we can do the will of God, you will never regret it. 866-34-TRUTH. Let us go to Tanya in Canada. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi there. Hey. This is Tanya from Calgary.

Yes. I want to know that I, I want you to know that I listen to your show regularly and thank you for your words of wisdom. Well, thank you.

Hey, listen, I'm glad that you can get us in various ways in Canada because if we were on a radio station there, we would have been censored a long time ago. Things are really challenging for you folks, but keep standing strong. The church will make the difference. Yes, exactly. You're exactly right there. Yes, my question is about Judas. Concerning Luke 22 and Matthew 27, in Luke 22 it says that Satan entered Judas, and I'm wondering how much control he actually did have. Right, so Satan does not have the power just to possess someone against their will or enter into them against their will.

There has to be an open door. Otherwise, Satan would just take over one human being after another. Right, and think of how many of us, before we knew the Lord, we were under his control in that we worshiped things that were wrong and we did things that were wrong.

2 Corinthians 4, 4 calls him the God of this age. 1 John 5, 19 says that the whole world loves him to the power of the wicked one, and yet he does not just have the power to take people over on that level. Jesus refers to Judas as the son of perdition in John 17 when he's saying that he's lost none of the disciples given to him except Judas the son of perdition, which Hebrew idiom would mean one doomed to destruction. And then in John 6, he says, Haven't I chosen you twelve, but one of you is a devil. So Satan was already heavily at work in Judas' life, and John reminds us that when Judas protested about the money that was, about the ointment that was being poured out on Jesus, and this could have been used for the poor, that he really didn't care about the poor, but he was a thief. So Jesus knew exactly who he was choosing, and he was obviously corrupt, and there were issues. Now at a certain point, you give yourself over to sin, and the enemy comes in, just like Pharaoh hardened his heart over and over and over, then God said, Okay, this is what you want to do.

I'm going to confirm you in it. So at that point, Judas was a lost man, but obviously he opened the door and gave himself to it, and it wasn't Satan working through an unwilling vessel, but Satan working through a willing vessel. Okay, I just have one more question.

Yeah, sure. In Matthew 27, it seems like he is remorseful and throws the pieces of silver and recognizes his sin, but then he commits suicide. Would Jesus have forgiven him had he lived?

Okay, so that's theoretical, right? But if there was true repentance, he would forgive, for sure. I mean, the word tells us repeatedly about God's mercy, God's forgiveness, and the Midrashic writings in the Talmud even point to the examples of Manasseh and Ahab. So King Ahab, wicked king, the husband of Queen Jezebel, the one who persecuted Elijah and the prophets, that he has some contrition when Elijah rebukes him, 1 Kings 22, and because of that, God withholds the punishment for a season.

And then Manasseh, who reigned 55 years in Judah, led the nation into idolatry and sin, filled Jerusalem with the blood of the innocent up to the horses' bridles. When he repents of his idolatry, God postpones the judgment on him, and there are Midrashic examples to say if God could forgive them, God could forgive anyone. But there's a big difference between remorse and repentance. Remorse, you could feel terrible about what you did.

You can deeply regret it. You can wish you didn't do it because of the pain that it brings, but it's not true repentance. It's not a surrendering to God. It's not a recognition of guilt to the point of wanting to fully turn from it.

I'll give you an example. There was a pastor I knew many years ago that committed adultery, and I confronted him. People came to me with evidence, eyewitness evidence, and then the Lord confirmed to me, I knew, okay, this is true, what I'm being told.

I went and confronted him, and he finally, you know, denied, and then he finally broke down weeping, and I said, look, there's another leader I know on the island, Long Island, where we lived, and I said, he's highly respected. Let's meet with him and get you on a path to restoration. So obviously he was going to have to step out of ministry, but let's get you on a path of restoration and sit you down for a while and get counsel, et cetera, to get your life, your marriage restored. So we went and met with this guy a few days later, and you could tell my friend that had committed adultery, this pastor I knew, he had a bit of an attitude. He was kind of in a hurry to get out. I've got to pick up my kids.

