Dr. Brown Answers Your Toughest Questions

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Phone lines are open. 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. We are committed to seeing a healthy church, and that means we've got to be thriving in spirit, in mind, in soul, in body. And that means we've got to be grounded in the Word. That means we need to understand the will of God, the ways of God, the truth of God. And that's why we have questions on this broadcast.

That's why we do our best to answer your questions, not just to give abstract theological information, but to help us grow in God and be stable in the Lord. Michael Brown, welcome to The Line of Fire. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. Any question of any kind that you want to present to me that relates in any way to what we talk about on The Line of Fire, be it cultural, be it spiritual, be it theological, be it practical. All lines are open. 866-34-TRUTH.

Just want to say this before we go to the phones. Do you remember the viral video that said that Jesus would be rapturing the church out by the end of September 2023? The video posted on 2018. I began to hear about it a few months back. People say, have you seen this?

Have you seen this? And I wrote an article, I got on the air, saying it's not going to happen. I can guarantee you, I can guarantee you it will not happen. I can guarantee you the church will not be suddenly raptured out before the end of 2023.

I can guarantee you it will not happen in September. I said it for many scriptural reasons. Well, can I point out it's October?

Can I point out that all this date-setting stuff is just nonsense and a waste of time? Can I point out that when people then are going to derive secret meanings from alleged pictographic messages in the Hebrew Bible that it will end up with nonsense like this? Let the Word of God speak plainly. Don't look for hidden messages.

Look for what is stated, what is plain. That's what we need to know. That's how we need to live, friends. Please, let's be sober. Enough with the date-setting nonsense.

You say, well, Dr. Brown, you shouldn't be pushing. You better believe I want to say this, because this is serious deception, and it gets people unsettled, and it stops us from doing our job while we're here, and we need to plan on a lifetime. We need to run our race saying, I've only got one life. I want that life to count, because that's the one thing guaranteed. We only have one life. Whether Jesus comes back in five years or in five hundred years, that's something that he knows and we don't know. We may have a sense of certain things, you know, closer rather than further, but for sure he knows that we don't know. What we do know is we only have one life.

So, let's live it to the glory of God, and let's make our lives count, and let's be sober-minded and not waste time and get people worked up and unsettled over these false prophecies based on a false reading of the Scripture. Please, we can do better. And don't say, oh, okay, now I'm going to adjust it by seven. No, no. The whole method is wrong. The whole approach is wrong.

It doesn't need tweaking. It needs to be thrown out entirely. All right. 866-3-4 truth. Let us start with Chandler.

Chandler in Oklahoma, welcome to the line of fire. Amen, brother, I agree with what you said. Jesus said, but no man deceive you, because only the Father knows, only He knows when He will return. I agree with what you said. I had a question for you about Jesus with the hypostatic union. So, you said earlier we are mind, soul, body, and spirit. Those usually belong to one person, but yet God's soul was in Jesus. We also had a human soul, but yet He was one person.

So, how would we explain that? Was it God's soul, or was it Jesus' soul that He had? So, define for me God's soul. I would say His person, His spirit, His mind, His thinking. All right, so here, the reason I ask you, sir, is those that make a tripartite distinction in human nature, say, based on 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, that we are spirit, soul, and body. So, soul would be our human consciousness and our emotions and that which interfaces with this earthly world, but is still of a spiritual nature. God, in that sense, would not have a soul as a spirit being. And to speak of God's soul would be to mislead.

I want to be really candid here. I don't overthink this. In other words, the Word of God does tell us that the eternal Word, who is God Himself, became flesh. So, we know that the eternal Son, we understand God to be Father, Son, and Spirit, that the eternal Son, who is God Himself, took on human nature and was simultaneously God and man.

How that works out, the Scripture really doesn't tell us. It's a glorious mystery in terms of many things about God. The fact that God eternally existed breaks my mind in terms of how I'm thinking because everything has a beginning so that God always was.

It already breaks my little mental walls here. So, honestly, even though the Church has thought about this endlessly, and you even have massive disputes in history where one group is actually violently attacking another group, literally through physical violence, over disputes about the exact nature of the incarnation, I don't overthink it. Somehow, in the providence and wisdom of God, the Son remained fully God while also being fully human. So, while being eternal God, emptying Himself of His divine prerogatives and so, as a baby, He wasn't faking being a baby. He was actually a baby. He wasn't faking learning to crawl and learning to walk.

