{"id":538,"date":"2011-02-27T15:44:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-27T15:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/come-and-listen-to-a-story-bout-a-man-named-brown.html"},"modified":"2011-02-27T15:44:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-27T15:44:00","slug":"come-and-listen-to-a-story-bout-a-man-named-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/come-and-listen-to-a-story-bout-a-man-named-brown.html","title":{"rendered":"Come And Listen To A Story ‘Bout A Man Named Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Israel\u2019s energy luck has changed in recent years due to the discovery of natural gas deposits off its northern coast.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s even a possibility of using its oil shale to extract black gold, something that wasn\u2019t economically feasible a few years back.<\/p>\n

But all of this was no surprise to Christian Zionist John Brown, founder of Zion Oil & Gas<\/a>.\u00a0 He\u2019s in Nashville at the National Religious Broadcasters convention this weekend where the local press reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Brown, whose company\u2019s U.S. base is in Dallas, sees these new developments as signs of God fulfilling his promises in the Bible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s God\u2019s blessing for the nation of Israel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zion Oil and Gas Co. was inspired by a passage in the Old Testament, Genesis 49:25: \u201cEven by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So far Zion hasn\u2019t actually uncovered any oil deposits nor have they been involved in the gas discoveries.\u00a0 For a change, the local press expressed a modicum of skepticism:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might be some good reasons to look for oil in Israel, but the book of Genesis isn\u2019t one of them,\u201d said Jay Phelan, senior professor of theological studies at North Park University in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Phelan thinks that believing the Bible predicts oil in Israel is more Indiana Jones than theology.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s reading the Bible like there is a puzzle and there is prize hidden if you find the right answer,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seems that the search for Israeli oil and gas supplies is a big theme among the ready-to-rapture crowd.\u00a0 I wonder if they need it for their rapture-mobiles?<\/p>\n

If Israel does make a bunch of money on this, I\u2019m sure that most it will go to the Haredim anyway.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israel\u2019s energy luck has changed in recent years due to the discovery of natural gas deposits off its northern coast.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s even a possibility of using its oil shale to extract black gold, something that wasn\u2019t economically feasible a few years back. But all of this was no surprise to Christian Zionist John Brown, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,12,20],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-bible","tag-fundamentalist-christianity","tag-israel"],"yoast_head":"\nCome And Listen To A Story 'Bout A Man Named Brown<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Israel\u2019s energy luck has changed in recent years due to the discovery of natural gas deposits off its northern coast.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s even a possibility of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/come-and-listen-to-a-story-bout-a-man-named-brown.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Come And Listen To A Story 'Bout A Man Named Brown\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Israel\u2019s energy luck has changed in recent years due to the discovery of natural gas deposits off its northern coast.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s even a possibility of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/02\/come-and-listen-to-a-story-bout-a-man-named-brown.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-27T15:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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