Dante Fortson, Dr. Brown, Black Jews, and Hebrew Israelites

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. We're going to set the record straight today with some of my interaction with Dante Fortson about black Jews, Hebrew Israelites. Catch up on what's happening in the Jewish world and take your calls. 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. Jewish Thursday, Michael Brown. We're going to have a really enlightening, eye opening broadcast today. Welcome you to call with any Jewish related question or to challenge or interact with anything I have to say on today's subject.

866-34-TRUTH, 866-34-87-884. Later in the broadcast with the full blessing and enthusiastic encouragement of Francis Chan and his daughter, Mercy. We're going to play an amazing, beautiful song that Mercy wrote about the return of the Lord and Jerusalem, welcoming him back.

So we're going to play that later for the first time on radio with their blessing and permission. And yeah, we're right in the midst of the high holy days on the biblical calendar. So a time for reflection, a time for Jewish repentance around the world.

A great time to pray for a Jewish people to have their eyes and hearts and minds opened to Jesus being the Messiah. Okay. We often have videos that are put out against what I have to say. There are books that have been written against books I've written or against things that I've taught.

There are websites that on a regular basis put out material against what I have to say and teach. I appreciate that. I appreciate you. I appreciate that. I appreciate people interacting.

Some are believers, some are non-believers, different perspectives. I'm not able to respond to everything. And in fact, as a general policy, I put things out. I respond here and there. I would love, I would love to be able to respond to every comment, every question, every video. So for some say, when are you going to respond to this one, that one?

Simply not able to. And, and many times this is one thing I'm doing among a hundred others. And people are really focused on that one thing, won't responses. What I'm speaking about specifically now is a series of recent events where a gentleman named Dante Fortson has been putting out videos for some time and books, arguing that the original Israelites were black and that the heritage has been stolen and whitewashed, et cetera, et cetera. And because his name came up a lot, I did a debate with Guerrilla Hebrew, Hebrew Israelite leader, by the way, he and I are having some great private interaction, actually developing a friendship.

He would tell you the same thing in the midst of our differences, but Dante Fortson's name came up a lot. So, uh, I saw a video that he had done history, science, and the Ashkenazi Jews, and it was done in a respectful tone. So I thought, okay, let me, let me do a response to that. His video was like 12, 13 minutes. He's got much longer videos, but I did an in-depth response going back and forth on it, which was like almost an hour long, my video was called Dante Fortson, Ashkenazi Jews, and DNA. And in it, I said, Hey, happy to interact.

So he reached out privately to our ministry and we began to interact. Now I just wanted to say one thing, and I'm going to make this relevant, edifying, helpful for everybody about the question of black Jews, Hebrew Israelites, I want to emphasize again that the Israelites in the Old Testament were certainly people of color. They were not white Caucasians.

That's number one. Number two, there was certainly a black presence in the Bible and certainly a black presence in Israel. My understanding is that the Israelites by and large would have been brown skin people, black among them, lighter, darker, et cetera, Hebrew Israelites would say they were all originally black. So that's the nature of that difference back there. Okay. But yes, there's black presence in the Bible for sure.

Yes. The ancient Israelites were people of color. All clear on that many times though, Hebrew Israelites and those in that camp will raise the charge of synagogue of Satan, that Jews like me Ashkenazi Jews and others who are not black or fake Jews and synagogue of Satan. Of course, it's a complete misuse of revelation two nine revelation three nine, but I brought it up in the context of, of Mr. Forts and he said, well, why he's not making that accusation.

I just want to point this out. Here's his book, undeniable. And I went through some of the contents of this on the air verses that are misused and things like that, but here's it, here's his book undeniable and here on, on page four, all right, page four on the bottom, highlight it in bold is revelation three nine, behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan who say they're Jews and are not, but do lie behold, I'll make them come and worship before they feed to know that I've loved thee. So there's a reason why I call that out because using that verse, misusing it, especially in a context like this leads to all types of antisemitic and hateful comments, which come my way on a regular basis. I'm not personally hurt or offended by it. My identity is in Jesus, Yeshua, my own Jewishness is a, it's just like the nose of my face. I grew up Jewish, my parents grew up Jewish, et cetera.

That's, there's no mystery to that's my heritage, but my identity is found in being in Jesus, Yeshua. That's what matters. Okay. So let's go through this. I think you're going to find this really interesting and helpful when Mr. Fortson reached out to me, I wrote back to him and by the way, he's posted some of my emails, so go ahead, post the full interaction, unedited from beginning to end, full text of all her emails. Feel free, Mr. Fortson, go ahead and do that. I wrote back to him August 28th.

