Happy New Year!?

 Happy New Year!? – Terry James - https://terryjamesprophecyline.com/2024/01/01/happy-new-year/ “Unbelievable…it’s already 2024.” That’s what we hear today, or have maybe heard or said ourselves on this or any previous new year. Indeed, the days, weeks, months, and yearsseem to roll around faster and faster—at lease to those of us who are of somewhat advanced age. The conversation always seems to include something like: “When I was young, time seemed to just drag on, especially during school days. Now time just flies by, doesn’t it?” Nowadays we still say: “Happy New Year!” to those we see and talk to at this time of year. But just like in the case of those younger days in our view of time versus our elderdays of thinking on time’s swift movement, whether it’s a Happy New Year, or otherwise, is truly a matter of perception. Since this column is devoted to dealing in matters involving God’s Word, and in particular, dealing with God’s prophetic Word, perception is important, even crucial, to understandingto what degree this is a Happy New Year–or otherwise. In considering all this, there are massively divergent perspectives at hand, thus enormously important questions that need to be answered. So let’s dive in to this 2024 new beginning, in terms of what weface now and just ahead. Let’s look into whether it is, in fact, to be a Happy New Year! Or not… Now, again, I’m going to be more America-centric than global-centric, because for most of planet earth, the term Happy New Year isn’t even thought of in such terminology.For most peoples, the majority under dictatorships, there is little thought of this year–or any year—as being “happy.” Our nation is by far the most materially blessed of all human history–at least so far as we know. That is, some believe the antediluvian world possibly had technologies beyondour own advanced technology. I personally doubt it, so far as human beings developing technology to the extent we have now. There were, I believe, certain supernatural interventions into the human condition by the demonic world, according to God’s Word. SoI proceed from the view that America and the Western world in general today have material blessings beyond any other civilizations of human beings. Material blessings—i.e., cars, refrigerators, homes filled with comforts and conveniences of every sort—I realize aren’t necessarily things that produce the emotion we thinkof as happiness. And this is where the matters of perception and perspective come into relevance. What constitutes, in our America-centric perception and perspective, a New Year—2024—that will be a truly Happy New Year? Perception/Perspective of Most Americans Americans, for the most part, seem focused only on the moment. This includes secular and religious people alike–believers in Jesus Christ and nonbelievers. Those in this categorygo about life just, as is said, keeping heads above water economically and in other ways that don’t disrupt routines of life. Barring personal and family catastrophic events, or the dire outlook of those in deep poverty, the perception and perspective is ofand from the “all is well” viewpoint. The upcoming year, for these, usually is projected verbally as a Happy New Year in that sense. However, looking from the perception and perspective of things going on, viewed under the revealing light of God’s Word, the Bible, it is quite a different and troubling reality. The greeting “Happy New Year” doesn’t guarantee such a future for the coming year. It simply expresses hope that things of life track in a trajectory that doesn’t includeany sort of unpleasant issues or events. Since such a trajectory doesn’t exist in an imperfect world full of pitfalls, wishes for a truly Happy New Year can never be fulfilled–at least not a Happy New Year in the truest sense. So what is a Happy New Year in the truest sense? The question involves a matter worthy of exploration during this darkening time of Sodom-like cultural and moral decline. Perception/Perspective of Those with Prophetic Enlightenment Those who use the template of God’s prophetic Word to view the world as it is and as it looks to be projected to be for the year 2024 cannot see a particular happy outlook.That is, not in the sense that others with the view that “all is well” see things, both at this moment and in the year just ahead. We look at the absolute adulteration of the culture in this nation as a departure from godliness. The youngest children are subjected to the most wicked forms of perversions,while parents who object are pursued by federal law enforcement as domestic terrorists. We view the murder of millions of babies in the womb, and even after being out of the womb, through the abortion process, as the equivalent of the ancients sacrificing theirinfants and small ones upon the pagan alter of Moloch. We look at the great deception going on with government and corporate entities, as well as journalists in media, lying to us as the fulfillment of Jesus’ words when he toldhis disciples that deception will be great just before He comes back in power and glory. The American political process is ongoing validation of the Lord’s foretelling in that regard. The wars are rampant, just as Jesus said they would be at the end of the age. Rumors of wars are even more prolific in their assault upon our eyes and ears with each newscycle. Think Ukraine and Hamas and Israel’s determination to survive wars being perpetrated against the Jewish state. And Israel being at the center of all controversy at this very moment leaves no doubt to those who watch from the biblically prophetic perspective that the world is on thevery precipice of the Tribulation. World War III and thermonuclear annihilation threatens each and every hour today. So it isn’t time to forecast a Happy New Year for 2024. Not in the sense that it will be a time of joy in our nation or upon the earth. Quite the opposite is true. That said, we who look at these things through the prism of God’s prophetic Word have peace about all the ominous societal, cultural, economic, geopolitical, and apostatereligious darkness that is quickly gathering. We understand, through God’s promises, that all the evil we see coming now and in the year 2024 means one thing: The Lord Jesus Christ is about to shout from the clouds of Glory: “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1) Paul the apostle described what happens following that shout: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we whichare alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18) With this stupendous prospect in our spiritual perspective and perception, 2024 just might be the happiest of Happy New Years! If you want to be a child of God who can truly say “Happy New Year!” in the way herein presented, this is how: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with theheart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)