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Flying Saucers in the Holy Bible

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CAN THE MIRACLES OF THE BIBLE BE EXPLAINED IN TERMS OF FLYING SAUCERS AND ALIEN VISITATIONS? If you happen to turn on the TV and catch a Christian fundamentalist talking about UFOs, almost certainly they will say that the mysterious discs can be explained in terms of their association with Satan; that UFOS are the lights of Lucifer, since he is identified in the Bible as being the God of the Light and the North Star. Unfortunately, none of these men o the cloth have ever really bothered to investigate the thousands of reports o unidentified flying objects first and therefor should not really be discussing such things - especially if they have not read this book first! I have read several of the UFO-Bible books that have previously been published (those by Jessup and Rev Stranges), but none of them get to the heart of the subject like this collection put together by UFO research veteran Tim Beckley. Beckley has assembled a research team consisting of a minister, a Biblical scholar, an archaeologist and an Emmy Award Winning Journalist to search the Holy book for signs of ET visitation, and have seemingly made some startling discoveries. One of the most unusual features of this book are the photographic reproduction of various religious paintings circa l3th and l4th centuries which seem to show UFOs hovering over Jesus, a painting of Mary with an obviously unexplained object over her shoulder hovering in the sky above a shephard. The researchers ask if the Red Sea was perhaps parted by aliens attempting to save their Isrealite friends, and if the angel who appeared to Mary was not perhaps an ET sent from God to tell of the arrival of the Christ child. Perhaps the most interesting section is on the appearance of UFOs above the Holy land and a chapter on the many sightings and actual contacts taking place in the region. Sean Casteel interviews such UFO personalities as Whitley Strieber, Budd Hopkins,and Betty Andreasson concerning their abduction experiences and believes as balanced out by what Christianity may feel about this strange subject matter. I would not only recommend this book to those of deep faith, but to UFO researches who want to round out their UFO collection with something perhaps abit more sensible than the usual channelings of Jesus which cannot be verified.

"Flying Saucers In The Holy Bible" offers a fascinating look at the religious and spiritual implications of the UFO phenomenon, both in ancient Biblical times and the present day.

It begins with a short book written by the late Virginia Brasington, an ordained minister whose excellent study of UFOs and the Bible was originally published in 1963. Brasington does a wonderful job of making the connections clearly and credibly between UFOs and scriptural phenomena like the "pillar of cloud" that led Moses and the Israelites through the desert. Was that perhaps a sighting of the oft-reported cigar-shaped UFO? And the terrifying appearance of God on the mountaintop where he spoke to Moses face to face, while the Israelites were warned not to approach the ship on pain of death, possibly because it was radioactive.

The recurrent use of the word "clouds" in both the Old and New Testaments is perhaps one of the easier relationships to grasp. Brasington argues that simple wisps of vapor in the skies would not perform like the clouds reported in the Bible. Often times, as with the Exodus in the desert, the cloud would give off bright light at nighttime, certainly something no ordinary cloud could accomplish. There are also repeated references to God "making the clouds his chariot," implying that the clouds described are a form of transportation for God and his compatriots.

The editor of "Flying Saucers In The Holy Bible," Timothy Green Beckley, has done us all a favor by reprinting Brasington's modest and sincere text on the Biblical interpretation of UFOs, but the anthology includes even more. Professor G. Cope Schellhorn contributes a chapter called "The Return of the Son of Man in the Clouds" in which he argues that Jesus' resurrection and ascension and even his Second Coming are all UFO-related inasmuch as they all involve the aforementioned "clouds" in one form or another.

Tim Swartz, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and the author of several books on the paranormal, speculates about the coming of a space age religion in which the belief in aliens is central. Swartz reminds us that every mainstream religion practiced today began as an "outsider" from of heresy, and the need to make religious sense of both the modern, technological world we find ourselves in as well as the never-ending stream of UFO sightings will inevitably lead to various alien "churches."

My own contribution to the book is a chapter in which alien abductees and researchers discuss their feelings about the moral implications of the abduction experience. Their opinions range from abductee Betty Luca's heartfelt belief that she has encountered angels onboard UFOs to top researcher Budd Hopkins' refusal to moralize about the subject at all, saying we lack the information to fully understand the aliens' true motives.

I also wrote the chapter on UFO sightings in modern Israel. It begins with some of the case histories collected by Israeli UFO researcher Barry Chamish of sightings and abductions there since the early 1980s. There is also an interview with Biblical scholar and television personality Gary Stearman, who talks about UFO sightings in Israel as being part of the spiritual warfare over the Holy Land that becomes more visible when Israel is threatened by enemies in the material world. In case after case, Stearman explains, warfare in Israel is accompanied by increased UFO sightings, which Stearman feels are intended to show the world that the aliens will defend Israel at all costs.

I have covered the subject of UFOs for more than ten years, and my primary interest has always been the religious aspects of the phenomenon, hoping that the aliens will prove themselves righteous friends of mankind in spite of all the bad press they currently receive. If you want to learn more about this interpretation of the UFO phenomenon, then "Flying Saucers In The Holy Bible" is a great place to start or continue your education.