Who Was Oral Roberts?

Who was Oral Roberts? What was his ministry all about?

Oral Roberts

Granville Oral Roberts (January 1918-December 2009) was born in Pontotoc, Oklahoma, as the last of Elvin Melvin Roberts, a Pentecostal preacher, and Claudia Priscilla Roberts’ five children. Roberts claimed to be a descendent of the Cherokee Nation; however he was actually a legal member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Oral Roberts grew up in grinding poverty and Roberts almost died when he was a teen (age 17), but managed to survive and even attend and graduate from Oklahoma Baptist and Phillips Universities. Roberts would follow in his father’s footsteps, but make a significantly greater impact in his ministry than his father did.

The Traveling Faith Healer

You’ve probably seen a lot of movies with faith healers in them and maybe they traveled around various towns and villages in a circuit of healing services. That’s exactly what Oral Roberts did when he struck out on the road as a traveling faith healer. He brought his own tent with him, one large enough to seat 3,000 people in folding chairs. At these meetings, Roberts would lay hands on someone who was sick, injured, or had a disease; they might even be disabled, but Roberts would first try to have them healed immediately by laying hands on them and speaking to them. When that didn’t work, and neither did repeated efforts, he began shouting at the one he was trying to have healed. In 1977, Roberts claimed to have had a vision from a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him to build the City of Faith and Medical and Research Center, which turned out to be very successful. Later in life, he was on 63 radio stations and on over 400 stations in the U.S. and Canada with his television and radio programs, but then Robert’s had yet another controversy come up. In 1987, Roberts claims to have had a conversation with God where God told Roberts that unless the necessary funds were raised, God was going to call him home. When this failed to help ORU reach their goal, he actually made a public announcement that God had raised the dead through Roberts’ ministry. [1] Perhaps his point was that God wasn’t going to take him home yet.

His Father’s Son

Richard Roberts, Oral’s son, took over for his father as the chancellor or head regent but it wasn’t long before there were rumors of malfeasance. Part of this came to light when a civil suit was filed against the school by three former professors, who after making a report detailing some serious moral and ethical issues of Richard Roberts, having given copies to each of the Board or Regents, they were then expediently fired and without notice or cause. This same university/church has some very interesting curriculum. They offer “Healing Classes” and have a “School of Miracles,” where one can apparently learn not only about miracles, but perhaps be like the “Jesus of Miracles.” Their website says you can “Experience…the miracle healing ministry of Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit for yourself…and be…receiving practical teaching based on God’s Word to help you get your needs met” (som.oralroberts.com). I suppose we can throw out Jesus’ command to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt 6:33).

Conclusion

None of us have perfect understanding of the Bible and all that it teaches. This is why collectively we are better able to gain true biblical wisdom when there are many who study the Word together (Prov 11:14) but the point is if someone believes in the divinity of Christ and as having always existed and that God became flesh in Jesus Christ in order to redeem flesh (John 3:16) as a way to beget the children of God (John 1), and that He lived a sinless life of perfection; and that Jesus died for our sins, taking the wrath of God upon Himself in order that we might be saved for eternal life. There is simply no other way that we can be saved (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), so if those who are in charge of or are members of Oral Roberts University, including their church, believe all of the above statement and that we’re saved by grace alone in Christ alone (Eph 2:8-9), they are born again brothers and sisters. There are unsaved people at ORU just as there are in Protestant and Catholic churches. The main thing is if we believe in these essentials, we can agreeably disagree on the non-essentials, however if there is biblical error that’s found, we are obliged to point those out; even if it’s in us!

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

1. Randi, James. The Faith Healers. Prometheus Books, 1989. p. 192.