HOW U.S. WHEAT BELT BARELY ESCAPED DISASTER! - And What it Means to You
Eugene M Walter
You need to know what's going on in America's breadbasket. Behind the facade of current high production, an unprecedented food crisis is fast shaping up. Our days of plenty are numbered. Few realize that we are right now on the threshold of what is destined to become the greatest food crisis in the history of the world.
UPSET weather has again plagued large sections of the U.S. wheat belt. This year's crop has had to survive prolonged drought, furious winds, untimely freezes, cutworms and heavy rains during harvest. Millions of acres didn't make it. More than 13 million acres — 20 percent of the total winter wheat acreage seeded this year — will not be worth harvesting! WHY are our fields so cursed? What does it all mean — and where will it end? This article will tell you. But first, let's look at some of the specific areas which have been affected by upset weather this year.
Wichita Area Hit Hard
The Wichita area (Sedgewick County), in the south-central part of Kansas, is normally one of the richest wheat-producing counties in the entire nation. But not this year. As we flew into Wichita from the south we counted literally dozens of tractors ploughing under abandoned wheat. At one point fourteen tractors were visible from the air at once! Stock was turned in on many of the fields, and many more thousands of acres would be turned under as soon as the farmers could get to them. One 40-million-bushel storage elevator just south of Wichita (which we later found to be all but empty) was surrounded by fields which had been ploughed under. One tractor was turning wheat under right in the very shadow of the elevator. On the edge of the Wichita city limits, there was an area where sand was covering a new four-foot-high fence to within eighteen inches of the top! To many old-timers it was reminiscent of the thirties. One 55-year-old farmer said that this season was the driest he could remember and that this was the worst wheat crop he had seen in his lifetime on the land. County Agent Don Ingels told us, "We are in the very center of the worst part of the drought area in the whole state. Sixty-five percent of this county's crop is gone. One third to two fifths of the total wheat acreage has been abandoned already, has been killed out, and will not be harvested at all. Half of the remainder is in a questionable stage. They will probably leave it and harvest it, but it will most likely not make more than six to eight bushels per acre, and our total yield in this area we expect to be the lowest in history. We normally produce five to five-and-one-half million bushels of wheat in this county; this year it will be one to two million bushels... We have been in a drought situation ever since December 1965... We have received only 2.6 inches of rain since January 1, and we should have had about seven normally. We only received a little over twelve inches last year when we should have received thirty. We have never had a drought like this." The farmer needs to get close to the twenty-bushel-per-acre mark to cover his expenses. This year the best wheat in the area would only make fifteen bushels per acre — a sharp drop from the past five-year average of twenty-five bushels. Since the time of our tour, heavy rains have broken the drought — at least temporarily. But as far as this year's wheat crop is concerned, the rain did more harm than good. Mr. Ingels has just informed us by phone that the rain — coming during harvest — was making it impossible to get into the fields in the bottom lands. Yet these were the areas of the best remaining wheat. Now this wheat was beginning to rot. He also said that as a result of the rain the weeds were growing so fast that at least ten thousand additional acres of wheat in the county would have to be ploughed up. Now take a look at southwestern Kansas.
Year of the "Triple Attack"
"The 1967 wheat crop in southwest Kansas will go down in history as a victim of drought, cutworms and freeze." So says Andy Erhart, Superintendent of the Kansas State Experiment Station at Garden City. "I can't think of any year when we have had a triple attack of the worms, the drought and the freeze... From what I hear, it will be less than a fifty percent crop in all these counties out here [in western Kansas]." This is the considered judgment of retired U.S. Representative Clifford Hope, Sr. of Garden City. These statements pretty well sum up conditions for the 1967 wheat crop in southwestern Kansas. A look at some of the individual counties of southwest Kansas will make the picture of the damage of this triple attack more graphically real to you. Gordon O'Dell of the Agricultural Conservation and Stabilization office in Finney County estimates that at least 40 percent of that county's 170,000 acres of dry land wheat has been lost to drought, freezes and cutworms. County Agent Merlin Line of Kearny County estimates that at least fifty percent of that county's wheat is gone. "Drought and worms had already taken their toll of the crop. The freeze just put the final touches to it," he said. (The freeze here referred to took place in early May — late in the spring by our Roman calendar. But by God's Calendar — the only calendar which accurately reckons the seasons — this year had an extremely late spring. Hence colder weather was to be expected later than normal) Up in Wichita County (not to be confused with the city of Wichita which is several hundred miles east) many fields have been ploughed under. Only time will tell how well those that still remain will pan out. In neighboring Greeley County, Bruce Stinson of the Tribune Experiment Station reports that his county didn't have much wheat left when the freeze struck! Only ten to fifteen percent of the original wheat crop remains. In Hamilton County to the south, the situation is similar. The County Agent there estimates that at least fifty percent of the wheat is gone and what is left is far from good. Over in Grant County the freeze took a heavy toll. Vast stretches of wheat turned white and then brown as a result of the freeze. We personally inspected a good bit of this area both from the air and on the ground. It was a tragic, moving sight. Kansas, however, is not the only part of the wheat belt that is suffering from drought.
