False Preacher: Oral Roberts

I am a week late, but I had some trouble getting some info on this guy. And I wanted to change the art style a bit too.

The late 1980’s must have been a great time to be a televangelist. One by one a few of them got exposed for their scams. And Oral Roberts was one of them, where he had several gimmicks.

Oral Roberts has used fear and greed to raise millions of dollars for himself and even got help from his son Robert. And he was one of the inventors of the “Seed Faith” teachings. He coined the phrase “Have a need, plant a seed.” In other words, “Pay me so God can help you.”

It started when Roberts read 3 John 2. When Oral Roberts first read that, he happily told his wife, “ Evelyn, now this means that we’re supposed to prosper.” Roberts explains then that soon after, God gave him a new Buick. Roberts then writes: “Everything that has happened to us since that day started with that verse of Scripture.” Even his wife Evelyn agreed saying that to prosper “is God’s highest wish for us.”(A Daily Guide to Miracles, pg. 36-38, 1975)

Preachers like Roberts have taken the “seed” from the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13: 1-8) (Luke 8:4-8) completely out of context, when Jesus clearly explains to his disciples what the parable means. (Matthew 13: 18-23) (Luke 8: 9-15) Which is of course, describing the types of people that listen to the word of God and accept it. Though Oral Roberts says:

“The seed of giving is the seed of faith! And the seed has to be planted BEFORE we can speak to our mountain of need to be removed!” (A Daily guide to Miracles pg. 63, 1975)

Giving money to our pastor first is supposed to increase our faith before our problems are removed? That looks like an excuse to get money… And Roberts got tons for it!

Roberts’s goes into an explanation with Benny Hinn on how he got started with his “Planting A Seed” belief as shown here in these 2 videos:

Part 1: [link]

Part 2: [link]

When Roberts read 3 John 2 as I said earlier, he found it as a great opportunity. Prosperity preachers like Roberts’s LOVE to use 3 John: 2 and other similar verses out of context to promote the false teaching of prosperity and that we as Christians deserve health and wealth. I’ll show you 3 John 1, 2 and 3:

Verse 1: The Elder, to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth:

Verse 2: Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers.

Verse 3: For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth.

Notice that John is writing to Gaius and the letter was meant for him. The point of 3 John is that John is writing to Gaius and is thanking him for his hospitality and for being a good Christian brother and that he hopes that Gaius himself is greatly blessed for doing so, not the rest of us.

Oral Roberts also has weird and hilarious ideas about sex. Notice how he never uses any verses to back up what he says. Prepare for a good laugh.

[link]

There’s nowhere in the Bible that shows us HOW to have sex and what rules there are in doing so! We are free to have sex any way we want and there’s also no requirement that you need to have sex with the intent to have children. Seriously, when I listened to that recording, I almost have to wonder about Robert’s own sex life, if him and his wife ever tried to actually have a sex life. If he was talking about “Be fruitful and multiply” as said by God, that was meant just for Noah to repopulate the Earth!

In 1977 Roberts said he had received a vision from God telling him to build the City of Faith. He later claimed to have seen a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him that the vision would soon be realized and that the hospital would be a success. Roberts also had this to say:

"I felt an overwhelming holy presence all around me. When I opened my eyes, there He stood ... some 900 feet tall, looking at me ... He stood a full 300 feet taller than the 600-foot-tall City of Faith. There I was face to face with Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. I have only seen Jesus once before, but here I was face to face with the King of kings. He reached down, put his Hands under the City of Faith, lifted it, and said to me, "See how easy it is for Me to lift it!"'"

I wonder what other’s had to say when God lifted the whole place? Were they there? Did they feel or see anything? Unfortunately, this City of Faith would get into some financial troubles in the future.

The City of Faith opened in 1981.

1983: Roberts announced that Jesus had appeared to him in person and commissioned him to find a cure for cancer. (Time, July 4, 1983)

Not possible since Jesus wasn’t supposed to return yet.

1986: Roberts said God had told him, ‘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.’ (Abundant Life, Jan/Feb. 1987).

January 1987: Roberts said God had told him that he had to raise $8 million by March 31 or God would take him home.
Roberts said the money would be used to provide full scholarships for medical missionaries who would be sent to Third World countries. He said $3.5 million had been raised and all he needed was $4.5 million before March 1 that year.

What’s funny is, isn’t heaven better than life on Earth? Wouldn’t Oral Roberts want to die so he can get to heaven sooner? Or even better, where in the Bible does it say that God demands money or he will take your life?

