From time to time, I publish some of the goodies from my interesting mailbox, and many people have told me that they enjoy reading these things. Following are some items from the last couple of months:

  THEY LIKE THE PREACHING   “I was raised in a very rigid catholic religion in the 1940-1950 and I learned only about a God of wrath. At the age of twenty, I quit the Catholic Church because I was unable to observe all their laws. For the next 25 years, I forgot about God. But God never forgot me. Through a long, circuitous and painful road, he led me back to Him, the real God. I am a recent convert to the Baptist faith. I was baptized in September and will now be part of a very small French Baptist church in Canada. What I want to tell you is about your writings on mysticism. You can take the girl out of the Catholic Church, but it is very hard to take the church out of the girl. Until I started reading your books, I never really re-examined what I was taught with my mother's milk. I did not like the Catholic Church but I could not tell you what was wrong with it. To make a long story short, on August the 9th, 2008, I went to a family wedding in a catholic church. Of course, I remained in my pew and did not partake of Communion because I do not believe in it.
But the emotional fervor around me was so strong as to become palpable. And all of a sudden, I was enveloped in a warm sort of embrace that was so powerful and so marvelously pleasant that I was amazed. What is happening? I thought. It got stronger and stronger, and more and more physically enjoyable. My hands, feet, mouth, my whole face started to tingle very pleasurably. I was immensely drawn into that warm, loving, physical feeling. Then I heard myself whisper: Too bad it is not true, it is so pleasant. And then, I came back forcefully to myself and said NO! NO!  And the thing left me. I did not know what it was but I had a strong feeling it was wrong. Since then, I happened to read a book by Roger Oakland, ‘The Eucharistic Jesus,’ where he speaks quite clearly of the end-times delusion of experiential spirituality mentioned in the Bible. And even after it left me, I could feel and almost see that thing around other people in the church who had swallowed their ‘wafer god.’ It is going to be very hard for people who undergo this experience repeatedly to believe it does not come from God. And only the Holy Spirit protecting me allowed me to refuse it. The Lord has protected me all my life, even when I did not belong to Him yet. But my poor, poor family. How I weep for them! And I pray daily that the Lord opens their mind and their heart to His word. But this ‘thing’ is so, so seducing. It will take a mighty wind of the Lord to tear it away from my family. By the way, the Catholic Church calls it an anointing of the Lord. I can it the embrace of Satan. Pray for us, please, I will also pray for you.”
 
“Brother Cloud, again, I want to thank you for another timely article [‘Beware of the Doctrine that Miracles Produce Faith’]. With your name and ministry attached we have copied this article and put it in our tract rack for folks here in one of our churches.”
 
“I am reading your book ‘What Is the Emerging Church’ and find it to be the best documentation around on that timely subject.  I have recommended it to a pastor who had a member of his congregation state that she was confused about all the information out there and wished she could get an ‘Emergent 101’ course to straighten it all out in her mind.  I immediately sent an email to that pastor to recommend your book as the best, if not only, source of COMPLETE information on the Emerging Church. ... I am coming to grips with a lot of issues in my senior years that I didn’t even know actually were issues before I got acquainted with your ministry. I am still in a state of shock!  ... Anyway, whether I agree with you completely or not, you have made a big change in my life and opened up a new plateau in my spiritual growth. God is blessing you richly, I know, for your faithfulness.  I just finished reading your email with messages from some pretty hateful people. My husband used to say ‘every knock is a boost.’ They wouldn't be so angry with you if you weren't ‘getting to them big time.’”
 
“I was brought up in the Catholic religion. I spent five years in a convent as a nun. We had six two-hour sessions, given by a Eudist priest, on the Catholic religion view of the Bible, on the history of the Catholic Church and on the Catholic religion itself, during five years. I would say that your knowledge of the ‘real’ Catholic religion is profound and very realistic. The Catholics, in general, are amazingly ignorant about their own religion. How could they learn anything when in 1959 we were still forbidden to own a Bible? The only things we knew were what the priests told us. I had to buy a Bible to go into the religious order I went to. I bought it in early August and I was told not to open it until the Chaplain in the convent started his Bible lessons in mid-September. I obeyed.  So ingrained was my fear of the Bible that when the parish priest handed me my Bible, my hands were trembling with fear like leaves in the wind. Even today, when dyed-in-the-wool Catholics hear the truth about the historic deals of the Church, they deny it. Very few of those I personally know, including my family members, will bother to check their Bibles, ‘IF’ by any chance they even own one. When one of my seven sisters gets upset by what I tell her about her Church, she runs to the priest who soon has her straightened out. Talk about running to the wolf to get protection! Continue teaching us. You are a breath of fresh air in a world under the embrace of Satan.”
 
