The Curtain Falls

Maybe I Will Meet You In Another Blog!

There is evidence that our REAL prehistory was similar to science-fiction. Most people either reject the Bible as nonsense or believe it is the absolute word of the Supreme Being. The Bible is the most amazing account of Close Encounters. The events were real; they happened; but the truth is extraordinary. 
Doug Yurchey Copyright 2002-2012

The ancient legends continue to add depth of meaning to the Bible.  When the legends tell of the same things that the Bible does is it right to discard the legends and cling blindly to what we have been taught the Bible says?  

No! Rather let the folklore of the cultures of the world tell us plainly that which we refuse to accept from the Bible.  

Why must we insist that one book is totally ‘God-breathed’ and that Satan inspired everything else that was written in olden times, even though the two agree in their facts, and even though parts of the Bible are copies of earlier versions of the same events?

Here is a very valid point to remember when studying the Bible: The recording of history with literal exactness of detail is a fairly modern development. At the time, (the Bible was written) precise fact was far less important than the spiritual message of the stories shared. Readers Digest, Jesus and His Times, 1987.

Did the saucerians of ancient times purposely give us the idea that they were gods?  

Was that concept just incidental? 

Were some of the ancient writings inspired by ‘good’ saucerians and others by ‘bad’ saucerians?

Surely, unintentionally, statements have been made in these posts that have offended some. Unanswered questions have been raised.  Unexplained references have been made to some of the greatest, most sacred teachings of the church.   

Even though not all the necessary ground has been covered, I do believe that the door of legitimate questioning is open in a land of "freedom of religion".  It is encouraging to find that many other thoughtful people have entered through the open door and are amplifying and explaining the ideas that have also been presented in this blog.

Thank you to all of you who have read, shared and +1d my posts.  I have come to the end of this series of posts.  I have done many other posts but, by and large, they are straightforward Bible study and do not touch very much on the topic of aliens and ufos.

So, thanks again for reading and, hopefully, enjoying my posts. 

May the force be with you!

Goodbye for now.

For those of you who have recently come on board and would like to read more of what I have written, try these blogs:

Think Again: challenging some basic Church doctrines

http://wwwthinkagai.blogspot.com/2012/04/the-bible.html

Amazing Amalgamated Apocalypse Amplified: A totally different, and maybe even right, approach to The Revelation.

http://ikefehr1939.blogspot.com/2013/01/introduction-to-revelation.html

Worship to Jehovah

John Hears heavenly worship

Immediately, after seeing the screen (noted in the previous post), John's attention turns back to the throne room.  He says, in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes. The four living creatures had the appearance of:

•  a lion 
•  a calf 
•  the face of a man
•  a flying eagle.  

All four creatures have wings, but only the wings of the eagle, are spread, as if in flight.

    

The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within.  John does not say that the wings have eyes but that the living creatures, with the wings, have eyes.    Isaiah had also seen some creatures with six wings, he called them seraphim.  Isa. 6:2.  The seraphim which Isaiah saw sang a song which was very similar to the song of these four living creatures.  “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”

     

What would happen to this whole scenario if we imagined the four living creatures to be an "around sound" music system?  John says the creatures were around the throne.  That is the best place for speakers to produce the most glorious music.   The same beautiful music coming at you from all directions; "this sounds heavenly".  

These creatures were full of eyes in front and in back.  I find it easy to imagine that some of "these eyes" were light receptors, some were signal receptors for use with the remote control units.  Some may have been "LED's", just to indicate that all systems were functioning.  The reason for the shape of the creatures may have been only for ascetic reasons; these may have been statues with a practical purpose!

they do not rest day or night, because their function was to worship the Lord God.  The KJV Bible Commentary says: They rest not day and night. Untiringly and without interruption.  However, this worship cannot be a continual action because in 4:9-10 we read, Whenever the living creatures give glory ... the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him.  

The fact that the word, Whenever, is used, makes it plain that it is not an incessant action.  Furthermore, John saw the twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones, therefore they are not on their knees constantly.  It would seem to mean that, even though it is interrupted at times, day after day or year after year, this worship never comes to an end.

The words, They do not rest day or night, indicate that at the place where John is seeing the living creatures worship God, day follows night.  Therefore, the point is made again, John is not in some mystical, spiritual realm, but perhaps in a spaceship, positioned somewhere in earth’s time frame.  

