'Extra terrestial' situation?

[nablaise]

Hi,

I love the Divine Office prayers. I like to read the prayers on my cell phones often during the day. Whenever I read Psalm 67(68) I have a feeling that Jews are interpretating an alien intervention. It reminds me of some youtube videos I saw once claiming that aliens are reported in the Bible under terms such us ‘chariots of fire’.

Here is psalm 67, and notice the highlighted words:

God arises and his enemies are scattered:
those who hate him flee from his sight.
You blow them away like wisps of smoke;
as wax melts in front of a fire,
so the wicked melt away before God.
The righteous are glad and exult in God’s sight;
they rejoice in their gladness.
Sing to the Lord and celebrate his name!
Make a road for him **who rides upon the clouds **–
“The Lord” is his name.
Rejoice in his sight,
the father of orphans, defender of widows,
God in his holy dwelling-place,
God, who gives the lonely a house to dwell in,
God, who leads captives out into prosperity;
but the rebellious shall live in a desert land.
God, when you set out in the sight of your people,
when you crossed the wilderness – the earth shook.
**The heavens sent down dew at your coming **–
the God of Sinai, the God of Israel.
At your bidding the rains came, O God,
your inheritance was worn out but you refreshed it.
All your creatures took up residence there,
in your goodness you made a place for the needy.

The Lord gives out the word,
and a great army of maidens brings the news:
“The kings of the armies are fleeing, they are fleeing,
and the fair one at home is dividing the spoils.
While you sleep among the sheepfolds,
the wings of the dove shine with silver,
her feathers glow with green gold.
Through her the Almighty scatters the kings,
and the mountain of Zalmon is white with snow.
The mountain of Bashan is God’s mountain;
the mountain of God is a high-peaked mountain.
Why do you envy it, you high-peaked mountains,
envy the mountain that God has chosen?
The Lord will dwell there for ever.
The chariots of God are ten thousand thousand:
the Lord has come from Sinai to his holy sanctuary.
You have scaled the heights, you have taken captives,
you have received men as gifts
so that even the rebels live with the Lord God.
Blessings on the Lord, day after day!
God will carry us, God our saviour.
Our God is a God of salvation,
our Lord is a Lord who rescues from death.
Truly God will break the heads of his enemies,
take the scalps of those who tread the path of crime.
The Lord has spoken:
“I shall bring them back from Bashan,
I shall bring them back from the depths of the sea,
so that your feet may be dipped in blood
and the tongues of your dogs receive food from your enemies.”

They have seen your processions, O God,
the processions of God, my king, to his sanctuary.
First came the singers, last the musicians,
between them the maidens playing their drums.
“Bless God in the assemblies:
bless the Lord, you who spring from Israel!”
There was young Benjamin, leading them,
the princes of Judah in their rich robes,
the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.
O God, command in your strength;
make firm what you have achieved in us.
From your temple in Jerusalem,
kings shall bring you tribute.
Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds,
the herd of bulls, the lords of peoples.
Let them lie prostrate before you with tribute of silver.
Scatter the peoples that delight in war.
Nobles will come from Egypt,
Ethiopia will stretch out its hands to God.
Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God;
celebrate the Lord.
Sing to God who rides on the highest heavens,
at the origin of all things.
Listen! – he speaks, a voice of power.
Acknowledge the strength of the Lord:
his majesty is over Israel,
his strength is in the clouds.
God inspires awe in his holy place;
he, the God of Israel, gives power to his people;
he gives them strength.
Blessed be God!

When I remember the claims of Zacharia Sitchen about aliens being involved in human affair, including saving Noah and helping Abraham etc, and then remember Jesus saying that no one has ever seen God and that the Law was given by the angels…I wonder who the angels indicate sometimes. Are they always the Angelsure spirits, or could they be what we would call today ‘aliens’?
What does it mean that ‘chariots’ of fire took Elijah, and Enoch was no more because the Lord took him?

God bless

 

[GEddie]

Hi,

I love the Divine Office prayers. I like to read the prayers on my cell phones often during the day. Whenever I read Psalm 67(68) I have a feeling that Jews are interpretating an alien intervention. It reminds me of some youtube videos I saw once claiming that aliens are reported in the Bible under terms such us ‘chariots of fire’.

Here is psalm 67, and notice the highlighted words:

When I remember the claims of Zacharia Sitchen about aliens being involved in human affair, including saving Noah and helping Abraham etc, and then remember Jesus saying that no one has ever seen God and that the Law was given by the angels…I wonder who the angels indicate sometimes. Are they always the Angelsure spirits, or could they be what we would call today ‘aliens’?
What does it mean that ‘chariots’ of fire took Elijah, and Enoch was no more because the Lord took him?

God bless

There is no need to invoke space aliens to explain what happens in Scripture.

The chariots of fire were a conveyance of GOD’s to take the prophet Elijah to Heaven in his living human body, as he would otherwise have died on the way. Since this has not been done since then to a living human being, God has not seen fit to describe this conveyance in detail for us.

