Celebrating 9 Years of Healthy Eating (Plus Some Hebrew Health Nuggets!)

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I'm celebrating nine years of uninterrupted healthy eating. It has changed my life. Oh, and we'll give you some Hebrew insights on health as well. 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 back. Shalom, shalom.

Michael Brown, so glad to have you with us on today's broadcast. It is thoroughly Jewish Thursday, so we're going to take your Jewish-related calls. If you have a call that relates in any way to anything Jewish, having to do with Israel, having to do with the Hebrew Bible, Jewish background to the New Testament, Jesus, Yeshua being the Messiah, that works.

That's kosher for Thursday, 866-34-87-884. I'm also going to give you some Hebrew insights that relate to health and well-being that I think you'll benefit from. But because it is the ninth anniversary today of healthy eating, the transformation of my life, starting nine years ago today, going from 275 pounds to 180 in less than eight months, and all the major health things in my life just turning radically around, to the point that at 68, I literally feel like I'm getting younger every single year and more full of energy and vitality and life, which thrills me because I'm here for you. And I'm here to pour into our Jewish people, and I'm here to edify the body and serve and be here for my wife and kids and grandkids.

What incredible joy. And it's by God's grace. Listen, in many ways I am a disciplined person, but I was a food wimp. And if you know my story, I was a food wimp. I was addicted to unhealthy foods.

I wasn't a glutton as much as addicted to unhealthy foods, and the idea of giving them up was terrifying to me, or just eating healthy stuff was terrifying to me. If God could help me, he can help anybody. Yes, I cried out and I prayed for years. Mike, you're so disciplined. Okay, in many ways, yes, super disciplined.

But if I was so disciplined, why did it take me 59 years to get it right? Obviously, obviously I needed God's grace and help, and Nancy was absolutely instrumental. She had radically changed her own lifestyle, self-confessed glutton. She had totally changed her lifestyle, was eating healthily, and with that, even connecting to God better just with overall vitality in life and really praying for me. And then she had a work to figure out ways to trick me into eating healthy things until my palate changed and I learned to enjoy the healthy foods. So I want to just take in a little bit of the journey. I don't think I've ever done this before on the air, but I was thinking about it, chatting with Nancy about it, so I'm actually going to do this and looking at calls.

We're going to get to a lot of great calls today as well, but I think you'll enjoy this and be edified and help because look, let's be frank, it's hard. It's hard. It's hard to eat healthy. You say, what do you mean eat healthily? Well, my basic diet, no dairy, no flour, no sugar. I may have a little meat, grilled chicken, stuff like that.

It could be every few weeks, but that's, if I don't have it, it's not an issue whatsoever. And the key thing is no deviation ever. No deviation ever. No processed foods, basically.

Everything whole, unprocessed, plant-based, organic. And if there's quote an exception, it's never been, like I've never gone out and had a slice of pizza, or gone out and had french fries, or gone out and had something with cheese on it, or gone out and had a piece of chocolate or a candy bar or a milkshake, no, zero, by God's grace, zero deviation. The only exception would be, let's say I'm on the road and in the midst of several fights and there's some grilled chicken, maybe it has some stuff in it that I wouldn't normally have.

Something like that may have happened. Or if I had a healthy protein bar that didn't have any of the bad ingredients and just, oh, there was like a sweetener I wouldn't normally use. But that's it, okay? And that's been the key, no exceptions ever. Oh, trust me on this.

Trust me on this. If you're the kind of person that has no problem ever with the bad foods, I mean, you could take them or leave them. There are no addictions, there are no habits, you've got no problem with it.

Maybe, maybe you're different, but most of us, you deviate, you fall. Does that mean I can't have, yeah, for the rest of your life. But the health benefits are so wonderful. You can't have certain things, but the health benefits are wonderful. And you enjoy the healthy food.

All right, so my journal entry from August 23rd, this was the evening of August 23rd. Nancy's really praying for me, asking God for ways to help me with my diet. And I know I have to make radical changes. I sat her down and I said, okay, my plan is not working. I'm getting more tired.

