Dr. Brown Answers Your Best Questions

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Favorite times of the week. You've got questions.

We've got answers. Phone lines are open. 866-348-7884, 866-344-TRUTH. Michael Brown, delighted to be with you and even during our Q&A here to infuse you with faith, truth and courage to help you stand strong in the Lord. Boy, I'd love to hear from some of our new listeners in our great station in Chicago, great station in Dallas. Listening anywhere in America, anywhere in the world.

Love to hear from you. 866-344-TRUTH. We go straight to the phones, an anonymous caller in Ohio. Welcome to the line of fire. Good afternoon, Dr. Brown. Hello. Yes sir, can you hear me? Yes.

Okay. My question, sir, is I've been attending this church now for about four years, and I got saved in 1975 February, but I've been attending this church for about four years. I'm 70 years old, and the reason I'm calling is because there's some things that's being said in the church. They're not—first of all, I love this church.

I enjoy what's happening and I love what's happening in the church. We're preaching the gospel and so on and so forth. But my question is, sir, is there's some things that's being said by some of the ministers, because it's a good-sized church. Some of the musicians that I want to know if I'm being so critical about it or I'm being judgmental about it, and I don't want to be either or. But like, for instance, when they're preaching, I'm trying to use some words that is not appropriate for our children in our church. And what I mean by words, man, sir, I hope you don't be offended, but like, for instance, they'll say it's a bunch of crap or that sucks, and some of them are ministers, some of them are song leaders, real good song leaders, and they're even good ministers. But I wonder if that's the kind of language that we want to use in a service when you've got 300 or 400 people in a service with children.

I'm trying to understand if it's the right thing to do. Yeah, let me ask you one question, sir. First, for everyone listening, this is the right way to ask questions about your own congregation, because you're not mentioning names of pastors or churches the way our brother has just done this. And this way we can talk totally freely. For example, let's say that someone was hostile and calling about a church, and they're going to say, well, my pastor says this, or my church does this.

Well, we just got one side of it on the air, and now we have to get the other side. So thank you, my brother, for doing this. I just have one quick question for you. Overall, does this church have a good stand on holy living, on godliness, on purity?

Or would you say it's very lax there? Well, sir, I meet some of the members, some of the church people out in the community, and it's questionable that you're going to find this in every church, sir. Right, right. But as far as what's preached from the pulpit, are people called to live godly lives by God's grace?

Amen. Yeah, so in all candor, just based on the specific words that you use, I would not use them, but I have godly friends, even ministers of the gospel, who have no problem using those words. They don't use other things that we would consider profanity. If they were profanity, you would have just been bleeped out on the air here, because there's a delay from people speaking to when things actually get to the air.

So you weren't bleeped out. In other words, one of my dear friends that introduced me to one of the strongest holiness churches in America years ago used the CRAP word, and it was just a cultural difference there. The same thing with the other word that you mentioned.

It's not part of my vocabulary, but for many godly people, it is part of their vocabulary. It's not profanity. It's not crossing those lines that are forbidden, for example, that would be bleeped out or not allowed during certain hours on TV.

So if that was the extent of it, but otherwise, they encourage godliness. They're not dropping F-bombs. They're not using things that are outward profanity.

They're not encouraging loose behavior and saying, hey, look at how free we are. Hey, man, we're spiritual, not religious, and they're using profanity. No, that's a totally different thing. It's the wrong spirit. But from what you're saying and describing, it's more of a cultural difference that you might ask. You might just say, hey, I'm not here to be critical. I'm not here to attack. And I know for you, you're not crossing lines, but it is offensive for some.

I just want you to see how they respond, but otherwise, that would not drive me out if that was the extent of it. So thank you, sir, for the call and the spirit of the call, which I appreciate. 866-348-7884. Let's go over to Brian in Fort Worth, Texas, where I'm very frequently over in Fort Worth. How are you doing, man? I'm doing well, Dr. Brown. How are you? Great. You know, when we were in Fort Worth, we checked out right before we went live on K-word, KWRD 100.7 FM in the DFW area.

