The Blast Shelter

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Subject: LDS Prophets on “Survivalism” Prt 6
From: Oiled Lamp
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 22:12:57 -0500

Bruce R. McConkie (Seventy, 1946; Apostle, 1972-1985)
April Conference, 1979

I stand before the Church this day and raise the warning voice. It is a
prophetic voice, for I shall say only what the apostles and prophets
have spoken concerning our day.
…It is a voice calling upon the Lord’s people to prepare for the
troubles and desolations which are about to be poured out upon the world
without measure.
For the moment we live in a day of peace and prosperity but it shall
not ever be thus. Great trials lie ahead. All of the sorrows and perils
of the past are but a foretaste of what is yet to be. And we must
prepare ourselves temporally and spiritually.
…There will be earthquakes and floods and famines. The waves of the
sea shall heave
themselves beyond their bounds, the clouds shall withhold their rain,
and the crops of the earth shall wither and die.
It is one of the sad heresies of our time that peace will be gained
by weary diplomats as they prepare treaties of compromise, or that the
Millennium will be ushered in because men will learn to live in peace
and to keep the commandments, or that the predicted plagues and promised
desolations of latter days can in some way be avoided.
We must do all we can to proclaim peace, to avoid war, to heal
disease, to prepare for natural disasters-but with it all, that which is
to be shall be.
…We must maintain our own health, sow our own gardens, store our own
food, educate and train ourselves to handle the daily affairs of life.
No one else can work out our salvation for us, either temporally or
spiritually.
…We do not say that all of the Saints will be spared and saved from
the coming day of desolation. But we do say there is no promise of
safety and no promise of security except for those who love the Lord and
who are seeking to do all that he commands.
It may be, for instance, that nothing except the power of faith and
the authority of the priesthood can save individuals and congregations
from the atomic holocausts that surely shall be.
And so we raise the warning voice and say: take heed; prepare; watch
and be ready. There is no security in any course except the course of
obedience and conformity and righteousness.
…Knowing what we know, and having the light and understanding that
has come to us, we must-as individuals and as a Church-use our talents,
strengths, energies, abilities, and means to prepare for whatever may
befall us and our children.
…We don not know when the calamities and troubles of the last days
will fall upon any of us as individuals or upon bodies of Saints. The
Lord deliberately withholds from us the day and hour of his coming and
of the tribulations which shall precede it-all as part of the testing
and probationary experiences of mortality. He simply tells us to watch
and be ready.
We can rest assured that if we have done all in our power to prepare
for whatever lies ahead, he will then help us with whatever else we
need.

Marion G. Romney
April Conference, 1979

Now I would like to repeat what you have heard a thousand times, more
or less, about taking care of yourselves. You ought to know now, more
than at any previous time, to make sure that you are prepared to go
through a period of stress on the resources you have provided for
yourselves. The necessity to do this may come any day. I hope it will
not come too soon. In fact, I hope it doesn’t come in my lifetime. But
it will come sooner or later.
Never forget this matter of providing for yourselves, even though you
don’t hear as much about it now as you did a few years ago. Remember
that it is still a fundamental principle, on that has been taught the
Saints ever since they came to these valleys of the mountains. We have
always been urged to provide ourselves, in the day of harvest, enough to
last until the next harvest. Be sure that you do so now. Be prepared to
take care of yourselves through a period of need.
I don’t know how things will work out. People say to me, “What will
we do? If we have a year’s supply and others do not, it will be gone in
a day.” Well, it will last as long as it lasts, but I’m not worried
about this. If we will do what the Lord tells us to do, he will take
care of us all right.

