Dr. Brown Tackles Your Best Questions

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Phone lines are open. Let's do it. You've got questions.

We've got answers. 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 for joining us on The Line of Fire. Michael Brown, thrilled to be with you.

866-348-7884. You've got questions. We've got answers. And again, as I do over and over and over, my personal invitation to those who attack me on YouTube, to those who blast me in other places and tell me how wrong and ignorant I am, et cetera. I pray for you. I just desire God's blessing for you. In fact, maybe one day I'll just do a show and I'll just read the comments and bless those who curse me and love those who hate me. But I want to give you an invitation to call because I can't respond to 99.9% of comments that are posted online, but we can talk right here.

866-34-TRUTH. All right, let us go to James in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Hey, how's it going? Going very well, thank you.

Awesome, awesome. So I'm so happy you can take my questions today. Dr. Brown, so my first question is to do with effectively sharing the Gospel with the lost and with co-workers. And my second question is why we don't really see, like, at least I haven't.

Like, I've been saved for 10 years, and I just haven't seen that many miracles, even though, you know, like, my church is all about, you know, like, the Holy Spirit and flowing and praying for the sick and believing that, you know, miracles can happen, but we don't really see it very much. So those are my two questions today. That's really where I'm struggling in my walk right now.

Great. Well, let me start with the second question first. I wrote a book in 1991 called Whatever Happened to the Power of God? Is the charismatic church slain in the Spirit or down for the count? So this is as a charismatic believer myself, just saying we should be seeing more and we should be deeper in God and we should be preaching a more authentic Gospel, et cetera.

So in many ways, the book is relevant to this day because sometimes our boasts are somewhat empty. On the flip side, miracles to be miracles are not something that you just conjure up every second of every day or they wouldn't be miracles. You know what I'm saying? For example, I've been dealing with hay fever for a couple of days, a little better today than yesterday. Well, it would be nice to be healed, but I understand I may have a few bumps in the road in this world.

You know what I'm saying? But certainly, I've prayed for many people with cancer and have seen very few healed, prominent cases where many have prayed for years and years for someone's healing of cancer like Bill Johnson's wife, Benny, or others, and the person died. So these are legitimate questions. That being said, if you will read a book like Craig Keener's Miracles Today or Lee Strobel's Case for Miracles, it's stunning to see how many documented miracles there actually are. In other words, when I was going through Craig's book, I was listening on audio, so not his big two-volume study, which is better to read because of all the footnotes, but Miracles Today is easier to listen to for me by audio.

And at a certain point, it was overwhelmingly wonderful. In other words, if I was reading it—I've only said it in other words about 10 times before, so we'll try to avoid that phrase the rest of the show—if I was reading it to strengthen my own faith or if I was reading it as a skeptic, after a few chapters, once he gets into the documented evidence, you'd think, okay, obviously God's moving a whole lot. When I have put out a note on Facebook, and we've got maybe 500,000, 600,000 followers on Facebook, and I put out a note and said, how many of you have experienced a documented miracle in your own life? I've been stunned by how many reports have been posted. So I think what we need to do is focus on what the Lord is doing, rejoice in that, build our faith in that, and then say, Lord, my heart still breaks for this one who's not healed, or I still believe we should be seeing a greater demonstration of the Spirit.

Another thing is this. When I wrote my book, Playing with Holy Fire, a wake-up call to the Pentecostal Charismatic Church in 2018, my faith was actually strengthened by the end of the book, because in the midst of it, I recounted many of the things I had seen with my own eyes. In the midst of it, I recounted firsthand reports from others, especially about supernatural prophetic ministry. There's been so much reviling of prophetic ministry because of public errors, and critics like Justin Peters have been right to call a lot of it out. I've called a lot of it out myself, in terms of bogus prophecies and the failed Trump prophecies, and spiritual fantasy, etc. But I mean, it's almost an endless stream I've seen with my own eyes of supernaturally accurate prophetic words that ministered amazingly to people, and only could have come from the Lord. And then also answers to prayer.