I was with one of my students at a school where I teach there at Spiritual Leadership School at Mercy Culture, and we checked out the signal and got K-word loud and clear in Fort Worth. So anyway, it's kind of my home away from home over there, but welcome to the broadcast. Sorry, sorry for that little tangent. Go ahead, go ahead. No, it's okay.

Thank you so much. I actually have a question about King David and the Talmud, and then that previous gentleman's. This question had me have a question about the congregation, the part of the church that I'm at, and if I had time, I'd like to ask that as well. My first question is, I hear a lot of people teach from the pulpit that King David committed adultery. However, I was looking at some ancient Near East practices again, and they're saying that it was common for soldiers to divorce their wives before they headed off to battle. And I heard one rabbi say it like this, he said that according to the Talmud, King David ordered all of his soldiers to divorce their wives before heading off to war. Because if they were killed at the war, or taken prisoner for the rest of his life, his wife, who is still married to him, would be a living widow.

So the Talmud states that Bathsheba was divorced, and also states that Bathsheba's husband had committed treason against King David, and he could have had him executed, but it knew it would be misinterpreted, so he simply just sent him back to war. So is there validity in that? No validity to it whatsoever. None of it. Number one, the idea that the soldiers would all divorce their wives in advance would be reflecting much later Jewish disputes about what's called anusah, so a woman who would be, let's say the husband just leaves the family, right?

Takes off and never comes back. She's destitute, but by Jewish law, she's not divorced, so she can't initiate the divorce. So you've got these agonizing situations of Jewish law, and this would be a later projection. If that was taught, it would be a later projection. It would be like there was a dispute in ancient Israel about whether they should stand or sit in the pews while singing the hymns. It's just, it's retrojecting something from centuries later back on biblical times. There's not a stitch of evidence for it, nor is there evidence that they were all living in such righteousness under the law. Any such arguments like this, the Talmud generally recognizes David's sin and the depth of David's sin.

If there are any casuistic types of arguments, you know, there's legalese and David this or Uriah this, absolute nonsense. Scripture is clear. He was guilty. He committed adultery. 2 Samuel 12, the rebuke is overwhelmingly clear. David's repentance in Psalm 51 for his act of adultery is abundantly clear. It brought judgment on his household.

The child that was born to them died. So, I mean, categorically, no. To the extent any of what you mentioned is accurate, it would be absolute later projection to try to twist something to get someone out of their guilt.

The Bible's very clear about what David did, and it was a haunting sin that really cost him a lot. Okay, well that makes a lot of sense as far as that goes. And I don't know how much you have time. Yeah, go ahead, real quick.

Go ahead. So the church I'm part of, I just found out, it seems that they hold more of an egalitarian view, and I just recently found out that they have a woman elder. And I know Paul is very clear in Scripture, and the Bible is very clear, that I don't think women should not not be in ministry, but they shouldn't have the role of head pastor or elder.

So is there order that they're out of? So that is a massive, right Brian, that is a massive debate. Those who believe in women pastors, those who believe in women elders, like Professor Craig Keener, one of the world's foremost New Testament scholars, scholars in his book on women and marriage and ministry. And Paul would argue one way. I mean, Andreas Kostenberger, one of the leading scholars, New Testament scholars who's complementarian, saying absolutely not, that would be contrary to New Testament teaching. My own understanding of Scripture is that governing authority has been instituted as male as the rule, but there are times when God will raise up a woman for a particular purpose, and of course, under proper authority, women are released to do all kinds of ministry. However, while the Southern Baptists would divide over this, and with all respect to them for their convictions, there's been a recent dispute with Rick Warren taking another view and Southern Baptists saying no to it, I would not divide over this. In other words, I have colleagues of mine who are fully egalitarian, believing that there's no male female in Christ, and that is functional in terms of ministry, and that the New Testament is filled with examples of women in ministry and even having authority. In Romans 16, Paul's fellow workers, so many of them being women, others, so the general, the bulk of those I would work with would be non-egalitarian, but there are colleagues I have who are egalitarian. I personally don't divide over this, and that's for you to work out before the Lord.

