The Premonition— God’s Early Warning System

February 20, 2013 By

All day my wife had had this sense of dread, a sense that something had gone terribly wrong. The dread had a focus— our daughter Christy, whom we had not heard from for a couple of days. Then came the phone call late at night that no parent ever wants. Christy was dead and gone, felled by an unexpected pulmonary embolism. The thing is, that Ann had carried around the strong sense that it had already happened before it was confirmed.

Then there was the story my old English prof Chris Armitage told me about the dream he had, a dream of his very elderly mother falling and falling. He called back home to the U.K. His mother had just passed away.

These are only two brief stories about premonitions or harbingers. I could recount episodes in my life where I saw something vividly in a dream, and then when it actually happened, sometimes long after the dream there was this very strange sense of deja vu, of I’ve already seen this before.

From a Christian point of view, there are some things to be said about all of this. It reflects clearly enough, since there are hundreds of thousands of stories through the ages like the ones I just told, that SOMEONE knows in advance what is going to happen, and that same SOMEONE sometimes conveys knowledge of this information to persons who have a direct stake in or deep investment in the matter.

I remember well what my friend Tom Wright said to me when I mentioned to him about Ann’s premonition. His immediate response was that we should take comfort in that. I pondered why he said that for a long time. I suppose he was pointing me to the sovereignty of God like a good Reformed Evangelical Anglican should, but what I actually took away from it was that God was seeking to prepare Ann, prepare us both, soften the blow if you will, for the tragedy that was about to unfold. And this led to another thought.

Are premonitions really so different from true prophecies? Think for an instant about what Simeon said to Jesus’ mother— ‘and a sword will pierce your heart as well’, and this only a short time after Jesus was born! What did she make of this very early warning when by rights she should have been celebrating the birth of a first born son? What does it mean that she treasured or pondered this in her heart, reflecting on its meaning?

I would love to hear some of your stories about premonitions or harbingers. I think there is much to learn about God and life from such occurrences. For me, it tells me that God knows all in advance and cares about his people and their suffering. What it does not tell me is that God has rigged everything in advance, or engineered it in some way, unless by that you mean that ‘God works all things together for good for those who love Him…” which I certainly believe.

But God even knows our sin in advance, and he certainly has not willed or pre-programmed that. God is not the author of sin or evil in any way, shape, or fashion. So, we have to live with a certain amount of mystery when it comes to understanding premonitions. They warn us that something is going to happen. They do not reveal the agency by which that happens, or what or whom makes it certain that it will happen. That, is a discussion for another day.

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  • Michael Fox

    Thank you, Professor Witherington, for the courage of a most vulnerable and insightful post. The examples are numerous, but one time I can share is from three decades gone by. I, living in Louisiana, had a dream that my mother, living in California, passed out. I remember the dream vividly, for in a scene that could have been pulled from Hitchcock’s Vertigo, I saw my mother go down against a background of dark red brick. Upon awakening, I called my parents and shared the dream with them. At first they denied anything had happened, not wanting to worry me. But they called back a few minutes later to say that on the day before my dream, they indeed had to leave a shopping center in Glendale, CA–a beautiful showplace of an indoor mall with a rich background of red brick. My mother had felt weak and feared she would collapse. The curious thing about this dream is that it happened after the fact. In my case, I’ve wondered–in addition to your insight about God softening the blow–if the empathy of two hearts can reach across the miles. It was a remarkable experience.

  • anton

    Hi Ben,
    when I was in high school sitting on some bleachers watching a basketball game, a girl in the school, who I knew by name only, was walking by. I heard a voice say to me that “someday she will be my wife”. I thought nothing of it at the time. about 15 years later a friend and I attended a singles dance in a another city where I saw this attractive lady walk in. I went over and asked her for a dance. we started talking and then I found out she was the same girl I saw in high school! the probability of meeting someone you barely knew 15 years ago at a dance in another city must be about zero. so I concluded that it was the hand of God that brought us together. we have been married for 36 yeas now.
    anton

  • Tom Schuessler

    Katy’s dad who had had heart issues but who was fine as far as we knew sat down at the dining room table one night and was writing away. I said, “Don, what are you doing?”
    He said, “I’m writing my obituary.” A week l later he was dead.
    Yes, I agree with Tom. This did help us to deal with it all.

