God, Aliens, & UFOs

Someone asked me, the other day, if I believed that aliens were here. They weren’t talking about legal or illegal people from a foreign country living in the United States, but of intelligent beings, other than human, from outside the earth’s boundaries. This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked this question and it is becoming much more of an issue as the years drift on.

In the past, I would always tread lightly on such beliefs, because this is a touchy subject, especially for a Christian minister. I have, in fact, been writing this article over the last couple of years and kept stopping work on it, because I thought it wasn’t the proper time, yet. But I recently began getting nagging or gut feelings that it was now the proper time. Some kind of announcement about alien life is nigh, I believe, although it may be given in bits and pieces, to blunt the impact. I had often thought that if prayer is a message to God, maybe a gut feeling is a message from God. I wrote an article about this last year (see References & Notes at the end of this article).¹

I was born in the early 1940s and during all the years since then, I’ve heard and seen many kinds of strange things—stories of captured exotic space craft, development of anti-gravity technology, possible ancient bases on the moon and other celestial bodies, various alien contacts, and other dimensions of reality, to name a few. Today, the tide is changing, so to speak, for there is a lot more talk about unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and alien life and hidden technologies than there used to be.

Over many years, especially during the last several, it seems like we are being conditioned to accept such ideas. Stories about UFOs and alien life show up on television, in motion pictures, in magazines, in newspapers, in books, and even in serious discussion sessions among Christians. Some stories are very serious and have hard evidence to back them up, such as photographic proof, documented government black budget spending, as well as Senate authorization and large secret industrial programs. One such public announcement revealed many details in 2017 by The New York Times.²

What used to be considered as foolishness has slowly evolved into plausibility as the evidence (direct as well as circumstantial) has filtered through the haze of ridicule established early on. There are an increasing number of scientists, politicians, and other educated people willingly being accessible for serious discussions of this subject. Catholic scientists at the Vatican have publically discussed that visitors from another planet are probably real and are considered to be merely other creations of God and there are even serious views about possible baptism of such beings.³

When I was young.

In my youth, my preferences for science knowledge and science fiction reading material became well established, as did a fondness for the sciences over most other school subjects. When first entering college, my aim was for a chemistry degree. Scientific interest runs in the family, I guess; my brother was a research biologist and my father was a telecommunications technologist from the 1930s into the mid 60s. Although my college degrees are far from my original intent, my intense interest in the sciences has remained.

I learned a number of key bits of information over my lifetime, which I still remember in detail, that has directed my thoughts about life and my relationship with nature and God. I have already shared a few such thoughts, in my articles about “God’s Majesty.” (Search for these articles by this subject in the search box called “OBS Articles by Category” on the right side of this website).⁴

In the past, our government officials, and even the news media, ridiculed people who believed in other worldly contacts—just reporting a UFO sighting would bring a sneering response. In the early days of my life, just admitting to reading science fiction could get a chuckle from people, along with the verbal observation, “He likes to live in a fantasy world.” Those attitudes would shut-up many, but I was never one who let peer-pressure rule my life. I didn’t believe science-based speculation was a fantasy, as I recognized the many new discoveries unlocking the secrets of our God’s creation.

Like some other people, I believe that miracles appear as magic only because most universal laws are not fully understood, yet. Over my life I’ve found that this is true—the more we understand, the more amazing our technologies become. Is all this being directed by God? His new world, after Jesus’ return, will be quite pleasant and we will have all the benefits of these newer technologies, without the greed and sinfulness that drives the world today.

So, do I believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe? Yes, I do. Do I believe that such life has visited the earth sometime in the past? Yes, I do. We will explore some concepts, thoughts, and ideas, but understand that I am not trying to change anyone’s mind, nor imply that ideas inferred are anything but speculation. We all have free will, to believe something or not to do so, as God intended.

This is just a thought experiment, not a lesson in scripture. Not all of the thoughts are mine; some come from other Christian researchers and thinkers. A few of these ideas may be lightly discussed in church groups, but probably not at their Sunday services. Even a few links to materials in “References & Notes” are controversial “far out” sites (but you are encouraged to view those references at the end of this article). We might as well have a bit of fun, okay? How does all this relate to the Bible and God? Well, I’ll get to that, too, in due course.

