Prepare for the End of Days By Getting Out of Debt and Off the Public Dole, and By Pulling Together Resources to Form Christian Communities in the 'Wilderness,' Where the Lord Will Guide Us Like a Flock

"And I [John] saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to Him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And He opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle... they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter." - THE 5th TRUMPET: 'Satan Shall Be Loosed Out of His Prison to Reign Over His Earthly Kingdom, His One-World Government and Religion;' 'Locusts' Torment Men Without the Seal of God for Five Months [a 'Little Season']

For 'a little season,' [the 'five months' that Satan will reign from the holy place over his one-world government and religion, claiming to be God], "no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name (Revelation 13:17)."

"And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." - Matthew 24:22

"Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." - Revelation 3:10

"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." - Revelation 12:6

How to Prepare for the Coming Depression

By Kenneth Uptegrove, ArkHaven.org
Originally Published in July 2007

Satan is the "mother" of all conspiracies. Since he does not have a heaven or hell or hope or happiness to offer us, he also has no religion or truth to offer. So over the millennia he has spawned — or mothered — hundreds of counterfeit, conspiratorial religions and philosophical systems. He is a cunning tyrant whose whole existence is given over to hating, deceiving, and destroying us.

The sole purpose of spawning these lies is to set in place his powerful one-world antichrist system.

The best way to hide the source and intent of the mother conspiracy (conspirator) is to spawn a dozen daughter conspiracies that (unwittingly and unknowingly) front for, or create a diversion for, the mother conspiracy. The mother conspiracy can stay in the background, never showing her hand, but forever manipulating all her daughters. Even speaking of them as a mother and her daughters is deceptive.

The truth is, these conspiracies are of their father — Satan (John 8:44).

These conspiracies are actually diverse groups that disagree with each other over many issues, but they have one thing in common. They have more unity and more oneness in the antichrist spirit than the Church presently does in the Spirit of Christ; and they have had it for a long time.

They are united in one common purpose, one powerful force against Christ and the Kingdom of God.

The Scripture Reading for This Article

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. (2 Peter 3:1-5)

Satan's Ultimate Goal

Satan's ultimate goal is to disrupt and destroy Christendom and all social, political, and economic systems on Earth by putting into place dozens of competing systems. Out of the resulting chaos, fear, and mistrust, he plans to set in place a one-world social, economic, and political system that collectively will become his one-world system.

This antichrist system will be brilliant! It will work wonders! And a vast majority of the world’s people will welcome it — for a while.

It will not prevail!

What I am about to show you comes out of my 2.5 years of training in church history, and as a computer professional since 1965.

Though there may exist different streams within the Church, as long as each stream leads to the same River, we are joined in purpose. However, the antichrist system has also infiltrated some areas of Christian thought. (The word "Antichrist" means "in place of Christ" more so than "against Christ.") Even though I am a social and fiscal conservative and of the "religious right," I have observed that some "radical right" thought, especially amongst some "conspiracy theory" proponents, have crossed that line.

What Will the One-World Religion Be?

Now, let’s go another direction for a minute.

The Bible speaks of a one-world religion that will deceive people of every religion on earth in the latter part of the last days. But I think this religion has ALWAYS been the world religion. What can that religion be?

It is highly improbable, and seemingly inconceivable, that any existing religion (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Jewish or Christianity, etc.) could convert the whole world to its doctrine, but religions such as Islam would like to force all living humans into submission to their religion.

That will be the goal of this false religion, not to convert, but force us to need them in order to survive. How can that be done?

Most people's religion is a traditional heritage, a religious veneer that covers their underlying love of money and the power it brings (to dominate and survive): The love of money, and the power it brings (to dominate and survive). In a word: Self, the most primal of instincts.

Christians whose subliminal God is money show that they can be seduced and drawn from God. Since the love of money is the world religion, God will cast down this false God, this idol of worship. Therefore it should not surprise us that a worldwide depression is imminent.

I think that Bill Clinton (when running for president) was a prophet to the antichrist system/religion when he said, "It is the economy, stupid!" My study of world history shows me that the antichrist system is so subtle, so subversive, so wise, but so powerful — all at the same time — that very few are aware of its existence. This religion originated in the Garden of Eden when Satan originally sold this lie to Adam and Eve.

A religion is anything you love, admire, and devote most of your attention to. Self-preservation — the survival instinct — is so basic to human nature that we don't think about it, or write about it, or preach sermons on it.

That is why the one-world religion can be described as the perfect conspiracy, because it is a subliminal, subconscious religion. We treasure, and are driven, by the gratuitous instinct to survive; and that can be defined as a subliminal, invisible religion.

Way too many Christians vote their pocketbook and for the power to dominate. Look at what is generally called Bible believing Christians. They appear to be zealous in their faith, yet way too many vote in diametric contradiction to the Word of God when they vote their pocketbook and forget that they are also voting for abortion, the homosexual agenda, anti-Americanism, and socialism (i.e., the most antichrist and liberal of political candidates).

"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence." - Franklin Delanor Roosevelt

In other words, when we lose our economic security, we also lose our freedom, and are forced to survive any way we can.

I called Bill Clinton a prophet because his, "It’s the economy, stupid" prophecy was fulfilled. The nation believed him... and his subliminal, one-world religion message of self-preservation.

The Bible shows me a coming world leader who will exploit this self-preservation instinct and will bring this religion to its logical conclusion. And if possible, even some of the very elect will be deceived by this appeal to their pocketbook and personal security.

On the one hand this is a gloom and doom message, but on the other hand this is the age (the days just prior to the Second Coming) when the Church will come forth in her greatest power, glory, and victory.

The cruel, demented leadership of Adolph Hitler probably directly resulted in more death and destruction than any other single individual in history. The name Hitler will forever be one of the most ugly scars on human history. However, even Churchill acknowledged that if Hitler had died in 1938, he would have been considered one of the greatest leaders of all time.

The Adolph Hitler Model

When Hitler came to power, Germany was suffering under some of the worst economic and political conditions a nation has suffered during modern times. There was 50% to 75% unemployment. The government was bankrupt, and the German Mark actually became worthless. Mobs ruled the streets, perversion was rampant, and the whole nation tottered on the brink of becoming a Soviet state.

In just four years, Hitler not only balanced the budget, he paid off the national debt while building the most powerful economy in the world. His social engineering almost eliminated unemployment. He restored Germany’s national dignity, and built the most powerful army in the world. He also drove pornography from the land and greatly reduced the crime rate. There has never been such a transformation of a country in the history of the world.

Most of the Church in Germany was so fooled by Hitler that they helped establish his power base, with some church leaders actually calling him "a messiah."

Are we doomed to keep repeating history because we fail to learn from history? Will we prepare ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually?

Why the World Will Accept the Antichrist System

"They feared the Lord, but served their own gods." (2 Kings 17:33)

We have a nation where the overwhelming majority of the people declare the name of the Lord. Many even claim to be born again, and they actually may be, but the same ones give themselves to serving many other gods.

When it comes down to choosing between death and survival, the survival instinct in all of us will compel many to overrule our social, economic, political, and religious belief system. Most people will choose to survive at any cost. If possible, even professing believers may choose survival over death, perhaps for the sake of their children.

Look at the Joseph scenario. By the time the seven years of famine were over, ALL the people chose to sell themselves as slaves of Pharaoh for wheat to survive on. But fortunately, Joseph was benevolent.

The coming world dictator will seem to be a benevolent messiah, but will ultimately show himself to be a malevolent dictator. The book of Revelation describes him as a credible and charismatic leader when he first comes on the world scene. He will most likely be the head of a major religion and/or nation that has a long history of violence and intrigue…an almost forgotten history.

How might Satan accomplish this seemingly impossible goal of world domination?

A Massive World-Wide Depression Is Coming (i.e., The Mother of All Depressions)

If you had asked an Amish man during the last depression how he and the Amish community was fairing, he would have asked, “What depression?”

Many people lost everything during the last depression and some committed suicide, but others made a fortune. There is a way to not only survive and live well, but in past depressions you could actually make a fortune if you planned ahead properly.

During the last depression a lot of people who lived off the land (farmers), and had no debt, came through with very little loss. But the federal government and some banks were able to file foreclosure on millions of houses and acres of land. After the depression was over they were then able to rent, lease, or sell all these holdings and made a vast fortune off of them.

In recent years David Wilkerson has been warning us about this coming depression, and wrote two excellent books on the subject. They are titled:

• America's Last Call — On the Brink of a Financial Holocaust


• God’s Plan To Protect His People In The Coming Depression

Long before Wilkerson wrote those books I was teaching that a massive worldwide depression is coming. It could be so severe that there will be no paycheck for anyone, not even the military, police, or government officials.

In my lifetime, America has gone through a depression and several wars. Three of those wars were on this continent. And even as you read this message, millions of Christians in China and other nations are under terrible tribulation, persecution, and martyrdom this very day. In my lifetime around one million Christians have been martyred. To say another war or depression can't happen in America is not being realistic. But to say we should prepare for such an eventuality ... as best we can ... is realistic.

Consider this scenario. Let’s say that the foolishness of the world system causes a major depression that the Antichrist can take advantage of. But let’s say God complicates Satan’s plans and makes the depression much worse by bringing on several “natural disasters.” Look at the damage Katrina and Mt. St. Helen did to our economy.

Deadly flu epidemics, hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes, droughts, floods, tsunamis, terrorist attacks, and wars can cause an economic disaster. National debt and unemployment due to manufacturing going to other countries, or a combination of all the above, could cause an economic collapse. Put the domino effect into play with enough dominos falling — tink-tink-tink — and we have the potential to bring down the world economy…the worst depression in history.

Under such conditions there would be little to no money for food or gas. Total anarchy can potentially reign in many areas for a few months until local (National Guard, Para-military groups?) leaders can bring order to their areas, and then begin to rebuild the nation. Millions could possibly die pitiful deaths in the USA and the world because they were not ready for such a disaster, and felt like they had no warning whatsoever. The warning signs were ignored.

How could a worldwide economic depression further Satan’s plans for planet Earth? Consider these possibilities:

• Foreclosure on property loans to gain ownership to millions of homes and millions of acres of land.


• Police state, bringing in martial law, (i.e., outlawing and imprisoning the religious right?)


• Ecology purge...closing factories, stopping cars and trucks, and decreasing the population. Some environmental groups have been working hard towards such goals.


• Bring in the One World Anti-Christ system.

If God complicates their plans (Psalms 33:10-20) and makes the depression much worse by bringing on several “natural disasters,” that could thwart the Antichrist's ability to:

• Initiate martial law and a police state. After the initial supply of gas and food that is in stock is used up there would be no way to replenish the supply for a long time.


• Postpone the ability of lending institutions to foreclose on loans.


• The anarchy that could rain in such conditions would be terrible for awhile, but not as terrible as the planned police state would have been.


• This would force the conspirators to come up with "plan B," a new monetary system. Just a thought.

This is all speculation, and a lot of writers will disagree with me. The point I hope to make is, we need to know how to pray, how to vote, and how to prepare physically, mentally, and spiritually for the age we are coming into.

