Dear Friends,

When first visiting Israel in 1983, I believe G-d gave me a scripture (I Kings 8:41-43), a vision (Oil for Israel) and, as a Christian Zionist and New Covenant believer (Isaiah 65:1), the calling to render assistance to the Jewish people and Nation of Israel and to aid them in the Restoration of the Land by providing the oil and gas necessary to help the People of Israel maintain their political and economic independence. (Leviticus 19:33,34) (Exodus 6:6-8)

In the Bible, G-d sovereignly declares that Israel is His chosen people (Exodus 4:22); and we can gain some understanding of G-d's choice, His vision and purpose by reading (Deuteronomy 7).

As a Christian Zionist, I declare "thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God" (Ruth 1:16); and, I believe that, as true Christians, we must all so identify with Israel, as we are all part of the "wild olive branch" grafted onto the olive tree by the grace of G-d (Romans 11). Moreover, I identify with Israel because I share in their struggle and understand a little something of their pain - their confusion, their hope, the media misrepresentation, and the world's disdain of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel even and perhaps more so today, when Israel appears to be coming under greater criticism for taking those very steps of self-defense which we in America take for granted as our sovereign moral right to take in defense of ourselves and our interests.

As a believer, I have and can have no doubt that mankind must learn that obedience towards G-d and His commandments is the key to progress, whether personal or corporate, national or international. Disobedience, on the other hand, can lead only to great difficulty. This too is the story of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. And, indeed, it appears that G-d's chosen people have ascended to heights and descended to depths far beyond our experience-in both blessings and curses-in progress and disaster.

In considering the history of Israel, however, this principle alone is insufficient to explain the great magnitude of Israel's sufferings. There is another dimension. Through the centuries, the millenia, Israel has been and continues to be a tangible and visible target for dark spiritual forces which are directed against the living G-d himself. No one can touch G-d; but the individual Jew and the nation of Israel are within reach of those whose hatred is directed against G-d, and who would foil the fulfillment of His purposes and disrupt His plan for the people of His covenant and the nation of Israel.

This hatred has been manifested time and again throughout the ages. To name only a sampling, there have been the crusades, the inquisition, the pogroms. In this century, we have seen the Holocaust, as well as the humiliation of, and later reneging on, numerous agreements regarding the land of promise. Since the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, there have been many wars and many more terrorist attacks. Most recently, there has been the Gulf War with scud missiles, threatening chemical mayhem. Then there was, and continues to be, the forced pressure of the 'peace' negotiations and calls of "land for peace" - despite the fact that Israel is the only nation on Earth that was created by a sovereign act of G-d (Genesis 15) and whose borders are defined by G-d (Numbers 34:1-12). For in (Exodus 32: 13) He said,

"...All of this land which I have spoken of will I give to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever."

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And when in the summer of the year 2000, the Prime Minister of Israel indicated that in return for the much prayed for "peace", Israel would be willing to give most all of the territory of the Holy Land reconquered in the 1967 War - a war commenced by the Arabs with the declared purpose of destroying Israel - to the Palestinians for them to be a state, those very Palestinians rejected the offer, declaring that the Jews had no right to Jerusalem or to the Temple Mount, that the Bible was "forged" to show such a connection between the people of Israel and the site of His House, and then commenced a wave of terrorism, sending human bombs to kill and maim teenagers at discotheques and families at pizza lunches.

Yet the recent events in the land of Israel notwithstanding, with sorrow and regret, we must admit the truth and confess that the greatest sufferings imposed on the Jewish people and Israel throughout history have come from the so-called Christian church and from those confessing the Christian faith. For this we must all ask their forgiveness. The forces directed against the Jews have misrepresented G-d and have wrongly interpreted His Word in an attempt to rob Israel of its inheritance which is based on (Genesis 17:7-8) a sovereign promise from G-d (Exodus 6:4) and an everlasting covenant (Deuteronomy 4:31). Despite the fact that these expressions of evil are totally contrary to G-d's everlasting covenant, His unchanging nature and purpose, these actions were and continue to be "justified" by these evil men and nations for their own ends.

