The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his059/bbb07802.lzh/BBB07802.TXT

Text File | 1991-09-14 | 8KB | 144 lines

BBB:More Baloney From BJU  by Dr. Peter S. Ruckman

   Below is a photostatic copy of a tract sent to us by a student at
Bob Jones University. He did not say who gave it to him or how he
obtained it, but in view of the forthcoming book on "Ruckmanism" soon
to be published by the BJU press, the tract is very informative. Among
other things, it says that "Ruckmanism" is an obscure heresy that
teaches:

   1. Inner salvation without outward holiness. "Ruckmanism" may teach
that, but "Ruckman" never taught it nor did anyone who ever believed
anything "Ruckman" wrote or taught. We preach against every form of
worldliness including TELEVISION, NEWSPAPERS, SMOKING, DRINKING,
WORLDLY AMUSEMENTS, IMPROPER DRESS, and even against coffee, tea,
coca-cola, and over eating. (Being about forty pounds overweight, the
author of the tract, John McGraw, has evidently confused
"antinomianism" with dieting.)

   2. Divorce and remarriage is a CHRISTIAN INSTITUTION. I have never
recommended divorce to any Christian, and my entire teaching on
remarriage is found on tape and in print where anyone can check it.
There is about as much similarity between our teaching on marriage and
Mormonism as there is between Bullinger's teaching on baptism and
Campbell's. Anyone desiring to know our position on what constitutes
the ESSENCE of a marriage, may write for the pamphlet. Marriage, PER
SE, is certainly NOT a ceremony. (McGraw omitted the word "per se,"
because he probably didn't know what it meant.)

   3. A denial of the Deity of Christ. Our stand on the Deity of Christ
is much stronger than Bob Jones or McGraw, as we do not believe any
translation that attacks it in Luke 2:33, 1 Timothy 3:16, or Luke
24:51, 52. On this basis, we reject the ASV, the NASV, the RSV, the
NRSV, the NIV and the NEV. We teach that if Christ were not "IN ALL
POINTS TEMPTED LIKE AS WE ARE" (Heb. 4:15), He could not have "LEARNED
OBEDIENCE" (Heb. 5:8) exactly like the Bible states the matter. We
believe Jesus Christ was God of very God and man of very man,
completely human and completely Deity, exactly as stated in every
orthodox creed published since Nicea 325 A.D.

   4. That the Antichrist might land in a space ship at the Vatican
(see Mark of the Beast, 1970) has never been disproved by anyone living
or dead, nor can it be. In the book on the Mark of the Beast this is
stated as a HYPOTHESIS, not a DOCTRINAL TEACHING. (McGraw has tried to
make the sucker who reads his tract think that it is a doctrinal
conviction.)

   5. Judas was not a human being, PER SE (again McGraw doesn't have
enough education to master vocabulary). Judas was certainly NOT a human
being as YOU and I are human beings, for the Bible identifies his
SPIRIT as the Angel of the Bottomless Pit (Rev. 9) which was his "own
place" (Acts 1), and every orthodox Premillennial scholar since Larkin
who believed the Bible, took the position that Judas' SPIRIT will
return to this earth as the Antichrist, according to 2 Thessalonians 2
and John 17:12.

   McGraw evidently cannot read a Bible text.

   The fact that Judas is called "THE MAN OF SIN" would no more limit
him to being only human than Jesus Christ being called "THE SON OF
MAN." If the word "man" limits a character to humanity, McGraw has
blatantly denied the Deity of Christ, for Jesus is called "THE MAN
CHRIST JESUS" (1 Tim. 2:5).

   If the reader would like to know what "RUCKMANISM" is, the answer
is: IT IS A LABEL, INVENTED BY APOSTATE FUNDAMENTALISTS, PLASTERED ON
TO BIBLE-BELIEVING CHRISTIANS IN AN EFFORT TO SCARE NEW CHRISTIANS OUT
OF BELIEVING THE BIBLE.

   We don't have one distinctive teaching in our curriculum that
revolves around a man (see the note on a cult). We believe the Book and
preach it and teach it and get results with it. Readers who want the
truth about our teaching on Judas may obtain the work Mark of the
Beast, published in 1970, and readers interested in what we think about
the Deity of Christ may buy the Bible Believer's Commentary on
Gal.-Col., 1971, and check the comments on Colossians 1 and Philippians
2. One ounce of investigation is worth 3000 tons of hot air.




   WHAT IS RUCKMANISM?

   by

   John P. McGraw, M.A.

   RUCKMANISM: An obscure heresy mainly contained to southeastern
United States and several midwestern states. This heresy gets its name
from Dr. Peter Sturges Ruckman (Ph.D. religious history) who has
founded his theology on extreme antinomianism (the possibility of inner
salvation without outward, visible holiness), a dedication to
Bibliolatry, and many radical interpretations of the Bible. Devotees of
this heresy will stand for the most extreme interpretations of
controversial subjects if they come from their leader, but under no
circumstances will they stand for a critique of the underlying
foundations of the heresy itself. Among other heresies Ruckman teaches
divorce and remarriage of Christians as Christian institutions. Ruckman
contends that all those partaking in physical union ("flesh joined to
flesh" as he calls it) have been married, though maybe their marriage
is not recognized in the eyes of man. This of course is polygamy in a
twisted form. The clear teaching of the New Testament is that marriage
is (1) a ceremony, John 2:1-10, (2) a spiritual union, Ephesians 5, and
(3) a physical union, Hebrews 13:4. Also the New Testament speaks of
the marriage of Jesus to the Church, certainly something other than
"flesh joined to flesh." This aspect of ruckmanism is similar to early
Mormonism which contended that indeed marriage is polygamous, and was
even partaken in by Jesus Christ.

   Though maintaining an orthodox pretense in the baptist tradition,
ruckmanism is clearly outside the tradition of both historic and
Biblical Christianity. Another aspect of ruckmanism is the concept that
restricts the deity of Chist to Jesus being the manifestation of God in
the flesh and not actually God, in that Christ the man was capable of
sin and could have fallen. Should Christ have sinned the universe, it
is surmised, might have exploded. It is felt that were Jesus above the
capacity to sin, His testing on earth would have been a hoax. This of
course is a denial of the Godness of Christ just as so called Apostolic
(Jesus Only) doctrine is a denial of His humanity. The fact is that
there was no possibility of Jesus falling for He was truly God. His
testing is a willing one to reconcile man to Himself, not of any
necessity whatsoever to the blessed Trinity. Other aspects of
ruckmanism are the English King James Version of the Bible is superior
to the original Greek manuscripts, the antichrist may land in a
spaceship in the Vatican, there are no women in heaven (all resurrected
saints will receive bodies identical to the resurrected body of Jesus),
and a vicious badgering and name-calling of those who do not submit to
Ruckman's authority. Another interesting innovation is that Judas
Iscariot was not human, even though the New Testament shows Judas
betraying human emotions, repentance and suicide. Ruckman takes
Christ's statement, "one of you is a devil," to mean that Judas was not
human. Of course Jesus no more meant that Judas was not human than He
meant that the Pharisees were not human when He called them serpents
and children of vipers. Interestingly enough Ruckman's teaching on the
non-humanness of Judas is a denial of the traditional and Biblical
teaching of the antichrist, whom Ruckman thinks Judas was and is and
will be. For the Pauline teaching on the antichrist is that indeed the
antichrist is human, called specifically the "man of sin" (2
Thessalonians 2:2). In that the distinct element of this teaching
revolves around a man, ruckmanism can be accurately described as a cult.

   For further information on this or other heresies write:

   HOPE MINISTRIES P.O. Box 1482 Burlingame, California 94010