I've got to get out of here. And when he left, my colleague said to me, he's upset because he got caught. You know, so it was a big, big difference. Yeah, I mean, it does say that Judas, I mean, he does recognize that he's sinned, but I guess that's not enough. Yeah, and that was, oh, no, what I did was terrible.

That's one thing, right? A lot of people realize what I did is terrible, people behind bars, but if you let him out again, they'll do the same thing, or they'll do something similar. Yeah, and whereas Peter, Peter weeps bitterly, and Jesus goes out of his way to restore. So, you know, you can have the tears, but the tears don't necessarily mean a true change of heart. But theoretically, theoretically, right, if there had been true repentance, yes, there would be forgiveness.

I believe that. Remember, as Jesus is being nailed to the cross, he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. So, many times, there is a, they know they're crucifying somebody, that's their job, but they don't realize they're crucifying the Son of God, in that case.

Yeah. So, people do things, they don't fully realize what they do, and in that case, there can be more mercy. Paul talks about himself in 1 Timothy 1, and says that God had mercy on him because he acted ignorantly and in unbelief. So, even though he was persecuting fellow Jews who believed in Yeshua, he didn't fully understand what he was doing. When he was confronted with it, he broke and repented.

So, God's mercy is great, but their lines recross, and sometimes there's no way back. Okay. All right. Well, thank you for listening, and thank you for your witness there in Calgary, Canada.

866-34-TRUTH. By the way, very quickly, before we go over to Brad in West Virginia, we will often have live radio on a national holiday, or on a day when the radio studios normally close, and they'll just send someone in to man the show. And we do it for a couple of reasons. One, I love being on the air with all of you. Two, with live radio, you never know what's going to happen in the world around us, so we get to address it, talk about it. And three, on a day like today, many times you have an opportunity to call in when you wouldn't normally have the opportunity. So, that could mean on a day like today, we will be absolutely flooded with calls, wall-to-wall calls, because so many of you have an opportunity to call and don't normally, or the people that are the normal cycle of listening are not listening today, and therefore we have less calls. So, right now we do have some phone lines. All that to say, we do have a few phone lines open, which many times on Friday we don't, so it's a great day to call in.

And I am going to, tell you what, answer this question quickly. Do I celebrate Good Friday? Why or why not? I don't celebrate it as a special day, in that I am not part of a liturgical church that would have a set calendar of, this is when we do what we do. And even in terms of Passover, I celebrate it more spiritually than anything.

In other words, as opposed to this being a regular calendrical thing that I do, so I celebrate it at these times of the year. But it's not the way that a traditional Christian would, or even the way many Messianic Jews would. In that sense, every day to me is set aside as holy to the Lord. My own expression in Romans 14, and every day recognizing these things, if I was part of a congregation that set this day apart in a certain way, it would have a different flow in my life. But that's not how I was raised in the Lord, and that's not what my own life expression has been.

Nor is there a mandate in scripture to do it. That would be the biggest thing to me. All right, we'll be right back with your calls.

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Be sure to do that so you can get your discount and so that the funds can be donated 100% to the Line of Fire radio show. Let us go over to Brad in West Virginia. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. How are you doing again? I'm doing very well.

Thank you, sir. Good. Uh, question on second test. They have a form of godliness denying its power and you know, during the Brownsville revival, everything was radical. Everything was a radical change, but now they were not in revival. I meet people that I witnessed too and sometimes I scare them because when I ask them what happened in their life of change, they gradually say, well, I think I'm saved or I, you know, well, is it always got to be a radical change or is there a mild way of getting saved? Right, so first thing we want to do is look at the passage, right, in 2 Timothy 3, because you quoted verse 5, having a form of godliness but denying its power have nothing to do with such people. That's the end of Paul's word to Timothy. But mark this, there'll be terrible times in the last days.

This is always applied. Since I first got saved, I've heard this applied to this is proof that we're living in the end of the age. Look at how bad things are. But this was Paul writing to Timothy saying, hey, Timothy, in these last days in which we live, don't think it's just going to be great and easy.

There's going to be a lot of junk going on and a lot of wicked people. And then he lists it, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power have nothing to do with such people. So he's talking about people who have some outward form of religious expression but who are living wicked, ungodly lives. And we don't fellowship with them.

