Beyond Roswell: Are We Alone in the Universe?
- Scott Bullerwell
- 16h
- 16 min read
I was raised a pagan!
OK, well maybe not a strict pagan, but if you understand the term in the context of the early Roman Empire, where it meant someone who practiced something other than Christianity – or no religion at all – that pretty much described my up-bringing. No religion for us, not even on Christmas or Easter (called CEO’s). Nope! With Saturday evenings reserved for beer, poker and guitar-playing ... and with blue cigarette smoke suspended thicker than the toxic air over New Delhi, India, no adult in my family had any interest in occupying the hard pews that greeted church parishioners Sunday mornings.
Mom raised two boys and the prettiest sister two brothers could ask for. With mom navigating parenting on her own for a time, she was laser focused on me, the oldest of the litter. I had to be responsible, was given extra duties and expected to take on the occasional parent responsibility of caring for my siblings – especially my younger brother who for whatever reason liked to eat out of the dog’s bowl perched by the fridge.
Now I mention this because even though I was generally a “perfect” child, there was the occasional set-back relative to following Mom’s “orders”. When that happened, concerned for my emotional development and short on patience, mom had three default sayings - two highly predictable ... and one rather strange:
“I brought you into this world, and I can take you out,” or
“If you don’t stop, you’re going to spend Saturday in your room,” or
“Keep it up and I’m going to hand you over to the aliens, and THAT’S not going to work out very well for you.”
I never did figure out the connection between Mom and Aliens. And frankly, it never seemed to work on any of us, because my brother and I both agreed that meeting an alien would be cool.
Now, I raise Mom’s threats about aliens because of two recent events. First, on Thursday, February 19, 2025, President Trump, on his social media platform Truth Social, said he would direct the Pentagon to release government documents related to aliens and UAPs, adding that he had seen no evidence to suggest their existence. A week earlier, former president Obama, during an interview with podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen, when asked essentially the same question, offered, “They're real.” Then he walked it all back! The political word here is “clarify.”
Second, and more to my focus here, it was reported that Erich von Däniken, the author of the influential 1968 book: Chariots of the Gods, had died on January 10, 2026, at the age of 90. With over 40 books to his credit, and sales of more than 70 million copies, he was ET crazy, long before Universal Pictures and Steven Spielberg produced their own adorable ET in 1982. And the public turned von Daniken’s book into a best seller. Seems Extra Terrestrials were popular ... even friendly long before Trump and Obama.
Find the Ark of the Covenant, say some, and you could
have a direct phone line to E.T.’s. Whoa!
To say ‘Chariot of the Gods’ was controversial, would be an understatement. Von Daniken proposed:
In its prehistoric past, Earth was paid a visit by extraterrestrials, who influenced early human technology and religion;
Ancient structures like the Nazca Lines (Peru), the Moai of Easter Island, Stonehenge (UK), and the Egyptian Pyramids were built by these visiting “astronauts” or they shared their technology with humans, who in turn built the structures we know today;
The early Piri Reis world map, compiled in 1513 by the cartographer of the same name, on camel skin (and rediscovered in 1929), describes Earth as seen from space by visiting aliens;
Ancient artwork that appears throughout the world, like 3,000-year-old Egyptian carvings or Japanese Dogu figurines, resemble helicopter-like machines and astronauts dressed in space suits;
AND ... among my personal favourites, Ezekiel’s vision of angels was in fact describing a space ship and the Ark of the Covenant was in fact a communication device used to talk to aliens.
Like a quack doctor preventing patients from seeking legitimate medical treatment, von Daniken’s imaginative interpretations are like someone taking a Rorschach test. Endless possibilities!