I've got so much ahead of me, so much I want to do for the Lord. I've got high blood pressure, which is a silent killer. And another issue in my body I didn't even know about that could have taken me out.

I didn't even know it was there at that time. And she said, okay, I'm taking control of your diet. No food passes your lips without my approval. Oh, that was scary to hear, but I knew, I knew I had to make a change.

Okay. August 24th. So nine years ago today, start my new healthy eating regimen with healthy pasta, sauce and salad homemade by Nancy. I have grace, but I don't find this easy. Despite really lagging at night, write two articles, fought through and wrote.

August 25th. Day two of my healthy eating regimen, struggling to be focused as the junk is leaving my system. No doubt that I have lots of food addictions. Radio is good. I go on with that. Home for dinner.

I try to work on Job, my Job commentary, but without much success. Breaking my food addictions is challenging. Second day, third day, day three eating well. So at this point I'm like two 70 ish, something like that. And I feel out of it.

And by the way, I weighed this morning, maybe around one 83 if just want, you want a current update. I feel out of it in every way. So tired and groggy despite a good night's sleep. Plus with cold symptoms still.

Radio is fine despite the way I feel. Grilled chicken salad for dinner. Then try to be protective late and have a breakthrough and fervent prayer for deliverance from food addictions. I cry out. I journal that Father, I'm very weak when it comes to food. My mind is weak and I've never eaten healthy for a prolonged period of time my entire life.

And I confess my inability. So just as you delivered me from heavy drug addiction and from diet Coke and sodas, I'm asking you to deliver me from my bad food habits and change me into a healthy eating man. I remember I cried out and the breakthrough came, the first breakthrough on the third night, August 27th, a better day with my food issues. Radio, I feel slightly grouchy, but I'm definitely getting free from food addictions. Now I've got to get ready for a prayer retreat.

Skip to August 29th. I keep crying out to God to strengthen me and change me in terms of my lifelong eating habits by God's grace. Few days later, September 3rd, a break day, a breakthrough day, emotionally driving in the car today. I say to myself, I'm not deprived because that was one of my big things. See, when you diet, you're just depriving yourself, right? We're not talking about a diet, we're talking about a lifestyle change. When you diet, you just have less of the foods you like and sometimes less of stuff your body might need.

So it's almost like always a losing cycle in the up and the down and the up and the down and the up and the down. Whereas if you change your lifestyle, instead of dieting, you change your whole lifestyle. Now you're just giving your body the healthy stuff. I eat more food in a day than probably anybody you know. Healthy food. I mean, when I say more food, salad is a four quart bowl filled to the brim with all kinds of healthy salad ingredients. It just, take your average person several days to get through that salad. It's massive. It's wonderful.

It's life giving. So I'm not dieting, just changed the lifestyle. So for me, when Nancy would urge me to make a change and I'd try to make a change sooner, the problem was I always felt deprived. I'm like, I'm under enough pressure ready. I'm under enough pressure ready. Things are challenging enough already.

And to add this extra thing in, it's like the straw that breaks the camel's back. Now everything changed. Instead of being deprived, it's like, I'm liberated. And then September 4th, I spent some time with my father late at night, reminding him that he was the one who filled my life with joy to the point that I left drugs behind with ease, despite the fact that drugs and rock music so consumed my life and I could not imagine even living without getting high. The Lord can do the same for me with my bad food habits, giving me grace to live a joy-filled, purpose-filled life without the need for my food rewards or food highs. I look to you, Lord, to make your strength perfect through my weakness. And by God's grace, God's grace, okay, there's so much more to say, but just a reminder. Nancy and I wrote a whole book on our journey breaking the stronghold of food, but I want to remind you that every order that you place with our supplement co-sponsor Triveda, I just got an amazing testimony with a video.

I'm going to play for you maybe tomorrow or Monday. We just got to get the audio in sync and things like that from our great armor bearer prayer warriors about the benefits of Triveda in his life. But just remember, Nancy and I are so excited to get this into your hands. With every order you place with Triveda, you get the free mini book. So it's really easy to access.

