New Jerusalem or the Borg?*

When Star Trek: First Contact was in theatres, my friends at Regent College noticed the similarity between the design of the Borg ship and the shape of the Revelation‘s New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:9-27). We came up with our own Christian Borg slogan, “Resistance is futile. You will be resurrected.”

We laughed but maybe we were not so far off. For a quick Google search will reveal that indeed there are aliens in our Bibles!

You simply have to read into the Bible with the correct interpretive lens. Thanks to Orson Welles’ 1938 presentation of H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds, alien invasion was injected deep into the North American psyche. In the Cold War era, the myth of the Little Green Men spread. As reports of sightings, abductions and other close encounters proliferate, the myth has taken a strong foothold in our cultural imagination. From these reports, we now “know” that these Visitors are not Green but Grey. The verdict is still out whether these Visitors are benevolent or more like us. (I find the oft repeated idea that beings who are so technologically advanced are more likely to be morally advanced as well amusingly naive.) It could be that they are Purple and, having heard Chuck Berry via Voyager, just want to play Rock and Roll.

So, how do I find aliens in my Bible? Well, once you believe the reports and have an encyclopaedic view of scripture, then getting aliens into the Bible is a simple matter. Any being that tries to teach or communicate a message to the human race from “the heavens” that doesn’t specifically point to Jesus Christ is a demon, especially, if they promise world peace. Hocus Pocus! Aliens are really demons. Tada!

That wasn’t so hard was it?

One of the arguments I have read is that only demons would have the technology that aliens seem to possess. Well, if aliens are demons, then what is God. Is the New Jerusalem which comes down from the heavens, a huge cubical alien spacecraft akin to the Borg ships? Or is someone misreading their Bible with a wacky hermeneutic? Where is Occam’s razor? I need a shave.

The Fundamentalist and Dispensationalist approaches to scripture tend to import current culture into the Bible and then these beliefs come out as the inspired, infallible word of God. (Reading into a text is called “eisegesis” and is far easier and therefore more popular than”exegesis” which is reading something out of a text.) That is, if we read aliens into the Bible, then the Bible affirms the existence of little grey men and UFOs. And who are we as Christians to argue with the infallible Word of God?

There is no room left to say, perhaps these are demonic or psychological experiences but aliens are not visiting the earth.

The irony is that this approach to scripture often ends up supporting the worldviews which evoked the reaction in the first place.

People who believe in aliens are deceived and spreading lies.
Demons spread lies.
Demons come from the heavens.
Aliens come from the heavens.
Ergo, Aliens are demons.
People who believe in aliens are having genuine experience with otherworldly creatures.
Aliens exist and the Bible says so.

Would it not be simpler to say that we are likely not being visited? It would certainly be more accurate to say that the Biblical authors have nothing to say on this matter because it wasn’t a live question at the time of its writing. If Paul were to say something, I suspect his letter would sound a great deal like Colossians with perhaps a bit more of the tone from Galatians.

Is this phenomenon real or am I creating a straw man?
Hal Lindsey on Aliens as Fallen Angels
Chuck Missler reads Aliens into Revelation’s Old Testament Allusions

I am sure a quick google search for the “truth” will reveal more examples. See my post “A Quick Google Search for the Truth” for a demonstration of how these authors continue to make money despite their whacky claims.

*This post was originally published on my other blog about seven years ago. I have re-posted it because Joel Anderson mentioned it in his blog resurrecting orthodoxy.

Here is a link to one of Joel’s post on Ken Ham’s take on Aliens. Holy Ham, Ken? E.T. is an Atheist!