# Keeping the Faith and prepping!



## jro1 (Mar 3, 2014)

It's interesting how much flack I take when prepping as a christian....yes I am a christian, I know I have my flaws and I am not perfect! Anyways, a lot of people say I'm not putting my faith in God, when prepping. I know a lot of good people that will not prepp for that reason. My sister and brother in law with their three kids for example, choose not to participate in prepping because they feel it's not putting faith in the lord, and that God will provide when the time comes. It's tough for me and my Family because one day we will all have to take care of each other, And I fear having to provide for their whole family when the time comes. we try to put away an extra can of food here and there for that very reason, But I don't think it will be enough, and prepping can become very expensive when your already storing enough food for your own family! At times my sister and her family do entertain the thought of living out in the country off grid and provide for them selves country style living, but the fact of the matter is, it may be too late by the time they can afford too. Does anyone else run into these issues with Faith and Family? Just a thought!


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## oldmurph58 (Feb 8, 2014)

This probably wont help, but try telling them, the lord helps those who help themselves. If storms and blizzards are the norm in your area, well, god gave you a brain that knows this, and you should preppare. He isnt going to stop the weather or worse, just becouse people are praying. Tell them to look at the world. aren't the muslims preying to kill us? Didnt the jews pray, really hard too. the irish catholics pray every day for the protestant orangemen to go away, they haven't left yet. Tell them to look at history, most who came to north america, in the early years, were looking for freedom of worship, they found angry indians. They say chance favor's the preppared, maybe something will strike a chord with them. good luck!


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Personally, I do not think I could be a prepper and not also be Christian. By the same token, now that I have several years of prepping under my belt, I do not think I could really have an honest relationship with Lord without doing my part prepping. Unlike some (Survivalist77), I do not view prepping as a military exercise. I view prepping as a path to keeping my life and the lives of my friends and family as normal as possible during difficult times. In other words, my prepping is not about killing; it is about living. So prepping and my Christianity are inextricably linked.


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## SAR-1L (Mar 13, 2013)

From my understanding, one of the things Christian's are taught is to love your brother and neighbor.
Essentially be good to others and help others. I would place it in perspective like this...

How can you help others if you aren't prepared to help others, and you can't even help yourself?

You can want in one hand, and crap in another and see which fills up faster. Same with wanting to
help people if you don't have the skill, tools, or ability. By preparing for a disaster they are 
making effort to protect their family and help those truly in a time of need.

Reminds me of a joke btw...

_A religious man is on top of a roof during a great flood. A man comes by in a boat and says "get in, get in!" 
The religous man replies, " no I have faith in God, he will grant me a miracle."

Later the water is up to his waist and another boat comes by and the guy tells him to get in again. 
He responds that he has faith in god and god will give him a miracle. With the water at about chest
high, another boat comes to rescue him, but he turns down the offer again cause "God will grant him a miracle."

With the water at chin high, a helicopter throws down a ladder and they tell him to get in, mumbling with 
the water in his mouth, he again turns down the request for help for the faith of God. 
He arrives at the gates of heaven with broken faith and says to Peter, I thought God would grand me a 
miracle and I have been let down." St. Peter chuckles and responds, "I don't know what you're complaining
about, we sent you three boats and a helicopter."
_

Just maybe by being prepared they could be some one's boat in high water.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Ha! Ya beat me to it. I had just posted the same story. :lol:


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## SAR-1L (Mar 13, 2013)

lol, inceptor... no surprise you and I thought of the same thing.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

There are plenty of instances in the Bible, both Old and New testaments, that illustrate how preparing is the right thing to do. There is no reason to feel as if you are not living in faith when you are faithfully doing as the Bible would lead you to do.


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## Charles Martel (Mar 10, 2014)

I don't understand why any Christian would judge you for prepping. I've always subscribed to the old saying "pray like everything depends on God, work like everything depends on you". God will not save us from our poor choices. Failing to prepare for our family's earthly needs seems like an incredibly poor choice for people who claim to have an advanced understanding of future events. In my view, Christians have an additional moral obligation to work and to be prepared for what they believe is on the horizon. I don't know how one can possibly claim an understanding of the scriptures and prophecy and not feel like they need to take steps to be prepared for the events they depict.


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## slewfoot (Nov 6, 2013)

jro1 said:


> It's interesting how much flack I take when prepping as a christian....yes I am a christian, I know I have my flaws and I am not perfect! Anyways, a lot of people say I'm not putting my faith in God, when prepping. I know a lot of good people that will not prepp for that reason. My sister and brother in law with their three kids for example, choose not to participate in prepping because they feel it's not putting faith in the lord, and that God will provide when the time comes.


Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina,and Sandy tore up a lot of good Christians homes and lives.
If you were not a prepper you were pretty much screwed no matter what your beliefs were. The lord intends for the masses to take care of them selves and there family's.


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## Casie (Feb 26, 2014)

As Johnny Cash sang, "You're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good."!

There are over 30 places in the bible where men talk about God providing. They are teaching stories and they talk about having hope, or not giving up, or not turning to kings like Soloman for guidance but instead trusting in God. It's good stuff! But sometimes nice people will fixate on a single line of biblical text and can no longer see the forest for the trees. The King James Bible has 31,102 verses in it. That is one VERY big forest. But so many people will walk right up to a tree, put their nose right on it's bark, and stare. And then proclaim they know the forest. Of course it's silly! It limits your vision, and can bend your nose right out of shape! But we all do it at one time or another.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Then there is this:

1 Timothy 5:8 Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.


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## slewfoot (Nov 6, 2013)

Casie said:


> As Johnny Cash sang, "You're so heavenly minded you're no earthly good."!
> 
> There are over 30 places in the bible where men talk about God providing. They are teaching stories and they talk about having hope, or not giving up, or not turning to kings like Soloman for guidance but instead trusting in God. It's good stuff! But sometimes nice people will fixate on a single line of biblical text and can no longer see the forest for the trees. The King James Bible has 31,102 verses in it. That is one VERY big forest. But so many people will walk right up to a tree, put their nose right on it's bark, and stare. And then proclaim they know the forest. Of course it's silly! It limits your vision, and can bend your nose right out of shape! But we all do it at one time or another.


So well put, thank you.


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## slewfoot (Nov 6, 2013)

jro1,I have several cousin's of the same mind set and will tell you that they are "bible thumpin southern Baptist" and god will provide for them. I gave up some time ago trying to preach to the wall. I will let them believe as they wish. That is their right.


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## slewfoot (Nov 6, 2013)

My wife and I are good Christians and believe god will show the way but at times we need to help ourselves getting down that road.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

slewfoot said:


> My wife and I are good Christians and believe god will show the way but at times we need to help ourselves getting down that road.


God will show you the path but not provide the limo driver to take you down that road. Ya gotta hoof it on your own.

Put another way: if God did everything for us, what would be the point?


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## oddapple (Dec 9, 2013)

slewfoot said:


> My wife and I are good Christians and believe god will show the way but at times we need to help ourselves getting down that road.


I told the boys G-d is there for what we can't do ourselves, not what we already can.


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

You wouldn't go into winter with no wood in the woodshed because "God will provide." Knowing hard times will come and not doing something to get ready doesn't make any more sense.


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## oddapple (Dec 9, 2013)

slewfoot said:


> jro1,I have several cousin's of the same mind set and will tell you that they are "bible thumpin southern Baptist" and god will provide for them. I gave up some time ago trying to preach to the wall. I will let them believe as they wish. That is their right.


Well watch out for yours. I lived among predominantly rural baptists who began saying things like "If I run out of something I know where my neighbor lives." and they did not mean that in any christian way. Took all I had but I got AWAY from those people before it gets any worse...


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

For a really good book on a modern-day faith minded prepper, I suggest "_Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy_".

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: Eric Metaxas: 9781595552464: Amazon.com: Books

If you are not familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he was a German theologian in the 30's and 40's Germany. He smuggled many Jews into Switzerland and helped many others survive the Nazis. He was eventually executed for his role in the failed Valkyrie (spelling?) plot to kill Hitler. Although he might not have called himself one, he was most definitely a prepper by every definition I have read from the sane people here. At one point he even approached Winston Churchill trying to get some aid and supplies for the German Resistance. (He was rebuffed by Churchill.)

The book, however, is not light after-dinner reading. It is about 600 pages long and I found myself only being able to read about 30 pages at crack before I had to stop and just think about it for a while. That being said, if faith is important to your prepping, I cannot recommend it strongly enough.


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

First... the Saying God helps those that help themselves...NOT Biblical...

Second...Old testament taught EVERYBODY to put away for 6 years..because there was no growing, picking, etc on the 7th year....

Third.. The bible lays out that the end times will have famine, pestilence, a requirement for a mark to buy and sell.... 

In MY humble Opinion a Christian that does not prep must not have a solid biblical foundation...


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Maine-Marine said:


> First... the Saying God helps those that help themselves...NOT Biblical...


Ah but it is implied. See below.



Maine-Marine said:


> Second...Old testament taught EVERYBODY to put away for 6 years..because there was no growing, picking, etc on the 7th year....
> 
> Third.. The bible lays out that the end times will have famine, pestilence, a requirement for a mark to buy and sell....
> 
> In MY humble Opinion a Christian that does not prep must not have a solid biblical foundation...


yessireebob!


