Christian leaders have questioned the recent release of UFO files by the Pentagon, suggesting unexplained objects could have a more divine explanation.
The declassified material included more than 160 files, videos and photographs collected by the U.S. government over the decades, from “unidentified phenomena” spotted in space from the Moon’s surface by the Apollo astronauts to strange sightings reported to the FBI by stargazers on Earth.
Responding to the disclosures, Jeremiah J Johnston of the Christian Thinkers Society attempted to debunk the files, offering a spiritual explanation for the mysterious lights and “orbs” spotted in the night sky.
“Let me say plainly what I've been telling pastors who have called me all week: I am not impressed by the imagery,” Johnston wrote in a blog entry for his organization’s website.
“If aliens are real – and I find no compelling reason to believe they are – these blurry frames are not the proof. As former President Obama himself conceded, if the government were sitting on alien bodies, ‘some guy guarding the installation would have taken a selfie.’”
He continued: “When a pastor asks me, ‘Do I believe there is intelligent life beyond Earth?’ my answer is: of course.’ The Bible has told us so for millennia.
“The heavens are teeming with intelligent beings. We call them angels. We call them principalities. We call them powers. Scripture names them. Jesus spoke of them. Paul wrote letters about them.”
Johnston went on to argue that, for him, UFOs can be categorized in four ways: misidentified objects like ice crystals or tricks of light; classified human technology like spy drones or satellites; angelic activity; and demonic activity.
He explained: “Scripture is unambiguous that there is a spiritual realm hostile to God and to humanity, and that this realm manifests in the physical world.
“Paul writes [in Ephesians 6:12] that we wrestle ‘not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.’
“The Biblical record is consistent: the heavens are active, and sometimes that activity intersects our atmosphere.”
He concluded by warning that belief in UFOs was a sign of spiritual malaise in society, writing: “A generation conditioned by Hollywood to expect cosmic visitors is a generation primed for deception.”
Also commenting on the Pentagon’s release in a lengthy post on X was Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in California, expressing similar skepticism.
“I looked at the images,” he wrote. “I wasn’t convinced. Nothing I saw made me say, ‘That’s it. We’re not alone.’”
He complained: “The moment someone spots something unexplained in the sky, the cultural default is immediately ‘aliens from outer space.’
“But what if the better explanation isn’t extraterrestrial – but extra-dimensional? What if what we’re dealing with isn’t from another planet, but from another realm entirely – the spiritual realm?”
Like Johnston, Laurie pointed to Ezekiel 1: “When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them… for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.”
He commented on the passage: “I don’t know exactly what Ezekiel saw – but I know it was real, it was other-worldly, and it wasn’t from Mars. It was a manifestation of the living God and His angelic host – and by every modern technical definition, it was an Unidentified Flying Object.
“Now, if holy angels can appear this way, what do you suppose fallen angels are capable of? Billy Graham put it well in his landmark book Angels – we should not be surprised if demonic forces counterfeit supernatural phenomena in order to deceive.
“The enemy has always been in the business of imitation. He masquerades as an angel of light. Why wouldn’t he masquerade as something that captures the imagination of a generation that has largely traded the spiritual for the scientific?”
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