The Cloud family, David and his wife Linda and their children, Jyoti, Christopher, Jonathan, and Cathy. (click for a larger image)

Way of Life Literature - About the Editor

"My Tongue Is The Pen"
Testimony Of A Fundamental Baptist Author

By David W. Cloud (From O Timothy magazine, Volume 11, Issue 4, 1994.)

Contents:

Salvation--"He Set My Feet Upon a Rock"

God's Call--"My Tongue is The Pen of a Ready Writer"

A Helpmeet--"A Prudent Wife is From The Lord"

Bible Study--"Study to Shew Thyself Approved Unto God"

Practical Experience--"Make Full Proof of Thy Ministry"

Way of Life Literature, Nepal-- "Reproofs of Instruction Are The Way of Life"

Way of Life Literature--States

O Timothy Magazine--"Keep That Which is Committed to Thy Trust"

Research Into Christendom--"Go In, and Behold the Wicked Abominations That They Do Here"

I often get inquiries as to our background and testimony. The Lord is blessing O Timothy these days; it is going farther and farther afield, and it frequently finds its way into the hands of men and women who know absolutely nothing us. Thus I have decided to print our testimony in this issue. The next time someone asks for my background, I will simply send them this issue. It certainly will save a lot of letter writing! The following testimony was written to appear in our new Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible and Christianity.

I grew up in a Christian home, but being the foolish boy that I was, I hardened my heart against God and His Word and went out into the world. I attended business college in Jacksonville, Florida, then was drafted and spent a year and a half serving in a non-combat role in Vietnam. Upon discharge I adopted a hippy lifestyle and bummed around the country until the summer of 1973. My parents and grandmother were praying for me, and the Lord had mercy upon me that summer. I met a Christian man while traveling near Miami, Florida, and we spent three days together discussing the Bible.

I was arguing against it's authenticity, and he was simply quoting the Old Book to me! What do you do with someone who does not believe the Bible? Quote Bible to him. It worked. At the end of that intensive Bible course, in a motel room in Daytona Beach, Florida, I repented of my sin and yielded my life to Jesus Christ. God granted me repentance to the acknowledging of my sin and error, and I was soundly converted.

GOD'S CALL--"MY TONGUE IS THE PEN OF A READY WRITER"

I immediately began an earnest study of the Word of God, and probably spent an average of eight or more hours a day searching the Scriptures that first year. I moved back home and got a job operating an offset printing press.

Something that was a burden with me from the time of my conversion was writing. I had not been a writer before that, but I found myself writing down everything I was learning from the Scriptures. Soon I began writing Gospel pamphlets and other little booklets and the boss at work allowed me to use the press during my lunch hours. Thus I began a small Christian printing ministry the first year I was saved. My writings weren't very good in those days, but I was writing!

A verse that has meant a lot to me is Psalm 45:1, the latter part of which says, "... my tongue is the pen of a ready writer." I know that God has given me a pen through which I am to preach His Word. My pen is a tongue.

I fear that many fundamental Baptists do not understand the value of the printed page, but Literature, dear friends, is VERY powerful. I recall a Baptist preacher in a fellowship meeting who said, "We don't need more books; we need more preaching." (Bless his heart, I guess he was saying that for my sake, since I was the only one there with a book table!) Tell me, what does he think our books are if not preaching? I preach more widely through my books than that fellow has ever thought of preaching with his one mouth!

A Christian book preaches. It can preach truth, and it can preach error, but one way or the other, it preaches. God understands its value. He wrote a Book! The devil also understands the value of books! Imagine a man who preaches out of a Book saying we don't need books! Strange thinking.

I've heard other men say something to the effect, "I don't need commentaries and books; I just need the Bible." Fine, I will be the first to admit that the Bible must be THE Book in a man's life, but the fact is that God has given preachers and teachers to instruct us in the Word of God. Is that fellow going to say that he doesn't need a teacher? No, but this same fellow who sits under preaching and teaching and benefits from it, scoffs at the value of that same type of preaching and teaching when it is written in a book. Strange thinking.