If you're convicted, that's what Paul is saying, that he's not just talking about a husband and wife or he's not talking about a woman usurping something that doesn't belong to her. And you're convinced that that's what he's teaching, as many would be, and that's the general direction that I lean, then that may be a deal breaker for you. For others, absolutely not, and you can warmly embrace it. So this is for something, this is something you must study on your own and come to a strong conclusion.

There are many things I would divide over. This is not one of them personally. All right, bless you, Brian, and may the Lord give you insight as you continue to study and pray through these issues. 866-348-7884 is number to call.

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Here again, it's Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back to the Line of Fire, 866-34-TRUTH. By the way, the Talmudic text that was just mentioned about King David and adultery and soldiers writing a letter of divorce for their wives before going to battle is found in Sanhedrin, the Talmud, Sanhedrin 107a. Now the Talmud does present this as a test to David, the test that he failed, but reading from the Chabad website, David did not, I don't agree with this, by the way. David did not commit adultery in the literal sense for all soldiers gave their wives a writ of divorce before going off to battle.

Again, I don't agree with that or accept that as traditionally correct. Nonetheless, he certainly violated the spirit of the law and its moral fiber. So he should have waited. If Bathsheba was destined for him, then when Uriah died a natural death, then she would have been available for him. So do I believe he was literally guilty of adultery? Yes, absolutely. Okay.

They claim, had this been an actual adulterous act, David certainly wouldn't have kept Bathsheba as his wife after repenting and Solomon her son would not have been considered eligible to rule except for the power of repentance after his sin. All right, let us go to Adam in Montreal, Canada. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Hey Dr. Brown, thanks for taking my call. Sure thing. Yeah, so I have two questions for you. One of them is regarding Second Temple Judaism. So what is it and what effect did it have on the New Testament?

Like, how did it shape, you know, the New Testament? That's my first question. My second question is, how did the book of Enoch come about and how much of it should we accept and what should we reject that's in it? Those are my two questions.

Great, thank you for them. The second question, you can search our website, AskDrBrown.org, or the app, Ask Dr. Brown Ministries. Just search for Enoch. You'll see a video that I did on the book of Enoch and why it's not part of Scripture. But it may have origins, traditions, sayings that went all the way back to Enoch and were preserved. But beyond that, we understand the book is written many, many, many hundreds of years, thousands of years after the time of Enoch. And we recognize that clearly and its composition.

So it's for many, many reasons. The historical data that's being referenced, the other scholars universally agree in terms of the composition of the book of Enoch being in the centuries before the time of Jesus. So after the end of the Old Testament, so intertestamental literature for sure. It has many, many marks of being intertestamental. The type of language Aramaic that's written and some of which found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The nature, historical background that can be reconstructed. There are many ways you can date documents. So scholarly consensus would be it's clearly intertestamental, written fairly close to the New Testament period. As to what parts of it, none of it is authoritative. All of it is interesting.

So you just work that accordingly. So Second Temple Judaism has different forms. And it's important that we understand those forms for background to the New Testament. Now, we have later literature, Mishnaic Talmudic literature, rabbinic literature written after the destruction of the Second Temple. Some of it clearly post-states the Second Temple, clearly reflects developments that are after the Second Temple in the centuries that followed. Some of it reflects practices and customs and beliefs that go back to the time of the Second Temple.

But we know, even based on New Testament evidence, that you had various groups. You had a more temple-based group, which was the Sadducees. You had the Pharisees, who apparently rose up, especially about 150, 160 years before the time of Jesus, a new purity movement. One of the innovations of the Pharisees was that all Israel would live in a state of ritual purity, but as important as the Temple was in making pilgrimage to the Temple was important, you should have places of study and prayer in every community, hence the synagogues.

