Why I Don't Call Out the Critics By Name, and Answers to All Your Questions

You've got questions, we've got answers.

Let's do it. 866-348-7884. Any question of any kind on any subject that relates in any way to the line of fire broadcast, anything I've ever said, written, anywhere, you can call in 866-348-7884.

And as I've done hundreds of times, God knows the exact amount, I invite those who differ with me, those who post attacking comments online, on every level attacking me personally, attacking what I believe, etc. You have a great opportunity to air your concerns where I can interact with you in real time. So phone lines are open to you as well.

Two things before I go to the phones. Number one, last night Israel did send rockets into Iran. This was Israel's response to the April 13th bombing where about 350 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles were sent by Iran from Iranian airspace, first time ever, into Israel. 99% of them swore it, shot down with the help of the USA, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Was this just Iran saying, okay, you killed one of our senior generals and seven other major leaders by bombing the annex to the Iranian consulate in Damascus? So this is our public way of saying, don't do that.

Don't you dare. And we're going to save face by attacking, but it's going to be limited and probably won't succeed that well. It obviously didn't succeed really at all.

Is that what it was? Well, there's been speculation. Israel on its part can't just say, okay, you send in all these drones and missiles and we do nothing. To me, best I understand that I've got a whole article on this. You can read it at the line of fire.org, the line of fire.org.

I've got a whole article. Israel sends a message, but tensions are not likely to escalate as best as I understand that Israel sent a message using long range missiles to get near a nuclear facility in Iran to say, we could have done much worse. We have the capability of getting past your radar system and destroying your nuclear reactors.

We could have done much worse, but we didn't. Most tellingly, Iran has said, we don't plan to respond to this. It's almost like, okay, the war goes on through Hezbollah and Hamas and other Iranian proxies, but Iran itself is not going to strike back and it may just lay low for a little while now with the ugliness continuing through Iranian proxies and Israel seeking to do war against them. But I don't think from everything I can tell it's going to escalate more.

I'm not giving you a prophetic word, just my observations as best as I can tell. But I break that down more in the article on our website, the line of fire.org. If you're not somehow getting our frontline newsletter, you say, what's that?

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You'll be so edified and blessed as you do. Okay. That was one item.

Item number two. I often get asked, why don't you call out this one? Why don't you call out this one? And it's from all sides.

It's from all sides. The critics of the charismatic Pentecostal movement wanted me to call out this leader, that leader, those who are critics of the critics, critics of the cessationists, the Calvinists or whoever, wanted me to call out this one or that one. Why don't I do that more by name? This has been actually something that I've held to for decades. And there are many times when I address individual situations by name in detail. I have whole books where I do that in detail. I write specific articles when appropriate, address specific videos when appropriate. So I do that as part as a small part of a much larger calling to serve the Lord and serve his people. But I got trained doing scholarly work. My PhD was in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University. And I'm used to meticulous citing of sources and working in a realm where people are assessing things academically. So when I wrote my book, Israel's Divine Healer, which came out in 1995, drawing on and then building from my doctoral dissertation, it has 80,000 words of text and 85,000 words of notes in the back. So for every citation, I'm giving you detailed background. And now it's assumed that someone will research this and look at the larger picture. When I wrote It's Time to Rock the Boat, which came out in 1993, A Call to God's People that Rise Up and Preach a Confrontational Gospel, I quoted people I differed with, but I simply gave the quote without the citation.

You go, what? Nowadays you couldn't. The publisher would say you have to give the citation. The reason I didn't give citations, and this was both charismatic and non-charismatic leaders I was quoting, was because I saw this tendency that the moment you quote somebody and say one thing you differ with that people completely demonize that person. They just completely write them off. There was no saying, OK, here's someone solid on points A, B, C, but I really differ with him on a subpoint D. No, no, no.

