- 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.
-
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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 |