A HELPMEET--"A PRUDENT WIFE IS FROM THE LORD"

A year later I attended Tennessee Temple Bible School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I met my future wife. About six weeks after I arrived at school, a friend took me along with him to visit a chapel in the mountains about an hour from Chattanooga. I met a girl named Linda that day, and learned that she was preparing to go to Nepal to work in a missionary hospital. We got to know one another only briefly and had no dates or anything like that, and six weeks later she flew to Nepal via her home in Alaska. We had a lot of mutual friends, though, and after corresponding for a year, I wrote and asked her to marry me. She said yes, but, though I waited on pins and needles, I never received that particular letter. It was lost in the uncertain mails between Nepal and the States. I finally learned from my grandmother in Florida that we were engaged to be married. Linda had also written to my grandmother! She returned from Nepal in the summer of 1976. We had been engaged six months before we had our first actual date! We were married six weeks later on August 13 of that year.

I graduated with highest honors from Bible School in 1977, and in July of that year we had our first child, Jyoti Estelle. Jyoti is a Nepali name which means "light." The next year we began our deputation to go to the land of Nepal. I could not have completed the will of God without the wonderful helpmeet God has given me in my dear wife. She is a godly wife and a priceless heritage from the Lord.

BIBLE STUDY--"STUDY TO SHEW THYSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD"

I have been an intense student of the Word of God from the day I was saved.

For these past 20 years I have studied the Bible and related subjects probably an average of six hours a day. Many months, that average would have been 10 hours. I have built up a good library of Bible research tools, AND I HAVE USED THEM. There is a difference between having books and using them! I have sought to CAPTURE the knowledge of the Word of God by diligent application. I didn't just go to Bible school; I captured Bible School! I was really so busy studying the Word of God and pursuing my own various courses of research during Bible School that I almost didn't have time to do my assignments. They were much more basic than what I was doing on my own. A few times when I handed in assignments, my teachers asked me where I got the material. I had gotten it out of the Word of God, but they thought I was plagiarizing!

The Bible says, "... if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; THEN shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God" (Prov. 2:1-5). I have done this. I am not trying to brag. It's just a fact. Anyone who knows me well, would testify to this.

Let me give a couple of examples of the type of study I accomplished even in those early Christian years. During my Bible school years, I wrote three major books. One was accepted by a major Baptist press a year after I graduated. Also during the Bible school years I developed a card catalog system to capture information relating to the Bible. By the time we started deputation in 1978 that card system contained roughly 10,000 index cards. I had to leave all of those cards behind when we traveled to Asia, but the fruit of that laborious research I carried with me in my heart and mind.

While in Nepal I developed a three-year Bible school curriculum which we used in training men for the ministry in the church we started there. That included a 250-page course on Bible Prophecy, a 600-page course on the Church, a 200-page course on Doctrine, a 500-page course on Cults and False Teaching, a 200-page Survey of the Bible, a 200-page course on the Ecumenical Movement, and a 250-page course on Bible Versions. The heart of much of that curriculum appears in the new Encyclopedia.

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE--"MAKE FULL PROOF OF THY MINISTRY"

I have served the Lord in many positions. I served as a pastor during most of my years of Bible schooling, and I was elected as a deacon in the little church where I started my Christian life. (I wasn't very successful in either!) In February 1979, we arrived in the country of Nepal, home of Mt. Everest, where we spent an amazing ten years in a pioneering type church planting ministry. There we established the KATHMANDU BAPTIST CHURCH--the first Baptist church to be planted in that land. During our years in Nepal, it was illegal to preach the Gospel or to baptize. The country is a Hindu kingdom and the state religion, Hinduism, was protected by the government.

Not only were the living conditions difficult in that very backward land, but we had to work under the stress of an oppressive political climate. A number of the men in our church spent time in jail during our years there, and I was threatened with jail from time to time and had to go into hiding.

