| Aliens, Monsters & Creepy Creatures |
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| Written by Berit Kjos | |
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"The experience of a close encounter with a UFO is a shattering physical and mental ordeal. The trauma has effects that go far beyond what the witness recalls consciously. New types of behavior are conditioned, and new types of beliefs are promoted. The social, political and religious consequences of the experience are enormous...."[1] Astrophysicist Dr. Jacques Vallee "Our generation won't be shocked by the demonic invasion. They are actually anticipating that extraterrestrial intelligent beings, who look very different from us, will some day contact the earth and help us with ecological, monetary, and political problems."[2] Larry McLean The invasion of monsters began decades ago, and it quickly transformed the world of entertainment. With little resistance, an army of cute-ugly creatures swept into toy stores, television and movies. They now adorn children's clothes, bedding, wallpaper, lunchboxes and books. And many have pushed their way into children's hearts on the backs of seductive myths that mold their thoughts and manipulate their imagination. Some of these monsters are crude and cool like Stitch, Shrek and the serpentine aliens of Men in Black. Others appear wise and honorable like Yoda in Star Wars. But the creatures that win the prize for thrills and chills are the dark and deadly ones like Darth Maul, Tolkien's Orcs and the ominous aliens in Signs. They all serve a set of strategic social and spiritual goals: They entertain. They shift a person's attention from the real world to a more titillating realm created by those who write the myths and steer the imagination. They tempt Christians fans to re-imagine both God and themselves in the new context - thus bending the old realities to fit the new myths. They desensitize their fans to mystical images and symbols of evil. And they stir a craving for more intense excitement of the same kind. Eventually the real world of nature, families, work and Biblical truth becomes too boring to be enjoyed. Who cares about truth and facts when myths and fantasies seem far more exhilarating? "For the time will come," wrote the apostle Paul almost two millennia ago, "when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things...." (2 Timothy 4:3-5) Today's postmodern world has little tolerance for Biblical watchfulness. Instead, it embraces its mythical heroes with a driving passion that often eclipses both family and reality. The more shocking, crude and ugly, the more cool and captivating the product. Hollywood and toy makers know that well. Perhaps you remember the Madballs from the late eighties. The grotesque bouncing heads bore matching names like Wolf Breath, Swine Sucker and Screamin' Meenie. With shrewd foresight, their inventor, Ralph Shaffer, suggested that his successful minispheres would "take the world of cute-ugly into a new direction."[3] He was right. The ugly-ugly as well as the cute-ugly was turning the corner and pulling Western culture with them. Grotesque, demonic-looking creatures with fiery eyes invaded toy stores, then stayed. Many were mutants - part animal and part human, or a mixture of various animals and monster. And most could wield the kind of supernatural power prescribed by their built-in myths and stories. They won incredible popularity. Children quickly overcame their natural aversion to scary images and learned to treasure these ugly, hybrid, mutant supernaturals. Few noticed their resemblance to the demonic creatures described in the Bible. One of those early creatures of darkness, Black Star, would ride on a green horse with huge bat-like wings and a long dragon tail. Its eyes were glowing red and a long tongue dangled from its mouth. Another popular invader, Dark Dragon, had black wings and a huge tail with red scales along the sides. Hiding a skull in its chest, it had a lion's mouth, teeth, and claws. Its eyes were glowing red, and out of the center of its forehead shone a large, green third eye. In a lecture titled "The Rising Interest in the Supernatural," Larry McLean, coauthor of The Early Earth, compares today's grotesque toys to historical images representing ancient gods: "These [creatures] that show up in archeology and what we would call mythology were not just figments of the imagination. They were literal physical demonic entities that appeared to civilizations of the past. These types of demigods or demonic beings were represented as part human and part animal in their characteristics like this bird-human of the Assyrians. [They can be] horse-and-human like centaurs. Or fish-and-human like the god Dagon of the Philistines ... or part jaguar and part human. "Notice that tongue hanging out over the chin -- which is a universal symbol of demonic possession ... One of the most popular combinations is human and serpent. You can find them on the toy shelves. It's not surprising that pagan religions worshiped serpents and dragons, for the Bible tells us in Revelation 12 that the old serpent, the dragon, is Satan the devil."