I'm a secular historian, looking for more information on Peter Ruckman

[TheUprooted 0]

Hello, friends! I am a complete newcomer to your site, so please go easy on me.

Well, I'm not a theologian or minister and I was raised Methodist, but I am in the final year of my Master's in American History at one of the flagship state universities in the South. My Master's thesis is mainly focusing on the influence which Dr. John R. Rice and Dr. Peter S. Ruckman had on fundamentalism and Baptists in the U.S. I'm sure I will think of other questions as I get farther along on this project, but for now, I've hit a dead end. I'm looking for sources and information about the extent of the influence of Ruckman and the Bible Believers Bulletin. For instance, I found a book from Sword of the Lord's website which told how many thousand annual subscribers the Sword of the Lord had when John R. Rice was alive; I was able to find similar information about how many million tracts Jack Chick printed during his lifetime, etc. However,  I can't find any sources or info about the reach of Ruckman/the BBB. This would be very helpful for my research, because I'll need to convince my thesis committee that the people I'm writing about actually had a real and significant impact on American Christianity. Any suggestions, sources, or ideas y'all might have in mind would be very much appreciated!

[abstract:  I am looking for sources or data on the influence and reach of the late Peter Ruckman and his Bible Believers Bulletin, for example, readership numbers, number of copies sold of his newsletter or books, etc.] 

[John Young 632]

Have you checked directly with Ruckman's church book store and college? If anyone would have that information or how to get it, it would be them. http://store.kjv1611.org/

[Alan 3,429]

The following link has some information concerning Dr. Peter Ruckman.

Dr. Ruckman has had a tremendous impact on fundamentalists: both negative and positive. His impact would be hard to qualify by numbers found in any magazine, book, or forum.

Dr. Ruckman's working knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, English, the various manuscripts, was exceptional. Dr. Ruckman used his knowledge for the defence of the Authorized Version of the Bible, commonly called the King James Version of 1611, and warned the Christian sphere of the lies, deceit, and errors of the corrupt versions of the Bible, starting from the Revised Version. The "Chalk Talk" ministry of Dr. Ruckman also had an exceptional positive impact to a huge amount of folks that cannot be numbered. Even to this day, there are men in the ministry that have started, or patterned, their chalk talk ministry after Dr. Ruckman.  The manuscript information of the preservation of the scriptures that Dr. Ruckman wrote should be studied by every student of the Bible.

Almost every Bible IFB Bible college, and most of the graduates, have been affected, in some way, by Dr. Ruckman's defence of the Authorized Version of the Bible. The huge impact of his ministry cannot be numbered. Dr. Ruckman's book on, "Manuscript Evidence" is a masterpiece of information to this day. Dr. Ruckman's stand on correct biblical prophecy (pre-millenial and pre-tribulational), and his correct stand on the restoration of the nation of Israel, should be studied by every student of the Bible.

Dr. Ruckman's faults are well known and discussed to this day. If, and this is a big if, Dr. Ruckman never got divorced, never tried to justify his two divorces, stepped down from being pastor after his first divorce, had a cleaner tongue, and cleansed his life from these failures; than God would have used him even further among the saints in his age.

Alan

Edited February 21 by Alan
capitalization

[Salyan 1,874]

Here's another IFB perspective:

https://www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/what_about_ruckman.php 

https://www.wayoflife.org/database/ruckman.html

[Alan 3,429]

Brother Cloud, in the https://www.wayoflife.org/database/ruckman.html  article, has this conclusion.

"CONCLUSION

While I have serious problems with Dr. Ruckman, I also have serious problems with many of his detractors. Many of Peter Ruckman’s most bitter enemies are trying to discredit the idea that there is an authoritative Bible anywhere in the world. They have their own rotten agenda, undermining men’s faith in the preservation of God’s Word (in any practical sense) and attempting to pollute their minds with the strange, unscriptural, convoluted theories of modern textual criticism.

“Who, then, can we trust?” some might be thinking? The Word of God says, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm ... Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is” (Jer. 17:5, 7).

Man is defiled even at his best. Our confidence must be in Jesus Christ and in His eternal Word, and let no man shake your confidence in that."