About this, and in contradiction to the Bible’s statement, Mr Smith writes, they repeat it “day and night”, or continually, these terms only denoting the manner in which time is reckoned here, for there can be no night where the throne of God is.  Why can theologians not let the Bible mean what it so plainly says?

The four living creatures say, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!  Many, perhaps most, Bible teachers tell us that the fact that the word holy is used three times tells us that God is a triune being.  That is a totally unfounded assumption; nowhere does the Bible speak of God as being a Trinity!

Isaiah, a God-fearing Jew, one who believed, like all Bible writers did, that Jehovah was only one person, also recorded that the Seraphim said Holy, holy, holy.  It is unthinkable that to Isaiah the three "holys" indicated a Trinity.

You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honour and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.

The Akashic field is the origin of all things, but Jehovah has been credited for the creation of the universe because the writers of the Bible were not aware of the Akashic field.  They believed and wrote, that Jehovah is the supreme creator, however, a careful look, as we have done in this blog, at what the Bible teaches about Jehovah, does not allow for us to believe that He is infinite.  Looking at theology in this light makes the teachings of the Bible much more reasonable and much easier to accept.

If the church would not be so insistent that the infinite source of creation is the same God that procured redemption for us perhaps there would be far fewer atheists in the world.  To combine those two forces into One Being creates unbelievable situations and so people would rather just refuse to believe in the existence of God altogether.

The Inside of the Spaceship

The Crew of the Spacecraft

Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal.  The Revelation 4:4-6.

Around the throne were twenty-four thrones.  These are the chairs of the crew of the spaceship.   Those who sit there conduct the missions in which the spaceship is involved. John, who was used to sitting on the ground or on tree stumps could easily be forgiven for calling a nice upholstered chair "a throne".  In fact, both Darby and the KJV use the word "seat" instead of "throne" when they are speaking of the 24 seats.

I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads.  Some say that these elders might be representatives of the twelve patriarchs of Israel and the twelve Apostles of Christ.  It has also been suggested that they are the actual patriarchs and apostles, but that theory is impossible to maintain, because, at that time, one of the twelve apostles, is still busy writing The Apocalypse.  So he could not have been among the 24! 

The KJV Bible study writes, Their number is important. The Levitical priesthood had twenty-four courses (shifts) in Israel (cf. I Chr. 24:7–19).   Is it not also possible that there is no symbolism involved at all.   Perhaps the spaceship simply needed a crew of 24 (plus the captain), and that is why there were 24 elders sitting on their thrones.  Let's not use symbolism when a simple statement of fact is possible!  In Bible College we learned this always applicable phrase, If plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense.

They were clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads.  Here we need only to think of scenes from "Star Wars" or "Star Trek" and the whole picture falls into place.  The crowns of gold may well have housed their communication devices.  After all, the "Away" team must have a way to commune with the ship when they are scouting the planet they are visiting.

And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. This set of events, with slight variations, is recorded four times, in different arrangements, in The Apocalypse. Note 4:5; 8:5; 11:19, 16:18.

lightnings, thunderings and voices.  According to Vine's Dictionary of Greek Words, we need not understand from this that lightnings means lightning as in a thunderstorm. The Greek word can simply mean, a dazzling light.  The fact that there would be voices coming from the throne is, of course, not surprising, the crew was probably conversing with each other over the speaker system.

Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.  We had a similar phrase back in 1:4 where it simply said, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.  Even though modern Bible teachers insist that there is only one Spirit of God, yet they seem to agree that these seven refers to the Holy Spirit.  Unless you have found a way to do something weird to the rules of math, seven never equals one.  Such also is the incongruity of the doctrine of the Trinity - three equals one!

The View from The Spacecraft

Before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal.  What he saw next was not part of the throne room, but it was, before (in front of) the throne.  John's attention has shifted from the throne to the viewing screen of the spaceship.  This sea of glass was the electronic screen through which the captain and crew could watch the surrounding area.  At the time John was in the spaceship, the screen was filled with a view of the Mediterranean Sea.  The combination of the screen and the view, caused John to say, before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal; it was a picture of the Mediterranean Sea and it was as clear as crystal, just as clear as a television screen portrays a scene.

If one insists on seeing this any other way than that it is a spaceship one must really have spent too much time reading standard biblical encyclopedias!  

