The Defective American Gospel

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Friends, the effects of a defective, compromised gospel in America for a whole generation have been absolutely deadly. Here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Hey friends, welcome to The Line of Fire.

Michael Brown here, not taking any of your calls today, but this is one of those days. Dig in, get your heart and mind focused and drink in what we're going to talk about because they're really, really important issues, issues of critical importance to the health of the body. Well, as if I heard the Lord shouting in my inner ear, get my church healthy.

Now, I'm not the only one. I'm not the man. I remember as a new believer hearing this guy on radio and he goes, I'm the only guy with sound doctrine on this whole radio station. Yeah, well, of course everybody felt they had sound doctrine, but he seemed to be the only one that thought he was the only one. So no, I am not the man to get the church healthy. That's utterly preposterous, idiotic that anyone would think that, but I am a man with a mission to help as much as I can to get the church healthy.

So it is spirit, it is mind and emotions, it is body. See, we want to see you physically healthy and thriving. In fact, if you have not taken advantage of our brand new offer with our co-sponsor TriVita, I'm talking about Gospel, Gospel, Gospel, I just want to remind you, if you haven't taken advantage of it, do it. Pick up the phone, call 800-771-5584.

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If you go to TriVita.com, T-R-I-V-I-T-A.com, use the code KSM66, which is the special Ashwa Gonda supplement, KSM66. Okay, I didn't plan on saying any of that but it's just on my mind because I've been feeling even extra energized. Alright, the defective gospel. I burn, I long to see you healthy, thriving in God.

To see a healthy church that glorifies Jesus. It's heartbreaking, isn't it? When our conduct makes him look bad. It's heartbreaking when our witness turns people away from the one that they need. It's heartbreaking when we in leadership fall short and bring reproach to his name. I don't say this to throw stones or to condemn.

I say it because it's heartbreaking and grievous. Come on, for how many centuries has the church been praying? Hundreds of millions of believers praying the Lord's Prayer, right? Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Those very first words, may your name be regarded as holy.

May your name be reverenced and revered by people all around the world. And yet we undo that. We undo that with our unchristian conduct.

We undo that with self-righteousness and hypocrisy. We undo that with a defective gospel message that presents a false Jesus and a false salvation that really doesn't save at all. So the rest of the show today, I am going to break down different aspects of the defective gospel.

In my book, Saving a Sick America, which came out a few years back, A Prescription for Moral and Cultural Transformation, I have a whole chapter on restoring thunder to the pulpits. If you go back, this book's about four or five years old. If you go back to 1989, my first revival repentance oriented book, The End of the American Gospel Enterprise, I was talking about the defective gospel there. In my 1990 book, the whole book, How Saved Are We? It's about a defective gospel message. My 1991 book, Whatever Happened to the Power of God?

Is the Charismatic Church Slain in the Spirit or Down for the Count? A lot of that deals with the defective gospel. My 1993 book, It's Time to Rock the Boat, a lot of that deals with the defective gospel. My 2018 book, Playing with Holy Fire, A Wake-Up Call to the Pentecostal Charismatic Church, a lot of that deals with a defective gospel message.

So this is something that's burned in my heart for decades. And in my most recent book that came out in March, Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith, Responding to the Deconstructionist Movement with Unshakeable, Timeless Truth, I have a whole chapter explaining why so many Christians have left the faith, and the whole chapter is on the effects of a compromised gospel. Again, in Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith.

So, to explain this, to set this up, and I'm going to break it down. I'm going to analyze some of the different defective gospel messages that are preached out there that deviate from the New Testament norm, that deviate from the historic norm of what the gospel is, that deviate from a message that really saves and really transforms. So, let me give you two reasons why this is a cause for many Christians leaving the faith.

One is that it doesn't really save anybody. That the really defective message produces counterfeit converts, so when the going gets rough, when there's testing, shaking, they're out of here. They were never believers in the first place, but they thought they were. So they're among those who were never really among us, and when the going got rough, when shaking, testing came, they're out of here.

So that's kind of a purging, but hey, they thought they were in, so they're part of the statistics of people who left the faith, but there are others who did come to the Lord, were saved, were forgiven, did begin a new life in him, but because they weren't really told the whole story, they weren't ready to endure. I mean, think of it like this. You show up at a restaurant, right? It's your favorite restaurant, and you're going to enjoy a real nice meal.

