PART 3
By
Cris Putnam
February 10, 2013
NewsWithViews.com
Picking up from my last post which provided a biblical basis for why we think an extraterrestrial revelation uniquely explains the comprehensive scope of the predicted end time deception, this post will offer discussion of the UFO phenomenon.
Jesus
makes an allusion to past divine judgment with an emphasis on the credulity
of the general population. “Just as it was in the days of Noah,
so will it be in the days of the Son of Man (Luke 17:26). By credulity
I mean they were oblivious. Not only did the people in Noah’s day
not heed the warnings given, they carried on their day-to-day activities
as if God were inconsequential.
They were caught off-guard because they were so wrapped up in everyday
life that they had no concern for the warnings Enoch and Noah had given
about spiritual realities. In contrast, Noah and his family prepared for
the future Flood even though they saw no material evidence of its coming
and did not know the exact time of its arrival until it came. The author
of Hebrews confirms, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things
not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his
house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness
which is by faith” (Heb 11:7). Vigilance is appropriate; Jesus is
saying that we face a similar situation today.
Back in 1884, long before the coining of terms like “flying saucer” and “extraterrestrial,” a famous English theologian, G.H. Pember asserted, “The seventh and most fearful characteristic of the days of Noah was the unlawful appearance among men of beings from another sphere” (emphasis added).[1] He predicted the return of the “Principality of the Air” and argued that the rise of spiritualism was its fruition. Of course, Pember has taken a lot of ribbing for his assertions since the nineteenth century because we still await the apocalypse. In like fashion, imagine the ridicule Noah endured as an apocalyptic prophet building a huge ark far removed from the sea. It is not difficult to imagine Noah was accused of something akin to “hate speech” as a pre-Flood preacher of righteousness. Also easy to conceive is that, by an assortment of antediluvian affronts, he was called a crackpot for his strange beliefs.
Similarly, a twenty-first-century evangelical can expect ridicule merely for believing the Bible, but a Christian ufologist attracts double disdain. One attracts scorn from both sides, secular and Christian. Just as it was business as usual in Noah’s day, it seems many people, especially Christians, are oblivious to the incredible aerial phenomena regularly reported by reliable witnesses worldwide. Once the hoaxes and mistaken natural phenomena are weeded out, we believe an element of those phenomena is supernatural. I will argue for the psycho-spiritual nature later, but in this post I want to focus on public incredulousness. Jesus’ admonition was that people would ignore the signs. Facilitating that is a very real taboo on the subject. In spite of overwhelming evidence, UFOs are not taken seriously.
That UFOs are real and deserve serious scrutiny is beyond question. Recalling that the “U” in UFO denotes “unidentified,” estimates of the number of unexplained cases in official files by qualified scientists like astronomer J. Allen Hynek, computer scientist Jacques Vallée, and nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman range between 15 and 25 percent of cases. We prefer to call these unexplained cases residual UFOs or RUFOs, whereas the explained cases become IFOs or identified flying objects. Even a more conservative estimate like that from astrophysicist Hugh Ross (an evangelical Christian) still merits the 5-percent mark. Still, Ross elaborates, “If only 1 percent of UFO reports remain unexplained, the number of RUFOs sighted over the last five decades could range into the tens of thousands, if not many more.”[2] Although we believe the number is much higher, the salient point is that even by the most minimal estimate, tens of thousands of inexplicable aerial craft have been baffling trained observers. Even more perplexing are the millions of reported personal encounters with their occupants.
Otherworldly encounters and alien abductions seem to suggest the eccentric and delusional, but then you read works like Abduction (1994) and Passport to the Cosmos (1999) by respected Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer Prize winner John Mack. Now deceased, Mack was a serious academic who risked his reputation and career to publicize the strange similarities he found in a broad spectrum of non-pathological experiencers. Were these mere delusions, the detailed correspondences should not have occurred. To his surprise, after counseling scores of abductees, he detected a remarkable coherence that inferred veracity. Intriguingly, he still determined that abduction was more spiritual than physical, albeit very real. While Mack is the academic superstar of ufology, he is by no means alone.