They're all bad. And some of the quotes were very strong. And I saw this tendency just to demonize, to caricature, to not respond in mature ways. Now, it's one thing when you're dealing with Paul was doing right into Timothy about leaders that were in the region where Timothy was responsible. I've dealt with endless local church issues and conflicts over the decades as an elder serving in different ways where we're dealing with people within the church, conflicts within the body. And for example, what was it, over 15 years ago when Todd Bentley, who had been a central figure in the quote Lakeland Revival, when Todd Bentley allegedly committed adultery, then we know he divorced his wife, married the woman he had allegedly committed adultery with. So because there was a fellowship Morning Star with Rick Joyner that was south of us and we had worked together in different ways because they were working with Todd to, quote, restore him. And because this is now a local issue that we're dealing with and they're not going to restore him with his new wife, we got up as leadership at our church and made a public statement that we don't recognize this is correct. We believe this is sinful. We believe that real repentance means Todd going back to his wife and his children. And then our leaders met face to face with Morning Star leaders and I wrote directly to Rick Joyner explaining my differences. So that was something that affected our communities there and therefore we dealt with it in a particular way. But I'm not making a comment on every divorce and remarriage in the body or every adulterous affair or whatever it is, right, because there's tens of millions of people in the Church of America and God knows how many thousands, hundreds of thousands of leaders, et cetera.

So it's one thing when you're dealing with something in-house or when you're dealing with something in a very specific context. But otherwise if I make a statement that Preacher So-and-so says this and I differ with him, oh, he's terrible. And it's the same with the critics that I find it much better to do what the prophets of Israel did.

Read Jeremiah 23, read Ezekiel 13, read passages of Micah 2, et cetera, where they are rebuking false prophets, talking about false prophets explicitly, but not mentioning specific names of false prophets. What they're doing is saying this is what they say, this is what they do. So I have called out error for many, many years. This is wrong. People are teaching X, Y, Z. It's wrong.

People are holding to this position. It's wrong. People are raising money in this way. It's wrong. We need to reject it. Now when you see someone doing it, you say, ah, I don't go near that. Oh, I'm staying away from that.

Okay? And if it goes deeper, if you see why that's the pattern of their ministry there, I'm marking this person completely fine. We do it accordingly. So the great majority of rebukes in Scripture, Paul rebuking the false apostles or John referencing false teachers. In 1 John, which is a general letter that goes out, he doesn't mention specific names.

In 2 and 3 John, where he's writing to specific congregations, he does mention specific names. So there's a time and a place for it. What I found in terms of those that I would describe as hyper critics, every so often there will be something that comes to my attention that I feel is important and that I feel a burden, a mandate to address, and I do so. Otherwise, I'm generally addressing the tendencies, the errors, and when you see them, then you recognize them. So in the same way that I haven't called out the litany of this charismatic leader, this charismatic leader that I differ with as much as address the issues clearly, plainly, strongly, and then if I have access to them, going to them privately and addressing them. In that same spirit, I haven't called out the critics or the hyper critics by name. Yeah, I call this one a hyper critic, this one, this one, this one, this one.

There's also another reason. I find it to be something that just provokes all types of carnal response. There are people that I have blocked on social media, some of them because they are carnal in their responses, they are nasty, they are mean-spirited, they post blatant lies, and when it comes to my attention, I don't see 99% or more of what is posted on Facebook and much of what's posted in other places. I may see more on X, formally Twitter sometimes. Depends on the post. Sometimes on YouTube, I'll see a lot. Others, I won't see anything for weeks. But if I spot something personally that I know is posting lies about me or someone else, they'll be blocked.

Okay? If they're posting blatant lies about Israel or other people, they'll be blocked. So there are some what they say so vile, I'm talking about allegedly Christian brothers, so vile, so ugly, so wrong, so demonstrably false, that no, I'm not going to tolerate that on social media. If I draw attention to them publicly, it's even more berserk and more intense and video after video and post after post. I don't care about it coming against me. It just muddies everything. It doesn't help.

It doesn't edify. And then there are some I've had to block while they themselves have not been vile. Those that follow them have been extraordinarily vile to the point that I wonder, how can you walk with Jesus and be that vile?

How can you really know the Lord and be that vile and be that despicable and be that insulting and be that loose with your tongue and be so free to bear false witness? And it concerns me for them. So when it's appropriate, for example, I wrote the book Hypergrace and I dealt with errors that I saw with Pastor Joseph Prince and others, and then areas where I affirmed and agreed, and then here's where I differ. So I lay it out in the whole book. And here are quotes in context. And here's the good that they've said. And here's the bad. And here are the quotes. And now you go research it.

Now you look for yourself. But in the soundbite meme world, I believe we have to be very careful because otherwise we say one word about one person and you completely demonize them. We completely write them off. We get so polarized and I don't find it helpful. But I do find helpful is let's address what's being said that's wrong. Let's address the issues. Let's focus on them. And then let's avoid those that teach and do those things and work with those who are holding to what we'd say are the foundations of the faith in a sound way and in a godly way and in a fine way.