He actually did that. Luke 3 tells us that He grew in wisdom and in stature, and yet, at all times, He was fully divine. These things are mysteries, not contradictions, but mysteries because they transcend or eliminate human thinking. So, I don't even think in terms of, quote, God's soul, but His very being in the Son taking on fully human form. So, when Jesus slept, He actually slept, and when He was hungry, He was actually hungry, and yet He was divine at all times. It's glorious.

It's wonderful. Romans 11, 33, oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. I mean, you can possibly figure Him out. So, sorry I don't have a more precise definition. Maybe if you check with my friend Dr. James White, who thinks in more theological terms sometimes than I do, he'll have a better answer for you.

But that's the best I can explain it. Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

You are very welcome. 866-34-TRUTH. We go over to Robert in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Not far from me at this very moment. Welcome to the 105. Robert, I am. Hey.

Thanks so much Dr. Brown for your time. So, this is going to be odd timing for this question I would gather with the recent news of Orthodox Jews being arrested for spitting at Christians in Jerusalem, but here's my heart. So, and it's more of an open-ended discipleship question, and since we're both in Charlotte, I can never take you out for lunch. We could continue it then, but in a desire for my own discipleship as a Gentile believer in Yeshua, with your experience, what guidance and caution would you offer to a Gentile believer with a burden and a passion on their heart to reach both Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews with the Gospel?

Right. So, to reach Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews is very challenging because they are deeply committed to their religion. So, any time you have someone deeply committed to their religious faith, be it a deeply committed Muslim or a deeply committed Jew or a deeply committed Christian, it's going to be harder to get that person to think differently or see things differently, especially if you've been raised in it all your life. Yet, human beings are human beings with needs, with pain, human beings sin, and human beings need redemption through the Gospel. So, generally speaking, if you are, as a Gentile Christian, going to engage with traditional Jews, you don't want to go in thinking, hey, if I quote this messianic prophecy to them, it's going to blow them away.

They've never heard this. Or if I throw this, you know, if I tell them about what happens at our church on Sunday, they'll be amazed. No, it's going to be more building a relationship, and then right up front saying, you know, I'm a Gentile Christian, and I know through a lot of church history that the church has been hostile to the Jewish people, but you know, in my circles, we really honor Jewish people. And you know, our faith goes back to Jewish roots, which of course, everything you're saying is true. And then see if a door opens relationally where something in your life can interest this person, that you have something in your own walk with God that they don't have, that you've experienced grace, mercy, forgiveness in a way that they have not.

And that can often be a segue to share more of the good news. The religious Jews that spat at Christians that were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles with Christian embassy in Jerusalem, that has been rebuked on a national level from major government to other religious leaders. In fact, I just got a note from an Orthodox rabbi wanting me to see the article that he wrote denouncing this.

So, again, it is a small group, not representative of the whole. However, it does remind you that to many religious Jews, Christianity represents the Crusades, Christianity is associated with the Holocaust, Christianity is associated with the wholesale slaughter of Jewish people, and therefore, Jesus is someone to be despised. So what you want to do is introduce them to the real Jesus and understand if the hostility comes up to say, yeah, it's terrible. But, you know, it's the exact opposite of what Jesus actually taught.

He was actually a rabbi named Yeshua. And do you know that the Christians I know over America, they feel so differently about this. You know, we're the best friends Israel has. Have you read my book, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood? I have indeed.

Yeah, so that has sensitized you to what you might run into. And then the, if you really are having a serious conversation, the endless objections that will come up if you go to our Jewish website, RealMessiah.com, RealMessiah.com, you'll find the hundred most common objections with short answers in video and audio form, and then with references to where you can get more info. And above all, pray, because it could be your prayers that open the door for a Jewish believer in Israel sharing the good news with an Orthodox Jewish neighbor, or with an open door that I might have through a debate.

So by all means, your prayers make you different. Hey, thanks for your heart, man. God bless. 866-348-7884. This is Michael Ellison, founder of Tributa Wellness. I want you to hear an amazing testimony from my friend, James Robison, and most all of you will know of him. He and his wife, Betty, host the Life Today television program. Now here is James. Let me tell you about a miracle I experienced. My friend, Michael Ellison, he and his wife are our 40 year plus best friends.

