Television evangelist Oral Roberts has died, a posting on the Oral Roberts Ministries site said Tuesday. He was 91.
Roberts had been admitted to hospital on the weekend after a fall and had been suffering symptoms of pneumonia, reports said.
“Oral Roberts was the greatest man of God I’ve ever known,” his son Richard Roberts, who leads the ministry, said in a statement.
“A modern-day apostle of the healing ministry, an author, educator, evangelist, prophet, and innovator, he was the only man of his generation to build a worldwide ministry, an accredited university, and a medical school. His name is synonymous with miracles. And he came along when many in Christendom did not believe in God’s power and goodness.”
The website of the multi-million dollar ministry founded by Roberts quickly posted tributes on Tuesday.
“The Oral Roberts University family was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of our dear Chancellor, Oral Roberts,” Oral Roberts University President Mark Rutland said in a statement.
Granville Oral Roberts was one of the most famous and influential Christian leaders and was renowned as an evangelist, author, educator, and television personality.
Roberts established the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association in Oklahoma in 1947 and conducted 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.
When he was 17, Roberts was told he had tuberculosis, but recovered after months in bed.
Through the years, he conducted more than 300 healing crusades in more than 35 countries on six continents. It’s estimated that Roberts personally laid hands on more than two million people for healing prayer.
The son of a preacher started out with revival meetings in tents, but later went to the airwaves of radio and television.
The university he founded now has nearly 4,000 students and follows Roberts’ guiding principle of “educating the whole person.”
“God wants you well. God wants you prosperous. God wants you a whole person,” Roberts once said.
Via: Canada.com
