Updated December 1, 2008 (first published June 21, 2006) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -
Hello, friends. I have been writing books since 1973 and have been receiving letters from readers ever since. Until a few years ago I tried to answer every piece of communication that included a question, unless it was merely an angry “hit piece.”
In 1993, the Way of Life web site became active and e-mail came into play. Since then the amount of communication I receive has increased dramatically and there is no end in sight.
In 2001, we returned to the mission field in Asia and are continuing the church planting ministry we began in 1979. I also travel three or four months out of the year on preaching and research trips to many parts of the world. All of this is in addition to researching and writing O Timothy magazine every month and Friday Church News Notes every week and the several new books we publish each year through Way of Life Literature and new volumes of the Advanced Bible Studies Series (19 of them since 2002) and new and updated articles for the Fundamental Baptist Information Service (about 200 per year) and many other things.
What I am saying is that I just don’t have time to answer all of the questions that people want to ask me these days via e-mail. To do so would detract from other things that I feel are more important.
The Fundamental Baptist Information Service is not an answer-on-demand or research-on-request service. I am not the fundamentalist “Bible Answer Man”!
I could easily spend four and more hours every day answering questions.
I have supplied God’s people with a lot of information that is freely available on the Web site. The answers to vast numbers of questions can be found in the more than 3,000 articles there.
We also publish the much larger Fundamental Baptist CD Library, which is available from Way of Life Literature and is a resource that you can have at your own fingertips. It contains 100,000 pages of information in 6,000 books and articles. It is a contemporary church issues research library, a Bible Encyclopedia, a preacher’s information database, a church directory, a Baptist history library, a Bible Version library, and much more. This is not merely a batch of material thrown on a CD. Everything in this electronic library is carefully selected to be of benefit to a fundamentalist in his Christian life and ministry. The vast majority of this information is unique to the Fundamental Baptist CD-ROM Library and cannot be obtained from any other source.
Answers to multitudes of questions about Christian music or the Bible version-text issue or ecumenicalism or the church or alleged contradictions in the Bible and countless other subjects can be found in my books and video presentations. See the online catalog for a listing.
Many of our books provide virtual libraries of answers to questions. These include the Bible Version Question-Answer Database, Things Hard to Be Understood: A Handbook of Biblical Difficulties, Contemporary Christian Music: Some Questions Answered, The Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity, Dressing for the Lord (it includes a lengthy section answering 36 questions on that subject), Evangelicals and Rome (a virtual database of popular evangelicals and their ecumenical relationships), Judge Not: Is It Legalism to Judge Sin and Error (this book contains answers to 21 of the most common charges brought against a strict fundamentalist approach to Christianity), The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: The History and Error (a huge collection of information on the men and organizations and doctrines of this movement), The Modern Bible Version Hall of Shame (this book contains information on practically every textual critic and modern Bible translation of any note),
When it comes to questions on church history, massive resources are available. There is the Advanced Bible Studies Series course “A History of the Churches from a Baptist Perspective.” There is the book Rome and the Bible. There is the huge electronic Church History Database that is part of the Fundamental Baptist CD Library.
When it comes to doctrinal and Bible questions there is the 6000-entry Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity. There is also the Advanced Bible Studies Series (Acts, Bible History and Geography, First Corinthians, The Four Gospels, Genesis, Give Attendance to Doctrine, Hebrews, How to Study the Bible, The New Testament Church, The Pastoral Epistles, Proverbs, Psalms, Revelation, Romans, and Understanding Bible Prophecy).
I can say right up front that if you write and ask me about this or that author or speaker or this or that organization or this or that movement, you probably will not get a reply. If I have written on that particular thing, the report can be found at the Web site or the Fundamental Baptist CD Library, both of which have search engines. If I haven’t written on that particular thing, it is exceedingly doubtful that I will give you a private report statement.
I can also say that if you write to ask me to read some article or web site page and reply about it, 999 times out of 1000 you will not get a reply.
Also, if you write to ask me to give my opinion about what is going on in church, it is very doubtful that you will get a reply. I have learned that when I try to deal with such things with complete strangers and I don’t have the whole story but only their side of it, I am not only wasting my time but am positively wrong in getting involved.
Please understand that I’m not saying don’t write. I still reply to many of the e-mails that I receive, and you are welcome to write.
I sincerely wish I could help everyone, but the reality is that I only reply as I have time and as the Lord leads.
You must understand that you will not necessarily receive any sort of reply, not even a confirmation of receipt.
And writing repeatedly with the same question will not increase your chance of receiving a reply!
Yours in Christ,
A very busy but grateful and satisfied and excited in the Lord
Brother Cloud