Prophecy Fulfilled!: Iraq/Iran at War! (See No.914)—Now Here's: —

—By Father David.DFO93728 September 1980

1. WELL, PTL! WE'RE TALKING ABOUT WORLD EVENTS, WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE WORLD, & SURVIVAL & SO ON. The first thing to tend to is your survival & then you can contemplate what's happening. But if you contemplate what's happening, you're certainly going to get to work on your survival!—That's the good news.

2. THE BAD NEWS IS THAT IRAQ & IRAN HAVE TOTALLY CEASED PRODUCING ANY OIL. Somebody got out a rumour that the oil was getting through a pipeline, but that was propaganda. The oil has ceased to flow because there isn't any being produced to go through the pipelines, & both Iraq & Iran have notified their customers they cannot supply them with the oil they had contracted for.

3. SOME OF THEIR NATIONAL CUSTOMERS ARE REALLY STUCK NOW, BECAUSE SOME NATIONS CONTRACTED DIRECTLY WITH IRAQ & IRAN who were the leaders of the movement to buy it directly from the country & not through one of the big monstrous oil companies like Texaco, Gulf, Exxon or Aramco, some of the Seven Sisters & so on which are the World's biggest oil companies who buy their oil everywhere & sell it everywhere.

4. THESE MIDDLEMEN, THE RASCALS, WERE MAKING SO MUCH MONEY IN BETWEEN that some of the countries began to get smart & buy it directly from the oil producing countries, particularly Iraq & Iran, without having to pay extra percentages to the big oil companies.

5. SINCE THE OIL COMPANIES HAD CONTRACTED TO SELL THEIR CUSTOMERS A CERTAIN AMOUNT, if one country didn't have it they got it from another country. Or if there was an oil shortage like in the '73 war & the big oil embargo, they sort of shared it & rationed out a certain percentage to all their customers.

6. BUT NOW THAT SOME OF THESE COUNTRIES HAVE BEEN BUYING THEIRS DIRECT FROM IRAQ & IRAN‚ WHEN SUDDENLY THE OIL STOPS—NO OIL!—And no big company they're buying it through who can find it someplace else! So some of those customers are going to really be in bad shape. As far as the oil situation—oil‚ gasoline, fuel oil‚ diesel & so on—the situation is not getting better, it's getting worse.

7. BUT AS I'VE ALWAYS SAID, THE FASTER THINGS GET WORSE, THE SOONER THEY'RE GOING TO GET BETTER, TTL! The vice-versa is true from what the old lady used to say: They used to ask her how she was—& here's a typical pessimist—she said, "Oh well‚ I feel pretty good today, but every time I feel good I always feel bad because I know pretty soon I'm going to start feeling bad again!"—So we can turn around & say,

8. "WELL, THINGS ARE GETTING WORSE TODAY, BUT EVERY TIME THEY GET WORSE, PRAISE GOD, YOU KNOW THAT IT WON'T BE LONG BEFORE IT'S GOING TO GET BETTER AGAIN!" TTL! Things get worse & better, & it seems like each time they get a little bit worse & a little bit better, until of course the final End comes—which will probably follow the coming World War 3 with the Antichrist reign.

9. THIS WAR WILL HOPEFULLY BE TEMPORARY & SUBSIDE, MAYBE, IF IRAQ GETS WHAT IT WANTS & IRAN HAS TO SETTLE FOR IT. But it turns out that although Iraq has the best forces—the biggest army‚ guns, air force & the best equipped, best trained & the most of everything, the Iranians have been putting up a better fight than they expected! Even though Iran was falling apart politically & its navy & army & everything were falling apart, there's nothing people will fight for like home!

10. THERE'S NOTHING THAT WILL UNITE A PEOPLE MORE THAN WHEN THEY KNOW THEY'RE HAVING A LAST DITCH STAND DEFENDING THEIR HOMES & HOMELAND, THEN THEY WILL REALLY FIGHT! So the Iranians are putting up a much better fight than anybody expected them to, & it's been boiling for a long time. I don't have time this afternoon to give you the whole story of the traditional enmity between Iraq & Iran, but it goes clear back into ancient history.

11. ASSYRIA WAS THE FIRST GREAT WORLD EMPIRE THAT ORIGINATED IN IRAQ‚ & of course part of Syria today is part of that. Also Northern Iraq was a part of Assyria, & it was always fighting with its neighbours. First was Assyria, then Babylon, & where did the Medes & Persians originate? (Family: Iran.) In Persia‚ Iran! So ancient Iraq was Assyria & Babylon, & later under the Greeks & Romans it was Mesopotamia.

12. IRAN HAS ALL OF THESE VERY MANY MILLENNIUMS OF YEARS BEEN KNOWN AS PERSIA, & only recently—just in my lifetime—they changed the name to Iran. I think it was only after World War 2 that they started to change the names of all these countries. All of them wanted to show how independent they were & they weren't colonial empires anymore, so they wanted to go back to some original name. So Iraq, under one name or another, has had many wars for many centuries, generations, millenniums, thousands of years, with its neighbours‚ & both Iraq & Iran have been notoriously belligerent.

13. IRAQ HAS BEEN AT LEAST TWO OF THE SEVEN WORLD EMPIRES PICTURED IN THE BIBLE, THINK OF THAT! And Persia has been at least one of those World Empires—the Medo-Persian Empire. Later they were both occupied by Greece. They were part of the Greek World Empire; still later a part of the Roman Empire, & they will surely be a part of the World Empire of the Antichrist. So they have been enemies & fought with each other for thousands of years.

14. DO YOU KNOW GEOGRAPHICALLY WHERE THESE PLACES ARE & HAVE SOME IDEA OF WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE? Do you have a map in the back of your Bible or an Atlas handy where you can see Northeast Africa? (Points to Map:) Here's the horn of Africa which for years was Ethiopia & Abyssinia, now Ethiopia & Somalia; here's the Sudan & Egypt. Do you get the picture?

15. THIS WATER HERE BETWEEN AFRICA & THE ARABIAN PENINSULA IS THE RED SEA. Here's the Peninsula of Sinai, & Israel & Lebanon are right here on this coast. Here's the Mediterranean, & Europe over here on this side of the Mediterranean. Here's Greece, Turkey‚ the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea & the Aral Sea. (See Front Cover Map.)

16. AND HERE'S THE ARABIAN PENINSULA: IT LOOKS LIKE A BIG BOOT WITH ISRAEL‚ LEBANON & SYRIA UP AT THE TOP. The Indian Ocean is down here, & here is the Persian or Arabian Gulf; this is the Gulf they're always talking about nowadays. And at the top of this Gulf right up here is Iraq.

17. THAT IS THE FAMOUS FERTILE CRESCENT, BIRTH OF MAN & CIVILISATION. This is where the Garden of Eden was, the Tower of Babel, Babylon & all the rest. Baghdad, its present capital, is not far away from the ancient site of Babylon. At the head of the Gulf & over on this side is Iran, or ancient Persia‚ & right now Iraq & Iran are fighting this war.

18. IN SOME WAYS THE IRANIANS HAVE THE ADVANTAGE BECAUSE THEY'RE A MOUNTAINOUS PEOPLE & LIVE UP ON A HIGH PLATEAU; whereas the Iraqis live down in this fertile valley of the Fertile Crescent which is the valley of the Euphrates & Tigris Rivers which virtually join together down here at the mouth.

19. COMPLETELY AROUND THE TOP OF THE PERSIAN GULF IS WHERE ALL THOSE HUGE OIL FIELDS ARE, CALLED THE GULF OIL FIELDS. They stretch all the way from Iran, around the mouth of the rivers in Iraq, down this way into Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, & Saudi Arabia. Sound familiar?—All the Oil States.

