Should Gentile believers keep the Sinai Covenant, including feasts, new moons, and Saturday sabbath? Is it alright to get a vasectomy for birth control? Is the Catholic Church the woman on the beast in Revelation? Dr. Brown answers these questions and more!
Hour 1:
Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: I know we have lots and lots of questions and issues that we wonder about. I know there are lots of scripture verses that raise all kinds of different issues. For me, we must do what makes sense, which is put the first things first, and major on the majors. Don’t get distracted!
Hour 2:
Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: No matter how low you’ve fallen, no matter what you’ve done, or what your circumstances are, no matter how bleak, dark, ugly, or hopeless, if you will cry out to God and turn to Him and ask Him to wash and cleanse you, and give you a brand new start, you will find that the mercies of God are new every morning.
Featured Resource Offers:
Foundations of Prayer [mp3 CD]
Foundations of Intercession [mp3 CD]
__
School of Cultural Engagement 6-CD Course (A course that had been offered at FIRE Church featuring various speakers over a six week period touching on key topics and issues relevant to today’s culture and a call for the saints to engage.)
Other Resources:
What Do Jewish People Think About Jesus? by Dr. Brown: Dr. Brown answers sixty common questions about Jewish people and Jewish culture. He also addresses questions Christians have about their own relationship to the Old Testament Law.
_
Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus vol. 4 by Dr. Brown: In this volume of the Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus series, Dr. Brown counters the arguments that the New Testament mistranslates, misuses, and misunderstands the Hebrew Scriptures, also addressing the objections that Jesus or Paul abolished the Law.
__
Our Hands Are Stained with Blood by Dr. Brown: This shocking and painful book tells the tragic story of the “Church” and the Jewish people. It is a story every Christian must hear.
_
Is Christianity Jewish? [Think it Thru DVD] with Dr. Brown: It seems that the major religious faiths have little or nothing in common at all. Dr. Michael Brown travels to the Bible Belt of the United States to explore what people know of Judaism and its relationship to Christianity.
Should Christians Observe The Biblical, Jewish Holidays? Online Article by Dr. Brown
Dr. Brown, I was hoping you could clarify for me something you talked about today. Are you saying that you believe that getting a vasectomy is wrong? My husband is looking into this because we feel that 2 children are right and enough for us. (You are making me nervous! LOL) Thanks if you can answer.
I e-mailed a hospital to see if they could have my reproductive organs removed and my taste-buds deadened; they never answered.
We often hear that the Torah points to Jesus, and so I have to ask, what and who is Jesus pointing to? The answer, as I see it, anyway, is: The Father! Loving the Father and worshipping Him in spirit and truth; keeping the commandments but going one further, and that is, giving to the poor, taking up our cross and following Him; having true repentance, receiving forgiveness and abiding in His love, and love itself.
Nowhere in the NT do we have an example of Jesus advocating the breaking of the Laws of God, but he did show that (in the example of being merciful toward the ox that fell in the ditch on the Sabbath) there is a more important approach to the Law than the letter of it, and that is LOVE.
“Is it alright to get a vasectomy for birth control?”
The Muslims pump out lots of kids, sometimes 6-9 a family. If we want the gospel to be strong, Christians need to have big families, that’s why it’s important that we be fruitful and multiply.
The most common reason Christians only have 1-3 kids is because ‘it just doesn’t fit into their lifestyle’, and that’s the same argument people use for having an abortion. ‘It’s just not the right time’, ‘I need to focus on my career’, ‘What, you want me chained to my kids, what about my personal time’? In order words, me me me, self self self, I I I, but the life of a Christian is supposed to be the life of a servant serving the king of kings. God desires godly children. A major reason kids fail away from God is because they don’t have enough peer support, they don’t have enough Godly friends their age. If all the Christians were having big families, what kind of effect would that have on all the public schools? Suddenly, praying kids who love God and know the Bible would be the majority. In Israel today, religious Jews have more babies than secular Jews, result? Every year the percentage between secular and religious changes, meaning in the long term the religious will be able to vote in more and more Orthodox Jews into the government. Can you imagine if the same trend was happening in America?
DR Brown I agree with what you said on the radio. If anyone reads the book of Romans chapter 14 you will understand fully not to be concerned with another person’s walk with the Lord concerning keeping the Sabbath.
Romans 14:5-6
One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
Paul is saying in the above verses, it doesn’t matter what day you celebrate the Lord. If you are convinced in your mind fully that your doing the right thing, THEN IT IS NOT A SIN.
Romans 14:10-13
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.
Paul is saying STOP Passing Judgment on one another.
IT IS NOT A REQUIREMENT FOR CHRISTIANS TO KEEP THE SABBATH.
There is FREEDOM in CHRIST. Jesus wants us to love Him all the time. Not just sometimes.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.
In the above verse. It says nothing about those who do not keep the Sabbath will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Just wanted to confirm what Dr Brown said on the radio show is accurate to what the word of God says.
Blessings all.
Pamela,
I forgive you for telling a false prophecy. Remember how you stated in March that President Obama is going to die in April 2011.
Make sure you ask the Lord to forgive you too.
