The Coming War of Gog and Magog, an Islamic Invasion?

Ezekiel 38 through 39 tells of a future invasion of Israel by a vast coalition of nations that surround it. As we read the headlines in the newspapers of today, and witness the conflict in the Middle East, it's not hard to imagine that this invasion prophesied over 2600 years ago, could be fulfilled in our lifetime. Ezekiel 36-37 predicts a gathering of the Jews to the nation of Israel, which will be followed by this massive invasion. For 19 centuries the Jewish people were scattered throughout the world, and until May 14, 1948 there was no nation of Israel to invade. With the nation of Israel now a reality, the stage seems set for the war that will usher in the tribulation and the rise of the Antichrist; a war that will end with the destruction of Israel's enemies by God Himself, and lead to the signing of a peace treaty with the Antichrist.

As you read Ezekiel 38 and 39, it isn't just the creation of the nation of Israel that makes this prophecy seem likely to be fulfilled in the near future. The nations that God tells us will form this coalition against Israel seem more likely now than perhaps ever before to form just such an alliance. To understand the prophecies of Ezekiel about this future invasion, it's important to understand who the players will be.

There are many theories as to who will join in this future invasion of Israel. Before going through a list of the individual nations, I'll list some of the more common theories you'll hear when studying the prophecies from Ezekiel 38.

Ezekiel 38:1-6 The word of the Lord came to me; Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; prophesy against him and say: 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army - your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops - the many nations with you.'

1. Hashemite Kingdom Theory: The Islamic Nations will come against Israel either by an Iraqi-led, Jordanian led, or Turkish led coalition. The enemy from the north refers to the areas of Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. These Islamic nations make up the lands occupied by Magog, Gomer, Togarmah, Meshech and Tubal.

2. Caucus Theory: Gog and Magog are the Arab nations in an alliance with the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union. This theory leaves out most of Russia, and includes only the southern part.

3. All Europe theory: Gog and Magog are the sons of Japeth thus the originators of the European races. Gog and Magog therefore indicates all of Europe. This is not a widely held theory and I could find little support for it.

4. Russian Theory: The Hebrew word 'rosh' in verse 3 is identified with Russia, 'Tubal' with Tiblisi or Tobolsk and 'Meshech' with Moscow, therefore Gog and Magog refers to Russia. This is one of the most commonly held views and is based on a different interpretation of the Hebrew word Rosh (used as a noun rather than adjective), similarities in the pronunciation of words, and the Greek translation of Rosh referring to a tribe of people found in what is now Russia.

5. Indo-European Theory: Gog and Magog include the nations descending from Japheth: Russia, the Caucasus(Turkey), Iraq, and the Islamic republics of Central Asia. The coalition is an alliance of Arab nations, Muslim republics, Georgia, southern Russia and the Black sea area.

These are some of the theories you will find if you do any research into the prophecies of Ezekiel 38. You may also find interpretations that are a combination of these, and in fact, I tend to find more evidence for a version of the Indo-European and Caucacus Theory.

Before looking at the participants of this invasion in more detail, it's important to understand that the war described in Ezekiel 38 is not the same as the war that will come at the end of the tribulation when Jesus returns to defeat the Antichrist and establish his millennial kingdom. How do we know this? The war at the end of the tribulation, known as Armageddon, is a world war. Revelation tells us that this battle will involve all nations. The war described in Ezekiel includes specific nations that invade Israel. Also, Armageddon is at the climax of the tribulation, while the war described in Ezekiel comes well before then.