Hello, Dante. Thanks for reaching out and giving me your private contact information. Here's my private email as well. I would love to hear more about your personal story, not to debate, but to understand your journey, perhaps chatting by phone as our schedules permit. And as I said, I'm open to have you on my show to present your viewpoint.

Also, do you have any statement of faith, resalvation and Jesus, Yeshua, et cetera. Blessings to you, Dr. Brown. So that's the tone with which I started off. That's the initial email. The first words of his email response to me, August 28th, this is 5 26 in the afternoon. The first words of his response to me, good to hear from you, but I honestly don't think you're looking for answers, truth or dialogue.

Of course, you can print the rest of his emails and they're lengthy back and forth to each other. In fact, I wrote lengthy responses saying, please take this as a sign of respect and honor. All right, but those are the opening words. Good to hear from you, but I honestly don't think you're looking for answers, truth or dialogue. So that's how things started out. I sincerely reached out.

I sincerely opened the door and that was the initial response to the opening words of that next email. Well, we went back and forth and I subsequently called him out for bearing false witnesses, bearing false witness. He put up a video called Ashkenazi Jews stole their identity according to Dr. Michael Brown. That's false. That is clickbait and it's false. So I called him out on that.

This is how he wrote back to me. This is September 12th and this is why I'm not going to be responding in an ongoing way. He wrote this you have been deceptive since the beginning you pretend to have sources that you don't have sad people have to keep asking if you and your racist friends like vocab meaning vocab alone actually had good intentions. You'd make your sources available without asking you and your fake Christian friends would tell us plainly where you get the made-up number of a few hundred thousand Israelites you and your fake Christian friends would be 100% honest that the transatlantic slave trade is directly tied to the Inquisition, but none of you are honest. All of you are liars and when you showed your true colors, it became obvious claiming you're disappointed by hundreds of sources while sending me one and expecting me to accept it is complete bias BS and you know it when you step your game up academically. Let me know you're so amateur at this.

It's embarrassing. So I'm not going to continue to reply to someone who has that attitude and makes these fake Christian racist false accusations. I did tell him I'll pray for his repentance and show him the truth.

For repentance and for his accepting the truth regardless of whether ancient Israelites were black or white or green is not even the issue. It's not the issue in the least to me that the issue is the attitude behind these things and of course we provided sources with listed sources and then I've written books where I interact with some of these things with further sources. In any case, that's the attitude that I've confronted and please post with my full permission unedited the full email interaction, of course with our email addresses hidden is as is appropriate. So that that's what we're dealing with and that's why you're not going to hear an ongoing response to everybody.

Now, here's here's the other side of it. If we went back and forth, he had put out a 12-7 minute video put like a one hour detailed response. He then put out like a three hour plus response. You'll see a whole bunch of videos since then. What am I going to do now put out like a 29 hour response to his and he'll put out like a 27 hour response to so it's endless. He'll probably keep doing this and I seem to be a good way to drug people to his YouTube channel. I'll give you a list of all the videos recently, but let's let's get into some substance.

What I want to do the rest of the time is get into some substance. So one of his videos he makes this statement. I'm talking about how there was intermarriage in Israelite history and there's certainly black intermarriage. You can't deny that and in Israel history Moses married a Christian woman, et cetera. So I said, yeah, that exists through history.

There's converts into Judaism or into the Israeli faith through history. So listen to this clip. Listen to what he has to say. I'm just gonna be honest here. Dr. Brown.

I feel like this is not your best effort. Ruth was a Moabite. Moabites were descended from Lot and Lot was Abraham's nephew. So that would make the Israelites cousins of the Moabites. They came from the same exact family. If Abraham was a Hebrew, his brother was a Hebrew and it would mean the Moabites are Hebrews, but they're not Israelites.

So they're not a different race of people. So throwing Ruth in there, I, although I do agree with you, there's a lot of Israelites that think Ruth was an Israelite. I don't believe so, but I agree with you that Ruth was a Moabite. However, Ruth would still be a Hebrew and she was still very likely look like the Israelites looked at that time and the Israelites looked like ancient Egyptians, which is why they were confused with ancient Egyptians and as we've heard pretty much everybody say and the historical records show the ancient Egyptians were black. Dr. Kennedy said it, you heard two Egyptian men say it, you brought in Herodotus and Herodotus said it. So everybody is saying the ancient Egyptians are black. All right, we'll come back to that.

Of course, everybody's not saying the ancient Egyptians are black and there's a massive debate among top Egyptologists over it and I'll quote one of the most prominent African American scholars on blacks in antiquity who says the ancient Egyptians were not black, but we'll get back to it. But the Moabites were not Hebrews. I just quote that to give an example that Mr. Fortson is not a biblical scholar or a historian. All right, you just have to remember that. He can show you a thousand sources, but 0 plus 0 plus 0 plus 0 equals 0.

