Peter Ruckman

[Pastor Matt]

Last weekend I was preaching in South Jersey and on Saturday night the pastor had me over for dinner. We were talking when he started telling me that they had some missionaries they supported that were sent out by Ruckman's mission board. The missionaries were supported before this pastor came. The pastor wanted to know what these missionaries believed, so he sent them a questioner with a few Ruckamn things on it like what do you believe about advanced revelation, abortion, aliens, double inspiration, and etc.

To make a long story short, the church ended up dropping one of the missionaries support because the answer was "I will follow Ruckman to the day I die". I thought that was a strange answer, but I guess that is the mentality of these type of men.

When this church drops supports of missionaries over doctrine they send a letter to the missionary, sending church, and mission board. Since the mission board in this case is Ruckman the letter got on his desk.

The short letter to Ruckman read something like this:

I am sorry to inform you that we had to drop your missionary *name here* over doctrinal issues. This was done after much prayer and the decision was not taken lightly. We enjoyed having him as one of our missionaries, but felt we could no longer support him over some doctrinal areas that differ with our church.

That was all the letter stated, and they mailed it out to Ruckman

When the pastor got the letter back he opened it and noticed that Ruckman drew a few self sketches of himself on the envelope. Ruckman then hand wrote his answer on the same letter that was sent to him. This is exactly what Ruckman wrote and then signed.

"Don't forget to change your diaper at the Judgment seat of Christ"

Needless to say, the church then knew they made the right decision in dropping the missionary.

[HappyChristian]

My goodness!

[Pastor Matt]

I would not have believed it if I did not see the letter myself.

[Brother Rick]

You can either laugh or you can cry, I choose to laugh.

[Pastor Matt]

I laughed too when I was reading it.

With that response I guess Ruckman has too high opinion of himself. The part that did bother me the most was that Ruckman was mocking the Judgement seat of Christ.

[John81]

[JerryNumbers]

So sad, I can't laugh at it, to me it has no humor.

[Anon]

I really do think he is a mental case....it might be too far to say "demon possessed" but there are some things that have pointed to it in the past.

One of my best friends, her dad was close to Ruckman in the past and now, not so much, but the doctrines and things that they grew up with have now all but shipwrecked their family. Their family is nothing but spiritual mess and depression....and being cynical. Its so sad.

[JerryNumbers]

I really do think he is a mental case....it might be too far to say "demon possessed" but there are some things that have pointed to it in the past.

One of my best friends, her dad was close to Ruckman in the past and now, not so much, but the doctrines and things that they grew up with have now all but shipwrecked their family. Their family is nothing but spiritual mess and depression....and being cynical. Its so sad.

Reading this from WikipediA he sounds like a troubled man.



Peter Ruckman



Biography

A native of Wilmington, Delaware, Peter Ruckman is a son of Colonel John Hamilton Ruckman (1888-1966) and a grandson of General John Wilson Ruckman (1858-1921). Ruckman was reared in Topeka, Kansas, attended Kansas State University, and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama. Ruckman married Janie Bess May of Sawyerville, Alabama, and they had five children together.[2]
Ruckman entered the U.S. Army in 1944 and became second lieutenant, although he never saw action. At the end of World War II, he volunteered to serve with the occupation forces in Japan and while there studied Zen Buddhism. Ruckman claimed to have had paranormal experiences during this period, including (in his words) "the experience of nirvana, which the Zen call samadhi, the dislocation of the spirit from the body....Looking at my moral life following that experience, and my desire at times to commit suicide, I realize I had produced a passive state that was an entrance for spirits." Ruckman returned to the United States "uneasy, unsettled, full of demons." Drinking heavily, he became a disc jockey during the day and a drummer in various dance bands at night. Sometimes verging on suicide, he began to hear voices, and he met with a Jesuit priest to explore the possibility of joining the Roman Catholic Church. On March 14, 1949, he experienced a conversion after talking with evangelist Hugh Pyle in the studios of WEAR radio in Pensacola. Ruckman then attended BOB Jones University (BJU), where he received a master's degree and Ph.D. in religion. [3] In 1959, after several separations, Ruckman's first marriage was dissolved. Ruckman has since been divorced again and married a third time.[4]
Ruckman is the pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Pensacola, and his writings and recorded sermons are published by his Bible Baptist Bookstore.[5] Like his father, Peter Ruckman early demonstrated artistic talent, and he often illustrated his sermons in chalk and pastels while preaching.[6]

[irishman]

Even Hitler had faithful followers!

[HappyChristian]

It is a shame, though - he has some real talent with chalk drawing (or at least, he did many years ago).

[Brother Rick]

Ah yes - Wikipedia, Hitler analogies, and everyone's got a story.

You know, I find myself defending people all the time. Take for instance, Tim LaHaye. He's popular, so a lot of IFBers think he must be a false prophet. Or he corrects the Bible once every 400 pages, so everything he does is trash.

Dr. Ruckman is weird, and he has a HUGE prOBlem with his tongue - that's where it ends. If you have a prOBlem with him being a pastor because of his marriages, then in all charity please shut your mouth and stay out of his church, and that goes for anyone who is a pastor anywhere. If you think he shouldn't be pastor, that's fine, Saul was disqualified from being king in Israel two years into his reign but God continued to keep in that position for another 40 years, and it would have been wrong for David to kill him when he could have.

As far as the fruit of his ministry, if you go to a King James Bible believing church you should thank God for Dr. Ruckman, because he was the lead dog in the fight defending the King James against Bible correcting scholarship. Without him and the battles he was involved in during the 60s and 70s, many more churches today would be washed up NIV churches. The polemic stand he took for the KJV sent Bible correctors reeling during that time and changed the IFB movement for the better. There are a lot of "big guns" that are King James today as a result of Dr. Ruckman, not the least of which would be Gail Riplinger, Jack Hyles (although he died), Bill Grady, and of course Sam Gipp.

There are a lot of really good men in the ministry as a result of Dr. Ruckman, including my pastor, who's been pastoring the same church for the last 25 years and been married to the same woman his entire life. Our church is a New Testament soul winning church that regularly gives over 500k a year to missions. We have several missionaries of our own on the field, and having grown up in this church I'm KJVO.

Thank you Dr. Ruckman, for training my pastor.

Edited May 26, 2010 by Rick Schworer

[HappyChristian]

Take a chill pill, Rick! I've never heard Tim Lahaye called a false prophet, but he sure was wrong when he included Mother Theresa in the rapture in his Left Behind series.

I've seen many ruined from some of the stuff PR teaches. My own husband was almost victim to some of it before we met. Calling a spade a spade is right to do. I'm sorry if you're offended by it, truly.

I don't agree with comparing him to Hitler - but I think the comparison was more that anyone can have followers.

No-one's getting into PR's church: but we have every right to show his disqualifications to warn people. As to the HUGE prOBlem with his tongue: doesn't God have an awful lot to say about our tongues?

[irishman]

rick, sorry if my remark offended you, it was as Happy Chrisitan said, a reference to any nut having a following. perhaps I should have said even dogs run in packs! (oops! There I go again!)

Charles Manson? well. ok, I will shut up, but I will not quit warning people about him, or John MacArthur (as in another post!) PR is much more subtle than those I named anyway, he simply poisons minds, and not destroys bodies.

[Anon]

I don't mean to sound nasty, but its typical that the nut cases with a following, have followers that defend and justify that person until the bitter end.

Comparing Peter Ruckman to the Bible, the Bible judges him as a false teacher according to the New Testament, and disqualified from the pastorate. There is no need for further defense of the man, God lays down the final rules here.