Did God create life on other planets?

Otherwise why is the universe so big?

by Gary Bates

Intelligent ET’s visiting the Earth would have domination over mankind.

Many people, Christian or otherwise, struggle with the notion that the earth is the only inhabited planet in this enormous universe.

Those who believe life evolved on the earth usually see it as virtual ‘fact’ that life has evolved on countless other planets. Discovering life on other planets would in turn be seen as confirming their evolutionary belief.

But even many Christians think, ‘God must have created life elsewhere, otherwise this enormous universe would be an awful waste of space.’ However, our thinking should be based on what God said He did (the Bible), and not what we think He would or should have done.

Firstly, since God is the one who made the universe, it can scarcely be ‘big’ to Him. Humans struggle with its vastness because our comprehension is limited to the created time/space dimensions within which we exist, and it is mind-bending to try and comprehend anything beyond these. Time itself began with the creation of the physical universe, but how can we understand timeless eternity? What was ‘before’ the universe? Similarly, how do we understand how ‘big’ God is? We cannot use a tape measure made of atoms to measure Him.

The Bible and ETs

It is often asked, just because the Bible teaches about God creating intelligent life only on Earth, why couldn’t He have done so elsewhere? After all, Scripture does not discuss everything, e.g. motorcars. However, the biblical objection to ET is not merely an argument from silence. Rather, understanding the big picture of the Bible/gospel message allows us to conclude clearly that the reason the Bible doesn’t mention extraterrestrials (ETs) is that there aren’t any.¹

1. The Bible indicates that the whole creation groans and travails under the weight of sin (Romans 8:18–22). (The effect of the Curse following Adam’s Fall was universal.² Otherwise what would be the point of God destroying this whole creation to make way for a new heavens and Earth—2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1 ff). Therefore, any ETs living elsewhere would have been (unjustly) affected by the Adamic Curse through no fault of their own—they would not have inherited Adam’s sin nature.
2. When Christ (God) appeared in the flesh He came to Earth not only to redeem mankind but eventually the whole creation back to Himself (Romans 8:21, Colossians 1:20). However, Christ’s atoning death at Calvary cannot save these hypothetical ETs, because one needs to be a physical descendant of Adam for Christ to be our ‘kinsman-redeemer’ (Isaiah 59:20). Jesus was called ‘the last Adam’ because there was a real first man, Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45)—not a first Vulcan, Klingon etc. This is so a sinless human Substitute takes on the punishment all humans deserve for sin (Isaiah 53:6, 10; Matthew 20:28; 1 John 2:2, 4:10), with no need to atone for any non-existent sin of his own (Hebrews 7:27).
3. Since this would mean that any ETs would be lost for eternity when this present creation is destroyed in a fervent heat (2 Peter 3:10, 12), some have wondered whether Christ’s sacrifice might be repeated elsewhere for other beings. However, Christ died once for all (Romans 6:10, 1 Peter 3:18) on the earth. He is not going to be crucified and resurrected again on other planets (Hebrews 9:26). This is confirmed by the fact that the redeemed (earthly) church is known as Christ’s bride (Ephesians 5:22–33; Revelation 19:7–9) in a marriage that will last for eternity.³ Christ is not going to be a polygamist with many other brides from other planets.
4. The Bible makes no provision for God to redeem any other species, any more than to redeem fallen angels (Hebrews 2:16).

Fitting them in there … somehow!

One attempt to fit ETs in the Bible is on the basis of a word in Hebrews 11:3: ‘Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.’

The word ‘worlds’ appears in the KJV translation and some others, and some claim that it refers to other inhabitable planets. However, the word is αιών (aiōn), from which we derive the word ‘eon’. Thus modern translations render the word as ‘universe’ (entire space-time continuum) because it correctly describes ‘everything that exists in time and space, visible and invisible, present and eternal’. Even if it was referring to other planets, it is an unwarranted extrapolation to presume intelligent life on them.

Another is the passage in John 10:16 in which Jesus says, ‘I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.’ However, even an ET-believing astronomer at the Vatican (thus a ‘hostile witness’ to the ‘no ETs cause’), a Jesuit priest by the name of Guy Consalmagno concedes, ‘In context, these “other sheep” are presumably a reference to the Gentiles, not extraterrestrials’.⁴ Jesus’ teaching was causing division among the Jews (vs. 19), because they always believed that salvation from God was for them alone. Jesus was reaffirming that He would be the saviour of all mankind.

A novel approach

A more recent idea to allow for ETs arose out of a perceived need to protect Christianity in the event of a real alien visitation to Earth. Michael S. Heiser is an influential Christian UFOlogist/speaker with a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages. He claims that the arguments put forward earlier might not apply to God-created aliens. Because they are not descendants of Adam they have not inherited his sin nature, and thus, are not morally guilty before God. Just like ‘bunny rabbits’ on the earth, they do not need salvation—even though they will die, they are going to neither heaven nor hell.

On the surface this seems a compelling argument; after all, fallen angels are intelligent but are beyond salvation (Hebrews 2:16). However, angels are immortal and not of our corporeal dimension. And Heiser’s ETs in spaceships require a level of intelligence not found in rabbits. This acutely highlights the injustice of their suffering the effects of the Curse, including death and ultimately extinction when the heavens are ‘rolled up like a scroll’ (Revelation 6:14). It also seems bizarre to assign no moral responsibility for the actions of highly intelligent beings.

Heiser also claims that vastly intelligent ETs would not displace mankind’s position as being made in the image of God because ‘image’ just means humans have been placed as God’s representatives on the earth.

