While this book has wilderness survival as one main theme, there will be no discussion, or support, of militia groups. And while the Elect fully expect to be persecuted by world governments, there will be no anti-government propaganda (of the type meant for seditious purposes).While I have come to support community living for tribulation purposes, I would like you to distinguish me from false prophets or cult material which seek to form end-time Christian communities. I am no prophet, self-proclaimed or otherwise; I make no official prophetic utterances in the Name of the Majesty. I seek not to become a leader over a group of people forming a tribulation community, although, when the time comes, if it should come in my lifetime, I will do what I can to serve and protect the people of God; Lord grant us all the courage and dedication to do whatever it will take.
There is no dogmatic claim concerning the identity of the anti-Christ. I'm open to being wrong on any view or prediction that I might make. Daily world events dressed up as fulfilled prophecy is not a tactic to be used here as a carrot-on-a-stick to keep your on-going interest and in-coming money. I don't want your money, and I don't want to view a world event as prophetic fulfillment if it's not.
Conspiracy theories involving international bankers who plan the complete financial collapse of the world's economy, the bombing of America by Russia or China during the tribulation period, and all such Biblically-unverifiable ideas will not be carted here...unless evidence surfaces to convince me. Not that I'm naive regarding the forces driving the New World Order, but that there are all sorts of fearful theories in regards to how they will choose to strike for control purposes. While any scenario is possible that isn't in Prophecy, it may prove disastrous to believe in future events as certain fact when they may not be. For example, some people are moving away from the United States altogether for fear of being nuked as per interpretations of dreams / visions by certain self-proclaimed online prophets. To simplify, the Bible claims only two things for us to avoid: the image and mark of the beast. No financial collapse is prophesied, and the very last three or fours years seem to be to the contrary.
While we don't exactly know at this time when the need will come for the Church to retreat into the wilderness, rather than putting off a decisive plan, we ought to begin praying for future protection, and laying out some strategies in our minds. God knows best where the locations in the world are situated for the purpose. He will require that some of us suffer intensely, but not until the appointed times; until then, He will protect and sustain, nourish and prune. The best reason I can give you for preparing yourself physically beforehand is for your better spiritual condition when the time comes. It may prove disastrous to your spirituality if you are scurrying about looking for food and warmth for your body, and you may end up giving in to the sort of despair that curses God for your troubles.
But this book is not about hiding in order to save your own skin, though, yes, Proverbs has good advice when saying that the wise see trouble coming and hide accordingly. The wisest of all seeks to help others in their common calamity. Anyone who sets his mind to forsaking any part of this life for turning his energies onto tribulation preparation for God's people will be honored accordingly. The wise servant will be found feeding the household of Jesus when He returns, said Jesus in Matthew 24, and that one will be Fed in return by God, if I understand his laws correctly. I do not think it is wise to leave the situation in God's lap...to neglect physical preparation altogether...and to call that "trusting in God." Rather, keep attentive to what the Holy Spirit is directing you to.
Prior to 2000, it appeared to me that the 666 skincode (mark of the beast) could be mandatory by 2015. But as I edit this page in mid-2012, there's not yet been a drive by any corporation to install the system. Until there is a drive to indicate how the masses will react to a skincode system of purchasing, it's difficult to predict the timing of a mandatory system. Even still, I would say that the time to seek God for a tribulation retreat has all but arrived if only because all Universal Product Codes (bar codes on all products purchased) come with three hidden 6's. Don't let anyone convince you the three pairs of separator bars in the UPC are not 6's, for indeed they are.
The poor who can't afford so much as their own land must look to the wealthy, and the wealthy must consider them. If I understand God correctly, he will raise believers with wealth to assist those who have an insufficiency of supplies, and others who are caught off-guard when the time arrives suddenly.
The gospel that I read in the Bible is this:
Apart from the Holy Spirit living within me, I remain susceptible to falsehood and behavior denying me the prize of eternal life with My Creator. Without the Spirit's guidance, I cannot know God in order to be pleasant in His company. Instead, I can only fashion in my mind an image of God which is not truly Him (e.g. Allah the anti-Jewish God, the anti-Jesus Jewish God, the Our-Lady Catholic God, the evolved-from-flesh Mormon God, the eerie Masonic God who turns out to be Lucifer and a one-world religion under him, the charismatic worldly-prosperity God, the witchcraft God who lives in tree trunks and doesn't care when you sin, the yoga God who turns out to be a self-diluted self, the extra-terrestrial God from aliens, the New-Age ether-force God living in dark matter, the Evolution God that creates enormously but has no mind...).Through faith in the Cross (the willing act of Crucifixion, not the wood), I receive the new birth in the Holy Spirit, who intimately introduces the true God to me. I sense His activity in my life whenever he should make it known to my senses. The Holy Spirit has the task of urging me to remain faithful to God's desires, or the words of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit then verifies that Scripture is a message to us all from God, that we might know him in Truth all the more -- that we might not be deceived again by the religion(s) or non-religion(s) once holding us.
After the regeneration of my soul, there ought to be a life-long course in obedience to Him, my life's work motivated by love for him. It is He who makes us love him, first by the Cross, and then by things done in our lives that he allows us to acknowledge. Faith in the Son of God without obedience is dead and unworthy faith, a very false hope. There are different levels/degrees of dead faith, and different degrees of healthy faith. The Holy Spirit seeks to build a new person(ality) within me by being a coach in my various trials, which God is sure to let me taste whether I like them or not. I am to pass through the difficulties with loyalty to God intact. It's loyalty, what the devil abandoned, that He calls us to. I don't know that there is any difference between faith and loyalty.
I receive eternal rewards for all obedience / loyalty during and after the struggles. For the disobedience in my life-long, Spirit-filled walk, there is provision for forgiveness through the Cross, thus sparing me all eternal penalties. This Grace gives me the impetus to go on in obedience even while I am burdened and disheartened by my sins.
My spirit is finally sprung free from the pressures of being a Christian in a world ruled by Satanic forces. This freedom will come when the re-appearance of Jesus destroys the forces responsible, or when I die, whichever comes first.
All good and charitable works will reap good rewards in this life, but will not in themselves reap eternal life. Anyone who performs good works while rejecting the Son of God will not be invited, nor permitted, into the House of God, nor into the Celebrations now being prepared for the Son. This is only fair and expected, for no matter how good one's actions and thoughts are, his/her rejection of the Son will reap rejection from the Son, whom God has placed in charge of His Kingdom. No one who rejects the Son can claim to be without sin, for that one has committed one gross sin already.
The Father has placed the Holy Spirit in charge of those who love/obey the Son, that they might safely arrive to the gates of eternal life, where a troubled life can bloom into unimaginable joy. If the Spirit of God is not present at all in a life, then there is no true faith in Jesus present. The one who obeys the Son is the one who loves the Son; this one has true faith and is thereby sealed by the Spirit for the Day of salvation. It may not feel like it at times, but the Seal is there.
The Son has commanded us to look after one another in our calamities, and the calamity of calamities is almost here.