A piece of news that has received a great deal of attention recently is Nasa’s reported hiring of 24 theologians to examine how humanity and specifically religious people would react to the discovery of alien life.
According to the UK Times, the most significant question for the theologians to answer related to the idea “of there having been many incarnations [of Christ]” throughout the universe.
Rev. Dr. Andrew Davision from the Univesity of Cambridge was one of the 24 hired by NASA on the project.
Davison’s upcoming book “Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine,” which is set to come out later this year, reportedly will cover the “joint spiritual exploration” conducted by the Center for Theological Inquiry and NASA.
“Detection [of alien life] might come in a decade or only in future centuries or perhaps never at all, but if or where it does,” Davison asserted, “it will be useful to have thought through the implications in advance.”
Although this news has brought varying reactions, Pastor JD Farag of Calvary Chapel Kaneohe in Hawaii cautioned Christians not to be deceived.
Farag firstly explained that “aliens” are plainly demonic from a Biblical perspective. Quoting from one report which asked, ‘between heaven and earth, where do aliens fit in?’ Pastor JD responded that the answer is straightforward: “they are demons. That’s how they fit in.”
The Pastor also warned that a “revelation of aliens” could also be the lie used to explain away the Rapture of the Church, a future event described in Scripture in which Believers in Jesus are caught up into heaven prior to the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation (1 Thess. 4:16-18, 1 Corin. 15:52, Titus 2:13).
Pastor Farag is not the only teacher to wonder if this could be a Biblically foretold deception. In his article “The UFO Set-Up: Could This Lie Become ‘The Lie,'” Terry James examined the possibility of a lie surrounding “aliens” being prominently used during the Tribulation.
“Could [UFOs and aliens] be but one more indicator of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline? Is this but one more item being used by Satan and his minions to set up earth’s inhabitants for when the Church is gone in the Rapture, and the Antichrist is revealed?” James asked. “I believe it is quite possible that this is the case.”
“Certainly, no developments we see almost hourly in these strange times should be off-limits for consideration as to prophetic significance. The present UFO hubbub is no exception,” he added.
Referencing the New York Post’s report, Farag furthermore pointed out that the central question the NASA theologians sought to answer (i.e. the notion of multiple incarnations of Christ in the universe) is nearly word-for-word what Jesus’ warned of in the time before His return in Matthew 24.
Matthew 24:3-5 KJV – “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”
“Jesus said exactly that. In fact, it’s almost verbatim,” the Calvary Chapel Pastor said. “Many apparitions of Christ, many Christs will come in My name. Do not be deceived. This is a deception on a satanic scale.”
Farag additionally pointed to the apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy in which he urges Christians to understand that in the last days, people will gather to themselves a significant number of theologians/teachers to tell them what they want to hear:
2 Timothy 4: 1-4 KJV – “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
NASA is undoubtedly “heaping to themselves” false teachers who will affirm their worldview instead of present Biblical Truth, according to Ken Ham, the Founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis.
“What NASA needs to do is employ biblical scholars who truly believe God’s Word beginning in Genesis. Otherwise, this is all a futile exercise,” Ham maintained. “But NASA’s worldview is based on evolutionary naturalism, so they certainly wouldn’t want Christians who take Genesis as literal history (as it’s meant to be taken) giving them the truth about the universe & life.”
“NASA needs to learn the lesson from Job and acknowledge that God knows all things, and we need to recognize how fallible we are before him,” he wrote, referencing Job 42:2–6.
Ham has often criticized pastors and theologians who reject the literal reading of Scripture to twist and mold the Word of God around man’s fallible ideas.
“As my father taught me, a Christian should never put fallible man’s word in authority over God’s infallible Word,” he recently wrote. “More than ever, we need to challenge people with the truth of God’s Word and the saving gospel.”