The sources have to be rightly understood. Ruth was not a Hebrew. The Moabites were not Hebrews.

In fact, according to Deuteronomy 23, look at this, Deuteronomy 23 says no Moabite up to the 10th generation, Ammonite or a Moabite, right? So they've got relations through Lot, but they were now foreigners, idol worshippers, they were not part of the chosen people, chosen race, all right? They weren't children of Abraham. They were not Hebrews. They're not called Hebrews. The Hebrews in the Bible are Israelites, always only, always only. Ruth, Moabites were not Hebrews up to a 10th generation.

It says they can't enter the congregation of the Lord. All right, so what's being told you is very unreliable. There may be a truthful statement here, but it's mixed with all kinds of error. In fact, we come back. I'm just going to give you another example of a glaring error just to tell you, do the research for yourself, friends, whoever you are, all right, whether you're one who believes that the people of England are the original Israelites or the Africans are the original Israelites or whoever, do solid research, get to the original sources, and then learn from people who have given their lives to study in those texts who have been face to face with the artifacts rather than just someone coming out of YouTube videos that are easily rebutted.

I'll give you another example, and then I'm going to answer a whole bunch of questions, and then I'm going to do a political impulse. Chronic inflammation is the greatest health threat to humanity. Infections, injuries, toxins, poor diet, and chronic stress can attack your immune system and lead to chronic inflammation. But now there's a solution you can fight this dangerous silent killer with Nopalea, made from the super fruit of the Nepal cactus, containing a unique group of bioflavonoids clinically shown to reduce chronic inflammation. In a random double-blind placebo-controlled study, it showed a reduction of elevated at-risk C-reactive protein levels, resulting in an improvement in range of motion in the back, neck, and joints, and an overall improvement in the quality of life.

Nopalea has helped thousands of people by lowering levels of chronic inflammation. Let's hear what customers are saying. I'm a personal trainer and owner of three gyms, super excited, doing a renovation here, bringing new equipment in. And as I was bringing the new equipment in, I was trying to move a piece. I moved, the equipment didn't move, and I injured myself severely. So it was frustrating.

It was, it was really depressing. I wasn't able to work out. I wasn't able to train.

I wasn't able to do just normal daily functions. After taking Nopalea, I found that it really helped with my recovery, not only with my severe injury in my back, but it also helped in my recovery of my workouts. Nopalea has helped thousands of people by lowering levels of chronic inflammation. To place your order, call 800-771-5584 or online at triveda.com. As a new customer introductory offer, use promo code BROWN25 for a 25% discount on your purchase of Nopalea.

And 100% of your first order will go to the support of Line of Fire. Go to triveda.com or call 800-771-5584. Again, 800-771-5584. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Yes, let all the nations praise the Lord. That's what you're hearing in Hebrew. Welcome to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, 866-34-TRUTH. So again, I don't intend to respond if Dante Fortson puts out a thousand more videos.

Don't plan to respond. If issues come up, you ever want to ask me a question, challenge me on anything, by all means, give us a call or write to our ministry through the website through AskDrBrown.org with honest questions you have. We'll do our best to give you solid answers and point you the direction of good solid sources. But just a reminder, again, you could put out a thousand videos, but zero plus zero plus zero if they're erroneous is zero, right? So the number of sources is not what matters.

It's the accuracy of the sources and the right treatment of them. So again, just an example that everything you hear from Mr. Fortson must be listened to critically. Let's listen to this next clip. Now, he brings up the Talmud. It can be traced to the Talmud. Now, it's interesting that you bring up the Talmud, but you don't bring up this right here. Perky, the Rabbi Eliezer, right here.

This is, I'm going to close this donate button. This right here is from the Talmud. I'll have a link to this so you guys can read it yourself. All right, so it's a well-known citation in Perky, the Rabbi Eliezer.

I've talked about it on the air. Perky, the Rabbi Eliezer, it's not Talmud. He says it's Talmud. It's not Talmud. It's 300 years after the Talmud. It's a completely separate document and does not have legal authority in Judaism. He doesn't have the level of authority of the Talmud. It would be like, I'm going to quote you from the Constitution and I quote Ronald Reagan. In fact, that's closer.

That's not even as far off. So you just have to take everything with a grain of salt because again, Mr. Fortson is not a historian. He's not a trained biblical scholar. When he talks about ancient Egypt, he can't read hieroglyphics fluently.

