DARTH SIDIOUS' TESTIMONY AND FAMILY. In 1995 the young man who would someday be known as "Darth Sidious", through a series of circumstances set into motion by God, found himself at a new college somewhere in the southeastern United States. It was here that for the first time in his life he found people living for Jesus Christ, not because they had to but because they wanted to. It was a far cry from the rigid, loveless fundamentalism he had known for all his life and that had driven him from God ten years earlier. He had spent all those years as an atheist, sometimes outright hating the idea that God would exist. But in college, there were people who were letting Christ have a real presence on campus. "Darth Sidious" accepted Jesus Christ as his own Lord and Savior in 1996 at age 22. He never says that he was "saved": "I have a relationship with Jesus. I put Him first. He leads me in growth in that relationship. Salvation is just something that's encompassed by that, but it is NOT the reason I came to Christ in repentance. I realized that He was Someone I needed because, on my own, I was insufficient to live the life I knew God wanted for me. Do I have salvation? Of course! But I have a relationship with Christ, which is even BETTER!" At present, "Darth Sidious" is single, has a Mom and Dad that he thanks God every day for their love and support, one sister, and more people than he can readily count that God put in his life who readily showed him Christ's love and forgiveness. He counts every person with that presence of Christ in their heart as a brother or sister in Christ.

THE FOUNDING OF WAY OF STRIFE LITERATURE. In 1997, after becoming a Christian, Darth Sidious was directed to the "Way of Life" website. In his seeking out Christian instruction from others, including those on the Internet, it became apparent that Cloud's message was one of the most-cited and most-used... which is a real tragedy because Cloud's is anything BUT the Christian message. His is extreme even for fundamentalism: an unforgiving expectation about an all-forgiving God.

On numerous occassions I wrote to Cloud, always praying first and then letting the words flow out as God put them on my heart. Always, he turned them aside, pointing to his own unflinchingly hardened heart as an authority above that of Christian humbleness. Do I claim humbleness also? No, I don't, but I do admit times of pride in my walk with Christ. It's something that every Christian struggles with. Sadly, Cloud sees his "salvation" (if it's even really there) as proof of his "righteousness" and as carte blanche to write as he sees fit... humbleness be damned! Why do I question his sincere salvation? Because I have a very hard time seeing his words bearing the fruit of the spirit. By his own admission, he doesn't even want his work to be devotional to Christ... instead it's devotional to what can only be called a man-made and man-sustained institution: the local church, for the local church.

To his credit, Cloud does make some good points on a few things. He is admirably against ecumenicalism in a time when Christians should recognize the danger of gathering believers under man instead of under God. Sadly, he negates his warning against ecumenicalism by his promotion of unbiblical "pastoral authority": letting a "pastor" have rule over a congregation instead of the believer being his or her own priest (one of the tenets of New Testament Christianity and the Reformation). In a perfect world, all pastors would guide their congregants with a servant's heart. Cloud's insistence upon his model, however, can only lead to abuse by pastors of the power given them. What's more, nowhere in the New Testament was a church described as having one titular leader. Instead there were church "elders" by one name or another that guided a local church. Cloud doesn't leave any room for that, so blinded by power is he.

Three things in particular had God leading me to take a stand against one of the Internet's biggest false-witnesses. The first was Cloud's un-scriptural insistence that the King James Bible, and only the King James Bible, be used by Christians. Of course, there are some Bibles that have been written for man's sake and not God's, but Cloud has misled countless people with the lie that the New International Version, the New Revised Standard Version, and others are "tools of the devil". "Textus Receptus" is a made-up doctrine: yes, God's Word shall never pass away... but are we to believe that another man's interpretation of that word is supposed to be infallible? Cloud leaves nothing for the individual heart seeking after Christ: it's either his way or none at all. Cloud (and others) are confusing the Word for the words. They don't want to admit that God can and does work through the NIV as much as He can through the KJV.

The second thing was his accusation that someone I happen to know is part of the "ecumenical conspiracy" Cloud madly envisions. If given a choice between who was the more credible "conspiracy theorist", Joe McCarthy or David Cloud, pick McCarthy: history has borne Joe out, while Cloud's shoddy research wouldn't give him passing grade on a high school term paper. Cloud doesn't see anything wrong with blanket accusations against people. In fact, he scours without rest until he finds more: to date he has accused Billy Graham, the Promise Keepers, Dr. James Dobson, Bob Jones University, Mother Teresa, any and every Christian musician that doesn't play "old" stuff, everyone Catholic, everyone Methodist, everyone who's any other denomination other than his brand of "fundamental independent Baptist", all Pentecostals/Charismatic, etc. as belonging to Satan and his minion the Antichrist (in Cloud's mindset, this happens to be whichever pope is in the Vatican at present). It's as if the more people Cloud slanders, the more he's trying to be perceived as credible. He's like Oliver Jones from the classic "Bloom County" strip: the louder he yells, the more believable he thinks he is. But that doesn't give him a license to slander people without reason. Cloud has plenty of slander, and little reason... or none at all. He should be ridiculed for such.

The third reason made me realize that Cloud, if not someone who's terribly lost and confused, is nothing less than a mouthpiece for Satan. He accused the people who led me to Christ as being un-Christian. That's when the gloves came off: Cloud is a proud-hearted man who sits on high. He's glorified himself on a pedestal... and he needs to be taken off, lest God knock him down into Hell. Can I break a man's heart? No. And I do not seek to return evil for evil. But I can ridicule Cloud just as he has ridiculed others: not for evil, but to illustrate his hypocrisy. I confess that this isn't the most sublime way to counter someone... but it is the one God has given me that I know how to best use: the weapon of parody. If parody is what it takes to wake someone up, I'm all for it. Am I a foolish man? Of course! But God has chosen the foolish things to humble the proud :-)

And so, Way Of Strife Literature was born. Our purpose is that, every time David Cloud publishes something on his page that requires countenance, we will counter it (notice how I say "we" and "our" just as Cloud says "we" and "our". He's just one man, not a whole staff. If "they" can say it, so can "we"!) We will respond with reason, with dignity, and most of all, with prayer. We aren't here to create strife: our name is really about what Cloud's ministry is all about... making strife and division and trying to get away with it. Well, we aren't going to let him. We are here to demonstrate that you can serve Christ with boldness and humility... both of which I will do my best to strive for in serving Him.

WAY OF STRIFE LITERATURE
DarthSidious@fanforce.net