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Spielberg’s New Film Asks If Aliens Would Shatter Faith. The Bible Already Answered That Question

I typically don’t address issues like this one because I have a strong belief that if our relationship with Jesus is solid, i.e. I am constantly abiding in Him; – then I have no doubts of His existence or reality in my life. But for those who have never settled the issue of “aliens” I present to you this article. Once Billy Graham was asked about life on other planets and his response stunned the reporter. Billy said: The Bible doesn’t tell us whether or not there is intelligent life on other planets–although I find nothing in the Bible that would exclude the possibility. But if there is life on other planets, then God created that life, for God created everything.

Chuck Missler, former NASA engineer, did extensive teachings on the alien connection with the Nephilim of the Old Testament, stated: While the evidence examined in this article seems to confirm the antiquity of unusual aerial phenomenon and visitations by humanoid entities, their origin remains a topic of great controversy, even among experienced UFO investigators. The common view is that they are extraterrestrial visitors from another star system. However, the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) has been seriously challenged in recent years by a number of prominent UFO researchers. Well-documented accounts of UFOs that change shape, dematerialize, and defy the laws of physics have challenged the extraterrestrial hypothesis and caused many researchers to speculate that UFOs and their occupants may not be extraterrestrial, but extradimensional beings from beyond the four dimensions of our space-time domain!

Even more important than the question of their origin is that of their purpose for these visitations and their agenda for mankind.

As we will see, an examination of the nature of their contact with mankind and their messages given to human contactees has caused many to suspect that their agenda is indeed sinister and that mankind is being programmed and conditioned for a great deception…

Whatever your belief may be regarding this issue we are about to see the manifestation of it’s reality. Why do I say that? Our culture, and the world has been being prepped by the god of this world for some time. Things are about to get real interesting and what church attenders really believe about the Bible and Jesus is about  to get real.

Israel 365 News, posted an article by Eliyahu Berkowitz, JUNE 14, 2026:

Steven Spielberg has spent half a century making movies about aliens. At 79, his latest — Disclosure Day, opening June 12 — may be the most theologically charged of them all. The film, starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, follows a Kansas City weather personality who suddenly speaks foreign languages she has never learned and a rogue cybersecurity expert racing to release a massive trove of classified government UFO files. But the real story Spielberg wants to tell is about God.

“The movie also takes the position of the church,” Spielberg told CBS News. “What does this do to the fundamental beliefs that many of us have? Is God our God only on this planet, or is God a God for every system where there’s civilization, intelligent life, and even developing life?” One character in the film, a former Roman Catholic nun, warns that people will see the aliens as deities and “stop believing in God.” The villain, played by Colin Firth, is a Pharaoh-like corporate tyrant devoted to keeping humanity ignorant — a figure drawn, consciously or not, from the pages of Exodus.The film arrives at a culturally combustible moment. The U.S. government recently launched a UFO website and declassified UAP files, and the White House briefly teased a sci-fi-branded aliens.gov that turned out to be a site for tracking illegal immigrants. Politics and entertainment are blurrier than ever.

Spielberg is not hiding his personal convictions. In his CBS News interview, he said flatly: “I absolutely think that they have been here, and they are here.” He described Disclosure Day as “a summation of my life in science fiction,” rooted in what he calls a “foundation of truth” — not fiction, not speculation, but something he treats as settled. The 2017 New York Times tic-tac video, the 2023 House Oversight Committee testimonies under oath, decades of consistent eyewitness accounts — for Spielberg, the cumulative weight is overwhelming.

The reaction from religious communities was swift and, notably, far less panicked than Spielberg seems to have expected.

A clip of Spielberg’s remarks went viral on X, framed as a claim that extraterrestrial disclosure would shake Christian faith. Many users pushed back hard. “No, it won’t. Hollywood is obsessed with the idea that the discovery of aliens will rock Christian faith. It’s weird,” said Christian podcaster Josh Daws. “The only people who think the existence of aliens would mess with Christianity are non-Christians who don’t understand the first thing about Christianity,” said Eric Sammons, editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine.

