With Ted using David Cloud as a main source of materials, I thought I'd post
something from a much better and more accurate authority who is quite
familiar with David Cloud -- a gentleman by the name of James White who has
been countering the nonsense from the KJV-Only crowd for quite some time.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
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David Cloud Tries To Save Face
by James R. White
After a while it just gets embarrassing. David Cloud is a fellow I had
commended for having the guts to stand up and criticize Gail Riplinger,
bringing her wrath upon him many years ago. But since he has joined the
anti-Calvinism sniping brigade he has shown himself just as willing to
engage in the most egregious forms of false argumentation as any of the
others.
A while back Cloud began attacking Calvinism on his website and in his
writings, even listing it as the "hot" sermon on his website. At some point
I took the time to play just a few clips from hiw woefully bad "response" to
Calvinism on the air. We have invited him to debate the issue, even when he
was here in the US (a fact he makes note of in the sermon on his site). In
fact, I was speaking at a church in the Midwest, as I recall, around the
same time Cloud was going to be addressing the issue in the same area. Our
challenge to him to debate has been documented on this blog numerous times.
I even noted I believe last week that he had sent out an e-mail in which he
reproduced numerous folks congratulating him on refusing to defend his
position in public debate.
So I get an e-mail from Cloud a few days ago. It reads:
Hello, James. Did you correct the gross error contained in the following
statement in your little post of November?
"Today I pointed out to him that if he was consistent, he and his fellow KJV
Only writers would have a literal cow over Hunt's handling of Acts 13:48 in
both What Love is This? as well as in Debating Calvinism."
I had written about that matter two years earlier and it was located in the
very place one would expect to find it, in my review of Hunt's book, so
there is no excuse for such a gross mistake on your part.
Is that still at your web site, error and all? Or did you merely remove it
from the web site without as much as acknowledging your error?
I realize you are too busy huffing and puffing and boasting to listen humbly
to another man, so I do not expect you to read my writings carefully; but
you need to correct this gross error.
In Christ, David Cloud
Wow, a gross error! Let's see. Even if we ignore the fact that I was
referring to a wider range of folks than just Cloud ("and his fellow KJV
Only writers"), it is quite true that Cloud did mention Acts 13:48. So, I am
guilty of a gross error! I confess! Well, let's see how "gross" it really
was. I mean, Cloud is reviewing Hunt's book which, as we have documented
many times, is filled with egregious exegetical and historical errors. For
example, Cloud knows Spurgeon was a Calvinist, but he doesn't mention Hunt's
utter misuse of Spurgeon. Instead, the only complaint he lodges is in
reference to his comments about the KJV on Acts 13:48, and that in the
mildest words possible. And it doesn't seem Cloud is "up to speed" on Hunt's
newest way around the proper rendering of Acts 13:48, either. I wonder if he
will voice his opposition to Hunt's "prophetically predicted Hebrew
originals of Acts 1-15" theory as well? So, if the only "victory" David
Cloud can score is saying, "Hey, I did note my mild disagreement on Acts
13:48...but I still recommended the book strongly, despite that," then I
will gladly let him have it. However, I must note the gratuitous slap about
"just removing" the "error." "No, Brother Cloud, that's what Dave Hunt does
in his second edition...haven't you kept up with that?"
In the meantime, Cloud's e-mail prompted me to throw his sermon on
Calvinism on my mp3 player as I headed to California. I imagine the folks
waiting for the flight to LA gave me some odd looks as I rolled my eyes and
groaned at the continuous stream of misrepresentation, simple error, and
tradition-encrusted eisegesis thundered forth in stereotypical "KJV Only,
Fundamentalist, Independent Baptist" tones. I was going to try to count up
all the errors I heard, but it was an impossible task. David Cloud is as
accurate in his understanding and response to Calvinism as Gail Riplinger is
on KJV Onlyism. Well, that's not saying much, I guess. In any case, I
shouldn't have been surprised. Anyone who can promote Hunt's work as a work
of substance must not know much about the issue at hand.
Since "Brother Cloud" remains willing to promote his errors in public
without answering for them, and since he identifies Calvinism as "the enemy"
in his presentation, I shall take the time to go through his sermon, listed
as "hot" on his website, and demonstrate yet once again that the issue is
simple when you are dealing with conservative, non-Reformed critics of
"Calvinism": they are servants of their traditions, and when it comes right
down to it, refuse to allow those traditions to be examined in the light of
the very Scripture they say they believe so strongly.
.
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