Likewise, Enoch was taken to Heaven as a living body. To Heaven with God; not to another planet as a specimen for aliens.

Whether or not aliens exist, GOD does NOT need them to fulfill His desires for human beings.

GOD Bless and ICXC NIKA.

 

[nablaise]

Well, in a sense, Angels are aliens. I did not mean aliens in the modern sense.
The fact is, if God made them, who knows what purpose they have. He uses Angels to interact with man from the beginning. And Jesus said that no one has ever seen God. So Moses, and other prophets all they saw was Angels. Whether these beings were pure spirit or had turn themselves into men, I am not sure. I know St. Raphael made himself look like a regular human. Abraham also reported that he saw ‘three’ men.

Fr. Barron have interesting videos on youtube. Some of them discuss who/what God is. He helps to understand what Jesus meant when he said: “no one ever saw God”.

About Enoch and Elijah, I know that our Lord was risen with his body, the same thing for our Lady. However, can we say that Enoch and Elijah had the same body qualities as did our Lord or our Lady? (plus both our Lord and our Lady died first and their bodies were transformed).
The point is Heaven is not a physical place. So if Enoch and Elijah went to a physical place, it got to be somewhere in the Universe. Else, their bodies were transformed.

 

[Totterman]

Jesus,our Lords peace be whit You.
Lets keep “UFOs” and religion separeted. I don’t believe we are not on the only planet whit life,but that is another story. What is written in the Bible is the truth of God,not moore,not less,and as suchs we need to keep it clean and NOT searching for “hidden” ansvers or messages,we read and we believe.
Blessings,
Totterman

 

[Light1111]

In my humble opinion, whether or not Scriptures discuss aliens, they either do or don’t exist (independent of our belief). If they do, certainly they are God’s creatures just as we all are – just as this entire Universe is. If God is everything, and everything is God; if God created All that Is, then certainly there would be no need for a separate, “Alien God” to account for the existence of aliens. We would all be God’s children. In that context, I feel less afraid of the idea of aliens hypothetically making contact one day.

The Pope’s Astronomer has been commenting about Aliens, and the Pope, too, has put forward comments, which makes me wonder if “they know something” they aren’t permitted to tell. Certainly it’s possible they are merely speaking in the hypothetical sense, for the benefit of any Catholic who has pondered the existence of aliens. But I also have wondered if their comments instead point to a knowledge of their existence that they cannot definitively speak on, for reasons of security etc.

Just a thought.

 

[nablaise]

I think what we call ‘alien’ is not what ‘alien’ actually may be or what they are in reality. All we have is fiction.

In fact, whenever Scientist speak of fiinding life elsewhere, I think it is arrogant when they assume that they have to be water, oxygene, etc… I mean they are looking for Earthly life elsewhere in the universe. Life altogether is a deeper reality. I believe that they could be life which no instrument of Eath can detect as long as it is looking for an ‘earth’ life.

If there is life on Jupiter, let’s call it Jupiter life. Obviously Earth is very different from Jupiter, by who knows if God can create life over there? a kind of life just possible on Jupiter?

In this line of thought, Biblical writers who speak of all creatures of the universe did not see ‘extraterrestrial’ life as ‘alien’ the same way we do. Peopld have an automatic tendency to think aliens as being away from the domain of God. As if God is the God of the Earth only. Again the concept of God as ‘Being’ but not ‘a Being’ makes things easy to conceive.
Then aliens if they exist are not necessarly aliens about Earth, they may be familiar with it, they may not need any type of technology to travel or interact, in short they may be different from man and his traditions. There are all kinds of possibilities.

I don’t think the Bible excludes them, then it would not containing the whole Truth. Musing about Aliens in the Bible at the reading of particular verses is not searching for hiden answers, I think it can be understood as reflecting on the Word of God, on Reality.

God bless

 

[Light1111]

I agree nablaise, and I think we forget that life elsewhere make look different from life here. Even “life here” has surprising mechanisms.

A few years ago, I saw something on a nature show, where they took a titanium device into the depths of the Marianna Trench (the deepest part of the oceans). Up to that point, it was impossible to travel to those depths, because the pressure at that depth would cause most submarines to implode – the machine wouldn’t have been able to withstand the pressure from all sides. They invented a little machine that was capable of withstanding the pressure, and went down and filmed what they found at the very bottom of the ocean floor.

Shockingly, they found animal/plant creatures that are so distinctly unique, they require a new kingdom to be created, in order to describe them. On the one hand, they “must be” plants, because they grow up from the ocean floor – they have roots. On the other hand, they “must be” animals, for they behave from out of an apparent volition, and they have organs such as heart, lungs, etc. – they breathe; their hearts beat (I believe they are even warm-blooded, thus ‘mammals’). On yet another hand (How many hands does one have, anyway? ), these creatures are perfect “machines” – they waste none of what they take in, nutritionally – so they have no excretory system. I believe this is the first known lifeform that doesn’t need to expel a portion of what it takes in.