In short, Americans needs to turn to God.

A New Monetary System

I believe this is the time a false savior will come on the scene to restore the economy with a new monetary system. I predict that this monetary system will be digital money in individual bank accounts that can be accessed on the world-wide-web. Since this digital money is not backed up with anything but faith in the system (much like our paper money today), a huge amount of credits in these personal accounts can be provided to every household on earth. For a while we can all buy, sell, and trade using this miraculous monetary system…until the world economy is stable again. As with any Internet provider, a contract and password will be needed. And after the economy is restored, the password can evolve into "the mark of the beast" (spoken of in the book of Revelation). So, what can we do to prepare ourselves (physically, mentally, and spiritually) for such a time?

I Say It Is Time to Prepare for Hard Times Prior to “The Great Tribulation” with a Totally Self Sufficient Christian Community of Intentional Neighbors

I borrowed this quote from Rick Joyner. He said,

"Just as true warriors run to the sound of battle, not away from it, there are Kingdom messengers who will not run from disaster and problems, but to them. They will not shrink back from any level of chaos, but rather bring order and peace to it. As the world continues to fall apart, they will stand on solid ground, and in due time begin to draw the attention of the world because of it. These will not lose their peace in the midst of any threat or problem because they will have built their lives on the Kingdom that cannot be shaken by anything happening on the earth. Their peace will calm many storms.

"One of the basic characteristics of those whose lives have been established on the Kingdom of God, is that they will have peace and come alive, even thriving during times of trouble. This is because they have been prepared to live in the greatest time of trouble the world has ever known. They prepared by building their lives on the Kingdom, not on the things of this world that are so easily shaken."

Many Christians are being called to prepare for such a time by way of a self-sufficient Christian community that does not need to buy, sell, or trade to live comfortably. And most importantly, such communities can serve as a refugee camp. The Amish have lived a self-sufficient (outside the system) lifestyle for centuries, and we can expand upon their model (even though we are not Amish) to receive hurting people.

WHY: The Lord disciplines those whom He loves, and great discipline will come upon the United States because of God's love for our nation.

The ArkHaven Christian community anticipates the coming of troubled times happening BEFORE the official "Great Tribulation" comes. As I said earlier, millions of Christians in China and other nations are under terrible tribulation and persecution and martyrdom on this very day. To say it can't happen in America is not being realistic. But to say we should prepare for such an eventuality as best we can is realistic.

It will take a lot of Godly wisdom to know what to prepare for, and how to prepare for it. Understanding how to prepare will take Christians like you receiving a revelatory word from God, and then being obedient to move on the direction God has given you.

I (Kenneth Uptegrove) am reporting on what my wife (Lora) and I feel God has shown us, and many others.

HOW: Providing our own food, water, power and septic system, such as:

• Truck farming: Hydroponics, greenhouses, gardens, berry bushes, fruit trees, grains and soy beans, all done by the natural and organic method (the only method available at that time).


• Animal husbandry: Chickens, fish farm, milking goats, draft horses, etc.


• Either an artesian well or a large spring with our own water tower and pipelines.


• Either a large wooded area or a natural gas well on the land for an energy source.


• Several 500 gal. propane gas tanks are an option.


• Solar panels, and will consider 50 ft. wind generators.


• The kind of septic system that purifies waste water so well that it can be used to water a lawn.


• We will always be dependant upon God as our source and our hope, utilizing what He makes available for us to use to survive and to serve all who come to us.


• Churches, ministries, and investors are welcome to help construct our vision.
  

WHERE: In the North West corner of Arkansas, preferably in either Washington or Benton county. To read more about this concept and plan for Christian Community go to www.arkhaven.org/arkhaven_christian_community.htm. This website shows a map that locates other ideal areas in the continental USA to establish a community like ours, and to find a lot more information than this article contains.

PROTECTION: The first question that always comes up is, how do we intend to protect our campus from marauders. We will depend upon the Lord for His divine protection and provision as He promised Moses, Joseph, Noah, and many others. There will be no barbwire fences, and gun towers, or armed guards in uniform. No David Koresh compound stuff. And since we are solidly main stream Evangelical, there will be no Jim Jones stuff. We will welcome all who come needing help, therefore there will be no need for anyone to feel like they need to kill us and take over the campus.

BIBLE PRECEDENT: These precedents need little introduction.

• Moses showed us that we must accept the possibility that we may eventually and ultimately be living by miracles alone as his people did in the wilderness. God provided them with physical protection, provision, and promise.


• Joseph is another model for us. He had seven good years to prepare Egypt and his family for seven bad years. Whatever time we have left we need to be preparing for the eventuality of the coming bad years, however many years that may be in the future.


• Noah was instructed by God to prepare a place (Ark) that was totally self-sufficient, so he and his family could survive the flood. The Ark was God's place of promise, provision and protection. ArkHaven was named after the Ark model, but incorporates the insight these three models give us.

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” (2 Timothy 3:1)

IN CONCLUSION: No matter what your or my eschatology is, the scenario I have presented to you today will prove to be accurate — but not exact. As always, we will need to hear from God, and be obedient to His instructions on a daily basis, rather than depending on an eschatological teaching or some leader we look up to.

Not all Christians will be called to join a Christian community. David Wilkerson talks about other callings in the two books I mentioned earlier. But we all must ask God if what was said in this article is from Him or not. And if you sense that God is telling you, “Yes, it is,” then you need to ask Him what He would have you do to prepare for this coming time.



CLICK HERE to hear Kenneth Uptegrove being interviewed by Frank Whalen on The Frankly Speaking Show. This is the first hour of a three-hour segment on the subject of Ken's article, "The Mother Of All Conspiracies."

CLICK HERE to hear the 2nd hour.

CLICK HERE to hear the 3rd hour.

For Ken's most current message on total self sufficiency, 'Acts Model Christian Community,' CLICK HERE.
According to Ken: "It is no coincidence that the Acts model lifestyle we see in the first century Church is also the best preparation a Christian can make to sustain life and continue in ministry even in the hardest of times as well as in the best of times. By 'Acts model' I am referring to the entire book of Acts. A Christian does not have to practice this concept of Christian community to be saved or to continue in ministry, but we argue that it is a good gift from God to us. Jesus taught this brotherhood concept of giving to His Apostles, and they continued in these teachings. The ultimate and future goal of ArkHaven is to form a totally self sufficient, 'Acts model, Christian community of intentional neighbors' who live off the grid and farm the natural and organic way so we can provide food for ourselves and for the poor and needy. We call this 'getting off the grid before the grid goes off.' And we will also sell our food products (for as long as conditions allow) so we can buy and maintain our equipment, etc."

Other audio and video for Ken Uptegrove

You’re Not the Only One Preparing for Collapse

By Off the Grid News
January 4, 2010

As we prepare our families and loved ones for the deterioration of our culture and lifestyle, it bears watching how the government is responding to the warning signals that are now obvious to anyone who is paying attention.

We already know that even though tax revenues are falling, the government is spending record amounts of money, a situation which is unsustainable and which organizations like Moody’s (that track and value the safety of government debt) are warning that social unrest is a growing possibility.

What you may not have heard before is that the US military is planning to deal with a violent, strategic dislocation within the borders of the US, which it believes could include domestic resistance, economic collapse, pervasive public health emergencies and/or the loss of a functioning political and legal system. The previously secret documents were prepared by the US Army War College in 2008 and contemplate the situation if there is widespread civil disobedience or a multi-state civil conflict or disturbance.

The report makes clear what I think we all know, that the government is not going to go quietly into the night as things start to break down. In fact, the report makes clear that the Army will abandon overseas commitments to restore order at home. Presumably people like you and I — those preparing for just such an event — will be the new enemy.

Meanwhile, the possibility of a complete collapse is now being discussed in more ‘mainstream’ circles. In the last few months there have been allusions to the possibility of crash-induced unrest from the head of the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Congressmen and Senators, Britain’s MI5, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and leading economists.

When the US Director of National Intelligence commented on the situation recently, he reminded listeners of the chaos which reigned in much of the world after the market collapse in 1929. Others have pointed out that much of the world lived a more rural, rugged and individual lifestyle then than today, where much more of the world’s population is urban and dependent on fragile systems to deliver food, water and comforts from distant areas.

Part of your emergency plans should include not just food, water and shelter, but an evaluation of your physical security within the community, and whether long-term survival will require relocation.

Get off the public dole. If you are dependent on the government for your livelihood, you will have no choice but to take "the mark of the beast." This means you will have to participate in biometric identification to receive government services or funds.

How to Prepare for Economic Collapse

By wikiHow

If your country's economy is sinking and there are many signs that might point to a full blown monetary collapse, how would you then prepare to survive the inevitable problems that accompany an economic disaster? Always remember: as one thing leads to another, an economic downturn could possibly lead to anarchy (confusion, chaos), a government in disarray.

1. Read everything you can about survival. Survivalblog.com and prepyourfamily.blogger.com are good places to start.


2. Start storing food. Begin with at least a 1 month extra supply and then increase it to 3 months. Don't forget water, and glass storage bottles are best (since plastic absorbs, don't store water in plastic containers that were used for anything potentially toxic).


3. Buy a premium water filter.


4. Get a long-term food supply. Wheat, rice, grains, and more that can last up to 30 years when properly stored.


5. Plant a garden. Learn how to grow food that stores well, needs minimal maintenance with high nutritional value. Buy heirloom seeds (non-hybrid). Safely store fertilizer.


6. Obtain guns and plenty of ammo. Guns for protection/hunting.


7. Buy silver/gold and take possession. It will preserve your wealth better than cash. Keep some cash on hand.


8. Move to a small farming community. Cities without power/water will burn down and be a hotbed for riots.


9. Get out of debt.


10. Buy tangibles. Tools, ammunition (make your own bullets), grain mills, fish hooks/line...


11. Learn valuable skills. Medical, animal/plant farming, sewing, cooking, auto repair, shooting/hunting/fishing, curing meat, defensive skills, power generation (solar...)...


12. If you are on medication, learn about natural alternatives that you can obtain on your own, if possible. If your illness is one that can improve with better self-care and possibly get you off medications, do it.

12 Ways to Prepare for the Next Great Depression

By Charlie Jane Anders
Originally Published on April 13, 2008

Our economic future could be even bleaker than you expect — and last year was the moment to unleash your inner survivalist. If the financial system suffers any more crises of confidence, credit gets even tighter, and the fed falls into a liquidity trap, we could be in for several hardscrabbling dystopian years. Forget maintaining your current shiny standard of living — how will you feed and clothe yourself, in the worst case scenario? We’ve compiled a few suggestions for things you can do now to brace yourself.

Avoid debt at all costs. If anything, you’ll want to save up as much money as you can, in case you have to live off your savings. Thanks to recent changes in bankruptcy law, it’s much harder than before for an individual to declare bankruptcy. So if you’re stuck in debt with little or no income, you’ll still be working for the banks. And as this guy points out, the banks will be hurting, so the moment you miss a payment, they’ll be quick to try and liquidate your collateral for whatever they can get.

