We need to pray the LORD for wisdom and understanding. We are at the threshold of a time where the “security” that money and a steady job offers, will be taken away from those who obey the LORD. We stand on the verge of a time where living in a city may become too dangerous for many of us. There are however no guarantees that moving to the country will indemnify us from danger or persecution, but as the book of Proverbs says: “A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished”. We need to ask God to show us what we can do to prepare ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually. Our resources vary, our capabilities vary, so there is no “one size fits all” plan to formulate.
In this post I will be taking a look at what things we can do, with our varying abilities and resources. We all have different capabilities, different resources and different circumstances. Therefore we are not all able to undertake the same preparations. Some of us would be privileged enough to be able to obtain our own land, and start a self-sustained homestead farm. Others will not even be able to move out of high population density apartments in the city. So, what we can do varies a lot, but God only expects us to do what we can, and trust Him for the rest.
The ideal would be to be totally independent of, especially government, or large corporation supplied services, eg. housing, water, electricity, heating, food and education. In fact, determine what are necessities in your life, and focus on these; you could always forfeit the rest, like the TV and BlueRay player when the time comes. Just don’t bind yourself to these with long term contracts; you will have to keep on paying those, or risk being prosecuted for default. If you have any debt, get rid of it in as short a time as possible, and trust God to help you in this. These are exactly the kind of yokes to shake off first, since they are the most tenacious strangleholds the “system” has on you. As long as you are dependent on the conveniences of the system you are a slave to paying bills. If you owe the “system” nothing, the only things that can keep you from turning your back on it, whenever you wish, are your own affinities.
In the practical sense this is all a process of both “getting rid of”, and “taking up”. Getting rid of yokes that tie you down, and taking up of responsibility that liberates you. It is the same parallel that we see in spiritual life…a laying down, and a taking up.
Things to start getting rid of where possible:
- Debt
- Dependence on national or corporate provision of housing,
electricity, heating, medical care and education. - Dependence on having to buy everything you need and everything you eat.
- Dependence on needing money to survive. (there will come a time where anyone without the mark of the beast will not be able to buy or sell)
Things to take up:
1. The responsibility of supplying the needs of your family without being dependent on any of the above.
2. Own your house or property – pay off your bond asap. (The borrower is servant to the lender – Proverbs)
3. Secure your own independent source of [at least drinking] water.
4. Start taking responsibility for your own energy requirements (electricity and heating), or secure alternatives (eg. Wood burning stove – needs a source of fire wood, solar powered lighting)
5. Start educating and training up your children yourself.
6. Make ready to become part of the persecuted church – start fellowship in
homes and be prepared to go “underground”. This should already be in place once persecution starts, or the flock will be scattered, and members become isolated. Then it will be very difficult to re-group and organise. Dish out sensitive information only on a need to know basis. If someone is taken and interrogated it is best for him and those in his sphere and family that he knows very little. The more you know, the more dangerous it becomes for those around you, and if you crack it will lead to the rounding up of a lot of other people.
7. Anything, however small, that will render you less dependent on the system is a good start. If you can make anything for yourself and your family, instead of
having to buy it, you become less dependent. Even a city dweller on the 10th
floor of an apartment building can do certain things. If an area of that
apartment gets a certain amount of daylight one can grow quite a lot of food in
pot-plant containers. Especially things like tomatoes, beans etc. which yield
large quantities while taking up minimal horizontal space. Put a stake in the
pot and train it up. You will not have a lot of garden pests to contend with!
If, due to civil unrest, you have to stay off the streets for a week or two, you
might have a quite monotonous diet, but you will not starve. It might bide you
time till it’s safer to get away.
