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Distributed by Way of Strife Literature's Parody Service. These articles can be spread around on BBS or Internet sites without express permission from the author. In fact, we would encourage you to do so! Just link back here if ya could, please. This material can be spread on good websites like FreeRepublic.com, but if someone like MAD Magazine wants to use it, they really should hire me first. This is a listing for Christians who are trying to live out the faith being saved by grace, not the legalistic ravings of fundamentalists et al. Our goal is, as everything else a Christian is supposed to do, devotional. However OUR PRIMARY PURPOSE IS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION TO ASSIST CHRISTIANS IN THE BUILDING UP THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AGAINST THE TROUBLE THAT CLOUD AND OTHER FUNDAMENTALISTS ARE STIRRING UP IN THEIR APOSTACY. And if it takes parody to do that, so be it! If you desire to receive this type of material on a regular basis, let us know and we'll churn out more! And it won't be implied that you see our ministry as proudly as Cloud sees his that we'll ask you for a donation, either.
June 3, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, XXXX XXXX XX., XXX XXXXXX, XX XXXXX, dcloud@wayoflife.org) -- The Left Behind series of novels about events following the Rapture have been a phenomenal commercial success. The books tripled the profits of Tyndale House Publishers in 1999. More than 15 million copies have already been sold. Twelve volumes are proposed. The seventh was released on May 23 with great fanfare, including a multi-city tour featuring personal appearances by the authors and Contemporary Christian musicians. It pre-sold 1.4 million copies before it was even released, and some stores opened at midnight to long lines of fans. It immediately hit number 1 on the secular best seller list. There is also a Left Behind kids series, an audio series, and a movie is being filmed for a scheduled February release.
So now, here it is... the response that many of you have written about since
this site went online a few short days ago, BEGGING that it be done. Well, the fact is
it was Cloud's "review" of the Left Behind series that made me realize "it is time", that
this was the point God wanted me to cut loose and fight the absurdity... by BEING absurd!
Know ye now, that what follows in Cloud's "report" is the WORST kind of "journalism" and maybe the FINEST
example of slander and mischaracterization that I've ever seen from a "Christian". At
our disposal here are all seven books published, as of this writing, of the Left Behind
series. As well as several translations of the Bible. We will document Cloud's
mis-representations, we will cite page number and Scripture verse. We will challenge any
and all who would dispute what we are about to lay out to counter our evidence against
Cloud's "research".
This will be... fun. The authors are Jerry Jenkins, writer-at-large for
the Moody Bible Institute, and Tim LaHaye, well-known author and Bible teacher.
(See the article "BBF Church Hosts Ecumenist Tim LaHaye" at the Way of Life web site under the Compromising
Fundamentalists section of the End Times Apostasy Database.) As entertainment, the books are tolerable; but I
believe there is a serious problem with fictionalizing Bible subjects. Fiction,
by its very nature, is not truth. At best, it goes beyond truth and reality. It
is not wise to fictionalize the Bible.
So, if according to Cloud, "fiction, by
its very nature, is not truth. At best, it goes beyond truth and reality," then Jesus spoke
fiction, which is not truth and goes past reality... which would make Jesus a liar, and
thus invalidate everything we are told to believe of Him. So speaketh David Cloud.
Cloud is totally ignoring the fact that Jesus taught in parables, which were fiction
but enclosed the truth of the Kingdom of God. Why did He do it? So that the common people --
everyone -- could understand the Kingdom of God for themselves, without having it
"interpreted" for them by the Pharisees and Sadducees. One could make the point that what
fundamentalists are doing is very much like the Pharisees of old: demanding their audiences
accept one's own interpretation rather than encourage them to seek the Kingdom of Heaven for
themselves. Instead, stumbling blocks are put in the path... against the warning of God.
What does this have to do with the Left Behind series? Think of the books as modern
parables. Written by men, but parables no less. Or as a friend said elsewhere about
the books, "the story is absolutely true. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.
the innocent were gone on page 3 of the first book." And... isn't it amazing how many people
have testified being led to Christ through the ministry of these books? What is Cloud
complaining about then? As Ronald Reagan said after he was shot, "anyone know what that guy's
beef was?"