You say, can I? No, I'm not claiming to be an Egyptological scholar. I quote and cite Egyptological scholars, people that have lived there, that have done the archaeological excavations, that have sat face to face with some of the artifacts and looked at these things.

Those are the ones that I rely on. And then biblical studies and rabbinic studies, yes, I can do that on my own because I'm trained. If you want to find out, I've mentioned this before, but if you really want to find out about that statement in Pirkei Derah Eliezer about the curse of Ham, here's the book to read, The Curse of Ham. It's 400 pages long, it is detailed, it is in-depth, lots of issues about color in the Bible, what words mean, etc. by David M. Goldenberg. Okay. So, let me just answer a bunch of questions. Here's the chronology. I do my response to Dante's video, Mr. Fortson then responds with Dr. Michael Brown, Black Jews and Khazars.

It's over three hours. Since then, and these are only the ones that I spotted that have come up in my feed, maybe there are more, Ashkenazi Jews stole their identity according to Dr. Michael Brown. Of course, false clickbait there. Do the Khazars magically disappear from history as Dr. Michael Brown claims? These are all new videos he put out. Dr. Michael Brown gets schooled on Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Inquisition. New, whitewashing Egypt or Dr. Michael Brown and Harry Abramson using fake pics to teach history. Imagegate, Dr. Michael Brown exposed again for using fake images to teach history. And I imagine there will be a whole bunch of videos and responses. So, I'm just going to set the record straight on a few things and we will move on.

All right. So, where did I get the figure that there could be as many as 200,000 black Jews in America? It's the most generous figure I could find from black Jewish leaders.

I was just trying to find the most generous figure I could. So, I'll go all the way back into the mid 90s and then republished in 2010, being black and Jewish in America on the forward. It's about Robin Washington. He said, I usually introduce myself as Robin Washington. I'm black and a Jew. And he says, we're who America's becoming. He estimates that there are 200,000 black Jews in America today, up from 50,000 in the 50s.

And he said, I think we offer America to America. He was part of what's called the Alliance of Black Jews. It was founded by him and a famous African-American rabbi, Caspars Fruña. And based on population surveys and things like that, and including those that identified as Hebrew Israelites, they came up with a figure of 200,000. So, I used their figure because it was the most generous one I could find that was by a respected organization, Alliance of Black Jews. So, it was my figure. I was trying to find the most generous figure I could, scientifically based on polling data and things like that, and then including Hebrew Israelites that the larger Jewish community didn't accept as Jewish.

So, that's where that number came from. Okay, next question. What are we called Ashkenazi Jews?

It's really, really simple here. Encyclopedia Britannica. Ashkenazi pro-Ashkenazim from Hebrew Ashkenaz, Germany.

Remember the Jews who lived in the Rhineland Valley, etc. Okay, it's really, really simple, and I provided the sources. And by the way, I have a link in, so if you go to our YouTube channel, Ask Dr. Brown on YouTube, A.S.K.

G.R. Brown, every single thing I'm quoting, there's a link to it. All right, I appreciate Mr. Fortson putting links up on his site. So, we've got a link to every video that I'm citing, every quote that I, everything is linked one after another, after another, after another.

Just go through them, click on all of them, you'll have all the data, all right? So, around 1100, Jewish Rabbis like Rashi and others began to refer to Germany as Ashkenaz, right? They understood Ashkenaz was Gentile, Ashkenaz was not Jewish, right?

They began to refer to Germany, parts of Germany as Ashkenaz, and then Jews who lived there were called Ashkenazi Jews, like Jews live in America called American Jews, and Jews who live in England called British Jews, and Jews live in Russia called Russian Jews. That's all it is. And I sent the data and even some detailed sources that give further list of this. Okay, okay, no big deal. All right. What about the truth about reconstructed images from ancient Egypt, okay?

What about that? Number one, so are there reconstructed images that are being used? In other words, is it the exact original or are there reconstructed?

Yes, so here's number one. We, it is well known that over time many of the pigments become darker for a number of reasons. Here's a scholarly article on the subject, for example, focusing on blue. The blackening of paint containing Egyptian blue, Vincent Daniels, Rebecca Stacey, and Andrew Middleton, studies in conservation 2004.

We have a link to that as well. In other words, it is well known by those who work with the actual artifacts that over time the colors can become darker. Some of it is dirt and grime, some of it is exposure to light, some of it is change in pigmentation. There are whole scholarly articles that talk about that, which is why that the images are used that are reconstructed based on the best scientific understanding, not whitewashing, the best scientific understanding of how it originally looked. I've got another link for you. There's a scientific process involved in restoring images. It's not just whitewashing.

