I will never forget, in the late 70's, reading Oral Robert's book The Miracle of Seed Faith.
I was 19 years old, attending a Christian liberal arts college, and one Sunday morning I happened across this man on television essentially telling me that God wants me rich.
I can still hear him taking 3 John 2 out of context:
"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."
From this, Robert's concocted the idea that if you gave God $10 (using seed faith), then God was obligated to significantly multiple your $10. Because God wants you rich, and healthy.
Furthermore, because God had taught this principle to Roberts, he worked the airwaves mightily to convince you to send your "seed faith" donations to him. Through this deception Roberts raked in hundreds of millions.
I never bought into Robert's steaming pile of dog dung, but at the time I never really sought to understand why his teaching might be false.
Oral Roberts recently died at the age of 91. As I look back on his legacy, I am saddened that his life was essentially that of a slot machine. He would take your money, and promised that God would sound the slot machine bells with a promised reward.
From a practical point of view, I see no difference between Oral Roberts, and the lottery. They both played on the same fallen desire. Unfortunately for Roberts, he was messing with almighty God.
I will never forget hearing Robert's claim that if his television viewers didn't immediately send him millions of dollars, then God was going to take him to heaven on a particular day in the future. I thought to myself, God take him, please!
ACK! This man was deranged!
Unfortunately, one only needs to turn on Sunday morning television to find other charlatans following in his footsteps, and raking in millions of dollars. Only now the message has a more post-modern twist.
Now, it would seem, God wants me to have my best life now!
I don't know where Oral Roberts is today, and I am not going to speculate. I do know that he is pushing up daisies, and he will stand before Messiah to account for his life.
For those who treasure the beauty of Christ, and diligently seek to understand the Scripture's words, Oral Roberts left a wide swath of confused, and errant teaching. He taught a path different from the Scripture's narrow path.
I sincerely hope that in his later years, he saw, and changed the error of his ways.
