One Pill Can Kill

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. August 21st is a very special day in my life. There's a historic anniversary I'm celebrating today that I want to share with you, kind of a once-in-a-lifetime anniversary that I'll be sharing with you shortly. But it's now tied in with something that is of urgent importance for Americans all around the world, so I pray that you'll give me your best ear in the minutes that follow. I'm going to take calls on a wide range of subjects today, so the phone lines are open 866-348-7884. Any question of any kind you have on any subject that we cover here on the line of fire, 866-344.

The earlier you call in, the better chance we have of getting to your calls, but phone lines are wide open today. So before I talk to you about this anniversary in my own life, today is Fentanyl Awareness Day. I've only become aware in recent years of the incredible crisis that fentanyl has brought to America.

I hear talk more and more about it, but to be candid with you, it took it becoming more personal because someone who has become a dear friend and a great supporter and undergirder of this ministry suffered a terrible loss with his family. Think of this. You lose your 19-year-old son to an accidental fentanyl overdose. He thinks he's taking a painkiller pill, just getting it not from prescription. Thinks it's a painkiller.

It ends up dosed with fentanyl. Gone. Think of the devastation for parents, siblings, grandparents. You say, well, that's one person. Okay, hear me. Hear me now.

I mentioned one person first to personalize it. According to the CDC, there were just under 110,000 deaths by drug overdose in America in 2022. Just under 10,000 drug overdoses in America in 2022. And more than two-thirds were caused by fentanyl, meaning that you're talking about 211 people every single day.

Take a plane filled with people crashing every single day. This is devastating. This is overwhelming. The agony experienced by this one family and now three years later, this agony rising again, and they're the ones behind Fentanyl or Interstate. The Drug Enforcement Administration now recognizes this day officially, their public service announcements going out all over America today about this.

And we'll tell you what you can do on a practical level. But you're talking about a drug that is 50 times more powerful than heroin. 100 times more powerful than morphine. So you just add it to other drugs very cheaply to get a massive impact.

Well, easy to overdose on it. There are regular drug heists or I should say interventions. The government sees drugs coming in here and they're able to step in and they get enough fentanyl to overdose all of America in a year. I mean, that's how much is pouring in. Now, is it coming from China through Mexico?

Is this a concerted attack on America? There are whole books written on that. I'm not even going to go there. But here's the simple warning. Unless you get a drug from a drug store by prescription, you do not know what is in it. There are plenty of people who were not planning on playing around with drugs or taking their lives or overdosing. They were just thinking they were getting a certain kind of drug or maybe they're drug users and they just buying some barbiturates or buying this pill or that pill like I did before I was saved.

And so the warning goes out. Number one, if you say, oh, someone get me these pain pills, I need them. If they're not prescribed by a doctor and from a pharmacy, you do not know what is in them. If you're a drug user, obviously we want you to come to know the Lord and get help and find a new life and get free from these deadly and destructive addictions. But even in your case, is it worth experimenting?

Is it worth that one pill and you don't know it's a really good high? Yeah. And that's the last thing you ever know. And that's it. And you're gone. That could have been me.

That could have been me. And that's why when I tell you about the anniversary I'm celebrating today, it's all the more meaningful. So this is the least that I can do to raise my voice and sound the alarm and saying, be careful and be aware. And while our government does what it can to crack down on what's happening and to stop the influx of these drugs and to try to uproot them from the source. And while we need to pray that the evil will be uprooted and revealed and that we'll have good strategies to do this. Everybody, be wise.

If you've got friends that might be on the fringe, just say, hey, you need to be very careful. You think you're going to get released? You think you're going to get relief?

You think you're going to get help? That could kill you. So that is my warning.

Please, please share this. Please tell others so that instead of 210 deaths and agony and tragedy and loss that's never recovered in this world, and a hole that's always there, that we can hear people spared and people's lives going on. Okay, so let me transition from that. Many of you know my personal testimony from LSD to PhD.