So I've got a link for you. The Met digitally restores the colors of an ancient Egyptian temple using projection mapping technology. All right, so that's, there's a scientific way that it's done and scholars have used this over the centuries. Now we just have developed the science even better. And then number three, the original images of the four races that we used from Asiatic and Berber, Libyan, and then Nubian and Egyptian, it proves the point I was making. So if you go back to the original, it confirms what the reconstructed one does. It's just there's maybe a darkening of pigmentation over time.

What is that? That the Nubians were black, right? Nubians were part of Egypt, but that the average Egyptian was not a Nubian. The Egyptian was brown-skinned, right? So if you go to Egypt today, you'll see brown-skinned people and you'll see black-skinned people and there are differences just like the difference between India and Africa, right?

And then the Asiatics were lighter-skinned. So you go back to the original image. It's exactly the point I was making.

Nothing changes. No one's using fake images to prove a point. And then is there a scholarly consensus that ancient Egyptians were black? No, quite the controversy, quite the controversy. Massive, massive debate about it and a large percent of Egyptological scholars say no, that's not the case.

In fact, how about this? Look at this headline, Mystery Now Solved. A study describes how researchers conducted the first successful DNA sequencing on ancient Egyptian mummies. What were the key takeaways? The race of the ancient Egyptians has long been a controversial subject of debate. Researchers used genetic information derived from mummies to shed light on the ancestry of the ancient Egyptians. The results suggest that the ancient Egyptians were most closely related to the peoples of the Near East, particularly from the Levant.

Levant, so not primarily from further south in Africa and darker skinned and more quote Negro in terms of the technical term, more for the people in Levant, Middle East, you could make a very good case based on archaeology and other iconography that the Middle East needs more and more brown skin. In any case, quotes from an African American researcher when we come back that will blow you away. 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 you remember when people thought that you were crazy because you felt the same way because you believe what I was saying and already felt it in your heart. Well friends that pushback is here the 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 as as I hear if you could hear what I hear testimony after testimony as leaders young people old people moms dad 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 become a torchbearer with a dollar or more per day. Here's the number to call to sign up 800-538-5275. That's 800-538-5275 or go to ask.

Dr. Brown. Org askdrbrown.org and become a monthly supporter click on donate monthly support. I want to immediately give you two classic books compassionate father or consuming fire.

Who is the God of the Old Testament and revolution which will really show you what it means to be a Jesus follower today. Plus you get free access to our online classes and so much more sign up today askdrbrown.org. It's the line of fire with your host. Dr. Michael Brown get on the line of fire by calling eight six six three four truth here again is Dr. Michael Brown. You know when you do serious research in one area like I got my doctorate in Near Eastern languages and Literatures from your University. I've been in the word going through day and night for for for decades. And so there's certain areas where you learn to do the scholarly research you cut your teeth you spend the hours you make the necessary investment and then they're plenty you can't do that in every area right there is a specialized in many others.

I learned what I can but you can't be a specialist in every area, but you learn to do the right research and you learn to rely on specialist. So here's my advice for those in the Hebrew Israelite debate don't listen to Mr. Fortson. Don't listen to me listen to the scholars in the field and then read widely to get different perspectives and then above all go to God and his words say Lord give me insight. Give me understand. I've gone through all the verses in the Bible used to prove the Israelites were black and I demonstrated that those verses are not proof text whether black or not.

It's not the issue those protects absolutely fall apart the moment you begin to look at them, but here here's someone that you should listen to. Okay, let me let me give you this information. Frank Snowden Frank M. Snowden Junior Wikipedia entry rightly says this he was an American historian and classicist best known for his study of black people in classical antiquity. So he was a scholar who specialized in this he was a distinguished professor emeritus of Classics at Howard University of Black Research University, right? So if there's someone want to listen to about blacks and antiquity, this is a man that we should listen to when he passes away New York Times obituary Frank M. Snowden Junior 95 historian of blacks and antiquity dies here at Washington Post when he passes away in 2007 Frank Snowden major scholar of blacks and antiquity and there is a picture of the man in front of President George W. Bush as he is receiving an award from National Humanities, right? He's a man you want to listen to it responding to the argument of Martin Bernal the Afrocentric arguments that went too far and Bernal was a scholar in other fields kind of stepped out of his area raised a lot of interesting questions scholars rebutted it. So in a book called Black Athena Revisited Professor Snowden wrote an article wrote a whole chapter Bernal's blacks and the Afrocentrist.

