The Oldest Lie in the Sky

Welcome back. Last week we laid the foundation: the Bible is a supernatural book that describes one creation with both visible and invisible realities, and a spiritual war that has been raging since the beginning. This week we get a little weirder. Before we talk about UFOs, UAPs, and non-human intelligence, we have to talk about the enemy's chief weapon, which is deception. Then we will trace a strange history, and we will land where every lesson in this series lands: at the cross, where Jesus won the cosmic war.

Deception Is the Enemy's Chief Weapon

Big Idea: Scripture portrays an enemy whose fundamental strategy for corrupting humanity is deception.

Scripture to Read:

• John 8:44 - The devil is a liar and the father of lies

• Genesis 3:1-6 - The serpent questions, contradicts, and distorts God's word in the garden

• Revelation 12:7-9 - The great dragon, that ancient serpent, the deceiver of the whole world

What It Means: Notice what Jesus actually says in John 8:44. Satan does not merely tell lies. He is the origin of lies. When he speaks lies, he speaks out of his own character. Deception flows from his very nature.

You see the pattern from the very beginning. In Eden he questions God's word, contradicts God's word, distorts God's character, and then presents the lie as something desirable. From Genesis to Revelation the picture is remarkably consistent. He is the deceiver of the whole world.

Reflect:

• Where in your life have you been fed a lie that was dressed up as something desirable?

• Do you think of the enemy mainly as scary, or mainly as deceptive?

What Is Destructive Can Appear Attractive

Big Idea: Deception does not look like deception. That is what makes it dangerous.

Scripture to Read:

• 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 - Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and his servants as servants of righteousness

What It Means: If Satan appeared as Satan truly is, every one of us would see straight through it. But he does not. He comes disguised as light. So think about it this way:

• What is destructive can appear attractive.

• What is false can appear legitimate.

• What is darkness can present itself as light.

Reflect:

• Can you name something in your life right now that looks like light but may not be?

• What is your process for testing whether something is truly from God?

Not Everything Supernatural Is From God

Big Idea: The supernatural by itself is never proof that something comes from God.

Scripture to Read:

• 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 - The lawless one comes by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders

What It Means: Lean in here, because we usually do not think about this. Paul says there will be signs and wonders that deceive people. Something can be extraordinary and still be deceptive. Something can be supernatural and still not be holy.

This is a word especially for Pentecostals. Just because it is supernatural does not always mean it came from God. It has to go through a grid. It has to line up with right theology and sound doctrine.

Paul adds something sobering: this deception takes hold among those who refused to love the truth.

Reflect:

• Have you ever accepted something as being from God simply because it was unusual or powerful?

• What grid do you run spiritual experiences through?

Action: The next time you encounter something that feels supernatural, write it down and hold it up against Scripture before you act on it.

Rejecting Truth Comes First

Big Idea: The rejection of truth is what brings the judgment, not the other way around.

Scripture to Read:

• Romans 1:18-24 - People suppress the truth, exchange God's glory for images, and God gives them up

What It Means: Paul says there is a general revelation available to every person. God's eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived since the creation of the world. But people who know God refuse to honor him or thank him, their thinking becomes futile, their hearts are darkened, and God gives them up.

Many of us grew up hearing that a specific sin is the reason God will judge a nation. Paul flips that on its head. The rejection of truth is what brings the judgment of those sins. God gives them up.

The result is frightening: people begin believing the lie as though it were true. You may have talked with someone far from God who could tell you a television is a golden statue and genuinely believe it. The lie becomes true to them.

Reflect:

• Is there a truth you already know that you have been quietly suppressing?

• Where do you need to honor God and give thanks rather than argue?

Deception Is Not Limited to Unbelievers

Big Idea: Spiritual deception can come wrapped in ideas, beliefs, philosophies, doctrines, and teachings.

Scripture to Read:

• 1 Timothy 4:1 - In later times some will depart from the faith, devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons

• 2 Corinthians 11:3 - As the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ

What It Means: Two things stand out in 1 Timothy 4:1. First, people will depart from the faith. For anyone who does not think a believer can walk away, Scripture says some will choose to leave. Second, Paul does not simply warn about demons. He warns about the teachings of demons.

Consider what we now call deconstruction, the modern word for people walking out of the church. Often they do not simply leave. They become evangelists against God, producing content explaining all the reasons they left. That is embracing teaching, not just leaving a building.

Paul's concern in 2 Corinthians is personal and pointed: your thoughts can be led astray. The direction of the drift is always away from a pure devotion to Christ.