Here’s several of Oral Roberts scams:

During 1985, God supposedly told Roberts’ that 1985 would be a bad year for his partners. In his mail letter he wrote:

“Satan is going to bring bad things against you. Worry…Fear…Stress will be a serious threat against your health. Even worse, I see Satan is going to make his biggest effort to surround you with so many problems you will feel a sense of hopelessness.” (Oral Roberts, direct-mail letter, undated (ca. 1 January 1985?), 1-2 emphasis in original)

In the same letter Roberts mentioned other made up fears to pressure everyone on his mailing list to send money including: “IF YOU NEGLECT TO PAY ATTENTION…then Satan will take advantage and hit you with bad things and you will wish that 1985 had never come,” “PROSPERITY MIRACLES…are within fingertip reach of your faith,”

All lies of course and fear tactics. How did so many people fall for this? I guess because they all believed Roberts was a man of God. And Roberts lived a very very wealthy life for it.

On January 4, 1987, Oral Roberts told his followers that if he did not raise a total of eight million dollars by March, God was going to take his life. In a follow-up direct mail letter, Roberts said that the deadline to raise the 1.5 million dollars that was left would be March 31. Even reminding his followers on the first page of those letters “Just 30 days left!”

Oral Roberts and his son Richard also tried using a Point-of-Contact gimmick, where whatever item that is send to his partners was apparently blessed by the sender and it has the power to heal you or give you money.

When Roberts read the book of Acts and saw that Peter’s shadow was healing people, he thought of doing something similar. After praying, “God” told Roberts to take a picture of him and his son, send the picture to the followers, “HOLD IT OVER the prayer sheet and your Seed-Faith gift so that the shadow of the picture COVERS THE ENTIRE SHEET.” According to Jesus, this “becomes the point of contact for you to loose your faith.” Then finally, to fold the prayer sheet and seed-faith gift together to symbolize their union with Oral and Richard. Then: “Send it back to Richard and me today, if possible, so that he and I can immediately unfold it AND OUR SHADOWS CAN PASS OVER YOUR NAME AND NEEDS ON YOUR PRAYER SHEET.”

Okay, any so called man of God who does these kinds of gimmicks, they are in danger of Hell if they don’t repent. Seriously, it’s so disgusting and wicked to deceive millions of people off of their money with nonsense like this.
Roberts gave this warning for those who thought of giving him money but changing their minds:

“Someone will be watching this ministry on the air, who promised a large sum to God. And you act like you have given it, but you did not pay it. You are so close to lying to the Holy Ghost, that within days you will be dead unless you pay the price God said. And somebody here is getting the message. You’re on the edge of lying to the Holy Ghost. Don’t like to the Holy Ghost. The prophet has spoken.” (Oral Roberts, presentation at the World Charismatic Conference, Melodyland Christian Center, Anaheim, CA 7/9/1992)

Roberts also invented a strange belief called the Prayer Cover. In his book “A Prayer Cover Over Your Life”, (which I personally own) Roberts describes the Prayer Cover as this:

“It’s a spiritual shield that you raise, by prayer, that completely surrounds the person you are praying for- it may be yourself or a husband or wife or a child, or a loved one. When you raise a Prayer Cover over someone you love and about whom you are concerned, you are, in effect, wrapping them up in prayer. You are completely surrounding them with prayer. You are covering them with prayer. And, in doing so you are creating the right environment in which God can work His wonders. The darkness of this world is pierced.” (A Prayer Cover Over Your Life, pg. 5)

Throughout the book, Roberts implies that somehow, when people have a Prayer Cover, that our prayers on them are strengthened or the prayer is more likely to work. He even writes how to put a Prayer Cover over ourselves:

“I want you to physically demonstrate a Prayer Cover going over you as I pray. Here’s how: take your arms and your hands and raise them above your head, touching your fingertips together, creating a roof over your head. Then slowly bring your arms down, until you touch your feet, all the while praying for god’s Prayer Cover to be over you.” (A Prayer Cover Over Your Life, pg.111)

Roberts even includes an illustrated diagram on the next page. And prays that we also get a Healing Cover, Prosperity Cover, Protection Cover and a Holy Ghost Cover.

Here’s some other bad events that happened in Roberts life:

April 1, 1987: Roberts announced that he had raised $9.1 million -- $1.1 million more than needed. Of the money raised, $1.3 million was given by a dog track owner, Jerry Collins.
November 1987: Roberts announced that the City of Faith medical clinic will close in three months.

January 1988: Roberts canceled the university’s free medical tuition program despite his claim that God had told him to make the medical school a world outreach program.

March 1988: The medical scholarship fund went bankrupt. Students were required to repay scholarship funds at 18 percent annual interest if they transferred to another school rather than stay at ORU medical school and start paying the high tuition.

September 1989: Roberts decided to close the medical school and the City of Faith hospital to pay off debts. And no cure for cancer was found. So much for that prophecy from 1977! And maybe that extra money gained could have went towards that debt, instead of a dog track.

October 2007: Oral Roberts University was apparently $50 million in debt. And this was the university that God told Roberts to build.

There’s more to Oral Roberts than this. Hope you enjoyed reading and look forward to the next false preacher.