I want to read some of the excerpts from this quickly. He said the question of who in the ancient world were and who were not African blacks in the modern sense of blacks and egos has given rise to considerable debate. He says this the color of these Africans their most characteristic feature was highlighted in the names Greeks and Romans invented for them. You also let me just back up and say this he's dealing with physical features of the ancient Egyptians and he says on this point David O'Connor has observed quote thousands of sculpt it and paint it representations from Egypt as well as hundreds of well-preserved bodies from its cemeteries show that the typical physical type was neither negroid nor Negro.

Okay. This is a scholar who's reviewed the evidence and said thousands of sculpted painting representations and hundreds of well-preserved bodies from the cemeteries. So the physical type was neither Negro nor Negro and who's citing this professor Frank Snowden. He also says this the color of these Africans their most characteristic feature was highlighted in names Greeks and Romans invented for them at the Opus or a the Opus Ethiopians literally burnt-faced peoples that Ethiopians were the blackest peoples known to Greeks and Romans is illustrated by familiar color scheme succinctly stated in the first century CE by Manilius who classified dark and black skinned people as follows Ethiopians the blackest Indians less sunburned Egyptians mildly dark and mores the lightest so that's very argument that I'm giving you here as well by the way professor Snowden also says you have to look very carefully at the language of Herodotus to see what he is saying and isn't saying another quote from professor Snowden long before Greek and Roman writers had described in accurate detail the physical characteristics of Ethiopians and classical artists had called attention to the ethnic differences between Egyptians and Ethiopians important iconographic documents from Egypt depicted clearly the black skin and woolly or tightly curled hair of Kush Heights which differed from these features portrayed in Egyptians. There is also a mixed Egyptian Nubian element and the population of Egypt at least as early as the middle of the third millennium BCE an interracial intermingling continued as black soldiers increasingly served in the ancient Egyptian army married Egyptian women and side racially mixed children. So ancient Egypt was racially mixed and brown skinned people and black skinned people could equally fit in there and be seen as Egyptians and notice his final critique which sounds exactly like a critique of Mr. Fortson and others today in their statements about blacks in the ancient world these afrocentrist demonstrate that they have not approached the ancient evidence with the relevant scholarly methodology the result there again, this is an African American scholar of blacks and antiquity the resulting shortcomings include the following unfamiliarity with the pertinent primary sources reliance on the undocumented opinions of fellow afrocentrist always the same few a tendency to generalize on the basis of a few lines from a single author or a few texts without considering the whole context the use of language charged with political rhetoric and determination to read a quote white conspiracy into their critics interpretations of the ancient evidence friends. Don't listen to me. Don't listen to Mr. Fortson listen to Professor Snowden that being said are there black Jews absolutely are there black Jews that trace back to Africa absolutely are there remnants of the lost tribes in Africa absolutely are we still discovering more of them absolutely should the larger Jewish world welcome them absolutely are there sung among the Hebrew Israelites that do have genuine Hebrew roots.

I'm sure there are and there are many that don't and either way, let me say this one last time. What matters is this do we know Yeshua are we safe through the blood of the Messiah whether we are black or white Jew or Gentile that is what matters. That's where we find our identity and I'm looking at the clock here and I don't know exactly how long this clip is the Francis chairman we're going to play so I want to go to the phones and then we'll come back on the other side of the break and play this for you. I'll let us go to Detroit, Michigan and hang on. Why am I having a hard time getting Deborah on the air? There we go. Deborah. Thanks so much for holding welcome to the welcome to the broadcast. Hello.

Can you hear me? Yeah, I can. All right, so I've been meditating on this passage in John chapter 9 where Jesus Christ killed a blind man at the pool of Siloam and I'd really love to discover more about this significant, you know, the pool of Siloam and you know, why it's very significant in the Bible and also in Jewish history and also kind of like really relaying it to the story of the blind man who was healed.

I like to also kind of you know, I read somewhere that the pool of Siloam at one time was used for the the mikvah for those who want to worship in the temple. I'd like you to clarify on that as well, please. Sure thing. So let's here's how I always recommend just doing some research here. So what I first thing you want to do when I'm looking for Bible background, right is I look for New Testament Bible background just in one place I go to Craig Keener right who is one of the foremost New Testament scholars on the planet also a dear friend and just incredible with Bible background and what I would look at to see okay, is there something significant about this and if there's relevant background to the New Testament, he's going to know it.

He's going to say it. So in his intravarsity Press IVP Bible background commentary. Okay, so the Bible background comment when I go to John chapter 9, he explains blind people can make a living only by public charity Etc.

Etc. And then he goes down in verse 7 and says this it is not clear where the Siloam men sent now Shilohach is sent in Hebrew. The question is does Siloam also mean sent that's that's something that is is debated. Okay, but then he says this the Greek teachers as well as Jewish teachers from follow to the rabbis commonly made arguments based on word plays which are often based on fanciful etymologies.