Reflect:

• What ideas have you absorbed lately that are pulling your thoughts away from simple devotion to Jesus?

• Who in your life is drifting, and how could you walk with them?

Another Jesus, Another Gospel

Big Idea: Much of the language surrounding aliens, the paranormal, and AI is preaching a different salvation.

What It Means: Listen closely to how people talk about UAPs and extraterrestrials. You will hear claims like these: the aliens were the original authors of life, they are re-engaging with the world so we will not destroy ourselves, our concept of God is close but not quite right. That is a different gospel.

Listen to the promises made about AI: a utopian society where we no longer have to work, where we can simply rest. That becomes a new form of salvation.

To someone who knows the gospel, this sounds far fetched. But to someone on the fringe of Christianity, someone who barely knows how to spell the name of Jesus, someone who has never been discipled, it is dangerous.

Reflect:

• What is the "salvation" being offered to you by the culture around you?

• Who do you know who is on the fringe and would be vulnerable to a different gospel?

Action: Pick one person on the fringe of faith and invite them into a real conversation about Jesus this month.

Two Mistakes, Four Categories

Big Idea: Christians tend to be either too skeptical or too gullible, and Scripture will not let us do either.

What It Means: Some of us dismiss everything. An alien could appear in the room and we would say we do not believe it. Others are too gullible, seeing a devil behind every bush and blaming every inconvenience on spiritual activity. Scripture calls us to nuance, and nuance means putting things in proper categories.

Category One: Natural Phenomena We Do Not Yet Understand

For a time lightning was mysterious. Disease was mysterious. Comets flashing across the sky were mysterious. Here is the principle to hold onto: human ignorance does not automatically equal supernatural activity. Take someone from a remote village who has never seen television or heard a radio and drop them in Times Square. They would be convinced something otherworldly had happened to them. Just because you cannot explain something does not mean there is no explanation.

Category Two: Human Deception

People are not always telling the truth. Some phenomena are hoaxes, misidentifications, exaggerations, psychological experiences, fraudulent claims, or government operations. Crop circles are a good example: people have made them and let the world believe. Christians should never be afraid to acknowledge this.

Category Three: Genuine Spiritual Phenomena

Some of it may actually be spiritual. If we take the Bible seriously, we cannot always dismiss that possibility. Angels are real, demons are real, spiritual powers are real, and there is an unseen realm. To say none of that ever happens is contrary to Scripture. That said, if you see a bright light, maybe first check whether someone is holding a flashlight on the other end before you call it an angel.

Category Four: We Simply Do Not Have Enough Information

Scripture to Read:

• Deuteronomy 29:29 - The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us

This is probably the largest category, and it is the one that frustrates us. Sometimes the best answer is, "I do not know." There are things God simply has not revealed. Our responsibility is to be faithful with what God has revealed without pretending we know what he has not.

Reflect:

• Which mistake is yours: too skeptical or too gullible?

• When was the last time you said "I do not know" about something spiritual?

Be the Most Discerning People in the Room

Big Idea: Discernment does not mean dismissiveness.

Scripture to Read:

• Acts 17:11 - The Bereans received the word eagerly and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so

What It Means: The Bereans listened to Paul and then went diligently to the Scriptures to test whether what he said was true. That is the model. Not reflexive rejection, not eager swallowing, but careful listening followed by careful searching.

Action: The next time you hear a teaching that moves you, do not repeat it until you have looked up the passages yourself.

Good Theology Produces Humility

Big Idea: Write this down: good theology should produce humility, not arrogance.

Scripture to Read:

• Luke 2:19 - Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart

What It Means: There are moments to stand in awe of the Scriptures and honestly say, "I do not know what this is about." That is not a failure of faith. In today's culture, people will respect honest uncertainty far more than a confident fake. If you fake it, there is a world out there that will spot the fake.

And here is one of the most beautiful verses in the birth narrative. After all the divine activity around her, Mary pondered these things in her heart. She held them loosely and let them marinate. Pentecostal Christians especially need to practice that. Every word that comes to you in a moment is not necessarily a word for that moment. Sometimes you simply hold it.

The other side of the same principle: when the Bible is silent, so should you. Scripture does not tell you how to raise two blonde headed girls in America, but its principles about discipline and parenting still apply. What it does not address, we should not force it to address.

Reflect:

• Has your knowledge of Scripture made you humbler or more argumentative?

• What is something you have been given that you need to ponder rather than proclaim?

Action: Pick one thing you have been trying to explain away and instead write it in a journal, hold it loosely, and revisit it in a month.

Are Aliens Possible?