Things I’ve thought about.

There are several thoughts that have intrigued me for decades. The first thought is about that major national war on cancer announced with great fanfare by U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1971.⁵ That was nearly fifty years ago and still no cure – or has there been? We can put a man on the moon (more about that in a moment) and we can peer deep inside an atom and learn about all its parts, and actually take an atom apart into to its many pieces, but we can’t cure cancer! Many speculate that it’s all about the money; too much profit involved in just treating the cancer, why announce a cure and cut off the flow of wealth. Declaring a cure would only close down a profitable industry.⁶

The second thought is why did the United States stop sending people to the moon? The last time men went to the moon was aboard Apollo 17, when they landed on the moon’s surface in December 1972. After that flight returned, all of a sudden the government said they couldn’t afford to do it any more, because the cost was too high. Come on! When did that excuse ever stop the government from doing anything? The rockets for the last three moon flights were already built or under construction, the supplies were already under contract, the men had already been trained, and the schedule was already set; all this was cancelled without any advance notice. Many people believe there was another reason—they may not have stopped at all and the Apollo flights may have continued in secret.⁷ Many suggest that something was found on the moon that the government did not want the public to know about.

Third on my list is that of anti-gravity. I remember, as a kid, during the late 1950s reading about anti-gravity research and how scientists stated that they were on the very threshold of solving that problem. Then, all of a sudden, news about this research completely vanished. Many think the problem was solved and the government wanted to keep it secret. The Germans were working on it before World War II, and after Germany was defeated, the United States brought over many of their scientists and kept the research going. We have already seen what advances the Germans made in many sciences—it was even their knowledge that put our own rockets into orbit as well as men on the moon.

Many believe anti-gravity is now flying some United States (secret) aircraft, such as the TR-3B (black triangle craft),⁸ and others.⁹ In my early thirties, I taught a college photography course and remembered one adult student, who worked at one of the government facilities building the Saturn moon rocket engines in Louisiana,¹⁰ telling me stories of secret anti-gravity craft testing he observed when stationed in the Nevada desert. Maybe most of those UFOs being spotted are not really from outer space and are piloted not by them, but by us.

Although I have many other ideas, the last I will mention is the supposed alien spacecraft retrieved in the southwest United States in 1947. Something crashed at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico and it was reported, by the 509th [Atomic] Bomb group of the Eighth Air Force at Roswell Army Air Field, to be a “flying disc.” That report was soon retracted stating it was really just a weather balloon and that the original story was in error.¹¹ The government continued to say there is no such thing as alien space craft and those that believe so are foolish, stupid, or crazy. That is until the people involved in the cover-up, later in life, wanted to tell their story before they died. That along with the invention of the internet, and independent investigative reporters, helped revive public interest.

My point in mentioning all this, is that all governments cover up things they don’t want people to know. Why? There are all kinds of reasons, but usually all eventually point to money and power. As someone told me, if the government goes out of it way to say something isn’t true, then it probably is true. All types of knowledge may be kept secret because a dark, but powerful, military-industrial-financial world order wants to keep their flow of money intact, as well as to keep a technological advantage over others. As an example, there is some evidence that a means for free energy can be tapped to run our machines and electronics, but it isn’t allowed for the general public, because it can’t be controlled, measured, or regulated for profit—how do you attach a meter and charge money for something that is free?

We are getting a bit closer to the reason for this article and answering the questions concerning the denial of any extraterrestrial activities on earth. Governments have maintained that attitude of denial for decades, but as mentioned above, the tide is changing and there is a lot more talk about UFOs and alien life and hidden technologies than there used to be. Why?

One suggestion I’ve heard (there are many) is that there will be some sort of public “disclosure” coming soon, because many secrets are beginning to leak out from government records and the people that maintain them. As private companies begin to venture into outer space, what they find will be harder to keep secret. How do you keep such things confidential when the general public can take trips into space as passengers? And new very high-tech cameras will expose things that have previously been covered up, such as off-world artificial structures and contact experiences.

