Dr. Brown Tackles Your Best Bible Questions

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Full minds 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. Welcome, friends, to the Line of Fire.

I have been sitting here like a thoroughbred horse in the gate, ready to run out and get in the race with you. Here we go. You've got questions. We've got answers. Any question on any subject that relates in any way to anything we ever talk about on the Line of Fire, anything I've ever preached or written about or said, by all means give us a call.

866-34-TRUTH. We'll start with Thomas in Illinois. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Thomas, are you there?

Well, that's interesting. Called in early. Get on the line there. Okay, let's go over to Darrell in Southern California.

Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hello, Dr. Brown. Thank you for taking my phone call. Sure thing. I want to tell you I really appreciate you and your teachings, and I believe you're a genuine man. Your compassion overwhelms me, and you're nice just to people. I trust you.

Unfortunately, I wish I could say that about a great percentage of other believers. I do trust you, and I believe you're a good man. Now, here's what I want to talk to you about, and if I can't cut through Chase fast enough, tell me to hurry up. Okay, now, I know that you are a man, at least my perception, who believes in God 100%. And I've heard you talk about you praying and singing to God for hours.

So I know you know God is a God of love, and I know that you know that God is good, and you completely believe in Him. I try to cut to Chase real quick. I woke up as a baby, and saw everything. When I was two years old at the tree, I was outside and back of my little house.

I would look up at the top of the trees. I was already an atheist, and I was mad at God. People would say, well, how could he be mad if he didn't know he existed? For some reason, I just didn't believe he existed. It must have been because my dad was an agnostic, my mom was a Catholic, I never heard anything, and all the tension in the house. So, basically, my thing is, I have not been treated very nice by people in church, and I'm about 20-some days younger than you. Okay? I became Christian at 73.

So, here's the deal. I am continually told by mostly Charismatics, because that's what I went into after I left Catholicism at 12 years old, that if I don't believe 100%, I'm going to hell, and they're always trying to get me born again, again, and again. Now, I can't believe 100%. I can't believe God exists for 100%.

Let me tell you why. If I was to meet you, if you were in a meeting here somewhere in California, if I was to speak to you, and you talk back to me, if I was to go on ahead and hear you, if you would allow me to take my finger and touch you, if we were able to eat actual, some sort of lunch in after church, and I talked to you, moved you around, I would know that you exist. I don't know if I will go out here, outside my town, some place where there's nothing, and talk to God. I don't know if God exists as much as I know you do.

Also, here's the deal. I don't know. In my mind, you know Paul Copeland, right? I have his books, because my mind goes to every place in Scripture, and it has been since the very beginning when I started off at 18 years old, and I think I've got some of them figured out pretty well. It affects my emotions, by understanding them, and niceness of fire, as is studying the ark, the syrophoenician of the king and that woman. But my mind goes to every place in the Bible like that, to where it makes me affect my me not being able to know. It seems like God is harsh, or is good to judge, or is derogatory. No, His love is as good as flight you do.

Let me just say this first. My wife Nancy became an atheist before she was eight years old, and she remembered thinking it would be wonderful if there's a God, but there's not. Her stepfather... And yes, I want him to be.

Right, right. I only say that to say that I'm not unsympathetic, even though I haven't lived your experience. My wife Nancy did, not quite as young as you, but she remembered going to synagogue with her mother and stepfather, and it was a Reform synagogue, so very liberal, and she, as a little girl, realized God's not here. And her stepfather was basically an atheist, it was a synagogue president. So by the time we met at 19, she was very hostile to the idea of God. And then, once God brought her to faith and brought us together, some of the things in terms of God's reality, or the problem of suffering, or other things dealing with doubts and questions, these were things that she really had to wrestle through.

And to this day, she really helped sensitize me to these things, because I haven't had to wrestle through them. So let me start here. Yeah, I've been an atheist for over 60-some years. If you could, I'd just like you to pray for me that I can believe more. Oh yeah, but I want to help in another tangible way, okay? Okay. Do you have my book, Has God Failed You? Finding faith when you're not even sure God is real.

I think I know where it could look up, drbrown.com. Well, hang on, do you like physical books? Do you prefer those to ebooks? Yes. Okay. I want to send you, well, it's a regular print book, so you may have to wear your reading glasses.