CBN’s Billy Hallowell noted that what people identify as “aliens” may actually be phenomena rooted in the spiritual realm — angels and demons. He pointed out that the Bible focuses on the salvation of human beings: Jesus came to die and save people, not other creatures or entities.

Christian author and UFO researcher L.A. Marzulli called the film “very disturbing,” arguing that Spielberg is “filmically signaling” a coming global event. “Cling to Jesus,” Marzulli urged. “Understand that what was foretold is unfolding. Do not be deceived.”

One Christian reviewer who attended a press screening noted something unexpected: unlike films on similar themes from the 2000s and 2010s that would have placed Christians firmly on the side of bigotry and fear, in Disclosure Day Christians are without exception portrayed in a positive light. The theologically grounded nun character, Sister Maura, ultimately steers the more fearful ex-novitiate toward confidence rather than panic — a portrayal reviewers across the spectrum found surprisingly generous.

Jewish tradition, it turns out, had already grappled with this question long before Spielberg reached for his iPad to write the story. Jewish scholars have contemplated extraterrestrial life and concluded it poses no theological crisis. As one rabbi put it plainly: the discovery of extraterrestrial beings “would pose no more of a threat to Judaism than would the discovery of a new species of rabbit. It would be limiting God’s power to say that He could not have placed life on other planets.” Notably, the Talmud itself identifies a place called Meroz, referenced in Judges 5:23, as a star — and treats it as inhabited.

Kabbalistic and traditional Torah texts, including Rabbi Pinchas Eliyahu Horowitz’s Sefer HaBris, entertain the idea of advanced, “super-intelligent” beings dwelling on other planets.

Exotheology is a word that sends the etymological geek-meter spinning, and very few can claim to have even a passing knowledge of this esoteric field. Dr. David Weintraub, professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University and the author of Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It?is uniquely qualified to answer questions on the subject. His book presents a staggering array of opinions, ranging from Aristotle’s premise that extraterrestrials cannot possibly exist, to the more recent Enrico Fermi, who, over 600 years later, came to the same conclusion.

Dr Weintraub reassured Breaking Israel News that Judaism is spiritually prepared for little green men.

“Judaism accepts the possibility of extraterrestrial life. At this level, Judaism is similar to most, but not all other major religions. A few other religions clearly demand and embrace the idea that extraterrestrial life exists.  Except for a few extreme kabbalistic interpretations of a few passages in the Talmud, Judaism does not go that far,” he said.

The professor states that Jewish theology may actually require a belief in extraterrestrials since “there are no limits on the power of the creator. Thus, for Jews to say that no life beyond the Earth could possibly exist would be unacceptable, as such an idea would appear to place shackles on God’s creative power…the universe belongs to God (or is God) and God can do what God wishes to do with the universe.”

The film’s final word — spoken by an alien — is “listen.” Spielberg is drawing unmistakably from Shema Yisrael, the declaration that stands at the center of Jewish life: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Shema is not a call to doubt. It is a call to attention. The God of Israel is not diminished by a large universe. He made it.

The deepest irony of Disclosure Day is that the question Spielberg poses — would the discovery of other intelligence unsettle everything we believe? — was answered definitively by the prophet Isaiah thousands of years ago. “I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22). Not “none else on this planet.” None else. The scope of creation does not threaten the Creator.

Spielberg himself has attributed his fascination with aliens partly to his Jewish identity and his childhood experiences of being “othered” — a sense of solidarity with fantastic beings from elsewhere. That instinct is authentically Jewish. But the tradition he comes from already knew: a God vast enough to create the cosmos is not rattled by what the cosmos contains.

 

 

Loving and Hating

Malachi 1:2-3 I have loved you, says the Lord. Yet you say, How and in what way have You loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? says the Lord; yet I loved Jacob (Israel), 3But [in comparison with the degree of love I have for Jacob] I have hated Esau [Edom] and have laid waste his mountains, and his heritage I have given to the jackals of the wilderness.