We try to win them to the Lord. But you don't fellowship with someone that's a hypocritical believer like that. That being said, God radically saves people all the time. During times of revival, you just see it happen in a more commonplace way. But for sure, some people are raised in the faith and their own experience of coming to know the Lord is different.

Some people have very intense emotional conversion experiences, some not as intense. But there must be the proof of a new life. There must be change. There must be some evidence of a relationship with God. The revival scholar James Edwin Orr said the only proof of the new birth is the new life.

And that's what Jacob, James, says in his book. Show me. Okay, you have faith. Show me.

Show me by your works. So if I meet someone that said, you know, I love Jesus but I'm struggling in this area. I feel miserable about it.

I used to just party and love the party life but I feel miserable but I still fall back with drugs. Okay, that's someone that's evidencing there's conviction of sin in their life, that's evidencing they don't want to live the way they used to live. That's the good news.

Now let's help them really get grounded or get free so that they can fully live as disciples. That's very different than someone said, well you can't judge me. You know, you can't tell them I can't sleep with my girlfriend.

Or you can't tell them. So they're not going to have the same experience I had which was, you know, when we were at the browns of a revival, heck I think I got saved every night. Yeah, well that's so grand. So the conviction was so thick. Right, right, the conviction was so thick that you'd feel like you need to get, I mean that's a very common thing in times of revival. People feel like they got saved all over again.

But here's the point, let's look at three different situations. Situation one is someone that was living in sin, comes under deep conviction, gets radically turned around and almost overnight the biggest bondages, the ugliest outward things are just gone, deep repentance and from there they're zealous, they grow in the Lord. Okay, then you have another person, the one I just mentioned, they used to live a sinful, overt, rebellious life. They come under conviction, they come to faith but it's not, it's more of a growth process that's slower and they seem to struggle longer. I'm not going to deny that they're born again, I just want to see them know the Lord more deeply so the transformation can go deeper. And then there's the third one that talks about Jesus but gives no evidence of a changed life. There's no evidence of conviction of sin. They can gossip about someone and lie about someone, no problem.

They could go out and get drunk or sleep with somebody, no. You can't tell me I'm not right with God, I can tell you you're not right with God, the Bible tells me you're not right with God because you're living in unrepentant sin. So that one I just say has yet to be born again or has rejected whatever grace was once in their lives. Hey Brad, thank you for the call, I appreciate it. 866-344-TRUTH. Let's go to Chris in Virginia. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Oh yeah. You're on the air sir.

I'm Dr. Brown. Yeah. Okay, thank you very much, it's a very big privilege to talk to you. Well thanks. Appreciate everything you do for the rest of us in the faith. So, I've got a newsletter, I'm on our good friend Ryan Kander's email newsletter, and I believe he's in Scotland right now, celebrating Seder. And I just kind of was perusing his blog, and this has probably been going on for a few years now, but I came across some Jewish rabbis who objected to Christians participating in the Seder tradition. So, and I would just like you to comment on that, why would they be opposed to it? And also for someone like me, for those of us like me, I'm fairly ignorant of Seder in the first place, so can you explain what that is? Sure, absolutely.

Yes sir. Number one, Ron is a long long time friend of mine. I helped rescue him when he was being bombarded with objections from rabbis as a new believer, and he became a student of mine, and we've become very good friends over the years, he and his wife Alana. In fact, I preached the message when his wife Alana got saved, so we've got a great history, and Ron's one of my favorite leaders in Israel today. He and his wife Alana lived there for many many years, and she's a native born Israeli.

Okay, all that to your question. The Seder is an ordered meal, that's what the root behind Seder means. It is a specific meal that is eaten on the Passover. It goes back to biblical times in the Exodus, so over 3,000 years ago, where the children of Israel came out of Egypt and everyone had to kill a lamb and put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of the house, etc. So you'd have this meal, and then you'd eat it with unleavened bread, so every year you'd have a meal to remember the Exodus, and you'd eat certain foods, so your children would say, why do we do this, and you could bring them back to the Exodus, and then over the centuries, other customs were developed and added in with other symbolic things on the plate, and then of course the lamb was no longer slaughtered once the temple was destroyed.