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Would you at least do that? And one of the things we encourage you to do, and again, I'm talking more about this because it's the ninth year of daily consecutive healthy eating by the grace of God. One of the things that we encourage you to do is just be honest. I have a problem with food. I have a real problem with food. I'm weak. I struggle. I don't have any incentive. I think it's too late. I can't imagine living without it. Just be honest.

God knows anyway. It's very hard. It's very, very hard living in America with our pace, especially your mom cooking for you.

Maybe your husband doesn't eat healthy and your kids don't and you're busy on the road. Whatever it is, it's hard for most of us. It's hard.

So start there. Be honest. That's why I have no negative judgment towards anyone that struggles because I struggled for 59 years and I love the Lord. I loved Jesus with all my heart when I was fat.

I was serving him with all my might while I was fat. So there's no judgment, no condemnation. But make sure you read the mini book. So when you call TriVita, that's 800-771-5584. You don't have to ask for it. You get it automatically.

Or if you go to TriVita.com, be sure to use the code BROWN25 or whatever the latest code is to get the best discounts and you'll automatically get the mini book. So I'm here for you and I want to be here for you by God's grace. My life is in his hands. I don't post it tomorrow, but I want to be here for you for many years to come. So I'm committed, devoted to helping you. Plus, I love being healthy and thriving for the kingdom.

I've got an amazing Black Hebrew Easter light update when we come back and then to your calls. 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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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back to Third of the Jewish Thursday. Boy, there's some great things going on behind the scenes.

I can't share many of them yet, but I can't wait to share some of them in the days ahead, some amazing resources we've been able to put together and be getting your way in the days ahead. 866-348-7884 for your Jewish-related calls. I'm going to give you some Hebrew health insights in a bit. I'm going to go to the phones before that, but let me give you this fascinating Hebrew Israelite update. It ties in with a video response that Dante Fortson put out last night.

I want to comment on that briefly. Before that, I had a delightful, probably about 45-minute talk last night by phone with Gurili Hebrew, yes, leader of the Saqqari movement and the Hebrew Israelites. We had that passionate debate about who are the legit children of Israel. And he reached out to me for help doing a debate with Dr. Richard Carrier, an atheist who denies the historical existence of Jesus. And Gurili Hebrews said, hey, can you give me some insight?

We share the same belief that Jesus really existed. So, I was able to do that. And he asked me to watch the entire debate and give him input, which I did over three hours, but I felt God wanted me to do that. And I said, hey, I'd love to just have a heart-to-heart talk. And I said, let's do it. So, we did. We had a friendly, gracious, respectful dialogue.

And I think it'll bear fruit. And with his permission, I'm sharing that with you. Okay, so, the name Dante Fortson kept coming up a lot, not familiar with this gentleman at all before this, but his name came up a lot in Hebrew Israelite circles. And he seemed to be very, very popular online with a large YouTube following, puts out these very, very detailed videos. So, I watched one of them about DNA and Ashkenazi Jews. And I took strong exception to it. It was done in a gracious tone. And he was saying, is there anything anti-Semitic in what he's saying?

And why would people make it anti-Semitic for making these claims? So, I took time. And I did a response, respectfully, about an hour long.

I went into detail, took some time with my team to present things graphically. I was surprised, though, the debate with Guerrilla Hebrew, I think at our YouTube channel, has maybe 90,000 views. And of course, it's on other places. I had even more views than that. But it has like 90,000 views on my YouTube channel. The response it did to Mr. Fortson only had about 4,000 views. So, I guess, on my channel, maybe he wasn't as well-known or the controversy wasn't as strong.

So, I got a note last night. I saw on my YouTube feed that he was doing a response. I think he said it would be a couple hours long.

It ended up being three-plus hours. And it already has over 17,000 views. So, way, way, way more views already on his channel for his response to me than what I posted online. So, thank you, sir, for introducing me to your audience and to folks that maybe didn't even know I existed because they're not on my channel that much, but they're obviously on yours. So, thank you for introducing me to a whole audience, even if they think negatively of me.

I think I'm wrong. Thank you, sir, for that introduction to folks. And hopefully, it'll take the time to watch my video.

