His friends used to call him “Drug Bear” because he could do more drugs than any of them. When he was 16 years old, though, he went too far. “I took enough mescaline for 30 people,” Michael recounts on Real Messiah’s website, “and my friends put me on a bus alone, sending me home to fend for myself. They thought it was a big joke. Actually, it was a matter of life and death.”
It was late at night, and the drugs made him delirious. He got off the bus too soon and got lost just two blocks from home. Disoriented and tormented from the drugs, he screamed at a passerby and then decided to jump in front of the next car that came down the street. It stopped mere inches from his body as he stood there with hands raised in the air. It was his parents. The passerby had gone to his house and told his parents where he was and that something was very wrong.
Michael grew up in a Jewish home, but the biggest event in his life at age 13 was not his Bar Mitzvah. It was seeing Jimi Hendrix in concert. Michael had been playing the drums since he was eight years old and was very talented. He wanted to become a famous rock drummer, and at 14, he was happy to follow in the footsteps of his musical role models by trying drugs. Pot lead to hash, then to uppers, downers, and LSD. At 15 he started shooting heroin.
Then, his two best friends and members of his band started going to church. After several months, Michael went with them –to pull them out. He was losing his partying buddies and he didn’t like it. Eventually, he became aware of something that until that point he’d never really noticed: his sin. When he came to believe that Jesus died for his sins, he faced two problems – he didn’t want to give up his sin, and he was Jewish. Michael says,
Yet somehow, God’s goodness and patience overcame my stubbornness, my pride, my sinful habits, and my religious misunderstandings. By the end of 1971 I was a new man! The heavenly Father intervened in my affairs, making me to know that I was guilty in His sight, exposing the corruption of my heart, and showing me a new and better way.
Today, Michael Brown is widely considered the world’s foremost Messianic Jewish apologist. He is our guest this week on “Jewish Voice with Jonathan Bernis.” He is a popular debater, defending the Bible and its doctrines in public forums around the world.
One of his most memorable debates was with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, America’s most famous rabbi. They had already debated about Isaiah chapter 53, at Michael’s invitation. It was considered to be a topic that was a strength for Dr. Brown and a weak area for Rabbi Boteach. Then, the rabbi invited Michael to debate the incarnation of Yeshua, something he considered a strength for the Jewish rabbi and a weak area for Dr. Brown. Michael has loved debating since he was a young boy, and this debate that took place at Oxford University in England was a one of his favorites.
In his ministry, Dr. Brown gets a lot of questions about Jewish faith and practices. He decided to put them into a book. At first he thought he’d make it 100 questions Christians ask, but then he realized the basic questions boiled down to about 60. So, 60 Questions Christians Ask about Jewish Beliefs and Practices tackles them all, as well as related questions that people may not know to ask.
Does Dr. Brown still play the drums? Whenever he can, which isn’t very often. Every now and then, he’ll sit in with a worship band where he’s speaking, and he loves it. He still keeps some sticks and pads at home to play around with, and his 12 year old grandson says he wants to someday be as fast as him on the drumsticks.
Tune in to “Jewish Voice with Jonathan Bernis” this week to watch Dr. Brown discuss questions Christians ask about Jewish beliefs and practices. For a guide to broadcast stations, click here.
Dr, Michael Brown – Since coming to faith in 1971 as a 16 year-old, heroin-shooting Jewish rock drummer, Dr. Michael Brown has devoted his life to fostering awakening in the Church, sparking moral and cultural revolution in the society, raising up gospel laborers for the nations, and reaching out to his own Jewish people. He is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio broadcast, the president of FIRE School of Ministry, and a professor of Bible and Hebrew studies at several leading seminaries. He has a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University, has preached in more than 25 nations, and is the author of 27 books and numerous scholarly and popular articles. Dr. Brown has debated Jewish rabbis, agnostic professors, and gay activists on radio, TV, and college campuses, and he is widely considered to be the world’s foremost Messianic Jewish apologist. (http://askdrbrown.org/)
