If you’re anxious about the spread of pandemic diseases, a revolution in the streets, or perhaps an incoming missile from North Korea, Drew Miller has a deal for you.
For just $1,000 per person, you’ll get a timeshare at Fortitude Ranch, his chain of remote emergency lodges. Right now, there are three locations—two in Colorado, the third in West Virginia—but Miller hopes to ultimately have 12 timeshares around the country, each within a day’s drive of most places and equipped with an emergency landing strip for small aircraft. Members can enjoy their timeshare for 10 days each year; then once society destructs, they will be able to use their erstwhile vacation home as a doomsday shelter. That’s a good deal when compared to the $3 million “full-floor unit” offered by Survival Condo, another post-apocalypse accommodation company.
According to National Public Radio (NPR), those who choose Fortitude Ranch undoubtedly prefer more “spartan” conditions. To survive the world’s annihilation, its members also have work to do, such as building a high wooden wall to protect the property. Once the year’s supply of emergency food starts to dwindle, the residents will turn to self-sustenance, like on-site agriculture, hunting, and fishing.
“If you're just sitting around with nothing to do, you're going to be worrying about, you know, ‘What happened to my daughter in San Francisco?’ So, we wanna keep people busy,” Miller tells NPR.
Moreover, Miller, a retired U.S. Army colonel with a doctorate from Harvard in public policy and operations research, boasts an operations team that is experienced and capable: “Most of us are former military. All of us have business and professional backgrounds and the highest standards of integrity,” Fortitude Ranch’s website reads.
Doomsday Business Not New
As you might know, making financial “hay” from the end of the world is far from being a new business venture. In the 1950s and 1960s, more than a few American homeowners installed underground fallout shelters. As the 20th century drew to a close and fears about Y2K skyrocketed, many stocked up on “wood-burning stoves, gasoline-powered refrigerators, and grain mills.” And most recently, in 2018, New Zealand was rocked by reports that 150-ton bunkers had been shipped from Texas by Americans who plan to ride out the apocalypse in “the last bus stop … before … Antarctica.”
A 2017 survey from market research firm Finder, recently updated, says that in the last 12 months, 20 percent of Americans spent their wages on survival equipment or supplies. Another 35 percent of consumers say they’re ready for whatever disasters come their way. Interestingly enough, different generations prepare in different ways: While millennials stash money into an emergency fund, baby boomers outfit their homes.
How to Survive the End of the World
So how much do you have to spend to survive the end of the world? The Bible prophesies that at the end, “there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). Will Miller’s $1,000 timeshare be enough to save you in this time of trouble?
What if the answer is that you don’t have to spend anything? What if God isn’t asking us to spend our resources on a bunker in New Zealand or a mountain retreat in the Rockies?
Perhaps a more relevant question would be: From what are you trying to escape? In the time of the end, Scripture prophesies that those who are not protected by the seal of God will “[hide] themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and [will say] to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!’” (Revelation 6:15, 16). Do you want to hide from God?
For those who believe, the world’s apocalypse is not a time of terror but rather of submission, reverence, and rejoicing that Christ’s second coming is near. Soon the judgment will approach, from which no man can escape: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
Should this time now be given to preparing our homes or preparing our hearts? Is it a time to lean on one’s military expertise or on the Sword of the Spirit? Is it a time to desperately seek to save your own life or a time to share the gift of eternal life with others?
Pastor Doug Batchelor wrote, “[T]he key to surviving the great tribulation is to allow God to transform you now. If you’re faithful in the little tribulations that come, in the fiery trials you go through, saying, ‘Lord, purify me, purge me, whatever You need to do’—if you embrace those things that humble you now, if you are willing to learn the lessons of righteousness—He will prepare you. You’ll have nothing to fear from the great tribulation. Indeed, your faith will be strengthened as you see prophecy being fulfilled.”
You can also view a video sermon from Pastor Doug about “Surviving the Great Tribulation” here. And if you’d like an inside look at country living from someone who’s had a hilltop retreat for 40 years, pick up a copy of Heading for the Hills: A Beginner's Guide to Country Living—a new book by Pastor Doug that takes a biblical, practical look at how a Christian should prepare for the apocalypse.