Feb 11, 2014

How is God Using the Prepper Movement?

Abigail and Dolley readers have you heard about the Sustainability Movement?  Ordinary folks have started little farms.  They are growing or making all their own food, building solar panel ovens, collecting rain water, and checking out from everyday American life.  In the not so distant past, this type of isolated life was unthinkable and was reserved for the likes of militia and cults.  Something changed and a significant number of people are living off the grid.

Do a Google search on the Sustainability Movement or Revolution or Lifestyle.  Go on Facebook and rabbit trail around, there are thousands of sites and bloggers.  From a secular perspective, the origins of the movement are laid out very well in this article.  Reading through it, we see it was founded out of the Environmentalist Movement which is in its essence a hard core ideology that has combined nature lovers with anarchists.  Before you shut me down, I am not saying all these modern pioneers are anarchists and environmental zealots, I am simply stating that the beginning of sustainability was born out of this movement.

Modern Homestead
Logically then, the first, second, and third wave adopters are decidedly left of center.  The first being radical, the second probably being more spiritual, and the third probably more idealistic.  The fourth wave? I'd surmise the Homeschooling Parent and that is where it crossed the political boundary.  As the numbers grew, ordinary folks began to pick up on some of what they were saying and eventually the organic movement seeped into mainstream America.  Newt Gingrich was the first conservative I ever heard talk about the environment as an issue where the right and the left can find common ground.  Throw in the hard core right who, under the influence of World Net Daily and Glenn Beck, are stockpiling supplies and preparing for the end and you have a very unique mix of seemingly unrelated groups.  In a nutshell, they are all "Preppers".

Prepper Gun Cache
Today, folks from all walks of life are modern day homesteaders.  They are bartering with their neighbors, raising chickens and goats, growing their own food, making their own cleaning and hygiene products, and weaning their dependence on Big Food.  We find common ground in The Food Babe Army who is pressuring corporations to remove harmful chemicals from their products.  The gardening community is afire with the Back to Eden Film and this is where I had my "Aha" moment.

Survival Tent
I view everything through my worldview filter.  I believe that we are living in the last days and that the Rapture of the Church is imminent.  But what of those left behind?  What of the Tribulation Saints?  How are they going to survive when the Antichrist rules this world?  How will they eat, where will they hide?   I believe that God has been making provision for these people for years.  Without their knowledge, without their understanding, He has called them out and taught them what they will need to know.  He has provided a place for them to hide, a way for them to feed themselves, and an environment where they can be safe.

Prepper Pantry
Since the earliest adopters of this movement are decidedly anti-christian they will be the most well versed and the best established.  They know how to harvest rain, build solar ovens, dehydrate food, raise livestock, and build houses from bags of dirt and shipping containers!  They even feel that we are on the precipice and are frantically calling on their spiritual leaders to promote sustainability.

As for me and mine, I figure some of my unsaved neighbors will use my garden. Unsaved friends will remember the couple who has been preparing for years and will eat the stashes of survival food stored in bunkers, basements, and modern fall out shelters.  God in His mercy knows they will need it.