Ezekiel 38:1-7 gives 10 names as participants in the invasion of Israel that will follow the regathering of the Jews to their homeland. First mentioned, is the land of Magog. The most common identity for Magog is in Central Asia. The Jewish historian Josephus said, "Magog founded the Magogians, called Scythians by the Greeks. Scythians were a nomadic tribe who inhabited the ancient territory from Central Asia across the southern part of ancient Russia." Today this area is inhabited by the former Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and possibly northern parts of Afghanistan. All of these nations that make up the land of Magog have one thing in common - Islam. Militant Islam has been on the rise in these countries since the fall of the Soviet Union, when Islam no longer had to be practiced secretly. Radical Islamic groups such as the Islamic Renaissance Party, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islam are working to reunite central Asian nations and ultimately the entire Muslim world. It is from this part of the world that a leader will arise to bring together a great coalition of nations to invade Israel.

Probably the most debated verse is Ezekiel 38:3. There are two main views on the identity of the Nations God is referring to in this verse. I'll list both here, and let the reader decide which sounds most reasonable.

Rosh as Russia

Some versions of the Bible translate the Hebrew word 'rosh' in verse 3 as a noun referring to a place in Russia. The least credible support for this view is that Rosh sounds like the modern-day name Russia and Meshech sounds like Moscow. In this translation they treat rosh as a proper name. The Greek translation translates Rosh as the proper name Ros. Because the ancient Sarmations were known as the Ras, Rashu, and Rus and inhabited Rasapu which is now Southern Russia, some feel this verse points to Russia as the prince of Rosh. Another support sited for this view is that verse 6 and 15 say the invasion will come from remote parts of the north, and Russia is more remote.

Rosh as chief

Other versions of the Bible translate 'rosh' as an adjective. The argument here is that in the Massoretic text the words 'chief prince' carry the accents Tiphha and Zaqeph-gadol. The Tiphha appears under the resh of the Hebrew word 'rosh'; the Zaqeph-gadol appears on top of the sin of the Hebrew word 'nish'. The Tiphha to the right, underneath the initial consonant of the world 'rosh', or chief, is prepositive and does not mark the tone syllable. The world 'nish' or prince has the accent Zaqeph-gadol which is disjunctive and indicates a pause. So, verse three would read:

"Behold, I am against thee, o Gog, the prince, {pause} chief of Meshech and Tubal"

Rather than:

"Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal."

Here 'rosh' is translated head or chief as it is 423 other times in the Old Testament.

In short, if you believe 'rosh' should be translated as a proper noun you may find the interpretation that Russia will be a part of this coalition more reasonable. If you believe 'rosh' should be an adjective here, you need only concern yourself with who Meshech and Tubal are. I tend to have a problem with the "it sounds like Russia" theory, and find the translation of rosh as an adjective more believable, but to each his own.

Meshech and Tubal in verses 2 and 6, were the names of the 6th and 5th sons of Japheth, the son of Noah (Gen. 10:2). Ezekiel 27:13 also mentions Meshech and Tubal as trading partners with Tyre (Modern Lebanon). It's likely that Meshech and Tubal refer to the ancient Moshi/Mushki and Tubalu/Tibareni who dwelled in the area around, primarily south of, the Black and Caspian Sea in Ezekiel's day. Today these nations would be in the modern country of Turkey, parts of Southern Russia and Northern Iran. All areas with a Muslim majority.

Verse 6 adds Gomer and Beth-Togarmah to the coalition. "Gomer" was the first son of Japheth. The Gomerites were the ancient Cimmerians, expelled in 700 B.C. from the southern steppes of Russia into what is today Turkey. "Togarmah" is the 3rd son of Gomer and beth at the beginning of the name is the Hebrew word for 'house' or 'place of'. In Ezekiel's time there was a city in Cappodocia (Modern Turkey) known as Tegarma, Tagarma, Til-garimmu, and Takarama.

The possibility that four of the names mentioned in Ezekiel are now in Turkey makes a pretty strong argument for Turkey being a part of the invasion of Israel. Current circumstances in that country also lend this view some credibility. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Turkey has been gaining inroads into Central Asia (Magog). It is also linked to Central Asia both ethnically and linguistically, and has a growing number of political parties that support opposition to Israel, establishment of a Turkish Islamic Republic, and the worldwide rule of Islam.

