Posted on 01/12/2010 5:40:21 AM PST by urroner
Oral Roberts: MANY OF America’s televangelists have had more than their fair share of scandals involving sex, fraud and extremist politics. But Oral Roberts, who has died aged 91 of complications from pneumonia, always devoted himself to money – and, occasionally, God. He even justified his love of wealth with a biblical source.
At the age of 29, he was a struggling part-time preacher with church pastorates in Oklahoma, and his college studies had not brought him a degree.
He told the story of how he picked up his Bible and it fell open at the Third Epistle of John. His eye caught verse two, which read: “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
He had not heard this verse before and neither had his schoolteacher wife Evelyn, although both were the offspring of preachers. Roberts decided immediately that it was all right to be rich.
The next day he bought a Buick and God appeared, he said, telling him to heal people. Roberts then added this aspect to his tent revival meetings. A month later in Enid, Oklahoma, he cured, he claimed, a woman the use of whose hand had been impaired for 38 years.
After leaving the Pentecostal Holiness church to become leader of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, he was on his way to becoming the richest US evangelist. With his pioneering exploitation of radio and – from 1954 – television, he headed a broadcasting empire that transformed religion in America.
He also ran mailshot campaigns promising prosperity in return for financial expressions of faith in God: his message of health and wealth held enormous appeal for poor Americans.
At its height in the early 1980s, Roberts was chief of a $120 million a year business employing 2,300 people and controlling Oral Roberts University (ORU) – which opened in 1965 – a medical school and hospital and buildings on 50 acres south of Tulsa, Oklahoma, valued at $500 million.
Students at ORU, whose members were forbidden to drink, smoke or have sex before marriage, went on to reach 5,400.
Roberts’s broadcasts went to hundreds of radio and television stations, his appeals for money continued non-stop, while sales of his 120 books and hundreds of audio and video cassettes boosted the cashflow. In 1987, he created headlines by saying that unless he got another $4.5 million for his hospital in a few weeks, “God will call me home”.
He retired to his 10-storey prayer tower on campus and emerged – on the deadline – to declare that he had raised the sum. As usual, there was only his word for it.
Over the years there were various exposés of fraudulent healing practices and in 1989, he had to close his uneconomical City of Faith hospital. He even sold his holiday homes in Palm Springs and Beverly Hills, California, and three of his Mercedes cars, but continued to wear his Italian silk suits, diamond rings and gold bracelets – airbrushed out by his staff on publicity pictures.
In his last years, he retrenched the Roberts ministry, but was never engulfed in the scandals that brought down some of his peers, even though on several occasions people died at his “healing” prayer sessions.
He was ranked second only to Billy Graham in the hierarchy of US evangelists and was still referred to as “Dr” Roberts, despite having only honorary degrees.
Born into rural poverty in a log cabin near Ada, southeast of Oklahoma City, he nearly died of tuberculosis when he was 17. His family had joined the Pentecostal Holiness church and he credited God with his recovery after attending a revival meeting.
That launched his religious career, although one local newspaper sceptic wrote that Roberts treated religion the way that Tulsans went into oil: to make money.
At 18, he began preaching for the Pentecostal Holiness church.
Two years later he married Evelyn, who died in May 2005, aged 88. They had two sons and two daughters. His elder son, Ronald, shot himself dead in 1982, and his daughter Rebecca and her husband Marshall Nash died in an air crash in 1977, leaving $10 million, their proceeds from the Roberts empire. In the 1990s he had two heart attacks, and in 2006 he broke a hip.
Roberts’s daughter Roberta and his son Richard, who followed him as president of ORU until 2007, when he was forced to take leave of absence following allegations that he had used university funds for personal purposes, survive him.
You’re right, I would make a poor Mormon. However, since I am not one, I can focus on following Jesus and incorporate His teachings and the Word of God into my life.
Ezra Taft Benson’s teachings do not accord with the teachings of the bible.
Based on the vitriol of your comments, I doubt if Jesus Himself, the apostles Peter or Paul, or anyone else would meet with your criteria of what constitutes a “real” Christian preacher.
Based on the vitriol of your comments, I doubt if Jesus Himself, the apostles Peter or Paul, or anyone else would meet with your criteria of what constitutes a “real” Christian preacher.
Thanks Double O.
Of course they would! To compare a man who made a career out of preaching false doctrine, and swindling gullible Christians, for enormous, personal, financial gain, to great men like Peter and Paul who gave up everything to preach the truth of the Gospel, is absurd. To compare such a man to the Lord Jesus Christ, is blasphemous.
Really, is Oral Roberts the BEST you can do?
For shame.
It certainly IS blasphemous!
On October 9, 1859, Brigham Young said, "From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of all things, every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are -- I with you and you with me. I cannot go there without his consent" (Journal of Discourses 7:289).
Brigham Young claimed "Well now, examine the character of the Savior, and examine the characters of those who have written the Old and New Testaments; and then compare them with the character of Joseph Smith... and you will find that his character stands as fair as any man's mentioned in the Bible" (Journal of Discourses 14:203, August 31, 1871).