You go there like once a year on a special occasion. You've got the whole family there, and they say, okay, we need you now just to put your food down, and we've got some toilets to clean. It's like, I'm not here to clean toilets. I'm here for a feast.

Oh, well, if you were the plumber that was called in, that's one thing, but if you're just there as a consumer going to a restaurant, well, why in the world would you be cleaning toilets? And in the same way, if a lot of our, quote, gospel message produces consumers more than disciples, when you're called to take up the cross and follow Jesus, it's like, I didn't sign up for that, right? So I know people that cried out to the Lord in a time of need, and he helped them and saved them and maybe saved their marriage, but the message they heard, along with salvation elements of Jesus dying for their sins and bringing forgiveness and eternal life, rising from the dead, along with that message, they basically heard it couched in such a way that it was, what's in it for me? What's in it for me?

How can I benefit from this? So Jesus is here just to make me into a bigger and better me and make my life go better, even though I know I sinned, I need salvation, I need forgiveness, and I believe he died for me and rose from the dead. So there's some level of asking for forgiveness.

There's some level of repentance, realizing I shouldn't do the real bad things anymore. There's some level of wanting God to be your Father, but you haven't heard the whole story. It's like those that Jesus talks about in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 and Mark 4 and Luke 8, that they're like seed on shallow ground. Their hearts are like shallow ground.

So the seeds plant and it quickly grows. Now people say, are they false converts or true? I believe they're true. They're genuine converts, but when testing and trials come because of the word, they quickly fall away. So they were in the faith, but they quickly fall away. That's what many of these defective gospel messages have done.

They have brought people into a superficial experience in God. And when the testing gets rough, they're out of there. I mean, look, it's the difference between going to a football game as a spectator or any sports event as a spectator to cheer on your team. You can go there totally out of shape, right?

You can go there going up the steps you get out of breath. You can go there and you're going to order your beer or your hot dogs or your popcorn or whatever, and just sit back and enjoy the game versus being one of the athletes on the field. So if you were called to the stadium to be participating in the game, you better believe you're in training. And you're just, you're on call and you're in training and you're ready for the game.

You're ready for the tough times. It's totally different being a spectator versus a participant. There's no such thing as spectator Christianity. There's no notion of that in the Bible where you just get saved and become a spectator and watch others do the work. No, we are all called to be servants.

We are all called to be workers. We are all called to take up our cross and follow Jesus. That's the gospel.

That's what it means to have him as Lord. No, we're not saved by our works. We're not saved by, I stopped doing this, I started doing this. We're saved by the blood of Jesus and by responding to his call to turn to him, to turn away from sin and turn to him. And he saves us. He transforms us. So no amount of saying I'm sorry will save you.

No amount of reforming your life will save you. But you better believe the call to salvation is comprehensive. We are saved from sin to obedience to God.

We go from death to life, from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God. And Jesus says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father. Matthew 7 21 and 2 Timothy 2 19 says this, that despite apostasy and people corrupting the doctrines of God, nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this inscription. It's a two-fold inscription. One, the Lord knows those who are his. So his foundation is sure because he knows those who are his.

Two, that everyone, and I'm putting in numbers one and two. This is what the inscription says. The foundation of God has this inscription. The Lord knows those who are his and that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord depart from wickedness. You even get to the end of the Bible, the book of Revelation, and it tells you that the dogs, the immoral, the sinners, they're on the outside.

Dogs being a negative description of people living in certain sin. They're on the outside of the New Jerusalem. Those on the inside have been cleansed.

That's not who they are anymore. So the Gospel transforms. It's like this. If you give me a free ticket from New York City to L.A., it's absolutely free. But when I get on that plane, I will now be moved across the country 3,000 miles. It's the same with the Gospel.

The offer is absolutely free. It's going to move you from disobedience and sin in the kingdom of Satan into obedience and holiness and righteousness in the kingdom of God. That's what the grace of God does. We come back.

We're going to break down the various defective contemporary Gospels. This is Michael Ellison, founder of TriVita Wellness. I'm always thrilled to offer a new product from TriVita that is science supported with equivalent doses per serving that follows the science.