I want to send it you as a gift, okay? Now, remember, here's the title, Has God Failed You? Here's the subtitle, Finding Faith When You're Not Even Sure God Is Real.

One of the chapters in the book is called Permission to Doubt. I wrote that book with people just like you in mind. So here's where we're going to start, all right?

This is a long-term journal. When I get off the line here, our call screen is going to get on and get your address. I'm not putting you on some special mailing list. We're just going to send you a copy of Has God Failed You? And before we go, I'm going to pray for you, and I'm asking our army, our great listening and viewing audience, to pray for you as well. And then people are going to be listening to this podcast, watching this video for weeks to come, so when they get to this point, they're going to pray for you as well. Once you've had a chance to read through the book and process things, I want you to call back, all right? Because I do believe God is going to help you and meet you in your sincerity. So we're going to pray right now. I believe God wanted me to call you. Yes.

He absolutely did. I have no question about that whatsoever. So we're going to pray for you right now, but don't go anywhere. Stay there. When we're done praying, our call screen is going to come on. Get your address, because I want to send this to you personally.

I want you to get online and order it. I want to send it to you personally so that you know we want to see you get through. We want to see you know God for yourself and have that deep assurance of faith and forgiveness. We all can go through rough spots or have questions or doubts, but to the core of your being, you can know that you know that you're a child of God and that he's real. So Father, we pray for Daryl and everyone else he's speaking for.

He's not the only one going through this, but right now he's our focus. So we pray for Daryl that you would make yourself known to him, that you would make yourself real to him. Lord, as your son prayed, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God in Jesus, the Messiah whom he sent. May he truly come to know you, or if he does know you, strengthen him in his faith, deliver him from these agonies of doubts. May truth come alive that will remove the deep questions that have pained him. Lord, remove the agony he's lived with for so many years and replace it with joy.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

All right. Wow. Thank God that people take the time to call in. Do you realize what a sacred responsibility we have as ministers of the Gospel and as witnesses, even just any of us sharing the Gospel with a neighbor or friend? What a sacred entrustment God has given us. I believe that God's going to touch our friend Daryl.

Let us go to Adam in Baltimore. Welcome to the line of fire. Thanks for calling. Thank you, Dr. Brown. It's been several years since I've called in, and man, that was a beautiful prayer and call that just happened.

You know, the Bible says God gives grace to the humble, and I truly believe God's grace is being poured out on that man. Yes. So my question is, what would you say to someone who says, the reason we as Christians don't cast out demons today is because we don't see such a thing mentioned in any of the epistles.

Right. So the first thing would be, is that every principle that we make? In other words, do we only do something if we see it mentioned in the epistles? So for example, where do we have everything in the Sermon on the Mount duplicated in the epistles? So when Jesus said, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away. So that radical dealing with sin, we do have flea, youthful, lust, we have passages like that, but the counsel of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in terms of how we deal with sin, is that repeated explicitly in the epistles?

No. The call, the specific call to fast or to pray in private, is that explicitly repeated in the epistles? The last thing I'm not sure about, the other one, what did you say, the other one? To pray in private, a certain way. To pray with the pattern of the word prayer. Okay, so I go on and on, right?

I'm just giving a few examples off the top of my head. So if Jesus plainly teaches it, and then we see it as a pattern in the book of Acts, that's more than enough. That's more than enough for me.

That's number one. Number two, if the longer ending of Mark is either accurate as an intended ending of Mark's Gospel or reflects an accurate passing on of the words of Jesus, there he does tell us that this will be a pattern that follows, that in his name we will drive out demons. So those who hold to the authority or authenticity of the longer ending of Mark, that is the next line of argument. The third thing is, for sure, the New Testament speaks, the epistles speak of our battle with the demonic realm. Ephesians 6 beginning in verse 10 through 19 tells us to put on the whole armor of God because of the battle that we're fighting with Satan and his demonic powers. We are told in 2 Corinthians 11 about Satan trying to seduce 2 Corinthians 10 about the weapons we fight with and not the weapons of this world. James 4, resist the devil and he'll flee.

1 Peter 5, be sober, be vigilant. It's taking a stand against our adversary, the devil. So we're clearly in battle with the devil and demons, but the directives come in the Gospels. The examples come in Acts. And if it's not contradicted in the epistles, then by all means it should be part of our ongoing ministry and has been attested through church history as well.

