The very nature of God, the attribute that He knows the future has, in fact, twisted the universe into a most peculiar shape.  For one thing, all of the laws of theoretical probability have to be thrown out!  Here's why.  Let's consider our reality-a reality untwisted by God's nature.  In our "real" world the probability of flipping a coin and guessing how it will land is 50%.  Heads or tails is equally likely.  Now, let's twist reality.  God already knows which side will come up.  Is there any chance whatever that it won't come up on that side?  No!  Therefore, the chance of one side is 100% and the chance of the other side is 0!  The very fact that God knows everything, in advance, has twisted the laws of probability so that 50% has now been twisted into 0 and 50% has been twisted into 100%!  Weird isn't it?

We know something about what this is like.  Suppose you have recorded your favorite football team while you're away.  You don't know the outcome.  So, from your vantage point, one team is just about as likely as the other team to win.  However, reality has been twisted by the fact that the game has already taken place!  The chance of one team winning is, in fact, 100% and the chance of the other team of winning is, in fact, 0!  To us, that is not particularly odd since we understand what it's like to relive the past.

The thing about God, though, is that this is how he sees the future!  He sees things that haven't even happened yet, as if they have already happened!  This changes the very nature of reality itself.  If God knows that you will be in church next Sunday, this event becomes as certain as if it had already happened.  So, if God knows that you will be somewhere on a certain date, then there is absolutely no chance at all that you won't be there!  Well, this completely messes up our concept of freedom doesn't it?  If God knows that I will be somewhere at a certain time, then I really don't have the freedom not to be there, do I?

So then, how do we untwist reality?  Actually, the important question is, how does God prevent reality from being so badly distorted that we can no longer function within it?  The answer is that God has built uncertainty into reality by withholding information from us.  This withholding of information makes it possible to enjoy an undistorted reality.  We don't know where we will be next Sunday.  So, we still can choose.  We don't know who's going to win the football game.  So, we can still watch and enjoy.  We don't know how the coin flip will turn out.  So, we can still talk, meaningfully, about 50% instead of the weirdly distorted 0% and 100%.

So, what's the point of all this?  Yes, it has one!  The very fact that God withholds information allows us to have a meaningful experience with an untwisted reality.  However, this withholding of information is precisely what causes us to complain about God in the first place!  Why did God allow this?  Why didn't He prevent that?  And so on.

If God did allow us to see all of the future, then our reality would forever be frozen in the past!  We would see it as a massive unchangeable single frame.  However, because we can't see it all, we see it as a flowing and unfolding picture frame by frame.  The truth is that revelation itself changes the very nature of what is being revealed.

What we know, to put it more simply, changes how things turn out.  God gives us information so we can manipulate reality to some extent.  However, God withholds information so that reality will not be distorted for us.  So, the next time you complain that God is withholding information, understand that He is!

Also understand that He withholds information for an incredibly important reason.  Too much certainty changes the flow of reality.  A certain amount of uncertainty allows reality to flow as it ought to flow.  Consider this the next time you read the story of Joseph, for example.  You know how the story turns out, so this changes the very nature of the story for you.  Joseph, during the story, has no idea how it will turn out.  Again, this lack of information changes the very nature of the story for Joseph. (Genesis 37:50)  

One final question: which one of us enjoys the story more?  Joseph, who doesn't know, or the reader, who has read it a dozen times?  Remember how much you enjoyed the story when you first read it?  Remember how much you enjoyed it when you did not know?  Spend a few moments and thank God, not only for what He has revealed, but also, for what He has withheld.

All from Insights from a Blind Man: Chris Hansen
© by Chris Hansen

E-mail Address: chrishansen54 @ sbcglobal.net

Author of Grandfather's Journal, Revelation Revisited and Secret of the Psalms