Get out of your mortgage before the housing market collapses any further. As this site says, if you paid $300,000 for your house and it sells for $200,000, you could end up not owning your house and owing the bank $100,000.

Buy some cheap land in a rural area. Build a house, or just get a used RV. Either way, make sure you own your home free and clear, so you can live rent-free and mortgage-free for as long as you need to.

Go off the grid. Get your own power generator — or, better yet, some of those solar helium balloons. Or some wind turbines. Don’t be dependent on the power company to keep all your necessities running.

Cultivate some skills that will always be in demand. Become a decent electrician, handy-person, carpenter or cook. There may not be much need for someone who understands content management systems during a total economic shutdown, but someone who can build a house will always have a place to crash.

Offshore yourself. As the dollar gets weaker and weaker, U.S. white-collar service workers will be the cheap overseas employees for Europeans and Asians, predicts Robert Scoble in his roundup of how to recession-proof yourself. So as long as someone, somewhere, is still making use of those white-collar service skills (like programming or customer support) you may be able to offer yourself to overseas companies as a cheaper alternative.

Invest in the ultimate counter-cyclicals. Some industries will always be in growth mode — like any business that caters to the rapidly growing senior population. Also, “sin and comfort” industries, like cigarettes, gambling and booze, do well during downturns and will probably make bank this time around as well. (Too bad booze and cigs are generally part of huge diversified conglomerates these days.) Also, movie companies are quietly bragging that the movie industry had one of its biggest growth spurts ever in the 1930s, as people craved escapism.

Invest in some Euros, or some other currency that’s not the dollar. Chances are the U.S. dollar will keep getting weaker, so you’ll be better off holding a more stable currency. You could also try investing in gold or silver, but those commodities are already skyrocketing in value.

Have some liquid funds on hand. MSN Money suggests reducing your contributions to your retirement plan or 401(k) (if you have one) so you can put more money into your savings instead. And remember, the banks are still FDIC insured, so your savings are probably safe — but other investments have no such guarantee.

Learn to garden or take part in a community garden in your neighborhood. Try to position yourself so you can get as much of your diet as possible from food you’ve grown yourself, instead of being hooked on sushi.

Learn to hunt. These fine people claim that hungry people are already hunting small animals in the parks of San Francisco, and during the 1930s deer and squirrels were hunted almost to extinction. Learn how to trap, kill, prepare and eat a squirrel now, so you’ll be ahead of the curve.

Stockpile medications. Your biggest problem, in an economic meltdown, could be getting health care. If you’re dependent on prescription meds, try to get some extra pills now so you’ll have some on hand later. Just make sure you’re always taking the oldest meds you have, to minimize the risk of taking expired pills, these folks advise.

Preparation for the Coming Days: What Should I Prepare For?

By Duncan Conner, The Omega Report
Originally Published on September 27, 2009

In this article I plan to lay out for you the exact steps that my family has taken over the last couple of years to get ready for what is more and more looking like the beginning stages of the very last of the final days.

A Little Background

When I write those words it feels almost surreal — and yet we as believers should not be surprised. The Lord told us numerous times in the scriptures that one day he would return, and he gave us clear signs to look for that will precede his second coming. Couple these statements with all the prophecies in the Old Testament, and you have quite a detailed roadmap as to what the final days will look like.

In 2007 I felt very convicted in my Spirit to begin a web site, with the aim of proving my and others’ insights into Bible prophecy, as well as provide resources for people to prepare for what will most certainly be dire pre-rapture conditions. As I have stated numerous times, we don’t know what life prior to the rapture will look like.

Most Christians who believe in the rapture have classically assumed that they would see no trial, hardship, persecution, or difficult times, before the catching away mentioned in I Thessalonians 4:17. 2 Timothy 3:1 says that in the last days “difficult” times will come.

A very intriguing passage is the one in 2 Peter 3:3-4, 3

“Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with [their] mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? for [ever] since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”

I have personally always taken this passage to mean that in the last days, as we begin to see Bible prophecy start to be fulfilled, and as we begin to see the pieces of the puzzle line up, Christian will no doubt begin to get excited more and more about their faith and the soon return of the Lord. However, the Bible says that there will be the naysayers, the mockers, the one who will challenge us and call us crazy and “Christian fundamentalists.” We’ve all heard it before right? “Every generation thinks there is the one where Jesus will come back,” “People have been setting dates for years,” etc.

The Bible teaches us clearly what the attitude of Christians will be toward the end of the age. Again, Paul warns in 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power…”

Are we not heading down this path? Anyone who sees what is going on in the world knows clearly that we are. And in terms of persecution, Jesus guarantees that those who stand up for their faith will be persecuted. Jesus says in John 15:20:

“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you…’

Jesus also mentioned the signs that would immediately precede the time of the tribulation. He said in Matthew 24:6-8:

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

As many of my readers have e-mailed me recently, I am becoming aware that more and more people are starting to read the handwriting on the wall. Things have really ratcheted up over the last couple of years. I have always been someone to read the news headlines. I think and see in associations. When I see a list of news headlines, I can easily see lines of connection running throughout them, and lines of connection that connect with other stories in the previous months or years. I also see the lines of connections from these stories and the many prophesies in the Bible that relate to the end times and the things that must be in place before the end-times scenario can occur.

I can tell you, never in my life have I seen so many pieces of the prophetic puzzle coming together all at once. I remember the time when it would literally take months before I would see a news story that was relevant to Bible prophecy. And now I can’t hardly keep up!

Think about it. Look at what has occurred in human history just over the last hundred years:

• Knowledge has increased exponentially


• The world is moving at an ever more rapid pace toward regionalization and globalization


• America for the first time ever is moving toward Socialism


• We are on the verge of having our entire financial system collapse


• The decline of the U.S. has already begun


• The world is clamoring and calling for One World Government


• Israel is becoming more and more isolated, especially now under the Obama administration — which has shown itself to not be an ally for Israel


• Iran is allying with Russia, and everyone believes that Iran and Israel will go to war soon

Everything is moving toward the final goal that God has for mankind — the second coming of Jesus Christ! These are indeed exciting times.

Preparation 101

Now before we get into the basics of preparation, let me just say, the very first thing you have to do is determine the type of event you are preparing to survive and how each disaster threatens you and your safety. That will give you the parameters necessary for the following steps.

This initial exercise isn’t hard, as it only takes a few minutes of thought. I suggest you jot down some notes or switch to your word processor while you work.

But first, it’s important to realize that you cannot prepare for everything. There are a lot of preparedness resources out there with lists as long as the eye can see for things you should buy, get, etc. It’s important when you first start off to only prepare for those things that you think you personally will potentially face, and prepare ahead for things you could be facing within the next five years.

As yourself this question: What do you think is likely to happen in my town, around my area, etc. within the next five years? You will have to do your best on this one. I suggest you spend some time in prayer over it. But you will need to extrapolate, evaluate trends, read the news, and conduct your own research. At the very least, take a few minutes and consider your location. Pull out a map and look at what’s within a 2-mile, 5-mile 10-mile and 25-mile radius of your home and place of work. Put on your pessimist hat and consider what might go wrong that could directly impact you; and decide if that’s something you want to prepare for.

For example, if you live a “safe” distance outside of a flood plain, your house might still gets flooded in the 100-year flood, so should you prepare for it? I would, but it’s your call. That nuclear plant 20 miles away has an excellent safety record. Should a nuclear disaster be on your list? Again, you make the call. Are you worried about a meteorite crashing into your house? Well, it has happened, but it’s probably not worth preparing for.

Finally, if you’ve been afraid of something since you were a child — whether it’s a raging fire or nuclear war — prepare for it. At the very least, you’ll sleep better at nights knowing you have done all you can.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

1. What natural disasters or extreme conditions (taking into account the times we are living in, taking into account all that is going on in the world, my country, my state, my city, my neighborhood) am I (we) likely to face in the next five years?
   
   Make a list and rank them in order of most to least likely to impact you. You can review my list of possible natural disasters below if you need to.
   If you are quite optimistic and you are not too concerned with the economy, your list might look like this:
   a. Heavy Thunder Storms
   b. Severe Winter Weather
   c. Nearby Flash Flooding
   If you are like me, the top three on my list are:
   a. Collapse of the Dollar
   b. Civil Unrest
   c. Martial Law
   Obviously there is a big difference between the two lists, and how you prepare will be contingent on the kinds of things you put on your list.

2. What other disasters or emergency situations might I face?
   
   Add to your list the man-made or other disasters that you might face in the next five years (again, you can refer to our list, if necessary). Let’s say you have added these categories:
   a. Toxic Material Emission/Spill (from a Train Derailment)
   b. Riot or Other Civil Disorder
   c. Nuclear Plant Problems
   d. Terrorism

3. What are the ramifications of each item on my list?

   Now, take your list and create a second column. Put the ramifications of each disaster in the second column. What do we mean by ramification? How the disaster or emergency situation could affect you. Think this one through very carefully, as everyone’s situation is different. For example, families with children have different concerns than those without children or single people.

   Once you are done with that, finally, note if the ramifications could require evacuation.
   To keep using our example, results in a table might look like this:

   Potential Disaster	Ramifications
   Collapse of the dollar	Food shortages Gas shortages Massive unemployment Possible civil unrest Possible Martial Law
   Thunder storm with electrical outage for 2 (average) to 48 hours (severe)	Food spoilage possible Lack of air conditioning/furnace Damage to house or car from nearby trees Possible local flooding (see below) Local transportation impaired by fallen trees, wires Lightning damage/fire potential
   Severe winter weather	Electrical outage for 4 (average) to 72 hours (severe) would affect furnace operation Exposure problems Frozen pipes Disruption of travel, transportation Self or family members possibly stranded away from home Possible food shortages and empty shelves at local markets
   Nearby flash flooding	Local transportation disrupted Danger while traveling in car or by foot Possible loss of some utilities
   Nearby train derailment	Possible leak or spill of chemicals Short-term exposure problem Long-term cancer concerns Evacuation may be necessary
   Riot or other civil disorder	Disruption of commute (ala Los Angeles) Stranded in car or office while family is at home and/or school Danger of riot spreading to my neighborhood Danger of local kids/low lives taking advantage of situation Attack or threat to personal safety Looting and rampaging by otherwise lawful citizens Fire with potentially no response by authorities Police are overwhelmed, cannot protect law-abiding citizens
   Nuclear plant problems	Reactor vessel damage could result in release of radioactive chemicals to atmosphere Evacuation necessary
   Terrorism	Threat to safety at work and during business travel Disruption of commerce, travel Less personal freedom, privacy as a result of government reaction to terrorism

Once you’ve created a chart like the one above, you know what situations you are most likely to face and can prepare your survival plan.

How to Prepare for a Power Outage – Without a Generator

By Matt Jabs, FiveCentNickel.com
Originally Published on April 30, 2009

Since most power outages occur during the spring and summers months, this article will focus on power outages in warmer weather. If you experience an outage in cold weather, make sure you have an alternative heat source such as a propane-powered heater and lots of fuel! Either that, or you’ll need a generator.