Drought in the Old Dustbowl
Southeast Colorado is in even worse condition than southwest Kansas. Flying low over this area, it is possible to travel for miles without seeing even a tinge of green from the air. Colorado State Representative Forrest Burns of Lamar said: "The winter wheat crop, first withered by drought and then caught in a springtime freeze, has been virtually wiped out." On his farm he personally suffered a 100 percent loss and declared the freeze a worse disaster than the 1965 flooding of the Arkansas River. He said that he had talked to many farmers from southeast Colorado, the Oklahoma Panhandle and northern New Mexico who felt the same way. The County Agent in Lamar, Mr. Fred Fitzsimmons, told us that he hasn't seen a good crop in this area since taking up his post in 1963! Before the recent rains many people in this region were making comparisons with the thirties. Some were even declaring conditions to be worse than the situation in those days. To the south, in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, in the extreme western tip of the Panhandle, the situation is similar. In the county seat, Boise City, those who lived through the thirties agree that before this last rain it was far drier than it ever was then! In the non-irrigated areas it was powder dry four to six feet deep. Once again, the recent rain didn't help the dry land wheat this year: 95 percent of that had already been abandoned or grazed out! Foster Zimmerman, County Agent for Union County, in northeast New Mexico, told us that his area was the driest it has been in the past twenty years. The last significant rain — before the rain this June — fell in the county last October. In much of the Texas Panhandle the story is the same. One farmer from the Amarillo area told us that he has 3,000 acres of wheat and hasn't harvested one bushel in the past five years! He manages to keep in business with cattle. We could go on with report after report — but you ought to be getting the picture. Drought and upset weather have been a lot more severe this year than most people realize. It covered a large enough area to seriously reduce the expected year's production. Ignoring the damage is not going to make it go away.
An Unfair Analysis?
We know full well that some will feel that this report is "overdone" — that it is too pessimistic — that it completely ignores the areas where there will be good wheat crops. We have not ignored those areas. But we have shown that the damage is too vital and too extensive to ignore. Some resent it when you look at the facts realistically. They like to feel that man is self-sufficient. They foolishly think that man has learned to cope with the elements — and even control them. Man thinks he doesn't need the help of a Creator God. But God is about to PROVE to man that he is utterly incapable of guaranteeing his own future well-being! Hiding your eyes from the way conditions are won't alter the facts. And conditions are serious! And one big reason that today's conditions are so serious is that, on the surface, the picture appears far brighter than it really is. This superficial picture is dangerously deceptive because deep down we are in real trouble!
A Record Crop?
"But how can you say that conditions are bad when we will have a record crop this year?" some will object. "Why, even Kansas itself, in spite of the upset weather is expected to produce almost 200 million bushels." Assumptions are made easily. But record crops? All right, let's look at that question and answer it — honestly. 1966 produced a wheat crop in the United States of 1.3 billion bushels. Presently, the 1967 wheat crop — winter and spring wheat crops combined — is optimistically estimated to, produce 1.4 billion bushels — an all-time record. This estimate does NOT take into consideration the bad weather in the spring wheat areas which produce a fifth to a quarter of the nation's wheat. It also does not consider the damage of rain during harvest in Kansas. Remember that the experts were not expecting the triple attack of drought, freeze and cutworms which did so much damage to the winter wheat crop. But they happened. Well, let's hope the experts are right — that we will have a good spring wheat crop. Barring further calamities from drought, cutworms and such, it is possible — just possible — that we may have a wheat harvest of about 1.4 billion bushels. But why do the experts assume there will be no summer drought, cutworms, and blowing top-soil? Because we have to assume it in order to get our record crop. Such a yield would be 100 million bushels more than last year. But it still would be 50 million bushels less than the estimated total demand, including overseas shipments under Food for Peace and to cash customers abroad. The big question, however, is what did we have to do to GET this large 1967 crop? The answer: we planted 26 percent more acres to wheat. In other words, for every one hundred twenty-six acres planted to wheat this year, we can hope to harvest no more than 8 percent more wheat than we did on one hundred acres last year. That amounts to a drastic nationwide average reduction of 13 percent in yield per acre! Think about that statement for a moment. Make sure you really get it. Understand what this implies for the future.
