How can we be sure that Jesus didn't die on another planet to save aliens too?

[John_Lazarus]

Scripture doe not say an apple was eaten!

Old English æppel “apple; any kind of fruit; fruit in general,” from Proto-Germanic *ap(a)laz (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Dutch appel, Old Norse eple, Old High German apful, German Apfel), from PIE *ab(e)l- “apple” (source also of Gaulish *avallo *“fruit;” Old Irish ubull, Lithuanian obuolys, Old Church Slavonic *jabloko *“apple”), but the exact relation and original sense of these is uncertain (compare melon).

**In Middle English and as late as 17c., it was a generic term for all fruit other than berries but including nuts (such as Old English fingeræppla “dates,” literally “finger-apples;” Middle English appel of paradis “banana,” c. 1400). Hence its grafting onto the unnamed “fruit of the forbidden tree” in Genesis. Cucumbers, in one Old English work, are eorþæppla, literally “earth-apples” (compare French *pomme de terre *“potato,” literally “earth-apple;” see also melon). French *pomme *is from Latin *pomum *“apple; fruit” (see Pomona).

So, just as “meat” did not always mean just animal flesh, nor did “deer” just mean Santa’s Eight…

So, “apple” in its current restrictive sense of, say, a Granny Smith would be wrong, but in the older, broader sense (cf *fingeræppla, * above), not so much.

 

[mikekle]

I wound venture to say aliens are something similar to / or are, the ‘watchers’ spoke of in the bible, so these types of being would not generally need salvation in the way that humans do.

 

[Della]

Old English æppel “apple; any kind of fruit; fruit in general,” from Proto-Germanic *ap(a)laz (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Dutch appel, Old Norse eple, Old High German apful, German Apfel), from PIE *ab(e)l- “apple” (source also of Gaulish *avallo *“fruit;” Old Irish ubull, Lithuanian obuolys, Old Church Slavonic *jabloko *“apple”), but the exact relation and original sense of these is uncertain (compare melon).

**In Middle English and as late as 17c., it was a generic term for all fruit other than berries but including nuts (such as Old English *fingeræppla ***“dates,” literally “finger-apples;” Middle English appel of paradis “banana,” c. 1400). Hence its grafting onto the unnamed “fruit of the forbidden tree” in Genesis. Cucumbers, in one Old English work, are eorþæppla, literally “earth-apples” (compare French *pomme de terre *“potato,” literally “earth-apple;” see also melon). French *pomme *is from Latin *pomum *“apple; fruit” (see Pomona).

So, just as “meat” did not always mean just animal flesh, nor did “deer” just mean Santa’s Eight…

So, “apple” in its current restrictive sense of, say, a Granny Smith would be wrong, but in the older, broader sense (cf *fingeræppla, * above), not so much.

Of course, Santa doesn’t employ “deer” to pull his sleigh, he uses reindeer, even if some artists have depicted them as “deer” because they are prettier in appearance.

 

[joseie]

An excellent answer to this question as extracted from “got questions.org”

**So, what does the Bible say? The earth and mankind are unique in God’s creation. Genesis 1 teaches that God created the earth before He even created the sun, the moon, or the stars. Acts 17:24-26 states that “the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands…he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”

Originally, mankind was without sin, and everything in the world was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). When the first man sinned (Genesis 3), the result was problems of all sorts, including sickness and death. Even though animals have no personal sin before God (they are not moral beings), they still suffer and die (Romans 8:19-22). Jesus Christ died to remove the punishment that we deserve for our sin. When He returns, He will undo the curse that has existed since Adam (Revelation 21–22). Note that Romans 8:19-22 states that all of creation eagerly waits for this time. It is important to also note that Christ came to die for mankind and that He died only once (Hebrews 7:27; 9:26-28; 10:10).

