Reconciling Christianity with ET Aliens

Personally I don't see any conflict with aliens and Christianity. Though I didn't watch the documentary you referenced. The link is just one persons opinion.

God states He created the universe and everything in it. Other than angels ... there are no other beings stated as capable of travel between heavens and earth in His Word.

I'd say Angelic activity (demonic or not demonic). Angels don't need spaceships.

I'd say likely demonic activity .... another way of placing doubt/deceiving people about what God says in His Word ... distracting people away from God.

cloudyday2 said:

I watched a Christian documentary about UFOs which asserted that the existence of extraterrestrial aliens cannot be reconciled with Christian theology. If Christian theology is true, then ET aliens do not exist and probably the unexplainable UFOs are demonic deceptions. The lecturer in the documentary was Gary Bates ( Gary Bates - creation.com )

Just wondering what people think.

There was a new story that brought this topic to mind:
Texas Politician Alienates Twitter Users By Suggesting E.T.s Need Religion

Click to expand...

The Bible is true, so it is more than just aliens that is not true. Concerning Gods creation if it is not found in the Bible, it is a satanic lie.

cloudyday2 said:

I watched a Christian documentary about UFOs which asserted that the existence of extraterrestrial aliens cannot be reconciled with Christian theology. If Christian theology is true, then ET aliens do not exist and probably the unexplainable UFOs are demonic deceptions. The lecturer in the documentary was Gary Bates ( Gary Bates - creation.com )

Just wondering what people think.

There was a new story that brought this topic to mind:
Texas Politician Alienates Twitter Users By Suggesting E.T.s Need Religion

Click to expand...

Proof of intelligent alien life would raise some interesting theological questions, but I really don't see how a conservative interpretation of Scripture precludes the existence of that life.

Also, the most of the featured tweets in that link indicate that the people who tweeted them don't believe that human beings need faith in Christ to get to Heaven, so I'm not seeing how those people have anything to add to the discussion of Christian beliefs of how or if a space alien could get to Heaven.

cloudyday2 said:

Here is an article describing the problems in reconciling Christian theology with ET. The author is a fundamentalist young-earth Christian, but I suspect there a similar issues with the more liberal forms of Christian theology. Christianity of any form sees Jesus and his death on the Cross in Jerusalem as a cosmic event, but human-like intelligent lifeforms throughout the universe bring theological questions.
Did God create life on other planets? - creation.com

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It brings up some challenges to intelligent alien life, but not full-on refutations.

The Bible indicates that the whole creation groans and travails under the weight of sin (Romans 8:18–22). The effect of the Curse following Adam’s Fall was universal. Otherwise what would be the point of God destroying this whole creation to make way for a new heavens and Earth—2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1? Therefore, any ETs living elsewhere would have been (unjustly) affected by the Adamic Curse through no fault of their own—they would not have inherited Adam’s sin nature.

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This is a silly argument because it tries to take what the Bible does not talk about - alleged intelligent life on another world - and put it in the context of what happened in this world. The author is putting a lot of emphasis on a very literal interpretation of "whole" in this verse in order to stretch it out to other worlds, but in Colossians 1:6 "whole" was used non-literally. The Gospel was in fact spreading all over the known Roman world, but I have no reason to believe that Paul was attempting to prophetically deny any possibility of the Western Hemisphere which it obviously had not spread to yet. Christianity didn't die when the Western Hemisphere was discovered by Columbus, rather it spread here as a consequence.

When Christ (God) appeared in the flesh, He came to Earth not only to redeem mankind but eventually the whole creation back to Himself (Romans 8:21, Colossians 1:20). However, Christ’s atoning death at Calvary cannot save these hypothetical ETs, because one needs to be a physical descendant of Adam for Christ to be our ‘kinsman-redeemer’ (Isaiah 59:20). Jesus was called ‘the last Adam’ because there was a real first man, Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22,45)—not a first Vulcan, Klingon etc. This is so a sinless human Substitute takes on the punishment all humans deserve for sin (Isaiah 53:6,10; Matthew 20:28; 1 John 2:2, 4:10), with no need to atone for any (non-existent) sin of his own (Hebrews 7:27).
Since this would mean that any ETs would be lost for eternity when this present creation is destroyed in a fervent heat (2 Peter 3:10, 12), some have wondered whether Christ’s sacrifice might be repeated elsewhere for other beings. However, Christ died once for all (Romans 6:10, 1 Peter 3:18) on the earth. He is not going to be crucified and resurrected again on other planets (Hebrews 9:26).

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Christ most certainly died and rose again to redeem humans. This is where the "interesting theological questions" would come into play, since we also hold that God is big enough that the known universe would not be too big for him to manage. I don't want to get too speculative on particulars since we don't even know that the intelligent alien life exists, but I trust that God is big enough and wise enough to know what he is doing with them if he created them.

This is confirmed by the fact that the redeemed (earthly) church is known as Christ’s bride (Ephesians 5:22–33; Revelation 19:7–9) in a marriage that will last for eternity. Christ is not going to be a polygamist with many other brides from other planets.

