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?
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
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.