WARNING: what follows is an investigation into the possible existence of alien life from an explicitly Christian perspective. The author does not claim any special insight into the esoteric world of UFOs, but he does seek to base his worldview on biblical revelation.Aliens are among us, or else they aren’t. It depends on who you are willing to believe. Of course, if you believe the popular press, then the existence of UFOs is pretty much settled fact (see here, here, here, and here). And now, it has recently been reported that noted British astronomer, Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, is hinting that the James Webb telescope may have detected signs of life on an exoplanet (a planet not part of our solar system.) One might almost suspect that either aliens are getting us ready for their arrival, or that the increased number of reports, including accounts of recovered bodies and space vehicles, are yet further attempts to stampede whole nations into accepting a planet-wide government.These are likely not the only choices, but as a Bible believer I can state with certainty that the truth is not out there or hidden inside one of Area 51’s mysterious hangars. Instead, the truth is in God’s book, the Bible, and in so many words it tells us that we need not fear an alien invasion. To be clear, I believe a fair reading of the Bible can only lead to one conclusion; the coming of Christ to Earth, along with the manner of His coming, makes it impossible to take seriously the idea of sentient beings living on other planets.How so? Well, when our forefather Adam sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17; 3:2; Rom. 5:12-14) his actions led to an unprecedented event that I am prepared to claim could never happen again — anywhere. Adam’s sin made the salvation of humans utterly dependent upon the life and death of God’s eternal Son, who, although eternally divine, became man (John 1:14), and so was and continues to be God and man, one person with two distinct natures forever (Rom. 9:5; Luke 1:35; Col. 2:9). According to Christian theology, all hope for eternal life with God depends upon faith in this God-man’s perfect holiness, His perfect sacrifice, His substitutionary atoning death (meaning He suffered as the stand-in for the sinful human race) and His glorious resurrection. I hope you see what this means; with the entrance of God’s Son into the world on the first Christmas, God’s relationships with His Son and with us changed forever.Now, try to imagine the same event happening elsewhere. Imagine, for instance, that God filled another planet with life, much as He has done on Earth. On this imaginary planet, God formed other creatures, who might, or might not have looked like us, and breathed into them the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). Would those creatures, into whom God’s very life had been breathed, not also be created in His image? Btw, don’t get bogged down with finding God’s image in the human form. Because God is Spirit (John 4:24), His image is found, not in our shape, but in our souls.Think next about the possibility that, like Adam, the first of that planet’s image-bearers also sinned. What would happen then? Remember, God only has one Son and he’s already come to earth and become one of us.Moreover, our Lord’s incarnation (taking on human flesh) is the kind of thing that can’t be repeated. So, what’s God going to do if sin is found on another planet? Does He have another Son to become their Saviour? Taken as a whole, the Bible teaches that the Trinity is perfect and complete, as is. In other words, throughout the universe, or, for the sake of argument, the multiverses, there is only one unchanging God, who is eternally Father, Son and Spirit.And because there can only be one God, this triune Being would necessarily be the one God of both Earth and Zog, or whatever those other image bearers call their home world. But as stated, God has only one Son. And that Son is now one with us. He has committed himself to humanity forever (Heb. 7:24-28). Who, then, will leave the Godhead to become one with the Zogonians, to die for their sins and rise for their justification (Rom. 4:25)? Could another person in the Trinity do it? Could an angel do the job? I think the answer is obvious.Suppose, however, that God would consider saving the Zogonians without an atonement for their sins? In the words of St. Paul, “May it never be.” Because justice is the same everywhere in the universe, this would mean that having punished His own Son for our sins, God would then violate His own principles of justice by treating the Zogonians differently. On the other hand, would God be prepared to allow the Zogonians to develop their sinful nature, quite possibly becoming supreme in intelligence and wickedness, only to then travel across the void and wipe out the race for which Christ died? I sincerely hope you find such a thought impossible to entertain.But you may ask, what if the Zogonians never sin? What if they develop into a perfect, sinless race of beings who never need to be reconciled to God? What if, unlike the human race, their entrance into heaven is based on their own righteousness? Okay, but consider this, when the redeemed humans and the unredeemed Zogonians stand together before God, the Being sitting on the throne will be one of us, not one of them. It seems to me that outcome could be as fraught with difficulties as the idea of the Zogonians’ eternal wickedness.I hope you can see by now that thanks to the incarnation of the Son of God, there really is no room in the universe for any sentient race other than ours. Thus, no aliens have come or will come, either to befriend us or to destroy us. The Christian position regarding aliens then, is a gloss on Christ’s words to Thomas (John 20:29). To a world that fears what may come from the skies we say, “Blessed are those who, with spiritual eyes, have seen the first coming of the Lord and believed. To such people no heavenly visitation need be feared.” And to those who refuse to believe the testimony of the gospels we warn them not to be afraid of imaginary aliens, but rather to fear the arrival of the day, “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (II Thess. 2:7-8).