John Meets the Captain of the Spaceship

John inside a Spaceship

Two posts ago we looked at the fact that John heard a voice coming from an amplifying device and that the voice asked him to come into the spaceship.  Now we see John in the spaceship and the first thing he notices is the captain of the spaceship.

John is, at this point of the book of The Revelation, in the presence of an ET who is the Father of Jesus Christ.  John says, a throne was set in Heaven, and One sat upon the throne. And He who sat there looked like a jasper stone and a sardius. And a rainbow was around the throne, looking like an emerald. 4:2-3.  The description that John gives is of God and the portrayal is in reference to position and colour.

He says God, was sitting.  As far we know spirits do not, cannot, sit.  We might think of them as hovering.  However, according to John, God is sitting.  We need to quit thinking of Jehovah as being only an ethereal Being.

And He who sat there looked like a jasper stone and a sardius.  The dictionary says that jasper is a coloured quartz usually red or brown and that the sardine or sardonyx is a brownish-red variety of chalcedony.  

Isn't it possible to believe that the one sitting on the throne, as recorded, in The Apocalypse appeared, to John, to be wearing reddish brown clothing because he is bathed in a green light and surrounded by a red fiery flame? His throne was like flames of fire. Dan. 7:9. This combination of colours caused his garments to appear as reddish brown; green and red together appear to be brown.

Notice also that in the book of The Revelation Christ is mentioned separately from the one sitting on the throne.  And I saw a book on the right of Him sitting on the throne. Rev 5:1. John has just told us that the one on the throne is Jehovah and then he says, I looked, and lo, ... amidst the elders, a Lamb stood, as if it had been slain. Rev 5:6.  

A few verses later John tells us that here he is referring to Christ.  Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Rev. 5:12. 

Daniel and Ezekiel Again

In a prophetic vision in the Book of Daniel, Daniel was speaking of the physical appearance of Jehovah; he said, the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. Dan. 7:9.  We cannot believe, as some Bible scholars tell us, that this refers to Christ, because separate reference is made to Christ, in Daniel 7:13.  One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven!  

Christ is arriving in a spaceship!  He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.  Daniel sees Christ being ushered into the presence of His Father, the One whom Daniel had just seen.  There is nothing here to indicate that either of them, the Father or the Son, were not in physical form.

Much has been written about Ezekiel and his association with spaceships, and a few words from Ezekiel add weight to John's description.  And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. Ezekiel 1:26-27. 

Obviously, Ezekiel, in his book, is describing the same scene as John did in The Revelation, only in reverse order.  If we read it carefully, we notice that Ezekiel said that in appearance Jehovah is like a man.

The church has taught us that since God is only spirit and always invisible, the one that John saw was Christ and not Jehovah.  They will insist on this theory even though in both Daniel and The Revelation the authors very plainly tells us otherwise. O! when is the church ever going to open its mind to what is actually written in the Bible?

Some Bible teachers insist that John was not describing Jehovah but rather the throne.  It takes some pretty fancy footwork to make that theory sound even half believable.  If we read it plainly, as it is written, not the way some wish it was written, we clearly see that he was writing about Jehovah.  The statement that John saw the Father, with his physical eyes, must stand without challenge, for in The Revelation 20:11, John writes, I saw a great white throne and (I saw) Him who sat on it. 

It seems that all Bible teachers believe that throughout the Bible it is Jehovah that sits on a "great white throne".  However, when the one that sits there is spoken of as having been seen, suddenly it is not Jehovah anymore, but rather Christ.  

Strange thing about theology, isn't it?

A Recap of the Sightings of Jehovah

     

The Bible Says God is Visible

In this post, we will briefly review some of the incidents, in the Bible, in which Jehovah made himself known in a UFO.

1. Jacob - This story is in Gen. 28:10-17.  A modern, literal interpretation of Jacob’s dream might read like this.  Jacob stopped travelling because the sun had set.  Having arranged his uncomfortable bedding he lay down and fell asleep.  Half asleep, he saw a ladder, standing on the ground, with its top attached to a spacecraft.  We must not imagine that the ladder he saw was almost infinitely long and that it ended up in the mists of the starry heavens like children's books picture it. 

