When They Arrive: Earth’s First Contact Playbook
Imagine finding out we’re not the only smart species on Earth. It would change just about everything – but how should we react to it?
Imagine if we discovered that humans aren’t the only intelligent beings on Earth. This would be one of the biggest moments in human history! It would completely change how we see ourselves and our place in the universe. While there’s a lot we don’t know about what this would be like, we can think about how we might handle such an amazing discovery.
In the minds of most people, the first and most important step would be for all countries to work together when this news breaks. Countries would need to put aside their differences and work as one team. In fact, it very likely could bring about the New World Order conspiracy theorists have warned us about for decades. The United Nations might create a special group just for dealing with these new intelligent beings. We would hope that our governments (or one world government) would be honest with us about what’s happening, as keeping secrets would only make people scared and start rumors. But then, that really hasn’t stopped them from doing that up to now.
Scientists would likely be placed in charge of understanding this new intelligence. They would study these beings, or creatures, or entities to learn about where they came from, what they’re made of, and what they want. Are they Earth creatures that developed alongside us, or visitors from space? Or are they, perhaps neither – but an interdimensional being of some kind? Scientists from many different fields – from people who study space life to those who study human cultures – would work together to figure this out.
We would quickly be given new rules about how to treat these beings. Scientists might need to change their ways of doing research with respect to these intelligent creatures. If these beings can think and feel like we do, would we need to treat them as human beings? Should we not try to convince them to give us their obviously over-our-heads technology?
One of the biggest challenges might be figuring out how to talk to them. If they use some kind of language (and there is no guarantee that would be the case), scientists who study languages would try to understand how they communicate – whether they use sounds, pictures, pheromones, or something completely different. Finding a way to understand each other would be foremost on the minds of most all world leaders. Unless they had some amazing way to communicate that humans don’t have (like telepathy or senses we don’t have), we’d likely need to create new technology to talk with them – a technology we’ve never considered before.
Finding out about non-human intelligence would change our whole society. Deep thinkers, and community leaders would ask big questions: What does this mean about humans’ place in the universe? Are we part of a bigger family of intelligent beings? And what about the various religions of the world – how would this affect our faith? (I’ll get back to this in a moment.) These questions could either bring people together or cause arguments, depending on how we handle the information.
Some may be excited and curious about meeting these beings, others terrified. Either way, we need to be extremely careful. We’d have to determine if these beings might be dangerous to humans, even by accident. This doesn’t mean we should treat them as enemies, necessarily – we just need to be smart about it.
Looking back at human history, when different human civilizations met for the first time, things often went badly because some people tried to take advantage of others. Maybe we would try to take advantage of these new entities – or worse, they try to take advantage of us. We would likely be the “primitive tribe” as compared to the “civilized society” in this scenario. Pride and greed are, unfortunately, typical for humankind – would it be the same for them?
Meeting non-human intelligence might give humanity amazing opportunities though – we might learn new things that could help us solve big problems like issues with our climate, or curing cancer. But all good tools can be used for evil, and we’d need to be responsible with this new knowledge we attain. If we try to take advantage of this new intelligence just to get their knowledge and resources, it could end very badly – for both sides. Whether terrestrial, extraterrestrial, or interdimensional… whether benevolent or malevolent, we’ll need to treat them with caution.
The biggest challenge would be coming together to handle this new situation – preferably as a people rather than a global government. If we approach it with care, discovering non-human intelligence could be a turning point that makes life better for everyone, depending on their intentions.
This all may be something you feel isn’t important, feeling it would never happen. But hear me out. During that chaotic year we somehow lived through – 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, race riots, and political upheaval, something else occurred. The Pentagon publicly acknowledged and released videos concerning UFOs. The news came after a governmental inquiry from the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee but somehow did not make top headlines everywhere, even once the Pentagon finally released their report to Congress. The existence of aliens would be significant for everyone, especially those who believe in the Christian faith.
But if aliens are real, what does that say about those of us who try to live according to the bible?
The Bible teaches us about many different topics, but I don’t ever recall a sermon on aliens – much less the possibility of interdimensional intelligent beings.
