Survival/Preppers

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MaryM

Well-known member
Nov 25, 2022
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299
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#41
The biggest thing about most peppers is that they cannot even find their way to the local grocery store without navigation....much less cook dinner without a youtube video.
Maybe that is unfair, though hopefully a joke! They are people who think ahead and plan, there is wisdom in that.
 

Demi777

Senior Member
Oct 13, 2014
6,889
1,958
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Germany
#42
Just do small steps. Get a extra pack of water when you go shopping, grab a extra can of whatever veggies, soups etc.and little by little your stash gets better then you can focus and save money for something bigger. I have a petroleum heater and petroleum just in case for example.
 

MaryM

Well-known member
Nov 25, 2022
505
299
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#43
There's a command to not kill as He gave at the end of the flood and in the 10 commandments, as well as other places. That refers to murder as we all know.
There are also commands such as the Lord told Peter in a vision. He told Peter to kill unclean animals and to eat them. This was repeated in other ways as was reaching the lost gentile nations with the Gospel .

I have and use traps. Right now I hope to put delicacies in the freezer. There's tasty meat that is available better than the supermarkets. In a depression that won't be available in most places except to those who have property in the country and can defend it.. It's a tough thing to discuss, but in population centers in particular, cannibalism will be common. The world does not have the moral compass that believers are given.
Perhaps the readers should invest in serious hand to hand combat lessons in weapons use. It might not hurt. At the worst it would get the family fit, bring them close together in a common activity that is really quite fun.
Right now I can't think of anything more fun than husbands, wives and their children playing with imitation swords/ sticks. To children, these are toys and teach physical fitness, coordination, unity, and virtues if you find the right teacher. There are many games that teach skill development drills that have a multitude of benefits.
Anything we can do to be aware and planned could be a crucial advantage. Even knowing what to stock up on if problems loom ahead. The ones who keep their wits about them will survive as others panic.
It IS horrible to think about such things.
In my novel things deteriorate in days not weeks. I remember how much we panicked during the covid early weeks and all it's impacts.
However, I believe in the authorities doing all possible to help us, though we must also help ourselves.
 

Lynx

Folksy yet erudite
Aug 13, 2014
27,243
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#44
The biggest thing about most peppers is that they cannot even find their way to the local grocery store without navigation....much less cook dinner without a youtube video.
You tend to figure it out if you get hungry enough.
 

ResidentAlien

Well-known member
Apr 21, 2021
8,266
3,602
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#45
You can prepare for minor natural disasters and other temporary problems; those things you can recover from. But when the tribulation starts going down, no one can be prepared. Maybe a well-prepared person might be able to delay the inevitable, but not for very long. Things will be going so bad so fast no one can be prepared. There will be diseases no one has a cure for; the waters will become bitter; there will be locusts from the bottomless pit. How do you prepare for that? The only way is to make sure you have God's seal on you.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
59,931
29,301
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#46
No person could be blamed for protecting their family. Yet,where does this leave God's commandment not to kill?
I know there is no easy answer to this.
The command is not to murder. Murder is illegal killing. Killing is allowed under legal conditions which make it acceptable.
 

Magenta

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2015
59,931
29,301
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#47
Anything we can do to be aware and planned could be a crucial advantage. Even knowing what to stock up on if problems loom ahead. The ones who keep their wits about them will survive as others panic.
It IS horrible to think about such things.
In my novel things deteriorate in days not weeks. I remember how much we panicked during the covid early weeks and all it's impacts.
However, I believe in the authorities doing all possible to help us, though we must also help ourselves.
A former member told us that her church (or perhaps it was a church she knew of) had stocked up on
10,000 frozen turkey dinners. That was maybe two years ago. I mentioned at the time that a power
outage could short-circuit their plans, and have wondered on numerous occasions since then what
has become of those 10,000 meals. They will not keep indefinitely. Another thing is, people stocking
up on things they did not need at the time and had no future use for before the best before date came
and went contributed to the many shortages that happened at the outset of the covid pandemic.
 

HealthAndHappiness

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2022
10,236
4,290
113
Almost Heaven West Virginia
#48
Thinking of hunting?
During the last depression (and every area that suffers from an economic depression) the wild game populations drop drastically to the point of extinction.
Because no one has a job anymore and people have plenty of time to go fishing or hunting.
There's not enough game to go around. However, what there is will belong to those who hunt and trap. Eventually that will run out. As society transitions from hunting to cannibalism, those squirrel guns and combat skills might come in handy to fend off the gangs of "zombies."

Raising livestock is something only country folks will do. City dwellers of the past used to raise too if they had enough yard and feed. My own grandparents had valuable property just outside city limits. They had chickens and kept the old coal gravity heat furnace. Grandma had a big garden. They would likely be better off that a millionaire in town if the shelves were bare.
 