All right. So whether it meant sent or not it was understood to mean that okay, although Siloam professor Crener says was used as a water supply and for baptizing converts to Judaism. It has more direct significance here. This was probably still the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles John 7 2 and 37 and the water of Siloam was the sacred water used for this feast here. Jesus employs the ritual water, but it works only because the man is sent and then let me go to his comments in John chapter 7. So professor Keener says there is something to this and on this last day of the day of Tabernacles when you had the water drawing ceremony that was really quite extraordinary.

So let's go down to his comments here. The last day of the Feast of Tabernacles probably refers to the eighth day for at least the first seven days of the feast the priest marched in procession from the pool of Siloam to the temple and poured out water at the base of the altar pilgrims to the feast watch this ritual which Jews throughout the Roman world thus knew it was even commemorated on souvenir jars they could take home with them the public reading of scripture at this feast included the one passage in the prophets that emphasize this feast Zechariah 14, which was interpreted in conjunction with Ezekiel 47 together these texts taught that rivers of living water would flow forth from the temple and Jewish teaching at the very center of the earth from the foundations of the temple bringing life to all the earth the water drawing ceremony originally meant to secure rain pointed toward this hope because the water verse 38 flows to and not from the believer it may be punctuated to read if anyone thirsts let this one come to me that whoever believes in me drink Etc. Most of Judaism did not believe that the spirit was prophetically effective in their own time, but expected the full outpouring of the spirit and the Messianic age of the world to come water used the symbolized Torah law or wisdom of Jewish text, but John Fuller's Old Testament precedent using it for the spirit so he says in short that the very place from which the waters were being drawn in this this procession this water perception procession from the pool of Siloam which spoke prophetically of the living water coming from the temple of God which spoke prophetically of the outpouring of the spirit. It's to that place that Jesus sent this blind man by sending him there he's going to the place of sending and the place of outpouring the spirit. So I think Professor Kreenan said it ten times better than I could by quoting him here. There is some real significance to it.

It wasn't just a land boom pool. Thank you very much for the call. Nopalea has helped thousands of people by lowering levels of chronic inflammation. I really enjoy being physical.

It's something I've just always loved but I've definitely had times where it's really crippled me up being a horse trainer can be pretty physically demanding with all the duties that I have not just riding horses for a living saddling horses caring for the horses. I feel like nopalea just took the edge off and then it's it's continued to keep me from getting sore nopalea. It's been a huge blessing. Now there's a solution by lowering levels of chronic inflammation nopalea made from the super fruit of the Nepal cactus containing a unique group of bio flavonoids clinically shown to reduce chronic inflammation in a random double blind placebo-controlled study. It showed a reduction of elevated at-risk C-reactive protein levels resulting in an improvement in range of motion in the back neck and joints and an overall improvement in the quality of life. It's fun to be on the golf course again, I'm able to swing the club freely. Hopefully I'm hitting better golf shots. Nopalea has allowed me to get back on the golf course enjoy the game that I love and maybe even give me that little edge to beat my friends at the game.

Nopalea has helped thousands of people by lowering levels of chronic inflammation to place your order call 800-771-5584 or online at triveda.com as a new customer introductory offer use promo code brown25 for a 25% discount on your purchase of nopalea and 100% of your first order will go to the support of line of fire go to triveda.com or call 800-771-5584 again 800-771-5584 It's the line of fire with your host Dr. Michael Brown get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH here again is Dr. Michael Brown enjoy this wonderful clip Francis Chan introduces it with his daughter Mercy played with their permission and blessing you'll find the link to this in our YouTube description along with links to all the other videos and clips that I quoted earlier in the broadcast. This will be linked with the description worship song sit back and enjoy. This is my daughter Mercy and we were in a prayer gathering a few weeks ago where I was talking about really the return of Christ, but just the heart of the return of price from Matthew 23 the significance of Jesus telling Jerusalem. I'm not coming back to you until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord in other words. They were rejecting him just like they rejected all the prophets and so he says okay, I'm leaving you and I'm not coming back until I hear you say, I mean from your heart you mean it blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and out in the time of worship.

I go gosh, it'd be cool. If we just as a church said that to him right now. In fact, let's say it in the Hebrew Baruch Hava B'shem Adonai and then remember Zeke her brother grabbed a guitar and he started having a sing it and then you the next day turned it into a full-blown song like what was your heart behind that? I guess I think of 2 Peter 3 where Peter's talking about how Jesus is going to come back and he says what sort of people are you then to be in lives of holiness and godliness waiting for and hastening the coming day of Christ and so the coming of Christ is not just something we anticipate but something that we actually participate in by posturing our hearts and our lives in a way that says we want you to come back Lord.

