Faith, Fear, and Flying Saucers (Ep 175)

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Thank you for listening and welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Jason McConnell. Let me ask you something. If the government announced tomorrow that they had confirmed without question that aliens are real, what would you do? Would you call your pastor? Would you flip open Revelation and maybe look for the passage you missed?

Would you post about it and then probably immediately regret it? Or would you just sit there for a moment staring at the ceiling, genuinely unsure what to think? Because here's the thing, we may not be that far from that scenario. The government has been holding congressional hearings on what they now call UAPs, unidentified anomalous phenomena, and some of what has come out of those hearings has been genuinely strange.

I mean, we're talking credible military witnesses, v- video footage of objects that don't behave like anything in our known arsenal, and a whistleblower who went before Congress and claimed the US government has been sitting on recovered non-human technology for decades. And Christians, we're all over the map.

Some of us are convinced these things are demonic. Some think it's all a government distraction. Some are quietly curious but do not know what to make of it, and a whole bunch of us just avoid the conversation entirely because it feels just too weird to touch. Today we're gonna stop avoiding it, and I promise you it's gonna be fun.

We're gonna look at what the government has actually told us, ask honest questions about whether UAPs could be demonic, sit with that s- what scripture does and does not say about life beyond Earth, if we can, and then figure out what a faithful, grounded Christian posture might actually look like in the age of UAP disclosures.

No panic, no conspiracy theory. I'm not selling you anything. Just some decent theology, solid evidence, and maybe a little humor about flying saucers and little green men I couldn't help myself. I had to dive into this topic, and hopefully we'll have a little fun with it.

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But before we go too far, I wanna make sure we are all working with the same information.

Now, if you've been hearing the term UAP thrown around and wondering how is it different than UFO, the old acronym, here's the short of it. UFO stands for unidentified flying object, and over the decades, that term has picked up a lot of tabloid baggage: little green men, grainy photos, people in tinfoil hats.

And the government rebranded to UAP, unidentified anomalous phenomena, as a broader and more precise term that covers objects observed in air, underwater, or in space that cannot be identified by current intelligence. The shift, it wasn't just cosmetic. When the Navy, the Pentagon, the, and Congress started using this language officially, it signaled that the question was being taken seriously at an institutional level.

That... I mean, this was not... It's not fringe anymore. This was senators and military officers and intelligence professionals sitting in a room and saying openly that there are things in our airspace that we cannot explain.

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he numbers get interesting. A: 2024

But here's the number that probably hits closer to home. Among white evangelical Protestants, only 35% believe UAPs are evidence of extraterrestrial life, the lowest of any religious group surveyed by Pew Research. And more than 60% of Americans across all groups believe the government is concealing what it knows about UAPs, and only 11% think the government has been fully open and transparent.

And that gap between what Christians believe and what the broader culture believes is, it's worth looking into. It's worth noticing. Not because the majority is always right. It's not. Because i- it does raise a real question. Is Christian skepticism about this topic coming from solid theology, or is it coming from discomfort with a subject that feels too strange to really take seriously?

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Now I wanna read two passages of scripture. Before I do, I wanna say something really quick. I don't really have a dog in this fight personally. Um, I, you know, I, I can't tell you if they do or don't exist. I, I can't tell you if they're demonic or not. Uh, things will come out as, as things go on, but I just wanna be clear about that.

I'm doing this episode simply because I think it'll be fun. We might take a little bit away from it, so hopefully you'll enjoy it. Um, anyways, so wanna read two passages of scripture before we go any further, because I think they are worth holding together as we work through everything today. The first is Genesis 1:1.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." And that's where everything begins. God as creator, and the scope of His creation including not just the earth, but the heavens. In scripture, the heaven is big. It's, it's an expansive concept. It's not just the sky above your house, it's everything above and beyond, everything God set in place.

Now, the second one is Psalm 19:1. "The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands." Now, the psalmist looks up and sees worship built into the structure of the universe. Every star, every galaxy, every phenomenon we can't yet name, all of it points back to the one who made it.

And here's what I want you to sit with as we move through this episode. The universe is vastly larger than any of us could ever fully comprehend. There are roughly 200 billion galaxies observable from Earth. Yes, I said galaxies. The light reaches us from some of those galaxies that supposedly left before our sun even existed, and the God of scripture made all of it, called it good, and holds it together, and knows every part of it by name.

That is the God we're talking about today. Whether you're-- And I, I really don't wanna get into young Earth or, or old Earth or any of that. Let's just... Humor me on some of this. A God that big can handle our questions about what else might be out there Now, I wanna start with what we actually know, and I wanna be careful here because there's a lot of noise around this topic, and I think Christians in particular should be committed to accuracy.