As I've documented them in my own life, it's stunning and overwhelming. So to that I say, build yourself up in faith in terms of what God is doing, while continuing to say, Lord, glorify your name even more. As far as our most effective witness to the lost, in Acts 4-13, the Jewish leadership takes note of the fact that although the apostles lacked formal rabbinic or seminary training, to put it in more contemporary terms, they had been with Jesus. And what I've found over the years is to the extent I'm really walking with the Lord, really burning with a heart of love for people, really full of faith, really overflowing with the Spirit, my witness is much more contagious. I even found it when I was in secular sales as a commissioned salesperson in the late 70s and early 80s, that when I was really charged and blessed and overflowing with the joy of the Lord, I would just sell much more. It didn't matter what I was selling.

I could have been selling dirt for your front yard, you know? But there was something in me that made everything I was doing attractive. Well, how much more when the very thing we want to draw people to is the Jesus who lives in us? So that's the biggest thing, to really be with the Lord. Then secondly, to really pray regularly for those that you seek to share the Gospel with that the Holy Spirit would move in their lives. Three, take a personal interest. Don't just look at them as someone to witness to or another target to meet a goal.

Really love people. Really ask them for a heart of love for your coworker, neighbor, and then that will come through to your genuine concern for their well-being. And then really look for ways to make them conscious of their need for God. It's one thing if you're talking to someone in the midst of a divorce and they're struggling with alcohol and they're like, man, I need help. It's like, okay, you don't just need help for your marriage and your drinking.

You need help on a deeper level. It's often easy to get them to see that. But someone else seems like everything's fine. They're pretty decent people. They're not out raping and stealing. Their life is good. Marriage is good.

Business is good. So in a case like that, look for ways by the Spirit to make them recognize their need for God and pray that the Holy Spirit will convict. So if you do those things, you'll be effective in your witnessing. Right.

Okay, awesome. Yeah, and of course, in going back to your second question, invite the Holy Spirit to work and you never know the Lord may move on you to pray for someone and you feel, God, I really feel prompted to do this. And generally speaking, what's really interesting is that people do not resist that. I've been with strangers on a shuttle going from the airport to the rental car service.

So it's a two, three minute ride or five minute ride. And I'll see someone in evident pain. It's like, hey, do you mind if I pray for you? Almost all folks will welcome that. Some won't, but this is the vast majority will. And if nothing happens, they're not like mad at you because they don't really think anything's going to happen.

If something else does happen, they're shocked. So those are my thoughts. Bless you, James. 866-348-7884. Uh, all right. Could you please tell me how to pronounce your name? Hello? Yes.

Could you tell me how to pronounce your name? Oh, it's, uh, Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah. Yeah. Jehovah.

Okay. Were you born with that name, sir? Uh, God gave me this name in 2009. So he, he told you to call him yourself God?

No, no, no. His name is Jehovah. My name is Jehovah. Jehovah. Okay. God. That's why, that's why I asked.

Thank you, sir. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Now, I was just asking, uh, wanted to know, did you know about the God sent comforter?

Could you, I'm sorry, I missed that. God, what comforter? Okay. Uh, the God sent comforter. The man that Jesus Christ prophesied about. It's not the man, it's the Holy Spirit. Right. The Holy Spirit he prophesied about. The parakletos.

Yeah. Well, I'm talking about the, the physical person of the comforter, the Holy Ghost incarnate. No, he, he, he didn't prophesy that. He prophesied the Holy Spirit.

That's, just read John 14, 15, 16, John, the 20th chapter, and then the book of Acts. Yeah, he prophesied about the coming of the Holy Spirit, sir. And, and he's invisible, but he dwells in us, and he empowers us. Well, see, that's John 14, 17, the spirit of truth that dwells inside of you, that the world, the world can't see that. But the world can see this physical person in John 16, verse 7 through 9.

So this, there is a physical person. Oh, no, it doesn't say it can see. It doesn't say it can see. It says the Holy Spirit will, in John 16, 7 through 9, that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It doesn't say that... No, it doesn't say Holy Spirit, it says comforter.

But comforter is... First, that's a mistranslation of the Greek, parakletos, it's the counselor or the helper. But in any case, we know exactly who it is. So what's your point, sir?

I mean, you're completely wrong, but what's your point? Well, sir, okay. Howard Stern interviewed a person pretending to be the comforter. I'm the man who's proven to the federal government that I'm this person.

Oh, okay. All right, so you do claim to be God, all clear. All right, so, friends, let's pray for this gentleman, that the Lord will wake him up to reality, all right? That the Lord will open his heart and mind.

In fact, Howard Stern interviewed someone that should tell you enough. I want to pray right now. Father, this man is in deep deception. This man has misread your word and for years now has been under misconception about who he is.

