John F. Walvoord, a scholar and author of books on biblical prophecy whose Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis gave end-of-the-world overtones to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, has died. He was 92.
Mr. Walvoord, a retired president of Dallas Theological Seminary, died Dec. 20 in Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas after a brief illness.
His best-seller on oil and the Middle East, one of about 30 books he wrote, was published in 1974 during a time of oil shortages in the United States and revised in 1990 during the escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf. In it, Mr. Walvoord related conflicts in the Persian Gulf region to the Bible’s apocalyptic Books of Daniel and Revelation, where empires of good and evil are locked in cosmic battles.
Mr. Walvoord predicted a world government headed by an atheist allied with Satan, leading to persecutions and natural disasters, interrupted by the second coming of Jesus Christ to judge the world.
The book sold about 1 million copies, including several to former President George H.W. Bush and members of his White House staff.
The sensitive nature of his subject launched Mr. Walvoord onto the national stage when the Gulf conflict broke out in 1991. He was a guest on Larry King Live and CBS This Morning, where he made distinctions between his approach to Biblical prophecy and that of other Christians who read the Bible literally.
Mr. Walvoord spent almost 70 years as a student and faculty member at Dallas Theological Seminary. He was president of the school from 1952 to 1986 and most recently was chancellor emeritus.