8. Learn skills: Even if you do not plan on immediately moving to the countryside and start homesteading, you can start learning the skills now. What you cannot learn hands-on you may read about in books, watch DVD training classes or even some of the millions of “how to…” video clips on YouTube. They are made by people who have actually done it. Type a search for just about anything, and chances are you will come up with at least a dozen video clips on how to do it. Learn how to plant and harvest things. Learn how to keep poultry and livestock on a small scale. Learn how to grind grain, bake bread, butcher a chicken, milk a cow, make cheese, preserve food without a freezer, make candles, dig a well. Learn basic sewing, carpentry, household electricity and plumbing. Learn some rudimentary mechanical knowledge. Learn to cut and split firewood. Learn to use a good knife for a large variety of outdoor tasks. When you get the opportunity, buy some tools. Don’t go for the cheapest, your life may later depend on these. Get trained in first aid and obtain some basic medical knowledge. Get a good household medical handbook (do not rely on the availability of the internet in future difficult times, and do not rely on the availability of gasoline or propane).
9. I want to repeat the learning of skills, because this is of utmost importance. It is especially important to those who never envisage having the means of possessing their own property, because the proper skills and knowledge will make you a valuable help, an asset, to someone who does have such a property. This could be your sole means of securing your stay there when the need arises. Skills will make you an asset – no skills will make you a liability, just another mouth to feed.
10. Obtain items of value: A basic survival kit, a water purifier, some foodstuffs
with a prolonged shelf life (emergency rations), outdoor clothing, a solar
battery charger, medical kit, a variety of crop seeds – buy from seed banks that
stock “heirloom seeds” that can be harvested and sown indefinitely like God
created it to be – most seed on the market today has been genetically modified,
and can only yield one crop; the seed from that crop will not grow again; you
have to buy more. Buy a grain mill (a hand operated model is slow, but it is
portable and renders you independent from electricity). Do not rely on being
able to buy anything during the great tribulation, you will not be able to buy
or sell.
11. Start “networking” with other like-minded Christians in your
area. Aim at being part of a trustworthy group – it is very difficult to go it
alone, or as just one family. If you go it alone you will find yourself very
limited as to how much you can do, and you will just be focused on the absolute
essentials of survival. If you are part of a community, you will have a far
greater pool of skills and knowledge, and a far larger variety in your daily
life and diet, and you will expend less time and effort to stay alive. You will
also be able to barter and trade without money in such a community. When I refer to “community” I do not mean a “commune”, though persecution may well press us into it. I mean a community in the sense of a rural village or a cluster of small farms, each with homesteads. A place where your neighbours are
known and trustworthy. This may sound rather idealistic, and most of us will not be able to go to this extent, but it is possible for several families to buy
adjacent lands and start homesteading, or at least buy several properties with
large stands, in small villages. Another option for those who have the means, is
to buy out a whole rural smallholding property development, and reselling the
acreages to Christian homesteaders. There are countries where it is almost
impossible to obtain land, especially in Europe where ancient feudal systems
have resulted in a “Landlord – Tennant” system, where only the very rich, or
corporations, or the government owns land. In such places it is advisable to
evaluate the possibilities of immigration to somewhere less restrictive.
Otherwise you will have to find a way within that system; how, I do not know. If
you cannot buy or sell without the mark, you will not be able to pay rent. If
you have a true Christian for a landlord count your blessings. Pray for wisdom.
In the end it will become difficult almost anywhere, but the closer you are to
large cities, headquarters etc, the easier you are to reach. The capabilities
and resources for surveillance and control are much greater in the more
developed, technological countries than for eg. in most of Africa. Though the US is technologically very advanced, it is a huge country, and to cover every nook
and cranny of it will be difficult. Nonetheless, it is likely to be easier to
stay under the radar in some remote country in Africa, or in the Australian
Outback. I think a Christian in Europe will find it especially difficult to stay
under the radar.
12. If you have a family, start preparing them for this: Spiritually, mentally and physically. They must know about the tribulation to come, and the possibility of extreme hardships, and trusting Jesus. They should be brought into some physical shape for a harder life, and also learn some of the skills and knowledge you are gaining. They should learn (practically) that everyone needs to pull their weight and work. If you have children, and they are not used to shoulder the responsibility of chores and work suited to their age and size, you are going to have a very difficult time. They will become your greatest liabilities, instead of your greatest assets. More mouths to feed must imply more hands to work.
