Bigfoot, Aliens, and Time Travellers from the Future
As Christians our first love should be for the truth so one could argue that in pursuing the lore concerning these stories one is only seeking the truth. We want to know what is really "out there". But that begs the question, where is the truth to be found? Out there? The prophets, apostles, the angel Gabriel, and even Jesus Christ Himself said that God's Word is truth and that the scripture is truth (Psalm 12:6-7, 1 Thess 2:13, 2 Tim 3:16, Dan 10:21, John 10:35, 17:17). Jesus Christ said that He Himself is the truth (John 14:6). Not merely true, or a truth as in part of the truth, but THE TRUTH. As a Christian, one is blessed to have and to know the truth! And so we have the standard by which to test the truth of anything and everything else. It is not our process to discover the truth of Bigfoot (for example) by getting to the bottom of the rabbit hole of all the stories concerning it; rather, it is to test the claims concerning Bigfoot against what the Scripture says about God's creation of all things. We will quickly discover whether the claims made about Bigfoot are consistent with the Word of God, or inconsistent. Something that matches with or conforms to the truth is true, and something that contradicts the truth is a lie. And we will soon take the test cases in the title and find out whether they are true or not. But first let us continue our philosophical approach to how we, as Christians, discover knowledge and discern both truth and error.
We are taught in the scriptures that we are involved in spiritual warfare. And that this warfare takes place in the mind; that is, having to do with our thoughts. The New American Standard Bible puts it this way (2 Cor 10:3-6):
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. Destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete."
First we should note what are the fortresses spoken of in this passage. They are the mental patterns and obsessions and fascinations that captivate us yet are not consistent with the truth of God. Note that it takes divine power to tear down these fortresses; the non-Christian CANNOT escape their dominion. In the next sentence we are taught that spiritual warfare involves destroying speculations that contradict God's word. These speculations actually stop us from growing in the knowledge of God and from knowing the great and mighty things that God will teach us if we diligently seek Him (Heb 11:6).
"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." Jer 33:3
So the grave danger from indulging speculations that are not consistent with the truth of scripture is that you are actually kept from true knowledge. That is an awful irony, that someone who longs for knowledge can block their own path to knowledge by indulging speculations that are not true--even if they do not know these speculations are untrue because they have not trusted what the Word of God says about them. This is a device of the devil to deceive people but the gift of God is that through faith in Christ we can overcome and destroy the operation of this diabolical device in our lives. We do so by taking our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. This is a crucial point, this is how we overcome. We submit our thoughts to the truth of Christ and we judge them accordingly. If our thoughts are false we must brand them as false and therefore not believe them or indulge them as if they were true. We cannot refuse to acknowledge that they are false and simply let them continue to fascinate us because they will draw us farther and farther away from the knowledge of God. It is not acceptable for us to reserve judgment when the judgment of the scriptures is known to us. In other words, if the judgment of the scriptures is that Bigfoot does not exist, then to continue thinking that Bigfoot might exist is to submit to the devil. It is the lust of the flesh to seek to satisfy the desires of the mind, and this is what entices a person to continue to entertain thoughts that are false and to refuse to acknowledge that they are false. But this is what the grace of God saved us from when we believed on Jesus Christ, so how can we continue to live this way? If we have truly been born again then we are dead to sin: how can we continue any longer to live in it (Rom 6:2)?
Doesn't the word 'speculation' so accurately describe theories of Bigfoot, aliens, and future time travellers? Theories about the Egyptian pyramids are likewise speculations. The King James version uses the word "imaginations" here instead, which is also very fitting. Let's look a little more at this and see what is the goal or the result of these speculations or imaginations. The Bible tells us that they are lofty and that they raise themselves up against the knowledge of God. At this point, let's get particular and look at the case of Bigfoot and see what belief in the existence of Bigfoot implies and compare it to what the Scripture says.
From wikipedia, Bigfoot, "are said to be hairy, upright-walking, ape-like
creatures that dwell in the wilderness and leave footprints. Depictions
often portray them as a missing link between humans and human ancestors or other great apes." From this description we immediately see the evolutionary paradigm being invoked. The Bigfoot is conceived of as either an earlier stage in human evolution that persisted instead of dying out, or perhaps the representative of another branch that diverged from our own relatively recently and as such shows characteristics of both great apes and humans. Now here we could turn to the opposing arguments. On the one side, the authority of almost all respected scientists deny their existence, and on the other, alleged sightings and a long history in folklore affirm their existence. But the only thing this produces is a contest between two imperfect authorities, and, in the opinion of world-renowned 'mentalist' The Amazing Kreskin, the side you agree with has more to do with your particular personality than with any actual oversize, camera-shy ape guy. So instead, we will escape this tug-of-war by going to the perfect and supreme authority, the holy Scriptures!