This past weekend we had some beautifully terrible thunderstorms that knocked out power for the better part of two days. Though the outage was a pain in the butt, the experience provided us the rare opportunity of being “unplugged” and turned out to be a real blessing in disguise.

Like so many other unexpected situations, involuntarily living without power caused us to think outside the box and to brainstorm ways to prepare in the event that something similar happens again. We were slapped in the face by the reality of our sheer dependence on grid living, and quickly began to revert to products and techniques employed by our ancestors in the pre-electricity era.

We thought about renting a generator but decided against it and chose to “tough it out” instead. Over the last 2 years, we’ve had to rent a generator three times, costing us around $50 each time. We considered purchasing a generator but due to the high debt repayment plan we’re following, we haven’t been able to delegate the $700 needed to purchase one. Instead, we’ve put a few great fundamental precautions in place to prepare ourselves for situations like these.

How to deal with a power outage

• Stay informed. Know your power company’s phone number and call them immediately to report the outage. They will also be able to give you an estimate of how long the outage will last. Another thing you’ll need to stay informed is a crank operated radio.


• Maintain a good first aid kit. Be sure to include a few days supply of any prescription medications.


• Ensure you have a good water source. If you have an electric well pump, you’ll lose water pressure, so be sure you have enough drinking water ready.


• Create an old time refrigerator. Keep ten or more two liter bottles or half gallon milk containers filled with water in your freezer. When the power goes out, place five or six of the frozen bottles in your refrigerator to keep things cool. This is actually how the original refrigerators worked.


• Pack a cooler of food. Take a few essential food items out of your fridge and place them in a camping cooler with two or three more frozen containers, or with some of the ice cubes from your freezer.


• Tape off your fridge and freezer. Put painters or masking tape over your fridge and freezer doors so you don’t absent-mindedly open them. This will help keep all the precious cool air inside where it belongs. You can also put heavy blankets over them for added insulation.


• Candles, lighters, flashlights, and batteries. Stockpile twenty or more large, cheap candles for use as light sources. Keep several candles in each room and give each person (but not your kids!) a lighter. When anyone enters or leaves a room they can light or blow out the candle accordingly. You’ll also want to stockpile batteries and give each person in your house a personal flashlight. I suggest investing in a good flashlight such as a Surefire. There’s a high initial cost, but these lights are virtually indestructible and will last forever as long as you don’t lose them.


• Have a camp stove ready. If you have an electric stove, invest in a propane powered camp stove and a few portable propane bottles so you’ll have a way to cook if needed. Just be sure to read the instructions for your stove and cook outside if necessary.


• Prepare your pantry with a few quick emergency meals. An example of a meal that you can whip up quickly and with minimal effort is black bean spaghetti. Mix together a can of black beans & a can of spaghetti sauce, boil up some noodles and voíla, you have yourself a healthy and cheap emergency meal. Some other quick & easy options are soup, crackers, beans, and peanut butter & honey sandwiches (my wife’s favorite).


• Have a collection of non-electric games. These will give you something fun while the power is it. Consider things such as Yahtzee, playing cards, dice, trivia, charades, Monopoly, etc. My wife and I played Yahtzee by candlelight. Very fun and actually quite romantic.


• Make sure you have “car chargers” for cell phones. This will ensure that you can keep your battery charged even when the power is out. Just be sure to plug your phone in during any car trips during the power outage, no matter how short they might be.


• Disconnect garage door opener. Make sure you know how to disconnect your garage door opener so you can get the car out of the garage.


• Go outside. If it is still light and the weather is nice, go for a walk or a bike ride, or any other activity to get you out of the house. Sometimes my wife and I go for a nice relaxing drive in the country. Just be careful with gas usage if your local gas stations are also affected by the outage.


• Internet access. If you need internet access and have a laptop, take it to your local coffee shop. If you don’t have a laptop, go to your local library. Of course, if the outage is widespread, you might be out of luck.


• Maintain a positive attitude. This is crucial for keeping spirits high… Especially if you’re the head of the house.

These tips, when employed as directed above, will help you wait out a two or three day power outage without losing all the food in your fridge to spoilage. If you are out of power much longer than this, you will likely need a generator.

Life without power

During our recent outage, my wife and I realized that we actually enjoyed our “time in the dark.” The time we spent without electricity was some of the best we have spent together in months. We talked for hours, went for a long bike ride in the rain, and played Yahtzee by candlelight. We had so much fun together, and were able to truly pay our full attention to one another, that we enjoyed each other’s company on a deep and unusual level without all the interruptions of modern life.

Because of this, and as an additional way to lower our monthly expenses, we’re considering going “Off The Grid” one day a week. We’re actually going to turn off all the breakers in our electric panel and live as though we have no electricity (with the exception of our refrigerator and freezer of course). But that’s another post for another time!

The Keys to Surviving Off the Grid

By Nancy Castleman, The Pocket Change Investor
Originally Published in 2001

It's a pretty safe bet that in the near future, for one reason or another, some of us are going to lose power for a week or more. How would you handle a massive power failure?

Marc and I live a pretty simple life, but even for us, no power gets old pretty quickly, especially in the winter. A few years back, Marc researched generators, picked one out for us, and installed it. It cost $479, which is a lot for us to spend on anything, but it makes me feel a million times more secure.

If you're open to making a similar investment or giving a pricey present to a loved one, I urge you to consider a generator — plus a check to cover the electrician's bill. Unless you're fortunate enough to have a Marc in your life, someone who has a strong background in all matters electrical and a willingness to learn how to safely install and use mechanical devices, you'll need to bring in a pro. When installed wrong or misused, generators can be very dangerous, as well as expensive.

Once, when the lights went out, we couldn't get the generator started. We learned that you can't plop it in the garage and forget about it until you need it. If you haven't maintained yours and kept it filled with fresh gas, it probably won't act like one on ER, automatically coming on at the first sign of a blackout.

But once your generator's safely installed, if you're willing to maintain it, you'll be able to weather major power outages. For us that means we can have heat, cold and hot water, lights, refrigeration, the greenhouse, and Good Advice Press all up and running in no time, for a long time.

High and Dry

The average person needs a gallon or two of water a day, at least 2 quarts for drinking and 2 for food preparation and sanitation. Assuming you'd like to be prepared for at least one week off the grid, and yours is a four-person family, that's 28 to 56 gallons.

In theory, between our deep well and our generator, Marc and I don't need a separate water supply. Still, I always feel better about having some extra drinking water on hand, and when a power failure looms, we fill the tub. (Being able to flush makes off-the-grid living a lot more tolerable!)

Even if you have city water, something could happen that would leave you high and dry. So build up a water reserve and/or consider other water sources. For example, we can get water directly from our water tank. Maybe you can, too.

Important: Experts say that when you store tap water for drinking in a container, you should purify it. For detailed instructions, go to: www.fema.gov/library/emfdwtr.htm.

A Simple Way to Cook

Since our stove is electric, if the lights go out, we can't cook. But since we can boil water with a handy little one-burner, propane stove that I've had for decades, we can quite comfortably weather any short-term blackout without even bothering to fire up the generator. Don't have a camping stove? I highly recommend one, for yourself and as a gift.

How Long Could You Live Off Your Larder?

The pantry's always pretty full around here, and we could certainly survive quite nicely for a few weeks if the supermarket was closed, its shelves bare, and/or the road to town impassable. But we're always happy to stock up when the items we regularly use are on sale.

Do it too, and take advantage of an unbelievably powerful investment opportunity, while you prepare for emergencies. For example, if you buy extra cans of tuna on sale at 50 cents apiece, and the price goes up to $1.00, you've netted a 100% yield on these "supermarket stocks." Buy bottled water at 3 gallons for a buck, instead of $1.00 each, and get an immediate, guaranteed, incredibly high return of 200%.

Focus on canned goods and dried fruit that can be stored without refrigeration and eaten without cooking. Don't go for warehouse-sized cans, unless your family can eat the contents in one sitting. Without refrigeration, food can go bad quickly. And if you don't have a hand-crank can opener, pick one up.

These days, Marc and I make sure we've got a generous supply of the medicines that we take, and we've asked our doctor for back-up prescriptions, in case the info stored in the pharmacy's computer is lost or unavailable when we need it.

Don't forget to keep a supply of the items you buy at the health food store, any paper goods that you regularly use, and include some comfort foods, too. You'll all be happier campers if you've got some special treats squirreled away.

Don't Forget Fido! Consider what your pets will need, and put that amount of food aside, with additional water for each dog and cat. In case you're wondering, the rule of thumb is 30 ml of water per pound of pet, which translates to 2 1/2 cups for a 20 pound pooch.

Where to Store It All

Before you start spending for your emergency stash, think through where you're going to store it all. That may help you more than anything else to find the right balance between your anxieties, your space, and your purchases. Ideally, you want a cool, dry, dark spot for storage, say in your basement, away from old paint cans and other hazardous chemicals.

Live in an apartment? Think about empty corners and spots under tables and beds. You could always cover stacked boxes with tablecloths and use them as end tables. If it'll make you feel more secure, why not?

Get Smart

So here are three books you'll be glad to own. We've recommended two in previous issues, but thought they deserved another mention, given the events of recent months.


1. Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook, by James Talmage Stevens ($22.95), is the bible on self-sufficiency. It contains very reasonable, down-to-earth advice to keep you watered, fed, and healthy during tough times.

2. Back to Basics: How to Learn & Enjoy Traditional American Skills, edited by Norman Mack ($30.00), is truly a treasure trove of useful and fun information for family projects, whether you want to garden, fish, raise chickens, make your own cheese, yogurt, beer or hand-cranked ice cream, build a sauna, or make your home more energy efficient. We really love this book, which makes a great gift.

3. The American Red Cross First Aid & Safety Handbook ($17.95), covers all the basics (treating burns, bites, and sprains) and much, much more. There are clear, easy-to-follow instructions and illustrations, so you'll be able to quickly learn to cope with virtually any emergency, even delivering a baby! It's an excellent guide.

Watching for the Lord

By Steve Dittmar, Jubilee Church
April 3, 2008

"Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately." - Luke 12:35-36

Dear Beloved of the Lord,

Prayers around the throne continue as we introduce the Prayer Watch. In the prayer watch we are primarily watching for Jesus, His movement, His comings and goings. We are actively looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Jesus Is Coming

"Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not." - Luke 12:37-40

Jesus spent much time preparing His disciples for His departure, and for His return, using the example of the watchman whose job it was to "watch for his master." Jesus exhorted His disciples to "watch and pray." Jesus said that His coming will be as a servant to those found watching and as a thief to those not.

There is a reward for watching in prayer, seeking to peer into the heaven and discern the Lord's working. Not just His second coming but all of His comings and goings. Jesus asked His disciples to watch with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane when He said, "Tarry ye here, and watch with me" (Matthew 26:38). When He returned, finding them sleeping, He rebuked them and told them that temptation was going to overtake them unless they watched with Him.