In this state of semi-consciousness, he saw the crew of the spaceship preparing for a journey.  There were robots climbing up and down the ladder with provisions on their backs.  
Then Jacob saw the commander of the spaceship standing at the top of the ladder supervising the loading procedures.  The Captain of the spaceship, using his audio amplifying apparatus, said to Jacob: “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father and the God of Isaac.  When Jacob awoke to his full senses, with a start, and said, “Surely the Lord and his spaceship are in this place, and when I fell asleep I didn’t even realize it”.  

Jacob in his state of bewilderment said, How awesome is this place!  This spaceship is none other than the house of God, and this UFO is the way to get to heaven”.  He called the name of that place Bethel; which means, the house of God.

On his way back home, Jacob spent the night alone to meet with God.  He got more than he anticipated.  A man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Gen. 32:24.  Later, in verse 30, we have these interesting words, So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, which means the “face of God”, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.  

It seems as if in these physical encounters the Lord is quite evenly matched with men.  For this God, wrestling with Jacob, said, Let me go, for the day is breaking. Jacob replied I will not let you go.  Hosea, writing of this encounter, very plainly said, And in his strength he (Jacob) struggled with God. Hosea 12:3.  

Are we willing to believe what the Bible tells us or is it more comfortable to hide behind standard theology?  
For more on this topic see:           
http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2013/09/e-f-cast-jacob-dreamer.html

2. Moses - Why does an Almighty God need clouds, smoke and fire?  We read that when the Lord wanted to talk to Moses, Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire...and the whole mountain quaked greatly.  Ex.19:18.  This whole scene speaks of a spacecraft landing on the mountain where Moses was waiting?

If Jehovah is omnipresent how is it possible that He could descend on to the mountain?  Isn't He always there, if He is always everywhere?

Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. Ex. 24:9.  With clear, not possible to misunderstand words, the Bible tells us that Moses, three of his sidekicks, and 70 other leaders, saw the God of Israel!  Where did those people who insist that the Bible is perfect, ever get the idea that Jehovah can never be seen.  

For more on this topic see: 
http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2013/09/ei-cast-moses-at-mount-

3. Ezekiel - In his document about the spaceships that Ezekiel saw, Mr Blumrich wrote, we are surprised to find a stage of technology that is in no way fantastic, but rather falls almost within the field of present day potentialities...in addition the conclusions show a spaceship that was used in connection with a command module in orbit around the earth.  The only fantastic thing is that such a spaceship was tangible reality more than 2,500 years ago”.      In Search of Ancient Gods. Von Daniken (Heron and Souvenir Press, New York, N.Y.1973).  

For more on this topic see:  
http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2013/09/en-cast-ezekiel-reporter.html

4. Daniel - I saw ... one like the Son of man (who) came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.  Dan.7:13.KJV.  Again we see the, almost proverbial, clouds associated with a UFO, and coming in a UFO in the clouds is Christ Jesus, the son of man.  He is brought into the presence of God, His Father.  

Daniel sees Jehovah sitting on His throne.  Most older translations describe Jehovah as the Ancient of Days, but some newer translations have changed those words to, the Eternal God.  Again, it appears that they did this to make the Bible agree with church theology. 

James Strong, in his Dictionary of Hebrew Words, tells us that, Ancient (#6268) of days, does not mean, the Eternal God, it means, venerable; old.  There is absolutely nothing in this story in Daniel 7, that speaks of Jehovah as being eternal or almighty.  Which leaves lots of room for us to believe that He is an alien!

For more on this topic see:  
http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2013/09/eo-cast-daniel-prognosticator.html

5 - Christ - At the time that Christ was born, as was normal, there were shepherds looking after their sheep, out in the fields.  At night, while they were watching their flocks, the light from a UFO shone all around them.  The shepherds were afraid of the spacecraft, so one of the Lord’s robots came closer to them and said, do not be afraid, this UFO has not come to hurt you. I bring you good news of a great joy, which will come to all people. Luke 2:10

For more on this topic see: 
http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2013/09/ep-cast-christ-birth-of-super-hero.html 

and: http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2013/09/eq-cast-magi.html

6. Saint Paul:  see:
 http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2013/10/er-cast-paul-abducted.html

7: Saint John - see:
 http://spaceshiptheology.blogspot.com/2013/10/es-cast-john-visionary.html

The Cast: John, The Visionary

A Talking Trumpet

The Apostle John, the supposed writer of the last book of the New Testament, was also in a UFO.  Whereas Ezekiel was explicit about the exterior of the UFO he saw, Saint John describes it's interior for us.
      