Spencer W. Kimball
April Conference, 1979

My father practiced what he preached. He didn’t just tell others to
be self-reliant; we were taught to exemplify it as a family. We raised
almost all of our own food. He always wanted a garden – he wanted a
garden to eat from and a garden to smell. I used to pump the water by
hand to water the garden, and also I learned to milk the cows, prune the
fruit trees, mend the fences, and all the rest. I had two older
brothers, who, I was convinced, took all the easy jobs and left me all
the hard ones. But I don’t complain; it made me strong.
…Most of us learn best what we apply in our own lives. I hope I would
not be found wanting in applying basic gospel principles in my life, in
my own home, with my own family. I would live the precepts of personal
and famiyl preparedness. That means having a garden, wisely managing
family resources, and expanding my educational horizons. It means
staying fit, replenishing the family year’s supply, fixing up our
st tell otheproperty, and all the rest we have been asked of the Lord to do.
…”It is in the doing that the real blessing comes. Do it! That’s our
motto.”

Marion G. Romney
“Ensign,” September 1979

Communism is Satan’s counterfeit for the Gospel plan, and…it is an
avowed enemy of the God of this land. Communism is the greatest
anti-Christ power in the world today and therefore the greatest menace
not only to our peace but to our preservation as a free people.

Ezra Taft Benson
October Conference, 1979

The truth is, we have to a great extent accommodated ourselves to
Communism-and we have permitted ourselves to become encircled by its
tentacles. Though we give lip service to the Monroe Doctrine, this has
not prevented Cuba from becoming a Soviet military base, ninety miles
off our coastline, nor has it prevented the takeover of Nicaragua in
Central America, the surrender of the Panama Canal, or the infiltration
by enemy agents within our American borders.
Never before has the land of Zion appeared so vulnerable to so
powerful an enemy as the Americas do at present. And our vulnerability
is directly attributable to our loss of active faith in the God of this
land, who has decreed that we must worship Him or be swept off. Too our
source of freedom-the Lawgiver-and that personal righteousness is the
most important essential to preserving our freedom. So, I say with all
the energy of my soul that unless we as citizens of this nation forsake
our sins, political and otherwise, and return to the fundamental
principles of Christianity and of constitutional government, we will
lose our political liberties, our free institutions, and will stand in
jeopardy before God.
No nation which has kept the commandments of God has ever perished,
but I say to you that once freedom is lost, only blood – human blood –
will win it back.
There are some things we can and must do at once of we are to stave
off a holocaust of destruction.
…I have seen the Soviet Union, under its godless leaders, spread its
ideology throughout the world. Every stratagem is used – trade, war,
revolution, violence, hate, detente, and immorality – to accomplish its
purposes. Many nations are now under its oppressive control. Over one
billion – one-fourth of the population of the world – have now lost
their freedom and are under Communist domination. We seem to forget that
the great objective of Communism is still world domination and control,
which means the surrender of our freedom – your freedom – our
sovereignty.
…I testify to you that God’s hand has been in our destiny. I testify
that freedom as we know it today is being threatened as never before in
our history.

nts. The
J. Thomas Fyans
(Asst. to the Twelve, 1974; Seventy 1976-1985; Emeritus General
Authority, 1989)
October Conference, 1979

The real strength of the Church lies in the savings accounts, the
gardens, the income-producing skills, the home storage, the resiliency,
the talents, and the testimonies of each individual member of the Church
and in the family of which each of us is a part. Let us be ever mindful
that the greatest blessing of the welfare system is derived by the
givers and that each of us should work to be independent and
self-reliant as families in order to be in a position to help our less
fortunate brothers and sisters. Stated in plainness, each family unit’s
_personal and family preparedness activity_ is every bit as important
as this vast and marvelous welfare system. The real strength of the
Church does not ultimately lie in the financial and commodity reserves
ore in
our of the Church; rather, it rests in the reserves and strength of every
household. May I illustrate.
Suppose for a moment that the four million [now ten million - A.S.]
plus members of the Church lived in an area approximately the size of
the state of Utah. And suppose that we were worried about wild,
ferocious animals coming into the land in which we lived. The streets
would be unsafe, so we would decide to build a wall to protect us. Now,
if we took the total reserves stored in all our Church storehouses and
used these goods to build an encircling wall around this area, it would
be one foot wide by one foot high stretching some twelve hundred miles.
This one-foot-high wall would not deter many animals from entering our
area of hoped-for safety.
Now, let us suppose that we would add to that one-foot high wall the
storage that the members of the Church would have if they were to have a
year’s supply. We could then raise the wall another foot around this
area the size of Utah. And then another foot, and then another foot, and
then another goot, and then another foot, and then another foot until we
would have a wall over fourteen feet high.
…You see, our total protection cannot come solely from the production
of the welfare projects of the Church. It will come only as we combine
with that production our individual family’s year’s supply.

