Famous televangelist Oral Roberts passed away at age 91 yesterday. He died from complications of pneumonia in Newport Beach, California. He was the founder of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association since 1947 and was known for the "healing crusades" back during the 1950's and 60's. Starting in 1954, television cameras were brought into the tent meetings and viewers could view people in the healing lines requesting prayer for healing. Oral Roberts would lay hands on them and many would claim to be healed of their sicknesses and diseases from the Lord. Oral Roberts had a television program that was called "Oral Roberts Presents." It was later renamed "The Place for Miracles. The Abundant Life Prayer group was founded in 1958 to "address the around-the-clock needs of those suffering and requesting prayer. Surviving Roberts are a daughter Roberta, a son Richard who has his own television show, twelve grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. His wife Evelyn preceded him in 2005 after 66 years of marriage.
Granville Oral Roberts was born into poverty on January 24, 1918 in Bebe, Oklahoma. He was of the Cherokee descent. His ministry began when he went to a healing crusade at the age of seventeen and he was supposedly healed of tubercolosis. He claimed God called him to spread God's message of healing throughout the masses in crusades in America and around the world. He pastored churches in Oklahoma and Georgia and preached at revivals around the country while studying at Oklahama Baptist University and Phillips University. He founded the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association in 1947 and conducted crusades across America and around the world, crowds of thousands who were sick and searching for healing. Oral Roberts University was founded in 1963 and it was built on 500 acres in Tulsa, Oklahoma. ORU began accepting students in 1965 and the university was dedicated in 1967 with Billy Graham delivering the message. "Oral Roberts was a man of God and a great friend in ministry," Billy Graham stated. "I loved him as a brother. We had many quiet conversations over the years." I read that in a CNN report on the website.
In 1977 Roberts stated he saw a vision of a 900 foot tall Jesus. God had "instructed him to build the City of Faith Medical and Research Center" whose purpose was to merge the healing power of prayer and medicine. Back in 1983 Roberts also claimed God told him to find a cure for cancer. The ironic thing was he never found a cure for cancer and on top of that the City of Faith Medical Center shut down in 1989 due to financial reasons. Oral Roberts preached a prosperity gospel doctrine. He preached seed faith where if you donate a portion of your money to the Oral Roberts ministries God would multiply it. He was preaching the false doctrine of prosperity gospel. It's amazing that the Lord told him to build the City of Faith but God wasn't able to sustain the needs of that hospital. If the Lord told Oral to build it and if Oral believed in seed faith like he claimed to, then why couldn't God have rained in the necessary funds to keep it going? It's a sham. I wonder what kind of steward the Oral Roberts Ministry was with all the millions of dollars that were contributed by millions of viewers to his television program. Oral Roberts familiy lived a lavish lifestyle themselves with their vacation houses and their Rolls Royce. I wonder to what degree did they misuse funds? I'm not trying to set myself up as a judge but considering some of his statements and actions it makes you wonder. He had an explanation for the City of Faith closing down and he said that God told him to build the City of Faith to merge prayer and medicine together and that they had done that and it was finished. He equated the work that was accomplished by the City of Faith to the finished work of Christ on the cross. That's false doctrine.
Back in 1987 Oral Roberts told his viewers that God wanted to send medical missionaries from the center to the world and if he didn't raise 8 million dollars by the end of March 1987, the Lord would call him home. I never saw anything as foolish as that! It was a race track owner that gave him the needed funds which totaled $9.1 million in April 1987. Two years later the City of Faith Shut down. I believe that's blasphemy! I never have seen anything so foolish as that. Right in the middle of Roberts telling his viewers he needed 8 million dollars or the Lord would call him home the PTL/Jim Bakker scandal erupted. There was revelation of hush money being paid to Jessica Hahn, whom Jim Bakker had a sexual tryst with some seven years before. Also, there were allegations that funds sent to PTL were spent on the Bakkers' lavish lifestyle. It gave a terrible name to Christianity. There was news every single day on that one single event. It seemed like a living soap opera in the evangelical world. It was one of those ordeals where you would want to stay tuned for the latest, breaking news. It was pathetic. I had never seen anything as foolish as that. Several months later in February 1988, it was revealed that Jimmy Swaggart was seeing a prostitute in a motel in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It seemed like a living nightmare. There was something brewing all the time for several months.
Oral Roberts helped play a pivotal role in spreading the Charismatic movement across America with his message of healing and seed faith. I believe in divine healing but God doesn't always heal everybody that prays for healing. Also, there's no such thing as faith-healers. Only God heals. Oral Roberts also taught the erroneous doctrine of seed faith. The Bible declares in the book of Malachi that if you bring your tithes and offerings in the storehouse, God will pour you out a blessing that you can't contain. However, that doesn't necessarily come in the form of money or material goods. God blesses that way but he doesn't promise that if you give $10 you'll receive $100 back. God's blessings come in many ways; some ways we're unaware of. But giving isn't about receiving so we can consume it upon our own lusts. We are to give with a cheerful heart because we love him. If we give cheerfully, the Lord will bless us. However, God's blessings aren't necessarily limited to material prosperity. Giving is to teach us to honor God and to be a blessing to others. It's not about self-gain. Oral Roberts was another one of those false prophets that I believe God said we should mark and avoid. He caused a lot of damage to the body of Christ with his deceptive message about prosperity and gimmicks he used when it comes to healing. It's tragic the many followers he had and they never learned the truth. I understand if you're a new Christian it might take a while to learn the truths of the Bible, but if you're grounded in Bible doctrine, then you'll know Oral Roberts was a false prophet.
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