By now, it is time for people to stop scoffing and making “little green men” jokes about the whole question of U.F.O.s, or Unidentified Anomalous/Aerial Phenomena, as they are now called. Declassified videos from the Pentagon, and statements from high-profile politicians like Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and even Donald Trump mean that this can not be relegated to hallucinations and tall stories told by attention seekers. U.F.O.s are no longer tabloid-fodder; they are mainstream stories, and their existence will affect Christians.
For several decades, science fiction in books, movies and television has been shaping people to think of “extraterrestrials” as humanoid, biological entities, dwelling on planets circling distant suns. Darwinism has been preaching the idea that just as life spontaneously began on earth, the sheer amount of planets, stars, and galaxies means it must have spontaneously developed elsewhere. And if evolution is the nature of all life, some extra-terrestrial life must have evolved to the point that they are space-faring, able to traverse light-years, with technologies that seem magical to a backward civilisation like ours.
So when these phenomena have been observed, filmed, and possibly captured, a worldview that excludes God and the spiritual realm grasps for Darwinian and naturalistic explanations. Aliens from other planets becomes the working interpretation. That’s because the phenomena defy the natural laws of physics, aerodynamics and gravity, doing turns, stops, accelerations and entrances into and exits from water at extreme velocity. Instead of recognising that we are dealing with non-physical entities not bound by physical laws, the explanation turns to “advanced technologies” of aliens from other planets.
But for Christians, we have no need of this interpretation. Scripture prepared us for the fact that we are not alone in God’s cosmos. Multiple other sentient creatures are described in the Bible: seraphim, cherubim, living creatures, thrones, rulers, dominions, principalities, powers, angels, demons, and princes. We don’t necessarily understand the differences, roles, ranks, activities or even sphere of dwelling of these creatures. We know their existence overlaps with ours; we know their realm is primarily the heavens – at least some of them. We know they are not a biological race like ours that propagates through natural generation; they seem to be creatures created directly by God, with bodies, powers, intellect very different from ours. It is true to say they are “spiritual’, but this designation, in the minds of many, relegates them to being vaporous, wispy entities without substance. They are real, substantial beings; they just aren’t mortal, flesh-and -blood beings. The designation “Non-Human Intelligences” is quite accurate; that doesn’t mean they are biological beings from Zeta Reticuli.
We’re not doing Angelology 101 here, but suffice it to say, other intelligent creatures live alongside us. We do not know if some of them are relegated to being here. We don’t know how, when or why they can manifest on earth physically, what their bounds are, how they travel, and how much interaction they are allowed with mankind. We have hints and clues in Scripture, but nothing like a definitive answer.
We do know that some of them are called “deceiving spirits”. We do know that Jesus predicted a deception was coming that was so grand, if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. (Matt. 24:24). Paul described the coming of a great delusion that would deceive those who did not love the truth (2 Thes. 1:9-12).
What would we expect these deceiving spirits to say, explicitly, or implicitly? The same old lies. That they are advanced “older brothers”, here to help us. That the universe is full of “races”, and we are not unique. That any religion which claims to be the only way must be false, because Jesus didn’t die on “all those other planets”. That our real problems are our warmongering, our treatment of the environment, and our nuclear weapons. That we need to give up our sectarian ways, and evolve into the higher consciousness that is the Universe itself.
If you reject the biblical worldview, you will either believe the lies of these deceiving spirits, or struggle to come up with an alternative explanation. My hunch is that the future disclosures from governments are going to be along the lines of “Yes, we’ve known about these things for a long time, but we still don’t completely know what they are.”
The plain truth of God the Creator and His redemptive plan has been in plain sight for a very long time. The rejection of what is obvious and revealed is what makes us vulnerable to lying substitutes.