Big Idea: The Bible neither affirms nor denies intelligent biological life elsewhere in the universe, so we should be careful with absolute statements.

Scripture to Read:

• Psalm 19:1 - The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork

What It Means: The Bible never explicitly says there is no intelligent biological life anywhere else in the universe. Neither does it tell us that there is. God could create life whenever, wherever, and however he pleases, because he is God. The universe is enormous, and it is his to control.

Extraterrestrial life would raise fascinating theological questions. Are they image bearers of God? Did they experience a fall? Does Christ's incarnation relate only to us? Would they require redemption? Imagine one landing on your lawn wearing a cross around its neck. That would rattle you.

But Scripture does not answer those questions. The Bible is God's revelation to man, and it does not speak to those things. So our position can be honest and simple: are aliens possible? Yes. Does the Bible reveal that? No, at least not in the way we have been taught with little green men and silver spaceships.

Reflect:

• Does it unsettle you that Scripture leaves this open? Why?

• Does your faith depend on having every cosmic question answered?

What About UFOs and UAPs?

Big Idea: "Unidentified" simply means unidentified. It does not mean alien.

What It Means: People often assume UFO or UAP equals alien spacecraft, but the term only means something observed that has not been identified. Possible explanations include aircraft, drones, atmospheric phenomena, astronomical phenomena, classified technology, optical effects, misidentification, fabrication, or psychological operations.

History bears this out. Nazi Germany built technology the world had never seen. Just east of us in Nevada, Area 51 housed stealth aircraft the public had never laid eyes on. There are things we cannot identify that are not alien at all.

But the Christian worldview does have another category available, one the modern materialist does not have: spiritual intelligence.

Spiritual Beings Manifest Physically in Scripture

Big Idea: The Bible contains numerous occasions where spiritual beings appear and interact physically with people.

Scripture to Read:

• Genesis 19:1-5 - Two angels come to Sodom, Lot recognizes and honors them, they eat and lodge

• Genesis 32:1-2, 24-26 - Jacob meets the angels of God, then wrestles a man until daybreak

• Ezekiel 1:4-9 - Four living creatures with four faces, four wings, and feet like a calf's, sparkling like burnished bronze

• Daniel 10:5-6 - A man clothed in linen, body like beryl, face like lightning, eyes like flaming torches

• Genesis 18 - Angels eat food with Abraham

• Mark 5, Luke 8, Matthew 12 - Jesus clearly believes in and confronts demons

What It Means: Look at the details in Genesis 19. How did Lot identify them, and how did he know to show them honor? Did they appear angelic? These beings ate physical food and lodged for the night. And notice what the men of the city wanted to do. There is a possible echo here of Genesis 6, where the sons of God took the daughters of men. Perhaps the sin of Sodom is not simply what we have assumed, and perhaps it involves a usurping of God's authority by attempting a reversal of Genesis 6. That is a thought worth chewing on.

Jacob physically wrestles a being until his hip is thrown out of joint. Ezekiel 1 reads like something out of a fever dream. Try reading Ezekiel's description out loud as if it happened to you last night in a field and see how it sounds. Daniel encounters a being so specific that he describes the gold of its belt.

Now compare that to our Christmas tree angel: blonde hair, blue eyes, serene expression. The Bible gives us a far stranger variety. Our Western minds tend to shut down and label it all metaphor.

The Conclusion: The Christian should not automatically assume that an unexplained object equals an extraterrestrial spacecraft. Neither should we assume an unexplained object equals a demon. Our answer can simply be that there are more categories of intelligent existence in Scripture than the modern materialistic world allows. Scripture refuses our neat Western separation between physical and spiritual. The Bible gives us permission to believe in mystery. It does not give us permission to invent explanations.

Reflect:

• When you read Ezekiel 1 or Daniel 10, do you slow down or reach for "it is just symbolic"?

• Where has a materialist mindset shrunk your reading of the Bible?

Action: Read Ezekiel 1 and Daniel 10 this week and resist explaining them. Just let them be strange.

A Strange History: The Language Keeps Changing

Big Idea: What people call these encounters has shifted over time. The question is whether the phenomenon changed or only our interpretation of it.

What It Means: Track the vocabulary. In the nineteenth century people called these things spirits. Occultists began calling them entities, intelligences, or beings from other planes. In the twentieth century people increasingly called them extraterrestrial. Today we hear interdimensional beings, non-human intelligence, and unidentified anomalous phenomena.

