Bible in 90, Day 59: Ezekiel and E.T.

Ezekiel 1-12

Spoiler alert!  If you haven’t seen the movie or Knowing, and you care, don’t read any further.  I will ruin part of it for you.  If you don’t care, click on…

*image courtesy of canberkol at stock.xchng

Why is every movie better with aliens?

For that matter, why is it that so many movies explain away all the mysteries of the universe by pulling the alien card?  I mean, I love sci-fi (just ask my wife!), but is that a legit explanation?  Ok, I like a good creative shot at explaining the pyramids as much as the next guy, but what I’m talking about is when some movies/books try to explain away religion through the presence of aliens.  A good example, and one that connects with today’s reading is the movie Knowing.  So, if you haven’t seen it, they basically explain Ezekiel’s vision of the wheel within a wheel with… you guessed it!

Aliens

The wheel within a wheel is, of course, a space ship of some kind.  Google it sometime.  It’s amazing the theories and in-depth explanation given to make this vision into a close encounter of the third kind.  The funny thing is that this so obviously misses the point of the passage.  The passage is not about the wheel, but about the four living creatures and the spirit, and about Ezekiel’s calling.

So, I guess my problem is that people of faith are often made fun of for, as critics would say, believing in some person in the sky whom we can’t see and have no proof of his existence.  Rather, it seems to them to be more plausible to believe in aliens, some people in the sky whom we don’t see and have no proof of their existence.  Now, I’m not completely denying the possibility of the existence of aliens (that’s a topic for another blog post), but why is it that their existence seems so much more plausible to some than that of God?  Why is the science fiction answer preferred over the supernatural one?

Is it perhaps because, as the proverb in Ezekiel 12:21-22 says, “the days go by and every vision comes to nothing?”  Is it because people think that because Jesus has taken so long to return that maybe He never will?  This isn’t new.  People in the days of Noah never expected God to do anything either (2 Peter 3:3-7, cf. Luke 17:27).  But God is not slack concerning His promises, He will fulfill them (2 Peter 3:9).

When the purely scientific person questions me, asking, “Where is your proof?”  I answer, “Where is yours?”  Many theories are based on scant evidence, and some hypotheses on none.  One day, Christ will give the ultimate proof, and there will be no question (Matthew 24:30).  Everyone will know then that He is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11), but it will be too late.

Let’s not assume that a perceived lack of God’s involvement in the affairs of men is proof that He does not exist.  God is at work in the world today, and we will one day witness the culmination of that work.  Until then, let’s keep faithful to what He has revealed to us in the Bible and make every other theory subject to its wisdom.

*originally at Words of Reason