Hi Dr Brown! What about Mat.5:17.Jesus say ,the smallest letter in the law? Obey and be blessed!
Jesus is the end of the law,rom 10, and Efs,2:15 kol 2 .15, but in rom 3 , 30,31 he says;he establish the law in faith.This is not the easy!!:)
About those who have not heard about Jesus by name, or by all that he did, (the gospel) I like to look at Psalm 2.
It’s so interesting to see what David did in Psalm 2. He spoke of Christ, him whom he did not see with his physical eyes, for he had not yet come in the flesh yet, as being born of a woman.
Not only did David speak of Christ, but it seems to me that Psalm 2:7 was also speaking of David himself.
When a man receives a revelation of Christ, he begins something new. Some kind of change happens to him, something spiritual.
We know that David confessed things about Christ with his mouth. (Romans 10:9,10?)
I think I can find things from the book of Job where Job talked of Christ.
Since Jesus is the light of the world, I wonder how many who have never heard the gospel as we have heard it, have at some time and by some manner, spoken of him and received that light.
One thing is for sure, Jesus is the only one who will get a man into heaven. No one will be there who hasn’t received Jesus, one way or another.
When Jesus is revealed to people, at that time, will he be received by them? That will be important won’t it?
I think of those who, though they had not seen or heard of Jesus as those saints we read of in the gosples have, but all their lives, sought truth, righteousness, justice, judgment, mercy and all those things that are in Jesus, if they all the lives have hungered and thirsted for all that, wouldn’t they receive him when he is revealed?
I wonder if they will realize that this is the one whom they had not seen, and that he is the one of whom they had not heard, or will they realize, that this is the one they heard and spoke of in their past life?
If in your relationship with the Lord, He tells you He wants you to keep His Sabbath, then your obligation is to follow Him, and not to others who may say you are not obligated. Perhaps in their walk with Him, they are not obligated — we can only speak for ourselves and to what He has laid upon our own hearts.
Osama bin Laden Is Dead.
Now bin Laden knows who is Lord. What a way to find out the truth, when it is too late.
Wake up Muslim Religion. Jesus Is God. Jesus is Lord. Worship Him. Surrender to Jesus. Surrender before it is too late for you too.
Bin Ladin is a CIA agent — he probably isn’t dead at all; just finished the mission they set out for him to do. This is a false good news to make people not be on edge; a delusion. This is to soften them for what is coming next:
“YAY! BIN LADEN IS DEAD! NOW WE LOVE OBAMA COS HE DID SO GOOD A JOB!”
It’s all lies.
I just heard that Osama bin Laden was killed 1 week ago. The media and the President just confirmed Osama bin Laden’s death last night to the public.
Again, Osama bin Laden died 1 week ago.
Um, right, they buried him at sea — I wonder why!
Hm.. could it be that “if we ‘bury him’ at sea, no one can ever look at the ‘corpse’ to identify or confirm authenticity” ?
This is a world of lies.
David,
Regarding the vasectomy subject: sometimes there are more reasons to limiting the amount of children you have other than for “inconvenience, or it not fitting into your lifestyle.” Even though this is a personal matter between my husband and I, here are some of our reasons. I have been going through alot for a few years now and it has started to take a toll on me physically (long story). We live in a town in Wyoming where I do not have hardly any support, we only have his parents to help watch the kids (which I rarely ask anyway unless it is a real need)I hardly ever get out of the house, and if I do, it is to get groceries or take my kids to an appointment, there is hardly ever any break and even if my husband and I wanted to have fun, there isn’t much to do here where we live. Not to mention, when I gave birth to my second child in 2007, unbeknownst to us, he was born with a severe cleft lip and palate. Which that began a LOOOOOONG road that we are finally at the end of as far as surgeries, feeding issues, and setbacks. And even though the cause of his condition was not hereditary, but environmental, there is an increased chance with each pregnancy after that it will happen again. So unless it is clearly in the Word that it is a sin to get a vasectomy or tubes tied or whatever, I think it is the best thing for us. We love our babies and I would certainly love another one just the same if the “unexpected” happened, but to plan for it I don’t see the wisdom in it. I see it as bad for our family in many ways.
Correction: I said I had my second baby in 2007, I meant in 2009. My first baby was 2007. :0)
Dr Brown, I hesitate to disagree with you on anything, as I greatly respect your wisdom in dealing with issues from a biblical standpoint. However, I have to be honest and say that I found the arguments you employed to answer the questions that I raised about polygamy and concubines in OT unconvincing. I give my response to each argument below, but please note that I did not link my questions to the homosexuality debate, although this issue was discussed on a previous blog.
1 The progressive revelation argument surely cannot apply to marriage, since the clearest revelation of God’s blueprint and benchmark for one man, one woman, one flesh relationship was given at creation. Both Jesus and Paul confirm this. God did not have to work towards the ideal as that was his starting point.