"And He cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, 'What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak'." - Matthew 26:40-41

Years ago I heard the Lord say to me, "Unless you can watch with me, you will not be able to transition with me." We are in a season of transition in the body of Christ; where we are entering into our inheritance by a way we have not gone before. Everything is changing and we must watch with the Lord if we are to change with the Lord. Otherwise we can be undiscerning of His movement.

Keep Your Eyes on the Ark

"And they commanded the people, saying, 'When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore'." - Joshua 3:3, 4

Two thousand cubits is the distance of about one half of a mile. It is close enough to see where the ark was being carried but far enough away that the person in front of you didn't block the view! That's what watching for the Lord is. It's getting the "big picture" and "seeing where the Lord is going" so we can follow Him, receive Him, and co-operate with Him, as we are led by the Spirit.

You haven't been this way before, so you'll need to be able to see Jesus in order to follow Him. Watching prayer does just that. It is seeing prayer, listening prayer, responding prayer toward the Lord's revelation and movement. It is also a time to fill up your oil so your lamp will be burning when the cry goes out, "Behold, the bridegroom coming."

Watching Increases Your Oil

"And at midnight there was a cry made, 'Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.' Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, 'Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.' But the wise answered, saying, 'Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves'." - Matthew 25:6-9

Preparation is faith in action. It is the combination of faith and hope enduring for the sure coming of a promise. The oil of the Spirit is found in watching prayer, because here you discern His voice and His ways. Here you are given the indicators of what is coming, and preparations are made. You then are able to light your lamp and arise at the announcement of His appearing. Jesus exhorted His disciples at the end of this parable with the charge to watch; so we see that watching was the way we "buy our oil."

"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." - Matthew 25:13

Establishing a Watch for the Lord

"Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left His house, and gave authority to His servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, 'Watch'." - Mark 13:33-37

We don't know how the next move of God will unfold or when it will happen or where. We can only be diligent in our watch. Setting a time to watch weekly will move you into agreement with the Lord and strengthen you in your service. In all the exhortations to watch, they include other duties as well.

"Give authority to his servants, and to every man his work" (Mark 13:34).

You have a life to live, family commitments, work and personal time needed. The watch is including the Lord into our lives with a view to see His appearing and a response to His coming. It's not to replace out jobs, our family lives, and our personal walk; it is to position us for the bigger picture and the greater reward.

Ask the Lord when and where He would like you to watch for Him. I suggest a two-hour time frame and someone else to watch with. This helps energize faith and activates the "there I am in the midst of you" principle. Once you have set the time and place and found a fellow watcher, begin and don't stop. Expect the Lord to meet you and speak with you about the things of His kingdom and coming. Hold your place even when tempted to quit, "for He delays His coming."

Worship and pray and move as He directs. You will learn so much about the ways of the Spirit in this type of prayer. If you can't find someone to watch with you, of course you can do this alone. The important thing is to add this into your prayer practice so that the strategies of the Lord can be seen, entered into, and enjoyed at His coming.

The Coming Exodus to the 'Wilderness' Where the Lord Will Guide Us Like a Flock

The coming exodus will involve believers all over the world. However, it will not be an exodus from one particular country to one particular place; instead, it will be an exodus from the whole of human society to the wilderness of the people.

"And He withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed." - Luke 5:16

"Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with His disciples." - John 11:54

"This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us... Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen." - Acts 7:38,44

"Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness." - Hebrews 3:8

"They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust." - Psalms 72:9

"But made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock." - Psalms 78:52

"To Him which led His people through the wilderness: for His mercy endureth for ever." - Psalms 136:16

"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days [1260 days; a 3.5-year period of 360 days]." - Revelation 12:6

"And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time [3.5-year period], from the face of the serpent." - Revelation 12:14

"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. For the LORD shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished." - Isaiah 51:1-6

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, 'Fear not; I will help thee'." - Isaiah 41:10-13

"Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, 'Give up;' and to the south, 'Keep not back:' bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am He: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. Yea, before the day was I am He; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; for your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie down together, they shall not rise: are extinct, they are quenched as tow. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen." - Isaiah 43:5-20

Flee to the Mountains or the Wilderness

"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled... And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:20-22,25-28)

"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God." - Revelation 12:6

"And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land." - Isaiah 13:14

"O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction." - Jeremiah 6:1

"Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates." - Jeremiah 46:6

"Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness." - Jeremiah 48:6

"Give wings unto Moab, that it may flee and get away: for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein." - Jeremiah 48:9

"Flee, get you far off, dwell deep, O ye inhabitants of Hazor, saith the LORD; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you." - Jeremiah 49:30

"Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land." - Jeremiah 50:16

"The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple." - Jeremiah 50:28

"Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence." - Jeremiah 51:6

"And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD." - Amos 2:16

"Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD." - Zechariah 2:6

"And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee." - Zechariah 14:5

"But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" - Matthew 3:7

"But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come." - Matthew 10:23

"Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains." - Matthew 24:16

"But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains." - Mark 13:14

"Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" - Luke 3:7

"Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto." - Luke 21:21

"But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." - 1 Timothy 6:11

"Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." - 2 Timothy 2:22

Editor's Note: The government will provide in times of hardship, but you will have to take the mark of the beast to receive assistance. Since we know that those who take the mark are destined for the second death in the lake of fire, we must prepare to be self-sufficient in the last days. Before Christ returns in the clouds of heaven to deliver up the just to the paradise of God, He tells us that great tribulation will come upon the earth, but He assures us that these days will be cut short for the elect's sake. Therefore, we need only to prepare for 'a little season' during which we will not be able to buy or sell without the mark. 'Five months' is the duration of the 'little season' in which Satan shall be loosed to deceive the nations, so as we approach the end of days when the devil will reign over his one-world government and religion and persecute the followers of Christ, we will need five months of food, water and supplies to sustain us. Prior to the great tribulation of the last days, my advice also is to have a well-stocked pantry, knowing that food price inflation, increased energy costs, higher taxes, etc. lay ahead.

"And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" - Luke 18:7-8

"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." - Revelation 3:3

"For every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness...)" - Hebrews 3:4-8

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." - Hebrews 10:22-27

"Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession." - Hebrews 4:14

"But that which ye have already hold fast till I come." - Revelation 2:25

"The scriptures must be fulfilled." - Mark 14:49

"It is written." - John 6:45

"I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." - Matthew 28:20

A Well-Stocked Pantry
Stocking Your Pantry for When Disaster Strikes
A Well-Stocked Pantry
How to Create a Well Stocked Kitchen Pantry
The Well-Stocked Freezer
The Well-Stocked Pantry
Three Recipes to Keep in Your Pantry
The Basic Steps For an Organized, Well Stocked Pantry!

Go Off Grid Before the Grid Goes Off

Those who refuse "the mark of the beast" will not be able to buy or sell in the last days, which means, among other things, they will not be able to purchase electricity, gas, water or sewer from municipal utilities. Knowing this to be the case, you should be preparing to be off-grid for the end times.

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
(Revelation 13:16-17)

The End Times May Be Something Like What Is Happening in Japan But on a Massive Scale Worldwide (Destruction of 1/3 of the Earth)

AFP
March 21, 2011

Ten days after Japan's tsunami disaster, towns far from the impact zone are still experiencing shortages that have thrown the neat, ordered lives of local residents completely out of gear.

Gas station queues stretching for several kilometres, long waits at supermarkets, empty store shelves and shuttered businesses have become a part of the landscape in post-tsunami Japan.

At the foot of the Mount Iwate volcano, the people of Morioka city -- almost 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the devastated coast -- are still trying to adjust to the sudden absence of many things they had simply taken for granted.

At a gas station on the outskirts of the city, motorists waited hours on end before finally reaching the gas pump, clutching a 2,000 yen ($25, 17 euros) daily rationing coupon in their hands. The coupon is barely enough to buy a third of a tank on an average-sized city car. One man wasted so much gas queuing up that his car ran dry and needed several people to push it up to the station.

Kabuya Kubo said she had waited for nearly six hours to put gas in her tank. Ever since the tsunami, she has had to bike to work whenever the car runs low on fuel -- a one-hour trip, versus 15 minutes by car.

"Now, again, I realize that electricity, gas, all of that is really important," she said. "Because there's no gas, I can't go anywhere that's far away. It's difficult."

Most gas stations have been cordoned off or closed for the better part of the day due to disruptions in the supply system caused by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that devastated Japan's northeastern coastline.

The tidal wave that intruded 10 kilometres (six miles) inland in certain areas engulfed large tracts of arable land in the agriculturally rich prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.

"There are no more meat and vegetables. I'm eating instant meals all the time," said Naohiko Seki. "I would like to regain my old life, but when I think about people who suffered from the tsunami, I tell myself I shouldn't complain."

A ramen noodle restaurant on the main shopping street downtown only offered a single type of plain fried rice for sale. There were no customers in sight at 2:00 pm and the usually busy room stood empty.

"Ever since the disaster, our suppliers haven't been able to reach us. We haven't been getting many customers recently," said cook Toshiyo Sasaki.

"Our restaurant is usually open 24/7 but now we can't stay open all the time. We have reduced working hours because we can't get the products we need."

As fresh produce grows scarcer, restaurants are serving more prepared foods and noodle- or rice-based dishes than ever before.

Convenience stores, usually open around the clock, had row after row of empty shelves, where prepared foods like the normally ubiquitous 'onigiri' rice balls, water and milk products once stood.

Popular French bakery Pompadour opened at 1:00 pm and had sold out its entire stock of bread and pastries in two hours.

Outside a shopping mall, a handful of school students held up signs about the tsunami disaster and asked customers for donations to buy food and clothes for the victims.

A group of green-clad boy and girl scouts on the main shopping street also urged passersby to donate -- and many did, even encouraging their young children to drop a few coins in the box.

Yoshii Sato said he was a "little afraid" for his very young daughter.

"It's really strange. The stores have almost no baby food and other items. It makes me uneasy and anxious. I am worried because I don't know whether or not I will be able to buy what my child needs," he said.

Still, Sato stressed that others had to cope with much worse.

