The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Has Become a Joke

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is an emergency stockpile of petroleum maintained by the United States Department of Energy (DOE). It is the largest publicly known emergency supply in the world. The oil is stored in giant underground salt domes in Louisiana and Texas. The SPR has a capacity of 714 million barrels.

The United States started the petroleum reserve in 1975 to mitigate future supply disruptions as part of the International Agreement on an International Energy Program after oil supplies were interrupted during the 1973–1974 oil embargo.

Because President Joe Biden’s poll numbers were hurting, he authorized in March the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the reserve for 180 days. The Biden administration will release another 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in December in a bid to drive fuel prices down.

Since 2015, Congress has been selling the oil in the reserve to partly fund the national deficit, in unpublicized sales. The DOE has run at least seven sales since 2017, selling 132 million barrels, or about 18.2% of what had been in the reserve.

According to legislation already in place, the amount of oil in the reserve could fall to as little as 238 million barrels in the next five years. This will be a 67% reduction to the oil in the reservoir since 2010.

The SPR was never a vast underground sea of oil that could fuel America for a long time. The most recent inventory was 401.7 million barrels. This equates to about 20 days of oil at 2019 daily U.S. consumption levels of 20.54 million barrels per day, or 41 days of oil at 2019 daily U.S. import levels of 9.141 million barrels per day. However, the maximum total withdrawal capability from the SPR is only 4.4 million barrels per day, so it would take about 91 days to use the entire inventory.

The administration has no working plan to refill the reserve. In 2012, the total value of the crude in the SPR was approximately $43.5 billion, while the price paid for the oil was $20.1 billion (an average of $28.42 per barrel). The current spot price of oil is around $90 per barrel, so we would pay through the nose to refill the SPR.

Biden has turned the SPR into a joke. The inventory is now so low that it could not help with any major crisis. If Biden and future presidents are going to deplete the SPR during every future oil spike, the reserve could eventually run dry.

The SPR has just been neutralized by our so-call friend in the Arab world. The oil-producing cartel OPEC and its allied countries announced they would cut their collective production by 2 million barrels a day. Biden went to the Saudi Arabians to beg them to produce more oil, and they made a fool of him by taking the opposite action.

The U.S. used to have all types of reserves, but we sold most of them off in good times. We once had a billion-ounce reverse of silver. The treasury now has zero ounces of silver. Our ability to import goods from China has caused us to not even have reserves of essential drugs and rare earth metals. The only meaningful reserve we have left is a huge stash of government cheese. The dairy lobby has convinced Congress to fund this hoard that sits in old mines and rots.

The DOE has raised the possibility of limiting fuel exports in a bid to force domestic gasoline prices lower, but the administration has in recent days toned down its rhetoric, according to two industry people. Oil company executives and analysts have said the move could backfire because it could cause producers to slow their drills if they no longer have access to foreign markets, increasing domestic prices.

The SPR was a good idea, but government corruption ruined it. We should have had an SPR of at least 2 billion barrels. Energy is something that you can’t live without. Europe now sees the value of having greater gas reserves. Great Britain was really caught with its pants down. Its natural gas reserves are near 100%, but they will only last a few weeks. Some European nations have reserves that will last them until next spring.

One of the most inspiring scriptures that explains why we have a problem with oil is Deuteronomy 25:4. I like Timothy’s quote that is sighted below. When Biden came to office, he attacked oil companies as greed firms that should be driven out of business. He still attacks them as profit-driven, but that is how the capitalist system works. Without a reward, you get less production. God is not only the Lord of the universe, but He is the world’s wisest economist.

“For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward” (1 Timothy 5:18).

–Todd

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Mystery Babylon Machinations

Geopolitical warmongering intrigues are in full bloom for those who watch for end-of-the-age signals. Societal and cultural Sodom-like reprobate madness is on display and growing in ways prophesied by Paul in Romans chapter 1. National and global economic scheming and profligate spending treachery by governments have the seas of humanity roaring.

And now, as if to fully round out the picture of end times developments, the religious harlot system is in dynamic agitation, shaping dramatically for all who are truly watching to see.

John, given the vision while on Patmos, describes that wicked religious entity that will ride the back of the Antichrist’s regime.

“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration” (Rev 17:1-6).

