WHAT THE TIMES CALL FOR IN 2023

Henry Hazlitt (1897-1993) was an internationally-known economist and journalist. His book, Economics in One Lesson is considered by leading economists to be the very best short treatment of economics ever written. I think one of the best things he ever wrote was the following paragraph. I hope it will be as thought provoking and action inspiring for you as it has been for me going into the New Year.

"None of us [who speak out against statism] are yet on the torture rack; we are not yet in jail;

we're getting various harassments and annoyances, but what we mainly risk is merely our

popularity, the danger that we will be called nasty names ... We have a duty to speak

even more clearly and courageously, to work harder, and to keep fighting this battle

while the strength is still in us ... The times call for courage. The times call for hard work.

But if the demands are high, it is because the stakes are even higher. They are nothing less

than the future of liberty, which means the future of civilization."

In 2023 I want to speak more clearly and courageously than ever, in terms of taking and making opportunities to win souls to Christ and continuing a busy schedule of preaching the Word of God around the country and sometimes outside of it. I also want to speak more clearly and courageously than ever, by every means possible, in the cause of preserving our precious individual freedom as Americans. Only the Truth regarding God's plan of salvation can make people free from sin and eternal condemnation. And only Truth can turn the tide against the forces of evil now driving the culture of lies that is rapidly turning us into a nation of serfs working the plantation as slaves to a godless political elite ruing class.

I hope that millions of Christians will go into this New Year with two resolutions at the top of their lists: (1) to speak even more clearly and courageously, to work harder, and to keep fighting in the cause of Truth, and (2) "to endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ," remembering to "Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds," and that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against, powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (2 Tim. 2:3; Heb. 12:3; Eph. 6:12).