We have started another new year. Then you involuntarily think about the things that may be about to happen. It is as if the whole world feels that there is some kind of upheaval going on, a transition to another time and another world. It is "exciting" to follow what is going on. Not only in the Netherlands, but also in other European countries and the U.S., and especially in Israel and the Middle East. We are getting closer and closer to the time already prophesied by the Old Testament prophets. Happy that 2024 is also Anno Domini: "the year of our Lord" and that we know where it all ends.
Anno Domini still applies
The new year 2024 is still Anno Domini, or AD 2024. Anno Domini is an addition you see less and less; it is the Latin expression for "the year of our Lord.1. In the Christian era, the birth year of the Lord Jesus Christ is counted as year 1, and so we have now arrived at the year 2024.
Anno Domini indicates that this new year is also a year that belongs to the Lord. He is the One who is above all things and who has everything in His hand. I think many people - and probably many Christians - cannot imagine much of that. After all, how is He in control of everything that has happened in recent years? You can't imagine anything about that, can you? If it really is the case that Christ has everything in His hand, could it be that it is out of His control? After all, how else do you explain all the misery there is in the world - far and near?
And yet every year is a year Anno Domini, a year of our Lord. Everything in our lives He knows and has His attention. All the hairs on our heads are counted by Him, so that we will not fear (Luke 12:7) and we can say with the psalmist "My times are in Your hand" (Psalm 31:16).
"But I trust in You, LORD.
I say, You are my God!
My times are in Your hand"
Psalm 31:15-16
Not only our "little" life, but the whole goings-on on the world stage are not without Him. We have already thought about how in Revelation 6 the Lord Jesus, the Lamb opens the seals of the scroll and allows Satan to unleash his armies on this earth (see here). Ultimately, this culminates in Christ Himself appearing in glory and establishing His kingdom.
Things go as the Lord our God has determined and foretold:
“Who proclaims from the beginning what the end will be, from of old the things that have not yet taken place; Who says, My counsel endures, and I will do all My pleasure. (...) I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far, and My salvation shall not fail; but I will give salvation to Zion, to Israel My glory." (Isaiah 46:10,13)
Writing about the years 2023 and 24
As in previous years, it is natural to reflect on the past year and look ahead to what is to come in the first article in a new year. Usually writing down what I'm thinking does help organize my own thoughts a bit. Organizing a multitude - and sometimes a chaos - of thoughts seems to me to be a typically human trait that we need in life down here. In any case, it helps myself, and then if the reader gets something out of it, it's especially nice.
Therefore, I try to commit some to digital paper about the things that concern me when I think about what was in 2023 and what will come in 2024. At the same time, in doing so, I have a sense of powerlessness to put it into words when I think about the fact that we may already be living now in the time of the fourth horseman from Revelation 6. The rider on the pale horse who bears the name "death2.
At least the year 2023 that passed made a few things clear.
First that Western populations are catching on to the fact that their world is drifting or being steered in the wrong direction. Calls for a different course and new politics are swelling more and more. You could also say: the struggle will become more and more intense, because those in power do not give up their power easily. We just wait and see how things will go with the various elections this year, but in my opinion the situation will not stabilize very much.
The second that did become clear in 2023 are all kinds of things that really shouldn't have become clear. All sorts of things about the SARS2 virus and so-called vaccines, for example. There is still new material coming out about this and related topics - for example, side effects and excess mortality. I won't say anything else about it here; anyone who wants to can (still) find plenty about it on the Internet. If you want to know more, you may mail me.
The third that has become clear in 2023 is that Israel does indeed have a major problem, not only with neighboring Gaza, but with the entire world. Hamas' invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, showed the murderous and violent side of the problem.
What will the new year bring?
No one can predict what it will be. But we must realize that we live in the time when - as never before3 - the armies of demons are busy taking control of the world and humanity, which will soon culminate in the revelation of the "man of destruction" - the antichrist - and of Satan himself on this earth (2 Thessalonians 2:3,4; Revelation 12:9). Then it makes sense that what we have already seen - with or without new things - will be intensified.
This also means that we can expect things in terms of new viruses or diseases. In Davos, there is already talk of 'disease X'. That's the next serious disease - or maybe a bioweapon? - which is contagious and for which they have been preparing for several years. For now, the disease is called X, because of course it cannot yet be announced exactly what it will be5.
No doubt there will then be news from the 'vaccination front'. Wherever they are they are busy inventing new and 'better' shots.
Oh yes, censorship will also probably get 'better' again so that we hear less disinformation. In any case, at the WEF, Ms. Von der Leyen spoke that this would be the means to "restore confidence in governments.
We'll just stop listing what can happen. You can actually make it up. But we don't care that much. We fortunately don't have our salvation hung up on what happens in the world.
WWJD: what would Jesus do?
As I think a bit about what lies ahead this year, another thing comes to mind. In the previous "pandemic," we had all sorts of measures imposed on us that severely hampered human movement or even made it illegal.
For example, you were no longer allowed to visit your parents who were in the nursing home. Or to your brother who was in his final days. I heard of someone who wanted to visit his brother in that condition to encourage and say goodbye. The only thing that was allowed was to be lifted with an aerial lift to yet another floor. Then he could look in through the window and wave.
