Controversial Premises

In these posts, Bible quotations are printed in red.  Quotations from other writers are in blue, and my own quotes and paraphrases are printed in pink. 

Narrow-Minded?

If one is to accept that the God written about in the Bible is a superhuman being who came in a spaceship from another planet, one must put aside many traditional prejudices and views.  One must open-mindedly look at these new ideas, and realize that they do not stand in opposition to the actual written records found in the Bible.  However, our ancestor’s rigid beliefs, now in us, stand in opposition to the possibility of seeing “spaceships” in the Bible.

A quote from a book by Mr Wilson, emphasizes my point. Chance evolution will be preferred to creation; the Bible will be accepted only as a good human book instead of what it is, the inspired Word of God; The death of Jesus Christ will be regarded at best as only an heroic but unfortunate event in Roman times, whereas, in fact, it was the culmination of God’s great plan of redemption for fallen man. Other doctrines such as the virgin birth and the resurrection of our Lord will be ruled out with no effort to consider the case seriously.

Gods in Chariots and other Fantasies, Clifford Wilson, (Creation-Life Publishers, San Deigo).

It is thinking, exactly like this, expressed by Dr Wilson, which I am opposing here.  Even a person who believes in the active presence of UFO’s can accept the Bible as the inspired word of Jehovah.  However, spiritualizing the Bible or treating its message as symbolic, as the church at large does, is unacceptable. 

If one believes that the Bible means what has been written, of course, one will believe that Christ is the Son of God and that He died to pay the penalty for our sins.  One will also believe that He rose from the tomb, ascended and will be returning.  No doubt, the frame of reference will not be the same as that held by Mr Wilson and others of his mindset.

Narrow-minded Bible teachers repeatedly accuse Ufologists of being literalists; this is an accusation that is well deserved.  Many Ufologists, studying the Bible, notice things that they have never heard in church, and they accept those Biblical statements as facts simply because they are in the Bible, and because the church has not yet taught them how to bend those facts out of shape. 

Bend it Till it Breaks

For example, notice what one Bible teacher wrote about the UFO which Ezekiel saw: Ezekiel looked and saw a whirlwind (a great rushing or tempest) coming out of the north (hidden or secreted for God's use), a great cloud (covering a wide area) and a fire infolding itself, (truth and glory of God). Out of the midst of this fire (God's glory and truth) came the likeness of four (worldwide, as in the four corners of the earth) living (spiritually) creatures (people). Every one had four faces (to uphold or stand to face) and four wings (overspreading, an army). Their feet were straight (not wavering from their stand) and they shone like burnished brass (tried and purified by the glorious Truth of God). They were united and went straight forward (didn’t stray from the truth). 

In verse 24, we are clearly told that the wings (overspreading) made noise (God’s Word) like the noise of great waters (God’s people) as they speak the truth and stand for it. 

The symbolic meaning of the words in Ezekiel chapter one are not meant to be taken literally any more than when they are used spiritually elsewhere in God’s Word. Ezekiel 1:4: 

Unravelling False Images. WWW

If fundamentalist Bible teachers are so eager to symbolize what the Bible plainly states as fact, why do they not follow through with that method of interpretation, throughout the Bible? 

Some of the results would, of course, include the teaching that: 

• Christ was not born to a virgin, but rather to a chaste woman (symbolically, she was a virgin).  
• Christ did not really raise Lazarus from the dead.  Lazarus was only symbolically dead; he represented the Jewish race. 
• Christ did not really die on the cross, He died symbolically to indicate that He was finished preaching to the Jews. 

On and on those lies would go.  Those of us who are literalists do not condone that kind of Bible teaching!  Whenever possible we try to take the statements in the Bible at face value.

Why, on the one hand, do those authors accuse us of being literalists and then, on the other hand, accuse us of not believing the plainly stated facts about Christ?  

For example, 

• the virgin birth of Christ, 
• His atoning death, 
• His resurrection 
• His ascension. 

Those facts are all in the Bible for us to read, and if we are literalists, of course, we will believe them.  If those authors are going to accuse us, they should at least decide, first, for what they are going to defame us!  

Are we wrong for believing what the Bible says?  Or, are we wrong because we do not agree with the narrow-minded authors who symbolize or spiritualize everything that does not fit into their preconceived, blindsided way of thinking? 

Anyway, who gave them the authority to tell us, Ufologists, what we believe or do not believe?

Mr Seagraves, a creationist, throws the literalist blanket of accusation over all Ufologists.  He takes it a step further and says that to believe in spaceships and the saucerian's involvement with humans requires aeons of human existence, and the Bible allows for only six thousand years of human existence.  Therefore, he maintains that Ufologists cannot accept the idea of the great deluge, consequently, he says, we do not accept the Bible and therefore UFOlogists are not Christians. 

Sons of God Return, Kelly L. Segraves (Fleming H Revell, New Jersey). 

In any case, there are many Christians who believe that humankind has been around much longer than 6,000 years, in spite of the fact that Mr Seagraves says that if one believes that, one cannot be a Christian.