FIRST READ: The seed of Faith that made BIG MONEY – The Story and legacy of Oral Ro
berts
http://letusreason.org/Popteach47.htm
America-nized Christianity, ‘Another Gospel’ To Africa
http://www.naijarules.com/vb/religion-philosophy-spirituality/30793-america-nized-christianity-another-gospel-africa.html
http://www.saveethiopians.net/Ami-christianity.pdf
http://takeheedafrica.blogspot.com/2008/03/ugandas-rotten-prosperity-movement.html
'Man Control', The End-time Implications
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/93-Man%20Control%20Part%201.html
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/94-Man%20Control%20Part%202.html
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/95-Man%20Control%20Part%203.html
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/96-Man%20Control%20Part%204.html
Evangelist Oral Roberts dead at 91
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/12/15/oral.roberts/index.html
December 16, 2009 -- Updated 1658 GMT (0058 HKT)
(CNN) -- Evangelist Oral Roberts, founder of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and Oral Roberts University, died Tuesday from complications of pneumonia in Newport Beach, California, his spokeswoman said. He was 91.
Roberts' son, Richard, and daughter Roberta were at his side, spokeswoman Melany Ethridge said in a statement.
Roberts was hospitalized Monday following a fall on Saturday, in which he suffered broken bones, Ethridge said earlier, adding he was being treated for pneumonia.
There will be a private interment, the statement said. Arrangements for a public memorial service in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are pending.
"Oral Roberts was a man of God, and a great friend in ministry," the Rev. Billy Graham said in a statement Tuesday. "I loved him as a brother. We had many quiet conversations over the years."
Granville Oral Roberts was born into poverty in Bebee, Oklahoma, on January 24, 1918, according to a brief biography released by Ethridge. His Christian ministry began with what he described as his own miracle healing of tuberculosis at age 17.
Roberts pastored churches in Oklahoma and Georgia and preached at revivals around the country while studying at Oklahoma Baptist University and Phillips University in Oklahoma, according to the biography.
In 1947, he founded the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association in Tulsa, "and began conducting crusades across America and around the world, attracting crowds of thousands -- many who were sick and dying and in search of healing," the biography said. "Through the years, he conducted more than 300 crusades on six continents" and "laid hands" on an estimated 2 million people, according to association officials.
In 1954, he brought television cameras into services, providing what he liked to call a "front-row seat to miracles" to viewers, the biography said. He later began a television program, initially called "Oral Roberts Presents." The ministry's daily program, now called "The Place for Miracles," can be seen on more than 100 television stations, multiple cable and satellite networks and the Internet, Ethridge said.
"If God had not in his sovereign will raised up the ministry of Oral Roberts, the entire charismatic movement might not have occurred," said Jack Hayford, president of the California-based International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, in the statement. "Oral shook the landscape with the inescapable reality and practicality of Jesus' whole ministry. His teaching and concepts were foundational to the renewal that swept through the whole church."
Roberts founded the Abundant Life Prayer Group in 1958 "to address the around-the-clock needs of those suffering and requesting prayer," according to the biography. Today, prayer partners at Abundant Life continue to receive calls 24 hours a day. The group has received more than 23 million phone calls for prayer, the biography said.
Oral Roberts University was founded in 1963, built on 500 acres in Tulsa and dedicated four years later by Graham, according to the biography. Graduate schools including medicine, nursing, dentistry, law, education and theology were later added. Roberts served as school president until 1993 but remained a chancellor until his death.
He remained involved in his evangelistic association as much as his health allowed, Ethridge said Monday. His son, Richard Roberts, currently serves as president.
In 1977, Roberts said he had a vision of a 900-foot-tall Jesus, who told him to found the City of Faith Medical and Research Center. The biography said the center was aimed at "merging the healing power of medicine and prayer."
In 1986, Roberts announced that God would "call him home" unless he raised $8 million to send medical missionaries from the center -- an announcement that was widely publicized. He wound up raising $9.1 million, but the center closed in 1989. However, the biography said, it left "a lasting impact on the understanding by many medical professionals of the importance of treating the whole person -- body, mind and spirit."
In addition, Roberts wrote more than 130 books, the biography said. "His book 'The Miracle of Seed Faith' has more than 8 million copies in circulation. This book's key principles -- God is your source, sow your seed out of your need, and expect a miracle harvest -- formed a fundamental part of Roberts' ministry and legacy," the biography said.
Before his death, Roberts said, "After I'm gone, others will have to judge how well I've obeyed God's command not to be an echo but to be a voice like Jesus," the statement said. "As far as my own conviction is concerned, I've tried to be that voice with every fiber of my being, regardless of the cost."
Responding to news of Roberts' death, Graham said Tuesday: "Just three weeks ago, I was privileged to talk to Oral on the telephone. During the short conversation, he said to me that he was near the end of his life's journey. I look forward to the day that I will see Oral and Evelyn Roberts again in heaven -- our eternal home."
Roberts wife, Evelyn, died in 2005 after the couple had been married more than 66 years. Roberts is survived by his son and daughter and their spouses, along with 12 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren, Ethridge said.
The Legacy of Oral Roberts
http://www.apostasyalert.org/Oral%20Roberts.htm
An Excerpt from "The Fleecing of Christianity"
by Jackie Alnor
TBN’s September, 1999 newsletter tells the story. "The first glimmer came one night after a PRAISE THE LORD program," wrote Paul Crouch to his supporters. "Pastor John Hinkle, of Christ Church in Los Angeles (who went to be with the Lord a few weeks ago), had been our guest1. . . . John told us that while he was driving home after the program that night, the Lord spoke to him so powerfully he literally had to pull his car to the side of the freeway and stop. The heavens lit up and he saw in a vision the words, "100 TV STATIONS." We rejoiced to hear of this revelation."2 (emphasis in original)
"The next great revelation came some years later," Crouch continued, "as Jan and I were hosting a PRAISE THE LORD program at one of the great Oral Roberts’ campmeetings. . . As he began to speak, a strange new expression came over his face. He paused for several seconds as he looked heavenward and said, ‘Paul, the Lord says, ‘The day will come when you will see ONE THOUSAND TV STATIONS -- and MORE before the Lord returns.’ Jan and I sat there, stunned and transfixed for several moments before we could even speak."3
Yet, contrast this newsletter’s proclamation with that of a TBN newsletter 10 years earlier. The January 1989 TBN newsletter noted, "The Lord is still speaking through His Prophets to His people TODAY! . . . Brother Oral Roberts gave us a prophetic Word from the Lord -- that the TBN Network would grow to be 100 STATIONS and, yes, surpass even that! The Lord also revealed this to Pastor John Hinkle . . . at a time when TBN was only one station!"4
So with Oral Roberts it was both 100 and then 1,000 stations. Yet Oral Roberts, according to Paul Crouch’s statement at a 1984 camp meeting at Melodyland, the prophesied 100 stations would "usher in the coming of Jesus Christ."5 And, today TBN has over 5,000 television stations6 and over 33 satellites. So what might have looked like a valid prophecy at one time is invalidated by Roberts’ time frame into which it was locked.