If all of creation now suffers under the curse, any life apart from the earth would also suffer. If, for the sake of argument, moral beings do exist on other planets, then they also suffer; and if not now, then someday they will surely suffer when everything passes away with a great noise and the elements melt with fervent heat (2 Peter 3:10). If they had never sinned, then God would be unjust in punishing them. But if they had sinned, and Christ could die only once (which He did on earth), then they are left in their sin, which would also be contrary to the character of God (2 Peter 3:9). This leaves us with an unsolvable paradox—unless, of course, there are no moral beings outside of the earth.

What about non-moral and non-sentient life forms on other planets? Could algae or even dogs and cats be present on an unknown planet? Presumably so, and it would not do any real harm to any biblical text. But it would certainly prove problematic when trying answer questions like “Since all of creation suffers, what purpose would God have in creating non-moral and non-sentient creatures to suffer on distant planets?”

In conclusion, the Bible gives us no reason to believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe. In fact, the Bible gives us several key reasons why there cannot be. Yes, there are many strange and unexplainable things that take place. There is no reason, though, to attribute these phenomena to aliens or UFOs. If there is a discernable cause to these supposed events, it is likely to be spiritual, and more specifically, demonic, in origin.**

 

[mikekle]

An excellent answer to this question as extracted from “got questions.org”

**So, what does the Bible say? The earth and mankind are unique in God’s creation. Genesis 1 teaches that God created the earth before He even created the sun, the moon, or the stars. Acts 17:24-26 states that “the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands…he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”

Originally, mankind was without sin, and everything in the world was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). When the first man sinned (Genesis 3), the result was problems of all sorts, including sickness and death. Even though animals have no personal sin before God (they are not moral beings), they still suffer and die (Romans 8:19-22). Jesus Christ died to remove the punishment that we deserve for our sin. When He returns, He will undo the curse that has existed since Adam (Revelation 21–22). Note that Romans 8:19-22 states that all of creation eagerly waits for this time. It is important to also note that Christ came to die for mankind and that He died only once (Hebrews 7:27; 9:26-28; 10:10).

If all of creation now suffers under the curse, any life apart from the earth would also suffer. If, for the sake of argument, moral beings do exist on other planets, then they also suffer; and if not now, then someday they will surely suffer when everything passes away with a great noise and the elements melt with fervent heat (2 Peter 3:10). If they had never sinned, then God would be unjust in punishing them. But if they had sinned, and Christ could die only once (which He did on earth), then they are left in their sin, which would also be contrary to the character of God (2 Peter 3:9). This leaves us with an unsolvable paradox—unless, of course, there are no moral beings outside of the earth.

What about non-moral and non-sentient life forms on other planets? Could algae or even dogs and cats be present on an unknown planet? Presumably so, and it would not do any real harm to any biblical text. But it would certainly prove problematic when trying answer questions like “Since all of creation suffers, what purpose would God have in creating non-moral and non-sentient creatures to suffer on distant planets?”

In conclusion, the Bible gives us no reason to believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe. In fact, the Bible gives us several key reasons why there cannot be. Yes, there are many strange and unexplainable things that take place. There is no reason, though, to attribute these phenomena to aliens or UFOs. If there is a discernable cause to these supposed events, it is likely to be spiritual, and more specifically, demonic, in origin.**

Them being demonic is quite possible imo, in fact I find it strange and eerie how similar ‘aliens’ are today too demonic activity of the past.

I think our world is being groomed to accept them as our ‘sky gods’ and possibly even accept them as our creators. It is a fairly common to hear people today that believe intelligent beings from somewhere else created mankind as some kind of experiment, there are even those who think they should be worshiped…if that is not demonic, I do not know what is!

Just look at how they are shown in popular movies, books and tv…they either show up to save mankind or invade and take over. This is not a coincidence imo.

 

[jcrichton]

Them being demonic is quite possible imo, in fact I find it strange and eerie how similar ‘aliens’ are today too demonic activity of the past.

I think our world is being groomed to accept them as our ‘sky gods’ and possibly even accept them as our creators. It is a fairly common to hear people today that believe intelligent beings from somewhere else created mankind as some kind of experiment, there are even those who think they should be worshiped…if that is not demonic, I do not know what is!

