Prepping and Faith

       A few weeks ago, a friend suggested that I write an article about living in the End Times, and the balance between prepping and the belief that God will provide or preserve his followers. Specifically, the issue of whether prepping is necessary or whether we should simply rely on God to preserve and save us.

       I suspect that those who hold the latter belief base it on a portion of the Sermon on the Mount where Christ teaches:

24 ¶ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

(Matt. 6).

     It is easy to read this as saying that God will provide for the faithful without them having to prepare or work for it. But that ignores the first verse in the paragraph (denoted by the ¶). The subject of the paragraph is that you cannot serve both God and mammon, followed by an argument why you should fear and worship God rather than the things of this world. Jesus is not saying that we should stop working, sit on the ground, and hope that cooked duck flies into our mouth. He is talking about where our focus should be.

    We know that Christ was not telling us to stop working because Paul worked when able even though he was tasked with proselyting and ministering over the Church. For instance, in Acts 18:1-3, we read:

1 After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth;

2 And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.

3 And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers.

(See also Acts 20:34; 1 Cor 4:12; 2 Cor 11:9-12; 1 Th. 2:9; 2 Th. 3:8). Likewise, Adam was told by the Lord that, after being driven from the Garden, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Gen. 3:19), indicating that God expects us to work to earn a living.

     If God expects us to work to earn a living, then He would also expect us to prepare for trials and tribulations. "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished." (Prov. 22:3). Again, this is clear from the Bible. For instance, after the Lord told Noah that He was going to send the flood, he commanded Noah (among other things) to build an ark, which Noah did. (Gen. 6:14-16 and 22). That is, God didn't just plop an ark down for Noah to use, but Noah was expected to labor to construct the ark and all the other tasks given him. And, in fact, Noah's preparation of the ark was counted as an act of faith. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." (Heb. 11:7).

    We know that disasters happen all the time. It can be personal, such as a disability or a loss of job or a house fire. It can be something community wide or regional such as wildfires, storms, earthquakes, famines, economic depressions, civil upheavals, wars and so on. And periodically, it is something truly biblical.

     I've previously written about the earthquake of 1201, probably the deadliest earthquake in history--a May-July, 1201 series of earthquakes that struck the eastern Mediterranean, including Egypt and Syria. It is estimated that more than 1.1 million people were killed. In the case of the 1201 earthquake, there apparently was a series of earthquakes between late May and extending into August. The primary quake--i.e., the most damaging--appears to have been on May 20, 1201, which destroyed Nablus, and heavily damaged Damascus and Tripoli. It also caused a destructive tsunami along the coast of Syria and on Cyprus. It was felt in as far separated places as northern Iran, Mesopotamia, and Sicily. This first earthquake apparently had little impact in Jerusalem and Egypt, though it seemingly caused the failure of the Nile floods. There was a subsequent earthquake in June or July that caused destruction in Tyr, Beirut, Damascus, Baalbak, several towns in Palestine, Homs (in Syria) and caused a tsunami in Cyprus. A later earthquake in July-August collapsed monuments and temples in Baalbak). Many of the deaths may have been the result of the resulting famine, rather than directly as a result of the earthquake(s).

      I've also written before amount the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812, including quoting from this description of the New Madrid Earthquake:

      The New Madrid earthquakes were the biggest earthquakes in American history. They occurred in the central Mississippi Valley, but were felt as far away as New York City, Boston, Montreal, and Washington D. C. President James Madison and his wife Dolly felt them in the White House. Church bells rang in Boston. From December 16, 1811 through March of 1812 there were over 2,000 earthquakes in the central Midwest, and between 6,000-10,000 earthquakes in the Bootheel of Missouri where New Madrid is located near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. In the known history of the world, no other earthquakes have lasted so long or produced so much evidence of damage as the New Madrid earthquakes. Three of the earthquakes are on the list of America’s top earthquakes: the first one on December 16, 1811, a magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter scale; the second on January 23, 1812, at 7.8; and the third on February 7, 1812, at as much as 8.8 magnitude.

The Mississippi Ran Backwards

        After the February 7th earthquake, boatmen reported that the Mississippi actually ran backwards for several hours. The force of the land upheaval 15 miles south of New Madrid created Reelfoot lake, drowned the inhabitants of an Indian village; turned the river against itself to flow backwards; devastated thousands of acres of virgin forest; and created two temporary waterfalls in the Mississippi. Boatmen on flatboats actually survived this experience and lived to tell the tale.

Getting Over Cracks

       As the general area experienced more than 2,000 earthquakes in five months, people discovered that most of crevices opening up during an earthquake ran from north to south, and when the earth began moving, they would chop down trees in an east- west direction and hold on using the tree as a bridge. There were “missing people” who were most likely swallowed up by the earth. Some earthquake fissures were as long as five miles.