We'll be right back going straight to the phones. This is Michael Ellison, founder of TriVita Wellness. Being aware of the dangers of homocysteine is crucial to protecting our health. This natural occurring amino acid that the body creates plays a vital role. But when elevated in excess, it can pose significant risk to our health. One of the dangers of elevated homocysteine is the impact on cardiovascular health. Research has shown that high homocysteine can contribute to heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular conditions.

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire. And it was my daily shout out to our co-sponsor TriVita. So pleased to work with them and have them in our corner.

You can find out more at TriVita.com. When you go there, the code you want to use is BROWN25. Okay, with that, after I just punched my microphone, with that, we go to Jonathan in Centralia, Washington. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. Can you hear me okay?

Oh, yeah, like you're sitting right next to me. All right. I've really been struggling with an immense sense of fear and terror lately because I'm concerned that I blaspheme the Holy Spirit, right? And so I watched your little video you made, and I watched some other videos, and I've looked at commentaries and articles about it. And so the general consensus I'm finding is that if I am concerned that I have, then I probably haven't, I mean. But the question I wonder is, how can you say that with such confidence, though? Is it not possible that somebody is concerned about this, and they actually have? Or is it possible that a person could really seek the forgiveness of the blood of Jesus, but there is no forgiveness in the blood of Jesus for them?

So why do you think, a great question, and I appreciate you taking the time to try to sort these things out and then call. Why do you think this is such an extreme sin? Is God touchy over this? Is God saying, you can say anything you want about the Father? Don't you sin against the Spirit. A little touchy there. Why is it so serious to the point of Jesus saying it's unforgivable?

I don't know. Okay, fair enough. So in other words, it's not that God is touchy.

It is that you must cross certain lines that are so severe, that are so extreme, that there is no turning back. You must harden your heart to a point to knowingly attribute the works of the Holy Spirit to Satan, that there is no repent. There is no desire to get right with God.

There is no concern. You are that hard and that self-deceived. That's why I and others would say the same thing. The very fact you're concerned about it is an indication you haven't done it. Because if you've done it, the last thing you're doing is calling a Christian and asking about it because you don't believe any of this is real. The whole thing is a sham. The whole alleged work of the Holy Spirit is a sham.

The whole thing is a mockery. And you've gone on with your life. You may just be an atheist. You may be in some other religion or whatever. But no, it is a willful knowing act that is so extreme that there's no forgiveness. You've crossed the line and there's no point of return for it.

So it's not a matter of like, oops, I shouldn't have said that. I said those tongues that sounded demonic. Oh, I think I blasphemed the Spirit. Or I saw that charismatic pastor and I said he's of the devil and I realized he's a good guy.

Oh no. Now remember what Paul says in 1 Timothy 1. Why was he forgiven of being a blasphemer and a violent man?

Because he acted ignorantly and in unbelief. And 99.999% of every statement I've heard against the Spirit over the years in terms of people saying it's the work of the devil has been ignorance and unbelief as opposed to willful knowing intentional act. So unless you're going to tell me that you willingly, knowingly, when you did it, you knew it was the Spirit and yet you said it was the devil. Unless you're going to tell me that, I'm going to say, no, you haven't blasphemed the Spirit. So I did not say those words, right? But I just, is it possible, I always try to reassure myself that I've seen what I understand to be the work of the Spirit of God in my life since that day a few years ago, or a number of years ago actually. But it's, I gotta, is it possible that somebody would still seek Jesus after doing that?

No, no, of course not. You've already kicked him out. You've already said goodbye to him.

You have crossed that line. Look, I want you to consider something and then I want to get to the real root thing here. I want you to consider the nature of God. I want you to consider what he's done through the cross. I want you to consider the extraordinary mercy and compassion of our God. I want you to consider how he has forgiven over and over and over. And even a David who commits adultery and then murder still finds forgiveness.

And the extraordinary patience and compassion of God that he has on every single one of us as his children, every single one of us, every day of our lives, beyond what we know, that he doesn't just say, it's close, but no cigar. No, you don't quite, yeah, you crossed that little line and nope, goodbye. It's not who he is.

