R.J. Rushdoony wrote this little essay for The California Farmer back in 1976; and today it seems more on target than ever.
Every generation, it seems has its doomsday scenario, “We’re all gonna die!” When I was a boy it was nuclear war, everybody building fallout shelters. Today it’s Climbit Change. It’s always some grisly fate from which we can only be saved by Science. And Big Government.
But the earth is the LORD’s, not theirs.
It would do us good to bear that in mind.
I read his post. I agree, he nailed it. However, that sentiment of doom and gloom still resides within a large portion of the Christian community. That would be the last days, end times, Jesus is coming soon, all the signs have come to pass, things are getting worse worse etc. folks.
The biblical last days Jesus spoke about, took place over 1900 years ago. Since 70 AD, everyone who taught that, has been wrong, 100% of the time! And so are those today, who believe we are living in the last days.
I also used to be in that group, until I reread the scripture dealing with that subject.
In 1988, many of those doom and gloom folks believed Edgar C. Whisenant and his message, found in his booklet, “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will be in 1988.” So did many in my church. I heard sermons based upon this nonsense. Of course, it didn’t happen. But many of those reasons he used, which were all wrong (100% wrong), are still being used today, as the reason used to justify that we are living in the end times and Jesus is coming back soon.
I have a stack of books just like “88 Reasons.” All have been wrong, 100% of the time. Over and over, generation after generation, many Christians have gotten this wrong. Perhaps they need to believe what Jesus said. “Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, [who must be getting very old by now!] till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matt. 16:28). The last days and end times Jesus spoke about, not only would happen in those still alive, but did happen within that generation as Jesus said would happen. It’s not going to happen again. Trouble and turmoil sure, but Jesus’ last days and end times are long long over and gone.
I never even heard of the Rapture till I was halfway through college.
It’s not a universally accepted doctrine. Until The Late Great Planet Earth was written by Hal Lindsey, it was not well known in many circles.
We used to watch that. Didn’t convince us, though.
Didn’t convince me either. It’s an amazingly prolific movement, however.
The first I ever heard of the Rapture was from those little Jack T. Chick comic books.
Rushdoony definitely nailed it.
Back when I was in grade school, in the ‘60s, we were given the Weekly Reader; sort of a general interest newspaper for kids. There were the usual puff pieces, stories about the burgeoning space program and I remember reading about Alvin, a small submarine capable of exploring the ocean to greater deprhs than had been possible before. They always got in some environmental news, and I distinctly remember being told that if we didn’t curtail logging, immediately, there would be no more trees by the time we grew up.
Thirty some years later, I was looking out the window of my home in a pleasant second ring suburb of Denver, beholding the beautiful cherry blossoms in a neighbor’s yard, and the Weekly Reader’s warning came to mind. I was living in an average neighborhood, but the yards I could see out my front window reminded me of some sort of park, with all sorts of plant life. Behind that same house was a large green belt; a beautiful island of untouched land, growing in its natural state, which for Front Range Colorado, meant few trees, not because of logging, but because that just how it is in that area. In other words, the trees and the beauty visible from my front window were all there because of human activity. Metro Denver has more trees than the surrounding countryside.
Could the Weekly Reader have been in error? Perhaps the logging industry was just running behind schedule, or perhaps someone was trying to alarm children who lacked the life experience to discern the reliability of these claims. But it sure paved the way for more doom and gloom predictions, which is all we seemed to hear in the ‘70s.
In 1972, when I got my first car, gas was 24.9 cents per gallon. Maybe more if you went to Standard, Chevron or one of the other name brand stations, but for us plebians, a quarter would buy a gallon, and you could pump it yourself until you ran out of money, or the tank got full. My gas budget, with a car that got 14 MPG was about five bucks a week, and that included cruising around Denver and the occasional visit to the nearby mountains.
Then, over the winter, I started to hear about gas shortages, which had been reported upon in industry trade journals. In these journals, they weren’t saying that there wasn’t enough gas to go around, but merely that it had become a seller’s market and that there might be some upward price fluctuations. Hardly surprising, given the tumultuous nature of the petroleum industry, even from its earliest days. Petroleum has been a series of booms and busts with times that drinking water for drilling crews was more expensive per barrel than the oil produced, and other times when the price was much higher.