So Jewish families, even non-traditional, will often gather at this time of the year, but it's a very important time for traditional Jews to remember the Exodus from Egypt. Messianic Jews will often have a Seder and say, first we're remembering, this is part of our heritage too, we're remembering our Exodus from Egypt, but we're also remembering a greater Exodus when the Messiah brought us out of bondage to sin, and he is our Passover lamb, and they would say there's some interesting elements, there's some interesting elements in the Passover Seder, and there's a debate in the Jewish community about the origin of these elements, but there are Messianic Jews who say these may have been implemented by Jewish believers and somehow became part of the Messianic Seder, of course traditional Jews found it preposterous, but either way Messianic Jews would say there's some interesting elements in the meal, and there's one thing with a piece of matzah that's broken, it's the middle piece that's broken of three pieces, and then it's hidden, and then found later the children have to go and find it where it's hidden in the house, and this Messianic Jews would say hey, where did you get the three pieces of matzah, could it be it represents father, son, spirit, could it be that the son, the middle matzah broken, hidden, and then revealed afterwards, so his death, his resurrection, so traditional rabbis would say ah, you're co-opting something that's ours, Messianic Jews would say hey, we share the same heritage with being delivered out of Egypt, but we find real Messianic meaning in this, and we invite Christians to participate and be enriched by this as well, so that's why we do it, appreciate the call Chris. Hey friends, this is Dr. Michael Brown, I want to invite you to join our support team, make an investment of $1 a day that will absolutely last forever, you know the Lord has given us a holy mandate to blanket America with a line of fire broadcast, and on a regular basis we hear from folks writing in, Dr. Brown, I used to be a practicing homosexual, I listened to you, I heard grace and truth together, I was changed, we hear from pastors who say thank you for speaking with compassion, but giving us backbone and courage, and we know across America so many believers are getting healthy and strong through listening to the broadcast, through listening to these messages as we tackle the controversies, the most difficult issues of the day, we even hear from former Muslims who've come to faith, from Jewish people who now believe in Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, through this broadcast and our resources, so join our support team, $1 or more per day makes you an official torch bearer, immediately you will get access to hundreds of hours of terrific online classes and exclusive video content, every single month we'll send you a brand new audio message and along with an insider prayer newsletter where we'll talk about the things that are going to be coming in our ministry and share some of the amazing testimonies of the fruit that you are a part of, and when you do sign up I want to give you two books as a special gift, first Compassionate Father and Consuming Fire, who is the God of the Old Testament, I take the best of my Hebrew and Old Testament scholarship, wrap it together in this book that you'll find eye opening answering many of the questions you have, and then Revolution, my classic book that tells you how to wage war with Jesus, overcoming evil with good, overcoming hatred with love, we are transformed, we can bring transformation to the nation, so call this number now, 800-538-5275, that's 800-538-5275, say I'd like to become a torch bearer or go to AskDrBrown.org, click on donate monthly support. This is how we rise up 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 friends for joining us, it was great at the Museum of the Bible to meet some folks, shout out to Jim who shared his testimony with me, ran from God for 68 years before the Lord radically got hold of him, it was also great to meet some torch bearers, some of our monthly supporters, and it really brings joy to my heart to know that you get to share in the reward, all the lies get touched, all the lies that get transformed, all the people who come to faith, those who support us, who pray for us, you share in the reward. Thank you, thank you. One more thing, then I'm going right back to the phones, I met an African American pastor last night who is a pastor of a church, also loves to blow the shofar, and holds his own messianic seder, so he's Jewish rooted as well, and he said to me, Dr. Brown, remember when you preached at such and such church, it was a Hispanic leader that had been involved with Teen Challenge for many years, and he said, remember, I heard you preach there 20 years ago, he said, and you were warning us of what was going to come with the gay agenda, and everyone thought you were crazy for saying it, so it was probably almost 20 years ago because God dropped a burden on me in 2004, and I said to him, yeah, the good news is that the same God who showed me all the crazy stuff that was going to happen in this society also showed me there's going to be a pushback, and friends, every day, the pushback is growing, let it be led by us, let the government do what it needs to do, and let different businesses do what they need to do to do what's right, but let change in the society be led by us, because we'll do it by the Spirit, we'll do it bringing grace and truth together, and I was talking to someone that knew me for many, many years ago, 30 plus years ago, friends with her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and she said to me, you know what, I listen to each other, she's trying to find a nice way to say it, she goes, you're different, you're as much nicer to people, I said, oh yeah, yeah, I've become a much more compassionate person, I said, if God could change me, New York Jew, debater, he could change anyone, so it was great to meet folks, always encouraging to hear that, again, if you want to join our support team, we really appreciate it, and we will pour back into you, it's the best dollar a day you could ever invest, we will pour back into you every single day, just go to AskDrBrown.org, click donate, monthly support, and we want to give you a couple of free books when you do, that will really be a blessing to you right out of the gate. All right, we go back to the phones, over in Texas, Daniel, welcome to the line of fire. Hi Dr. Brown, it's good to talk to you, I've called in once or twice before, a long time ago when I was in Brooklyn, I used to go to Times Square Church, and I met David Wilkerson once or twice, but it's good to talk to you.