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So the public conversation about UAPs really gained mainstream traction December twenty seventeen when The New York Times published a story revealing that the Pentagon has been running a secret program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. This was the US government quietly investigating UFOs, basically.

That story came with declassified footage of Navy pilots encountering objects they could not explain, objects moving at speeds and trajectories that did not match any known aircraft or drone technology. Now in twenty nineteen, the Navy officially acknowledged that the footage was real and declassified it.

And in twenty twenty-one, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a preliminary assessment that confirmed a hundred and forty-four UAP reports from the US government sources between two thousand four and two thousand twenty-one existed. Of those a hundred and forty-four cases, they can only explain one with any confidence.

And that just-- that's a lot of unknowns. Then came twenty twenty-three, and things got stranger. A former intelligence officer named David, uh, Grusch testified before Congress and made some extraordinary claims. He said the US government has been secretly reverse engineering technology from non-human crafts for decades.

He claimed that non-human biologics had been recovered from the crash site. That was his phrase, not mine, non-human biologics. And he said he had spoken with over forty witnesses with direct knowledge of these programs. Now, I wanna be clear. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. General Mark M-Milley, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said publicly that he had never encountered anything that verified, uh, Grusch's claim.

NASA said it had found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life. Scientific voices noted that not a single piece of physical evidence had ever been brought forward in the hearing. The testimony was striking, but the proof just wasn't there. But we fast-forward to September of twenty twenty-five, and the House Oversight Committee held another major hearing.

For the first time in history, an active duty naval officer testified publicly before Congress about UAP encounters. Declassified video footage was shown of a US military drone firing a Hellfire missile at a high-speed orb off the coast of Yemen. The missile appeared to hit the object. The object kept going.

None of that has been explained.

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Now There is a key distinction I wanna draw here, and it matters for, for how we hold all of this as Christians. The government has confirmed that unidentified craft exist and behave in ways that current technology cannot account for. That is a, as far as we know, a factual statement based on official testimony and declassified footage.

What those craft are, foreign technology, na-national phenomenon, something else entirely, has not been confirmed. "We cannot explain this," is very different from, "It is extraterrestrial." Now look, Proverbs twenty-five verse two says, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings."

Mystery is not a problem to be eliminated. It is an invitation to inquiry. Christians, of all people, should be comfortable sitting between, "We observe something real," and, "We do not yet know what it is." That's my opinion on it. We don't have to rush to conclusions, guys. We just have to stay honest about it.

The practical takeaway for me is this: if you want to engage this conversation with credibility, you need to be honest about what has, what has been established and what has not. Do not overstate the evidence. Do not dismiss the evidence. The existence of genuinely unexplained aerial phenomenon is now a matter of official government record.

What that means is still an open question, and open questions are not threats. They are opportunities to think carefully and trust that truth, wherever it leads, is something Christians can handle.

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But now, let's get into the question I know is probably on a lot of Christian s- Christian minds. Are these things demonic?

Now, this has become, for some, the default Christian answer to UAPs. I have heard it in churches, I have seen it in Christian medias, and in recent years it has been made-- it's, it's made its way into pretty prominent places. Uh, Vice President JD Vance has publicly stated he is obsessed with UFOs and suggested that what people identify as aliens could be masquerading demons Tucker Carlson made a similar argument.

And I wanna be fair, there is a version of this view that is not crazy at all. The biblical absolutely teaches that spiritual beings exist, that some of them are hostile to humanity, and that deception is a core tactic of the enemy. So let's, let's try to seriously and, and honestly examine it on its merits.

Ephesians 6:12 says, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." The demonic realm is real. It, it's active, and scripture is clear that it operates in dimensions we cannot fully observe.

Corinthians: 11:14

When a counterintelligence officer was asked in one of these congressional hearings whether intelligence officials had found evidence supporting the demonic hypothesis, the officer responded that there was no real logic behind the claim. And researcher and theologian, um, Timothy Alberino, who has actually spent many years studying the intersection of theology and UAP phenomena, made a point that I found was rather compelling.

He argued that the word demon does not suffice to explain the phenomena, and that Christians have been given neither serious enough framework for engaging this topic nor a satisfying theological answer. So his argument is basically reflexively labeling everything demonic can actually be a way of avoiding careful thought about something that deserves it.

First John four verse one says, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." Now, notice that there-- that the verse does not-- what, what it does and does not say. It, it says to test. It does not say to immediately categorize.