[4] Nor should today's growing popularity of devilish images surprise us. The Bible prophesies that demonic activities will escalate before and during the reign of the Antichrist. Could the multiplication of demonic-looking, alien images be part of Satan's plan to prepare us for these awful future events? Even for an invasion of demons? Don't laugh. There is plenty of evidence that a sizable percentage of UFO sightings, alien abductions, crop circles and other extraterrestrial manifestations fit into the realm of the supernatural. According to John Ankerberg and John Weldon, "UFOs constitute a spiritistic (demonic) phenomenon."[5] In their book, The Facts on UFO's and other Supernatural Phenomena, they tell us that - "...few unbiased researchers can logically deny that UFO experiences are of an occult nature. If we catalog the basic characteristics of the occult and compare them to UFO phenomena, we discover an essential similarity.... "After 20 years of research, we believe that the demonic theory dovetails extremely well with the totality of UFO phenomena.... In fact, we know of no UFO contactee who is not basically a spiritistic medium. In addition, we have read hundreds of articles from the oldest and most respected UFO journal, the British Flying Saucer Review, that indicate the psychic and/or non-extraterrestrial aspects of UFOs which, given their actions and messages, indicate probable demonic origin."[6] "The UFO phenomenon simply does not behave like extraterrestrial visitors. It actually molds itself in order to fit a given culture.... [The] goal seems to be psychological and social manipulation."[7] These threats have not escaped notice. According to "Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-up" by Timothy Good, "the ubiquitous UFO phenomenon... [is] a phenomenon that has caused grave concern at high levels of many of the world's governments, despite their statements to the contrary."[8] Ankerberg and Weldon came to the same conclusion. They found that "in the U.S. alone, tens of millions of dollars have been spent in official UFO investigations by the CIA, FBI, U.S. Army Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, and other organizations." They quote astrophysicist Dr. Jacques Vallee who describes UFOs as "a bizarre, seductive, and often terrifying phenomenon reported by many witnesses as contact with an alien form of intelligence."[9] Naturally, many UFO enthusiasts and New Age leaders would disagree. Some began to circulate a far-out notion decades ago: A group of benevolent aliens or ascended masters would suddenly appear on the earth and cleanse it from all who resist its spiritual evolution toward global oneness. At the same time, they would prepare humanity to receive the prophesied New Age "Christ." To some New Age followers, those expected aliens would illustrate "the beautiful side of evil" rather than the grotesque images of occult idols. But either way, these "masters"[10] represent a hierarchy of warring demons that match the warning in Ephesians 6:12: "...we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12 Different versions of those seductive deceptions have spread around the world through the writings of countless occultists. Their numbers include the infamous satanist Aleister Crowley as well as Alice Bailey, whose channeled messages from spirit guide Djwhal Khul inspired United Nations and education leaders such as Robert Muller and Dr. Shirley McCune. But God's Word shows us the truths behind those illusions. Revelation 9:1-11 foresees a day when the Abyss (the bottomless pit where Satan will be cast) will open with a burst of smoke and release an army of powerful, deadly creatures onto the earth. They will look like a mixture of man, horse and locust with wings. They will have stinging "tails like scorpions," and their commander will be Satan himself. Our sovereign God will allow it; for man's evil - as in the days of Noah - and God's eternal justice will call forth His judgment. Though children are born with a natural fear of hideous, shocking and evil-looking creatures, this God-given protection has been dulled by America's massive media marketing system. Children are being conditioned to embrace demonic manifestations, whether they come as intelligent rescuers from outer space or as evolved mutations from earth itself. Why wouldn’t most children accept these lies? Today's belief in evolution leads them to trust that other forms of life must have evolved elsewhere. After all, humanist dreamers tell us, there is no God, but if He existed, He wouldn't have created the whole universe just for earthlings. Maybe He would. Maybe God, who sent His own Son to die for us, would create a universe so vast that man's ego - which wants to explain every mystery without God's help - could not be satisfied. Maybe He did it to show us the immeasurable greatness of His sovereign, creative powers and the infinite width, length, height, and depth of His magnificent love. I believe He did. "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?" Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever." Romans 11:33-36 |
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