WARNING: what follows is an investigation into the possible existence of alien life from an explicitly Christian perspective. The author does not claim any special insight into the esoteric world of UFOs, but he does seek to base his worldview on biblical revelation.Aliens are among us, or else they aren’t. It depends on who you are willing to believe. Of course, if you believe the popular press, then the existence of UFOs is pretty much settled fact (see here, here, here, and here). And now, it has recently been reported that noted British astronomer, Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, is hinting that the James Webb telescope may have detected signs of life on an exoplanet (a planet not part of our solar system.) One might almost suspect that either aliens are getting us ready for their arrival, or that the increased number of reports, including accounts of recovered bodies and space vehicles, are yet further attempts to stampede whole nations into accepting a planet-wide government.These are likely not the only choices, but as a Bible believer I can state with certainty that the truth is not out there or hidden inside one of Area 51’s mysterious hangars. Instead, the truth is in God’s book, the Bible, and in so many words it tells us that we need not fear an alien invasion. To be clear, I believe a fair reading of the Bible can only lead to one conclusion; the coming of Christ to Earth, along with the manner of His coming, makes it impossible to take seriously the idea of sentient beings living on other planets.How so? Well, when our forefather Adam sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17; 3:2; Rom. 5:12-14) his actions led to an unprecedented event that I am prepared to claim could never happen again — anywhere. Adam’s sin made the salvation of humans utterly dependent upon the life and death of God’s eternal Son, who, although eternally divine, became man (John 1:14), and so was and continues to be God and man, one person with two distinct natures forever (Rom. 9:5; Luke 1:35; Col. 2:9). According to Christian theology, all hope for eternal life with God depends upon faith in this God-man’s perfect holiness, His perfect sacrifice, His substitutionary atoning death (meaning He suffered as the stand-in for the sinful human race) and His glorious resurrection. I hope you see what this means; with the entrance of God’s Son into the world on the first Christmas, God’s relationships with His Son and with us changed forever.Now, try to imagine the same event happening elsewhere. Imagine, for instance, that God filled another planet with life, much as He has done on Earth. On this imaginary planet, God formed other creatures, who might, or might not have looked like us, and breathed into them the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). Would those creatures, into whom God’s very life had been breathed, not also be created in His image? Btw, don’t get bogged down with finding God’s image in the human form. Because God is Spirit (John 4:24), His image is found, not in our shape, but in our souls.Think next about the possibility that, like Adam, the first of that planet’s image-bearers also sinned. What would happen then? Remember, God only has one Son and he’s already come to earth and become one of us.Moreover, our Lord’s incarnation (taking on human flesh) is the kind of thing that can’t be repeated. So, what’s God going to do if sin is found on another planet? Does He have another Son to become their Saviour? Taken as a whole, the Bible teaches that the Trinity is perfect and complete, as is. In other words, throughout the universe, or, for the sake of argument, the multiverses, there is only one unchanging God, who is eternally Father, Son and Spirit.And because there can only be one God, this triune Being would necessarily be the one God of both Earth and Zog, or whatever those other image bearers call their home world. But as stated, God has only one Son. And that Son is now one with us. He has committed himself to humanity forever (Heb. 7:24-28). Who, then, will leave the Godhead to become one with the Zogonians, to die for their sins and rise for their justification (Rom. 4:25)? Could another person in the Trinity do it? Could an angel do the job? I think the answer is obvious.Suppose, however, that God would consider saving the Zogonians without an atonement for their sins? In the words of St. Paul, “May it never be.” Because justice is the same everywhere in the universe, this would mean that having punished His own Son for our sins, God would then violate His own principles of justice by treating the Zogonians differently. On the other hand, would God be prepared to allow the Zogonians to develop their sinful nature, quite possibly becoming supreme in intelligence and wickedness, only to then travel across the void and wipe out the race for which Christ died? I sincerely hope you find such a thought impossible to entertain.But you may ask, what if the Zogonians never sin? What if they develop into a perfect, sinless race of beings who never need to be reconciled to God? What if, unlike the human race, their entrance into heaven is based on their own righteousness? Okay, but consider this, when the redeemed humans and the unredeemed Zogonians stand together before God, the Being sitting on the throne will be one of us, not one of them. It seems to me that outcome could be as fraught with difficulties as the idea of the Zogonians’ eternal wickedness.I hope you can see by now that thanks to the incarnation of the Son of God, there really is no room in the universe for any sentient race other than ours. Thus, no aliens have come or will come, either to befriend us or to destroy us. The Christian position regarding aliens then, is a gloss on Christ’s words to Thomas (John 20:29). To a world that fears what may come from the skies we say, “Blessed are those who, with spiritual eyes, have seen the first coming of the Lord and believed. To such people no heavenly visitation need be feared.” And to those who refuse to believe the testimony of the gospels we warn them not to be afraid of imaginary aliens, but rather to fear the arrival of the day, “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (II Thess. 2:7-8).
