The Need to Prioritize

Although some people don’t want to admit it, the world is in a great state of commotion.  It saddens me to see how far our country has devolved from the righteous tenets that it used to stand on. 

I feel much like Nephi (the son of Helaman) crying on his garden tower and mourning over the corruption of his people and his fallen country; bemoaning the corruption that filled his government and the judgment seat. 

Perhaps I should put it into a more modern perspective. I feel like Sarah Connor in “Terminator 2”, trying to warn people of a coming apocalypse; all the while being mocked for being a crazy “prepper”.    

I see the trouble that is coming and I only seek to warn people to get ready.  But because of things like "normalcy bias" and "cognitive dissonance", most people just cannot grasp the idea of something terrible happening in their world.  They say, “Nothing that bad has EVER happened to us here in the United States.”  People can’t bring themselves to imagine a time so hard, that they would have to survive for a year on their own resources. 

The scriptures can give us an interesting guideline for temporal preparedness.  Here is a list of 5 people that were warned to have temporal storage, to last them for an extended period of time.

Who                                                                                          Food to last how long

Joseph - warned the Pharaoh of the coming famine                   7 years (Gen 41)

Gidgiddoni - prepared against Gadianton robbers                     7 years (3 Nephi 4:4)

Noah - was on the Ark                                                                 360-370 days (Gen 8)

The brother of Jared - was on his boat                                       344 days (Ether 6:11)

Lehi’s family - was on the boat                                                 Many days (1 Nephi 18:9) 

                                                                                       -About 1- 2 years (591-589 B.C.)                                                                                                                                                           

I think it is significant that these events in scripture all mark a time where individuals were warned to have enough food and supplies to last them through a period of trouble.  It’s also interesting to note that all of these periods mentioned are about 1 year or more in duration. Similarly we have been told to prepare food and water to last us also…about 1 year or more. 

What if Noah, the brother of Jared or Lehi decided to only bring a 72 hour kit? What if they only brought a 3 month supply of food? Maybe they imagined that a 6 months supply should be enough. This kind of thinking would have made their journey very difficult indeed. The scriptures don’t mention it but I believe that the Lord told them how much food and supplies they would need, to last them through their difficult journey. 

None of them had ever crossed an ocean.  They had no way of reckoning how long a journey like that would take.  Nothing that difficult had EVER happened in their world. 

So now we come to the troubled times we live in now.  We are a society that is unfamiliar with hard times.  Grocery stores are stocked with food and many are open 24 hours to satisfy our wants and needs. Yet we have been warned that this will not always be.  We have been counseled to prepare an emergency supply of long term food and water to last us for 1 year.  

To prepare for...

A time when famine and drought will make food and water very scarce…

             (Ezra Taft Benson)

“The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah."

                                ["Prepare Ye", Ensign, Jan 1974]

(Spencer W Kimball)

“But if you fail to serve me (Christ)…trees will be without fruit and the fields without verdure.  There will be rationing and a scarcity of food and hunger sore…Famine will stalk rudely through your doors and the ogre cannibalism will rob you of your children and your remaining virtues”

                               [Conference Report, October 1961, pp. 29-34]

A time when economies will fail; when money and gold will lose all its value…

(Ezra Taft Benson)

“Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them.”

                              [Conference Report, October 1980]

(Brigham Young)

“The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of wheat. Gold is not to be compared with it in value. Why would it be precious to you now? Simply because you could get gold for it? Gold is good for nothing, only as men value it.”

[Journal of Discourses, 1:250]

A time when the only thing of REAL value, will be food…

(Heber C Kimball)

“Lay up your stores, and take your silks and fine things, and exchange them for grain and such things as you need, and the time will come when we will be obliged to depend upon our own resources; for the time is not far distant when the curtain will be dropped between us and the United States.”

[Journal of Discourses, 5:10]

(J Reuben Clark Jr)

“...when we really get into hard times, where food is scarce or there is none at all, and so with clothing and shelter, money may be no good for there may be nothing to buy, and you cannot eat money, you cannot get enough of it together to burn to keep you warm, and you cannot wear it."

[Church News, November 21, 1953, p.4]

               

A time when farming, production and all industry and commerce will cease…

(Brigham Young)

“By and by there will be a gulf between the righteous and the wicked so that they cannot trade with each other and national intercourse will cease.”

[Journal of Discourses, 12:284]

(Orson Pratt)

“…manufacturing will, in a great measure, cease, for a time, among the American nation. Why? Because in these terrible wars, they will not be privileged to manufacture, there will be too much bloodshed too much mobocracy too much going forth in bands and destroying and pillaging the land to suffer people to pursue any local vocation with any degree of safety. What will become of millions of the farmers upon that land? They will leave their farms and they will remain uncultivated.”