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Call 1-800-771-5584, 800-771-5584. So how do you reverse it and find spare time? Start with only one thing. Jesus said there's plenty of time in one day to worry about the things for that day.

And since that's true, there must be something that you can cut out. Whatever it is, quit talking yourself into holding on to it. It may take a bold step to humble yourself and tell others that you're over committed. And as soon as you can, drop out of that one thing that you really don't have to be doing. Afterwards, you will find more peace of mind and life will become less of a burden and more of a joy. Do it today.

Pray for wisdom to find that one thing in life that you can drop to achieve more balance in your schedule and more peace of mind in life. You are listening to the Truth Network. 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, it's Dr. Michael Brown.

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I forgot to mention that, but you'll hear it and ads that will play during the broadcast. OK, so we're talking about the defective gospel and why so many Christians have left the faith. I have a whole chapter on it.

And I mention this. In 2013, I wrote an article titled, A Compromised Gospel Produces Compromised Fruit, saying this is where we find ourselves today. A senior editor of one of the nation's leading Christian publications speaks with regret of, quote, the long-standing evangelical myth that there should be something different about the Christian. What? This was actually an editor of Christianity Today, and he and I interacted on this. What? It's a myth? It's a long-standing evangelical myth that the Christian is supposed to be different?

Are you serious? And then this, a glamorous spokeswoman for conservative Christian values explains, I am a Christian and I am a model. Models pose for pictures including lingerie and swimwear photos. Well, I'm not saying every photo with a swimwear is going to be sinful, but you're telling me as a Christian that because it's part of your job as a model, that's why you pose in lingerie. Do you realize in doing that that you're making yourself an object of lust? Do you realize in doing that, assuming you're an attractive person, that's why you're modeling these things? Do you realize in doing that that you're causing others to stumble, probably especially men?

You're going to look at those pictures and lust after you, and it's not their fault. You're not wearing a sack. You're intentionally posing publicly in lingerie.

Isn't there a reason that we cover that up? How about a church service where everyone just strips down to their underwear? God forbid.

Oh, why is that wrong? But it's okay to pose in lingerie as a Christian model. I mean, how about I'm a Christian bartender and as a bartender I make drinks for people, even alcoholics. Or I'm a Christian hitman. Let's take it more extreme. I'm a Christian hitman. It's my job to take out some people that my boss doesn't like.

Where does one draw the line? These are the effects of a compromised gospel. And then this one.

This was 2013 I wrote this. A well-known rapper, not Kanye West, by the way, claims a conversion to Christianity and states, quote, I love God, Jesus Christ is my savior, and I'm still out there thuggin'. He has been baptized and changed shirts regularly and says, I still love the strip club, and I still smoke and drink. I'm faithful to my family, so I wanted to make an album where you could love God and be of God, but still get it poppin' in your life. That's not the gospel. That's not the gospel. So here are some of the contemporary defective gospels, through which some people have come to know the Lord because of truth preached about Jesus, but they've come to know him in defective ways, and others have not known him at all. It's a counterfeit message that they think has brought them into salvation, but it hasn't. Okay, first example is the health and wealth gospel. The health and wealth gospel.

One of the most dangerous defective compromised messages that has been exported especially from America around the world. Now it's based on certain truths. It's based on biblical truths that God is a healer, that his revealed will for his obedient children is health and healing, that when Jesus went about healing the sick, he was reflecting the Father's will and the Father's heart. It was a manifestation of the kingdom of God. I wrote what people have felt is a definitive book on God the healer, especially in the Old Testament, called Israel's Divine Healer.

It's a technical scholarly work, 80,000 words of text, 85,000 words of endnotes. That came out in 1995, and I drew on my doctoral dissertation on the Lord our healer and what the Hebrew word for healing meant that my dissertation finished in 1985. So, I believe in divine healing. I believe the gifts of healing are for today. God promised obedient Israel in Exodus 15, 26 and Exodus 23 verses 25 and 26 in Deuteronomy 7 verses 12 to 15.