Another respected academic, David Jacobs, a historian specializing in popular culture at Temple University whose doctoral dissertation was published as The UFO Controversy in America by Indiana University Press in 1975, came to similar but more alarming conclusions. His subsequent works, Secret Life: Firsthand Accounts of UFO Abductions (1992); The Threat: Revealing the Secret Alien Agenda (1998); and UFOs and Abductions: Challenging the Borders of Knowledge (2000), came to the conclusion that extraterrestrial biological entities (ETBEs) are not only visiting Earth but are actually abducting millions of human beings worldwide to extract genetic material for the purpose of creating a race of hybrids. Another academic, Karla Turner, who authored Into the Fringe (1992); Taken: Inside the Alien-Human Abduction Agenda (1994); and Masquerade of Angels (1994), not only concurred with Jacobs, she testified in great detail that it was happening to her!
Since qualified scientists and otherwise credible academics draw these conclusions, why is the UFO subject still routinely ridiculed? One simple explanation is that the ambiguous nature of the term UFO invites equivocation. The acronym “UFO,” meaning “Unidentified Flying Object,” was the brainchild of Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, chief of the official Air Force investigating agency, Project Blue Book, to replace the then-dominant terms “flying saucer” or “flying disk.”[3] In truth, even “flying saucer” was a misnomer, because Kenneth Arnold actually said he saw a boomerang-shaped craft that skipped along like a saucer skims the water when tossed over a lake. Nevertheless, the term “flying saucer” captured the imagination of the public and popular press and became an infectious idea.
Speaking of that famous sighting by Arnold, Ruppelt wrote, “It is well known that ever since the first flying saucer was reported in June 1947 the Air Force has officially said that there is no proof that such a thing as an interplanetary spaceship exists. But what is not well known is that this conclusion is far from being unanimous among the military and their scientific advisers because of the one word, proof; so the UFO investigations continue.”[4] Even so, it is important to note that the same year, Air Force General Nathan Twining admitted in a classified document that, “The phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious.”[5] Ruppelt goes on about military fighter planes pursuing and firing upon unknown craft, craft that were simultaneously locked on ground radar and seen by pilots, and craft that evaded and sped away with ease. He then asks rhetorically, “Doesn’t this constitute proof?”[6] The proof is out there.
A recent poll by National Geographic indicated that 36 percent of Americans (80 million people) believe RUFOs exist.[7] The results align with more scientific studies like the 2008 survey conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University, which also found that one-third of adults believe it’s either “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that intelligent extraterrestrials have visited Earth.
| Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts! |
Even more, 56 percent say it is either “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that intelligent life exists on other planets. One in twelve said he or she had personally seen a UFO that might have been an alien spaceship. The study also reported that people who had recently attended church, and who personally identify as born again, are less likely to believe in UFOs or the existence of ETs. We hope to convert you, our readers, from the former—to believe RUFOs exist—while encouraging you to remain skeptical as to the latter. Of those 36 percent of Americans polled who believe, it is safe to assume the majority, we think unfortunately, most believe RUFOs are alien spacecraft, we believe this is leading to the great deception.
This material is a preview of a work in progress, Exo-Vaticana, with co-author Thomas Horn. Please take a moment to check out the video trailer. The book is expected in April.
� 2013 Cris Putnam - All Rights Reserved
Click here for part -----> 1, 2, 3, 4,
Footnotes:
1.
G.H. Pember, Earth’s Earliest Ages (Kindle locations 3433–3434).
2.
Hugh Ross, Kenneth Samples, and Mark Clark, Lights in the Sky &
Little Green Men: A Rational Christian Look at UFOs and Extraterrestrials
(Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2002), 29.
3.
Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
(Cherry Hill Publishing; eBook; 2012). (Ruppelt writes,“UFO is the
official term that I created to replace the words ‘flying saucers.’”
See: [Click
here]
4.
Ibid
5.
“The
Twining Memo” The Roswell Files, last accessed December
7, 2012,
6.
Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.
7.
Natalie DiBlasio, “A
Third of Earthlings Believe in UFOs, Would Befriend Aliens,”
USA TODAY, June 26, 2012
Share
This ArticleCris D. Putnam is a bestselling co-author of Petrus Romanus the Final Pope is Here and Christian apologist. He holds a Masters in Theological Studies from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and a a Certification in Christian Apologetics from BIOLA University as well as a B.S. in religion and mathematics. He is recognized for expertise in the area of Christian apologetics, biblical prophecy and other prophetic traditions. In that regard, he has been interviewed on Prophecy in the News, as an expert for the television show Countdown to Apocalypse on The History Channel and in Canada for I Prophesy: The Future Revealed. He has also appeared on many major radio programs and podcasts across the country. He is a member of the International Society of Christian Apologetics, the Evangelical Philosophical Society and the Tau Sigma National Honor Society.
Website: www.logosapologia.org
E-Mail:
logosapologia@gmail.com