A recent example of new information being disclosed is of the United States Navy announcing an interest in UFOs and releasing footage of such events recorded on the cameras of Navy planes.¹² Also, the former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Christopher Mellon, stated “We know that UFOs exist. This is no longer an issue,” and the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a public news interview said the U.S. government would be surprised how well the American public would accept the truth about UFOs.¹³

Aliens: a New Religion?

A recent news story suggests that in the near future, more people will be convinced of the existence of extraterrestrials than in the existence of God. Diana Pasulka, a professor at the University of North Carolina, wrote a book (American Cosmic) on why humans chose to believe in the supernatural, and how we use both God and aliens to explain the unexplainable. She explained, “the paradigm is shifting from one to another . . . this is because no proof of God has been discovered in human history, while alien life could one day be confirmed.”¹³

Pasulka continued, “a very old but functional definition of religion . . . [is] simply the belief in nonhuman and supernatural intelligent beings that often descend from the sky. There are many definitions of religion, but this one is pretty standard. There is another distinction about belief in nonhuman extraterrestrial intelligence, or UFO inhabitants, that makes it distinct from the types of religions with which we are most familiar. I’m a historian of Catholicism, for instance, and what I find when I interact with people in Catholic communities is that they have faith that Jesus walked on water and that the Virgin Mary apparitions were true. But there’s something different about the UFO narrative. Here we have people who are actual scientists, like Ellen Stofan, the former chief scientist at NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], who are willing to go on TV and basically make announcements like, ‘We are going to find extraterrestrial life.’¹⁵

“She says we’re going to find life, we’re going to find habitable planets and things like that. So that gives this type of religiosity a far more powerful bite than the traditional religions, which are based on faith in things unseen and unprovable. But the belief that UFOs and aliens are potentially true, and can potentially be proven, makes this a uniquely powerful narrative for the people who believe in it. Is it fair to call this a new form of religion? I think so.”¹⁶

Keep in mind that, though Pasulka is a Catholic historian, she also stated, “My job as a scholar of religion isn’t to determine whether religious beliefs are true; I’m interested in the effects of the belief itself.”¹⁷ I guess that could be true, because there are people with college degrees in theology that do not believe in God.¹⁸

What does the Bible say?

So, if extraterrestrial life and unidentified flying objects are serious possibilities, why don’t we find them mentioned in the Bible? Well, some people think they are mentioned. On a recent television program, I heard several so-called scientists and researchers discussing Ezekiel’s wheel and how it described a apaceship. Ezekiel was a very descriptive writer, supplying details better than most writers of the Bible, and you can read his full description of what some say is a UFO in the verses 1 through 28 of Ezekiel chapter 1. It is best to read the account in the Bible, but here is a brief description of some interesting features.

“As I looked, I saw a great storm coming from the north, driving before it a huge cloud that flashed with lightning and shone with brilliant light. There was fire inside the cloud, and in the middle of the fire glowed something like gleaming amber. From the center of the cloud came four living beings that looked human,” (Ezekiel 1:4-5, NRSV).¹⁹

“As I looked at these beings, I saw four wheels touching the ground beside them, one wheel belonging to each. The wheels sparkled as if made of beryl. All four wheels looked alike and were made the same; each wheel had a second wheel turning crosswise within it. The beings could move in any of the four directions they faced, without turning as they moved,” (Ezekiel 1:15-17).

A popular journal even published an article titled “The Spaceships of the Prophet Ezekiel,”²⁰ which has also been issued as a book. The author was a chief in NASA’s program development office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. He made detailed drawings of the craft and decided the technology of the builders must have been somewhat higher than mankind’s.²¹

And here is an interesting tidbit of information from more than a hundred years ago. In the late 1890s a Baptist minister, Burrell Cannon in the U.S. state of Mississippi, became interested in Ezekiel’s flying machine and began construction on his “Ezekiel Airship” using the Bible description as his blueprint. “On an unspecified Sunday in 1902, the aircraft is alleged to have flown approximately 160 feet (49m) at a height of between 10 feet (3.0m) and 12 feet (3.7m) . . .” This was about a year or so before the Wright brothers’ flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. His original aircraft was destroyed in a storm two years later en route to St. Louis, Missouri for a presentation at the 1904 World’s Fair.²²