You mean Mormonism isn’t just another Christian denomination? /sarc
Those quotes certainly add to the Mount Everest of evidence that Mormonism is a false religion and not in any way a valid form of Christianity. Thanks.
Chritians should be so united against these types of heretics and charlatans that even unbelievers would look at someone like Roberts and immediately say, “He’s not a real Christian preacher, real Christians don’t act like he does or teach or believe the things he does.”
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I agree we should “out” the charlatans and heretics, especially those who claim Christianity. This includes people like Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, Gordon B. Hinkey and Thomas S. Monson.
I also apply it to anyone who take the name of the Lord in vain by using Him for their own gain.
prayers for your recovery.
The doc said I should feel better anytime between a couple of hours to a couple of weeks. I really hope the former. If this procedure doesn’t work, they could stick a huge needle in my back and suck some stuff out and then it’s implant a device in my back that counteracts the pain. I really hope that the operation tomorrow works. I had major back surgery years ago and I couldn’t go back to work for almost six months. I don’t want that to happen again.
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Ewwww. Praying everything goes well.
I was not intending to compare Oral Roberts to Jesus, though I understand you might think I was. I was just pointing out the severe nature of your comments directed at a brother in Christ (unless you propose that Oral Roberts was not a Christian) and hoping you might show more “mercy” in your “judgment.”
Your words:
1. He twisted the Scriptures
2. He fleeced old ladies
3. He preached and practiced covetousness
4. He taught all sorts or heresies
5. He brought shame to the name Jesus Christ and to His Church
Of course, you didn’t elaborate on these accusations and, as far as I know he was not convicted of any crimes regarding fraud, nor defrocked by any ministerial bodies for misconduct (my knowledge is sketchy because I wasn’t a close follower of his ministry).
I would hate to have you as my judge, and would prefer to leave his final judgment in the hands of the Lord he served.
Are you implying you are guiltless in each of the areas you indicted Roberts for?
What kind of judgment do you expect?
I expect those who contributed financially to his ministry did so of their own free will, and received either actual benefit from his ministry and/or the credit that our Lord gives to those that serve Him and freely give regardless of how that money may be used or abused by those whom it is entrusted to.
You are free not to give, but I would be hesitant if I were you to “trash” another’s ministry just because it isn’t your cup of tea.
BTW, do you think all ministers of the gospel of Christ need take a vow of poverty? If not, what is the acceptable level of material possessions, in your opinion, that they are allowed to accumulate and stay within God’s good graces?
It is not about his ministry not being “my cup of tea” it is about him preaching damnable heresies like the “Prosperity Gospel” and using scams like “seed faith” and “point of contact” schemes to fill his coffers.
God will judge us all, but we are commanded by Scripture to evaluate preachers against the word of God, and warn the church about false teachers, and his teaching were clearly and grossly unscriptural.
Thanks. It really does mean a lot to me when people whom I discuss religion with say that they will pray for me. I really appreciate any help I can get. I just want the numbness and rocks on my feet to go away. I’ve gained 20 lbs since in the injury and I’ve have cut way back on what I eat since it’s really hard to exercise. Walking and biking even hurt. My boys love sitting next to me eating Oreo cookies and just smiling at me. Like their old man, they’re insufferable.
reagnaut, thanks again.
My boys love sitting next to me eating Oreo cookies and just smiling at me.
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Oh that is just cruel. lol.
A couple of years ago I was having major dental work and was on a liquid/soft foods diet for a couple of months. My FIL would wait until I came over and start eating taffy, nuts, peanut brittle. I could have killed him.
And you are welcome for the prayers. :)
From your use of the words “damnable heresies” regarding Oral Roberts, should I conclude that you feel he is condemned and will perish in eternal fire?
“Prosperity Gospel” is opposed to the gospel in what way? Jesus did not command poverty, though he warned of the corrupting influence of serving money. You imply (”schemes to fill his coffers”) that Oral Roberts used Jesus to serve money. Perhaps he was using money to serve Jesus.
“Seed Faith” is not “clearly and grossly unscriptural” either, if you refer to the verses on sowing sparing and reaping sparingly (Galatians), and the generic law of sowing and reaping taught by Jesus.
“Point of Contact” is a concept that, in itself, is not unbiblical. Peter’s shadow falling on some brought healing, while Paul had handkerchiefs and aprons taken from him and used to cure the sick.
Many prominent ministers (whom I would be surprised if you did not respect/accept) counted Oral Roberts a fellow soldier of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Any more “damnable heresies” you want to advance?
And I noticed you ignored comment on what level of finances is scripturally in keeping with being a child/servant of God, even as you condemned someone whose level was most likely higher than yours.
You can't worship God and money. It's one or the other.
And I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of someone who tried to ply Christianity for a profit when I come before God.
And I wouldn’t want to be an armchair quarterback who only criticized others who do something for God.
Just a question: Do you think any people came into the kingdom of God as a result of Oral Roberts’ ministry?
Hey!
Them guys are FORCED to live up there in that deluxe apartment in the sky!
--MormonDude(Security; you know. Able to go through them tunnels to get to the other buildings and all.)
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