David W. Cloud (born 1949) is an American

Independent Baptist Independent Baptist churches (also called Independent Fundamental Baptists or IFB) are Christian congregations that generally hold to fundamentalist or conservative views of Evangelical Christianity and Baptist beliefs, such as believer's bapti ...

missionary, pastor, publisher, and writer. He is also the founder and director of Way of Life Literature and the editor of the magazine ''O Timothy''.

Personal life

David Cloud was born in 1949 and grew up in a Christian home in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. However, he turned away from Christianity during his teenage years, becoming a heavy drinker and served in the

Vietnam war The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

from 1969 to 1970. In 1973, he became a born-again Christian and attended

Tennessee Temple University Tennessee Temple University was a private Christian university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Temple Baptist Seminary was the university's graduate school of Christian theology, also operating in Chattanooga. The university merged ...

Career

David Cloud graduated from Tennessee Temple Bible School in 1977, where he started his ministry, and eventually became involved with missionary work in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. Cloud has criticized Baptist churches abandoning their denominational label in favor of being

nondenominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. The term has been used in the context of various faiths, including Jainism, Baháʼí Faith, Zoro ...

. He is a strong advocate of separationism and teaches secondary separation. He has criticized

Highland Park Baptist Church Highland Park Baptist Church was a prominent Independent Baptist church in the Highland Park neighborhood of Chattanooga, Tennessee. During the four-decade pastorship of Dr. Lee Roberson, it was a center of the Independent Baptist movement and b ...

in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Paul Chappell's church for not being strict enough on separation. In 2003, when fundamentalist Baptists formed the International Baptist Network, attempting to unite Independent Baptists, David Cloud alongside other strict separationists strongly criticized the idea. Cloud has also critiqued Clarence Sexton's Independent Baptist Friends International for its ecumenism between Independent Baptists and

Southern Baptists The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestant, and the second-largest Ch ...

. Cloud has criticized

Jack Hyles Jack Frasure Hyles (September 25, 1926 – February 6, 2001) was a leading figure in the Independent Baptist movement, having pastored the First Baptist Church of Hammond in Hammond, Indiana, from August 1959 until his death. He was well known fo ...

, a prominent Independent Baptist pastor, for creating a

cultic Cult is the care (Latin: '' cultus'') owed to deities and their temples, shrines, or churches; cult is embodied in ritual and ceremony. Its presence or former presence is made concrete in temples, shrines and churches, and cult images, including ...

church and supported Robert Sumner’s reports of sexual scandals against Hyles. Cloud has strongly criticized Neo-Evangelicalism, the

Charismatic movement The charismatic movement in Christianity is a movement within established or mainstream denominations to adopt beliefs and practices of Charismatic Christianity, with an emphasis on baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the use of spiritual gift ...

Contemporary Christian Music Contemporary Christian music (CCM), also known as Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music, is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christianity, Chri ...

, and

Calvinism Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyteri ...

. Cloud has also critiqued the

Left Behind series ''Left Behind'' is a multimedia franchise of Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, apocalyptic fiction written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, released by Tyndale House, Tyndale House Publishers from 1995 to 2007. The bestselling premi ...

for perceived

ecumenism Ecumenism ( ; alternatively spelled oecumenism)also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalismis the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships ...

Beliefs

King James Onlyism

David Cloud is King James only, often drawing on the arguments of Edward F. Hills, and asserts that the King James Bible should not be viewed simply as a translation of the Greek and Hebrew texts, instead he regards it as an independent variation of the

Textus Receptus The (Latin for 'received text') is the succession of printed Greek New Testament texts starting with Erasmus' ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) and including the editions of Robert Estienne, Stephanus, Theodore Beza, Beza, the House of Elzevir ...

, rendered in English rather than Greek, and providentially preserved as the purest form of the Textus Receptus. Cloud has criticized the Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary,

Bob Jones University Bob Jones University (BJU) is a private university in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. It is known for its Conservatism in the United States, conservative and Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical cultural and religious posit ...

, and

Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Minneapolis Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Minneapolis is an Independent Baptist seminary in Plymouth, Minnesota. The seminary moved from Minneapolis to its present location in 1996. Accreditation Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Minneap ...

for convincing some Independent Baptist groups to adopt modern Bible translations. Nevertheless, he has critiqued the more extreme positions of Gail Riplinger and

Peter Ruckman Peter Sturges Ruckman (November 19, 1921 – April 21, 2016) was an American Independent Baptist pastor, author, Bible teacher, and founder of the Pensacola Bible Institute in Pensacola, Florida (not to be confused with the Pensacola Christian ...

, rejecting their claims that even the smallest change on the spelling of the King James would change a God-ordained illustration. Riplinger attempted to respond to him in her book ''Blind Guides.''

Prayer

David Cloud has criticized

mystical Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight ...

and contemplative prayer practices, seeing them as

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and contradicting the sufficiency of scripture. Cloud has also critiqued the

Sinner's prayer The Sinner's prayer (also called the Consecration prayer and Salvation prayer) is a Christian term referring to any prayer of repentance, prayed by individuals who feel sin in their lives and have the desire to form or renew a personal relation ...

as unscriptural and calling it "quick prayerism".

Triadology

David Cloud is a

Trinitarian The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three ...

, arguing against the doctrines of

Modalism Modalistic Monarchianism, also known as Modalism or Oneness Christology, is a Christian theology upholding the unipersonal oneness of God while also affirming the divinity of Jesus. As a form of Monarchianism, it stands in contrast with Dynamic M ...

and

Arianism Arianism (, ) is a Christology, Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is co ...

among others. However, he rejects the usage of verses such as Psalm 2:7 to establish the doctrine of

eternal generation of the Son The eternal generation of the Son is a Trinitarian doctrine, which is defined as a necessary and eternal act of God the Father, in which he generates (or begets) God the Son through communicating the whole divine essence to the Son. Generation is ...

, and has argued that each of the persons of the Trinity have their own center of consciousness and voltion. He also affirms the doctrine of the

eternal subordination of the Son Eternal functional subordination (EFS) or Eternal subordination of the Son (ESS) is a Trinitarian doctrine among some New Calvinist theologians that proposes a hierarchy within the trinity. In this view, though the Son is ontologically equal to th ...

Other beliefs

David Cloud holds to a dispensational approach to the Bible and is thus

premillennial Premillennialism, in Christian eschatology, is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the Earth (the Second Coming) before the Millennium, heralding a literal thousand-year messianic age of peace. Premillennialism is based upon a liter ...

and pretribulational in his eschatology and rejects

replacement theology Supersessionism, also called replacement theology by its detractors and fulfillment theology by its proponents, is the Christian theology, Christian doctrine that the Christian Church has superseded the Israelites, Jewish people, assuming Jews a ...

, the notion of the Church replacing Israel. He adheres to the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer He is a

young earth creationist Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between about 10,000 and 6,000 years ago, contradicting established ...

and opposes evolution. He holds to the tenets of

Baptist successionism Baptist successionism (or Baptist perpetuity) is a controversial theory on the origins of the Baptist tradition. The theory postulates an unbroken lineage of churches (since the days of John the Baptist or the Book of Acts) which have held beliefs ...

but rejects Baptist Brider theology or “Landmarkism”.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cloud, David W. 1949 births Living people 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century Baptist ministers from the United States