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[The following material is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 5, 1995. David W. Cloud, Editor. This material cannot be stored on BBS or Internet sites without permission from the author. Any articles which are redistributed by e-mail or print must be left intact and nothing must be removed or changed, including these informational headers. All rights are reserved. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0. The Way of Life web site is located at http://www.wayoflife.org/]
By David W. Cloud
Dr. Peter Ruckman has been divorced two times and married three times yet he has been a pastor all along, is still a pastor, and he defends his unscriptural marital status in his book on divorce and remarriage. His first marriage was before his salvation, and it ended in 1962 when his wife left him and filed for divorce. He began pastoring the Brent Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida, soon after that. In 1972 Ruckman married the divorced wife of one of his former students. When a vote was taken in Brent Baptist as to whether they supported his second marriage, 200 voted for it and 100 opposed it. He resigned and started the Bible Baptist Church in 1974 with 17 people. In 1988 the second marriage ended when she walked out and sued for divorce. The third marriage was to a member of his church, a mother of three.
I have read Dr. Ruckman's autobiography in which he goes into this situation in some detail. My heart went out to him as I read about the tremendous confusion which existed in his family life for 32 years. I know that the problems were not necessarily something he could have avoided, though he admits his role in the marital strife. Of course he didn't have to take the second marriage, or the third. He claims the first and second marriages were God's (called "the Bookkeeper" throughout his testimony) foreordained judgment on him.
I don't care to doubt that God called Peter Ruckman to preach, and I believe a divorced man can preach and serve God in many ways without being a pastor. But he should not be, and is not qualified to be, a pastor. That's not Phariseeism; that is King James Bible. The book of Titus connects the term "blameless" with the pastor's family life (Titus 1:6), because the pastorate is a very special position. The pastor is the preeminent leader of God's work today. It is the highest position in the house of God, which is the church. I don't believe there is a higher calling in the world today. The pastor not only is to be a teacher and a preacher and a soul winner; he is to be an example of the will of God. "Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3). If the pastor's family is not right, whose will be? If the pastor's family is not right, where will the church be? The pastor must fit qualifications which are not required for any other Christian. It's a special position.
The Bible says that a pastor must be "one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (for if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)" (1 Timothy 3:4,5). Regardless of whose fault the divorce is, there can be no question that it does NOT represent an exemplary family life. Regardless of whose fault the divorce is, there can be no doubt that the man involved is NOT ruling well his own house. Regardless of whose fault the divorce is, there can be no doubt that it is a handle the devil will use to cast blame upon the church and the work of God.
Divorces do not take place in a vacuum. They take place in an environment filled with anger, carnality, hostility, bitterness, and sin. That is not judgmentalism; it is fact. Consider how Dr. Ruckman himself describes his family life in days gone by:
"I have had two wives desert me after fifteen years of marriage ... I have been in court custody cases, where seven children's futures were held in the balance; in situations where Gospel articles were being torn out of typewriters, Biblical artwork torn off the easels, women trying to throw themselves out of cars at fifty m.p.h., mailing wedding rings back in the middle of revival services, cutting their wrists, threatening to leave if I did not give my church to their kinfolk; deacons threatening to burn down my house and beat me up; children in split custody between two domiciles two hundred miles apart, and knock-down, drag-out arguments in the home sometimes running as long as three days" (The Last Grenade, p. 339).
That is what the man admits took place. That is only a small glimpse into the sin and confusion surrounding those years. Friends, you can label me a judge if you want, but a man with that type of family life has no business in the pastorate. Let him preach on the streets. Let him preach in the jails. Let him preach in the nursing homes. Let him work in these ministries, but we must obey the Bible and reserve the pastorate for men who have godly homes. Did I hear someone say that nobody is perfect? That is correct, but there are men who have godly homes, friends. There are many men who, by God's grace, have godly homes. If God were not going to take the standards of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 seriously, why did He give them? And if God is going to take them seriously, who are we to slight them?
Dr. Ruckman often mocks those who call for high standards for the pastorate and who don't believe a divorced man fits God's requirements for the office. Those who take this position he calls hypocrites and Pharisees. Consider how he describes his third marriage:
"... we got married in a regular Sunday night service after the offering was taken up: bridesmaids, wedding cake, rice, shaving cream on the car, the whole works. Standing room only. I WAS FLAUNTING MY FAITH IN THE FACE OF THE APOSTATE FUNDAMENTALISTS WHO WERE GOING TO `CASH IN' ON MY MARRIAGE" (Peter Ruckman, The Full Cup, p. 280).
On page 211 of his biography, Dr. Ruckman says that those who ask the question, "Do you think a divorced preacher is qualified for the ministry," are "self-righteous Pharisees."
This attitude has encouraged other men that it's O.K. to be divorced and remain in the pastorate, and, sadly, many have followed Ruckman's lead.
My critique of Dr. Ruckman's teaching ("What About Ruckman?") is available from Way of Life Literature for $5 postpaid, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, Michigan 48061, fbns@wayoflife.org.
See also "The Divorced Pastor," O Timothy, Volume 10, Issue 10, 1993