Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 2 Num. 93

("Quid coniuratio est?")


IT IS NOT WRITTEN


Editorial by Brian Francis Redman
Editor-in-chief, Conspiracy Nation

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Regarding the future, my puzzle used to be: How can you see the future, but still have free will? If the Book of Revelations foretells that, say, the "evil one" will establish a kingdom on earth, then why do anything? It is written, so why not just go with the flow? After all, we are told that the evil one will eventually be defeated, so why sweat?

Like Pastor John Hagee has said,

There is going to be a New World Order. I say it. There will be a New World Order. God is going to let the Devil's crowd have their way for 7 years, which the Bible calls "the tribulation period". The next "World Order" is going to be a satanist "Order". What Satan desired at the very genesis of time, God is going to allow him to have for 7 years.

But if we indeed have free will of some sort, then the future may not be fixed. It may be that the future predicted in the Book of Revelations is a possible future. Can more than one "future" exist? The Russian philosopher P.D. Ouspensky thought so:

We consider the past as no longer existing. The future does not exist for us either; it is not yet. By the present we mean the moment of transition from the future into the past, in other words, the moment of the transition of a phenomenon from one non-existence into another. But in actual fact this brief moment is a fiction. It has no dimension. In a sense, we can say that the present does not exist.

The past and the future cannot be non-existent, for, if they do not exist, the present does not exist either. They must exist together somewhere, only we do not see them. The present, as opposed to the past and the future, is the most unreal of all realities.

Our concepts of the past and of the present, though vague, are uniform. But as regards the future there is a variety of views. The two main theories are of a predestined future and of a free future. The dispute between the theory of a predestined future and the theory of a free future is an endless dispute. Both theories are too literal; each excludes the other. Both theories say: "Either this or that."

At every given moment all the future of the world is predestined and existing, but it is predestined conditionally. The condition is that no new factor must appear. This new factor can only come in from the side of consciousness and the will resulting from it.

In addition, our poor understanding of the relation between the present and the past hinders us from having a right understanding of the relation of the present to the future. Our relation to the past and to the future is more complex than we realize. The past, like the future, is not fixed. In the past lies not only what was, but also what could have been. In the same way, in the future lies not only what will be but also all that may be.

I have been thinking lately that maybe we will beat these guys. We might win, better than we have been expecting. The Book of Revelations and other Bible prophecies may have tilted the scales in our direction; they may have given us just that little bit extra of "intelligence" that will alter the future.

In case you are puzzled at this concept, let me give an example from a famous story by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. In this well-known tale, Ebenezer Scrooge sees his own future. But by seeing this future, it gives him that little bit extra of "intelligence" that helps him to change what had been foretold.

The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to One. He advanced towards it trembling. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape.

"Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point," said Scrooge, "answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?"

Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.

"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!"

The Spirit was immovable as ever.

Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, Ebenezer Scrooge.

"Am I that man who lay upon the bed?" he cried, upon his knees.

The finger pointed from the grave to him, and back again.

"No, Spirit! Oh, no, no!"

The finger still was there.

"Spirit!" he cried, tight clutching at its robe, "hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?"

For the first time the hand appeared to shake.

"Good Spirit," he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: "Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!"

The kind hand trembled.

Scrooge's dire future was changed by the fact that he was forewarned; his knowing what the outcome of his current actions would lead to, enabled him to change. And thereby, what had been foretold was changed.

Maybe we can do likewise.


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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt. Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9

Brian Francis Redman bigxc@prairienet.org "The Big C"

"Justice" = "Just us" = "History is written by the assassins."