Larry King, Oral Roberts: An Historic Interview

In the wake of 9/11, Larry King interviewed an 84 year-old Oral Roberts about his life, his salvation, and his perspective on the spiritual climate of America. Here is the transcript of that interview…

KING: We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE -- it's always good to have him with us and it's been a while too -- Oral Roberts, the educator, evangelist, author and businessman, the founder and chancellor of Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, founder of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and author of the new book Still Doing the Impossible.

Oral Roberts is here with us in Los Angeles. Have we had, by the way, before we talk about the book and a lot of other things, have we had a spiritual resurgence after September 11?

ORAL ROBERTS, FAMED EVANGELIST: Without a shadow of a doubt. There's a moving of God's spirit in America that I have never seen and I've been on the scene 54 years. There's a greater faith now. We just need to turn it loose larger and greater than we're doing right now.

KING: Where were you that morning?

ROBERTS: Where was I that morning? I was watching the TV.

KING: So you saw it happen.

ROBERTS: I saw it happen from the beginning to the end.

KING: When you see something like that, do you ever doubt your faith?

ROBERTS: Not at all. I knew that America could not be shielded forever by its two oceans. I knew that somebody some way would find a way to circumvent the military. I didn't know how, but I'll have to admit I was surprised when it happened.

KING: But it didn't -- now, how do you explain that it's reenergized people to have faith when you would think a tragedy would diminish faith?

ROBERTS: No. When we see something like this happen beyond our control, we realize that we can't depend on ourselves completely. We have to depend upon God. God is our only source, our only way out.

KING: But we don't blame Him?

ROBERTS: Oh, no. You blame the devil. You blame the evil that's in evil men. And there's evil in the world. President Bush brought that out. I think the number one thing I thought of that America was drifting away from recognizing evil. And now then we all know there's evil in the world.

KING: But you also believe there's sin in everybody, don't you?

ROBERTS: Well, of course. David said, “my mother conceived me in sin.”

KING: But there can be sin, but not necessarily evil in people.

ROBERTS: Well, now...

KING: Are we dividing a line here?

ROBERTS: Now you're getting into theology.

KING: That's what this is about.

ROBERTS: I know that I didn't live a righteous life until I was 17. I know that. And...

KING: What changed you?

ROBERTS: The Lord, Jesus Christ saved me. I became ill with tuberculosis with -- the disease of my mother. My mother is Cherokee Indian. And her father, mother, and sister died with tuberculosis, set it on me and I was bedfast five months.

And it came to the end where the doctors told my dad it was a matter of days. I had never been religious. And when my dad came in to pray for me, he said, “God, I can't afford for my son to lose his soul.” So I'd heard papa pray all my life. I looked across my bed into his face. His face faded and I had a vision, I suppose, and I saw the face of my Savior. It broke me up. And for the first time in my life, I heard myself asking God to save me, come in my life, spare my life.

KING: You ever look back and ask why you? If the Lord were there that day, why Oral Roberts?

ROBERTS: Well, my sister, Jewel, came in the room and said, “Oral, God is going to heal you.” I said, “Is He, Jewel?” She said, “yes.” And a man came into our area praying for the healing of people. For the first time in the history of our county, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma. My older brother got in his car, came after me and said, “Oral, I'm taking you there. Get up.” I said “I can't get up.” I couldn't even walk.

He dressed me, put me in the back seat of the car. And on the way, I heard that still small voice of God saying, “Son, I'm going to heal you. You're to take my healing power to your generation, someday you're to build me a university based on my authority and the Holy Spirit.” And I knew that I would be healed.

KING: Do you ever ask why you, why you were chosen to heal?

ROBERTS: Well, I can't figure out God. I don't know if I'd had been God if I'd have chosen me. I think there are many people better qualified. But David says that God's ways are past finding out and I believe that. I believe God is a sovereign God.

KING: Are you Pentecostal?

ROBERTS: I am charismatic with roots of the Pentecostal.

KING: That's the same as John Ashcroft, right?

ROBERTS: But I grew up Methodist.

KING: What was the change? When you say you're...

ROBERTS: Charismatic...

KING: Means what?

ROBERTS: Charismatic is more tuned to the gifts of the Spirit, the gift of the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, the gift of faith, the gift of healing, the gift of the working of miracles, the gift of discerning the spirits, the gift of tongues, the interpretations of tongues. They're more outward in their expression.

KING: Is that an extension of the Pentecostal?

ROBERTS: Oh, yes, very much so. And the Pentecostals that I grew up with are an extension of the old Methodist church.

KING: What took -- I'm doing a little history here for people who may not know because he's been a figure in television for how many years?

ROBERTS: 1954.

KING: How did you start on -- what did you do first on television? '54? You were with Milton Berle.

ROBERTS: We had the big 10,000-seat tent and only 10,000 people could get inside.

KING: Where was this?

ROBERTS: All over America.

KING: You traveled?

ROBERTS: Yes, yes.

KING: By the way, Oral Roberts just turned 84 years old and still travels.

ROBERTS: Last week, I became 84 and I'm traveling ocean to ocean and border to border and I'm in good health.

KING: You look it.

ROBERTS: Thank God. And people came to me and said “Healing is not known very well in America, and if we could bring the cameras into your tents….” So I went to NBC and they said the state of the art is not there. So I got a private company, McLean (ph) company in Chicago and they came and began to tape the great crowds and me preaching and causing the lost to be saved and laid my hands on the sick. And in one month's time, we were in the front room of millions of homes in America.

KING: Yes, you were. You caught on.

ROBERTS: Yes, it caught on beyond my wildest imaginations. And I came up with a phrase, "God is a good God." God wants you well. God wants you prosperous. God wants you a whole person.

KING: You ever wonder why He just doesn't rid us of cancer and heart disease and make it a lot easier?

ROBERTS: Well, you get into theology again. When Adam and Eve were created by God and they yielded to the devil and sinned, the curse came upon his body, upon the earth, poison, weeds came, sickness came and everybody organically is born with the seed of that in their hearts. And so it released what the devil brought into the world, sin and sickness and death and despair. We have to fight it. We have to come against it by our faith.

KING: Incredible life and times of Oral Roberts. His newest book is Still Doing the Impossible.

This transcript originally published by CNN.com »