by Lance Waldie

Do you believe in UFOs? How about flying saucers and/or abductions from alien beings? With the help of the media the UFO phenomenon is advancing rapidly. From Star Wars to E.T. to Contact we have been indoctrinated with UFOs and extraterrestrial beings. They promote the possibility that the supposed life that exists on other planets might be friendly or hostile but always considerably more evolved than we mere humans. "Contact," which is destined to become a blockbuster, wants us to believe that life exists for sure in other solar systems. The movie puts Christians in a negative light and suggests that though science and religion are different they are both equally purposeful methods of seeking reason and truth in a chaotic world.

With all of the make-believe media hype and the so-called "true stories" circulating out there what are we to conclude of this UFO stuff?

In order to be fair we cannot just ignore all of the fabulous stories of UFO sightings. Many people see "unidentified flying objects" in the sky -- that does not mean that there are space aliens living in other solar systems. But once we filter out the obvious wackos and practical jokers we are still left with a remnant of well-meaning people who would swear on their lives that they have seen a UFO and/or spoken with an alien. What are we to say to them? After all, Christians believe in Jesus Christ because we have been told of His existence from eyewitness accounts of those who walked with him prior to and after His resurrection. We believe that which was written some 1900 years ago. Can’t we believe the UFO revelations that exist today?

One of the leaders of the "UFOnauts" is Gabriel Green. Green is with the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Club, a New Age UFO group, that teaches that the "enlightened ones" will be taken off the earth during an evolutionary leap. The Heaven’s Gate Cult is a prime example. They clung to the old faith of dualism -- all matter is evil, spirit is good. They believed that their bodies (matter) were evil, so they set their soul free by committing suicide. They believed in UFOs and that a space ship was waiting for them behind the Hale Bop Comet. They assumed that they were the enlightened ones and were to be taken off the earth in an evolutionary leap. They believed in higher life forms that had evolved beyond the mere human life form we all possess.

Lest you think this is an isolated group consider that this is precisely what evolution teaches! If we evolved then we are still evolving. Extraterrestrial beings are just human beings one billion years from now. Carl Sagan believed it and inspired the movie "Contact" which will no doubt bring on another UFO revival.

New Age author Brad Steiger believes in evolutionary "cleansing," which he interprets as a time of great judgment on the earth "ushering in a New Age consciousness." This process will "weed out" inhibiting religions like Biblical Christianity. Could this be what people will conclude when the Church is raptured and millions vanish without explanation? Could this scenario be Satan’s way to explain the Rapture of the Church? It appears to me that he is already sowing those seeds of deception.

Former investigative news reporter William Alnor in his book UFOs in the New Age quotes Stuart Goldman who claims most of the UFO believers he has interviewed "had a background in the New Age Movement or the occult." There were minimal Christians and Jews who made the claim. Furthermore, these die-hard UFO followers, though making no claim for Biblical inerrancy and authority, actually use the Bible to promote their twisted theology! Isn’t that what Satan has been doing from the beginning -- distorting God’s Word? One of Satan’s first acts was lying to Eve about God’s instructions concerning the forbidden fruit. He is a deceiver, and that is exactly what he is doing in the New Age Movement.

There have been many books and articles written through the years on the New Age Movement. This is an extremely "anti-God-of-the-Bible" belief system. It’s difficult to outline what New Agers believe, but it is easy to see what it attacks -- Biblical Christianity. It is also the same belief system that promotes a belief in UFOs.

Here’s a thought from the Bible: in Ephesians 2:2 Satan is referred to as "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." Any student of the Bible will recognize the fact that Satan has the power to physically manipulate matter at times; at other times he is able to make people see strange things. During the forty days of temptation that Christ went through at the hands of the devil, Satan caused Jesus to see intricate visions in his failed bid to alter Christ’s mission (Matthew 4 & Luke 4). These Satanic deceptions are the very reason that Christ warned His disciples about religious deception and "great signs from heaven." There is great evidence for Satan’s existence, and unless we are willing to question the Bible’s authority we must acknowledge that Satan does exist -- and is likely the force behind the New Age, UFO phenomenon.

In closing, I must commend those who believe in space aliens, flying saucers and the theory of evolution -- they have more faith than I do. Unfortunately, faith is not what saves a person. If that were true then all of these alien abductees with all of their twisted theology would live forever in Heaven. We, however, are saved by GRACE through faith IN CHRIST. It is the object of our faith which saves us, not just faith in something. You have to give those New Age evolutionists and the Heaven’s Gate Cult some credit for their faith -- they’ve got a lot of it.