No More Land
We are now running out of additional land that can be planted to wheat! During the past year, because of fear of shortage, the government first increased the wheat acreage allotment by 15 percent, and then later it increased it by another 15 percent. But some farmers could not make even this increase because they simply did not have enough land! We actually have only a 26 percent increase in total wheat acreage. Next year we will need even more wheat. Where will the land come from then — and in the years that follow? Are you beginning to see why the picture is not as rosy as it might first appear? But there is yet another major reason — equally as deceptive — as to why we may be able to produce a big crop even in the face of severe drought in many areas. That reason is irrigation.
Irrigation — the False Savior
In the thirties, when irrigation was little used, the effects of drought were felt immediately. Not so today. Today lush, green fields of irrigated wheat stand right beside fields which are powder dry four to six feet deep. The irrigated fields give a certain percentage of the ground a cover, and as long as the wind doesn't blow too hard, no one really notices the seriousness of the drought. Yes, irrigation gives a false sense of security. It deceives people into thinking that all is well when all is decidedly not well. Irrigation as it is practiced in the wheat belt today is one of the biggest deceptions in agriculture! But we are about to be rudely awakened out of our stupefying daydream! In just a few short years it is going to turn into a horrifying nightmare! We are going to be forced to face reality! As an example of what is happening, take Cimarron County in the tip of the Oklahoma Panhandle. Just six to eight years ago this county had only a few wells. Now it has mushroomed to more than 450! It is impossible to get an accurate count because wells are being added continually. But the underground reserves are fast disappearing! Just two or three years ago, farmers there were not satisfied with wells that produced less than 1200 to 1600 gallons per minute. Now they are having to settle for wells producing only 400 to 600 gallons per minute! And that in just three short years! No one wants to talk about what might happen during the NEXT three years! One well driller confided to us that some new wells in this area were falling so fast that there will be no water in them in another year or two!
The Sinking Water Table
In Kansas, the graph on well drilling is going straight up. So far this year, 14,000 applications for new wells have been received! Half of these are from the 17 southwestern counties in the state. "We are mining water rather than allowing it to be replenished," Mr. McGovern of the Kansas Geologic Survey Board told us! Speaking of river water_ for irrigation purposes, Riley Dixon, Assistant Geologic Engineer for southwest Kansas said, "There is more river water appropriated than is available." Yes, time — and water — are fast running out! The Great High Plains of the Texas Panhandle is the largest area of fine soils in the U.S. But ever since 1962 — with the exception of one month — it has received below-normal seasonal moisture. Meanwhile, irrigation has leaped forward. Speaking of the sharply falling water level, Jack Music, Director of the Great Plains Research Center near Amarillo, told us, "In this area it [the water level] is dropping three feet a year. We have only one hundred feet of gravel bed, and of course you can't pump it right out [to the bottom]." In some parts of the High Plains, because of accelerated use, the water table has dropped as much as six to ten feet in just the past year! Asked about the replenishment of this water, Mr. Music replied: "This is a high plains area, and there is no way in which this water can be replaced... It is in a continuous decline." Not even heavy rainfall over a period of many months will make a difference. We learned that because of the nature of the soil, the most that could be replenished by rainfall in one year would be from one tenth to one half of an inch! And this is assuming that no irrigation was taking place and that all the needed moisture was being supplied by rainfall! When this water is gone, IT IS GONE! No replenishment is possible! This chilling fact ought to make the hair stand up on your head!