Yes, good to hear from you. Yeah, so my question was in regards to the black Hebrew Israelites, I heard your debate, actually a friend of mine who is kind of aligned with the Hebrew Israelites sent me the debate, he enjoyed it a lot, so I think the question I get when I talk to Hebrew Israelites a lot is number one, I think it would be what makes the movement so attractive, is that over the past few hundred years, black and brown people have been so incredibly oppressed, and clearly Jews have, traditional Jews have also been, but maybe over the past 70 years I think, you know, maybe Ashkenazi or Eurocentric Jews have been incredibly, incredibly successful, I think some of my friends have been so incredibly successful and smart, and just they've been very, you know, just succeeded in their life, whereas maybe the brown and African American people that I know have had such a struggle, so I guess my first question would be, you know, according to I think biblical history, usually the Jewish people would suffer when they were far from God, and they would succeed when they were under the blessing and the presence of, you know, God's Spirit moving them during the time of Solomon and David, so what do you think is going on there, why is there such a rich success happening over the last 70 years, even say without maybe being under the divine heading of God, a lot of secular Jews have been incredibly successful, and then why do you think that brown and African American or, you know, Latin people, African American people have been so incredibly oppressed and, you know, from Cortez and everything that happened in Mexico to the African American people that have suffered so much in effect? Yes, thanks for the questions, and by the way, I actually took some time, I've never done this after a debate, but there was such a horrific misrepresentation of sources by Guerrilla Hebrew, by the fellow I debated, and the gentleman I debated, it was shocking, I mean as it was going on, I responded to what I could, but then other things are just, I mean, such either bogus internet sources or academic sources that got misrepresented, scholars that were misquoted, it was shocking, and because everyone simply came with sources, I'm used to an academic debate, a different style of debate, where you just will either cite something or refer to it, as opposed to, okay, put something up, okay, I've got this source, this date, et cetera, because people know the field you're referring to. There's another thing people refer to as conscious debate, which is more the way Guerrilla Hebrew presented things, so people said, well, he came with all these sources, so if people are seeking truth, many are not, I mean, we get the ugliest, most hate-filled comments by the hour coming our way from radicals on all different sides, including among the Hebrew Israelites, all right, but I just thought for those seeking truth, we're actually going to do this, and it should be up pretty soon, I believe, took a lot of time, and just went through it.