"In Morioka, we are getting by okay, but toward the coast, many more people have lost their homes and are forced to suffer. We feel very sad for them."

~~~

"And I [John] saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth:
And to Him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
And He opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace;
And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth:
And unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree;
But only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months:
And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle.
And on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron;
And the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails:
And their power was to hurt men five months.
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit,
Whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter."
(Revelation 9:1-12)

Desperation: Food, Water, Fuel, Electricity Run Short in Japan

By Mac Salvo, SHTFplan
March 21, 2011

It’s been ten days since the Tsunami swept through Japan and wiped out the entire infrastructure of the North Eastern part of the island. Like the US, just-in-time delivery made essentials like food and water as easily accessible as air. But when the grid goes down in an economy so dependent on inventory management, transportation, and electronic debit transactions, all hell breaks loose. Nearly two weeks on, the people in areas affected by the Tsunami and nuclear crisis have seen little relief. Many are just struggling to survive on a few hundred calories per day.

In another time, another place, Kazuhiro Takahashi could be taken for a tramp, out scavenging for food after a long night on the bottle. In fact, he is just another hungry victim of Japan’s tsunami trying to find food for his family.

“I am so ashamed,” says the 43-year-old construction worker after he realizes he’s been spotted. “But for three days we don’t have enough food. I have no money because my house was washed away by the tsunami and the cash machine is not working.”

If his haul wasn’t so pitiful – his bag had two packets of defrosted prawn dumplings and a handful of vacuumpacked seafood sticks inside – Takahashi might be taken for a looter. But in the port town of Ichinomaki, 320 kilometres north of Tokyo, his story is disturbingly common.

Japan might be a rich country, but a week after the tsunami struck it is struggling to feed and house the victims.

“I have a place in a rescue centre in the Aka’i Elementary School, but the food they are giving us is not enough,” Takahashi says. “My parents are in their 70s and we receive a tiny bowl of plain rice twice a day, with nothing else, just a pinch of salt. We are hungry, so I have come to look for food.”

Source: The Gazette

—

Gas station queues stretching for several kilometres, long waits at supermarkets, empty store shelves and shuttered businesses have become a part of the landscape in post-tsunami Japan.

At the foot of the Mount Iwate volcano, the people of Morioka city — almost 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the devastated coast — are still trying to adjust to the sudden absence of many things they had simply taken for granted.

At a gas station on the outskirts of the city, motorists waited hours on end before finally reaching the gas pump, clutching a 2,000 yen ($25, 17 euros) daily rationing coupon in their hands. The coupon is barely enough to buy a third of a tank on an average-sized city car.

…

“There are no more meat and vegetables. I’m eating instant meals all the time,” said Naohiko Seki. “I would like to regain my old life, but when I think about people who suffered from the tsunami, I tell myself I shouldn’t complain.”

…

Convenience stores, usually open around the clock, had row after row of empty shelves, where prepared foods like the normally ubiquitous ‘onigiri’ rice balls, water and milk products once stood.

…

“It’s really strange. The stores have almost no baby food and other items. It makes me uneasy and anxious. I am worried because I don’t know whether or not I will be able to buy what my child needs,” he said.

Source: AFP

Author Naseem Talib calls it a black swan – an extraordinary event so remote that one cannot plan or prepare for it. Donald Rumsfeld once described events in the Iraq war as “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns.” The only thing we really do know with respect to disaster planning is that sometimes we just can’t know what to expect due to lack of available information or contemplation.

For those in Japan, even a cache of food, water, gas, and other reserve supplies would not have been enough. Many homes were simply wiped away, leaving residents with literally nothing but the clothes on their backs. In this situation, desperation sets in quickly. And without a local emergency response, or a culture of support, social norms, laws and decency can dissolve within days.

The Japanese, unlike disaster victims we’ve seen in other crisis regions like New Orleans or Haiti, have been handling themselves as well as they can, without much violence or reports of looting. Emergency responders, government and the private sector have not been completely ineffective, and have managed to keep the flow of commerce moving to those parts of Japan most affected, albeit not at the pace most would expect from a leading global player.

In Japan, ATM machines are down, and banks are closed in Tsunami areas and nuclear evacuation zones. This means that unless you had cash or something of value on your person at the time the disaster struck there is no way to acquire whatever goods are available without government assistance. Even within a technologically advanced society like Japan, however, even the basics become difficult to distribute for emergency responders and military personnel when we’re talking numbers in the millions of people.

In his book Indivisible, author Troy Grice writes of a ration-card solution that keeps commerce moving during a US dollar currency collapse. Grice wasn’t too far off in his fictional account. In response to the wide-spread regional disaster, the Japanese government has issued ration cards, which are seemingly the only viable course of action in the first world when the monetary unit of exchange, in this case the Yen, becomes unavailable.

Unlike the first few days of Katrina, where residents had no access to clean water or food, or Haiti, where gangs roamed the streets looking to loot and pillage essential supplies, the Japanese have been able to restore some of their infrastructure, namely food, water, limited gasoline and the sense that the country is starting to move forward.

Save a further degradation of the nuclear situation, the very worst – those initial days after crisis where families lost loved ones and food and water were unavailable – may be behind the people of Japan.

The Japanese people, it seems, have been able to hold strong. At least that’s what reports from the devastated region suggest thus far. Those who are of the ability to help have been doing so, as it is clear that the government is totally overwhelmed. Any nation whose people can respond by working together, by sharing, by comforting each other, will undoubtedly recover. Johann Hari, writes, in The myth of the panicking disaster victim, of how human beings have responded to disasters throughout history:

The evidence gathered over centuries of disasters, natural and man-made, is overwhelming. The vast majority of people, when a disaster hits, behave in the aftermath as altruists. They organise spontaneously to save their fellow human beings, to share what they have, and to show kindness. They reveal themselves to be better people than they ever expected. When the social scientist Enrico Quarantelli tried to write a thesis on how people descend into chaos and panic after disasters, he concluded: “My God! I can’t find any instances of it.” On the contrary, he wrote, in disasters “the social order does not break down… Co-operative rather than selfish behaviour predominates”.

On 18 April 1906, San Francisco was levelled by an earthquake. Much of the city collapsed, and the rest began to burn. Anna Amelia Holshouser – a middle-aged journalist – was thrown out of bed, and felt her house collapse around her. She wandered the streets, and found herself sleeping that night in the park. But then the daze wore off, and she did what almost everybody else did: she began to look after the people around her. She knitted tents out of old clothes to house all the children who had lost their parents. She set up a soup kitchen, and the local shop-keepers handed over the goods for free. Hundreds of people gathered there, as they were gathering around similar people across the city. Anna put up a sign that said: “One Touch of Nature Makes the Whole World Kin.

Get Off the Globalization Grid, Part 1

By Nancy Levant, NewsWithViews.com
Originally Published on August 23, 2005

Each and every day, people around the world are realizing that the one-world government is based upon a hybrid Socialism-Communism economics system — a system of corporate governance and ownership of natural resources, land, water, and complete control of human beings. It is a system based upon the marriage of corporations, science and politics. It is a system that is funded by us, the world’s people.

But what do knowing people do? We can’t fight manufactured super viruses, HAARP and psychotronic weapons; and we certainly cannot fight global nuclear arsenals. But we can, however, refuse to think and participate in the global economics systems, which were set up to literally enslave humankind.

For instance, the usury system, which was implemented to keep us in a perpetual state of un-payable and unsolvable debt, can go unused.

We have been sold a bill of goods that we are “successful” if we owned things — including homes (remember the push several years ago by our leadership that declared all Americans should own homes). In fact, “ownership” does not exist under the current Federal Reserve System and centralized wealth banking system. The usury system actually began with the birth of our nation.

“Ownership” in America actually means that you, yourself, are owned and that anything you have accumulated, including land, homes, automobiles, and other possessions, can be taken. We are now realizing the truth of this system. The usury system also identifies people as bank-owned commodities. This comes in handy as the world switches to global Socialism and perceived “rights” are eliminated one by one.

It is time to reinvent America, but we cannot do so using the current bastardization of our Constitution. Congress has become corrupted in unimaginable senses, and representation has been steadily eroded over the last 200+ years. We have seen a steady march toward government by corporate aristocracy for 200+ years, but we allowed the taking of freedom in exchange for a perceived ownership of stuff.

It is time to understand government for the first time in American history, and it is time to create the government of our choosing. To even have the chance to do so, we must stop thinking like controlled subjects, and we must stop living under bureaucratic regulations of control. We must recreate ourselves by recreating our patterns of thinking and living. There is simply no other alternative but globally regulated enslavement by global aristocrats — and they have arrived fully armed and loaded to the teeth with weapons and taxation cash. Their entire system is based upon our money and their interest rates. We have to stop funding our enslavers.

Have you ever wondered why our nation is insanely bankrupt when supposedly genius economists have been in charge of our economy for a century or two? Whole teams of Ivy League aristocrats and their political buddies who are responsible for economic policies, and who have managed to collapse the most successful nations in the world? Well, the answer is quite clear — all governance is changing into their hands and their desired system of economic siphoning. American people must understand that this is not an American phenomenon but a global initiative. And these global initiatives are very specific:

• No private ownership of property
• No private ownership of water including wells
• No mass mobility rights
• No private ownership of guns
• No religion minus environmental sustainability or “Gaia”
• No privacy rights
• Mandatory military and/or volunteer service
• No personal opinion
• No rights, whatsoever, to disagree with government or to dissent
• No rights to designated wilderness areas, Biosphere Reserves, historical designations, conservation easements, or buffer zones
• No rights to proven safe food and water or genetically unmodified food or seed
• No rights to protection from rampant taxation
• No voting rights, which are (1) completely corrupted and (2) being usurped by NGO take-overs
• No right, whatsoever, to knowledge in public education
• No right, whatsoever, to the development of personal opinion, philosophy, or individualism due to public education
• No right, whatsoever, to economic responsibility, due to the Federal Reserve System

These are not futuristic nightmares to come. We are living this governmentally-imposed system as we speak. And there is only one way to fight this system, and that is to refuse to participate — 100%. So the decision for American people, and all the world’s people, is to fight for freedom in the only possible way that we can, or to agree to be a slave to the world’s wealthiest few. If you think like a slave, you are a slave; and global elites get wealthier and more powerful with each payment you make to them and their corporations. Those are the global facts.

Fascism is simply the marriage of corporation to government. That is its definition in full, and Fascism demands that the masses have no power to challenge or conquer its system. We know very well, for instance, that the FTAA will pass. We know, full well, that national borders are being dissolved for corporate work forces and profits. We know, full well, that public education is preparing American children for one-world corporate wages. And we know, full well, that there are global initiatives in the works in every nation on the planet to massively reduce the global population. We know that many corporations around the world are working to find and manufacture more super viruses.

We know that wars are manufactured to bring profits to the tables of multi-national corporations, to control natural resources, and to control people. We know that illegal drug trades fund wars and weapons, and are tied to the teeth to governments. We know that multi-national corporations control all mass media outlets — all of them. Do you still subscribe to cable TV, newspapers and magazines?

We are standing at the crossroads of history. What happens in the next week to 10 years will determine the condition of humankind for what may be centuries. If you are a religious person, of just about any faith, you may believe that humanity’s last battle is upon us, and that fate is pre-determined. However, I suggest to you that the Heavenly Father expects faith and action — not compliancy with deeds that clearly undermine the intellectual and spiritual potential of mankind.