I was only able to watch parts of the response. So, I'm just going to say this very, very briefly. I said at the beginning of my video that Mr. Fortson said in one of his books that the only people who deny that the Israelites, ancient Israelites, were black are those basically who haven't studied the evidence. So, I said, no, I have studied it and I differ with it. And he said, obviously, you haven't or you wouldn't have that conclusion.

And he pointed viewers to his website where he gets into black history and the Bible. And I've been to these sites. I've looked at the literature. I've read relevant books, resources.

I've dialogued with people about this for years. I've studied it and the evidence is absolutely not convincing. Of course, there's a black presence in the Bible. Of course, there's an African presence in ancient Israel. Of course, they were multiracial. But were they as a whole African slash black as opposed to Middle Eastern brown skin? No, they were not African black.

They were Middle Eastern brown skin. The best evidence points that way. Biblical verses that are used to argue for the contrary are misused.

We've demonstrated that clearly. So, Mr. Fortson, it would be like me saying, well, no one who read my books would disagree with me. Or no one who researched what I said would disagree with me. Well, that's false. People can read my books, research what I have to say and differ with me. So, plenty of people, scholars better than you and me in terms of history and genetics and archaeology and linguistics and all of that, they review the evidence and they differ with you as well. So, you're mistaken there, sir.

People have looked at it carefully. In fact, what I want your website, no insult intended. I was disappointed when I go in there and similar sites in the past and started clicking on links.

And again, last night I thought, is there something I'm missing? And I'm disappointed with the data that's there and find it easy to refute. So, we have our differences.

But the fact is that I and plenty of others have studied the issues carefully, in-depth and differ with your conclusions. I was also surprised to see some of the segments where you did play clips for me that you then took something and ran in a different direction. I don't know if you misunderstood what I was saying. I don't think you intentionally misrepresent, so perhaps misunderstood.

That was a surprise. I'd also say this, anyone who still makes a connection between the apparent conversion of the Chazars, which happens, we don't know how many in the kingdom turned, etc., makes a connection between them and Ashkenazi Jews is spreading a myth. It's that simple. If you go to the Chabad website, where it talks in-depth about Hasdai ibn Shaprud and other rabbinic leaders who looked into the conversion of the Chazar is something that Mr. Fortson got into at some length in his video.

I just want to put this on the screen for those that are watching. You get through it. So, they're not denying that there were Chazar converts. They're not denying that part of the kingdom converted to Judaism over 1200 years ago.

But the conclusion is universally accepted by all top scholars in the field, those who differed with it have been completely outliers whose conclusions have been strongly rejected. Quote, as mentioned, the final fate of the Chazars and their decline remains unknown. Nonetheless, this has not stopped some scholars from postulating that Ashkenazi Jewry is largely descended from Chazars, a theory that has been exploited for political and anti-Semitic purposes. However, this theory has no basis and has been debunked by historians, linguists, and geneticists.

It has been debunked by historians, linguists, and geneticists. So, whatever converts there were blended into the Jewish people as a whole, as others did, ancient Egyptians that joined with the Israelites when they came in, those that intermarried, like Joseph marries an Egyptian woman, Moses marries a Kushite woman, Solomon has numerous princesses from different nations. So, there's all kinds of intermarriage. There's all kinds of mostly racial elements in Israel's history.

We understand that. People like Ruth, Rahab converting in. So, this happens with the Chazars as well. It's always been a blend. It's never just been ethnically one people only. It's been physical descendants plus those who converted in and joined.

We understand that. But the idea that Ashkenazi Jewry goes back to Chazars is an absolute myth, and those who purported are spreading falsehood. Last point, I'm not sure if Mr. Fortson got to this or not, but the issue of anti-Semitism is a very important one because I looked at the comments. I don't look at all the comments, but I looked at the comments to our YouTube channel and I didn't find any racist comments, people attacking black Americans. I didn't find that in my response to Mr. Fortson, but when I was watching the chat during some of the video, it was every kind of ugly attack on me that you can imagine. So, why is it that what I put out respectfully does not produce that kind of attack on Mr. Fortson? But then when he puts out, produces attacks on me and fake Jew and this and that, if Mr. Fortson in fact has Israelite blood, then I stand behind my comments about there could be as many as 200,000 American Jews. This is by a black Jewish website, by the way, that have Israelite blood could be that high.

Nothing that he presented in the video would change my view on that. But if you all had, if every black American had Israelite blood, that doesn't, amazing, wonderful, incredible. I don't have to all blame you, say you're fake and attack you. Why for your existence do you have to attack people like me?

Something at the root is wrong and I encourage you to pray about it. Okay, we come back, we're going to go to the phones and then as promised before we're done, some Hebrew insights on health. Stay right here.

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AskDrBrown. 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 Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Michael Brown so blessed to be with you. 866-34-TRUTH is the number to call.

Let us go to our friend Yoni Yonatan in Tel Aviv, Israel. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi, Dr. Michael Brown. How are you doing, my friend? I'm doing wonderfully well, thank God. Well, so first of all, I just want to say that I'm listening to you. It's crazy because, as I say, I'm an epic chorus.

I'm not an atheist, but an epic chorus, which means I don't believe in God, but for some reason I cannot stop listening to you and it's almost a ritual for me every day afterwards to go to YouTube, to your channel, to listen to some of your videos. I don't know why. I really don't know why, but I just wanted to say that.

Can I give you a suggestion why? Okay. So just my opinion is that God is at work in your life and He's drawing you. You want truth.

You don't just want religion or tradition. You want truth to the core of your being and God is drawing you and we've asked many people to pray for you because when they hear you talk, they just fall in love with you. You're so honest.

You're so sincere. You're right there in Israel. So I personally believe people are praying for you and God's drawing you and that's why the interest is there. So just continue on your journey and you will arrive at a wonderful destination. That's what I believe. Alright, well I hope so.

Although again, I'm not happy to come to 780 because I just don't know. Yes, sir. Okay, so my question is today is a two-part question, but I start with the first part. So I want to ask you how did you know that God exists because if you had a five-minute answer, I guess that the entire world would believe in God because it's something you can explain and the reason you call believe in God and not knowing God because you have to believe in it. But my question is how did you know that you God is the God, right? With Jehovah, Allah, Hashem, the God of the three monotheist religions, how do you know that He is God and not, I don't know, Buddha or some pagan God that people in Africa worship or people in certain parts of Europe? And the second question is if somebody is a Buddhist, right, or let's say you believe in, I don't know, it's taught by the thunder god, and he prays for him and he worships him and he will tell you the same way you say. You said a lot of time on your videos that God and Jesus tell you and you reach to him and he answers you and he delivers you out of a lot of difficult situations. What if somebody would tell you, look, I pray for Buddha, I pray for, I don't know, a troll, and he saved me, right? And the second part of the question is a lot of people, mainly in Judaism, say that they have a clinical death and then they went to heaven and they saw God and God told them, look, your time didn't come yet, go back, right? But a lot of people in another religion say the same thing, they say, oh, I haven't encountered my God. So are they wrong?

Are they just imagining stuff? And if so, what gives you the certainty that you are not wrong? Yeah, okay, I love the questions, they're great questions. So I'm going to answer in a two-fold way, all right? So the first thing is the experience in my own life. I was not looking for God, I believed he was real, I didn't really think about it, but I didn't believe in Jesus, I had no interest in changing my life whatsoever, and God intervened in my life. So again, I'm just sharing my experience first. This is not a proof to anybody else, this is my own experience, that God made me aware that I was living a sinful life, when I thought I was being very cool and boasting about my sin, God made me terribly uncomfortable, I didn't know people were praying for me, but they were, and then he opened my eyes to believe in Jesus and then radically turned my life upside down and then began to make himself real to me. Okay, so that's my experience. You say, well, someone in Chabad, Lubavitch has the same experience, or someone in Islam.