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Let us go to Irene in Vista, California. Welcome to the line of fire. Oh, hello Dr. Brennan. Thank you so much for your wonderful program.

I watch it whenever I knit, which is a lot. Let me turn you down, hold on. I'm sorry. I just hope you're having enough to eat though because you look thin, but I'm sorry.

I get so nervous on the phone. My question is one that came up in my Bible study and I just knew you'd be the one to answer it. It's about Genesis and now in the beginning it mentions four times birds of the air, fish of the sea.

It makes a distinction. It looks like God is pleased with birds that choose to fly. My question is, are we ignoring the sinful lifestyle choices of penguins that openly font their sinful lifestyle choice in rebellion against God's design for their lives?

They have wings for a reason. They might want to swim, but if they identify as birds of the sea, well, we know that that leads to judgment. Will you speak out against the indoctrination of our children who are brought to zoos just to have to watch these sinful creatures parade around and possibly brainwash them to question their own bodies? Hey Irene, I really love your creativity, but why don't you just come out and ask your more direct question instead of one that obviously is just a throwaway silly question to try to get to a point. Why don't you ask the real question that you want to ask because obviously the issue is not penguins and zoos and kids. We all understand that. Oh no, it is penguins. No, it is. You're serious? From the heart.

I have really bad, I have very bad bones anxiety and I was nervous to ask because my friends in the kneeling group said I would sound silly, but I said, Dr. Brown, he's not going to laugh at me. Okay, I mean no insult. It seemed to be a throwaway question with a larger agenda behind it.

No agenda. Well, no, God created them as they are. Not everything with wings is going to fly necessarily. So penguins are being and doing what God made penguins to be and do.

Yeah, it's that simple. Penguins are fulfilling their mission. They're not in rebellion. They're not evil penguins who have rebelled against the plan of God and have decided to swim rather than fly. No, there are the general categories and then the different creatures operate differently within those categories. Now maybe someone could argue that before the fall things were different, you know, that lions weren't going to be carnivores before the fall, you know, different things like that.

You didn't have mosquitoes and nasty bugs before the fall. God bless you. Go on with your knitting and feel free to call even if the question sounds silly. It did seem like I set up for a larger question to be candid, but not by someone knitting.

That's the thing that threw me a little, but don't sweat the penguins and don't worry about kids being indoctrinated with rebellious penguin ideology. It doesn't exist. It doesn't exist.

All right, thank you. Well, that was a new one. God bless our caller.

That was a new one. Guys, should we put out a viral video or penguins in rebellion against God? 866-3-4-TRUTH.

Let us go over to Anaheim, California. Kimberly, welcome to the line of fire. Hello.

Hey. My question is, the term Judean was changed to Jew, J-E-W. All of the text still says Judean and Judeans. My question to you is, who, what, where, when, why, and how did Judean and Judeans become J-E-W?

Yeah, that's a good question. We know, for example, that Judean in New Testament Greek primarily just refers to Jewish people generically. So let me give you the historical answer first, which is clear, then the linguistic answer, which is not as clear. So historically, we understand that you have the 12 tribes of Israel. One of them was the tribe of Judah.

Then as the northern kingdom comes under judgment, we know that different remnants of the 12 tribes made their way down to the kingdom of Judah so that in the kingdom of Judah, you had all the 12 tribes represented. After the Babylonian exile, it became the province of Judah, so anyone living there would be a Yehudi, which we would say a Judean, but Yehudi would also mean Jew ultimately. So all the people of Israel ultimately became known as Yehudis or Jews, Judeans slash Jews. So in the New Testament, sometimes the term Judean can mean a Jewish leader, especially in John's Gospel. Sometimes the term Judean can mean someone living in Judea, and sometimes, and most of the time, it just means a Jewish person. So historically, the tribes of Israel ultimately, those that were identified, those that continued with their identity among the kingdom of Judah, all Israelites ultimately became known as Jews.

But the question is when... I understand that, but you're not answering my question. No, I said first the historical. Who made the executive decision to change Judean and Judeans to JEW? Who did that and why did they decide that? Hey, hey, hey, hang on. Didn't I say first the historical answer, then the linguistic answer?

Correct? It's not that someone made an executive decision. It's over time, words change or definitions change or they become fine-tuned. They mean a particular thing. You know, what is a Yankee?

Well, it's a New York baseball team. Well, a Yankee was originally the northerner versus the southerner. So words take on certain meanings.