But how many people have spent time in incredible loneliness, deprived of everything and everyone.
That time was terrible in that regard and, as it turned out afterwards, the measures didn't help anything either. It was a test of how people would behave. But it was also a test for us Christians.
What did we do when we were no longer allowed to gather to honor our God ? Most of us probably just stayed home then. This too was a test for us as believers.
In retrospect, I have to say that I'm actually ashamed. We just did what was imposed without thinking too much about it. But shouldn't we ask the question if we shouldn't actually be more obedient to God than people in situations like this (Acts 5:29)? Caring for others, not just fellow believers or family, but also neighbors or close acquaintances, by still visiting them and keeping them company or doing something for them? Practically demonstrating the mission a Christian has to carry out, so that we can show something of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and tell of Him.
And shouldn't we just keep holding our meetings or, if necessary, gather in smaller home groups to honor God? Ultimately, it is His desire that we hold mutual meetings, where the Lord Jesus Himself wants to be in the midst (Matthew 18:20).
I am not going to answer these questions. Let's just think about it so we can be a little prepared and know how to act if it came to that.
In Your wrath, remember mercy!
October 7, 2023, like September 11, 2011, is a date we will never forget because of Hamas' invasion of Israel. Soon after, I read by the prophet Habakuk terrible things that were quite similar to what happened on 7-10. Read along.
1:2-3 - LORD, how long I cry for help and You do not listen, I cry to You, Violence!6 And do You not redeem? Why do You make me see injustice and behold the trouble? Yes, destruction and violence are toward me, ...
1:6-11 - (...) Chaldeans (...), that grim and impetuous people, who traverse the breadths of the earth
To take possession of homes that do not belong to him. Terrifying and awe-inspiring it is. His right and his highness emanate from him. His horses are faster than leopards, fiercer than evening wolves. His horsemen are coming at a gallop, his horsemen are approaching from afar like an eagle rushing to devour. Every one of them comes to do violence, their faces turned eastward, and one gathers prisoners like sand. Yes, he himself mocks kings; princes are a mockery to him. Himself he laughs at every fortress, he heaps earth against it and takes it. Then he will change like the wind and move on. Thus he makes himself guilty who makes his strength his god.
What Habakkuk saw was a vision of God's judgment on Israel, so unimaginably violent that you wouldn't believe it if it were told to you (1:5). It is too bad for people to make clear in words and too bad to see. Daniel also had similar experiences when he saw the terrible things that would happen at the end of time (e.g., Daniel 8:27; 10:8). It even made him physically unwell, so to speak.
What happened on Oct. 7, '23 was not yet the fulfillment of the visions of Habakkuk and Daniel, but it certainly foreshadowed them. Of that great judgment of God that will come upon Israel and that will wipe the people from the face of the earth in the same way. But at the same time, Habakuk knows that the Lord will save His people - that is, the "remnant" - through this holocaust. In the midst of God's judgments on the world and unbelieving and idolatrous Israel, He rescues His own people; read chapter 3:12,13. Therefore He can plead God's mercy, which is there even if He has to exercise wrath; so he says in Habakkuk 3:2.
The events on Oct. 7 and beyond have made much clear.
Hamas' violence toward Israel is but not something local, which would be limited to Gaza. We see the acquiescence of - what I will call - jihadist Muslims around the world. Western governments publicly support Israel, but Western populations are divided.
The "Israel problem" currently seems to have the potential to grow into a conflagration involving the entire world. Very specifically, several countries around Israel are already involved, just all still in low gear. Ukraine and Russia are not so far away either, as you can see from the map.
Moreover, America also already has warships in the Mediterranean, in case they need to come to Israel's aid. By the way, they are already bombing Houthi targets in Yemen.
Pressure is mounting on governments in all Western countries to force Israel to stop fighting for Gaza. One wonders how much more has to happen before the flame catches fire and a WIII (of sorts) breaks out. It may take some time, but step by step it is getting closer. And then when it gets there, the question is how long before the antichrist appears on the world stage to bring the peace and change everyone is looking forward to.
Add to that the presidential election in the US and the China-Taiwan situation, and it gets all complex.
It is just as well that this year is still the "year of our Lord" and all things are in His hand. We do not know how things will unfold, but what we do know is that we are now closer than ever to the coming of the Lord Jesus for His church. The world is getting darker, but we are called to wake up from sleep, put on the armor of light and clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To Him be the glory, both now and in the day of eternity.
Amen ”
2 Peter 3:18
Footnotes
- Anno Domini see on Wikipedia here. ↩︎
- See here: https://goddienen.nu/en/looking-back-to-be-able-to-see-forward/ ↩︎
- This may not be entirely true after all. In the time of Noah, Satan also saw an opportunity with his servants to permanently bind all of humanity - probably/possibly also about 8 billion people - to himself. Except for eight people: Noah and his family. ↩︎
- SDGs are the so-called Sustainable Development Goals or the Sustainable Development Goals ↩︎
- That the SARS2 virus was also man-made and designed as early as 2018 has recently surfaced. See, for example here and here. ↩︎
- Hebrew H2555 - Hamas. This word first appears in Genesis 6:11 and indicates violence resulting from and associated with demonic domination. Habakkuk 1:11, by the way, confirms this and says that this power is his god. ↩︎
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