20. IRAQ & IRAN HAVE BEEN PRODUCING AT LEAST 20% OF THE WEST'S OIL SUPPLY, ABOUT 4 MILLION BARRELS A DAY OF THE 20 MILLION TOTAL. The largest producer of oil is Saudi Arabia, & her oil fields are down here along the side of the Gulf. She's supposed to have the World's largest oil reserves, & she produces the most oil of any country in the World—about 8 1/2 million barrels a day.

21. THEY PROMISED ABOUT NINE MILLION & IT USED TO BE ABOUT 10 OR 12 MILLION BEFORE OPEC when they only got a dollar a barrel for their oil, imagine that! Now they're getting about $30-35 a barrel, which is fair & right & what they ought to get‚ because that's what it's worth! In fact, it's worth a lot more than that to the Western industrial rich nations, because without it they would die!—At least they think so. They'll die if they don't have better survival preparations, maybe at least as good as ours, & from what I've heard, they don't!

22. SO OF THE 20 MILLION BARRELS A DAY PRODUCED BY THE OIL STATES‚ SAUDI ARABIA PRODUCES NEARLY HALF, & these up here produce virtually the other half. There's a little bit produced in the U.S., Canada, Norway, the North Sea, Venezuela, Libya, Nigeria etc.‚ but most of the West's oil is produced here around the Gulf.

23. THE OTHER GULF PRODUCERS PUMP SOMETHING LIKE SIX OR SEVEN MILLION BARRELS A DAY, so you've got about 15 million barrels right there. And then Iraq & Iran produced another five million barrels. So that only leaves about a million barrels produced by all the rest of OPEC put together! I may be wrong about some, but that's as I recall the figures.

24 THESE OIL-PRODUCING COUNTRIES VIRTUALLY EXPORT ALMOST ALL OF IT, & ALL THEY IMPORT IS MONEY!—Well, they import a lot of industrial goods too & they really are modernising at an amazing rate. But they don't use much themselves because hardly anybody lives there! I think Saudi Arabia has a population of about 8 million people, but there's hardly anybody there in some of those little countries‚ so who's going to use it there?

25. NOW THE NEXT THING YOU NEED TO KNOW IS THIS: ALL FIVE MILLION BARRELS OF OIL FROM IRAQ & IRAN HAVE STOPPED. Just think, before the revolution Iran was producing three to four million barrels, even as high as six million barrels a day under the Shah in their heyday! But due to dear Khomeini & the revolution, they were down to one million barrels a day & the country going bankrupt!

26. IRAN IS RUN BY A BUNCH OF RELIGIOUS FANATICS WHO ARE ABSOLUTELY BANKRUPTING IT & literally destroying the country! I guess it's a good thing we don't run the country, we might destroy it too!— We're a bunch of religious fanatics! So there's a loss of five million barrels, & if war spills down into others, they're going to lose maybe a total of ten million barrels—half the Gulf's exporting production!

27. HERE ARE THE STRAITS OF HORMUZ RIGHT HERE; there's a big point that sticks out into the Strait which is part of Oman & the Arab Emirates, & it's almost like a penis entering this pussy of Iran here! There's a point like that & the ships have to sail around this point through very narrow straits to get through.

28. THEY SAY ALL IT WOULD TAKE WOULD BE SABOTAGE OR THE BOMBING & SINKING OF ONE SUPER TANKER IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STRAIT to bottle up all the oil of the whole Persian Gulf area—Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Qatar‚ Bahrain, the whole works!—Which is most of the West's oil! But Iran has said they're promising to keep the flow of ships going through there & they're not planning to disturb it at all.

29. WELL, NATIONS AT WAR MAKE ALL KINDS OF PROMISES LIKE THAT, & THEY TURN RIGHT AROUND & BREAK'M IF THEY GET DESPERATE ENOUGH & they want enough attention, like a bunch of little spoiled kids! They want World help or to wake the World up that they want their rights or whatever it is they're fighting for. I must say Iran is sort of fighting in self–defence, but to give you the modern story of this conflict, it's this:

30. THIS BIG OIL PROVINCE OF ARABISTAN WHICH IRAQ IS NOW CLAIMING TO LIBERATE—THIS HUGE OIL AREA AT THE CONFLUENCE OF THE EUPHRATES & TIGRIS—DOES NOT HAPPEN TO BE PERSIAN AT ALL!—They're not Iranians at all! They are Arabs, because it's an Arab province which Iran stole from Iraq. Virtually all of Iran's oil comes from this Arab province which the Shah got away from Iraq when Iraq was very small & weak & little & was having a terrible time with the Kurds up here in the North.

31. THE KURDS LIVE IN ABOUT THREE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES—PARTLY IN TURKEY, PARTLY IN IRAQ & PARTLY IN IRAN—right in all this mountainous territory here. They should have a country to themselves really. And as soon as this war began between Iraq & Iran, the Kurds went wild! They began fighting the Iranians‚ & the Iraqis promised them all the help they could & their freedom from Iran. Of course if Iraq promises you your freedom from Iran‚ it means you're going to be gobbled up by Iraq!—Now Iran is promising'm freedom!

32. SO IRAQ AT ONE TIME WAS HAVING SO MUCH TROUBLE WITH THE KURDS, THEY WERE REALLY GETTING DANGEROUS! I think there are about three million Kurds, something very close to a million in each of these three countries. But due to a deal made with the Shah that he would help Iraq conquer the Kurds—which he did—& he would stop helping the Kurds to conquer Iraq, Iraq would cede all this Arab Oil State which was once a part of Iraq‚ to Iran. You know they must have been pretty desperate to give away what amounted to about half of their oil territory!

33. SO NOW THAT THEY HAVE BUILT UP A TREMENDOUS WAR MACHINE EQUIPPED & TRAINED BY THE RUSSIANS, THEY WANT IT BACK! So they have abrogated the treaty‚ as they call it. That's a nice word countries use for breaking promises. They don't like to say they broke the treaty or that they lied & didn't keep their word; they have a nice diplomatic word called abrogated the treaty. In other words, they just touched a match to it & threw it away & said, "Forget it, we never signed it! No such thing! We want it back!"—& that's what Iraq is doing.

34. AND AS FAR AS WE HAVE NOW HEARD, THEY HAVE PENETRATED AS FAR AS THE CAPITAL OF THAT PROVINCE & ARE IN THE PROCESS OF TAKING IT OVER if they haven't already conquered it. They claim they have already conquered it—the Iranians say they haven't—which probably means they're still fighting for it. This is 50 miles inside the Iranian border. So unless Iran musters a lot better effort than it has so far, Iraq will probably get what she claims she's after.

35. SHE SAYS SHE WAS FORCED TO GIVE IT BACK UNDER FORCE & STRESS & DURESS, & NOW SHE WANTS IT BACK!—And you can understand that she feels justified in so doing, especially since it's worth a lot of money, all that oil. But this would totally strip Iran of the only wealth that it has. Iran's hardly good for anything else—a big barren desert that hardly grows a thing or produces anything but carpets!

36. THE ONLY THING THAT MADE IRAN & THE SHAH RICH WAS THAT OIL‚ & that's what he & the whole country were living off of. In fact, now they're almost down to starvation since they've quit producing oil; & now they've quit, zero, no more oil!—Down from six, down to four, three, two, one‚ zero!—Hope that doesn't mean the blast-off! So right now the West has lost about 20% of the oil, but that's a lot.

37. CARTER & THE U.S. HAVE BEEN CLAIMING ALL THE TIME THAT EVEN AN EIGHT OR NINE PERCENT REDUCTION OF THE WEST'S TOTAL OIL IMPORT would mean a very serious World shortage of oil. Well, this is already a 20% reduction! And if one supertanker sank right there, it would take months to raise it & clear the channel, the West would starve for oil!

38. I THINK ABOUT 60% OF THE WEST'S OIL GOES THROUGH THOSE STRAITS! A lot of it goes through pipelines both Saudi Arabia & Iraq have that go across here through Syria‚ & one through Jordan; & there's supposed to be one through Turkey up here that just got bombed yesterday.

