DO 26369/8/90

1. Why would the Lord have said, "This is It!", if this crisis in the Middle East between the U.S. & Iraq does not turn out to be a war? That sounds like a very serious warning to me! And if this is it, that could mean that it is going to turn into a real war, spread wider, & even Israel may enter in. The U.S. has already got its foot in it. I don't think any kind of compromise is going to result from any kind of an Arab solution, if this is it!

2. What is it? What is it? Well, as I outlined before, anything that is serious enough for the Lord to call it "it," means that it could be the Great Crash, the greatest of all Depressions!—Which to my mind, and looking at all the natural reasons, is the most likely "it," because the oil is going to affect the World economy more strongly than anything else could possibly do so. (Maria: Yes, even if they don't have a war‚ but just an embargo, it'll still do it.) Yes!

3. As far as I'm concerned, it's going to push the industrialised nations over the edge, because their economies have already been teetering & wobbling on the very edge. They're almost all already in bankruptcy with extremely high deficits & have only been waiting for a little push to push them over the edge.—And this new oil crisis could be it! It will definitely affect them worse than almost anything else because all the economies of the industrialised world literally are based on the availability of oil.—And if those countries crash, the rest of the World will too!

4. I can remember World War 2 when, due to the fact that we in the United States were unable to procure oil and gas as easily, it had to be rationed. You had to prove to the government how much gasoline you needed to get to your job and back, and that's all the gas you got. Or if you had such an important type of business that you required more, you had to persuade a gasoline rationing board how much you needed.

5. Farmers were considered a top priority industry, more than all the factories, etc., because food was the most important commodity, so they were allowed to have all the gas they wanted. All they had to get was a verification slip from the Gasoline Rationing Board that they were working in a priority industry, & all they had to do was show that at the gas station, the gas pumps, & they could have all they wanted!

6. It was also very difficult to get rubber from the rubber countries of Southeast Asia, & that's when the U.S. finally invented this imitation rubber, synthetic rubber that helped carry them through the war. Tires were also rationed, even the synthetic tires.

7. Food was rationed! You were not only rationed so much sugar, but so much meat—just barely enough to feed your family. And you could not have any more butter than you could bring down a pound of grease for. It was not exactly rationed, but you were only allowed to buy one pound of butter for every pound of grease you delivered in a can to the grocery store, because that was used in the manufacture of explosives.

8. So nearly everything of any vital importance was rationed. Nobody took any pleasure trips or wasted their gas unnecessarily. They were only given enough gas to get back & forth to work, or to do whatever job they had to do.

9. My Mother & I once showed up at the Gasoline Rationing Board in Washington, D.C., not long after I had been mustered out of the Army, to ask for more gas. We had gone to California, but then we worked our way back to the East Coast by literally asking the people at the meetings to put gasoline rationing stamps in the offering plate, as their love offering to us, so we could get to our next meeting! And some of the biggest helpers that we had were the farmers, because they could get all of the gas they wanted. They would either take us to the pump & show their card, or they would take us out to their farm & pump our tank full from their farm tanks!

10. So the shortage of these things can be very pressing. Gasoline & fuel will be the first thing hit, & other commodities will come. When there is not enough oil to run the ships to bring other commodities & supplies to the World from other places, then there will be a shortage of those too.

11. I went through one war when we had to do that. Everything that was important was rationed, including many things that affected our work. We had to be in Evangelistic work, war or no war, & we had to travel long distances. So Mother & I went to personally appear before that Washington Gasoline Rationing Board, as it was called‚ about a dozen men sitting there in a Washington office who had tremendous power. They could either grant you stamps or refuse to give'm to you. And this killed many businesses, because they were not considered essential to the war & didn't get the fuel & gas they needed.

12. We argued our heads off for nearly an hour trying to prove that we needed enough gasoline to make the trip back to California. And the only thing that really helped them to decide in our favour was that I had been in the Army, I was sick & we needed the stamps to get home. That's the only reason they ever gave them to us.

13. I was a War Veteran, & Veterans had a lot of honour & respect then‚ & were given a lot of favouritism. I was a War Veteran who had been disabled in the Army, & even though they didn't give a damn about my Mother & her Evangelistic work, in consideration of me, because I was a War Veteran‚ they gave us the stamps. They said, "Because you were disabled in the Army & you need to get home because you're sick, we're giving you these stamps." That's all! That was it! And they just barely gave us enough stamps to cover the gasoline to get back to California.

14. So it can get tough!—Very tough in a war! And if this war is it, then this is the most "it" war of all! It's going to be the toughest & probably lead right on into the Antichrist era. So you Family worldwide had better start thinking tough, getting tough & getting down to meet the tough issues & praying through on them & deciding what to do about them & how to prepare for them, in Jesus' name! That's it! If they rationed like that in the States, as rich as it was‚ think how much rationing there will be in the rest of the World, most of which is already much poorer!

15. Prepare your plans now! Work towards that end. Solve the problems before they happen. (Maria: You mean have contingency plans?) Yes! (Maria: Now we can work, but the night is coming‚ so we'd better do as much as we can as efficiently as we can now, & make plans so we can continue to do what we can do later as well.)

16. Right, the Family should have plans to meet those needs when the rationing begins! There could be all kinds of rationing: Scarcity of supplies, scarcity of products, business supplies, scarcity of food, scarcity of water because of the worldwide drought. People could certainly do with some water tanks.—And fuel & gasoline barrels too, if they have vehicles & it's legal—but they'd better have a safe, well-ventilated place to keep'm.—Away from the house & not stored in the garage where machines or engines could spark, & away from burnables or places where fires could easily start.

17. Those are the kind of things that you can do now! Don't wait until it's too late, do it now! I'm just telling you. If you don't, I'm going to say, "I told you so!" God bless & keep you, in Jesus' name!