Verse 5 brings three more names into the mix. God tells us that "Persia, Cush and Put will be with them".

Persia is a pretty easy one. In 539 B.C. the Persians conquered the city of Babylon. You only need look at a map of the ancient Persian Empire to see that it was centered in the nation known today as Iran. In fact Iran was called Persia until 1935 when it was changed to Iran and then to the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution. It's no secret that Iran is an archenemy of Israel and the West, and a supporter of the Palestinians. They are actively working to get other Arab countries to change camps in their cooperation with the U.S. and Israel.

The ancient kingdom of Cush in Ezekiels time was the land just south of Egypt on the Nile River. Today this land is occupied by Sudan. Sudan is home to the National Islamic Front, is ruled by an Islamic military dictatorship, a strong supporter of Iraq, home to Osama bin Landen from 1991-1996, and harbors countless Islamic terrorist groups. Sudan would easily fit into the coalition as it is already close allies with Iran, trading military supplies for docking rights on the Red Sea shipping routes.

Ancient Put was the land just west of Egypt, or what is today Libya. Libya is another sponsor of terrorism, and openly refuses to recognize Israel's right to even exist. When the coalition against Israel is formed, Libya won't have to be asked twice to join.

Verse 6 adds "and many people with you." The nations listed specifically are all somewhat distant from Israel. By adding "and many people with you", God may have been indicating that those nations and peoples in closer proximity to Israel will join the Jihad. Other nations that might join the alliance are Iraq, Syria, Jordon, and Egypt. All of them are Islamic nations, and all of them would not hesitate to support the destruction of Israel were the opportunity to join such a vast coalition presented to them.

Below is a list of the nations that are listed in Ezekiel as Israel's last-days enemies:

ANCIENT NAME	MODERN NATION	EXPLANATION
Rosh	Russia or Chief	Ancient Sarmatians known as Rashu, Rasapu, Ros, and Rus. OR Translated as the adjective Chief.
Magog	Central Asia	Ancient Scythians - Islamic southern republics of the former Soviet Union with a population of 60 million Muslims. This territory could include modern Afghanistan.
Meshech	Turkey	Ancient Muschki and Musku in Cilicia and Cappadocia.
Tubal	Turkey (also southern Russia and Iran)	Ancient Tubalu in Cappadocia.
Persia	Iran	Name changed from Persia to Iran in 1935.
Ethiopia (Cush)	Sudan	Ancient Cush, south of Egypt.
Put	Libya	Ancient Put, west of Egypt.
Gomer	Turkey	Ancient Cimmerians - from the seventh century to first century B.C. in central/western Anatolia.
Beth-togarmah	Turkey	Til-garimmu - between ancient Carchemish and Haran (southern Turkey).
Many peoples with you	Other Islamic nations	Possibly Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt

The reasons God gives us for the enemies' invasion of Israel are further proof that the attack will be an Islamic invasion.

The first reason God gives for the invasion in Ezekiel 38 is a desire by the coalition to cover the Jewish land and wipe them off the face of the earth. Urged on by a hatred of the Jewish people they will seek to destroy them and the nation of Israel. This is the stated goal today of almost every Islamic nation in the Middle East. The only nations not currently in a declared state of war with Israel are Egypt, Turkey, and Jordan, yet they would certainly be glad to see Israel eliminated if presented with a willing leader and an opportunity to rid the Middle East of Islam's archenemy.

God tells us that they also come to "seize plunder…and to capture great spoil". Many verses in the Quran advocated plundering for the benefit of Islam and there are several instances of this war tactic throughout the history of Muhammad's life. In fact, it is a common theme in his teachings.

This invasion of Israel and attack on the Jewish people will indeed be a Jihad, but it will also be the final Jihad.

Ezekiel 38:13 "Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will say to you, 'Have you come to capture spoil? Have you assembled your company to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to capture great spoil?'"