Just look at how they are shown in popular movies, books and tv…they either show up to save mankind or invade and take over. This is not a coincidence imo.

Hi, Mike!

…I think that it is more reflective of hollowood’s mentality and values… if you look into it you will find that movies/programs evolved from family oriented with Christian values (God and goodness trumps evil) to what we have today: the death culture, where fatality is the default: man must always lose!

…it is not limited to movies and programs… video games and interactive games/programs urge children/adults to defeat/kill/eradicate mankind.

…remember that old fool that claimed that God was dead? …well, his spiritual progenies seek to kill man in order to do away with God!

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[mikekle]

Hi, Mike!

…I think that it is more reflective of hollowood’s mentality and values… if you look into it you will find that movies/programs evolved from family oriented with Christian values (God and goodness trumps evil) to what we have today: the death culture, where fatality is the default: man must always lose!

…it is not limited to movies and programs… video games and interactive games/programs urge children/adults to defeat/kill/eradicate mankind.

…remember that old fool that claimed that God was dead? …well, his spiritual progenies seek to kill man in order to do away with God!

Maran atha!

Angel

You are right to some degree and I do agree, but on the other hand, majority of popular movies today, ‘doing the right thing’ is promoted heavily, whether its remaining faithful to your spouse, lying and cheating, stealing, etc.

I can think of numerous big movies where the main character has the chance to cheat on their spouse, but usually they have them remain faithful.

I watch major hollywood movies quite a bit and have noticed ‘doing the right thing’ is very prevalent today, even in the aliens invade earth movies…the humans defeat them 99.9% of the time.

Not to mention, its 2017 and most people seem to be totally fine with an agency censoring movies and tv for language and sexuality???!!If they were trying to promote immorality, seems like there would be calls to end this practice and just allow any type of language/ nudity on tv or in movies.

 

[steve93]

There could be alien life, but just life, not sentient like humans.

 

[jcrichton]

You are right to some degree and I do agree, but on the other hand, majority of popular movies today, ‘doing the right thing’ is promoted heavily, whether its remaining faithful to your spouse, lying and cheating, stealing, etc.

I can think of numerous big movies where the main character has the chance to cheat on their spouse, but usually they have them remain faithful.

I watch major hollywood movies quite a bit and have noticed ‘doing the right thing’ is very prevalent today, even in the aliens invade earth movies…the humans defeat them 99.9% of the time.

Not to mention, its 2017 and most people seem to be totally fine with an agency censoring movies and tv for language and sexuality???!!If they were trying to promote immorality, seems like there would be calls to end this practice and just allow any type of language/ nudity on tv or in movies.

Hi, Mike!

I’ve not seen the latest… but it is arguable since the adopted model always employs:

• dysfunctional/broken families
• anti-hero hero
• anti-God/Christian “chosen savior”
• mandatory sex (lead character/s engaged in sex almost on every opening/closing scene)
• brutality and slice and dicing a la carte with “supersizing” every cut/explosion
• low/non-existing moral compass…
• first wave followed by second or the agents of destruction regrouping to suck out man’s tenuous breath of hope…

…as for censoring… it’s much like that “surgeon general” thing; just because we stick a label on it does not make the product “safe”/right.

Posting: MA: AS L V SS S R (rape)… on it and loading the film with gratuitous sex/violence/language does not mean that there’s a functional censorship system at work.

…you could drop a PM with the titles of those 99.9% pics, I would love to be proven wrong!

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[BornInMarch]

Jesus only came to Earth.

In any case, Original Sin only applies to humans because only humans have souls. Aliens would be categorized as “animals”.

