False teachers are 'clouds without water' because they offer the appearance of spiritual refreshment, but they dissolve into nothing.
In Jude 12 they are described as clouds 'carried about of winds' — visible but rainless. Les Feldick illustrates this with a 1930s drought: a small black cloud raised hopes of even a drop of rain, then disappeared without a drop. In the same way, false teachers get people emotionally stirred but leave the inner person dry.
Jude 1:12 — Jude directly compares false teachers to waterless clouds that are blown about by winds and produce no fruit.
Jude 1:12 says false teachers are 'clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.' The picture is of something that looks like it should bring rain but produces none. Jude 1:8 calls them 'filthy dreamers' who 'defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities,' and Jude 1:10 says 'these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.' 2 Peter 2:13 says that while they feast with believers they are 'spots' and 'blemishes' who 'sport themselves with their own deceivings.'
Les Feldick ties the phrase directly to his childhood in the 1930s Dust Bowl: farmers were desperate for rain, and a tiny black cloud would appear and grow, only to vanish without a drop. He says false teachers are exactly that kind of cloud — they 'get people pumped up' and make them think they are 'really getting into something,' but it never satisfies 'that inner longing, that inner peace.' Rather than bringing refreshing truth, they deliver empty promises. Les connects this to Paul's statement about those who 'corrupt or hawk the Word of God as an adulterated product.' These teachers mix paganism with biblical truth — what Scripture calls spiritual adultery — and they can be so deceptive that they 'creep in unawares' into local churches. Because their thinking never rises above the natural, animal level, they corrupt themselves even while they appear to offer something spiritual.
Les grew up during the hot, dry years of the 1930s over most of the Middle West. He describes his dad seeing a little tiny black cloud and hoping it would produce even a drop of rain. The cloud sometimes grew large, then suddenly disappeared — 'poof, it was gone.' Les says that is exactly what false teachers are like: they get people excited and make them think they are getting something real, but they never satisfy 'that inner longing, that inner peace.'
Les says false teachers can come into a local church and be so deceptive that the average church member does not know what they are doing. He points to Jude's language that they 'crept in unawares' and are 'spots in your feasts of charity' while they feast with believers. They also appeal to seeking minds — Les tells of a former New Age follower who said the movement 'just sucks you in.'
According to the Scripture Les cites, false teachers produce no lasting spiritual fruit. Jude says their fruit 'withereth' and they are 'twice dead, plucked up by the roots.' Les adds that instead of satisfying the inner person, their teaching disappears like a cloud, leaving nothing. Because their thinking is no deeper than an animal's, they corrupt themselves in what they know naturally.
False Teachers Hawk an Adulterated Product
Les connects Paul's statement about those who corrupt or hawk the Word of God with Jude's description of false teachers as filthy dreamers who defile the flesh.
A 1930s Cloud Without Water
Les uses his childhood memory of a promising cloud that vanished in a drought to explain that false teachers excite people but never satisfy their inner peace.
Adulterating the Word of God
Les explains that false teachers feast with church people while full of error, and that spiritual adultery means mixing paganism with biblical truth.
Crept in Unawares
Les shows how deceptive false teachers are: they slip into churches without being recognized and deny the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude 12: Clouds Without Water
Les quotes Jude's 'clouds without water' directly and applies the metaphor to false teachers who look promising but produce no real spiritual result.
False Teaching Will Have a Heyday
Les notes that false teaching has opposed Christianity from the beginning and will flourish even in tribulation days when people are grasping for answers.
No Deeper Than Brute Beasts
Les teaches that false teachers' thinking never rises above the natural, animal level, so they corrupt themselves in the things they know naturally.
New Age Appeal
Les illustrates how false teaching can 'suck in' searching people, noting New Age teaching appeals to the human intellect and seeking minds.
Jude 1:4: For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude warns that false teachers enter unnoticed and deny the Lord.
Jude 1:8: Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Jude describes the corrupt behavior of false teachers in the same passage about clouds without water.
Jude 1:10: But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Jude says false teachers speak against what they do not understand and operate only on a natural level.
Jude 1:12: These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
This is the exact verse that compares false teachers to clouds without water.
2 Peter 2:13: And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;
Peter similarly describes false teachers as spots and blemishes among believers.
In Jude 12, false teachers are compared to clouds that look as if they will bring rain but are carried along by the wind and yield nothing. Les Feldick says they get people 'pumped up' and thinking they have found something real, but the experience never satisfies the inner longing or gives inner peace.
Les grew up during the hot, dry Midwest summers of the 1930s. He remembers seeing a little tiny black cloud appear and hoping it would bring even a drop of rain, only to see it vanish. He uses that memory to show how false teachers raise expectations but produce nothing.
Les contrasts false teachers with Paul's statement that he was not like those who corrupt or hawk an adulterated product. False teachers mix paganism with Bible truth and speak evil of things they do not understand, while true preaching brings the 'absolute truth' of the Word. Jude describes their spiritual fruit as withered and useless.
Watch the Teaching: Why Paul Said "We Are Not Ignorant of Satan's Devices" — 2 Corinthians 2:11