Before John enters the spaceship he tells us what induced him to go in.

The trumpets we know do not speak with a voice, so this phrase, a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, Rev. 1:10, forces us to ask a question.  Was John hearing a loudspeaker, something that physically resembles a trumpet, as a bullhorn does?  John, of course, did not know the word, bullhorn, so he used a word he knew that best described it.  The trumpet did not play notes, it talked, it was saying.  

Again, in 1:12, John speaks of the voice that spoke to him through the trumpet.   It is not too far-fetched to believe that Jehovah would use an electronic, physical device to speak to his servant.  After all, He uses physical, mechanically printed pages (the Bible) to speak to his servants.  He has also used loudspeakers in radios and TV's to call sinners to repentance. 

There is only a technical difference between the Bible or a radio and the trumpet that John heard speaking.  So let us not fall for the argument that Jehovah would not use mechanical apparatuses to speak to humans.

Then, after John had seen the future of the church, ch. 2-3, he said, After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an open door. Rev. 4:1.  James Strong says that the word, heaven G3772, in this instance, means, an elevated place.  Therefore it is easy to picture a UFO, parked on the ground, standing on its four legs, as Ezekiel saw it, with a ladder reaching from the ground to the spaceship (heaven).

Saint John in a Spaceship

Furthermore, the voice invited him to, come up here.  Was there a ladder for John to climb up into heaven?  Jacob had seen the UFO that way in Gen. 28:10-17.  He does not say that he climbed a ladder, but he was told to come up hither.  If he could not do this by himself, why would he have been told to do it?  It is important to remember that John was still standing on the earth when he saw the open door in heaven.

Heaven, our future home, does not have doors; it has gates, as seen in Rev. 21:12-13+21. However, John says that a door was opened in this elevated place (as a door in a spaceship might be).  The words John uses here are easy to interpret to mean that he saw a spaceship;  if only we will let the Bible mean what it says, and not try to force, into the Bible, the single-faceted ideas that have been fed to us.

Then he saw the captain’s chair, and One was sitting on the chair. Around the throne, there were twenty-four other chairs, where the crew of the spaceship sat. 4:3-4. Then he describes the control panel, however, not in words to which we can readily relate.

Then, in 4:1, just to make sure we do not misunderstand his meaning, John is careful to reiterate the statement of 1:10, the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me.  Again, we observe that John says that the trumpet was talking. 

Concerning this topic, Dr McGee states his viewpoint very directly: This introduces us to one of the simple symbols which occurs frequently from here on in the Revelation. That it is a symbol is evident—a trumpet never talks.  If Dr McGee is keen on contradicting the Bible, that, apparently, is an option, he has.  

I believe that since John wrote that the trumpet talked, he meant that it spoke words.  Later on, when John speaks of the seven trumpets, he says "they sounded", those trumpets did not talk, this one did!

John says God, the Father, was sitting; He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance.  The words, He who sat there, in 4:3 KJV of The Apocalypse, are omitted in "The Majority Texts".  So verses 2-3 read like this, behold, a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne which was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance.  

Some argue that, according to this text, even though the Father was sitting in the throne the text does not say that John saw Him; the description was about the throne, and so, they say, John did not really see God.

That argument is really pushing common sense way out of shape.  The statement that John saw the Father, with his physical eyes, must stand without challenge, for in 20:11, John writes, I saw a great white throne and (I saw) Him who sat on it.  We remind ourselves again, that Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel and Solomon all saw Jehovah, the Father of Jesus Christ, as a physical being.   Why can Bible students not simply accept that?

After that, John says, in front of the throne, but not attached to the control panel, there is, as it were, a sea of glass.  He does not say it was a sea of glass but as it were or like a sea of glass.  What he is describing is the monitor, through which the crew sees the surrounding area.  At that time, the screen was showing the Mediterranean Sea, and that is why John calls it a sea of glass.

This whole scene so perfectly describes the setting of a UFO and its crew that it is really hard to see it any other way.

  

The Cast: Paul, The Abducted

Paul in a UFO

Saul, circa 42 CE, travelling a country road to Damascus to work some havoc among the Christians, was met on the way by a brightly shining flying saucer.  What Saul saw was so bright that it blinded him for three days.  While the light was shining on him, he also heard a voice, and Saul said to the voice, who are you?  The speaker from the spacecraft said I am Jesus, and by hurting the Christians you are hurting me.

