Posted on 12/15/2009 1:00:47 PM PST by mentor2k
The Rev. Oral Roberts, the internationally known television evangelist and faith healer who founded Oral Roberts University, died Monday in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 91.
According to a release, his son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, were at his side. Funeral services are pending.
The often-controversial charismatic minister built Oral Roberts University, the now-closed City of Faith Medical and Research Center and the University Village Retirement Center in Tulsa.
I’ve been living in my home and I have watched Oral. Why don’t you go play on another thread? Maybe make an ‘I hate the late Oral Roberts’ thread of your own, so that you don’t stink up this one?
I agree. I am a Catholic, but Robert's faith strengthened mine when I was faltering, and I learned a lot about effective prayer from Oral Roberts. I have always admired him. He was the first televangelist with a healing ministry, and I remember watching him in his shirtsleeves (before A/C, obviously!) on our old 13" b/w television set in the Fifties.
Tall indeed! He did was he was called to do - he fulfilled his destiny. Now it’s his eternal reward time.
Says a lot about your level of discernment.
tolcha
Sad. I wasn’t necessarily a follower, but Oral Roberts was an iconic evangelist and he has left a lasting legacy.
My prayer is that God will comfort his family and loved ones and let them know that he is at peace.
THAT comment says a great deal about yours. Do you enjoy arguing and insulting people on a thread about a fellow Christian’s death? That’s a shame. Have a nice day.
What part of Jesus’ command to heal the sick ‘sickens’ you? Oral was obedient. What part of God’s Word ‘obedience is better than sacrifice’ repels you?
His death is made tragic all the more so because of his heresy. However, it does no one any good to celebrate the life of a heretic whether his name be Pelagius, Joseph Smith or Oral Roberts.
http://www.ondoctrine.com/10robero.htm
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.
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
Gone home to be with the Lord Jesus...
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.. 2 Corinthians 5:8
Why are you responding to a "quote" that I didn't make? You are as dishonest as the man you worshiped.
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?
LEGAL ISSUES
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.
‘Calvinist by grace of God’. I see that in your tagline. Hmm, what WERE they saying about John Calvin in his day?
If your comments are an example of Calvinism, you’re not representing your religion very well.
Please stop. We get that you don’t like Oral.
And John Calvin was educated by money from small parishes at the time. In your words, he ‘took’ money from poor widows and went to university with it.
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