39. I THINK JAPAN GETS 75% OF ITS OIL FROM THAT GULF, & IF THOSE STRAITS ARE CUT OFF JAPAN WILL BE DOWN TO 25% OF ITS USUAL OIL; its industry would absolutely collapse, if not the whole nation & their economy & everything! They cannot produce all those nice cheap electronics & cars & TVs & videos & all the smart things the Japanese produce, without oil, because their whole industry runs on oil.—And they get 75% of it from the Gulf!

40. THE PEACE PROPHETS ARE BOASTING, "DON'T WORRY, ANYBODY, REST AT EASE! We have 110 days of emergency oil stored up, three months!"—It'll probably be years before the Iraqi & Iranian oil fields & oil ports & oil refineries are restored to their former capacity, because you can destroy in a few minutes with a few bombs what it took years to build.

41. NOBODY SEEMS TO KNOW WHO STARTED THE BOMBING OF THE OIL FACILITIES, AS BOTH BLAME IT ON THE OTHER GUY!—But they knew that that's where they could really hurt 'em, the easiest way in the World to hurt'm. The oil facilities are wide open‚ one bomb explodes & starts'm afire & then they just burn! They say Abadan is still burning & that the oil facilities there have been almost completely destroyed.

42. THE TWO MAJOR PORTS ARE IRAN'S PORT OF KHARG ISLAND, & THE IRANIAN PORT OF KHORRAMSHAHR. Boy‚ some of those foreign words are jaw-breakers! Khorramshahr is the big oil port of Iran where all the big tankers come to load up the oil. Well‚ if the port's destroyed, they can't export the oil even if they've still got it!

43. THEY HAVE DESTROYED THE WORLD'S BIGGEST REFINERY AT ABADAN!—Of course there are refineries lots of other places in the World, but that was the World's largest. And they've destroyed Iran's oil port of Kharg Island, which is an island right sort of in the mouth of the river there where they had their big docks for loading tankers.

44. THEY'VE DESTROYED THEIR OIL FIELDS, PUMPING STATIONS & OIL WELLS which will take‚ at the very least, months & months before they'll be able to pump any amount of oil or load it at all!—And probably years before they restore the fields & the refineries & the ports & everything to former production. So the West can't count on that 20% of oil for probably a long long time to come.

45. NOW SOME OF THE PEACE PROPHETS, OF COURSE, ARE BEING VERY OPTIMISTIC & saying, "Well, some of it can be restored right away—it won't take long!" And each of the nations are telling their customers, "Don't worry, as soon as the war's over we can have some of them back in production very quickly & we'll start supplying you again!"—But it's going to be a trickle compared to what it was! And if they shut the Straits of Hormuz, that shuts off all the Gulf oil which exports about 60% of the West's oil!

46. NOW THE U.S. HAS A LOT OF OIL FIELDS OF ITS OWN, AS DOES CANADA‚ ALASKA, U.K., ETC., & they import oil from Venezuela, Libya, Algeria & all those places. But the U.S. imports a phenomenal amount of its oil. All its imports from all the various places in the World it gets oil are something like 50 or 60%!—10% from Libya & I think 20% from Saudi Arabia. Anyway, over half of its total consumption is from these various other places.

47. AND LIBYA, OF COURSE, IS NOT AFFECTED, NECESSARILY, BY THE WAR, EXCEPT THAT IT NOW SYMPATHISES WITH SYRIA; & of all things, they're sympathising with Iran! Libya & Syria have just made a pact to become one nation. Dear Godahfi's always doing that, but it never works out. He was going to have an Arab Republic—this dream of the Arab World, Arab Nation. First it was Egypt & Syria for awhile; then it was Godahfi & Egypt for awhile; then Godahfi & Tunisia; & now it's Godahfi & Syria!

48. WELL, AT LEAST HE'S A DREAM BOY, HE'S GOT GREAT AMBITIONS! "Without vision the people perish" (Pr.29:18), so he keeps giving them a new vision every few years!—Everytime the last one perishes! So I'm sure the Lord keeps him going because we pray for him.

49. SINAI HAS GOT A FEW LITTLE TINY WELLS DOWN THERE THAT EGYPT NOW HAS, to help supply Egypt with some of what it needs.—They used to supply most of Israel's needs. But that's very minute compared to the oil that comes out of the Gulf‚ & may soon not be coming out of the Gulf!

50. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE IRAN & YOU WERE LOSING THE WAR? The only way you could keep from losing it would be to do what? (Peter: Block the Straits?) Now wait a minute, wait, not yet. Blocking the Straits isn't going to win the war for you. How would that win the war? But they could say,

51. "EITHER COME HELP US, OR WE'RE GOING TO CUT OFF ALL YOUR OIL, ALL YOU BIG WESTERN NATIONS! You Western nations are supposed to be so self-righteous & great & everything & you need all this oil; well, you'd better hurry up & get in here & stop the war or do something to help us stop it, or we're just going to cut off all your oil!"—Threaten to block'm!

52. WHEN NATIONS ARE AT WAR THEY GET DESPERATE, BELOVED, & THEY'LL DO ANYTHING TO SAVE THEMSELVES!—Self-preservation being the so-called first law of nature, to try to save themselves they will do anything! The Iranians, they say, are fighting desperately for their lives & their homes!—Not so much for their homes really, right now, because it's the Arabs' homes who live in that province—but they are fighting better than anybody expected.

53. THEY'VE BEEN ABLE TO GET PLANES INTO THE AIR & BOMBING THE IRAQI OIL FIELDS & PUMPING STATIONS & CITIES etc. The capital of Iraq is Baghdad & it's been bombed quite a bit. And of course each of them claims that the only thing that's being bombed in their country is innocent civilian populations & women & children & hospitals & schools. This is typical war propaganda. Every report, "Well, they bombed such & such a hospital & school!"

54. WELL, NO DOUBT SOME OF THOSE PLACES DO GET HIT‚ but you'd think that was all the enemy was after, was orphans, civilians, schools & hospitals & that this was going to win the war! Well, it happens, sad to say, but it's just incidental & accidental. Because usually they're after their armies & tanks & industrial facilities which could cripple the nation so it can't fight a war—& this is why they're trying to put an end to their oil facilities.

55. THERE'S ONE THING ABOUT THIS WAR, IT CAN'T EXACTLY GO ON FOREVER; it will probably have to come to an end before long‚ because they've not only stopped producing oil & exporting oil, they're going to run out of oil themselves! And everything a war has runs on oil. They can't run their tanks, they can't fly their planes, they can't run their big guns, they can't run their ships—they can't run anything without oil!

56. SO THANK GOD, WHEN THEY RUN OUT OF OIL, THEY'RE GOING TO RUN OUT OF TANKS & SHIPS & PLANES & BIG GUNS ON WHEELS. About the only thing they'll have left is rifles & bullets & shells. They can keep shooting, but they won't be able to move. All they'd have left then is foot soldiers, infantry with rifles, & they'll have to go back to hand-to-hand conflict & trench warfare or something like that in order to keep the war going.

57. BECAUSE ALL THE GREAT MODERN MACHINES OF WARFARE WILL GRIND TO A HALT VERY SOON WITHOUT OIL. That's the first thing Iran did the minute the war got started, she forbade the use of any automobiles, no more cars on the streets.—Boom!—One order & that was the end of all automobiles on the streets! You don't think it can happen?

58. THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IS WARNING IF THE GULF'S OIL PRODUCTION EVEN DROPS FROM EIGHT, NINE TO TEN PERCENT THEY WILL HAVE TO INSTITUTE RATIONING. Well, yesterday it dropped 20%! The U.S. has got three months oil in the bag, just three months emergency stockpile oil. Then if they have any more trouble importing oil‚ they're going to be at least 20% short; & if they block the Straits of Hormuz‚ the U.S. is going to be about 50-60% short!