There is an old spiritual song/hymn called ‘Ezekiel Saw the Wheel’, but I’ve listed a rendition by Johnny Cash from a television program in the 1980s. Selected lyrics are below and the video is listed in References & Notes at the end of this article.²³

Ezekiel saw the wheel
Way up in the middle of the air
And the little wheel ran by faith
And the big wheel ran by the grace of God
Ezekiel saw the wheel
Way up in the middle of the air

Is Ezekiel’s vision one of an alien spaceship? Maybe, maybe not. I do plan to write an article specific to this subject at a later time, but there may be other places in the Bible that would be a better fit for such an idea.

Besides actual vehicles from outer space, let’s consider the possibility of contact with the alien beings themselves? Could we have been visited by off-world entities that are mentioned in the Bible? Why, yes, of course! In fact, the accounts in the Bible are too numerous to mention in this article and begin as far back in biblical history as the book of Genesis.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’” (Genesis 1:26, ESV). It is quite obvious God was talking to one or more beings that were not of this earth. An interesting study on this subject has already been uploaded to this site.²⁴ Furthermore, I would say the following verses also qualify as close encounters of the third kind (and probably the fourth kind, too).²⁵

“When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown,” (Genesis 6:1-2, 4).

The point I’m making is that any encounters with angels or demons mentioned in the Bible were alien contacts. This establishes the fact that alien contact is possible and can be good or bad, depending upon the entities involved. Someone recently told me they believed in aliens in spaceships visiting the earth, but did not believe in God. Well, that is the point mentioned above—space aliens are replacing God in a new religion.

Don’t be deceived.

So, here is the important message and question of this article; if and when full or partial disclosure about space aliens and secret technologies is announced by our government, what should a Christian do? Well, for one thing, don’t be deceived, even if some Christian ministers and churches accept it as truth, because any such disclosure will be deceptive. Contact will likely be suggested as either the coming of a higher and more advanced alien species, or it will be implied that they are our original creators, themselves from another realm (dimension) or another planet. If that happens, there will be displays and signs that will seem awesome and astonishing. Heed the warning, “Let no one deceive you in any way” (2 Thessalonians 2:3), because Satan and his demons will make a move before Jesus and his angels return.

“The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned,” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12).

Remember the very words of Jesus Christ, “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). How do we protect ourselves? If something is announced and it is true, then everything ‘said and done’ will follow the truth written in the Bible. If it is false, then it is not from God. Check and recheck; remember that Satan is a deceiver, and has been since the creation of humankind in the garden in Eden.

Jesus had wrestled and waged war with the devil and won, but as imperfect humans, we cannot win unless we have help. So, the apostle Paul gave instructions about putting on an armor of God,²⁶ because he knew we must be aware and prepared.

“Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm,” (Ephesians 6:10–13).