Still No Control on Pumping
Yet serious as the water crisis is, at this time there are virtually no controls on it. In Texas, farmers are considered to own the water under their land and they would fiercely oppose any restriction of their right to use this water freely. In Kansas, retired Representative Clifford Hope told us, "Kansas law gives authority to the State Board of Agriculture to deny permits when they think the situation has become such that they shouldn't permit any more wells. But that's a delicate matter. The time will come when... there will probably be enough public sentiment built up so that the Board of Agriculture will step in and stop the issue of permits. But it will probably come later than it should. Those things always happen that way." They certainly do! It is simply not man's nature to face unpleasant facts until he is FORCED to do so. So in our society of phony values, the water table plummets downward while the price of land skyrockets upward. As one County Agent stated, "It has gone hog-wild." Land that was selling for $50 an acre just a few years ago is now being watered and gobbled up by professional men — doctors, lawyers, etc. — for $400 and $500 per acre! What will it be worth when the water is gone?
Irrigation a Stopgap Measure
Contrary to popular opinion, irrigation is not a permanent solution to drought. At best, it is a temporary stopgap measure. It may briefly — for a few short years and at heavy expense — help produce good crops. But irrigation affords no protection at all from hail, freeze, bugs, worms and cutting winds. On our tour we saw irrigated fields that were ruined because dust from neighboring nonirrigated fields had blown in and cut out the wheat. In other instances, dust had blown in and smothered the irrigated crops. Getting set up for irrigation places the farmer under a tremendous financial burden. He must have a good crop just to meet production costs — to say nothing about making a return on his investment. Irrigation in the wheat belt is a substitute for obedience to God's laws. As such, it is a curse. God sends drought and upset weather to let us know that something is wrong — that we are sinning. But instead of acknowledging and confessing our sins and changing our ways, we ignore God's warning. We try to find a way around the penalty. But it is still there and it keeps piling up — ready to be unleashed all at once in a sudden, furious assault! So far there has been relatively little blowing in the drought areas. But when the irrigation water gives out, and when the powder-dry land around it starts to blow — WATCH OUT! Mankind will insist on breaking God's laws until those same laws break him.
Our "Surplus Complex"
We have gone into considerable detail to show how irrigation and increased acreage make this year's crop appear far better than it actually is. We have also shown why this false impression is soon going to backfire. But of far greater danger is our whole national attitude toward our supply. We have an appalling "surplus complex." We are so used to having more than enough, that we just can't imagine that it could be otherwise. We drive by our huge storage elevators in Kansas and Oklahoma and we somehow just can't bring ourselves to believe they are empty. But they are! The surpluses of five years, three years and even one year ago are GONE!
The Empty Elevators
Sedgewick County Agent (Wichita) Don Ingels, whom we quoted earlier, told us, "We were down to 27 percent of our capacity a year ago; now we are down to practically nothing. Our capacity here, including the Garvey Elevator just south of town, is 92 million bushels. I expect we have about eight to ten million bushels of milo, wheat and barley stored in all our facilities." Up in Hutchinson, Kansas, we toured the huge Farmer's Co-op Commission elevator. This imposing structure is 127 feet high, 90 feet wide and one-half-mile long! It holds 18 million bushels and is the largest elevator under one head house. It was filled to a scant 15 percent of capacity! The other huge elevators in Hutchinson told the same story. Three, five, nine, fourteen were the usual percentages of occupancy. A call to several of the elevators in Salina produced the same low percentages. No elevator throughout the entire area had greater, than twenty percent occupancy! Out in western Kansas, Andy Erhart, whom we quoted earlier, and who is well known and respected throughout western Kansas, told us: "I am sure there is very little wheat in this area, most of the elevators have shipped their wheat out, even in the small elevators. This has been a development many of us have seen for years. Everybody has been griping about the surpluses... and here all of a sudden we find out surpluses can diminish awfully fast." In Enid, Oklahoma we visited the huge Union Equity elevators with their modern facilities. These elevators account for 50½ million of Enid's 66million-bushel storage facilities. Once again the story was the same. The elevators were filled to only six to eight percent of capacity! Yes, America's once-bulging wheat bins are all but empty! Our 1.6-billion bushel stockpile of the early 1960's has in five short years shrunk to a paltry 400 million bushels! Today we find ourselves in a position where, "The composite wheat, corn and soybean reserve of the United States would not meet our needs for more than 90 days if disaster wiped out our annual production!" (By George McGovern, U.S. Senator from South Dakota, writing in Look, March 7, 1967) But are we concerned? Are we excited about it? NO! Years of rich material blessings have spawned a sluggish, dull, complacent attitude of mind. We have never experienced a food shortage before and we don't know how to react to it. We are in a hypnotic stupor and can't get our eyes open to reality! On our entire tour the only people we found who were really concerned about the situation were the big elevator men. And they were concerned only because their storage business was being hurt — not because they really feared a food shortage!
