Hal Lindsey’s Cousin Quits Zion Oil

Back on April 1 last year, Hal Lindsey used his WorldNetDaily column to promote shares in Zion Oil:

A man named John Brown – without much more than his faith – has put together an oil company and purchased leases in a specific place in Israel. It is a in a location that is very much a part of some important prophecies in the Old Testament. He founded the Zion Oil and Gas Company as the result of studying prophecies God proclaimed to two of the sons of the Patriarch Jacob.

Lindsey then did some bizarre Biblical exegesis to prove that there is oil in Israel, and concluded:

At this moment, Zion Oil and Gas is selling stock in order to finish its first well. It is right in the center of an area that geologically looks promising. I believe the main reason others have failed to find oil is that they did not drill deep enough.

Investment in oil exploration is always a big gamble. But, I believe this is a gamble worth taking for the sake of Israel. Besides, I believe God’s Word is giving some pretty good clues here.

What Lindsey didn’t mention was that one of the directors of Zion Oil was Ralph DeVore, who had an 18.1% share in the company. As I noted in an update to my original blog entry on this, not only is DeVore also a director of Hal Lindsey’s ministries, he is actually Lindsey’s cousin – and so Hal was using his WND column to puff his cousin’s shares, without disclosing his family’s interest.

But now, a January 5 pdf report on the Zion Oil website has announced that DeVore resigned at the end of December 2004, and includes some juicy correspondence between him and the other company directors. It seems the problem began in July, when DeVore sent a breathless letter, full of Biblical quotations, exclamation marks and bizarre capitalisations, to Brown and his Vice-President Glen Parry:

Last night (Sat., 7-24) the Lord woke me up. I could not go back to sleep. He was troubling my spirit about Zion Oil! Lately I have been intensifying my prayer time, asking the Lord Jesus why Zion has not reached its minimum offering. I have been asking Him to show me what, if anything, is standing in the way of completing at least the $6.5 million minimum offering before August 31st.

…The following is what the Lord Jesus through His Holy Spirit revealed to me concerning the present state of Zion:

After complaining about the lack of corporate prayer, DeVore gets down to what’s really bothering him:

IS ZION OIL PRIMARILY AN EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN CORPORATION? IS ZION OIL PRIMARILY A JEWISH ORGANIZATION? OR IS ZION 70% EVANGELICAL AND 30% JEWISH or THE OTHER WAY AROUND? IS ZION 50% EVANGELICAL AND 50% JEWISH? Some belief will dominate!…If the majority of Zion’s Leadership is guilty of vacillating between Christianity and Judaism, then the Word of God states that we are guilty of “Syncretism”! The MIXING OF GOD’S WORD WITH OTHER RELIGIONS! THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE CALLS THIS REBELLION TOWARDS GOD! IF THIS IS TRUE ABOUT THE MAJORITY OF ZION’S LEADERSHIP, THE WORD OF GOD ALSO SAYS WE ARE BEING “DOUBLE MINDED”.

An another memo, to CEO Gene Soltero, DeVore wrote:

…I personally believe that over 90% of the shares that have been purchased from our current IPO are due in some way to Hal [Lindsey]‘s TV reporting on Zion’s oil exploration activities. On his TV show, Hal openly spoke about John Brown & Zion Oil being an Evangelical Christian organization with Evangelical Christian Leadership!

John Brown then wrote to DeVore, urging him to resign or face being removed after the next board meeting in Tel Aviv. Concerning this meeting, Brown writes:

if you do attend, then I will expect that you will openly share your true feelings and concerns and tell our Jewish brethren exactly how you feel about them as non-believers in Jesus taking over Zion.

Needless to say, in his next communication DeVore takes offence to the suggestion that he is a religious bigot. But it is in the final document, from Soltero to DeVore, that the real reason for DeVore’s sudden objection to non-Evangelicals in the company can be divined:

Prior to and during the public offering registration process you repeatedly committed to organize presentations by John [Brown] to large groups of prospective investors in the Houston area. After the effective date of our registration you failed to organize a single meeting. Based on your representations and commitments we went through the expensive process of qualifying by exemption to sell to Texas residents. This required us to have a minimum offering of $6.5 million which we failed to meet. Your inaction severely harmed Zion in two ways. If we hadn’t relied on you for Texas investors we could have not required such a high minimum and our offering would have succeeded with the $3.7 million we did raise. We didn’t see any of the money we thought would be coming from your arrangements and commitments…Please do not call my cell phone again or bother me at home. You may communicate with me solely at the office.

In other words, the company failed to reach its minimum offering because they took DeVore’s advice, but DeVore failed to keep his end up. DeVore then received a message from God blaming the fiasco on the fact that too many Jews were involved with the company, undermining its Christian character. Another great moment for Christian Zionism…

20 Responses

  1. […] UPDATE 2 (5 Feb 2005): Ralph DeVore has quit Zion Oil, citing the company’s “rebellion against God” for allowing itself to become more Jewish than Evangelical. See here. […]

  2. Another score. I expect the Establishment Press to pick up the story momentarily… cosmically speaking, I’m afraid.

  3. Hi, enjoy your site. I get the feeling you don’t think too much of Christian Zionists, eh? It’s progress though in my opinion … sure beats the crusades, etc.