The load of fear and uncertainty under which we worked was very difficult, but the ministry was blessed of the Lord and was intensely rewarding. In 1989 we were forced to leave Nepal because of a change in visa laws which made it impossible for us to stay. We ordained U.J. Gurung to be the pastor of that church. He had been in training for that position for a number of years. We started out in the ministry in Nepal completely alone, but by 1989 there were three men and families working with us in addition to the national church members. All who were not citizens of Nepal were forced to leave when we did. One family returned to Canada; one went back to Switzerland; one went to Thailand.

We returned to our home church in Washington. Since then the Kathmandu Baptist Church has grown and become firmly established. The congregation raised the funds and built its own two-story building in 1992-93. The pastor and several full-time workers are supported by the tithes and offerings of the people. They operate a Bible school, publish a Nepali Christian magazine, and have started 10 different missions and churches. By the way, today Nepal enjoys full religious liberty. The government was overthrown in 1991 and replaced with a democratic system. They still have a king, but he is more of a figurehead today. The new constitution granted freedom of religion, and the 200 or so Christians who were in jail at the time were all released. There was literally dancing in the streets. A great harvest of souls has been brought into the churches in that land ever since.

WAY OF LIFE LITERATURE, NEPAL --"REPROOFS OF INSTRUCTION ARE THE WAY OF LIFE"

One of the things that impressed me when I arrived in Nepal was the lack of Bible study materials. The first book we published there was a topical research handbook. It was printed in a hardback edition and is still used in that land. Through the years there I had a number of books translated and published in the Nepali language, as well as in two other languages of that part of the world--Ao and Tibetan. We printed roughly 25 books in four languages during our years in Nepal. We also operated a Gospel correspondence school and distributed thousands of materials through that.

The name Way of Life Literature is from a verse in Proverbs that spoke to me during my daily study of that book in my early Christian years--"For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life" (Pr. 6:23). Our pampered, self-esteem-driven, relativistic generation does not understand that the true way of God is through REPROOFS of instruction--the preaching of the Word of God which guides in the one right way and which corrects every tendency to err out of that one right way. True Bible love corrects and warns and reproves. "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes" (Pr. 13:24). We could paraphrase this, "He that refuses to preach the negatives of the Bible hateth his flock: but he that loveth them chasteneth them betimes."

WAY OF LIFE LITERATURE--STATES

In 1983, during a brief visit to the States, the Lord opened a wonderful door for us to start Way of Life Literature in America. I was checking into having a book on rock music printed by offset press, but found that I could not afford it. After leaving one commercial print shop disappointed because of the fact that I could not afford to have the book printed, I drove a couple of blocks away and parked the car under a large tree. I wept before the Lord and asked Him why it was that I couldn't have access to the type of equipment that was being used in that worldly printing establishment.

"Lord, they are using those typesetters and presses merely to make money; they print all sorts of ungodly things; please, open a door for me to have that type of equipment to preach of Word of God." That was in North Carolina. The very next Sunday I was visiting a supporting church in Brooksville, Florida, and I was introduced to a Christian man who operated a commercial print shop. He opened his shop up to me and allowed me to print the first U.S. Way of Life titles. After the shop was closed to the public each evening, we brought in a team of helpers from the church and worked most of the night. My prior experience in printing paid off. This kind brother even donated all of the materials. We printed about 15 titles on that trip in a three-week period, plus the first Way of Life Literature catalog. I returned to Nepal, and friends in that church carried on the ministry and filled the orders which came in from the little bit of advertising we could do. One of those early books that was distributed widely and was particularly well received was Mom and Dad Sleep While the Children Rock in Satan's Cradle. It was used in many youth groups and Christian schools. We still publish this, but the more recent title is Rocking in Satan's Cradle. Eventually Way of Life was moved to Texas for a short time, then to Washington state in 1987.