Okay, so everybody claims to have the experience. I'm just telling you mine, where God became real, so I know him. I don't hope he's real, I know he's real. He's more real to me than the breath that I breathe. I know that I know that I know there's no question of his reality in me whatsoever. Okay, so he intervened in my life, he worked in my life in such a way, when I wasn't looking for him, when I didn't believe in him, and the one that came and got me, the one that found me when I was lost, was Jesus.

So that's where we start. So now, I go to the Bible, believing that the Bible is true, and I do believe that the only way to explain the history of the Jewish people is that the Bible is true, that God did call us out. The only way to explain how we got the concepts of one God and one God only, when you read the Old Testament and compare it to the ancient world and the polytheism and all of that, where did they get that from? And God bringing our people out of Egypt, you can't just make national stories up on this level. We've been witnesses, scattering us to the ends of the earth, saying that we'd be judged and yet preserved, brought back to the land. So I see that the Bible, different than the Qur'an, different than Bhagavad-gita, the various Hindu scriptures, and I see the Bible standing out from all the others because it declares the history of the Jewish people in advance, and it declares the coming of the Messiah, and the resurrection of Jesus cannot be explained in any other logical way. The fact that a crucified Messiah completely undid the whole movement, that would destroy the whole movement, that was the last thing anything anybody was possibly expecting, and yet the fact that He rose and this whole movement grew out of it and continues to spread around the world. So my experience, then, now I go to the Bible, that's the book that we're all reading, now I find the God of the Bible to be true, I find this God to reveal Himself in history, even to declare the death and resurrection of the Messiah before the second temple is destroyed, how He'd be rejected by His own people but become a light to the nations of the world.

You can't just make this happen. So it's different than Islam, it's different than all the other religions, and that's how I know that I know that what I believe is true. So my experience then brings me to the Word, then I find the truth of the Word, the resurrection of Jesus. And remember, when the Baba Tughabi died in 1994 at the age of 92, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, many of his followers were sure he was going to rise. They were camping out at his grave site. Some were singing and celebrating before the morning started, you know, they started to mourn and wail. And some of them will say to this day, if you go to the grave, he's not there, and he's with us spiritually. But none of them ever saw him rise.

None of them, even though they were expecting it and knowing it was going to happen and believing it, none of them have ever sat with him and ate and drank physically. They all say it's spiritual, and some say, well, they never really died, whereas the disciples saw Jesus die and they were crushed. They gave up hope.

They thought it's all over. And to their shock, he rose from the dead and they were with him for weeks and hundreds and hundreds saw it. And we know how the movement spread, which is only explained by the resurrection.

So that's how I know that I know. As for experiences other people had, I've heard every kind of explanation. I've heard people that were living all kinds of crazy sinful lifestyles say they came in this light. And so, who knows what's happening in the brain? Who knows what's real?

Who knows what's spiritual deception? I can't base anything on that in a definitive way, but I can base things on what is written and then confirmed by my own experience. That's why I know that I know, in terms of what, it's not just I hope. So that's my answer to you, sir. Okay, so can I ask a quick follow-up question?

Please, please. For example, my mother, she's the most devoted person I ever met, right? I don't want to elaborate, but she suffered so much in her life. One of my sisters died when she was four, right? And my mother was sick. She is now, thank God, healthy, but she was sick.

My father was sick. She went through so much, and she never complained. She loved God so much, and she prayed all day. But obviously, she doesn't even see this, right? So in your opinion, right, people say nobody will come.

I prefer to say it in Hebrew, Africa, Yavo'elah, Abba, Elah, David, Chab'an, right? So nobody will come to the Father but for me, the Son. So in your opinion, if you are right, right, after she will die, she will come in front of Jesus.

She will say, okay, but you didn't believe in me, you go to hell, right? So it's the ultimate question, isn't it, about our own family, about our own loved ones? And you, coming from that background, see, a lot of Christians don't know how religious Jews live. They don't know the level of devotion. They don't, you know, they may just think of those that are hypocritical or the Pharisees in the New Testament, but there are amazingly devoted people that, like you said, are extraordinary in the way that they live.