So I think it's a pretty simple answer. Jesus taught it, Acts reinforces it, and it's absolutely in harmony with the spiritual warfare that we're in according to the epistles as well. Hey, God bless and thank you for the call. 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.

At Trivita, we take blood flow seriously for our members and we've developed a nitric oxide plus supplement that has been formulated with natural ingredients designed to maximize nitric oxide production in our blood vessels, which increases blood flow. You may be wondering why you don't have as much energy as you used to. One study that I came across revealed that by the age of 40, we only produce about 50% of the nitric oxide production as compared to our 20s. And by the age of 70, the study showed that we're only producing about 15 to 25%.

I have good news. As we age, there's another way for our body to increase nitric oxide production, and that's by converting nitrates and vegetables like beetroot into nitric oxide. Bottom line, with more nitric oxide, we stimulate more blood flow to our vital organs and we experience more energy while supporting healthy blood pressure.

Trivita's nitric oxide plus has been formulated to increase nitric oxide production and blood flow at every age. To place your order for products to support your wellness goals, call 1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. As a Trivita introductory offer, use promo code BROWN25 and receive a 25% discount on the products of your choice. Call 1-800-771-5584, 800-771-5584.

May you live with greater wellness. 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. Welcome back to The Line of Fire, 866-348-7884. We are here to infuse you with faith, with truth, with courage, helping you stand strong on the front lines. And that's why we open the phones for questions to help in the most practical level that we can. You know, sometimes if we just get some of our questions answered, we can be so much stronger. We can be so much more confident. We can pursue the Lord's purposes so much more aggressively. But when we're struggling with this doubt, this thing in the back of our heads, like, is it real or not?

It's crippling. So we want to build you up, not just with hype and positive talk, but with truth, biblical courage. All right, let us go over to California. Diane, welcome to The Line of Fire. Hi, I'm Dr. Brown. Hey there.

Hi. I heard you speak before about God knowing the future. And I'm not too clear on that, because the Bible says God regretted making Saul king. So I was wondering about that, because what if we have no Saul's actions beforehand, if he knows the future? Well, God very clearly.

Thank you for the question, Diane. If you'll take time, this is what I always recommend, read Isaiah 40 through 48. Isaiah 40 through 48. You'll see God overwhelmingly saying what separates him from the other gods. It takes a few chapters to get into it, but you want to get the whole context. The so-called gods of the nations is that they can't predict the future, but he can tell you the end from the beginning.

All right? So this is the description of who God is, that he can tell you the end from the beginning. That's how prophecy is laid out in Scripture. That's how God can speak of world events. That's how God could tell us about the coming of the Messiah. That's how Jesus, when he picked Judas, knew exactly who he was and that he was going to betray him. That's why he could say to Peter, okay, you're going to fall away, but I'm praying you'll come back, tell the disciples you're all going to fall away. Because he could see what people were going to do because he's God. So this is consistent through Scripture. We have God saying that he's choosing Abraham because he's going to guide his children rightly ahead in Genesis 18. So God expressing regret in Scripture doesn't mean that he didn't know it was coming.

Let me prove it to you even more clearly. The same language is used in Genesis 6, that it pained him in his heart and he regretted that he had made human beings. But the Bible also teaches us that Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. So in other words, before God created human beings, he knew the fall would come and he knew that the antidote to human sin and rebellion was the cross.

So this was all planned before the world began. What it means is that in a very real way, because God lives in our world, he can experience what we would call regret and grief and pain. And I liken it to this, Diane. Have you ever watched an old movie, maybe a dramatic or real tearjerker, and you're watching it, you've seen it 10 times, but you're still, it's too intense to watch, or you're sitting there crying. Okay, so even though we already know the thing, we experience reality in the present. So Jesus rejoiced when his disciples came back in Luke 10, full of joy with the Holy Spirit. Well, he knew what was going to happen when he sent them out on their mission, but he experienced the joy of that moment. Other times he would groan with grief or with pain because he experienced that.

Why did he weep at the grave site of Lazarus when he's about to raise him up? Well, most likely he felt the pain of the people and the frailty of life. So God regretting something indicates that he did not preordain Saul to mess up. He did not preordain Adam to sin. He knew these things would happen in advance, even as he chose these different ones.

But because these were our choices, things that we did in rebellion, it still causes him pain. So just as Jesus, the eternal God, came in this world and experienced time on a real level, that God has the ability to do that. So he dwells outside of time.