He promised obedient Israel that as they honored him, he would take sickness out of their midst and they would enjoy health and no miscarriages, etc. And we know the psalmist, Psalm 103, David praising God for forgiving all his sins and healing all his diseases. We know forgiveness and healing often go hand in hand.

I believe in divine healing. It's throughout Scripture. And I believe that God's an abundant provider. That you read through the book, aside from Torah and all the promises of blessings for obedience, but you read through the Torah and then you read to say Proverbs where it's practically a doubt. And basically, if you honor the Lord and you're generous and hardworking, you'll be blessed with prosperity.

Right? And Jesus says, given it shall be given you in Luke 6. And Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 about the blessings of giving.

1 Corinthians 9 as well and other passages in the New Testament. So I believe in God's abundant provision, but salvation is not the path to financial prosperity and physical healing. Salvation is the path to getting into right relationship with God. Praise God if it comes with physical healing as a fruit of the cross. Praise God if it transforms your life into a hard worker and a giver.

And that in turn triggers release of finances and blessings your way to bless others. But Jesus did not die to make you financially rich. That's not the gospel. The gospel going to the poor is not the good news that you can be financially rich. That is not the gospel. This poverty in itself is difficult and terrible and harmful and takes lives and saps energy. And many people who are terribly poor are so weak and barely able to make it through a day that they can't fulfill other kingdom purposes and bless others.

I understand that. But Jesus did not die to make poor people wealthy. That's not the gospel.

It's a false message. And Jesus did not primarily die to make physically sick people physically healthy. Yes that can be a byproduct of the gospel for sure. But it's not the primary purpose of the gospel. Plus we're all going to die eventually physically and we're going to be resurrected.

That's the big issue. Eternal life. Jesus died to bring us into right relationship with the Father. Jesus died so that we wouldn't perish and be destroyed but would be with God forever. Jesus died to take us from the kingdom of Satan where we're in disobedience and rebellion into the kingdom of God where we will be in obedience and service.

Hey friends, Dr. Michael Brown here. Do you remember when people thought I was crazy when I said it's not too late for America that God can still do something in our country? That there is going to be a pushback, a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution. And do you remember when people thought that you were crazy because you felt the same way?

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Friends, we're talking today about aspects of the defective gospel message that have hurt millions and millions of people all over America. Some have come to the Lord, but in a way that was not fully informed, in a way that was superficial, because of which they are not equipped for the long haul, they are not ready to stand. Some of you will say they were never truly saved.

God knows. For sure, though, there are people that we have known that outwardly, as far as we could tell, were born again and following Jesus, but because of a defective message, they have fallen away during times of trial and testing when things didn't go as expected. Others clearly were false converts, and when the shaking came, they were out of here. But the really bad thing is they get inoculated. They think, well, that was the gospel.

I heard it. That's why it's so dangerous, even for false converts. Okay, so shaking comes, testing comes, they're out of here.

It gets a little difficult. There's a cost involved in following Jesus. They're out of here. But, hey, many of them are now inoculated, won't hear the real message, because they thought, I already heard that. I already did that.

I already knew that. So, in Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith, I have a whole chapter on the effects of a compromised gospel in playing with holy fire, a wake-up call to the Pentecostal Charismatic Church. I have a chapter on one particular defective gospel in saving a sick America. I have a chapter on restoring thunder to the pulpit.

So, if you want to dig in deeper, we've got a lot of information out there to help you. But for those who don't have the books, let me just bring you these nuggets from them. Okay, here is another defective gospel. It is the celebrity gospel. The celebrity gospel. In the celebrity gospel, Jesus is basically the path to being cool. And the celebrities are cool. And the Christian leaders I like are cool. So, if I follow Jesus, I can be cool, too.

Now, there's a story I tell in the How Saved Are We book, which came out in 1990, quoting from the revival scholar James Edwin Orr, the great evangelical scholar of revival in the last generation. So, Orr tells the story of Mickey Cohen. Mickey Cohen was a Jewish gangster.

Think of that. Most of the Al Capones or the other famous gangsters and mafia guys, they weren't Jewish. Mickey Cohen was a Jewish gangster.

