Christian Warrior Training | Christian Warrior Bible Study
🔴There are downloads to help you in the first 72 hours of WW3 at the bottom of this article🔴
In May 2021 a criminal ransomware group called DarkSide broke into the computer network of Colonial Pipeline, and the company shut down a line that carries roughly 45 percent of the fuel used on the East Coast. Six days later, 68 percent of the gas stations in North Carolina had no gasoline. Virginia was at 49 percent, Georgia and South Carolina at 45 percent, and nearly 1,800 stations were dry across seven states. All of that came from one criminal group going after one company for ransom money.
In February 2024 the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a joint advisory on a Chinese government hacking group they call Volt Typhoon. The agencies said with high confidence that the group had worked its way into American networks in four sectors: communications, energy, transportation, and water. In some of those networks it had been inside for at least five years before anyone found it. Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told an audience that year that China’s plan is to “land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic.”
Iran is already doing this on a smaller scale. Since the war with Iran began in February, the FBI, NSA, Department of Energy, and CISA have warned that Iranian government hackers are breaking into the control systems of American water and energy providers and causing outages. In late July 2026, Iran-linked hackers hit water systems in at least 12 states, including more than 30 in Minnesota alone. The FBI reported loss of water pressure and flooding at some sites, and some utilities had to switch to running their plants by hand.
If the United States goes to war with China, expect China to shut off the power to most of the country, and plan on it staying off for weeks. Everything else in the first three days, from fuel to water to phones to money, gets harder when the lights are off. I spent nearly 30 years in police work watching how people behave in the first hours of a crisis, and the pattern holds from 1941 to 2001 to 2021.
Hour Zero: What You Will See
Picture a Tuesday afternoon. You are at work when your phone starts going off, and the first headline says Chinese missiles have struck American ships in the Western Pacific. Within the hour you will see three different casualty counts, a report of an attack on an American city that turns out to be false, and a video that is two years old. Your coworkers will start leaving early. By evening the power is out across part of your region, the water pressure in your neighborhood is dropping, and your phone shows one bar where it usually shows four.
The first reports in a war are usually wrong. On the evening of December 8, 1941, the Army ordered San Francisco blacked out after reports of enemy aircraft offshore. Radio stations went off the air, and air raid wardens, many of whom had signed up that same day, did not know whether the alarm was real or a drill. The next day New York City sounded an air raid alarm for planes reported 200 miles off the Virginia coast. No enemy aircraft ever came within range of either city.
The government acted within hours. On the night of December 7, 1941, the Treasury Department froze Japanese assets and barred Japanese nationals from leaving the country. Recruiting stations in Pittsburgh opened that night and took enlistments by phone. Congress declared war the next day, and the United States closed its land borders to all Japanese, citizens included. Expect the same speed now, with orders and announcements coming from Washington within hours of the first shots.
Treat the first six hours of news as unconfirmed, and make your decisions on what your own household needs.
What Jesus Said About Alarm
In Matthew 24:6, Jesus told His disciples they would hear of wars and rumors of wars, and He told them not to be alarmed, because these things must take place. He said this to men who would live through the destruction of Jerusalem. He expected His people to hear bad news about war, and He gave them an instruction for how to receive it.
Alarm drives the behavior that empties a gas station. During the Colonial Pipeline shutdown, fuel was still moving through the system, and industry and state officials said panic buying and hoarding made the shortage worse. The Consumer Product Safety Commission had to warn people not to fill plastic bags with gasoline. A family that has done its work ahead of time has no reason to be in that line.
Why They Will Go After the Power
Our military runs on the same power grid you do. A 2009 Government Accountability Office (GAO) review found that 99 percent of the energy used on Department of Defense (DoD) installations is generated off the base. A 2024 Defense Science Board report warned that because bases in the homeland rely on civilian power, a cyberattack on a private utility or gas pipeline would directly affect the military’s ability to mobilize. When Winter Storm Uri hit Texas in February 2021, 12 of the state’s 15 military installations lost power for several days.
Moving troops depends on civilian systems too. Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, a former Senate staffer, said that in a major war the military would rely on commercial rail, ports, and aviation for 95 to 98 percent of the job of moving forces. In 2023, American officials told reporters that Volt Typhoon had placed malicious code inside water and electric utilities that serve military bases at home and overseas, and that the aim could be to delay an American military response to an attack on Taiwan. A base shares its grid with the homes, hospitals, and water plants around it, so an attack aimed at the base hits all of them.