If the hypocrisy were any thicker, you could cut it with a knife.
To my Catholic friends: I fear that "fundamentalists" such as our friend here are
more "pope" than anything they have depicted of your pope. And this statement by him that
we have just dissected illustrates this.
The issue of fictionalizing Scripture aside, though,
the theology presented in the books is certainly intolerable. Though some
spiritual good might come from the wide distribution of these books (i.e., the
Gospel is clearly presented and Bible prophecy is interpreted literally), the
false doctrine scattered across their pages is cause for concern. Following are just a few samples of the unscriptural
things I have found in the first four volumes: (1) Large numbers of left-behind loved ones get
saved. One of the alleged goals of Left Behind series is to challenge
the unsaved to receive Christ before it is too late. At the Left Behind
web site there is a section on Frequently Asked Questions. One of those is "What
is the ‘take-away’ message of the ‘Left Behind’ series?" The answer: "Nothing is
more important than making a decision NOW where you stand with Jesus Christ.
Don’t wait until it is too late. Read the Gospel of John from the Bible and
consider your life in light of God's love." This is an important challenge, and
I believe some people will probably be saved through the witness of these books.
The problem is that the Left Behind series depict large numbers of
relatives and friends of Christians getting saved after the Rapture occurs. This
sends the message that it is possible to wait and get saved later, but the Bible
never offers such hope. 2 Thessalonians chapter two describes the coming of the
Antichrist, and it plainly states that those who are left behind who have
rejected the truth will not be saved but will be deluded by God Himself.
"And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the
Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the
brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; BECAUSE THEY RECEIVED NOT THE LOVE OF THE
TRUTH, THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED. AND FOR THIS CAUSE GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG
DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE" (2 Thess. 2:8-11).
Reminds me of what a great Christian man once told me: "Evil is judgement
without compassion". Going by my friend's definition, Cloud relishes pure evil... but I'll
stop short of judging him to BE pure evil.
Will there be some who are utterly lost after the Rapture? The Bible does tell us so: that
those who take the mark of the beast will be lost (Revelation 14:9) At that point a person
will have identified with the antichrist and, apparently, will be eternally damned. But that
is still a VERY far cry from outright claiming that EVERYONE who remains after the Rapture
who has heard and not believed will be lost forever.
Let's talk about that for a minute: what does "hearing" and "believing" the
Gospel mean? Does it mean to hear it by ear? To physically listen to the Gospel?
If I were to come to a person who has never heard Scripture before, quote John 3:16
to him, will he be forced then and there to make a decision of where he stands before God?
Would my giving him that "Gospel in a nutshell" mean that he would either have to respond
by accepting Christ or be damned forever? OF COURSE NOT! He might have "heard", but he
will not have anything to really believe in. He could not have seen (I pray) Christ
in my life, so why should he believe? But that is EXACTLY what
Cloud and "fundamentalists" think: that you must hear and believe... but they
aren't giving us anything real to believe in because they don't believe in it themselves!
Something the Spanish Conquistadores did in Mexico and South America: they would
approach an Indian village with an armed force. A priest assigned to the contingent would
ride out before them, scream out to the Indians (in Spanish) that they must either
accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior or be wiped out by the soldiers... they would
have fifteen minutes to accept this "gospel message". Now, how could those poor Indians
understand a darn thing the priest just said? They couldn't! They didn't see anything
to believe in... just as Cloud does not present his life as witness of his own belief in
Jesus Christ. To him it's either "hear and parrot the line I preach" or be damned forever.
My fellow druges, if people are going to be eternally lost after the Rapture, it will
be by the instruction of David Cloud and those like him.
Methinks Cloud has no idea about the purpose of the Tribulation: people are left
behind because they weren't saved and should get saved! And can get saved!! People who
never heard the Gospel getting saved is pretty dumb, because who is going to teach it
to them??????? It's a chance for those who have (and haven't) heard the gospel to
repent and get saved.