Oral Roberts is still touted by the Crouches as some great prophet/healer. They do this even though his record as both is very poor. His hearing of audible voices has proven to be false so that even if anything he predicts comes true it cannot be thought of as coming from God. But as noted earlier, the Crouches have Roberts to thank for giving them the key to the viewer’s wallets -- the seed-faith heresy. Christian media expert Al Dager, of Media Spotlight, gave a very accurate summary of Oral Roberts’ ability to hear from the Lord in his own prophetic record.7
• "1960: Roberts claimed that God had told him to make His healing power known throughout the earth.
• 1977: Roberts said he had received a vision from God telling him to build the City of Faith. He later claimed to have seen a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him that the vision would soon be realized and that the hospital would be a success. The City of Faith opened in 1981.
• 1983: Roberts announced that Jesus had appeared to him in person and commissioned him to find a cure for cancer (Time, July 4, 1983).
• 1986: Roberts said God had told him, ‘I want you to use the ORU medical school to put My medical presence in the earth. I want you to get this going in one year or I will call you home. It will cost $8 million and I want you to believe you can raise it.’ (Abundant Life, Jan/Feb. 1987).
• January 1987: Roberts said God had told him . . . he had to raise $8 million by March 1 or God would take him home. Roberts said the money would be used to provide full scholarships for medical missionaries who would be sent to Third World countries. . . He said $3.5 million had been raised and all he needed was $4.5 million before March 1 that year.
• April 1, 1987: Roberts announced that he had raised $9.1 million -- $1.1 million more than needed. Of the money raised, $1.3 million was given by a dog track owner, Jerry Collins.
• November 1987: Roberts announced that the City of Faith medical clinic will close in three months.
• January 1988: Roberts canceled the university’s free medical tuition program despite his claim that God had told him to make the medical school a world outreach program.
• March 1988: The medical scholarship fund went bankrupt. Students were required to repay scholarship funds at 18 percent annual interest if they transferred to another school rather than stay at ORU medical school and start paying the high tuition.
• September 1989: Roberts decided to close the medical school and the City of Faith hospital to pay off debts."
"When Oral Roberts says that God told him that he was going to take him home if he didn't get 8 million dollars, he lied to the public," noted the late Bible Answer-man Walter Martin. "God never told him that at all. Don't you get the feeling that something's going wrong? It is and it's found for you in scripture. We're told in scripture to reprove, rebuke, and exhort . . . for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine . . . It's here."8
This makes Oral Roberts a certified false prophet, false teacher, and lying wolf in sheep’s clothing. And his son Richard Roberts, the current president of Oral Roberts University (ORU), is following in his father’s footsteps. On Richard and Lindsey Roberts’ show, "Something Good Tonight," that aired in March, 2000, Richard Roberts spoke to the ORU students in the chapel service and claimed that God said "’I want you to get my university out of debt.’ Students, I prophesy and I’m not a man that prophesies very often unless God gives me a word. I prophesy to you. . . I prophesy that we are very near to the day when this university is going to be totally debt-free. . . Every one of you who are sowing seed. . . Students, if you’ve not been sowing seed you don’t have a right to this prayer. God is not going to multiply what you don’t sow. But if you have been sowing seed then I want you to lay your hands on my hands… we’re going to break the spirit of debt off of you who are giving."
Of course, none of these students were part of the now defunct medical program at ORU, but were merely liberal arts students, many of whom gave up their spending money so that the Roberts family could get ORU out of its reported 33 million dollar debt.9 False prophesying worked for his father, so no doubt it would work for the younger one as well. The biggest losers in the deal were those struggling ORU students.
None of this should come to any surprise. Richard Roberts made it quite clear that his policy was to work the same tricks as his dad taught him. He often brags "when you see me, you've seen my father."
♥♥♥
1Note that Paul Crouch still endorsed John Hinkle after it was already shown that he was a false prophet. Crouch would never want to acknowledge he was wrong -- that would be too humbling.
2Paul Crouch, TBN newsletter, September, 1999, Vol. XXV, No. IX.
3Ibid.
4TBN Newsletter, January 1989, Vol. XVI, No. I.
5Paul Crouch, Vintage 1984 Camp Meeting at Melodyland, video on file.
6http://www.tbn.org/index.php/3/18.html
7Al Dager, quoted in O Timothy magazine, Vol. 7, Issue 3, 1990.
8Walter Martin, audio tape "Schismatic Sheep"--pt. 2, tape on file.
9Per Oral Roberts at the ICBM Conference 6/20/2000, video tape on file.
Doctrines of Oral Roberts
Oral Roberts began his career as a tent evangelist in the late 1940's, appearing at rallies and evangelical crusades throughout the United States and the world. He was at his peak of popularity as an evangelist in the 1950's and 1960's. His meetings were popularized by his fiery and rapid-fire style of delivery, and the ever present lines of people hoping to obtain their healings.
In a time in which air conditioning was not used, his shirt-sleeve look, ever-present handkerchief to wipe his brow and his receiving of prospects for healing while seated on a folding chair made a great impression on his audience.
In the late 1970's, Oral Roberts' career began to take a different course as he founded the university that bears his name and began to move away from the crusades and concentrate on the medium of television. His folksy, homespun style and fatherly character made him a popular personality, and his television programs expanded throughout the country.
Oral Roberts' television program, books and university have all become a central distribution point for the health and wealth gospel and his promotion of the "seed faith" doctrine has brought in untold millions to his organization.
While still maintaining the control in the background, the aging Oral Roberts has stepped down from the presidency of his university, turning the position over to his son, Richard Roberts. Richard Roberts has his own television program originating from Oral Roberts University called, "Something Good Tonight, The Hour Of Healing", but it is produced under the umbrella of Oral Roberts himself.
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DOCTRINAL ISSUES
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The following doctrinal errors are part of Oral Roberts' teaching:
1. He teaches that God wants all believers to be wealthy, healthy and happy.
2. He teaches that God gives him continuing direct revelations that direct his life, his ministry and command believers to support him.
3. He teaches that the Bible reveals the doctrine of "Seed Faith" which he originated, also known as the doctrine of "Giving and Receiving" whereby God will return a multiplication of money to a person who gives money in faith, believing that they will receive a monetary reward, primarily for donating to the ministry of Oral Roberts.
4. He teaches and embraces many and various charismatic doctrines and practices that are not Biblical, including support for the "Toronto Blessing" and its high guru and spokesman the "Holy Spirit Bartender", Rodney Howard-Browne.
