Posted on 12/21/2009 12:16:33 PM PST by markomalley
TULSA, Okla. Hundreds of people are waiting to get into the memorial service for evangelist Oral Roberts.
Among the early arrivals for the afternoon service at Oral Roberts University were husband and wife Mark and Paula Sterns, alumni who flew from Dallas for the event. Mark Sterns says Roberts changed their lives forever, adding that 19 members of their families attended the university at some point.
Roberts died last week in California at age 91.
Roberts chartered ORU in 1963 as a place where Pentecostals could live, study and pray together. The school became the first Pentecostal university in the world, taking the fiery brand of Christianity to the mainstream through radio and television.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Jan. 24, 1918: Granville Oral Roberts is born near Ada.
July 1935: Gravely ill with tuberculosis, he is healed at a tent revival.
August 1936: Ordained as a Pentecostal Holiness minister.
Dec. 25, 1938: Marries Evelyn Lutman in Westville.
July 1947: Moves to Tulsa from Enid; founds the Healing Waters Revival Ministry at 1149 N. Main St.
November 1947: Begins publishing Healing Waters magazine.
Dec. 2, 1948: Purchases lot at 1648 S. Boulder Ave. for new headquarters.
September 1949: Completes single-story building on Boulder Avenue lot; later adds two stories.
Jan. 10, 1954: First segment of Roberts television show Your Faith Is Power airs. The show runs weekly for six months.
Jan. 15, 1955: Returns to Tulsa after monthlong trip to Jordan, the Mideast and South Africa. Says 30,000 people converted in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Feb. 6, 1955: Begins new television ministry with revised format and state-of-the-art production equipment; Tulsa stations refuse to air it.
Dec. 10, 1955: Announces goal for 1956 of winning 1 million souls for Christ.
Jan. 17, 1956: Receives critical newspaper coverage in Manila, Philippines, during eight-day crusade; says 20,000 converted to Christ.
Oct. 30-Nov. 4, 1956: Conducts Tulsa Crusade at fairgrounds Pavilion.
March 18, 1957: Renames Healing Waters Inc. as Oral Roberts Evangelical Association Inc.
May 23, 1957: Breaks ground for new six-story, white marble building at 1720 S. Boulder Ave., just south of previous building. Gov. Raymond Gary attends ceremony.
1958: Establishes Abundant Life Prayer Group.
1961: Purchases 160-acre farm for $1,850 per acre at 81st Street and Lewis Avenue; adjoining 20- acre property is added to create future Oral Roberts University campus.
Dec. 5, 1961: Announces plans for a university.
February 1962: Trustees break ground for Oral Roberts University.
Sept. 7, 1965: ORU campus at 7777 S. Lewis Ave. opens with 303 students.
1967: Prayer Tower on campus completed.
April 2, 1967: Billy Graham speaks at ORUs dedication; Roberts is named its president.
March 17, 1968: Switches affiliation from Pentecostal Holiness to Methodist.
Nov. 16, 1972: Inducted into Oklahoma Hall of Fame.
Dec. 4, 1972: Mabee Center arena dedicated.
April 28, 1975: Plans medical, law and dental colleges by 1980.
Feb. 11, 1977: Plane crash kills daughter Rebecca and her husband, Marshall Nash, a Tulsa banker.
Sept. 7, 1977: Announces plans for $100 million medical complex, to be named City of Faith.
Jan. 24, 1978: Ground broken for City of Faith.
April 26, 1978: Construction of City of Faith begins within two hours of approval by Oklahoma Health Planning Commission.
Aug. 21, 1978: School of dentistry opens.
Aug. 22, 1979: Law school opens.
Sept. 19, 1979: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White speaks at law schools dedication.
May 26, 1980: Says he was told by a 900-foot-tall Jesus that the City of Faith will be built.
March 24, 1981: State Supreme Court clears way for City of Faith to open, overturning a lower court ruling that partially cited the constitutional provision for separation of church and state.
May 2, 1981: School of dentistry dedicated.
Nov. 1, 1981: City of Faith opens.
May 6, 1982: Tells audience for The Phil Donahue Show that he saw the 900-foot-tall Jesus with his inner eyes.
June 9, 1982: Son Ronald D. Roberts dies.
June 21, 1985: Announcement that the school of dentistry will be phased out.
Nov. 1, 1985: Law school transferred to Pat Robertsons CBN University.
Jan. 4, 1987: Says that if he doesnt raise $8 million for a medical missionary program by the end of March, God will call Oral Roberts home.
March 22, 1987: Enters the Prayer Tower to begin a nine-day prayer vigil.
April 1, 1987: Richard Roberts says $8.7 million donated for the medical missionary program.
Sept. 13, 1989: Announces closing of City of Faith and medical school because of $25 million debt.
March 1991: Undergoes surgery to alleviate narrowing of carotid artery.
July 24, 1991: Praying Hands statue relocated to main campus.
September 1991: Enters St. John Medical Center for prostate surgery.
Oct. 29, 1993: City of Faith complex renamed Cityplex Towers.
Jan. 27, 1993: Richard Roberts becomes ORUs president, and Oral Roberts is named chancellor.
May 4, 2005: Evelyn Roberts dies.
Oct. 22, 2007: Returns to ORU to support Richard Roberts, who would resign as the universitys president a month later amid allegations of financial misconduct.
Dec. 12, 2009: Falls in his home, breaking his pelvis and neck.
Dec. 15, 2009: Dies at 1:40 p.m.
I have a friend that graduated from OR University in Tulsa some years ago and I went to the commencement ceremony there. Talk about a show! The man was an incredible orator; I still remember it to this day. RIP Oral.
An American Original...
“Jan. 4, 1987: Says that if he doesnt raise $8 million for a medical missionary program by the end of March, God will call Oral Roberts home.”
The devaluation of the dollar hurts everyone.
“Well done thou good and faithfull servant”
Thank you for being a faithful soldier for the Lord.
If one of the men I look to as a spiritual leader were to tell me that God told him the same thing, I would pray for his failure at the task.
“So far, 1987 has been a checkered and chastening year for the Rev. Oral Roberts, 69. Last January the Tulsa-based TV evangelist announced that if he did not receive $8 million from donors by March 31, God would “call me home.” The money was raised, but Roberts’ dramatic ultimatum provoked widespread derision. He drew additional gibes by declaring that his wife Evelyn had come to his rescue when the devil visited his bedroom and tried to strangle him. Then, in May, Roberts mailed 1 million packets of “healing” water to followers, advising them to use it to “anoint your billfold” to solve money problems and “anoint your body” to allay physical ills.
The controversy produced by those episodes, however, has been overshadowed by Roberts’ latest extraordinary claim: God has used him to raise the dead. Before an audience of 6,000 at Oral Roberts University, the evangelist said, “I’ve had to stop a sermon, go back and raise a dead person,” adding good-naturedly, “It did improve my altar call that night.” Roberts provided no details. Later his son Richard, 38, expanded the revivification claim, asserting that in 50 or 60 cases Oral and other ministers had raised the dead.
Then Oral began to hedge. During a TV appearance with a physician from his university’s medical school, Roberts explained that a baby he had raised “years ago” appeared to have died during a service. “Only a doctor could say” whether the infant was “clinically dead,” he said, but “the mother thought it was dead, I thought it was dead, the crowd thought it was dead.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964970,00.html
Let's just say that if Oral's current spiritual address is dependant on humility and/or authenticity, we aren't sure where he is.
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