  • mba1225

    I don’t know whether this incident was a premonition, a harbinger, or a prophecy. My sister-in-law was struggling with depression exacerbated by her teenage son’s rebellion over several years time and psychiatric hospitalization. I went to her house to pray with her and the Lord seemed to lay on my heart this prophecy, which I delivered to her. Her son would have recovered and put all of these troubles behind him within five years time, but she would no longer be alive to enjoy it unless she changed her ways now. Unfortunately, she continued to sink into depression, rejecting medication and other helps, and committed suicide. Now, five years later, her son is doing well, against all the expectations of his doctors. I felt the Lord’s tenderness toward her in this experience–trying to interject hope into the black hopelessness of depression.

  • James Mace

    Saharan Breakdown Premonition. I awoke before sunrise to see the crystal black, diamond-starred field overhead. The first thing in my mind was a strong premonition, “We are going to break down today.” Perhaps this event was spiritually related to the fact I had only recently accomplished a life-altering pilgrimage, as a non-Christian but open spiritual seeker, to Assekrem, hermitage of the saintly Père Charles de Foucauld (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Foucauld), slain by international Jihadists. After about an hour of breaking camp, eating, and loading up in the Bedford troop carrier, still with this communication in mind, I took off driving south from the dangerous wasteland of southern Algeria towards the border with Niger.

    All the time driving that morning, with no other vehicles likely to be in sight, I considered what to do when the truck broke down. I was in excellent shape due to my preparations for the upcoming ascent of Kilimanjaro, and I thought I should perhaps take the water and make for the Niger border after the breakdown. After an hour and a half, the sense of impending breakdown became so strong that I rose and started looking down between the cab and the rear section; after 15 seconds, “BLAM” and a cloud of gas as the head gasket blew. I turned to my comrades and solemnly declared, “I KNEW that was going to happen.” So there I was, 30 km from the border and water, surrounded by certain sandy death. But that is another story.

  • http://patheos david gibbs

    Thius is a hard saying for me: premonitions as God’s early warning systems. I await you further developing this matter. I must confess that i have always been more than a little weary about such claims. Many Christians try to present such into a full-fledge, “Thus-says-the-Lord” prophecy. And another thing, are all premonitions negative? Isn’t there very often naturalistic explanations for such premonitions?

  • Ben Witherington

    David I don’t think the many thousands of recorded premonitions will submit to naturalistic explanations like ‘a projection of someone’s worst fears’, though some can be accounted for that way. Of course you are right that not all foreshadowings are warnings about some future negative outcome. There is a difference of course between a prophecy and a premonition or inkling about the future though the outcome may be the same. BW3

  • Ben Black

    16 weeks ago I had a friend of mine who I hadn’t spoken or communicated with in several years text me out of the blue that he had had a dream that my wife was pregnant with a little girl. The day before my wife and I had just discovered that she was pregnant- we hadn’t even told our parents yet. Last week we found out we’re having a girl. Still not sure what I make of all of this but they are pretty amazing coincidences.

  • Chaplain Rich Hoffman

    I hesitate to call premonitions “prophecy” because prophecy is not simply foretelling, but “forth-telling” God’s call to righteousness. Premonitions, however, could be the gift of knowledge (1 Cor. 12:8).

    Within an hour of my father dying in 1994, my two best friends (one from seminary, the other a CPE peer) called me. They both said that they were prompted to call me, sensing that something important was happening within me. Their calls were needed sources of grief support. Most certainly gifts from the Lord.