But he called in, that gives us the opportunity to pray. Lord, bring him to repentance. Open his heart, open his mind. Human words won't do, but expose to him the folly, the depth of his error. Show him the depth of his own sin that he commits against you daily, even blaspheming you with his words. And may you break his heart with your love and bring him to repent salvation. We have the joy of having him call again with his real name, not this false name that you never gave him. May we have the joy of hearing from him again as a saved, repentant man with his eyes open in Jesus' name. Amen. You have no real reason to take more air time than letting someone just spout the word. But the word's faithful. We saved people more to see than this gentleman.

We'll be right back. Hey friends, Michael Brown here. Many of you know about the radical health transformation in my own life. Starting August of 2014, went from 275 pounds to 180 pounds. Less than eight months, not by dieting, but by radical lifestyle transformation, getting rid of the bad unhealthy things, eating only healthy foods. I've kept it up by God's grace now for nine years, going from three headaches a week to no headaches in nine years. Blood pressure as high as 149 over 103, now maybe 105 over 70 on average.

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Sometimes we'll let a caller go on to spout more deception just to illustrate how far off they are or how little they're willing to listen to reason. In this case, I thought it was more important we just stop and pray. But as I've been burdened to reach Hebrew Israelites, as I've been burdened for decades to reach religious Jews, as I've been burdened to reach those that would be socially, politically, and wildly different perspectives than I have, as I've interacted with Muslims and want to reach them, I realize in many cases that we can go back and forth with rational arguments, as I have with traditional Jews for years, back and forth with in-depth, high-level intellectual argumentation. And seeds are planted, and it does good, but ultimately, I understand the Holy Spirit has to open eyes. When you deal with, say, a hate-based cult like the Saqqara Hebrew Israelites, where rational discussion doesn't matter. In other words, you can say the sky is blue, and they'll say, see how deceived you are. So that, I get burdened all the more because I love people and want to see them come to know the Lord, to really pray that God would open hearts and minds, that God would deliver them from the deception of the enemy.

Sometimes just a pride issue. And once someone begins to humble themselves, the Holy Spirit begins to move. But look, He saved the likes of me.

He saved the likes of you. If you're listening, say, what does it even mean to be saved? It means we recognize we're lost.

What does that mean? It means we've sinned against a holy God, and there's nothing we can do to fix that in ourselves. And we need mercy. We deserve judgment from the God who created us. And we need mercy.

And God said, here's how I'll send mercy. My son will take your place. He said, that's outrageous.

Yes, that's outrageous. That's how much God loves us. My son will take your place. He will die in your place. And when you look to Him, He will have mercy. He will cleanse you. He will forgive you. He died and rose, and He can give us a brand new life. It's 6-6-3-4 truth.

Let's go to Aaron in California. Welcome to The Round of Fire. Hi.

Thank you, Dr. Brown. You answered my question yesterday about whether Jacob wrestled with God or an angel, and you mentioned Hosea and Genesis 32. And that's great, but I guess my next question would be about it would be, how many rabbis would admit that Jacob would wrestle with God? Yeah, so yeah, I was able just to give a super quick answer at the end of the show yesterday, sir. So I appreciate you following up today, because we weren't able to get you on the air. I just answered the final 30 seconds.

So for those, just don't know what happened yesterday. So the question was, did Jacob wrestle with an angel, as it says in Hosea 12? Did he wrestle with God?

It says in Genesis 32, he calls them in place in the ale, because he said, I've seen God face to face. Or did he wrestle with a man, because it's also written in Genesis 32. And my answer was yes to all the above, that he wrestled with a divine man. So it was a divine messenger, the malach, the angel, in the Hebrew Bible is sometimes the Son of God himself.

So malach, just like Anglos in Greek can mean messenger, so not necessarily an angelic being, it can be a supernatural divine messenger. As for rabbis, recognizing that Jacob wrestled with God, though they wouldn't see it the way we do. In other words, they wouldn't see it that he wrestled with a divine angel.

They wouldn't see that. However, the rabbinic interpretation, which is rich and varied, would see other aspects of Jacob struggle with God, and that Jacob wrestles with God. This is part of the personality of Israel, that Israel wrestles with God, even having kind of a holy debate with God, like this is not right what you did, or this is not in keeping with your character of justice. Even if God rebukes us for doing it, it's part of the Jewish tradition of, quote, arguing with God. So in the spiritual sense, they would say he wrestled with God.