Perhaps if more Christians did seek after Christ and want to be a humble witness
of Him wherever God has put them in this world, perhaps then there wouldn't be as many people
lost after the Rapture as we are led to believe. For this, blame is put at the feet of
every Christian: you, me, your own pastor, all of us. We haven't done nearly enough to
live Christ and to let Him live in us, to let Him be seen as a light by everyone He
puts in our lives. And for those like Cloud and others for whom doctrine is more important,
their sins are as the Pharisees and more.
And Cloud's position is contrary to John 3:16.
(2) The books feature the formation of a
"Tribulation Force" to resist the antichrist. There is nothing like this
even hinted at in the Bible. And let us keep in mind, that the Tribulation Force is a very small group,
playing against a global backdrop. Think of the Left Behind series as being "The Winds of
War" and "War and Remembrance" set against the Book of Revelation: these are an intimate
group of characters who are playing their drama against a vast, even cosmic, backdrop.
We see how they are affected... and are affecting... what happens far outside their
immediate spheres of daily life. Apart from Tsion and the soon-to-emerge "believers' co-op"
that Chloe has been putting together the last few books for the time of Carpathia's mark,
the Tribulation Force has been relatively low-key. They're more of a maquisard
resistance group of World War II France than an "in-your-face" army. This was really a
pretty cheap shot by Cloud.
(3) Prayers to the dead. During the funeral
for a Tribulation-era pastor, one of the leaders of the Tribulation Force is
depicted as praying to the dead man (vol. 3, Nicolae, p. 315).
This is a slander, an out-and-out lie, and if Cloud knows it then he's totally
destroyed all credibility with his "ministry".
From Nicolae, p. 315, the scene is the funeral of Bruce Barnes:
"We confess we don't like this. It hurts. We miss you. But in your memory
we pledge to carry on, to stay at the task, to keep on keeping on against all
odds. We will study the materials you have left behind, and we will keep this
church the lighthouse you made it for the glory of God"
A few months ago my grandmother passed away: the finest Christian woman I have ever known.
Her preacher compared her to those in the "Faith Hall of Fame" from Hebrews 11... and
of all those giants of faith, he would readily place her among them. I do to...
and it's hard to have faith like that in this world. I know I don't have it yet, or
even wonder if I ever will in this life.
I knew that what lay in the casket was not my beloved grandmother, that she was in a
far better place than I could imagine. Even knowing that she was with Jesus, Who she had
loved for most of her 92 years, it was hard to let go. I talked to her, told her about
all the wonderful times we had shared, and about all the faith and hope and compassion and
love that I wanted of her in my heart always, to have a measure of the strength God
gave her and to keep that true, to share what she was to me and what Christ was to her.
Was I praying to my grandmother? "Bruddah Cloud" seems to think so. Or has he been
through the grief process at all? Would he so readily abandon someone he would love
to the grave? Would he not whisper something in the hopes that his departed loved one
would catch it and remember that he loved them? Or does Cloud... even love at all?
All Ray is doing in this scene is saying goodbye to their pastor, teacher, and friend.
Nothing more than that. Cloud is slandering without conscience in his claim that Ray is
"praying" to Bruce. And I cannot but wonder how delusional a
person can be to see a "prayer" in this.
(4) Satan is in charge of the weather. One of
the key figures in the Left Behind books is the supposed leader of the
144,000 Jews. In book four he sends out a message to believers throughout the
world via the Internet and makes the following statement: "Eons ago, God the
Father conceded control of earth’s weather to Satan himself, the prince and
power of the air" (vol. 4, Soul Harvest, p. 232). The Bible does not say that
Satan has been given control of the weather. When the Bible mentions thunder and
hail and such things, it refers to them as coming from the hand of God (i.e.,
Job 38:22-29; Ps. 77:18). Psalm 104 describes the various aspects of this
present creation and attributes the control of everything to God. Satan is not
called the "god of this world" because God turned the world over to him but
because mankind in general has rejected God and believed the serpent’s lie.