If you are reading this for the first time it is really offensive. God teaches us to love Him, others, and even our enemies. Who gave Him a pass on hating others? Or is there another way to interpret this passage? Yes! We see the same teaching device used by Jesus in Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [own] father and mother [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God] and [likewise] his wife and children and brothers and sisters—[yes] and even his own life also—he cannot be My disciple. In this passage, what is known as a hyperbole is being used to teach the high cost of following Jesus. What’s a hyperbole? “Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.” They are exaggerated to make the point: the cost for following Jesus is costly. But what is God saying about Jacob and Esau? He is saying that His love for Jacob was greater than it was for Esau. In other words, His preference for Israel versus Jacob made His comparative love for Esau look like hatred.

But what was it about Jacob – the deceiver; one who seeks to take the place of through any means necessary; the manipulator, and liar – that God loved or valued? Surely, it wasn’t his character traits. The Bible makes no bones about it: He hates sin! If you have ever been repelled by how offensive the crucifixion of Christ was portrayed in the Passion movie then you get a small glimpse of how much God, the Father hates sin. It is offensive to some because it took an offensive act to take care of the offensiveness of our many sins. But what was God seeing in Jacob that clearly his brother Esau did not have? Jacob valued above all things the birthright of his older brother Esau. What was the big deal? The birthright was a gift of spiritual and material inheritance. Esau valued immediate, physical needs more than the long-term spiritual and legal blessings of the birthright, Jacob sought it for its spiritual, and covenant promise value. The birthright included a double portion of inheritance, leadership of the family, and the role of the spiritual head of the household.

Not only did Jacob value the birthright he also valued the patriarchal blessing due to the first born at the father’s passing. What was the significance of the blessing? The patriarchal blessing represented prophetic promises, blessings, and a significant inheritance from God. Jacob was willing to do whatever it took to secure those blessings. You see the same thing happening when Jacob wrestles with the “Angel of the Lord” (an OT manifestation of Jesus). He wrestled through the night til sunup to secure the blessing from this visitor in the night. Now do you see what God saw in Jacob? Do you see what He loved?

What do you value in life and what have you done to secure it? Are you more like Esau or Jacob? Mt. 6:19-21 states, “Do not gather and heap up and store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy, and where thieves break through and steal.20 But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal;21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” What gift can you give to an individual who owns everything? There is absolutely nothing you can purchase for them so what can you give them? The short answer? Yourself. Guess who God’s treasure is? You and I. How can you lay up treasures in Heaven? How can you lay before God that which is truly valuable to Him? We look for the treasures in others seeking to secure them for Jesus’ Kingdom. As the Moravians used to say, “For the reward of the Lamb and for His suffering.” Every person you have led to Christ; every person you have baptized or discipled; every person you have loved closer to Jesus – are the treasures you are laying before Jesus’ feet. One more crazy question, How many of these “treasures” will greet you when you enter through Heaven’s Gates?

Revelation 7:9 gives us a glimpse of that day: After this I looked and a vast host appeared which no one could count, [gathered out] of every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. These stood before the throne and before the Lamb; they were attired in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. How many people from the nations, tribes, peoples, and languages are there because you partnered with the Godhead in leading them there? I know I’ve got some there. Hallelujah! Do you? Imagine Billy Graham’s treasures. Whew! that will blow your mind. But guess what? In an interview on national TV, as Billy was getting older, he wept, confessing, “My life has been a failure.” If Billy Graham’s life is a failure we are all going to Hell.

The Great Offense

Douglas A. Knight; Amy-Jill Levine: The Meaning of the Bible – What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us: ‘The fictional nature of the story of Jonah is indicated not only by the “great fish” that swallows the prophet and after three days vomits him up on dry land or by the exaggerated rhetoric (the word “great” occurs fourteen times), but also by the city’s surprising repentance: the entire population, and the cattle, repent after hearing a five-word (in Hebrew) sermon.’