That's why I said the linguistic part, it was not an executive decision that someone made. It was that the word Yehudi or Eudais in Greek had several different meanings to it. But the most common meaning was this people called the Jewish people. But in German, it's the Judea, right? J-U-D-E, Judea. So you still have the Judean part. It's just as it made its way into English, it became Jew. It's not an executive decision that someone made.

It's not some conspiratorial thing. It's just happened as the word developed through time. Check the Oxford English Dictionary under the entry Jew, the Oxford English Dictionary, and it will tell you where over the centuries the change came. So historical, I said first, simple to tell you that. Linguistically, in English over a period of time.

But volumes like German, you still have the D that's there, Yehudi, Eudais. 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.

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AskDrBrown.org. 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 for joining us on the Line of Fire. Okay, a couple little loose ends I want to tie up here, then we'll get back to your calls.

866-34-TRUTH. If you go to Etim Online, so short for Etymology Online, E-T-Y-M-O-N, EtimOnline.com, and look up the word Jew, what you'll find is that it goes through the etymological origin from Anglo-French, Old French, Latin, Greek, Aramaic, etc., and how it comes into English. There's nothing nefarious about this.

There's no agenda behind it. It's just a linguistic development as words pass from language to language to language. They change. I want to tie up one loose end from my caller yesterday. It was clear he was hostile and not looking for information, but he wanted to challenge me on Isaiah 53, saying that we claim that it speaks about Jesus, but the Hebrew in Isaiah 53 10 only says that he will live a long life and that he will see his own offspring, his own children. So, I asked the caller, is it true that it first says he will die and be buried? He said, no, it's not true. So, I read to him from the NIV Isaiah 53, the relevant verse, starting in verse 3, he challenged me, it was an incorrect challenge on the Hebrew, what about the JPS translation?

So, I read from the JPS translation that I asked him, does it say that he will die and be buried? Yes, but it's not talking about Jesus, it's talking about Israel. So, then, of course, the goalposts were moved. So, there's no desire to actually get information. The goalposts moved and then other incorrect points were made that I sought to rebut as many as possible, but each time, the thing kept moving.

So, it was hard to really get everything said that needed to be said. But the whole point was that Isaiah 53, 10 is not just talking about living a long life and seeing your own children, because it says first, the servant, whoever you identify the servant as, we make a clear case that it's Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, but whoever the servant is, he will first die and be buried before Isaiah 53, 10 will come to pass. But what about the Hebrew?

Yaree chamim just means he will lengthen days. Oh, almost that identical phrase is used, but the same Hebrew verb is used. In Psalm 91, with long life I will satisfy him, the same Hebrew verb is used. And if you look at Radaq, one of the leading rabbinic commentaries on the Bible, Rabbi David Kimchi, he said, it's talking about long life in this world and in the world to come. You'll find other rabbinic commentaries that understand this, talking about eternal life.

Or Psalm 23, v'shati devet Adonai la'orach yamim, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord. La'orach yamim is literally for length of days, which is widely, if not universally understood, meaning forever. The exact same Hebrew root. So, length of days can be another way of speaking of eternal life, that he will live forever. You say, but what about Yireh zara, he will see seed. It's the only time that expression occurs in the entire Bible.

It's not some common idiom. But zara, seed, can sometimes just mean posterity, as in Psalm 22, 30, or 31 in Hebrew, where it says that a seed will serve. In other words, future generations will serve God.

So, Messiah, of course, has seen endless numbers of future generations of Israel and his people serving God as a result of his death and resurrection. So, the objections vanish into thin air. Unfortunately, when a caller keeps moving the goalposts, it's hard to fully answer a question before a new one comes up. But I just wanted to add that in for those that were waiting for that, because I never got to answer the initial question, because the question kept shifting and changing. 866-34-TRUTH, let us go to Robert, also in California. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

I've called before, but not within two weeks, the guidelines. My question is, in your opinion, are Cessationalists, are a lot of them not saved? Or would you... Well, okay, so Cessationalists, so those who say that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, the sign gifts, tongues, prophecy, healing, are not normative today, are they not saved? Well, as long as they hold to the fundamentals of the Gospel, as long as they believe that the only way to salvation is through the cross, that Jesus' divine Son died for our sins and rose from the dead, and they've trusted him from salvation, you know, they're as saved as anybody. This is not a salvation issue. It's highly unfortunate that there are outspoken Cessationalist leaders, some of whom have said this to me to my face, who say that the vast majority of Charismatics and Pentecostals worldwide are not saved.

