Ministries and organizations
Brown is the founder and president of ICN Ministries. ICN is an acronym for Israel, the Church and the Nations. Brown has also used his knowledge of Hebrew language and Jewish literature to defend the Messianic faith against anti-missionary thought, and has held many public debates with leading rabbis and anti-missionaries. Brown is best known for his five-volume series
Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus (2000-2010).
In 1996, Brown joined the leadership team of the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, FL , and in January, 1997 he founded the
Brownsville Revival School of Ministry (BRSM). Brown was dismissed from BRSM in December 2000 after he was given an ultimatum to join the Assemblies of God (see
Brownsville Revival Controversy below). He then founded FIRE (Fellowship of International Revival and Evangelism) School of Ministry in January 2001, which relocated to Concord, NC in 2003, where he also helped found FIRE Church and FIRE International. Brown is also the Director of the
Coalition of Conscience, which is a network of Christian leaders and believers, currently based in the greater Charlotte, NC area, who are working together for moral and cultural change through the gospel.
In 2007, Brown began writing and hosting a half-hour television program called
Think it Thru for the
Inspiration Network to reach out to non-traditional Jews. Brown hosts a daily Christian radio talk show on
The Truth Radio Network called
The Line of Fire.
Degrees and positions
Brown graduated from
Queens College in 1977 with a B. A. in Hebrew, and earned his M.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures in 1981 and his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages in Literature in 1985, both from
New York University. His doctoral thesis was
"I Am the Lord Your Healer": A Philological Study of the Root rapa' in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East.
Jewish evangelism
Because Brown is widely hailed as the world's foremost Messianic Jewish apologist, he has been the subject of numerous hostile discussions on counter-missionary websites, including
Jews for Judaism,
Messiah Truth,
Judaism's Answer, and
Kosher Judaism.
Within the Jewish community, there has been controversy over his public debates, with many leaders critical of any rabbis or counter-missionaries who take part in these debates. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Brown's debating partner in more than a dozen venues in the United States, Canada, and England, has come under special criticism for his regular participation.
Confronting gay activism
Brown has come under attack from gay organizations and media due to his attempts to confront gay activism, especially in Charlotte. His approach, which is summarized as "reach out and resist,meaning, "reach out to the people with compassion; resist the agenda with courage," has drawn praise from conservative Christian groups and hostile reaction from LGBT groups.
Academic work
Brown has served as a visiting or adjunct professor at the following schools:
- Denver Theological Seminary, Denver, Colorado
- Southern Evangelical Seminary, Matthews, North Carolina
- Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina
- The King's Seminary, Van Nuys California
- Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois
- Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission, Pasadena, California
- Regent University School of Divinity, Virginia Beach, Virginia
- FIRE School of Ministry, Concord, North Carolina (originally Pensacola, Florida)
- Brownsville Revival School of Ministry, Pensacola, Florida
- Messiah Biblical Institute and Graduate School of Theology, Gaithersburg, Maryland
- Christ for the Nations Institute of Biblical Studies, Stony Brook, New York
- Valley Forge Christian College, New York Extension School
In addition to several specialized monographs, Brown has written a number of scholarly articles and has contributed to numerous publications including the
Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, the
Oxford Dictionary of Jewish Religion, the
New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis,
Ugarit Forschungen,
MAARAV, the
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and
Mishkan.