It's not who he is. So, here's my concern though. Over the years, I've had folks struggle. I remember a grad from one of our ministry schools many years ago got caught up with this and no matter what I said, no matter how strong my scriptural arguments, something played in the back of his mind if he had crossed the line. I believe what you need to do is sit down with a godly pastor or counselor and say there's a reason I'm having this fear. This is the outward symptom of it, but there's something deeper in my relationship with God that needs help, that needs to be fixed.

And I want to get to the root of this because if you get past this, there's going to be some other tormenting thing. Oh, you sinned one too many times and God's done with you or he's going to forgive others but not you. So, I do believe there's a deeper root issue and that whatever I say to you intellectually, scripturally will only go so far and that God in his mercy wants to help you really find wholeness. So, I strongly encourage you, my brother, and I say this to you as a brother, I'm not speaking to a damned, condemned person.

I'm encouraging you to get some solid godly counseling to get to the root of why this has gripped you, why these fears have risen so that you can live free from the fear of punishment, free from the fear of judgment, knowing that you're in right relationship with the Father. So, would you strongly consider that, Jonathan? Yeah, I'll do that. Thank you for taking my call.

Yeah, you're very welcome. And again, listen, I can't talk for hours on the air and of course there are other calls I want to get to. But, short version, if I knew taking more time to reiterate with reason would help, I would do it. But in cases like this, all the reasoning only goes so far because there's some stronghold, there's something where the enemy got in there or our minds opened themselves up in the wrong way, or we got wounded or hurt. It can happen to any of us.

It can happen to any of us. We get to the root of it, we find freedom and healing. Alright, 866-348-7884. Let's see where we're going next.

Brad, Jim, Alberto. We got a line open, by the way. So you can call now, 866-348-7884. But, so as not to rush you before the break, we will take a break momentarily. But first, can I reach it?

Yeah, got it. Early next week, before I leave for a trip to Italy, I'm hoping to sign a bunch of the pre-orders for Turn the Tide. It officially comes out May 7th, so if you want to wait for the e-book or probably the Audible book as well, that's great. But, if you want to pre-order and then have kind of a collector's edition, so you pay a little bit more for it, but it's kind of a collector's edition, it's numbered. It's only the first few hundred that we number.

Maybe, I mean, just literally, the first few hundred. We number them, I sign them, put a scripture reference in. What scripture am I going to use? I use the same for what scripture for Turn the Tide, How to Ignite a Cultural Awakening, Book 2 and From Revival to Reformation. So, it's a stand-alone read.

One of my colleagues read it in advance and flipped. He was stoked. He's like, this is it. This is the plan to action. This is the call. This is how we do it through the Gospel, through the Spirit. So, go ahead and pre-order. Go to thelineoffire.org.

Right on the home page you'll see pre-order your signed, numbered copy of Turn the Tide and 100% of the proceeds go straight back into our outreach ministry. Hey friends, Michael Brown here. My delight to serve as your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. We are living in such urgent times today, friends, that all of us are in the line of fire. There's a target on your back.

There's a target on my back. If you simply seek to live by biblical values or just conservative moral values, you could be canceled. You could be cast out. You could be put down. You could be silenced. I'm here to say, friends, that I am not about to be silenced and I don't believe you are either. It is time for us to stand up. It is time for us to say enough is enough. It is time for us to push back in Jesus' name. Not fighting the way the world fights.

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks for joining us on the Line of Fire, 866-34-TRUTH. Those watching on YouTube or Facebook say, how can we have these interruptions during the show and these ads that run? This is a live radio show. This was first a live radio show that goes out like that to different stations across the country and then by podcast after the show to many, many more around the world.

And then some years back with technology as it is, we started a high quality live stream as well. But you are, as we're talking now on the Internet, on YouTube, Facebook, we are live on radio. That's where we're getting as folks are calling in, etc. So that's why.

That's why you have the interruptions and it's not just a straight feed all the way through, in case you didn't know that. All right, let's go to Brad in Berryville, Arkansas. You're on the Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. Hey.

Hey, actually wanted to change the subject of my question. I am a practical cessationist that you've actually kind of opened my mind to thinking that it's possible that the gifts of the Spirit are still happening. And I've been praying and reading books and stuff on the baptism of the Holy Spirit, probably for the last year and listening to different people. And there's teachers like Derek Prince and Dr. Young, each show and quite a few different people like that, that say, like for the gift of tongues, you just, you trust that you ask the Father for the Holy Spirit and He won't give you a snake. But then there's other teachers like Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones and Jonathan Edwards and people like that, that says it's more of just an experience that happens to you and sometimes it could take months or even years.