5. He teaches that he and other like ministers and believers can "bind the devil".
6. He teaches that he has healed many people and continues to do so.
He has never presented proof that he has ever healed any individual and has never healed a visible disease. He has never caused a missing arm or leg to appear, caused a congenitally deformed individual to become whole, healed a Down's syndrome individual or caused a quadriplegic to walk. All of his claimed healings are of the mystery type, those that cannot be seen or verified, i.e., cancer inside the body, headaches and other ailments that cannot be proven to exist. The supposed healings that occur during his crusades were paraded across the platforms, while those in the wheelchairs, the blind, the terminally ill and those with missing body parts never saw the great man perform his miracles on them.
Oral Roberts has made his claims about healing for over fifty years, and the Christian church is still gullible and without discernment regarding his failures and absolute inability to heal. He was unable to heal, even with the help of Kenneth Hagin, his grandchild when he died two days after birth.
Over fifty years of false claims, and the Christian world still holds Oral Roberts in esteem, considering him a great man of God.
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FALSE PROPHECIES & OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS
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• 1977
Oral Roberts claimed that he received a vision, or revelation, from God. In the vision he claimed that God told him to build the City of Faith Medical Center. He also claimed that he saw a 900 foot tall Jesus, who said that the City of Faith would be successful. Four years later, in 1981, he opened the City of Faith.
• 1983
Oral Roberts: said that Jesus Christ appeared to him in person (not a vision) and told him to find a cure for cancer. So far, he has not found that cure.
• 1986
Oral Roberts said that God told him the following:
"I want you to use the ORU medical school to put My medical presence in the earth. I want you to get this going in one year or I will call you home. It will cost $8 million and I want you to believe you can raise it."
• 1987
In January Oral Roberts said that God spoke to him and told him that he had not sent out any medical missionaries from the university or City of Faith. God instructed him to raise $8 million by March of the same year or God would take him home (presumably God would kill Oral Roberts or translate him to heaven like Enoch).
The money raised was to provide full scholastic scholarships for medical missionaries who would be sent to other countries.
He claimed that $3.5 million had already been raised, but he needed $4.5 million more by March 1, in order to get the full $8 million and prevent God from taking him home.
• 1987
On April 1 Oral Roberts said that he had received $9.1 million which was $1.1 million more that was required by God.
• 1987
In November, Oral Roberts announced that the City of Faith would be closing down.
• 1988
In January, Oral Roberts discontinued the medical scholarships. Apparently he was no longer afraid that God was going to take him home.
• 1988
In March, the medical scholarship fund went bankrupt. If any students wished to transfer to any other institution, they were required to repay their scholarships at 18% interest.
• 1989
In September, Oral Roberts closed the City of Faith.
THE CITY OF FAITH
How does Oral Roberts claim that God would kill him if he failed to raise 8 million dollars for the City of Faith, which at the time was failing because of a lack of funding. Since when is failure to raise a specific amount of money part of a capital offense in the law of God? That is not found in the Scripture. How convenient is it to receive a revelation just when the funds were needed the most? In his original claims, Oral Roberts said that God wanted the 8 million dollars to be used in order to send medical missionaries throughout the world. The money was used to keep the City of Faith operational in the face of failure, instead of being used as God had wished.
But the real question is in relation to Oral & Richard Roberts' support of the City of Faith and the claims that were made about it. Oral Roberts stated that he received a revelation from God (when he claimed to have seen the 900 foot tall Jesus Christ), and that Jesus Christ specifically told him to build the City of Faith and that it would be successful. The revelation was received in 1977 and by 1989 the City of Faith was closed as a financial failure. Employees and students were dismissed and the entire facility (never completed or completely occupied) was abandoned.
Oral Roberts claims to serve the God and Jesus Christ of the Bible, but if he received a revelation from God and Jesus Christ that the City of Faith would be successful, then his claims about Them make Them out to be liars. Since it is impossible for God or Jesus Christ to lie (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18), then either Oral Roberts lied about receiving a revelation or he was mentally impaired or deceived by a vision from Satan and did not know the difference. In any case, he is denied credibility as a prophet or revelator.
Oral Roberts also said that God told him to find a cure for cancer, through the research facilities of the City of Faith, but the cure was never found before the City of Faith failed and was abandoned. How is it that God told Oral Roberts to find a cure for cancer when He knew that the cure would not be found?
In the face of the failure of the City of Faith, Oral Roberts had to find a reason to explain the result, and far from the failure being the fault of Oral Roberts, amazingly he received a revelation from God, in which God stated that He had precipitated the failure as a testimony to all people of the world, that "this concept of merging My healing streams [is] to be known to all people and to go into all future generations."
"I had you build the City of Faith large enough to capture the imagination of the entire world, about the merging of My healing streams of prayer and medicine. I did not want this revelation localized in Tulsa, however, and the time has come when I want this concept of merging My healing streams to be known to all people and to go into all future generations,"
--- Claimed words of God given to Oral Roberts in a revelation
"It is clearly in my spirit, as I have ever heard Him, the Lord gave me an impression, 'You and your partners have merged prayer and medicine for the entire world, for the church world and for all generations.' And then He said, 'It is done.' And then I asked, 'Is that why after eight years you are having us close the hospital and after eleven years the medical school?' And God said, 'Yes, the mission has been accomplished in the same way that after three years of public ministry, my Son said on the cross, ""Father, it is finished!""'"
--- Oral Roberts
Oral Roberts claimed that God told him that the demise of the City of Faith is equated to be on the same level of importance as the finish of the ministry of Jesus Christ and his statement on the cross, "It is finished." That is simply an outrageous statement to make by Oral Roberts, because it equates his buildings and medical training center as being of the same value as the atonement accomplished on the cross by the death of Jesus Christ.
Failure and success are redefined by Oral Roberts to mean just the opposite of what they actually are, and the building of hospitals, training centers and research centers is for a much different reason than their stated purpose. Oral Roberts' claim is that God's definition of success is failure and the merging of His "healing streams" into the world is to build and then close down hospitals, medical training and research centers. God's command to send out medical missionaries is to send out none and his command to find a cure for cancer is to abandon the search. And then it is claimed that the secular world is to be impressed? The secular world was not impressed and laughed at the impudence of Oral Roberts. It was only the undiscerning religious world who gave their millions to the City of Faith, only to see it squandered on a failed speculation and finally lost to history by the demise of the project. Still, the undiscerning numbers believe the backward reasoning provided by Oral Roberts and ignore the reality that the god of Oral Roberts fails to keep his promises and uses the avenue of the lie in order to obtain money for his failed projects.