Satan
has been given control of the weather... but he is only free to act so
far as God allows it (see Job 1), just as Satan is free to touch those only
as God will grant permission to do so (Job 2).
On this, I don't think we have seen the full bore of what God can do, at least
in our own age. Remember the Great Wrath of the Lamb earthquake at the end
of Nicolae, how that was a manifestation of God's hand, not Satan's?
For all the disasters of nature that Satan has wrought, NONE of them that we can
conceive in our recent memory will compare to what God might unleash: the Flood,
the parting (and closing) of the Red Sea, the earthquake at the crucifiction, the
judgements to come in Revelation. But for the time being, barring God's direct
intervention, Satan rules -- and revels -- in the chaos of this world's
atmosphere... but he is leashed and his length is only so far.
(5) The Christians make major decisions based on
their intuitions and human reasoning rather than Bible precepts. For
example, two of the heroes of the Left Behind series become romantically
involved. Though they discuss the matter and wonder if it is God’s will, they
get married and have a child in the midst of the Great Tribulation with no
apparent consultation of the Scripture. 1 Corinthians 7:29-35 would have settled
their question.
Methinks that our young hero Cloud was quite not the prude, and did desireth
to satiate the wild spirits of his flesh more than giving them up unto the Spirit.
And after 1 Corinthians 7:34 said that a virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs.
Unless... gasp!
David Cloud is forgetting something that is a quality of fictional characters, just
as it is of real people... and was true of people of Biblical times: they fall in love.
Love borne of the Spirit can never be something wrong, but that's what Cloud
wants to portray this as. Buck and Chloe got married because they love each other
and they want be together forveer and ever, as long as the Lord will let them be husband
and wife. They even hope to carry on as a family into the Millennial Kingdom after Christ
comes and kicks Carpathia's butt. Marriage is something God ordained for man and woman
in the Garden: if God is as unchangeable as we know He is, even this between man and
woman will not be affected by the Tribulation. And let us not forget that these are
brand new believers, with all the same problems that we as believers groan under
today, if not magnified moreso.
And what's this about saying that it was a mistake to have a child? NO CHILD is a
mistake... every one is created and made special by the Lord, a blessing to behold.
And what a blessing Kenny is to our heroes, amidst the most terrible period of human
history. Would it be wrong to bring a child into a world such as this? I've wondered
that myself. But I also have to believe that it would be a greater sin NOT to have
enough faith in Christ that my own child would be denied the same chance He gave us. Cloud's
rationale is, curiously, parallel to that given by "pro-choicers" such as Planned Parenthood
and other abortion-"supporters"
Cloud needs to get a life, enjoy it a little. I doubt he consulted Scripture
as vigorously as he promotes here when he took his own wife (he doesn't mention
it on his site anyway), so why should he hold two fictional characters any more
accountable?
Sigh... Cloud holds to doctrine again, much tighter than he holds onto
God's guidance. Poor man... he's got the lumberyard blinding him again.
(6) Female Bible teachers are acceptable. The
book has two female members of the "Tribulation Force" trained to teach the
Bible to mixed groups of people (vol. 3, Nicolae, pp. 354,355). Contrast
1 Timothy 2:12. If millions of people left after the Rapture needed to hear about Jesus, would
it really matter a hill of beans of some of the teachers were women? Which is more
according to Cloud's argument: to follow Scripture unblinkingly, or to feed those who
hunger for the Word?
In my time as a Christian, God has blessed my life with many, many wonderful
and true sisters in Christ. Most of them have been more spiritually mature than I am
yet, and I have learned much about Our Lord and Savior from them. I even defer to some
of them. I trust their counsel as being from the Lord far more than I would ever trust
an unflinching fundamentalist like David Cloud. I would die for them if God could
continue to use them to be witnesses and ministers of His love, to let more people know
His saving grace... and the darn thing of it is, I don't know if I could do that for a
fundamentalist like Cloud, whether he would be worth dying for or not.
Darn tragedy, that.