Let’s face it there are many things in the Bible that offend our sensibilities and reason. But at the root of them all is an exposure of faith, or the lack thereof. Better yet, what is being exposed is what we truly trust. It’s one thing to believe, and quite another to trust it to be true. We flippantly state we believe God’s Word to be true but Jonah lays bare our heart. Is it simply a fictional story, a children’s fairy tale, or was Jonah a real-life individual? Did this event really occur?

Jesus thought so. Luke 11:32 The men of Nineveh will appear as witnesses at the judgment with this generation and will condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, here is more than Jonah.

The Old Testament writer of the book 2 Kings thought Jonah existed: Jeroboam restored Israel’s border from the entrance of Hamath to the [Dead] Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonahson of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher. (2 Kings 14:25)

Scripture is very clear regarding the connection between Jesus and the Word revealing the relationship we truly have with Him. The Word is the mirror of that relationship revealing what we value, love, and trust. Another obvious connection to the Word is that of the Holy Spirit. You can’t see Jesus apart from the Spirit, and the Word, nor can you truly grasp the message of the Word apart from the Spirit. What’s infinitely scarier is the fact that the Letter of the Law kills. In other words you can know the word but not know the WORD. To be so close and yet so far from eternal life.

Franklin Graham, recounts in an article in Charisma Magazine a struggle his father wrestled with Seventy-six years ago, a pivotal time in Billy Graham’s life. A young preacher friend had been questioning whether the Bible was truly and entirely the authoritative Word of God. The issues this preacher raised began to trouble Billy. Although he never doubted the truth of the Gospel, he wrestled over whether he could fully believe everything the Bible teaches. He even started wondering if his questions might cause him to give up preaching. He took his struggle with him when he traveled to San Bernardino, California, where he was scheduled to speak at Forest Home Conference Center, and then begin a citywide tent crusade in Los Angeles a few weeks later. Late one night at Forest Home, discouraged and unable to sleep because of the burden that filled his mind, he got up and went out into the moonlight for a walk. In the nearby woods he came upon a tree stump, and he opened his Bible and laid it on the stump. Then he poured out the agony of his heart to God. He knew the matter had to be resolved one way or the other. Finally he knelt in the shadows by the stump with the Bible open before him and prayed, “Father, I am going to accept this as Thy Word—by faith! I will believe this to be Your inspired Word.” At that moment, he later said, he felt the burden lift and sensed the freedom and power of the Holy Spirit in and around him.

If you are participating in the month of Elul’s emphasis upon seeking to connect to Jesus through confession, and repentance then you are manifesting what you truly believe about Jesus and His Word. Your seeking is a mirror of your faith, and trust OR a mirror of unbelief, and distrust. Do you need to settle the issue of the Word of God in your life? Do you need to confess your unbelief?

Beauty From Ashes

Daniel 1:8 But Daniel determined in his heart that he would not defile himself by [eating his portion of] the king’s rich and dainty food or by [drinking] the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might [be allowed] not to defile himself.

Mental Performance Coach, Bryan Cain wrote: Unbroken is a book by Laura Hillenbrand, and a movie by the same name. Unbroken is the story of Louie Zamperini and his amazing journey of:

Being a boy who was bullied and always in trouble to…
• Running in the 1936 Olympics to…
• Enlisting in the military during WWII to…
• Surviving a plane crash in the Pacific to…
• Surviving an amazing 47 days adrift in a raft to…
• Being captured by the Japanese navy, being sent to a POW camp, and becoming the favorite target of a particularly cruel prison commander to…
• A life of severe post-traumatic stress disorder to…
• A life filled with forgiveness, service and peace.