What's your thoughts on that? Yes, well first, I appreciate that we've been able to influence your thinking and ultimately the question is, what does the Word say, right? So, first let me just give you my perspective that for sure, as followers of Jesus, the New Testament is quite plain, that we should be seeing the ongoing supernatural work of the Spirit, either in the leading and guiding of the Spirit, either in God communicating internally or through dreams and vision or through praying in tongues or through seeing prophecy or healing operating. That one way or another, there is ongoing evidence of the work of the Spirit and of course, in conforming us to the image of Jesus, of course, in bringing forth fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, etc. So, it's both the moral work of the Spirit, the sanctifying work of the Spirit and the powerful demonstration of the Spirit. That should just be the norm and it's clearly the norm in the New Testament.

That's the first thing. So, if I'm not seeing that, I'm saying, Lord, there must be more and whatever you have is good, whatever you want to do is good. In Luke 11, 13, in the context of what man is there if his son asks for bread, we'll give him a stone or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a snake instead. If you then being evil, Luke 11, 13, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? And then you have Paul, for example, encountering the believers in Ephesus in Acts 19 and saying, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

So, the argument can be made that there is a subsequent empowering. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, famously pastor of Westminster Chapel, one of the great expository preachers of the last generation, in his book Preaching in Preachers, ends it with the talk about the need for the anointing, the need for the enduement. So, my broad statement is we should be experiencing intimacy with God, the sanctifying work of the Spirit and the supernatural evidence of the Spirit in our lives, one way or another, in our own lives and or our larger church communities, and there is an enduement of the Spirit that is empowering to strengthen us as witnesses. Whether we receive that the moment we're saved, which some believe, which I say, great, just show me, show me the evidence, or it's a subsequent empowerment, we should have the evidence of it in our lives. So, I would agree, absolutely, that you say, Father, I want everything that you have for me in your Spirit.

I'm not looking for goosebumps. I'm praying this as a believer in Jesus, as a believer in the Word, but because of your Word, I'm asking you to fill me with your Spirit and to work in my life everything that you have for your glory through your Spirit. And if you begin, as you're worshiping and praising God, to feel something that begins to well up inside of you, and you begin to feel I'm supposed to be speaking new words, new language, just let it flow. And as you do, you will have the witness of the Spirit in your life. You will over a period of time begin to see the fruit and the blessing of this, and it will enhance your intimacy with God.

So, you're not trying to create something. You're not just talking syllables to try to, you know, make something happen. On the other hand, you're recognizing, hey, just like I open my mouth to praise God, I'm going to open my mouth to pray in tongues. And as you do, whether it's an instantaneous experience or over a period of months, God begins to deepen something in you, you will experience something that comes out and is manifest. Or the Lord will begin to lead you in certain ways. You recognize, wow, that was the voice of the Lord. That was the leading of the Lord. Or, wow, I really felt the Spirit in this and I need to go in this direction.

You'll grow in that. And if there's one book I could recommend you read, and it's not going to directly talk about baptism in the Spirit and tongues as much as intimacy with God and the fruit that can come out of that, can I recommend to you Randy Clark's book, Intimacy with God. Intimacy with God.

Randy Clark. You'll find it to be solid exegetically in that it will go through the Word, the teaching of Jesus systematically, but in every chapter you will be moved by the testimonies of Randy's students and what they've seen God do and it will build your own faith because it's the same Spirit working through frail human beings. Randy Clark, Intimacy with God. And in your own life, Lord, give me everything you have so I can best glorify Jesus and most effectively serve you. And as you feel the Holy Spirit moving on you in certain ways, that's where you have that mentality. I ask for bread, He won't give me a stone.

I ask for fish, He won't give me a snake. So if I'm praying to the God of the universe for the fullness of His Spirit to work in me to glorify Jesus, I'm not going to get demonized or taken over by the enemy. All right? It's not really a follow. I guess my question's more practical than theoretical. So I watched an old interview of you describing speaking in tongues. I can't remember who you were speaking with, and I've heard numerous other people say this too. I guess I'm going to call it speaking in tongues because I don't know what else to call it. I can talk like that for hours at a time while at the same time reading my Bible or anything else. Is that a sign that that's actually it?

