Why God doesn't know the future

Why God Doesn't Know the Future

by Kevin Williams

QUESTION: I am disturbed by the visions of future events that a number of near-death experiencers report being shown. They always seem to be so catastrophic in nature. No doubt, Dannion Brinkley was correct in his NDE-given visions of the first Gulf War and the fall of Communism. But when experiencers report being shown visions of future events, and these events do not happen in the timeframe suggested, one cannot blame the skeptical for believing that they are discredited. Please tell me how I could be mistaken.

KEVIN WILLIAMS' REPLY: This may sound like a cop-out but there is a valid reason why prophecies from reliable sources do not come to pass. On the face of it, when a specific prophecy does not happen, it would appear that it becomes a "false prophecy" from a "false prophet". In the Bible, false prophets are especially damnable. The problem with this apparent "high standard" for prophecy found in the Bible is that, on the surface, it suggests that the future is "fixed in stone" and not subject to change. However, I am one who does not believe that the Bible teaches a "fixed in stone" future. In fact, the Bible for example describes how Jonah was given a prophecy by God concerning the destruction of Nineveh. But when the people of Nineveh repented, God announced to Jonah that the prophecy would not come to pass. Such an example demonstrates the true goal of prophecy which is to make people change their ways and prevent the prophecy from happening. There are examples of NDErs who receive a vision of the future yet it does not happen because some act of someone was able to prevent it from occurring. One example comes from Karen Schaeffer who was shown the future of her children as it would exist if she decided to remain in the light. She chose to return to life and the future she was shown did not come to pass. NDEs agree with principles found in quantum physics that the future is uncertain and is based upon probabilities which are contingent upon acts committed in the present. I have much more about this at the beginning of my NDE and the Future page.

QUESTION: If I may infer from that, it is almost as if the "worst case scenario" were being offered to the NDEr in hopes that they might have some influence to avert that scenario on the Earth. The problem I have with this possibility is that, surely one person does not have the power to influence large-scale forces at work, political, commercial, social, etc., to affect the course of the world.

ANSWER: From the human viewpoint, it seems that are separated from everything and autonomous. It seems like one person has little effect on the things - not to mention the entire world. But NDE research, quantum physics, and eastern mysticism teaches that this is all an illusion of our own minds. The fact is that everything is intricately connected. This means that big events are contingent upon even the smallest of things. For example, during the Revolutionary War, a British soldier shot at George Washington but missed killing him by merely an inch or so. Now imagine what the world would be like today if that British soldier had aimed his rifle just a fraction of an inch lower and killed George Washington. It is quite possible that the United States would not even exist today. And if the United States did not exist, perhaps the outcome of World War II would have been different. This demonstrates how a seemingly insignificant act (a fraction of an inch difference in aim) can cause such a tremendous difference.

From the perspective of the Other Side, they do not know exactly what is going to happen in the future. Edgar Cayce, for example, revealed that even God does not know for certain what will happen. Because the future is based on the probabilities of free actions made today, the best anyone can say is what will probably happen. However, it can also be said that God is the "Master of Probabilities" who knows all possibilities. And even though God may not know exactly what we will do, it can be said that God "knows the heart" and knows better than anyone else what we will do. On the Other Side, our lives can be seen from a higher view point. Using an analogy (see also Life as a River), our lives are like a person sitting in a raft floating down a river where we are unable to see much further down the river to know what is going to happen next. But on the Other Side, their perspective is analogous to an eagle flying high above the river. The eagle can see the course of the river from a much higher perspective. The eagle can see if the rafter is headed for a waterfall miles down the river whereas the rafter cannot. So these apocalyptic prophecies from the Other Side are like warnings from an eagle in the sky warning us that we are headed for a waterfall if we don't change the course of our actions. But at some point, if the warnings are not heeded, the probabilities "kick in" and it becomes too late to change. In other words, there is a "point of no return" when approaching Niagara Falls and the probability of going over the falls is 100%. In my opinion, humanity has already reached that point of no return and the apocalyptic prophecies will soon be coming to pass.

Despite this, NDE research does show how one person can indeed change the whole world, even as I demonstrated with the George Washington example. Here are some NDE insights:

From Thomas Sawyer (about the life review):

"You will be responsible for yourself, judging and reliving what you have done to everything and everybody in very far-reaching ways. Very small, seemingly inconsequential things such as the day when I, nine years old, walked through Seneca Park and loved the appearance of a tree. In my life review I could experience a bit of what the tree experienced in my loving it, two little photons of love and adoration. It was somewhat like the leaves acknowledging my presence. Can a tree experience that? Yes, it can. Don't go kicking trees anymore! You do have that effect on plants. You do have an effect on animals. You do have an effect on the universe. And in your life review you'll be the universe and experience yourself in what you call your lifetime and how it affects the universe. In your life review you'll be yourself absolutely, in every aspect of time, in every event, in the over-all scheme of things in your lifetime. Your life. The little bugs on your eyelids that some of you don't even know exist. That's an interrelationship, you with yourself and these little entities that are living and surviving on your eyelids. When you waved a loving goodbye to a good friend the other day, did you affect the clouds up above? Did you actually affect them? Does a butterfly's wings in China affect the weather here? You better believe it does? You can learn all of that in a life review!" (Thomas Sawyer)

From Rev. Howard Storm:

"When I spoke with them about the future, and this might sound like a cop-out on my part, they made clear to me that we have free will. If we change the way we are, then we can change the future which they showed me. They showed me a view of the future, at the time of my experience, based upon how we in the United States were behaving at that time. It was a future in which a massive worldwide depression would occur. If we were to change our behavior, however, then the future would be different. Asking them how it would be possible to change the course of many people, I observed that it was difficult, if not impossible, to change anything on earth. I expressed the opinion that it was a hopeless task to try. My friends explained, quite clearly, that all it takes to make a change was one person. One person, trying, and then because of that, another person changing for the better. They said that the only way to change the world was to begin with one person. One will become two, which will become three, and so on. That's the only way to affect a major change." (Rev. Howard Storm)

From my own research concerning how we are all interconnected, I have concluded that even a simple smile for someone at just the right time has the power to start a chain reaction of love and happiness that can spread throughout the whole world and alter the entire course of history and change the cosmic balance of power in favor of the light. I have read numerous times in NDE testimony how even our thoughts greatly affect things in ways we are not even aware of. I plan to document this phenomenon soon when I create my NDE and Telepathy page.

"Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live." - Albert Einstein

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