However, the Bible says we are made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). Man was immediately created a fully intelligent being about 6,000 years ago and was involved in craftsmanship shortly thereafter (Genesis 4:22). Since that time even we have not been able to develop technologies advanced enough to travel to other star systems. If aliens were capable of developing incredible faster-than-light spaceships needed to get here, one would presume they must have been created with vastly superior intellect to ours—which would make them even more in God’s likeness in that sense than we are. Or, their creation is much older than the 6,000 years of the biblical six-day timeframe; the aliens were created before man and had sufficient time to develop their technologies. However, God created Earth on Day 1 and later the heavenly bodies on Day 4.

Influenced from outside the Bible

Although Heiser does not promote theistic evolution, he is sympathetic to a universe billions of years old, as proposed by the progressive creationist Dr Hugh Ross.⁵ In theory, this could allow the time necessary for any unseen ETs to develop the almost science-fiction-like technologies required to get here. However, this is circular.

There is a huge problem for the Gospel in these long ages. First, it’s important to understand that long ages derived from the belief that sedimentary rock layers on Earth represent eons of time.⁶ This in turn derived from the dogmatic assumption that there were no special acts of creation or a global Flood, so that Earth’s features must be explained by processes seen to be happening now.⁷ This philosophy of uniformitarianism seems to amply fulfil the Apostle Peter’s prophecy in 2 Peter 3:3–7.

The conflict with the Gospel is that these very same rock layers contain fossils—a record of dead things showing evidence of violence, disease and suffering. Thus, taking a millions-of-years view, even without evolution, places death and suffering long before the Fall of Adam. This undermines the gospel and the very reasons that Christ came to the earth—such as reversing the effects of the Curse.

Ranking the created order

Psalm 8:5 says that man was made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honour. Heiser has said that salvation is based upon ranking, not intelligence. If so, where would ET sit in this pecking order (which again omits to mention them)? Would they be higher than man, and lower than angels, for example? If these advanced ETs were capable of visiting the earth, mankind would now be subject to their dominion. (Even if the ETs were friendly, potentially they would be much more powerful due to their intelligence and technology.) This would be in direct contravention to God’s ordained authority structure when he ordered mankind to ‘subdue’ the earth—also known as the dominion mandate (Genesis 1:28).

Be ‘awe’ inspired

Psalm 19:1 tells us a major reason that the universe is so vast: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.’
It reminds us that the more we discover about this incredible universe, the more we should be in awe of the One who made it all. That’s who we should be thinking of, not imaginary aliens we’ve never seen.

Could there be ‘simple life’ elsewhere in space?

Photo by Elaine R. Ingham

If evolution says that life may have drifted to earth from outer space—then why not the other way around?

The Bible’s ‘big picture’ seems to preclude intelligent life elsewhere in God’s universe (see main text⁸). But what about bacteria on other planets for example? It’s possible that God made these, but exceedingly unlikely.⁹ What would be their purpose? The entire focus of creation is mankind on this Earth; the living forms on Earth’s beautifully balanced biosphere are part of our created life support system.

If bacteria are found elsewhere in the Solar System, it will be hailed as proof that life can ‘just evolve’.¹⁰ However, we have previously predicted in print that in such an unlikely event, the organisms will have earth-type DNA, etc., consistent with having originated from here as contaminants—either carried by recent man-made probes, or riding fragments of rock blasted from Earth by meteorite impacts.

Related Articles

• Designed by aliens?
• UFOs and aliens—is there something going on?
• Evolution and the science of fiction
• The war of the worlds comes down to Earth
• Aliens in your bedroom?

References

1. Of course, there are angelic beings. These were made early in Creation Week—referred to as ‘sons of God’ and ‘morning stars’ in the poetry of the book of Job, they rejoiced and sang at the formation of the Earth’s ‘foundations’ (Job 38:7). Return to text
2. Sarfati, J., The Fall: a cosmic catastrophe: Hugh Ross’s blunders on plant death in the Bible, Journal of Creation 19(3):60–64, 2005; <creationontheweb.com/plant_death>. Return to text
3. The church was bought with the blood of its saviour from the wound in His side, a clear analogy to the first woman being born from a ‘wound’ in Adam’s side. Return to text
4. Consalgmagno, G., Humans are not God’s only intelligent works, <www.stnews.org/Commentary-890.htm>, 3 January 2006. He actually took the affirmative side in a debate with CMI’s Dr Jonathan Sarfati, whose negative is <www.stnews.org/Commentary-890.htm> (they didn’t see each other’s arguments before publication in the liberal Science and Theology News). Return to text
5. Ross believes in soulless man-like creatures before Adam, similar in spiritual status to Heiser’s hypothetical ETs. For a complete refutation of Ross’s ideas see Refuting Compromise by Dr Jonathan Sarfati (Master Books, Arkansas, USA, 2004). Return to text
6. Henry, J.F., An old age for the earth is the heart of evolution, Creation Research Society Quarterly 40(3):164–172, December 2003. Return to text
7. Mortenson, T., The Great Turning Point, Master Books, Arkansas, USA, 2004. Return to text
8. Compare Grigg, R., Did life come from outer space? Creation 22(4):40–43, 2000; Bates, G., Alien Intrusion: UFOs and the evolution connection, Master Books, Arkansas, USA, 2004. Return to text
9. Sarfati, J., Conclusive evidence for life from Mars? Remember last time! <creationontheweb.com/mars>, 15 May 2002. Return to text
10. Matthews, M., Space life? Answering unearthly allegations, Creation 25(3):54–55, 2003; <creationontheweb.com/space_life>. Return to text

Published: 11 July 2006 (GMT+10)

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