N. Eldon Tanner
Asst. to the Twelve, 1960; Apostle, 1962-1982; Second counselor to
President David O. McKay, 1963; Second counselor to President Joseph
Fielding Smith, 1970; First counselor to President Harold B. Lee, 1972;
First counselor to President Spencer W. Kimball, 1973-1982)
October Conference, 1979

May I comment on two of these elements. Nothing seems so certain as
the unexpected in our lives. With rising medical costs, health insurance
is the only way most families can meet serious accident, illness, or
maternity costs, particularly those for premature births. Life insurance
provides income continuation when the provider prematurely dies. Every
family should make provision for proper health and life insurance.
…Constancy -2: _Live on less than you earn._ I have discovered that
there is no way that you can ever earn _more_ than you can spend. I am
convinced that is is not the amount of money an individual earns that
brings peace of mind as much as it is having _control_ of his money.
Money can be an obedient servant but a harsh taskmaster. Those who
structure their standard of living to allow a little surplus, control
their circumstances. Those who spend a little more than they earn are
controlled by their circumstances. They are in bondage. President Grant
once said: “If there is any one thing that will bring peace and
contentment into the human heart, and into the family, it is to live
within our means. And if there is any one thing that is grinding and
discouraging and disheartening, it is to have debts and obligations that
one cannot meet” (Gospel Standards, Salt Lake City: Improvement Era,
1941, p.111).
The key to spending less than we earn is simple-it is called
discipline. Whether early in life or late, we must all eventually learn
to discipline ourselves, our appetites, and our economic desires. How
blessed is he who learns to spend less than he earns and puts something
away for a rainy day.

Spencer W. Kimball
“The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball”
Bookcraft, p.372

I am not howling calamity, but I fear that a great majority of our
young people, never having known calamity, depression, hunger,
homelessness, joblessness, cannot conceive of such situations ever
coming again. There are thousands of young families in this city who
could not stand without suffering a three-months period without the
threat of their home being foreclosed, their car repossessed, their
electric and home equipment being taken back and themselves being
reduced to unbelievable rations in the necessities.
The great difficulty is that when difficult times come, those who in
normal times could lend assistance are also under the wheel of the
grinding mill. It may be impossible to anticipate and prepare for the
eventualities of depression, war, invasion, bombing, but we can go a
long way. What I have seen with my own eyes makes me afraid not to do
what I can to protect against the calamities. I went through two major
bank failures, two wars, major ones, loss of a job when jobs were
scarce, but there has never been a time since our marriage that we did
not have a few bonds or a savings account or some liquid assets on which
to lean.
You have what you think adequate insurance, but are you prepared for
and protected against death, illness, a long-continuing crippling
illness of the breadwinner? How long can you go if the income stops?
What are your reserves? How long could you make your many payments on
home, car, implements, appliances? How long could you carry armloads of
groceries from a cash store?
The first reaction is: We just cannot do it. We can hardly get by
using every cent of income monthly. The answer is eloquent. If you can
hardly get by when you are earning increasingly, well employed, well,
productive, young, then how can you meet emergencies with employment
curtailed, illness and other unlooked-for problems arising?