13. Those of us who are privileged to be able to make some thorough preparations in areas outside of the cities, will have to bear in mind that the LORD did not entrust us with that privilege so as to be selfish. We must realise that there may come a time where we will have to help shelter, feed and protect brothers and sisters who were caught unawares, or have not been able to prepare to the same extent.
14. It is a good idea to get in contact with other Christians in your region, to get to know them, and know whom you can trust, so as to compile a basic, local plan of action. To really know whom you can trust necessitates spending a good deal of time in close fellowship with such people. Start now. Get to know the Christians who live near you; but don’t use a facility like a Facebook group, or any internet platform as a place to discuss detailed planning. Everything you do on the internet is public domain, and should persecution arise, the info you have put on internet will be used to track and monitor you and others whom you have had contact with. Google, YouTube, Facebook and all such platforms are massive databases of information, and contain a lot of personal information, as well as anything you have ever posted. Data on anything you purchase via internet or with a card is stored in databases. If you have to “disappear”, get rid of your mobile phone, it can be tracked very easily. Some bank cards also contain an embedded traceable microchip. In your “group” develop a few basic innocent sounding phrases and code words that only you will know the meaning of. That means you can use public communications to relay certain basic messages, without anyone else being the wiser. Change these codes from time to time, especially the ones you have used a few times. This all sounds almost like military intelligence stuff, but believe me, that and more is what we will be up against when persecution really starts. I have in the past been in the military myself for almost 15 years; what I say here is rather rudimentary, and will never suffice against modern specialised intelligence gathering, but it will probably buy some time. We will have to trust the LORD to help us where we lack. The fact is, it is exactly because the antichrist regime will want to monitor every living person, that taking the mark of the beast will become a life and death issue. It will be like carrying a tracking device inside you, one that you cannot ditch like a mobile phone or smart card. One with which your every movement and action is monitored.
On the topic of “disappearing”: If you travel under such circumstances avoid major roads and highways. In many countries these are under live camera surveillance, and every vehicle’s registration number and movements are recorded and stored in a central database. If they are looking for you it will only be a matter of minutes before you get stopped. Furthermore, the history of the vehicle’s movements is all in the database, so at any later stage it can be dug up to track all your past movements.
I think we can get somewhat carried away with this “cloak and dagger” stuff, and if they really want to find you, they will. The surveillance and detection technologies available today are beyond what most people can imagine. We must also realise, that by being part of groups such as Facebook or blogging groups, and sharing our faith, and writing posts on the internet, most of us have probably already been placed on “suspect” lists, or flagged for closer perusal in the search engines of various databases.
Something that very few people know, is that HD screens are two-way devices. It is both a display and a camera. Devices equipped with these are both receivers and transmitters. Your HD TV in your lounge or bedroom, or even your mobile phone with HD screen, can be used as a surveillance device. If you have an iPhone, you can verify this for yourself. There is no peripheral camera on the front of an iPhone, the screen is the camera. If you make a video call, the screen live-displays the person you are talking to, and simultaneously records and transmits your live image to the other party. It is a real-time multitasking device that is a receiver and transmitter, video camera and video display, all in one, simultaneously. Why do you think the US Govt has subsidised an effort with Billions of Dollars to ensure every household can have an HD TV? Do US residents remember that they could get a $40 Govt coupon to subsidise upgrading from their old TV to digital HD? Since when do governments like to help their whole population buy new TV’s? Never heard of…before HD.
Let’s come back to necessities; let us not stare ourselves blind into how we are likely to be caught, but let us “redeem the time”, and make the most of it for the sake of God’s kingdom, and for the love of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And that brings me to the core of this document:
Remember, “their” time, at the stage when the great tribulation starts, is limited to three and a half years at most. If you have a rural property that is inconspicuous, somewhat remote, and not very desirable, chances are good that it will take a while before they turn up at your door, even if they would embark on property confiscation. It is much easier to round up people and property in cities, you can cover hundreds of households with a small task force in a day. You can have the neighbours spying and reporting on them. In a roundup you can herd them like cattle. In remote and widespread areas it requires a lot more time and manpower, so it is likely that the high density areas will be the starting points - largest impact for the least time and effort. Even when they start focusing on farms, a farm usually offers a lot of natural hiding places where a man can stake out for a good period of time if he is prepared. At the most you are buying time, but remember, there is a limit upon their time, then Jesus comes and it is game over. While you have this bought time, you will be surviving, and may be in a position to help others less fortunate. If they eventually get to you, so what? Then you get to be with Jesus, and when He comes you will get a resurrected body. Up to then, at least, you would have survived long enough to do some good, spread the Gospel, pray, help hide and feed others, till you eventually get stopped. I’d rather go down as a soldier than be rounded up in a cattle drive to the butchery.