JIM BAKKER & ORAL ROBERTS' REVELATION FROM GOD
When Jim Bakker fell from his position of prominence, due to illegal and immoral activities, he originally had the support of Oral Roberts. Oral Roberts claimed direct revelation from God regarding Jim Bakker's innocence, in relation to words he gave in his defense of Jim Bakker against the Assemblies of God denomination, Jimmy Swaggart (before his two-time falls), and the Charlotte Observer newspaper who were involved in the disclosure of Jim Bakker's illegal financial dealings. This is what Oral Roberts said:
"And the Word of the Lord in my mouth is to you, my brother [Swaggart], whom we all love, you're sowing discord. And the Lord said, 'Discord will come back to you.' Flee my brother, the Lord is saying to those people in the headquarters of that denomination (Assemblies of God], where Jim out of graciousness turned in his ordination papers because they wanted him to, and you've not accepted it. You've said, 'No we're gonna strip him. We're gonna crush him,'. . . The Word of the Lord is coming to you from Oral Roberts' mouth today, if you strip Jim Bakker, you've touched God's anointed, you've harmed God's prophet. And the Word of the Lord says, 'Touch not my anointed, do no harm to my prophets.'. . . I beg you, headquarters of a great denomination, one that we respect and love, desist, move back, and treat Jim Bakker as what he is, an anointed man, a prophet of God. And the hand of the Lord will not fall upon you. But the Lord will bless you. And to the great newspaper [Charlotte Observer]. You seem so immune to what our God can do. You've come into an unholy alliance with these others in the name of religion and morality. You've set yourself up to be a standard of morality, when you're not. The Word of the Lord comes unto you from my mouth. And the Lord says that He'll create a great dissension in your ranks. You'll have such dissension in your ranks. You'll have such dissension that it'll spread across the news media of America and you will not know what you're doing. There' be much falling out and falling apart, anger among yourselves. And you'll wonder why this has happened."
--- Oral Roberts, live broadcast, March 1987
How is it that God, who knows the beginning from the ending, was confused as to Jim Bakker's guilt, and provided Oral Roberts with a revelation defending Jim Bakker against the charges of illegal actions and then condemned those who revealed the illegal actions? How is it that Oral Roberts claimed that Jim Bakker was one of God's anointed (cf. 1 Chronicles 16:22) and used an erroneous interpretation of that verse in order to support his claims? Jim Bakker was not anointed, he was a criminal and an adulterer, and Oral Roberts claimed a revelation from God supporting that conduct. Again, Oral Roberts made God into a liar by claiming that God proclaimed Jim Bakker's innocence, when the reality was that he was guilty, not only of violations of the law resulting in a prison sentence, but of moral violations as well. Oral Roberts claimed a revelation that he did not receive and disgraced the character and integrity of God in the process.
This was unconscionable conduct on the part of Oral Roberts, and the end result of those claims, proved, by his own words, that he is unable to prophecy accurately. The test of a prophet is that what he says is true and comes to pass in every instance (Deuteronomy 18:22:). Oral Roberts fails the Biblical test of a prophet, therefore he is a false prophet.
Then the Lord said to me, "the prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or anointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and delusions of their own minds. Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, 'No sword or famine will touch this land.' Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. and the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve."
The Holy Bible, Jeremiah 14:14-16
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CONCERNS
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ASSOCIATIONS
Oral Roberts continually associates himself with the radical and spectacular elements of the Charismatic movement. His university granted an honorary doctorate to Morris Cerullo, whose theology is heretical and whose financial activities are questionable at the very best. He approves and supports, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Marilyn Hickey, Joyce Meyer (who also received an honorary doctorate from ORU), Rodney Howard-Browne, Toronto Blessing (Laughing Spirit) and multitudes of other charismatic teachers and organizations with aberrant religious beliefs.
DEBT
When Oral Roberts turned over the presidency of Oral Roberts University to his son, Richard Roberts, he left a legacy of a $40 million dollar debt. This is very difficult to understand in light of his teaching about expecting a miracle and his preoccupation with "seed faith" in which God is claimed to return up to a hundred fold any money given in faith. If Oral Roberts can't turn his own monetary gifts to God into enough money to pay off the debts that he has incurred, then how does he dare to claim that all Christians can accomplish the task.
Like other personalities of his type, Oral Roberts claims that Christians are supposed to obtain wealth through their monetary gifts. However, in this teaching, Oral Roberts is the beneficiary of the gifts of Christians to him, instead of he being the beneficiary of his own "seed faith" gifts to God. Christians pay off the debts that Oral Roberts has incurred, in the name of God and Jesus Christ, hoping that in their giving by "seed faith" they will become rich or have their own debts paid off in some miraculous manner. The sad aspect of this situation is that Christians continue to fall for this twisted teaching because of their own greed.
This is an ongoing problem in the Christian world, as Christians continue to support individuals and "ministries" which spend funds in a questionable manner, continue to beg for more money, claiming that God has revealed new vistas to conquer. Even when those individuals and "ministries" show all the hallmarks of being false, Christians continue to give support, refusing to apply any measure of Biblical discernment in regards to legitimacy.
LIFESTYLE
Oral Roberts and his family have made a career and business out of the donations of Christians, ostensibly given for the work of God, for over fifty years. Has Oral Roberts been a good steward of the money he has collected over the years? How much of that money, given for the work of God, has been used for the personal benefit of Oral Roberts and his family?
The Bible does not have any provision that places a restraint on the payment of a salary to a minister. The minister who is diligent in his office is worthy of being paid by his congregation (1 Corinthians 9). Oral Roberts, as a minister, is not exempt from the provision that he should be paid for doing the work of a minister. But, what is he paid and what are the benefits that he receives that come from the donations by Christians to God's work? Are Oral Roberts' salary and benefits, that are supported by donations, commensurate with guidelines of good stewardship or are there excesses that have gone out of control, resulting in a misuse of the funds designated for the work of the Lord?
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LEGAL ISSUES
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Roberts and his son Richard were sued for $11.5 million by Ruth Creech of Cincinnati who claimed she was "lured" into the City of Faith Hospital by Robert's promises of healing made on his TV shows. The suit claimed $55,000 of unnecessary, crippling operations. Roberts claimed that it was not his fault, but her lack of faith that brought about the failures. He was adjudged guilty by the court.
Andrew L.J. Jones, "The Right to Hope," Christianity and Crisis, Sep 26, 1988.
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INABILITY TO HEAL
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Oral Roberts could not heal his grandchild, even with the help of Kenneth Hagin.
"Within a few hours after his birth, doctors discovered the child was having difficulty breathing. The news, Evelyn recalled, `just tore Oral to pieces.' For over thirty hours, while doctors fought to save the baby, Oral, Richard, and others prayed. Lindsay was wheeled up to the baby's side to pray; Kenneth Hagin and his wife, and other ministers, came to pray for healing. When Richard Oral finally died, on January 19, it `devastated Oral.' He called it the worst tragedy of his scarred life. `I think' Evelyn reflected, `because he felt there was so much healing power in that room that they could have healed a thousand people ... But he said there was something in that baby and he got it as far as the head and it would not leave ... Some obstacle would not leave. It was stubborn.'"