China is not the only country inside our utilities. In March 2018 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI publicly accused the Russian government of a campaign that gained remote access to American energy sector networks and collected information on the systems that control them. The Wall Street Journal later reported that the Russian hackers had reached the control rooms of American utilities and claimed hundreds of victims. Iran is turning things off this year.
China is inside utilities across the country, and the grid does not stay contained when one part fails. On August 14, 2003, a failure that began in Ohio cascaded across Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the province of Ontario in minutes. About 50 million people lost power, and some parts of the United States went 4 days without it. That was one failure in one state with no enemy involved. An adversary with access to utilities in many states at once can shut off the power to a majority of Americans overnight, and that is what we should plan for.
The Power Will Be Out for Weeks
Some outages from a cyberattack can be fixed in hours, when crews reset equipment by hand. An attack that damages equipment takes far longer. Large power transformers, the equipment at substations that moves power across a region, averaged about 120 weeks from order to delivery in 2024, and only about 20 percent of American demand for them can be met by domestic manufacturers. A utility that loses several of them in an attack is waiting on parts from overseas in the middle of a war. Build your household plan around at least 30 days without grid power, which matches the 30-day water standard.
Water goes with the power. Treatment plants and pumping stations run on electricity and computer control systems, water was one of the four sectors named in the Volt Typhoon advisory, and the Iranian attacks this summer caused loss of pressure. When the power goes out, fill every container you have, including bathtubs, while the pressure at the tap is still normal. Your stored water should already meet the standard of 3 gallons per person per day for at least 30 days, which comes to 90 gallons per person and 360 gallons for a family of four.
Here is what you do in the first hours of an outage:
Fill water containers and bathtubs immediately. Pressure can drop within hours.
Keep the refrigerator and freezer closed. A closed refrigerator keeps food cold for about 4 hours, and a full freezer holds for about 48. Cook and eat the refrigerator food first.
Unplug electronics and appliances. Leave one lamp switched on so you know when power returns, and protect your equipment from the surge.
Set up the generator outside. Run it at least 20 feet from the house with the exhaust pointed away from doors and windows. Carbon monoxide kills families every year after storms, and a battery-powered carbon monoxide detector belongs in every sleeping area.
Move to one room for heat in winter. Close off the rest of the house, hang blankets over doorways, and dress in layers. Never heat with a camp stove or grill indoors.
Check on anyone who depends on powered medical equipment. Oxygen concentrators, sleep apnea machines, and refrigerated insulin need a battery or generator plan before this day comes.
Episode 6 of this series covers living through weeks of grid failure in detail, including backup power, lighting, heat, and water purification.
The First 24 Hours: Fuel
Fuel goes first, and fuel runs your generator as well as your truck. In 2021 the shortage showed up at the pump days before it showed up in the supply, and three Army bases in Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina limited on-base purchases to 10 gallons. North Carolina’s governor was asking people not to rush to top off their tanks while lines were already forming. Gas pumps also need electricity, so in a regional blackout most stations cannot pump at all.
Fill every vehicle you own in the first hours, before the lines form and before the pumps lose power. Starting today, never let a tank drop below half. If you store fuel, rotate it now, because buying cans on day one puts you in the same line as everyone else. Know how many hours your stored fuel gives your generator, write that number on the can, and plan your generator use in blocks, such as two hours in the morning and two in the evening to cool the freezer and charge batteries.
The First 24 Hours: Stores and Medicine
The stores get hit the first evening. In March 2020, after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic and schools started closing, Nielsen measured toilet paper sales up 213 percent in a single week compared with the year before. Costco, Walmart, and Target were stripped bare, and stores set purchase limits. Most of that toilet paper was made at paper mills in North America. The shelves emptied because everyone bought at once, and a war with China adds a real supply cut and a power outage on top of that same behavior. Stores without power close their doors or take cash only.
If your supplies are in place, stay home. If you are short, make one trip early with a written list: water containers, prescription refills, batteries, and infant supplies if you have a baby in the house. Go to the pharmacy before the grocery store.