59. IF THAT HAPPENS‚ THE U.S. HAS WARNED FOR YEARS THAT IF SHE SUDDENLY LOST ALL HER IMPORTED OIL, HER WAR MACHINE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO RUN! The U.S. will not be able to fly planes or run ships or tanks or guns! About all they're going to be able to do is light the fuses to all those rockets! That's all they're going to have left that they can use. Think about it! I don't want to scare you, but you might as well know the truth.

60. JIMMY CARTER'S GOTTEN SO DESPERATE HE'S EVEN INVITED JAPAN, FRANCE, GERMANY, RUSSIA & ENGLAND TO HAVE A CONCERTED FORCE to work together to send in to the Gulf & stop the war, or at least threaten to. Those big boys can threaten those little boys. The big boys are much bigger & they can make them quit if they want to.—But of course Russia doesn't want to.

61. DESPITE SOME OF THE COMMENTS IN THE NEWSPAPERS, RUSSIA'S BEHIND IRAQ & PROBABLY CALLING THE SHOTS & THE WHOLE WORKS! Russia is perfectly happy as long as Iraq is winning, because Russia has a friendship treaty with Iraq. Russia supplies all the armaments & training for the Iraqi armies & navies & airforce & everything, but Russia has persuaded the U.S. that she has no interest in this war except to stop it.—Ha! Poor dumb U.S.!

62. THE U.S. HAS GOTTEN RUSSIAN TO PROMISE—THEY SHOOK HANDS & AGREED TOGETHER—THAT THEY'LL BOTH BE NEUTRALS. They will do nothing about it, just let it go on & let it blow up the oil fields! And Russia is putting out propaganda from Tass in Moscow accusing the U.S. of being behind it, & that the U.S. imperialism is the only one that has anything to gain by this war. Well, that's a big joke!

63. THE U.S. HAS EVERYTHING TO LOSE BY THIS WAR, & RUSSIA HAS EVERYTHING TO GAIN!—Because she will control Iraq‚ & now she will control all the oil fields of both Iraq & Iran! And you can bet the Russians will get them back in production as soon as possible, but that'll still take time. 20% of the West's oil! That's now, & if they were back in production where they used to be, they could be producing 10 million barrels a day which would be half the West's supply!—But that's going to be a long time, considering what a mess the things are in now!

64. I DON'T DOUBT THERE ARE GENERALS SITTING IN THE PENTAGON RIGHT NOW ADVISING PRESIDENT CARTER, "Listen Jimmy‚ now there goes the oil, 20% gone already! One supertanker in the Hormuz Strait & there goes maybe half of our oil! We can't fight a war without oil!—And if this thing is going to result in a wider & wider war—which it could easily do!—We won't have enough oil to fight a war with!"

65. ALL THE WORLD WARS BEGAN WITH A COUPLE OF POOR LITTLE GUYS GETTING INTO IT, WITH THE BIG BULLIES PUSHING'M INTO IT, then it just broadens & broadens! For example, if Iran really begins to sock it to Iraq & it looks like maybe Iraq's going to start losing, you certainly don't want your prize fighter to lose—you've got a lot of money bet on him! Russia's right close by & apt to put pressure on Iran & do all kinds of things to make sure than Iran does lose—& Russia has everything to gain by Iraq winning & Iran losing.

66. THE FUNNY THING IS, THE U.S. ALSO HAS MORE TO GAIN BY IRAQ WINNING & IRAN LOSING, & it's in the papers & some commentators are already saying it. Remember what I told you once about how smart it would be if the Iraqis or the Russians marched into Tehran & released the hostages? There isn't an American that wouldn't be thankful‚ & even be thankful to Iraq or Russia for doing it!

67. AND I DOUBT IF THERE'S ONE AMERICAN IN THE WORLD TODAY WHO ISN'T JUMPIN' UP & DOWN WITH GLEE THAT IRAN IS REALLY GETTIN' IT! I'm sure that virtually every American's sympathies are with Iraq, & against Iran.—Well, so are Russia's! Russia gets along a lot better with Iraq; she hasn't been able to get along at all with Iran. In fact, Iran doesn't get along with anybody, not even itself! They are a mess!—All kinds of factions & squabbling, it's just one wreck of a nation!

68. BUT, THERE'S ANOTHER FACTOR: THE IRANIAN MODERATE DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN EXILE HEADED BY BAHKTIAR—the last government of Iran before Khomeini took over. They have approximately 100,000 Iranian deserter soldiers who have fled the country—something like 45,000 being trained or have been trained in Iraq, & they claim another 60,000 trained in Egypt & Saudi Arabia—& with their exiled generals & smart ex-leaders ready to march in & take over what's left of Iran when it loses!

69. SO THERE'S HARDLY ANYBODY SYMPATHISING WITH IRAN EXCEPT THE AYATOLLAH SYMPATHISING WITH HIMSELF, that besides all the other troubles he's had, now he's got a war on his hands! Now he needs the army that he nearly massacred‚ & he needs the navy, the officers that he executed, & he needs the pilots that he banished & exiled because they were mostly intellectuals & moderates & most weren't fanatical Muslims.

70. THIS ONE GUY THEY'VE GOT IN IRAN REJOICES IN EXECUTIONS!—He brags about how many hundreds & hundreds of Iranian officers & soldiers & political leaders he has personally executed!—Slaughtered!—Just total massacre! Islam, of course‚ has been famous for its belief in violence, & was a religion spread by the sword for centuries, so violence is nothing new to Islam.—And obviously it's nothing new to its priests & high priests either!

71. SO ABOUT THE ONLY PEOPLE ROOTIN' FOR IRAN RIGHT NOW ARE THE TURBANS—THE AYATOLLAHS & THE MULLAHS & THE RELIGIOUS FANATICS BACKED BY KHOMEINI!—And you can bet your boots that the Leftist Radicals & the middle center moderates are going to take advantage of the situation to try to chuck him out! And with every little rascal in the country running around with a gun, it just could happen!—Especially if an Iranian army of 100,000 soldiers marches in to help Iraq win the war, providing Iraq promises them that they will be Iraq's stooge government for Iran.

72. THIS IS WHAT EVERY CONQUEROR DOES: THEY PUT IN A GOVERNMENT OF THAT NATION, THE LOCAL PEOPLE, TO RUN THE COUNTRY UNDER THEM. This is what Germany did during the war. It had a Quisling government in Norway‚ it had a Vichy government of France, & it had its own governments in power in each of these nations who were subservient to Germany.—And which is a smart thing a conqueror should do! This is what Napoleon did‚ this is what Alexander did, this is what the Caesars did—they all did it!

73. THEY PUT A GOVERNMENT OF THE LOCAL NATIVES IN POWER THAT IS SYMPATHETIC TO THE CONQUEROR & who's willing to pay the price & pay the taxes & pay the tariffs & pay the dues to be a part of their club as long as they let them run their own country. They do it underneath'm. So it would be the smart thing—if things get too difficult for Iraq—to promise the Iranian government in exile:

74. "YOU COME ON IN! LET YOUR SOLDIERS IN NOW TO HELP US OUT!"—But it would have to get pretty bad & they'd have to get to where they really need'm, to be forced to promise them that they will make them a proxy or stooge government. Got the idea? OK, that's one other factor to consider.

75. PROBABLY THE MOST SERIOUS FACTOR TO CONSIDER IS: WHAT IF YOU'RE A PENTAGON GENERAL & YOU'RE DEPENDING ON ALL THESE WAR HORSES THAT RUN ON OIL—planes, guns‚ tanks, ships—if you're going to fight a war. And you say, "Hey, Jimmy‚ we're running out of oil! Pretty soon nothin' will run & we can't fight a war!—What are you going to do then? We'll be out of our three months supply of oil in three months time!"