(7) The book teaches the error or infant
baptism. In volume 4, one of the key characters of the series is pregnant
with the child of the antichrist! She wants a member of the Tribulation Force to
be the "godmother" of the child (vol. 4, p. 390). That is language, of course,
which pertains to the unscriptural practice of infant baptism. (8) The pope is raptured away! The books
depict the Roman Catholic pope as a saved man who is taken away in the Rapture.
This encourages the ecumenical movement and its powerful back-to-Rome emphasis.
It adds support to the false ecumenical concept of "evangelical Catholicism." No
pope can be saved unless he rejects what his own church teaches. The Roman
Catholic Church dogmatically teaches that works and sacraments are necessary to
salvation, and that man cannot be saved by the grace of Christ alone. Note the
following statements from the New Catholic Catechism which plainly state
this: 1263 By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin
and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. 1129 The Church affirms that for believers the
sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation.
It is obvious that the pope would have to reject
Catholic doctrine in order to be saved. He would also have to repent of his
idolatry. Like many of his predecessors, John Paul II is a fervent devotee to
Mary. He prays to her and gives her glory for his protection and guidance. When
he was preserved from death after an attempted assassination, he thanked and
praised Mary. On his garments he has the words "I am Yours" embroidered in
Latin. In his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope he said that these
words refer to his devotion to Mary. At least five times Pope Paul II has
referred to Mary by the title "Co-redemptrix" (co-redeemer) in his papal
teachings. In 1985, for example, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the pope said: "Having
suffered for the Church, Mary deserved to become the Mother of all the disciples
of her Son, the Mother of their unity. . . . In fact Mary’s role as
Co-redemptrix did not cease with the glorification of her Son" (Inside the
Vatican, July 1997, p. 23). To be saved, the pope would have to repent of Rome’s
unscriptural dogmas and idolatry, including the blasphemy of his own office
(claiming to be the Vicar of Christ, Holy Father, etc.), and if he were to do
that he would no longer be the pope. This is too much. I can't tear this apart anymore, it wouldn't matter. These people
are gonna continue to spew their hatred and not show their love. This isn't Christian. I
don't know what it is, but it isn't Christian. That's it, I'm done with this. Game over.
Momma's calling me, I'm late for dinner...
June 12, 2000 Way Of Strife Literature
Darth Sidious sez: and
Kirk Cameron is playing Buck!
Darth Sidious sez: to
quote that great American, President Ronald Reagan, "there you go again."
Cloud once again resorts to name-calling, here using it as a tactic to distract
the reader from the nebulous cloud of innuendo he is about to unleash as he
lacks anything substantive. David, is this a report about "Left Behind", or an attack on Tim LaHaye? You're straying
off target here pal. Try to stay FOCUSED!
Darth Sidious sez: Ahem...
The Scriptures tell us exactly what God
wants men to know, no more and no less, about future events. "The secret things
belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us
and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deut.
29:29). The Left Behind series go far beyond what the Bible says and
speculate about things God has not said. Revelation 22 warns about adding to or
taking away from the words of God in prophecy. Why would that warning not apply
to the Left Behind series?
Matthew 7:24-27 (Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders)
Add to the list 2nd Samuel 12:1-14 (Nathan's parable of the rich man and the poor man,
to illustrate David's sin with Bathsheba), Jeremiah's many "living parables" and numerous
others throughout the Old and New Testaments. All of these examples and more were
fictional... and the VAST majority of them were spoken of by Jesus Himself!