Saul retells his UFO experience in the third person, as though it happened to another man, so as not to seem to be boosting, but many Bible scholars agree that he meant himself. 

Visions were very popular in the early church.  The foundation for the new structure must be laid very carefully, and Christ himself was looking after its erection since He is the main cornerstone of the colossal organism. 

1. Ananias, in a vision, was told to go and lay his hands on Saul to restore his sight. 
2. Cornelius saw an angel, which asked him to call Simon to his house so that Simon could preach to them all. 
3. Simon said that he would not have come except that he had just seen a vision. 
4. In the vision, the Lord had told him that the new message was not for the Jews only but for all four corners of the earth. That was a truth that the Jews found hard to accept, for until that time Jehovah had told the Jews repeatedly that He was the God of the Jews only. 
5. In the book of The Revelation, John, the supposed writer, saw many interesting scenes.  He saw scenes of the phases through which humanity would be passing and he saw portrayals of the troubles our globe would be experiencing in its last days.  He was also reminded of the promise given to the disciples, two-thirds of a century earlier, namely, that Jesus, the Son of God would return to earth in a spacecraft.

These various “visions” were given to early church leaders; to an unscientific world, in a superstitious time.  Consequently, they were and are effective.  The fact that we now know how the visions could have been presented does not destroy or even minimize the message.  No longer do we need to take all the impossible to understand passages of Scripture by faith alone.  Now, our faith in Jesus Christ can also be based on scientific manifestation.

Saint Paul, formerly known as Saul, the writer of about half of the New Testament, said that boasting was not expedient but that if he was going to boast about anything it would be of the visions and revelations he had received in the past, and of being caught up into paradise. 

Paul admits that he does not know whether he went in the body or out of the body, but that he was caught up to the third heaven. 2 Cor. 12:2.   It is interesting that he should have specified the third heaven. The first heaven may be the plane in which the birds fly, the stratosphere; the second heaven perhaps the mesosphere, the space above earth's clouds; the third heaven is space (where UFO’s feel at home)!  

he was caught up.  The word which is used here (ἁρπάζω harpazō) means, to seize upon, to snatch away, as wolves do their prey; or ... to hurry off by force or involuntarily. In the case before us there is implied the idea that Paul was conveyed by a foreign force; or that he was suddenly seized and snatched up to heaven. The word expresses the suddenness and the rapidity with which it was done. Probably it was instantaneous, so that he appeared at once to be in heaven. Barnes commentary. Barnes.  Most likely, Barnes was not thinking of UFO involvement, however, his definition most certainly fits that possibility.

Saint Paul and The Hills

The report of Paul’s incident sounds like a forerunner of the “Barney and Betty Hill case”. They, also, were caught up in a spacecraft and were hypnotized.  Paul writes about his hypnosis this way. He did not know whether he had gone with or without his body and now that he was back, he could not repeat the words that he had heard.

  

he heard words that now, to him, were unspeakable. 2 Cor. 12:4.  His experience was not unlike that of the Hills.   They also could not repeat or explain what they had heard or experienced on the spaceship until a doctor, using regressive hypnosis, got them to explain what had happened to them on their unexpected space flight. 
For this story see: 
http://www.ufocasebook.com/Hill.html

We can only wish that a doctor, understanding hypnosis, had been with the apostle Paul; he might have been able to elicit the facts from Paul.  How different our understanding of the Scriptures would be if Saint Paul had explained to all of us what he saw, heard and experienced on the spaceship.  The Bible is loaded with confirmations of the idea of UFOs; it is just that we have been taught not to see them when we read the Bible.

By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, my experience in the UFO; was so far beyond normal that I might have started bragging about it, but to keep that from happening there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, something that torments me.  three times I begged the Lord that it might depart from me, but He said no.  2 Cor. 12:7-8.   It has been reported many times by those who have been abducted by aliens that after they return they have some kind of physical ailment or deformity.  Paul also experienced a physical problem; he called it a thorn in the flesh.

I can't help but wonder, would there have been a benefit to the world at large if Paul would have written exactly what went on in the UFO.    Probably, the church fathers would have considered his letter as “so much rubbish”, that our book of Second Corinthians would have suffered the same fate as the Book of Enoch did.