Oral Roberts: An American Life, by David Edwin Harrell, Jr., Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press
Oral Roberts could Not heal himself.
Religion Today (3-2-99) reported the following.
Oral Roberts is recuperating from a mild heart attack. The Tulsa, Okla.-based evangelist has been at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, Calif., since having an angioplasty procedure to clear a primary artery two weeks ago, the Associated Press said. "We hope he will be up and going soon," his family said in a Feb. 28 statement. The family did not release news of his illness earlier because they wanted Roberts to be able to recuperate in peace. "He has been inundated with personal phone calls," a hospital spokesperson said.
SOURCE: Plains Baptist Challenger, Tabernacle Baptist Church, www.llano.net/baptist/nv903.htm
Oral Roberts could Not heal himself again.
Oral Roberts Falls, fractures his hip
PALM SPRINGS —
University founder and evangelist Oral Boberts fell and broke his hip at his home near Palm Springs, Oral Roberts University officials said Friday.
Roberts, 88, broke his right hip Thursday night while on the way to the kitchen at his home. He was watching the NCAA basketball tournament, according to a statement released by the university.
Roberts was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where he was expected to undergo surgery Friday.
His son, Richard Roberts, was informed by a physician that the hip injury was a clean break and a full recovery was expected, the realease said.
— Associated Press
The Daily News, Saturday, March 25, 2006
RESOURCES: Additional information regarding the doctrines taught by Oral Roberts: un-Quotable Quotes
END OF ARTICLE
by Gary A. Hand
On Doctrine
THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF ORAL ROBERTS
http://cnview.com/on_line_resources/the_life_and_ministry_of_oral_roberts.htm
The following report is from the Digging in the Walls section of O Timothy magazine, Volume 7, Issue 3, 1990. and is a review of the book "Oral Roberts: An American Life", by David Edwin Harrell, Jr., Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press 47405. The review appeared in Christian News December 9, 1985. We want to print this now because of the events which have happened recently in regard to Roberts. In spite of his supposed visions in which Christ appeared to him and told him to build the City of Faith medical center and told him that from this center would flow a healing stream throughout the world, Roberts is in the process of closing it down. It should be obvious now even to the gullible that Roberts is a phony. We print this review to show that he has always been a liar and a phony. It isn't something new! The fact that Roberts has been acclaimed and accepted as a great man of God by the charismatic movement is itself evidence of the spiritual bankruptcy of pentecostalism.]
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The publisher says on this book's jacket:
"Millions of people throughout the world consider Oral Roberts a prophet of God. Millions more believe him to be a charlatan. While his ministry has been stormy and controversial, few would question its huge impact on America and the world. For nearly forty years the name Oral Roberts has been synonymous with religious healing. He is the leader produced by the Pentecostal and charismatic world.
"A pentecostal spokesman in the 1980s claimed that fifty million people throughout the world had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and predicted that by the end of the century, half of the world's Protestants would be pentecostal.
"Of course, the pentecostal and charismatic movements were not the creations of Oral Roberts. The pentecostal churches, the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International, and among individuals, David du Plessis played catalytic roles in the spread of spirit-filled religion. But Roberts stands nearer the head of the amorphous movement than any other man, commanding respect throughout it." (page vii)
[Editor: Before we reprint the review of Harrell's book from Christian News, we give a summary of the first half of Roberts' life as published in an article in the St. Petersburg Times, September 7, 1985:]
"Roberts [left] high school, [and his] formal education, from that time on consisted of the equivalent of about two years of college work, all taken in part-time study at Bible schools in Oklahoma. He and his father laborer-preachers populating the fringes of the pentecostal movement.'
"Roberts has spent the rest of his life trying to change that image. At his side has been his wife, also the daughter of a pentecostal preacher. Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock, a school teacher whom he met while both were playing guitars and singing at a camp meeting, was just as determined as Oral to escape poverty ... Mrs. Roberts has since acknowledged, just as her husband has, that she `yearned for respectability and resented poverty.'
"But the first 10 years of their marriage offered no such escape. They were tied to a denomination that taught that `you had to be poor to be a Christian.' Roberts had traveled the evangelistic circuit for five years and held four brief pastorates before he found justification for their suppressed desires in a biblical passage and in another `audible' message from God.
"The awakening began in the spring of 1947 when, discouraged by the lack of enthusiasm in his congregation in Enid, Okla., Roberts prayed desperately for help. He says the Lord responded first by leading him to a passage in III John 2: `I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.'
"Roberts considered it a revelation. Mrs. Roberts has described it since as their `point of embarkation' and their `liberation.' Shortly afterward, they bought their first new car, a Buick, which Roberts said became `a symbol to me of what a man could do if he would believe in God.'
"A month later, Roberts say, he had his second encounter with the voice of God. He was in his church study, praying for direction to his ministry, when the voice told him to get into his car and drive home to the parsonage. On the way, the voice told him to concentrate his ministry on healing. `You will have the power to pray for the sick and cast out devils,' Roberts says the voice told him.
"In April, he began holding healing services in his church on Sunday afternoons. His first healing was a woman whose hand had been crippled for 38 years. Word of the healing spread. By May, the crowds were so large that he rented facilities in a large downtown Enid building. In June, he announced to his congregation that he had received invitations to conduct healing services in eight states and had decided to resign his pastorate.
His climb since then has been steady. In 1949, he began a series of radio programs. By 1950, he was traveling the country with an 18,000-seat tent simultaneous broadcast on 63 stations. Within two years, his radio and television programs were being broadcast on 400 stations in the United States, Canada, Alaska and Hawaii and by short-wave to listeners around the world.
"In 1957, his evangelistic association contended that his programs on radio and television were reaching an audience of `almost one billion persons'--probably an exaggeration, but one that not many of his colleagues in evangelism were willing to dispute."
[Now we continue with the Christian News review of Oral Roberts: An American Life by David Harrell:]
The author notes that Roberts' early prayer cloths were imprinted with this message:
"I prayed over this cloth for God to deliver you--use as a point of contact (Acts 19:11-12). Oral Roberts, Tulsa 2, Okla. It is not necessary to wear the cloth unless you feel you should. It can be used more than once or for more than one person. If you wish to request more, I will be glad to send them to you. The important thing is to use the cloth as a point of contact for the body ... I have prayed over this cloth in the name of Jesus of Nazareth and asked Him to heal you when you apply it to your body."
By 1949 the number of prayer cloths mailed numbered nearly 100,000 a year.