We need you. That's really the cry of the song. It's like a unifying for the bride and the spirit and the bride to say come Lord Jesus together. Yeah, and so we just felt like we wanted some explanation for those of you who listen and watch this video because it is strange because some of it is in Hebrew, but there's a point to it. It's like we'd love to see the body of Christ not just in Jerusalem, but everywhere crying out to Jesus. We want you to return blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord behold your dwelling place will be the depths and riches of your so come Lord Jesus come come rain over us hear the longing of your bride as we lift up our áááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááá carryáááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááááá themselvesAáá The former things will one day pass away Our eyes will see the one we've known by faith So come, yeshua, come Come reign over us Hear the longing of Your wrath As we lift up our cry Come, yeshua, come Come reign over us Hear the longing of Your wrath Come reign over us Blessed is he who comes In the name of the Lord In the name of the Lord We sing Blessed is he who comes In the name of the Lord In the name of the Lord Blessed is he who comes In the name of the Lord In the name of the Lord We sing Blessed is he who comes In the name of the Lord In the name of the Lord Babukh Hava B'Shem Adonai Babukh Hava B'Shem Adonai Babukh Hava B'Shem Adonai Babukh Hava B'Shem Adonai Babukh Hava B'Shem Adonai Babukh Hava B'Shem Adonai Hava B'Shem Adonai May the Lord hasten that day when our Jewish people around the world cry out, Baruch Hava B'Shem Adonai, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In other words, we welcome you, King Messiah. May the Lord hasten the day.

Thank you for that gorgeous, beautiful worship song that moves me, stirs me deeply. I want to share it with everyone. Share it as widely as you can. Let it be your prayer, O God. Bring your Jewish people to repentance and faith in the one and only Messiah and King. All right, on that note, let me take an appropriate phone call. We'll go over to New York, to Evan.

Thank you, sir, for holding. Go ahead, please. Hey, Dr. Brown, so before I get into what I'm going to say, I just want to say that when I say, before I receive an answer for you, there's just two points I'd like to bring up with it. But my general question is, how does Jesus fit into the reigning king prophecies, such as the exiles returning to Jerusalem, the fighting the battles of the Lord, et cetera, and how did the thousands of years, how did the rabbis miss the fact that he was the Messiah? And thirdly, it seems kind of strange to me personally, but I just wanted to hear your take on this, that Jesus, in my opinion, was kind of like a 180 in terms of what God taught. For example, my point is in Exodus 21, 24 to 25, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn to burn, wound for wound, strike for strike, and Leviticus 24, 19 to 20, if anyone injures his neighbor, as he is done, it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, whatever injury he has.

Let me jump in. You've asked questions that, honestly, I would like to take three or four or five hours to answer. But number one, the Hebrew Bible clearly pointed to two aspects of the Messiah's work, that he would be priestly and he'd be royal. The king would be priestly. So Yeshua was born king of the Jews, dies king of the Jews, but he first came to function as a priest to bear the sin of many, to make intercession for the transgressors.

As laid out in Isaiah 53, as laid out in Zechariah 6, as laid out in Psalm 110 in terms of his priestly function, and there are other verses that speak of his suffering on our behalf. So that's the first thing, that traditional Judaism misses his priestly work. The second thing, the emphasis that you find codified by Maimonides in his Laws of Kings in the 12th century is this idea that the Messiah will be known by rebuilding the temple, gathering the exiles. What's interesting is that nowhere does it actually say, the Messiah will rebuild the temple.

These are interpretations put on text, like in Zechariah 6, for example. But the bottom line is that there was expectation for the Jewish Messiah in the first century while they were in the land and the temple was standing. So the idea that the Messiah will be known by building the temple is a later post Talmudic reflection, and not in keeping with first century Jewish expectation. However, when he does come in glory, when he does come for the whole world to see, he will destroy the enemies of Israel, he will regather the remaining excess, so he will finish. He's the only one that could finish it because he started it. He's the only one that could be that promised king because he died for our sins, rose from the dead as the prophets declared he would before the second temple was destroyed.

So he was the only candidate to be the returning king. And then lastly, yes, there is legislation under the law. There was law that said this is how you deal with things legally. But Jesus calls us in our interpersonal relationships to step higher. And that is always a godly ethic, to step higher, to show more love. And that is bringing the law to its fullness because the law also emphasized mercy. Anyway, a great multi-part question, but one that would be many hours to answer. Go to the website realmessiah.com if you haven't. Go to realmessiah.com and dig in and feast there.