MaryM

Well-known member
Nov 25, 2022
505
299
63
#49
You can prepare for minor natural disasters and other temporary problems; those things you can recover from. But when the tribulation starts going down, no one can be prepared. Maybe a well-prepared person might be able to delay the inevitable, but not for very long. Things will be going so bad so fast no one can be prepared. There will be diseases no one has a cure for; the waters will become bitter; there will be locusts from the bottomless pit. How do you prepare for that? The only way is to make sure you have God's seal on you.
Yes, prayer and unswerving trust in Jesus Christ will be our way.
 
Feb 5, 2023
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#50
No person could be blamed for protecting their family. Yet,where does this leave God's commandment not to kill?
I know there is no easy answer to this.
God's commandment is not to murder.

The scripture in the OT, from memory, says if one does not protect their family they are worse than an unbeliever.

We might take notice too that God's people in the OT were not pacifists. Nor is God for that matter.
 

Moses_Young

Well-known member
Sep 15, 2019
9,974
5,531
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#52
The command is not to murder. Murder is illegal killing. Killing is allowed under legal conditions which make it acceptable.
Yup. There are entire passages on how to engage in warfare. When someone is trying to kill or even harm you (or your family) - that's war.
 

Tall_Timbers

Well-known member
Mar 31, 2023
1,135
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Cheyenne WY
christiancommunityforum.com
#53
Weeeeell... It depends on "need." If it gets down to the wire, you don't really HAVE to wash or flush. All you really "need" is drinking water.
Technically true, but I would like to be pampered with at least a sponge bath from time to time, and if one uses their toilets the house will become very unpleasant unless it is flushed. If it is the only choice one has given where they live... If there was a water source I could access like a creek or lake I would fetch some water in 5 gallon buckets for flushing. If not... don't know what I'd do since I live in the city now.

I guess eventually the old "hierarchy of needs" would kick in and maybe I could forgo a washing, though throughout my life, even when doing missionary work in the jungles of South America I found time and ways to bathe. I like feeling clean for some reason or other.
 

MaryM

Well-known member
Nov 25, 2022
505
299
63
#54
Technically true, but I would like to be pampered with at least a sponge bath from time to time, and if one uses their toilets the house will become very unpleasant unless it is flushed. If it is the only choice one has given where they live... If there was a water source I could access like a creek or lake I would fetch some water in 5 gallon buckets for flushing. If not... don't know what I'd do since I live in the city now.

I guess eventually the old "hierarchy of needs" would kick in and maybe I could forgo a washing, though throughout my life, even when doing missionary work in the jungles of South America I found time and ways to bathe. I like feeling clean for some reason or other.
I would perish if I couldn't shower and the toilet didn't work!
 

GaryA

Truth, Honesty, Love, Courage
Aug 10, 2019
9,807
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#55
I've read a shutdown of between a few weeks and up to a few months is coming, probably with military lockdown.
"Yeah, right..."

It may be coming - but - if it reaches this level of control, why would anyone think that it would be 'undone' after it was accomplished?

At whatever point freedom is completely done-away-with, [historically] it does not return - unless, of course, folks stand-up-and-fight-for-it.
 

GaryA

Truth, Honesty, Love, Courage
Aug 10, 2019
9,807
4,308
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mywebsite.us
#56
There is really not much you can do.
This may be true; however, the attitude you must have and the question you must ask yourself is:

"What can I do?"

Even then we ourselves could potentially become monsters; this should be a bigger concern than fending off outside monsters.
This is a matter of perspective.

I know what it is like to go 7/5/7/9 days without eating. (The four numbers represent four different occasions.)

Never once, for even a moment, did I think about bringing harm to another human being or stealing food from anywhere.


Do no harm. Do not steal. Trust in the Lord.
 

GaryA

Truth, Honesty, Love, Courage
Aug 10, 2019
9,807
4,308
113
mywebsite.us
#58
Before or after they're vaporized by the nuclear fallout?
In 'nuclear' parlance, the only thing that can 'vaporize' [anything] is the bomb blast itself (if you are close enough to 'ground zero') - no such thing can occur during [the] 'fallout'.
 

GaryA

Truth, Honesty, Love, Courage
Aug 10, 2019
9,807
4,308
113
mywebsite.us
#59
You can prepare for minor natural disasters and other temporary problems; those things you can recover from. But when the tribulation starts going down, no one can be prepared. Maybe a well-prepared person might be able to delay the inevitable, but not for very long. Things will be going so bad so fast no one can be prepared. There will be diseases no one has a cure for; the waters will become bitter; there will be locusts from the bottomless pit. How do you prepare for that? The only way is to make sure you have God's seal on you.
As a rule - you don't [specifically] need to prepare for that. Why? Because, those things are not part of the 'tribulation' (from a biblical 'event' perspective). You have a much higher prospect of being beheaded for refusing to worship the beast than having to deal with those Trumpet events occurrences. By the time they begin to occur, the absolute majority of Christians will have been beheaded...