It is an amazing thing to observe, even for those who are alert to things that must come to pass according to God’s Holy Word. And the story developing is nothing short of prophetic in consideration of the above prophecy given John to forewarn those who will have the ability to discern the signs of the times.

The picture of the coming harlot that rides the beast has been in the last days developing process for some time. We have gone over how the global warming matter has morphed into the climate change mantra. The earth is being destroyed by mankind is the incessant hue and cry. There is a religious-like fervor to “save the planet.” The basic color scheme for the developing secular-humanistic system – the hue of the robes worn by the priests of climate change – is, of course, green.

Also, in order to save the earth, there must be a drastic depopulation of the planet. The Georgia Guidestones told us so. The population must be pared down to a maximum of 500 million inhabitants –else all of mankind will face the fate of extinction.

That message and doctrine has at its heart, although the priests of green have never said so publicly –the elimination of humanity through the process of murder of children while in their mothers’ wombs. This doctrinal matter within the climate change religion serves, in my view, as a sacrificial presentation upon the white-hot Moloch-like altar of the self-appointed gods of this world. Thus their Utopian world can, they seem to be convinced, be brought to perfection.

The following information was recently brought to my attention. To me, the information seems to bring into focus the formation quickly taking place – the symbolic religious harlot of Revelation 17.

Between November 6th and 18th, 2022, the UN climate conference COP 27 will take place on the Sinai Peninsula in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Religious communities and religious leaders have a key role to play in addressing climate change and climate justice, which requires deep transformation within society. The knowledge of what changes are critically needed to diminish long-term harm to the planet is readily available.

However, bringing about change in action demands deeper changes in attitude, a change of heart. This has been the domain of religions for millennia. Religions are sources of inspiration for the transformation of the heart and the ensuing changes of attitude…. Religious leaders will call for a reexamination of deep-seated attitudes and for identifying ways to transform these attitudes for the wellbeing of Earth, our common home.

Over the weekend of November 12th-13th, few official discussions or activities are planned at COP 27. This provides a major moment when the attention of media and participants can be turned to interreligious climate messaging and a transformative vision. On Sunday, November 13th, religious leaders will ‘return’ to Mount Sinai, a mountain whose memory and meaning loom large as a place of revelation in the collective consciousness of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and others.

As an ancient sacred space, it was the site of prophetic experience, and receiving God’s message, for the prophets Moses and Elijah in all three Abrahamic traditions, and the prophet Muhammed in the Muslim tradition. COP 27 taking place in Sinai can remind humanity of our sacred responsibility to care for God’s creation.

Source: In Sinai – A Prophetic Call for Climate Justice and Ceremony of Repentance, The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, https://interfaithsustain.com/returning-to-mt-sinai/

Source: “Returning to Sinai” — A Prophetic Call for Climate Justice and Ceremony of Repentance, Elijah Interfaith.org https://elijah-interfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Returning-to-Sinai-Proposal-1.pdf

So we get insight at this late, prophetic hour into the religious system John forewarned of and which the false prophet of Revelation chapter 13 will, no doubt, greatly expand.

The following is the statement of commitment by the leaders of this developing Mystery Babylon system.

“We come to Sinai in a movement of repentance and quest. We seek a new vision for humanity and its endangered existence, and we seek to receive and amplify a message of life-sustaining living and habits that humanity needs to hear today. In this spirit, the project partners will bring together premier religious leaders from the world’s major religions to gather upon Mount Sinai to engage in a first-ever Climate Repentance Ceremony, and to put forth a prophetic interreligious call to action: ‘climate Justice: Ten Universal Commandments.'”

Goals of the Event

• Inspire and unleash the power of religions, religious leaders, and faith communities as change agents for climate action and as sources for inspiring and motivating discussions among politicians and civil bodies.
• Motivate action among religious communities and the wider public to curb climate change.
• Invite media to cover religious leaders’ advocacy in combating climate change.
• Promote a coalition of religious leaders to work together for climate action.
• Generate new faith-inspired climate education materials for broad use.

With the Harlot getting ready to ride the Satanic beast Daniel and John saw – the last world empire that Antichrist will rule – observers of the times from the preTrib view can do none other than believe the Rapture is very near.

Here again is how to be part of that Blessed Call to believers when the Lord Jesus Christ’s Voice sounds as a Trumpet.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

—Terry

Why Would You Make Such a Thing?