Okay, you quote this one, let's actually look, let's see what it actually says, let's see what was left out for those that are seeking truth, and hopefully it'll be an eye-opener for your friend. Okay, that being said, we have to look at the overall course of history, and as Jews, we have been kicked out of country after country after country, that remains true. As Jews, we've suffered horrifically, often in terrible poverty, often decimated in numbers, on and on and on, I mean, the history remains clear, and levels of antisemitism worldwide for several years now have been just as high as they were before the Holocaust. The number one group targeted for hate crimes, either religious or ethnic, in America today is Jewish people, so these things remain the same, so I just want to point that out first. I also want to point out that there are tremendous numbers of highly successful black Americans and brown Americans, highly successful, thriving in many, many ways, in the business world, in the world of media, entertainment, sports, education, be it professors, authors, political leaders, et cetera. That remains the case, and in terms of, if you look at larger nationalities of Hispanic peoples and things, there's tremendous growth and success in so many ways, and then countries like Nigeria, just growing in terms of influence worldwide in numbers, and then many Africans coming over to America in the last generation are often very, very highly successful, and they didn't have a lot of the terrible weight of the past oppression of blacks in America, and how that just put someone behind the eight ball. For example, the average net worth of a white person today in America, just the average person is going to be much higher than the average net worth of a black person because of history.

That's a tragic thing. We have to continue to do what we can to bring justice and level the playing field as much as we can. That being said, for a Jewish person to be very, very successful financially and not to be knowing God would still not be blessed in the biblical sense, but the best I can see, because Jews have been used for good or bad, for a lot of good or a lot of bad, so you have the Karl Marxists of the world who brought incredible destruction to so many lives, and you have the apostle Paul or Moses, right? So it just seems to me that there's something in our DNA and calling where we can either be tremendously successful for good or for bad. So for me as a conservative, I look at all the funding that George Soros has done or his Hungarian parents in Soros, I look at all the funding of radical left-wing causes he's done as a Jewish man, and to me it's been absolutely horrific in terms of what's been brought about. But that's the reality that there's good and there's bad, and it seems that we excel at either one.

Either we bring about a lot of good or we bring about a lot of destruction. The one other thing that's interesting though is that the curses are historic, and it's interesting when I said to really Hebrew in my opening presentation that one of the proofs that you cannot possibly be true Israel, everyone on the 12 tribes chart, like Mexico is a tribe of Issachar, I mean nonsense like that, that it can't possibly be true, is that God says in exile you'll be left few in number, and he said well Hosea 1 says our numbers will be like the sands of sea. Well no, not in exile under judgment, no, no, no, that's a promise in the land, not exile under judgment, but either way when were they ever few in number, all the peoples on the chart, they were never few in number, not in Africa, not in Latin America, etc. So that doesn't work, but what was fascinating was that he wanted me to show that Ashkenazi Jews today are under every single curse, otherwise it couldn't apply to us, whereas the very first objection I raised to him that you're not few in number, he says well no, they could be historical, we're not to be few in number today. So as long as these things have been fulfilled in history, whether it was a hundred years ago or five hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, that remains true.

They don't all have to be equally intense at all times, and it could be if there has been some Jewish turning away from idolatry in some of the worst senses, then that would lessen some of the curses as well. So when you look historically, there's no arguing that these things have unfolded. But in terms of every day right now, look, I imagine Guerrilla Hebrew is successful in what he's doing.

Does that mean that he's not under a curse, you know, if he's claiming to be a true Israelite and the proof of it is he's under a curse, he's got an apparel business, houses are, I imagine it's going pretty well, right? And he's talking about all the good stuff he's doing, raising up a movement, so again, it's really stuff that's happened historically. And one thing that I felt, I'll say this last thing, Daniel, I know it's a bit of a long answer, but one thing I'll say is this, that when I first confronted Black Hebrew Israelites, as they would have been known then, on the streets of New York in the early 90s, and I said, you're preaching a religion of hate, Jesus preached a religion of love.

And I said, one day we're both going to be at the bottom of the barrel and we'll need each other. We're both descendants of liberated slaves. So I understand that there are legitimately Black Jews and Hispanic Jews, just like White Jews, I understand that. But the point is that African Americans as a whole have a history, yes, of enslavement, oppression, which is terrible, horrific, and of course, inexcusable. Jewish people also have a history of being enslaved and oppressed and persecuted. There should be a commonality there, a brotherhood, as opposed to animosity.

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back to the Line of Fires. We are live on Good Friday. We do have time for a few more calls, and I may field a few more YouTube questions. Here's one from Ryan, are you feeling good about young apologists answering Jewish objections? In other words, do we need many more for next generations? I feel good in that things are better than they were when I came to faith 50 plus years ago.