Let’s back up a bit. To be fair, the Pentagon has acknowledged the existence of UFOs. UFO is an acronym that means Unidentified Flying Object… although nowadays they prefer to use the acronym UAP for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. I guess that sounds less crazy so it’s easier to discuss. Anything flying in the air and unidentified qualifies as a UFO or UAP. The Pentagon is not sure whether these aircraft belong to another country, another dimension, or another planet entirely. What they do know is that these ships defy the natural laws of physics, which leads to speculation about non-human intelligent life. Maybe that sounds plausible to you, or maybe the idea sounds cuckoo. If we learn that non-human intelligence does exist, if you are a Christian, your hope would be to find direction on how to respond from the Bible. What does Scripture say about, for lack of better terms, aliens, if anything?
More often than some Christians want to admit, the Bible has many supernatural occurrences. Not taking into account the miracles of Jesus and His disciples, there are some other rather strange phenomena that occur.
Nephilim, or giants, are mentioned in Scripture a few times, notable in the book of Numbers where their enormous size is mentioned (Numbers 13:33). “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”
Dinosaurs are never mentioned in Scripture, though from the Book of Job, we receive an account about a large behemoth (Job 40:15-19):  “Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly! Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit. Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like rods of iron. It ranks first among the works of God, yet its Maker can approach it with his sword.”
The psalmist David gives an account of a monster too (Psalm 74:13-14): “It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.”
In addition to these bizarre happenings, Ezekiel gives a testimony of a vision he had. Is there a UFO in this vision? (Ezekiel 1:4): “As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal.”
Ezekiel goes on to describe the creatures in his vision, which were bizarre (Ezekiel 1:5-7): “…and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze.”
They may be strange looking, but that doesn’t mean they were aliens. However, Ezekiel saw something that we don’t see in our daily lives (thankfully). The Bible does not give us any concrete evidence about the existence of life on other planets. We can be sure that God set the planets and stars in place, but what He placed within them, He has chosen not to reveal to us. Not yet, at least. For now, all we can do is ignore space or listen to the scientists. Whatever the case, we are left without definitive answers and can only speculate.
In the Book of Genesis, we read, “So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female” (Genesis 1:27). The first book of the Bible explains how God gifted us with authority over the sea, land, plants, and animals (Genesis 1:28-29). If authority over Earth is a gift, then what about space? What about aliens?
This is an interesting question to consider, though again without a solid answer. If we discovered sentient creatures similar to us, but not human, we could always apply the principle of loving our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). In that way, aliens won’t be subjugated to us, but will rather be our equals. And hey, if they are close enough to visit us, doesn’t that kind of make them our neighbors? Yes. But are they our neighbors if they are interdimensional? Again, yes – but maybe not the kind of neighbor you’d want to share a back fence with. We’ll come back to that in a moment.
Let’s say that aliens are real. We could be upset that God didn’t directly mention them in the Bible, or we could thank God for what He HAS revealed to us.
There are things that many of us would like to have seen written in the Bible, like the years of Jesus as a child and teenager, but God didn’t preserve that information because He apparently knows we don’t need that. God has given us what we need (Psalm 23:1): “the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing”.
We should trust Him and walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
That being said though – maybe God did point out aliens in the bible. For many biblical scholars and even ufologists, extraterrestrials are actually interdimensional beings of a malevolent purpose. Yes, I’m referring to demons. Many believe aliens are demons. Stay with me here.
While the Bible’s narrative focuses on creation (humans being created, how God relates to them), it also mentions several different kinds of spiritual beings.
Most obviously, it mentions angels, beings who serve God as messengers and occasionally as protectors or warriors (like Gabriel speaking to Mary). It also mentions demons or unclean spirits, beings who defy God by harming humans. Based on passages like John’s vision of angels and a dragon fighting in heaven in Revelation 12, many theologians have concluded that demons were originally angels and rebelled against God. Others believe demons are the roaming spirits of the Nephilim. But that’s a whole other topic.
