Durable FaithLike me, millions of Americans are discovering that today is not like yesterday and that tomorrow isn’t likely to be much like today. As difficult as some days are, these will be the good days for most of us. This is the calm before the storm, we can feel it. And so we attempt to prepare for what comes next and that makes us preppers.
Proverbs 22: 3 “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”
Most preppers are concerned about a deepening recession and an eminent financial reset which will cause civil unrest which could last weeks or months. Most preppers live in cities or suburbs of big cities. Most preppers have less than an acre of land which is not zoned for agriculture (chickens are frowned upon). So most keep living their suburban lives and they keep up appearances, but when no one is looking, they buy dehydrated food in # 10 cans and they study rainwater catchment systems and self defense. They prepare for the coming trouble because they love their families and want to provide and protect them. But their prepping won’t be enough.
A smaller subset of preppers live in rural areas, many having recently relocated because of their prepper mindset. An increasing number are selling their suburban dream home, moving to a humble home in the countryside and are working on getting “back to the land”. They rightly surmise that the best case scenario for the imminent financial reset will involve a decade long depression. The civil unrest will very likely outlast the food storage. The ability to live off the land when the stored food runs out is important.
Proverbs 27
23 Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds,
24 for riches do not last forever; and does a crown endure to all generations?
25 When the grass is gone and the new growth appears and the vegetation of the mountains is gathered,
26 the lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of a field.
27 There will be enough goats’ milk for your food, for the food of your household…
These rural preppers practice agriculture and every chance they get, they trade paper money for productive goods that will lest for decades and which will work fine with or without power. They are getting to know their neighbors and are forming mutual aid groups. They mount a valiant effort to live self-sufficient lives in tight knit community. Sadly, even this level of prepping likely won’t be enough for what is coming.
This week the second installment of the Hunger Games trilogy is hitting theaters across the US. Audiences are riveted, critics rave. Meanwhile all around are indications that we are entering our all too real version of the hunger games. And even preppers aren’t adequately prepared for this…
Consider the history of the Holodomor (the word means Hunger Extermination) in Ukraine
The term Holodomor refers specifically to the brutal artificial famine imposed by Stalin’s regime on Soviet Ukraine and primarily ethnically Ukrainian areas in the Northern Caucasus in 1932-33. In its broadest sense, it is also used to describe the Ukrainian genocide that began in 1929 with the massive waves of deadly deportations of Ukraine’s most successful farmers as well as the deportations and executions of Ukraine’s religious, intellectual and cultural leaders, culminating in the devastating forced famine that killed millions more innocent individuals.
Consider the EVIDENCE that what is going on in America is eerily similar to what went on in the Ukraine during the Holodomor.
1) Government granted authority over all food production components
Ukraine – 1928 Stalin introduces a program of agricultural collectivization that forces farmers to give up their private land, equipment and livestock, and join state owned, factory-like collective farms.
USA – In 2012, Obama signed an executive order called the National Defense Resources Preparedness Act which grants the secretary of agriculture (section 201) authority over farms, farm equipment, food, and even farmers.
2) Government uses laws and brutal enforcement as a means to eliminate those refuse assimilation
Ukraine – 1929 Many Ukrainian farmers, known for their independence, refuse to join the collective farms. Stalin introduces a policy of “class warfare” in the countryside in order to break down resistance to collectivization. The successful farmers are branded as the class enemy, and brutal enforcement by regular troops and secret police is used to “liquidate them as a class.” Eventually anyone who resists collectivization is considered a kurkul (an enemy).
USA – 2011 Peaceful farmers are enduring armed raids by regulatory bodies for crimes such as selling locally produced natural milk and cheese or raising hearty heritage breed pigs (which the regulatory agency forced the farmer to shoot). The Amish, who refuse to be collectivized are under fire both from armed raids of their farms and from reality TV shows such as Amish Mafia and Breaking Amish which appear tailor-made to undermine public opinion of the Amish (thus reducing public outcry regarding their persecution).
3) Government assumes authority to seize land and to harass and even relocate targeted people groups
Ukraine – 1930 1.5 million Ukrainians fall victim to Stalin’s “dekulakization” policies, Over the extended period of collectivization, armed dekulakization brigades forcibly confiscate land, livestock and other property, and evict entire families.