God saved me in late 1971. I was at that time a heroin shooting, LSD using, hippie, rock drummer, Jewish long haired kid full of rebellion, known as Drug Bear and Iron Man, because I could use such massive quantities of drugs and live to tell about it. In fact, I experimented with overdosing. That's how foolish I was. So in today's environment, I probably would have been gone. I probably would have gotten something that was dosed in a way I wasn't expecting. I would have been gone.

I would do the maximum LSD I could, way, way more than any of my friends would take, just to see how I could handle it and what would happen. I mean, I was that foolish and that reckless, and many people are, especially the more you get into drugs and drinking. I was that reckless. God had mercy. God intervened. God broke in my life and saved me.

I truly believe. I was telling a pastor that I was with in Louisiana this past weekend, and if you listen now, God bless you, man. So he had been a heroin addict for years and years and years, while married, while having a family, while working a job. He was a functioning addict. And I was telling him I wouldn't have made it to 18 and lived, because the moment I got my driver's license, New York had me a little bit older, other states had had it already, the moment I got my driver's license, I was so foolish and reckless, I would have been high on drugs and probably just gotten killed, not even intentionally, just being foolish and reckless. So God had mercy.

Think of it like this. Have I been a blessing to you over the years? Have I helped you? Have I served you?

It seems from the reach that we have, from the materials that we have out, the leaders that we've trained, that literally we're able to reach millions of people and have helped millions of people. It's all by God's grace. Well, boom, take me out of the picture. That's another loss to drugs. Maybe you, maybe you've been an amazing mom, an amazing dad, preacher of the gospel, business person, great example, whoever you are, you've made an impact on lives.

That could have been you gone, gone. So what's the anniversary I'm celebrating today? 50 years. It is my 50th anniversary from the first sermon that I ever preached, August 21st, 1973.

The Jubilee, the 50th anniversary. Now, I got saved in a little Italian Pentecostal church in Queens, New York, and there was an unwritten tradition. That is, if you were anointed to preach, you didn't use notes. Our pastor never used notes, so think you're preaching for the first time and you can't even use notes. So the bass player in our band, my dear friend John, he went first and just got up and spoke spontaneously. Whatever the Lord laid on his heart or whatever came to his mind, whatever it was, and at the end of the night, he and I nicknamed his message Random Thoughts on Christianity. Next was the guitar player, Kerry.

So these were the guys in the band with me. They came to faith right before me, and then I went to pull them out of the church. That's how God ended up saving me. So Kerry went next, and in five minutes he was great. And then, remember being a kid and your dad's running alongside of you as you're riding the bike for the first time? And then he said, you're doing great! And you realize he's not running alongside anymore. He's like, ah!

And you fall over. So Kerry realized what was happening in preaching of 40 or 50 people that were all with him and rooting for him, and he kind of got red in the face and sat down and it's the message. The pastor got up and finished it.

And then it was my turn, August 21, 1973, 50 years ago today. And, well, I had been memorizing 20 verses a day for months and months and months. I'd read through the Bible by that time, probably about five times, and it's just like a button was pushed. Boom! And my text was Acts, chapter 26, verse 18, from Paul's words to Agrippa, the commission that Jesus gave him, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith that is in me, from the King James, as I just read it.

And broke those things into six points. A few months, a few weeks earlier, I'd been praying, what's the message, what's the message, what's the message? I'd be walking around this parking lot where I work, cleaning up a beach and preaching message after message after message, no, that wasn't it, that wasn't it. One day I was home in prayer and this text came to mind. Boom! I just preached right there in my room. It exploded out of me.

Six point scripture for each of them. And I thought, that's the message. And I stood up that night and the exact same thing happened. Boom!

It just exploded out of me. Six points, scripture for each one. And I probably quoted like five scriptures for each word that I spoke and probably spoke a 40 minute message and 20 minutes just came pouring out of me. And I remember I sat down and the pastor, Brother George, got up and we called him, Brother George, if Mike Brown's not called to preach the gospel, no one is. And of course sometimes I do have notes and write things down but that's the tradition in which I got saved and sometimes I'd be in the service, it's time for the message and the pastor would look at me, Mike, you preach. And I literally had the time from walking from the front row up the steps to the pulpit to preach to get the message and God would drop it right in. So that's been the way I was trained with the word of my heart and life. And it comes in handy sometimes when we have a whole radio show based on doing an interview with a guest and they're not able to connect or they got the wrong day and suddenly spontaneous radio or I'll arrive overseas thinking I've got a day to rest and get ready. It's like no, straight to the meeting. So that grace to preach. I've even taught whole seminary classes for a whole week without notes and apologized.