Oral Roberts praised such fellow faith healers as Jack Coe. He said that "Jack has faith." Coe and other faith healers defended by Roberts have been exposed as phonies.
Harrell writes: "He was repeatedly taunted about his failures--the Amarillo storm, the death of persons in his meetings, his admission that not all in his healing lines were helped--and challenged to deliver a miracle on demand. In perhaps the harshest charge made against him, a widely distributed tract accused Oral of "payola":
"I offered to appear before the Senate Investigating Committee in Washington and present evidence that Oral Roberts was guilty of `payola' on his TV Healing program. Among other things, I had evidence to prove that a person had `performed' on the Roberts healing TV program, claiming that he was healed as a `cripple,; but it was all a fake and he was paid by them to `fake' the healing. The person who faked the healing offered to testify."
ORAL ROBERTS LIES ABOUT DOCTORS
"Probably the most damaging religious attack on Oral ever published appeared in the Presbyterian Outlook in 1955. The article, written by Carroll R. Stegall, Jr., pastor of the Pryor Street Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, was later republished in a widely circulated tract. It was Stegall's tract which preceded Oral to Australia and fanned opposition to him.
"Stegall's curiosity was piqued by the March 1952 issue of Healing Waters, which featured a cover picture of `three great medical doctors congratulating Oral Roberts.' Stegall and Donald Grey Barnhouse, noted conservative Presbyterian pastor in Philadelphia, addressed an inquiry to the American Medical Association that `brought the answer from their bureau of investigation that not one of the men mentioned ... could be identified as doctors of medicine ... One of the three men was found operating in Phoenix as a `naturopathic physician' [meaning he was not a licensed medical doctor]. No organization headed by `Dr. J.H. Miller, outstanding medical doctor and president of a medial society of over 20,000 physicians,' was discovered.'
"Stegall later attended a number of campaigns, interviewed Oral, and did some follow-up interviews with those who had passed through the healing line. He concluded that Oral was not `as bad as some others in the miracle business,' but found no basis to support his claims. `I have never seen a vestige of change. I challenge any honest investigator to follow my technique and see whether his findings do not agree with mine.' Stegall concluded: `So far from glorifying God with this they (the healing evangelists) cause His name to be blasphemed by the world by their excesses. So far from curing, they often kill. Far from blessing, their arrival in a city is rather a curse, a misery, a racket, a destruction of faith in simple people.'" (pp. 163,164)
ROBERTS' HEALING MEETINGS FREQUENTLY THE SCENE OF DISASTER
According to Harrell:
"The negative assessments were exacerbated by the morbid fascination of the press with the periodic tragedies which struck the crusades. In 1951, an Alabama businessman died while attending a Roberts campaign in Atlanta.
"Such tragedies struck with some regularity during the 1950s and were generally accompanied by flurries of bad publicity.
"In 1955, the death of an elderly Indian, Jonas Rider, during Oral's campaign in Calgary, Alberta, occurred according to the local press `in the evangelist's tent surrounded by converts and followers of the cult.' A prominent `Southern Alberta physician' condemned the campaign as `ridiculous,' no more than `mass hypnotism.'
"The following January, Mary Ida Buddington Vondersher, who had appeared the year before on Oral's television program in the healing line, returned to testify of her healing of cancer, but she died in her California home only twelve hours after her testimony was aired.
"The year 1959 was particularly beset by tragedy. In January, a sixty- four-old California man died of a heart attack during a campaign in Oakland Auditorium. Then, in May, death struck twice in a campaign in Fayeteville, North Carolina. First, a three-year-old girl died under the tent in her parents' arms while waiting for the service to begin." (pp. 164,165)
GRAHAM'S ENDORSEMENT OF ROBERTS
Harrell tells about Billy Graham's endorsement beginning in 1950 of Oral Roberts:
"As they left their Portland hotel to catch a taxi to the crusade, Billy was just leaving. The ever-gracious Graham grabbed Oral's hand and requested that he and Evelyn ride with him. Oral demurred, but Billy insisted: inside the taxi he told Oral that he expected him to sit on the platform and lead the evening prayer. Oral protested: `Billy you can't afford to have me pray.' As they rode, Billy told Oral that he and Cliff Barrows had visited a Roberts campaign in Florida a few months before, slipping in and out unnoticed, and they had been blessed by it. He also revealed that his wife's sister had experienced a healing in a pentecostal setting; he was not ashamed to be identified with Oral Roberts. Oral offered the evening prayer, and that evening, after he and Evelyn returned to the hotel coffee shop, Billy and Ruth Graham insisted that they join them for a snack.
"The meeting had been brief, casual, and mostly unplanned. But for Oral it was loaded with meaning. His appearance on Graham's platform was unprecedented recognition for a pentecostal to receive from an evangelical ministry--especially from Billy Graham. Graham's personal kindness, his glad and wholesome embrace of a fellow Christian, placed Oral momentarily in a larger, more respectable, world than he had ever imagined he could be a part of. He had glimpsed a vision which Graham would open to him more clearly sixteen years later" (p. 179)
When Oral Roberts University was opened in 1965, "Carl F.H. Henry wrote Oral a `letter of congratulations' at the time, along with the note: `Billy Graham and I are hopeful that you will be at the World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin ... and I know that an invitation will be forthcoming in the months ahead.'
"Oral was coy but `tickled as a little kid' to be invited to dine with Billy and a circle of conference dignitaries. As the dinner closed, Billy told Oral that he wanted him to lead prayer before one of the plenary sessions of the congress, and Oral `quietly declined.' As Billy greeted each guest as he left, he asked Oral, `Oral when are you going to invite me to speak at your campus?' Oral seizing the opportunity, replied, `How would you like to come to the campus not only to speak but to dedicate the University?' `I'd be honored to do it,' replied Graham, making a commitment which placed his own ministry in some jeopardy." (p. 201) ...
Graham introduced Roberts at the World Congress on Evangelism:
"Our prayer is going to be led by a man that I have come to love and appreciate in the ministry of evangelism. He has just built, and is in the process of building, a great university. He is known throughout the world through his radio and television work, and millions of people listen to him. They read what he writes and they thank God for his ministry. I am speaking of Dr. Oral Roberts, and I'm going to ask him to say a word of greeting to us before he leads the prayer."
The author says that "Oral's rapport with the audience was magical" (pg. 203). After Roberts concluded, Harrell quotes Calvin Thielman as saying, "pandemonium broke loose, they jumped up from every angle and applauded and applauded."
