The History Channel in its "Ancient Aliens" TV series has given a sympathetic portrayal of the ancient astronauts theory. The ancient astronauts theory is the very bold claim that UFOs containing astronauts from other planets visited and profoundly influenced ancient civilizations. This theory is not generally accepted by archaeologists and historians. Some of the theorists on the "Ancient Aliens" series claimed that astronauts from other planets were behind miraculous events recorded in Exodus and in other Bible narratives. This is a direct attack on the Bible and must be rebutted. In this article I will refute the ancient astronauts theory and show what really happened in ancient times. I pondered why people would be inclined to believe theories of astronauts influencing and directing ancient civilizations. Then I realized that such an explanation of things fits very well within an atheistic materialistic worldview. Children are taught in school that they evolved from pond scum by random collisions of atoms. The implicit message is that there is no creator and no spirit world of any kind. Atheistic materialism with its evolution origins myth is the implicit official state religion of the USA. People are conditioned to be open to think that any spiritual or paranormal activity must be flesh and blood astronauts from other planets using technologies far more advanced than our own. I remember my own early embrace of evolution and atheism. I had a keen interest in dinosaurs as a second grader. I read and studied about dinosaurs and I absorbed the atheistic, anti-creationist evolutionary explanations for their rise and fall. I got into evolution far earlier than most kids. I eventually rejected the Roman Catholic teaching at the parochial school I attended. I embraced atheism though I continued going to church during those grade school years. Years later, during the early 70s, Von Daniken's book "Chariots of the gods" came out and there was a TV documentary special that promoted the idea of ancient astronauts that aired around that time. I was deceived into embracing the ancient astronauts theory. The ancient astronauts theory attacks the Bible at numerous points and by extension undermines the Christian faith. The ancient astronauts myth nagged me and confused me up until the time that God moved graciously in my life and I became a born again Christian during my second year of college in 1976. UFO researchers have two major competing theories to account for UFOs. The extraterrestrial hypothesis claims that UFOs are spaceships containing flesh and blood astronauts from other planets within our own universe. The interdimensional hypothesis claims that UFOs are entities that enter our world from another set of dimensions or parallel universe. When Mariner 4, which was launched in 1964, photographed the planet Mars, many at NASA were disappointed that it didn't show forests and animals! Mars is totally barren. People with powerful telescopes have seen planets in other star systems. These distant planets are also totally barren as far as our astronomers can tell. There are in fact no nearby planets from which flesh and blood astronauts in metal spaceships could feasibly come. For this and other reasons, many secular and virtually all Christian UFO researchers maintain the interdimensional hypothesis. The dominant Christian view of UFOs is that UFOs are manifestations of spirit beings that enter the visible world from the realm of spirit. The Bible certainly teaches that there is a spirit world and that there are angels and demons who travel to and from that dimension. We could say that every angel and demon is an interdimensional alien and not an extraterrestrial alien. Every spirit is ordinarily invisible. Spirits become visible or detectable by the senses when they manifest. Every human being has an immaterial part of his or her being. This immaterial part of us is called the spirit and soul. The Bible in Hebrews 4:12 distinguishes between soul and spirit, so we can say that spirit and soul are two different immaterial entities. Spirit and soul are different but are both immaterial, which is to say, not of this dimension or not of this universe. Every human being is therefore an interdimensional alien. Every human being reading this article has a spirit and soul that is not of this material world and thus is alien to this world. You are an alien! Now the spooky music starts! Humans are different from angels and demons in that we also have physical bodies that are of this material world which is of this dimension and of this universe. Hence each human being straddles the universes and is present in this universe and in the parallel universe at the same time. God has put us on this earth and given each of us a spirit and soul and body so that we straddle two universes. This is man's uniqueness and this facilitates the drama of redemption. Through Christ, God is redeeming us in spirit, soul and body. The spirit of a born again