But it has worked well. Thank God, thank God, thank God for His amazing grace. We go to the phones, we come back, 866-348-7884.

We'll do like we do on Fridays. You've got questions, we've got answers and a bunch of other things I want to talk to you about. 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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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.

All right, that is the number to call, 866-34-TRUTH. A quick, quick little testimony. So, when I'm on the road, sometimes I'm able to chat with folks after a service. Many times I'm not.

I've got to run right out, et cetera. But when I can, always happy to meet folks and meet someone on a plane and chat with them. So, I was blessed to talk to some folks in Louisiana, a couple of different folks who wanted to bring up to me the impact that our food book had on them, Breaking the Stronghold of the Food, the book that Nancy and I wrote. And, in fact, a few days from now will be nine years of life transformation through healthy eating.

And I'll celebrate that on the air with you as well, God willing, a few days from now. But what's really cool is you can now get a mini version and with fresh material, fresh new material in it that Nancy and I put together, a healthy church starts with a healthy you. And if you're listening and just heard the ad from our co-sponsors TriVita for Ashwagandha, my big issue, the only issue I have health-wise that I'm aware of is I don't sleep well. Everything else, I'm thriving beyond belief, just it's hard to describe. It's hard to describe how young and alive and healthy I feel at 68.

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And I've been sleeping better, it's one of the benefits of Ashwagandha, so it's a couple of weeks in and I've actually, over the weekend, was noticing specifically, okay, I'm making some progress here. So, take advantage of the special order, no new number to call by now, 800-771-5584. And automatically, you don't have to use the code, they'll take care of you from there, 800-771-5584. But be sure you're going to get free automatically and anyone placing any order, you're going to get free automatically the digital download of our mini book that's going to help you be a healthier you. Be sure to read it, it's only 10,000 words and it's free.

So, take advantage of that. I am so excited that we can get this into more and more people's hands free. And if you want to read our book or other books we recommend, wonderful. But here you'll get this free.

You can also go online, TriVita.com, TriVita.com, use the code KSM66. You don't need to ask for the digital eBook, you'll get it automatically. Okay, with that, we go to the phones starting in Boise, Idaho. Gina, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, great to talk with you Dr. Brown and happy anniversary. That's wonderful and beautiful that today is 50 years and I get to talk to you in 50 years.

Awesome, thank you. Okay, so my question, I have two different Bible verses. The first one is one that we probably all know, John 1, 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And then my question is specifically about Jeremiah 1 and it's mainly about some phrasing in there. So Jeremiah 1, 4 says, Now the word of the Lord came to me saying. And then if you go down to Jeremiah 1, 11 it again says, And the word of the Lord came to me saying. And then Jeremiah 1, 13 says, The word of the Lord came to me a second time saying.

So, and I've looked for it, I can't find it anywhere online. Is that referring to Jesus, potentially? Because I've always been taught God is outside of time and space, he's not affected by time. So is that about Jesus coming to Jeremiah or is it just, you know, God speaking to Jeremiah? Yeah, I don't read it as if it was Jesus coming to him. In other words, the revelation in John 1 that Jesus is the Logos, Jesus is the Word made flesh. So that is an aspect of God, of his nature, of his mind, of his revelation, of his wisdom, that is now incarnated in, the Son of God now incarnated in the person of Jesus. So that is an aspect of the Word that is part of the very nature of God. When I read in the prophets, or it's really throughout the Bible, the word of the Lord came to someone, I just understand it to mean the divine message. Just like today, if someone receives some, let's say you believe there were prophets today, and the word of the Lord came to him, it would mean you received that message, God spoke to you. So that's all I understand that to be saying. I don't believe that in each case it means that Jesus came to that person saying, but rather the message came to them saying. So I see this as two distinct different things, and most scholars would see it the same way. Awesome, thank you so much. You are very welcome, I appreciate that.