  • http://purefilteredjesus.com Pamela

    thank you so much for sharing….. I too had a daughter die (at 30 years old) just 18 months ago. Two months prior to her passing God clearly told me she would die. It was surreal. It was a genuine conversation… and I argued and cried… but ultimately acquiesced. I can remember the moment like yesterday. When she passed, I was fully prepared. I was not surprised nor taken off guard. It brought great peace in a strange way. Did God take her? No. Why did it happen? Dont know. What I am fully assured of is His goodness. I can presume upon that in all things. He was caring for me as He prepared me for her death. It was a beautiful thing. Not many understand it and there are many who would tell you that God does not do that. I know that God does not operate in fear. Pain was present but fear was absent and peace assuaged my grief. I felt as though I was brought into the story. I am grateful and see it as His goodness.

  • Lori Broschat

    I was attending our annual conference a few years ago with a horrible sense of dread concerning my daughter. It was making me very emotional and so as soon as we had a break I went to call my daughter, who was living in England. I started the conversation with “What’s wrong?” She said that she had missed the deadline to extend her visa and either needed a certified copy of her marriage license or she would be deported. I quickly notified the courthouse of the county where she was married and asked them to send a copy. This wasn’t life or death, obviously, but it was so strong that I could hardly concentrate for the rest of the day.

  • Gwen S

    There was a woman to whom I had spoken on a couple of occasions at city-wide church events. We had a “heart” connection but only a casual acquaintance. One morning I felt a strong call to prayer for her, during which I sensed/saw/became aware of–not sure how to describe it–a steel hand gripping the back of her husbands neck, about which I prayed in the way that seemed right at the time. Later that morning I followed an urge to call her with encouragement that God had led me to pray for them that morning. She was moved deeply and shared that her husband had come home late the night before from perhaps the most difficult closed-door meeting of his career. It was indeed affirmation of God’s love for them, and a great boost to my growing awareness of God’s activity in everyday life. My own husband has several stories in kind, feeling an impulse toward a thing and discovering its validity hours or days later. Fascinating, comforting. His eye IS on the sparrow. Thanks for the reminder.

  • Esteban Bowers

    Greetings from South America! I woke up in the middle of the night a number of years ago and felt impressed to pray for some fellow colleagues. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t. I continued praying. The next morning I embarked on trying to contact my colleagues Mark & Karen. I finally made contact with Mark and found out that Karen was “defending” her PhD. dissertation at Baylor University.

    I must say that these kinds of happenings are pretty common among indigenous or tribal peoples in South America.

  • http://jennifersearls.com Jennifer

    Thank you for this post. I have several stories that fit this description. I will eagerly ready any further thoughts you have on the subject…..

  • lha

    When I was 17 my great aunt and I were sitting in my family’s apartment on the tenth floor. Mom and Dad were playing golf in the adjacent course. I heard thunder and immediately knew that my father had been hit by lightning. I couldn’t sit still. I told my aunt what had happened. I could not focus at all and about 20 minutes later there was a knock on the door. A neighbor said, “I’ve got some bad news.” I said, “Dad’s been hit by lightning.” She said, “I’m afraid so.”
    He indeed had been struck at that first clap of thunder. It had not rained. I knew it was Dad and not Mom. The world is a strange place.

  • James Mace

    BTW, it occurs to me in re to my “Saharan Breakdown Premonition” above, that when I did finally make my way to the Niger border 9 hours later to get water to take back and rescue my comrades, I heard on BBC World Service radio that Pope John Paul I, whose 33-day reign is among the shortest in papal history, had died during the night and was discovered shortly before dawn, right when I had my waking premonition.

    I wonder if that has anything to do with it or is just a curious coincidence? Perhaps there could be at times of significant spiritual happenings a sort of Celtic nearness between heaven and earth? I don’t know; just thought I’d mention it.

  • Josh LymaN

    Of course, it is easy to ignore the feelings that something horrible is going to happen when nothing bad follows. Confirmation bias is a real thing.

