Aliens and Sojourners
When the question “Is there life on other planets?” is asked, even the best theologians can only reply, “The Bible doesn’t tell us.” Well, in truth, the Bible does tell us, but only if we are paying attention.
…and there was not a man to till the ground. (Genesis 2:6)
The Bible does not simply record events. It presents them in sequences, as acts that have consequences, and in doing so it shows us how God works.
Every part of Scripture uses the same step-by-step “covenant” pattern. Unfortunately, most Christians are not taught to read the Scriptures with an eye on the processes going on in each narrative, let alone in the big picture.
Identifying this structure not only enables us to interpret the Bible and history correctly, but also helps us to predict the shape of the future.
The Seed
Biblical history is all about seed and fruit, barrenness and fruitfulness, gathering and scattering, in every domain—physical, social, and ethical—and this is achieved through the process of covenant.
God creates or calls a man, gives him a job to do, shows him the method for success, then leaves him alone until the time is right and the land is ripe. This is why Israel’s annual harvest calendar was a picture of all covenant history in miniature.
The modern mind passes over this often repeated theme of sowing and reaping, limiting it to the historical concerns of subsistence farmers (land) and their tribal life (womb), both cursed by unfaithful Adam in Genesis 3, and promised to faithful Abraham in Genesis 15.
In one sense, through technology and its resulting prosperity, we moderns have indeed moved beyond an existence tied so closely to the ground, but God’s Creation is a fractal. This means that although we move from a day of small things (such as “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”) to greater exploits, every advancement carries similar risk and similar promise.
The process of growth in farming and families can also be perceived in investment banking, global demographics, software development, and even in spiritual warfare. “Increase” is always achieved through some kind of delayed gratification, an act of faith in a promise that the sacrifices made now will result in greater rewards down the track.
We pray in secret that God might reward us openly. Paul chose personal suffering that he might win the nations and procure a greater resurrection. We fast privately that we might enjoy a greater feast in company with others. Indeed, Israel’s final annual feast, a party for all nations, followed a time of self-examination through national fasting and purification on the Day of Atonement.
One world
With such an understanding, is it possible to extrapolate an answer from ancient documents written for tribal farmers to the question of whether life exists on other planets? If the Bible is true, surely we must begin with the establishment of life on this planet.
The Spirit hovered only over this world, just as He overshadowed only Mary, and descended only upon Christ at His baptism. It is in our God’s character to choose the one from the many, that the one might become many. Mary had other children, and Christ (her firstborn) gave the Spirit to the saints at Pentecost.
Adam was given Eve that he might be fruitful. Land is always feminine, given seed by Man but made fruitful only by obedience, with the increase coming directly from God (1 Corinthians 3:6). It seems to me that the womb and the land were only “opened” to Adam following the shedding of sacrificial blood, with limiting curses intended to humble him.
Likewise, all the famines in Israel were judgments according to the curses in the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 28:15-24). Only the Land of Israel was subject to blessing and cursing under the Law. Yet God chose Israel from among the nations not only that Israel might be blessed by the nations but that all nations might eventually be blessed through one nation, Israel.
God is consistent in all His works, since they image Him. Out of all the worlds, God chose to bless only this one, and the process of forming and filling in Genesis 1 is repeated in every covenant that follows.
So it is not entirely speculative to assert that while the other planets are currently barren, only this one has many children. Life on other planets would be Creational “polygamy,” something outside the character of God.
Neither is it much of a stretch to imagine that the separation, sanctification, and fruitfulness of this world is intended to be a blessing to all worlds. Like the nations at Pentecost, they have already been formed and are waiting to be filled. But when might this be?
The sower
The heavenly lights are often used as images to describe earthly rulers, including the saints. Deuteronomy 4:19 condemns the worship of the stars, but also suggests that they were, and perhaps also will be, a part of our inheritance.