Copyright © 2018, 2019, Dr. Ray Hermann
OutlawBibleStudent.org

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References & Notes

1. Hermann, Ray, “Is that Gut Feeling a Message from God?” (The Outlaw Bible Student, OBS, 21 October 2018), https://outlawbiblestudent.org/is-that-gut-feeling-a-message-from-god/
2. Cooper, Helene, et al., “Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program,” (The New York Times, 16 December 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html
3. Consolmagno, Guy, and Mueller, Paul, Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? (New York: Image, Penguin Random House, 2014), p. 249.
   Note: Authors are astronomers at the Vatican Observatory and members of the Society of Jesus (or Jesuits).
4. Note: To date, the series God’s Majesty includes: (a) “Quantum Entanglement: Wacky Physics or God’s Design?”; (b) “Sin, DNA, and Our Intelligent Heart”; (c) “Is that Gut Feeling a Message from God?”; (d) “Biocommunication & Prayer”; (e) “Flying Spiders: the Mechanics of Ballooning”.
5. “War on Cancer,” (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 19 June 2018), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Cancer
6. Sardi, Bill, “Are Cancer Cures Being Hidden From the Public?” (Lew Rockwell, 1 October 2007), https://www.lewrockwell.com/2007/10/bill-sardi/are-cancer-cures-being-hidden-from-the-public/
7. (a) Salla, Michael, “Did the USA/USSR Fly a Secret Joint Mission to the Moon in 1976 to Investigate a Crashed Extraterrestrial Mothership?” (Exopolitics, 26 June 2007), https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/luna/esp_luna_36a.htm
   (b) Waring, Scott, “NASA Photo is proof of Apollo 20 mission, photo from Apollo Image Atlas,” (UFO Sightings Daily, 6 February 2015), includes VIDEO, https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2011/06/nasa-photo-is-proof-of-apollo-20.html
8. “TR-3B Anti-Gravity Spacecrafts,” (Military.com, 23 November 2013), https://www.military.com/video/aircraft/military-aircraft/tr-3b-aurora-anti-gravity-spacecrafts/2860314511001
9. “The Case for Antigravity,” (Check The Evidence, retrieved 19 July 2018), http://www.checktheevidence.com/pdf/The%20Case%20for%20AntiGravity-booklet.pdf
10. This scientist, now deceased, worked for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), which had facilities in New Orleans, Louisiana (Michoud Assembly Facility), Slidell, Louisiana (NASA Computer Complex), and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (John C. Stennis Space Center). All three facilities were within reasonable distances from each other. The photography course I taught was for Delgado College.
11. “Roswell UFO incident,” (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 25 April 2018), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident
12. Balsamini, Dean, “Footage of mysterious object above ocean stuns military personnel,” (New York Post, 10 March 2018), https://nypost.com/2018/03/10/footage-of-mysterious-object-above-ocean-stuns-military-personnel/
13. Ciaccia, Chris, “Harry Reid wants hearings on what the military knows about UFOs,” (Fox News, 14 June 2019), https://www.foxnews.com/science/harry-reid-hearings-military-ufos
14. Martin, Sean, “Alien news: Belief in ET will soon replace faith in GOD,” (Daily Express, 5 June 2019), https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1136645/alien-news-aliens-proof-god-science-space-ufo-sighting-2019
15. Illing, Sean, “The new American religion of UFOs,” (Vox Media, 4 June 2019), https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/6/4/18632778/ufo-aliens-american-cosmic-diana-pasulka
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Burton, Tara Isabella, “Study Theology, Even If You Don’t Believe in God,” (The Atlantic Magazine, 30 October 2013), https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/study-theology-even-if-you-dont-believe-in-god/280999/
19. Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible (NRSV), ©1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
20. Blumrich, Josef F., “The Spaceships of the Prophet Ezekiel,”(Impact of Science on Society, UNESCO, October-December 1974), Vol. XXIV, No. 4, pp.329-336.
    Note: Also available online at The Spaceships of Ezekiel, https://www.spaceshipsofezekiel.com/html/josef-blumrich-article_by.html
21. “The Spaceships of Ezekiel,” (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 27 October 2018), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spaceships_of_Ezekiel
22. “Ezekiel Airship,” (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 8 May 2019), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel_Airship
23. “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel,” Johnny Cash sings and is backed by the group ‘Mighty Clouds of Joy’ and the his own ‘Carter Family’ group (third generation descendants of the original Carter Family); from a 1982 Christmas special. Quality of this video is poor, but one of the better presentations of this spiritual song, as it contains a short scripture reading, – MUSIC VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/UU1PDxrzQOs
24. Hermann, Ray, “Why did God say: ‘Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness?’” (The Outlaw Bible Student, OBS, 6 January 2019), https://outlawbiblestudent.org/why-did-god-say-let-us-make-man-in-our-image-after-our-likeness/
25. “Close encounter,” (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 23 February 2019), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_encounter
26. Hermann, Ray, “Ephesians 6: Evil Cosmic Powers & the Armor of God,” (The Outlaw Bible Student, OBS, 17 February 2019), https://outlawbiblestudent.org/ephesians-6-evil-cosmic-powers-the-armor-of-god/