The Bible also refers various times to ancient pagan societies that believed many gods existed, usually claiming that each god was connected to a particular territory. For example, when Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant and disasters follow, they conclude they have angered “the god of Israel” and “his power is against us and against our god Dagon” (1 Samuel 5:7). Meaning, they think Dagon has power, but that they have now met a more powerful god from another territory who Dagon can’t stop. This is polytheism, a belief in many gods, as opposed to monotheism, the belief in one god. While the Bible describes polytheistic cultures, it also affirms that there is only one god, so all pagan gods are either fake or malicious spirits deceiving people. Demons.
Even though the Bible does not specifically mention UFOs and extraterrestrials appearing among us, it does offer some warnings about demons that may apply when we discuss aliens.
One of the Bible’s clearest warnings about demons (and the devil, their leader) is to watch out for deception.
Jesus warns in John 8:44 that the devil was a liar from the beginning. Paul warns readers in Galatians 1 to watch out for spirits, including ones that claim to be angels, that appear to Christians and claim to offer a new gospel… or for our conversation, like aliens, arriving and offering miraculous knowledge and a new way of living and worshipping to us.
The Bible also warns that demons have some powers that they can exercise. Stories about Jesus exorcising demons from children and adults describe those demons doing things to people they possess, such as causing convulsions. The story about Jesus in the Gerasenes reports that the man (or men) possessed by demons had supernatural strength and that the demons made a herd of pigs drown themselves.
We know that demons may appear disguised as other beings to people and may even exhibit power that appears to prove they are real. So it’s only half a step to understand that a demon could pretend to be from another planet, and show incredible technological powers to impress us and leave us in awe, likely bowing to their supreme knowledge and superiority.
Given that demons want to impress people before they manipulate them, they will take whatever form people find harmless or powerful. In Paul’s period, when his readers were either Gentiles from polytheistic cultures (who revered various pagan gods) or Jews from monotheistic cultures (who revered God or angels), that meant appearing as other gods or spiritual beings. In today’s context, an increasingly post-Christian culture, that may mean posing as aliens.
Given this point, do we have any clear guidelines on how we could tell a demon and an alien apart?
As of the recording of this podcast, any discussion about how we can identify an alien, much less tell it apart from a demon, is inherently speculative.
Granting that fact, we have something we must do no matter what kind of being appears: avoid any offers of a “new gospel” or new religion. Paul’s warning in Galatians about spirits appearing as angels stresses the need to see if otherworldly beings claim to offer a new gospel that contradicts what the completed Bible teaches. If a being appears who claims to be an alien from another planet and proclaims secret knowledge about “what really happened to Jesus,” we know to avoid it on principle. It may be a demon playing at being an alien – or the flip side, it may be an actual extraterrestrial that has been deceived (or even possessed) by a demon. Either way, we know the Bible warns that no one can add to its story (Revelation 22:18-19).
All this information leads us to an important question: does it matter? Should we worry about demons posing as aliens?
We are told clearly throughout the Bible that God is all-powerful and that, and if you are one of His followers, you have nothing to fear. As Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:17, Christians have received a spirit of courage and self-discipline. Therefore, we know that whatever knowledge we receive about alien life in the future, in whatever form it comes, whatever concerns we have about demons potentially deceiving people, we have divine guidance and aid we can draw on to give us confidence.
We also know one key reason not to worry: it implies we are focusing on this more than we are focusing on our main priority as Christians. As C.S. Lewis discusses in his article “Religion and Rocketry,” there are many things we do not know about what Christians should do if interplanetary travel occurred and aliens were found on other planets. Would they have sinful natures and require evangelism? Could they be sinless or have been reconciled already to God in some way? We simply do not know.
What we know is we are told, if we are followers of Jesus, to focus on reaching the lost and building up the church. We focus on what the Bible tells us outright to do, follow the gospel message as best we can, and treat other concerns as secondary or tertiary concerns.
I have my opinions, but to be completely honest, I don’t know if aliens are real, but just in case they are, let’s be prepared as a community for how we will respond to the news. Up to this point, people have been mocked for believing in UFOs, but now the government appears to be done covering up these odd occurrences. At least a little.
I can hear Agent Mulder from the X-Files saying, “I want to believe.”
What do you want to do? Whatever your answer, just know that God is in control… here, there, and everywhere, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Views: 2