It's a shame they hold that position, and I wish they'd get to know the multitude without number gloriously saved and following Jesus around the world who are Charismatic and Pentecostal. But the worst thing for me to do is to turn around with the same judgmentalism on them and say that they're not saved, unless they deny the fundamentals, or they're just Christian in name only, just like Charismatic in name only, no. Why would I think they're not saved? Right, I'm in agreement with you, I was indoctrinated in a Cessationalist church, and, but, they showed so much, and it was 1 Corinthians 14, 1, pursue love, hunt down love, desire earnestly spiritual gifts. They were so loving and so generous, I was sick in a hospital for a year, they paid my bills, they would drive hundreds of miles to visit me, they would pray for me, I bled internally, my heart stopped, and I was brought to life, and I believe many of their prayers were behind that, and I just, you know, flipped in two. So why would you ask if I think that most are not saved, or many are not saved? Well, no, I've just been talking with some people, and they had brought that up, and... No that's just, yes sir, that's just, that's so reactionary. You're not saved, well you're not saved, well your group's not saved, your group's not saved.

I mean, we gotta step higher. Say, but Dr. Brown, there are Cessationists who attack people like you, that even say on the air that you're not saved. I feel bad for them. I'm enjoying the blessing and beauty of the Lord from us 52 years now, and seeing glorious fruit around the world, and someone says I'm not saved, what am I gonna do, I feel bad for them. What in the world would ever make them think that way? Well they put out videos of you being a heretic.

I just feel bad for them. I'm not gonna turn around and do the same to them, well then you're not saved. So Robert, thanks for sharing that you were loved, and thanks for sharing that in the midst of sickness that they were there to pray for you. Listen, there are wonderful Christians, some of you listening right now, you love Jesus, you don't believe tongues is for today, you don't believe healing is normative, you study the Word, you reach out with the Gospel, you believe the Holy Spirit is touching people, changing their lives, and you're saved as I am.

And you're a great example. And your family, you've got kids that love the Lord, and you're multi-generational. The wonderful, fine Christians, upstanding men and women of God that don't believe that the gifts and power of the Spirit, the signed gifts are normative for today.

Fine! Jesus loving people. And the same with Pentecostals and Charismatics. I can tell you, having worked around the world with Pentecostals and Charismatics, that I don't know any finer Christians on the planet. I don't know any Christians more devoted to Jesus, more prayerful, more given to outreach, more given to holiness, more given to helping the poor, more into being in the Word and living out the Word than many of my Pentecostal Charismatic friends, but also no fine, fine cessationists. So, let's bless one another. We can have our differences, we can have our debates, but let's bless and honor each other, rather than tear each other down. 866-34-TRUTH. Let us go over to Josh in Durham, North Carolina. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Hey Dr. Brown, thanks for taking my call. My question is on 1 Corinthians 7. I listen to a lot of preaching online. I've heard a lot of what I would consider very faithful, biblical preachers, a number of them, not a lot, a number of them say that, they quote this verse that says that if you have an unbelieving spouse that departs from you, the believer is not bound in such cases, let it be so, I'm paraphrasing, and they'll summarize that as abandonment, and then they'll turn around and they'll say if your spouse abandons you for any reason, physically or intimately, emotionally, then you're allowed to divorce them.

And to me it seems like a twisting of 1 Corinthians 7, but I hear it so much that I've kind of wondered if maybe I'm missing something, so do you think that's a fair way to understand that passage? Yeah, it's an important question and one that's not just abstract, right? I mean, for many people this is serious. What do we tell the woman whose husband beats her and beats the children and yet has never been sexually unfaithful and wants to remain married, does she not have grounds for divorce? I mean, these are very personal, painful, difficult issues that we can't trivialize, and I'm sure you're asking with the right heart and asking the question. Number one, we need to reemphasize marriage as the lifelong union of a man and woman in God's sight and divorce being something that God hates, something that's destructive and painful.

We need to start there. I do believe that there are grounds for divorce in the New Testament, the question of where abuse comes in, for sure that woman needs to do her best to separate and get her kids out from danger and get herself out from danger, for sure, and we need to support that, cover that. Is it grounds for divorce?

