Other Life In The Universe?

A leading article by Tim Madigan, entitled, "Let There be Life" (Star-Telegram, August 21, 1996), affirms that many religious leaders think there could very well be intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Whether it be life on Mars or in other galaxies, the leaders assume that life on earth is not necessarily unique.

It is interesting that most of the men that Madigan quoted (Marty, Stendahl, etc.) reject the inspiration and authority of Scripture as God’s trustworthy Word and accept the unprovable and false theory of evolution. These two facts cloud their thinking on this important issue. Further, Gingerich says that it would be "very arrogant of us to limit God’s activity simply to intelligent life on Earth." This is not the point. We are not limiting God; the Scriptures say that He has limited Himself in creating life on earth! He has sovereignly chosen to create man after His own moral and spiritual image and has graciously chosen to reconcile man to Himself through Jesus Christ, His beloved Son.

In contrast to Madigan’s thesis that there must be intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and in contrast to liberal religious leaders’ belief that such life exists, Christians who accept the truth of Scripture would affirm the following points:

God created all things in existence (Acts 17:24-28) and evolution is untrue. This, in itself, undermines the evolutionary theory that life arose spontaneously elsewhere in the universe.

Earth is the crowning work of God in creation and the other heavenly bodies were created to serve us on earth (Genesis 1:1, 14-18).

Human beings were created by God in His own moral and spiritual likeness; they are the utterly unique intelligent physical life in the universe (Genesis 1:27-27; 2:7).

The only intelligent beings in existence (besides God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit) are angels (Hebrews 1:14), Satan (Matthew 4:3-10), Satan’s angels or demons (Matthew 25:41), and human beings (Genesis 1:27).

If any other physical, sinful beings were to exist, they would likewise need to be rescued and redeemed, and this would require the death of God’s Son. However, Christ Jesus’ death was entirely unique and has occurred only once in eternity—some 2,000 years ago (Hebrews 9:26-28).

The Bible is God’s full revelation of His truth to His creatures (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Since God in Scripture does not affirm intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, it is presumptuous for us to think that we know better than He does.

In conclusion, Madigan and the leaders he quotes seem to assume that because some religionists have been mistaken about scientific facts in the past, we also are mistaken if we deny the uniqueness of life on earth. Marty, for instance, assumes that the Bible writers believed in a flat earth. Not at all. Job 26:7 suggests that the earth is spherical. Further, Biblical people could observe eclipse shadows and conclude the roundness of earth. Further yet, the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes had measured the circumference (25,000 miles) of the earth by 150 BC. Simply because Roman Catholic leaders believed the sun revolved around the earth (and therefore condemned Galileo) does not mean that this was taught in Scripture!

With all of the speculations of unbelieving, evolutionary religious leaders, Christians who believe the Bible have solid evidence for believing that life on earth is utterly unique. God created man and woman in His own image that they might live and glorify Him!