by Gary Bates
We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty (2 Pet. 1:16).
Although Downing is influential and well liked among the UFO community, he resorts to cleverly invented stories. As a result, much of his work fails the “Scripture test.” This is the straightforward, traditional method where Christians use Scripture to interpret Scripture as a safeguard, not allowing passages to be taken in isolation or out of context. Downing’s doctrines, like the fallen angels whose stories he believes, are fulfilling a need that the world wants satisfied — a desire for a non-supernatural interpretation of the Bible. By definition, any intervention by a supernatural God would suggest that the Bible really is what it claims to be — the inspired Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16).
There are consequences for this idea. If the Bible is a true, literal, and historical record of the past, then we should be able to trust its record of the future. It says that God will judge the world again and those outside of Christ will be eternally separated from God. A non-literal approach allows one to choose one’s own beliefs about the past and the future. So, which belief system inspired by the so-called extraterrestrials is the right one? There are literally hundreds of different versions, so logic dictates that they can’t all be right. But the majority of them do seem to be centered on the Bible, as we have often pointed out. They also seem to be squarely aimed at discrediting a plain or straightforward interpretation of the biblical texts, and the notion that there is but one true God, and that “the way” (the only way) is the one that He has already supplied by suffering a cruel death on our behalf.
The Bible makes it clear that we cannot become gods like Him. We see the incredible prophetic value of the Bible once again as it seems to foretell today’s beliefs:
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Tim. 4:3).
In recent years, many individuals have claimed to be the person of, or the reincarnation of, Jesus Christ. The number of false christs is increasing in accordance with the warnings that Jesus provided. It is even possible that, as well as counterfeiting a possible rapture of Christians from the earth, fallen angels masquerading as Christ could also try to counterfeit His second coming. UFO contactees have already provided many accounts of meeting (a false) Jesus, either on a spaceship or another planet. Traditional Christian views are constantly under attack and being altered.
With an escalation of deception during these days, one should also expect a resultant increase in false teaching. Once, the Bible was considered the benchmark, or the tool, for discerning such false doctrines. Today, it is more under attack than ever before. Although many people in the pro-UFO movement are quick to claim Jesus as one of their own, they choose to ignore that Jesus himself clearly believed the Bible to be the Word of God. He also believed it to be literal history, particularly with regard to the Book of Genesis and its account of the origin of the earth and the universe. Jesus was no subscriber to evolution, and since He was the Creator of all life, as the Bible claims, aliens could not have evolved or even be overseeing evolution. Jesus warned His followers:
Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth-pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other (Matt. 24:4–10).
The Bible says that during this difficult time, ungodliness, fear, despair, and destruction would reign for a short time. For the benefit of Christian believers alive at that time, Jesus tells what it will be like and warns not to give up hope or look for salvation anywhere else:
Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near (Luke 21:26–28).
At that time the sign of the Son of Man [Jesus] will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other (Matt. 24:30–31, emphasis added).
Jesus’ very own words describe that those who have faith in Him will be separated from those who have ignored His warnings:
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matt. 25:31–34).
The Bible provides a clear, straightforward account of Jesus’ sobering warnings. Just as many of the UFO texts also state, some will be saved and some will not. In short, both sides of the fence believe “crunch time” is coming. But whose version of events are we to believe? They can’t both be right. One must be truth and one not. In whom should we place our trust? It appears that we must choose carefully — our decision has eternal consequences.
Endnotes
[1]William T. Alnor, UFOs in the New Age (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992), p. 54.
[2]Ibid., p. 53.
[3]Barbara Marciniak, Bringers of the Dawn: Teachings from the Pleiadians (Rochester, VT: Bear and Co., 1992), cited in “Rapture: The New Age Version,”
[4]“Books written by Barbara Marciniak,”
[5]Tuella, Project World Evacuation (New Brunswick, NJ: Inner Light Publications, 1993), cited in “New Age Rapture,”
[6]Speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Forty-second session, “Provisional Verbatim Record of the Fourth Meeting”, September 21, 1987. Cited in Government Witnesses,”
[7]Jacques Vallée, Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults (Berkeley CA: And Or Press, 1979), p. 218–219, cited in John Ankerberg and John Weldon, The Facts on UFO’s and Other Supernatural Phenomen (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1992), p. 36.
