Are Aliens compatible with Christianity and the Bible?
The Bible doesn’t specifically mention anything about aliens or extra-terrestrial life, but it does give us a strong set of religious arguments and biblical perspectives that clearly suggest the existence of aliens is entirely compatible with the Bible and God’s creation.
Finally, just because the Bible doesn’t explicitly say aliens exist, doesn’t mean they are not real. There are numerous aspect of our own modern life that are not mentioned at all in the Bible, yet they do exist in our modern world.
In any case, below are the strongest arguments for the idea that aliens are indeed compatible with Christianity:
God created Earth and Heaven, and the hosts of Heaven: According to Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”.
In this context, the heavens can be interpreted to mean the sky and everything beyond it: the Solar System, the Milky Way galaxy, or even the entire universe.
After the earth and the heavens were complete, God then proceeded to populate them with mankind and the “hosts of heaven” ( Genesis 2:1), clearly implying that the Heavens themselves were teeming with life, just as the Earth was.
Thus, the the idea that God made more life than just us humans shouldn’t be shocking or even surprising.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: Just because the Bible is ambiguous or silent about the existence of extraterrestrial life doesn’t necessarily indicate alien life does not exist.
After all, the Bible doesn’t say anything about scientific facts such as electricity, physics or modern medicine, but those are completely compatible with a biblical worldview.
Likewise, the existence of aliens would be compatible with Christian thought, even if their existence isn’t explicitly mentioned in the Bible.
The Bible is focused around mankind’s relationship with God: An important aspect to remember is that the Bible exists to explain God’s relationship with humanity and the way to salvation.
Viewed from this perspective, explicit mentions of alien life in the Bible would be irrelevant, since they are not important to mankind’s relationship with God, or how to achieve salvation through Jesus Christ.
On a similar note, the Bible mentions how humans are made in the image of God (“Imago Dei”), but this doesn’t mean any extraterrestrial being wouldn’t reflect other aspects of God.
Taking this even further, it’s entirely plausible that an alien species would have its own relationship with God, one that is at the same different but also similar to mankind’s relationship with God.
In this sense, the existence of an alien species shouldn’t be seen as disproving the existence of God. On the contrary, it should be seen as a window into greater understanding of God, by learning how other beings relate to Him.
Universal Redemption: According to some theologians, the work of Jesus Christ can bring salvation to all of creation, not just the mankind that lives on Earth.
The New Testament even speaks of Christ’s reconciliation of “all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20).
Angels could be aliens: The Bible speaks of intelligent, non-human entities such as angels and cherubim. That being said, the Bible implies angels are mostly supernatural beings rather than physical ones such as humans or other animals on earth.
Despite this, the existence of angels is an argument that humans might not be the only intelligent beings God created.
Are aliens angels?
Angels in the Bible are primarily described as supernatural beings that reside in Heaven alongside God. For this reason, the angels are sometimes called the “host of God” or the “heavenly host”.
You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.
The simple fact that angels reside in Heaven strongly implies that they are divine in nature since they inhabit a “higher realm”, that is different than the material and physical realm of existence as us mortal humans.
According to the Bible, only the souls of the deceased who lived a good life are allowed passage to Heaven, the home of God and angels.
By comparison, aliens are always described as living in the same Universe as us. Their appearance is generally different from ours, but that is mostly explained by the fact that they come from another planet, which requires different biological adaptations.
However, this doesn’t completely disqualify the theory that angels are aliens.
This is because angels often physically manifest themselves in the mortal realm, sometimes even in great numbers.
For example, Isaiah 13:5 describes a host from the end of the heavens descending to destroy the city of Babylon.
The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle. They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
The spiritual interpretation is that the “host from the end of heavens” is an army of angels coming from Heaven to lay waste to Babylon.
The historical interpretation is that the host refers to the Persian armies of Cyrus the Great, who invaded and conquered Babylon.
However, if a person wanted to, they could interpret this passage as a host of aliens coming from outside the Earth to settle a score with troublesome Babylon.
However, a much more interesting Bible passage regarding the “angels-as-aliens” theory is Genesis 6:1-22, which describes how male angels and female humans mated and produced offspring.
When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
This story is explored much more in depth in the Book of Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah.
According to the Book of Enoch, God sent 200 male angels, called the Watchers, on Earth to watch over and protect the fledgling human race.
As the human race multiplied, the Watchers found themselves attracted to the beautiful human women, whom they eventually took as wives, breaking divine law in the process.
The children of the angelic Watchers and human women were called the Nephilim. These were described as giants or mighty men who corrupted the rest of mankind with sinful practices.
Later on, the Watchers are imprisoned, and the Nephilim destroyed and transformed into demons.
Meanwhile, the now-corrupted human civilization is cleansed through the biblical Flood, which only Noah and his family survived.
Depending on how one chooses to interpret the events in the Book of Enoch and Genesis 6:1-22, one may consider the Watchers, and maybe even the Nephilim, as being aliens.
The Watchers are certainly strong candidates. They are, after all, actual beings that descend from the Heavens and physically interact with mankind.
Finally, angels would look very alien to us humans, at least according to these Bible descriptions:
And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness,but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze.
Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
Are aliens demons?
Another Biblical interpretation of aliens is to view them as demons or fallen angels.
In this case, the aliens are the fallen angels that will deceive humanity prior to the Christian Apocalypse, or end times.
This is sometimes referred to as “the Great Deception” phase of the Apocalypse, when various prophets and false Messiahs are said to lead people astray.
A large part of this theory rests on Revelation 12, which describes how Satan and his army of fallen angels are cast out of Heaven and “hurled to the earth” after being defeated by the Archangel Michael and the army he commands.
Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
In this sense, the aliens/fallen angels have been among us for a while, plotting their revenge and laying the groundwork for the coming Apocalypse.
Furthermore, there are other peculiar similarities between how fallen angels and aliens are said to operate:
A love of deception: In Christianity, fallen angels and demons are seen as wicked beings who exist to lead people into sin or temptation. Similarly, aliens are also fond of abducting humans and manipulating their memories and thoughts through various means.
Offering Forbidden Knowledge: Just like the Watchers and Nephilim in the Book of Enoch who gave humanity forbidden knowledge, some argue that aliens might offer advanced knowledge or technology to humanity as a trap, since they won’t explain how the technology works.
Elusiveness: Despite numerous claimed encounters and sightings, definitive physical evidence for the existence of aliens remains elusive, much like evidence for demons and fallen angels.
Interdimensional Theories: Some researchers in the UFO community propose that aliens might not be extraterrestrial but interdimensional. This means aliens visit us from another dimension rather than outer space.
If true, this would be remarkably similar to how the Bible describes angels and demons as beings who reside in metaphysical locations such as Heaven or Hell, instead of the physical world.
BONUS: The Bible and UFOs
On a final note, aliens and UFOs are generally a match made in Heaven (pun intended). This, of course, raises the question: does the Bible say anything about UFOs?
If your understanding of UFOs is “alien spaceship”, then the Bible doesn’t really any confirmation that such a thing exists.
However, if by UFO you literally refer to an “unidentified flying object”, then the Bible doesn’t disappoint since it contains quite a few UFOs in its verses:
Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll! And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits (30 feet / 9 meters) , and its width ten cubits (15 feet / 4.5 meters).”
As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures.
And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.
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