USA – Eight years ago, the supreme court ruled that the government can seize property if doing so will result in economic development. Today in many towns across America (like Maryville, TN , Daytona Beach, FL) independent boards of unelected officials are being granted the authority to exercise eminent domain (the power to seize land and allocate it for other uses). The Federal government has admitted to collecting data on all Americans and particularly on those who oppose its policies. The digital age enables them to build quite a color coded list of dissidents and they have been hiring Internment / Resettlement Specialists since at least 2009. When will the round up begin?
4) Government militarizes local law enforcement and implements travel restrictions
Ukraine – 1933 “military blockades are erected around many Ukrainian villages preventing the transport of food into the villages and the hungry from leaving in search of food.”
USA – 2013- Cities across the US are being armed with TANKS and heavy equipment in what even the mainstream press is reporting as the militarization of local law enforcement. TSA is setting up on roadways across the US.
5) Government asserts that speech critical of government is criminal / terrorist activity.
Ukraine – 1933 “Anyone claiming that there was a famine was accused of spreading anti-Soviet propaganda.”
USA – 2013 “Whistleblowers are being treated as criminals. Free Speech is under fire and even reporters are being censored by the US government, prompting an investigation by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Refusal to give verbal agreement to (insane) government policies is now grounds for employment termination and the military is being purged of dissent.”
Let this sink in. The millions that died in the Holodomor were successful farmers. They were not city dwellers intent on learning farming. They were not suburban dwellers with a 2 month supply of dry goods and a camp stove. They had land, they had community, they had skills.
The millions who died in the Holodomor were what preppers want to be when they (we) grow up.
Is it going to go better for us because we are Americans? Ha.
Don’t shoot the messenger. I make no money from this blog. I seek no endorsements. I sell no product. I am just an intellectually honest believer in Jesus Christ who is attempting to deal with the issues of our day with my eyes and my bible wide open. I record my thoughts, discoveries, and convictions here for the benefit of those who are on the same journey. I am not saying that you shouldn’t be a prepper.
Prepping is good. It is a moral positive and empowering response to what is going on around us. But don’t fool yourself that prepping will be enough.
In addition to physical preparedness, we each need to get our spiritual preparations in order and count the cost.
Spiritual Preparedness
If you died tomorrow, are you confident that you would be welcomed into God’s eternal kingdom?
Have your sins been forgiven? Have you received Christ Jesus as savior and Lord?
Is there known sin in your life that you have not repented of? He longs to set the captives free.
Is there anyone in your life that you are estranged from? Make amends.
Don’t delay. Its getting real dark out there and we simply don’t know what a day will bring.
Hebrews 3:15 – “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…”
Count the cost
If the government forces you to choose between being assimilated into and supporting an evil world order or being separated from your loved ones, are you ready to stand your ground?
If they come to your door and demand that you surrender your means of self defense and/or provision for your family, what will you do?
Have you come to terms with the fact that these central planning psychopaths are not misguided, they are truly evil.
Consider that a time is coming when men will “seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.” Rev 9:6
Although it is unnatural and contrary to our conditioning to think in terms of not surviving, the bible says the following:
– “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Rev 12:11
– “it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them” Rev 13:7
– “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” Rev 14:13
It turns out that our greatest challenge is NOT to survive the end of the world as we know it.
Rather the worthwhile challenge is to survive the end of the world as we know it WITH OUR FAITH and to hear “well done”
“when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Luke 18:8
http://durablefaith.com/2013/11/22/preppers-unprepared-for-hunger-games/
History repeats.
Dear Leader has always been a follower of Lenin as was Stalin. The current tyrant employs many methods of Lenin, Stalin & Hitler (to name a few) to control the proletariat (us).
I totally disagree. The peasants in Russia were a rural farming people with little or no firearms, and little way to defend themselves. The small prepper farmers in amerika, are very well armed, and willing to die in the protection of their land and their people. The poor farmers in Russia were attacked by the equivalent of Obummers brown shirt army, who were the Zionist jews who starved and killed the farmers. Most people can read history and be ready for a repeat of the same. Bring it on!
Yes a Holodomor situation could happen here, but so could what the Khmer Rouge did…or a Holocaust (against Muslims)…or ethnic cleansing…or the various horrors of history. We have to prepare for any of these, but spiritual preparation is the most important. Thanks for this post, Smilardog!