Earthquake Phenonema

      Sand Boils

      The world’s largest sand boil was created by the New Madrid earthquake. It is 1.4 miles long and 136 acres in extent, located in the Bootheel of Missouri, about 8 miles west of Hayti, Missouri. Locals call it “The Beach.” Other, much smaller, sand boils are found throughout the area.

      Seismic Tar Balls

       Small pellets up to golf ball sized tar balls are found in sand boils and fissures. They are petroleum that has been solidified, or “petroliferous nodules.”

       Earthquake Lights

      Lights flashed from the ground, caused by quartz crystals being squeezed. The phenomena is called “seismoluminescence.”

       Warm Water

       Water thrown up by an earthquake was lukewarm. It is speculated that the shaking caused the water to heat up and/or quartz light heated the water.

       Earthquake Smog

       The skies turned dark during the earthquakes, so dark that lighted lamps didn’t help. The air smelled bad, and it was hard to breathe. It is speculated that it was smog containing dust particles caused by the eruption of warm water into cold air.

       Loud Thunder

      Sounds of distant thunder and loud explosions accompanied the earthquakes.

      Animal Warnings

       People reported strange behavior by animals before the earthquakes. They were nervous and excited. Domestic animals became wild, and wild animals became tame. Snakes came out of the ground from hibernation. Flocks of ducks and geese landed near people.

* * *

       The first steamboat travel on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers took place during the New Madrid earthquakes. The New Orleans set out from Pittsburgh on October 20, 1811 bound for New Orleans. Captain Nicholas Roosevelt had brought along his young wife, their 2 year old daughter, and a Labrador dog. Ten days after leaving Pittsburgh, his wife Lydia gave birth to a son in Louisville, Kentucky. They waited a while for her to recover, and for the water to rise prior to crossing the dangerous waters and coral reef at the Falls of the Ohio. On the night before the day of the earthquake, December 16th, the steamboat was anchored near Owensboro, Kentucky, about 200 miles east of New Madrid, Missouri. Their dog, Tiger, insisted on staying in the cabin with them instead of sleeping on the deck. Without realizing it, they were heading straight towards the epicenter of the greatest earthquake in American history. Their steamboat, intended to be an advertisement for steam travel, was thought instead to be the cause of the earthquake by many who saw it. At Henderson, Kentucky, where no chimneys were left standing, they stopped to visit their friends, the painter John James Audubon and his wife Lucy. Floating in the middle of the Ohio River they were protected from the earthquake tremors shaking the land, but not from the hazards of falling trees, disappearing islands, and collapsing river banks. After entering Indian Territory on December 18th, they were chased by Indians who figured the “fire canoe” had caused the earthquake, but they managed to escape capture by outrunning them. They even had a small cabin fire that night which they managed to put out. Thousands of trees were floating on the waters of the Mississippi as they approached New Madrid on December 19th, three days after the earthquake. They found that the town of New Madrid had been destroyed. They didn’t dare to stop and pick up a few survivors, for fear of being overrun, and they were without supplies. Most alarming was the fact that they had not seen a boat ascending the river in three days. They saw wrecked and abandoned boats. It was undoubtedly a miracle that they survived and kept on going. They tied up at one island, and the island sank during the night. Their dog, Tiger, alerted them to oncoming tremors. On December 22nd, they encountered the British naturalist John Bradbury on a boat at the mouth of the St. Francis River, who told them the town of Big Prairie was gone. They arrived at Natchez, Mississippi on December 30th and celebrated the first marriage aboard a steamboat on December 31st, when the steamboat engineer married Lydia’s maid. They arrived at New Orleans on January 10th, 1812, safe and sound, after traveling 1,900 miles from Pittsburgh on the first steamboat to travel the western waters.

      Another disaster of biblical proportions was the 1815 explosion of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia that caused the year without a summer. (See also this Smithsonian article). Average global temperatures decreased about 0.4–0.7 °C (0.7–1.3 °F), enough to cause food shortages and famine worldwide, particularly in Europe and throughout Asia. Cool weather continued through 1816 and 1817 because of the explosion.

      And while most preppers have heard of the 1859 Carrington Event, there was an event estimated to be 10 to 20 times more energetic in 774 A.D.

      Compared to other wars, World War I and II were wars of biblical proportions with tens of millions killed, tens of millions more displaced, and global in scope. And the famines suffered under Soviets and Chinese communists killed tens of millions more.

      On top of all of this, like Noah's warning of the flood, we have been warned of major disasters and upheavals coming around the time of the Second Coming. Shall we be like Noah, and show our faith through preparing, or be like those outside of Noah's family that "did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all"? (Luke 17:27).