The Thirty-Year-Old Beans I Almost Threw Away

I have food storage in my home that is nearly thirty years old. A while back I decided it was time to replace some of it, so I went down to the Church home storage center, bought several cases of beans and other basics, and brought them home. Then I pulled out one of the old cases and threw it in the trash. I instantly felt regret. Not the kind of regret you feel when you waste money. The kind that comes from the Spirit. It bothered me the entire day, and I didn't throw another can away. The impression was clear. I was still going to need those thirty-year-old beans. I don't know when or how or under what circumstances, but the feeling was unmistakable. Keep them.

So here is my first piece of advice. Don't throw away food storage just because it seems old. In a real crisis, thirty-year-old beans will keep you alive. Perfect nutrition is a luxury. Survival is not.

I tell that story in Chapter 29 of my book, The First Horseman, Donald Trump and Biblical Prophecy. You might wonder why a book about prophecy has a whole chapter on food storage, water, and getting out of debt. The answer is that I don't believe you can study what the prophets saw coming and then go on living as if none of it applies to you.

Why a Prophecy Book Ends Up in Your Pantry

Most of the book walks through Revelation 6 and the seven seals. I make the case from the scriptures that none of those seals has been opened yet, and that the first one opens with a servant God has called, riding a white horse and going forth conquering and to conquer. I believe that man is Donald Trump. If that's new to you, Is Donald Trump in Biblical Prophecy? is a good place to start. But here is the part a prepper should care about. After the white horse comes the red horse, which takes peace from the earth. Then the black horse, which brings famine. Then the pale horse, which brings plague and death. War, hunger, and disease. Every one of them is already on your list. You can read how they fit together in The Seven Seals of Revelation.

In 2014 I had a dream that changed how I prepare. My father had been dead for over nine years, and he was standing in a room with me. He wasn't there for a reunion. He was there with a message. I picked up a large book from a table, and the moment I tried to open it, it fell apart in my hands and the pages scattered across the table and the floor. As I gathered them up I saw pictures of wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, riots, plagues, floods, erupting volcanoes, and hurricanes, all jumbled together with no order to them. Then my father spoke for the first time.

"Destruction is imminent."

What I took from that dream is that there is no neat timeline. These things won't line up politely one after another. Many of them will be happening at the same time, all over the world. So we prepare for tomorrow, and we prepare for the long term. The Lord gave us the reason...

...but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. (Doctrine and Covenants 38:30)

What Chapter 29 Covers

We have been told our whole lives to be independent, self-reliant, and self-sufficient. And most of us are not. The weekly trip to the grocery store, the full shelves, the constant stream of delivery trucks. None of that is going to last forever. Prophets have counseled us for more than a hundred years to store at least a year's supply, and the fact that it isn't a headline in General Conference right now doesn't mean the counsel was ever taken back. A statement widely attributed to President Harold B. Lee says it better than I can: "If you knew what I knew, you would pile it up in the middle of the floor, throw a cloth over it and walk around it!" I feel the same way.

In the chapter I tell readers to store more than they think they need. Start with the traditional three-month supply of the food you eat every day and a one-year supply of staples like wheat, rice, beans, oats, sugar, and salt, and rotate it. But the scriptures speak of years of trouble, not months, and if you only store enough for your own family you'll have nothing to share with the neighbors the Lord sends to your door. Water gets its own section, because we can go weeks without food but only days without water. Two weeks of stored water is not nearly enough. I talk about measuring it in months, and since water weighs eight pounds a gallon, I also cover filtration, purification, and rain collection. Then come medical supplies and the old skills most of us have forgotten: first aid, gardening, canning, dehydrating, sewing, basic carpentry and repair, and off-grid power.

And then there's debt, which is the one most people don't want to hear about...

The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. (Proverbs 22:7)

We are never truly free while we're in debt. The family with a mortgage, two car payments, and a stack of credit cards is tied to a place and to obligations it can't walk away from when the economy breaks down.

Balance, and Doing What You Can

I also spend time in that chapter on the people who lose their balance. I have watched good people get so consumed with preparing that they stop going to the temple, pull away from their ward, and let their families suffer. Others go into debt buying supplies they can't afford. A basement full of wheat isn't worth much if you've pushed away the very people you'll need beside you when trouble comes. Supplies help. Covenants save.

And I know a lot of people reading this can't afford to store years of food. A single mother working two jobs, or a widow on a fixed income, isn't going to fill a basement this month. God knows that. If all you can do is set aside one extra bag of rice, do that. If all you can do is grow a few vegetables in a pot on the windowsill, do that. Remember the boy with five loaves and two fishes. It was nowhere near enough for five thousand people, but he brought what he had, and the Lord did the rest.

Everything in Chapter 29 comes down to two words. Start today.

Read the Book

If you'd like to see how I connect all of this to the scriptures, Chapter 8 of the book is free. It's called What Seal Are We In?, and it shows why the seals are still ahead of us. When you're ready for the rest, including the full preparedness chapter, you can get the book in print, digital, or audiobook at FirstHorseman.World.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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Keep Reading at FirstHorseman.World

• The Mark of the Beast: Why Preparation Is Not Optional
• No, We Are Not in the Seven Seals Yet. Relax and Get Ready!
• Why I Stopped Following Anyone's Second Coming Timeline