And that's the nature of Israel, is to wrestle with God. But in a, in the sense that we're saying in terms of a theophany or a Christophany, a divine appearance in the Old Testament, to my knowledge, no, rabbinic interpretation doesn't go that way. Now, interestingly, in Genesis 22, where the angel of the Lord intervenes before Abraham sacrifices Isaac, and the angel speaking for the Lord says, you haven't withheld your son from me, there's some rabbinic interpretation that points to that and said, isn't that interesting? It doesn't say you haven't withheld your son from the Lord, but from me, as if this angel somehow carried divine authority or the divine presence. There are aspects of that in rabbinic Judaism that I lean into and trying to communicate how the malach adonai, the angel of the Lord, is sometimes the Son of God himself. But again, not in the explicit way that we withhold to it, to my knowledge.

Right, okay. Because like one of the things that I wanted to know more was whether if there's an implication that God could be in the flesh, then that would justify Jesus being the Son of God, and that no Jewish, no Jewish Orthodox Jew could deny that Jesus could be the Son of God if there is an implication in the Old Testament that God could be in the flesh. So for example, Genesis 18 into the beginning of the 19th chapter is one of the key places to go, and there is a top professor at Jewish Theological Seminary in Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies who has a book on, quote, the bodies of God, Professor Benjamin Sommer, S-O-M-M-E-R. And he explains how in the Ancient Near East, the deities could have a body in which they could appear, and that this theology is reflected in the Hebrew Bible. And in fact, when you have images in Judaism of the shekhinah, which is the presence of God in this world, or the sefirot, the emanations of God in Jewish mysticism, the ten emanations, that you actually have a conviction, a connection. He rejects Christianity and finds it fundamentally non-Jewish in its Gospel message.

Of course, that's where I would differ. But he doesn't think that ideas of a trinity or something like that are that foreign to traditional Judaism. In my book, The Real Kosher Jesus, I have in the, it's revealing the mysteries of the hidden Messiah. The second part of the book, I have seven secrets of the real Messiah. And one of them, I get into this question about God incarnate, and is there anything in Jewish literature that could point in this direction? So what we're doing is we're building bridges of understanding for a traditional Jew, Professor Sommer's conservative Jew, but for a traditional Jew to say, hey, think of it from this angle. And as you do, this will open things up to you.

Come at it like this and see if now that makes more sense to you. So The Real Kosher Jesus, I have a chapter on that. And then in volume two of answering Jewish objections to Jesus, I get into that as well and in great depth about some of these different images or the word becoming flesh. Okay, so what does that mean? What's the word in rabbinic thought? How does that break down? And try to, again, not claim that the traditional rabbis believed in Jesus or were Trinitarians.

Of course, that would be false. But say, actually, when you come at it this way, you don't need that big a bridge to get from one side to the other. You'll also find on our YouTube channel a series of, let's see, 32 30-minute lectures on answering Jewish objections to Jesus on the Ask Dr. Brown YouTube channel.

And along the way, I have one or two lectures that just focus on these questions. So that's another place to go. Or realmessiah.com, realmessiah.com.

You look at the most common theological objections and you'll see some answers in writing as well as in video form that address these things. So this is free for everyone, realmessiah.com. All of you who love the Jewish people and want to see Jewish people come to know Jesus, Yeshua as Savior, Messiah, this is a great place to go. And if you're talking to a Jewish person and they raise issues, say, hey, well, check out realmessiah.com. I think you'll find answers.

They can even watch debates I've had with rabbis where they can look side by side and evaluate the arguments. Hey, Aaron, thank you for the great questions. I appreciate it. 866-34-TRUTH.

We will be right back with more of your calls on the other side of the break. Do you get my emails? You said, what email? You don't get my emails?

Oh, come on. They're free, informative, reported to you every week. Go to askdrbrown.org. Askdrbrown.org.

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to the Line of Fire. 866-34-TRUTH.

I'm smiling because I was looking at some recent comments to our YouTube videos and I can't get into it now. But yeah, not everybody likes me or agrees with me. And my only frustration is that I'd love to have the time to reach out to every person only if though they were willing to hear an honest answer. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to John in Lincoln, Illinois. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. Thanks for taking my call. Sure thing, sir.

