Aliens and the Antichrist: Unveiling the End Times Deception (13 page)

Isaiah 51:9
* (bold emphasis added)

Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

*Take note that the destruction of Rehab is what causes the wounding of the dragon.

During the explosion of Astera (which may very well be Rahab), Mars was buffeted, as well as Earth. This event threw the entire solar system into complete disarray.

When I wrote
Aliens in the Bible,
I agreed with the Watcher Web site up until this point. The Watcher site then stated that some fragments from this explosion also destroyed the ancient civilization that once existed on Earth prior to Adam and Eve. The impact of this meteor was devastating, kicking up so much debris that the entire Earth became enshrouded in darkness. While I found no refutation for the theories on the Watcher site about ancient civilizations found on

Mars, I refuted the concept of a pre-Adamite civilization on Earth because, as I mentioned earlier, the research appeared to be taken out of context.

Flashing forward a few years later, after I published
Aliens in the Bible,
I read a book called
God’s Plan for Man,
written back in the fifties by well-known theologian Finis Dake.
God’s Plan for Man
was purchased as a gift for me by a complete stranger. This person read
Aliens in the Bible,
which is posted on my Web site, then purchased
God’s Plan for Man
for me—a $50 book—and mailed it to my house. Thank you, Linda! Her investment in me has led to the extension of my research, which I wasn’t planning at all.

I am now recanting my prior position refuting a pre-Adamite civilization on Earth. Finis Dake returned me to the ancient pre-Adamite history of Earth and proved with a very concise, systematic, contextual interpretation of the Bible that the existence of a pre-Adamite civilization is a credible possibility.

In
Aliens in the Bible,
I saw some of the pieces of the puzzle of Earth’s ancient history when I discussed my findings of Satan’s strange connection to Earth, which I never could quite figure out. Why, for example, would God cast Satan down to Earth, of all places, during the end times? This always puzzled me. If there are other intelligent species in the universe who were also deceived by Satan (Revelation 12:4), then what makes Earth any different from any other planet? The universe is a big place to single out one puny planet among countless others, for the ultimate showdown between good and evil. For any Christian to accept the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life, the question about why the Bible seems to be focused primarily on Earth, of all places in existence, must be answered.

I now have that answer.

Most Christians don’t have a hard time with the perspective that Earth is the center of God’s attention in the universe because most Christians think that Earth is the only planet in the universe with life on it. According to Tariq Malik, staff writer for Space.com, a telephone poll, which questioned one thousand Americans, revealed that 60 percent of Americans believe in extraterrestrial life. Interestingly, “Democrats and Republicans were equally likely to believe in life on other planets, while regular churchgoers were less likely to believe in extraterrestrial life (about 46 percent) than non-churchgoers (about 70 percent).”
¹⁰

Additionally, in May of 2005, a survey conducted by the National Institute for Discovery Science was given to pastors, priests, and rabbis across the United States, asking basic questions relating to extraterrestrial life.
¹¹
The survey yielded some interesting results. Over 70 percent of the respondents felt that the existence of extraterrestrial life posed no threat to their fundamental beliefs, yet out of all of the comments, not a single one gave any indication of biblical knowledge concerning extraterrestrial life, as I espouse in this book. Not one of them connected the dots, forming the basic conclusion that angels, by definition, are intelligent beings whose origins are not from Earth. All of these people have been reading the Bible most of their lives, and couldn’t see the basic fact that one of the primary themes of the Bible is God’s intervention in the affairs of humanity through extraterrestrial beings.

Furthermore, of the 42 percent that gave positive responses, most of them had theological questions they thought might be a struggle to deal with, such as the concept of “original sin” existing in places other than Earth. Many of them also pondered the concept that humanity is favored above the other species in the universe (angels, among others) because we are made in the image of God. I, however, have yet to find a single passage of scripture that says that God actually
favors
humanity over angels, or other beings referred to as the host of heaven. I think the big picture includes humanity as another intelligent species, given a defined place of dominion (Acts 17:24-26), rather than the single most important species.

Acts 17:24-26
(bold emphasis added)

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and
hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

Furthermore, while it is true that humans are made in the image of God, angels are made in his image as well. Being made in God’s image refers not to a physical or even a spiritual attribute, but rather to the function of ruling over a particular domain as God’s representative. This is what the Hebrew word for image, “tsehlem,” in context with the rest of the passage denotes (Genesis 1:26).
¹²
Humans were originally given dominion over the Earth, and other intelligent species, many of whom are angels, have dominion over their respective portions of the universe as well. That’s why scripture states that humans will one day be equal with (but not greater than) the angels (Luke 20:34-36). In cases where angels are in the human domain, humans will have jurisdiction (1 Corinthians 6:3), but humans will most likely be under angelic jurisdiction when traveling through their domains.

Genesis 1:26
* (bold emphasis added)

And God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness: and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

*Notice that being made in the image of God, after his likeness, is directly linked to having dominion over Earth. Much could be speculated about what being made in God’s image means, but the words that are clearly stated have to do with having dominion over Earth. In short, humanity was supposed to rule over the Earth as a representative of God, as God rules over the universe.

Luke 20:34-36
(bold emphasis added)

And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for
they are equal unto the angels;
and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 6:3

Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

Perhaps some angels rule entire solar systems, or even groups of solar systems, serving as God’s representatives in those places in the heavens. Humans were ordained to rule the Earth, and one day when humanity extends beyond the confines of the Earth to populate other planets, their domain will increase to encompass those new worlds as well.

For those wanting to see further research into what it means to be created in God’s image, I recommend reading
The Facade,
by author Michael S. Heiser.
¹³
While
The Facade
is a fictional UFO conspiracy story, Heiser is a student of several notable Semitic scholars, and he has an extensive linguistic background.
The Facade
is therefore an archive of true information relating to UFO phenomenon, as well as a miniature Bible commentary about UFO related information.

Heiser reviewed my book,
Aliens in the Bible,
and we corresponded in the past about various subjects, debating from time to time over matters of semantics mostly. While I agreed with him about his interpretation of what it means to be created in God’s image, I did have a contention with him over another matter concerning the same passage of scripture listed above. He is of the opinion that God the Father, Elohim, is speaking to a
divine counsel,
the “us” in the passage, rather than God the Father speaking to other members of the Godhead (God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit). He covers this in depth in
The Facade.lA
I think this is an important distinction, because God is the one doing the creating, not angels. To argue that angels were present and had any input in the matter of creating humanity blurs this distinction. Unlike Zechariah Sitchen, Heiser agrees that angels are not co-creators with God, but he still thinks they were present in their
divine counsel
when God was making decisions on how to create Adam and Eve. Heiser’s reasoning behind this interpretation rests solely on the grounds of some linguistic rule that a concept covered in the New Testament, being the triune nature of God, can’t be
read into
an interpretation of the Old Testament. My argument against this, however, is more of a commonsense approach. If God has a triune nature, then that nature was present during both the Old Testament and New Testament. I don’t have to be a Semitic scholar to come to this conclusion; I just have to understand the Trinity. The Old Testament writers simply referred to God’s triune nature by using the plural word for God, Elohim, because different writers use different words to describe the same things. (For anyone wanting to understand the Trinity more, I recommend reading about the Trinity in
God’s Plan for Man.)15

Another disagreement I have with Heiser concerns the matter of Lucifer’s rebellion. He believes that Lucifer’s initial rebellion against God began after Adam and Eve were created, when God gave humanity dominion over the Earth. There are several problems with this theory. First, scripture states that Lucifer had a throne before he sinned against God (Isaiah 14:12-14), which means that he was a king. This throne was also associated with the Garden of Eden. My question is, how could Lucifer be a king, if Adam and Eve had dominion over the Earth? The only way Lucifer could have a throne on Earth was if he was a king
before
Adam and Eve were created, which explains Lucifer’s anger (because he lost his kingdom to Adam and Eve), but it also raises another question. What kind of a king rules an empty territory with no subjects? If Lucifer was a king, he had subjects, yet all this had to predate Adam and Eve, if Adam and Eve had dominion over the Earth.

Also, if one believes that Lucifer’s
initial
sin was documented in Genesis 3:6, after Adam and Eve were created, then one must also believe that Lucifer managed to deceive one-third of all the angelic hosts of all the heavens (a countless number of beings according to Hebrews 12:22), in less time than it took Adam and Eve to have their first male child (Genesis 4:1). Furthermore, Lucifer not only deceived one-third of the inhabitants of the heavens, but he also rallied them together to go to war against God, and lead an attack into the third heaven. How could all this happen in just a few years at most? (If this information raises a bunch of unanswered questions, don’t worry, because I will cover the topic of Lucifer’s rebellion in depth later in this book.)

Heiser seemed to lack common sense in some of our discussions, giving more credence to professors rather than basic logic, at least in my opinion. He gave me the impression that he believed that I didn’t truly understand the Bible because I wasn’t a seminary graduate stuffed with theological trivia. Despite our differences, I still like Heiser, respect his work (and even reference it in this book), and look forward to meeting him someday, because we are both brothers in Christ.

Anyway, I apologize for digressing. Back to the topic, considering all of the above about angels ruling throughout the heavens, I have always wondered about the reason Earth is a focal point for God’s activity in the universe, as scripture clearly depicts that it is. God picked Earth to initiate his great plan of attack against Satan and to save all the casualties of sin who want to be saved. To do this, God undertook a two-part mission, which is still in progress: come to Earth in the form of a human being (Jesus) and die for everyone’s sins—then after conquering death, ensure the spreading of the Gospel of repentance and salvation.