“Thanks, Brother Cloud, for your insights. Many of us don't have access to some of the things you report, and are indebted to you for this information. Keep up the good work.”
 
“You hit the nail on the head with this one! [“A.T. Robertson: Evangelical Popularizer of Modern Textual Criticism”] I graduated from Dallas Seminary in 1965. Virtually all of my professors at the Detroit Bible Institute, Moody Bible Institute, Dallas Seminary and finally Grace Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana were persuaded by the subjective textual theories of Westcott and Hort. These included otherwise wonderful and precious men of God such as Stanley Toussaint and S. Lewis Johnson to name but a couple of them. But the main influence I've seen over the years has been the translations used by respected men of God in the pulpits and schools of our land--the NASV, NIV and even some modern paraphrases. The clandestine and pervasive way they have adopted this ungodly treatment of God's word is alarming, and they don't even know or perceive the degree of departure from the original these translations and critical textual editions they have gone.  No wonder the ‘average’ church goer has little or no rationale in his use of the Bible and its contents.”
 
“Thank you for your research on this invaluable topic. [“A.T. Robertson: Evangelical Popularizer of Modern Textual Criticism”] From my perspective dealing with the Spanish Bible, this has been an eye-opener. It reveals the environment in which Honorio Espinoza, one of the revisers of the Reina-Valera 1960, was educated at Southern Seminary just after Robertson died; and the environment in which he also became vice-president of the Baptist World Alliance a few years later. So, thank you for your research.”
 
“I believe the Holy Ghost teaches, enlightens, empowers, convicts only those who serve the Lord in sincerity and truth. I believe the Lord loves those who love Him and seek out His truth! The Holy Ghost is teaching me God's truth through your books! Thank you for being a faithful, humble servant of the Lord!”
 
“We’re so happy to hear that your sermons are on Sermon Audio. This is a tremendous outreach for good sound and solid KJV Bible teaching. Praise God for this tremendous blessing. Praise God that 200,000 messages have already downloaded. May God richly bless you for your faithfulness to God in the Way of Life Ministries during this awful time of Apostasy that has destroyed so many liberal churches. Praise God.”
 
“I recently received your Advanced Bible Study Series edition on Proverbs, which I ordered to help me go through the book of Proverbs with my 14 year-old son, Abel. I decided last summer to go through Proverbs with Abel, a chapter a week, through this school year (we ‘home-school’). We have gone through chapters 1 through 12, but I thought you’d like to know that, after looking over your book, I’ve decided it would be of great value to have him read your commentary on those chapters and go over them a second time. This will also be a very helpful tool for me when my second son, Levi, now 11, reaches the same age. Thank you once again for your faithfulness and diligence in the Lord’s work.”
 
“As a young Christian, I would like to thank Brother Cloud for warning against visualisation because personally, I have struggled with this issue for so long. His article is a wake-up call to reality and much more than that. I think it is a step to eliminate this sort of habit forever. There was this tendency of mine to imagine the scenes from the Bible constantly. At the beginning, I imagined conversations with people being witness to this even though everything was fiction. I could not get away from this thinking, always imagining stuff and creating events. Now I realise the danger that some evil spirits might have taken control of this fantasy of mine. Just a big thank you for warning against it, I really appreciate your ministry very much.”
 
“I just really wanted to thank you for your ‘WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?’ webpage. I've been going back and forth looking in all the right and wrong places trying to find Jesus, and I think I'm finally at the right place. Your site was a great great reference for me to use when comparing viewpoints. Anyways, thanks again and keep up the good work, don't think your work is going unappreciated! Thank you for helping your fellow brother in Christ.”
 
“My husband and I cannot thank you enough for the information we have received from your ministry. We left a Southern Baptist Church that we had attended 28 years, 8 years ago (it seems like yesterday) because of worldliness. We now travel 65 miles one way to an Independent Baptist Church. Needless to say, we were confused and heartbroken.  Your website has helped us tremendously through this trial in our life.”
 
“Thank you very much for your book ‘What is the emerging church?’ I read it with very much interest, but also with astonishment. The emerging characteristics you described are exactly what is happening in Holland, too. I did not know the word emerging until recently, but I am very glad to recognize now the relation between all the things that happen nowadays. Thank you very much for your efforts.”
 