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Christians are all part of the church, and the church is the bride of Christ, yet Christ is not a polygamist. "The church" is a collective term, and "bride" is a metaphor. This would still be true if intelligent alien life exists and will be joining us in Heaven. Perhaps these terms are more inclusive than the author suggests, though I dare not speculate on the particulars without proof that such life exists.

eleos1954 said:

Angels don't need spaceships.

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There was a discussion in Eschatology regarding the great end time delusion that God will send on an unbelieving world. We do see vehicles in scripture, whether they are mechanical or just shape shifting entities I cannot tell. Ezekiel saw wheels in the middle of wheels. What was that? Elijah was scooped up by a chariot of fire.
2 Kings 2:11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

And Elisha prayed that his servants eyes open so he could see into the spirit realm to see chariots of fire.
2 Kings 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

cloudyday2 said:

I watched a Christian documentary about UFOs which asserted that the existence of extraterrestrial aliens cannot be reconciled with Christian theology. If Christian theology is true, then ET aliens do not exist and probably the unexplainable UFOs are demonic deceptions. The lecturer in the documentary was Gary Bates ( Gary Bates - creation.com )

Just wondering what people think.

There was a new story that brought this topic to mind:
Texas Politician Alienates Twitter Users By Suggesting E.T.s Need Religion

Click to expand...

Well some Christians like the Vatican seem to be Christianizing the idea of ETS.

But there is the rest of us. There are lots of stuff around regarding Residual ufos, aka rufos (ufos that have gone through the process of weeding out hoaxes, misidentifications etc.) phenomenon that suggests a more paranormal origin.

Basically demons, inter-dimensional creatures etc. Jacquee Vallee was the first to really go big on this Theory. But Christian Apologist, Scientist and Pastor Hugh Ross has spent years researching this going back to the 1980s.


Jacques Vallée, UFOs, and the Case Against Aliens


Read


PS - I will say that this stuff is not just theory, but based on experience etc. As far as people who do ministry in the occult, but also the opposite. Ross himself is an Astronomer and Astrophysicist who spent many hours staring into the sky and never saw a ufo. He however noticed that some of his colleagues that spend a fraction of the time star gazing were seeing a number of times a year, and soon recognized they all had a background in the occult....

IMO if extraterrestrial life exists, it will be nothing like anything on earth, and certainly not little green men in flying saucers.

I don’t see any problem with aliens. The Biblical arguments against don’t make much sense.
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Note: what I mean here is that I don't think the quotes from Scripture actually apply. As far as I know, Scripture is about God's relationship with humanity. It says nothing about other races one way or the other. It's normally a bad idea to quote Biblical passages when trying to answer questions that the authors clearly didn't have in mind.

There's been plenty of speculative fiction involving this question, ranging from C S Lewis' novels, in which the equivalent of a Fall is prevented, to another book whose name escapes me, in which the other race is part of a Satanic plot to discredit Christianity. But these possibilities are speculative fiction, not theology.

cloudyday2 said:

I watched a Christian documentary about UFOs which asserted that the existence of extraterrestrial aliens cannot be reconciled with Christian theology. If Christian theology is true, then ET aliens do not exist and probably the unexplainable UFOs are demonic deceptions. The lecturer in the documentary was Gary Bates ( Gary Bates - creation.com )

Just wondering what people think.

There was a new story that brought this topic to mind:
Texas Politician Alienates Twitter Users By Suggesting E.T.s Need Religion

Click to expand...

It's a non-issue. If there is other life in the way that we understand life, it is so far away that we can never know for sure. There is not even a habitable planet in our own solar system. No, Mars is not habitable. Mars has 1/3 the gravity of earth. No technology can overcome that. UFO's are demonic deceptions, illusions or misunderstandings of natural phenomena.

Arguing from silence is not helpful. However, the fact that God does not mention aliens means that it is not important. We surely have enough problems on earth. One day everything will be known that can be known. Until then, the Kingdom of God should be our focus.

Aussie Pete said:

However, the fact that God does not mention aliens means that it is not important.

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The scriptures do mention angels. And whether holy or fallen, they are alien to us.

I suspect that if extraterrestrials ever visited Earth, Christians will just proselytize to them, too.

Strathos said:

IMO if extraterrestrial life exists, it will be nothing like anything on earth, and certainly not little green men in flying saucers.

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Little red men in flying saucers!?

I thought this thread might be about "Reconciling Christianity with Christ"

Handmaid for Jesus said:

There was a discussion in Eschatology regarding the great end time delusion that God will send on an unbelieving world. We do see vehicles in scripture, whether they are mechanical or just shape shifting entities I cannot tell. Ezekiel saw wheels in the middle of wheels. What was that? Elijah was scooped up by a chariot of fire.
2 Kings 2:11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

And Elisha prayed that his servants eyes open so he could see into the spirit realm to see chariots of fire.
2 Kings 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

Click to expand...

well ... some go with strictly literal ... the approach I take is ... always look for the literal first .... if it doesn't make literal sense .... then go search for the symbolic meaning(s) .... what you referenced above .... I would consider chariot of fire, horses of fire, wheels in the middle of wheels symbolic.

Regarding the strong delusion .... note this ...