[Journal of Discourses, 20:151]

   

A time when our government will fall and war will come to America…

(Duane S. Crowther)

“…a series of internal wars which will bring about the collapse of the government and dominion of the United States. [These] wars will cause the complete collapse of national and state governments in the United States!

[Duane S. Crowther, Prophecy: Key to the Future, 1967, pp. 65-66]

(Orson Pratt)

"…What then will be the condition of that people, when this great and terrible war shall come? It will be very different from the war between the North and the South. Do you wish me to describe it? I will do so. It will be a war of neighborhood against neighborhood, city against city, town against town, county against county, state against state, and they will go forth destroying and being destroyed and manufacturing will, in a great measure, cease, for a time, among the American nation”

                                [Journal of Discourses, 20:151-154]

“Party will be arrayed in deadly strife against party; State against State; and the whole nation will be broken up; the sanguinary weapons of the dreadful revolution will devour the land. Then shall there be a fleeing from one city to another, from one State to another, from one part of the continent to another, seeking refuge, from the devastations of bandits and armies”

                                [Millennial Star, 28:633-634]

This is just a small number of quotes from modern day Apostles and Prophets, warning us of what is coming.  This is to say nothing of the multitude of witnesses from the visions already posted here. 

These humble people saw in dream or vision, all these things coming to pass:

1.                    A period of drought, famine and starvation

2.                   The collapse our government and economy in America

3.                   The loss of electricity, gasoline and transportation.

4.                   The beginning of a World War that would break down into civil war everywhere

5.                   Many Great Tribulations: Earthquakes, Plagues, Flooding and Great Storms

So I sit back and see the beginning of this tribulation starting. We are experiencing record droughts across the country.  The drought in California is devastating crops and food prices are skyrocketing.  California is responsible for more than ½ of America’s fruits and vegetables.  They will be completely out of water in just 2 years.  There are 7 other states in the U.S. in similar circumstances.

 We see a staggering amount of corruption in government. Politicians seek their own self interests while the Constitution is being violated and ignored so regularly, that some don’t think it even applies anymore.  Our country’s economy lays in a coma, while Federal Reserve doctors keep pumping massive amounts of “Quantative Easing” into the failing veins, hoping that no one will realize, that it is too late.  

The dollar is destined to fail; it’s just a matter of time.   

Racial and political tension is at all time highs across the land. Never has America been more frustrated or more divided.  This tension is felt worldwide with a new Cold War with Russia and as tensions with China also increase... How long will it be before the Cold War becomes Hot?

We see new diseases spreading and old diseases coming back.  We suddenly have the spreading of new strains of incurable diseases like MRSA.  We see the near pandemic spread of Ebola coming to America from Africa; not to mention new virulent strains of Influenza and Tuberculosis crossing our unguarded borders to the south. 

As all of the multiple events fall into place, I see that time is getting short.  What is coming is inevitable.  How prepared you are when it gets here is up to you.  We see that eventually money, gold and other material possessions will not matter.  The only thing that will matter is can you feed your family. 

So put off buying that new    *  insert materialistic item here   *…

...And go buy your food storage. 

Sell off some of that “stuff” that you think that you can’t live without….

...And go buy your food storage. 

Pull some money out of your savings or your retirement.  It may not be there for much longer….

...And go buy your food storage. 

No amount of physical assets will matter if you cannot feed your family in a crisis; and that crisis is near, even at the door.

I encourage you to use the LDS cannery in your area. It is by far the cheapest…

     Here is a location map…

http://providentliving.org/self-reliance/food-storage/home-storage-center-locations-map?lang=eng

If you don’t have the time to go pick it up, they even deliver it to you…

http://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category3_715839595_10557_3074457345616706237_-1_N_image_0

                A month supply for one person is only about $30 – A year supply for one person is around $300.

                They even have starter kit boxes, that have a variety of things all in one box.

    One box feeds / one person/ for one month.

Remember to get water storage also. 55 gallon drums are only about $50 at Wal-Mart. Remember to only use food grade barrels.  The human body can survive for weeks without food; but can only survive about 3 days without any water!

I will repeat again what Ezra Taft Benson had to say:

 “The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah."

A final warning from Ezra Taft Benson

 “Should the Lord decide at this time to cleanse the Church–and the need for that cleansing seems to be increasing—a famine in this land of one year’s duration could wipe out a large percentage of slothful members, including some ward and stake officers…

…Yet we cannot say we have not been warned.”

                                 [“Not Commanded in All Things”, Conference Report, April 1965]

~Scott~