ABOUT FAITH & FREEDOM

Tuesday, January 03, 2023

Can 2023 Be A "Happy New Year?"

Print Friendly Version of this pagePrint Get a PDF version of this webpagePDF


Rev. Franklin Graham said Saturday the world appeared to be in a dire situation as another year dawned but advised fellow Christians on how to move forward.

“As we begin 2023, the world we live in seems to be imploding. A brutal war is bringing suffering and death in Ukraine with every day that passes,” he said, listing a number of deeply concerning issues facing us today.

Can 2023 be a "Happy New Year?"

Be informed, not misled.

Graham says things are bad and will get worse.

That doesn't sound like the path to happiness to some.

In a post on social media on Saturday, Franklin said: "As we begin 2023, the world we live in seems to be imploding. A brutal war is bringing suffering and death in Ukraine with every day that passes. Senseless violence is rampant across the United States. Anti-God agendas that once hid in the darkness are now proudly out in the open, demanding acceptance. Developed nations are being overtaken by socialism, removing God from anything and everything in the public square. And if you think things are bad, just wait—they’ll get worse. As followers of Jesus Christ, what do we do? We tell a dying world that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life—no one comes to the Father except through Him (see John 14:6). We urge lost souls to repent of their sins and believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ before it’s too late."

Franklin Graham is right.

A crime wave is sweeping across "Progressive" President Joe Biden’s (D) America.

In addition, recent surveys suggest church attendance and belief in God have slumped across the nation. 

“Church attendance dropped by roughly 45 percent since the start of the pandemic, the latter of which prompted some leaders to shutter businesses and churches for months on end.

Further, a Gallup survey released over the summer found that belief in God sunk to an all-time low this past year, down to 81 percent. It also identified young individuals and leftists as the most likely to not believe in God. 

Our institutions are imploding.

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

He is one of the most trusted conservative historians in modern America.

Saturday Hanson wrote, "In a famous exchange in the "The Sun Also Rises," Ernest Hemingway wrote: "How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked. "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually, then suddenly."

"'Gradually' and 'suddenly' applies to higher education's implosion," he says, "'gradually' imploding has now become 'suddenly'." 

"Zoom courses, a declining pool of students, and soaring costs all prompt the public to question the college experience altogether," Hanson says.

He notes, "Left-wing indoctrination, administrative bloat, obsessions with racial preferences, arcane, jargon-filled research, and campus-wide intolerance of diverse thought short-changed students, have alienated the public and often enraged alumni."

Monotonous professors hector students about "toxic masculinity," as "gender" studies proliferate. If the plan was to drive males off campus, universities have succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.

The number of history majors has collapsed by 50 percent in just the last 20 years. Tenured history positions have declined by one-third to half at major state universities.

In the last decade, English majors across the nation's universities have fallen by a third.

Hanson directly points out by name, how universities are imploding due to insane practices, and misguided agendas.

Many colleges and universities have committed themselves to indoctrination rather than education and now they are beginning to experience the consequences.

He, too, says things will get worse before they get better.

Then Hanson makes these predictions:

Skeptical American employers, to remain globally competitive, will likely soon administer their own hiring tests. They already suspect that prestigious university degrees are hollow and certify very little.

Traditional colleges will seize the moment and expand by sticking to meritocratic criteria as proof of the competency of their prized graduates.

Private and online venues will also fill a national need to teach Western civilization and humanities courses by non-woke faculty who do not institutionalize bias.

More students will continue to seek vocational training alternatives. Some will get their degrees online for a fraction of the cost.

Alumni will either curb giving, put further restrictions on their gifting, or disconnect.

Eventually, even elite schools will lose their current veneer of prestige. Their costly cattle brands will be synonymous with equality-of-result, overpriced indoctrination echo chambers, where therapy replaced singular rigor and their tarnished degrees become irrelevant.

This collapse doesn't begin in higher education. It begins with your 5-year-old child.

Another institution, the CDC, is in alliance with the destructive LGBTQ activists in public education. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been urging teachers to measure “LGBTQ inclusivity” in their classrooms with a “self-assessment” since Oct. 2020. This was confirmed by a tweet last Tuesday from the center.

According to a handbook put out by the center, the tools are “a way to quickly assess [the] level of LGBTQ inclusivity across different components of the school environment and staff practices.”

The handbook then features a number of questions for teachers to help measure how inclusive their classrooms are. Teachers can then use their answers to rank their classrooms into three groups. 

The first category, which is “minimally inclusive,” bids the teachers to “commit to change.” The second, “moderately inclusive,” ranks the teacher’s classroom as “beginning to break through.” The highest inclusivity score labels the classroom teacher an “awesome ally.”

A handbook also recommends certain resources for teachers, based on how they scored on the assessment questions. The resources include Harvard University’s “implicit bias test” and the “gender unicorn.”

Public education, along with other institutions is miserably failing in America.

Can 2023 be a "Happy New Year?"

The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 11: "What can the righteous do when the foundations are destroyed?"

He confirms that fleeing to the hills in fear is not the right response.

The right response to 2023.

First, we must do what Franklin Graham recommended. Go into all the world and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone---beginning with those close to you. Transformed hearts will transform the culture. Our world is in chaos and darkness. The light of God's Truth must be shined into the darkness.

Secondly, do everything possible. Be the salt and light that Jesus told us to be. Get involved in local, state, and if there's an opportunity, federal service. Run for election. Volunteer for service. Show up at school board meetings and city council meetings. Support initiatives and policies that support your biblical worldview. Be informed. Be active. Be bold.

And thirdly, "Having done all...stand firm in the faith." Ephesians 6:13 says, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

Can 2023 be a happy new year? Absolutely.

If we share the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ with those with whom we have contact, get involved in local, state and federal politics---do all we can do---and stand firm in our faith, 2023 is going to be the best year ever.

If you grew up going to Sunday School as I did, you probably remember the little song, "Stand up, Stand up, for Jesus":

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,

Ye soldiers of the cross;

Lift high his royal banner,

It must not suffer loss.

From victory unto victory

His army shall he lead,

Till every foe is vanquished,

And Christ is Lord indeed.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,

Stand in his strength alone;

The arm of flesh will fail you,

Ye dare not trust your own.

Put on the gospel armor,

Each piece put on with prayer;

Where duty calls or danger,

Be never wanting there.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,

The strife will not be long;

This day the noise of battle,

The next the victor's song.

To those who vanquish evil

A crown of life shall be;

They with the King of Glory

Shall reign eternally.

Be Informed. Be Faithful. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.