It is a call to discernment, not a snap verdict. So here's my last take. The, the demonic hypothesis is worth holding as a possibility. It is not theologically absurd, but it is not sufficient answer on its own, and, and it can function in a, in a way to close off inquiry rather than engage it. When we say, "Just demons," and move on, we're not actually explaining anything.

We're naming something and treating the name as an explanation, but that is not the kind of discernment the Bibl- Bible calls for. C.S. Lewis is worth bringing in here. In both The Screwtape Letters and his space trilogy, particularly Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis engaged the intersection of spiritual reality and cosmic space in a way that was theologically serious and imaginatively rich.

He did not treat the question of what might exist beyond Earth as a joke or a settled matter. He held it with curiosity and theological rigor. That seems to be a better posture than either dismissal or immediate panic. And here's one more thing I think is worth considering. If something in the universe is confusing and frightening people, and Christians respond with panic or lazy answers, that's not a good witness.

A faith that shuts down inquiry does not look like the confident, truth-seeking Christianity that the New Testament describes. Second Timothy one verse seven reminds us, "For the Spirit of God gave us-- For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline." Fear is not our default posture, at least it shouldn't be.

A- and that's true even when the question involves objects flying around in the sky that nobody can explain.

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Now let's, let's turn to what scripture actually says about life beyond this earth, and I wanna be honest about this from the start. The Bible does not directly address the question of extraterrestrial life.

There is no chapter, verse, or passage that says, "By the way, here's what to think about life on other planets." That silence is significant, and it, and it kinda cuts both ways. Some people take that silence as a no. If intelligent life existed elsewhere, surely God would have told us. Others take it as an open door.

Scripture does not rule it out, and a God who created a universe of incomprehensible size may have done more with it than we know. Both of these positions have some logic to them, some merit to them, and neither can claim certainty. So let us look at what the Bible does say, though, because I think the picture is more interesting than the silence.

Uh, Colossians one verse sixteen says, "For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, uh, or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him." Now, that phrase all things is doing a lot of work. Everything that exists was made by Christ and for Christ.

If there is a life of any kind anywhere in the universe, it, it could fall under the category of that. It, it's created. It's not outside God's knowledge or authority. W- Take that for what it's worth. Isaiah forty verse twenty-six says, "Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name."

The prophet is pointing upward and saying, "Look at the scale of what God made." He names every star, every single one. The current estimate from astronomers is that there are roughly one septillion stars in the observable universe. That is one with twenty-four zeros after it, and God knows each of them by name.

The creative scope of this God, of our God, is not small. Then there's Psalm eight verses three through four, which I think may be the most honest human response to the vastness of space, uh, recorded. David writes, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?"

t in a piece from December of: 2023

If extraterrestrial life exists, it would be not dethr- to dethrone humanity, because Christ, not humanity, is at the center of creation. The, um, i-imago Dei, the, the image of God in which we are made, is about relationship with God. It's not about the being the only intelligent creature in the universe. Our value before God does not depend on us being alone.

In: 2025

And when that question eventually gets a definitive answer, Christians should be ready, not because it would shake our faith, but because people around us are going to have big questions, and we should have thought about this ahead of time. So the takeaway from scripture is this: the Bible describes a creator whose scope is breathtaking, whose knowledge is complete, whose authority extends to everything that exists in the known universe and beyond the known universe.

The question of whether life exists elsewhere is generally open for, from a biblical standpoint, as far as I'm concerned. What is not open is this: whatever is out there, God made, God knows it, and God holds it together. That is a framework that I think a Christian can think about without anxiety.

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So let me address what I think the real fear is underneath a lot of this conversation because I, I hear it even when people do not say it directly.

The fear is this: What if aliens are real, and what does that do to Christianity? And, and it's, it's a fair question. If there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, does that mean the Bible is incomplete? Does that mean the gospel is smaller than we thought? Does it mean we are not as special as we believed?

And here's my honest, honest answer to that. No. A-and here's why. The gospel is the story of God's redemptive work towards humanity through Jesus Christ. The incarnation, the death, the resurrection, these are events that happened in human history on this planet addressing the specific problem of human sin and separation from God.

The existence of another intelligent life in the universe does not change what Christ did. It does not alter what was accomplished on the cross. It does not revise the resurrection. Those events are what they are, regardless of what else may exist in the universe with two hundred billion galaxies. The more interesting theological question, and this is one the church does not have a clean answer to, yet at least, is what the relationship of any other intelligent life might be to God.