2 The argument from Deut.17 that God permitted kings of Israel to have more than one wife but not “too many” surely contradicts the primary requirement in v.18f to study and follow carefully all the words of God’s law. Did the seventh commandment forbidding adultery at that time only apply in the case of a sexual partner already married [like Bathsheba]? Or did it then and now mean what I’ve always assumed, to remain faithful within a monogamous marriage? I’ve even had it put to me that God giving to David the former wives of Saul [2 Sam.12:8] was conclusive evidence that God endorsed his polygamy. Did God condone in practise what he condemned in principle? Is it okay for God to break his own rules? If so, might he still be doing that today?
3 The argument that God allowing his OT people to engage in polygamy was an accommodation to ancient culture in which polygamy was widely practised sounds like a strangely familiar line of reasoning. Did God really tone down his clearly established ideal of marriage to fit in with cultural standards? Surely, his chosen people were called to model God’s law to surrounding pagan nations and not copy their sinful practises. If God was culturally adaptable then, why not now?
4 The argument that concubines were not a sexual outlet, but only for producing children when a wife was barren cannot be a serious one! Is that really why David and Solomon had so many concubines? They had enough wives alone [Solomon 700!] to produce multiple descendants.
5 I am still left questioning how God could hold up David as a role model of obedience to his commandments, apart from his one glaring failure [see 1 Kings 15:5], when elsewhere we find a catalogue of his wives and concubines [2 Sam.5 & 1 Chron.3]. In real time David made choices to marry and interact with these women sexually. For him it was a lifestyle choice that appears to contravene God’s law that David claimed to delight in keeping! The impression given is that God put David’s adultery with Bathsheba in a different league to his involvement with so many surplus wives and concubines. It seems that these illicit relationships were of little or no consequence to God, in spite of the seventh commandment!
God apparently reserves the right to Himself to show favor on whomsoever He wills. And doesn’t always explain why. Sometimes it’s because of His Name — not out of vainglory, but because salvation for the many depends on it. He has to be a God of His own word. Otherwise, no one could trust Him. And if no one trusted Him, Salvation would not go forth, because trust is freely given or refused. So even if people fail Him, He sometimes will still allow His will to work through them for the sake of His word. If He says He’ll do something, He carries it out, even if people by free will, fail to act as He wanted. In ancient times, the laws allowed for multiple marriages and concubines, but not for adultery. David could have married Bathsheba had she not been already married. But God was slowly bringing mankind up to a higher level, and it has been taking millenia. In David’s lifetime, they were doing a lot of weird stuff which we now repudiate, but back then was commonplace in the ancient world.
Bringing people to a higher level? Enoch was at a much higher level than David, it looks like.
I could be off track but I think that if God allowed polygamy, it was because of the hardness of hearts. Sort of like what Jesus said about divorce.
God made His perfect and best plan for marriage with Adam and Eve. There was no divorce and no polygamy.
Well, David’s story does illustrate what can happen with a God-loving, God-fearing man falls into temptation.
Yes, Rebecca, that’s what Jesus said, “the two shall become one.”
Matthew 19:3-9: “And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said,’Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” Also: Mark 10:1-12
The ‘higher level’ I was referring to earlier, Dan1el, was the gradual transformation of society over time through His laws to a level where they were able to receive individually His Holy Spirit.
If they believed, and were willing for repentance.
typo: should be “WHEN a God-loving, God-fearing man falls into temptation” etc.
Grace, I am praying for you and your husband that you would be granted wisdom in making this decision.
I know a couple that soon after their second child was born he contracted meningitis and had brain damage to the point that the doctors said that he would never walk or talk and that he would live for perhaps 20 years (they ended up being right).
This couple was faced with many similar issues to what you describe with the need to tube-feed their son, hardly anyone willing to babysit, and many medical and financial issues. Even in this extremity, they chose to believe that the Father was the best one to plan the size of their family and so a third son was added to the family 13 months after the second. This couple has told me that especially during those first difficult years the third son was a great comfort and a blessing that helped them persevere.
I would encourage you to read Psalm 127 and search your heart about whether it is ever good to limit the number of arrows we can carry into battle and whether you truly believe that more children would be blessings.
You say that you don’t see the wisdom in having another child. If it is really unwise for you to have more children, will the Father allow you to conceive again? But what if it is wise for you to have more children? Do you trust your own assessment of the situation more than His?
Judging from what you posted of your situation, I can agree that it would take a lot of trust for you not to go ahead with the operation, but I encourage you to trust and lean not on your own understanding.
(See 1 John 3:22)
Does preventive birth control violate a commandment? I don’t know that I can give a definite answer to that question although in the closest situation I have found in the Scripture (Genesis 38:9-10) it was definitely considered evil.
Is preventive birth control pleasing in His sight? I think that we can gather from many different scriptures that no, it is not pleasing in his sight.
One last thing, the couple that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, they are my parents. I can say that I am very grateful that they chose to let the Father plan their family.
Thank you Joshua for sharing that, and thanks for the prayers too. :0)
Josh, I really don’t think that Genesis 38 is in anyway pointing towards the direction you want it to be since the main point about justice, and moral duty (which has been violated by Onan). I haven’t read the whole essay carefully, but I’ve skimmed it, and I agree with the writer’s conclusion. http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BivensOnan.rtf