Lifting the veil on the UFO phenomenon

  from here: http://creation.com/lifting-the-veil-ufo-phenomenon

Gary Bates on fellow ‘abduction’ researcher Joe Jordan

Though Joe Jordan’s ministry might easily be misunderstood by some Christians, his specialty in the UFO phenomenon is actually a subset of the creation vs evolution debate. Joe was initially led astray in this area by popular culture, which shows how important it is for Christians to engage the culture with sound information—regardless of how weird we might think it to be at times. As a fellow traveller in this area, Joe and I have been in a friendly symbiotic relationship for many years now. His research, which specifically deals with the claims of people believing to have been ‘abducted by aliens’, helped me expose the satanic deceptions that underpin these experiences in my book, Alien Intrusion: UFOs and the Evolution Connection.

Prior to becoming a Christian, Joe described himself as a ‘crystal-ball-rolling new-ager’ with an interest in science fiction, which he saw as merely escapism. Although an evolutionist due to his public school education, it was not immediately obvious to him that most sci-fi and its depiction of alien life has evolutionism at its core (if life evolved on Earth it must have evolved elsewhere in a 14-billion-year-old universe).
Initially, Joe did not know much about the phenomenon. A book called UFO Crash at Roswell piqued his interest.¹ It claimed to be a scientific investigation of the alleged crash of a flying saucer at Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947. Joe’s experience resonated with me, because as a young man the best-ever-selling book on the subject, The Roswell Incident, had convinced me, like many others, that the government was complicit in hiding the truth about aliens.

Drawn into a substitute religion

Photo: Gary Bates

Gary Bates and Joe Jordan team up at Roswell

Now ‘hooked’, Joe wanted to know more. He visited a local UFO museum, talked with UFO researchers and read up. He was surprised to see a large array of ‘spiritual’ UFO books dealing with events like the Fatima sightings.² Christianity is under assault from this area, because many believe that supernatural encounters and miracles in the Bible can be attributed to benevolent aliens being mistaken as angels or even God, and that these aliens may even be mankind’s creators.³
Joe quickly qualified to be a state section director and investigator with the highly respected MUFON,⁴ investigating claims of UFO sightings and experiences of those who claim encounters with ‘alien’ beings. At monthly MUFON meetings, Joe was strongly confronted by the spiritual paradigm of the UFO-believers. He realized that, for many, it is a full-blown religion. These ‘highly evolved aliens’ were claiming to be helping humanity evolve to a kind of enlightened ascendency into a new age. Although Joe was brought up in the church, like many youth he abandoned the idea of a biblical creator. This ‘new religion’ gave Joe a sense of spirituality, but without the accountability that the Bible demands. With no supreme creator, man can make up his own rules. Each experience is just part of one’s spiritual growth into the new age.

UFO research revealed the truth

Photo: Gary Bates

I was able to catch up with Joe Jordan, Guy and Nicole Malone when they invited me to be the keynote speaker at one of their annual Roswell outreaches. For a report on this event see Reaching out at Roswell.

Around this time Joe and fellow MUFON investigator Wes Clark started their own research group called CE4⁵ specifically to deal with alleged alien abductions or ‘Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind’⁶ experiences. They attempted to unravel the more bizarre aspects of this phenomenon that defy scientific explanation. Experiencers record huge chunks of ‘missing time’ that cannot be accounted for; allegedly physical aliens are claimed to walk through walls; and the experiencers themselves are often taken up to the spaceship through the ceilings of their homes. MUFON and other researchers had enormous problems trying to explain the physics-defying aspects of these abduction-type experiences, which were escalating.
Joe saw the damage these were causing in the lives of the experiencers. He and Wes revisited all the cases they had investigated to see if there was something that the other investigators were missing. In the fall of 1996, Joe was working on two particularly disturbing accounts which seemed more sinister than many of the others. A Christian friend told them that they were dealing in the spiritual realm and thus needed protection. “So, I pulled out my crystals”, Joe said. “But she shared the Bible with me instead. It was the first time I’d ever heard a true gospel presentation and understood what Christianity was really all about. I confessed my sins and became a Christian.”