Yeah, okay. So I have a friend who's a Messianic Christian that basically keeps Torah and all the typical ways that they do in the Messianic movement, who recently got into this really weird anti-Semitic bent. And he essentially is preaching that the modern day rabbinic Judaism is the synagogue of Satan from Revelation. And he read a bunch of stuff about the Bolshevik revolution and somehow believes that the Jews were somehow instrumentally involved in the communist revolution in the Soviet Union or whatever. And he's just got all this weird, I don't know what kind of sources he's used, I think he's been reading the Talmud or something. But at any rate, he's really smart. And he comes up with these arguments. And I know that there's something wrong with this. But like, I don't know how, I don't know what to say to him. And I don't know that I have the time to go digging, you know, through a million things to try to respond to this. So I was wondering if there was something you could say that, you know, if you could give me an idea of how to talk to this guy. Yeah.

So John, first thing, the biggest thing you can do is pray for him. Because once people start believing various conspiracies and anti-Semitic lies, they're always out there. I mean, virtually every day, I read anti-Semitic lies, I read bogus propaganda stuff online, just in what comes my way. If I looked for it, I'd find literally billions of quotes, lines and videos and sites, etc., attacking the Jewish people for all the most bizarre reasons.

And all you need when you're a conspiracy theorist, John, all you need is a little truth. Were there Jews involved in the Bolshevik revolution? Yes. Uh-huh. That ultimately communism attacked Jewish people and persecute them. Uh-huh. Well, that doesn't matter because you had some involved. The Jews control Hollywood.

Well, you've got prominent directors like Steven Spielberg. Well, that's all you need. It doesn't matter if you've got a ton of others who aren't Jewish and no connection to Jewish finances, controlling them, etc.

All you need is a little. Do you have someone who's leading the feds, the federal government in terms of finances? The last one was Jewish. Ah, it's the Jews control all the banks. So that's the problem that Jake Tapper on CNN, he's Jewish. Ben Shapiro's Jewish. Jews control all the media. So all you need is that, the fact that you've got a thousand, ten thousand, a million exceptions to the rule, that doesn't matter because it's based on blindness. What I would encourage you to do, and it's all the more bizarre that this person is, as a Gentile, trying to observe the Torah and somehow thinking that this is what God's calling them to do, and then turning anti-Semitic.

It's an unusual combination. It's really weird, especially because he became messianic by studying the ancient, like, the quarter-decimen controversy in the early church, and saw that, especially early Christians were anti-Semitic. Right, and Constantine, with the quarter-decimen controversy, you mentioned separating Passover from Easter so as not to have anything to do with the, quote, superstitions of the Jews. Right, so that's why I say it's spiritual more than anything, and the fact that you do have some rabbinic Jews actively opposing the preaching of the Gospel. If you want to say, well, they qualify as a synagogue of Satan, anyone who, as a Jew, doesn't act as a Jew should, and is actively opposing the preaching of the Gospel, you can make that application. The prophets would call out Israel, right, for acting contrary to their call as Israel. Speak of them as the leaders of Sodom and Gomorrah, never denying that they were truly Israel, but the New Testament never denying they're truly Jews.

But there are some who, very hostile to the faith, it's a small minority, but actively trying to oppose, but then you then get the big lie that gets circulated all the time, Jews are the synagogue of Satan, and they're not really Jews at all. So, it gets really bizarre, and that I probably see every single day just on what comes our way in terms of deceived people holding to that. What has to happen, though, is somewhere along the line, truth has to slap this gentleman in the face in terms of, what? How could I have been so wrong about something I held to, to then wake him up to the direction he's going?

Because it's only going to get worse. I mean, really, really bad, worse, with even deeper deception that will shock you in terms of spiritual deception and intellectual deception. You might ask him to read my book, Christian Antisemitism. So, he'll agree, okay, I agree with the Christian Antisemitism part, but then I also expose attacks on the Talmud. I expose other lies in terms of contemporary groups, slandering Israel, and show how Christians have bought into that. So, hopefully, there'll be enough truth in that to wake him up.

Otherwise, journal the date today of his call, and then see where he's at six months a year. It's going to get really rough and ugly unless the Lord intervenes, just based on the trajectory that he's on. So, see if he'll read my book, Christian Antisemitism. There are endless books written exposing the lies of antisemitism from so many angles, but this might be a place for him to start just because he would affirm certain things in the book, and then we can expose some of the other lies. So, Christian Antisemitism, may the Lord give you grace. And don't get into arguments. I'd encourage you not to get into arguments with him, especially if you don't have the time to research every claim. But say, hey, let's just talk about Jesus.