But the popular media got its mitts on the story and started a panic. By the summer of ‘73, in Denver, there were lines at gas stations, many of whom restricted purchases to five gallons per visit. This induced a shortage, not of gas, but a shortage of fueling points. It takes time to pull up to a gas dispenser, time to pump the gas, time to pay for the gas, and time to leave, so the next customer can pull into place. By restricting the number of gallons dispensed, the process of dispensing had been made less efficient. During all of this grief, if you drove 40 miles out of town, to Johnson’s Corners truck stop, it was business as usual. The grift only lasted a few weeks.
I have spoken to a number of people who worked in gas stations at the time and was unanimously told that their underground tanks were full and that distributers were calling frequently to ask them to take more fuel, during the very time were restricting quantity. When the last drop of ullage (free space) in every storage tank was used up, they had to ease the limits, and the “shortage” ended, instantly. All was well, but the price of gas was now about 50 cents per gallon, which would have been unthinkable, just one year before, but now we were happy to pay it. Ever hear of an Overton Window?
About the time we were breathing a sigh of relief, the Arab Oil Embargo came into being, and in 1974, the shortage we experienced in Denver happened in other parts of the country, although tellingly, it seemed to move from place to place, as it would if there was manipulation of supply. Choke ‘em in North Carolina, and sell the excess in South Carolina. Interestingly, it never happened again in Denver. A friend who was living in Texas at the time told me that there was a line of heavily laden tankers stretching out into the gulf during this period. I’ve heard this from others, as well, and I believe it.
We had a replay in 1979, with sales restricted to 5 gallons, but during which time I had a diesel car which got fuel mileage better than many motorcycles, so it didn’t matter much. While gas pumps were out of commission most of the time, I could buy all the diesel I wanted, 24×7. At the end of the 1979 replay, gas had magically reached $1.00 per gallon, and once again, people were glad to pay that much.
I once ran into a petroleum engineer, and asked how much oil was there. He corrected my question; the proper question is how much oil is there per price point? If you are willing to pay $10 per barrel, then only the easiest oil to recover is available, and that supply is somewhat limited. As the price increases, more methods of recovery come online and the supply grows rapidly. Oil that was unrecoverable in the ‘60s is readily available now, in part because the price is higher and more effective techniques are possible. From the narrow perspective of 1960s recovery, there is a critical petroleum shortage. From the broader perspective of the present, and the more advanced to recovery techniques available today, supply is much greater, and reserves are vast.
One other thing that has changed, is the efficiency of automobiles. The compact sedan I owned in the early 70s, with a small V8 engine, got 14 miles per gallon. The best selling car in the United States as of right now is the Toyota RAV4, a compact sport utility, which has about the same performance is that American compact from the 60s with a V-8 engine offered, yet gets somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 miles per gallon, and produces far fewer exhaust emissions. As much as I miss my old car, what we have today is certainly far better, far more durable, and far more reliable.
But the prophets of doom and gloom, haven’t given up. There will always be some new crisis which they are more than happy to capitalize upon. By some measures, we live in perilous times. There are two major wars, as I speak, and plenty of other trouble on the horizon. I don’t claim to have a handle on how all this will work out. By other measures, there is much to be thankful about our times. In the final analysis, all of us rely 100% upon our Creator, for life, for sustenance, and for the very fact that we exist at all.
I am very reluctant, to offer any predictions; simply stated, my track record of predictions would suggest that even my most valued opinions, are not much better than a random guess. I believe that God will restore His creation at some point in time, but I wouldn’t pretend to know when. Jesus told us to seek first the kingdom of God, and that all of the things would be added to us. I don’t know if my life efforts have always sought first the kingdom of God, but I do feel that I have been provided for, beyond anything I have any right to have expected.
Relying upon God is the opposite of the doom and gloom predictions that surround us. As much as I believe in God, I also believe in a wicked opposer, who seeks to undermine God’s purposes. With that in mind, it makes sense to me that such an opposer would be well served by doom and gloom, predictions, and I believe this to be the ultimate source of such predictions.
I remember those gas shortages and lines at the pump. When was the last time we had that–the 70s? with Jimmy Carter, Democrat. And then it went away when Ronald Reagan was president.
What a choice, though. Who’s more trustworthy–the old companies or the government?
