By Steve Higginbotham
While a student at Freed-Hardeman College in 1983, I took my “wife-to-be” on a date to an Oral Roberts “healing service” in Jackson, TN (she still razzes me about our exciting dates). At the conclusion of this “healing service,” Oral Roberts told everyone present that God had completely healed every single person in the assembly, “from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet.” As the meeting came to an end, and people were exiting, I told my wife-to-be to take note of how many people were still wearing their glasses. Seems that no one in the assembly was healed of that malady.
Fast forward 20 years. The year was 2003 when Richard Roberts, son of Oral Roberts, was scheduled to hold a “healing-meeting” for more than 2000 followers at the Elmer S. McVety Centre in Toronto, Canada. However, Roberts canceled the event due to a travel advisory for Toronto because of the number of SARS cases reported there. Does it not seem to you that if Roberts had the power he claims to have, rather than canceling the event, that's exactly where he needed to be?
Fast forward nearly another 20 years and we are in the midst of the COVID pandemic. However, Kenneth Copeland, another alleged “faith-healer,” stated that as a prophet of God, he commanded COVID to leave the USA and that it would harm no one else. That statement was made three months ago and more than 100,000 people have died from COVID since this “prophet” banished it from the United States.
Are you seeing a pattern? Friends, if a silver-lining can be found in this terrible pandemic, it might be to trust more in God, and less in men who claim to be his representatives and to spend more time in God’s word, and less time listening to the words of men (1 Timothy 4:1-2).
While a student at Freed-Hardeman College in 1983, I took my “wife-to-be” on a date to an Oral Roberts “healing service” in Jackson, TN (she still razzes me about our exciting dates). At the conclusion of this “healing service,” Oral Roberts told everyone present that God had completely healed every single person in the assembly, “from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet.” As the meeting came to an end, and people were exiting, I told my wife-to-be to take note of how many people were still wearing their glasses. Seems that no one in the assembly was healed of that malady.
Fast forward 20 years. The year was 2003 when Richard Roberts, son of Oral Roberts, was scheduled to hold a “healing-meeting” for more than 2000 followers at the Elmer S. McVety Centre in Toronto, Canada. However, Roberts canceled the event due to a travel advisory for Toronto because of the number of SARS cases reported there. Does it not seem to you that if Roberts had the power he claims to have, rather than canceling the event, that's exactly where he needed to be?
Fast forward nearly another 20 years and we are in the midst of the COVID pandemic. However, Kenneth Copeland, another alleged “faith-healer,” stated that as a prophet of God, he commanded COVID to leave the USA and that it would harm no one else. That statement was made three months ago and more than 100,000 people have died from COVID since this “prophet” banished it from the United States.
Are you seeing a pattern? Friends, if a silver-lining can be found in this terrible pandemic, it might be to trust more in God, and less in men who claim to be his representatives and to spend more time in God’s word, and less time listening to the words of men (1 Timothy 4:1-2).
- Steve Higginbotham preaches for the Karns Church of
Christ in Knoxville, TN. He may be contacted through
the congregation's website at http://www.karnschurch.org
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