Ezra Taft Benson
“Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson,” p.618-619

The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith there would be an attempt to
overthrow the country by destroying the Constitution. Joseph Smith
predicted that the time would come when the Constitution would hang, as
it were, by a thread, and at that time “this people will step forth and
save it from the threatened destruction” (Journal of Discourses, 7:15).
It is my conviction that the elders of Israel, widely spread over the
nation, will at that crucial time successfully rally the righteous of
our country and provide the necessary balance of strength to save the
institutions of constitutional government.
If the Gentiles on this land reject the word of God and conspire to
overthrow liberty and the Constitution, their doom is fixed, and they
“shall be cut off from among my people who are of the covenant” (1 Nephi
14:6; 3 Nephi 21:11, 14, 21; D&C 84:114-15, 117). (God, Family, Country,
p. 345.)
As we spread abroad in this land, bearers of this priesthood, men and
women with high ideals and standards, our influence will spread as we
take positions of leadership in the community, in the state, in the
nation, in the world. We will be able to sit in counsel with others and
we will be able to influence others in paths of righteousness. We will
help to save this nation, because this nation can only be preserved on
the basis of righteous living. (“The Greatest Leadership,” BYU Student
Leadership Conference, Sun Valley, Idaho, September 1959.)

Bruce R. McConkie
April Conference, 1980

Nor are the days of our greatest sorrows and our deepest sufferings
all behind us. They too lie ahead. We shall yet face greater perils, we
shall yet be tested with more severe trials, and we shall yet weep more
tears of sorrow than we have ever known before.
…But the vision of the future is not all sweetness and light and
peace. All that is yet to be shall go forward in the midst of greater
evils and perils and desolations than have been known on earth at any
time.

Victor L. Brown
April Conference, 1980

There should be no misunderstanding on this point. The fundamental
principle of welfare services is that _you and I provide for our own
needs._ If serious economic disruption were to occur, the Church would
do all in its power to alleviate suffering by supplementing member
efforts. But it would not be able to do for the Saints what we have been
taught to do for ourselves for over forty years – that is, to have a
year’s supply of food, clothing, and, where possible, fuel; to have
savings in reserve, and to possess basic production skills. This counsel
has been given at least twice a year for all these years. Some have
followed the counsel of the Brethren and are prepared, as were the five
wise virgins. Some, like the foolish virgins, do not have enough oil in
their lamps. )See Matt. 25:1-13.)
A recent Church survey of a representative number of members in the
United States indicates that in emergency circumstances – such as job
loss, illness, or natural disaster – the average family had the
following supplies: food, twenty-six weeks; clothes, fifty-two weeks;
water, two weeks; and fuel, four days. This is not even close to a
year’s supply. The survey also indicates that financial reserves are
low. Only 17 percent could live for more than one year on their
financial reserves if income were cut off; 45 percent reported they
could only live for three months. The Lord says, “If ye are prepared ye
shall not fear” (D&C 38:30). I suppose each of us knows into which
category he falls. What a wonderful thing it would be if all were
prepared.

Barbara B. Smith
October Conference, 1980

Note Joseph’s obedience to the Lord’s warning of impending famine,
that “the land perish not through the famine” (Gen. 41:36). “Joseph
gathered corn as the sand of the sea” (Gen. 41:49) during the seven
plenteous years against the seven years of famine.”

L. Tom Perry (Asst. to the Twelve, 1972; Apostle, 1974)
October Conference, 1980

Having a one-year supply must be moved up on the family priority list.
How it is obtained must be considered again. Can more of it be the
result of our own labors in making our own clothes, increasing our
garden yield, and preserving our own food?

J. Richard Clark
October Conference, 1980

My dear brothers and sisters, the greatest test for any generation is
how it responds to the voice of the prophets. Our prophets have
admonished us to-
1. Increase our personal righteousness.
2. Live within our means and get out of debt.
3. Produce, can, and store enough food, clothing, and, where
possible, fuel for one year.
This straightforward counsel has not been followed by all of you.
time.