As this invasion develops, a few countries will make a lame protest. This isn't hard to believe when you look at the indifference most nations display as Israel is repeatedly attacked by terrorists.

The specific nations who question Gog's actions are "Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish". Sheba and Dedan are not hard to identify. These were ancient names for what is known today as Saudi Arabia.

Tarshish is most commonly agreed to be ancient Tartessus or the area of present day Spain in Western Europe. In Ezekiels day, Tarshish was in the farthest west regions of the known world. By referring to Tarshish and all her merchants, Ezekiel could have been indicating that Western Europe will join with Saudi Arabia in denouncing the invasion. Interestingly, Saudi Arabia is the only Arab nation to consistently side with the West against radical Islamic elements around the world. The royals of Saudi Arabia mostly side with the West out of an interest in self preservation, and at times oppose us behind the scenes, but they would most probably put on a show of opposition to radical Islam in order to maintain the support of western governments.

A similar alliance has been seen once before during the Gulf War of the early 1990's. The U.S., Western Europe, and Saudi Arabia were allied against Iraq, while Russia, Iran, Sudan, Libya, and most other Middle East nations either aligned with Iraq, or against the U.S. either by directly opposing it, or by remaining neutral.

The good news is that God wins. God will come against the invaders Himself and destroy them. Verses 19-20 say that there will be an earthquake so great that people all over the world will tremble. In the ensuing chaos, nations will begin to turn on each other. The confusion will lead to the largest case of death by friendly fire ever seen.

Verse 22 of Ezekiel tells us that there will be plagues, torrents of rain, hailstones, and burning sulfur. Just as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he will destroy these invading forces. Once again, God will make it known to all the nations that He is the Lord. He will give the nations proof that He is the Holy One in Israel.

This war against Israel will pave the way for the Antichrist's military rule over the world and his demand that the world worship him as God. With Islam defeated and the Christian Church raptured, opposition to worshipping a man as God will be greatly reduced. Those who are left would have no army with which to mount much of a protest.

So, how should Christians respond to this prophecy? In Ezekiel 39:6,7, and 28 God says that this end-times battle will happen that "they will know that I am the Lord". This message that God's purpose is to cause Israel and the other nations to know He is Lord is repeated over 60 times in Ezekiel. By learning about prophecy and teaching it to others, people will be able to see the glory, majesty, and sovereignty of God in the fulfillment of His divine word. By knowing our Bible and teaching it to others, they will be able to see that there is a divine creator, and a plan for them. Through Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers us freely, there is victory and an eternity more glorious than they can imagine.

I know that credulous “prophecy buffs” are sitting ducks for the various grifters promoting all sorts of “end-times” madness, so I hope nobody here has fallen for this con, too. :)

Let There Be Light Crude
Evangelical preachers claim that a giant oil find in Israel will usher in the end of days.

Enter the con men and penny-stock hustlers.”

http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/01/let-there-be-light-crude.html

Mariah Blake”
January 08, 2008

Picture: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/01/let-there-be-320x420.jpg

When james cojanis heard the first rumblings of Armageddon, he was sitting in his San Jose home with the radio tuned to a popular Christian show called The Prophecy Club.

Featured that day was a charismatic Texas oilman named Harold “Hayseed” Stephens. Speaking in the rousing cadence of a Southern preacher, he told listeners that “the greatest oil field on Earth is under the southwest corner of the Dead Sea”and that his company, Ness Energy International, was about to tap into it.

In doing so, he said, it would drain the oil fields of the Persian Gulf, prompt Arab countries to attack Israel, and at last touch off the great battle that would usher in the end of days.

As soon as the show was over, Cojanis got on the phone to find out how to invest in the venture. Days later the 70-year-old retiree received a form letter addressed, “Dear End Time Servant.” It claimed that the oil reserves at Ness’ planned drilling site ranged “from one billion to 40 billion barrels...putting this prospect in a class of the super giant oil fields of the world.”