That's a Pharisaic innovation. That's why the Sadducees, who were temple-based, more aristocratic, more in control of the priesthood, they did not survive the destruction of the Temple, whereas Pharisaic Judaism did survive the destruction of the Temple, largely because of the synagogue system, it wasn't centralized. Some of the Pharisaic beliefs that had developed are closer to beliefs that would be held in the New Testament in terms of heaven, hell, afterlife, and in terms of all Israel being called to be a priestly nation, our believers called to be priestly. That could be one reason that Yeshua has so many battles with the Pharisees, because he was closer to them than some of the other groups, clearly differing with some of the development of the traditions, even what are called there the traditions of the fathers, like Mark 7 or Matthew 15. The Pharisees ultimately believed, developed a doctrine that these traditions went all the way back to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Whether that was fully developed in the first century or not can be debated, but for sure, these traditions now became the binding way in which the word was understood. Last point, the Dead Sea Scrolls have what are called the Pesharim. These are interpretive commentaries, as if by inspiration. There's also the Temple Scroll, which is kind of an alternative to the physical temple, and this was something allegedly from their teacher of righteousness, leader of the community. There are many concepts in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the people of the New Covenant, the final battle of the sons of light versus sons of darkness, which provide very interesting background to the New Testament, and any good New Testament commentary will incorporate these various sources in its understanding. But we do know that the Pharisees specially relied on tradition in their interpretation of scripture. There was another form of interpreting scripture that we find in the Qumran scrolls, whether that was the Essene method of interpretation, most would lean that way, but that's debated. There was lots of discussion about how to apply the law, and what was the meaning of the Sabbath, and how these things worked out on a practical level.

There was a lot of that, and you have what's called a 4QMMT. This was the Dead Sea Scroll that has legal disputes with clearly pharisaic views, and the views of the Qumran sectarians, and then you had the views of the Sadducees. So everybody's battling over interpretation of scripture.

Is it by tradition? Do we have kind of an inside route, the pasharim, that we have insight into the meaning of it? Is it by revelation of the Spirit, a New Covenant emphasis that we would say through Yeshua? So there's this tremendously interesting background that helps us understand things. Even disputes like Matthew 19, is it right for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?

Where did that question come from? Well, there's a dispute about the meaning of Deuteronomy 24 and Irvat Davar, the nakedness of a matter. What does that actually mean in Deuteronomy 24? And we know there was a debate between the schools of Hillel and Shammai, so older contemporaries of Jesus. The school of Hillel saying a man could divorce his wife for any and every reason. The school of Shammai saying, no, only in the case of adultery, sexual immorality.

And Yeshua there says, yeah, only in the case of adultery, sexual immorality. So there's a lot that's very, very helpful as a backdrop that helps illuminate the text of the New Testament. But everything that's in mission in Talmud, how much of that reflects traditions that were current during the Second Temple?

How much is later? That has to be sorted out historically and scholars work on that regularly to say what's applicable, what's not. What reflects an earlier tradition?

What doesn't? Hey Adam, thank you for the great questions. I really do appreciate it.

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome. Back to the line of fire. You've got questions, we've got answers. We go straight to the phones.

Let's go to Chance in Anchorage, Alaska. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, how are you doing, Dr. Brown? Very well, thank you. My question is about near-death experiences. I've seen other YouTube channels like Randy Kaye, and I've done quite a bit of reading on it too. From what I see, there's a lot of Christian themes, and I find it interesting that people that have no brain function, lung function, or cardiac output are having highly lucid, organized experiences that they can later recall conversations or special knowledge to the medical team after these events happened when they were resuscitated. And I almost view it as another apologetic for Christianity.

I want to know your thoughts on this. I think it's a very interesting and nuanced topic that doesn't get a lot of attention in the realm of faith. I agree with you that there are aspects of it that can absolutely be used in solid apologetics.