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

Yes, we have some apartments for section 8 folks in our town. They continue to have children, nothing wrong with that. When asked how they will support their family, they say the Lord will provide. I wonder how some folks can be happy in life living in minimalistic standards. Maybe I'm too caught up in materialistic stuff. Doesn't every parent want better for their children than they had? What happened to wanting to better yourself? BTW, appreciate the scripture quotes. Not a bible thumper, but have been touched by His Angels.


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## oddapple (Dec 9, 2013)

1skrewsloose said:


> Yes, we have some apartments for section 8 folks in our town. They continue to have children, nothing wrong with that. When asked how they will support their family, they say the Lord will provide. I wonder how some folks can be happy in life living in minimalistic standards. Maybe I'm too caught up in materialistic stuff. Doesn't every parent want better for their children than they had? What happened to wanting to better yourself? BTW, appreciate the scripture quotes. Not a bible thumper, but have been touched by His Angels.


Uh....in Arkansas they overbreed for benefits and when they say "My G-d will provide" what that means is "the government will give it to me because I'm ignorant, destructive and worthless on purpose" - so you can usually tell the difference. They're just a bunch of bs fakes. They do not care about anything but weaseling for their selves and their children would have been better off born to coyotes. 
I really don't care about the "Lord Lord!" Talkers. It is written "by their works you will know them" -


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

jro1 said:


> It's interesting how much flack I take when prepping as a christian....yes I am a christian, I know I have my flaws and I am not perfect! Anyways, a lot of people say I'm not putting my faith in God, when prepping. I know a lot of good people that will not prepp for that reason. My sister and brother in law with their three kids for example, choose not to participate in prepping because they feel it's not putting faith in the lord, and that God will provide when the time comes. It's tough for me and my Family because one day we will all have to take care of each other, And I fear having to provide for their whole family when the time comes. we try to put away an extra can of food here and there for that very reason, But I don't think it will be enough, and prepping can become very expensive when your already storing enough food for your own family! At times my sister and her family do entertain the thought of living out in the country off grid and provide for them selves country style living, but the fact of the matter is, it may be too late by the time they can afford too. Does anyone else run into these issues with Faith and Family? Just a thought!


I have invited everyone I know that is special to me to come to the "ranch" when it hits the fan.

I know if everyone showed up we will have a butt load of people here and the supplies I have may be limited but that is what I am lead to do

I see the SHTF in America to be the next great awakening, people coming to Christ, and an explosion of people into the kingdom of God

IMO this is the place where we will all die in Christ or you can live in pathetic conditions under the antichrist

Since I live in an area with few people, I might be the last to die, but everyone dies, it is up to them to decide where they stand.


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## tirednurse (Oct 2, 2013)

Genesis chapter 41 dreams interpreted by joseph of 7 years of good fruitful times followed by 7 years of nothing. no wheat, animals thin and dying etc. God gave the sign that things would be bad for 7 years. the smart ones that listened saved back one 5th of everything they had in preparation and then during the bad times survived while others around them didn't because they had not prepared. 
we see the signs now and know it's coming. wouldn't it be unchristian to not listen and not prepare?


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## ApexPredator (Aug 17, 2013)

If god created the lamb (us) and he created the wolf. Don't complain if you get eaten because you ignored his sheep dogs.


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## microprepper (Nov 21, 2013)

jro1 said:


> It's interesting how much flack I take when prepping as a christian....yes I am a christian, I know I have my flaws and I am not perfect! Anyways, a lot of people say I'm not putting my faith in God, when prepping. I know a lot of good people that will not prepp for that reason. My sister and brother in law with their three kids for example, choose not to participate in prepping because they feel it's not putting faith in the lord, and that God will provide when the time comes. It's tough for me and my Family because one day we will all have to take care of each other, And I fear having to provide for their whole family when the time comes. we try to put away an extra can of food here and there for that very reason, But I don't think it will be enough, and prepping can become very expensive when your already storing enough food for your own family! At times my sister and her family do entertain the thought of living out in the country off grid and provide for them selves country style living, but the fact of the matter is, it may be too late by the time they can afford too. Does anyone else run into these issues with Faith and Family? Just a thought!


Well, for the Bible-quoters, try pointing out some of those verses about "what man will go into a battle without first counting the cost?" and look at all of the stories about David and the careful ways he prepared strategies, etc. And then there is the parable of the maidens and the oil-lamps. Not to mention Noah.....or Joseph and the Egyptian famine...