866-34-TRUTH. So, let me go back to something I referenced about memorizing scripture. So, in the church where I came to faith, we didn't have like a formal discipleship process. You just joined in and did stuff with everybody. So, Monday night prayer meeting, just a handful of people, it's a small amount, would be there praying on a Monday night. Tuesday night was a service, you'd go there, sing a few songs and hear a message and pray together. And then Friday night was another service, and then Sunday school if you wanted extra teaching, and then Sunday morning, so I went to everything.

We ended up adding a Wednesday night service and then a Sunday night service because we had another location before they moved one building from one place and the church moved to another building. So, I went to everything, and then we'd do outreach, and then sometimes the pastor would take me with him, and he's going to visit somebody and I get to spend time. But there's not a formal discipleship process like many churches have or many individuals have. Hey, I'll disciple you, we'll go through this program together. The key thing with discipleship is doing life together and modeling things in a way that people can follow. That's obviously the essence of it, right? But one thing I noticed was the pastor quoted a lot of scripture when he preached, and then there was a Sunday school competition and you had to memorize verses.

This is just very, very basic stuff. So, I started to memorize, of course, competition. I wanted to win.

I'm brand new, okay? But then I'm reading the Word more and more, loving the Word more and more, and just, let me memorize one verse a week. And I was just excited to do that. I was just so hungry for the Word and loving it so much. Let me memorize one verse a day. And then I just got more and more time. I just, I remember two verses or three, and it got to 20 verses a day, and it just had a method where I could do it in an hour, and then I would be reading the Word two hours additionally every day.

So, that would kind of reinforce things. I would quote scripture as I walked and as I was driving. I'd quote scripture as I drove my car. And, remember, I'm Pentecostal, so I'd pray in tongues every night. And as I would pray in tongues, I would repeat verses in my mind. I would meditate on scripture as I was praying in tongues.

So, there was this constant reinforcing cycle of the Word, but that really laid foundations for me. And I want to draw your attention to three verses. Jeremiah 15, 16. Jeremiah 15, 16, where the prophet says, Your words were found, and I did eat them, and your word to me was the joy and rejoicing in my heart because I'm called by your name, the Lord of hosts. Jeremiah 15, 16. John 15, 17, where Jesus, Yeshua says, If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask what you will, and it will be done for you.

And then, Colossians 3, 16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Nancy knows the word really well, and often comes up with insights and passages that I have not gotten studying it in the original language. And she sees it, and I study, and I look at the commentators and say, Oh, you're right, they disagree with me, you're right. She knows the word really well, but she doesn't have it memorized the way I do with this chapter, this verse. Everybody learns differently. So, having the word dwell in you richly may be, like me, that you can quote chapter verse. It may be you just know general passages. It may be the truth of it is in you, but digest it.

Take it in. Nim su'ud varecha va'ochlem. Jeremiah 15, 16 in Hebrew. Your words were found, and I ate them. So, devour the word. You know what the psalmist said in Psalm 119. I've hidden your word, my heart, that I might not sin against you. Joshua 1a lo yamush sefera torami picha. Don't let this word, this book of teaching, depart from your lips.

V'hagitavo y'man valalibut. Meditate on it. Recite it day and night. Proverbs 4, 20 to 22. On and on, having the word, your heart, your mind, these things are ways of life. I said three verses, but more just come flooding up out of my soul.

It is a spiritual foundation for us, and it will keep you grounded and help you stay intimate. We will be right back on the other side of the break, and let's see. I'm going to Alberto Richard next to get room for more. Join us. 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, because you believed what I was saying and already felt it in your heart? Well friends, that pushback is here. The gospel-based moral and cultural revolution, we've been talking about for 25 years, is unfolding, and we are right in the thick of it, and the line-of-fire broadcast is divinely positioned for such a time as this. Friends, you would be so gratified and blessed as I hear, if you could hear what I hear, testimony after testimony as leaders, young people, old people, moms, dads, students, people from all backgrounds come up to me and say, Dr. Brown, you're providing a template for us.

