Friday, June 27, 2014

#1096: Peter Ruckman


We have encountered the rabid King James Only fanatics before (indeed, even last entry’s Gary and Lisa Ruby belong to the movement), and Peter Ruckman is a big name. Ruckman, a graduate of Bob Jones University, is also the founder of the Pensacola Bible Institute, another unaccredited Taliban institution (not to be confused with Pensacola Christian College) in Pensacola, Florida, a place that has managed to establish itself as an epicenter of loon in the US (Kent Hovind was long a proud inhabitant). As is characteristic for his movement, Ruckman believes that the King James Version constitutes “advanced revelation” and is the final, preserved word of God for English speakers, since the Holy Ghost apparently considered it to be particularly important to have a good English version.

His evidence for the superiority of the King James version is on the slim side, however. According to Ruckman, “Mistakes in the A.V. 1611 are advanced revelation!” meaning that with regard to any details on which said version of the Bible disagrees with older versions, his version of KJ is right, and we should conclude that the older versions must have been corrupted. In other words, Ruckman’s views are as evidence-based and unfalsifiable as your standard David Icke conspiracy theory. He also thinks that the Septuagint, the Tanakh of Hellenistic Judaism and the Old Testament of Eastern Christianity, were hoaxes. Indeed, by claiming that the KJ is not only equal to but superior to existing Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, Ruckman has placed himself on the fringes of the KJ only movement, which is not a sign of mental health. His writings nevertheless remain popular, partially because of his caustic style and dismissals of those who disagree with him in rather colorful ways.

Given Ruckman’s relationship with evidence, you should expect him to entertain some other beliefs that would be located outside of the mainstream as well. And sure enough, Ruckman delivers. He has written about his UFO beliefs (“specifically blue aliens with blue blood, black aliens with green blood, and gray aliens with clear blood”), claiming e.g. that “some of the medieval plagues in Europe were caused by UFOs”, and he is apparently convinced that the CIA has implanted brain transmitters in children, old people, and African-Americans and that the agency operates underground alien breeding facilities. They are of course also out to get him (Ruckman), since by exposing their nefarious ploys Ruckman has apparently become a serious threat. To intimidate him they use black helicopters carrying UN troops, which are “circling your homes” with the mission of attacking and imprisoning the populace – yes, Ruckman believes in (literally) black helicopters, which is sort of like literally believing that tinfoil hats protect you from alien mind reading (which Ruckman may very well believe, in fact). There are also some musings about Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle in his writings, but it is hard for the casual reader to obtain a fully coherent picture.

In 1984 Ruckman received some attention for writing that “Negroes have to be carried. Where they are left to themselves they resort to mugging, rape, slavery, dope traffic, and eventually cannibalism,” and (much more recently) some attention for his belief that “no matter how much integration is carried out, the IQ of blacks is always lower than whites,” and (currently) his belief that “history is absolute proof that ‘race-mixers’ are mentally sick.” Other examples of racism in Ruckman’s work are discussed here (his claim that “prejudice is a permanent trait of colored people,” and that “all black people are racists. They have color-consciousness that affects every decision they make in life, and they make decisions on the basis of color,” reveal a level of self-awareness that is borderline unusual).

Diagnosis: He may be wrong, but at least he has made sure that he is wrong in as charming a manner as possible. Probably a negligible threat to civilization in the grand scheme of things, but his writings seem to enjoy rather staggering popularity in some less savory segments of the population.

4 comments:

  1. Figures everyone says this guy is a loon but if one really reads and studies his material they will find out that he stands with God without apology and more people should have the courage to stand up like him. Truth is there is alot in the Bible that people disregard they only read the love parts but there is much more I read where God drown a whole civilization one time which includes the kids too, also people want to treat Jesus Christ as a good teacher and good person all the while making a liar out of him and America kicked him out in 1940 and kicked God the father out in 1960 so your through.

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    1. But he also seems to have inside info about aliens and the American government

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  2. He's not as crazy as someone who doesn't believe that God has the ability to preserve His Word perfectly and to make it available for any common Christian. How pathetic is your god if he can't even do that? Lolololol and then this guy pulls out the Greek and Hebrew card. If the the writer had any brains and integrity, you'd know in Greek and Hebrew, a word can have so many different definitions. And therefore you can translate a Greek and Hebrew Word to an English word in many different ways. If you don't believe in an infallible book, which is the King James Bible, and your infallible book is the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts, you have to realize you're in the same boat as theistic evolutionists, homosexuals and secular scholars, who pick and choose the definitions they want, thus their final authority not being God's Word, but their pathetic, dumb and inaccurate translations from the Greek and Hebrew in the way they want to translate it. Why don't you answer these questions before every reader you're trying to infect with your disease and lies? 1. What university did you graduate from? Every King James Bible translator came from either Cambridge, Westminster or Oxford. Top universities in the world. In other words people who can crush you intellectually. 2. What makes you think you can bring out the "right" and "better" rendering from the Greek and Hebrew that you imagine these 'incompetent' translators somehow got wrong when they chose the rendering that they thought was right, when they knew wayyyyy more than you do and will ever know? Further even modern Hebrew and Greek scholars debate about the correct rendering of the Greek and Hebrew, what makes you think you're in the position to give the 'correct' rendering? Just another proud disgusting dumbbell that doesn't know their place. Know what you're saying, you're not qualified to imply dumb things like the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts are better until you have the superior judgement of determining what is the better and more accurate translation from the Greek and Hebrew into English than the King James Bible translators.

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  3. Everyone knows that when you eat grapefruit that you spit out the seeds..just because grapefruits contain seeds..that doesn't make them bad..also..some of them are sweeter that others..the ones that are not so sweet are good..they are just not as good as the others..Christians are like that..you would expect for pastors to be held to a higher standard..that the culls would be juiced & mixed with the sweeter ones so as to cover up their bitterness..but sometimes we get the grapefruits at a discounted price & the good & bad are mixed in there together..if the better ones had been culled out, the price would have been so high that we would not have purchased any at all & therefore would not have enjoyed any at all either..so sometimes it is better just to leave them all mixed in & to buy them as is..
    as they come from the tree..because not everyone wants to drink grapefruit juice from a bottle..but they prefer it ..instead ..straight from the tree..
    unfiltered & undiluted..some pastors are fairly normal in their bible interpretations..but they may also have a slight warp in their personality that makes them different from others..sometimes that are born like that & sometimes they do it on purpose for showmanship or to get people's attention..to make themselves to stand out from the crowd..i.e...to be a little bit like a clown or a magician..everyone likes to be entertained..to some extent..those ideas you just treat with a grain of salt..or..in other words..you don't throw out the baby with the bath water..being a hardcore fundamentalist
    is a difficult position to be in all of the time..so a person in that position sometimes relies on laughter so as to soften their personality or to keep themselves from getting so stiff & paralyzed that they go crazy..or off the deep end..I am a southern Baptist Christian..we tend to not go to extremes in one way or the other..
    independent Baptists are more likely to have such problems..it seems to me..just guessing..we like to keep the sticks near the fire..so that they all work together to produce more heat than they could separately..plus..we give to the congregation more of a say in whether the pastor should be censored or corrected ..or whether he should find another church..we do not like
    Pastors to be popes or to hold too much power..the congregation has a vote.

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