Think people. We are standing at the crossroads. We have to go one way or the other. If you remain tied to the current system, your potential is already gone. Sadly, many realize the truth but choose to serve the elite. So be it, but if you cherish freedom and the right to your mind and its potential, but must act today and for the rest of your lives.

Get Off the Globalization Grid, Part 2

By Nancy Levant, NewsWithViews.com
Originally Published on September 8, 2005

The question on everyone’s mind is, “How do we get off the grid?” You will not like the answers, for they involve permanent life changes. They will seem unrealistic and contrary to “The American Dream.”

What is important is that you understand and believe that “The American Dream” is purposefully unachievable under current governance. If you want to be successful in today’s America, you have to be dishonest, and you have to be willing to play ball with criminals. You want to do really well in America, you have to agree and partner with those who are devoted to taking down America.

If you want to fight criminality and thieves, you have to cut off their on-going supplies of dirty cash. In today’s world, dirty cash is:

1. our tax dollars;
2. our interest payments on homes, cars, and credit cards; and
3. monthly payments to mass media and communications — all highly taxed, as well.

If you pay into any of the above, you are growing the destruction of your nation and destroying your personal freedoms and your children’s futures.

Sell your homes. Do it now. There is absolutely no reason to own homes when:

1. they are not yours, and
2. they can be taken for any reason.

Rent, and rent cheaply. Then you eliminate property taxes.

Sadly, American-style home ownership became the stuff of ego, snobbery, exclusion, segregation and elitism. Home ownership in America is based upon whom to exclude and what to run from. This is no way to build a nation based upon loving your neighbors.

Second only to media partisanship, politically-motivated home ownership did more to segregate and divide American people than any other orchestrated scam.

After you sell your homes, pay off every single debt that you have, and never acquire another debt. Sell your automobiles and buy vehicles that do not need to be licensed. REMEMBER THE REAL ID COMES TO LIFE IN 2008. If you do not agree with the Real ID, don’t support the Real ID.

Do not fall for the “human settlement — Agenda 21” scam. Do not fall for the “transportation corridor” or “environmental corridor” scams. Do not move to the “convenient” locations. Go to the country, to the wilderness areas, and fight for your right to be there. FIGHT AGAINST ALL LAND TRUST ORGANIZATIONS. They are Socialist-siphoning organizations and exist explicitly to take land away from people — that is their sole function.

Do not borrow from banks and do not put your money into banks. Banks and their global scams are destroying America, global freedom, privacy, sovereignty, voting rights, and opinion. Global wealth, just like global armies, are being centralized under one command; and if you are making payments to banks in any way, shape or form, you are supporting and growing the take-over of America, American people, and global freedom. You cannot in good or clear conscience participate in any banking system in today’s world. They are the crux and the key to freedom’s demise. Keep cash, gold and silver, and keep it hidden.

Store water and make sure you have access to good water. Learn how to purify water (many ways, many websites). Buy 3-5 years of quality heirloom seed, and do it now. I recommend “Garden In A Can,” which can be purchased at beprepared.com. Learn how to can and buy canning supplies — a lot of them — and begin this fall. Buy good gardening books. Buy good tools and building supplies. Buy a good cooktop wood stove. Buy welding equipment, spare panes of glass, and always, always buy food in bulk. Do not buy anything from multi-purpose super centers. Buy from farmers, the Amish and Mennonite families, and traders. You might very well consider moving close to a traders complex for supplies, bartering and selling.

As I said, a new way of life is necessary to stop being a complicit player in the global take-over of human freedom.

Group together. Combine money, and do not fight each other for power and control. Learn history’s lessons once and for all. Believe in God. Do not let the U.N, environmental land trusts, and NGOs tell you or your children that you can’t believe in God in any way that you choose. That is the most private and fundamental right of every human being. Anyone or any group that tries to force their religious opinions down the throats of any human being denies God’s relationship with people and spiritual potential. You teach faith — you don’t enforce it or punish children for faith. Don’t let paid political mouthpieces and prostitutes dictate their profitable religion to you.

Equally, don’t let them bully you with their hidden treaties, non-profit lies, Memorandums of Understanding, partnerships, and stake-holding stooges. The way you cut them off at the knees is with money — no donations, no tax-based grants; and they all fall tumbling down.

Now, let’s talk about jobs. Blue-collar America is already cooked and gone as a result of the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the United Nations, and our globalist leaders in the United States. Blue collar Americans, including farmers who have always been the salt of the Earth, are already earning deplorable wages. White-collar America is leaving America, and so are America’s million and billionaires. They know that war and Martial Law is impending in the U.S., and they are leaving. So, here is the bottom line:

If you still have a job with a major corporation — one that is funding your school district, making tax deductible donations to “environmental” organizations or mental or physical health organizations, quit your jobs. If you are supporting corporate take-overs of community services and taxpayers, then you are supporting the demise of this nation and human freedom. Quit your job, learn to live without enslavement to debt and corporate masters, and learn life skills — real life skills — like how to really feed and protect your families.

Like I said before, group together, brainstorm needs, and build your lives instead of riding the globalization train of unpayable debt and non-stop servitude payments to aristocrats and their banks and corporations. Stop being a freedom-killing moron.

Schools — never again send your children into a public school; and never, ever again support a school levy. This should have been crystal clear to you at least 30 years ago. Never, ever again pay the salaries of teachers who know how bad public education has become, or administrators and superintendents who exchange your children’s intellectual capabilities, futures and freedom from addictions to both illegal and enforced legal substances for operating budgets and raises. They are a disgrace to this nation. If you allow your children to attend public schools, you deserve to lose your sovereignty and your freedom.

Finally, prepare for Martial Law. It will permanently usher the One World Government onto American soil. If you have not decided on which side of the line you stand by that time, it will be too late for you and your children. The best you can do is to learn to be as self-sufficient as you can possibly be and work together in groups of like-minded people.

And remember that debt to the globalists is your enemy. Do not carry credit. Close your credit accounts. You have been told that closing your accounts will damage your credit reports. That is a lie. Close your credit accounts and be very prepared for the fact that your mobility rights are going to be taken. You are not going to be able to afford gasoline. You must be prepared to live in a way that will allow you to take care of yourselves where ever you happen to be.

And if humanly possible, move away from the cities. Try to live in areas with water, ponds, and fish; and be prepared to guard them. Equally, your right to keep and bear is on the chopping block both in the U.S. and at the U.N., which now directs the U.S. Your right to own firearms and ammunition is slated for termination.

No intelligent citizen of any nation can fail to see the writing on the wall. Everything is changing. All cultures, belief and value systems, social systems, and living conditions are being forcibly changed into systems subservient to corporation governors. This is not rocket science anymore. It’s fully out in the open with each and every new law that is passed, each and every Executive Order that is declared, each and every new partnership that is formed, each and every installed president or national leader, and with each and every new acre that is taken by government or governmentally-partnered non-profits.

Be constantly aware that massive population reduction is an initial goal of global government. Some say a reduction by 50%, some say by 75%, and some fear by 80-90% — but whatever the actual goal, the greatest threat to global governance is a world full of too many deceived and manipulated people for the global aristocrats to safely continue their domination plans.

We have been told non-stop for the past 4 years that holocaust of one form or another is impending. I suggest that you take those warnings very, very seriously. I suggest that you prepare yourselves and your families, mustering more intelligence than, frankly, you’ve ever had to use in your lifetimes. Your world has changed and is going to change drastically in the future. You better be ready and you better have many skills at hand. Build practical libraries immediately. And remember, American people are very unskilled. Group yourselves and your resources together.

Threats can come from “terrorists,” but they can also come from economic collapse and Federal Reserve manipulation, manufactured super viruses, weather control, and perhaps even earthquake detonation. One never knows when one’s world is conspiratorial by nature and liars hide truth using our money to do so. Truth may hurt and it may be difficult, but it enslaves no one.

Nancy Levant is a life-long writer, a believer of God, country, Constitutional and individual rights. She resides in rural Southwestern Ohio. She has worked professionally with children since 1974 and is an ardent supporter of home schooling. Nancy Levant has done radio and television interviews, has been a guest speaker in many venues (including college campuses, schools, Indian reservations, human service organizations) and has been the president of a youth sports organization. Ms. Levant just completed 'The Collapse of Intuition', a non-fiction book about the decline of instinctual and intuitive abilities in American women. Equally, she is a writer for freedom and land rights issues and opposes the United Nation's Agenda 21 implementation in America.

What It’s Like Living Off-Grid

By Greg Seaman, Eartheasy.com
June 9, 2009

In the summer of 1980, my wife, three-month old son and I moved “off-grid.” We loved living in San Francisco but wanted to live a simpler, more independent lifestyle, and so we bought a small cabin with land on a rural island in the Pacific Northwest. Since there were no services to the island, our home had no electricity. Residents of the island had to create their own electricity or do without.

Now here I sit, almost 30 years later, with the kids grown and their rooms empty, and with some time to reflect on our experience living and raising a family off-grid. But before even considering the challenges and solutions in dealing with our energy needs over the years, one observation seems to leap out: how little things here have changed.

We’ve done very little over the years to enhance our energy needs, aside from installing two solar panels last year to power the computer I’m using to write this article. (Alongside my computer on the table here is a kerosene lamp, and a candle for added light.) This lack of change is testament to the feasibility of off-grid living, and my vision for the upcoming years is to keep things pretty much the way they are.

But keeping it simple hasn’t always been simple. We had to learn alternate methods of preserving food, how to build things without power tools, how to cook on a wood stove, how to clean diapers without a washing machine, entertain ourselves without TV, and accept that many common tasks can take longer and be more difficult without electricity. Here are the main challenges we encountered in living off-grid, and how we managed with them.

Lighting

The biggest difficulty we had living off-grid was, and continues to be, lighting. Our home has two small propane lamps over the cooking areas, but we use them sparingly because we have to pack in the propane tanks, and propane is expensive. Our general room lighting is by kerosene lamps, which give off marginal quality light and fumes if the wicks are not carefully trimmed. We also used candles, and are lucky we didn’t burn our place down. We arranged the furniture to make best use of available natural light from the windows. Over time, we adapted our habits to the natural light patterns in nature, e.g. you don’t stay up till midnight reading a novel.

We tried solar power for lights but found that when we need light the most, in winter, there was the least amount of solar energy available. The development of LED bulbs is promising, however, because they require much less energy. Today, we use little ‘clip-on’ book lights with small LED bulbs which are powered by rechargeable AA batteries. These are very efficient and have made things easier and safer for reading and for small task lighting. Our son Ben is installing indoor fixtures for LED area lights which we’ll be testing this winter. We also use LED headlamps when going outdoors at night.

Refrigeration

I remember being at the dock with my wife one hot summer day and seeing a tourist sipping a drink on the deck of his yacht. My wife looked at the drink and said “Looks good!” The tourist said “Well, come aboard and I’ll fix you a drink.” “Oh” my wife said, “I was referring to the ice cubes, not the booze!” He then proceeded to his on-board ice-maker and gave us a sack of ice. As we hurriedly rowed home before it melted, we thought it curious that his boat had more modern amenities than our home.

Life without ice, or refrigeration, takes some getting used to. No ice cream in summer, no cold beer, no easy way of dealing with food leftovers. But this is only in summer; the rest of the year we have our pantry, which keeps things cool and preserved long enough for our needs. Most of the food we eat is fresh from the garden or the sea, or preserved in jars in the pantry. A few years ago, I bought a half-sized used RV refrigerator which runs on propane. We use this in the hottest weeks of summer or when guests arrive; a 20-lb propane tank keeps it running for about 3 weeks. But I don’t like running this appliance with its little pilot light flame so close to our cedar house. Ideally, we would use a solar powered refrigerator, but they are very expensive.