You're providing a blueprint for us. You're showing us how to do this, how to have hearts of compassion, backbones of steel, but friends, it's a joint effort. We do this together, and with your support, we can amplify this broadcast around the nation and amplify this voice to shake the nation. Join our support team today.

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Alberto in Savannah, Georgia, welcome to the line of fire. Yeah, Dr. Brown. How do I know when a pastor say that God revealed him some of my sin, something that God would have forgave me for, like something three months ago, and then the Bible says that he told us in the deep of the sea, my sin today east of the west, then I show up in church, and sometimes I scream on top of his roof, the rooftop, saying that, and he said that God revealed my sin, but I already know that God's up already before the pastor, even before the evangelist says that after he confirmed support with the pastor revealed to him. So, hang on, just to understand, sir, let's not use you as an example.

We'll make it somebody else, okay? There's a fellow named Joe, and he, two weeks ago, he downloaded porn, and he was watching stuff for half an hour, and then he repented with tears, and he told his wife, and he's clean, he's good, he comes into a church service, and the pastor says, brother, I see you're using porn or something. Are you saying something like that, or was it that someone from the pulpit said, the Lord just showed me there's someone here struggling with porn, and you assumed it was you?

Along here, I'll just say an example. I know the whole thing's all rigged up. He said God told him, and they're all giggling and laughing when I step in this church building. So it's all rigged up.

And they laugh. Right, right, right. Hey, Hannah, I'm sorry.

I'm pretty sure you called in previously. I don't think you're in the right environment, okay? I don't want to be harsh here, but I don't think you're in the right environment. Whatever's going on, I have never, ever in my life, in almost 52 years in the Lord now, and preaching for 50 years, and in God knows how many thousands and thousands of services, I have never once been in any setting where leaders talk together that we're going to embarrass somebody or reveal somebody's sin or something like that. I've been in plenty of services where the Holy Spirit revealed sin and uncovered sin, but that's not for someone who has repented. That's someone who hasn't repented. It's not for someone who's seeking to honor the Lord and do the right thing.

It's for someone who is unrepentant and thinking and get away with it, or the fear of God is not there, and the Lord reveals, okay, there's somebody here. You're on the verge of destroying your marriage through this and this, and even then, it's done in such a way to be discreet so as not to embarrass. But if anything's being done, sir, where you are actually being embarrassed publicly, you are somehow, people are talking about your secret life in public, that's not the place for you.

That is absolutely not the place for you, so I just want to make that as loud and clear as I can. And under no circumstances ever should that which is done secretly be uncovered publicly if there's been repentance and contrition, then you handle it right. I don't mean, I'm not talking about, say a leader steals money from the church and now repent, no, that, you come out publicly, you confess. But I'm saying you're struggling with something private, you didn't break the laws, you didn't betray your marriage, you're struggling with something in private, you go to God, you cleanse, you forgive. He's not gonna reveal that, show your dirty laundry in front of everybody if you're truly repentant and your life's been changed, especially if you're accountable. All right, 866-348-7884, and by the way, when things get into personal church issues and matters where I am not there to look at, there's only so much I can say.

But I'm only sure I got a similar call from our same brother and it just does not seem to be the right place for him to be. Okay, let us go over to Richard in South Dakota. Welcome to the line of fire. Richard, are you there?

Yes. All right, go ahead, sir. All right, tell you what, tell you what, why don't you formulate your question and think through what you want to say, and we'll give you another shot in a moment. Let's go over to John in Orlando, Florida. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr.

Bond. I would like to ask you a question concerning Romans 1, verse 29, and verse 30 in the King James Bible. And the issue is concerning the word, which is on verse 30, the word backbiter. Because I've seen, you know, this year's election year, and I noticed that Republicans and Democrats, like, on the networks, they do a lot of backbiting. Like, they talk about, they attack someone's name or they show their face on television, and the person is not there present to defend themselves from those attacks.

And I noticed that many, especially on YouTube, they have Protestant preachers who attack someone's name or they show their face, but they don't have the person on the show to defend themselves from those attacks. So do you consider that as backbiting? Okay, so let me address this from two angles.