In Lee Strobel's book, The Case for Heaven, he's got a whole chapter where he talks about this in an apologetic way, using this as a defense for the faith. Many people will dismiss it just because you hear a story of, let's just have a real caricature here. An alcoholic, God-cursing, wife-beating guy. This is an exaggerated picture. This is not an anecdote.

I'm just making this up. He has a near-death experience. He dies.

Ten minutes, he's gone. And he says, wow, this is a beautiful thing. I saw this beautiful light. I was going to a wonderful place. It's like, how could that be?

That's an ungodly guy. So we dismiss the whole. Or a Buddhist, a Hindu, an atheist, Jew, a Muslim, a Christian, they're all seeming to go to the same beautiful, wonderful place.

How does that work? And then no, no, it's just the effect of oxygen or lack of oxygen on the brain. So I'm aware of that.

But let's start with what you talked about. People who were in surgery or who were in a coma and clearly had information. For example, when they wake up, they tell their family, it really hurt me to see you weeping there in the waiting room. You say, OK, anybody knows that you've got loved ones weeping in the waiting room when they think you died. But then they begin to describe it, yeah, and you were wearing that, I never saw you wear that dress before, Mom. And yeah, kid brother, yeah, you started wearing glasses? I didn't know you were wearing, they go through all the details. It's like, how did you know? I'd never worn that dress before. And you just got glasses that morning. Or different accounts, someone's saying, yeah, during that open heart surgery, when you lost me for a little while, I saw you fiddling with that one machine which was completely out of the person's view on the other side of the room. And you set the dial over here, and then I heard the commotion. Or someone's saying, yeah, I was out of my body and went on the roof of the building and saw all the stuff there.

It's like, OK. And they go on the roof of the building and find it's there. I had a colleague who was a very conservative Jewish believer on Long Island. He was absolutely non-charismatic, non-Pentecostal.

Absolutely. Loved the Lord, we were friends, but I'm telling you, he was absolutely non-charismatic, non-Pentecostal. In fact, he was in a Hispanic church in New York one time, and they called him up for prayer, and they began to pray over him to receive the baptism of the Spirit and speak in tongues. He felt this tremendous pressure on him to perform. So he shouted out the Shema in Hebrew, Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad, the hero of Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. They started shouting. He literally got on his hands and knees and crawled out. They didn't even notice he had crawled out.

They were so excited. That's how non-charismatic he was. During surgery, he was out of his body and experienced angels at work to miraculously help him in surgery and became really charismatic afterwards and received dreams and visions from God. So, yeah, when sifted rightly, when the stories are looked at, Mickey Robinson, a good friend, I haven't seen him much in years, but if you see him, you still see he's got half his face badly burned and hand badly burned. He was away from the Lord, not walking with God, terrible plane crash, and dies and finds himself in hell, and God basically says, You can come back, but it's going to be painful. He comes back with severe burns in his body and gets born again. So, there are enough verifiable accounts.

There are details that are harmonious that I believe, when done rightly, the existence of the soul and these near-death experiences can be powerful apologetic tools, especially a great way to talk to someone who doesn't want to talk to you about the Bible or morality. It's a great place to start. Yes, sir? Amen. Thank you.

You are very welcome. I appreciate the question. 866-348-7884.

We go to Christiana in California. Welcome to the line of fire. Good afternoon, Dr. Brown. Hello. I have two questions for you. The first one is, what is your opinion about members of Christian churches substituting the name of Yahweh or Lord or God in the Old Testament by the name of Jesus, when referring to God in general? For example, one church member said, Bless is the one who comes in the name of Jesus, making reference to Luke 13, where it says, Bless is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And in Psalm, one of these says, Bless is he who comes in the name of Yahweh. Okay, so that's one example.

Let me start there. That's a serious error, because there is a distinction between the Father and the Son, and Jesus is the name of the Son of God when He comes into the world. Jesus did not come in His own name.

He was very specific. He came in His Father's name. So He did not come in His own name. They were not saying, Blessed is the one who comes in His name.