Christian was fully redeemed at the new birth. The soul is being redeemed gradually through sanctification. The physical bodies of those who belong to Christ will be redeemed at the future resurrection of the dead. Notice the order; that the human spirit is redeemed first and the body last. God is spirit (John 4:24) and He dwells in the parallel universe called the spirit world. The Bible in Revelation 21:2 and 21:10 tells of a future time, after the second coming of Christ, when heaven will come to earth. Planet earth is where we will be for the ages to come. God and angels will dwell here with us. That is a welcome invasion of interdimensional aliens to earth! The History Channel in its "Ancient Aliens" series presented many researchers who claim that flesh and blood astronauts came to earth many centuries ago and influenced ancient civilizations. They offered a wide range of evidence including ancient myths and descriptions of encounters with strange looking beings and ancient reports of images in the sky that read like modern UFO sightings. All of that can be accounted for by interdimensional aliens such as demons manifesting to impose pagan mythologies on ancient people groups. They mentioned a centuries old Aztec story of a high priest or emperor who claimed to have been commanded by a being of some kind to offer human sacrifices. This was probably not the only time that demons manifested themselves to ancient people and gave them religious instructions or "doctrines of demons" (I Tim 4:1). Demonic revelation is perhaps how Hindus in India got their doctrine of worshipping cows and their doctrine of burning widows. Such messages from demons could also account for why some of the pharaohs of Egypt oppressed thousands of hapless slaves and squandered immense wealth to build their elaborate tombs as if such tombs would help them enter the afterlife. Demons give doctrine today such as the teachings of Scientology and the other UFO cults. The theorists on the "Ancient Aliens" series offered other evidence for ancient astronauts such as the Egyptian pyramids and the Bolivian Puma Punku temple complex which they claim ancient astronauts helped build. I refuted that in my recent article titled: "Did 'Ancient Astronauts' Help Build the Pyramids and Puma Punku?" Jesus said "All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers" (John 10:8). Jesus was possibly referring to the ancient Hindu avatars such as Krishna who brought false doctrine. A Hindu avatar is a false messiah. The word "avatar" means "one who crosses over" in Sanskrit. It refers to a being who crosses over from the spirit world. ("Avatar" is also an acronym for a branch of computer technology with no connection to Hinduism.) Jesus said "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16). Evil men, perhaps aided by demons who crossed over from the spirit world, imposed destructive doctrines.The worship of animals and the degradation of human beings such as the widow burning in India and the human sacrifices offered by the Aztecs is bad fruit. Doctrines of demons yield bad fruit. The theorists on the TV series were right in saying that aliens came to earth in ancient times. The aliens, however, were interdimensional and not extraterrestrial. The Bible records a visit of ancient aliens in Genesis 6:1-4. The visitors were spirits, not astronauts. The History Channel's "Ancient Aliens" series is extremely dangerous and destructive in that some of the theorists claimed that the Ark of the Covenant was some kind of extraterrestrial weapon and at least one of the ancient astronaut theorists on that TV series claimed that the God of the Bible was an ancient astronaut and not divine. We must protect our young people from this ancient astronaut cult! The teachings of Christ nurture and protect human beings. Bible based teachings have been the basis of the personal freedom and dignity of man preserved in Christian civilization. Paganism has resulted in despotism and oppression. We know that Jesus is the true Messiah by the fruit of His teachings and the fact that He came in fulfillment of hundreds of Old Testament prophecies and that miracles still occur today in the name of Jesus. There are accounts of attempted alien abductions that were stopped when the victims of the attempted abductions called on the name of Jesus (see "Charisma" magazine Apr. 2001 p. 46). Christ is the only religious figure in all of history who specifically saved His people from their sins by dying in their place and taking the punishment of their sins upon Himself. The coming of Christ to die for us was prophesied in the Old Testament in Isaiah 53 and Daniel 9:24-26 and in many other passages. We receive forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ because He died and was resurrected from the dead for us. Ask Christ to come into your heart today! By Bill Nugent, an author of books and articles on religion, science and philosophy.
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