The son of an anti-charismatic, controversial pastor was the victim of an apparent murder-suicide over the weekend.
Peter S. Ruckman died of gunshot wounds along with his sons, 12-year-old John Ruckman and 14-year-old Christopher Ruckman, the coroner said.
According to the Chicago Sun Times:
Sheriff’s deputies responded Saturday morning to the home near Rockford after Ruckman’s ex-wife reported she wasn’t able to contact him. They found the two boys shot in separate bedrooms, while the man was in a third bedroom
The Rockford Register Star reports Ruckman was a long-time political science professor at Rock Valley College and an instructor at Northern Illinois University. Ruckman last taught a course at NIU in spring 2017, said Lisa Miner, senior director of communications for the university.
The boys were both students at Rockford Christian schools.
Ruckman had taught at the college for 20 years.
“The Rock Valley College community is devastated by the news of the tragic deaths of Peter Ruckman and his two children,” says Doug Jensen, president of Rock Valley College. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the family, friends and colleagues of Professor Ruckman and his children at this difficult time.”
Ruckman was the son of a controversial Pensacola pastor of the same name. Peter Sturges Ruckman, who died in 2016, pastored Pensacola Bible Baptist Church and authored several books, including Why I Am Not Charismatic and Tongues, Signs and Healings.
“Anybody who spends any time reading the Bible—and taking it to mean what it says and say what it mean—would never be a Charismatic,” according to a description of the first. “There is nothing Scriptural about a Charismatic revival. The credibility gap between what the Scriptures say and the Charismatic application of what they believe is wider than the Grand Canyon. Using anecdotes from personal experience with the Charismatics, Dr. Ruckman shows you just how spiritually insane they actually are. It would be hilarious if it were not so sadly true. This work demonstrates both Biblically and practically the anti-Christian corruption, the false doctrine, the false professions, the ignorance of the Scriptures, the carnal motives, and the deliberate Satanic deception involved in the Charismatic movement.”
The second description reads: “One of the most controversial subject in Evangelical Christianity today is the Charismatic movement. This booklet is an illustrated message that Dr. Ruckman has preached to help the average Christian understand what the Bible says about the Charismatic gifts of tongues and healing, and Charismatic signs and wonders. They are traced in the Scriptures from their origins in the book of Exodus to their fulfillment in the Gospels and their end in the book of Acts. Using the Scriptures and illustrations from personal experience, Dr. Ruckman also shows how the Charismatics have counterfeited these things in the Laodicean age before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The reader is admonished to judge all experiences and emotions by the Book and not the Bible by his experiences and emotions.”
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