Apart from all these miraculous discoveries, there is another: these creatures are very delicate, not hard and solid as you might assume they’d need to be, in order to withstand that pressure, at the bottom of the sea. Even though they are very delicate, very tender in form, density, shape, etc., they do not implode in the face of all that pressure! The pressure is so great, that areas right next to these creatures, that ought to have been explosive volcanoes (where rifts existed, and lava flowed out), were instead mere trickles, through which lava very slowly left the earth’s crust. The reason the lava flow was so minute was because of the tremendous pressure bearing down on it. So imagine, delicate and vulnerable life existed right next to that! Also, these little guys exist in an area where no light ever shines. And yet, they bioluminesce! From where do they gather the necessary light to make that possible?!

Now, that’s right here on God’s Green Earth! Violating every principle biologists believed to be true about the necessary requirements of life. So who’s to say what life could look like, as you said, on Jupiter? Perhaps a no-gravity situation, a too-heavy-gravity situation, a no-water-situation, a poor-atmosphere situation, etc., would all be perfectly hospitable to other forms of life! Like our little friends in the Mariana Trench!

When I saw that show, I felt so touched by those little creatures, and thanked God for allowing me the experience of watching that show! I am always so moved by His many diverse creations!

Peace!

 

[nablaise]

I agree nablaise, and I think we forget that life elsewhere make look different from life here. Even “life here” has surprising mechanisms.

A few years ago, I saw something on a nature show, where they took a titanium device into the depths of the Marianna Trench (the deepest part of the oceans). Up to that point, it was impossible to travel to those depths, because the pressure at that depth would cause most submarines to implode – the machine wouldn’t have been able to withstand the pressure from all sides. They invented a little machine that was capable of withstanding the pressure, and went down and filmed what they found at the very bottom of the ocean floor.

Shockingly, they found animal/plant creatures that are so distinctly unique, they require a new kingdom to be created, in order to describe them. On the one hand, they “must be” plants, because they grow up from the ocean floor – they have roots. On the other hand, they “must be” animals, for they behave from out of an apparent volition, and they have organs such as heart, lungs, etc. – they breathe; their hearts beat (I believe they are even warm-blooded, thus ‘mammals’). On yet another hand (How many hands does one have, anyway? ), these creatures are perfect “machines” – they waste none of what they take in, nutritionally – so they have no excretory system. I believe this is the first known lifeform that doesn’t need to expel a portion of what it takes in.

Apart from all these miraculous discoveries, there is another: these creatures are very delicate, not hard and solid as you might assume they’d need to be, in order to withstand that pressure, at the bottom of the sea. Even though they are very delicate, very tender in form, density, shape, etc., they do not implode in the face of all that pressure! The pressure is so great, that areas right next to these creatures, that ought to have been explosive volcanoes (where rifts existed, and lava flowed out), were instead mere trickles, through which lava very slowly left the earth’s crust. The reason the lava flow was so minute was because of the tremendous pressure bearing down on it. So imagine, delicate and vulnerable life existed right next to that! Also, these little guys exist in an area where no light ever shines. And yet, they bioluminesce! From where do they gather the necessary light to make that possible?!

Now, that’s right here on God’s Green Earth! Violating every principle biologists believed to be true about the necessary requirements of life. So who’s to say what life could look like, as you said, on Jupiter? Perhaps a no-gravity situation, a too-heavy-gravity situation, a no-water-situation, a poor-atmosphere situation, etc., would all be perfectly hospitable to other forms of life! Like our little friends in the Mariana Trench!

When I saw that show, I felt so touched by those little creatures, and thanked God for allowing me the experience of watching that show! I am always so moved by His many diverse creations!

Peace!

Wow, thanks for sharing this.
Do you know if video can be found somewhere on the net. I feeling like spending the rest of the day looking for it. I like this kind of stuff. They help me to form a fuller picture of reality.

As you said, considering that those creatures exist on Earth, how about other planets and their depths.

God bless

 

[Light1111]

Wow, thanks for sharing this.
Do you know if video can be found somewhere on the net. I feeling like spending the rest of the day looking for it. I like this kind of stuff. They help me to form a fuller picture of reality.

As you said, considering that those creatures exist on Earth, how about other planets and their depths.

God bless

I sure wish I knew how to find it, nblaise. It’s been several years since I watched that nature show, and I don’t recall the name of the program, the channel it was on – and worse still, they of course hadn’t yet named that creature (or created the appropriate “kingdom” for it to fit into our traditional taxonomy! ), so we can’t search for this story by the animal/plant’s name, either. I think it might have been on the Discovery Channel . . .it might also have been on PBS (they had a show called “Deep Jungle” I used to watch).

I’ll try searching for it on my end . . . if you find anything, let me know!

Peace!