Let's just talk about Yeshua. Let's talk about how beautiful the Word is. Let's focus on that.

If he doesn't even want to go there, then he's becoming even more obsessed. Hey, thank you, sir, for the call. 866-344-TRUTH.

Let's go to Will in Iowa. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hello, Dr. Brown, how are you?

Doing well, thank you. Okay, so the question I have is, so my sister claims that she's Christian, but supports this like idea of progressive Christianity that like all religion leads to God, and she thinks that progressive values are consistent with Christianity. How can I introduce biblical truth to her to see the whole picture of how we as actual Christians should live?

I've heard I'd actually get born again. Yeah, I'd ask her a few questions. I'd ask her why Jesus had to die, right?

Start there. Why did he have to die for us? Why was there no other way? In the Garden of Gethsemane, it was 100% clear there was no other way. He had to die for us.

Why? If all religions go to God, why did he have to die for us? Why was there no other way? For example, in Galatians 2, Paul writes, if righteousness came by the law, Christ died in vain. So if there was another way for people to be saved, or get right with God, or through Islam, or through Buddhism, or through Hinduism, or just through good efforts and good works, or through traditional Judaism, why did the Messiah have to die? So she might say, well, he died as an example, he died out of God.

No, but why did he have to die? Press that. And then ask her, what do you do with the exclusive statements in the New Testament? Like John 14, 6, that he's the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to God through him. Or Acts 4, 12, there's no other name other than heaven, given among men, whereby me must be saved. So just press it and say, well, do you believe that or not? Or Matthew 7, 13 and 14. Why does it say, enter through the straight gate, enter through the narrow road?

Because broad is the road, wide is the gate that leads to destruction, and many go that way. So I would press those points in terms of exclusivity, and see, okay, do you really believe the Bible or not? If you say, yeah, but that was just their perspective, well then why even use the Bible, right? That's just some ancient religious book with some nice ideas.

Why in the world use it if it doesn't have authority, if it's not the word of God? So I'd start with the issues of exclusivity, and then I would press a point, maybe for example, about abortion. Say, well, how do you deal with the fact that in the Bible, the baby is clearly understood to be a human being in the womb? And if you want more on that, I have some articles where I've written about that.

So if you have our app, Ask Dr. Brown Ministries, ASK DR Brown Ministries, just get into the search engine and type in abortion, or type in baby and womb, and you'll get relevant articles. Or on our website, the same thing, askdrbrown.org. And then press that.

Just take one issue and press it. And either she's going to have to say, well, it doesn't really mean what it says, or we understand more now, or she's going to have to think and realize it. And then lastly, I'd say, okay, what about your own life? Do you sin?

Where do you fall short? And ask for ways for ways that the Holy Spirit would give you wisdom to help convict her of her own sin and need, and to recognize that all her good deeds and all of her good efforts fall short. I would approach it in those different ways. Try to hammer a few things and say, hey, I appreciate your heart for compassion for all people and your heart for justice, and that's good, but let's press these issues. And force her to deal with the exclusivity claims, force her to deal with specific issue that the Bible's clear and progressive views are very wrong on. And then ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom to help press her on her own sin, for her to recognize how hypocritical she is, how far she falls short of God's laws and standards and righteousness, just as a human being.

Not because she's especially terrible, but just as a human being. And then out of that, she may begin to recognize her need for a Savior, all right? Yeah, that makes sense. My sister actually argues that the Bible's pro-choice as well.

Yeah, yeah. Because she says that there's a passage in Exodus where it's just a fine for a miscarriage. That's a mistranslation. It's a mistranslation.

Yeah, exactly. Right, so there's a debate on the Hebrew. The best arguments can be made. Great Kochel at StandToReason.org, I discovered this some months ago, has a very nice article where he gets into the Hebrew in a way everyone can understand. But I address that too in my arguments. But press say, hey look, Hebrew scholars differ, and you're not a Hebrew scholar, she's not a Hebrew scholar.

