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UFOs and Christian belief
First, there were UFOs over rural Texas. Then there weren’t. The Associated Press reports:
So much for aliens in Texas dairy country. At least that was the message Wednesday when the military said 10 F-16 fighter jets were training in the Stephenville area the night dozens of residents reported seeing a UFO. Although Air Force Reserve officials in Fort Worth initially said they had no planes in the area Jan. 8, they said Wednesday that they were mistaken and wanted to set the record straight “in the interest of public awareness.”
Of course, there’s no better way to certify in certain minds that the flying objects in question were UFOs than for the government to change its story:
The announcement did little to satisfy residents of Texas dairy country who swear that what they saw in the sky Jan. 8 was no airplane. Some said it even bolstered their claims, because several people reported seeing at least two fighter jets chasing an object.
The whole story reminds me of an incident I’ve discussed on this blog before: That I once saw a UFO. Well, it was actually a UHO — an Unidentified Hovering Object. This object, which I saw gliding a foot off the surface of a gravel country road when I was 17 years old, appeared to be about six feet long and four feet high, shaped like a flat-bottomed bullet. Following a whirring sound that escalated in pitch and volume, the object simply…disappeared.
I wasn’t a Christian then, but I am now. People have asked me, “If you believe you really saw a UFO, how can you also believe the Bible is true? How can there be UFOs and God?” Answer: I don’t know, anymore than I know how a caterpillar can turn to dust in its chrysalis and emerge a living butterfly. What’s more, I’m comfortable not knowing. Some things are mysteries. But I do know that that night on the country road and my regeneration in Christ were real, palpable events anchored in time and experience.
What about you? If you knew certain UFO sightings were real, would that make you question your theology?
back to top48 Comments to “UFOs and Christian belief”
How do you reconcile Christian belief with UFO sightings? A) UFO sightings do not undermine scripture, because there’s nothing in scripture prohibiting them. B) Don’t laugh at people who claim to have seen a UFO. Some of them are nuts, but not all.
Michael Heiser is a Christian “UFOlogist” (with a Ph.D. in Hebrew, for good measure) speaks to Christian groups about the necessity for being prepared to answer the kinds of questions you’re asking, Lynn.
I heard him give a talk a couple of years ago called “Biblical Truth on Pagan Turf: A Scary-But-Necessary-Paradigm Shift in Evangelizing Contemporary Polytheists.” You can listen to his talk at this link:
http://www.cwipp.org/content.asp?id=100293
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To answer your question, ” If you knew certain UFO sightings were real, would that make you question your theology?”,
the answer is No.
There most likely are a ton of things that we don’t have a clue about.
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To say you saw a UFO is not the same as saying you saw a spaceship from Mars or a flying saucer. You just saw an Unidentified Flying Object. In other words you saw something that there is no current explanation for. No big deal.
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Just because something is unidentified doesn’t mean it is from a different planet. Recently I heard a news report that the government has a new weapon that can disburse a crowd with sound waves. Who knows what else they’ve been up to?
I’m sure those of us who are old enough remember the communicators from the original Star Trek. Today we have cell phones.
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I’m the eternal skeptic. If I can’t see it or evidence of it, then I’m not 100% convinced. This is why I don’t believe in mysticism or the occult. Never saw it, no evidence.
However, since we can see 400 billion TRILLION stars, and that’s only within the 13 billion light years that light has been traveling since the big bang, why would there be so many stars and ours is the only one with life? Doesn’t seem likely.
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“I’m sure those of us who are old enough remember the communicators from the original Star Trek. Today we have cell phones.”
Mine flips open, just like Captian Kirk’s. I love it.
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To say you saw a UFO is not the same as saying you saw a spaceship from Mars or a flying saucer. You just saw an Unidentified Flying Object. In other words you saw something that there is no current explanation for. No big deal.
All that’s true. But what about the disappearing part? Also, this object had oddly colored lights and was clearly engineered and constructed by someone. Who? Who in 1979 was building tiny, oddly lit hovercraft that disappeared before your eyes? See what I mean? (P.S.: I was not alone when I saw this object. The person who was with me also saw it.)
So I said all that to say, I agree that not all unexplained phenomena conflict with Christian theology. But someone or some thing was driving that vehicle. Who/what was it and where do they fit into God’s world? That’s what I wonder.