Without a second thought, Cojanis bought $120,000 worth of stock in Ness.

“Faith is a gift God puts in your heart,” he explained when I visited him in October at his cluttered town house, piled with crumpled boxes of prophecy-themed newsletters and cassette tapes of old Christian radio shows. [I wonder if Armstrong’s was among them. :)]

“And I didn’t have any doubt that Ness was a plan of God. He raised up Hayseed Stephens to find Israel’s oil.”

Eight years later, Ness has yet to sink so much as an initial borehole for a Dead Sea well. In fact, for most of its existence it has never even held exploration rights in Israel. Its U.S. headquarters, a barnlike storefront topped with an open Bible sprouting an oil well, was shuttered in 2006.

Since then, its stock price has fallen from a high of nearly $5 to a mere 3 cents; Cojanis’ $120,000 investment is now worth $3,000.

Not that he’s worried. “I’m glad the stock price is in the tank,” he says. “When they hit oil and the stock goes sky-high, that means Armageddon is around the corner.” At that point, he plans to use his gains to spread the word that the end times are here, preparing as many souls for heaven as possible.

It is widely believed among evangelical Christians (and some Orthodox Jews) that Scripture foretells a massive oil find in the Holy Land; prophecy buffs are especially captivated by a passage in Ezekiel that says Armageddon will be triggered by a band of nationsRussia, Iran, and a confederacy of Arab countries are most often named as the likely suspectsattacking Israel to “take a great spoil.” Their faith has spurred a sprawling, decades-long treasure hunt.

At least 10 companies or individuals have searched for oil in Israel using biblical clues.

So far, few of the more than 400 wells drilled there have turned up commercial quantities of oil and gas. But the willingness of ordinary churchgoers to invest their life savings has kept the ventures goingand made the business rich terrain for a bevy of false prophets, penny-stock hustlers, and con men.

a burly man who favored Wrangler jeans and fat belt buckles (one of which bore an oil derrick emerging from a Star of David), Hayseed Stephens grew up picking cotton and slopping hogs on a Texas sharecropping farm. For a brief stretch in the early 1960s, he played quarterback for the New York Titans (now the Jets) before returning to Texas to work the oil fields and, later, minister to the faithful from a church he opened in Willow Park, near Dallas.

In 1997 Stephens acquired a publicly traded shell company that he renamed Ness (”miracle” in Hebrew).

With meager assets and no recent operating history, it was a business in name alone, but that didn’t stop Stephens from selling millions of dollars of stock in it.

He got help from Stan Johnson, a one-time salesman turned doomsday prophet who founded the Prophecy Club, a Kansas-based ministry that airs television and radio programs on Christian stations across the country and holds traveling revival-style meetings.

Johnson once told his followers that Stephens could be drilling within 60 days if he just collected enough money: “And when the well is drilled, when the oil comes in, 17 Bible prophecies will be fulfilled...We believe now is the time and Hayseed is the man.”

Besides scriptural backing, Stephens claimed to have geological proof for his theory. In late 2002 he told Prophecy Club listeners that “experts from Israel and around the world” had studied his planned drilling site and concluded that “18 to 50 billion barrels of oil” were hidden beneath the surface, reserves worth up to a trillion dollars. “You cannot find such good odds in Vegas, Atlantic City, or anywhere else in the world, even if you are nothing but a gambler.”

Among those swayed was Michael, a 53-year-old Kansas farmer who asked that his last name not be used. In 1999, he invested half a million dollars in Ness, learning only later that the shares he bought couldn’t be resolda claim echoed in lawsuits filed by other Ness stockholders. He was forced to watch from the sidelines as the share price climbed from the 45 cents he paid at one point to around $5, then sank back to around a quarter. At the peak, his stock would have been worth $11 million. “I thought God was in the project,” he says. “It turns out it was a trap laid for me by the enemy, Satan.”