He inhabits eternity. But in time, he can choose to experience things in a real way and therefore have joy, have regret, even have disappointment. If you read in Jeremiah, for example, the third chapter, the fourth chapter, you'll see God expressing disappointment. The beginning of the book, he tells Jeremiah what's going to happen, and yet as it happens, he can still experience that disappointment, just like, again, watching that movie.

You've watched it, you know what's going to happen, but it's like, oh, I can't believe. So that's my understanding. And it makes God, in that sense, absolutely sovereign, but yet very personal and real, if that makes sense to you. Does that help? Thank you. You are very welcome, Diane. And again, this is something that I've really chewed on and thought on, especially as I was writing my Jeremiah commentary, working through these passages.

But take time again to read through Isaiah 40-48 to get that overwhelming, oh my, that's our God experience. All right, when we come back from the break, we've got time for more calls now. I had meant to play a clip from white supremacist Nick Fuentes yesterday, an anti-Semitic clip. I referenced it. I'd been doing all this pre-show prep with our team. They thought I was simply referring to quotes of Nick as opposed to playing the audio clip, so we didn't have it ready when I went to play it yesterday.

So even though it's Friday, because I promised yesterday, I'm going to play it at the bottom of the hour. All right, let us go to Bill in Newton, Pennsylvania. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you.

Yeah, it's Newton, Pennsylvania. I was convicted yesterday of something regarding witnessing to Jews and then the discussions that you have about the Messiah. And it's always like we have to show them verses in Scripture where the Messiah is prophesied. And then they look at it and they say, well, I don't believe that particular passage relates to the Messiah. So the question we should ask them, okay, if you believe in the Messiah, show me in your Scripture about the prophecies of the Messiah. Right, they would then go to say Isaiah 11 and how he'll rule and reign over the earth and there'll be peace and the knowledge of the glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. Or they will go to Isaiah 2, which doesn't explicitly mention the Messiah, but all the nations streaming to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel and no more war. They would point to passages like that and say, yeah, that's what we're waiting for. And we have to then say, yes, that will all happen, but here's why we believe these others are messianic as well.

Yes, yeah, I agree like that. With the ones you mentioned, we have Revelation that gives all that information. Now, do they have anything in Scripture of a prophecy of the Messiah and what kind of Messiah are they looking for? Yes, so they'd be looking for the son of David who will be a great king, a godly man, who will bring the nation into obedience to God. They would be looking for one based on perhaps Zechariah 6 who will rebuild the temple in Jerusalem or they would get that from Isaiah 40 through 48. So these are some of the passages they would point to.

We affirm those, but we say that's only part of the picture. And if you will, if you take a moment, Bill, to go to my website, realmessiah.com, realmessiah.com, you can look at some full-length debates I've had with rabbis where you'll see them raise their points. You can also look at answers to the most common Jewish objections that are raised. So we've got about 100 different objections and answers to them all free at realmessiah.com. Those of you who have my app, if you don't, download it now. Not if you're traveling on the highway, but download it as soon as you can, Ask Dr. Brown Ministries, A-S-K-D-R Brown Ministries. Download it and if you just scroll down, you'll see Real Messiah there.

Click on that, you get your info. Bill, the other thing is sometimes the best thing is to build a relationship with someone and then to talk about God, knowing God, having a relationship with God, having sins forgiven, how they can be sure their sins forgiven. Do they know Him? If they were to die, are they confident they'd go to be with Him?

Those are other things that can maybe come up first and then the discussion of Messianic prophecy may come up later. Hey Bill, thank you for your interest in sharing the gospel with the Jewish people. We'll be right back. 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 the 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 broadcaster and our resources. So join our support team.

$1 or more per day makes you an official torchbearer. 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 of 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 to Jesus by 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 torchbearer or go to AskDr.Brown.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. We are going to get back to your questions momentarily, 866-34-TRUTH. First, I want to do my best to get a very important book into as many of your hands as possible. I believe this book will be absolutely transformational in terms of how it educates and how it sets a vision with clarity in front of you. When you get it, there's another book we'll give you at a great discount. I'm talking about my book, Saving a Sick America, A Prescription from Moral and Cultural Transformation. I'm actually re-listening to it on audio.