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#7. So, are you asking how would life on other planets fit into our Christian Theology? In that case I don’t have an answer, but it is interesting to think about.
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RDEAN is someone I can identify with to some degree. He and I, although opposed theologically,
can believe in a concept once given enough evidence to the fact. I am sure that we can agree on that. Fact is, Dean, we have evidence of U.F.O.’s, if you’ll notice that “former” presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich from Ohio
has seen them himself! Of course do not be surprised of that notion, as the majority of America feels Mr. Kucinich is a spaceshot to begin with.
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Humans from earth could have built your UHO, Lynn. And then there’s “cloaking” technology. You still don’t know that it was extra-terrestrial. Who would have thought in WWII when they were developing bomb sites and radar that the military would have those planes that can evade radar? We just don’t know what the government is developing or what experiments they underwrite.
If you are asking what KBells has suggested: “#7. So, are you asking how would life on other planets fit into our Christian Theology?” — this is similar to a “what if” question about history. You are going down a road with no proofs, no evidence — only RDean’s “doesn’t seem likely.” However, for the sake of argument, God can do whatever he wants to do. How do you know that the same question “Who do you say I am?” isn’t being asked on other planets? You don’t.
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Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men (actual title) by Dr. Hugh Ross is the best discussion of Christians and UFOs we’ve ever heard/seen. As an astrophysicist, Dr. Ross spent a lot of nights watching the starry skies and never saw a UFO. He also mentions how odd it is that airlines pilots don’t tend to see them very much.
There may be more for the merely curious at reasons.org, but we found the book fascinating. Bottom line: some 100,000 UFO sightings a YEAR cannot be linked to swamp gas, military actions or anything else explanable. But upon further digging in the lives of those who saw UFOS (and I don’t know if this is true of you, Lynn, so forgive me), the commonality was involvement with the occult either by the viewer or someone close to them.
He points out that UFOS have been seen throughout history but they always are in “agreement” with the extent of technology available at the time. For example, UFO spotters in the mid nineteenth century saw things that looked like balloons. They always move in curious fashion and disappear. If you do a study of Satan in scripture, you’ll find UFOs display some of the same characteristics.
Reasons.org will also explain why the sun is a singular star in the universe. Happy reading. It’s all fascinating.
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Uh-oh, Lynn. How long before Mickey McClean ridicules you for your UFO sighting just like he did Kucinich?
Go easy on Lynn, Mickey!
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I have to admit, if I saw a flying saucer land and lgm’s (little green men — a Buzz Lightyear allusion) came out, I’d have a flash of, “Well, poop. What else hasn’t He told us?”
The ensuing theological debate would center on the “personhood” of the lgm’s. Would they be people if they weren’t descended from Adam? If they aren’t people, did Christ die for them?
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StuBob: yesterday it was pee in the well, today it’s poop. What gives? (Only kidding.)
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Thanks for posting that link to the Heiser talk, Harrison. When I get home from work tonight, I’m going to check it out. I know Heiser is one of Zechariah Sitchin’s most prominent critics, so I’m interested in what he has to say. I also know that after reading Sitchin’s works, the Bible makes a lot more sense.
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Interesting, but I’m with KBells on this one. Just because we can’t explain it today doesn’t mean it’ll make total sense in the future.
NJL: Next it’ll be pee again.
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Okay
Time for my Kucinich moment.
This one was witnessed by three people that were with me, myself, and several other cars full of people who were pulled over watching this.
The thing I have a problem with, is that this has been occurring in this area for decades, almost nightly.
It is in Marfa, Texas…and they’re called the mystery lights. I have no idea what they were. But I can absolutely guarantee that whatever the source of these lights were, it definitely wasn’t some naturally occurring phenomenon.
They appeared at around 9 PM. (I understand that this is the normal time of the evening that this happens, there)
They had some of the same light qualities that you might see from huge kerosene lanterns.
They moved irratically, some would disappear, others re-appear. They all moved in directions independent of each other. Some of the lights would intensify, some would dim. some seemed to join together, and become huge. Some changed from white to an orange-ish color…Pretty freaky
We watched this for a couple of hours.
Apparently, it is a big attraction in that area, as the other locals present seemed sort of matter-of-fact about the whole thing.
I have no idea what it was.
Could be a bunch of people playing a big joke.
But it is claimed that this has been going on for as long as people remember.
