“Unbelievable…it’s already 2024.” That’s what we hear today or have maybe heard or said ourselves when conversing on this or any previous new year. Indeed, the days, weeks, months, and years seem to roll around faster and faster –at least 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 with whom we come in contact at this time of year. But just like in the case of those younger days in our view of time versus our elder days of thinking on time’s swift movement, whether it’s a Happy New Year or otherwise, is truly a matter of perception.

Since our column here 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 understanding to 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 into this 2024 new beginning in terms of what we face now and just ahead. Let’s look into whether it’s, 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 beyond our 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. So I proceed from the view that America, and the Western world in general, today, has material blessings beyond any other civilizations of human beings populating the earth.

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 think of as Happy. And this is where the matters of perception and perspective come into relevance for purposes of this commentary’s exploration, I think.

What constitutes, in our America-centric perception and perspective, a New Year –the 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 –including believers in Jesus Christ, and non-believers. Those in this category go 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 are of and from the all-is-well viewpoint. The upcoming year, for these, is usually 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 or best wishes given with the statement 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 include any 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: is there the possibility of such a Happy New Year 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 particularly happy outlook. That is, not in the sense 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 their infants and small ones upon the pagan altar 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 told his disciples that deception will be great just before He comes back in power and glory. The American political process is an 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 assaulting our eyes and ears each news cycle. Think Ukraine and Hamas and Israel’s determination to survive wars being perpetrated against the Jewish state.

And Israel 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 the very precipice of the Tribulation –the last 7 years of human history leading to Christ’s Second Advent.

World War III and thermonuclear annihilation threaten 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 Planet Earth. Quite the opposite is the Truth of the matters involved.

That said, we who look at these things through the prism of God’s prophetic Word from the perspective and with the perception of God’s Promises as absolutely unbreakable have peace about all the ominous societal, cultural, economic, and geopolitical as well as apostate religious darkness that is quickly gathering. We understand, through God’s Promises, through Holy Spirit Discernment, 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 prophesies what happens next, 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 which are 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 Thes 4:16-18).

With this stupendous prospect in our spiritual perspective and perception, we who accept completely God’s Word as Absolute Truth believe that 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 the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).