What happens is I write so many books that I'm always working on the next project, and sometimes I fail to give adequate time to a book that's been written. When we go back through American history, I mean, you'll be shocked. You will be absolutely shocked. It will give you a much clearer understanding of how far we have gotten off track as a nation.

I mean, you will be shocked. But then we also say, step-by-step, in terms of retraining our own minds and impacting our families, how we can live differently in a way that will have a positive, life-transforming effect on America. The book, a beautiful hardcover, Saving a Sick America.

When you get it, you get it at a big discount. A second book, The Political Seduction of the Church, How Millions of Americans Have Confused Politics with the Gospel. I mean, it's an essential book, as we're going to get in the heat of the 2024 elections in the months to come. I've been doing interviews about that book for leaders in countries around the world, as well as around America, saying, hey, this is critical.

We have to get this right. So, these books will enrich you. They will inspire you. They will challenge you.

They will equip you. They're great gifts for others. Get copies for your pastors and ministry leaders as well. If you're adult kids that are interested or serious teen readers. And when you do, you're helping our ministry as well, helping us reach more people with this voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity.

It is part of the revolution that Jesus is working in our society. To get these books at this special discount, go to 800, or call 800-538-5275. That's 800-538-5275. Our call center is waiting for your call and will be ready to help you with questions about these. Get multiple copies if you can. Again, every page will be riveting.

It'll draw you in and will give you clear information. This is how we can make a difference. Okay, I want to play this brief clip. Nick Fuentes, who leads a radical far-right political constituency, is a white supremacist. This is the anti-Semitism that has been part of white supremacy for many, many years. Let's listen. We need to eradicate Jewish stranglehold over the United States of America.

That's perfect. We love everybody, but ideas matter. Religion matters. We need Christians running America, not Jews. The word is getting out that we've got to get rid of Jewish power in America.

They've done everything they can to stop it. They've censored, they've killed, canceled, blacklisted, but we are here to say that America is not a Jewish nation. America is a Christian nation.

It only makes sense if Christ is the king of the world that Christ must be king in America, must be the king of America. I know that we're going to win because, unlike our opposition, we are actually willing to die for what we believe in. The thing is though, we're not going to. We're in a holy war and I will tell you this, because we're willing to die in the holy war, we will make them die in the holy war.

And they will go down. We have God on our side and they will go down with their satanic master. They have no future in America. The enemies of Christ have no future in this world. The Lord rebuke you, Nick Fuentes, that is despicable, that is anti-Semitic drivel, that is from the pit, that is a blasphemous misuse of the name of Jesus, of the gospel, of the royalty, of King Jesus. Yes, my friends, this is the vile white supremacism that we have denounced for decades, raising its ugly head. This is the worst form of Christian nationalism. It's anything but the gospel, it's anything but living out Christian principles in America, it's anything but being salt and light, it is despicable, I denounce it, every person of conscience should denounce it and pray for the salvation, repentance of Nick Fuentes and everyone who cheered his words on. Nick, the Lord rebuke you, you are in serious deep demonic error. With that, friends, we go back to the phones. Let's go over to New York. Glenn, welcome to the Line of Fire.

Oh, hello, Dr. Brown. I spoke to a rabbi and he says that there's nowhere in the Old Testament in the Jewish Tanakh and the Nazaratic text that indicates that Jesus is divine, and so I pointed to Isaiah 6-9, or in the Jewish version 9-5. I mean, I pointed to Isaiah 9-6, but in the Jewish version 9-5, the name of Jesus, he will be called the Son of the Lord, his name will be called the everlasting Father, mighty God, Prince of Peace, but then he pointed out that that phrase doesn't indicate that Jesus is divine. He mentioned that even the name Abraham just means, for example, Abraham means gracious God, it doesn't mean, I mean, Abraham means, Abraham means high father, it doesn't mean Abraham is God.

Right, so he was completely wrong in what he said, Glenn. Number one, Abraham, so Avraham is exalted father, or Avraham then signifies father of a multitude, or a name like Elijah, Eliyahu, Yahweh is God, so those are things about God. Abraham was not called himself El Gebor, mighty God, but the child is called El Gebor, mighty God.