We didn't have any of the resources available that we have today. I feel good in that many have taken material that I've put out and built on it and developed their own, which is great, but there's a real need for more solid training. We need more people who really know Hebrew well, who know the Hebrew Bible well, who are fervent in the Lord, who have a grasp of rabbinic literature, sensitivity to Jewish objections, and some debating or apologetic skills.

We do need more, and I continue to look for ways to train more so I could be of help in that regard. And a similar question from Sylvia Hilaire, Dr. Michael Brown, when are you going to decimate Rabbi Tovia Singer in a debate again? I would debate Tovia in a heartbeat, and that's been known for 30 plus years, he's refused to debate me or engage with me, unfortunately gave some false reasons for it. But any time it would be a worthy debate, it would be an important one. He's an eloquent spokesman for a position that he's very wrong on. He's aggressively taxed the faith of Christians, Gentile Christians, and puts out so much misleading information that's led people astray. I'm always blessed when I see a comment that comes in on social media, Dr. Brown, I lost my faith because of Rabbi Tovia Singer, but found your material and have come back to the Lord.

So that's always gratifying, but I would do it in a heartbeat. In Judges 13, why do you ask my name, the angel, the Lord asked him, since it is wonderful, is that Jesus? You could make an argument that that is the Son of God appearing in earthly form. And his name was not Jesus, though. In other words, Jesus is the name of the Son of God fully incarnating as a human being in the womb of Mary, Miriam, right? Jesus is the child, the person, the mediator between God and man that we know as Jesus, Yeshua. But was that the Son of God appearing?

You could make an argument for that, for sure. All right, let us go to Rick in North Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire. Rick, are you there? Did you say Rick? Yes, I did. You're on the air. Yeah, yeah.

Sorry, my phone broke up for a second. Okay, thank you, Dr. Brown. First of all, after my question is, any words of encouragement you can give to someone who is in a church and sometimes during worship they feel like they're outside looking in, like you know, they're not like, I mean I spend time with the Lord every day, but some here lately, corporate worship, I just feel like I'm just outside looking in, you know. Any words of encouragement or anything you could say, and I do have some depression going on with, you know, and that doesn't help things, you know. Are you saying that the people are worshiping but you can't enter in? I just feel like, and I grew up Baptist, first of all, when I'm in a charismatic church, so you can imagine, you know, the way it is the way it used to be, and so, you know, it's just I just feel like I'm just not real, I mean I'm the kind of guy when I go to a ball game I'm not going to be jumping up and down hoops and hollering too, okay, I'm kind of reserved to start with.