For hundreds of years, nations have been seeking out ways that will advance their ability to wage warfare. A great deal of research and development has been in the areas of conventional, chemical, nuclear, and biological weaponry.

It was all fine when mankind was working on making a cannonball fly faster and farther. When we reached the point where we had bombs that could destroy an entire city, we needed to ask ourselves why are we going down this path.

The Cold War arms race was pointless because no side could win in a nuclear war. If the USSR had managed to knock out 90% of the US nuclear bombs in a surprise attack, our military would still have had enough nukes to devastate the USSR.

For decades, each side continued to add more and more nuclear weapons to their stockpile. By 1991, the US and the USSR had 65,000 nuclear bombs. The power of the bombs has increased over the years. The atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima had the explosive power of 15,000 tons of TNT. The first hydrogen bomb had the power of 10 million tons of TNT. In 1961, the USSR tested a bomb that had a yield equal to 60 million tons of TNT.

Luckily, President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev managed to negotiate a massive drawdown with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Both sides now have around 10,000 nuclear bombs. We’ve gone from being able to destroy the world 100 times over to just 20 times over.

The world has spent $5.5 trillion on nukes. Vast areas of the world are contaminated by nuclear tests and the development of bombs. The US government has spent over $40 billion so far just trying to clean up the decommissioned Hanford nuclear production complex in Washington state.

We may have fewer nuclear bombs, but the development of nuclear technology goes on. The Russians are constantly upgrading their ability to strike targets. They have just developed a missile that is known as “Satan II.” It can carry up to 15 warheads and has several countermeasures against anti-ballistic missile systems.

The biggest concern in nuclear technology is hypersonic weapons. These are missiles and projectiles which travel at between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound – about 1 to 5 miles per second. Russia and China claim to have a hypersonic system in the development stage. If deployed, they would be very hard to shoot down, and the reaction time would be greatly reduced because they would avoid radar by flying much lower than a conventional missile.

Scientists at Boston University recently came under fire for an experiment in which they tinkered with the Covid virus. Breathless headlines claimed they had created a deadly new strain, and the National Institutes of Health rebuked the university for not seeking the government’s permission.

Several liberal media news outlets say the 80% death rate in mice was just clickbait headlines for social media sites and the manipulated virus strain was actually less lethal than the original.

The key word in all news stories about the Boston University virus is “created.” I don’t see why we would want to make a new strain of any virus that causes death. I can see that knowledge can be gained by seeing how a virus might spread, but research like this carries great risks, foremost among them the chance that an accidental lab leak could create a new pandemic, killing millions of people.

It is possible that COVID-19 was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. It would be the crime of the century if it turns out Wuhan was the source of the virus. Over 7 million people died during the pandemic, and the world spent $10 trillion on COVID-19 relief.

There are government labs that could have developed a virus that is many times more deadly than COVID-19. The Nazis and the Japanese tested all types of viruses on inmates during World War II. Our ability to redesign the workings of the virus ensures that someone will eventually build a bio-weapon.

I was shocked at how quickly COVID-19 swept around the world, and it did this three times. President Biden has declared the pandemic to be over, but we could easily see round four. China is still fighting the virus. Lockdowns in key port cities have greatly hampered supply chains. President Xi’s zero-Covid policy is putting a massive strain on the Chinese economy.

Until Jesus returns to rule with a rod of iron, mankind’s evil nature will compel him to seek to develop weapons of warfare. Once our Lord takes over, no nation will need weapons. The Prince of Peace will make conflict a distant memory for a thousand years.

“And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).

–Todd

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These Lot-like Days

It seems I just can’t turn loose of the prophecy I believe to be perhaps the most immediately pertinent to Christ calling His Church to be with Him. And, at any rate, I wouldn’t want to turn loose of it if I could bring myself about to do so.

The words are from the very mouth of God, and they speak directly to the most desired prophecy for our day from the standpoint of what we, as pre-Trib believers, look to be imminently fulfilled. I believe He is talking about the Rapture.

Jesus, while teaching about the same time frame He spoke of during the Matthew 24:36-42 Olivet Discourse prophecy, said the following.

“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30).

He was foretelling the characteristics that would be starkly observable before and during His next intervention into this earthly wickedness. That time will, as I study things surrounding the Rapture in context, look much like the very times we’re enduring now.