Von Daniken’s book inspired the History Channel's Ancient Aliens series. If you are not much of a reader, you can turn on your Smart TV and likely watch a variety of adaptations of his book over the years, including ...
n Search of Ancient Astronauts (NBC, 1972)
In Search of Ancient Mysteries (NBC, 1973)
The Horizon Special: The Case of the Ancient Astronauts (BBC, 2017)
Chariots of the Gods – The Mysteries Continue (ABC, 1996)
The idea of ETs flying in for a visit, or taking over our bodies ... or living on some other technologically advanced planet in a distance galaxy, is nothing new to the fans of Star Trek, Star Gate, or followers of the Alien franchise. Add to the mix Area 51, the Bermuda Triangle, our own Sky Canada Project, (est. 2022), the U.S. Pentagon’s AARO program (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office; est. 2022), with former U.S. intelligence officers reporting that they indeed have “non-human” spacecraft and biological materials ... and we have a recipe for the nervous never wanting to go to sleep ... at night ... in the dark ... especially after midnight!
Accepting angels / demons implies accepting a specific moral and theological framework, like God’s
existence or the reality of sin/judgment.
An ‘alien’ narrative, however, seems the safer route.
The Spaceships of Ezekiel One!
Did Ezekiel observe a spaceship? Well, German engineer Josef F. Blumrich thought so. He set out to disprove ufologist von Daniken ... but unbelievably ended up concluding that that is precisely what the prophet Ezekiel saw ... and wrote a book about it: The Spaceships of Ezekiel, 1974. He even analyzed six different translations of the Bible ... so that must count for something – right?
Less we think Blumrich “not-the-sharpest-knife-in-the-drawer”, he was in fact chief of NASA’s systems layout branch of the program development office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Of course, that does not necessarily make him a smart engineer, right ... just a smart and misinformed engineer. Still ... is Blumrich on to something? Is there a new way to explore the Bible that we have been missing?
Well, the biblical texts in question are in Chapters 1:15-21; 3:13; and 10:9-19, where reference is made to wheels. Consider the prophet’s inaugural vision in 1:1, 15-18, 20-21 ...
“In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God ....
As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.
Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.”
A couple of things:
Ezekiel specifically says in 1:1 that he “saw visions of God.” This is a profoundly spiritual experience. No humanoids here with their lanky form, reptilian skin, two legs, two arms, and two oval-shaped, exaggerated black eyes!
The figurative language here is consistent with Near Eastern iconography, where deities were often presented as seated or travelling on wheels as part of their chariot-throne. There is a two-wheeled Sumerian chariot rein post with the image of a god on an interior panel (circa 2000 BC) ... the Sun God Surya (Hinduism) rode a chariot with one or more wheels, symbolizing the sun's movement across the sky ... and Helios, god of the sun (Greek) drove a golden chariot every morning across the sky, carrying the sun from east to west to provide light and seasons. The Bible did not take shape in a cultural vacuum.
Most wheels come with axels. God’s wheels
come with “living creatures” – cherubim.
We should not be surprised!
“all four rims were full of eyes all around” (v. 18) is intended to symbolize the omniscience of God (all-seeing; nothing escapes His scrutiny) and His omnipresence (everywhere at the same time), not some mechanical components produced from some alien GM production car plant.
“living creatures” (v. 15, 21). In Ezekiel 10:29, the prophet describes those he saw in his first vision as cherubim, as attendants of God, who bear and move His divine throne. This is why in Ezekiel 9:3, the chariot-like throne from which the glory of God rises, is identified as a cherub. In Revelation 4, they are described as worshipping God (4:8). Each wheel is two in one, with one set inside the other at right angles, giving these “living creatures” exceptional mobility, able to move in any direction instantly (omnipresence), without turning.
Ezekiel’s vision of “wheels,” which forms a chariot, is a symbolic representation of the vehicle that carries the throne and the presence of God. Sorry -
no aliens here! Go look on Oak Island.
I would offer that Ezekiel’s vision influences the imagery found later in Daniel’s vision of God (7:9), where he also describes a scene from God’s court, including a chariot feature – “wheels.”
“thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat.His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of His head was white like wool.His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.”
A genre we call in theology: “Apocalyptic”, Ezekiel 1 does well in providing the detail that Daniel does not. God’s throne is at the center (v. 26), and the “living creatures” are part of God’s surrounding “court.” In other words, the wheels come with the living creatures, and there is a close correlation between the wheels and the living creatures. The two move together (vv. 19-20; cf. 10:17). While both prophets utilize imagery describing God’s throne, Ezekiel focuses on the divinely mobile throne of God’s presence, while Daniel focuses on the “Ancient of Days” (7:9) sitting on a throne that is a “burning fire.”