76. THE RUSSIANS HAVE STILL GOT PLENTY OF OIL; THEY PRODUCE THEIR OWN & DON'T HAVE TO IMPORT VERY MUCH OIL. They have been importing some oil recently from Iran. They took over her production when the U.S. & Europe stopped buying it. The Russians very thoughtfully picked up the tab & took over the oil. They've also been buying natural gas through a big pipeline from Iran.

77. THE RUSSIANS HAVE ALSO BEEN REVIVING TREMENDOUS TRADE WITH IRAN. And I want to tell you right now, they say that blood is thicker than water, but nothing is thicker than money, if you know what I mean! Blood thicker than water means that relatives & blood brothers of the same nationality or country will stick together better than through some other watery ties of some other kind; but you won't have any blood if you don't have trade!

78. IRAN DOESN'T EVEN GROW ENOUGH FOOD TO FEED ITSELF, & BELIEVE IT OR NOT, IT HASN'T EVEN BEEN PRODUCING ENOUGH FUEL TO SUPPLY ITS OWN PEOPLE! It's been trying to export so much to get money that they have even had fuel shortages in Tehran! So what are they going to do if they can't trade? Well, they've been boosting their trade with Russia, & so Russia has got quite a stake in Iran. It could help Iran or it could put the pressure on its little proxy Iraq to stop now if they make a good deal with Iran, you know what I mean?

79. BUT THE POINT IS, IF SOMEBODY DOESN'T DO SOMETHING & THINGS KEEP GOING LIKE A ROW OF DOMINOES—a little bit worse all the time—& the U.S. sees it's going to run out of oil to fight any kind of a war, what could the Pentagon be tempted to do, hmm? I mean pretty soon they're not going to have enough oil to interfere or to do anything!

80. JIMMY SAYS‚ "WATCH OUT, RUSSIA, THE U.S. WILL PROTECT ITS INTERESTS IN THE GULF!"—Kind of a veiled threat that, "We will go to war & use force to protect the source of our oil!" Well, they haven't yet, we'll see!

81. NOW WHERE THIS 3-DAY ULTIMATUM COMES IN, I DON'T KNOW!—Whether it has to do with the hostages or whether it's going to be maybe to stop the war or something else. (See No.913.) But they say if something major happens, usually in October just before a presidential election, it guarantees that the present administration stays in office!

82. ANY KIND OF BIG NEWS—WHETHER GOOD OR BAD—ALMOST ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEES THE RE-ELECTION OF THE INCUMBENT PRESIDENT. Well, it's happened in September‚ it didn't have to wait till October. This will probably almost guarantee that Carter will be re-elected, because people are afraid to change horses in the middle of the stream. They're afraid for a new unknown kind of administration to take over right in the middle of a war. But this is just a suggestion now what could happen:

83. WHAT IF YOU'RE THE PENTAGON & SAY, "WE'VE ONLY GOT THREE MONTHS MORE OF OIL TO DO ANYTHING", HMM? Well, they would sure be tempted to do something!:—Either to intervene & interfere & try to stop the war‚ or as she's been trying to do, get up a united force to put pressure on'm to stop the war. In fact, she's even been suggesting a united naval task force to enter the Gulf & protect the oil shipping & the other oil fields. Those in Iraq & Iran are already destroyed, but to protect Kuwait & Saudi Arabia & the other oil fields could still save the West.

84. SHE'S BEEN SUGGESTING THAT THE WESTERN NATIONS & RUSSIA JOIN IN A NAVAL TASK FORCE that will enter the gulf & protect the other oil fields & the oil shipping & preserve what's left. So far the other countries have not shown much interest & turned her down. She wanted Japan, France, Germany, England, Russia & maybe some others too, a joint naval task force, to invade the Gulf & protect the oil fields.

85. WELL‚ THIS LITERALLY IN EFFECT VIRTUALLY WOULD MEAN A GRAB OF THE REMAINING OIL FIELDS BY THE WESTERN POWERS, RUSSIA & JAPAN. If you send in a big naval armament task force sufficient to protect the oil fields—get the point—you control the oil fields; & you control the shipping, & you control the Gulf & you've got the whole thing in the bag!—Nobody else can start any wars or do anything else or destroy any more oil fields.

86. WELL, THAT'S JIMMY'S FIRST PLOY & HE'S TRYING TO PUSH THAT THROUGH. But what if he doesn't succeed?—And so far he's been unsuccessful. This may not be exactly a Bible lesson, but I'll tell you, it's something you need on current events because it's going to affect us all! Jesus help us, Lord, in Jesus'‚ Name, to get across the point.

87. WHAT IF THE OIL FIELDS KEEP GETTING WORSE & MORE OIL FIELDS DESTROYED OR THE GULF BOTTLED UP & THE U.S. RUNNING OUT OF OIL? Russia doesn't have to worry, it's still got plenty of oil & can get it. China's got lots of oil fields too, they don't have to worry so much. Russia & its countries, & China & so on‚ produce most of their own oil.

88. BUT WHAT IF THE U.S. & THE WESTERN WORLD LOOKS LIKE IT'S GOING TO LOSE ALL OF ITS OIL IF THEY DON'T DO SOMETHING & TRY TO OPEN THINGS UP?—And then maybe Russia says, "Uh oh, remember you said stay neutral, don't do anything!" Russia doesn't mind staying neutral‚ folding her hands, because everything's going her way! The U.S. & the Western World are the only ones who are going to be tempted to do anything, because no matter what happens, everything's going to fall in Russia's lap right there!

89. RUSSIA'S RIGHT NEXT DOOR & IT'S MORE TO HER INTEREST TO LET IT HAPPEN. Russia would get along even if all the Gulf oil fields were destroyed; it's only the Western World that would be starved for oil & crumble. And before the Western World will allow itself to run out of oil—& therefore its whole economy, industrialisation & military machine collapse—if they see they are doomed‚ what are they apt to do? Hmm?

90. IF THE WESTERN INDUSTRIALISED RICH NATIONS, NORTH AMERICA & EUROPE, DISCOVER THEY'RE ABOUT TO RUN OUT OF OIL—which means an end to their war machine, an end to their industry, an end to their economies & probably an end to their political realities; they would collapse & anarchy & communism would take over—if they see this is going to happen if they don't do something, what do you think they'll do?

91. BEFORE THEY WILL JUST LET THEMSELVES BE CHOKED TO DEATH & SLOWLY COLLAPSE & DIE FROM LACK OF OIL, THEY'RE GOING TO FIGHT!—And if it gets bad enough that they see they're going to lose all their oil‚ the U.S. wouldn't hesitate to intervene, Russia or no, & warn Russia: "You better stay out of it or we'll start shooting missiles!—We're going to preserve the peace in the oil countries & save the World's supply of oil! Now just behave yourself & stay out of it & we'll take care of it!"—Do you think Russia will let'm?

92. THE WHOLE THING SUMS UP TO THIS: THE DANGER IS THAT SOMEBODY'S APT TO GET DESPERATE ENOUGH THAT THEY'RE GOING TO START SHOOTING!—I'm talking about the Super Powers!—& the ones most likely to get desperate are the Western powers, the West; & the ones most likely to try to prevent them from whatever they are doing in desperation, or threaten to do, is the East—or Russia & the Communists.

93. SO IT'S A SERIOUS SITUATION & COULD GET MORE SERIOUS BY THE HOUR! That's why I've been listening to BBC several times a day now getting the latest news to see just exactly what's happening. The situation is already serious enough right now, that there's apt to be rationing. Jimmy Carter said he will institute rationing if the U.S. imports drop 10%, so they'll probably start rationing gas in the U.S.

94. SO KEEP THOSE TANKS FULL & BE READY FOR WHATEVER MAY HAPPEN! The Lord will care for His own, so you don't have to worry. I just want you to think about it & plan for it‚ not fret about it—that's worrying. If you're worrying, you're not trusting. Like that old saying goes, "If you're trusting you're not heard to fret—if you're fretting you're not trusting yet!"