And in the 1950s, 60s, maybe especially known. So, a friend of his convinces him to go to a Billy Graham meeting and hear Billy Graham preach. And then subsequent to that, so he doesn't respond to the altar call at the message, but subsequent to that, the friend talks with him, interacts with him, and asks him to receive Jesus, and he agrees to do it. So, Mickey Cohen, Jewish gangster, prays and asks Jesus to come into his life. But the friend notices there's no change over a period of time.

There's no change. So, he talks to Mickey Cohen. This is a James Edwin Orr tells the story, and I recount it in How Saved Are We. He says to Mickey Cohen, you know, what's going on? Now, it wasn't a fault of Billy Graham's message, but obviously what Mickey Cohen took away from it and however the friend shared with him. And he said, I don't see any change in your life. And Mickey Cohen said, no one told me I had to give up my friends, meeting his gangster associates, and no one told me I had to give up my work.

I'm sorry to smile at this man's expense, but think of that. He's a gangster, and he thought he could be a Christian gangster. No one told him he had to give up his work. You see, what happened was, and again, he obviously didn't hear all of Billy Graham's message. Maybe his friend didn't share with him in a clear enough way what it meant to follow Jesus, but he had seen like a cowboy at the Billy Graham event testify. He was a Christian cowboy. And maybe there was an actor, a famous actor or actress who testified, and so he or she was a Christian actor or actress. He thought he could be a Christian gangster.

God help us. So the deal is, the deal is, friends, that this celebrity gospel idea caters to that kind of thinking. Where is the call to deny yourself and take up the cross? Didn't Jesus say that if anyone wants to come after him, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me? Matthew 16, Mark 8, Luke 9, doesn't even say in Luke 9, you have to take up your cross daily? Didn't he say in Luke 14, beginning in verse 25 to verse 33, that unless you hate yourself, not meaning like a terrible person, I hate myself, I'm so fat or I'm so ugly, no, no, but reject your very claim on life and recognize your sinfulness and hate father, mother, brother, sister. In other words, say God first.

Everybody else second. God first says, unless you do that and take up your cross, you can't be my disciple. And when Paul preached in Acts 26, 20, he said that he preached that people should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. That is the gospel. That you're not saved by your works, but the works are a fruit of your salvation, a changed life.

As James Edmon said, the only proof of a new birth is new life. These days, if you look cool, go to this church, everybody seems cool, and you can be cool too if you come to Jesus. And this celebrity, they're really cool and they follow Jesus. Like, I never knew they were Christian. So, I mean, I just saw that like hot sex scene they were in. I had no idea they were Christian. Oh, I just heard that new album just got dropped and that song on it with those like really racy, profane lyrics. And that, yeah, the YouTube video is pretty, it's like almost R-rated, maybe almost X-rated.

I can't believe it's on YouTube. Oh, they're Christian too. I didn't know that. Well, of course you didn't know it because they're not. They're Christian in name only. Otherwise, they'd be living differently.

Maybe it's an old movie, an old song, and now they're changed. Or maybe they're a brand new believer and it's going to take them some time to fully understand the demands of the cross because they're in a very poor environment. May the Lord bring them into discipleship.

You know, whoever you are, if you're brand new, man, we stand with you. I personally enjoy it when someone gets up in a church service to testify. You know, here's a former Hell's Angel biker, heavy drinker, womanizer, and all this, you know, violent guy. And now he's born again. And hey, hey, Willie, glad you're here. Come on up.

I want people to hear what's going on in your life. And he starts using profanity. This testimony of the parents is like, oops. And everybody's kind of laughing, cringing a little. I love that when it happens because the guy's so new.

He has no idea. I mean, look, I was thoroughly saved, thoroughly born again, absolutely set free from drugs and still using profanity. In my case, it was a few weeks before I got convicted and realized it was wrong.

Some people it's immediate, some people it's months, right? Some of you are listening and you're like using profanity to agree with my show because you're brand new in the Lord. I think that's amazing. I wasn't there when it happened. But early on in the revival in Pensacola and Brownsville Revival, a woman got up to testify. Every Friday night was water baptisms.

And we'd have, I don't know, 25, 30 people whose lives had been changed directly as a result of the revival, either locally or in ripple effect out somewhere. And they'd give a short testimony before they were baptized. And I wasn't there, but a woman talked about how Jesus saved her from drugs and sex and just an ungodly life. And she said, following Jesus is better than sex. Well, I mean, it's not like a proper church testimony, is it?