Thats my experience, for what it’s worth
I do believe that the Bible mentions flying vehicles. In fact, the way I read it God’s throne is one.
At least that’s what I get from Ezekiel’s description.
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I do believe that the Bible mentions flying vehicles. In fact, the way I read it God’s throne is one.At least that’s what I get from Ezekiel’s description.
Just had a thought: Perhaps the oddly lit, disappearing, flat-bottomed bullet I saw was a modernized chariot of fire. If Elisha saw blazing chariots, why couldn’t modern believers see modern vehicles? Of course, at the time I saw the UHO, I wasn’t under siege by a king…
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This subject brings up an intesting question as it relates to UFOs.
As Lynn just mentioned, Elijah was tahen up by “whirlwind” into a fiery chariot..And Elisha saw the whole thing.
(side note- that word “gilgal” in II Kgs 2:1 means “wheel”..and if you take the word back to the root, it means rolling (or spinning?) wheel.
That should bring to mind Ezekiels description of the vehicle as being a wheel inside a wheel.)
Let me just propose a wacky possibility:
What if we took these verses, and the ones following literally, what does this mean?
Rev Ch 12
7-And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found anymore in heaven
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, WHICH DECEIVETH THE WHOLE WORLD: he was cast out into the earth, and his angel were cast out with him
My questions;
How
1) can there be a “war” in heaven, complete with battling angels?
2) can Satan, and his angels be “cast” to the earth?
3) can verse 12 say “woe to the inhabiters of earth…because the devil has come down unto you”,
without a physical method for accomplishing these things?
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Maybe it was angels. They have “wings”, right?
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Only in the minds of some artists.
We’re made in their image.
Do we have wings?
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Maybe it was angels. They have “wings”, right?
No wings on my UHO.
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It’s all weather balloons.
I think Lynn’s idea that it might be a modern chariot of fire is more plausible than an alien spacecraft. Given the absolute upper speed limit of light speed, and the vastness of the galaxy, the chances that intelligent life just happened to pick our planet to visit are infinitesimal.
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perhaps it was jesus, sneaking around in a flying chariot? just checking up on you lot to make sure that you have given away all of your earthly riches to follow him and make sure you aren’t holding any out for yourself. probably caught you all slipping on that one too.
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It’s amazing that many Christians, who mock evolution for its far-fetched claims, would believe in alien UFOs.
RDean – the amount of stars and solar systems and galaxies in the universe is amazing. Too bad they are so far away. There maybe millions of civilizations out there, but they are too far for viable communication, much less personal contact.
UFOs almost always have a reasonable explanation. It might be hard to believe, but they do. Besides, don’t always trust your eyes. Eyewitness testimony can be quite shaky. Five people can watch an event and have five different stories of what they saw, especially if they are in awe or have adrenaline pumping.
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NJL, you’re absolutely right. I must watch my potty talk.
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Well, StuBob, I was teasing. You didn’t say anything bad. Yesterday, you called it free medical advice, it was so funny, and I was tempted to suggest that you provide us with some clever medical advice every day.
Lynn, in what state was that country road? Near any government facilities?
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#21. The angels on the Ark and in the Temple had wings,( Exodus 25:20, I kings 6:24) and the ones Isaiah saw had six wings each. (Isaiah 6:2).
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The Bible does not definitively say God did NOT do any life creating anywhee else. One can’t be fully dogmatic here.
However, I am leaning toward demonic manifestations (mostly, though possibily angelic ones) being fit into our own closest comprehensible mental pidgeon holes (rather like some of the fanciful descriptions of supernatural and/or future events in prophecies being the best descriptions of items outside of the prophet’s realm of life experience).
Of course, had I seen such a thing at 17 I’d most likely have to write it of as the result of drugs/drinking/staying up for days at a time.
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Lester writes: Eyewitness testimony can be quite shaky.
The two of us were quite shaky as we stared at each other wide-eyed and opened-mouthed, jumped in the car, and got the heck outta there!
NJ: It was in rural Alabama. Nearest military installation was 50 miles away.
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#29: demonic manifestations (mostly, though possibily angelic ones)
I love the occult. Manifestations? Call the Orkan man.
I really do love the occult. Candles and mystic phrases and hand motions. I love the magic robes that Catholics wear. And the sparkly hat on the Pope. So cool.
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“No wings on my UHO.”
Well, I don’t know that “wings” would be the way Ezekiel would describe what surrounded the vehicle, had he been able to use words from 2500 years later.