Over the past 10 years, Ness has issued 180 million shares and collected almost $10 million from investors. What most of them didn’t knowand still don’t todayis that behind the fire and brimstone lurked a standard penny-stock play known as the pump-and-dump scheme, which entails buying a publicly traded shell company, inflating the stock price with misleading claims, then selling off shares at a huge profit and leaving investors holding the bag.

Key Ness executives had a history of such cons.

The company’s original chief financial officer, Ivan Webb, moonlighted as president of a firm called Broadband Wireless, where, according to sec investigators, he and convicted con man Donald Knight cheated stockholders out of at least $5 million. Ness’ founding ceo, Stanley Swanson, headed an outfit called Safescript Pharmacies, which had its registration revoked by the sec for artificially inflating its stock value through a fraudulent accounting scheme. A few other Ness insiders had ties to Safescript, including Webb, who served as a consultant. In 2000, Ness purchased $1 million in Safescript stockshares that became nearly worthless within months.

Stephens played a similar game with Ness’ stockdriving up prices with apocryphal claims, then selling shares, ultimately clearing at least $3.5 million. But in this case, pump and dump was just part of the swindle.

one of Stephens’ darkest secrets is buried in Israel’s oil register, a battered leather binder held together with red electrical tape whose crumpled pages hold exploration permits dating back several decades. During a visit last summer to the offices of the Ministry of National Infrastructures in Jerusalem, I combed through the book with the help of deputy oil commissioner Avraham Honigstein, an unassuming geologist who speaks in a precise monotone. It took nearly an hour, but we eventually unraveled an elaborate shell game designed to give the illusion that Ness held drilling licenses. In fact, the rights were held by a private company called Heseda firm owned by Hayseed Stephens. What’s more, Ness and Hesed had an operating agreement saying that Ness was to perform all the work on the proposed Israeli drilling sites while Hesed would receive all the potential profits.

In other words, had either company struck oil, Ness investors wouldn’t have seen a penny.

In the end, the terms didn’t matter much, since Stephens never even laid the groundwork for a Dead Sea well. “He didn’t do the geological work because he didn’t want to spend the money,” Moshe Goldberg, Israel’s former oil commissioner, told me. He called the claims that Stephens sold “lies” and “nonsense.”

In April 2003, Stephens sold Hesed and another firm he owned to Ness for around $4 millionat least four times what they were worth, according to sec documents. Stockholders were led to believe that Hesed’s value lay in proprietary geological and seismic data collected on the sites where it had held licenses in Israel; in fact the only geological work Hesed had ever done was to reinterpret an existing seismic study.

The deal was Stephens’ last. He died the following month, struck down by a heart attack while praying with a neighbor outside of his Texas home.

the history of biblical oil prospecting is filled with quixotic quests and colorful characters, starting with Weslie Hancock, a wealthy California man who in the 1960s dreamed that Jesus told him he would find black gold in the Holy Land. He sunk his entire fortune into two dry holes.

In the 1980s, Andy Sorelle, a World War II fighter pilot and petroleum engineer, collected as much as $25 million from churchgoers who believed they were buying an interest in his well; he bored down to 21,500 feet, deeper than anyone had ever drilled in Israel, before hitting a thick slab of limestone that showed traces of oil.

Across the Bible Belt, the faithful braced for a gusher. On The 700 Club, Pat Robertson reported that Sorelle was about to tap “the largest oil field ever discovered,” a development that could “revolutionize the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.” But the euphoria evaporated when some testing equipment got jammed in the hole and Sorelle couldn’t conjure the miracle he needed to get it out.

That’s when Goldberg started receiving letters from churchgoers who had sunk their entire savings into the well. “I felt so bad for them,” he recalls. “They were people who had scraped together their dollars, and when the hard times came, they had nothing. “

Other wildcatters followed, including Bernard Coffindaffer, a West Virginia businessman who searched for oil using scriptural clues and a vial of his own blood.