But as the Bible declares, G-d HAS NOT forsaken His covenant people (Jeremiah 31:31-40); and, "as new covenant believers," we are commanded by G-d in the Bible to stand together with the Jewish people whom the world has abused. As the fulfillment of prophecy is for the Jewish people - for them the realization of their covenant and for them the answer to their prayers of countless generations:

"And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." (Amos 9:14-15).

John Brown Founder (Amos 3:7)

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The economic and political stability of Israel, indeed, its very survival is at stake not in any small measure because of its dependence on imported oil and gas. The desire to free Israel of such dependence has opened up unexplored areas of Israel and, today, more sophisticated exploration and drilling techniques than previously used are being utilized to assess the oil potential of those areas.

The State of Israel lies in the heart of the Middle East and is surrounded by areas in neighboring Arab countries which contain the world's largest oil fields. These oil fields are the blessings and posterity which G-d had promised Abraham also for his son Ishmael in (Genesis 17:18-20) and by Isaac's blessing also of his son Esau in (Genesis 27:38-39). The genealogies of Ismael (Genesis 25:1218) and Esau (Genesis 36) show that their descendants became the inhabitants of modern day Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries from Egypt to Iraq, Jordan to Yemen.

The State of Israel, as a member of the free world and as the only true, stable democracy in the Middle East, strives to find oil to remain independent from outside political pressures.

In 1988, the Government of Israel, acting through the government-owned Oil Exploration Investments Ltd., its affiliates and subsidiaries and geological consultants of renowned international reputation, established the hydrocarbon potential of Israel, and validated the existence of significant quantities of recoverable oil and gas in the Land of Israel, as also exist in the neighboring countries of the Middle East.

Past exploration efforts have yielded several small on-shore discoveries and the recent, significant gas fields off-shore in the Mediterranean Sea. But the "real potential" still awaits discovery!

Following continued assessment of all geological and geophysical data, renowned petroleum engineers, geologists and geophysicists continue to ask ..."where is the most logical place to drill where we can be sure of 'tapping' those vast reservoirs of oil?"

Yet, there is an "ANSWER", and it is found in the most "overlooked" source of geological information available to mankind today ... the Bible! The archaeologists have found the Bible to be their unerring guide to hidden treasures ... Why cannot the geologists utilize the same "tool" to find this oil?

So we searched the Bible and found numerous occasions where, I believe, the Bible in describing the division of the Land of Israel among the sons of Jacob - commencing in Genesis (Chapter 49) when Jacob on his deathbed summons His sons and says "Gather yourselves together, that I might tell you that which shall befall you in the LAST DAYS" (Genesis 49:1) and concluding in Deuteronomy (Chapters 32 and 33) with Moses' song of praise of G-d and his blessings of the twelve tribes as G-d prepares him to view the "Promised Land" which HE had given to HIS chosen "Children of Israel" - makes direct reference to the existence of OIL in Israel.

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So, friends of Israel, as we begin "The Great Treasure Hunt" ... may we join hands with the Government of Israel and its people and together look toward and pray for "the discovery of OIL in their homeland, the Land of Israel" and on the "Head of Joseph" as promised in the Torah by the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 49:25, 26) (Deuteronomy 33:13-16); and then G-d said, "I will even gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel" (Ezekiel 11:17) and Israel will be graciously comforted and restored. (Micah 7:18-20) (Ezekiel 37:15-28)

While visiting Israel with Alger Wolfe in May 1983, John Brown's prayer to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was for oil to be found in Israel. This prayer and G-d's specific instruction to John were based on the Biblical portion describing the Dedication of the First Temple in Jerusalem and Solomon's prayers thereat. (I Kings 8:22-66)

"Moreover concerning a stranger [John Brown], that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country [U.S.A.] for thy name's sake: (for they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm); when he shall come and pray towards this house; hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to ALL that the stranger calleth to thee for [Oil for Israel]: that all the people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name." (I Kings 8:41-43).

"And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the early rain and the late rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine OIL [the OIL of Israel]." (Deuteronomy 11:13-14)

These three specific sets of instructions received by John Brown in 1983 from G-d while in the land of Israel, were a consuming "fire" which has been born by him through the years for the exact purpose that G-d first lit it in his heart! Today, G-d continues to confirm, by HIS Word, the reality of HIS promise when HE also promised ...

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