So here's the deal. God is your mother's judge, not me, and God is perfect in his ways. It's not like you have to say a magical word and you get in and it's like, oh, you were so close, but you miss it to hell with you forever. No, that's not who he is. He is merciful and compassionate and absolutely fair and just. Is it possible that your mother has never been truly exposed to who Yeshua is, but she is longing for Messiah and believing in Messiah and even believes in a suffering Messiah, and so she believes what she knows. God knows. I'm going to tell everyone that I can the good news to give everyone the maximum opportunity to hear and also for everyone to know God's love and to be accountable.

But I'm not the judge of any individual. It says in Genesis, it says in Genesis 15 that Abraham believed God and God counted it to him for righteousness, tzedakah. Then we read in Galatians 3 that Abraham believed the gospel, the b'sorah, the good news. Well, what did he believe? He believed that through his seed, the world would be blessed.

So he believed within the knowledge he had. Could it be that the only Yeshua your mother knows about is this Yeshu guy who is a sorcerer and led Israel astray? And there's a direct line from the New Testament to the Holocaust, so she has no idea who who he is.

Paul said God had mercy on him because he acted ignorantly and in unbelief. So God knows her heart and God has the ability to draw her to himself based on what she does know, how she does pray. God has the ability to draw her to himself and reveal Yeshua while she is yet in this world.

So God is your mother's judge, not me. But perhaps God getting hold of you, you could be the one to lead her into the fullness of God's goodness and truth. God bless you, Yoni. Everybody keep praying for Yonatan in Israel. I believe God is drawing him.

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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. Thanks so much for joining us on the Line of Fire. It is thoroughly Jewish Thursday. I'm getting to your phone calls momentarily.

A couple more calls I want to get to momentarily. I did promise some Hebrew nuggets. I've referred to this before, but I want to draw your attention to this again. Where God says in Exodus 15, 26 to Israel, so it's before the Ten Commandments and the giving of the Sinai Covenant, but he's now been testing them after bringing them out of the land of Egypt. When he says, Qalam makhalah she's satyam mitzrah m'lo asi m'lech haqiyya niyadana r'fecha. All the makhalah, all the sickness, all the disease I put on Egypt, I won't put on you because I'm the Lord your healer. Well, notice it's not just physical disease. There were calamities and other things that were put on Egypt, the plagues, which included some physical plagues, but there are others as well.

You know, the frogs that turn the blood into wine. And that was all under the category of makhalah, sickness, disease. So under the category of niyadana r'fecha, I'm the Lord your healer, r'fei, healer, did not just mean physical disease, it was broader. Hence, in Second Chronicles 7 14, where if Israel will turn to God under judgment and turn to Him, humble themselves and pray and forsake their wicked ways, then He'll have mercy on them, ve'erapatsah et arzamah. And He says, and I will heal their land. You don't heal land, you heal bodies, but it's really restore, right, restore the land. Or in Proverbs 3, altichacham beinecha, don't be wise in your own eyes.

Y'rat adonai ve'esur mecha, fear the Lord and depart from you. Refuthi yah, refuthi yah sharecha ve'shikulah atzmotecha, it'll be healing to your bones, it'll be a tonic to your body. Refuth, the word for healing, ties in with a spiritual condition. It ties in with fearing the Lord and departing from evil. In other words, there's a connection between spirit and body. There's a connection between the spiritual state and the natural state. And God as our healer is holistic. It's spirit, soul and body. Even though you can talk about soul, spirit in the Hebrew Bible and you can dissect it as body, soul, spirit in New Testament terms, as in, for example, 1 Thessalonians 5 23 or Hebrews 12, the fact of the matter is that God looks at us in a holistic way, spirit, soul, body. And that's why a healthy heart or a heart at rest can bring health to the body.

That's why bitterness can rot the bones. That it's not just either or. That spiritual health and mental health and physical health are deeply connected. When the Holy Spirit really spoke to me so strongly almost two years ago, get my church healthy.

I'm not the one to do it, but a person to do it. Yes, spiritually first and foremost. But then secondly, mentally, emotionally, and thirdly, physically. And then beyond that, socially.