The way you should say it, it's a little embarrassing. And the guys, the other leaders were telling me one night about it. They said, how would you handle that? How would you handle that one, Mike, if you were there? Because sometimes they'd call on me if somebody's baptismal testimony was a little flaky theologically. I mean, overall, God saved the person and had mercy on them.

But they were brand new. And sometimes the guys would call on me, John Kilpatrick, Steve Hill. Like, hey, if I get up and fix that, because they wanted to make sure there was no confusion in the congregation, right? And all those that would watch subsequently on video. So, you know, millions of people are going to be touched potentially.

So they want me to make sure I fix something. I remember one guy got up and he had come out a new age and he was brand new. I mean, he was wonderfully saved. And he said, can I just pray a prayer for everyone before I'm baptized?

So one of the guys is holding the mic from, no, go ahead. He's like, to the eternal spirit of harmony out there, he prayed a prayer in all new age language. And we're just like, OK, he's brand new.

That's the language that he knows. But he was a believer. So, amen, if you're new and you're growing and just finding out what it means to follow Jesus, we're cheering you on. Come with all your baggage.

Come with, you know, you're not dressed properly and you're still whatever is going on in your life. OK. As you really meet the Lord, there's going to be full repentance, transformation. Absolutely. Yes.

Yes. But please, this idea that's following Jesus now just makes you cool. You can be like these celebrities. No, we get saved and it's going to cost us everything. The world is going to hate us the way it hated him.

And there's going to be saying no to the flesh and we're going to have to swim against the tide of the world. And we may be anything but cool. In fact, before I was saved, I was cool. I was a long haired hippie rock drummer that was considered to be that probably the best drummer in my high school. And with our band, we were going to be terrific.

I mean, we were legends in our own mind, but we were going to be terrific at all of this. And, you know, I got saved and I was not cool anymore. You know, I'd even wear like a dress up and wear a tie to church and cut my hair.

I mean, it wasn't super short, but it cut off a whole lot of inches from shoulder length. And now I'm singing hymns and playing drums with our little group in church to songs like Make Me a Blessing. No, it was not the path to celebrity coolness. It's another of those messages out there and it is deadly and deceptive. Now, look, I'm not saying, and I'm going to get to next the pep talk gospel. All right. And if I have time, maybe I'll get to the progressive gospel.

Yeah, I think I can get to that progressive gospel, social justice gospel and get to those in the next segment as well. But but please hear me. I'm not saying you have to look uncool. Maybe the people you reach, you need to have the nicest wardrobe. Maybe you're a young lady and you need to look like I'm not saying sensual.

But you can't come in, you know, just, you know, looking like you just woke up and putting a sack on. You just won't be able to reach the people in the fashion industry. Right. You can be modest and in the fashion industry and you can look cool because you do. I just don't.

OK. But it's it's not like you have to look uncool if you're a pastor leader. And that's just the way you dress. And those are the people you hang out with.

And the last thing I do is make an outward judgment on someone. So your hair and your hairstyle. There are those skinny jeans there. No, you you wear skinny jeans and preach the greatest message on the planet. And you can wear a jacket and tie and be a heretic.

I'm not talking about outward appearance, friends. I'm talking about substance, substance, substance. So in this celebrity gospel, there is no substance. It's just follow Jesus and you can be super cool, too. All right.

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Yeah, time really does fly when you're having a good time. Hey, you can get all your questions answered. Everything we have on our website, thousands of articles, videos, notice how many searchable words, so many relevant topics, so many people call in. We're happy to answer on the air. It's like, oh yeah, I have a whole article on that, or two videos on that, or three books on that. But most of all, there's free stuff you can just get online, so if you don't have the app, just carry me in your pocket. And something comes up, you're having a discussion, and someone says, well, let's ask Dr. Brown. Really?

And 24-7, you can do it. I'll be right there with a smile. So it's Ask Dr. Brown Ministries, ASK, DR Brown Ministries. Download the app.

And then, then when you do, you just search, you go down to the search engine, put in your topic that you're looking for, and I bet you'll be surprised with what comes up. Okay, Carol, do you believe that all Jewish people should be moving to Israel? No.