  • http://celebratinglifethrustory.com laura

    When I was in the 5th grade I visited a friend and while washing my hands in the upstairs bathroom I “imagined” that the floor below collapsed. I ran out of the bathroom just in time to hear screams from her mom and father below when the ceiling collapsed and spread water all over the kitchen. It wasn’t the only time I had a premonition, but it was the most significant one. I always tried to squelch those thoughts after that…

  • http://dianatrautwein.com Diana Trautwein

    I had two strange experiences with deaths of persons close to me. One was a parishioner whom I loved and who was very near to death when I left him in the afternoon. I was distraught at his suffering and remember begging the Lord to allow him to die. That night, I sat bolt upright in bed. My husband asked what was wrong and I said, “Tim was just here, in my dream and he was smiling.” 10 minutes later, my cell phone rang and the hospice nurse told me that he had died 10 minutes before. Then I dreamed a strange dream in which my brother was not clearly visible as a character, not recognizable to me until after the event that happened the next morning. He was behind me on a ladder, frightened and struggling to get either up or down. I came down, he did not. The phone rang before 7:00 a.m. to tell me that he died during the night. The first episode was comforting; the second was not.

  • Matt Thornton

    Agree with others here that confirmation bias is key to understanding premonition. We remember the hits (and the very near misses) far more vividly than anything else. Lots of good research on this topic. Daniel Khaneman’s book “Thinking Fast and Slow” is a great summary of some of it.

    Another thing to consider is that human brains run on patterns. People are amazingly good at recognizing patterns around them, and in particular, good at recognizing breaks from established patterns. Think about recognizing someone’s face in a crowd, or decoding a couple of words on a web site login page, or noticing that a person is sad. Many of us would be very hard pressed to consciously articulate how we understand patterns like these, but like art, we know them when we see them.

    This leads me to wonder if premonition is a way for our minds to make sense of the deeper patterns around us that we can perceive but can’t articulate well. The future isn’t fully determined determined by the present, but the seeds are certainly there, and perhaps some (much?) premonition is a result of these benthic patterns coming to the surface.

    Not suggesting that all premonition experiences can be reduced this way, but seems like a useful set of questions in sorting wheat from chaff.

    Peace,
    Matt

  • rumitoid

    I have had two NDEs, one at seven and the other at eighteen. In the first I experienced this exuberant welcome from God, as if I were his long lost child. In the second it was total bliss. I credit these, for some reason, with having a highly intuitive nature. I have “little hits” on average about three times a day. Example: my attention gets fixated on this store I have passed hundreds on times. As this “odd fixation” has happened since I was six, I knew there was some significance. That night a friend told me that store offered the best auto insurance he had found; I told others and all switched. Minor, not life-saving or life-changing. The why? gets me.

    Bigger hit (and some bio) example: I am nine months sober and going somewhat crazy. On my way to the couch to do my daily regimen of working the crossword puzzle, I stop, look up at the ceiling, and ask God with all my heart, “What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go?” Part of me truly expected the ceiling to part and God the Father himself offer some solid advice. I must have stood there looking up for ten minutes. Just as I put my head down and started for the couch, I heard “58 down” quite distinctly. I checked the crossword: “NM art comm.” Four letters. “Taos.” My younger brother lived there. Just last week he said there was no room. I called anyway. No sooner had I said who I was he started telling me that his wife had left that morning with his step-son, not his fault but felt compelled to spend some time at the ashram. She could not explain it. There was now room…and I have lived there for almost thirty years, coming back to Christ in that community. I probably have had “hits” like this a few hundred times over five decades.

    Biggest hits example: I am living in a rural area just north of Taos, nothing but acres of plowed framland all around, driving down a dirt road that is some 300 yards to the main road into town. It is 6am. A voice, as if coming from someone sitting in the passenger seat, says firmly but calmly, “Slow down.” This voice has spoken maybe a half dozen times before (such as in the above paragraph) but this time I think I must be hearing things. I have a perfect field of vision; it is 6am; I am only going 25: what could happen. The voice repeated itself. I decided to slow and as I did I envisioned a big red truck right in front of me, with a vanity plate that red TMT. From behind a barn to my right, a big red truck comes racing toward me. My finger just fit between our bumpers. Thomas Michael Tafio apologized.

    So many stories you would quickly stop believing me. I feel certain that Satan cannot know the future but is this from God? I question because I have not been a very good man most of my life and most often the premonitions are so trivial.