 

[LadyJulian]

How can we possibly know that only humans have souls? Or that aliens (if they exist) are “animals”? The fact is, we know nothing of what kind of life (if any) exists on other planets, or what plans God has for them. God is the Creator, and who are we to limit Him in any way? The Bible was written for us humans–why would it necessarily have anything to say about non-humans on another world? It’s almost as if some people think that God owes us an explanation for every single thing He has created, thought, done, whatever–IMO He has told us what He thinks we humans need to know, but why assume we’ve been told everything?

And while it might be true that “Jesus only came to earth” (not sure where the Bible says that explicitly), who’s to say that God couldn’t come up with another way to “save” any aliens which may exist–if they in fact need saving?

 

[mikekle]

How can we possibly know that only humans have souls? Or that aliens (if they exist) are “animals”? The fact is, we know nothing of what kind of life (if any) exists on other planets, or what plans God has for them. God is the Creator, and who are we to limit Him in any way? The Bible was written for us humans–why would it necessarily have anything to say about non-humans on another world? It’s almost as if some people think that God owes us an explanation for every single thing He has created, thought, done, whatever–IMO He has told us what He thinks we humans need to know, but why assume we’ve been told everything?

And while it might be true that “Jesus only came to earth” (not sure where the Bible says that explicitly), who’s to say that God couldn’t come up with another way to “save” any aliens which may exist–if they in fact need saving?

Oh yes, I agree totally, the bible even says we are only given knowledge of a very small part of the puzzle so to speak. Im sure there is PLENTY out there that just does not effect mankind in anyway, so no need to inform us of these things.

Plus, just look at the wide variety of life on this planet, at one time HUGE dinosaurs roamed the earth for millions of years, if we did not have fossil records of them existing, it would be too bizarre for most people to believe. This also proves our God is a creative God and he likes to create.

In fact id say its likely God created quadrillion different races of beings out there, probably trillions before the first man was ever created on earth, and ID say he is probably still creating to this day.

People that believe humans are the only intelligent beings in the entire universe are putting extreme limits on God. If you look at the sheer number of systems and planets out there, its scientifically impossible for us to be the only living creatures in existence, not to mention the other dimensions and ‘places’ that we know absolutely nothing about too, there could be 1000s or even millions of different dimensions, all with their own galaxies like ours or even larger. Its just too much for the human mind to comprehend imo.

 

[Della]

Oh yes, I agree totally, the bible even says we are only given knowledge of a very small part of the puzzle so to speak. Im sure there is PLENTY out there that just does not effect mankind in anyway, so no need to inform us of these things.

Plus, just look at the wide variety of life on this planet, at one time HUGE dinosaurs roamed the earth for millions of years, if we did not have fossil records of them existing, it would be too bizarre for most people to believe. This also proves our God is a creative God and he likes to create.

In fact id say its likely God created quadrillion different races of beings out there, probably trillions before the first man was ever created on earth, and ID say he is probably still creating to this day.

People that believe humans are the only intelligent beings in the entire universe are putting extreme limits on God. If you look at the sheer number of systems and planets out there, its scientifically impossible for us to be the only living creatures in existence, not to mention the other dimensions and ‘places’ that we know absolutely nothing about too, there could be 1000s or even millions of different dimensions, all with their own galaxies like ours or even larger. Its just too much for the human mind to comprehend imo.

We have to keep in mind that intelligence does not necessarily mean that a sentient being has an eternal soul, as we humans have. We cannot make that assumption. In fact, we can make no assumptions about any other possible sentient life forms on other planets since we have zero evidence for any such thing–all we have is statistical probabilities based on life as we know it on our own world.

Also, God became man only once, for the purpose of redeeming man so that man might be saved. There is no reason to believe any other sentient beings on other worlds, if they even exist, would know about that or care about that, or have any need of any kind of redemption.

IMHO, we should adopt the reasoning of the Church in matters about which we know nothing–that is to accept what God has revealed–not second guess what God would have done/could have done/should have done if we had his creative power.

 

[tafan]

And while it might be true that “Jesus only came to earth” (not sure where the Bible says that explicitly), who’s to say that God couldn’t come up with another way to “save” any aliens which may exist–if they in fact need saving?