No. I believe God is bringing many Jewish people back to Israel. First, when it comes to a believer, a Jewish believer in Jesus, someone like myself, we are sent into all the world like everyone else to make disciples. We are not all supposed to be in Israel. Many years ago, I really prayed about it, really wanted to be based in Israel, but God made it clear that we were not to. So we are based here in the States and travel around the world and, of course, serve Israel day and night in different ways in Jewish ministry and outreach and fighting anti-Semitism. But absolutely, I do not believe that it is a mandate for all Jewish believers. This is a specific calling and leading from God.

And if you're not called and you go prematurely, you end up getting burnt out. As for all Jews in general, we do have different roles and places in the world. It may be as we get closer to the end that God will be calling more and more back. Right now, more Jews live in Israel than any other part of the world. That was absolutely not the case with the founding of the State of Israel. You know, you had far more Jews in Russia, far more Jews in America and other places, and until recently you had more Jews in America than in Israel. But now there are more Jews in Israel than any other single nation on the planet, which is as it should be. But it's as God brings people back. As I said, dealing with friends in Israel many years ago, there's a difference between leich and teleich. Leich is go, or lechu plural, go. And teleich, or teleichu, is you will go. So, in Scripture, God says this will happen, but to me it has to be as He calls and brings it to pass and prompts it.

And He's doing quite a good job of making that happen. Aaron and Laura, as someone who cares a lot about unity, I'm saddened by some of the hyper-criticism I see within the body of Christ, particularly against the charismatic church, but at the same time I do see verses in the Bible about the validity of exposing false teachers, apostles, and prophets. How should those verses be properly applied? How do you think we can get to a healthy place where we are exposing error within the church without demonizing genuine believers as unbelievers? This is directly from Aaron, of the Aaron and Laura couple. These have been great questions today, and some of these are very near and dear to my heart.

Almost all of them, in fact, were things very relevant, so I appreciate you asking. It is a grave concern, I carry, for the exact reasons you do. Often the criticism of brothers and sisters in the name of truth and righteousness is ugly, divisive, and absolutely self-righteous and not bearing the heart of the Lord. At the same time, often, so let's say criticism of charismatics by non-charismatics is often unrighteous, hypocritical, unbiblical, extreme, divisive, and lacking in the heart of the Lord. At the same time, many things within the charismatic movement, which I am a part, many things are flaky, wrong, unbiblical, unjustifiable, and some actually heretical. And they are often unchecked, so each one kind of exacerbates the problem, right? The weird flaky stuff that gets unchecked feeds the fires of the critics.

Many of them have a good burden but go too far. I just saw someone posted a link to a YouTube video. Brother, I don't know who he is, 30-something thousand subscribers on YouTube, and it's a video on YouTube channels to avoid, so it was posted for us because I'm on it and someone wanted to explain why so-and-so are good friends of mine, as the video claims.

So I glanced at it. I mean, we get attacked and criticized day and night. In fact, I was saddened for the lack of unity and saddened for the misinformation, but blessed to see that I was attacked.

That always blesses me because I know we're on the right side. But I was accused of being good friends with one particular brother. I met him one time in my life, shook his hand, that was it. I have never read his books. I have never endorsed his teaching. In fact, I publicly got on the air and read a strong criticism of him and said, if all these things are true, then that person is not even saved, if the criticisms were true.

And here's where I think there are serious errors in the person's teaching. So that's the public comments I made, except I believe the person is a brother in the Lord, based on people that have known him over 40 years and based on his doctrinal statement. So for saying I believe he's a brother, I got attacked. But the guy bore false witness about me by saying I'm good friends with this person or endorsed his support. That's false witness.

Now again, I'm only upset for him and those he wrongly influences and for the lack of unity in the body. But bearing false witness, I mean that's a violation of one of the Ten Commandments. It's one of the things God put in writing in his own hands. Don't bear false witness against your neighbor.

So he actually did that in a video warning about false teachers and then quoting from 2 John about false teachers, etc. So that's grievous and that's ugly. Again, it's not about me. Our reach is great. We're touching millions of people by God's grace.

