Morris Cerullo

Morris Cerullo (October 2, 1931 – July 10, 2020) was an American Pentecostal evangelist.

He traveled extensively around the world for his ministry.

He hosted Victory Today, a daily television program, and published more than 80 books.

In the early 1950s, he was ordained in the Assemblies of God.

The Cerullos are the parents of three children, David (b. 1952), Susan (b. 1954) and Mark (b. 1957).

At the time of his death, he had 7 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.

For many years Morris Cerullo conducted repeated "Schools of Ministry" in several countries like Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines, Korea, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Indonesia, Netherlands and many others.

During these "SOMs" one of the days of the conferences he would preach in an open air crusade, or a large theater/arena, and lead people in a commitment to Jesus Christ and then would pray for healings to happen in the crowd.

He would have the school of ministry students test the genuineness of the reports from the people's testimonies.

After the large mass meetings he would charge the "SOM," School Of Ministry, students to reach out to their countrymen with the same message being inspired by the results of the public rally.

Cerullo often stated that not he, but Jesus Christ was the healer.

He would encourage faith in, as he would say, "the written and the living word of God."

He attended and graduated from divinity school in New York state in 1953, and began ministering with the help of his then soon-to-be bride, Theresa.

Cerrullo bought the assets of Jim Bakker's PTL ministry in 1990 including The Inspiration Network cable television network.

He was the subject of criticism for some of his fund raising efforts, and for claims made on television programmes, particularly in the UK, regarding his healing ministry.

Cerullo was born in Passaic, New Jersey, to an Italian father and a Russian Jewish mother.

His parents died in an automobile accident when he was very young.

He was raised in various orphanages, the last being an Orthodox Jewish orphanage in nearby Clifton, New Jersey.

He converted to Christianity at age 14 with the guidance of a nurse in the Clifton orphanage.

Soon after, Jewish orphanage directors restricted him from practicing certain matters of his new faith, so he ran away from the orphanage.

He began preaching the gospel at the age of 16, after claiming to have seen a vision from God, in which he witnessed people suffering torments in Hell.

In 1990, Cerullo purchased, from the United States Federal Bankruptcy Court in Columbia, South Carolina, the assets of Jim Bakker's bankrupt ministry, PTL.

These assets included the Heritage USA Christian theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which he purchased in partnership with Malayan United Industries (Berhad).

After a dispute with his business partners over his issuance of discount cards to the theme park, the Malaysian entity bought out Cerullo's interest in Heritage USA.

As a part of his agreement to purchase Heritage USA, the bankruptcy court also approved Cerullo's $7 million offer to purchase PTL's cable television network, The Inspiration Network, which was renamed INSP-The Inspiration Network and transferred into a new, separate entity, The Inspiration Networks.

Cerullo's son, David, has served as the corporation's president and CEO, and as a member of its board of directors since its formation.

While no charges were brought against Cerullo's ministry, Cerullo was found to have underrepresented his income for 1998 through 2000.

In 2005 he was elected to serve as its chairman.

The organization, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, is currently building a new multi-million dollar broadcast headquarters facility known as "CrossRidge" in Lancaster County, South Carolina.

However, on August 8, 2007, the US District Court, Southern District of California ordered that the indictment be dismissed as a consequence of the prosecutor's inaccurate explanation of the Duberstein test to the jury.

An extract from the ruling was published on Cerullo's website.

This was opened on March 1, 2009.

Cerullo and his son David were both featured in a 2009 Charlotte Observer article.

Cerullo still travelled as a missionary, and in the 2014 World Conference, he stated that God told him that "Prophets never retire!".

In 2015, at the age of 83, Cerullo toured Africa for nine days, during which time he held meetings in six African countries, preaching, holding training sessions and meeting with political leaders.

Cerullo died from complications of pneumonia on July 11, 2020, at the age of 88.

Cerullo is considered by some critics to be controversial, with concerns having been raised about his financial practices.

He was indicted for income tax evasion in California.

Those charges were dismissed by the court.

As a Christian of partially Jewish origin, he has carried a few evangelistic campaigns targeted at the Jewish community, drawing some condemnation from anti-missionary organizations and claims of deceptive practices.