A note on who this page is for. It’s written for people whose faith includes a view of the end times, and for anyone else interested in learning more. This page serves only as an introduction into the topic, and should be taken that way. This topic is so large that even the introduction will span multiple articles. This will serve as the launching-off point for many of those and I’m sure I’ll probably end up writing many more articles going into the details even further.
Every threat we look at, we ask the same four plain questions: what is it, how likely, how bad, and what actually helps. Run a faith-framed end times — the biblical tribulation — through those questions and you end up somewhere the other entries never do. This is the one where the honest answer is that ordinary prepping runs out of road. It sits near the bottom of the likelihood scale and past the top of the impact scale, beyond what any shelf of supplies fully answers. And that’s not a failure of the plan. That’s the most useful thing this entry has to teach.
Why it belongs on an honest list
A threat list that only counts storms and outages is incomplete for the people like me whose view of the world includes a final reckoning. Leaving it off to look tidy would be dishonest. But putting it on honestly means saying plainly what it is: a scenario that, by its own nature, is bigger than anything material preparation can meet. Admitting that isn’t the framework giving up. It’s the framework telling the truth about where gear stops mattering and something underneath it starts.
The odds: A certainty that’s still near the bottom of the scale
I rate this a 2 out of 9 for likelihood — near the bottom of the board. Putting a rating on this was something I really struggled with. The result is my opinion is based on a combination of history and the bible.
Unlike most threats I’ve cataloged, this one is an eventual certainty - it will happen someday. The bible is clear on this. Jesus returns, and His return will correspond with the most difficult time in human history.
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen. — Revelation 1:7
So, the question turns from “will it happen?” to “will it happen to me?” and that’s an interesting thing and is a subject that I tackle in detail in this article. For brevity, I’ll just summarize it here as dwelling on timing isn’t the point of this article, but it does play an important part so we can’t gloss over it either.
Matthew 24 lists several events that will occur before the tribulation:
- False Messiah’s coming (v.5) – this could be false religions as well as pastors not teaching correctly.
- Wars & rumors of wars (v.6)
- Famines and earthquakes in various places (v.7) (famines can also be translated as “pestilences” – diseases)
- Restoration of Israel as a nation (v.32-35) - this occurred in 1948 or 1967 depending on how you keep score.
We can take these as warning signs to watch out for as all these events will precede the start of the “end times” / Tribulation.
Looking through this list, one could argue that the “birth pains” have all been met:
- There are more cults and other false teachings than ever before
- Wars are more frequent than ever before in recorded history.
- Famines and earthquakes are in the headlines almost daily at this point.
But looking at history shows multiple times that have been much worse in many of these areas than today. Consider the Dark Ages, World War 1 or World War 2. As a result, I have a hard time rating today as higher than a 2. But I will say that this is something I’m watching closely as it could increase rapidly.
The impact: past anything else on the list
An impact of 9 does this threat disservice in the severity rating, but it’s the maximum so that’s where it must stay. Where world-wide thermonuclear war would kill hundreds of millions worldwide, it pales in comparison to this threat.
Similar to timing, the judgements of Revelation is a bigger topic than I can include here. And like the timing, I’ve split out the judgements into their own article. If you want additional details on this subject, I recommend you read that article.
The book of Revelation describes 21 judgements that will be poured out by God upon the earth. One judgement specifically mentions that one fourth of the world population will be killed and another describes one third being killed. Others describe calamities such as all the sea life dying and all the fresh water being made undrinkable.
The result will be a death toll that is unimaginable and far beyond any other threat on the list. A conservative estimate is about half the worldwide population dead (4 billion) and I’ve seen estimates as high as 90% dead (7.2 billion).
What preparing actually looks like
I won’t bury the lead - you can’t fully prepare for this. If you think you can accumulate enough skills and stuff to ride out the Tribulation in your bunker, you’re sorely mistaken in my opinion.
But, while I feel it’s impossible to fully prepare, there are things that you can do to help your odds during this period.
1. Anchor in faith
It’s my belief that only God’s providence will deliver those that make it fully through the Tribulation. And I believe that this will require intense faith in God.
Ensure you have a personal relationship with God. Learn to recognize His prompting in your life now as doing what God wants you to do will be critical during this time.
While I don’t believe that God will be there to “save us” during most other emergencies (see this article), I do believe that this emergency is the exception. God helps those he places in situations they cannot prepare for, and this one definitely fits that bill. But I also believe that God’s provision will be limited to those with a close relationship to Him, so ensure that describes you.
2. Family, and community
Strong family bonds and a real, give-and-take community give the human support no supply can. Read almost any account of people who came through the worst, and it’s these — not possessions — that carried them through. During the Tribulation, these relationships will be all the more important. Christians will be essentially hunted, and having a community for mutual aid and protection will be critical.
2. Keep broad, deep, general reserves
The material side is deliberately plain. There is no “end-times kit.” The same deep pantry, stored water, and long-haul self-reliance that carry you through any extended crisis will help you here too. Measure it in time and what you can do, not in gear owned: how many weeks can your household feed and water itself with the stores closed?
Keep in mind that it’s expected that the Tribulation will last 7 years. It’s unlikely that you can store that much, which is part of the reason it’s difficult to fully prepare for. But in most bible stories where God provided, He did it through existing items (multiplying them, etc.). I expect this to be no different, and zero times something is still zero, so you need to have some baseline preparations to multiply.
3. Build durable skills and self-reliance
Skills are the preparation you carry inside you. They can’t be looted, lost, or run down like a stockpile. Growing and putting up food, fixing and improvising, basic first aid, the plain ability to make do — that’s worth having in every long crisis, and it’s the heart of real self-reliance. Skills also stretch your reserves further and make your community stronger. Invest in what you can do, not just what you own.
With the amount of death, destruction and persecution that will be involved during the Tribulation, self-sufficiency will be a requirement, not a “nice-to-have”. This doesn’t mean you have to be able to do everything, but it means you do need to have a community around you that can and you need to be a key contributor to that community.
Learn more
The end times / Tribulation has so much detail, it must be split into many separate articles. This article will serve as the “hub” of the articles. Here is the full list if you want to research further:
- Timing (when will it happen)
- Judgements (the calamities that come during this period)
Bottom Line
- Beyond what a supply list reaches — this is the one entry where ordinary prep has honest limits, and saying so is the framework telling the truth.
- Near the bottom of the odds, held with humility — set no dates, carry no fear, and let it take almost none of your peace.
- Faith is the key preparation - your relationship with God will be the most important preparation here.
- Family and community — they carry a person through any darkness and matter most right where gear stops.
- The material side is just excellent general prep — deep reserves and durable skills, sized in weeks you can run, not dollars.
No pantry answers the end of all things — and once you see that, it points you straight at what always mattered most: a grounded faith, people who love you, and general preparedness that matters in all emergencies.
The broad, all-purpose reserves that serve any long crisis start with the Food & Water Storage tool; build the skills that outlast any stockpile with the Garden Planner.
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.