For an udeducated sheep-herder from 2500 years ago, he does a pretty good job of describing what he saw.
If it flew, naturally, it had to be alive, and it had to have wings.
His account:
A bright object comes from a cloud of fire in the sky, that is the color of amber (highly polished bronze) (v.4)
four living creatures that appeared as men come from the bronze object. (v.5)
Then we get, what I believe may be Ezekiel’s description of these strange “living creatures”, that these men-like living creatures came from the midst of.
some of the highlights;
1)Their feet were straight. (un-jointed)
The sole of the feet like a calf’s sole. (flat on the bottom. (v.7)(maybe landing gear, which would mean that these other creatures weren’t really “alive”)
1) Four “faces” (this is described in Vs. 10.
2) Four wings that “touch each other” (could this be a primitive man’s way of saying a continuous wing, or a brim, of some sort?
On the faces, it helps to know that the faces are also representations of the standards, or symbols of the four tribes of Israel that represent the furthest tribe in each direction.
face of a man- the symbol for Reuben
face of a lion- the sybol for Judah
face of an ox- the symbol for Ephraim
face of an eagle- symbol of Dan.
Their feet were straight. (un-jointed)
The sole of the feet like a calf’s sole. (flat on the bottom. (v.7)
“They turned not when they went.”
again from a sheepherders perspective, when something changed direction, it had to turn. These things just went which ever way they wanted to go without “turning”(v.12)
It’s actually humorous reading him trying to describe these things.
It looked like a wheel inside a wheel. it had eyes (windows?) And he’s amazed that wherever the “living creatures” went, the other creatures went with them….(Could it be that they were inside these vehicles that Ezekiel assumed were living creatures?)
“The angels on the Ark and in the Temple had wings,( Exodus 25:20, I kings 6:24) and the ones Isaiah saw had six wings each. (Isaiah 6:2).
The cherubim on the Ark were constructed to signify that the “mercy seat” was covered. This doesn’t mean that the actual living, covering cherubs had/have wings. Read Ezekiel Ch. 28 what happened to that “cherub that covereth…who was in the garden of God…perfect in every way, until iniquity was found in him”. You’ll see that by the end of the chapter, there is no doubt that this covering cherub had no “wings”
The word seraphims (Is 6:2) mean “burning ones, named that because of their apparent copper color Str. # 8314.
Again you have to remember that these descriptions are coming from people who have never seen anything other than birds fly.
We have a slightly different worded version of what Ezekiel saw.
It should also be pointed out that the word translated wing can also be translated any of the following:
edge, extremity (of a bird or army), a flap, a quarter-section of an object.
It’s also worth mentioning that these same fiery ones mentioned in Is. 6:2 are also described in Rev. 4:5-8, along with those “faced” “living creatures” of Ezekiel.
I can only speculate as to what it means to me. But it is really hard to deny that these facts somehow relate to each other.
I find the idea of heavenly vehicles more probable than actual winged creatures that fly around playing with live coals of fire, for whatever reason.
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It was in rural Alabama. Nearest military installation was 50 miles away.
Sounds like it was likely a military exercise.
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It is a fact that the Earth is under constant survelliance by aliens from a star system located in a nearby globular cluster (of stars, not candy).
Unfortunately the aliens (who naturally don’t want to be noticed – usually) wised up in recent years. Their government is now requiring any aliens visiting the planet Earth to only use spaceships that look EXACTLY like weather ballons.
This has worked, albeit not perfectly.
As a matter of fact, there was a tragic incident recently at a NOAA Weather Research Facility when a NOAA scientist reached into what HE thought was just an ordinary weather ballon and yanked the main probiscous right off the sternmost parts of an alien. It is difficult to describe this probiscous thing except that it is not something that ever ought to be pulled off an alien from this particular star system, even accidentally.
The scientist thought he was just retrieving a thermometer or something out of the ballon.
We will never know what he thought, since he utterly disappeared shortly after this incident and is now presumably being used in Earthman anatomy classes in a lab on a planet somewhere in the globular cluster, as part of the preparation for the final invasion.
Anyway, if you see a weather ballon, remember it is probably a UFO and definitely don’t yank, pull, or wring on anything sticking out of it.
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Drill,
I thought you had a contract deadline, shouldn’t you be rushing about with that?