God could certainly have put life on other planets, but the Bible shows us that He always works through mediators. For a start, the fruit of the land and the womb depended on a “harvest” of the fruits of the Spirit in Adam.
Some Christians believe that the world existed long before the creation of Adam (if they believe Adam even existed!) but according to revelation and our own experience, the world is not self-sustaining. Like Israel, as a people set apart in Abraham and trained under the Law of Moses, nature itself requires guidance, or cultivation.
The sun, moon, and stars (which include other worlds) were not created until Day 4, prefiguring a time of priestly training (the land and its grain and fruit bearers) before kingly dominion.
In social terms, circumcision was a kind of pruning, not a cutting off but a cutting intended to bring greater fruitfulness—a sacrifice now for a great blessing in the future. However, Abraham seized a firstborn via Hagar in the way that Adam seized the fruit in the Garden.
But Abraham matured until he was even willing to offer his firstborn to God, as a kind of firstfruits, and he was then given many more children.
The physical Creation by God, and the subsequent social Creation delegated to the charge of Adam, are thus inseparable. Fruitfulness in land and womb depends not only on cultivation by the Man, but also on the cultivation of the Man. Where Adam failed, Noah succeeded. In a preliminary sense, Noah was the first “interplanetary” colonist.
Thus, it is not in the nature of God to make a self-sustaining “wilderness.” Nature has its laws but that does not make nature sovereign. Nature itself requires “training.”
Since the world was created to be cultivated, the world cannot be fruitful without Man. He can most certainly damage it through exploitation, but a world without Man would not be the pristine utopia imagined by environ-mentalists. Gary North writes:
The earth was never designed to be self-governing. Neither was the garden. Though the creation was able to function without man’s immediate presence, it could not achieve its full flowering apart from man… Nature was allowed to operate briefly without man for five days. Man was allowed to operate briefly without woman for less than one day. Neither could be fully comfortable without its complement. Nature needed subordination under man. Man needed subordination under God… Like nature, he had been created good but incomplete. He knew from the very beginning that he was not self-sufficient.1
The care with which God had planted the Garden was to be observed and replicated—imaged—by Adam in the Land. Tending and guarding the Garden as God’s representative was training for dominion of the Land and then the entire World.
Although the Creation is still under the curse of death, we see the dominion of Christ working in the social realm, through the Gospel, expanding throughout history. “Covenant faithfulness” is now entirely wrapped up in one glorified Man, but now working through all nations.
If we do indeed colonize other planets, it will not so much be “by covenant” but “in Christ,” with technologies given to us by the Spirit of God, and through the sacrifice of individuals with a desire for the conquest of new frontiers for God’s glory inspired by the Great Commission.
Shining like stars
So, there is no life on other planets. Not yet. Based on how God has worked in the past, it is likely there may well be in the future. The Spirit will overshadow other worlds, but not as He did in Genesis 1. Since the Spirit now indwells the Sons of God, making us co-workers with the Son in the maturity, conquest, and redemption of mankind, it seems that the glorified redeemed will be the “governing lights” in the eventual conquest of the Cosmos.
Perhaps this task will be carried out by the saints in ways we can’t yet imagine, but we have already made a start, have we not? Despite the trials and tragedies that plague humanity, in many respects this world is a better place now than it has ever been.
One day, the phrase “the new world” could be used quite literally, with exploration motivated by more than mere exploitation, a desire for cultivation rather than plunder, a sustainable harvest established upon just measures. God’s increase always begins with obedience and wisdom. The universe displays the glory of God, but like the earth, it is a gift that requires tending by godly men and women for it to reach the full potential of that glory.
Michael Bull is a graphic designer in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in Australia, and author, most recently, of A Lodge for Owls: Raw Theological Twitter. He blogs at Bible Matrix.
This is an article from Theo Magazine No. 4.
- Gary North, The Dominion Covenant: Genesis – An Economic Commentary on the Bible, Volume 1, 84-85 (adapted). ↩︎