Prepping is a huge priority in many circles. Folks are busy stocking up on beans and bullets. Some in almost panic-stricken haste. They see hard times coming on the horizon, and they want to have plenty of bread and lead when the doo-doo hits the fan. But much of this prepper activity, perhaps the preponderance, is done in a spirit of confidence in the arm of the flesh. It is not walking in the Spirit, but walking under the influence of deceiving spirits that sidetrack men from the real priorities for the last days. These spirits present themselves as angels of light and right, and the only way to see through their pretentious claims is to be a serious student of the Bible who seeks the mind of God more than anything else in the world.
The degree to which the prepper mentality has metastasized in Christendom is evidenced by the plethora of apocalyptic titles that sell like hotcakes. Sadly, these books rarely present a biblical perspective of the last days. Their worldview, their eschatology, and their concept of the last-days hero are more molded by the apocalyptic-fiction genre than the last days revelation which God has given us in His Bible.
Reading this apocalyptic literature, or listening to prophetic teaching that resembles it, promotes unrealistic idealism. Bullets will be of little effect against a large gang of determined marauders. Nor will they avail if the government goes after the hoarders and preppers with heavily-armed reactionary forces and SWAT teams. But the problem with lethal-force prepping runs much deeper than a lack of common sense that fails to recognize the overwhelming firepower of potential adversaries. It runs headlong into the purposes of God for his people in the last days. Revelation 13:10, for instance, states very clearly that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. This is a fundamental moral principle that God has woven into the fabric of the last days. God wants his last-days remnant to trust his supernatural provision and protection. When men look to the arm of the flesh for their protection, the consequences are severe.
Those who rely on their own savvy for protection during the coming tribulation will find themselves run over by circumstances far beyond their capability to adequately respond. Their preparations, no matter how extensive, will come to nought. They will be squashed like bugs. The Scriptures state, in no uncertain terms, that it has been given to the antichrist to make successful war against the saints in the tribulation. And the developments that lead up to the antichrist juggernaut are already at play in the world today. The war against the saints and the truth has begun the final steep leg of its exponential rise through the present evil age.
This brings us to the big question. What preparations does God suggest for those men who find themselves obligated to negotiate the gauntlet of the last days? How can a man be a biblical prepper? There are three main points. While these observations are equally applicable to those who miss the rapture and find themselves in the seventieth week, my focus here is on those who find themselves in the closing hours of the church age.
Man’s first and foremost preparation is the new birth. This is the clear teaching of the Bible. John 3:3, for instance, says “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The new birth is the regeneration of the heart (Tit. 3:5) by the Holy Spirit that men experience when they believe on Jesus as the only way of salvation (Acts 16:31, John 14:6). The new birth secures eternal salvation (Eph. 1:13, 4:30). It also secures the church’s removal (the rapture) from the earth prior to the tribulation, a time of unprecedented trial that is coming upon the world at the end of the age (1 Thess. 4:13-18, Rev. 3:10).
When the new birth is left out of the picture, a man’s preparations for the end times, no matter how savvy and extensive, are myopic. First, he will discover that the tribulation hammers the world with such heavy blows that there was actually no way to prepare for it. Then, he will find himself standing before a Holy God, unprepared.
The second point of preparation is getting in lockstep with God on spiritual warfare. Our war is not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities and spiritual iniquity in high places. It is commonly understood that this war involves the defense and propagation of truth in the face of the enemy’s efforts to replace every institution of God with perverted conceptions of truth and morality. But there is another aspect of this spiritual warfare that many overlook— maintaining a spiritual detachment from our earthly possessions. We need to keep two things in mind. One, our possessions are merely expendable items issued for battlefield use. They will be turned in when our stint in the war is done. Two, the world can confiscate our goods and harm our body, even take our life, but they cannot take away our most valuable possessions: the indwelling Christ, eternal life, and eternal inheritance as the children of God.
The third point of preparation is that believers should set all their hope on the glory that shall be revealed to them when Christ gathers his church unto himself in the clouds (1 Thess. 4:13-18) at the rapture. Don’t set your hope on any particular outcome in this life. We can’t stop the world from being the world. And we can only have limited success at preventing the world from trampling on our rights and taking our hard earned goods. Rest in confidence that things will be eternally set right when the Lord descends from heaven. He will bring the world as we know it to a screeching halt, remove all the ungodly and all ungodliness from the face of the earth, and establish his everlasting kingdom in absolute righteousness.
Now don’t misunderstand me. Prepping in its simplest form is not intrinsically wrong. If you are so inclined, store up some beans and rice and other necessities that may come in handy in hard times. Who knows? You may actually find reason to break into your stockpile prior to the rapture. And in the post-rapture chaos, your neighbors, family, or friends will likely find your cache a blessing. (Be sure to leave Bibles and solid literature with your stash.) But take my advice to heart. With all of your getting, get wisdom. With all of your prepping, prepare to stand before God. Every man on the planet is going to stand before Him—either in his sins or in the Lord Jesus Christ. The former is the greatest tragedy that can befall man. The latter is the greatest blessing that man can obtain.
Eyes wide open, brain engaged, heart on fire.
Lee W. Brainard
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