What Does the Bible Say About UFOs?

Term: UFO: an unidentified flying object, meaning anything seen in the sky that the witness cannot identify.

Term: Fallen angels: angels who rebelled against God. Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4 describe angels who sinned.

Term: Watchers: heavenly beings. The Aramaic word appears in Daniel 4, and the Book of Enoch uses it for angels who left heaven.

Term: Malaterrestrials: evil earthbound non-human intelligences, as distinct from the holy angels of heaven.

The same ideas drive my fiction series, the Watchers’ Universe, which begins with The Watchers’ War.

What Does the Bible Say About UFOs?

The Bible never mentions UFOs. It does describe spiritual beings who appear in the heavens, deceive people, and work signs and wonders. Some Christian teachers, including Chuck Missler and L.A. Marzulli, read the UFO phenomenon in that light. I do too. It is an interpretation, and Christians disagree about it.

The Bible does not use the word

UFO is a modern term. The Bible was written long before aircraft, so it has no word for a flying object of unknown origin. It does record people seeing unusual things in the sky. Luke 21:11 says fearful sights and great signs will come from heaven before the end. That verse describes signs. It does not describe craft.

The beings the Bible describes

Genesis 6:1 to 4 says the sons of God took wives from the daughters of men, and that the Nephilim were on the earth. Christians read this two ways. One view says the sons of God were angels. The other says they were the descendants of Seth. The angel view is the older Jewish reading, and the Book of Enoch tells the story that way. I hold the angel view.

Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4 speak of angels who sinned and did not keep their place. Both letters say God has bound them. Jude 14 and 15 quote the Book of Enoch, which calls a group of these angels the Watchers. Most Protestant Bibles do not include Enoch, so I treat it as ancient background and not as Scripture.

The word watcher itself appears in Daniel 4:13, 17, and 23, where a watcher and holy one comes down from heaven. Daniel 10 shows spiritual conflict in the heavens. An angel tells Daniel that the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood him for 21 days. Ephesians 2:2 calls Satan the prince of the power of the air, and Ephesians 6:12 says our struggle is against spiritual forces in the heavenly places.

Deception in the last days

Four passages matter most for the UFO question.

2 Corinthians 11:14 says Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Matthew 24:24 warns that false christs and false prophets will show great signs and wonders. Revelation 16:14 speaks of spirits of demons working signs, who go out to the kings of the earth.

2 Thessalonians 2:9 to 11 goes furthest. Paul says the coming of the lawless one is marked by all power and signs and lying wonders, and that God sends a strong delusion on those who refuse the truth, so that they believe a lie. That passage is why I say the biggest issue with UFOs may be what people are led to believe, and not what is in the sky.

Passages people connect to UFOs

Ezekiel 1 is the passage cited most often. Ezekiel sees wheels within wheels and four living creatures. He closes the vision by calling it the appearance of the glory of the LORD (Ezekiel 1:28). Most interpreters read it as a vision of God’s throne, and the text says so. I do not use it as evidence of a UFO.

Zechariah 5:5 to 11 is stranger. Zechariah sees a basket with a heavy lid and a woman named Wickedness inside it. Two women with wings like a stork lift the basket and carry it to the land of Shinar, which is Babylonia, to build it a house. Most commentators read this as a symbolic vision of sin being removed from Israel. Some students of prophecy ask whether Zechariah was describing something he had no modern word for. Both readings agree on the flying beings and on the destination in Babylon.

How to read the sky with Scripture

The Bible does not teach that every light in the sky is demonic. Most sightings have ordinary explanations. Pentagon investigators resolve most of the reports they close as balloons, birds, drones, satellites, and aircraft. Christians should say so plainly.

The Bible does tell us to test what we are told. 1 John 4:1 says to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Many contact reports include a message from the beings that humans were created or engineered by them. Genesis 1:27 says God created man in his own image. A message that replaces the Creator with other creators fails that test.

This is the approach I take in my book Disclosure: They Are Not Extraterrestrials. It follows the pattern of effects that witnesses report and sets it beside what Scripture says about the beings behind such effects. The book’s advice for a first step is to read Genesis 6 and 2 Thessalonians 2 slowly.

Where to read more

Read the passages above in your own Bible. For a Bible-first treatment of UFOs, see Alien Encounters by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman. For the ancient worldview behind these passages, see The Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser. For my full case, see Disclosure: They Are Not Extraterrestrials, available on Amazon. You can find more of my work at ckqbooks.com.