Oral Roberts passes away at age 91
Oral Roberts, founder and chancellor of Oral Roberts University, passed away on December 15 at the age of 91. His departure is mourned by the ORU family, including the students, faculty, staff, alumni and supporters who embraced his philosophy of whole-person education.
Born in 1918 in rural Oklahoma, Roberts was a preacher’s kid who initially rejected his father’s faith. At the age of 17, however, he was struck down with tuberculosis. A subsequent miraculous healing led to his conversion, and a call on his life from God himself to “take My healing power to your generation.”
Carrying out that call took him from small churches to tent meetings to international crusades, and from radio and television to books and letters he wrote to the thousands who partnered with his ministry. The capstone of his life’s work was the founding of ORU in 1963.
As Roberts often said, “Success without a successor is failure.” The graduates of ORU, he believed, would carry on the work of his healing ministry, “until Jesus comes again.”
In 1947, Roberts established the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association in Tulsa. He conducted miracle healing crusades across America and around the world in a great “tent cathedral.”
Each night, thousands who were sick and dying came for healing prayer and to hear his dynamic message that God is a good God.
Roberts taught that God is good and wants His people to be healthy and prosperous. Through the years, he conducted more than 300 healing crusades in more than 35 countries on six continents.
In 1955, Roberts revolutionized evangelism by bringing television cameras into his live healing crusade services and providing a “front-row seat for miracles” for millions of viewers. He coined phrases such as God is a good God, something good is going to happen to you, release your faith, and expect a miracle.
In 1958, Roberts established the Abundant Life Prayer Group to address the around-the-clock needs of those suffering and requesting prayer. On call 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, caring prayer partners now receive as many as 3,000 calls a day. In the more than 50 years of their existence, they have received more than 23 million phone calls - many from people reporting miracle answers to their prayers.
In 1963, Roberts founded Oral Roberts University, a 500-acre campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma, based on God’s mandate - “Raise up your students to hear My voice, to go where My light is dim, where My voice is heard small, and My healing power is not known, even to the uttermost bounds of the earth. Their work will exceed yours, and in this I am well pleased.”
He served as president of ORU until 1993.
In 1981, Roberts took a bold step of faith in building the City of Faith Medical and Research Center to merge the healing streams of medicine and prayer as God had revealed it to him.
Roberts wrote more than 130 books, several personal commentaries on the Bible, and other inspirational material. Perhaps best known is his book The Miracle of Seed Faith.
“I am saddened by the passing of Oral Roberts, and my prayers are with his family,” said Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett. “Reverend Roberts was an important force in Tulsa for many decades. He was a trendsetter in business, education and religion, and Oral Roberts University was a great example of his vision. So many of our fellow Tulsans owe their success to the education they received at ORU. His spirit and legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of local citizenry.”
Dr. Mark Rutland, who was inaugurated as the third president of ORU in September, had this to say about Roberts:
“Chancellor Roberts was one of the brilliant spiritual lights of the 20th century and a giant of the Christian faith. At the core of his legacy is a great university that bears his name. Like millions worldwide, I am mourning his passing and am grateful for his visionary life and contributions.”
Trustees Board Chair Mart Green said, “Chancellor Oral Roberts was a true disciple of Christ and his contributions to the kingdom of God will live on for many years to come. Just 10 days from Christmas, we know Oral will celebrate the birth of Christ with his heavenly Father. The Oral Roberts University family grieves his loss yet celebrates the legacy he leaves behind.”
In remembering his father, son Richard Roberts 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.
“The Bible teaches that when a Christian dies, he or she is instantly transferred into the presence of God. My father has run his race and finished his course. Now he is in Heaven, and we as Christians have the Bible promise that someday we will be reunited. My heart is sad, but my faith in God is soaring, knowing that the man I so dearly loved is now with Jesus.”
Roberts often said he could never have done all that he did without having his darling wife Evelyn by his side.
For more than 66 years, they were a partnership for the Lord in taking the message of God’s saving, healing, delivering power to the world for more than six decades.
Oral Roberts was preceded in death by his wife Evelyn; a daughter and son-in-law, Rebecca Ann and Marshall Nash; a son, Ronald David Roberts; a grandson, Richard Oral Roberts; his mother and father; two sisters, Velma Roberts and Jewel Faust; and two brothers, Elmer and Vaden Roberts.
He is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Lindsay Roberts; a daughter and son-in-law, Roberta and Ronald Potts, all of Tulsa; 12 grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Oral Roberts Ministry Healing Missions Fund, as part of the ongoing goal of Oral Roberts Ministries to take the saving, healing, delivering message of the Gospel into all the world until Jesus returns.
A public memorial service for Chancellor Oral Roberts was held at the ORU Mabee Center December 21.