As we move closer to the Tribulation, we see people like Suelo (who has been living moneyless for a decade now in America) and Mark Boyle (who has done much the same in the UK for about 3 years now) as spiritual giants.  They are proving with their lives that you don’t need money to survive. Most of us on this site still use money for things like computers and vehicles to get the message out, but we see ourselves eventually doing without money altogether.  This is an important part of our Tribulation Vision.

A Tribulation Vision means taking active steps to prepare for the coming Great Tribulation.  During the Great Tribulation (and possibly for some time before it begins) Christians will be forced to live outside the Anti-Christ socio-economic system. (Revelation 13:16-18 ) One way to prepare is to go on what we call "faith outreaches" where you live for days, weeks, and sometimes even months without using money, in order to increase your faith in God as your ultimate Provider. Another step is just to examine your motives for why you do what you do, to ensure that you are primarily (a) trying to serve God and (b) trying to love other people. We feel that a combination of both of these methods should lead to greater spiritual growth, and increase our unity as the body of Christ in the process.

As Christians, we don’t merely want to ‘survive’ the Great Tribulation; we want to continue to effectively reach out to people whom we would consider ‘lost’, by exposing them to the radical teachings of Jesus. If merely surviving was our complete vision, then we might as well start building bunkers and stock-piling tons of non-perishable food items, to last us through to the return of Jesus. But we have a feeling that the kind of faith Jesus is looking for is not consistent with just accumulating and amassing as many material provisions as we possibly can in the immediate here and now. We feel God is looking for faith that goes deeper than that.

It is wise to consider the worst possible outcomes – not counting persecution just yet – which may come from refusing to accept the Mark of the Beast. Two of the most basic concerns would be fear about freezing (from the cold if one is pushed to live outside in the elements), or starving (because one cannot buy food without the Mark). If we want to prepare for the Great Tribulation, then we need to confront these two bullies – freezing and starving – and be willing to let them conquer us, before we would renounce our faith. Once we have developed that kind of resolve within ourselves, we may also find that it takes us a lot longer to freeze and/or starve to death than we first thought!

Then there is the issue of persecution, something Jesus told us to rejoice about. (Matthew 5:12 ) While the Bible gives warnings about Christians being hated by all men, and being betrayed by friends and family, another source of probable persecution during the Trib will likely be the system authorities. It’s a known fact that law enforcement officers around the globe tend to despise poor, and especially homeless people; if we find ourselves in one or both of those camps during the Tribulation, it's quite likely that we too will get a fair bit of persecution from system authorities. Brace for it!

Another point for consideration is our communication medium as we march toward the Trib. At the moment, we have found that distributing our message via printed material - and accepting whatever donations people choose to offer for it - is the most effective way for us to fulfill Christ's command to 'preach the gospel to every Creature'. (Mark 16:15 ) However, eventually, we may have to find other ways to preach the word, without using books, DVDs, or other printed materials. We may have to get more inventive.

The internet is such a useful tool, because it allows people to (theoretically) communicate with the whole world, without having to physically meet such people in person. But even the internet may not be around and available for us to use forever. We may need to just talk to people about Jesus' teachings, or use art or music or posters or signs to make people aware. While I think that God will give us more specific instructions about how to get the job done when the time comes, it also doesn't hurt for us to be thinking about such things in the meantime, as well. At some point, we need to blend our thoughts with the mind and voice of God.

Finally, I'll briefly address two other points which I feel are worth discussing when we talk about the Tribulation: gathering together, and working for love.

While we believe that the true church of Christ was and remains invisible to this day, we also believe that the time is soon coming - during the Trib - when we will see a visible gathering together of people with faith, sincerity, and love, from all over the world. We should all welcome and look forward to such a day. Expect it!

Lastly, there's working for love. I believe the biblical principle of ‘If you don't work, you don't eat,' (2 Thessalonians 3:10) will apply, possibly even more-so, throughout the Great Tribulation. In many ways, this brings us back to one of our first points, the one about reaching out to others during the Trib, rather than becoming myopic about mere survival for ourselves. I believe there will be heaps of opportunities to show practical love to people at that time - much like we can do now - and I think we should be doing all we can to spread such love while we can, both now and then.  That includes loving our enemies, even if it results in death, as our ultimate testimony to the power of God.

To summarise, we need to develop a vision for the Tribulation that moves us beyond just surviving, and on to thriving. We need to confront our fears with regard to things like starving and freezing, and brace ourselves for some of the toughest persecution we have ever seen - and do it with a smile. :) We need to open our minds to consider alternative communication mediums to get the message out, and we need to patiently await the visible gathering together of Christ's true church. And with all that we do, we need to do it in love. That's the Tribulation vision.