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TV Evangelist Pat Robertson Dies At 93

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

VIRGINIA BEACH/WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – Pat Robertson, the famed American televangelist who once ran for president and founded the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), has died. He was 93, his son and the network announced.

Robertson had faced a series of health challenges in recent years — including an embolic stroke in 2018 — that put his health in decline, CBN explained.

“Pat Robertson, longtime TV host, religious broadcaster, educator, humanitarian, and one-time presidential candidate, died at his home in Virginia Beach early Thursday morning. He was 93,” CBN said. The Christian Regent University in Virginia Beach he founded also stressed it was “mourning” his passing.

“Today, June 08, 2023, my father, Pat Robertson, has gone home to be with his Lord. My dad was at home, surrounded by his family, when he entered glory and met his Savior face to face, whom he loved and served with his whole heart, mind, and being,” added his son and current CBN CEO Gordon Robertson.

He said his father will be remembered by many as an “extraordinary man” of faith with “global influence and tremendous vision.”

However, “Perhaps most important though, he was a dearly loved father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend. For many of us, he was also a spiritual father, guiding us and teaching us to love the Lord and live lives worthy of the Gospel.”

Gordon Robertson recalled that “In his final days, he often talked about heaven and his desire to be with Jesus. During one of these times of reflection, he shared this with his two daughters and three of his granddaughters: ‘I tried to listen to the Lord. I loved you all. I walked with the Lord. I hope I’ve passed that on to you’.”

He said his father might have been welcomed in heaven by “Perhaps millions from many tribes and nations who came to greet and thank him for his part in sharing the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. And I imagine my dad said to them the same thing he has said to us many times: ‘I was just an unworthy servant and have only done my duty. The Lord did it all, not me.”

CHRISTIAN EVANGELISM

Besides evangelism, he gave Christian conservatives a powerful broadcasting platform and pushed Christians toward the Republican Party.

Robertson was critical of LGBTQ activism, feminism, abortions, and anything else he thought might likely draw God’s wrath.

He linked natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the September 11, 2001 terror attacks against the United States to a broken world and moral decline.

Born the son of a Democratic senator from Virginia, Robertson became a force in the Republican Party, helping to elect Republican presidents like Ronald Reagan.

In 1988, Robertson ran for president, saying “God called” him to do so. However, his race to the White House was unsuccessful, despite his extensive media reach.

More than two decades earlier, in 1966, when his father lost a Democratic Senate primary, Pat Robertson created “The 700 Club” television program on his new CBN.

What began as a small but dedicated operation of a local television grew into a network and show available worldwide, on broadcast television and online.

MEDIA EMPIRE

While his fame and media empire grew, he never forgot his humble beginnings, his son stressed.

He recently recorded a message to share with his 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren, “and I know it is one that he believed with all his heart,” Gordon Roberson recalled.

“I want you to know that you can always trust in God. He will never fail you. He’s never failed me in my whole life, and He’ll never fail you,” his father, Pat Robertson, said in that message. “So, I want you to know that you can trust in Jesus Christ all the way through. Don’t ever doubt His goodness because He will always be there for you.”

Gordon Robertson said that the family had been “strengthened by this message and the eternal hope that we have in Christ. Though we will miss him, we do not grieve as those who have no hope.”

Recalling his late father, he also cited Bible verse 1 Thessalonians 4: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this, we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

A memorial service was to be held in the coming days.