Some have believed and complied; others have waited until they could be
sure the storm clouds were really gathering; and still others have
rejected the counsel.
…_People respond only to what they are prepared to believe._ The
Brethren hesitate sometimes to talk in bold terms regarding the
realities of the economy and the need for individual and family
preparedness. Such talk is interpreted by the black-cloud watchers as a
time of general calamity, and many stampede to the grocery stores to get
ahead of the hoarders.
In April 1976 Bishop Featherstone suggested a one-year goal for
members to store a year’s supply of food. Some of those who had not yet
begun a home storage program rushed out and plunged deeply into debt to
buy hundreds of dollars of groceries. They then sat back, as did the
Prophet Jonah, to see what was going to happen to Nineveh: It was as if
Brother Featherstone had officially set doomsday as April 1, 1977. This
was not his intention. The Lord’s way has always been an orderly
preparation, not one of second-guessing, confusion, and panic.
…Finally, concerning the insufficiency of reserves, God gave a natural
instinct to the animals he created to preserve their surplus against a
time of need. But man has developed the tendency to squander all that he
harvests and to leave to chance or to others his satisfaction of future
needs. This is contrary to divine law. Frugality is a principle of
righteousness. Consumption should never exceed our production. Economic
freedom come from the surpluses we create.
In addition to our reserve of food, we should build a cash reserve.

Victor L. Brown
October Conference, 1980

My brothers and sisters, I feel our are justified. It is the opinion
of many that more difficult times lie ahead. We are deeply concerned
me.

about the welfare of our people and recognize the potential privation
and suffering that will exist if each person and family does not accept
the word of the Lord when he says, “Prepare every needful thing” (D&C
88:119), and “It must needs be done in mine own way” (D&C 104:16).
…May I again implore you priesthood and Relief Society leaders to see
that all members of the Church everywhere understand the responsibility
they have for their own welfare, that our people will be blessed to live
provident and righteous lives.

J. Richard Clark
October Conference, 1980

…One final concern of reserve deficiency is the need to insure against
our greatest potential loss. I think we all would agree that our ability
to earn is our greatest asset. When the provider insures his life, he is
insuring his future income for his family. As husbands, let us not force
our wives into the marketplace to be both the provider and homemaker
should our lives be cut short by premature death. We can increase their
options by proper insurance planning.
We would also urge each family to carry adequate health insurance.
Medical costs are soaring, and trying to self-insure from personal
savings is very risky. During inflation, medical costs increase faster
than our savings accumulate.
…There are some who feel that they are secure as long as they have
funds to purchase food. Money is not food. If there is no food in the
stores or in the warehouses, you cannot sustain life with money. Both
President Romney and President Clark have warned us that we will yet
live on what we produce.
…I would like to make one point very clear. The welfare services
program of the Church is essentially you and I being self-sufficient
within our own families. The Church storehouse system is a backup system
for the small number of members who are poor or physically handicapped,
or for emergencies or disasters.
There is _no way_ the Church, as an institution, intends to assume the
responsibility that rightfully belongs to the individual. The welfare
program was never designed to do so. Personal and family preparedness is
the Lord’s way. Then, by uniting together to pay generous fast offerings
and by providing commodities from our projects and canneries, we can
help our neighbor who cannot help himself.
Most important of all, brothers and sisters, with all our storing,
let us store righteousness that we may stand approved of the Lord.

Victor L. Brown
October Conference, 1980

I do not want to leave the impression that nothing has been done.
There are those faithful Saints who have their year’s supply and are
taking care of themselves. They know of that peace which comes from
being obedient and being prepared. From letters we receive, we know that
many other families are planting gardens and working toward their year’s
supply of food, clothing, and other necessities. Some parents are
striving to get the whole family involved in temporal welfare.
…We have been taught that we should build our reserves over a period
of time, that we should not go into debt to do so, that we should buy
those things we use and use them on a rotation basis, that we should use
common sense in preparing ourselves to be independent and self-reliant.
There has never been extremism or fanaticism associated with these
teachings.
…Our concern and the thrust of my message, which has been repeated
from this pulpit many times, is that the welfare program rests on the
basic principle of personal and family preparedness, not on Church
preparedness. We are concerned that because the Church program includes
production projects, canneries, bishop’s storehouses, Deseret
Industries, and other visible activities, our people are mistakenly led
to believe these things replace the need for them to provide for
themselves. This simply is not so.
…It would appear that in altogether too many cases the teachings about
preparedness have been either misunderstood or knowingly rejected. Many
of our members appear to feel that when difficulty comes, the Church
will come to their aid, even when they could have prepared themselves
had their priorities been appropriate.

(cont.)