Daniel, and Louie had one thing in common: determination. The AMPC translation uses the word “purposed”. Figuratively in the Hebrew it means to set a direction for or towards. Long before Daniel and Louie ever got to the challenges they faced they had set a direction for their lives. That direction of their hearts had taken them from one challenge to the next. But with each challenge they chose to ascend and not set up a camp, or turn around and retreat. It’s interesting that often the Bible talks about the Mountain of the Lord. Isaiah 2:2-3 states: It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be [firmly] established as the highest of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. And many people shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. It’s the ascent up to and into His Presence that teaches us, molds and weaves us into the tapestry of the Master Weaver, and Master Potter. We are shaped by our circumstances becoming things of beauty that glorify Him – as long as we submit to the process of weaving, and molding. Throughout Colorado you will see dead pines as far as the eye can see in many places. These pines are the victims of the pine beetle. Forest management enforces the policy of leaving these dead trees standing. Unfortunately for those living in or near the foothills and mountains these free standing pines can become kindling for fires you cannot even imagine. Fortunately, others have been permitted to cut the trees down, processing them at sawmills throughout the region. From the milled wood many a carpenter has fashioned them into beautiful, and unique pieces of furniture that can’t be found any where else. Every piece of wood has a unique color, hue, and grain pattern. From tragedy comes beauty, or unimaginable destruction. The outcome is determined by the choices we make through the process.

Staying Sown

1 Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle (a special messenger) of Jesus Christ, [writing] to the elect exiles of the dispersion scattered (sowed) abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Who were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated (sanctified, made holy) by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and to be sprinkled with [His] blood: May grace (spiritual blessing) and peace be given you in increasing abundance [that spiritual peace to be realized in and through Christ, freedom from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts].

The Parable of the Soils describes how Jesus’ word is received within the soil of our hearts. Some hearts are trodden down, others are thorny, or rocky. Only one of the soils receives the seed of the Word and produces fruit. Billy Graham used this parable to make the point that only one in four people who gather in our churches has actually been born-again.

What I have never thought of is that not only is our heart a garden – with seeds sown into its “ground” – we are seeds. Our lives and the way we live them are seeds. From one seed come many seeds that either bear fruit for righteousness and the Kingdom of God, or bear fruit for evil and Satans’ kingdom. Question is, Am I consciously aware that I have been sown by the Lord? Everyone quotes Romans 8:28 God works for the good for those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. But few actually believe that promise. If we believed it we would wait for the Lord – the Sower of our lives – to bring fruit out of the pit He has buried us in. What does this all mean? In order for a seed to germinate a “pit” must be dug to plant the seed, burying it in the soil that will “entomb” it. In the Old Testament Joseph was “buried” in a pit (tomb) by his jealous brothers to be “resurrected” into becoming a ruler of Egypt. We see the same in Jesus’ life. Planted in a “pit” or tomb He burst forth 3 days later securing the salvation of the world. In speaking of His crucifixion Jesus stated: assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest. (John 12:24). The best place to sow any seed is in the dark ground. The soil that is fertile has rotten, stinking stuff in it. It’s not clean, or sterilized. The pit, darkness, and fertile, stinking soil is actually good for the seed. In other words, all of these things are good for you – if you are God’s seed. I once heard Brad McClendon teach on this and he asked, What happens to the seed when we take it out of the pit? It dies and the transformation is halted.

Many times the Lord has led this “seed” (me, myself, and I) to a place, circumstance, assignment, difficult person, or situation – He had chosen for me; He had designed for me – to be buried. Unfortunately, I halted the process of transformation by taking myself out of the “pit” He had buried me. Sadly, over the years of ministry, I have watched people claim God’s leading to this or that – but once they started feeling the darkness of His pit, and smelled the rotten, stinking soil used to bury them – they quickly jumped out. They missed an all important truth: If you say you are a follower of Jesus then eventually you are going to have to follow Him down into the “pit;” the place where it seems the enemy has scattered you. The soulish man, or fleshly nature, is always seeking to save SELF – mind, will emotions and personality. It will avoid its death at all costs. Hebrews 12:7 states that we are to endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons….You can’t be a son (or daughter) like Jesus until you learn to suffer with Jesus. Romans 8:17 affirms this fact: And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.

Matthew 13:8 reminds us: Other seeds fell on good soil, and yielded grain—some a hundred times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some thirty. When I submit to this process I will bear much fruit.