Did Peter Ruckman Say Prayer Doesn’t Save? His Romans Commentary in Full Context

Short answer: No. Dr. Peter S. Ruckman did not teach that prayer is optional, and he did not change his view. He taught that prayer does not save you, Jesus Christ saves you, but that you receive Him through two conditions, believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth, and you can do both in prayer.

Quick facts

• The line “it isn’t his prayer that saves him anyway” is from Ruckman’s 2003 Romans commentary (The Bible Believers Commentary Series), Chapter 10.
• The very next sentences say Christ saves when the sinner places his faith in Him, and that the Lord also told the sinner to confess with the mouth and call on His name.
• Ruckman writes that you can do both in prayer (Rom. 10:13).
• His 2013 Luke commentary says Scripture teaches you can be saved by praying.
• His 1970s Romans commentary and his 2013 Luke commentary both teach the same two conditions.

Thank you to Brother Don Nesbitt, the Lord’s bloodhound for sounding the alarm about Robert Breaker. His youtube handle is @w46try7.

What does “it isn’t his prayer that saves him anyway” mean?

The 2003 Romans commentary has to be understood in the light of his entire library to understand Dr. Peter S. Ruckman’s actual views. Here is the full passage, from the 2003 Romans commentary, Chapter 10:

Dr. Peter S. Ruckman: “After all, it isn’t his prayer that saves him anyway; it is Jesus Christ that saves him. But Jesus Christ saves the sinner when he places his faith in Him, and the same Lord who told the sinner to believe also told him to confess Him with the mouth and call upon His name. You can do both in prayer (Rom. 10:13).”

Read the whole passage. Ruckman is saying the prayer is not the thing that saves. Jesus Christ is. He then says the sinner receives Christ by believing and by confessing and calling on Him, and that both can happen in prayer.

How is this quote misread?

• It does not mean prayer is unnecessary. The next sentences say the Lord told the sinner to confess with the mouth and call on His name.
• It does not mean Ruckman changed his view in the 2000s. Some summaries, including AI-generated ones, quote only the first sentence and call it a shift. His 1970s and 2013 teaching say the same thing.
• It does not mean the prayer itself saves. Ruckman says the same thing about faith: neither faith nor prayer is what saves. The Lord Jesus Christ saves, through His death, burial, and resurrection.

If you see only the first half of the quote, you are seeing half of what he said.

What did Ruckman say about the sinner’s prayer in 2013?

In 2013, Ruckman wrote in his Gospel of Luke commentary (The Bible Believer’s Commentary Series), Chapter 18:

Dr. Peter S. Ruckman: ““But as many as RECEIVED HIM, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Did you know you can believe on Jesus Christ and still die lost and go to Hell? Simon the sorcerer did; look up Acts 8:13 and READ IT! You can even call on the name of the Lord and be lost. Those exorcists in Acts 19:13–15 did. But you can’t receive Jesus Christ and the free gift of God’s righteousness through Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:15–18) and not be saved. You can believe without receiving, but you can’t receive without believing. The question is not can you be saved by praying, because the Scriptures say you can: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). That CALLING involves the MOUTH (Rom. 10:9–10). You are confessing Jesus Christ with your mouth and believing on Him with your heart. The prayer is expressing the faith of the sinner in Jesus Christ to save him. So the real question is what are you doing when you say the sinner’s prayer? If you are repeating it as a ritual (like they do in Russia and the Ukraine due to the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church), that’s not salvation. If you are relying on the prayer itself to save you, that’s not salvation. But if the sinner prays to receive Christ and express his faith in what Jesus Christ did for him, that will do it.”

Dr. Peter S. Ruckman says the mouth is required.

Did Ruckman teach the same thing across his ministry?

Yes. Belief or confession did not save anyone according to Ruckman. Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is what saves you. But he required belief and confession as the two conduits for receiving the gospel.

So, Dr. Peter S. Ruckman would say in the same vein as “it isn’t his prayer that saves him,” it isn’t faith that saves him, it isn’t prayer that saves him, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, and his death, burial and resurrection, but that is obtained through the two conditions of believing and going to God in a vocally spoken prayer.