But mostly don't worry, just prep quietly along. Maybe challenge some of them to a game of actually refraining from going to the store for anything at all for a week or even a month. The challenge is to use whatever you have in the house and that is it. At least a couple of them might think about it as a game long enough to get the picture.

Among us Catholics, Lent has always been a good time to think about this kind of thing. My dad used it to teach us kids the principles of making-do. And also, consider the Jewish holiday in the Old Testament, called "Booths" (I forget the Hebrew word for it). It was a time when the urbanized Israelites were required to go out camping so that they would remember how their ancestors survived in the desert.

As far as sharing, there is nothing in the Bible that requires us to give anything to those who are not in some way part of our extended family. Even when Jesus fed the 5,000, he was feeding only those who came along to sit and listen to him. He did not go looking for panhandling bums. He freely healed the random beggars He encountered, but he did not feed them. He gave them the ability to feed themselves by restoring their health.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Montana Rancher said:


> I have invited everyone I know that is special to me to come to the "ranch" when it hits the fan.
> 
> I know if everyone showed up we will have a butt load of people here and the supplies I have may be limited but that is what I am lead to do
> 
> ...


IMHO you have a leg up on many. You already have the place to be self sufficient. You and yours should be ok even in the long term.

I'm in the burbs. On several occasions I have tried to get the heck out Dodge but God kept me here. It's a long story but that's the way it is. My only real choice is to trust Him and deal with it. If we are supposed to make it we will. If not, well that's His decision. I'm not going to fight Him. The majority of my adult living has found me helping others in many ways. I figure this is no different.


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## microprepper (Nov 21, 2013)

BTW, I can't afford to do all the expensive prepper stuff but it does not cost anything to actually learn how to use basic foodstuffs and gradually pull your lifestyle off the grid. You definitely have to do it even if only as a hobby in order to recognize unforeseen issues. If you store a whole bunch of stuff, you still may lose it all because you will have to evacuate too quickly to take it or you will be robbed, etc, and so quantity is not really as important as faith, although everyone should have enough to last a month or so, at least. That is not expensive to do and it accounts for the fact that most civil emergencies would be over within a month, leaving those who stayed quietly away from the loot-maddened crowds safe while the looters and others are nursing their wounds and facing charges.

low-profile prepping is probably best because those who accuse you loudest will be imagining you have endless supplies for them if they do get hit with a crisis. It is not selfish to keep it quiet and let the Lord lead those to you whom He wants you to help.

My heart broke recently when I had to turn an unemployed nephew away after a winter of helping him, but he would not listen to basic principles: he would not budget when he did have work and he would not respect the boundaries I set around who is and is not welcome in my home. He was experiencing the first time in his life of being without a safety-net when he showed up on my doorstep but he went right back to the delusion that my frugal prepper lifestyle is nutty as soon as he had a week's pay, and he refused to recognize that employment is always temporary, so he couldn't survive for even a week when his job ended too soon. Now he is off with others like himself still living from hand-out to hand-out and angry with me for not being willing to supply for a crisis-oriented lifestyle. All we can do for people like that is pray for them after we have done whatever we can afford to do.


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## JessPrep (Mar 22, 2014)

Noah 'prepared' for the great flood with the knowledge that God gave him. If he hadn't prepared and built that ark with the sweat off his own back would he and his family have survived? I think maybe the story of Noah is a message to help yourself, as God isn't going to hand you an ark when the time comes. He wants you to have faith in him but still WORK and TOIL to prepare for what may happen in the future. I hope this helps  Let us know how it goes with your family.


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## microprepper (Nov 21, 2013)

inceptor said:


> IMHO you have a leg up on many. You already have the place to be self sufficient. You and yours should be ok even in the long term.
> 
> I'm in the burbs. On several occasions I have tried to get the heck out Dodge but God kept me here. It's a long story but that's the way it is. My only real choice is to trust Him and deal with it. If we are supposed to make it we will. If not, well that's His decision. I'm not going to fight Him. The majority of my adult living has found me helping others in many ways. I figure this is no different.


Even in the 'burbs, if you have your health maybe you can find a way to partner up with people who have land. The biggest issue in the 'burbs that I have seen are those awful "neighborhood watch" groups that are over-run with brain-dead television addicts who think edible plants are weeds and who move to evict preppers for not conforming to their very weird "standards". They also deeply fear pedestrians even though if they themselves walked around a little they might learn a thing or two. (I run into them all the time when I am quietly walking along with my can-collector stick and my bag. They are usually suburban church-lady types who think they are going to "rescue" me because they, themselves, are terrified of emerging from their SUV's!) :shock:

oooh: I just thought of a new word: "Pedestophobes"! Down with Pedestophobia! Yeehaw! A movement is born! :lol:


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