I wish I had time to tell of all the miracles the Lord has accomplished in establishing Way of Life. Let me share just one experience. In 1985 I was seeking the Lord's will about where in the U.S. to put the Way of Life base--in what church. The situation in Florida was temporary, and I had to make some decisions about the future of that ministry. I determined to fly to the States from Nepal and make a four-week survey trip across the country to seek the Lord's direction for Way of Life in America. I decided to fly to Florida, take care of some business there, then drive from coast to coast to speak with pastors about the things that were on my heart. The Bible says,

"Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established," and "in the multitude of counsellors there is safety (Prov. 11:14; 15:22).

It seemed to be a good plan, and I was convinced it was the Lord's will. There were a couple of little problems, though. First, I did not have enough money even to fly to Florida; second, I did not have a car in which to drive across the States even if I could get to Florida. We had sold our car when we first went to Nepal. I decided to go ahead with the trip anyway. I spent all my money and bought an air ticket to New York City. That is a long way from Florida, but it is as far as I could get. I was certainly curious about what the Lord was going to do, because I didn't know anyone in New York City! On the Bangladesh Biman flight (don't ever fly this airline if you can help it) from Dhaka to London the plane developed engine trouble and had to dump its fuel and return to Dubai, in the middle east. There we sat for hours while Bangladesh Biman tried to find another plane or fix that one. They don't have a lot of extra planes. Anyway, we finally got on our way hours later, but we arrived in London so late that I missed my connecting flight to New York. The airline put me up in a hotel in London, and the next morning I got on another flight to the States. On the flight from London to New York I started up a conversation with the gentleman sitting beside me, and I learned that he was returning to the States from a visit to a printing convention in Germany.

He owned a commercial print shop, and he was a Christian. We had a good conversation, and as we were approaching New York I saw him signing some traveler's checks. He then gave them to me and said he wanted to help me. I think it was $300. I had not even hinted to him of my predicament! When we landed, I called a pastor in upper state New York who had written a book that I had appreciated. We had never met, but he knew of me because of a couple of my books that he had read, and as soon as I talked with him on the phone he invited me to come to his church that weekend and preach. Remember, I had never met this fellow before, and I had not written to tell him that I was coming to the States. He had no forewarning of my call. I took the $300 I had just received from the printer and bought a seat on a commuter flight to upper state New York, where I preached at this man's church and received a very generous love offering. I think it was $500 or $600. Anyway, it was enough to purchase a ticket to Florida! When I arrived in Brooksville, Florida, the next day, I began to take care of some business associated with the printing ministry there. The next day, while I was working in the print shop, one of the church members came in and asked me to come outside with him. He showed me a beautiful late model station wagon and asked me if it would be suitable for my proposed trip across the States. I said, "Indeed, it would, but I don't have any money." He said, "No problem, it is yours," and he gave me the keys. He also paid for the title and bought me some insurance! So within about a week of leaving Nepal I was on my way across the States in my lovely new luxury automobile, taking care of the Lord's business. We have many, many stories similar to this that we could share from our years of deputation and ministry in Nepal and with the literature outreach. The Lord is very faithful.

O TIMOTHY MAGAZINE--"KEEP THAT WHICH IS COMMITTED TO THY TRUST"

Every three months we had to leave Nepal to renew our visas, and during those frequent trips to other countries in Asia (India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Singapore, Burma), I met many preachers in that part of the world. As my view of the condition of Christianity in Asia broadened, I became increasingly burdened about the fact that there was so little in the way of an unhesitatingly fundamental, Bible preaching voice. There was some fundamentalism, some solid Bible Christianity, BUT NOT MUCH! In 1984, after much prayer and many tears, I began the publication of a fundamental magazine geared especially toward preachers in Asia. I did not have the money to accomplish such an endeavor. We were very poor and had a small support base, but I stepped out by faith and printed the first edition, trusting the Lord to carry it along.

The title was taken from 1 Timothy 6:20--"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to the trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called." Paul's burden for the preacher Timothy was that he hold fast to apostolic doctrine and AVOID every false teaching. This was our burden for preachers in Asia. The Lord blessed, and within a year we were publishing that magazine in two languages in India. This magazine is now in its 11th year of publication, and has been well received in many parts of the world and articles are regularly reprinted in dozens of other publications.