Some Bible teachers believe that there were actually four letters by Paul to the Church at Corinth, but we have only the first and the third in our Bible.  Is it possible that Paul's second and the fourth letters to Corinth had some of Paul’s UFO experiences in them?  Is it also possible that that is why those two letters were excluded from our Bible like the Book of Enoch has been?

From the third century onward, (when the canon of our Bible was being formed), the church fathers were of the opinion that if they did not like a teaching, a truth or a fact, they would simply hide it from the public by not including it in the Bible.  

Unfortunately, the same can be said about present-day religious leaders and Bible teachers.  We know the Bible teaches things we don't believe but we will not teach them because, if we do, we will lose our jobs.

The Cast: Christ's Ministry

Christ on the Mountian

Christ, with three of his disciples, climbed up a mountain where Christ was transfigured before their eyes. The word, transfigure, is based on a Greek word, which means, to change.  An interesting thing must have happened there; Christ was changed, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. Mat.17:2 ECV. To help us understand this picture better, let us take a short excursion into the realm of TV science fiction. 

If the crew of a spaceship needs to move a person from one place to another, that person can be ‘beamed up’ or ‘beamed down’.  As the person being moved “dematerializes”, he becomes altogether bright.   When that person ‘materializes’ again he loses his brightness. This, in science fiction, can be done without causing any harm to living cells.

Does this really seem to wild to accept in real life?  Remember, That which was impossible yesterday becomes possible today and tomorrow we will wonder why we ever thought it impossible. God Drives a Flying Saucer. Dione.  We, also, bring to mind what Mr Blumrich said about the spaceship of Ezekiel, the only fantastic thing is that such a ship was tangible reality 2,500 years ago.
In Search of Ancient Gods. Von Daniken (Heron and Souvenir Press, New York, N.Y.)  

We must remember that the crew on Jehovah's spaceship was already safely using devices, which we today are only imagining.  Now, leaving science fiction, we return to the Bible narrative.

We read that Christ’s face shone and that his raiment became white.  Was He perhaps “beamed up” to the spaceship where he met Moses and Elijah?  In the next scene, we find that those three have been “beamed down” and the three of them are standing on the mountain talking to each other.  

It needs hardly to be reiterated that a UFO and a bright cloud are almost inseparable, for even in this incident we find that a bright cloud overshadowed them. Luke 9:28-36.  The first time that Ezekiel saw a UFO he said, As I looked...a great cloud, with brightness round about it.  Ezekiel 1:4.

References to the Lord appearing in a bright cloud are numerous in the Bible.  The cloud does serve a very practical purpose; to cover the spaceship from the eyes of humans.  The times in which the history of the Bible was happening, just as today, the beings from outer space did not want humans to be aware of their physical limitations and so they hid behind clouds.

It is true that this picture of Jehovah and His Son make them appear to be less majestic than we would like them to appear.  However, this puts God’s care and love for His laboratory specimens into the realm of the understandable.  Understandable enough, at least, to gain a real appreciation for it.  If, as said earlier, the earth is God’s laboratory, it would not be at all surprising that He would love His creation and care for it.  This concept is almost within the grasping range of the human mind. 

However, the idea that an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, totally spiritual Being, that gigantic force which created the universe, can love each individual person, completely stupefies the imagination and even faith cannot lay hold of it.

Christ in Prison

Saint Peter tells us that during the time that Christ was in the tomb, he went to preach to the spirits in prison. 1 Peter 3:18-19.  This statement leaves a few questions:

• If Christ had not been dead, but unconscious only, how would His spirit have been free to leave his body to enter the prison of the spirits?  

• If, as our pastors have taught us, everyone goes to heaven or "hell" at death, who was left in the prison for Christ to preach too?  The prison would have been empty!  The church leaders have taught us un-truths in so many areas of Bible study.

Christ Leaves Earth

Luke writes that Christ and his disciples were together in Galilee and While they (the disciples) were watching He was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes. Acts 1:10.  This is reminiscent of the experience Christ had on the mount of transfiguration (the beginning of this post) when he was “beamed up” and later "beamed" back to earth again. 

This time, however, after being "beamed up" he was not "beamed down" again.  He went to be with His Father in His spaceship, and to prepare an eternal home for us.  While Christ was being taken up, two other men, dressed in dazzling apparel, were being “beamed down”.  These two men made the disciples, and consequently, all of us, a promise. They said, this Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Acts 1:11.  

Christ will be coming back in a spaceship!  The Bible almost distinctly says so.