UFOs, the occult and why Christians must be careful in our search for truth

Christians need to prepare to have their faith rocked by disclosures on UAPs.

So says Pastor Mike Signorelli. He’s the founder of the V1 church network, which already sounds like it’s named after a clandestine defence programme. Having attended a high-security private briefing with other pastors in Tennessee, Pastor Mike said, “Disclosure is coming, and what follows will shake the faith of many. If pastors don’t start preparing their people now, it will be too late.” This intriguing statement only multiplies the number of questions.

But if we take a step back for a moment, we will see, once again, that the Bible is right when it says there is nothing new under the sun. And that history repeats itself because human nature does not change.

Let me explain, although it’s only fair to warn you that what follows is quite weird. My aim is to help you put these UAP disclosures into context.

Science, scripture and secret knowledge

Let us start with a bastion of the scientific establishment: the Royal Society or, to use its full name, The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II in 1662.

This august institution came out of Gresham College which was, in turn, formed out of an informal group based around John Wilkins at Wadham College, Oxford known as ‘the Invisible College’. Already we’re into the realm of things that sound like they come from the world of Harry Potter.

This is not an inappropriate connection. The Royal Society was not a gathering of scientists in pursuit of pure, objective reason.

The society’s motto is “Nullius in verba” which could mean “Don’t take anyone’s word for it”. But those words are taken from Horace. The context suggests this phrase really means that “I am not sworn to the words of any master”.

The motto is a statement of intellectual and philosophical freedom to enquire into the natural world which they still considered to be God’s creation. The 17th century was still dominated by religion. Founders of the Royal Society like John Wallis and John Wilkins were ordained clergy. Robert Boyle was a keen evangelical. Sir Isaac Newton, the great polymath, was so pre-occupied with a grand unified theory of everything that he wrote commentaries on the books of Daniel and Revelation. These works, for which he thought he would be remembered, have not aged well, but represent an acceptable public expression of a deep personal passion that he felt held the keys to the secrets of the universe: alchemy.

What does this have to do with UAP disclosures? Everything. Newton, like many people throughout history, had a thirst for hidden knowledge or, as it’s also known, the occult. Our greatest scientist was no different from the previous great polymath, John Dee, probably the cleverest man in Elizabethan England. He was an ordained clergyman. And an astrologer. Elizabeth, the great Protestant monarch, asked Dee to use his astral charts to determine the most auspicious day in the calendar on which to be crowned.

The human desire to breach boundaries

That strikes many of us as either silly or unwise but perhaps John Dee could have argued he was merely following biblical precedent. Did not the Magi – practitioners of magic – come from the East to worship the newborn king?

Besides, the whole of creation bows down to the King of Kings, doesn’t it? Are not the times and seasons of feast days and festivals shaped by the moon, while the Sabbath is marked by the rising and setting of the sun? Dee and Newton could argue that astrology was hiding in plain sight.

But if we study those early chapters of Genesis, we will also see that God creates forbidden places with boundaries which are not to be crossed. The Garden of Eden was placed off-limits and guarded by an angel with a flaming sword. Zones are clearly delineated. In the Tabernacle and then the Temple, only certain people can enter at certain times having performed certain rituals.

Plants and animals are created according to their kinds. Humankind is not to mix with spiritual beings, and the strange verses of Genesis 6 show the consequences: nephilim and giants creating such disorder and darkness that God decides to send an apocalyptic flood.

But desire to transgress continued. That’s why witchcraft, necromancy and contacting the dead are explicitly forbidden in Leviticus 19 and 20. These practices are forbidden precisely because they do have spiritual force and power. King Saul found this out when he visited the Witch of Endor.

The temptation of the occult

Here’s the point: the séance is not a practice of the superstitious poor. Respectable elites, like Newton and Dee, are as likely to partake in occultic practices and secret societies as anyone. John Dee spent years trying to summon angels, a practice Newton’s friend Robert Boyle treated with deep suspicion. In step with the prevailing cessationist view of the time, Boyle believed the ministry of angels on earth had lapsed, and that such beings might in fact be demons.

The thread continues into the 20th century. After three years at Trinity College, Cambridge, Aleister Crowley developed Thelema, an extremely dark, kabbalistic system of magic. One of those later drawn into Crowley’s occultic world was Jack Parsons, a promising rocket scientist connected to the research group that became the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, later absorbed into NASA in 1958.

Parsons continued with his research into rocketry until his death in 1952. He also spent time with his flat mate; recently discharged naval officer: L Ron Hubbard. Yup. The founder of Scientology.

D.W. Pasulka writes about stories that echo that of Jack Parsons in her book, American Cosmic. She documents encounters with individuals in elite research labs today who admit they receive hidden knowledge from non-human intelligence.

I warned you this would be weird. But everything I’ve written about here can be found in the public domain. There was huge interest in all things occultic throughout the 17th century. We live with that legacy.

But when it comes to UAPs and UFOs, It’s hard to be certain about much else. The declassified files are redacted and refer to other documents that may not be released for years, if ever. Many other documents have probably been destroyed. Even people ‘inside the tent’ cannot claim certainty.

The US military-industrial complex, Pentagon, CIA, FBI, NSA and NASA are vast institutions, with networks that formed during the Cold War and space race, all running their own clandestine programmes.

The dots are often too far apart to join with any kind of confidence. Who knows what’s really going on? Not even the President or Secretary of Defense. Only God knows.

That is all Christians can be certain of. But we yearn to know the truth, which is hidden. That is our original sin. In Genesis 3, what is Eve offered by the lying serpent? Knowledge of good and evil. What happened next? The great cover up followed by lies and excuses.

That is our story, repeated throughout history. Even the greatest minds cannot resist the pull of secret or forbidden knowledge, believing the old strapline of the X-Files that ‘The Truth is Out There’. Many are prepared to do whatever it takes to cross from one realm into another in order to find that truth.

That addiction is part of the deception. What has been – and will be – revealed in these latest disclosures and future ones remains part of this old story. All will be revealed when Christ returns. Until then, we hold to His teaching. Then, in the words of John 8:32, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”