Oral Roberts - A Tribute

By Tayo Obe

Not a few people were saddened after it was publicly disclosed that popular Tele-Evangelist Granville Oral Roberts had died. He was 91 years old. Born in Oklahoman on January 24, 1918 , Oral was the fifth and youngest child of the Reverend Ellis Melvin Roberts and Claudia Priscilla Irwin.

After finishing high school, Roberts studied for two years each at Oklahoma Baptist University and Phillips University. In 1938, he married a preacher's daughter, Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock. Roberts became a traveling faith healer after ending his college studies without a degree. According to a TIME Magazine profile of 1972, Roberts originally made a name for himself with a large mobile tent "that sat 3,000 on metal folding chairs".

He pioneered televangelism when he began broadcasting his revivals by television in 1955 and attracted a vast viewership. In 1947, Roberts resigned his pastoral ministry with the Pentecostal Holiness Church to found Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. He began conducting evangelistic and faith healing crusades, mainly in the U.S. He appeared as a guest speaker for hundreds of national and international meetings and conventions. Thousands of sick people would wait in line to stand before Oral Roberts so he could pray for them.

He founded Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1963, stating he was obeying a command from God. The university was chartered in 1963 and received its first students in 1965. Students were required to sign an honour code pledging not to drink, smoke, or engage in premarital sexual activities. In 1977 Roberts had a vision from Jesus who told him to build City of Faith Medical and Research Center, the hospital would be a success.

City of Faith Medical and Research Center in Oklahoma, opened in 1981. At the time, it was among the largest health facilities of its kind in the world and was intended to merge prayer and medicine in the healing process. The City of Faith operated for only eight years before closing in late 1989. The Orthopedic Hospital of Oklahoma still operates on its premises.

Roberts' fundraising was controversial. In January 1987, during a fundraising drive, Roberts announced to a television audience that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would "call him home." Some were fearful that he was referring to suicide, given the impassioned pleas and tears that accompanied his statement. He raised $9.1 million.

His life was not without challenges, Roberts' daughter Rebecca Nash died in an airplane crash on February 11, 1977 with her husband, businessman Marshall Nash. Roberts' eldest son Ronald committed suicide in June 1982, five months after receiving a court order to undergo counselling at a drug treatment centre. But the other two Roberts children are still living — Son Richard, a well-known evangelist and former president of Oral Roberts University (ORU), and daughter Roberta Potts, an attorney. On May 4, 2005 Evelyn, Roberts' wife of 66 years, died in a Southern California hospital at the age of 88.

In addition, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis at 17 and sunk into such dire straits, coughing and spitting up blood, that survival was in question. When an intense prayer session became a prelude to healing, the world lost a basketball player (he used to be a Sport Fan) and gained an evangelist. Inspired by his recovery, Oral Roberts vowed to go out and spread the Gospel, which he did until he died at age 91.

Oral Roberts wrote more than 130 books, several personal commentaries on the Bible, and other inspirational material. One of his most substantive works is a 74-CD set titled Oral Roberts Reading the New Testament with His Personal Commentary that includes his life’s teachings on God’s Word. Perhaps best known is his book The Miracle of Seed Faith, which revolutionised the lives of millions of people who learned how to get their needs met through God’s eternal plan of giving and receiving.

Since his death, Christian leaders round the world have been paying tribute to a Man of God that stood out and did his best to fulfill his purpose. Evangelist Billy Graham, founder of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said “Oral Roberts was a man of God and a great friend in ministry. I loved him as a brother. We had many quiet conversations over the years. I invited Oral to speak at one of our early international conferences on evangelism held in Berlin in the 1960s. … Just three weeks ago, I was privileged to talk to Oral over the telephone. During the short conversation, he said to me that he was near the end of his life's journey. I look forward to the day that I will see Oral and Evelyn Roberts again in heaven--our eternal home.”

In remembering his father, son Richard said, “He was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Oral Roberts was not only my earthly father; he was also my spiritual father and mentor. He was the greatest man of God I’ve ever known. An innovator and a modern-day apostle of the healing ministry, he was one of the first men of his generation to build a worldwide ministry, an accredited university, and a medical and research center. He had a passion to bring healing to the sick. He came along when many in Christendom did not believe in God’s power and goodness, yet his name became synonymous with miracles.”

For healing evangelist, Benny Hinn, he said that we should rejoice even as we grieve Dr. Roberts’ passing from this earth because he is in Heaven. According to him “we rejoice that he is now in heaven. What an amazing life! He was a giant in so many ways, and I was privileged to have him as a dear, dear friend for many years. Every time I was with him, I saw firsthand a heart consumed with the love of Jesus Christ…Only heaven will reveal how many hearts he has pointed toward heaven, how many homes have been revolutionised through his seed-faith teaching, and how many ears have heard his faith-filled phrase, "Expect a miracle!" God has used him to open doors that were once considered closed to the miracle-working power of the gospel, and wherever I travel, I have been ever thankful for the trail he blazed.’’

He then urged all his partners to be in prayer for his family during these days of bereavement, “and while we join his loved ones in mourning the loss of this great trailblazer of the faith, we also celebrate his reunion in heaven with his beloved wife, Evelyn, other family members, the hosts who accepted our Lord Jesus as Saviour, and most importantly, with the Lord Himself, whom our brother in Christ served so faithfully during his memorable lifetime!

Bishop T.D Jakes of The Potters’ House stated that through “his vision and commitment to Christian education, his legacy will continue in the hearts and minds of young believers. The world has lost a treasured gift from God embodied in the man Oral Roberts. Our sympathy goes out to his family and the many churches that were under his oversight.”

Also, Nigerian Pastor T.B. Joshua has joined those paying tribute to the life and legacy of the late American evangelist, Oral Roberts, describing him as one of ‘God’s Generals’. Dr. Oral Roberts died Tuesday December 15 in Newport Beach, California, of complications from pneumonia, with son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, at his side after having spent the last 74 years spreading God’s word (60 of them under the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association).