• 1970s, Romans commentary: an audible confession is necessary.
• 2003, Romans commentary, Chapter 10: prayer does not save, Christ does, and you can believe and confess in prayer (Rom. 10:13).
• 2013, Luke commentary, Chapter 18: “That CALLING involves the MOUTH (Rom. 10:9–10).”

As Wikipedia says: “Ruckman taught a strictly literal interpretation of Romans 10:9–10, asserting that an audible confession was necessary to salvation and that those who merely believed without verbally confessing Jesus Christ remained unsaved.”

What did Ruckman say about Romans 10:4-5?

He explains that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, and that God’s righteousness can only be obtained as a free gift.

“‘For Christ is the end’-E-E E-N-D-‘end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.’ Now there’s a full exposition on what this means in 2 Corinthians 3:1-10. Never run to the Greek when you’ve got the English. And especially never fool with a man who studies Greek when he doesn’t know the English. After all, if you haven’t mastered your own tongue, what are you doing messing with another man’s tongue? In 2 Corinthians 3:1-10, you have an exposition on this matter of the law ending for the Christian. And Christ is the end of the law of righteousness to every one that believeth. There are two kinds of righteousness a man can have: his own righteousness, God’s righteousness. In this dispensation, in this age, God gives his righteousness to a man that receives Jesus Christ. When he does that, that man’s sins are imputed to Jesus Christ, and God’s righteousness is imputed to that man. That man is declared just, and he is given a perfect standing before God. And many of my audience are ignorant of that great truth. Man’s righteousness cannot save. It is not correct. It is self-righteousness. The law’s righteousness is temporary. It only points to Christ. God’s righteousness can only be obtained as a free gift. Verse 5: ‘For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.’ Notice the element of faith and works connected with the believer under the law. And for a detailed exposition of this, go back and review the comments in volume 1 and 2. I believe it’s the end of volume 1. But the verses that deal with-the exposition that deals with Romans chapter 1, verse 17. Notice the same combination of faith and works is found again in the Tribulation. And you may obtain the Bible Evangelism records on that that deal with the Book of Revelation.”

Dr. Peter S. Ruckman, Romans 10:4-5

What did Ruckman say about Romans 10:6-10?

He calls it the simplest, clearest presentation of salvation, with two conditions: confess with the mouth and believe in the heart.