There is a helpful passage in 1 Chronicles 28:18 that also mentions a chariot of the cherubim. In a pivotal moment that talks about David’s plans (for Solomon; v. 11) for the Temple, we read, “He also gave him the plan for the chariot, that is, the cherubim of gold that spread their wings and overshadow the ark of the covenant of the Lord.” So, the point then is that the “chariot” is identified with the cherubim. The cherubim are God’s chariot! No wood or iron – just “living creatures” who are cherubim (Ezekiel 10:20). Likewise, the two cherubim attached to the cover of the Ark, constitutes the throne of God (Exodus 25:20, 22). Why would we expect anything less spectacular from God?
Finally, Ezekiel says (1:28) that the vision was “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” – making this a spiritual encounter, not a technological one. Sorry – but no spaceship in Ezekiel; no interstellar probe associated with visiting alien astronauts – whether benevolent or not. Best go back and read the Bible again, Mr. von Daniken. Oh, that’s right, you can’t!
That folks entertain the existence of ETs from other galaxies – while dismissing the existence
of spiritual forces within our galaxy,
is an interesting juxtaposition.
How About Lightning in a Jar?
“Yah, but what about the Ark of the Covenant? Wasn’t it some sort of alien electrical capacitor, cipher, radio, or nuclear device? Well, my first reaction is, “You gotta stop watching reruns of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’” My second reaction is to think, “Well, if you really want to describe the acacia box as some kind of electrical capacitor, then let’s imagine the Ark, using a more modern simile, like — ‘lightning in a jar.’”
The story of the Ark begins in the 15th century B.C. Following Israel’s exodus, there on Mt. Sinai God gave them the Ten Commandments ... and instructions on building the Ark of the Covenant.1 This Ark, which disappeared over 2500 years ago, was constructed of acacia wood and gilded with pure gold both inside and out. It once stood in the Tabernacle in the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus 26:33; 40:21) and later in the inner sanctuary of Solomon’s Temple (I Kings 8:1-9; 2 Chronicles 5:2-10), and was positioned underneath the wings of two massive cherubim.
Ancient astronaut theorists argue that the Ark was a storage container that stored enough energy to do all sorts of things: make food, communicate with a passing alien ship, cause a raging river to stand still by blowing high winds, a weapon that vibrates a Jericho wall to smithereens, even generate radio-active sickness. This is why, they conjecture, the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) wore certain clothes: head miter, breastplate, and long robes — to protect his heart, lungs, genitals from radiation.2 So it was extra-terrestrial technology brought to earth by visitors from another planet that allowed for such strange phenomenon.
Their audacious theories go something like this:
The Ark of the Covenant was an electrical capacitator; a device used for storing and transmitting energy – and useful as a weapon. Relying on static electricity, only two conductors with an insulator between them was needed. The gold (inside and out) would be the conductor, with the insulator being the acacia wood in between.
One of the cherubs had a positive charge put on it from the outside. The negative charge came through a rod attached to the other cherub, running and attached to the inner side of the gold box. Together this could produce an arc of energy between the two cherub wings – for communicating or as a power source. Since God is often visualized as smoke and fire ... this arc of electricity would produce both smoke and a bright light — with the likelihood of this being interpreted as the presence of God.
The Ark is not the source of the charge, the Tabernacle was ... with its massive amounts of positively-charged static electricity generated and stored through the linen and goat hair that covered the cherubs. This static electricity would pass through the positively- charged cherub. Over time this charge would build up and jump the wing tips of the two cherubim – producing a lightning-like discharge. So, the purpose of the Tabernacle and later the Temple, was to build up massive charges of static electricity – then suddenly ‘ka-poof’!3
It is easy to see how some might conclude the Ark has special, devastating powers. After all, it was involved in ... killing the eldest sons of Aaron trying to make an illegal offering (Leviticus 10:1-5) ... parting rivers (Joshua 3:11; 4:10) ... collapsing walls (Joshua 6:6) ... destroying armies (I Samuel 5-6), AND ... it was incredibly dangerous to handle: ask Uzzah (2 Samuel 6). Even when the Philistines held the Ark for a time, it brought only plagues of tumors and misfortune (I Samuel 5:11-12). “See,” say alien theorists – “radio-active material”! Really? Then how come generations of Israelites who handled the Ark were never radiated?
