NASA has hired 24 theologians at the Center for Theological Inquiry in Princeton, to advise on possible contact with aliens. They are to determine how major religions would potentially respond to such a scenario. Andrew Davison, one of the advisors, said it would “be useful to have thought through the implications in advance” and that such contact would have significant ramifications “for the standing and dignity of human life” (“NASA Has Enlisted,” Relevant Magazine, Dec. 29, 2021). A recent Pew Research study found that 65% of Americans (76% of adults under 30) believe in extraterrestrial life on other planets. The Bible teaches that there is life beyond earth, but it is not aliens in the sci-fi sense. There is life in the third heaven, which is called paradise and the city of the living God. Its occupants are “an innumerable company of angels,” “the general assembly and church of the firstborn,” “God the Judge of all,” and “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23). That is a fascinating citizenship. There is also life in a place called hell, which is a place of incarceration for impenitent rebels. Then there is fallen angelic life that is described as “principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). The universe was made when man was created, and its purpose is the outworking of God’s eternal plan “that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Ephesians 1:10). The Bible describes the future, and Bible prophecy has never been wrong. The “alien invasion” prophesied in Scripture is the return of Jesus Christ with His holy angels and the redeemed saints. NASA is wasting a lot of money and effort chasing an illusion. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:29-30). Some say the Bible’s teaching is far-fetched, but they would have us believe that everything came from nothing, that an explosion produced intricate order, that life sprang from non-life, that intelligence rose from non-intelligence, and that the mind-bogglingly complex universe came into being without a Creator. That, my friends, is far-fetched!
(Friday Church News Notes, January 14, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)