An Incredible Meeting
At one point in our tour we were able to attend a meeting in which Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman addressed a group of farmers. After his address there was a question-and-answer period during which the farmers could present their views and questions. The whole tenor of this meeting was absolutely incredible. It was unbelievable! The fear of every man who spoke was that after finally ridding ourselves of "burdensome surpluses" we would again overproduce — thus depressing farm prices! Imagine! With 12,000 people dying of starvation daily, other countries are asking, "Will we be able to produce enough?" Yet here were men asking fearfully, "Will we produce too much?" What a world we live in! There was only one written question which expressed concern over the low food reserves. It was summarily read and then put aside without comment, but with the insinuation that it wasn't worthy of discussion by intelligent men. No one would have dared to state a similar question orally — he would have been laughed to scorn. After this meeting, we visited briefly with one of the leading men in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Again we were appalled. The understanding of conditions which this well-known man had was absolutely shocking. He told us that India was the best off today that she has been in the past ten years! How far out of touch with reality can you get?
Can't Imagine Famine Here
"I don't think we will ever get into a situation where we will not have enough for our own needs. We grow wheat over such a wide area and under such widely varying conditions that we just could never get enough bad weather or enough worms, or enough freezes or anything else, to reduce the supply that much. So we would always have this [enough wheat for ourselves]." This statement by a prominent Kansas politician sums up the attitude of a lot of people. Is this your attitude? We think a nationwide crop failure happens only in China or Russia — that it can't happen here. But it can! In the agriculture meeting just cited, the question was not, "Will we be able to produce these products?" This was assumed. Rather, the question was, "How much will we be able to get for our products?" The farmer just assumes that next year he is going to have a good crop. As one County Agent put it when we asked what would happen if they had another year or two of similar upset conditions in his area, "We just can't afford to have another year like this. We don't even consider that we could have it, we go ahead with the expectation that we won't have!" Yes, just "be optimistic" — and hope that somehow our troubles will go away. But our troubles are not going to just "go away." They are just beginning.
It WILL Happen Here
You may think that drought and famine can't happen here. But it WILL! History and prophecy prove it! Human civilization has always brought disaster to the land and death to its inhabitants. There has been no exception! Do we think that we will escape any more than other people? Have we forgotten that the forefathers of our English-speaking peoples — the "lost" ten-tribed House of Israel — brought ruin upon the land of Palestine? In Abraham's day the Jordan Valley was well watered, like the garden of Eden. But by the time that God cast our forefathers out of the land, Palestine had become desolate. Notice what happened to Babylon. Ancient Babylon was watered by the Euphrates River. The inhabitants denuded the mountains of forests; the riverbeds were filled with silt; fields were flooded, sweeping away irrigation works. Salt deposits built up by irrigation water ruined many acres. The remainder were laid desolate over the centuries by invading armies. A decaying, pleasure-loving nation looked to the government for help — just as we are doing today! But what the people could not do for themselves, the government could NOT do! Have we forgotten that vast portions of the Sahara were once forested and inhabited? Look at it today! Persia and Syria were also civilizations based upon irrigation. And it was the exploitation of this system that made the land a desert.
