"In Future" or "In The Future"?

Hi there,

I'm a newbie here and the idea of having English-speaking people share with serious learners of the language, like myself, is excellent.

I'm confused by the terms, "in future" and "in the future".

I was told by my English teacher back in school that if I am referring to "some time in the near future", the correct one should be "in future". According to my school teacher, "THE future" tends to mean the time much further away from now.

Having read some articles by some native English speakers who are also professional writers recently, I found the term, "in the future" quite often written in places that I would have thought "in future" be a more appropriate term because of what I have learnt in school.

Could somebody please explain the difference between the two, if there is any difference at all?