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$igns of the Time$
The Grand Poobah Of Pyramid-Scheme-Jesus
Money Makers Is Back At The Trough

By James Neff
For Rense.com
10-15-4
 
Well, the grand old man has come down out of his 'prayer tower' once again with a new 'vision' given him by the Almighty Himself. The last time Oral Roberts did this it was a scam in 1986 to raise 8 million dollars (for his City of Faith hospital) from frightened hellfire-fearful devotees by proclaiming that God had told Oral He would kill him if he didn't raise the bucks "God" needed. Naturally, at the last minute, some mentally petrified, guilt ridden billionaire from Florida chipped in the remaining amount needed and God spared Oral's life (of course). Prior to that it was a vision for a 900 foot tall idol of Jesus Christ which God told Oral he wanted erected standing over his City of Faith Hospital. Somehow that whole vision got scrapped, as holy visions tend to do among tele-evangelists, and the money went elsewhere, followed rather quickly by news of the Roberts' being involved in some shady real estate deals. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! OZ has spoken!
 
Now he's at it again, only this time his message is "for the whole world," he says. It will only cost you the price of his latest book to find out the complete message from God, but Oral offered some teasers on his advent-like appearance on the Kenneth Copeland evangelical program. Copeland, a long time student of Roberts and firm believer in Oral as the prophet of our times (translation: Oral is the top of the pyramid scheme, Copeland and others like him establish smaller facilities that 'tithe' the 'tithe' back to Oral -- this is part of what they call the 'seed-faith' doctrine, which basically amounts to Jesus as a banker and Oral and his minions as tellers and treasurers, but only with the cash flowing one direction, naturally), sat in rapt, dumb struck awe as the old man from on-high prattled on about his 'vision.' The teaser for the total vision package is apparently that God is about to perform a sign in the heavens that every eye will see, something spectacular and stupefying, to warn the world that it is not yet ready for the Second Coming.
 
I don't think we need a heavenly sign for that, do we? It's rather obvious, isn't it?
 
Nonetheless, Oral predicted the easily predictable, as usual... continued world conflict, escalating disaster and cataclysms. But where do ya' suppose he got the sign in the heavens bit? It's not like our skies haven't been literally littered with fireballs, UFOs, flying triangles, strange cloud formations (not to mention chemtrails), meteors and close-call asteroid fly-by's for many months! Sketchy details at best, naturally. We'll all have to fork out the cash for his new book to know 'everything' God wants us to know. And, no doubt, Oral will sell a gazillion books to the spiritually malnourished throng of born-again's who thrive on pulp novel Christian mind control marketing tools like Tim LaHaye's ridiculous "Left Behind" series and other such koo-koo candy for the charismaticized brain. It's rare to see ole' Oral now days, he's like the Fundamentalist Christian Bhagwan Shree Rashneesh, but when he comes down from the mount, you can bet it's to fill up his bucket... again.
 
----
 
Excerpt from Transcript, Kenneth Copeland program (while Oral is discussing the 'vision' God gave him):
 
Oral: Ken, I hold this $50 bill in my hand, and Jesus told me to give. All right, I could reach in my wallet and pick up a dollar bill, I could pick up a $5 bill, I could pick up a $20 bill, but I happen to have a $50 bill today in my wallet. Now ?? and it's my privilege to choose any of those numbers. I can give you a dollar for your ministry, I can give you 5, I can give you 10, give you 20, I can give you 50. I can't give you a hundred because I don't have a hundred dollar bill, but I have a $50 bill. Now, I want to show you, just take this.
 
Kenneth: I'll be glad to, sir. I receive.
 
Oral: Yes, sir, for your ministry. Now, what he's saying in Luke 6:38, "Give, and it..." Now, I just gave you $50, that's the "it."
 
Kenneth: "It." (Laughs) Ooh! I see that.
 
Oral: By "it" shall it be measured back. He's going to measure back to me this amount, I'm going to get it back, and then he's going to use that to measure other $50 bills.
 
 

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.

Sidebar source: http://www.ondoctrine.com/10robero.htm

 
 

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