Absolutely. That's a whole other discussion to have prayerfully and carefully, and I'm not even going to broach on that right now. But does 1 Corinthians 7 say the person's not bound? People would point out that the Greek there is a legal term that would mean free then, and hypothetically free to remarry. So if, I would just say this, that we can be safe in saying, if there is a permanent abandonment, in other words, it is not just that the person has said they're upset, the marriage is on the rocks, now you can go ahead and divorce.

No. If they have said, I am through with this marriage, and I want out, and you are unable to keep them, you're unable to get them to stay, you're unable to say, look, you don't believe, I'm a believer, but we can work this out. If there is a permanent departure, yes, I do believe that that person then is free to remarry, and even free to divorce, although the presumption would be the other person has done the divorcing. But if there's just emotional abandonment, you're not there for me anymore, no, no, no, that's absolutely not what it's talking about. It is a permanent separation departure.

I am through with this marriage, I don't want to stay anymore. That's what it's talking about. Anything less than that, then we can just open up a Pandora's box of what it could potentially mean. Hey, thank you, sir, for the question. Much appreciated. This is Michael Ellison, founder of Tributa Wellness. I want you to hear an amazing testimony from my friend James Robison, and most all of you will know of him. He and his wife Betty host the Life Today television program. Now here is James. Let me tell you about a miracle I experienced. My friend Michael Ellison, he and his wife are our 40 year plus best friends.

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Let us go to Jordan in Alexandria, Michigan. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hi, Dr. Brown. Just have a question for you regarding post-millennialism. So, it's something I actually hadn't heard much about.

I grew up in the Assemblies of God and was a minister in the AG for a handful of years as well. So, I was very much pre-millennial but not really married to any type of eschatological position. But I've heard a lot lately about post-millennialism.

I've seen a lot of YouTube videos and people teaching on it. And I'm finding myself really intrigued by it and kind of hoping that's the biblical position. But I was just curious what your thoughts are if you think there's any, like, if there's any dangers or what some of those maybe ditches on either side that we could go into if it's taken too far.

Yeah, sure. So, we need to be careful in how dogmatically we speak about certain aspects of the future, the broad strokes, undeniable, laid out in Scripture. But there can be debate about other aspects of things. Post-millennial teaching, namely the teaching that the Gospel will triumph through the whole world and the world will be, quote, Christianized, after which Jesus will return and bring us into the eternal age. So, the coming of Jesus is post-millennial. That was certainly not taught or known in the early church, for sure. It was not taught or known for centuries. It was clearly taught that there would be end-time conflict, that there would be end-time battle with darkness, and that ultimately the triumph of God and the return of Jesus, and that we would be here in the midst of tribulation and pain. It's only natural that that was the understanding because the church was in the midst of persecution and opposition. Christianity was not the dominant world religion or anything like that. You didn't have the conversion of Constantine into the fourth century and everything that comes out of that. But, the New Testament witness clearly talks about darkness and light right up to the end.

Clearly talks about the harvest is the end of the age, you have the good fish and the bad. You have the wicked being destroyed. End-time passage after end-time passage lays out a final conflict, a final conflict, destruction of the wicked, Jesus returning with flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who don't know God.

I mean, passage after passage after passage. However, there are some passages that do speak of making disciples of the nations as the Great Commission, but what if that means just the whole nation becomes a disciple? Of course, the problem with that is it's just baptizing them. You don't baptize nations, you baptize people. So, it means make disciples of people in all nations. But, you know, various parables, teachings that point to say or prophetic passages like Isaiah 2 that the nations will come streaming to Jerusalem, Isaiah 11 the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, or the parable of little leaven put, you know, and then all the lows grow fully, that those have been taken to mean that there will be a triumph of the gospel over all the earth. So, I absolutely reject post-millennialism.

I cannot reconcile it with many, many scriptures. I recognize that great church leaders have been post-millennialists. If you look in the 1700s, Jonathan Edwards, the 1800s, Charles Finney, both of them believing that as they were in the midst of revival movements that they could move in such a way that the millennial kingdom would be ushered in, there is something very positive to post-millennialism that I embrace, namely that we can bring about change. I reject the pessimism of dispensationalism and some forms of our millennialism that says things are only going downhill, things are only getting worse, there's nothing we could do.

