I think David’s second paragraph speaks to the center of the issue. As we are now reaping the whirlwind of centuries of self-centered religious constructs. The reformation did a good job of getting people pointed in the right direction, but Luther did little for connecting people to the Father’s heart. In reality, it only gave the people another “system” to attach to. We simply exchanged one system for another.

  Right now the bulk of the Body of Christ is still interconnected with the church system. Pastors & denominational heads will do whatever they feel justified in doing to protect their market share of believers. Yes, we are a market commodity and each week we return for our weekly religious dose of either entertainment or condemning preaching. This endless cycle produces little spiritual fruit but produces an undercurrent of unrest all around us. Not only within the body but some pastors as well as they feel “stuck” in a system that bares little resemblance to the things Jesus promised.

  How can the Body move forward in the things of God if we are interlocked in a pointless system? These are some of the hard questions I have asked myself and written about in my book, “My Fathers House.”

  Right now… the quest is to divorce from our minds the lifeless institutional forms and rediscover the Well of his Presence that He has been offering to us down through the ages.

  I know in some ways what I am saying is taking the conversation away from the topic of prepping. But in some ways, this is the center of the issue. Because, if Christ truly lives in us will we need rules to follow? I think not, for the law (rules) is for the unbelievers and served its purpose until Christ came. Now, Grace has come and we are to be governed by the Spirit within. That is one of the reasons for the biblical qualifications of Eldership. They are to be examined to see if mature biblical fruit lives in them.

  Let's take a look at James 2,

  “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” 14-17

  James draws out a great example here. Basically, if one of your own family is naked and starving and all you do is spiritually bless them with words and walk away, then what good is your faith? Did they not just prove by their own actions that what is within them is dead?

 And is this not what the powerless church does today? They pray for the people, but do nothing physical for them in the end.

 So, should a righteous person prep? 

 Let me ask this question, Noah was considered righteous, what kind of long-term planning and storing up did he do? Would he be considered faithless in the 21st. Century because he was not “trusting God?”

How does the system prevent the Kingdom from moving forward?

  Let me ask this question. How many of you have served for long periods of time in the church system as a leader? Day after day, year after year growing more and more tired? You're worn out and the concept of taking on just one more thing just makes your whole body freeze up in a panic. Now compare that to Jesus’ words to the woman at the well about the wellspring of life. Did leadership lose its wellspring? Or did they ever have it to begin with?

  The reality is the church is a purse full of holes and it's getting drier and drier inside for a lot of people. In Charismatic circles, biblical social responsibilities are often pushed to the side as you seek more “showy” demonstrations (healing, deliverance, ect) so that people will stay, give more and keep the system running longer.

  As a result, by our own actions, we have taken faith out of the fellowship and replaced it with a religious Idol that we call “the system.”

 What happens to Idols?

  Consider this biblical principle from Psalms 115. God through the psalmist declares, “Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. V8” Those who make the system will become like the system they worship, and so is the danger to any who put their trust in it.

To sum up.

  Why do Christians in this age have such a problem with acting on issues that were not an issue in days past? In my view, it's because we have taken scripture and stuffed it into the box, and redefined its basic core from an institutional viewpoint. This was never meant to be. Jesus did not die for the church, he died to set his people free from sin and to proclaim the coming Kingdom. He did not die for “the form,” he died to bring life. 

  Some people see the church as “everything,” let me say something that might offend some people who think that - “that thinking is simply the evidence of how you were programmed.” You see the church is not the Kingdom. The church is a by-product of the Kingdom. 

  Jesus came to give us a relationship with the Father. This is all relationship-based, the Jewish Christians understood this, and for a time so did the ancient forms of Celtic Christianity. It is through the Son, by his blood, that he has pulled us into a family. Now we need to learn to act like a family and care for each other.

  This is why some modern people don’t understand Jesus’ words to John concerning his mother. In our modern day, she would be shipped off to old folks’ homes to “make way for the deeds of the Apostles!” But in a biblical mindset built on a foundation of a relationship, Mary had a home, she was to be carried for. And doesn’t that help fulfill John 13:35 that the world will know us by our Love?