UNLESS I AM MISTAKEN, THESE DON’T LIKE THE PREACHING
 
“hi my name is Danny and im a big fan of the beatles and john lennon. I read your article the evil legacy of John Lennon and i was disgusted to see how you can be. Im sorry sir or mam you have put down so many people I can not begin to tell you how wrong you are about john lennon. So many people look up to this man and you put those people down. You should be ashamed of yourself. John Lennon had a horrible life and im sorry sir that he didnt turn out as perfect as you he had a bad temper. I have read your article over and over again and half of it are LIES. I am a Christian person but you do not know what religion he was that was his personal life and that is none of our buisness. And bravo at the end were you said people gather around and sing the anti christ song. I am mad and not even unleashing my full anger you sir are a discrace and i better not see any more comments this should be no offense taken i am just offended because I have a deep desire for music so i am sorry for my words sir which I did not mean.”
 
“This will be very short. Whatever! So what if they are going to contemporary music!  I listen to contemporary Christian music and I DO NOT believe that I am ‘worldly’.  I believe its how you teach your kids don't let the cd do all the work you need to talk to your kids and STOP being so judgemental that why I am not a part of the Baptist anymore  they are so critical and negative they can not see the good so Whatever! Again”
 
“You make it sound like fishing, hunting, golfing and sports are wrong...are they? What book, chapter, and verse do you find this in? I like to do all of these, yet I serve the Lord diligently. I bet you're one of those sissy preachers who can't get his hands dirty and wouldn't know what to do without the local supermarket or computers. You condemn anything and everything that doesn't interest you, whether it's found in Scripture or not.
Pharisee...Pharisee...Pharisee!!”
 
“I think that you guys are acting like the pharisees. Jesus himself ate with sinners and gave them a message of hope. The way you are treating music tons of people that would respond to gods message for them would not hear it. Did you know that their was a point in time when classical music was thought to be satanic? Did you also know that the music you listen to didn't exist at one point in time? Nothing can be worldly about rhythms because of the way music works. Music is a science and you judging the way you are makes no sense.”
 
“Your views of worship and what it is, and what it isnt are totally STUPID. You know....Before I read these articles today....I had never ever heard of your church, or your website...I ran across it by pure accident...So here is some free advice for you....Instead of moaning and complaining about some one elses church..Work on YOURS. Why dont YOU become light and salt to the world...Become SOMETHING besides a bible thumper!!! Pathetic...You totally sound hateful, jealous, and self judging...but hey...Like you, I have opinions...and that's mine of you....Soooooo Saddddddddddd”
 
“I'am writing to refuted your opinions about Michael Pearl. I assure you that it is possible to live with no sin.  Your arguments are only a cheap excuse to your sinful life. The Bible teaches that without a sinless life you can't be a christian. There are many examples in the Bible of people who commited one single sin and were punished by God with their lives.  God hasn't change and we are not more that those people in the Bible. If you call yourself ‘christian,’ please don't try to make the cross of Christ a day in the beach.”
 
“A spirit of division and therefore of the antichrist is at work in your work. You repudiate Jesus Christ's prayer ‘that all may be one.’ He desires unity among believers - actually He said ‘all’ - and you are committing acts to divide. This is pride of the first order. You will believe what you believe and no one else can be trusted.”
 
“I recently read a publication of some sort on your website, on the subject of the Beatles.  I was struck by the extreme view it presented--that the Beatles were blasphemous, heretic, immoral, and corrupt.  I was also struck by the hatred the author seemed feel not only for the Beatles, but also for all other religions. I am, of course, completely open to other people's views, and have nothing against the Baptist church. I am myself Christian, although not by baptism. However, I have to object to the way in which the article reviled other religions, as well as presenting an incredibly biased view of its subject material. ... I think what the world needs right know is more open-mindedness.  This article actually does your religion a disservice, presenting it as intimidating, single-minded, and unaccepting of other's opinions.  The Beatles were about love and peace, two values which should be promoted, regardless of race or religious background.”
 
A LITTLE FARTHER OUT
 
“I just read your 2001 essay on Jimi Hendrix, and then danced around your site. Wow, you guys are whacked!!!”
 
“If there is a god, I'm certain he's sending your entire extremist congregation to burn for eternity for your intolerance. You are America's religious extremists and it isn't healthy. I'll never allow my children near a place of worship because of people like you.”