Oral Roberts Died Today
Tulsa is the home to Oral Roberts University. Today their chancellor passed away. Oral Roberts is a bigger than life personality, or at least he used to be, and his name has been associated with Tulsa for the past fifty years.
When I was a kid, and we moved to Tulsa from the great state of Maryland, Oral Roberts University was one of the first places we went to see. Anytime our family came down for a visit, they wanted to see ORU.
We watched him just about every Sunday. I'll always remember them singing their theme song, and hearing Oral say, "something GOOD is going to happen to YOU!" Then Richard and Patti, and the World Action Singers, would start in. Oral always referred to his wife as his "darling wife, Evelyn."
Upon the news of his death, comments posted online wish Oral well, quoting verses like, "well done, good and faithful servant, enter into your rest."
Respectfully, I must disagree.
Roberts did a lot for the city of Tulsa. I'll admit that. Before that, we were an oil boom town, known as the "Oil Capital of the World," because every year, the International Petroleum Exposition was held here. But as the oil began to dry up, and most of the oil companies moved to Houston, Oral Roberts stayed put. His university drew people by the thousands here, and many of them stayed.
His contributions to the Christian faith were not so positive. In fact, I would argue that there is a sum negative. He owned a Bible. He held church services. But that's about it. Let me explain.
Roberts is the arguably the father of the health/wealth/prosperity gospel. He taught that it is always God's will for you to be healed, for you to be healthy, for you to be wealthy. This is completely the opposite of what Jesus taught. Jesus taught that in this world, we will have troubles, and our lives will not satisfy.
Roberts took advantage of people. P.T. Barnum said that there is a sucker born every minute, and Oral made millions from his belief in that. A fool and his money are soon parted, and Oral knew how to extract millions of dollars from little old ladies. In my opinion, he is no better than the people who send those emails from overseas, and take money from people who can least afford it, with the promise that they will get rich if they give their money to him.
Roberts was a false prophet. Many times, Roberts "prophesied," and those prophecies did not come true. In fact, often he was proved wrong. For example, he stood up and preached against the Assembly of God denomination for their handling of the Jim Bakker incident. He said they were wrong, and said that God told him that he was innocent. A true prophet of God is never wrong.
Roberts was a liar. When his son Richard divorced his wife, Patti, Oral gave the order for all records of her to be destroyed. Thousands of hours of archived video tape were edited to keep her out of the minds of donors. The same was true of his son Ronald, who committed suicide.
In the 80s, when trying to raise money for his doomed hospital, he claimed that he was visited by a 900 foot Jesus. Jesus told Roberts that if he didn't raise $8 million, God would "call him home." In other words, God would kill him. I'll never forget the Saturday Night Live skit about this little chapter in Oral's life. The final check came from the owner of a dog track in Florida, and when Oral endorsed that check, any credibility he may have ever had was gone forever. He would take money from any body, any time.
He wrote a little book many years ago, called "The Miracle of Seed Faith." I read it once. In it he claimed that the Bible teaches that God will specifically pay you back, financially, ten times what you give to him. Do you need a thousand dollars? Give a hundred to me. Do you want a million dollars? Send $100,000 to me, and God will give you the million. He treated it like an investment.
In the 1970s, John Lennon wrote Oral Roberts a letter. Lennon was obsessed with television, and watched several popular TV evangelists. Lennon told Roberts that he was sorry he ever said that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. He said he was afraid of dying, and wanted to escape hell. He asked Roberts if Christianity was real, and if it could really help him. Bro. Oral mailed John Lennon of copy of "The Miracle of Seed Faith." John Lennon send him a large contribution. A few years later, Lennon said that he had been born again. But within eighteen months, he had rejected Christianity completely.
Oral spent the last several years of his life in Palm Springs, California. That's where millionaires go to retire. While he was basking in the lap of luxury, the university that bears his name was nearly run into the ground. Only the actions of a few members of the board of directors saved the institution. If it had been left to the Roberts family, that school would be on the auction block today.
It is not my intention to bemoan the dead. I have prayed for Roberts' family today, because they are surely hurting at the loss of their patriarch. But the fact is that there are a lot of misled people out there because of Oral Roberts. Some of those who are misled are members of the faith, but their doctrine is jacked up because of what Roberts taught. And some of them are outside the faith, and Oral Roberts is going to be held accountable for the trash that he taught. It would be better for him if a giant stone was tied around his neck, and he was tossed overboard.
I only wish that his crappy doctrine would have died with him today. But there's no chance of that.
Jason: I would like to respectfully AGREE with everything you wrote here. I know there will be people all over, many pastors included, who will applaud the influence of OR. I will have trouble not choking to be honest. I see nothing positive coming from his teaching, nothing but error and heresy. The garbage that passes for truth these days by Copeland, Hinn, et al finds it roots in this man. I believe God is unhappy with that base error. And from what I have gathered his son has learned how to "play" as well. Takes guts to write this and I will stand alongside you for it. Well done.
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Thanks, Bill. I'm not sure people understand or take seriously the dangers of false doctrine. It isn't merely a question of a disagreement. None of us agree 100% of the time. It is a matter of theology which is so flawed, it acts like a virus, infecting every aspect of Christianity. To say that Oral Roberts was a good and decent man who had a little flawed thinking is to completely misunderstand the importance of sound doctrine. In my opinion, he was a charlatan, a con man.
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I heard a story from one of my older members that goes like this.
"Back in the 1950's I went to get a haircut in Tulsa. The barber asked me if I had ever heard of Oral Roberts. We talked about him for a while and he admitted that he was Oral's father-in-law. They had a nice chat. Later that same week, he was watching Oral Roberts on TV from a crusade in Florida. A man so crippled that he could hardly walk came to the front. Oral exclaimed, "my beloved father-in-law! What has brought you to this pitiful circumstance?" At that, he seized hold of his F-I-L and "healed" him. He left the arena no longer limping or walking with a crutch.
My member told me that once he saw "that baloney" on TV, he knew Oral Roberts was a fake.
Like you, Jason, I'm sorry his sorry theology didn't die with him.
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