    Thanks again, Erik

  4. oh me. Are these people for real?

  5. […] away. Last year Hal Lindsey encouraged his readers to buy shares in the company – but as was revealed exclusively on this blog, he failed to disclose that his cousin, Ralph DeVore, owned a large share of the […]

  6. […] revealed on this blog!) that his cousin Ralph DeVore was a major share-owner. DeVore later fell out with the rest of Zion Oil’s board, since when Hal has been silent on the subject, but last year […]

  7. Well this is very interesting. But why would a man slam the door and come against God’s chosen people, the Jews. Had he truly known scripture, the Lord says He will bless those who bless them, and curse those who curse them… But as for the oil, where does Zion Oil sand today and WHO sits on the board? Jews, Amercians, Arabs? God does hide treasure, or nuggets of information in the Word for those who are willing to seek diligently to fnd them. I lot of things in the Bible are only fully understood when you dig into the Jewish culture to understand their traditions, feast celebrations, & practices. So dig deep… The Lord says “deep calleth to the deep” If you only want dirt, scuff around on the surface, you will get dirt, trash. Dig just below the surface, you get surface treasures, dig deep, you get OIL ( greater the anointing!) There is a price to pay for great treasures, anointing and OIL!!!
    God bless Israel and all the Jews. Come quickly Lord Jesus… Peace to Israel!

  8. He will bless those who bless them, and curse those who curse them

    But which ones should we “bless”? The “Greater Israel” crowd who believe that Israel has a divine right to lord it over the Palestinians, or those who are working for an end to the Occupation and justice for all? Jews, like every other group, have a large range of opinions, beliefs, and values. Your support of some means you have to be opposed to others. The ethical lobotomy which says “bless God’s chosen race no matter what” doesn’t actually engage with this difficulty.

  9. 2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2Pe 2:2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 2Pe 2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
    These verses immediately come to mind as we see the greed of another false prophet of Zionist racism, who attepted to use scripture for his own gain. John 3:16 says God loves the WORLD, not just the Jews. 1Pet 2 speaks of the “chosen generation”, the “people of God” as those who have accepted Jesus Christ, not as the Jews. Peter said “God is no respecter of persons, but men of ALL nations who fear God and work righteousness are accepted of Him”. Samuel never took any gain from the people, but the false prophets divine for money and yet lean on the Lord, saying “Is not the Lord among us? No evil can come upon us!” (Mic 3:11)

  10. […] used his status as supposed “prophecy expert” to promote the share option in his WorldNetDaily column (failing to mention that a relative stood to gain), but this was insufficient. Brown complained […]

  11. The whole world, including Zion Oil and Gas Company and the state of Israel itself belongs to Satan.

    Hal and his Zionest Christain Brothers don’t know this because their God has blind the eyes of non-believers, just as the eyes of all the world religions including Christiandom’s.

    This also includes Jehovah’s Witnesses. I added this because they claim not to be a part of Christiandom, of which they are. See how the God of this world has blinded their eyes to the truth!!!… No different with Zionism, Americanism, Islamism or any other ‘ism.

  12. So who are the believers, then?

  13. […] blog), was that his cousin Ralph DeVore was a major shareholder. However, a few months later DeVore left Zion in acrimonious circumstances, and Hal has been quiet about the subject since […]

  14. […] to Ralph DeVore, to whom he also made a presentation gift. This was unexpected, since, as I blogged in 2005, documents on the Zion Oil website suggest that DeVore had had quite a spectacular falling-out with […]

  15. […] is particularly interesting, since – as I exclusively blogged in 2005 – one of Zion Oil’s major shareholders used to be a certain Ralph DeVore, a cousin of Lindsey […]

  16. […] Blake’s article avoids going into DeVore’s hilarious spat Zion CEO John Brown, which I blogged here). Blake observes that Unlike Ness, Zion is a legitimate wildcatting venture, with respected […]

  17. I am praying for zion oil to hit pay dirt, i do not have any stock in zion,but for gods people it would be a big help. when russia and iran comes against israel in the latter years, they are comming for the spoil, i think its the oil.

  18. So how would that be “a big help”, then?

    • Hi,
      I know that God’s plan for mankind is in stages or steps.
      I know you don’t like it and I agree it may seem masochistic in some way, but the way by which true peace and safety will come is through Jesus Christ.

      It’s sad that many will suffer and die during a time of tribulation. That is the result of the heart of mankind, and God’s justice.

      But after that time Bartholomew, God will bless the nation of Israel beyond measure and all nations will honor Israel happily.

  19. […] by Hal Lindsey, whose cousin, Ralph DeVore, at that time had a major stake in it (he later fell out with […]

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