In fact, that's what Ibn Ezra says, one of the great rabbinic commentaries in the 12th century. He says that this is referring to the Son of God himself. Obviously, he has to interpret it differently, but in Isaiah 10 21, El Gebor is how, mighty God, is how Yahweh himself is described. So, the most natural way to read it, and his name would be called Pelioetz El Gebor Aviad Sar Shalom, is that these are the names and descriptions of the child. He's also called Prince of Peace. Even the Targum, the Aramaic paraphrase, which reads it in a very non-grammatical way, that the one who is a wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, will call his name Prince of Peace, even though it's grammatically very off, it's understanding that Sar Shalom is a description of the child.

In the same way, El Gebor is a description of the child. You did write in pointing that out to him. You can also just ask him to read in Psalm 45, say, hey, just read these words, Kisa chalohim l'olam va'er. I remember asking my Hebrew teacher in college, an Israeli man who was also a rabbi, and he said, he read it, and he said, praises to the Almighty.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And I said, could you read the surrounding context? He got red in the face, because surrounding context indicates that this is speaking about the king in Jerusalem, obviously greater than Solomon or David, speaking of him as God, and yet his God, the father, would anoint him. So, yeah, there are clear indications in the Hebrew Bible about the divine nature of the Messiah. Even in Isaiah, excuse me, Zechariah 13, where the one that is smitten is an amit of the Lord. It is a close colleague. It's a description that is normally used for a peer. So, there are other passages that point in that direction, but you pointed him to one of the clearest, and his explanation really didn't work, because one thing is names that are about God, so the post-biblical Raphael, the healing angel, that means God healed or God is healer. That is different than calling the being El Himself or El Gabor Himself. So, quite different, and your point was well taken.

You just have to pray that the Holy Spirit opens the eyes to see. Oh, wow. Thank you.

You are very welcome, sir. I appreciate the question. It's 6-6-3-4 truth.

Let us go to Daniel in Rome, Georgia. Welcome to the line of fire. Yes, yes, Dr. Brown, it's an honor to talk to you. I have a question. So, Proverbs 3 and Hebrews 12 and many other scriptures talk about the discipline of the Lord, not to despise it, and he disciplines those he loves. So, I've got a question, like, when you're going through just a lot of, you know, attacks, you know, it seems like a lot of attacks coming against you for a long period of time, and it's just like one thing after another after another. How do you know if it's the discipline of the Lord, or how do you know if it's the trial that we're supposed to go through, or how do you know if it's a satanic attack against your life? Like, how do you distinguish between those? Great question.

I want to try to open that up for you in a practical way. It's interesting that in Acts 16 that the Spirit of Jesus stops, hinders Paul and his team from going into certain areas. Yet, so they recognize that was the Lord saying no. Then he's telling the Thessalonians, I wanted to come to see you earlier, but Satan hindered us. So, how do you know what Satan's hindering you, and when the Lord is saying no? Or, how do I know that what I'm going through is not just the natural results of bad choices I made, or it's a satanic attack to stop me from doing the will of God, or it's God disciplining me so that I can grow closer to him. How do I know? A friend of mine said that years ago, a friend of his was going through an extended trial, and all day he kept rebuking Satan, rebuking Satan, rebuking Satan. And finally, the Lord said to him, you and I would get along a lot better if you quit calling me Satan. So, I'm going to answer your question. It's a great question on the other side of the break. 866-3-4-truth.

We've got one line open if you want to try to get in. Have you had a setback from an injury, accident, or surgery that left you feeling weaker and a loss of strength? Or are you feeling the effects of aging and just don't feel like you have the stamina or energy you used to? Then MyoHealth might be an answer to your prayers. Backed by 24 human clinical studies and over $20 million in government-funded research, MyoHealth contains a perfect balance of all nine essential amino acids. With MyoHealth, you can rebuild your strength, improve your balance and mobility, have more energy while restoring your health and vitality, and start building new lean, stronger muscle in as little as 30 days. By combining MyoHealth with a healthy diet and regular exercise, you can feel stronger at any age, have more energy, and live a life with vitality. Put the power of MyoHealth to work for you. I started working out consistently for the first time in years, and I've lost 50 pounds.

I've been lifting weights, I've been swimming, and then the muscle mass. That's what really surprises me. I can't believe at my age. I'll be 73 this fall. My life has changed. I'm not the same anymore. MyoHealth changed my life, definitely, and I just thank God for it. I would definitely recommend MyoHealth. I'm sold on MyoHealth. MyoHealth tastes great, and it helps me in the gym. I feel like I've got my strength back. My upper arms are tighter. I have a great deal more energy. I encourage anybody to try MyoHealth.