RESEARCH INTO CHRISTENDOM--"GO IN, AND BEHOLD THE WICKED ABOMINATIONS THAT THEY DO HERE"

During our years in Nepal, I met Christians from every sort of background. Very few fundamentalists have had a greater opportunity to rub shoulders with those outside of our persuasion as I had during those years. Many were ecumenical or modernistic or committed to all sorts of other unbiblical doctrines and programs. In trying to challenge these people with the truth of the Word of God, I found that it was essential that I document everything I said. I could not speak in generalities. I had to quote chapter and verse. If I said infant baptism was wrong, I had to prove it. If I said the church is to be central to the fulfillment of the Great Commission, I had to prove it. If I said that Billy Graham was wrong or Campus Crusade was wrong or Youth With A Mission was wrong or Wycliffe Bible Translators were wrong, I had to give the exact details. If I made a charge against the United Bible Societies or the World Council of Churches, I had to document it. Otherwise, I would be speaking to no avail.

I found that I could not depend on my faulty memory, and I was not satisfied with much of the reporting I had read from fundamental Baptist publications.

Thus I began diligently researching and collecting information to document everything I stood for. I also needed to answer the questions of the many readers of our publications in that part of the world. We were receiving dozens of letters per week. I wanted my answers to be based, as much as possible, on firsthand documentation of the relevant sources, not from hearsay or secondhand reports. Thus I began to obtain the materials from the World Council of Churches, the charismatic movement, the denominations, the national ecumenical associations, the parachurch organizations, and the international new evangelical ministries. I began to capture relevant facts into a database so I could have access to it for research purposes. Today that database contains roughly 50,000 pages of information which has been culled from this research over years--and it is growing rapidly. I can put my hands on the facts, and that was my goal.

One passage which spoke powerfully to me when I first began this type of research was Ezekiel chapters 8-11. God's people had apostasized from the faith, and God instructed the prophet, "Son of man, dig now in the wall ... Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. ... Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man" (Eze. 8:8,9; 11:4). Ezekiel was to observe exactly what the apostates were doing and he was to reprove their evil doings. The circumstances within Christendom in these last hours are exactly parallel to those days in Israel. Most of that which calls itself Christian is apostate. Christian leaders have rejected the Word of God and are believing and doing every sort of evil thing. I intend to expose it. I WILL NOT keep my mouth shut in the face of the corruption of the faith once delivered to the saints. I WILL earnestly contend for that faith. I WILL!

I don't care how despised I am by the apostates and by their sympathizers or how unpopular I am with that crowd. I have faced their wrath and scorn for two decades and I intend, by the good grace of God, to keep on keeping on. I have been slandered across South Asia. I have been grossly lied about by Bible Society leaders. I have been featured as a cult in denominational papers in India. I have been the object of vicious gossip. My motives have been impugned. I have been ostracized. And me such a nice guy! So be it. That is what we can expect in light of Christ's warnings. He said we will suffer. He also said He would be with us, that He would help us, and He has, praise His name! I have been hated, but I have also been loved. I want to stand before Him and hear, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Those seven words are more important to me than all the accolades of Christendom multiplied by ten billion.

In gathering the facts, I have interviewed many Christian leaders of widely varying positions. Leaders in the Bible Societies; leaders in parachurch organizations; professors in liberal Bible colleges; men who have written important books on many subjects. We interviewed a nun who works with Mother Teresa, as well as the head of the seminary which William Carey started in India. I have also attended a number of ecumenical conferences, some with press credentials, in order to give firsthand reports. I have written roughly 125 books and booklets on a broad range of subjects, and those books have been well received in many parts of the world. Also I have traveled almost continually for 15 years. I have traveled completely or almost completely around the world 21 times and visited 18 countries, (not counting stopovers!). I have had access to important libraries and out of print books and a wealth of information because of these travels. It is this type of research into the Bible and Christendom that lies behind the preparation of the Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible and Christianity.

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