James,
In reference to “The Commerce Model of Prepping”, that was one of the best written and thought provoking pieces I have read on your web site in quite some time. If one can afford the Rawlesian Approach to having a high quality retreat in a highly rural location I believe that is a great decision, because it will allow that retreat to help kick start the local economy after a SHTF event, while continuing to be a blessing to those around them (acting as Christ to one another).
I thought the authors point, to those who are not in a position to build a Rawlesian Approach rural retreat, was excellent. Depending on the severity of the event that causes the SHTF, his approach might work quite well. I believe the first goal is to join a small community or town (as you have often suggested – Less than 2,000, as I recall) where your mostly of one mind with the community. This will provide both strength in numbers and will allow the community to maintain some level of security and commerce. The key is finding that type of community. This could be very difficult while still maintaining a reasonable distance from major population centers. Being born into that community works best. Being invited to join that community is a close second. As the author also suggests, be sure to store and save something that can act as barter, such as bullets, fuel or food. There is no free lunch.
God bless our nation and your good work, – Suburban Farmer
Dear James:
The Commerce Model of Prepping, by B.H., is an interesting analysis, with equally interesting opinion. What struck me is how closely he has described what I am doing with zero analysis. I’ve been self employed for 25 years, so a business approach comes to me without thinking. I agree with the notion that commerce will restart as soon as possible after a “Game Changing” event. It may never actually come to a complete standstill.
As has been pointed out in previous articles on prepping on a budget, or what to do if you cannot relocate, not everyone can take the Rawles approach. In our case, we haven’t the resources to move, and for the time being are dependent upon a clinical trial for one member of our family. However, I’m diligent about storing food and acquiring things of value that I feel I need, or might want to trade. My business is making gear, and I already trade with preppers. As soon as I can get out of the house after Schumer hits, I will be helping others and trading goods.
The simplest and smallest example of The Commerce Model would be the Rag Man of European legend, an honest man of God, a peddler collecting cast-offs from some and selling to others, who distributes the news and builds networks among people. As sailors are wont to comment, there but for the grace of God, go I. – Mac
Jim:
I’ll start with a Bible quotation:
“Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”– Proverbs 27:17 NASB
We need to speak the truth to each other in love. I believe that B.H. in Northern Idaho had nothing but love of God and His people in mind when he wrote The Commerce Model of Prepping: A Personal Re-Evaluation. I loved the use of humor throughout and appreciated his insights and intent.
B.H. sees the flaws in some forms of prepping, including what he’d practiced. Those weak points should be taken seriously and prayerfully by those who feel most challenged by his essay. So too what he addressed about house-churches should be taken seriously and with prayer. Accountability and fellowship with those “of like precious faith” who may differ from you in non-essentials is both Biblical and healthy and should be pursued as long as it is possible to do so.
Ironically I have time to write this today because a family member was ill enough to have kept us from going to church. We have to travel over thirty miles to our church home, so on occasion we will visit similar churches nearby rather than just doing a home Bible study, because we know that we need fellowship. While I prefer my church home, it’s good to know that I don’t live as an island, cut off from fellow believers.
People of good faith are being led to prep in different ways because God is using them and will use them to witness in different ways in different areas, just as He does right now. In 1 Corinthians Paul was inspired to speak of the Body of Christ with different functions and ministries.
God fits us with different temperaments and gifts to use as He directs. God uses the introverts who need great swaths of time alone to energize just as much as He does the extroverts who get energized by being around people. He made some to preach, some to write, some to spend a lot of time in prayer, some to say absolutely nothing at all and yet share the gospel profoundly through acts of service and love.
A recent example of the latter from our church; mechanically inclined men reached out to a widow and her single daughter who had car trouble; they hadn’t known where to turn for help knowing they were vulnerable and not wanting to be exploited. That spoke to the ladies’ whole family and all of their friends of the great love for each other that is supposed to be the mark of Christians. Love happens spontaneously where there are relationships among believers. No relationship, no love, no witness.
Some prep in place so that they can continue the ministries they have now. Others feel driven to find a place of refuge to protect their children from what is a voracious system of worldly brainwashing. The practice of sending Christian kids to public school ‘to be a witness’ has been more failure than success over the last 20 years. The majority of children educated secularly walk away from Christianity when they graduate high school. I will never second-guess a parent who decides that their children’s salvation and discipleship is the most important ministry and priority of their life.
When we can see the dangers and flaws of other forms or prepping and styles of life, it is good and right to call attention to them so that they can be addressed. That said, we need to be careful lest we sit in judgment of each other.
This verse is a great comfort to me when I see other Christians in error or doing something I believe is not wise or holy according to my ideas and convictions:
“Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” –Romans 14:4 NASB
Once we’ve faithfully shared what is on our hearts, we need to leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit to lead and convict our listeners with regard to God’s will. We know how He would lead in the essential things, but in regard to non-essentials we need to be especially hands-off and not take it personally if someone decides that they must act according to their understandings and convictions and not ours. I believe that prepping styles are among the latter.
Eschatology is another area where I believe we need to take a step back and allow for differences. What we believe about the end times is important as it profoundly impacts what we do today and how we interpret the events around us and the actions we take in response.
We do need to be certain that scripture interpreted with scripture is the foundation of what we believe. Because of what I see in scripture I find myself unable to believe in neither dispensational rapture eschatology nor dominionism. The words of Christ to his apostles in Jerusalem and the Revelation to John at Patmos paint a picture of an oppressed minority of the faithful, enduring until the end.
When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.—Mark 13:11 -13 NASB
These words were spoken in the context of the end of the age, not the launch of the church age though it applied then as well. Jesus went on to speak of the final things and his main instruction was “to be alert.”
It was also given to him (the beast) to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints. Revelation 13:7-20 NASB
Where in these passages do we see the church gaining dominion over the world? Rather we see what the church encountered immediately in the book of Acts; the gospel spread through persecution throughout the Roman world. When persecution stopped, the pace of evangelism also dropped off so that there are still some unreached places in the world.
Look around you today and you see that where the church is growing or where it is standing up to worldly powers, it is being persecuted. You see believers standing firm in their faith despite losing everything, and their witness is powerful because God is at work. Persecution, by the very words of Christ, will continue until the end. We need to be mentally and spiritually prepared to face that and to not lose heart if we never subdue the world system under our feet.
Those who believe in the rapture need to consider that they could be living in a time such as that faced by the believers in the USSR ; decades of persecution. How faithful can you be if you believe that this shouldn’t be happening to you? This may not be the beginning of the Great Tribulation, but of a lesser tribulation which will still require all of us to overcome day by day. Challenge yourself to get ready and to be strong.
I believe there is very good reason to believe that we are in the last days now:
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. –2 Tim 3:3-5 NASB
It’s difficult to read this passage and not see our own times and culture reflected strongly in the inspired words Paul set down.
I was raised in a Bible-believing Wesleyan holiness tradition that fits the pun about pan-millennialism: “However it pans out is fine with me, I’ll just focus on being faithful.” That may seem a cop out, but a focus on faithfulness will prepare our souls for whatever persecution may come, will lead us to attempt great things for Christ will expecting to see great things from Christ and keep us on the alert as if waiting for the midnight cry. In closing, I’ll leave you with the words of Jesus:
“What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’” Mark 13:37 NASB
– Sigi