Error Creating Views Block Filter by Date

I'm trying to create what I thought was a fairly straight-forward block using Views (ver. 2.5).

I have created a content type I call event. It basically has a title, date (CCK field) and description of the event.

I wanted a block to display the 4 next events from the current date.

The filters I applied are below:
Filters:
Node: Type = Event
Node: Published Yes
Date: Date Content: Date (field_date) - To date >= now

Query
SELECT node.nid AS nid, node.title AS node_title, node_data_field_date.field_date_value AS node_data_field_date_field_date_value, node_data_field_date.field_date_value2 AS node_data_field_date_field_date_value2, node.type AS node_type, node.vid AS node_vid FROM node node LEFT JOIN comments comments ON node.nid = comments.nid LEFT JOIN content_field_date node_data_field_date ON node.vid = node_data_field_date.vid WHERE (node.type in ('event')) AND (node.status <> 0) ORDER BY node_data_field_date_field_date_value ASC

My problem is that the date filter seems to be getting ignored. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong (I'm still fairly new to Drupal).

I can get the filter to work if I "expose" the filter but I don't want users to be able to change it.

Any suggestions as to where I may be going wrong would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks.