Well, isn’t this exciting.
Trying to stay level-headed, and yet prepare with some level of common sense as I read the signs of the times.
I have two closest friends (internal-trib) who don’t believe in the 2nd coming of Christ or the common view of prophesy in Jeremiah and Revelation, and I have other Christian friends who are buying up all the guns, ammo, seed and gold they can get (post-trib), and just talked to my mom who is still refreshingly pre-trib.
The only concensus is the disconcerting agreement that Tribulation is immanent. I can find very few, other than non-christian obliviarians who think the economy is improving and nothing weird is going on.
Ammo shelves at Wal-mart are empty, China is calling for one world currency, milk is supposedly $10/gallon in CA, Texas may succeed from the Union (in which case I’ll be moving if they’ll let me in).
Look, I just turned 40 and am closer to success than I have ever been. Does the world have to fall apart now?… when my girls are 3 and 6 years old??? What ever happened to political cycles? Are we going to recover or not?
Of one thing I am certain. God has made it clear that I am to be either hard-after Him, or I’m on my own. I hope you are getting the same message. If Jesus does the proverbial “surprise visit”, there will be a bunch of well-meaning Christians wondering why their feet are still stuck to terra-firma.
If not, then we Jesus-freaks will end up banding together to make ends meet and survive, and the anti-jesus folks will be getting their anti-Koreshian tanks in gear to break down our walls and “save the children”. (Look, I know David Koresh was a freak of a false christ-impersonator, but for those of us who can read the books of Exodus and Revelation and make a connection, then circling our wagons and taking care of our own is going to look alot like a comune…. or compound…. or something!)
So. How much do we do to prepare? Israel lives like Nehemiah’s wall-builders… “Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked.” Joseph saw the 7 years of famine coming and stored up the grain. Most of our pantries would be empty in two weeks if our transportation system broke down.
I will do what seems reasonable. I have my generator, I have stabilized gas, I will stock up on dry goods, get a manual water pump for my well, get two-way radios, try to have something that I can use to trade with when our currency has no value, and be ready to defend my house without an arsenal. But I will also trust God and lean not on my own understanding.
I’d be delighted if I end up looking like a paranoid freak because the economy comes back and we enter yet another period of rediculous prosperity and opportunity. I’m just not so sure we haven’t hit a tipping point.