Okay, so here's the question then. Can you do that with anything else? Can you just ever hear of like the jazz singing with like the bada bada bada bada bada bada bada like that?

Or just discount 125, 11, 31, 42, or just blah, blah, blah. Can you do that without your mind getting distracted? For me, my mind gets distracted doing that, but I could pray in tongues for hours while reading the Bible, pray in tongues while doing anything else that requires mental attention to indicate it is coming from something else inside of me. And if that's the case, yeah, that is a sign to me that it could well be the Holy Spirit. So yeah, if you can be reading your Bible at the same time praying in tongues, and especially if you're feeling edified in the process or communing with God through prayer, what I would also suggest just on a practical level, sir, is that you do that in a concentrated way. You know, put everything else aside and just get alone with God and begin to worship Him and pray in the Spirit and see if He now begins to lead you more in prayer. Pray in tongues and now see if something begins to build or you sense the Spirit drawing near or you start to get direction. That's another way that you realize, hey, this is really from the Lord. Just like the Spirit bears witness with our spirit, we're children of God.

We do what the Word says and then we have the witness of the Spirit, the same thing with tongues. Hey, blessings to you on your journey. Let us know in a few months how you're doing, okay? Okay, thank you, sir.

All right, awesome. 866-348-7884. Let's go to Jim in Chicago, Illinois. Welcome to the line of fire. Oh, thank you, Dr. Brown. Yeah, you know, the other day you played the excerpts of Times Square, David Wilkerson. I think that was just, I got to admit, that steam-rollered whatever letter G.I.F. I mean, I was crying, telling my wife it was amazing, man. Come on. It was awesome. Piercing words from our brother. I played David Wilkerson's anguish and then cries of anguish from Leonard Ravenhill. Yes, thank God. I listened to that too.

I told my wife, I'm just blown away. But anyhow, to the question with 1 Corinthians 3.12, I was just curious, you know, you're building on this foundation, gold, silver, jewels, or wood, hay, or stubble. I mean, in your opinion, is that like your works, your doctrine? And so that'd be the first part of the question. Second part would be, when is the revelation by fire?

When does it happen? Is it like to end the life? Yes, so when Paul says that there's no other foundation we can build on except Jesus Christ as the foundation, and that he is a wise builder, builder, and everyone else is going to build and then be judged accordingly. So the first question is, is he talking about believers in general, or is he talking about church planters, pastors, leaders? Let's just say the broadest possible interpretation, he's talking about all believers, all right? You could have a narrow argument there.

Let's say the broadest. So the wood, hay, stubble, that is what we do. That is what we have produced. That is what is seen, or gold, silver, precious stones. Leonard Ravenhill used to say to me, Mike, wood, hay, stubble is found in abundance above the ground.

Gold, silver, precious stones, they are found much more, with much more scarcity, and they're under the ground. So I've grown a ministry, I have X number of followers on social media, we've planted X number of churches, I have X number of schools, or hey, I've led this many people to the Lord, or I'm known for this work or that work, or we're feeding the poor, we're doing whatever we're doing. Those are our works, and that's going to be tried by fire. Now, there will be a final day, sir, on which is tried by fire, on which everything is going to be examined by fire, on final judgment, not for our salvation, this is for the saved, but in terms of evaluation of our works and rewards for those works. However, it's wonderful, it's wonderful, it's wonderful when the refiner's fire comes in this life, so that we don't have to wait for that day.

And when revival comes, and I've been part of it and I've seen it for decades, when revival comes, and the fire revival falls, often you have like a mini-judgment day, you have an advanced judgment day, and the question is, okay, when everything's being revealed, when your prideful roots are being revealed, when carnal compromise is being revealed, will you repent and humble yourself, or will you go on in pride, maybe you respond rightly? Are you experiencing fatigue, heart palpitations, or tingling in your hands and feet? These may be signs that you are deficient in vitamin B12, which may increase your risk of serious cardiovascular conditions without you even knowing it. I'm Paul Burnett, a board-certified doctor of holistic health and director of wellness services at TriVita, and I have some exciting news for you. Introducing TriVita's HCYGARD, the breakthrough sublingual B12 natural supplement scientifically formulated to support maximum absorption and support healthy levels of homocysteine. What is homocysteine, you may ask? Well, it's an amino acid that when elevated can cause damage to the lining of your arteries, which over time increases your overall risk for a cardiovascular event. TriVita's HCYGARD is highly absorbable because of its sublingual form and because of its methylated form of B12, which enhances its bioavailability, utilizing its crucial role in reducing unhealthy levels of homocysteine.

