Roberts taught what he called Seed Faith: a gift given to God, likened to a seed planted in soil, would be met with a multiplied return to the giver. The teaching reframed fundraising itself as an act of faith rather than a request, and it became one of the clearest templates for the broader prosperity gospel that followed him, from Word of Faith teachers in the 1970s to the satellite ministries of the 1980s and beyond.
The teaching's most publicized moment came in January 1987, when Roberts told his television audience that he needed 8,000,000 dollars for a medical scholarship program by a stated deadline, and that he believed God would call him home if the goal was not met. He began a fasting and prayer vigil on March 22, 1987, broadcasting daily appeals until the sum was raised, reportedly with a late and decisive gift from a Florida dog track owner. The campaign drew sustained criticism, including from within evangelicalism, as an example of fundraising pressure dressed as prophecy, a charge Roberts rejected but never fully escaped for the rest of his public life.
Roberts died of pneumonia, following a fall, on December 15, 2009, in Newport Beach, California, at age 91. Oral Roberts University continues to operate in Tulsa, and Seed Faith remains a live teaching across the prosperity gospel ministries that trace their fundraising language back to his television broadcasts.