1. Spiritualism

Spiritualism is fairly modern, exploding onto the scene in the 1800s. Mediums claimed humans could communicate with invisible intelligences through seances, automatic writing, trance states, visions, and tools like Ouija boards. A Ouija board is not a game. Do not let your kids or grandkids play with one.

In its early form, spiritualism was usually about contacting a lost loved one. But these "beings" would also offer spiritual teaching and claim superior knowledge, with mediums acting as intermediaries between humans and the unseen world.

Scripture to Read:

• Deuteronomy 18:10-14 - No divination, fortune telling, omens, sorcery, mediums, or inquiring of the dead

From a biblical perspective, an unseen realm is not revolutionary at all. Scripture teaches about it and teaches against these practices. And notice: Deuteronomy 18 is not saying do not bother because it is a waste of time. It is warning that you might open yourself up to something. That distinction matters.

2. Ceremonial Occultism

By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, instead of simply contacting departed human spirits, occultists increasingly sought contact with what they understood to be higher intelligences, entities existing beyond ordinary human consciousness, and they developed formal methods for doing so.

This brings us to Aleister Crowley, who heavily influenced Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan. Crowley practiced ceremonial magic and believed human beings could interact with non-human intelligences. In 1904 he claimed communication with an intelligence named Aiwass, which dictated a text he called The Book of the Law.

Then in 1918, during a period of occult experimentation in New York, Crowley produced a strange portrait of an entity he called Lam. The image looks remarkably familiar, because it strongly resembles what we now picture as a gray alien.

Here is the timeline. Crowley was communicating with Lam in 1918 to 1919. The modern flying saucer era did not begin until 1947. The famous abduction account of Betty and Barney Hill, which produced the well known gray alien image, came in 1961.

Be Responsible Here: Crowley's drawing does not prove that gray aliens are demons, and it does not prove Crowley encountered extraterrestrials. But it raises a fascinating question: why does imagery emerging from an occult context, decades before the modern alien abduction era, resemble imagery that later became associated with gray aliens? At minimum, that is wild.

3. Occultism Meets the Space Age

Jack Parsons was a brilliant man, a pioneer in American rocket propulsion whose work helped establish what became the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He was also deeply involved in Crowley's occult system, Thelema, which incorporated ceremonial magic, astrology, mystical practices, altered states, ritual sexuality, invocation of spiritual intelligences, and elements drawn from Western esotericism.

Consider the symbolism. Ancient humans longed to contact the heavens. Now here is a man with the technical ability to physically enter the heavens, practicing what we would call black magic. Rocket science and ceremonial occultism existed in the same man.

In early 1946 Parsons conducted a series of rituals commonly called the Babalon Working, aimed initially at attracting a woman who could function as an "elemental partner." His assistant in this project was L. Ron Hubbard, who years later founded the Church of Scientology. Parsons performed the operations while Hubbard participated, acting as a kind of scribe and seer.

Parsons then claimed to receive communication associated with Babalon and produced a text he called Liber 49. The opening line of that manuscript reads: "Now know that I, Babalon, would take flesh and come upon man."

That is a direct mockery of the incarnation.

Parsons was not playing around or hunting Martians. He deliberately attempted contact with supernatural intelligence, believed contact occurred, recorded the communications, and acted on instructions he believed came from it. He represents a bridge: the vocabulary of supernatural contact entering the space age.

4. The UFO Era

In 1947 the modern flying saucer era exploded into public consciousness. Suddenly mysterious beings were no longer primarily described as spirits. They were described as visitors from other planets. Think of the films of the 1950s and 1960s: nuclear explosions, giant creatures, aliens visiting the planet.

Here is the shift. If in 1850 someone saw a luminous being descend from the sky, their vocabulary would have been, "I encountered a ghost. I encountered a spirit." By 1950, after airplanes, rockets, science fiction, and speculation about life on other planets, the same unusual experience would be reported as, "I encountered an extraterrestrial."

5. Jacques Vallée Changes the Question

Jacques Vallée is not an evangelical theologian trying to prove UFOs are demons. He is a computer scientist and astronomer by training, an author and researcher. He noticed that UFO reports often resemble much older accounts of encounters with strange beings, and he began linking modern reports with folklore.

The recurring features he observed include mysterious humanoid entities, beings appearing and disappearing, strange lights, missing or distorted time, altered states of consciousness, supernatural messages, sometimes unusual pregnancy or reproductive themes, people being taken somewhere and returned, and encounters that profoundly alter someone's worldview.

Vallée questioned whether the simple extraterrestrial hypothesis adequately explains the phenomenon. He did not say "demons." He did not assume that. But he did challenge the assumption that a strange being in a strange craft must be a biological creature from another planet. It may be an entirely different category.