First, I was just surveying a bunch of translations as you were speaking. Many say backbiters, the Greek is more literally slanderers, so it's just speaking evil about people. In other words, it doesn't mean that it's behind their back, it's that you're speaking evil of them. But let me address this broadly.

It is a very bad practice that we have. For example, if I'm going to bring something up on the Internet, let's say it's a person I have no contact with, no access to, I reach out to them, they don't respond, but they say something I differ with, a doctrinal issue or something like that, then I will bring that on, so here's their clip, and now let me give my take and my response. But I am not going to malign the person, I'm not going to speak evil of that person, I'm going to just deal with the issue. And if someone is spewing violent rhetoric and saying Jews should be killed or blacks should be killed or whites should be killed, well, I'm just going to call that person out and rebuke them.

But no, in point of fact, this is a very unethical thing that we do. The way that we mock others, the way that we speak evil of them, it just creates deeper division. If I differ with the President of the United States, he's the President of the United States, I am still going to do so in a respectful way, even if I believe his agenda is terribly dangerous, I will say so, but I'm not going to mock the man, I'm not going to call him a stutterer or this or that, or if I was against Trump, I'm not going to, oh, he's fat or he, no, that's just, all we do is we fuel hostility, we fuel anger, we fuel deeper division. I was speaking over the weekend about Christians and the culture wars, and one of the points I made was that we have to humanize our opponents, not demonize them. So, there are people whose agendas I categorically, fundamentally reject as dangerous, and I will say so. But I also recognize they're fellow human beings with feelings, they're people for whom Jesus died, they may think that what they're doing is good.

I'll give you a case in point. One of my colleagues was on the front lines in Texas helping pray for a bill that would make it illegal for doctors to, quote, transition children. So, it would be illegal to put a child on hormone blockers, illegal to, say, remove the breasts of a healthy 13-year-old girl, it would be illegal to do that. And these Christian involved and religious involved said, this is about the children, this is about saving children's lives.

After the bill passed, he then went on to the websites and social media sites of some of the people who were on the other side of the issue, and he said to me, Dr. Brown, they sound just like us. They're saying this is about saving the children. In their view, if you don't do this, the kids are going to commit suicide, it's going to be much harder for them. So, of course, they're on the wrong side.

I, with all my heart, stand against their position. But in their mind, they're trying to help the children also, so I don't want to demonize them, I want to humanize. And whenever possible, if there's a Christian leader that says something I consider dangerous and I need to address, I try to reach out to them privately first. If I can't, I still try to respond in such a way that if they watch and see, okay, I'm not slandering them, I'm not demonizing them, I'm just objectively dealing with the issues. But we have a society, we have news networks, everything thrives on anger and hatred and malice, and it's a poison, sir, it's a poison, it should not be done.

So, it's not the exact definition of backbiting, but it's bad. Yeah, go ahead. Do you think it would be more to take a different approach, like to address the issue rather than mentioning names or showing faces? Would you think that would be a better approach to deal with issues?

Yeah, whenever possible, sir, that's what we should do. There are times when we need to put the face up and the quote because the person is influential, and many people say, what about this one, this one said this, this one said that. So, I have every day, on a regular basis, people are posting videos quoting me and differing with me or writing articles differing with me, and I welcome that. What I don't welcome, not for me, but for their sake and the sake of the body, is when they're nasty or mocking or misrepresenting. But to the extent we can focus on issues, a hundred percent, John, that is far, far better than stigmatizing people. Because look, we have short attention spans, everything's boom, boom, boom. The moment you see the picture, the quote, that's a bad person, that's a bad person.