I just would like to touch more, to help more. So it grieves me that I can't. But your broader question, we have to stop labeling people false teachers, false prophets, just because we have a disagreement on a particular point. If they are false teachers, according to 2 Peter 2, they are bringing in damnable heresies. If they are false prophets, according to Matthew 7, they are wolves in sheep's clothing. So if someone preaches something, look, I believe cessationism is very wrong.

I believe there is zero scriptural case to say that the gifts and power of the Spirit in terms of healing, miracles, prophecy do not continue to this day. I believe that it is a serious fundamental biblical error to reject that. And it is a practical error in terms of lifestyle as well.

On a very serious, deep level. Yet, dear friends of mine are cessationists and we work together for larger issues in the kingdom. I believe Calvinism is wrong. I believe that you make a better case for Calvinism scripturally than for cessationism, but I still believe Calvinism is wrong. But some of the greatest leaders in church history have been Calvinists.

To this day, highly respected brothers and sisters, people I honor, people I consider it a privilege to call a brother or a sister in church history and to this day. So I'm not going to damn them to hell. And New Testament prophecy is to be tested because everyone can potentially prophesy. So if someone gets something wrong, it doesn't mean they're a false prophet, which would mean they're a wolf in sheep's clothing.

It means that they prophesied falsely. There's a difference. There's a distinction. So we need to stop using these blanket terms unless the person is genuinely not a believer. And it is absolutely clear from scripture or lifestyle that they're not believers. Otherwise, let's say that's a false teaching or that's a false prophecy or here's where I differ with them. That's one thing. The second thing is, the charismatic side, we have to clean up our act and do a better job of self-policing. We've really failed there and it's brought a lot of reproach to the gospel, driven people away from Jesus. The false Trump prophecies and guaranteeing eight straight years in the White House or saying that he is actually the president and Biden is not. I mean, that kind of nonsense that still goes on despite all of our best efforts to check it and call it to account.

That's grievous. It must be dealt with. So the critics need to tone down their criticism and get to know the people they're criticizing face to face and see the fruit of their lives and find out what they actually believe about point after point.

That's one thing. Charismatically, we need to clean up our act and stop driving people away, good-hearted, sincere people, stop driving them away. And then, biggest thing of all, we need to recognize that we're one in Jesus.

We're going to be together forever. And if God is deemed to accept you, who am I to reject you? We may not be able to work together closely because of differences, but we must have God's heart. And one thing that I've learned over the decades is I don't know everything.

There are hills I'll die on. There are things I'm absolutely dogmatic on that I'll stake my life on. But who am I to say, I'm going to tell you about every ministry and every doctrine and I'm the right one.

What kind of arrogance is that? And if you're going to tell me your teachings, I guarantee you I can tear some of it apart and show it's wrong scripturally and using the original languages and so on. So let's walk with humility and let's really have God's heart. James Robinson said something that changed his life when he was preaching and just working very specifically in certain narrow circles. That's where he worked and that's where he lived.

You know, ministry. Billy Graham said to him, start hanging out with people you disagree with. And it changed his life. Those are the close words.

I don't know if those are the exact words. It changed his life. And he started spending time with others and realized, well, you love Jesus too.

Well, you love the word too. Well, you have a burden for the lost too. Well, we share the same goals. Boy, maybe one church jumps and shouts and the other church is quiet. Maybe one church emphasizes this more and this church emphasizes that more, but you get to know each other. It's like, wow, OK, I see you have God's heart too.

And maybe you're like all win the lost, win the lost, win the lost, and they're like all feed the poor, feed the poor. Well, you both have biblical mandates for what you're doing. It's not either or.

It's both and. So that's a great thing to do. Get to know others within the body who hold to the basic orthodox faith. Get to know them. And they're people I differ with. They're people whose TV shows I've been on, I differ with, whose radio shows I've been in, I differ with.

They're people I've had on my broadcast to talk with that I differ with. But I think part of their message is important. We'll get that out and then we'll share areas where we differ. But let's have God's heart. Go over John 17 over and over until we get the heart of the Lord that we may be one with Jesus and the Father. Because that's just hard. And a lot of it starts with you and me changing our bad attitudes. Have a blessed rest of the week weekend.