Its not that we know “Jesus only came to earth”, its that we know that Jesus only became man. Jesus has two natures: human and divine. We know this. So he could not have been incarnated as another alien species.

But I agree with your last statement, God could have come up with another way to save any aliens which exist and need saving.

 

[mikekle]

We have to keep in mind that intelligence does not necessarily mean that a sentient being has an eternal soul, as we humans have. We cannot make that assumption. In fact, we can make no assumptions about any other possible sentient life forms on other planets since we have zero evidence for any such thing–all we have is statistical probabilities based on life as we know it on our own world.

Also, God became man only once, for the purpose of redeeming man so that man might be saved. There is no reason to believe any other sentient beings on other worlds, if they even exist, would know about that or care about that, or have any need of any kind of redemption.

IMHO, we should adopt the reasoning of the Church in matters about which we know nothing–that is to accept what God has revealed–not second guess what God would have done/could have done/should have done if we had his creative power.

have you read some of things coming from guys at the Vatican like Br. Cosmolango, Fr. Ballducci, etc? (not sure on the exact spelling of their names?)

They apparently take this topic very seriously and pour lots of money into research… that big LUCIFER telescope, Mt Grahmn, etc. From the interviews Ive seen with those 2 especially, and others involved, its pretty clear the vatican knows quite a bit regarding this subject.

 

[Della]

have you read some of things coming from guys at the Vatican like Br. Cosmolango, Fr. Ballducci, etc? (not sure on the exact spelling of their names?)

They apparently take this topic very seriously and pour lots of money into research… that big LUCIFER telescope, Mt Grahmn, etc. From the interviews Ive seen with those 2 especially, and others involved, its pretty clear the vatican knows quite a bit regarding this subject.

Vatican astronomers are not the Magisterium. They have no power/authority to define doctrine/dogma, so their ideas are just that–their ideas, not Church teachings.

If belief in aliens ever does become Church teaching or they show up and reveal themselves to us or we discover them, etc., then I’ll take it seriously.

 

[Church_Militant]

Some of you might benefit from reading The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis, where he actually deals with something along this line. Particularly in the 2nd book. Perelandra, but it makes better sense in context of all three books.

Vatican astronomers are not the Magisterium. They have no power/authority to define doctrine/dogma, so their ideas are just that–their ideas, not Church teachings.

If belief in aliens ever does become Church teaching or they show up and reveal themselves to us or we discover them, etc., then I’ll take it seriously.

That makes 2 of us.

 

[Kay_Cee]

I wrote a novel (Rain from Heaven) that touches upon this very subject.

Before publishing, I asked my Spiritual Director if the idea of Christ being born on another planet and dying for alien beings there went against Church teaching. He assured me that the Church has taken no stance on this topic, and that I, therefore, was free to speculate.

Of course my book is just fiction, and like all sci-fi, it’s really about us.

 

[Della]

I wrote a novel (Rain from Heaven) that touches upon this very subject.

Before publishing, I asked my Spiritual Director if the idea of Christ being born on another planet and dying for alien beings there went against Church teaching. He assured me that the Church has taken no stance on this topic, and that I, therefore, was free to speculate.

Of course my book is just fiction, and like all sci-fi, it’s really about us.

I too have written a sci-fi book regarding sentient alien, and while I hold them/and they hold themselves to natural law, I made no attempts to indicate their eternal destinies. I figure, if God has created other sentient, biological life, then he knows best how and when to test their faithfulness to him. Indeed, I avoided the topic altogether since I didn’t want it to interfere with the story I wanted to tell.

 

[Della]

Some of you might benefit from reading The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis, where he actually deals with something along this line. Particularly in the 2nd book. Perelandra, but it makes better sense in context of all three books.
That makes 2 of us.

I too have read his space trilogy and got so much from each story. Of course, he’s merely speculating in his attempts to fit sentient alien life into the redemption story. Still, he did a good job of it, and a plausible one at that.