And we polarize rather than even being able to have discussions. Thank you, sir, for the call. Thank you, Dr. Braun, I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

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Here again, it's Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back to the Line of Fire, 866-34-87884. By the way, going back to the phones momentarily, but something very special happened earlier in the broadcast when I was just quoting a couple of scriptures about the importance of the word and next thing it's just this life flow opened up in me about more verses. There's something amazing and beautiful about that. I've been in prayer meetings sometimes and as we're worshipping the Lord praying and maybe in one of our houses someone said, hey let's just start quoting the word, speaking the word and we said let's just start quoting words, scriptures on faith and next thing it's this and this and faith starts to rise and the joy starts to rise or let's quote verses on this. I remember we were doing this with some friends of mine, all Bible teachers and ministers of the gospel and we're praying together and we're just quoting verses and we're edifying each other as we're doing it and then one quotes a verse and it's kind of a long way of saying it and instantly you realize he memorized it out of the Amplified Bible and so it was kind of an amplified quote, but if you've never done that, if you're around folks that have scripture memorized and you just, you know, over a family meal, hey what verse has come to mind? Even if you have to look them up and read them, but it's edifying.

Even these little Bible promise things where, you know, a promise from the word for each day of the year, I understand they're out of context in some cases, just the verse says it all, but I was staying at a bed and breakfast while ministering in North Carolina a few years ago in Asheville area and next to the bed there was this, you know, flip over for a new verse for each day, so I just kept flipping, I was like, whoa, oh yes, and most of them were verses I've memorized, but each one, oh yes, yes, the word, what a treasure we have. Okay, let's go to Brian in Louisville, Kentucky. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey Dr. Brown, appreciate you having me on.

Long time fan, of course. I had a quick question, this is piggybacking off of a question that you got last week about Ezekiel's temple, and you had had the caller, which I did as well, look into, I think the name was Richard Averbeck, in Hebrews 9-10, about the sacrifices, and it led me to have just a general question about how we Christians look at the Old Testament sacrifices versus how, like, an Orthodox Jew would. So I guess we as Christians, okay, from what I understand, thinking about Hebrews 9-10, there's the ceremonial sacrifices, and I guess we as Christians, would we say that in light of Hebrews 9-10, that all the Old Testament sacrifices were ceremonial, where an Orthodox Jew would say some were ceremonial and some really were for sin?

Am I getting it right on how to interpret all that? Great question. An Orthodox Jew would not make the distinction between ceremonial and something else. They're all of the same kind to a traditional Jew, and they do what they're supposed to do, be it ritual cleansing of impurity, be it cleansing of sin, that they do those things. But an Orthodox Jew would also recognize that the sacrifices of atonement do not give you a new heart.

They do not transform you. Rather, along with repentance, they are God's means of forgiving you. What Professor Averbeck would emphasize as a leading Old Testament scholar, and his book on Christians and the law that he's worked on for many years, I think comes out this month.

In fact, I hopefully have my copy soon. So, Professor Averbeck would emphasize that what Hebrews 9-10 are saying, that the sacrifices actually could not bring about a change of heart. So that the cleansing that took place, even though through it God forgave, that it didn't actually change the inner nature, and it didn't provide a once-and-for-all forgiveness where we come into a different state of relationship with God.

And the only way we can lose that is if we refuse Him, walk away and refuse His grace. So, what you're saying is right, but I wouldn't nuance it that way. A traditional Jew would not make those distinctions, just like a traditional Jew does not see within the law that you have ceremonial and moral and civic. It's just one Torah, and it's all woven together.

We might make those distinctions for practical teaching purposes, but we recognize it's one Torah woven together. But the point of Hebrews 9 and 10 is that the sacrifices could only go so far. So you had to repeat them every year, but you don't have to repeat the cross, and we receive new birth through it. And Professor Averbeck would emphasize that, that ultimately their function was not what the function of the cross was, so that what we would argue is that all through history God forgave through what Jesus did on the cross, but that the earthly means of applying that in the Old Testament was through the blood sacrifices. Now we have the fullness of the cross.

That's how I would express it. That makes sense, and so the Ezekiel temple would probably be a possible return of the not-as-great sacrifices, and Christ would be there to then lead the Jews to show, I am the ultimate sacrifice, is possibly how it'll go. At that point, they would be a teaching nation. If we understand things rightly, in the Millennial Kingdom, the Jewish people have embraced him and are now a teaching nation making this known. So if there is a literal temple in the Millennial Kingdom and there are literal sacrifices, then it would be understood.