[TheUprooted 0]

13 hours ago, John Young said:

Have you checked directly with Ruckman's church book store and college? If anyone would have that information or how to get it, it would be them. http://store.kjv1611.org/

Mr. Young, thanks for your response! I "cold called" the Bible Baptist Bookstore earlier this week, and unfortunately after speaking with three different people was told straight up that they weren't comfortable giving out that kind of information and data over the phone. They seemed pretty wary of "outsiders," which I understand. If I could just find one or two sources with numbers about Ruckman's readership, or subscriber numbers, etc. in a given year, it would help a ton. Any other suggestions?

[Alan 3,429]

To my knowledge, periodicals should have the number of issues printed, somewhere within the periodical. I am not positive that the BBB (Bible Believers Bulletin), has the information, but it is worth a try to find out.

I can give two pieces of advice.

1.Ruckman's Bookstore, actually it is, "The Bible Baptist Bookstore," which is a ministry of the, "Bible Baptist Church," has for sale the digital download of all the issues of the Bible Believers Bulletin from 1978-2017 issues for $32.00. Here is the link to that webpage:    http://store.kjv1611.org/downloads-1/

2. There are several Ruckman graduates in the country that have websites. If you ask some of these brethren, and give them a reasonable reason why you would like the information, or if they have an old copy of the BBB (Bible Believers Bulletin), they may send you one, give you better information than I can, or help you find somebody with the information you seek. 

Keep us informed of your success, or lack of success. 

[DaChaser 17]

On ‎2‎/‎21‎/‎2020 at 9:22 AM, Alan said:

The following link has some information concerning Dr. Peter Ruckman.

Dr. Ruckman has had a tremendous impact on fundamentalists: both negative and positive. His impact would be hard to qualify by numbers found in any magazine, book, or forum.

Dr. Ruckman's working knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, English, the various manuscripts, was exceptional. Dr. Ruckman used his knowledge for the defence of the Authorized Version of the Bible, commonly called the King James Version of 1611, and warned the Christian sphere of the lies, deceit, and errors of the corrupt versions of the Bible, starting from the Revised Version. The "Chalk Talk" ministry of Dr. Ruckman also had an exceptional positive impact to a huge amount of folks that cannot be numbered. Even to this day, there are men in the ministry that have started, or patterned, their chalk talk ministry after Dr. Ruckman.  The manuscript information of the preservation of the scriptures that Dr. Ruckman wrote should be studied by every student of the Bible.

Almost every Bible IFB Bible college, and most of the graduates, have been affected, in some way, by Dr. Ruckman's defence of the Authorized Version of the Bible. The huge impact of his ministry cannot be numbered. Dr. Ruckman's book on, "Manuscript Evidence" is a masterpiece of information to this day. Dr. Ruckman's stand on correct biblical prophecy (pre-millenial and pre-tribulational), and his correct stand on the restoration of the nation of Israel, should be studied by every student of the Bible.

Dr. Ruckman's faults are well known and discussed to this day. If, and this is a big if, Dr. Ruckman never got divorced, never tried to justify his two divorces, stepped down from being pastor after his first divorce, had a cleaner tongue, and cleansed his life from these failures; than God would have used him even further among the saints in his age.

Alan

His main problem on the Bible to me was that he seemed to be saying that the 1611 kjv was inspired in exactly same fashion that the original books are were by God! And I do use the Kjv to do my studies with, but the 1769, is just the 1611 the real one then?

[Alan 3,429]

2 hours ago, DaChaser said:

His main problem on the Bible to me was that he seemed to be saying that the 1611 kjv was inspired in exactly same fashion that the original books are were by God! And I do use the Kjv to do my studies with, but the 1769, is just the 1611 the real one then?

In my yesterday's post from brother David Cloud, that I quoted from Salyan,  brother Cloud deals with the "KJV inspiration" issue. I agree with brother Cloud. Here is that link again:

https://www.wayoflife.org/database/ruckman.html 

The KJV 1769 and the 1611 issue is off subject in this thread and has been dealt with in other threads on Online Baptist.

[DaChaser 17]

I see the Kjv as being a trustworthy translation, but not inspired nor perfect.

[Ukulelemike 3,752]

KJV: Preserved, without error, but not "inspired' or re-inspired. Preservation means it doesn't need to be inspired again, because it is preserved.