Should Christians Be Preppers? | Unbiased View
When it comes to prepping, there is a wide range of opinions within the Christian community. Some of the comments on a Reddit thread illustrate this:
“Being a prepper is about fear. That doesn't seem to be too aligned with Jesus.” - AHorribleGoose
“Doomsday prepping is a mental illness. Christians with mental illness should seek treatment instead of feeding their illness with canned beans and guns.” - benkenobi5
I think that sometimes when people hear the word “prepare” or “preparedness,” they automatically think of tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists hiding on a mountaintop bunker, monitoring HAM radio, and setting booby traps for the zombies.
But there are many degrees of preparedness, and what a lot of peppers do was commonplace 1-200 years ago.
Almost everyone is a pepper to one degree or another. Most people buy more than one day’s worth of food at a time when they go to the grocery store; they are prepared for tomorrow. Some buy a whole week’s worth of groceries at a time. Others have a month’s worth of food in the cupboards. And still others have a year’s worth of food or more. For some reason, it’s okay to have a week’s worth of food, but you start getting into tinfoil hat territory after a month’s worth.
Almost everyone is prepared for an unforeseen car accident by having auto insurance. Almost everyone is prepared for a health crisis with health insurance.
Most people are storing up 20-30 years worth of money in a 401k or IRA. That is completely normal! But if you have two year’s worth of food, you’re probably a little extreme.
Most local governments, and even the federal government, advise their citizens to prepare. Check out this list from Ready.gov:
12 WAYS TO PREPARE
Sign up for Alerts and Warnings
Make a Plan
Save for a Rainy Day
Practice Emergency Drills
Test Family Communication Plan
Safeguard Documents
Plan with Neighbors
Make Your Home Safer
Know Evacuation Routes
Assemble or Update Supplies
Get Involved in Your Community
Document and Insure Property
TAKE ACTION AND PREPARE
Does the Bible Discourage Prepping?
Everyone is a prepper to one degree or another, even those who make fun of it. But what is “normal” doesn’t really matter; we want to know what the Bible says about preparedness.
Some would seem to discourage being prepared at all, like Matthew 6:19-21:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19–21 | ESV)
Then there’s Matthew 6:25–34:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ” (Matthew 6:25–30 | ESV)
Jesus go on to drive the point even further home when He says,
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:31–34 | ESV)
There you go. No need to prepare for anything, right? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
We don’t need to work.
We have to go to the store and buy food.
We don’t need health insurance.
We don’t need a retirement plan
We certainly don’t need a year’s supply of beans, bandaids, and bullets.
God will provide!
Right?
The question is, how do you seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and how does God provide for our needs?
Let me suggest one way that we might seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness: reading His Word and doing what it says. The Bible touches every aspect of our lives, but in this article, we are only talking about physical preparedness.
Obviously, you need to be prepared for Judgement Day. If you are not right with God, that is where I would start prepping. We made a three-part video series that walks you through the entire Bible, and it’s a good place to start.
Examples of “Preppers” in the Bible
Noah
When Noah was warned by God about the coming global flood, at God’s command he built a huge boat and stocked it full of everything needed to repopulate the earth (Genesis 6:9-22)
He didn’t just, “give to God” and sit around praying till the rain started. No, he trusted the Lord and got busy building the ark.
Joseph
Joseph didn’t have the best relationship with his brothers. In fact, they sold him into slavery and he was taken to Egypt. Through the providence and protection of God, he lived through it and ended up flourishing. He eventually became second in command of Egypt. When warned about a seven-year-long famine that was coming, he prepared for it by storing up enough grain to save the nation and his family (Genesis 37-50).
God’s Design for Preparedness
Those are a couple of great examples, and here are some other verses that seem to indicate that being prepared is wise:
“The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” (Proverbs 27:12 | ESV)
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.” (Proverbs 6:6–8 | ESV)
“The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.” (Proverbs 20:4 | ESV)
“Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.” (Proverbs 21:20 | ESV)
“Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.” (Proverbs 24:27 ESV)
These few verses seem to indicate that God desires for us to work and prepare for the future. If we trust God, that is what we will do.
Am I suggesting that you crawl into your mountain-top bunker, isolate yourself from society while you monitor HAM radio, and build booby traps for the zombies? Not at all. But I am suggesting that you have some type of plan to take care of yourself, your family, and your community should an emergency arise. Such as localized natural disasters like earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, or forest fires, or a more long-term disaster like an economic collapse caused by a pandemic, war, cyber attack, or EMP.
Conclusion
The way I see it, you have 3 options:
You can be a burden to society and not prepare. The Lord may very well provide you with food and clothing…a nice orange jumpsuit and a Nutra loaf in your local FEMA camp.
You could be neutral—neither a burden nor a blessing; just keep to yourself and let those around you suffer.
You could prepare to be a blessing by planning to have food and Bibles to give to the needy or sell to those who are healthy and able to work.
“For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10 | ESV)
Why all this talk about preparedness? Because we want people to be wise. Throughout all of human history, there have been times of hardship, and those who were prepared weathered them much better than those who weren’t. We are no different. In fact, we may be in a more vulnerable situation than our ancestors.
Our food and prescription medicine are grown and produced hundreds if not thousands of miles away from us. It is delivered to our local stores and pharmacies daily through a system that is reliant on fuel, electricity, and the internet. If there is a major disruption of any of those, we are in serious trouble.
I won’t go into the details in this article, but you can click here to get access to our free preparedness checklist and list of recommended, high-quality books so that you can be a prepared blessing to those who are not prepared.
But remember, being prepared to meet the Lord on Judgment Day should be our #1 priority. If you’d like to continue studying with our three-part overview of the Bible series, you can watch those videos here.
What are your thoughts on being prepared as a Christian? Let us know in the comments below!