What do the holy scriptures say about the origin of man? Man was created in God's image, unlike the animals, and he was created on the sixth day as also were the beasts of the earth, cattle, and creeping things. So this makes the evolutionary paradigm, upon which the Bigfoot speculation is based, impossible for two reasons. One, because the hundreds of millions of years that evolution requires simply did not happen but man and beast were created as their kinds exist today by God in one day. And two, man was made separate from the beasts because he was made in the image of God. This means a hybrid man-beast such as Bigfoot is impossible. Furthermore the New Testament says that, "All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds" (1 Cor 15:39). Thus the flesh of men is different from the flesh of beasts; how then can a half-man, half-beast exist? No, men did not arise out of beasts; therefore the reason the missing link is missing is because it never did exist.
Soviet Scientist tries to advance atheism by hybridizing humans with apes
So we see the judgment of the scriptures on the speculation called Bigfoot, and thus if one continues to accept the possibility of Bigfoot, then one is in unbelief concerning the scriptures. This is what 2 Cor 10:5 means when it speaks of speculations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. In order to believe in Bigfoot you must reject what God has said about how He created everything. You cannot call Bigfoot true without condemning God. This is the same bottleneck that God pointed out to Job:
"Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?" Job 40:8
But if we condemn God, how shall we receive the salvation of God? God forbid, rather let us acknowledge that God is true, but every man a liar; as it is written, that we might be justified in what we say, and overcome when we are judged (Rom 3:4). Let us therefore cast down the imagination of Bigfoot and bring those thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Now,
someone might say, if the scriptures do not absolutely preclude the
existence of something, the Loch Ness monster perhaps, then how can we
know whether it exists? The Bible tells us, "In the mouth of two or
three witnesses shall every word be established" (2 Cor 13:1b). In other
words, let there be two or three witnesses that agree in all
particulars about what they have seen, and let the matter be settled
thereby. This means two or three independent witnesses including
possible evidences like video or photography. Until this standard is
properly met, all such stories as these must be treated as unconfirmed.
And again, this is only in regard to those putative creatures not precluded a priori by sound
reasoning from the scriptures.
The next case study is aliens, a very popular subject and perhaps somewhat special because the advancing technology of the last two centuries has really sparked the imagination concerning them. The Time Life series of books, Mysteries of the Unknown, of which three are pictured above, says that in past times, all purported sightings were thought to be of ghosts but now with aliens existing in the popular imagination, many sightings are said to be of aliens. But again, this doesn't really tell us anything decisive about whether aliens exist or not. Because without the concept of space travel or life on other planets existing in the popular consciousness, a sighting of aliens would possibly be interpreted as a ghost or demon encounter. Indeed today, there exist Christian ministries claiming that sightings and experiences of aliens are real but that what are called aliens are in fact manifestations of demons. Certainly aliens do seem in many ways to be space-age versions of angels and demons.
But our purpose here is to determine whether actual aliens exist. Once again we have found that human thinking outside of the holy Scriptures simply leads to speculation and a tug-of-war of opinion. According to the title of the second X-Files feature film, some say, "I Want To Believe", while some scoff at the idea. As in the case of Bigfoot, this has more to do with personal preference than with truth, so for the truth we must go to the holy Scriptures.
The creation account includes heaven and earth but does not say anything about life on other planets. It is "the earth" that brings forth cattle, creeping things, and beasts of the earth (Gen 1:24-25), and man was formed "of the dust of the ground" (Gen 2:7). The "waters brought forth" (Gen 1:20-21) the living creatures such as whales and fish and also fowls to fly "above the earth in the open firmament of heaven" (Gen 1:20). So we do not see anything that allows for life on other planets and yet there is specific reference to the creation of the stars on the fourth day (Gen 1:14-18), showing that creation in the heavens has not been ignored.
I think we should conclude at this point that aliens do not exist because they are absent from the creation narrative. However, some people would like to assert that the Bible is sufficient for us human beings but perhaps leaves things out that God has done but which we do not need to know about, such as the creation of life on other planets as well. But if we are discussing claims that aliens have or shall visit the earth, or even if we should discover creeping things on another planet, then this proves their existence is something we needed to know about! So this in itself debunks the possibility of alien life, but let us go further and see the full implications of the Gospel for the existence of intelligent, self-aware alien life: that is, alien life created in the image of God.
In the New Testament, we are told that the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up (2 Peter 3:7, 10-12). In other words, the whole universe shall be dissolved (Rev 20:11). Thus any aliens that might exist will perish in the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. If intelligent aliens exist, they must also have been created in the image of God, and if they had not sinned as Adam, then it would be unjust to kill them all along with ungodly men! So, since the universe shall be destroyed by fire, if intelligent aliens exist they also must have sinned against God. Like fallen angels and man, they would be under condemnation, but would they qualify for redemption?