It really works. Call 1-800-771-5584 or online at TriVita.com to place your order for products to support your wellness goals. As a TriVita introductory offer, use promo code BROWN25 and receive a 25% discount on the products of your choice. Call 1-800-771-5584. 800-771-5584. 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. All right, welcome back, friends, to the broadcast, 866-34-TRUTH. So, Daniel and Rome, Georgia, let me say a few things. We understand the discipline of the Lord is not smiting our children with cancer or giving us a brain tumor or causing our car to crash so we get burned from head to toe. We don't see God disciplining us in those ways. There's so many ways that He can discipline us. So, first, there are times when we know we made a mistake, when we know that there is a warning from the Lord, and then something happens.

I'll give you a tiny example, Daniel. I had been driving the other day, I was distracted by my phone, which I often can be. And I've often reminded myself, don't look at it, don't respond, don't try to text something back as you're driving. So, I said to myself, well, surely God would not let me die in a car wreck without a warning that I need to be more focused as I drive.

I literally have this conversation in my mind. A couple days later, I'm stopping, there's a vehicle in front of me, right turn on red. I'm just assuming they're going, there's no one anywhere near them. Maybe they had their blinkers on and I didn't see it. But I was sitting there just a couple miles an hour, whatever, boom, I hit the back of their jeep. It's like, what? I wasn't looking down, I wasn't looking at my phone, nothing. It was just a few days ago this actually happened. And they were laughing, finally, we're good, we're good.

They had this spare time in the back of their jeep, but there's like a nick in the front of my car, it's got to get fixed. I actually believe that was God saying, be more focused, make sure you don't touch your phone when it's in the car, be more focused. So there's a direct connection. So maybe Daniel, there's something in your life where the Lord, you knew the Lord was warning you about something or be more careful and then something negative happens. For example, God kept reminding you, you got to be more diligent in your job, you got to be more diligent in your job.

And then you get demoted and it's really going to put weight on you financially because you're making less like, okay, thank you Lord, you warned me, this is discipline, I understand, I'm going to learn from it and move forward. Turn that around and you know that you know that God has called you to do a particular thing. You know He's called you and your family to plant a church in the inner city.

You know He has called you to raise funds for an orphanage in India and no sooner do you start to do that, that all hell breaks loose against you. You say, okay, these are satanic attacks, this is the enemy trying to get in the way. One thing, when you embrace it and recognize it, it brings life and encouragement and you realize how much God loves you and you say, thank you Lord, I'm going to do better. The other thing weighs you down, discourages you, pulls you away from God rather than draws you to God.

So those are some of the ways. Now every so often you're not exactly sure what's going on so you just have to press it in prayer, Lord are you trying to get a message across to me or is this demonic resistance and you have to pray through and get clarity. But generally speaking we can see is this God dealing with me to teach me a lesson so I'll grow in holiness and become more like Him and grow in faith or is this a satanic attack. Now even the satanic attack we can grow through, whatever we go through we can grow as a result of it. The obstacles can become opportunities, the stumbling blocks can become stepping stones.

But based on the situations and the larger picture we can generally have an idea of what's going on. Does that help you sort things out, Daniel? Yeah, that's very helpful. I appreciate that a lot.

Excellent. And look, this is something obviously I've lived through enough over the years and I'll tell you this, God gives grace to the humble. A caller mentioned that passage earlier, it's a couple of different places in the Bible, a few actually. God gives grace to the humble and what I've found over the years is if it's correction coming from another leader, correction coming from my wife, correction coming from a stranger, if I recognize this is from the Lord and I humble myself He pours out grace and I find a delight in being corrected. I wish I didn't have to be corrected as much as I have over the years by the Lord, but I find a grace and a delight because it shows me how much He loves me. He loves me enough to correct me. Hey, thank you for the call. It's 663-4-TRUTH.

We go to Will in Bay Area, California. Welcome to the line of fire. Hello. So I've been a Christian for a while now and one of my mentors recently converted to Judaism so I had a couple of questions on some passages. So one was Zechariah 9, the one about just talking about Jesus entering into Jerusalem on the donkey, but I was looking into some of the objections and they pretty much say that he doesn't fulfill the context of being the person to bring peace to the nations or being the king of Israel at that time, and so I was wondering what your response to that would be.