2 Thessalonians 2:11-13
For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

ie ... believe what is false (a lie) .... we know God does not lie .... so God doesn't send the delusion (the lie itself) ... what He does is He allows those who did not believe the truth to believe a lie .... and all lies are from satan. We know satan deceivingly twists the Word of God .... so it is a false teaching that is believed and because they did not believe the truth ... God allows them to believe the delusional lie.

MHO's anyways ;o)

The closest we get to any inkling of life elsewhere is in Hebrews where it talks about the "worlds" God created. And yes that word "worlds" is plural.

Hebrews 1:2
Hebrews 11:3

As far as those worlds having carbon based life? We have no idea. And how would life on other planets play into the question of redemption? (We don't know that either.)

C.S. Lewis did write a space trilogy with multiple races of sentient entities who where waiting to see what would happen on earth. That scenario is plausible as angels are sentient entities that are outside of the salvation plan. (But they are not "carbon based life" either.)

Now could the Son have been incarnated on more than one planet simultaneously? I suppose theoretically, that's possible too.

Could non human alien life have taken humans off of earth to some place else? (That's also possible. Probable? - Now that's another question.)

Is interstellar travel actually even possible? Given the understanding of the structure of the universe that we currently have; the answer to that would be "not likely"; since at least from our perspective it seems one would need to be able to travel the speed of light. (Unless you throw in the possibility of worm holes, space "warping" etc.)

One thing we do know from Scripture though is that at the end of time; the entire universe is destroyed and recreated; which would also involve any other inhabited planets.

Now, interesting thought hit me a couple of weeks ago when I was listening to a Preterist preacher talk about "the sun being darkened and the moon won't give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven." (Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:25)

He attributed this all to "metaphoric language", even though the sun was literally darkened at the crucifixion and the moon didn't give it's light. (Luke 23:45)

Compare this to Judgement Day when the sun becomes "black as sackcloth of hair" and the moon "blood" (red).
Joel 2:31
Acts 2:20
Revelation 6:12

Now I looked up the phrase in the Greek. "stars fall from the sky" .... "powers of heaven will be shaken". The second half of that phrase I believe is a reference to what was going on in the domaine of God ("heaven") while the atonement was taking place. (God incarnate was being "rent" asunder of two natures.)

This was indeed "the great tribulation" for if it had not been "cut short" "no flesh would be saved". (When was flesh saved?) Now if you believe the atonement is fully satisfied and complete; the only answer you are left with is that the completion there of, has to be at the cross. "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun is darkened..." (the crucifixion). Daniel tells us the "great tribulation" is for "one week". It commenced on the Friday before the crucifixion when Mary anoints Jesus's feet. It is "cut short" the night of Passover when Jesus is confronted with the angel of death. (Exodus 12:13, Luke 22:43) This is the point Jesus's human soul is consigned to Sheol; where He "preaches to the spirits in prison". He doesn't die at that point (having had the "breath of life" removed by the angel of death) because He still has a Divine nature. Jesus dies when His Divine nature is rent from his human nature. This is why the "veil of the temple" (veil of his flesh) is "torn".

But the "stars fall from the sky"; (along with the sun darkened and the moon not visible)? We know the atonement was the execution of the wrath of God taken on by the Son for the sins of believers; and therefore was a "mini Judgement Day" in and of itself.

Did the cosmos actually commence coming unraveled at the crucifixion? Now that seems to be what indeed was happening; for if the atonement had not taken place, the cosmos would have been destroyed at that point, because there would have been no reason for time to continue.

We see now what are called "shooting stars" and "super novas" and other types of what is believed to be "star collapse phenomena". This actually isn't uncommon at this point to be witnessed from earth. (Now is what we are seeing really stars dying? That's another question; but not one that seems unreasonable or unlikely)

Yet if this really is "star collapse phenomena"; are these indeed events that commenced from the time of the crucifixion and we only see the effects now, based on how far away these stars were and how fast light travels? Are these "signs in the sun, moon and stars" (Luke 21:25) Is this phenomena "stars falling (failing / coming to ruin) from the sky"; as described in Matthew, Mark and Luke?

• Acts 7:49 (KJV)
  Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house
• will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
  
  
• Isaiah 66:1 (KJV)
  Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool:
• where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

Psalms 115:16 (KJV)
The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's:
but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

The Righterzpen said:

The closest we get to any inkling of life elsewhere is in Hebrews where it talks about the "worlds" God created. And yes that word "worlds" is plural.

Click to expand...

The bible talks about 3 worlds.

The world that was [before flood],
the world that is [current],
and the world soon to come [mill].
All are on the same earth.

cloudyday2 said:

I watched a Christian documentary about UFOs which asserted that the existence of extraterrestrial aliens cannot be reconciled with Christian theology. If Christian theology is true, then ET aliens do not exist and probably the unexplainable UFOs are demonic deceptions. The lecturer in the documentary was Gary Bates ( Gary Bates - creation.com )

Just wondering what people think.

There was a new story that brought this topic to mind:
Texas Politician Alienates Twitter Users By Suggesting E.T.s Need Religion

Click to expand...

Aliens are demons.