Neo-Survivalist

The news is full of “unrest” it seems like.  We have the mosque going in at ground zero.  We have a pastor in Gainesville, FL that is looking to do a public burning of Korans.  The Gainesville pastor has gained international attention at every level – truly amazing.

Furthermore, pastors from other churches now are possibly looking to mimic the Gainesville event.  All of this adds up to further unrest.  I’m not going to comment on the acts themselves because I think they’re a little over played now anyways, but the point is that unrest is everywhere these days.

I recently talked about the Gainesville guy with one of my friends who said he shouldn’t do it because it will prevent people from peacefully living together.  I thought to myself since when have people lived peacefully together?  The world has and will continue to be chaotic.  The world is full of various people groups and controlled by various interests – tension is the constant reality in the world.

As a young man with a young family, I can’t help but notice what is going on in the world.  Couple these things with the growing economic uncertainty and it makes me take action.  It makes me want to do things that people consider weird and extreme in the name of protecting my family.  Buying a gun, buying some extra food, etc. these things are viewed by many as extreme and even more as unnecessary.  Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but I don’t think I’m willing to risk it.

After all, the insurance that comes from “prepping” doesn’t cost much yet might be incredibly valuable in the right circumstances.

Side note: the Gainesville pastor is making a political statement.  Whether you agree with it or not, I don’t exactly think that it should be the focus of a pastor to be making political statements.  Not exactly preaching the gospel if you know what I mean.

America, Christianity, General Preparedness

I have seen a connection somewhat between the survival community and Christianity.  I mean somewhat because what I mean here is that many who are into survivalism are professing Christians.  Now without getting into a long discussion here on my belief that most people who claim to be Christians are not followers of Christ (and such a claim is Biblically based), it’s important to keep this in mind when discussing such a connection.  Note: if you want to discuss this previous statement further, leave a comment or contact me – I’m happy to discuss further.

Now, let’s get this out on the table, I’m a Christian.  I believe the Bible is the Word of God and I believe Jesus Christ is the only path for salvation for mankind.  As I’ve grown in my faith, much over just the past year, I’ve really wrestled with my tendencies to embrace “survivalism” as most “survivalists” define it.  Like many things in life, as we read the Bible, God reveals things to us and confronts us with things and makes us question areas of our life, namely things we hold onto over God himself.  This is the process of sanctification and is an absolute part of life for any true believer.

Here are a few areas that I’m wrestling with:

Isolation

A main point of the survivalism crowd is isolation.  Famous survivalist, Rawles of the survivalblog.com website (who is a self professing Christian) lives somewhere out in Idaho in his isolated “retreat.”  I understand the reasons behind such a move, but how does a Christian reconcile this with the commandment given by Christ himself to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20)?

Hoarding

Hoarding is another major point of survivalism.  While the Bible does discuss saving up for hard times to be a wise move, the Bible also clearly condemns hoarding when so many individuals have nothing.  Did you know that approx 3 billion people on the planet live on $1-2 per day?  Read the account of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16 for a chilling example of someone who is rich.  Again, I don’t have the answer here, but this is something I wrestle with.  I personally have some stored food for potential hard times, but I am personally convicted about the desire to continue to pile up more and more for myself while I completely ignore literally billions of people who have absolutely nothing.  How will I answer to God when I’m called to give an account for my resources (again, read Luke 16)?

I thought that this was an interesting discussion to open up to people interested in survivalism, especially since I seem to see a common inter-weaving between survivalism and Christianity – some Biblical, some maybe not so much?  What do you think?  Do you wrestle with these things?  As Christians, it’s important to read the Scripture for what it is.  We far too often twist the Scriptures to our own liking according to our culture, our desires and our wants.

I hope you will add your input to this discussion.

Christianity, General Preparedness Christian