We have, of course, considered this many times before. However, there is one specific angle that might pull into a little sharper focus just how much our darkening moments of history might be likened to Lot’s time in Sodom.

To begin, we must first consider God’s words to Lot’s uncle, Abraham.

The Lord said He would tell Abraham things to come because He knew Abraham would do righteously. God wanted him to know His plan to deal with Sodom’s wickedness once He determined that it was necessary. The Lord, Himself, stood with Lot, then, and discussed Sodom’s fate while the Lord’s angel representatives headed down toward Sodom and Gomorrah.

“And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” (Genesis 18:20-23).

We remember that there was then a profound back-and-forth discussion between the Lord God and a lowly human being—Abraham. God answered each of Abraham’s questions as the old man asked them. Abraham was appealing to God to have those in the wicked cities spared from destruction. He asked if God would relent if 50 were found to be righteous—then 40, then 30, then 20.

Finally, after Abraham asked if God would spare the cities if the Lord could find even 10 righteous, and 10 couldn’t be found, Sodom and Gomorrah’s fate was sealed.

God had said to Abraham before the countdown began—following Abraham’s initial question about the possibility of the cities being spared:

“That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25).

It was almost as if the Lord was mildly indignant to have it thought of Himself as so unjust as to condemn the righteous with the unrighteous.

Alas, there were not 10 righteous left in the city of Sodom. There were only Lot and his small family. God’s Word calls Lot “righteous,” even though Lot dwelt among perhaps the worst culture and society biblically recorded in such detail. The detail was so graphic as to make the fact of the level of unrighteousness unmistakable.

While it was business as usual during daylight hours, with the cities being apparently prosperous, buying, selling, building, planting, etc., when the sun went down, it became a habitation of every sort of evil—particularly of debauchery, with homosexual rapaciousness leading the wickedness. The lustful males came even against the angels who visited Lot.

The raging men of the city threatened Lot with the worst possible attack if he didn’t go along with them and send out his visitors. They were just on the verge of tearing down the door to get at their would-be victims. The only ones God considered righteous in the city at that moment were hated and threatened by the rest, who were the unrighteous in God’s holy view.

And this is the angle I would like us to consider for now.

Jesus foretold in Luke 17:28-30 that it will be for those alive at His next revealing or intervention like it was at that time for Lot when he was hated and threatened by the wickedness of that society and culture.

We have covered many times the God-rejecting, hate-filled actions and activities of our own troubled times. Is there any question of how the evil and wickedness have increased exponentially?

The following brief excerpt tells of one pastor’s story who has endured such assaults by the unrighteous against the righteous. He was imprisoned in Turkey for preaching of Jesus as the only way of salvation. He was finally released after the Trump administration and others pressured Turkey to release him after that government had sentenced him for the crime of preaching the gospel.

He tells that he sees in the United States the same sort of Sodom-like actions coming against believers.

Andrew Brunson’s message is straightforward, but it is far from simple: The Church needs to brace for a dark wave of persecution that is coming…

“Most of the institutions of society are supporting things that a faithful follower of Jesus cannot embrace… and that’s how they will justify persecuting us,” Brunson said.

Believers who stand for this truth will be marginalized in schools, jobs, banks and more, he added. Testing believers’ resolve, the pressure to conform will manifest socially and eventually financially.

“What has emerged as the main flashpoint is gender identity and LGBT. And wherever that is intersecting with religious freedom, LGBT is winning,” he said. “Now there is a requirement that people not only tolerate but that we embrace and celebrate this ideology. And if you don’t, you are seen as someone who is hateful.” (“American pastor delivers sobering message of coming ‘dark wave’ of persecution, All Israel News, October 19, 2022)

The days (and nights) of Lot are gathering around those who hold to biblical Christianity. At the center of the threats is the same spirit of Antichrist that infected the rapacious hordes of ancient Sodom.

Jesus promised He will catastrophically intervene and execute judgment and wrath against the unrighteous when these conditions become undeniably evident at the end of the Age of Grace (Church Age).

You want to escape with those God considers righteous. You want to be removed from the gathering wickedness and the judgment that must destroy it the same as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Here, again, is how to escape the coming judgment and wrath—through the Rapture promised by our Blessed Hope, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

—Terry