Matthew 13:1-23 (Parable of the Sower)
Matthew 13:24-30 (Parable of the Weeds)
Matthew 13:31-35 (Parable of the Mustard Seed)
Matthew 13:36-43 (Parable of the Weeds Explained)
Matthew 13:44-46 (Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl)
Matthew 13:47-52 (Parable of the Net)
Matthew 18:10-14 (Parable of the Lost Sheep)
Matthew 18:21-35 (Parable of the Unmerciful Servant)
Matthew 20:1-16 (Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard)
Matthew 21:28-32 (Parable of the Two Sons)
Matthew 21:33-45 (Parable of the Tenants)
Matthew 22:1-14 (Parable of the Wedding Banquet)
Matthew 25:1-13 (Parable of the Ten Virgins)
Matthew 25:14-28 (Parable of the Talents)
Mark 4:1-20 (Parable of the Sower)
Mark 4:26-29 (Parable of the Growing Seed)
Mark 4:30-34 (Parable of the Mustard Seed)
Mark 12:1-12 (Parable of the Tenants)
Luke 6:39-42 (Parable of the Blind Men and the Sawdust)
Luke 6:46-49 (Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders)
Luke 8:1-15 (Parable of the Sower)
Luke 10:25-37 (Parable of the Good Samaritan)
Luke 11:1-13 (Parable of Prayer)
Luke 12:13-21 (Parable of the Rich Fool)
Luke 12:35-47 (Parable of Watchfulness)
Luke 13:1-9 (Parable of the Fig Tree)
Luke 13:18-21 (Parable of the Mustard Seed)
Luke 14:15-24 (Parable of the Great Banquet)
Luke 15:1-7 (Parable of the Lost Sheep)
Luke 15:8-10 (Parable of the Lost Coin)
Luke 15:11-32 (Parable of the Prodigal Son)
Luke 16:1-14 (Parable of the Shrewd Manager)
Luke 16:19-31 (Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus)
Luke 18:1-8 (Parable of the Persistent Widow)
Luke 18:9-14 (Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector)
Luke 20:9-19 (Parable of the Tenants)
Darth Sidious sez: why would this
warning not apply to David Cloud? Why doesn't he keep it in mind... unless he has
been given some special revelation by God that only he is privy to. Else David Cloud
has added to the words of God in prophecy by his numerous assertions
that the Pope is the Biblical antichrist!
One can argue that it is only fiction, but
will the intermingling of Bible truth and fiction not leave wrong impressions in
the minds of people? Will the average reader be able to tell truth from fiction?
Darth Sidious sez: here is
where Cloud goes into what I call "Little Pope" mode. He puts down the "average
reader" and elevates himself above other believers, holding that he and other
"like-minded" "Bible-believing fundamentalist Baptists" are the only ones who can
preach the Word to the unwashed masses. An "average reader" like you or me is
too STUPID to make the synapses click in our puny brains, so we need someone to
not only read the Word, but tell us what the Word means. For such arrogance, Cloud
should be laughed out of town. He's like the Catholic priest of the Dark
Ages who conspired to keep the Bible locked away and out of the common vernacular. It's
for the same reason too: a sense of power and magnitude. Never mind that fiction
like Left Behind has conveyed pure Scripture via
Christian storytelling into the hearts and minds of many people who had previously
never cracked open a Bible. Left Behind should be played to the hilt for opening
those doors... and Cloud would rather shut them?
Darth Sidious sez: preach it,
"Bruddah Cloud!"
Darth Sidious sez:
While it is true that many people will be saved
during the Tribulation (i.e., Revelation 6:11; 7:14), it would appear that these
are people who did not have opportunity to hear the Gospel before the Rapture.
There are multiplied millions of people in the world today who have not heard a
clear and true presentation of the Gospel. While we do not know enough perhaps
to be dogmatic about exactly who will and will not be saved after the Rapture,
it is irresponsible on the part of the Left Behind authors to present a
position on this that at least appears to be directly contrary to 2
Thessalonians 2:8-11. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Y'know, the worst part of me, the part that actually believes this is true, can't help
but think that Cloud wants people to burn in Hell for all eternity. It's verses
like this in the Bible that they will point out with glee far, FAR more than John 3:16,
which illustrate God's love and desire for man to come unto Him with a repentant heart and
be gathered gladly by our Father. THAT has been the whole point of the sad, sordid tale
of our world since the Garden: that man has fallen, but that God has NEVER, EVER stopped
trying to gather man back to Him. That is the love of God, which the law points to and
which was fulfilled and embodied by Jesus Christ. But Cloud ignores that and keeps looking
to the law, which can only judge without compassion. Cloud is delineating a god that
has no compassion whatsoever.
