No single intellectual voice contributed more to the development of modern biblical prophecy than Dr. John F. Walvoord. During his six-decade-long career as an author, pastor, teacher, and educator, Dr. Walvoord articulated a comprehensive view of biblical prophecy that was based on his rock-solid belief that all the prophecies in the Bible either have been, or will be, literally fulfilled.
Dr. Walvoord began his teaching career as a professor of theology at Dallas Theological Seminary in 1936. In 1952, after the death of Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the seminary's founder and first president, Dr. Walvoord became president and built it into a formidable graduate school of theology. In 1986, after serving Dallas Theological Seminary for 50 years, Dr. Walvoord became chancellor.
From the beginning of his professional career, Dr. Walvoord spoke and wrote about biblical prophecy in light of current world events. Even before the world believed there could be a Jewish return to the Holy Land or a nation of Israel, Dr. Walvoord insisted that a new Jewish state would emerge and that no one, whether it be the British, the Palestinians, or the Arab nations, could stop this inevitable fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
Before the Arab-Israeli wars of the 1960s, Dr. Walvoord maintained that Israel would win more land and power. He saw God's plan for the end-time begin to unfold as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict became the focus of NATO and Western leaders. He taught that soon all the nations of the world would be embroiled in conflict leading to the events prophesied in the books of Daniel and Revelation.
Walvoord's studies led him to author, coauthor, or edit more than 50 books on Bible prophecy. One, "Armageddon, Oil, and the Middle East Crisis," became an international best seller in 1974. This work was later revised and expanded in 1990 during the Gulf War with Iraq. More than 2 million copies of this work are in print, and it has been translated into 10 languages. This work proved the value of biblical prophecy in explaining world events.
Dr. Walvoord believed that the events of September 11, 2001, were the opening salvo to acts of sacred terror in the name of jihad that would push the world to the brink of destruction. In addition, he sensed that weapons of mass destruction would proliferate and force the West into preemptive military strikes. The need for oil would require massive military intervention to protect the oil fields of the Middle East.
Viewing current events through the lens of biblical prophecy, he believed it was evident that soon--very soon--the world would be engulfed in a terror never before imagined. In 2002, he began working on a new book to help make sense out of the confusing events that filled the headlines. From that unfinished work--and his classic "Armageddon, Oil, and the Middle East Crisis"--comes "Armageddon, Oil, and Terror."