They were welcoming the one who was coming in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, as the one that the God of Israel was sending to save the world. Acts 2 36, Peter says, This Jesus whom you crucify, God has made Lord Messiah. So, even though we recognize that God is one, and that if the Father says something in the Old Testament, that the Son is in harmony with the Father, we don't confuse the Son with the Father. So, for example, Psalm 2, Yahweh says, You are my Son. So, does Jesus say to Himself, You are my Son? No. So, Yahweh says to the Son, You are my Son.

I have given You birth. So, it's definitely a mistake. It is a theological error, and it denies the reality of God's triunity in the process. So, that's the answer to the first question. Yes. Okay. So, it's wrong what they are doing, correct?

Yes. It may be sincere, but it's based on scriptural ignorance. I don't mean that they're ignorant of the whole Bible, but they're ignorant of that point.

Even if they're sincere about wanting to exalt Jesus and find Jesus everywhere, it's definitely an error. Absolutely. Yeah, I believe the treaty theory confuses them.

That's what I noticed. Sorry. Okay. Do I give you the other example? Yes. Did you have another question? I have another question. Yeah, go to the other question. Go ahead. Okay. Can you explain Revelation 3, 12, 13, where Jesus says that He has a God?

Yes, yes. So, we know when Jesus comes into the world, right? For example, after His resurrection, He says, I'm going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. That's language that's used. He prays to His God. That's language that is used in Scripture. So, because He takes on human form, that He can speak of His God, His Father. And yet, the very same book of Revelation, the Father says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the Lord Almighty. And the Son also says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.

So, the only one who's the beginning and the end is Almighty God. And yet, Jesus, as the Son who takes on human form, can refer to His God and His Father. So, the one who is God, Psalm 45, your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

Therefore, you love righteousness head and neck, therefore God has anointed you. So, here He's called God, but He's anointed by God. So, that's again, we understand the difference between the Father and the Son. The Son can refer to the Father as His God, because He took on human form, and therefore, prayed to His Father and related to Him as His God in this world. At the same time, He is eternally one. When we get to Revelation 22, Christiana, at the end of the book, notice, God and the Lamb are worshiped as one, right?

So, for sure, we see the Son fully included in deity, and yet He can refer to His Father and His God in His subservience to the Father. Thank you for the questions, always important questions, which I appreciate. It's 6634 Truth. If we hang up, it means we've got a line open.

We go to Dave in Columbus, Ohio. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you so much for having me, and I just wanted to say, you know what, it's been a blessing to have an opportunity to talk to you. So, Dr. Brown, I have a question, and it's dealing with some of our brothers and sisters, there's not a sound so much in doctrine, it's a heretics group out here called the Hebrew Israelites, and they're drawing our brothers and sisters away. And so, I was in a conversation with someone, and they were talking about, if you don't call the Savior Yeshua, that you're not properly saved, and I said, hold on, Jesus Christ is Lord, and His name has been transliterated, and we have conceptual criticism that confirms the importances of how we have sound evidence and truth that His name reigns. So, I just wanted to get your thoughts on, we're dealing with, I believe that we are in the apostasy right now, we're dealing with a lot of crazy doctrines out here, and I just want to get your thoughts about what's happening, we're seeing it across the board, I believe they're from the synagogue of Satan. Yeah, tell you what, I'll finish on the other side of the break. Thank you for the question, Dave.

Let me just tell everyone, search our website, askdr.brown.org, or our YouTube channel, Ask Dr. Brown, or our app, Ask Dr. Brown Ministries, just type in, in quotes, Hebrew Israelites, you'll find a whole bunch of material there, including a full length debate, we'll be right back. I feel like nopalea just took the edge off, and then it's continued to keep me from getting sore. Nopalea, it's been a huge blessing. Back, neck, and joints, and an overall improvement in the quality of life.

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Alright, so Dave, back to you in Columbus, Ohio. So, I've dealt a lot with Hebrew Israelites, exposed, they're completely bogus, 12 tribes, things like that, but there are different groups among them. If they say you need to use this name Yeshua, they're at least better than the ones that come up with this complete nonsense called Lasho on Qadosh, which is a made up variation of Hebrew that completely violates laws of Hebrew grammar and morphology. Anyone using it is screaming to the world that they're completely ignorant of the Hebrew language.