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Mumsee: You know my boss, don’t you? HE put you up to this, I bet.
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Check this out. It’s pretty weird.
http://snipurl.com/1y9qj
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Astronomers don’t believe in UFOs from outerspace because they stare at the sky every night and see no evidence.
There is also no evidence yet of life in the universe ouside of earth. Technology should continue to improve though and in 10 to 20 years we might be seeing earth-sized planets in other solar systems and may even be able to measure them for water, oxygen, carbon dioxide and other signatures for life. Who knows what we’ll find then.
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50 miles isn’t all that far for a fast-moving technologically advanced “something” being developed by the government.
I have a tendency to strongly agree with Theo’s “Astronomers don’t believe in UFOs from outerspace because they stare at the sky every night and see no evidence.”
If an astronomer actually saw something, he’d be making his career to report it.
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Before he died, Kelly Johnson -who headed Lockheed’s Skunk works -admitted that they were working on technology that was 50 year ahead of what is now public. Think about the technology gap between now and 50 years ago then project what we may have 50 years from now.
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Military pilots were flying the Stealth back in the early 80’s. No other nation has even been able to duplicate that technology and that is now 2 decades past.
The Star Wars program hasn’t been nearly as successful though.
With cuts in research and military though, who knows how advanced we are now. Perhaps we have maintained our lead, extended it, or possibly even lost some of it.
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Theo writes: “The Star Wars program hasn’t been nearly as successful though.”
As far as we know. There are many reasons why our government wouldn’t tell the world if they have achieved success. (Putin comes to mind.)
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Mr. Meaner,
Thanks for bringing up the “Marfa Lights”. I’ve seen them and you described them well. I don’t think it’s a hoax, because it’s been going on for at least a couple of centuries, and probably much longer.
For those who don’t know, Marfa is in far west Texas in a semi-desert mountainous area that is very sparsely populated.
I assume it is some kind of natural phenomenon. I’ve heard several explanations, but nothing that sounds all that convincing.
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“And then there’s “cloaking” technology.”
I assume you’re talking about recent developments…
I read somewhere that they are actually making progress on this.
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The concept–or belief–in UFO’s is inextricably linked to the concept–or belief–of intelligent life outside our own planet. I reject the idea not on any one scripture, but on the Biblical message as a whole.
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Did anybody get the impression that I was referring to little green men?
I hope not. But the fact remains that these things are discussed in Bible text.
It has nothing to do with alien life-forms or any thing like that. It just seems like common sense that if any of the the things we believe happened are true, (like creation, divine intervention ( sometimes via angelic messengers) then all of that has to have a point of origin.
I can almost buy the notion that it is just a dimensional thing, and all of those arch-angels, annointed chrubs, divine are really here always…unperceivable by natural senses to us.
But that then begs the question, Why is all of the rest of the universe even there, if our individual 80 year existance on earth, is the only thing that concerns the creator of the universe?
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“Did anybody get the impression that I was referring to little green men?”
No–not you personally, nor in your comments here, which are frankly astute and very interesting. My point is that there’s not a lot of separation between the belief in alien spaceships and the belief in aliens that fly them.
Meaner, I agree that the Bible describes a wide range of phenomena that defies human understanding and explanation, atmospheric and otherwise. My belief, as stated above, is founded on the Biblical message as a whole. That is, of God’s creation of the human race, which was initially sinless; man’s fall into sin and the subsequent devotion of God’s inspired revelation of our need for a Savior. The Bible is God’s word to *all* humanity, created by Him on one planet, Earth. With that said, the existance of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe (other humans or beings capable of worshiping God) is inconsistent with God’s message to us on this particular planet.
“But that then begs the question, Why is all of the rest of the universe even there, if our individual 80 year existance on earth, is the only thing that concerns the creator of the universe?”
I don’t know, but I do suspect the following: God loves us individually beyond our ability to grasp it. I think each of us is more valuable to Him than the entirety of the universe, in all of its unfathomable, boundless eternity. Perhaps the rest of the universe is there for the same reason the rest of creation exists: to speak of His awesome power, glory and sovereignty.
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#38: in 10 to 20 years we might be seeing earth-sized planets in other solar systems and may even be able to measure them for water, oxygen, carbon dioxide and other signatures for life.
If we can see them, we can measure them. It all comes down the “band of life”. This band could be much closer to a cool red star and much farther away from a hot giant.
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