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These statements are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 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. Hey friends, if you didn't tune in earlier, just a reminder that I've written about Israel retaliating against Iran and why I don't see this as the beginning of World War III or Armageddon.

Again, not give me your prophecy, just my understanding of scripture and where we stand and what's actually happening and responses on the ground to all this. I've got an article on it. You can read it on our website, thelineoffire.org. Just click on read. It's on the home page. If you're not getting my emails, that means that you're not getting updated every week on our latest reports, what's happening in Israel, what's happening in the world.

So every single week we send you here our latest articles, here our latest videos, and then our monthly frontline newsletter, all absolutely free. All right, with that, let's go over to Savannah, Georgia. Alberto, you're on the line of fire. Yeah, Dr. Brown. My question is, how come so many Christians or ungodly stinking sinners always justify that Jesus Christ drink wine? Like at that 20 p.m. Jesus Christ did on the earthly ministry. He wanted to focus on other stuff he's done. Preaching all night, preaching about all the storms, you know, going all over the place, healing the sick. Why don't they focus on numbers? They wouldn't want to focus, oh, he Jesus Christ drink wine, or he created wine while on the way.

Actually, Alberto, hang on. I don't know anybody who does that, sir. I've never met any Christian, and that's the only thing they ever talk about in the ministry of Jesus. I've never run into that anywhere, any church or any Christian that I know. Well, Christians drink beer, and they drink wine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand. And the Bible doesn't, I don't. I haven't had a drink for 52 years, but the Bible doesn't forbid. Right, right, but I don't understand.

You asked the question. My question is, as a Christian drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and as sinners drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, how can you tell the difference between who's the Christian and who ain't? Oh, okay. Insaners being comfortable around that kind of environment, as sinners being comfortable, they won't feel convicted of their... How about being a glutton?

How about being a glutton? The same way. Yeah, got it.

Okay, what about thinking evil thoughts, like thinking unclean thoughts? Okay, right. So in other words, we...

But they're not visible, though. Ah, ah, ah, okay. Right.

I'm not gonna get into the sentence discussion only because I remember the caller going around different hills before. So here's the deal. Let us, as followers of Jesus, do everything we know how to do to honor Him and glorify Him by living holy life. Let's do that. Let's strive to please Him, spirit, soul, body, actions, attitudes, what is outwardly seen and what is inwardly unseen by people but seen by God. Let's not just try to get by.

Let's not try to say, well, I'm better than some of the really bad people. Let's really do our best to follow the example of Jesus on every level, to become like Jesus in thought and word and deed. And rather than pointing out what everybody else is doing wrong, I don't mean that we can't address social evils and things like that or issues in the church. But how about each of us, what he concentrates on our own life, and Lord, shine the light of your spirit on my life, Alberto, his life, Mike Brown, my life, each of our lives, Lord, shine the light of your spirit on us and show us what is displeasing that we can turn from it by your grace and through the blood of Jesus and show us what is honoring that we can give ourselves to it even more and help us to live our lives in conformity with your word. Let us bear our prayer, our focus and our hope.

We will do well. All right, let us go to Dawn in Ontario, Canada. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, I wanted to ask you, in the book of... Are you there? Hello?

Are you still there? Okay, we somehow lost you. However, I do have your question up, who is Elihu in the book of Job?

So hopefully you're still listening. So we know who Elihu is just in terms of factually. He's the only one with an Israelite name.

The other names are not Israelite names. So he does have that name, but he is a friend who comes in later. He's not mentioned earlier in the book in the third chapter where the three friends of Job come.

So Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. He's not mentioned in the epilogue of the book where God rebukes, then commends Job and then is angry with the three friends. So he appears and he disappears. The question is, what role, what significance does he play? There is massive scholarly debate about it and has been over the centuries. My assessment, and I wrestled with it for many, many years.

And then when I wrote my commentary on Job, I gave special attention to it. On the one hand, he is an Elijah kind of figure. His name in terms of consonance is written the same as Elijah in the Bible, Eliyahu and Elihu.

The same consonance there, just different vowels. So he is an Elijah kind of figure who appears out of the blue and disappears. And God speaks with the storm, just like Elijah going up the chariot so far and the whirlwind, etc. So he appears and he disappears. Like John the Baptist, he's a forerunner of the Lord.