Darth Sidious sez: and this illustrates
the above point beautifully. Cloud holds that his interpretation is the only "clear and
true presentation of the Gospel". His his a shallow gospel, a false one, that does not
give reason to be lived out by faith and love but only to hold to certain "doctrinal
standards" that satisfy his definition of what a "Christian" is supposed to be.
Darth Sidious sez: neither is General
Titus, but the stonework of the Temple was still leveled by his soldiers per Jesus'
prophecy (Luke 21:6) Also, many fundamentalists love to describe Russia as being
the enemy of Israel in the end-times... is this mentioned in the Bible anywhere also?
Darth Sidious sez:
SLANDER ALERT
Buck watched closely as Rayford stopped speaking. He stepped to the side of
the pulpit and gestured at the coffin. "And now," he said, "if I can get through
this, I would like to speak directly to Bruce. You all know that the body
is dead. It cannot hear. But Bruce," he said, raising his eyes, "we thank you. We
envy you. We know you are with Christ, which Paul the apostle says is 'far better.'
If anyone can see a "prayer" in this, an appeal to the dead for divine intervention,
then they are seriously a few cans short of a six-pack.
Darth Sidious sez: This is nowhere to be found on page 232 of "Soul Harvest". You have to keep looking until you find it on page 323 (in the paperback edition anyway).
Darth Sidious sez: this from a guy
who met a girl VERY briefly, one time, then asked her by letter if she would
marry him. From halfway around the world no less. And *nowhere* in his testimony
of this did Cloud mention giving the matter up to prayer or "Bible precepts".
Another example of this is the decision made by two of members
of the "Tribulation Force" to work for the Antichrist, one as his pilot and one
as the head of a news magazine. They question the propriety of their decision,
but they "feel" it is God’s will instead of consulting plain Scripture. One
would think that 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 and Revelation 18:4 would easily have
settled that question. Darth Sidious sez:
Maybe Cloud could show this to them since he'll probably ride out the Tribulation anyway.
Ray and Buck worked for the GC because of the council of their friends and prayer.
And their jobs helped the rest of the force survive and also they got some people saved.
Darth Sidious sez:
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,
but to be in silence. (1 Timothy 2:12)
This can and should be countered with Matthew 12, when Jesus has the disciples
gather the corn on the Sabbath, against the Pharisees' insistence upon scripture. Jesus
asks them if they required healing on the Sabbath, would they not seek healing? Or if a
sheep had fallen into a pit on the Sabbath, would a man not pull it out?
Darth Sidious sez:
Infant baptism is not mentioned anywhere at all in the Left Behind series. Baptism
of any kind is, so far as I know, mentioned only at the beginning of Book #1 of
"Left Behind: The Kids Series" (heh-heh... betcha y'all didn't know there were
kiddie books of this, huh? ;-) How Cloud sees "godmother" and extrapolates
"infant baptism" from that, the world may never know...
Darth Sidious sez: here is where
Cloud TOTALLY loses it. The pope at the time of the Rapture in "Left Behind" was a pope
who had begun instituting reform in the Roman Catholic Church, including the MAJOR
statement that salvation comes through faith, not through works. Cloud was either very
sloppy in his reading or else he's reading a whole 'nother Left Behind series.
Darth Sidious sez: I'm not even going
to bother with the rest of this, because at this point Cloud implodes with all the bombed
fury of a Joel Schumacher "Batman" flick. Cloud goes so far off from his intended topic
(namely, educating us on why the Left Behind books are bad bad bad) and onto his usual
attack on Catholicism. I've written on this site elsewhere: I'm not a Catholic, I'm not
about to become one. This kind of action by Cloud is un-Christlike and shows people
another Jesus, presents another Gospel. In all honesty, Cloud does make some valid
points about the falsehood of a "works-based" salvation. But he destroys any credibility
by presenting his salvation which is, to an outside observer, based in just as much
works (as doctrine) as he demands be given up. What is there left then???