They are ultimately pointing to the once-and-for-all sacrifice, but even in what they do, it is more in terms of an outward cleansing than a cleansing of the heart. Great questions, Bryant, and you are in sync. Thank you. Yes, God bless you.

All right, let's go to our buddy T in Sarasota, Florida. Hey, man, welcome to the Line of Fire. Brother, it's been too long, but I'm going to tell you, I tell people all the time, like, you've got to listen to this guy, Dr. Michael Brown. He is incredible. You're the walking data.

If you ever watch Star Trek data, he knows everything. You know, you're the guy who knows the Bible, I think, better than anybody I've ever heard in my life, and I've heard some really wonderful, amazing people. So I'm giving you a compliment that you've earned.

There's actually two things that I call as your vote. Number one, we had a conversation nine or ten years ago. I was at Siesta Key Beach enjoying a beautiful day, sun, beautiful, and I have my little radio, and I'm listening to you on WTBN, and I wish you were still on WTBN. Anyway, something, I guess you started talking about fitness or something, and I got on the phone, and I just, we had the greatest conversation, talking about fitness, talking about getting in shape, and I was just kind of like urging you to do it because, frankly, I didn't want to lose you, you know, and I look at what you've done in the last nine years, and you've stuck with it. That is absolutely fantastic, man. You are such an inspiration, not only for your Biblical teachings and standing up to a lot of people that don't like what you have to say, especially when you go to Israel, because there's a lot of people that are being very thick-headed and they've been taught wrong, but you stand up and you preach the Gospel and you preach Christ, and that's awesome. But you also, you show people how to get physically and mentally healthy in a different way, in a physical way. So, my hat's off to you, and I do have a question if I have the time. Yes, and thank you for the very, very kind words. And honestly, I just feel I need to know God and the Word so much better.

So, we've got some insight, but I want to keep digging deeper and growing and knowing God and His Word better. And listen, the fact that it's nine years now, a couple days from now, be nine years of healthy eating only, without exception, it's God help me. It's that simple. Almighty God, help me. And Nancy did an amazing job to get me started, especially. But once I realized who was helping me, I realized, don't mess with this, man.

Don't play games with this. I think there's an excellent possibility, sir, that I would not be alive today if not for the radical lifestyle change, and certainly I'd be a fraction of who I am in terms of energy and activity and ability if not for that. So, God graciously intervened, and I can just, all I can do is thank Him. He helped me. He helped me. All right, to your question, sir.

I agree with everything you just said. So, I have this one rather unusual question, but it has to go with the body. I've heard different people like Dr. David Jeremiah and others talk about the body that we have after. In the afterlife, in paradise, in heaven, the indestructible nature of it and so forth and so on.

And I was just wondering, do you have a take on what our bodies might be like, what our existence might be like when the good Christ Jesus brings us to that realm? And I'll hang up and listen, but God bless you, Dr. Brown. I can't get enough of you. God bless you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you for the kind words. And I imagine you prayed as well.

So, thank you for praying, because many people have prayed for me, and that has winded my sails as well. The clearest thing that we have in terms of a systematic teaching is 1 Corinthians 15. It's just like the angels have spiritual bodies, that we too will have spiritual bodies. And that they will be indestructible and incorruptible, that we will never be tempted to sin. There will be no sin nature in us whatsoever. There will obviously be no pain or suffering. Revelation 21 makes that clear, no more pain or suffering of any kind. There's not going to be hunger, thirst in ways that we're used to them. In other words, the negative qualities of being in this body will not be there from what we see. We read in Philippians the third chapter of 1 John 3, the beginning of that, that we'll be like Him. So, an incorruptible body like Jesus has.

So, beyond that, we don't know. It's going to be a stage of glory beyond anything we've known. I sometimes wonder what people will look like in the world to come. The righteous, the redeemed, the glory that will glow from us and shine from us. Beauty beyond description, glory beyond wonder.

But read 1 Corinthians 15, the whole chapter, but then, towards the end, Paul lays it out systematically. We're this, we will be this. And we're that, we'll be something else. Forever. Forever. Amazing. Bless to you, friends.

Back with me tomorrow. It's our world. They can never have it. This is how we rise up. It's our resistance. You can't resist us.