Washing Clothes

The only way I could get my wife to participate in an off-grid lifestyle was to help her with the menial tasks which modern appliances were designed to handle. So I enthusiastically set up a cast iron bathtub out in the garden with a fire underneath, propped up an old-fashioned washboard, and started washing the baby diapers by hand. After a few sessions of this, I gave up. You don't need the details — it was too much work and they didn't get clean enough. (Our neighbours would dye their diapers yellow to make them look a little better.)

After trying a few other ideas, we settled on taking our dirty clothes to the Laundromat each time we would go off-island to the nearest town. This worked well, and was a great chance to socialize with other islanders who were doing the same thing. However, it meant we had to own more clothes and buy more diapers, since it could be as long as a month between trips to town. Today there are very efficient mini-washers which require very little energy to run, and this is a solution for some people who live off-grid.

Cooking

To our constant delight, cooking ‘off-grid’ seems to deliver the best tasting meals with relatively little work. We use an old-fashioned wood cookstove, which is as easy to use as a modern gas or electric range. And besides providing an ideal cooking surface and oven, the stove also provides us with hot water via the water jacket in the firebox. The cookstove is an Elmira Oval, and it reaches 350 degrees within 20 minutes.

Our home also has a wood heater, and in winter we use this for cooking. It has a large flat top which can hold 4 or 5 saucepans. We’ve become adept at cooking on this heater, thereby saving the firewood needed for the cookstove.

For quick hot meals, or a cup of tea before the stove heats up, we have a small two-burner propane stove similar to those used for camping. We use this in the summer during fire season.

Food seems to be center of life here, and when the cook is at work there is a tangible reverence in the air. Our cookstove is at the heart of our family life — we love to hear the crackling fire and whiff the scents from the oven curling through the room. And is there any smell more wonderful than fresh baked bread?

We realize that cooking with wood is not ideal from an environmental perspective, and we look for ways to be more efficient when using the cookstove. We may prepare several meals at once, we almost always eat together, and we use only well-seasoned wood. We’ve also learned to be patient in off-grid cooking — water doesn’t boil as fast in winter.

Building

Before we moved to our island home, an old man gave me his collection of antique hand tools, which have since been put to good use. Learning to use hand tools was fundamental to getting anything built or fixed, since we did not have a generator to run power tools. Fortunately I had the benefit of learning from an old-timer in the community who was skilled in woodworking using only simple, common hand tools. Through his example, one could see that many carpentry jobs could actually be done as fast or faster than by using power tools — as well as safer, quieter, cheaper and more satisfying. But this was not the case with all jobs. If a long board needed to be perfectly ripped or planed, I would carry it to a neighbor who lived about a mile away with a fully powered workshop.

An invaluable tool for building has been the chainsaw. Besides being essential for cutting firewood, the chainsaw is very handy for many carpentry/building tasks. All the beams and timbers used in rebuilding and adding on to our house were cut with a chainsaw. Also, there are building methods which we used, such as post and beam construction, which lend themselves more to chainsaw/hand tool methods.

There have been some downsides to being limited to hand tools. While some tasks are done quickly using hand tools, most projects do take longer without power tools, and the finished work is not as perfect. I’ve been building my 1200 sq ft home for 29 years and it’s still not done.

Entertainment

Living without the TV, movies and video games while raising children was not a problem. We had board games, crafts, musical instruments, books and all sorts of natural learning materials. Every night my wife would read a book out loud for an hour. Playing together in the evenings was special family time, and the kids never asked for TV.

After we had been living off-grid for seven or eight years, my father-in-law brought us a small black/white TV with a 12v battery. It felt like an intrusion at first, but the only channel we could get showed reruns of Sesame Street, which we found entertaining and instructive for our younger child. This didn’t last long however, since taking the battery to the store for recharging became too tedious. Eventually we broke down and bought a small Honda 350 generator, about the size of a toaster, but it didn’t run right. So we had it repaired and it worked a few more times then quit again for good. In retrospect, we went to a lot of work and expense, and waste, for a few Sesame Street shows.

It seems to follow that when children create their own games and play, they’re more likely to use their own imagination and develop independent thinking skills later in life. Being able to raise children with our own values, and without the distraction of electronic entertainment, was one of the main reasons we wanted to live off-grid.

In Conclusion

Our experience living off-grid is neither unique nor stereotypical. Although our community has no electric service, different homes have different degrees of self-generated electricity. Some people have wind generators; others have solar arrays or micro-hydro runs on small streams that provide their power needs. Some residents have big TVs, washing machines, freezers, power tools, and all the amenities.

With recent advances in efficient appliances and technologies, “off-grid” living can be the same as living anywhere else. But for our family, we felt there was more to be learned by building things by hand, creating our own family culture, and trying to live a little more at the pace of nature. By keeping things simple, we had to rely on each other more to put food on the table and to get things done, and this helped empower the children. As young adults today, I see they are resourceful, independent and confident.

So if you are thinking of living off-grid, I suggest you start simple, and gradually ‘power up’ if needs increase. And as you evaluate future electric needs, keep in mind what you may be losing as well.

After all these years, our home is still not finished, but every board has a story to tell.

Living Off the Grid

By Zócalo
August 15, 2010

Nick Rosen was in New York in 2003 when the lights went out for 50 million people across the northeast.

“It got me wondering about the silent, invisible electricity grid — we all depend on it, but we never think about it,” he said.

Going off the grid wasn’t an entirely new idea for Rosen, author of Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America.

He’s the owner of “an old shepherd’s hut in a beautiful part of Spain,” he explained. “So I knew you can live very comfortably without the grid.”

Below, Rosen chats with Swati Pandey about who goes off the grid, why it’s an especially American thing to do, and what we can learn from their lives.

Q. What is “the grid” and how difficult is it to get off it?

A. The grid is the whole system of fixed lines that delineate the modern world — electricity, gas, water, sewage. And it is quite easy to live independently of those. You could go further and add in roads, Internet, supermarket distribution systems, and it is quite difficult to live independently of those.

The grid was organised to suit the industry, not the consumers. And the way GE was organised became the model for corporate America. Now we are being sold the Smart Grid, which will simply cement into place a system that does not make sense any more in the era of renewable energy. The Smart Grid seems plausible at first, but there has been little debate about who controls the technology, who gets the information that the smart meters will send back from people’s homes, and who decides on the prices the power companies can charge during spikes in demand.

Going off grid is not some game for urban journalists: it is a real life-choice being made by hundreds of thousands of Americans. The question is not “can I live purely off the grid, forsaking all modern conveniences?” The real issue is “what is the best I can do for myself, my family and my community?” And for people whose homes are being foreclosed, whose jobs are moving off-shore, or who have just had enough of the banker-driven corporate, materialistic side of society — going off the grid is quite an easy choice to make. It beats shaking your fist impotently at the TV.

Q. What type of people did you encounter living this way? How did they conform to or depart from the stereotypes we have of people who choose to live off the grid of far-right paranoiacs or far-left hippies?

A. I did meet representatives of both those categories. But the majority were just ordinary individuals and families — in the book I speak to teachers, nurses, engineers, plumbers, electricians, stockbrokers, managers, writers to name but a few. They are very disparate, but what unites them was a feeling that there must be a better way to live — and a determination to act — to be the difference, to be part of the solution not part of the problem.

Q. What were the most luxurious (if we can use the word) off-the-grid accommodations you encountered? And the most basic? What was the most surprising thing you encountered while exploring this movement?

A. Almost everyone I met was living comfortably, many of them in typical family houses. Some had large homes, but the larger your home the more it costs to heat and cool and maintain. One of the reasons for the sudden growth of the off-grid population is that technology has enabled it — not just solar panels and generators, but energy efficient appliances. Fridges and washing machines can now run on a fraction of the energy they used to need. And there are small, mobile 12-volt versions of things that were developed for truckers and boating — everything from fax machines to slow cookers.

I devoted a chapter to a Boulder resident living in his car, or “living out of my car,” as he prefers to put it. He does this out of choice, and plans to switch to a small RV. His story might do something to de-stigmatise car-dwelling. It’s supposed to be a sign of abject failure in today’s society, but why should we all have to live in conventional dwellings? He says he would rather spend the rent money on having fun.

One of the strangest sights on my journey was in an Amish household where they foreswear electricity, but use horses to generate mechanical energy — to turn motors that operate fridges and washing machines. They build treadmills from wood they grow themselves and the horse walks on the treadmill to create the energy.

Q. What are some of the fractures — ethical, political, cultural — among people living off the grid? And is there a sense of community among them?

A. The off-grid movement is so full of iconoclastic individuals that it would be hard to find any areas where they do all agree. One of the main dividing lines is between those who want to be part of an off-grid community and individually self-sufficient households — what Thoreau’s critics at the time he wrote Walden called “cold and selfish isolation.” Most want to be part of a community, and to me that is preferable because man is basically social. You can share skills and get other advantages from being part of a community.

Then there are groups like the Amish, or environmentalist communes, who disapprove of those who live more conventional lives, but happen to do so off the grid.

On the whole, the mainstream environmental movement disapproves of living off the grid — and claims, wrongly, that it is more ecological to live in a dense urban environment. For starters, it is quite possible to live off-grid in a city. But, more importantly, the eco-campaigners are desperate for mainstream acceptance, and they fear that supporting the off-grid lifestyle would ally them with weird and fringe elements.

Q. Is living off the grid a uniquely American concept at all?

A. America is so big, and that's one reason why it is easier to live this way in the US than in other western societies which are more crowded. The UK is the size of Kansas but with a population one fifth the size of America. Living off the grid is in tune with key parts of American culture — the tradition of settlers, pioneers, and the permanent quest for freedom which is part of the American Dream.

Q. Is living off the grid a viable form of protest, and do most people living this way consider it as such? Or does it hurt efforts to reform within the grid?

A. For many off-gridders, living off the grid is the ultimate form of protest. It is a simple withdrawal from some key facets of the consumer society, which has taken us down the wrong route in so many ways — constant consumption, the unstated assumption that economic growth must continue forever. And it is also a way of giving yourself more control over your own life and making yourself less dependent on the state and the “system” — saying “not in my name,” whether your gripe is with the war in Afghanistan or the vast subsidies handed to overpaid bankers. It is also a way of taking responsibility for your own power, waste, water — and some go further.

Q. What can we learn from people living off the grid, or simply keeping in mind the “off the grid” concept? Is it an important effort to consider given the recession and the environment?

A. The off-grid population is very useful to society for several reasons. It makes society as a whole more energy independent, more diverse and, therefore, more resilient to shocks like power outages and oil price spikes. It also points the way to a future where we all live more modestly, which may be essential as China and India consume a higher share of the world’s scarce resources. And at the moment with foreclosures and job losses at such a peak, it is a simple practical alternative to sub-standard housing and welfare dependency.

There shall come in the last days scoffers,
Walking after their own lusts, saying:
'Where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep,
All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.'
For this they willingly are ignorant of...
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing,
That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,
And a thousand years as one day...
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night;
In which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise,
And the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved,
What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God,
Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved,
And the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to His promise,
Look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things,
Be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
(2 Peter 3:3-5, 10-14)