A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

A History of Christian Doctrine
on healing and prosperity, his methods of operation, and
his emphasis on the prophetic spoken word greatly influenced
later healing evangelists, the Latter Rain movement,
and the Charismatic movement.
Oral Roberts
The second major figure in the post–World War II
healing revival was Granville Oral Roberts (born 1918).
Roberts was originally a member of the Pentecostal
Holiness Church. At age seventeen he was healed of
tuberculosis and stuttering. In 1947, one year after
Branham, he began a healing ministry. Roberts met
Branham on a number of occasions, ministered with him,
and was influenced by him to some degree. Oral Roberts
soon became the foremost healing evangelist in America.
The main emphasis of Roberts’s ministry has been
health, prosperity, and hope. In 1955, when television
was first becoming widespread in America, he began a
national weekly television program; thus he was one of
the earliest religious figures to use television.
In 1968, Roberts joined the United Methodist Church.
By this time, he had a great following outside the confines
of traditional Pentecostalism, and the Charismatic movement
was growing rapidly within Protestantism. It
seemed to his advantage to identify himself with mainline
Protestantism and thus maximize his appeal to the broadest
spectrum of Christianity. Since the Methodists were
theologically diverse, he could take this step without
abandoning his Pentecostal beliefs. Since the Pentecostal
Holiness Church had its roots in Methodism, there were
many similarities of overall philosophy and structure.
Nevertheless, many classical Pentecostals at the time saw
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