So let us see what the Gospel says about the potential for aliens to be saved. Human beings can be saved by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor 4:4, Col 1:15, Heb 1:3), because God created man in His image and that Image took on the seed of Abraham. That is, He became a man and died and rose again for men. He did not take on Him the nature of angels and so fallen angels cannot be saved. This is explicit in the New Testament and the logic can be extended to aliens. Christ's humanity shows that aliens were not created in His image and therefore do not qualify for salvation. He is called the "Kinsman Redeemer" (Lev 25:25, Ruth 1-4), and "In all things" He was made "like unto His brethren" (Heb 2:16-17), so not being like an alien in all things proves they were not made in God's image.
Now, might He have manifested as an alien also, on an alien planet, and there died for the race of aliens? No, this is specifically precluded by the Bible, which says, "For then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end
of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself" (Heb 9:26). And there could be no other Son of God, an alien Son for an alien race, for the Bible is once again explicit, "For God so Loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Only one image of God, only one begotten Son, only one sacrifice for sins. So the Gospel proves that intelligent alien life does not exist.
Lastly on the subject of alien life, consider the following poster for the second X-Files movie:
Can you see the false Gospel being presented here? The movie's title is, "I Want to Believe." The fleshly mind craves to believe what it wants, even if it is a lie, and this becomes easier if that lie is given a veneer of truth such as is provided by this movie poster. It is covered with Christian symbolism like the blood, the X which is really a tilted Cross, and even the statement, 'To Find the Truth, You Must Believe', which mocks salvation by faith. It is a counterfeit gospel inspired by the devil in order to entice men to believe a lie and so be damned. But we are called to believe the truth of God's Word, not a lie with a superficial appearance of truth.
"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." John 7:24
The true Gospel is that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead on the third day to give us forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life. He is the Living Truth, and we are saved by God's grace through faith in Christ. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved" (Acts 16:31), and, "Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved," (Rom 10:13). Hallelujah! What is subtly taught by this entire show is that a deep government conspiracy concerning aliens is the door to discovery of the real, hidden truth. In ancient times, this was called Gnosticism, and this is the essential problem with all of these speculations: they represent themselves as doors to the knowledge of the truth. They raise themselves up against the knowledge of God by suggesting there is another way apart from Christ. But Christians have already found the Truth and we know that no one comes to the Father but by Him (John 14:6). Jesus is the Door of the sheep: by Him if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture (John 10:7-10). The Book of Colossians tells us not to look elsewhere for knowledge but to look deeper into Christ as we are taught by His Spirit:
"In whom [Christ] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col 2:3
Our final case study is that of the Time Traveller from the Future. Any such speculation implies a multiverse of infinite parallel timelines because whatever history you have represents the final result of a time traveller's influence. If someone went back in time and changed the past you wouldn't know it because the original past would not exist in your experience. So either you have the multiple parallel timelines scenario or a paradox. By 'multiple parallel timelines' I mean a traveller who goes into the past and then simply by dint of the fact that he has gone back in time finds himself in a different universe from the one that he left. Now, if these parallel universes existed, the devil would have sent a man back to prevent Jesus from being crucified in at least one universe.
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." 1 Cor 2:7-8
Satan working through Judas would never have delivered Jesus over to be crucified (John 19:11) had he known what God had ordained. Therefore now he would, if he could, reverse his act. But what would be the result of even one universe in which Christ had not been crucified? 1 John 2:2 says that Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And 1 Tim 4:10 says that the Living God is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. Now if Christ were not the propitiation for the sins of some men, even men in a parallel timeline, this would make the scripture untrue. Yet, as the Lord has said, "The Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35) and the LORD shall keep and preserve His words from this generation for ever (Psalm 12:7). Therefore we can say with confidence that parallel universes and time travellers from the future do not exist.
However, there is a way in which time travel from the past into the future does exist, by the might and wisdom of God. Prophets and apostles have been given visions of the future including the end of this world and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! The apostle John, in particular, saw from a heavenly vantage point many exact details of the state of the world during the Tribulation and even saw the last day followed by the coming of a new heaven and a new earth after the passing away of the first, and the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, the Lamb's wife (Revelation 21). God's high and holy habitation is eternity, and He declares the end from the beginning and uses men He chooses to speak His words and cause them to be written down in the holy scriptures so that men may have a basis for believing God and everything He says. This is what led me to faith in Christ: when I saw how the coming of the Messiah and His rejection by the people, His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension to glory were all prophesied throughout the Old Testament, which was written long before Jesus came down to earth, and then these things came to pass in His life in the sight of eyewitnesses--I realized that this book called the Bible must have been written by a Time Traveler from the past who recorded knowledge from the future! And this Time Traveler is the Holy Spirit of Christ.
In each of these cases except the Time Traveler from the past we have found evidence of the work of the devil, the father of lies (John 8:44). Each of these speculations (and many others which could be elaborated upon) exalts itself against the knowledge of God and is the message of seducing spirits such as we were warned would lead some to depart from the faith in the latter times (1 Tim 4:1, 6:20-21). But we have the Word and the Spirit of truth teaching us to cast down these imaginations of falsehood and lead every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:31-32
May God bless you and enlighten our eyes with a good spiritual understanding, my friends!
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