"Oral's prayer, many felt, moved the entire Congress." Leighton Ford tracked down Calvin Thielman and asked for an introduction to Oral; others clamored to meet him. as the delegates returned home, many filtered through Montreat [North Carolina] to talk with Billy, and Calvin reported that `every word I heard about Oral Roberts was one of great commendation. People deeply appreciated the contribution which he made to the Congress. He made an impression on all of us that was good.' The Christianity Today report on the conference emphasized the good will Oral had won in the evangelical community:
"Evangelist Oral Roberts won a significant measure of new respect through the congress. He made a host of friends among delegates who were openly impressed with his candor and humility."
"It was Oral who had been most deeply changed by the congress. `What it did, in effect,' surmised Calvin Thielman, `was to open a new ... circle of friends to him.'" (p. 205) ...
"Robert's friendship with Billy Graham--highlighted by Oral's presence in Berlin and Graham's dedication address at ORU--did much to lessen tensions between charismatics and evangelicals. The spread of the charismatic movement into the main-stream churches, bringing unexpected acceptance to the pentecostal experience of speaking in tongues, and Oral's discovery of the evangelical world and welcome into it were, in Calvin Thielman's words, `a happy combination of events.' ... In the years following the Berlin congress, Oral Roberts University hosted a procession of noncharismatic evangelical speakers, including Leighton Ford, F.F. Bruce, Josh McDowell and Hal Lindsey." (p. 291)
ROBERTS JOINED THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Roberts joined the Methodist church in 1968, leaving the Pentecostal Holiness church. The Methodist church is a member of the National Council of Churches. Roberts was content to be a member of the Methodist Church even though a scientific survey taken at that time showed that only about 50 percent of the Methodist clergy accepted the resurrection of Christ as a historical fact.
Harrell says that:
"The most compelling attraction of the Methodist Church was its latitude. Oral was increasingly cramped by pentecostal theology and his church's moral prudishness; both restraints would have hindered his new television format." (p. 298)
ROBERTS AND THE FULL GOSPEL BUSINESS MEN INTERNATIONAL
Harrell says that: "The Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International proved to be an extraordinarily effective tool for spreading the pentecostal message to the American middle class. By 1975 it had 1,650 chapters, in every state and in fifty-two foreign countries ... But the relationship between Oral Roberts and the FGBMFI remained constant--he was the organization's high priest and most coveted friend. The members of the fellowship were probably the most important reservoir of funds in the building of Oral Roberts University; Shakarian and Roberts never faltered in their belief that each was specially raised up to spread the baptism and the Holy Spirit to the wider world." (pp. 288,289)
KATHRYN KUHLMAN
Harrell mentions Roberts' great respect for Miss Kathryn Kuhlman. "She has long admired Oral; he believed that `she represented the finest of the healing ministry of Jesus.' Kuhlman made frequent visits to Tulsa in the last years of her life, giving the baccalaureate address at ORU in 1972 and receiving the university's first honorary doctorate the same year. The flamboyant evangelist signed on as `head cheerleader' for the university and was a warm friend of the Roberts family at the time of her death in 1976."
Kuhlman has been exposed as a phony healer by a medical doctor who formerly supported her. She broke up a family when she married a man she later divorced without any scriptural reason. Charismatics generally reject what the Bible teaches about divorce. Roberts excused the unscriptural divorce of "Miss" Kathryn Kuhlman and like most charismatics rejects what the Bible teaches about women leading public worship services.
The author observes that one of Oral's most enthusiastic supporters was Jenkin Lloyd Jones, a unitarian editor of the Tulsa Tribune.
TRAGEDY STALKS ROBERTS LIFE
The last two decades have been marked by tragedy in the Roberts family. His daughter Rebecca and her husband Marshall Nash were killed in an airplane crash in 1977. His son Richard and daughter-in-law Patti, who were being groomed to take over the ministry, were divorced in 1979. Three years later, his rebellious older son Ronnie committed suicide. And last year [1984], his 10th grandchild--the son of Richard and his second wife Lindsay and the only heir to be named after him--died two days after birth.
Harrell describes the death of the grandchild:
"Within a few hours after his birth, doctors discovered the child was having difficulty breathing. The news, Evelyn recalled, `just tore Oral to pieces.' For over thirty hours, while doctors fought to save the baby, Oral, Richard, and others prayed. Lindsay was wheeled up to the baby's side to pray; Kenneth Hagin and his wife, and other ministers, came to pray for healing. When Richard Oral finally died, on January 19, it `devastated Oral.' He called it the worst tragedy of his scarred life. `I think' Evelyn reflected, `because he felt there was so much healing power in that room that they could have healed a thousand people ... But he said there was something in that baby and he got it as far as the head and it would not leave ... Some obstacle would not leave. It was stubborn.'
"The family once again faced misfortune bravely, searching for meaning in the death. They immediately announced the addition of an obstetrics suite in the City of Faith Medical Center in memory of Richard Oral Roberts." (p. 347, 348)
ROBERTS' PERSONAL FINANCES
Harrell writes:
"Roberts' two California homes, partly for security reasons, were not much discussed by the ministry. Oral also remained sensitive about press criticism of his lifestyle. His house in Palm Springs, purchased for $285,000 and financed by a Tulsa bank, was his only privately owned home. In 1982 ORU endowment funds were used to purchase a $2,400,000 house in a high-security development in Beverly Hills. Considered a potentially profitable investment, the house served as Oral's West Coast office and residence." (p. 355)
"Oral's homes in California inevitably kept alive the old questions about his personal wealth and lifestyle. While probably not as probing as the press had been fifteen years earlier, reporters still took a keen interest in Oral's financial affairs. In 1981, the Associated Press published Roberts' personal income figures for the preceding five years--ranging from $70,000 in 1976 to $178,000 in 1978.
"In addition to his healthy income, derived mostly from book royalties, Oral continued to enjoy generous expense accounts: `The Robertses wear expensive clothes and jewelry and travel in a company-owned eight-passenger fanjet.'
Patti Roberts' book [following her divorce from Oral's son, Robert] and an earlier expose written by Jerry Sholes, renewed curiosity about the family's financial affairs, although Patti confessed that her own `extravagance' while she was Richard's wife had `blunted' her protest.