[8]Ronald D. Story, editor, The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters, in an article by Brad Steiger (London: Constable & Robinson, 2002), p. 674–675.
[9]William T. Alnor, UFOs in the New Age (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992), p. 222–223.
[10]Barry Downing, “E.T. Contact: The Religious Dimension,” MUFON 1990 International Symposium Proceedings, MUFON, Seguin, Texas, 1990, p. 55, cited in Alnor, UFOs in the New Age, p. 225.
10
The Gospel According to the Creator
The author’s perspective
Having researched material for this book and met people who are involved in the UFO phenomenon, I am concerned for their welfare — we all should be. There is an enormous spiritual battle going on which has eternal consequences for those involved, and it is more widespread than most people realize.
For example, I remember the call from a desperate mother who had contacted several Christian organizations looking for help for her daughter, who had a history of illicit drug use. The daughter
subsequently claimed she was being visited by aliens in the middle of the night. After some discussion, I asked if Mary (not her real name) and I could meet because I felt there was something missing in the puzzle. Over coffee, we discussed her daughter’s problems. I mentioned, among other things, “If this is what I think it is, there is either something you are not telling me or something that your daughter has not shared with you. Have there been encounters of a sexual nature? Does she believe that she is ‘specially chosen’ for their mission?”
I’ll never forget Mary’s jaw-dropping reaction. Confirming my worst fears, she said, “Yes — oh my goodness! Something really is happening to her.”
I went on to explain that similar experiences are being reported by people all over the world — thousands of miles away in some cases. Mary was staggered, and realized that what was happening to her daughter was of a completely spiritual nature. She now realizes her daughter’s bizarre stories and behavior are a result of deception by very powerful and influential spiritual beings. As noted earlier in this book, abuse, drugs, or even dabbling in the occult seem to provide an entry point for spiritual deception. While psychologists would say (and probably correctly so) that drugs and severe trauma can cause dissociation and even fragmented personalities at a psychological level, it seems increasingly evident that sinister spiritual forces take these opportunities to advance their cause, taking advantage of those who may be at a stage where they are physiologically and emotionally weakened.
The word “deception” is actually a dangerous one to use with someone who is directly involved. Their experiences are real to them. The word implies that we are denying their “reality” and that we don’t understand. It appears to dismiss their experience and usually invokes a dramatic reaction. It’s almost as if an invisible barrier is raised, preventing further communication.
On another occasion I was giving a lecture on the subject and a young married woman attended who said she had been involved with UFOs for over 12 years. At the end of my lecture, she politely asked if she could respond. For over 20 minutes she quoted chapter and verse of the Bible better than most Christians I know. Each verse was given a UFO interpretation. Apparently, aliens were our creators and had been visiting us for millennia, overseeing our evolution and the Christian religion. Every time I raised an inconsistency in her interpretation of the biblical texts, she promptly moved on to the next subject. She even suggested that some of the original Hebrew words in the Old Testament had been mistranslated into English. Little did she know that I had one of the world’s foremost Christian apologists attending that evening with me, who also happens to be Jewish and has a good grasp of biblical Hebrew, and he easily refuted her claims. I don’t mention her sharing her viewpoint to disparage her, but the experience was the closest thing that I could imagine to observing the results of brainwashing. She also spoke openly about visitations and stated that she, as well as her young children, had “met Jesus.” She had been introduced into what are basically occult phenomena and the “dark side” of the supernatural realm.