He appears, he prepares the way and he disappears. On the one hand, so he does go beyond what the friends have said and on a certain level prepares the way for the revelation of the Lord. On the other hand, he represents the limitations of human wisdom. He represents the fact that human opinion can only go so far, human answers can only go so far, and that what we must have is an encounter with God.

What we must have is an eye-opening encounter with who God really is. So he plays that dual role. That's why there are scholars who say he's a buffoon, he's young, he's proud, he's a bag of wind, and others say he represents a divine revelation of wisdom. That's why there's such polar opposites. You've even had commentators who early in life said he was bad and then later good or the reverse. When I used to give assignments teaching at Christ for the Nations branch on Long Island from 83 to 87, when I would teach on Job and related problems of suffering, the students would be assigned to write a paper on Elihu and every year, without fail, the years I did it, they were equally divided between whether he was a hero and a man of God or a jerk. Equally divided. Then when I was teaching the class at a more advanced academic level at Messiah Biblical Institute and Graduate School of Theology in the late 80s, early 90s, I had a number of students taking a class for advanced graduate level credit, bachelors for graduate level credit, and three of them wrote papers on Elihu, and they said the exact same thing. They all came to the exact same conclusion, separated, that he was an Elijah kind of figure. It's like, look at this.

And then my own studies kind of put these things together in terms of who he is. Okay, we've got a call from Terry in an unknown location by choice. Go ahead, Terry, you're on the line of fire.

Hey, Michael. I want to be quick with this because we don't have a lot of time. I have a question for you. Keep it brief. I'm struggling with trying to understand cancel culture. I feel like there are some dangers when it comes to cancel culture as far as like suicide or, you know, how people keep attacking, even if it's like we're a center for the things they've done.

When you have someone just keep attacking, maybe something that happened six years ago. Yeah. Maybe you're trying to make peace with someone.

Can you help me with that? Just to keep it brief? Like, yes.

Trying to find hope and kind of find restoration, but it's just constantly keeping it taking at the same thing. Yes. So Terry, let me first say on a personal level that no one can change your opinion. No one can change God's opinion about you except you.

Leonard Ravenhill used to say that I just wrote an article about that. No one can change God's opinion about you except you. So in your own life, if you know you blew it in certain ways, you've asked God to forgive you. You've tried to make it right. And you know that you've honored him and humbled yourself before him.

If you have his favor, that's all you need. If people don't understand you, if people continue to nitpick, if you have truly repented and brought forth fruit of repentance in a righteous way, then be satisfied. Be pleased with the fact that God is smiling at you, even if people reject you. Again, there may have been things you've had to do to make things right outwardly. You do what you know how to do. You go on. If people still are looking at you in the old way or picking at you in the old way, what can you do?

You honor the Lord and you have his favor and blessing and you pray for those people. Now, more broadly, cancel culture is tremendously dangerous and destructive. In my book, The Silencing of the Lambs, which is how we overcome cancel culture, I address the fact that cancel culture is completely non-redemptive.

Cancel culture is completely non-redemptive. You can do one foolish thing when you're 15 and have a great track record. I mean, you say some stupid thing, some ugly racist comment when you're an ignorant 15-year-old kid and it's just kind of what everybody's saying. You grow out of that. You're mature. You're godly. You're solid. You're righteous in your dealings.

Thirty years later, somebody finds that thing, oh, look, and they're going to stain you for it. It's not who you are. It's got nothing to do with you anymore. That's the destruction and destructive nature of cancel culture. It is non-redemptive. It does not see the value of the cross. It doesn't even see that you can make a terrible mistake and truly learn from it and truly bring forth fruits of repentance and now come out better on the other side, a better person, a more godly person.

No. And rather than being balanced and fair and nuanced and say, OK, let's look at the overall scope of your life and we see you're not a bigot or you're not a racist or you're not a sexual pervert or you're not this, you're not that, and there is something that happened and it painted you in a bad light, but we're looking at the overall quality of your life and the genuineness of your repentance and the genuineness of your restoration, whatever it is. Cancel culture doesn't do that. And ultimately, cancel culture will destroy itself. It will ultimately destroy itself because it keeps getting more narrow and more narrow and more narrow until you get canceled by the people that you were part of before. We must do better as followers of Jesus.