The most hated man in UFOlogy?

Joe is obviously not popular with many UFO believers for ‘blowing the whistle’ and revealing the deception behind it all—and for taking a biblical ‘No ET’ stand. For many, such truth threatens their livelihoods because the UFO phenomenon is big business. The single most popular entertainment is sci-fi, for instance. Every year Joe and fellow collaborators Guy and Nicole Malone used to run conferences and outreaches in the town of Roswell, New Mexico, on the July 4 weekend, when the town’s population doubles in size to commemorate the infamous ‘Roswell Incident’ of 1947.

Now Joe wanted to reconcile the UFO phenomenon with his newfound faith. He and Wes attended a two-week Bible study. Although Joe’s new circle of friends were Christians, most believed that God created intelligent sentient life on other planets. Now life was either created or it evolved, and it is because of evolution that most people believe that life evolved elsewhere as well. But as I can confirm from many years speaking on the subject, most Christians wrongly believe God created such life elsewhere, “Otherwise why would He have made the universe so big?” For them, this allows God to have created the aliens, and this seems to explain the phenomenon. However, such an idea actually undermines the very gospel of Christ and the reason He came to Earth (for more see reference⁷). Back in 2005 after reading the first edition of Alien Intrusion, Joe said to me, “Gary, your book has helped me shut the door on the idea of ET life. Despite what most Christians think, it showed me that the Bible clearly does not allow for such things.”
It was encouraging that two Christians, continents apart (I was then living in Australia), could come to the same conclusions and help each other, if prepared to be open to what the Bible actually says. Alien Intrusion recently had a chapter added. It contains a new hypothesis to try to solve what is really happening to people during such 4^th and 5^th-kind encounters. Joe provided feedback that this hypothesis was ‘spot on’. It meant a lot, given that he has probably counselled more experiencers than anyone else I know.

The unwanted piece of the puzzle

One of Joe’s cases involved a brand-new Christian called Bill D. During an alleged alien abduction he cried out “Jesus, help me!” and the encounter immediately stopped. When Joe contacted other MUFON investigators to see if they had had similar cases, they would only agree to talk to Joe if it was ‘off the record’ for fear of their careers. The truth was they all knew of similar accounts of abductions being stopped by people praying, singing hymns or calling on the name of Jesus. But because it was ‘religious in nature’ and not ‘scientific’, the evidence was being deliberately ignored and actually hidden. Joe’s CE4 group knew there must be more cases with which they could expose the deception. A local newspaper, Florida Today, reported on CE4’s initial findings. The story went viral via the press and internet, and suddenly, lots of people were contacting CE4 sharing similar testimonies. This research of Joe’s was pivotal in helping me and others create awareness in the Church on this widespread phenomenon.
Joe’s current ministry sees him counselling many experiencers with the aim of leading them to Christ. To date, he has worked with over 400 people who have had their ‘abduction’ episodes halted in the name of Christ (some of them don’t want to be identified). He has valuable insight into the whole UFO realm as he has seen it from two different sets of eyes—as an unbelieving new-ager, and now as a Bible-believing Christian. Like me, he found that the Bible has the answers to explain what is really happening. Moreover, the Bible also explains that non-Christians are unable to see the phenomenon for what it really is, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV)

The need for information

This is a huge mission field; polls often suggest that millions of people claim to have been abducted by aliens. Whether accurate or not, this is clearly a growing and disturbing phenomenon in our midst. And due to beliefs in evolution and popular cultural ideas that older, technologically advanced aliens are visiting the earth, people are ripe for deception. For one who has never been in a church, read a Bible, or known Jesus as their Saviour, such events can be a life-changing experience that causes people to reject all thought of God as their Creator and Judge. When people look at the majestic universe God created, they tend to ponder what else might be out there. Instead, we should be considering, in awe, the One who made it. For as Psalm 19:1 reminds us, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”