The material world is defined by its borders, edges, and limits. Everything we can observe, or experience, is confined. From the forces that determine the movements of galaxies to the size of an electron, it can be defined in space and time. Time itself has restrictions.
The wholly spiritual is without boundary. We can describe this as infinite and eternal. But such terms also contain the concept of limitation. This is God: not confined; not material; unbounded by time.
The future is laid bare to God. But there is no single path that can be called “the future.” Each moment of the present offers a multitude of possibilities that may evolve from it. This may seem like an endless number, but it is finite because it only exists in the material world. The future is filled with all the possibilities stemming from the immeasurable options that each moment of the present makes available.
Every instant of a person’s life leads forward in time to a huge number of paths. Practically, the tally is uncountable. There are innumerable influences which create immeasurable prospects for what may follow. The next “twinkling of time” opens up an entirely new set of potential directions. And so on. Combine this with every entity in the tangible universe all creating new roads. All of these are interacting with each other.
To reflect upon the almost infinite prospects would be staggering and beyond the capability of a consciousness operating in the earthly realm. Some may argue that a future supercomputer can collate the many factors and arrive at reliable predictability. Perhaps. Read on to consider the ultimate confounding factor in foreseeing what is to come.
God is “aware” of all of these presentations, even as they constantly and fluidly change. There is no need for Godly reflection. Such an action reduces the meditative nature of the 100% spiritual Deity. Being infinite, God can “appreciate” anything finite. Even though all these forever shifting futures are only theoretical as they develop, they comprise the truth of what may be. (The preceding words in quotes are only approximations. Language is also limited and cannot describe the ethereal.) God is felt when one transcends the edges of the earthly existence. That is the topic of another blog.
Therefore: “YES!’ God knows the future. All the futures make up “the future.”
Then what happens?
One of the futures becomes the present. The remainder morph into the next group of futures.
Although God is exposed to all the possible futures, the one that becomes the present is determined by the structure of the physical universe. This is a cause-and-effect production. This means that collating all the data in the universe for each moment gives perfect predictability of which path will be followed. The determining factors that aggregate into the next step into the future are “everything” that is.
“Everything” is the earth and its nature, the cosmic environment of the planet, and all the laws of how it all happens. Add to this the life on the planet. Throw in the factors that influence these entities, including human beings. Genetics, nurture, exposures, and experiences are just some of the modalities that must be considered. A mind-boggling amount of data to work into a program to choose the inevitable future at each instant.
God, being infinite, can do this.
The problem for dependable forecasting is that the earthly and heavenly interact. This now adds an infinite number of possibilities. That which is beyond the material universe has no restricting limits. Combining the enduring with the ephemeral yields something entirely new. Something to observe and learn.
The addition of the heavenly powers add indetermination to the data. The transcendent world which interfaces with our material existence cannot be quantified. It contains eternity and infinity. There is nothing defined. Its influence is other than that of reason. Logic, which is necessary for structure and data relationships, does not exist in the spiritual plane. Thus, predictability is expunged.
One of the futures becomes the singular present. The interaction of the totally predictable and logical material world with the entirely unforeseeable, meditative, and intuitive spiritual world creates a moment of “now”.
So, the present comes as a “surprise.” The many possibilities arise because of this confluence of the two worlds. But the effect is to create a single moment in the present out of the truly infinite [now that the tangible has interacted with the spiritual] paths that had been painted of the future.
Of course, the present immediately becomes the past. Again, this is a single fixed temporal entity. It is frozen as it occurred. It remains as it was formed as long as there is a material world that contains a past. Every future does not result in a present that becomes a past. The futures continue to update and expand.
There are not a multitude of presents formed from the swarm of possible futures. We can observe the single present in which we live. If every possible future resolved into a present that descended into a fixed past, then there would be no purpose of existence. Every outcome, deed, word, and action would exist for each of us.
But there is purpose. That is why we have such emotions as regret. Why regret anything if one is certain that – within a separate thread of one’s life – whatever has transpired has been nullified? Our planet was both formed and destroyed. People that have done inspiringly good in the world have also performed horrifying evil. And every gradation in between. There would be no meaning. Nothing to regret or repent. We have each done the perfect action in another of our existences
Besides all the futures being open to God, so would all the pasts. The result would be perfect nullification. No reason to have the material world at all. If all the pasts were before the Deity, there would be no advantage to creating the material world. Nothing would come of it that is not already there.
But there is purpose in both the earthly and heavenly planes. It arises from the interaction of these two powers to create the present becoming the past. This legacy of all the futures gives meaning to the harmonious and unchanging spiritual existence.
The past cannot influence anything. It is static, persistent, and unchanging. It can reside next to the infinite. The heavenly plane derives something from this association. But the objective past cannot influence or degrade the nature of that which is 100% spiritual.
Hence, the results of creation – a stable and fixed sequence of events that are rooted in their own times – provide delimited variability to the everlasting. This is really something for God. Before the creation of a material world, there was just God and Truth. God “observed” God. Something other than unchanging consistency could add to the spiritual world.
The perfect harmony and homogeneity of the Heavenly inspires creativity to rectify absolute perfection. The physical universe is such a remedy. The enduring contribution of the static past moments resulting from the tangible world complements the inert nature of the wholly spiritual. Like the dynamic present in our universe, the fixed past does not alter the transcendent existence. The spiritual retains its unalterable uniformity and rapport. All elements are able to coexist compatibly.
Others of my blogs have or will address the issues brought up here. One is how the objective past exists for us. Another is the nature of the interaction between the earthly and heavenly planes. A third is how we bring these worlds together. Others discuss the relationship of these ideas to religious writings.
Health and Spirit by Dr. Jack Zoldan 