The Bible does not answer that, and I think the honest, faithful response is to say we don't know. And, and that's okay. God's knowledge is not limited to what He has revealed to us. I want you to think about that. God's knowledge is not limited to what He has revealed to us. Romans eight:thirty-eight and thirty-nine says, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in the creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Paul wrote, "Nor anything else in all creation," and that is remarkably a comprehensive statement. It covers everything that has ever existed or ever will. Whatever is out there in the universe, it, it's inside of that category of all creation. It cannot separate us from the love of God. Job thirty-eight verse four gives us another angle.

When God finally speaks to Job after all of his suffering and confusion, He says, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me if you understand." God's posture towards cosmic mystery is not anxiety, it's authority. He is not threatened by questions about the size and scope of creation because he is the one who made it.

And if that is the God we follow, we have a secure enough foundation to ask the hard questions without our faith cracking under the weight of them. Now, here's a thought I think you should sit with. If your faith would collapse at the con- confirmed discovery of extraterrestrial life, that is not a reason to avoid the question.

That is a reason to examine your foundation. Not because aliens are definitively real, but because a faith that requires universe to be arranged in a specific way in order to hold together is not standing on Christ. It is standing on an assumption about what God's creation is allowed to look like.

Christ is the a- anchor, not the structure of the universe, not whether we are alone in it Let me bring this home.

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What does a healthy, grounded Christian response to UAP disclosure actually look like? Here's my suggestion, and I w- I wanna offer three words: wonder, discernment, and anchor. Wonder first.

Isaiah forty-six twenty-six is not an anxiety verse, it is a worship verse. "Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all this?" The invitation is to look up, to feel the scale of what God made, and to let that draw you towards him rather than away from him. If UAP disclosure has done anything good, it has reminded us that the universe is, uh, strange and vast and not fully understood by anyone.

That should produce humility and awe, which are exactly what the psalmist experienced in Psalm eight. Let the strangeness point you to- toward worship. Discernment second. First John four verse one in the Bible is in the Bible for a reason. Do not believe everything you read about UAPs because a lot of it is speculation, some of it's agenda-driven, and very little of it is actually proven.

But do not dismiss everything either. The existence of genuinely unexplained aerial phenomena is now a matter of official government record. That deserves honest engagement, not reflexive skepticism or re-reflexive credulity. Demand evidence. Think carefully. The Bible commends this approach. Use discernment.

Anchor is third. Know where your footing is, and make sure it is on Christ and not the universe being a certain size or shape. Romans eight thirty-eight and thirty-nine covers anything else in all creation. That anchor holds whether or not the orb off the coast of Yemen ever gets explained. It holds whether David Grusch's testimony turns out to be accurate or not.

It holds whether Mars once head- held mic- microbial life or was always barren. The gospel does not need the universe to behave in a predica- predictable way. Christ is Lord over all of it. Know and, and understand that. Second Timothy one verse seven tells us, "For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline."

Fear is not the posture Jesus left us. Curiosity is not a sin. Asking hard questions is not a threat to faith. You can be genuinely uncertain about UAPs and be completely certain about Christ at the same time. That is actually a healthy place to be.

[: 00:27:03

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Here's what we covered today. The government has confirmed that unidentified crafts exist and behave in ways that the current technology cannot explain, and that's worth taking seriously, carefully, and without panic.

The demonic hypothesis is not theologically absurd, but it is not sufficient on its own, and the Bible calls us to discernment rather than snap categorization. Scripture does not answer the question of extraterrestrial life directly, but it describes a creator whose scope is so staggering and whose authority extends to everything that exists.

And gospel, for as for the gospel, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not dependent on a universe being arranged in any particular way. Whether UAPs turn out to be foreign technology, natural phenomena, or something genuinely stranger than any of us expected, the Christian's anchor does not move.

A God who knows every one of the stars in a universe with a septillion of them is not gonna be surprised by whatever's out there, and neither should we be. This week, I wanna encourage you to spend five minutes with Psalm chapter eight. Read it slowly. Let the psalmist movement from I am so small to and yet God cares for me do its work on you.

That is the posture I would like you to carry into the age of UAP disclosure. Not fear, not certainty that hasn't been earned, but humble, worshipful curiosity anchored in a God who made it all. Romans eight, thirty-eight and thirty-nine says, "For I am convinced that neither dead, death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

If that covers it all, it covers this too. Look, I hope this episode was as fun to hear as it was to research and record for you. Until next time, keep loving your neighbors, dive into God's Word daily, and may the Lord bless you and keep you and fill you with his peace. Take care, God bless, and I'll see you in the next episode

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