The vast majority of English translations understand it the way that we're saying, that it's actually a life if the baby dies as a result of a struggle between two men. But say, hey, we can argue that back and forth, but what do you deal with these concrete passages? And how do you deal with Psalm 139 about us being carefully formed in our mother's womb? So how do you deal with John the Immerser, John the Baptist, being filled with the spirit from his mother's womb, and leaping in his mother's womb where Miriam Mary comes in carrying Jesus, Yeshua, and on and on.

And may the Lord use you to bring your sister. I'm Paul Burnett, a board-certified doctor of holistic health, and I want to take this opportunity to talk to you about the importance of healthy blood flow and how it's enhanced by a miracle molecule known as nitric oxide. You see, blood vessels release nitric oxide, which increases blood flow known as something called vasodilation.

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Come back to The Line of Fire. So I leave here, leave the studio, and go straight over to a local hotel where I'll spend the weekend, my monthly prayer retreat just locked in alone with the Lord. These are life-changing for me and so foundational to everything I'm doing in life and ministry. And so this morning, finished packing up for the trip, so I don't need a lot of change of clothes and things like that, but the specific food stuffs and frozen items that'll be bringing those special soups that Nancy makes for me and things like that.

Then went to the grocery store and got all my salad stuff, put it in the fridge here in our offices, and then we'll unpack that and bring it with me. All that to say that, yeah, you make choices to live a radically healthy lifestyle and to eat in a very serious, healthy way. It's basically a serious commitment, but we are serious followers of Jesus, and the results are amazing. So just think if you could add an hour to every day, or if you could have far more mental clarity in what you do, or if you could have more energy at 60 than you did at 50, or 70 than you did at 60.

Wouldn't it be worth it? So I really commend to you to really carefully pray. Educate yourself.

We recommend the writings and teachings of Dr. Joel Fuhrman, F-U-H-R-M-A-N, about plant-based diets, things like that. So look into it. I'm not saying that to sell you anything. I'm saying that to encourage you to look into it. You can have a massive health transformation as I did, by God's grace, almost nine years ago now. Those that would like to supplement that, not substitute for healthy eating, but supplement that with some of the great products from our co-sponsor TriVita, I highly recommend that everyone can do that wherever you are. So if you'd like to find out more, go to TriVita.com. Go to TriVita.com. Check out the really excellent wellness supplements they have there in a wide range of areas, and then make sure you use the promo code BROWN25. Got that? So you get a 25% discount to your order when you do that, and then 100% of your first order, and more than a tithe of all subsequent orders, is donated straight to the line of fire to help us get more stations to reach more people.

So it's a great little cycle of life and blessing at TriVita.com. That's the place you can go. All right, we go back to the phones.

Chris in New York City, welcome to the line of fire. Oh, no, no, no, no. Please don't associate me with that place. I went there when the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were threatening that they would never be seen again.

And so I went to the Discovery Museum on... Actually, it was right around... Hang on, hang on. It says New York, New York. That's New York City, is it not? No, no, I'm in New York. Sorry. Okay. I'm in New York, but not New York City.

I'm in Western New York, where the grapes grow and such. All right, that's got it. All clear, all clear. All right, your question, sir? Okay, so John the Baptist refers to Jesus as the Word, and my understanding of it... Where is that? In the beginning was the Word. Oh, that's such on the Baptist. The Word was God in the Word. That's such on the Baptist. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Okay, go ahead. Yes, so John's Gospel.

Yes, sir. So in John's Gospel, he refers to Jesus as the Word, and the Word was God, and so on. And my interpretation of that is that Jesus represents the law of God manifested as flesh. So in that case, he would actually then be both a blessing and a curse to us. And there's a problem, then, because how would he be a curse? And I believe that the curse is actually because, as being the Messiah, the Jews should not have killed him. And Paul, in 1 Corinthians 2.8, seems to imply this, that if the leaders of the time had known, quote-unquote, this, they would not have crucified the Messiah.

Yeah, the problem... So for sure, Jesus is appointed for the falling and rising of many in Israel, for sure. Luke, the second chapter, Simeon's prophecy. For sure, we have prophecies like Isaiah 28 that are then quoted in the New Testament, 1 Peter 2 quotes them elsewhere, about the Messiah being a stumbling block to the nation, right? And then, as Paul writes, say in 2 Corinthians, the second chapter, how the message of the cross is a saver of life and a saver of death. So we understand that, that that's the nature of the Gospel. It's salvation for some, it's damnation for others. And that Jesus coming into the world brings judgment on those who refuse to see the truth and salvation to those who humble themselves.