America Going the Way of Rome
At one time the hills adjoining the Mediterranean (in Yugoslavia) were heavily forested — today not a trace remains! The Romans began the destruction of the forests. The Slavic inhabitants continued to denude the hill slopes. The Venetians consumed the remaining trees for timber for their fleets. The hillsides can't be reforested today. They are too badly eroded. The same process is occurring in the U.S. A. today. WE SEEM TO BE UNAWARE THAT SOIL EXHAUSTION AND EROSION HAVE PROGRESSED MORE RAPIDLY IN THE UNITED STATES THAN IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, except perhaps South Africa. Apparently we have also forgotten that the Romans knew the value of contouring, the value of grasses and legumes, the rotation of crops and organic manuring! Simkhovitch, a historian who wrote about the fall of Rome, said that Roman knowledge of agriculture was "fairly startling." Yet Rome fell! Why? Listen to the answer! Taxation to support an ever-increasing bureaucracy and a huge army wiped out the farmers who couldn't make sufficient profit. Most Roman farmers then borrowed money. Taxes increased. The farmer, in turn, had to exploit the soil to pay his debts. Within a few generations of the height of the Roman Empire, the soil of the entire Mediterranean (except Egypt) became sterile by overwork and ruthless exploitation. TODAY taxes — for a huge bureaucracy and great military machine — eat away more than one third of all income. Poor farmers are being forced off their lands. Today less than 8 percent of the populace is concerned with agriculture, and the average age of the American farmer is 54! The land is constantly becoming more exhausted. History is repeating itself! We are going the way of Rome. Most farmers know many of the better agricultural methods — but for economic reasons they do not practice them. Better farming methods are not always immediately profitable. Many farmers are victims of circumstance — sometimes victims of their own poor judgment or faulty management. As we have said before — periodic drought and floods are here to stay. They are going to become worse and worse until this nation is brought to its knees and DESTROYED!
What Prophecy Says
Your Bible prophesied OUR peoples would be stricken with drought, famine, and disease epidemics! We are the "lost ten tribes" of Israel of your Bible — and you can PROVE that yourself by reading our free booklet, The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy. Listen to what God said would come upon our peoples — and notice how exact conditions are becoming today! "But if you will not listen to me; if you will not do all I order you... I will subject, you to terrible woes, to consumption and fever that waste the eyes and wear life away: you shall sow seed in vain for YOUR ENEMIES will eat YOUR crops!" (Lev. 26:14-16, Moffatt translation) God said, "For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but eight gallons, and the harvest shall only be a tenth of what is sown!" (Isaiah 5:10) Can you imagine carrying a hundred sacks of wheat into the field to plant, and harvesting only ONE sack? But THIS HAS HAPPENED — and MORE IS COMING! DROUGHT was prophesied to strike our peoples! Listen to the startling accuracy of these prophecies! "I will make the sky hard as iron for you and the earth hard as bronze, till you spend your strength in vain; for your land shall bear no crops, and your trees shall bear no fruit" (Lev. 26:19-20). "... The Eternal will strike you with...drought, blasting, and mildew, that shall pursue you till you perish; the sky overhead shall be brass and the earth underfoot shall be iron; the Eternal will turn the rain of your land into powder and dust dropping from the sky upon you..." (Deut. 28:22-24). The EXACT conditions you've just read about! Further, God warned, "... a strange nation will eat up your crops and all the fruit of your labor, and you shall be utterly crushed and broken continually, till you are driven mad by the sight of it all... Much seed shall you carry to the field, but little shall you reap!" (Deut. 28:33-38) These prophecies are sure! They WILL happen!
Why Droughts and Floods
God has not deserted the world. He does intervene in nature. God is not only the Creator; He is also the Controller and Preserver of the universe. HE CONTROLS THE WEATHER. And He can intervene for you if... ... if you do what He tells you. This is your only chance of deliverance. God nowhere promises you won't have afflictions, but He has promised to deliver you out of them. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Eternal delivereth him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19, K. J. Version). Why is it that God is permitting these terrible afflictions to come upon our people? ".. Because you would not listen to the voice of the Eternal your God, KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS and orders for you... because you have not served the Eternal your God with joy and with a glad heart for all your abundance; therefore, with hunger and thirst and nakedness and utter poverty, shall you serve the foes the Eternal sends against you!" (Deut. 28:45-48, Mot) Turn also to Amos 4:7-8: "And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city" — floods — "and caused it not to rain upon another city" — droughts — "one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: YET HAVE YE NOT RETURNED UNTO ME, saith the Lord." (King James Version) Drought, floods, famines, are the result of man's having turned from the ways of God. Man is bringing these sufferings upon himself. We are about to reap one final catastrophe as a result of our DISOBEDIENCE. The only way of deliverance is through REPENTANCE — sorrow for having done wrong, and a determination to do what is right from now on.
Still Time to Repent
This year God has yet spared us from a complete crop failure. His Work — this Work — of warning our people of the impending disaster is not yet completed. But in a few short years it will be. Time is short! When God's Work is done — when our people have been sufficiently warned — famine, pestilence, disease and death are going to be unleashed in full fury on those who will not listen and change their ways. You are receiving your warning — your witness — NOW. Will you heed?
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