Should Christians be Serious Preppers?
By Gina Miller
RenewAmerica.com
Listen to an audio
version of this column
This is a difficult column to write. It may earn me
scorn from fellow conservatives who strongly trust
in their hard-earned, stored provisions. But, it is
a subject that has weighed on my mind. The question
concerns Christians, not unbelievers. Is serious
"prepping" something Christians should do? Prepping,
as you may know, is the laying up of food, water,
weapons, ammunition and other supplies for the event
of future disaster, commonly referred to in the
prepper community by the initials SHTF ("stuff" hits
the fan).
There are Christian prepper communities. According
to one such Christian website entry:
The prepper sees the imminent collapse of the
American dollar, hyperinflation, breakdown of
society and the [disintegration] of the city
infrastructure such as roads, transportation,
telecommunication, water supply, electricity, gas,
etc. They start storing food, water, batteries for
survival, and even guns and ammunition for
protection of their hoardings. Many are looking for
lands to buy and so the prices of farmlands and
rural acreages have been driven up tremendously.
Preppers are increasing in numbers every day in
America, so some have called it the Prepper nation.
... Most preppers are mainly concerned about their
physical wellbeing during bad times and disasters,
so they focus on stocking up food, drinks, batteries
and other items that are required for survival. Some
are buying gold, silver and other precious metals as
hedges against the U.S. Dollar and economic
collapse. Others go further by looking for farmlands
and equipment for renewable energy such as solar and
wind powered generators. All these kinds of
preparation are highly essential when the Great
Tribulation occurs, but there are other more
important things to consider as well.
The piece goes on to express the importance of being
spiritually prepared in Christ. It admonishes us to
not do our prepping out of fear.
The Bible tells us that
God's ways and thoughts are not our ways and
thoughts. What seems wise and right to us is not
necessarily so, because the only true wisdom is
God's wisdom. The Lord is infinitely higher than we
are, and our very limited minds cannot grasp the
depth of the knowledge and wisdom of God, although
as we seek His wisdom, He gives it to us, and we
grow in it. The world tells us there is wisdom in
laying up provisions for bad times to come, and
there are also examples in Scripture of this, as in
God warning Joseph in Pharaoh's dream to store grain
before the famine in Egypt, and God advising Noah to
build the ark and load provisions into it for the
duration of the flood. What else does the Bible say
about this?
In Matthew 6:19-21 (KJV), Jesus says:
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon
earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also.
Further on in verses 25 and 31-34, Jesus continues:
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for
your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall
drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.
Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment?
... 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall
we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal
shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things
do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father
knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added
unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the
morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the
things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof.
That passage makes it clear that the Lord wants us
to put our faith in Him alone. Does that mean God
does not want us to be serious preppers? In defense
of prepping, some might point to Proverbs 21:20
(NIV):
The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but
fools gulp theirs down.
Is that an admonition to hoard, or more of a general
comparison of the behavior of the wise man and the
foolish man? Proverbs is full of such comparisons of
the wise and foolish and the Godly and wicked.
The Bible stresses the importance of work and the
folly of laziness. However, there is a big
difference between hardcore prepping and laziness.
Just because some of us may not be serious preppers
does not mean we're lazy. There are many of us who
have thought about prepping but have little to no
space for storing a lot of provisions. Neither does
everyone have enough money to spend on extra
supplies, other than a little here and there,
although even without much money, you could still
build up quite a collection over time.
Is prepping in keeping with God's instructions for
us? Not if you look to Jesus' words in Matthew 6.
But, if we do choose to prepare, how much is enough?
Three to six months' stockpile of food, water and
other supplies? How could we ever know how much we
would need? The answer is that we can't know, and I
believe therein lies the key to the whole issue. I
don't believe there is anything inherently wrong
with prepping, but as Christians, our faith must not
be in our supplies or our ability to procure them.
God makes it clear that He wants to be the sole
object of our faith and trust. Seek Him first, and
"all these things will be added unto you." All we
have comes from Him. "Unhealthy" prepping is when it
becomes more important to us than trusting the Lord
to know what's coming and what we will need.
Psalms 37 is
a marvelous chapter that contrasts the righteous
with the wicked. It declares that the man who trusts
in God will be taken care of by the Lord in every
way, but the wicked will quickly perish, even though
for a time it seems that the wicked prosper. In
verses 23-25 (KJV), David writes:
23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the
Lord: and he delighteth in his way. 24 Though he
fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the
Lord upholdeth him with his hand. 25 I have been
young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
The Lord knows what's coming, and He knows what we
will need. He will give Christians the things we
need when we need them. I'm not advocating lying
down and "doing nothing," because I don't believe
prepping is a bad thing, but we must keep it in
perspective. While prepping can be a great help in
certain situations, it is not what saves us or takes
care of us. Only the Lord does that, and while we
may choose to be preppers, as Christians, we must
always keep our focus on Him.