Tax records indicate that Oral's partners donated in excess of $38,000,000 in the fiscal year 1977-78, "surpassing every other religious association in the nation." (p. 389)
In 1979 a book was published by Jerry Sholes, a former employee of Oral Robert ministries, which detailed deep deception and hypocrisy:
"Here is a portrait of the real Oral Roberts, the man not too many of his admirers know. He dresses in Brioni suits that cost $500 to $1000; walks in $100 shoes; lives in a $250,000 house in Tulsa and has a million dollar home in Palm Springs; wears diamond rings and solid gold bracelets employees `airbrush' out of his publicity photos; drives $25,000 automobiles which are replaced every 6 months; flies around the country in a $2 million fanjet falcon; has membership, as does his son Richard, in `the most prestigious and elite country club in Tulsa,' the Southern Hills (the membership fee alone was $18,000 for each, with $130 monthly dues) and in `the ultra-posh Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California' (both father and son joined when memberships were $20,000 each--they are now $25,000); and plays games of financial hanky-panky that have made him and his family members independently wealthy (millionaires) for life. (When his daughter and son-in-law were killed, they left a $10 million estate!)" (Evangelist R.L. Sumner's review of Give Me that Prime- time Religion by Jerry Sholes)
"By the mid-1980s, Oral Roberts had come to be the chief executive officer of an organization that employed about 2,300 people and did an annual business of about 110 million dollars, about 60 percent of which was raised through contributions." (p. 485)
CITY OF FAITH MEDICAL CENTER VISION
Roberts describes a vision he received from God:
"He said to me: `Son, you cannot put the vision I have given you into a place where My full healing power is not freely accepted. It must not be in a place defeated by lack of faith in My miraculous power. You must build a new and different medical center for Me. The healing streams of prayer and medicine must merge through what I will have you build. ...
"There rising before me were the details of the buildings. Immediately I was led to read the two chapters in the Bible, Revelation 21,22. There I saw the City of God, the New Jerusalem, with its River of Life and its broad avenues. ...
"`I saw the City of God as a reflection of God himself bringing healing and health to those who entered there. Suddenly God gave me a new name for the Health Care and Research Center I am to build in His name.
"`You shall call it the City of Faith.'
"I thought my heart would burst with joy. The City of Faith. What a name! I knew only God could give a name like that to the Health Care and Research Center He wanted me to build.'" (p. 333)
By late 1984 Oral's City of Faith hospital had only opened about 130 of its 294 beds and the projected figure of 777 operational beds seemed a remote goal (p. 391).
"In a dramatic announcement in July 1984, he reported that Jesus had once again visited him and an `angel of the Lord' had been placed at his disposal. Oral `dispatched' the angel to bring the `poor, needy and the sick' to the City of Faith, opening the hospital to indigent patients. In the fall of 1984, the occupancy rate at the hospital seemed to be rising" (p. 391). [The rise in the rate of occupancy at the City of Faith was only temporary.]
The twenty-story medical research center also developed more slowly than anticipated. By 1984 only three floors of the research center were in use.
BILL BRIGHT AND CAMPUS CRUSADE ACCEPT ROBERTS
The most promising connection explored in the early 1980s appeared to be a cautious alliance struck with Bill Bright, founder and leader of Campus Crusade. After talking to Bright in April 1982, Oral excitedly spoke of the potential of a link with Campus Crusade:
"Right now this very second the global aspects of the outreach of this university are shaping up. I've got off the phone from one of the most influential men in the world. A spiritual leader who has more people over the world in 150 nations and the Lord spoke to him several months ago that he was to work with us and with our students. While he and I have been friends for thirty years, there was always a difference in the charismatic area and we never fell out or anything like that ... We were friends sides. We have a working relationship that will begin this summer and it probably (will be) one of the ... two or three most important things that has ever happened to his university."
"Bright came to the ORU campus in November 1982, received a warm reception, and agreed for a City of Faith physician to spend two months in a Campus Crusade hospital in Swaziland. It was a trial union between two very powerful and independent organizations; the Roberts ministry felt, at least, that there was `a good promising area there.'" (pp. 394,395)
VISION OF THE 900-FOOT JESUS
Many Bible believing Christians have been skeptical about the visions Roberts claims to receive when he needs money and the fact that he says God talks directly to him. Orthodox Christians maintain that God speaks to man today only through His Word, Holy Scripture.
"The partner letter which triggered the most resounding outburst of public ridicule and criticism [to that time] was a September 1980 description of Oral's vision of a 900-foot-tall Jesus. Roberts reported that late on the afternoon of May 25, he stood looking at the unfinished skeleton of the City of Faith, distraught over his financial difficulties, when `suddenly an unusual feeling swept over me':
"`I felt an overwhelming holy presence all around me. When I opened my eyes, there He stood ... some 900 feet tall, looking at me ... He stood a full 300 feet taller than the 600-foot-tall City of Faith. There I was face to face with Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. I have only seen Jesus once before, but here I was face to face with the King of kings. He reached down, put his Hands under the City of Faith, lifted it, and said to me, "See how easy it is for Me to lift it!"'"
"Oral recalled that his eyes filled with tears, and Jesus assured him that He would speak to the ministry's part ners and that the City of Faith would be finished." (p. 415)
ROBERTS' ENDORSEMENT OF THE READER'S DIGEST CONDENSED BIBLE
Oral Roberts has enthusiastically endorsed the Reader's Digest Bible, a Bible which, like the RSV, eliminates the deity of Christ in its translation of such key passages as Philippians 2:6 and Romans 9:5. It translates the Hebrew "almah" in Isaiah 7:14 as "young woman" rather than "virgin." It eliminates Christ from various important messianic passages as Genesis 22:18.
Harrell writes:
"In spite of his literalistic faith in the Bible, it was quite true, as Jim Buskirk observed, that Oral was `not fundamentalist,' but rather he spanned `the Bible in his theology. He thinks of it wholistically.' Roberts was not rigid or legalistic; he did not, in fact, have a systematic theology. When Reader's Digest published a condensed version of the Bible in 1982, fundamentalists uniformly denounced the project, but Oral endorsed it. Whereas the Bible became a static, verbally inspired book to nineteenth-century evangelicals, to pentecostals it was a living revelation to be perceived by experience" (p. 441).
ORAL ROBERTS SINCE 1985
O Timothy Editor: Since the publication of Oral Roberts--An American Life by David Harrell in 1985, Roberts has claimed to have had more strange visions. In January 1987, he told his television audience that God had appeared to him in March of 1986 and had told him that he must raise $8 million within the next 12 months or he would die. The money was supposed to provide scholarships for medical students who attend Oral Roberts University. In the January broadcasts, Roberts claimed he has raised $3.5 million but he must have another $4.5 million before March 31--or he would die! Apparently the gimmick worked, because in April Roberts announced that he had received the $8 million.
Now it has become clear that the medical college will be closed due to financial troubles and no scholarships will be distributed.
It is obvious that Roberts is a deceiver and a false prophet. His prophecies have been proven wrong time and time again. Sadly, he has deceived multitudes with his lying words and false promises, and has robbed God's people of hundreds of millions of dollars. And in spite of all the evidence which proves Roberts' hypocrisy, he is still regarded as a great Christian leader in charismatic circles and is still promoted as a man of God. This is another evidence of the spiritual bankruptcy of the pentecostal movement.
[This report is from the Digging in the Walls section of O Timothy magazine, Volume 7, Issue 3, 1990. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. David W. Cloud, Editor. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, Bible Baptist Church, 1219 N. Harns Road, Oak Harbor, Washington 98277. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0.]