The Talmud (Sanhedrin 52a) and Midrash Tanhuma (Shemini 12) say two beams of fire shot out from the Ark, split into four ... two each entering the nostrils of Nadab and Abihu, after they offered “strange fire” (Leviticus 10). It “burned their souls” from the inside, leaving their bodies intact to be carted off. Whoa!
The Ark was constructed with locally-available material (Exodus 37:1-9; not space junk), and it served a decidedly ‘religious’ (Hebrew culture) purpose, not a technological one: “There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites (Exodus 25:22).
The Ark was a sacred reliquary, and housed the “Testimony” – the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s rod, and a jar of manna (Exodus 16:34; Numbers 17:10; Hebrews 9:2-5) ... which came from the “sky”4. There is no textual or archaeological evidence suggesting it was a piece of E.T. technology (e.g., nuclear device, radio) or had positive / negative terminals to discharge high voltage electricity. I cannot find a single reference to Israelites wearing welder’s goggles when handling the Ark. Can you?
Since the Ark was principally the visible, tangible, manifestation of God’s presence, holiness and covenant relationship with Israel, symbolizing His throne on the earth, the place of atonement and communication with Him – the message seems clear enough: In the language of simile: God is like a mother hen (Luke 13:34-35) ... but, He can also be like a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29) ... or how about, like lightning in a jar – self-contained, defined and of immense power. Such is the paradoxical image when trying to define His divine nature.
Cognitive Bias
Cognitive bias is when people see or accept only that information that fits their pre-existing worldview: rejecting, reinterpreting, or selectively reading, while ignoring contrary evidence. To be fair, this can be true either for or against the Scriptures. Add other influences, like cognitive dissonance, anchoring, belief, and negativity biases – and it is easy to see these things can hinder a deeper, accurate understanding of the biblical text.
If we read the Bible through a lens that dismisses the existence of God and biblical concepts ... that believes the supernatural does not exist ... that historical accounts are inaccurate ... or substitutes an ancient, original text for a more modern, materialistic lens ... then fabrications, myths and alien astronauts, alien ships, even alien technology, can come at you faster than a kangaroo with a caffeine rush. Likewise, self-justification (pride) can certainly cloud and shape conclusions reached, as Nathan’s parable to King David illustrates (2 Samuel 12).
The cognitive trap for atheists is — they say they value empirical evidence over theological reflection ... except when it clashes with their ideology. Then suddenly this “evidence” evaporates like the morning dew on lush meadows at high noon.
But ... What If There Are?
Could there be reality-warping, powerful entities like ‘Q’ thriving beyond our solar-system, using meta-material cloaking, like we see in Star Trek, to hide from us? Has not the James Webb telescope found life markers on planet K2-18b – 124 light years away from Earth and nine times bigger? Is 31/Atlas, which was recently detected entering our solar system, really a comet? In the case of 31/Atlas, professor Avi Loeb, a Harvard physicist no less, says that it could indeed be an alien craft come visiting. Loeb says:
"We see a lot of houses on the cosmic street that look just like ours, analogs of the Earth's sun system .... And I think it's very arrogant of us to assume that they don't have residents."
The hunt for UFOs, now officially called "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," (UAP) intrigues most of us. After all, we are by nature, inquisitive. C.S. Lewis, the Oxford/Cambridge scholar and Christian apologist, himself wondered out loud that if, in the vastness of God’s creativity, there was “life on other planets” — how might this threaten the doctrine of Incarnation; that God "for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was . . . made man."
In addressing this formidable question of Incarnation, Lewis raises five questions that necessarily need to be asked if we are to give an answer.5
1. Are there animals anywhere except on earth?
2. Have any of these animals what we call “rational souls”? In other words, are they spiritual beings?
3. If there are species, and rational species, other than man, are any or all of them, like us – fallen? [Lewis perceptively writes, “We are now supposing the fall of hypothetically rational creatures whose mere existence is hypothetical.” Touché, Lewis!]