They're like shouting it. So at least they get the name Yeshua right. But anyone who says, unless you use that Hebrew name, whether it's Hebrew Israelites or some other Jewish heretical group, of course that's wrong. The very New Testament, so God preserves his word for us, gives us his word in the Greek New Testament, changes it to Jesus because that's how Yeshua comes into Greek. Just like it ultimately comes into English as Jesus, or into Spanish as Jesus, or into Italian as Jesu.

So, it comes in many ways, but that's just how it works out. It's the person that we're calling on, not how we pronounce the name. So, of course, there's all kinds of bogus, nonsensical information. Folks want more background to the name of Yeshua and how it comes into Greek as Jesu. They can just search our website for that, for name of Jesus or name of Yeshua. But the good news, Dave, is that around the world, on a regular basis for many years now, more people are coming to faith than have ever come to faith before. So, while we're definitely in a period of apostasy and deception and confusion, at the same time, many are coming to faith, many coming to the truth. So, it behooves us to make good, solid disciples. And one of the key markers of a cult or heretical group is they major on a minor and then make that minor the whole issue, the whole thing. Be it King James only, that that's the only true Bible, or be it some other particular belief that unless you hold to this particular thing that their own group holds to, which itself is normally wrong, then you're not saved, you're not right with God. Whereas the Gospel majors on the majors, majors on people getting right with God, turning from sin, coming into right relationship with God through the blood of the cross, through repentance and faith, the death and resurrection of the Son of God, the only Lord, etc. So, I'm going to major on the majors, lean into that, and knowing that as we do, I just saw a post earlier from someone who said, Dr. Brown, I used to be in the Hebrew Israelite cult, thank God. People keep coming out.

There are secrets of truth. So, we reply to their hatred with love, we reply to their cursing with blessing, and little by little, more and more, we'll be set free in the days ahead. Thank you for your concern and for the call, sir. I appreciate it. Thanks, Dr. Brown. Are you going to keep on fighting the good fight? Yes, we're going for it. Thanks, God bless.

866-34-TRUTH, let's go to Cody in Centre County, Pennsylvania. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown, God bless you, and thank you for all that you do. I appreciate your efficiency in evangelism. I'll be very brief with my question, and to save your time, I'll take my answer off the air if that's okay. Sure. Okay. Question is, it's in regards to the folks who identify with the LGBTQ, you know, alphabet people, but my question is, you know, in the field of apologetics, we can respond to the, you know, people are born gay while we don't have any conclusive evidence to prove whether or not that it's true. So it's rather a moot point. But my question then becomes, how do we as Christians respond to someone who says, well, I didn't choose this life, or I did not choose this.

Right. How would a Christian respond to that, and I'll take my answer off the air. God bless you, and keep up the good fight, brother. Thank you, Cody. All right, so let's say that we can make a strong scientific argument that there is no replicable, replicable, yet replicable as well, reputable scientific evidence that anyone is, quote, born gay.

Someone would say, but that's all I've ever known. That's all I've ever felt. As soon as I had feelings, I felt different than the other boys.

As soon as I developed, I felt different than the other guys. I didn't ask for this. In fact, I prayed many times for God to take it away because I was raised in a church that taught it was an abomination. And they would say, I prayed and God didn't take it away. I didn't ask for this.

I didn't choose this. And they would say it's totally unnatural for them to have heterosexual desires. It's totally natural for them to have homosexual desires. So whether born that way or not, that's who they are. So I don't deny those feelings. I don't deny that person's experience at all.

I've talked to many gay-identified individuals who say that was their experience. What I would say is, number one, for sure all of us are born in sin. All of us fall short of the glory of God. All of us must be born from above, born anew, born again.