The Theological Question: Is what we are seeing in modern disclosure directly tied to spiritual beings of old, constantly being reinterpreted as part of the great cosmic deceptive war? The honest answer from this lesson is that there are natural phenomena we cannot explain, but yes, it is quite possible that is what we are seeing.

And None of This Should Surprise Us. The enemy appears as an angel of light. The enemy appears in different forms throughout the Bible. This is not taught to scare you.

Reflect:

• Does knowing the enemy has always worked through deception change how you interpret headlines about disclosure?

• Are you more fascinated by the mystery or by the Christ who rules it?

The Cross Changed the Cosmic War

Big Idea: Christian thinking about these things is not primarily about figuring out demons or extraterrestrials. It is about understanding what Jesus accomplished.

Scripture to Read:

• Colossians 2:8-15 - Do not be taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit, for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and he disarmed the rulers and authorities, triumphing over them

What It Means: We are not here to look at the mysterious and get chill bumps. We are here to elevate Christ.

Paul warns against being taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition and according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Then he piles up what is true of Jesus: the whole fullness of deity dwells in him bodily, he is the head of all rule and authority, he cancelled the record of debt that stood against us and nailed it to the cross.

Then verse 15: he disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them.

The cross is not simply the forgiveness of sins. It is also God's decisive victory in the cosmic battle over the powers of both heaven and earth.

Reflect:

• Have you thought of the cross mainly as personal forgiveness? What changes if it is also cosmic victory?

• What power are you still afraid of that Jesus has already disarmed?

Five Questions for Discernment

Big Idea: You do not need an explanation for everything, but you do need a grid.

1. Can it be naturally explained? Do not call something supernatural merely because you do not understand it.

2. Does Scripture provide a category for it? Angels, demons, spiritual deception, human deception, natural phenomena, or something Scripture simply leaves unexplained.

3. What fruit does it produce? Does it produce fear, obsession, pride, confusion, and deception, or does it point people to Christ?

4. Does it contradict Scripture? Galatians 1:8 says that if even an angel from heaven preaches another gospel, reject it. If something lands on your lawn tomorrow and says, "You have part of the story, but we are really the gods," the answer is no. The gods have been defeated through the cross.

5. Where does it put Jesus? This is the ultimate test. Christianity is not primarily a system for explaining strange phenomena. Christianity proclaims a King who overcomes and wins the great cosmic battle.

Action: Copy these five questions somewhere you can find them, and run the next strange claim you hear through all five before you form an opinion.

Why Christianity Would Not Collapse

Big Idea: Whatever is out there belongs underneath Jesus.

Scripture to Read:

• Colossians 1:16 - By him all things were created, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities

• Philippians 2:10-11 - Every knee in heaven and on earth and under the earth will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

What It Means: Imagine that tomorrow morning undeniable evidence appeared proving intelligent beings exist beyond humanity. Christianity would not collapse. Why? Because Scripture already declares that all things, visible and invisible, were created by him.

• Suppose we discovered something tomorrow that completely changed our understanding of the universe. It would not change who created it.

• Suppose we discovered forms of intelligence we never knew existed. It would not change who rules them.

• Suppose the unseen realm is vastly more complicated than we imagined. It would not change Philippians 2.

We sometimes gloss over those three phrases in Philippians, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, because preachers make three points and we assume Paul is just being poetic. But Paul genuinely saw various categories of rulers, powers, and principalities, and he said all of them submit under the feet of Jesus. All.

The biblical answer to the unknown is not fear. It is not obsession. It is not conspiracy. It is not denial. The answer to the unknown is always and will ever be Jesus. Full stop.

Reflect:

• What discovery would shake your faith, and why does it not have to?

• Is your confidence in your explanations or in Christ's authority?

Action Steps

Today:

• Say out loud: "Not everything supernatural is from God, and not everything strange is demonic."

• Name one place where you need to say "I do not know" instead of faking an answer.

This Week:

• Read John 8:44, 2 Corinthians 11:3-15, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, and Colossians 2:8-15.

• Practice the Berean habit: check one thing you heard this week against Scripture before repeating it.

• Take one word God has given you and, like Mary, ponder it rather than proclaim it.

This Month:

• Read Ezekiel 1, Daniel 10, Genesis 19, and Genesis 32 and let the strangeness stand.

• Memorize the five discernment questions and use them in at least one conversation.

• Disciple one person on the fringe so they are not vulnerable to a different gospel.

"He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him."
- Colossians 2:15

"And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."
- 2 Corinthians 11:14