Dr. Michael L. Brown

President, FIRE School of Ministry  |  Host, The Line of Fire  |  Messianic Jewish Apologist and Bible Scholar

Biographical Overview

Dr. Michael L. Brown (b. March 16, 1955, New York City) is an American Messianic Jewish apologist, radio host, and Bible teacher widely known for his scholarship defending the Messiahship of Jesus to Jewish audiences and for his work within the Charismatic renewal movement. He hosts the nationally syndicated radio and online broadcast The Line of Fire and serves as President of FIRE School of Ministry in Concord, North Carolina.

Education & Formation

Brown, raised Jewish, became a believer in Jesus in 1971 at age sixteen. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Hebrew from Queens College, City University of New York, in 1977, followed by a Master of Arts (1981) and a Ph.D. (1985) in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University.

Ministry & Professional History

Brown has served as a visiting professor of Old Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and visiting professor of Jewish apologetics at Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of World Mission, among other seminaries. From 1996 to 2000 he was a leader of the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida, and served as president of its Brownsville Revival School of Ministry. In 2001 he founded FIRE School of Ministry, a Charismatic leadership training institute, and in 2005 founded ICN Ministries to extend revivalist and outreach work internationally, including in Israel. He hosts The Line of Fire, a nationally syndicated daily radio and online broadcast addressing theology, apologetics, and cultural issues from a biblical perspective.

Fields of Study & Expertise

Brown’s scholarship centers on Hebrew Bible studies, Jewish-Christian apologetics, and the case for Jesus as Messiah from a Jewish and Old Testament perspective, alongside broader teaching on revival, holiness, and cultural engagement. He contributed to the Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Jeremiah–Lamentations) and to the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, and served as a general editor of the Tree of Life Version of the Bible.

Publications & Media

Brown is the author of more than 40 books, including the five-volume Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood: The Tragic Story of the Church and the Jewish People, Authentic Fire: A Response to John MacArthur’s Strange Fire, and Can You Be Gay and Christian? He hosts The Line of Fire, broadcast nationally on radio and streamed online, and publishes regularly through his AskDrBrown ministry platform.

Recognition & Reach

Brown’s Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus series and Our Hands Are Stained with Blood have been translated into more than a dozen languages and are widely used within Messianic Jewish and Christian apologetics circles. He is a frequent conference speaker and media commentator on topics of biblical apologetics, revival, and cultural engagement.

Personal

Brown and his wife, Nancy, also a Jewish believer in Jesus, married in 1976. The couple co-authored Breaking the Stronghold of Food (2017).