“But, by contrast, 10:6: ‘But the righteousness which is of faith,’ that is after Christ has come and showed up and shed his blood and gone back to glory, ‘speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend...’ like go up on Apollo to the moon to prove evolution? You say, ‘What do you read there?’ Well, ‘Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven?’ And that’s what they’re saying, aren’t they? Who go up this time? Do you know what they’re doing up on that moon? Do you know what they’re doing up there spending billions, literally billions of tax dollars on? Do you know what they’re spending it on? You know what they’re actually doing up there? They’re trying to find something to prove evolution. They’re not looking for truth. They’re looking for something to prove a theory they have. And when they bring back those little pieces of volcanic ash and rock, do you know what they’re doing? They’re fighting for their lives to cover up their sins. Scientific progress is simply man’s attempt to cover up his devilment. Now, you get the Bible Believer’s Commentary in Genesis and read about that in Genesis 3 and 4. They’re not up there to find truth. They’re up there to prove the Bible is a lie. Don’t you know that? You say, ‘Well, some of them are Christians.’ I’m not talking about the conscious effort. The prince of the powers of the air works in the children of disobedience. It’s automatic. It’s subconscious. Progressive education and scientific endeavor is all aimed to overthrow the first four chapters in Genesis. Don’t you know that? And Genesis 9. Did you ever read those chapters? You know what women’s liberation is? You know what the NAACP is set up for? You know what birth control and hypnotism is set up for? You know what sterilization and artificial insemination is set up for? You know what rocket travel and lobotomies are set up for? Do you know what electronic computers are set up for? They’re set up to overthrow the divine fiats given in Genesis 3, 4, 9. And don’t you ever doubt it. ‘Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)’ Now you’re going to get a Christ down from above, and you keep going up there, you might just bring him down one of these times. But I don’t have time to go into that now. Get that book on The Mark of the Beast, and you’ll get the information there. All right, 7: ‘Or, Who shall descend into the deep?’ Like William Beebe in the bathysphere. ‘(that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)’ The telescope and the microscope have been dedicated to confusing the issue of personal responsibility to God. That’s the long and short of it. The telescope and the microscope have been dedicated to pushing God as far away from you as they can push him, so you won’t feel like you’re personally accountable to him. And the whole motive and design and purpose behind a liberal arts education is to get God as far removed from the local scene as he can be shoved. And you may review for that subject our remarks on the evolutionist given back in Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, verse 21. Where not being content with pushing God out of the Bible and out of the church and out of education, they have now tried to push God out of the mind. The last thing they’ve done, they’ve tried to push even the truths of cause and effect out of the mind. Not being content with getting God out of the mind, they’ve tried to get rid of his work. The way you do this is by what they call the inductive method of science. You use the exception to prove the rule isn’t true. Now, I realize that’s oversimplification, but that’s it. To prove that all races are equal, you pick exceptional cases to prove they were the same under some circumstances. The inductive method teaches that the exception proves the rule is no good. In the deductive method, you judge the exception by the general rule. So he says don’t worry about going up and don’t worry about going down. And then he tells them where to find it. And there won’t be time on this side of our volume, side two of this volume, to go into this matter. So we’re going to have to stop here, side two of volume 13 in our commentary, and we’ll take up now the great discussion of evangelical salvation, the simple truths of God’s great plan in Romans chapter 10. The simplicity is confounding. And the further we get in this chapter, more we’ll see how very simple it is. It’s so simple that Isaiah says, ‘a wayfaring man, though a fool, may not err therein.’ Now as we’ve remarked on the previous volume, volume 13, the passage we are studying deals with the simple plan of salvation. And throughout these verses, Paul is pointing out the simplicity of this matter and how the endeavors of scientists to probe around in the universe, verse 6, and probe around in the earth, verse 7, will come to no avail, for life does not lie within matter or nature. Life doesn’t begin at 40. Life begins with Christ. You don’t go up into heaven to bring him down, or go down among the dead to a tombstone in the study of your genealogy to bring him up from the dead. He’s a living Savior. And salvation is a present reality which can be attained by anybody. God certainly fixed things so the scientists and educators weren’t the only people that could find life, and if we are to believe 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, we are to believe that scientists and educators will be the last people to find it under normal conditions. Verse 8: ‘But what saith it? The word is nigh thee,’ it’s near thee, ‘even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’ Notice how clear the free will of man is pictured here and how clearly the universal salvation of God is offered to anybody. The word is nigh thee. When Ephesians says, ‘by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,’ he’s plainly telling you that not only is salvation the gift of God, but the faith with which to believe is a gift of God. ‘The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith...’ You see it? Verse 17: ‘So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ You may review our remarks from chapter 1 when we spoke of these matters, and Romans 16, verse 26, where the obedience is the obedience of faith. The word is nigh thee, near thee. It’s right on your lips. It’s right in your heart. It’s present. You have access to it. You don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t have to study anything. You don’t have to learn anything. There’s nothing to attain. ‘It is the word of faith, which we preach.’ And here it comes: the simplest, clearest presentation of salvation found anywhere in either Testament. Two conditions: If. ‘If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,’ number two, ‘And shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’ No ifs, ands, buts about it. And notice the heart is not changed. The heart believes on Christ in its regular condition. There is no overpowering of the sinner by the irresistible grace of God, which transforms him against his will into a new creature so he can receive Christ, and all that Calvinistic baloney. It’s saying that an unsaved man in his natural condition, and he’s told, if you believe something in your heart and confess it with your mouth, God’ll give you the new birth, God’ll save you and impute to you righteousness and justify you. Verse 10: ‘For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness...’ Works are not a point at issue. ‘...and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.’ You see how insane some men get when they’re trying to prove a lie? ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.’ That’s God’s work, not yours. You see that business? You don’t classify that with getting baptized and holding out to the end and doing all this junk. Belief is a matter of the heart. Now it’s a work only in the sense that that’s what God wants you to do, in that sense. It’s the work of God. But it’s not like works. Good night, man! All right, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Out of the heart are the issues of life. Out of the heart of man proceeds all these things, Jesus says, and lists 13 evils. Then if you believe something in your heart, it should bear fruit in your mouth. Your heart should confess what your mouth-your mouth should confess what your heart believes. Notice the belief is in the heart, not in the head. And this reinforces the truth of Romans chapter 6, verse 17, that said you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine delivered unto you. It’s not enough to repent, confess, believe, and be baptized. That’s just one of the different ways you go to hell. There’s all kinds of ways. It’s a matter of something in the heart by faith. Notice the obedience is by faith. 16: ‘They have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?’ In plain words, to obey the gospel is to believe the gospel, and you believe from the heart. And we made comment on this earlier when we talked about believing in vain, and you might review those remarks we made, and we made them in connection with Romans chapter 6, verse 17. All right, believe, confess, that’s the long and short of it. ‘With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.’ You can talk all day about a man believing an elevator will take him up, but he needs to get into it. You speak of a man having nerve, or having guts, or having backbone, so you understand perfectly what God means when he says believe in your heart. A man told a friend of mine, he was a skeptic, this man, he told a friend of mine, he said, ‘Your heart’s just an organ. It can’t believe.’ And my friend said, ‘Well, it may be an organ, but every time it hears the name of Jesus, it plays Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.’ You understand what God means when he says heart. Don’t put on airs. ‘For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.’”