There are many, many verses that support that, for sure. So the larger message you're bringing out, 100% you can bring them out through numerous passages in the Old and New Testament. But the Logos is not explicitly Torah. The Logos is not specifically the Bible. The Logos is divine wisdom, the mind of God, the expressed truth of God. And then through the Logos, the whole world is made, and then the Logos becomes flesh. So I wouldn't say that Torah became flesh and therefore came with blessing and cursing.

That's the part I differ with. But everything else in terms of the Messiah has brought life to some and death to others, yes, that's the same thing that happened with the law. It brought destruction on those who rejected it, but brought God's mercy and a way of salvation to those who humble themselves before God. So the connection between the Logos and the Torah, I would reject that.

The larger point you're making can easily be developed through the Scripture. Hey, thank you for that. And next time, I won't think that you're in New York City.

God bless, man. 866-34-TRUTH. Let's go to Juan in Texas. Whereabouts in Texas, sir? We're in South Texas.

South Texas. All right, welcome to the line of fire. Yes, thank you for taking my call. Look, recently I've been studying the sermon of Peter, and there's this particular scripture that came into my mind that I believe God inspired to show me. I just want to make sure that I'm correct in my exegetical learning of it. It's for Jesus, it's in, I believe, Matthew, I don't even have it, let me check it in.

I have my Logos up here real quick. That's okay. Are you talking about Psalm 110 quoted in the New Testament, Matthew 22? Yeah, there you go, Matthew 22.

Yeah. It says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, and to put your enemies beneath your feet. Now, when I look at the Greek, when it comes on when it talks about Lord, the Lord said to my Lord, of course this is keros, right, or something like that, but I've learned now to look up the Bible verse that the Scripture is talking about in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament when it's talking about Lord, it's talking about Yahweh, I am assuming that it's talking about Yahweh, it says to the Lord, or to Christ, I will sit at my right hand.

Is that correct? All right, so Psalm 110 in Hebrew, ne'um Yahweh la Adonai, this is how we have it with the vowels in the Masoretic tradition. That says, the utterance of Yahweh to my Lord, Adonai, Adonai, but that could be a small l, Lord.

However, some have argued, like Dr. Al Garrison, for example, would argue this strongly, that it is more natural to read it as la Adonai, ne'um Yahweh la Adonai, the utterance of Yahweh to my Lord, capital L. Now, in the Greek, it's ambiguous, right? The kurios says to my kurios, so the Lord says to my Lord, what kind of Lord is that? Small l, large l. To me, that's not, now there's a good discussion to have over it, but my question would be, do we all agree that this person is David's Lord, this person is greater than David?

That's the point Yeshua is making. How could David call him Lord, even small l, if he's his son? Especially in the ancient world, the son is always less than the father, right?

So the idea of the honoring of the father, and you are so-and-so son of so-and-so. So how can someone who is the son of David be greater than David unless he is pre-existent, unless he is more than man? And that's the whole point that Yeshua is making there in Matthew 22. And when Peter quotes it, let's say he quoted it in Hebrew and everyone understood the Hebrew. Let's say he was preaching in Aramaic and used the Aramaic, which would be closer to the Masoretic text. Let's say some believe that he was preaching in Greek.

Either way, the point would come across in the same way. How can David call one of his descendants, my Lord, unless that descendant was actually greater than him? And how is it that he's greater than him? And from there he preaches the Gospel.

From there we show his pre-existence. From there we show that he's the son of God, and therefore greater than David, and therefore the one who sits at God's right hand until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. So I guess my other question was, especially when Jesus is talking about it, when he's saying that even David said his Lord, would that also, because of how he's saying it, wouldn't that also translate as he's also showing his divinity, not only saying that, okay, yeah, that he's more than just a human, he's divine, but he's also God in that verse? Well, the question is, again, assuming he's not speaking in Greek for sure, so is he speaking in Hebrew? If he was saying in Hebrew, did he say, La doni, to my Lord, in which case he would clearly be saying, yes, divine Messiah. If he was saying La doni, the way we have it in the Masoretic tradition, then he's simply saying David's superior.

So the full argument was he arguing for his full divinity there, that can be debated for sure, his pre-existence and his superiority to David. Thank you for digging, thank you for the question. Friends, one more reminder, if you don't get my emails, AskDrBrown.org. Sign up today, you will not be disappointed.