Raising
The Dead
(Investigator 3, 1988
November)
Rumours
of Oral
Roberts raising the dead
made headlines last year.
A
paranormal claim of such nature deserved
investigation.
INVESTIGATOR
received 2 newspaper clippings and 2 letters which
together
reveal the truth.
The truth
is that more die at Roberts' meetings than
are raised.
The
Spokesman-Review Spokane Chronicle,
June 27, 1987
Evangelist Oral Roberts
says
he
has brought the dead back
to life
TULSA, Okla. –
Evangelist Oral Roberts, whose
plea for $8 million to save his life focused attention on his ministry
earlier this year, said this week he has raised the dead and will
return
after his own death to rule alongside Jesus Christ.
Roberts' comments,
made to about 5,000 people
at the closing session of the three-day Charismatic Bible Ministries
Conference
on Thursday, were broadcast nationally Friday on his son's "Richard
Roberts
Live" program.
Richard Roberts
acknowledged his father's
statements were sure to arouse controversy. He held up a newspaper with
a headline about Oral Roberts' claims.
"The good news is,
they're printing the truth,"
Richard Roberts said. "I'm so glad the newspapers are beginning to get
the story right..."
The elder Roberts,
whose 40-year ministry
originated with tent revivals in which the sick came to be healed, told
his fellow ministers Thursday he also has brought the dead back to life.
"All of us in the
ministry could talk about
that – of certain dead ones raised, died right while I was preaching,"
Roberts
said. "I had to stop and go back in the crowd and raise the dead person
so I could go ahead with the service.
"That did increase
my altar call (audience
response) that night," Roberts said, drawing laughter from the crowd at
Oral Roberts University's Mabee Center.
On his program
Friday, Richard Roberts said
be recalled one instance in his boyhood when he said a dead child was
brought
back to life by his father.
"Right in the
middle of my dad's sermon a
woman came running up to the platform with her baby in her arms
screaming
‘My baby has just died,'" Richard Roberts said.
"The child had
died during the service. My
dad had to stop in the middle of his sermon and lay hands on that
child.
And that child came back to life again.
"There are
probably dozens and dozens and
dozen of documented instances of people who have been raised from the
dead,"
Richard Roberts said after he and guests on the program recounted
stories
about the dead being revived…
[Oral] Roberts has
criticized media coverage
of his request for money to fund medical missionary scholarships at
ORU.
In March 1986, he said God told him to raise $8 million from followers
or his life would be forfeited by the end of March 1987…
On April 1,
Roberts announced that the money
had been raised and that his life had been spared.
|
LOS ANGELES TIMES,
1987, Saturday,
July 4 Part 2 p.5
|
Roberts'
Book Makes No
Mention of Raising Dead
BY JOHN DART, Times
Religion Writer
Contrary to a recent
claim that he has raised
the dead Rev. Oral Roberts did not mention such a feat in his 1972
autobiography
and Roberts' biographer says he never ran into such a claim when
researching
the faith healer's life.
Roberts said in
Tulsa on June 25 that he once
had to stop his service to revive a dead person before he could
continue.
Roberts' son, Richard Roberts, who played a videotape of his father's
remarks
the next day on his television show, recalled that during his own
boyhood
his father revived a dead baby brought up by a distraught mother.
But last Monday, the
senior Roberts appeared
on his son's television program and seemed to modify his claim, saying
that the mother who brought the baby to him thought the child was dead.
"His little body was cold," Roberts said. "The mother thought it was
dead.
I thought it was dead."
…David Edwin Harrell
Jr., author of "Oral
Roberts, an American Life," said that if the evangelist brought a dead
person back to life, "it would have been in the '50s or the '60s." That
was the period when Roberts, now president of Oral Roberts University,
actively engaged in tent revivals and healing sessions, Harrell said…
In his
autobiography, "The Call," Roberts
wrote in a chapter titled "Success and Failure" that "We've even had
three
people die during our crusades." … Roberts wrote that one death was
reported
during a crusade in Detroit after a diabetic woman, convinced that she
was healed at one of Roberts' services, gave up her insulin shots and
died…
Nevertheless, in
remarks to about 5,000 charismatic
ministers on June 25, Oral Roberts said, "all of us in the ministry
could
talk about" cases of people raised from the dead. After declaring that
he would not say how many have been raised under his own ministry, he
told
briefly of a person dying during a service. "I had to stop and go back
in the crowd and raise the dead person so I could go ahead with the
service,"
he said without telling where or when the incident occurred.
Richard Rawe, an
independent religious researcher
living in Soap Lake. Wash., pointed to the chapter in Roberts'
autobiography
and said, "I think that if he had raised the dead, he would have
mentioned
it." Such a case would have offered positive contrast to the deaths
that
occurred during his crusades Rawe said…
|
| March 13, 1956
Oral Roberts
Oklahoma
Dear Mr. Roberts,
A friend and I were
discussing your work and
got to wondering if you can cure or have cured lepers or raised up dead
persons by God's power?
We found nothing
about this in your magazines
we have and thought we would write and ask.
Thank you for your
consideration in this regard.
Awaiting your answer.
Sincerely yours,
Richard Rawe
|
| 3-26-56
Richard Rawe
Gran. Coulee
Wash.
Dear Brother Rawe,
Thank you for taking
time to contact me. I
pray my letter will be a blessing to you…
According to our
records, we have had no correspondence
from a leperous person who has been healed. In answer to your question
concerning the raising of the dead, I have never felt led of God along
this line. I know nothing is impossible with Him but we must leave
matters
of this nature entirely in His hands...
Your partner for
deliverance,
Oral Roberts
|
[The above
letters and newspaper clippings
were supplied to Investigator by Richard Rawe who at the time
was
a subscriber to Investigator. Ed.]
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|