The first thing is, don't compare yourself to anybody else, right? God's looking at your heart, and you know, let's say you have a bunch of grandkids and they're all over the house for the holidays, you're not comparing, well this one sits in my lap this way, you know, those are grandkids, you love them, and you're just happy to be around them, so God loves being with his people, and he's looking at your heart, not the outward expression. The first thing is, don't compare yourself to anybody else, and don't ask yourself, well what's this person feeling, and I'm not feeling, don't even think of that, and just from your heart say, Lord I love you, and even though I feel like I'm going through the motions, I feel like I'm just singing empty words, you know my heart, you know that I mean it, you know that I love you, you know that I'm serious about this, as you do that, things will click, you will begin to see change come, and I would also meditate on his promises, that in his presence is fullness of joy, Psalm 16, that the joy of the Lord is our strength, Nehemiah 8, and I would take that as an opportunity just to be with the Lord and say, Lord there's joy in your presence, you know the depression, I'm struggling with the issues that are weighing on the, I would take Philippians 4, 6 through 8, be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and petition, make your requests known to God, with thanksgiving make your requests known to God, and the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding will guard your heart and mind through Messiah Jesus, and then think on the things that are pure and noble, etc. So many a time, I'll feel burdened, Rick I'll feel weighed down, and I'll just go to the Lord and say, Lord I got this on my mind, I got that on my mind, I got all these projects to do, and I don't know how I'm going to have time to do them, and I feel a little overwhelmed, and then when I'm done talking to him, I feel great, even though nothing's changed in the circumstances, and I still have this kind of mountain to climb, right, the burden's been given over to him, and if you just continue to honor the Lord in worship, you will sense his presence more, it's like when you look for the feelings you're not going to get feelings, and you just say, Lord I'm going to worship you, this is my act, this is my act of sacrifice, this is my act of adoration, and the less I feel it, the more it's my sacrifice given up to you, then he'll make his love known to you in a way that's tangible. Yeah, yeah, thank you, and my question is, and this will be quick, speaking in tongues, I believe in tongues, I believe in gifts and everything, but I have a problem with when a pastor's on stage and he's got the microphone, he starts speaking in tongues, even when he's praying, and I don't know what he's saying, you know, and I know Paul says if you've got an interpreter, and also, there was a guy, and everything's genuine, I don't doubt this body, whatever, but he's praying over a bunch of small children and baptizing them all in the Holy Spirit, which I believe in, then he says, oh, you're going to be speaking in tongues and all this, and this is the little children, and I'm trying not to be judgmental, but I feel like that was manipulation, I felt like it was, you know, I mean, Well Rick, here's the thing, number one, if you do have a mic, if you are speaking publicly, if you speak in tongues, there should be interpretation, now maybe as you're praying, the prayer is the interpretation, but if you are speaking in tongues in a public way, unless you're just around believers that you all know each other in the Lord, but otherwise, for the sake of those coming in who are not believers or who don't understand these things, if you do speak in tongues, there should be interpretation. Many times in our Pentecostal Charismatic churches, we are a little too zealous with that and lose sight of that, so it's not like sin against the Spirit, it's just not good practice because it doesn't help people that are sitting and listening, that's one thing. As far as children, if you know this pastor to be a man of God, and you know him to be a solid brother who loves the Lord with a good track record, maybe he really has faith for this. You know, Jesus quotes Psalm 8 when the Jewish leaders are criticizing him and the children are praising him, he says, God's ordained prays out of the mouth of babes. So if these kids have a relationship with the Lord, I don't mean a year and a half year old that can barely speak with clarity, but if they're six, seven years old or eight years old and they know the Lord and praise for them and they begin to genuinely speak in tongues, if it's genuine, it'll stay. If it's manipulative, then I agree with you, it's a bad practice. But if it's genuine, hey, let God be praised and let's see the fruit of it in these kids. I know many kids who are genuinely filled with the Spirit at a young age and have spoken in tongues ever since, but I know other cases where sure, it could potentially be manipulative.

But if I trust the leader, he's got a good track record, and I don't know him to be manipulative and he understands the kids he's dealing with, it could genuinely be the Lord. But thank you for the questions, Rick. Logos asks on YouTube, is Sheol hell? Sheol is the place of the dead, hell is really the place of punishment of the dead. Sometimes the terms overlap in our translations, like Sheol can be translated hell, often in King James, where it's really the abode of the dead, not specifically the place of punishment. So if we use hell as the place of punishment, it's different than Sheol, but they can be used in overlapping ways in the Scriptures.

Gerald, in Minnesota, if you ask the question quick, I'll try to answer quick because time is short. Okay, on the rapture, the reason why most people get the wrong answer on the rapture is because they ignore the details. For instance, on Matthew 24... Do you have a question? Yeah, Matthew 24. Okay, what's the question? Yeah, they ignore all the things that show that they're talking about Israel, like abomination of desolation. Yeah, so just to jump in.

So there wasn't a question there, which is okay. When I held to a pre-trib rapture, which was the first few years, I would say, first four or five years I was saved, and that's the church in which I got saved, that's what I heard. I heard about a pre-trib rapture probably before I heard the full message of the Gospel, so it was very much entrenched in what I once believed. I got all the stuff about Israel and saw that with connection about modern state of Israel and interpreting Matthew 24, et cetera, et cetera, and then the future third temple and so on, but I believe I was wrong in my views of the rapture. So many folks who hold to a pre-trib rapture, they love the Word, love the Scriptures, love the Lord, and are very devoted and very meticulous in their study.

I would just differ with their conclusions. Blessings to you folks. May the Lord be honored this weekend. Blessings to all those celebrating Resurrection Sunday. Thank you.