And also some they were saying that there's like conflictions between the different Gospels, some saying that he only had like a donkey and others saying it's a donkey and a colt, so I was just wondering your opinion on that passage. So first let me tell you where you can get answers to all these questions, which is if you go to realmessiah.com and just look at objections, scroll down to messianic prophecy objections, so that's all for free there. And then in volume three of my book Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, I get into all these.

And there's one other place, which is at realmessiah.com, scroll down to Answering the Rabbis and you'll see one video specifically where I address alleged issues with Zechariah 9. So number one, you want to read Zechariah 9 through 14. It is filled with messianic themes. In fact, it's one of the most quoted sections in the New Testament. It has the motif of the rejected shepherd. It speaks of Israel mourning for the one that was pierced.

It speaks of God himself coming to the Mount of Olives and his feet touching on him. It's all very, very clear, powerful messianic prophecy. Smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. So it's very, very rich imagery, the rejected shepherd, the pierced one that Israel will mourn for. So the larger context, very, very messianic.

That's number one. Number two, there are many passages in the Bible that speak of something unfolding over a period of centuries. So Isaiah 42, the servants of the Lord will not quit until he establishes justice on the earth. That was prophesied 2,500 years ago. And Jewish interpreters would say, well, that refers to Israel.

Well, Israel's been working at this for 2,500 years. We would say it refers to Jesus, the Messiah, and look at the ongoing work that he has accomplished. So has his reign grown dramatically? Do people submit to him as king by the hundreds of millions around the world?

So who's going to bring that to pass? So it is an ongoing prophecy that continues to develop. It would be one thing if hardly any person could be one thing if hardly anybody knew his name now 2,000 years later. It's another thing where hundreds of millions of people worship the God of Israel through him and submit to him as king.

His reign continues to extend around the earth. And then in the end, he'll come and literally put his feet in the Mount of Olives, Zechariah 14. So it's all right on schedule, unfolding perfectly. Also go to a passage like Ezekiel 36, which speaks of the return of the Jewish people from Babylonian exile. And ask yourself, did all of that happen?

No, some of it did. The rest of it is happening, and a lot of it is still to happen in the future. That's unfolding over a period of 2,500 years. So very common in biblical prophecy.

As for alleged contradictions, no, just read through the Old Testament. How many times do you have kings giving you one detail and chronicles another? Or first chronicles giving you one detail and first or second Samuel another? You know, how about second Samuel telling about David's sin with Bathsheba and first chronicles not even mentioning it at all?

So you've got some accounts. Read through Josh, the book of Numbers. And sometimes it will mention Joshua and Caleb standing, and sometimes it only says Caleb, only Caleb. So it all depends on who's emphasizing what. The point is it was striking that it was actually literally what was said in Hebrew, it's parallelism, poetic parallelism. But it will actually literally happen like that, the cult and the fall. So the donkey and the fall, it literally happened like that, but the emphasis, it's not that he sat on both of them, they put their clothes on them, and he sat on them. He sat on the clothes on the one donkey.

It was not some like Wild West riding show, you know? But you have it all for them in the Gospels. You know, Matthew mentions two demoniacs, Mark and Luke only mention one. But it's standard through the Old Testament, accounts like this. Even within the same book, from chapter to chapter, you'll have something mentioning two and then only mentioning one, or mentioning someone and reintroducing them a few chapters later after they've been introduced, like, why is that?

This is literary styles, that's all. But check things out on the website, we've answered these questions, jillmessiah.com. So look at answering the rabbis, scroll through, you'll see a video where I just deal with that and refute what the Counter Missionary says. You'll find short answers to others.

And then if you want to dig, we've got five volumes on answering Jewish objections to Jesus and 22-hour class on Countering the Counter Missionaries, but a lot of the stuff you'll find for free right there on the Real Messiah website. Once you go through it, if you have further questions, you can always write to us. We have a team that will answer you in a very clear and academic way, or you can always call back, all right? All right, sure, thank you. You are very welcome. All right, friends, we are out of time, but thank you for being part of this broadcast, partnering with us. And please, if you don't get my emails, it's so important that we stay in touch and I can pour vital information and new resources into you every single week, especially if you're a new listener, new viewer, go to askdartyoubrown.org, askdartyoubrown.org, and send us your emails, and you will be blessed. Trust me on that. Another program powered by the Truth Network.