4. If all of them or any of them have fallen, have they been denied Redemption by the Incarnation and Passion of Christ?
5. If we knew the answers to 1, 2, 3 and 4, (which Lewis says “we don’t”) and if we knew Redemption by an Incarnation and Passion had been denied to creatures in need of it, is it certain that this is the only mode of Redemption that is possible?
Of this I am sure, if extra-terrestrials do exist —
God created them. Period!
In asking whether “aliens” do in fact exist, Lewis reasonably remarks:
“There is nothing but what the logicians would call arguments from ‘a priori probability’ arguments that begin ‘It is only natural to suppose’, or ‘All analogy suggests’, or ‘Is it not the height of arrogance to rule out?’. They make very good reading. But who except a born gambler ever risks five dollars on such grounds in ordinary life?”
“Are we alone in the universe?” Of course not! The Bible tells us that there is a God. He created the heavens ... the earth ... and US! Life’s greatest joy comes from knowing and living for Him. Plus, He created other spiritual beings. These angels and demons exhibit the marks of intelligent life ... and they are actively engaged in our world — operating within a spiritual realm that intersects with our physical world.
Does the Bible say anything about life on other planets ... or the possibility of it? No! The focus is entirely here ... on Earth ... on US! There is currently no empirical evidence to support the existence of ETs ... just as there has yet to appear any conclusive evidence against Christianity; evidence that tries to reduce it to some patent absurdity. Sure, some keep waiting for the “shoe to drop” – for some discovery to turn Matters of Faith ... into Mixtures of Mush. Yet, that has not happened either. It remains my conviction that it never will.
I understand that sometimes speculation, as noted earlier, is required in order to push a conversation like this forward. Fair enough! As I see it, so-called alien phenomenon seen or experienced are not extra-terrestrial, but “interdimensional” - non-physical, highly-intelligent spiritual entities existing in a separate dimension, while interacting with our material world. Unexplained phenomenon and visual “sightings” of saucers are manifestations of this interdimensional reality. Though not biological creatures, they are not bound by physical laws. Some come in peace; many do not. “OnlySaying ...”
1, The approximate size of the Ark of the Covenant (Cf. Ex. 25:10) based on a standard cubit of 18 inches: 3.75 feet long, 2.25 feet wide, 2.25 feet high.
2. The Breastplate of Judgment had 12 gemstones called “Stones of Fire,” (Exodus 28; cf. Ezekiel 13-16) representing the 12 tribes. Ancient astronaut theorists say a pulsating sound emanated from the top of the Ark and these sounds would vibrate in the stones on the breastplate, lighting up, communicating an extra-terrestrial Morris-code that was being received from the Ark.
3. The gold covering sanctified the Ark and represented both God’s holiness and his presence. When moved, Numbers 4:5-6 says the Ark was indeed covered with the special “shielding curtain” that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. Next came the waterproof skin of sea cows and finally a special blue cloth covering ... so as not to confuse it with other cloths that were dyed red! Any suggestion these coverings generated static electricity for a machine is imaginative, absurd and — funny.
4. Since manna is said to have come from the ‘sky’ (“rain down bread from heaven,” Exodus 16:4), some imagined it had an extra-terrestrial source. Others, like engineers Rodney Dale and George Sassoon, in a book titled, The Manna Machine (1978) argued that a super engineered machine created a food source of algae. This is how the Israelites survived 40 years in the Sinai Desert. Their view was that a nuclear reactor was stored inside the Ark and was used to power up the machine, which ran for 6 Days. On the 7th day the machine was taken apart and cleaned – and this is how the day of Sabbath, the day of rest, originated in Scripture. But it gets better (...or worse!). The ancient Jewish text of the Zohar, which is part of the Kabbalah refers to the “Ancient of Days” – but this is said to be a mistranslation. The correct translation is “the transportable one with the tanks”. Since God does not need “tanks” – evidently this is some type of machine. Wow!
5. C.S. Lewis, “Religion and Rocketry.” https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59370772a5790a59d042a4be/t/60a65b910f22b8147280fc70/1621515153825/religion_rocketry.pdf
Comments