In 1999 a penny-stock firm named Covenant Energy began promoting a bogus oil-exploration project on the spot where Sorelle had drilled, selling $70,000 worth of stock to investors before Delaware Securities Division investigators discovered that corporate officers were pocketing most of the money. The firm’s founders were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in 2003.

today, two companies are searching for oil in Israel based on biblical passages.

One of them, Givot Olam, is run by an Orthodox Jewish geophysicist named Tovia Luskin. Luskin’s firm has drilled three wells using a blend of science and Scripture. All have shown traces of oil and gas, though none have turned up commercial quantities.

The other firm, Dallas-based Zion Oil & Gas, was founded by an evangelical Christian named John Brown. I met him last July in the Club Lounge of Tel Aviv’s David Intercontinental Hotel. A mild-mannered 68-year-old with a slight Texas twang and a deep tan, he was wearing denim shorts and reclining in a pink armchair, overlooking the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean.

Twenty-seven years ago, Brown was a tool-company executive with a $200,000 salary and a comfortable house in the Detroit suburbs. He was also a zealous new believer who credited the Lord with delivering him from a stubborn alcohol addiction.

Eager to share the good news, he doled out “Jesus Loves You!” wallet cards and once sent a memo warning coworkers to “choose JESUS CHRIST as your Personal Savior” or face “eternal damnation.”

Some people were put off by his newfound fervor, including his wife, who packed up their four kids and divorced him.

It was around this time that Brown heard a sermon from maverick preacher Jim Spillman, who unfurled ancient tribal maps and quoted Deuteronomy 33, which tells how Moses scaled Mount Nebo, looked out on the Holy Land, and described the blessings awaiting the 12 sons of Jacob. Among them were “treasures hid in the sand” and “precious things” deep beneath the earth.

Brown later traveled to Israel, where he says the Lord spoke to him and told him he was the “stranger” that the Book of Kings predicts will be sent to fortify Israel in the final days.

“I knew in my heart what to do,” he recalls.

“I knew God was going to put me in the oil business.”

Brown was so convinced that in 1985 he quit his job and moved to Houston, where he tried to drum up support for an Israeli drilling venture. But investors weren’t eager to back a greenhorn on a mission from God, especially in the midst of an industry slump.

So Brown waited and prayed and lived off his savings. By 1996, utterly broke, he ended up scrubbing toilets at a Baptist church for $4 an hour before moving back to Michigan, where he slept in his brother’s basement. “Talk about one whipped dog: I was it,” he says.

It took him two years to get back on his feet, but he never lost sight of his dream and finally founded Zion in 2000 with the help of Philip Mandelker, an oil-industry attorney who was also deeply involved with Ness.

Early investors pitched in enough money to complete one drilling project near the land Brown believes once belonged to Asher, the Israelite Moses predicted would “dip his foot in oil.” Last spring, the company held its initial public offering on the American Stock Exchange, raising more than $12 million.

Unlike Ness, Zion is a legitimate wildcatting venture, with respected geologists on its board of directors. Still, some of its activities are questionable.

The firm was first brought to wide attention by Hal Lindsey, host of the prophecy-focused TV show The Hal Lindsey Report and coauthor of the best-selling The Late Great Planet Earth. Lindsey has bet very publicly on Brown’s company, telling his viewers in March 2007 that “Zion Oil right now is on the verge of discovering oil,” a sign that “we are really on the very threshold of Lord Jesus’ return.”

Around the same time, he touted the company in his column on the popular conservative website WorldNetDaily, saying, “Zion Oil has sunk eight exploratory wells, all of which have shown signs of oil and gas” (it has, in fact, sunk just one), and suggesting Israel’s oil “could rival that of Saudi Arabia.”

What Lindsey neglected to mention was that he and his relatives own millions of dollars of stock in the company.