It was a complex situation. In August of 1971, Richard Nixon sought to reign in inflation by imposing price controls. This started a cascade of events which placed the oil producers in an untenable situation. The cost of oil production governs the consumer price of many products which rely upon petroleum. When oil began to be commercially recovered, naturally, the oil producers went for the low hanging fruit; simple wells in places easy to access. In the US, commercial oil production started in Pennsylvania and then spread as other sources were discovered. This had a destabilizing effect on prices, because a newly discovered field could saturate the market and depress prices.
The Saudi oil fields were valuable because of the relative ease of drilling, but also because the oil recovered, known as Light, Sweet Crude didn’t require as much processing as oil from some other sources. The oil fields of Saudi Arabia were a big part of why gas was a quarter a gallon into the early ‘70s. ArAmCo, the Arab American oil Company was a little known name, but it was a major player in the prosperity of the postwar era.
In the environment of the ‘70s, the oil producers were caught between the opposing forces of increasing demand, and a regulatory environment which made exploration and development both more difficult and more costly, yet they were under pressure to hold down prices. I have to grudgingly admit that the manipulated shortages of the ‘70s may have been a matter of necessity. Simply put, they couldn’t meet demand without raising prices and the only way to raise prices was to scare the living hell out of the public.
I’m certain that greed played a role, and I’m not saying that the guys in smoke filled boardrooms were all saints, but without price increases, there truly would not have been a enough petroleum to go,around. It’s easy to forget, but nearly everything either has petroleum ingredients, or at the very least requires transport, which depends upon petroleum.
As I write, I am sitting with a Mexican blanket over my legs, to ward off the morning chill. Given my locale, it probably was literally made in Mexico, and is definitely a low tech item, consisting of natural fibers and some dye. Nope, little if any petroleum in this blanket, but it still required petroleum to plant the crops which comprise its fibers, petroleum to fuel their harvest and transport, petroleum to power the facility where it was made, petroleum to bring it to the US, petroleum to get it to the store where I bought it and petroleum for me to drive to the store and subsequently bring it home. The same is true for virtually every product used in the modern world.
Petroleum isn’t just about riding around in cars for fun; it’s foundational to our economy. There are efforts to move to renewable energy sources, but even these require oil. The massive windmills used to generate electricity are the product of massive amounts of petroleum products, intrinsic to their raw materials, manufacturing, transport, installation, maintenance and ultimately the decommissioning of these devices. I’ve heard it said that the petroleum embedded in their existence exceeds the electrical output, over the life of these devices.
Renewables may have potential, but it’s not a slam dunk proposal that they will reduce dependency upon petroleum. Beyond that, the development of many products is moving towards more efficient use of petroleum. The new, highly efficient, vehicle I am in the process of buying would have been unimaginable 50 years ago. Good mileage, good performance and listed as an Ultra Low Emissions vehicle, by the EPA. We are moving towards greater efficiency, mostly due to consumer demand.
The first oil “shortages” roughly coinciding with my coming of age, had quite an effect on me. I loved cars and airplanes (along with road graders, bulldozers, big trucks, etc.) from an early age. I read car magazines from childhood on and dreamed of buying a muscle car, souping it up, adding custom wheels, etc. When a slightly older friend did just that with a ‘69 Roadrunner, I was smitten with the results, but right about the time I was old enough to make that sort of thing happen for myself, buying a car that got poor fuel economy was starting to look like a very bad idea.
For years, I was somewhat obsessed with the notion that there would be severe fuel shortages and tended to drive economical vehicles. Well, it saved me some money, and perhaps reduced the temptation to drive fast, but whatever fuel shortages have occurred in my lifetime were caused by poor public policy decisions, price manipulation by suppliers, or political events. Oil makes a dandy weapon.
The “oil age” was first predicted to be ending not long after the first oil well was drilled, in 1859. I’ve heard announcements of “peak oil production” having been reached, several times throughout my life, but somehow it never comes to pass. We use petroleum because it works and makes economic sense. It’s far superior to whale oil, or burning wood for fuel. I’ve heard it said that nuclear fusion is the energy source of the future, and always will be. Advancements have been made, but I don’t expect commercial production of electricity by means of fusion to happen anytime soon. Perhaps when the Creator opens his hand to greater blessings for mankind, we might find such a simple, reliable energy source with far fewer negative effects, but there’s no way to know God’s ultimate plan until He reveals it to us.
There is a book entitled The Prize which, although over 30 years old, provides a lot of background on the subject, and is well worth reading.
There’s not much I can add to that.