Ruckman: “No women in heaven”

“No women in heaven” is the eye-catching title of an article written by Peter Ruckman in which he elaborates on his sensational theory. His basic premise is that since the resurrected bodies of the saints will be transformed to match the likeness of Christ, it will necessarily result in 33-year old males. Notice:

This means that every saved woman in the body of Christ is indwelt by a MAN, at least as far as sexual designations are concerned. Someday, the saved woman will be fashioned “LIKE UNTO HIS GLORIOUS BODY” (Phil. 3:21).
Ruckman, Peter. Bible Believers’ Bulletin. May 1986, p. 3

This would mean that every saved woman in the body of Christ will eventually become a THIRTY-THREE AND ONE-HALF YEAR OLD, SINLESS MALE (Phil. 3:20-21). She would be a perfect replica of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29).
Ibid., p. 3

What follows are assorted quotes in which Ruckman repeats his peculiar views in other writings:

So up in Heaven, ladies, you are going to be a 33 1/2-year-old male just like your Saviour. If that seems odd or peculiar or distasteful to you Christian ladies, just remember that you have a man living inside of you (1 Tim. 2:5 cf. Col. 1:27), and that your destiny as a child of God is to be conformed to that man’s image (Rom. 8:29).
Ruckman, Peter. The Book of Luke. Pensacola, FL: BB Bookstore, 2013, p. 636

Since every Christian in the Body of Christ has a MAN inside him (or her) (Col. 1:27; John 1:12) and is PREDESTINATED to be conformed to the image of that man (2 Cor. 4:4; Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:1-4; Phil. 3:21), there is no question at all about the future state of every Christian in the Body of Christ, except in the minds of Hebrew and Greek professors and the “vast majority of conservative, Bible-rejecting blockheads.” The believer will appear in glory as a 33-year old sinless male.
22 Years of the Bible Believer’s Bulletin Vol. 1 “The AV Holy Bible” p. 110

Moreover, everyone in heaven is a male…The woman is a “womb-man,” a man with a womb.
Ruckman, Peter. The Books of First and Second Corinthians: The Bible Believer’s Commentary Series. Pensacola, FL: BB Bookstore, 2002, p. 343

The indication is that the only people who get a glorified body like Jesus Christ are people in the Church Age. The only people who get a 33-year-old sinless [male, see p. 596] body are people saved in the dispensation of grace. All others get their eternal life by partaking of a tree, and they go into eternity male and female, exactly like Adam and Eve were before they fell.
Ruckman, Peter. The Book of Revelation. Pensacola, FL: BB Bookstore, p. 587

This last quote is interesting, because in the quote we provided just before, he insisted that “everyone in heaven is a male.”

If you didn’t think Ruckman could get any stranger, read on:

In this condition, the Christian throughout all eternity is in a 33 year-old male, sinless body, just like Jesus Christ, and he enjoys fellowship with God and the saints forever. He is called out on trips, and these trips take him to Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, etc., transporting couples into gardens, placing them down and saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (!)
Ibid., p. 596

Ruckman’s bizarre theory makes select physical traits of Christ at his ascension the benchmark. 1 Cor. 15:44 informs us that our natural body will be raised as a “spiritual body” (we do not interpret this as “disembodied”). The Bible calls this change “a mystery” in 1 Cor. 15:51. Ruckman acts as if he has solved the mystery by claiming that everyone–including ladies–will be transformed into 33-year old men in heaven. In his typical arrogant style, Ruckman declares that “there is no question at all about the future state of every Christian in the Body of Christ, except in the minds of Hebrew and Greek professors and the ‘vast majority of conservative, Bible-rejecting blockheads.’” (Ruckman, Peter. 22 Years of the Bible Believer’s Bulletin Vol. 1 “The AV Holy Bible” p. 110)

If Ruckman wants to select these two physical traits of Christ (age and gender), why stop there? If Phil. 3:21 is to be interpreted in the physical sense as Ruckman does, wouldn’t everyone in heaven not only be 33-year old men, but also have Christ’s height, shoe size, weight, etc.? Rev. 1:14 describes Christ with white hair. Will everyone also have nail prints in their hands and marks on their sides? Christ had a beard (Isa. 50:6)—will Christian women end up with beards in heaven? The implications of Ruckman’s views lead to absurd conclusions.

Part of Ruckman’s reasoning centers on angels being males, and since Matt. 22:30 tells us that resurrected saints will be “as the angels of God in heaven,” then—Ruckman naturally reasons—there will be no females. However, even if it could be proven that all angels are not sexless, but rather males (another topic not to be dealt with in this article), it does not prove Ruckman’s theory correct. That is because the context of Matt. 22:30 is not about the gender of the resurrected saints or of angels or even that we will be as the angels in every possible aspect. The context rather consists of pointing out to the Pharisees (who denied the doctrine of the resurrection) that there will be no marriage in heaven, which demonstrated that their hypothetical argument to ridicule the resurrection had no merit. The parallel passage in Luke 20:34-36 makes the similarity with angels more about immortality:

And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

As to why there will be no need for marriage in heaven, Matthew Henry’s Commentary makes some observations worth reading:

In our present state marriage is necessary; it was instituted in innocency; whatever intermission or neglect there has been of other institutions, this was never laid aside, nor will be till the end of time. In the old world, they were marrying, and giving in marriage; the Jews in Babylon, when cut off from other ordinances, yet were bid to take them wives, Jer. 29:6. All civilized nations have had a sense of the obligation of the marriage covenant; and it is requisite for the gratifying of the desires, and recruiting the deficiencies, of the human nature. But, in the resurrection, there is no occasion for marriage; whether in glorified bodies there will be any distinction of sexes some too curiously dispute (the ancients are divided in their opinions about it); but, whether there will be a distinction or not, it is certain that there will be no conjunction; where God will be all in all, there needs no other meet-help; the body will be spiritual, and there will be in it no carnal desires to be gratified: when the mystical body is completed, there will be no further occasion to seek a godly seed, which was one end of the institution of marriage, Mal. 2:15. In heaven there will be no decay of the individuals, and therefore no eating and drinking; no decay of the species, and therefore no marrying; where there shall be no more deaths (Rev. 21:4), there need be no more births. The married state is a composition of joys and cares; those that enter upon it are taught to look upon it as subject to changes, richer and poorer, sickness and health; and therefore it is fit for this mixed, changing world; but as in hell, where there is no joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride shall be heard no more at all, so in heaven, where there is all joy, and no care or pain or trouble, there will be no marrying. The joys of that state are pure and spiritual, and arise from the marriage of all of them to the Lamb, not of any of them to one another. (Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible, comment for Matthew 22:23-33)

The most logical and biblical interpretation would be that our likeness to Christ in our heavenly bodies will be primarily in our immortality and freedom from the curse of sin. In Rom. 7:24 the Apostle Paul expressed how wretched he was and how he looked forward to being delivered “from the body of this death.” To place the focus on select relatively unimportant physical traits like Ruckman does is misguided and superficial.

Ultimately, the Bible does not provide an answer to an innumerable number of things we could wonder about concerning our future state in glory. It would seem reasonable to expect that our resurrected bodies will transcend gender. In matters relating to gender, we do know there will be no marriages in heaven, and no need to reproduce, as there will be no more death.  The Bible calls the change that awaits us “a mystery” in 1 Cor. 15:51. We must not act arrogantly as Ruckman and pretend we have solved (even partially) what the Bible calls a mystery.