95. SO WHATEVER IT IS, IT'S GOD'S WILL & THE LORD WILL WORK IT OUT, & HE'LL TAKE CARE OF US. To say the least, we're living in exciting times & there are going to be some changes made! So I hope you've been praying for your country, 'cause it's to our advantage that we pray for the kings & magistrates & the people who have the rule over us, that we shall have peace for the Gospel as long as possible. St. Paul exhorts this, right? (1Tim.2:1,2.) So I suggest you keep on praying, & maybe pray a little harder.

96. BUT WHATEVER HAPPENS, THE LORD WILL TAKE CARE OF US. David says, "I have been young & now I am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken or God's seed begging bread!" (Ps.37:25.) So either He'll feed you or take you!—And if you're a target for an atom bomb, your worries are over! If you're within the blast range or the heat range or the fallout range, whatever, your worries are virtually over.

97. HOPEFULLY WE HAVE ENOUGH SURVIVAL FOOD TO LAST US MAYBE A MONTH IN AN EMERGENCY. That's when things are usually the worst, for just a short time during changes of government administration. And according to the Bible, this next war's going to be pretty quick & pretty short! God's Word says, "For in one hour is thy judgement come!" (Rev.18:10.)—And in another place He says "in one day" (Rev.18:8.)—So it's not going to last a long time!

98. IT'S THE RECOVERY THAT TAKES TIME, TO RESUME PRODUCTION & TRANSPORTATION OF FOOD & RESTORE UTILITIES & security & things like this. But it's to the advantage of governments to get those things restored as soon as possible for their people. The smart ones are the ones that can manage to survive that temporary period of change, & let's hope we have sufficient food & fuel to do so. We could even do without electricity as long as we've got water, so keep your tanks full.

99. I DON'T EXPECT OUR CHILDREN TO HAVE TO STARVE TO DEATH EITHER, so I wouldn't worry about it! The Lord's going to supply us or take us—quick! But even if we had to starve‚ it's not such a bad death. Quick starvation isn't bad at all!—It's that slow starvation of malnutrition like they're putting some of those countries through that's bad!

100. YOU'RE EITHER BETTER WITH ENOUGH FOOD, OR NONE AT ALL. But to be still draggin' it out & getting just enough food to manage to stay alive till you're down to just a skeleton covered with skin, that's what kind of prolongs the agony. So you'd better pray that either the Lord will supply enough that we won't have to suffer like that, or cut it off completely so we can starve quick; because it only takes a little while.

101. YOU CAN ACTUALLY GO TOTALLY WITHOUT FOOD FOR ABOUT 30 DAYS DEPENDING ON YOUR PHYSICAL STAMINA BEFORE YOU STARVE TO DEATH. And then you can go about a week without water before that kills you. But anyhow‚ neither death is very agonising; you just kind of get sick & weak & finally go to sleep. So why worry about it? I'm just talking about even if the very worst happened, if the Lord would allow it, it's not so bad.

102. WE COULD BE HAVING PRAYER MEETINGS HERE EVERY DAY & PRAY ALL DAY & FELLOWSHIP ALL DAY! We wouldn't have to cook any more meals or wash any more dishes or clothes or anything if we didn't have water! We could just have a nice praise & prayer & hallelujah fellowship time & sing hymns until the Lord took us home! So why worry?—You can't lose for winning!

103. ONE WAY OR THE OTHER THE LORD WILL TAKE CARE OF US, AMEN?—Whether you're hit by a bomb or a war or starvation or thirst or whatever it is. The Lord loves you & I don't really think He's going to let these things happen to us. Don't misunderstand me, I don't expect it. I don't expect us to be on zero target with some atom bomb, unless He wants to take us quick.

104. EVERYTHING HAPPENED EXACTLY AS I TOLD YOU IT WOULD ABOUT THE "IRAQ-IRAN WAR"‚ READ IT AGAIN! (No.914.) Russia's been working on this a long time! It couldn't neutralise Afghanistan so that's one country they had to invade. It neutralised Pakistan & India on one side, & Iran neutralised itself more or less. The U.S. neutralised Turkey & is driving Turkey bankrupt & into political destruction because the Jews hate those Turks!

105. THE JEWS ARE WILLING TO RISK THEIR OWN NECKS & LIVES JUST FROM THEIR STUBBORNNESS, JUST LIKE BEGIN! There are a lot smarter things he could do to keep peace & have more security, but he's not doing'm because he's so damned interested in restoring greater Israel & all the old lands owned by the kings—David & Solomon & whatnot!

106. SO, PTL! I DON'T EXPECT US TO BE ON TARGET FOR ANY BOMBS‚ GOD WILLING!—But even if they're hitting close, why, the Lord's our bomb shelter! I don't expect to run completely out of food & starve to death, but if it gets pretty rough we've got enough to last us for awhile. And I expect the Lord will even make our water last long enough for drinking to get us over the hump‚ or help us find someplace where we can get some.

107. I'M NOT EXPECTING THE WORST TO HAPPEN, BUT I'M JUST TRYING TO TELL YOU EVEN IF THE WORST HAPPENED IT WOULDN'T BE ALL THAT BAD! The Lord would take us quick, PTL? I'd probably be one of the first to go! I don't know though, Maria thinks I'm tougher than the rest of you! (Maria: That's for sure!) Ha! Oh me! Well, PTL! GBY all & thank you for your time & attention. I wanted to fill you in on this. I'm just telling you one of two things can happen:

108. EITHER THEY FIGURE OUT A SOLUTION & PUT A STOP TO THIS & TRY TO START RESTORING THINGS‚ OR IT WILL GET WORSE & BUILD UP TO SOMETHING BIG. In other words, only one of two things can happen: Things will either get better or they'll get worse! If they get better then we don't have much to worry about! If they get worse, well, we still don't have much to worry about, PTL!

109. WE'RE ON THE LORD'S SIDE & HE'S TAKING CARE OR US & HE WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO AS LONG AS WE'RE HIS CHILDREN & He loves us & we love Him & are trying to obey Him & feed the Family. Even with direct hits from some of the big atom bombs‚ the actual total destruction area is only a few thousand meters; in other words, a few kilometers. That's bad enough!—Total destruction & everything flattened! And then about another four kilometers is the burn-out where it reaches something like 7,000 degrees of temperature & everything is burned.

110. THE CONCUSSION FLATTENS EVERYTHING FOR A FEW KILOMETERS & IT BURNS UP EVERYTHING FOR A FEW MORE. Then the brightness of the flash—if you happen to be looking at it when it explodes—will burn out your eyes for a few more kilometers. Some of the poor Japs who happened to be looking at the bomb when it exploded, their eyes were melted out & just ran down their faces! This is in the Bible! It's right in Zechariah. It says, "Their eyes shall consume away in their holes" of the men & the horses & so on, in the coming destruction.—Horrible! (Zech.14:12.)

111. SO WE CERTAINLY TRUST THAT WE WILL NOT BE THAT CLOSE, WITHIN A FEW KILOMETERS OF THE BLAST, OR BE LOOKING AT IT! God help us! If things get that hot we'd better be down in the basement! And then a very strong wind like a hurricane amounting to several hundred miles an hour goes & blows down quite a bit within a few more kilometers.

112. SO TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF ANY GREAT KIND IS ONLY WITHIN A FEW MILES OF THE HIT, & there's partial destruction beyond that & concussion & blast. And of coursed then there's the radiation which reaches quite a ways, & the fallout can circle the Globe! So if there's an atomic war‚ you're not safe anyplace as far as fallout's concerned. But that is one thing you can survive.

113. THE BIBLE SAYS, "GO INTO YOUR HOUSE & SHUT THY DOORS & WINDOWS!"—The Bible says it in Isaiah, did you know that?—"Until the indignation be overpast"! (Isa.26:20.) Go in & shut your doors & windows till the thing is over—& it tells in Isaiah how bad things are going to get.

