Cosmic Musings from a Space Nerd

The age-old question of whether there is life on other planets is fascinating from the Christian perspective.

We have young-earth creationists who tell us humans are the only intelligent life in the universe.

What do they base this on?

Their eisegesis of Scripture, and not much else, to be honest.

We have more open-minded individuals who take the question and stretch it every way they can to dig into all the angles of this philosophical pondering.

The funny thing is, the Bible is not silent on life outside this Earth.

I’m not making this up, and it isn’t a dream of space travel to far-off worlds. I’m not reading what I want to see into the text.

Modern audiences often forget when the biblical authors spoke of heaven, they didn’t mean an ethereal place alone, outside the universe.

Heaven is often a catch-all for the universe.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, He went to a literal location. Somewhere beyond our Earth.

“… which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? This Jesus, which was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven.” (Acts 1:11 [ESV]).

The Greek word here for heaven (ouranon) means the physical sky and, by implication, heavenly things beyond the sky. So Jesus ascended through the physical sky. To say He went to another dimension of some sort is pure hearsay and not clarified in the text.

We know God dwells in the heavens, the Third Heaven, to be precise, so there are at least three levels to heaven. The sky itself is the First Heaven, followed by the celestial realm of the stars, galaxies, black holes, and the like, making up the Second Heaven, and the Paradise of God, or the Third Heaven.

The Third Heaven is where we speculate that most angelic beings exist as well as God Himself. But is that merely tradition masquerading as a fact?

Think about the angels throughout the Bible.

They look like humans in some way; they eat food; they have physicality to their bodies, and sometimes, they have had relations with human women.

One major reason God flooded the world in the ancient days was the influence of angels who abandoned their heavenly station and took wives from among humanity.

The idea angels are only spiritual, immaterial beings isn’t necessarily how the Bible portrays them. It’s bordering on Gnosticism to think things are bad or not correct because they are physical. To see angels as only spirits isn’t the only way to understand them. The Bible portrays angels having physical bodies, and, in other places, spiritual bodies. But bodies all the same.

“He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth …” (Genesis 18:2 [ESV]).

These men Abraham saw were Yahweh, and two angels.

Even the LORD of all creation may manifest in a body if He so desires.

The mystery deepens even more in the Book of Hebrews, where we read, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2 [ESV]).

Angels walk among us, and we might not even realize it. How amazing is that?

So why did I go into deep detail about angels and the question of extraterrestrial life?

Because the angels are extraterrestrials.

The words angel, demon, and alien are likely interchangeable.

Think about it for a minute. The Bible often mentions the chariots of God, and not every angel has wings, so how do they fly?

Perhaps all these UAPs are angels without wings piloting craft. It’s an interesting thing to ponder, but obviously that’s not Scripture. The Bible doesn’t say, “Angels fly in UFOs.”

But since God has millions of chariots, and not all angels have wings, it’s something that clicks.

Think about how large the universe is. It’s immense to the point of being almost unfathomable.

There are trillions upon trillions of planets out there, so to say we’re the only game in town is highly presumptuous.

Now, I will state the caveat that needs to be stated. I don’t believe angels are like us in every way. They are mostly without sin, except for the fallen angels and demons.

Maybe Earth is in a quarantine of sorts, because of our sinful condition.

But the Bible implies space travel in multiple passages.

“And He shall send his messengers with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the heavens unto the ends thereof.” (Matthew 24:31[YLT]).

Interestingly, the literal translation of the Greek shows the angels gathering God’s chosen from the ends of the heavens.

Does this mean people like Elon Musk will pave the way for extensive space travel?

This passage doesn’t bode well for those who think we’re in the End Times, though. That kind of feat will only be possible after hundreds of years, if not thousands.

Perhaps Jesus won’t be arriving in our lifetimes, and that’s all right. Our job is to love others and walk His path.

“And I heard every creature in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13 [ESV]).

There seem to be creatures in heaven. A planet of dolphins ruled over by angels isn’t out of the question as odd as that sounds.

But more than even this, the Antichrist attacks and conquers in the heavens according to the Book of Daniel.

“It grew great, even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them.” (Daniel 8:10 [ESV]).

The little horn is later revealed to be a king who fights Jesus Christ in the End Times. How can a human attack angels in the heavens?

The world of the End Times is strange indeed, with monarchs, high-tech marks, and apparently space travel.

This is NOT Scripture saying this outright, but a possible interpretation. I’m not one of those people who think my interpretations are equal to the written word of God.

This post was a thought experiment using what we see in the Bible to put forth a thesis in which angels are extra-terrestrial beings, live in the heavenly places, and that one day even us humans will be out there in the cosmos.

I leave you with a thought:

The Greek word for world in John 3:16 is kosmos, which encapsulates all things that exist.

So it might be read better as, “For God so loved the universe, that He gave His only begotten Son ….”

Hmm ….

P.S. God bless mechanical keyboards. I’ve converted to not having strained hands. It’s so much better.