Jesus Christ, Extraterrestrial? If life is found on other planets, does Christianity come unraveled?

Patheos ^ | 06/29/2011 | Curtis Chang and Jennifer Wiseman

[Jack Hydrazine]

Lied about what?

[onedoug]

That´s pretty much the way I see it.

[Quix]

Ex 33:22:

New International Version (©1984)
When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.
New Living Translation (©2007)
As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

English Standard Version (©2001)
and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.

GOD’S WORD® Translation (©1995)
When my glory passes by, I will put you in a crevice in the cliff and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

King James Bible
And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

American King James Version
And it shall come to pass, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand while I pass by:

American Standard Version
and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand until I have passed by:

Bible in Basic English
And when my glory goes by, I will put you in a hole in the rock, covering you with my hand till I have gone past:

Douay-Rheims Bible
And when my glory shall pass, I will set thee in a hole of the rock, and protect thee with my right hand, till I pass:

Darby Bible Translation
And it shall come to pass, when my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, until I have passed by.

English Revised Version
and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand until I have passed by:

Webster’s Bible Translation
And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock: and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

World English Bible
It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by;

Young’s Literal Translation
and it hath come to pass, in the passing by of Mine honour, that I have set thee in a cleft of the rock, and spread out My hands over thee, until My passing by,

---

Then there’s a host of Heavenly Visitations that are Biblically solid that indicates your construction on reality is likely quite flawed on such scores.

Sounds like you have fallen victim of

CHRISTO-PLATONISM

as Randy Alcorn lays out so well in his 500+ page

HEAVEN

Then as Isaiah said:

I SAW THE LORD HIGH AND LIFTED UP AND HIS TRAIN FILLED THE TEMPLE.

I suppose one could claim that such physical manifestations of the God-head are ‘merely’ matrix simulations—illusions, 3D holographic videos etc.

However, that’s NOT the God of the Bible that I know. HE LIKES the REAL THING.

[Claud]

It was “Man” that screwed himself over in The Garden of Eden. If there is life in outer space they no more need The Gospel than horses or birds do.

Yes, salvation history and the incarnation was directed to man, and man's original sin. We don't know how that would play out elsewhere. If members of other worlds are unfallen, they need no redemption, and if they are fallen, then we best not make assumptions about how Our Lord chooses to do it.

Other worlds could well be redeemed through us as the Gentiles were redeemed through Israel. Or they could be redeemed in a wholly different manner. Too early to tell yet.

[catfish1957]

I don’t seem to remember the bible saying there wasn’t life elsewhere. God may have many children throughout the universe.

[catfish1957]

I don’t seem to remember the bible saying there wasn’t life elsewhere. God may have many children throughout the universe.

[RecoveringPaulisto]

...and I'm not talking about Calvin's moronic division of humanity into elect versus reprobate.

I think your problem is with the New Testament, not John Calvin. Heck, Arminians, Semi-Pelagians, and maybe even Pelagians believe in election, albeit in vastly different forms. The only Theologians who don't are Open Theists. The word "Elect" appears 11 times in the NT NIV. The Greek word adokimos appears 8 times, and means something rejected as unfit. What, pray tell, were the New Testament writers referring to besides a separation between the elect and non-elect?

[RecoveringPaulisto]

Thank you. A socialistic atheist I know doesn’t seem to think so, lol.

[aruanan]

What, pray tell, were the New Testament writers referring to besides a separation between the elect and non-elect?

I'm referring solely to Calvin's (and to a lesser extent Luther's) warmed-over, Augustinian, predestinarian definition of elect and reprobate. The original point, though, was that when Paul says "all have sinned," he's speaking only of descendants of Adam and Eve. And he does so with specificity. And as I said, there are many persons who have sinned but will have no chance of redemption through Jesus because they aren't human and probably a whole lot more who have never sinned. Remember, humans and God aren't the only moral beings in existence.

[Jack Hydrazine]

How about in the Garden?

Genesis 3:8

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?””

Do you think God walked physically in the Garden?
Do you think an omniscient being like God would have a hard time finding a couple people in the Garden?

How about Deuteronomy 4:34?

“Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?”

Do you ever imagine God with a giant arm reaching down from low Earth orbit to save Jews in war?

How about Genesis 8:21?

“The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”

I have to wonder what God’s nose looks like? I bet it’s a pretty big thing that floated over the Earth.

Now here’s the kicker in Numbers 23:19!

“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”

So we have what appear to be acts of God exerting physicality even though in the five books of Moses that it says He is non-corporeal. He lives in a realm beyond space and time that we can not really comprehend that when view by people like Isaiah can not even begin to explain that world in way we can really understand.

Will Jews ever deviate away from the teaching going all the way back to Moses that God isn’t physical? Where did Moses get all that light that shown from his face that scared his fellow Jews? Was it from a place in this universe or in a place that is beyond the physical?

Maybe the Torah has some mistakes in it? Maybe God decided to rewrite his “infallible” Word because it needed an upgrade to version 2.0 (aka the New Testament) because He didn’t quite get it right the first time and also to fit the times since man had evolved since the time the Torah was written.

Maybe the Koran was another upgrade and then finally the Book of Mormon as the final upgrade. Don’t you think man desires to create God the way he wants Him instead of the way He is and always will be?

[SeekAndFind]

RE: God may have many children throughout the universe

The way I understand the Gospel, we are all God’s CREATURES, but WE ARE NOT all God’s CHILDREN.

[Jack Hydrazine]

“I suppose one could claim that such physical manifestations of the God-head are ‘merely’ matrix simulations—illusions, 3D holographic videos etc.

However, that’s NOT the God of the Bible that I know. HE LIKES the REAL THING.”

Define ‘real’. Which world is real? This universe or the world where God dwells (aka ‘heaven’) that is beyond time and space?

[Cvengr]

Do you simply believe angels do not exist,? ... or that they are unable to occupy space beyond the Earth? ...or that soulish intelligence out trumps the spiritual walk.

I haven’t seen anything in the description of an ET which would preclude the soulish identification of some angels by unbelievers as an “ET”.

[catfish1957]

Roger... so how to you interpret that as far as presence of alien life?

[WorldviewDad]

“Does anything that God has revealed to us so far PRECLUDE THE POSSIBILITY that live exists on other planets.”

I am not sure that is actually the best question...I would start from the question: Does a study of the Scriptures lead a person to expect life to be on other planets? So far I would answer that question as, no.

There are all sorts of things that fall into the area of “possibility” but most of them never reach the area of “probability” and the ones that reach the area of reality, God has done a good job of preparing us for them.

[WorldviewDad]

Your post is well stated.

“That's like the conservatives who listen to state-run media with little discernment and try to incorporate their “facts” into their “conservatism.”

Or the conservatives or Christians that send their children to public school and then wonder why they walk away from the faith...

[WorldviewDad]

“Planets that God has DELIBERATELY put beyond our ability to connect with.”

If this was even true then the entire discussion about this is based entirely on speculation. The discussion is based upon an unknown thing which we have no evidence about and that we will never know anything about...sounds like a discussion about mans imagination...

[Quix]

Methinks you may have a hard time

allowing

ALMIGHTY GOD

TO BE ALMIGHTY GOD

and to

DO ALMIGHTY GOD

HOWEVER HE SEES FIT

including

AS AN OBSERVABLE, TANGIBLE PERSONAGE.

I have no need to explain away The Scriptures as they are written.

Some passages SEEM metaphorical. Some less so. And some not at all.

I doubt the finite can specify with much accuracy God’s perspective on any of that, much less all of it.

Perhaps Alamo-Girl or Betty Boop et al will give some of their anointed wisdom to the conjectures and pontifications.

[wagglebee]

Maybe the Torah has some mistakes in it? Maybe God decided to rewrite his “infallible” Word because it needed an upgrade to version 2.0 (aka the New Testament) because He didn’t quite get it right the first time and also to fit the times since man had evolved since the time the Torah was written.

Maybe the Koran was another upgrade and then finally the Book of Mormon as the final upgrade. Don’t you think man desires to create God the way he wants Him instead of the way He is and always will be?

So, you want to denigrate Jews and Christians and say that Muhammadism and Mormonism is an "upgrade"?

So, so you favor polygamy (hence the "upgrade" status you apply to Muhammadism and Mormonism)? What is your view of Heaven, do you think (as the Muhammadens do) that it's basically a brothel with an open bar?