On Benny Hinn's "This Is Your Day" television programs broadcast on Friday, August 20th, and Monday, August 23rd, 2004, Oral Roberts related a vision that God allegedly gave him regarding the future. In vision he supposedly saw the coming fulfillment of Acts 2:17-21:
Acts 2:17 (NIV) "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Acts 2:18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
Acts 2:19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
Acts 2:20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
Acts 2:21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
This blood, fire and smoke he saw first in the atmosphere over America, and every American heard and saw it, but he said it did not touch the ground, and then it spread over the whole world. This event is to be a "wake up call" to God's people. In the August 23, 2004, program, he interpreted this as an awesome attack on America, that God diffuses and spreads over the rest of the earth, and the September 11, 2001 attack on the twin towers was a "mere drop in the bucket". Following this, God supposedly revealed to Oral that the rapture of the saints would occur, to be followed by the rise of the Antichrist, the Mark of the Beast, Armageddon, and then the second coming of Christ.
Oral Roberts also was a guest of Kenneth Copeland on August 26th, 2004 and discussed this "wake up call" vision of his. Broadcast on Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory television program on September 27th to 30th, it is also being featured on his web site, where both videos and a transcript (.pdf) are available for download.
Could it be true? Could Oral Roberts' "wake up call" vision from God be genuine?
Well, first of all, and most obviously, note that Acts 2:19 says these wonders and signs are in heaven and on earth. In the vision of Oral Roberts, they do not touch the earth (See the Copeland transcript, page 2). Clearly his vision does not agree with scripture.
Secondly, the two part second coming with a pretribulation secret rapture of the saints
(See the Copeland transcript, page 4), prior to the future rise of the
Antichrist and the second coming, is a teaching not found in the Bible. There will not
be a mysterious disappearance of Christians before the reign of Antichrist, the Antichrist system has been in place for nearly 2000 years. See
The Catholic Origins of Futurism and Preterism
and
The Truth About The Rapture
for details.
As a result, I conclude that Oral Roberts' vision was NOT from God.
Update: Second Coming is being hindered and delayed?
On the Something Good Tonight programs of Tuesday and Wednesday, October 26th and 27th, 2004, Oral Roberts related a second vision or conversation he allegedly had with God the Father recently. God supposedly revealed to Oral that the second coming of Jesus is delayed, and being blocked because of the indebtedness of God's people, and by the fact that most of them are not returning a faithful tithe.
Well, since the first vision was definitely not from God, neither was this second one. The timing of the second coming is simply not dependent on anyone sending tithe money to Oral Roberts. It will happen on schedule, and will not be delayed, even if Oral Roberts never receives another dollar of tithe money.
