WHEN oilmen go prospecting they usually put their faith in geologists to help their risky ventures. John Brown prefers to trust God and the Bible to make him and the State of Israel rich.

Later this week his company, Zion Oil, will begin drilling in a patch of dusty earth of northern Israel pinpointed by ancient biblical prophecies.

For the 65-year-old Michigan businessman the moment will mark the culmination of a two-decade journey that started when the evangelical Christian first came to Israel and read passages from the Old Testament suggesting great wealth lay below the Israeli landscape.

No matter that little oil had been discovered there. Mr Brown has persuaded hundreds of other American evangelical Christians to help him to raise the £3.6 million required for “Project Joseph”. He believes it is his life’s mission to unearth Israel’s oil wealth, secure the future of “God’s covenanted people”, and lay the ground for the Messiah’s return.

“I know in my heart that what God told me was true,” he said. “I’ve no doubt we will find oil. It’s not a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’. I believe it’s my purpose in life. We’re going to help the people of the nation of Israel.”

Mr Brown’s reliance on biblical prophecies may seem far-fetched but he may yet have the last laugh. Recent scientific studies have shown a “high probability” of a commercial oil find of up to 500 million barrels — enough for 15 years’ production — and there was a big oil find further south last year.

Zion Oil’s 54-metre drilling derrick is in place and is due to start drilling. Over the next two months the team will drill to 4,500 metres, with the work expected to cost £1.4 million.

Mr Brown, who made his money in the tool business, first visited Israel in 1983 as a newly “born again” Christian, and he says that over the years he was guided to biblical passages that pointed to riches beneath the Holy Land.

Tracts from the Old Testament books of Genesis and Deuteronomy foretold wealth in the ancient lands of the tribes of Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and Jacob’s son, Asher. Moses says in Deuteronomy xxxiii, 24: “Most blessed of sons be Asher. Let him be favoured by his brothers and let him dip his foot in oil.”

When Mr Brown superimposed a map of the 12 tribes of Israel on the modern-day Holy Land, he decided that the most likely spot was the site near Maanit kibbutz, near Nazareth.

In what Mr Brown describes as another “miracle”, the oil exploration licence for the area became available in 1999 when an Israeli company ran out of cash after drilling down 2,300 metres and finding nothing.

Mr Brown formed Zion Oil and Gas, based in the Texas oil hub of Dallas, in 2000 to explore the Maanit site. He found old geological surveys that showed any oil could be much deeper, at 4,500 metres.

Established US oil companies were not interested in joining the project because of Israel’s “pariah” status in the Arab world. “They weren’t willing to risk their wells in the likes of Libya by drilling in Israel,” he said. Initially Mr Brown struggled to raise the finance, but since an evangelist named Hal Lindsey enthused about Zion on American television last autumn £1.9 million has rolled in from hundreds of evangelical Christians.

“The one source of the kind of wealth that would achieve the conditions of the prophecies is oil,” Mr Lindsey told viewers. “A major oil discovery would not only deliver Israel from the tyranny of Muslim oil weapons, but also provide great wealth demanded by the Prophet Ezekiel. If Israel had a major oil discovery it would change the entire balance of power in the Middle East, and also the world.”

For that reason Mr Brown will not rest until he succeeds. “This is God’s promise to the people of Israel. In my journey I have a desire, a purpose, a destiny to help the people of Israel with their oil requirements,” he said. “When we discover oil it will be huge politically for the Israeli people.”

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