Posterity in Hindsight

 I didn’t stay up last night to ring in the new year. I didn’t see the need. I haven’t tried to stay up past midnight since before Victoria was born, so that’s a solid ten years that I’ve been counting sheep long before people were watching fireworks. Part of the reason is that I wake up early. By early, I mean that if I’m still in bed come 3 am, I feel like I’ve slept in. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like the quiet. It gives me a few hours of unadulterated silence, a block of time that is exclusively mine, wherein I can spend time with God, do a bit of reading, a bit of writing, and enjoy my coffee.

While waiting for my coffee to brew, I scrolled through some of the messages I’d received overnight and realized all it really takes to jump on the bandwagon nowadays is a limerick or a rhyme. There were a few of the standard Happy New Year, but most of them had some sort of rhyme scheme that included 2024 and the word door. The most popular by far was 2024, the year of your open door.

Now, I get that most people have gotten progressively lazier, especially intellectually, but I think we can do better than some hacky, one-note limerick that couldn’t be further from the truth as far as what this coming year will bring.

If you thought 2023 was like getting Tonya Hardinged, 2024 will likely be like getting Tonya Hardinged while getting a root canal and a colonoscopy.

It’s only people who have no sense of the season they’re living in, what the geopolitical machinations are leading up to, and how close we are to the fulfillment of the darker bits of end times biblical prophecy that are chipper about this upcoming year, and look forward to turning a new leaf, starting a new chapter, playing a new song, or whatever similar cliché they like to use to describe what amounts to a day like any other just with fireworks and a new batch of resolutions they never intended on keeping.

If for no other reason than there has to be a counterbalance to 2024, the year of your open door, I’m going to bullet point a few things that I believe are likelier to happen this upcoming year. Just for funsies, we will revisit them in twelve months if we’re not all glowing in the dark by then and see how many nails we hit on the head and how many we hammered our thumbs on.

The following is not revelation; it’s not prophetic, although, by the standard being set by the modern-day pseudo-prophets, you could call it American Prophetic.

1. 2024, the year you’ll likely grow more poor.

2. 2024, the year more bodies hit the floor.

3. 2024, war drums grow louder than before.

4. 2024, the year big cities burn some more.

5. 2024, a year that you must endure.

6. 2024, a new pandemic is in store.

No, I didn’t wake up cranky, grouchy, or grumpy. I’m not standing in the way of your open door, blocking your path to prosperity and straight teeth because I don’t want you to be happy and become the best version of yourself, whatever that tired trope means. I’m just telling you how I see this upcoming year shaping up because enough people are shoveling false hope and clichés into your life to last you an eternity.

My problem with false hope is that it erodes true hope in the process. Even though the rapture many declared and hoped for didn’t materialize in 2023, a percentage of those individuals are harboring doubt about Jesus ever returning.

Jesus promised He would return. He didn’t promise He would return in 2023. Know the difference, and stand firm on His promises and not the words of men.

My prayer for you this upcoming year is that you would place your hope in the unshakeable rather than the easily rattled. My hope is that you would prioritize the maturing of your faith over chasing messengers and messages that sound too good to be true but stand in opposition to what the Bible says.

Whether we want to acknowledge it, receive it, bear witness to it, or agree, dark days are coming not just in the West but throughout the world. There will be a sudden shift to a global scramble for resources the likes of which this generation has not seen, and that’s when things start getting bloody quicker than the geriatrics at Davos can pivot.

This rickety edifice of debt on debt serviced by more debt is akin to a house of cards in a strong gale. It’s not a matter of if it will come crashing to the ground; it’s a matter of when. Whether planned or not, it will be the perfect opportunity to roll in a global digital currency, making certain Scripture passages possible. What they’re after is control, and how they get it is of no concern to them as long as they get it.

Anyone reading their Bible and seeing a brighter tomorrow on the horizon is either suffering from cognitive dissonance or is so fearful of reality that they refuse to acknowledge it for what it is. Some people prefer ignorance. I prefer to know what’s coming and plan to the best of my ability, steal myself, and purpose in my heart that I will endure to the end.

As I said, we will revisit this in a year, Lord willing, and assess whether the 2024, the year of your open door to riches untold crowd was right, or those who weren’t quite so optimistic about what the future held.

Luke 21:28, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.