In 2002, John Brown gave Lindsey a gift of 50,000 shares, worth $337,500 at today’s price. Ralph Devore, Lindsey’s cousin and a director of his ministries, controls nearly 725,000 shares, worth about $4.9 million. Devore was also a founding member of Zion’s board and was at one point hired to promote the company.

Brown insists his motives for the gift were pure. “It was simply in my heart to give shares to people who loved Israel,” he says. But Lindsey’s support has clearly paid off for the company.

After he told television viewers that Zion was “on the verge” of an oil find, the trading volume of the company’s stock leaped from 11,100 a day to 122,000 and the price climbed from $7.64 to $9.25 a share, a 21 percent increase. (Lindsey did not respond to requests for comment.)

In truth, Zion was never close to striking oil; at its very first stockholders’ meeting this past June, the firm announced plans to temporarily abandon its only well due to technical problems.

Afterward, John Brown climbed to the podium and arranged himself between an American flag and an Israeli one.

Flipping his Bible open to the Book of Kings, he began reading a passage about the prophet Elijah, who heard “the sound of abundance” when Israel was in the midst of a crippling drought. No one else could hear the sound, but Elijah prayed and waited, and within hours “the heavens was black with clouds.”

When he finished reading, Brown looked up and told his investors that he, too, heard “the sound of abundance.” Zion is now laying plans for its next well.

at ness, meanwhile, the saga continues with a new cast of characters. The main player these days is Hayseed’s son, Shannon “Sha” Stephens, who took the reins of the company after his father’s death.

Sha inherited his father’s bulky build and cowboy style, not to mention his taste for life on the margins of the oil business. Before taking over at Ness in May 2003, he was president of Warrior Resources, a struggling oil and gas company, where he faced allegations that he spent the company’s money on personal expenses and transferred its assets into his own name, according to a lawsuit filed in an Oklahoma District Court. (Sha did not respond to calls seeking comment.)

His first move at Ness was to announce a bold new business plan called the “New Outlook,” which involved expanding the company’s U.S. drilling operations to raise funds for its Israel venture.

Shortly afterward, he sold Ness a handful of Texas oil and gas leases for $11.5 million. Most of them, the company later announced, “were lost due to lack of production.”

Like his father, Sha used The Prophecy Club to spread deceptive claims about Ness’ prospects, once telling listeners that the company had enough acreage in Texas for tens of thousands of wells, each bringing in $5,000 a day.

With each misleading claim, the stock climbed, and insiders dumped millions of shares. Having milked the venture dry, Sha started folding up the company’s operations in 2006, eventually selling its Texas headquarters that December.

In July, Ness was wiped from the corporate register in Washington state, where it was incorporated.

Yet even with the company seemingly in its death throes, in September Stephens and crew appointed a British businessman named Anthony Allenby as the new ceoa move that drove up the stock 350 percent and triggered clauses that board members and executives had added to their contracts a couple of years before, giving themselves large cash payouts in the event of leadership changes. Stephens is in line to receive at least $750,000.

Allenby departed within a month, leaving the company $30 million in the red, with no staff, no offices, and no clear claims to any drilling rights. (During his tenure he declined Mother Jones’ interview requests, but warned of a “media attack by the enemy” on Ness’ blog.

“I see this as part of the Lord’s work to ‘purify’ this Company,” he wrote, “and perhaps even the whole ‘Christian oil business’ in preparation for what He is about to do.”)

And still, devoted stockholders cling to hope. Some have even offered to band together to pay Sha’s salary out of their own pockets if he returns to Ness’ helm.

James Cojanis, the San Jose retiree who bought $120,000 of the firm’s stock, says he is thinking of investing another $100,000, a third of his savings. “One of these days the oil is going to come,” he says. “And when it does, Ness’ stock is going through the roof. I have no doubt that it will happen in God’s perfect timing.”

http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/01/let-there-be-light-crude.html

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