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HERESY ORAL ROBERTS
American Television and Audience Evangelist and Educator
 

BIRTH - DEATH
EDUCATION Oklahoma Baptist, Phillips University
B.A., M.Div. LL.D.
MINISTRIES Something Good Is Going To Happen To You - TV Ministry.
Oral Roberts Ministries - Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Miracles Now, magazine
Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma - founder and former president.
MAJOR WORKS Expect A Miracle
Miracle Of Seed-Faith
Seed-Faith 2000
Still Doing The Impossible
Stated to have written 120 books

Oral Roberts began his career as a tent evangelist in the late 1940's, appearing at rallies and evangelical crusades throughout the United States and the world. He was at his peak of popularity as an evangelist in the 1950's and 1960's. His meetings were popularized by his fiery and rapid-fire style of delivery, and the ever present lines of people hoping to obtain their healings.

In a time in which air conditioning was not used, his shirt-sleeve look, ever-present handkerchief to wipe his brow and his receiving of prospects for healing while seated on a folding chair made a great impression on his audience.

In the late 1970's, Oral Roberts' career began to take a different course as he founded the university that bears his name and began to move away from the crusades and concentrate on the medium of television. His folksy, homespun style and fatherly character made him a popular personality, and his television programs expanded throughout the country.

Oral Roberts' television program, books and university have all become a central distribution point for the health and wealth gospel and his promotion of the "seed faith" doctrine has brought in untold millions to his organization.

While still maintaining the control in the background, the aging Oral Roberts has stepped down from the presidency of his university, turning the position over to his son, Richard Roberts. Richard Roberts has his own television program originating from Oral Roberts University called, "Something Good Tonight, The Hour Of Healing", but it is produced under the umbrella of Oral Roberts himself.

DOCTRINAL ISSUES
The following doctrinal errors are part of Oral Roberts' teaching:
  1. He teaches that God wants all believers to be wealthy, healthy and happy.
  2. He teaches that God gives him continuing direct revelations that direct his life, his ministry and command believers to support him.
  3. He teaches that the Bible reveals the doctrine of "Seed Faith" which he originated, also known as the doctrine of "Giving and Receiving" whereby God will return a multiplication of money to a person who gives money in faith, believing that they will receive a monetary reward, primarily for donating to the ministry of Oral Roberts.
  4. He teaches and embraces many and various charismatic doctrines and practices that are not Biblical, including support for the "Toronto Blessing" and its high guru and spokesman the "Holy Spirit Bartender", Rodney Howard-Browne.
  5. He teaches that he and other like ministers and believers can "bind the devil".
  6. He teaches that he has healed many people and continues to do so.
    He has never presented proof that he has ever healed any individual and has never healed a visible disease. He has never caused a missing arm or leg to appear, caused a congenitally deformed individual to become whole, healed a Down's syndrome individual or caused a quadriplegic to walk. All of his claimed healings are of the mystery type, those that cannot be seen or verified, i.e., cancer inside the body, headaches and other ailments that cannot be proven to exist. The supposed healings that occur during his crusades were paraded across the platforms, while those in the wheelchairs, the blind, the terminally ill and those with missing body parts never saw the great man perform his miracles on them.

    Oral Roberts has made his claims about healing for over fifty years, and the Christian church is still gullible and without discernment regarding his failures and absolute inability to heal. He was unable to heal, even with the help of Kenneth Hagin, his grandchild when he died two days after birth.

Over fifty years of false claims, and the Christian world still holds Oral Roberts in esteem, considering him a great man of God.

FALSE PROPHECIES & OUTRAGEOUS CLAIMS
  • 1977
    Oral Roberts claimed that he received a vision, or revelation, from God. In the vision he claimed that God told him to build the City of Faith Medical Center. He also claimed that he saw a 900 foot tall Jesus, who said that the City of Faith would be successful. Four years later, in 1981, he opened the City of Faith.
  • 1983
    Oral Roberts: said that Jesus Christ appeared to him in person (not a vision) and told him to find a cure for cancer. So far, he has not found that cure.
  • 1986
    Oral Roberts said that God told him the following:
    "I want you to use the ORU medical school to put My medical presence in the earth. I want you to get this going in one year or I will call you home. It will cost $8 million and I want you to believe you can raise it."
  • 1987
    In January Oral Roberts said that God spoke to him and told him that he had not sent out any medical missionaries from the university or City of Faith. God instructed him to raise $8 million by March of the same year or God would take him home (presumably God would kill Oral Roberts or translate him to heaven like Enoch).
    The money raised was to provide full scholastic scholarships for medical missionaries who would be sent to other countries.
    He claimed that $3.5 million had already been raised, but he needed $4.5 million more by March 1, in order to get the full $8 million and prevent God from taking him home.
  • 1987
    On April 1 Oral Roberts said that he had received $9.1 million which was $1.1 million more that was required by God.
  • 1987
    In November, Oral Roberts announced that the City of Faith would be closing down.
  • 1988
    In January, Oral Roberts discontinued the medical scholarships. Apparently he was no longer afraid that God was going to take him home.
  • 1988
    In March, the medical scholarship fund went bankrupt. If any students wished to transfer to any other institution, they were required to repay their scholarships at 18% interest.
  • 1989
    In September, Oral Roberts closed the City of Faith.
THE CITY OF FAITH
How does Oral Roberts claim that God would kill him if he failed to raise 8 million dollars for the City of Faith, which at the time was failing because of a lack of funding. Since when is failure to raise a specific amount of money part of a capital offense in the law of God? That is not found in the Scripture. How convenient is it to receive a revelation just when the funds were needed the most? In his original claims, Oral Roberts said that God wanted the 8 million dollars to be used in order to send medical missionaries throughout the world. The money was used to keep the City of Faith operational in the face of failure, instead of being used as God had wished.