Dr. Peter S. Ruckman, Romans 10:6-10

What did Ruckman say about Romans 10:11-13?

He says “whosoever” covers anybody, and he ties “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” to a sinner asking God to save him.

“‘For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.’ It’s just that simple. You say, ‘That’s all there is to it?’ That’s all there is to it. You say, ‘Well, anybody can believe...’ No, they don’t. It says believe in your heart, your affections, what you love. That is you come to Christ as a sinner and you lay hold of him with your heart as your only hope, your only God, your only Savior, and you confess him as Lord. L-O-R-D. It isn’t a matter of just believing some abstract doctrine about salvation. It’s nothing just as simple as repenting, confessing, believing, being baptized, like the water dogs say. It’s a matter of laying hold with the heart of a person who is living and risen, who died for you on the cross, and confessing him as Lord, Jehovah, Jesus, Jehovah saves, God manifest in the flesh dying to save you from your sins. And if you haven’t done that, you haven’t obeyed the gospel, no matter what else you’ve done. ‘For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.’ Not believe about him, not even believe in him, believe on him. Place your confidence and hope and reliance on him. Notice: ‘Whosoever believeth on him...’ It’s a person. The Bible says thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. It’s a person you believe on, not a thing. Things can’t save. Not even good things. You’re saved by a person. Notice it is Jesus. Not just, you know, the good Lord, or the sky pilot, or the man upstairs, and all that mess. ‘Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For’-summing it up-‘whosoever...’ Is that big enough? Why, that covers anybody. ‘Whosoever,’ not just the elect. ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ What’s his name? His name’s Jesus. ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ And that’s what makes a panic in hell and a celebration in heaven, when an old sinner comes stumbling in off the hot pavements of hell and puts his bleeding feet down there on Beulah Land and kneels at the feet of the Savior and says, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner and save my poor wretched soul for Jesus’ sake.’ That’ll do it. ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

Dr. Peter S. Ruckman, Romans 10:11-13

Sources:

Dr. Peter S. Ruckman 1970s Roman commentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc2yHzUnQNM&list=PLEgM2-UhiUcQCJhNde8tC-5MqlLI-F1pU&index=17

Dr. Peter S. Ruckman Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ruckman