America needs healing, yes? So it's a bigger concept than just physical or either physical or spiritual, either physical or mental, emotional. No, it's both and.

It's all of the above. So when the psalmist says... bless the Lord all my soul and all my inward parts, bless His Holy Name... excuse me... who forgives your sins, forgives all your sins, heals all your diseases. Because it's just easier for me to quote in Hebrew and translate. It comes more naturally. It's inner and outer. It's the inner disease and the outer disease. It's sin and its effects. It's both and. Is that making sense?

I hope so. All right. 866, 3, 4 Truth. Let us go to James in Phoenix. Remember, we are on KPXQ. Everyone listen to our great Phoenix station 1360 AM. All right, James, welcome to the line of fire. Thanks so much for holding.

Thanks, Dr. Brown, for taking my call. My question is, in Genesis 1-1, I was looking at the... Remember that the Septuagint NRK would be a proper way of saying in the beginning, just like it's the same thing in John 1-1 in Greek. In the beginning was the word. In Greek it's just NRK. So that is a Greek way of saying in the beginning, even though it's only in a beginning.

But there are three ways to read this. One is... namely, in the beginning of God creating the heaven and the earth. Literally, in the beginning of God created the heaven and the earth, which some would translate when God began to create the heavens and the earth. Another is bereshit means by way of beginning.

Right? So bereshit, by way of beginning, so an instrumental beit, an instrumental be, by way of beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That works as well. So there is massive discussion to this moment among scholars as to how to translate. Jewish tradition has both. Jewish tradition understands it means in the beginning God created. Jewish tradition also understands it means when God began to create and reads it differently. Most modern English translations go the way of in the beginning that are Christian translations. Most Jewish translations go the way of when God began to create. It remains a great discussion among scholars, and the Hebrew will be hotly debated for many years to come.

So you're asking the right questions. It's just one of those things, the flexibility of Hebrew allows for different ways to translate. Now we all agree on what it's basically saying. Everybody agrees that it's telling us to start everything off God created the heavens and the earth. Everybody agrees on that.

It's just the nuance where there's some degree of debate. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

You are very welcome, and keep digging and studying. Thank you for your great questions. 866-3-4-TRUTH. Let's go to Christiana in Fort Worth, Texas. Fort Worth has become my home away from home.

Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you so much. My grandmother passed away. She was 108, and she was Jewish. I just wanted to ask you what you thought about her. I was trying to minister to her on her deathbed about Jesus, and I reached out to Jews for Jesus.

My mentor, Chaplain Black of the United States Senate, and they all gave me great advice. Jews for Jesus offered to come talk to her, but I knew she would not receive that. And I'm just wondering if she's... I know you don't know what I said, and to be honest, I don't remember word for word what I said, but I'm wondering, will I see her in heaven or not? You know, Christiana, it's a question I have to ask about my own father.

So, we join together in feeling the weight of this. Let me answer with as much sensitivity as I can, and this is not a cop-out. Only God knows, right? Only God knows, and whatever He does I know is right and good. In other words, He's not arbitrary, capricious, as I just said to Israeli caller Joni Yonatan, that it's not like, oh, you didn't say the magic word. You were about to pray, but you died.

It's not like that. He's compassionate and righteous, and yet we all fall short. So, what I would do is simply worship God and say, God, I know what you do is right and good, and I trust you. I know on the day I stand before you, again, because I can't say more because I don't know. I wasn't there. I don't know your grandmother. I don't know what faith she had. I don't know what her life was, and even you don't know what's going on in the depths of her heart. It's one thing if someone lived a sinful life and dies blaspheming and cursing God, well, we know that they're not with Him, but what I would do, and it's what I did with my own dad. I have great hope that I'll see him and be with him forever, but I said, Father, I know that you are good and perfect in all your ways, and on the day I stand before you, I will say everything you've done is good and right, and I fully embrace it and worship Him. Then use this as an incentive to let your light shine and have an opportunity to lead other people to the Lord and lead your grandmother in God's hands. Thank you for your heart and your love for her. Just, Johnna. All right, we'll be back with you tomorrow. Another program powered by the Truth Network.