But the real question is in relation to Oral & Richard Roberts' support of the City of Faith and the claims that were made about it. Oral Roberts stated that he received a revelation from God (when he claimed to have seen the 900 foot tall Jesus Christ), and that Jesus Christ specifically told him to build the City of Faith and that it would be successful. The revelation was received in 1977 and by 1989 the City of Faith was closed as a financial failure. Employees and students were dismissed and the entire facility (never completed or completely occupied) was abandoned.

Oral Roberts claims to serve the God and Jesus Christ of the Bible, but if he received a revelation from God and Jesus Christ that the City of Faith would be successful, then his claims about Them make Them out to be liars. Since it is impossible for God or Jesus Christ to lie (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18), then either Oral Roberts lied about receiving a revelation or he was mentally impaired or deceived by a vision from Satan and did not know the difference. In any case, he is denied credibility as a prophet or revelator.

Oral Roberts also said that God told him to find a cure for cancer, through the research facilities of the City of Faith, but the cure was never found before the City of Faith failed and was abandoned. How is it that God told Oral Roberts to find a cure for cancer when He knew that the cure would not be found?

In the face of the failure of the City of Faith, Oral Roberts had to find a reason to explain the result, and far from the failure being the fault of Oral Roberts, amazingly he received a revelation from God, in which God stated that He had precipitated the failure as a testimony to all people of the world, that "this concept of merging My healing streams [is] to be known to all people and to go into all future generations."

"I had you build the City of Faith large enough to capture the imagination of the entire world, about the merging of My healing streams of prayer and medicine. I did not want this revelation localized in Tulsa, however, and the time has come when I want this concept of merging My healing streams to be known to all people and to go into all future generations,"
--- Claimed words of God given to Oral Roberts in a revelation

"It is clearly in my spirit, as I have ever heard Him, the Lord gave me an impression, 'You and your partners have merged prayer and medicine for the entire world, for the church world and for all generations.' And then He said, 'It is done.' And then I asked, 'Is that why after eight years you are having us close the hospital and after eleven years the medical school?' And God said, 'Yes, the mission has been accomplished in the same way that after three years of public ministry, my Son said on the cross, ""Father, it is finished!""'"
--- Oral Roberts

Oral Roberts claimed that God told him that the demise of the City of Faith is equated to be on the same level of importance as the finish of the ministry of Jesus Christ and his statement on the cross, "It is finished." That is simply an outrageous statement to make by Oral Roberts, because it equates his buildings and medical training center as being of the same value as the atonement accomplished on the cross by the death of Jesus Christ.

Failure and success are redefined by Oral Roberts to mean just the opposite of what they actually are, and the building of hospitals, training centers and research centers is for a much different reason than their stated purpose. Oral Roberts' claim is that God's definition of success is failure and the merging of His "healing streams" into the world is to build and then close down hospitals, medical training and research centers. God's command to send out medical missionaries is to send out none and his command to find a cure for cancer is to abandon the search. And then it is claimed that the secular world is to be impressed? The secular world was not impressed and laughed at the impudence of Oral Roberts. It was only the undiscerning religious world who gave their millions to the City of Faith, only to see it squandered on a failed speculation and finally lost to history by the demise of the project. Still, the undiscerning numbers believe the backward reasoning provided by Oral Roberts and ignore the reality that the god of Oral Roberts fails to keep his promises and uses the avenue of the lie in order to obtain money for his failed projects.

JIM BAKKER & ORAL ROBERTS' REVELATION FROM GOD
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.

Then the Lord said to me, "the prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or anointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and delusions of their own minds. Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, 'No sword or famine will touch this land.' Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. and the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve."
The Holy Bible, Jeremiah 14:14-16

CONCERNS
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.

INABILITY TO HEAL
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

RESOURCES: Additional information regarding the doctrines taught by Oral Roberts: un-Quotable Quotes

END OF ARTICLE
by Gary A. Hand
On Doctrine
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