Much of the medicine in American homes depends on Chinese ingredients. In 2019 testimony to Congress, the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) drug center said the United States held only about a quarter of the world’s production capacity for active pharmaceutical ingredients, the chemicals that make a pill work. China’s share of registered ingredient makers had more than doubled since 2010. India supplies much of America’s generic medicine, and India buys about 70 percent of its active ingredients from China. In a 2020 Senate hearing, the FDA admitted it could not calculate how much of the ingredient volume in American drugs comes from China.
You cannot know where the ingredients in your blood pressure pill came from, and neither can your pharmacist. Ask your doctor today for 90-day prescriptions on every maintenance medication in the house, and refill each one as early as your insurance allows. Keep a written list of every medication, dose, and prescribing doctor for each family member, so you can get refills from another pharmacy if your own is closed or out. If anyone in the house takes a medication that needs refrigeration, buy a battery-powered medication cooler now.
The First 24 Hours: Phones and Money
In late 2024 the FBI and CISA confirmed that a second Chinese government group, Salt Typhoon, had broken into AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Lumen. The hackers reached call records and the systems carriers use for court-ordered wiretaps, and the White House said at least eight American telecommunications companies were hit. In December 2024 the FBI and CISA told Americans to use encrypted messaging and calling apps. A senior CISA official put it in four words: “Encryption is your friend.” A regular phone call and a regular text message between an iPhone and an Android phone are not encrypted.
Set up encrypted messaging now, before you need it. Install Signal or WhatsApp on every phone in the family, create a family group, and use it for anything you would not want a foreign government to read. Write down every phone number your family needs on paper and keep a copy in each vehicle. When calls will not go through, a text message often will, because it uses far less of the network. When cell service fails entirely, a battery or hand-crank radio becomes your source of news, so turn it on and leave it on. Set check-in times for any family member who is away from the house, so nobody has to rely on a call getting through.
Card readers and automated teller machines (ATMs) run on power and networks, and both energy and communications are on the Volt Typhoon list. In a regional blackout, plan on cash only. Keep cash at home before this day comes.
Markets can close outright. The New York Stock Exchange closed on July 31, 1914, at the start of World War I to prevent a panic sell-off, and stock trading did not fully resume until mid-December. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the exchange closed for four trading days, and when it reopened on September 17 the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 684 points, or 7.1 percent, in a single day. Keep a paper copy of your account numbers and your bank’s local branch phone number in your family binder, because the app on your phone depends on the same networks. Episode 7 of this series covers banks and money in detail.
The First 24 Hours: Family Members Away From Home
On September 11, 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) closed American airspace for the first time in history, with more than 4,500 aircraft in the air. Every one of them was ordered down at the nearest airport. Limited commercial flights did not resume until September 13, and Reagan National Airport in Washington stayed closed until October 4. A war with China could ground flights the same way, and anyone traveling that day would be stuck wherever their plane landed.
If a family member flies regularly for work, sit down now and decide what they do if they are grounded 1,000 miles from home. Decide whether they drive home, how they pay for a rental car or hotel if card systems are down, and who at home tracks where they are. Keep cash in their travel bag and a printed list of family phone numbers in their wallet.
Run your family communications plan the first evening. Decide who picks up the kids, where everyone meets if phones are down, and who calls which relatives. Pick one relative outside your region as the contact everyone checks in with, since long-distance calls sometimes connect when local lines are jammed. If you do not have a written plan, the Family Communications Plan in the free download set walks you through it.
The Second Day: Declarations and Restrictions
Expect emergency declarations from Washington and from your state capital. During the 2021 pipeline shutdown, the governors of Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida declared states of emergency and invoked price-gouging laws within days, and that was a single pipeline outage.
Restrictions came fast in the last world war, and they went after what the war needed. On December 11, 1941, four days after Pearl Harbor, the Office of Price Administration (OPA) halted the sale of new tires because Japan’s advance into Southeast Asia had cut off a chief source of natural rubber. On December 27 it announced a tire rationing plan run by local volunteer boards. The government’s bulletin that same week told the public that sugar hoarding was unnecessary. In a war with China, fuel is the most likely first target for limits, followed by electronics and medical supplies, since so much of both comes across the Pacific. If the grid is down, expect utilities to restore power to military bases, hospitals, and water plants before neighborhoods.