I absolutely reject that mentality. So, I have the optimism and faith of post-millennialism to a point, meaning I do believe in the triumph of the gospel. I do believe in the ongoing manifestation of the kingdom until Jesus returns and sets up his kingdom. I do believe that we can be agents of positive change and that we can see shifts in many ways in our culture and in the world and certain ways it's worse than it's ever been and certain ways the world is better than it's ever been.

You know, you have both. You have more people coming to faith every day than any time in world history. More people have come to faith in the last century than in previous centuries combined. That's all very positive.

At the same time, wickedness is out of control. And to be candid, post-millennialism took a tremendous blow last century with World War I and World War II because the idea was the world was getting better and then more blood was shed last century than any century and probably all centuries combined before that. So, it took a big hit. It's making a resurgence now.

So, here's what I do. I take the positive attitude of the power of the gospel and the spread of the gospel and the fact that we can see positive change come. I live with that, but I recognize that it will not come in any full level until Jesus returns. That ultimately there will be many who reject God. Ultimately there will be many that harden their hearts against God. And that's why if you look at parables of the end of the age, they all have final conflict.

One after another after another with final conflict. And Matthew 13, that the weeds grow right along with the wheat until the end of the age where the separation comes. You have to ask yourself, since we have explicit texts about Jesus coming and destroying the wicked at his return, then who are those wicked?

Who is it speaking of? So, have the positive faith of change coming through the gospel, but also recognize it will not happen fully until Jesus returns. Until then there will be darkness and light in conflict.

2 Thessalonians 2, there will be an antichrist figure. There will be great deception, counterfeit signs, wonders and miracles. Great darkness and great light. Just like at one part of the world right now, it's perfectly bright and another part of the world is perfectly dark, you know, we're very dark and very bright, happening at the same time on the planet.

That's what's going to happen spiritually as we get closer and closer to the end of the age. Right, I appreciate it. Have you ever done a debate on the topic?

No, you know what? James White's colleague, Jeff Durbin, I think has persuaded James to be a post-millennius. I'd love to do it. We would do it in a cordial, mutually respectful way. But I would absolutely love to do it. I'm sure he'll bring better arguments for post-millennials than I did just now because he believes in it. But I think it would be really constructive. So I'll have to, I just, you know, one of those things you have to reach out and ask about.

But yeah, I think it's a great idea. I'd love to do it. Hey, thank you, sir, for the call. All right, let's see.

Let's go over to Texas. Ray, thanks for holding. Welcome to the line of fire. Yes, sir. Hi, thank you for taking my call.

Um, I have a question. Um, I recently found out about what, uh, reading that there was an impartable sin and that happened. I immediately got so scared out of my mind, like fearful. And that's when intrusive starts started hitting me daily and it's debilitating right now where I'm so scared that I have to leave work early. I can't do my work. Um, I, I am scared that my salvation is gone. I feel lost from God.

I've never felt this in my life. Like, um, okay, so Ray, let me, uh, I'm just jumping in because I want to help you and I'm looking at the clock. I want to make sure I don't leave you hanging here. All right.

Are you willfully knowingly with full intention, understanding attributing the works of the spirit to Satan? No, sir. Okay. You haven't committed the impartable sin. Never. Never. Of course, you're a child of God.

It would never occur to you. That's what the religious leaders were doing in Mark the third chapter. That's why he taught about that. Mark three explicitly says that he said this because they said he had a demon here in front of their eyes by the spirit.

He was healing the sick, opening blind eyes, setting captors free, and in front of their eyes with full light and understanding of what they were doing, they attributed it to Satan. It is crossing a certain line of hardness of heart. No child of God is capable of doing that.

No child of God would ever do that. And when the Holy Spirit works in your life, does he produce debilitating fear in you? Does he paralyze you? No.

No. It's not from above. This is a lie from Satan trying to attack you. It has nothing to do with God.

It's not the way the Lord deals with us. Look, do you have any children? No, sir.

Okay. If you had a child and you wanted to communicate something to the child, would you terrorize that child? Would you torment him? No. God forbid, of course not. That's not the way God's doing it. You have not committed the unpardonable sin. You're a child of God. You can't commit the unpardonable sin. Everything in you is against committing that sin. Be at peace. The devil is a liar. Our own minds can often fly in many directions. Be at peace. You have not, you will not, you cannot commit the unpardonable sin as a child of God.