I HAD A DREAM 121 CHAPIER TEN "I Had A Dream" When Peter Ruckman and Zane Hodges died, the Lord hauled them both up to the Judgment Seat of Christ at the same time, since they had ''bound'' some matters on earth that were still ''bound in heaven" (see Matt. 18:18). First, the Lord com- mended Zane Hodges on the terrific job he had done in destroy- ing the faith of two thousand young men (which included several dozen teachers) in an archaic translation that no one could understand; one that had been translated from a handful of manuscripts. He further commended Brother Hodges for the marvelous work he had done in restoring the faith of Bible- correctors in the Syrian, or Byzantine type of text, used by Chrysostom. Then "Ruckman's" turn came. Naturally, he was severely castigated in the same terms by which he had castigated others (Matthew 7:1-2), and was given to understand, in no uncertain terms, that his failure as a Bible teacher was due to the fact that he had absolutely refused to correct a 'reliable transla- tion'' with the ORIGINAL GREEK TEXT. When Ruckman complained that he had never seen a copy to use for correc- tions, the Lord told him '''that is no excuse! John R. Rice had a copy and so did Stewart Custer. And you heard Broadus, Caroll, Sumner, and Gill say a hundred times that `faithfulness to the ORIGINAL' was the ultimate validation for any transla- tion.'' Naturally, Ruckman was deeply humbled by this severe rebuke given in the presence of angels, cherubim, seraphim and the spirits of just men made perfect (Heb. 12:23). He hung his head in shame as he knelt before the fire that burned up forty years of his ministry as a Bible teacher and cornmentator. It could not abide the fire (see 1 Cor. 3:10-16) because of his false 122 HOW TO TEACH ''THE ORIGINAL'' GREEK TEXT motive. He had been trying to create believers IN THE WRONG BOOK. ''You see,'' said the Lord, ''the reason why Zane Hodges always found more revelations in the Bible than you did, and was able to dig out the 'deeper things' in the Scripture that you missed, is because he, as a faithful servant, created trust in un- seen, unread, lost pieces of paper that l discarded more than 1,800 years ago.'' Naturally, Ruckman confessed this heinous and terrible sin, and in abject humiliation he begged God to forgive him for pro- ducing several hundred deceived members of a ''Cult'' who believed the Authonzed Version of their Bible, in their language, was the Holy Scriptures. "Well enough then, " said the Lord, ' 'let that be a lesson to you! You see now why Christians learned so much more Bi- ble sitting under Zane Hodges and his friends (Wilbur Picker- ing, Arthur Farstad, and Donald Waite), and why, in a lifetime, you weren't able to teach anyone the Word of God. This ex- plains why the graduates of Dallas led so many more souls to Christ than your pupils did. They were more rooted and ground- ed in the truth that yours were. You were a failure as a Bible teacher, Ruckman, and what little truth can be found in your 110 books wasn't essential for anyone to know, anyway. As you know, by now, I stopped revealing truths in the scripture in 90 A.D." ''Yes sir. Yes, Lord. I am so sorry.'' ''Now I am going to give you an opportunity to atone for your misguided ministry which produced nothing but a cult. I am going to let you balance the scales if you are willing to repent!" ''Oh yes, Lord! Yes, yes! I'll do anything to make it right!" "Good! Here is what you are to do. See those brilliant Bi- ble teachers over there who produced ten times as many real believers as you did?'' (And here he pointed to a group com- posed of Chuck Swindoll, J. Vernon McGee, Stewart Custer, James Price, Cliff Robinson, Bob Jones III, John MacArthur, Wiersbe, Wilmington, Hindson, Hutson, Hymers, Hobbs, Hor- ton, Wemp, Dell, Sherman, Melton, and Walker.) "Here is I HAD A DREAM 123 what you are to do! You are to spend the first one thousand years of eternity (see Rev. 20:1-2) picking fruit off of the tree of life for THEM, and your job will be to keep them supplied daily with this fruit. Don't forget to peel and core the fruit that needs it, and be sure and take all the seeds out so they don't swallow any. Got it?" ''Yes sir! Thank you sir! Yes, Lord I will! Pronto! Right on the money! Thank you Lord! Thank God for giving me a chance to help out some REAL Bible teachers! Boy, what an opportunity ! " And so Zane Hodges put Ruckman on a leash and tied him up to a hitching post; taking him for a daily stroll to the river of Life where he picked fruit for the real Bible teachers who had put God and the Bible first instead of their own opinions and preferences. "AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER. " (Just kidding, folks, "A MERRY HEART DOETH GOOD LIKE A MEDICINE"). ----------------------------- * Greek not recognized by our Scanner -----------------------------