114. BUT I BELIEVE THE LORD IS GOING TO TAKE CARE OF US! I don't expect Him to let us get a direct hit to wipe us all out—although that could be one of the quickest easiest ways to go! Those things fly faster than the speed of sound, so they hit before the sound arrives.—Which happened not with the first buzz bombs that came from Germany to England, but with the final V2's.

115. THEY SHOT THEM UP TO AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 40,000 FEET, I think it was, & they lobbed'm up like that in a big arc. Then they dropped faster than the speed of sound so that they hit before the sound arrived. So you wouldn't have to worry about hearing it hit—you'd be gone before you even knew it! You'd be hit before you even heard it!—In which case you go immediately to be with the Lord! So, PTL! You don't have to worry if you get hit. And the other effects, let's trust we'll not be within any kind of a radius that could so effect us.

116. AND AS LONG AS THE WORLD SURVIVES, USUALLY THE POSTAL SERVICE WILL SURVIVE, & it's revived very soon again. It was in both World wars. In fact‚ it kept operating throughout the World Wars. You couldn't get postal service across the main division lines as a rule, although there was even some exchange of postal service between the enemies; but it all had to be censored & examined.

117. BUT ANYWAY, LET'S TRUST THAT THE LORD'S GOING TO TAKE CARE OF US. We don't have to worry about it, just be prepared to survive any kind of a changeover, a temporary hump, & trust we're not going to get hit nor radiated by the fallout. And if we have our food & water & shut the doors & windows & everything, you can keep from getting much fallout—which is just the radioactive dust that settles that usually loses its effect as long as you don't eat it or breathe it or drink it. It dies out in about a week or two.

118. SO YOU NEED TO FIGURE ON A WEEK OR TWO INSIDE WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO GO OUT FOR FOOD OR WATER. Can you survive a week or two inside with all the doors & windows shut if there is an atomic war? Just plan matter-of–factly for that sort of thing, that's all, & trust God to keep you. He's promised to keep you! He could keep you even if you were out there in the atomic fallout & breathing it full blast! The Lord could keep you, amen? So don't worry about it. But I do want you to be prepared & keep that in mind & think preparation & think survival & do what we can to prepare, amen?

119. I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE SHOCKED OR SURPRISED OR TERRIFIED BY ANY BIG SUDDEN SERIOUS NEWS ABOUT THE OIL, or that the U.S. can't get any help from anybody else & has decided to invade the Gulf alone & Russia is threatening to shoot if she does, & so on.—Don't be surprised! Anything could happen!—But nothing can happen to us except what the Lord wants, because Jesus is here! Anything good can happen because Jesus is here, PTL? TYJ!

120. AMEN, LORD, THANK YOU FOR THESE PRECIOUS ONES WHO ARE STRONG ENOUGH & ABLE TO RECEIVE THIS KIND OF INFORMATION & NEWS. We've been expecting it all the time, so as we watch it unfold in the news & on the map we're not a bit surprised, Lord, we've been expecting it. It's just amazing how long it's been, Lord, that things have held out as well as they have & things haven't gotten worse even faster.

121. SO WE JUST ASK THEE TO KEEP US IN THE CENTER OF THY WILL DOING THY WORK, busy everyday with what is good for Thy children & Thy Family; continuing to do the best we can to be a witness to the World in spite of whatever's happening other places. We believe You're going to protect us & keep us so we can continue to do Thy Work & be Thy witness & feed the Family over the whole World as long as possible. And when we can no longer do that & we're no longer any good for anything, You can easily take us home.

122. SO AS LONG AS YOU WANT US HERE, YOU'RE GOING TO TAKE CARE OF US. And as long as You want us here it must be we're going to be able to do something. And so as long as you want that something done, You've got to take care of us, & You will. And when that time is up & the World has had its chance, why we know You're going to take us out of it & we thank You for it! PTL! TYJ! In Jesus' name, amen!

123. WELL, I WAS GOING TO GIVE YOU A BRIEF BRIEFING ON THE WORLD SITUATION, BUT IT TURNED OUT TO BE KIND OF LONG. And I was going to maybe get into the Story of Noah but we didn't‚ sorry David! I was going to get into a little Bible Prophecy too, but we didn't. It takes a little time to explain these things, but you needed to know exactly what the international World situation is right now & where we're at & what's happening & apt to happen & why. It will maybe put a little more feet to your prayers to do your best to get things ready.

124. AMEN, LORD‚ WE KNOW YOU'RE GOING TO TAKE CARE OF US NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, so we pray together the prayer You taught us to pray: (Prays Lord's Prayer‚ then:) "The Earth is the Lord's & the fullness thereof!" (Ps.24:1.) Hallelujah! Amen?—And He's not going to destroy it until He's taken us out of it & creates a new one, praise God? So we've got nothing to worry about & everything to be thankful for. Just keep busy & keep working as long as we can, & I think He's going to let us keep going for quite awhile yet.

125. THIS IS WHY I WANT YOU TO GET INTO THE STUDY OF BIBLE PROPHECY AGAIN so you kind of know what the timetable & schedule is. Some of the old Letters of revelation the Lord gave us such as "The 70 years" & "The Watch" & some of those were quite specific! (See Nos.156 & 186A.) So, PTL, the Lord's not even going to let us be ignorant. He says, "Let us not be ignorant of these times & seasons, brethren," but to know these things. (1Th.5:1.) So we can even know pretty much about where we're at, & the Lord's made it pretty specific. So PTL, amen?

126. AND THE FUNNY THING ABOUT IT IS, NEARLY ALL THE PREDICTIONS OF DOOM & STARVATION or over-population or over–pollution all wind up just about the same time as the Lord showed us that things are going to wind up. In other words, He's not going to let it get as bad as they say it's going to get. He's going to save us & the World just before it gets that bad. They're predicting anywhere from the end of this decade to the end of this century—which is only 10-20 years away.

127. SO I'M CONVINCED IT'S ALL GOING TO WIND UP SOMETIME WITHIN THIS 20 YEARS, & as we will look into that in Bible Prophecy, things are getting closer & closer to the End. But as far as I can see, it looks like there will have to be a war first, unless the Antichrist can arise in some supernatural miraculous way with such wisdom as to prevent it & settle all these arguments & knock heads together & make them all behave!—Which is unlikely unless the World is pretty desperate.

128. ABOUT THE ONLY WAY IT GETS THAT DESPERATE IS IN RUINS FROM A WAR! The U.S. did this last time after the last World War. It knocked heads together & made people behave & straightened countries out & refinanced them & rebuilt them & helped rebuild Europe & a lot of other things; people kind of repented & promised to behave & they started the U.N. so they'd never have another war.—Ha!

129. BUT IT LOOKS LIKE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO HAVE ANOTHER ONE TO KNOCK SOME SENSE BACK IN THEIR HEADS AGAIN! The Antichrist is going to have to step in & pick up the pieces, save the World, & then wreck it again—at least in some ways—till the Lord comes. So it's not very long & it'll all be over!—And we'll have the World on our hands to run it the way the Lord wants it run.

130.—AND DON'T BE WORRIED ABOUT THAT EITHER, BECAUSE YOU'LL HAVE SUPERNATURAL STRENGTH, supernatural wisdom & a supernatural body & everything to do the job with! It will be easy under direct control & direct communication with the Lord & His communication system. Everything will be in perfect control‚ perfect government, peace on Earth to virtually all men of good will, PTL? (Dad sings:)

131. "GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU,

Through everyday,

O'er all the way!

He will take care of you,

God will take care of you!

Be not dismayed whate'er betide,

God will take care of you.

Beneath His wings of love abide,

God will take care of you!"

—Isn't that beautiful? TYJ! The Lord bless thee & keep thee, the Lord make His face to shine upon thee & be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee & give thee peace! Hallelujah!