These true stories demonstrate the dramatic level of deception, which can even take someone to a point at which logical and rational arguments are not even considered. The tales that experiencers are being told constitute, in my opinion, “alternative truths.” How could the real Jesus or His angels impart such “truths”— ones that are in conflict with His own words and history as recorded in the Book that is claimed to be the source of these “truths” in the first place? This is self-refuting. To help overcome this prevalent deception, I have extended my study of biblical truth in this chapter. The real Jesus said in John 8:32:
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
The need to believe
“Why are we here? Where did we come from? Is there any meaning to my existence? Is there life after death?” At some point in life, most people question their existence. We have a spiritual void, or if you like, a piece missing from our understanding of why life exists at all. Some fill this gap with sport, romance, or money, but if we are entirely honest, there must be more.
It is easy to see why various religious beliefs have proliferated, as people seek answers to the “big question” of life. Increasingly popular is the hope of salvation via the technologically advanced “space brothers.” An atheist might dispute the claim that people need religious answers, pointing out that he can get on quite well without any religious beliefs or God. But in one sense he is a religious person, too. He has decided on an answer for the “big question.” That is, there is no God, and he (the atheist) is the product of chance random processes. He has chosen this belief, even though he cannot disprove the existence of God or prove that the universe came into existence for no purpose. For example, an atheist accepts the “big bang” ultimately on faith, even though he knows of no scientific mechanism that could have caused it to happen.[1]
The question of origins is central to what we believe about ourselves. If we believe that we came from nothing and are destined for nothing, then there is no ultimate meaning or purpose to our existence. However, if God is Creator, then He brought this universe into existence for a reason, and by implication, humans have a reason for existence, too. In fact, the Bible explicitly says that we are central to the Creator’s plans and purpose.
Regardless of their religious beliefs, most people would admit that the world is a mess. Many worry about the environment, poverty, food shortages, diseases, and so on. The breakdown of law and order is a major problem, too, not just in Western countries but everywhere in the world.
But is this turmoil any wonder when people have been told that they are just rearranged stardust in some endless cosmic merry-go-round, and that there is no life after death, no Creator to be responsible to, and ultimately no consequences for our actions? Moreover, why should we treat each other with any respect? If evolution is true, it is survival of the fittest. If you are weak and helpless, well, that’s just too bad. If we teach people they are just evolved animals, then why should we be surprised when they act like it? The wise King Solomon, under the inspiration of God, explained what makes us act the way we do:
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7; NKJV).
One of America’s worst serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer, explained the thoughts that made him what he was. He believed there were no eternal consequences for his actions:
If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then — then what’s the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth, that we all just came from the slime. When we, when we died, you know, that was it, there is nothing… .[2]
The Bible says that breaking God’s laws, or even living as if God does not exist, is sin. Could you imagine living in a world where there were no rules? Despite all of us knowing the difference between wrong and right, we seem to have the propensity to get it wrong. The distractions of society subtly encourage us to look after “number one,” and our culture empowers us to disregard and challenge authority.
But sin has become a relative term. These days most define wrong or right for themselves. However, the meaning of anything is tied up in its origins. The Bible teaches that sin originated when the first people, Adam and Eve, rebelled against their Creator and His rules to live by. So whose rules should we live by, anyway?
Let’s be honest and ask ourselves this question: “Did our parents have to teach us how to do wrong things?” There is no need to give the answer. We can’t help ourselves — we are constantly getting it wrong. The problem is not the degree of the sin or the offense we commit, but against whom we have committed it. The Bible tells us that we have ignored our responsibilities to the one who made us:
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way (Isa. 53:6).
The idea that “sin is relative” extends to modern society as a whole. Most of Western
societies’ laws had their origin in the Bible (they were originally God’s laws), but man has corrupted and changed these laws to suit himself. Is it any surprise that we see declining standards of behavior, along with an increase in crimes like murder and tragedies like suicide, when our young people believe that life is without meaning and purpose?
That angelic being of light, the leader of all deceiving “UFOnauts,” Lucifer, tricked mankind into actions that had grave, eternal consequences. Because we were originally created as eternal beings, Lucifer knew that sin would eternally separate mankind from God. Yes, that’s right — forever! Ephesians 2:1–3 says to us: