UFOs, Aliens, and the Last Days

So, did you catch the news?

The Trump administration just released over 160 declassified government UFO files—photos, videos, FBI records, eyewitness testimony. Everything from strange lights photographed near the Apollo 17 moon landing to military infrared footage of objects doing things that no aircraft we know of can do. Moving at impossible speeds. Changing direction instantly. Hovering for hours, then shooting straight up and vanishing.

Honestly? I looked at the images. I wasn’t convinced. Nothing I saw made me say, “That’s it. We’re not alone.” But it did make me think. And I believe we as Christians need to think carefully about this—because a lot of people aren’t. They’re just reacting. And reaction without reflection is a dangerous thing.

Could intelligent alien life actually exist?

I’ll be straight with you. I have no compelling reason to believe it does. The Bible is silent on the subject—it doesn’t explicitly confirm or deny extraterrestrial life. As C. S. Lewis once noted, we should hold our assumptions loosely about a universe this vast. But here’s what I’ve learned over decades of studying Scripture—when the Bible is silent on a subject, it usually signals that it isn’t particularly relevant to our relationship with God or our salvation. And that itself is telling.

We have yet to find a single confirmed sign of intelligent life beyond Earth. Not one. Maybe it’s out there. Maybe it isn’t. We simply don’t know.

But here’s the question I want to ask that almost nobody seems to be asking:

Why do we always assume a UFO comes from another planet?

The moment someone spots something unexplained in the sky, the cultural default is immediately “aliens from outer space.” But what if the better explanation isn’t extraterrestrial—but extra-dimensional? What if what we’re dealing with isn’t from another planet, but from another realm entirely—the spiritual realm?

Think about it. As my friend Dr. Mark Hitchcock points out, the Bible tells us there are really only two categories of created beings with intelligence. Human beings—uniquely fashioned in the image of God—and angelic beings. And the angelic realm is not some vague, fuzzy concept in Scripture. It is highly organized. Paul writes of “principalities, powers, might and dominion.” There is rank. There is order. There is authority in the unseen world. And not all of it is on our side.

There are also fallen angels—demons—beings of considerable power and cunning whose singular agenda is to deceive, distract, and destroy.

Now consider this remarkable description from the prophet Ezekiel, who witnessed something so extraordinary that he struggled to find words for it:

“When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them… for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.” —Ezekiel 1:19–20

A wheel within a wheel. Gleaming like beryl. Moving instantly in any direction without turning. I don’t know exactly what Ezekiel saw—but I know it was real, it was other-worldly, and it wasn’t from Mars. It was a manifestation of the living God and His angelic host—and by every modern technical definition, it was an Unidentified Flying Object.

Now, if holy angels can appear this way, what do you suppose fallen angels are capable of? Billy Graham put it well in his landmark book Angels—we should not be surprised if demonic forces counterfeit supernatural phenomena in order to deceive. The enemy has always been in the business of imitation. He masquerades as an angel of light. Why wouldn’t he masquerade as something that captures the imagination of a generation that has largely traded the spiritual for the scientific?

When I don’t know something, I fall back on what I do know.

That’s a principle I’ve lived by for a long time. Never trade what you know for what you don’t know. Never let the mysterious crowd out the certain.

And here is what I know with absolute confidence:

God is the Creator of all things—in Heaven and on earth and everywhere in between. He created humanity in His own image, which makes us utterly unique in all of creation. He placed our first parents in a literal paradise, loved them completely—and when they sinned against Him, He didn’t abandon them. He pursued them.

That same God so loved this sinful, broken planet that He came here Himself. He was born in a manger in Bethlehem. He walked our dusty roads. He touched lepers. He wept at a graveside. He went to a Roman cross—willingly—to pay for sins He never committed, because we committed them and couldn’t pay the price ourselves.

He rose from the dead. He ascended into Heaven. And He promised He is coming back.

He has a plan for your life that is better than any plan you have for yourself. He knows you by name. He numbered the hairs on your head. He was thinking about you before the foundations of the world were laid. That is not a small thing. That is everything.

And here is the ultimate UFO story.

One day—and I believe it could be very soon—there will be an event in the skies above this planet that will make every government file ever released look like a child’s drawing. Jesus Christ Himself will return. Not quietly. Not mysteriously. Not as a blip on a military radar screen. He will come with thousands upon thousands of angels, with glory that makes the sun look dim, and every eye on Earth will see it simultaneously.

He said it Himself:

“As the lightning flashes from the east and shines to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” —Matthew 24:27

Nobody will need a leaked government photo to confirm it. Nobody will be debating whether it was a weather balloon. The whole world will know exactly who it is.

Years ago the late, great Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman captured this beautifully in his song “UFO”—reflecting on the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe and what the gospel would mean for it. 

“And if there’s life on other planets / Then I’m sure that He must know / And He’s been there once already / And has died to save their souls”

Wherever life may or may not exist—Jesus is sufficient. The cross covers it all.

One final thought—and I’ll return to this subject, because there is much more to say.

Maybe instead of being so consumed with the question of whether there is life on other planets, we should be asking ourselves a far more personal and pressing question:

Am I living the life God wants me to live on this planet?

Because at the end of the day, no declassified file, no blurry photo, no military infrared video changes the most basic reality of your situation. You are a person made in the image of God. You have sinned and fallen short of His glory. And there is a Savior who loves you, gave His life for you, and is coming back for you.

That’s the story. That’s the headline that actually matters.

“Even so, come Lord Jesus.” —Revelation 22:20