The Second Day: Prices and Shipping
This year’s war with Iran already showed what a distant war does to fuel prices. After shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported regular gasoline at $4.16 a gallon in the first week of September 2026, against $3.19 a year earlier.
A war with China hits the West Coast ports directly. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handle about 31 percent of American sea trade. Census Bureau data for 2024 showed China as the source of 51 percent of the cargo tonnage coming into Los Angeles and 61 percent coming into Long Beach. When the war starts, the ships already at sea stop or turn around, and nothing new loads in China for American ports. Stores keep restocking from American warehouses until that inventory runs out.
Look around your house for anything you depend on that is made overseas and wears out: water filter cartridges, furnace filters, phone chargers, batteries, and the replacement parts for your generator. Buy one spare of each now, while the price is normal and the shelves are full.
The Third Day: Purchase Limits and Your Neighbors
By the third day, expect purchase limits at stores and at the pump. Retailers set them on their own when shelves empty, and governments follow when shortages spread. A family that filled up and stocked up in the first 24 hours does not need to make many trips into those limits.
Suspicion toward people tied to the enemy starts on the first night. By the afternoon of December 8, 1941, the FBI had detained 736 Japanese nationals on the mainland and in Hawaii, and within four days that number reached 1,370. Agents worked from lists of community leaders drawn up before the war. In the three weeks after Pearl Harbor, Los Angeles newspapers reported a Japanese student beaten by a group of youths and markets in Manhattan Beach firing their Japanese American produce workers. By the spring of 1942, more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry had been removed to camps, and two-thirds of them were American citizens.
In a war with China, Chinese American and other Asian American families in your town will face the same suspicion, and many of them attend our churches. A Christian protects his neighbor. If you see a neighbor being harassed, step in or call the police, and check on the Asian American families you know by name.
The Third Day: Your Church
The first Sunday after the war starts, your church will be full of frightened people, and the building may have no power. Have the deacons and the safety team call widows, elderly members, and single mothers by name before that Sunday, and call families with a deployed service member first. Find out who in the congregation is short on medication, fuel, or food, and who depends on powered medical equipment, and match them with families who stocked up or own generators.
Opportunistic crime rises when the police are stretched and the streetlights are dark. Keep vehicles locked, keep fuel cans, generators, and supplies out of sight from the street, chain the generator down when it runs, and do not post on social media about what you have stored.
Proverbs 22:3 and the Household Action List
Proverbs 22:3 contrasts the prudent man, who sees danger coming and takes cover, with the simple, who keep walking and pay for it. Everything in the first 72 hours goes easier for the family that finished these steps before hour zero.
Here is the list, ordered with the cheapest and highest-impact steps first:
Keep every tank above half. It costs nothing extra and keeps you out of the first lines.
Install an encrypted messaging app on every family phone. Set up a family group in Signal or WhatsApp.
Write the family communications plan. Meeting place, pickup assignments, an out-of-area contact, and every phone number on paper.
Make a plan for anyone who travels. Decide how they get home if flights are grounded, and keep cash in their bag.
Get 90-day prescriptions. Refill early, and keep a written medication list for each family member.
Put your accounts on paper. Account numbers and your branch phone number in the family binder.
Keep cash at home. Enough to cover a week of groceries and fuel if card systems go down.
Buy a battery or hand-crank radio. Keep spare batteries with it.
Buy a battery-powered carbon monoxide detector and lighting. Headlamps and lanterns for every family member, with spare batteries.
Buy one spare of each imported item that wears out. Filters, chargers, batteries, and generator parts.
Store water to the standard. 3 gallons per person per day for 30 days.
Set up backup power and the fuel to run it. A generator or battery power station, enough stored fuel for 30 days of limited use, and a plan for powered medical equipment.
The free Wartime Household Priority Checklist puts all of this on one page for your refrigerator.
Your Turn
Tell me in the comments what your family would do in the first hour, and how many days your household could run today with no grid power. The next episode covers surviving a nuclear strike without a bunker.
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✅ 30 Day Grid Down Household Guide
✅ Generator and Fuel Planning Guide
✅ Medication Security Guide
✅ Traveler’s Get-Home Plan
✅ Church First Sunday Wartime Plan