If I look at end times prophecies I do not find any mention of a world leading superpower that could represent the US. Many nations and geographical locations are mentioned by name, and clearly defined in last days prophecies, but nothing that could be positively identified as America. How is this possible? Would God omit a world leading superpower that would be bound to have a significant influence on these events? The only sensible conclusion I can come to, is that by the time these events occur, America is not a prominent enough factor on the world scene to merit any Scriptural attention…that at that time a demise of America as an economic and military superpower had already taken place. If so, this would have several implications:
That the demise of the US had already tumbled the nation into the great crisis that accompanies an economic collapse.
This would imply that the type of cataclysmic events that many Americans believe would only happen to America during the sequence of Rev 6-18, will already be upon them, and will have caught them mostly off-guard, and unprepared.
This also implies that most of the western nations, whose economies are tied to The US, will also be likewise affected. There could be a world crisis. This may very well be the created crisis which is required so that the antichrist can take the stage, and bring peace and stability, which is what the Bible says he will be doing in the first half of his 7 year spree.
Could this be why a lot, of what is known today as the western world, does not feature in end-times prophecies? What implications would that have for us. Are we spiritually prepared for the fact that before Christ returns we may soon have to be living in a world that could be very different from the one we know today?
We can in no way know exactly what it would be like, but the following is a very likely basic concept:
From your point of view, as a follower of Jesus:
• Most of the world is hostile to your beliefs, and there is a reward for those who turn you in to the “authorities”. You have become an outcast. Your faith is now a capital crime – you are on the wrong side of the law. You are a fugitive.
• You evaded the mark of the beast, so now you are unable to buy or sell anything. Cash is redundant. You are unable to pay any bills or rent. You are unable to buy food. If you were somewhat prepared, you may have a little stash of emergency supplies somewhere. How long will it last? When you see other Christians dying, would you hoard it for yourself, or share it?
• There is constant surveillance everywhere, and even the general public is on the lookout for the likes of you. Most public places and streets in major cities are under 24 hour camera surveillance, linked to central computer databases which run facial recognition software. If you wear disguises the facial recognition software registers it, flags you, and alerts the authorities. (This is not sci-fi; these technologies are common today, and exist in many major cities. They just have not been used for this purpose yet, but they have been used to track and locate criminals. But now you are the criminal…)
• You are not permitted to hold gatherings with other people, so you will have to do so in secret, and at the risk of your life.
• You cannot use any communications like phones or internet, because these are all monitored (and anyway, you cannot
pay your phone accounts anymore, so you do not have a phone).
• You cannot drive a vehicle, because you cannot pay its licence or insurance, you cannot buy fuel for it. You cannot use public transport because you cannot pay the fare. Most major roads are under camera surveillance, and there is a high level of police patrolling, so you have to be careful when and where you walk.
• You cannot receive any medical care, nor can you purchase medication.
• Anybody who tries to help you does so at the risk of jeopardizing their own life.
• The chances are good that nobody would be prosecuted for killing you, they might even be eligible for a reward, so your life is not worth two cents.
If you think this scenario is unlikely, please consider that millions of Christians have already faced such circumstances. Read the accounts of Richard Wurmbrand, Haralan Popov, Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs etc, and you will see that what I sketched above is by no means exceptional. There are however two things which will be different during the great tribulation: Cash will be obsolete, and the persecution will be worse than any that ever happened on this earth before. It will be worse than the holocaust, it will be worse than Stalin or Mao Tse Tung. It will be worse than Nero and the Roman Collosseum. It will be worse than the Inquisition.
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