New life in Messiah, that's number one. Number two, all of us, in coming to Him, must deny ourselves and take up the cross, deny our very self, right? Things that may be foundational to who we are if they're displeasing to God. And some of us would say, yeah, to the core of my being there's pride, or to the core of my being there's anger, or to the core of my being there's violence, or to the core of my being there's greed, or to the core of my being there seems like unbridled heterosexual desire.

Even if I'm married, to the core of my being I need change. To the core of my being I have to deny myself, take up the cross, which means dying to self, dying to sin, dying to this world, to follow the Lord. Number three, we choose our behavior. We choose our behavior. Even if we don't choose our desires, we choose our behavior. And what Scripture forbids is the behavior. What Scripture forbids is same-sex relationships.

So that's the issue. You say, do I have to be alone forever? God has given none of us coming to faith promise of a happy life, promise of a spouse.

He hasn't promised us anything, right? You come to the Lord recognizing I'm a guilty sinner needing forgiveness. Whether it's because of homosexuality, whether it's because of a million other things, whether it's because of religious hypocrisy, you recognize I'm an unworthy sinner deserving death. Yet God in his mercy put that death on his son, put that penalty on his son so I could receive grace and forgiveness to lead a new life of obedience to God. If that means being celibate, if that means God changes my desires and now I'm attracted to the opposite sex, if someone would work this out.

I'm following Jesus because he's my Savior and my Lord and I owe him everything. That's it. And then God will give you the grace.

I know the whole range. I know ex-gays who lost all attraction to the same sex and have been happily married for many years, parents, grandparents now. I know ex-gays who had diminished attraction to the same sex and developed attraction to the opposite sex to the point of having a good marriage. I know ex-gays who are only attracted to the person they married. That's the only heterosexual attraction they have and that's all they need because they lost their other attractions.

And I know those who still have same sex attraction but who say no to it, who continue to pursue the Lord in holiness and who are very happy living celibate lives. What we tell them in the words of one ex-gay is that Jesus requires everything from all of us and that Jesus is more than enough for all of us. But let's say it with compassion, let's say it with tears, let's say it with genuine love because we care about people and we want to see them know the Lord and we know that God's ways are best and we don't apologize for that. All right, let's go to Massachusetts. Sam, welcome to the line of fire.

Hey Dr. Brown, thanks for taking the call. This is a quick question I'm wondering about. What do Messianic Jews believe about the rapture? Do they believe that there will be a rapture? If not, why not? And if so, what in either scripture or Jewish belief or tradition leads them to believe that God would take the righteous in that kind of way? Thanks, that's my question.

Sure thing. So Sam, there are Messianic Jews that came to faith in dispensationalist pre-trib backgrounds like I did and that have become teachers of pre-trib rapture, like an Arnold Fruchtenbaum respected colleague, Messianic Jewish scholar, brilliant, deep in the word. So he would believe it's what scripture teaches and then would believe that perhaps Jewish background would shed further light to confirm that. There is division among Messianic Jews like there is the larger evangelical church about pre-trib, post-trib. But I would say most of the Messianic Jews I know and work with do not believe in a pre-trib rapture. One reason just to them the overall testimony of scripture, but the other thing would be that they don't see that distinction between Israel and the church in that way. Now they recognize that the ekklesia, the Messianic congregation is saved Jews and saved Gentiles and that Israel without the Messiah is as lost as any other nation, in fact even more accountable. But they recognize that during the time of Jacob's trouble here on the earth, of great hardship, difficulty for the Jewish people on the earth, that that will not be a time when they are taken out, but rather a time when they are here side by side with their fellow Jews. That's deeply how I feel and what I believe as well, where we are sharing the good news with our people in times of great stress and calamity on the whole earth. If you haven't read my book, Not Afraid of the Antichrist, written together with Professor Craig Kuhner, Why We Don't Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, you'll find that helpful. Alright friends, have a blessed weekend, be sure to enjoy all of our resources at AskDrBrown.org and on with the revolution. This is another program powered by the Truth Network.