132. THE LORD WANTS US TO PRAY FOR PEACE, SO I EXPECT AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. PTL! All those countries where they're having war, well‚ they just about deserve it really. They've been bad boys for a long time. They've resisted the Gospel, resisted missionaries—slaughtered them, imprisoned them, tortured them, punished them & massacred them!

133. IRAN RIGHT NOW HAS 5 BRITISH MISSIONARIES IN JAIL AS WELL AS 50 AMERICAN HOSTAGES, so you know they're getting what they deserve. And Iraq has been a military Islamic country for a long time—resisting the Gospel & cruel to Christians—so they're getting what they deserve. So don't feel too sorry for them.

134. JUST PRAY FOR THE INNOCENTS, THE POOR WHO SOMETIMES SUFFER; the women & children, the old, the sick.—But God even takes care of them. I don't think most of the war scenes or some of the horrors that are magnified & exaggerated in some pictures are really that bad; it's on a small scale & probably to people who‚ if anybody deserved it, they did.

135. SO LET'S EXPECT THE BEST & AT THE SAME TIME EXPECT THE WORST, BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO GET BOTH! TTL! But He said, "A thousand shall fall at thy side, & 10,000 at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold & see the reward of the wicked! (Ps.91:7‚8.) Amen? Do you believe that? Read that 91st Psalm again & see!

136. IF YOU HIDE UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY, UNDER HIS WINGS, THE LORD'S GOING TO TAKE CARE OF YOU!—However He does it—either through life or death! Hallelujah! We can't lose, isn't that wonderful? What a place to live He's given us, & if we go from here‚ what a place to go! The Lord couldn't be better to us than He is!—Amen? PTL! God bless & keep you & make you a blessing to the End!

137. P.S. I WASN'T ABLE TO GET THE DAILY NEWSPAPERS DURING THE BUILD-UP OF THE WAR, SO I MISSED THE PLAY-BY-PLAY DESCRIPTION on the background & commentaries & so on; but it's interesting now to read it, because you can see how wrong they were! They claimed there wasn't going to be a war, that Iraq would not invade Iran & nobody would bomb the oil facilities—they wouldn't be that crazy—& therefore the oil would not be affected.—The typical peace prophets, false prophets of peace!

138. YOU CAN SEE WHAT A LIAR THE DEVIL IS & HOW HE TRIES TO DECEIVE THE PEOPLE TO KEEP THEM CALM! He doesn't want to scare them & he doesn't want them to be frightened & to know what's happening. He wants to lull them to sleep! So it happened suddenly without them having any preparation or anything.

139. THE RIDICULOUS LIES OF THESE FALSE PROPHETS SAID THAT IRAQ WAS UNLIKELY TO HAVE INFORMED THE SOVIET UNION IT WAS GOING TO INVADE IRAN.—What a joke!—Undoubtedly they were all working together on it! It just looks like these diplomats in their predictions, these false prophets‚ are almost always wrong.—They doubted Iraq would start the war, they doubted that it would affect the oil, they doubted if they would occupy the oil province Arabistan—but they've done all those things!

140. IT SHOWS YOU HOW THESE FALSE PROPHETS OF PEACE ARE ALWAYS TRYING TO PLAY IT DOWN & SAY IT WON'T HAPPEN: "It's not going to happen, not going to affect your oil!—Don't worry!" The peace prophets are always saying‚ "Don't worry, 'cause everything's going to be all right" to the World, who need the Word, because there everything isn't going to be all right! We're the ones that don't have to worry cause everything is going to be all right for us! But the peace prophets‚ the false prophets of peace are prophesying to the World, but they shall have no peace!

141. THE U.S., RUSSIA & THE WESTERN WORLD, AS WELL AS VIRTUALLY ALL THE ARABS, WOULD BE VERY HAPPY TO SEE IRAN DEFEATED, 'cause the Iranians are not Arabs!—They're Persians & they're predominantly Shiite Muslims, which is the militant modern fundamentalists radical fanatical type of Islam which the rest of the Arab World who are Sunnis fear is going to infiltrate & spread from Khomeini into the rest of the World. It's a fanatical minority form of Islam.

142. SO THERE'S HARDLY ANYBODY WHO WOULD BE SORRY IF KHOMEINI FELL, including the Israelis against whom he's very bitter. So he's got just practically the whole World against him, & if Iran wins this war it will have to be a miracle of God—God on his side against the World! I'm pretty sure Russia is backing Iraq—if nobody else is sure—& I don't think Russia would let Iraq lose if they could help it!

143. KHOMEINI WAS SCREAMING OVER THE RADIO IN THE DAYS BEFORE THIS WAR, FOR THE MINORITY SHIITE MUSLIMS IN IRAQ TO RISE UP IN REBELLION & overthrow the Iraqi government & overthrow Hussein. So in a way Hussein has every right to invade & try to overthrow Khomeini‚ because this is what Khomeini was trying to do to him!

144. CONSERVATIVE ARAB STATES ARE BACKING IRAQ, EVEN IF SOME OF THEM DON'T LIKE HUSSEIN—that's Saddam Hussein, not the King Hussein of Jordan—but Saddam Hussein the military dictator of Iraq. He's been pretty wild, fanatical & ruthless, but he's been an Iraqi strongman & has held power for ten years & given his area some stability, prosperity & economic security.

145. SO ALTHOUGH A LOT OF THE CONSERVATIVE ARABS DON'T PARTICULARLY CARE FOR HIM‚ THEY'RE BACKING HIM TO THE HILT AGAINST KHOMEINI because they don't like Persians, which are the Iranians. They don't like the Shiite Muslims & they don't like the way they're trying to spread their kind of Islam throughout the Arab World—the Iranians are not Arabs!

146. SO VIRTUALLY THE WHOLE ARAB WORLD RESENTS KHOMEINI‚ & virtually the whole Western industrialised World, the West, resents Khomeini. Russia does not like Khomeini. It's tried to kind of keep peace with him—playing both ends against the middle in case Khomeini wins—but I don't see how he's got a chance to win. But those Iranians are fighting like mad! They're known to be famous fighters & they've had a lot of experience fighting lately amongst themselves & the Shah.

147. HUSSEIN IS GETTING REVENGE NOW FOR THE WAY THE SHAH HUMILIATED HIM, forcing him to sign that treaty in '75 that gave up all this territory which he's now reconquered by force. This newspaper says that Iraq was OPEC's second largest producer, next to Saudi Arabia. I don't know it some of these guys know what they're talking about! Some say Kuwait was the second & Iraq was the third.

148. THIS WATERWAY THEY'RE FIGHTING OVER CALLED THE SHATT–AL-ARAB ESTUARY IS ACTUALLY THE CONFLUENCE OF THE TIGRIS & EUPHRATES RIVERS.—It's where they join together & flow out into the Gulf, & is about 60 miles long. The guys who write some of these articles really get mixed up in their facts like I do sometimes! Some of them say that Kharg‚ the great oil port island belongs to Iraq; others say it belongs to Iran. Whereas Khorramshar is always said to be Iran's oil port.

149. THEY'RE ALSO ALWAYS QUOTING VARIOUS FIGURES FOR HOW MUCH OF THE WEST'S OIL GOES THROUGH THE GULF OR THE STRAITS OF HORMUZ.—You hear everything from 40 to 80%‚ so how do you know? Anyhow, there's a lot of it! Let me tell you, if it was strangled, the West would almost collapse! Iran formally requested the Soviet Union to stop all arm supplies to Iraq‚ but the Soviet Union answered it would remain strictly neutral—which means it can continue to supply all the arms it wants to Iraq!—If you're neutral you're supposed to be able to do business with both sides.—Ha!

BE SURE TO READ "WHICH WAY WAR?" IN THIS OR A LATER ISSUE!—IT ANSWERS THE QUESTION: WHO'LL WIN?!—DAD.