January 27th Bunker Index - Reflections

First, I'll start off with a confession.

I am not a prepper nor a survivalist.

I once was, and thus my long and noisy participation in the Survival and Emergency Preparedness forum of HomesteadingToday. However, over the years, I have transitioned out of it as a mindset. I'm going to numerate some of the reasons for that now, and I hope the reader will understand my meaning.

• I believe that a very large disruption in the corporate-industrial grid is coming our way and that it will permanently cast us backwards about 300 years. With that in mind, no amount of beans, bullets, and bandages is going to save your family. Thus I am adopting a simple, sustainable lifestyle in obedience to God. This will by no means preserve your life, as God does not sustain Christians simply because they are obedient. Often the saints die horribly as martyrs, and that may still be our fate.
• Survival at all costs is simply not in my worldview any longer. Suffering and deprivation would not cause me to give up and die, but there are many, many situations in which I would willingly put my life between hammer and anvil for God to take as He wills. What good is the preservation of the body if you lose your soul?
• I have come to see dependence upon worldly things as a lack of faith in the providence of God. Jesus felt it was so important that we understand this topic that it was mentioned multiple times by him in the New Testament. We have firmly been instructed to seek ye first the kingdom of God and let worldly wealth follow if it will. It has been promised that our necessities will be provided. History is filled with the saints being murdered horribly by unbelievers or their government, but I don't know of many cases where they starved to death.

So this being the case, why do I continue to put together the Bunker Index? First, it's part of my ministry and about the only thing on the internet I can really do to spread this understanding. But also that you may assess the real situation and the dangers and threats facing your family and consider how you may best be able to bring your own life into conformity with God's plan for you.

Readership has dropped off in the blog lately. We went from about 800 readers at first to a more casual 500 readers once the initial drama of its creation wore off. Over the hiatus in December while I built a home, more readers fell away. With the drop in readership came a corresponding drop in advertising revenue, but this is not a great concern. We are still providing enough in revenue to pay for my internet connectivity so that I may still have the means of producing this. Enough is as good as a feast.

And as a bright side, the readership has now spread out and is coming in from multiple sources now instead of simply the duality of two different forums. (The one group coming to appreciate what I say and the other group coming to scorn.) Now I have readers coming in from various other blogs out there on the internet and folks who I have not yet met. And there's also the ever-present scrutiny of the government, checking in every few weeks to download every word I post. I take this as a good sign. When I was simply an anti-government survivalist ranting into the void they paid little attention. As a Christian extolling the virtues of a simple life of humility withdrawn from the system, I suppose I represent a much greater threat to the establishment. Drinking rainwater and pooping in buckets may just become the status quo among Christians!

I thank you for your visit with me each and every day and I am always surprised that people do indeed show up to read what I have to say. Your prayers sustain us and your encouragement lightens my heart.

Your friend in the desert,
Ernie