Life on Mars?
January 1, 2017
Is there life outside of our Earth?
The biblical evidence is that the universe was well populated before the creation of our world as we know it. At the very least, we know angels were in existence. The Bible also speaks of the “sons of God” shouting for joy when God created the foundations of this Earth (Job 38:4–7), clearly implying other beings were in existence.
Before sin entered our world, God described the fall of Satan this way: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!” (Isaiah 14:12, NKJV*, italics added).
So, before sin even arrived in our world, Satan through his rebellion had already “weakened the nations,” further implying the existence of other beings and other worlds.
From the Bible, we learn that the universe, besides Earth, was—and continues to be—full of life: “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 3:10).
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
These verses point to the reality of intelligent life in other parts of the universe. Moreover, they depict these powers as interacting with us here on earth.
1 Corinthians 4:9 also clearly indicates that beings from another part of the universe are watching the events unfolding on Earth: “For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men” (NKJV).
Notice the sequence that the apostle Paul uses in this verse: He begins with the world—the inhabitants of our planet—then he lists the angels and finally he lists men. Who are these “men”? It would make little sense if they were men on earth as they were already covered when Paul spoke of “the world.” It appears that this third group of men is separate from the inhabitants of this world—in other words, beings from elsewhere in the universe.
Is there life in the universe outside of heaven?
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ So Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it’ ” (Job 1:6, 7, NKJV).
“And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. . . . ‘Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time’ ” (Revelation 12:7–9, 12).
In the book of Job, we have sons of God, so-called, in heaven meeting with God. From where in the universe have they travelled to attend this meeting? We don’t know, but we do see in Revelation 12 that the inhabitants of the “heavens” (not heaven where God dwells, but heavens, the cosmos or the universe) are told to rejoice.
Are there other inhabited planets in our universe?
Our world is not the only one in this vast universe that God has created and populated: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1,2, NKJV, italics added).
“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3, italics added). So the reference, being plural, tells us there are more than just our world.
The Bible is not talking about the creation of the stars; it is speaking of the creation of habitable worlds. God did not just create our world, He created multiple worlds.
It has only been in recent years that astronomers have been able to detect the presence of other planets in the universe. Due to the fact that planets do not produce light of themselves, they cannot be seen with the naked eye outside of our solar system. However with new technology, in the past few decades, hundreds of extra-solar planets have now been discovered.
