elijah

Top 5 UFOs in the Bible (Actually, IFOs: Identified Flying Objects)

While we’re still trying to figure out what modern UFO sightings are really about, the authors of the Bible recorded a few momentous incidents of heavenward phenomena. Many lists and books on UFOs in the Bible must already be out there, and at some point I might read some of them. This list is my own that compiles the major agents who appear in the sky in the narratives of Scripture. But instead of calling them UFOs, I’m calling them IFOs because they are identified in Scripture for their specific roles in God’s greater work.

The first three are from the Old Testament, and the last two are found in the New Testament. The first one is a manifestation of Yahweh, the Lord himself.

#1: Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire in the Desert

After Yahweh liberates the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, he guides them through the desert:

  • By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. 22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

#2: Elijah Taken up in the Fiery Chariot

  • 2 Kings 2:11-12
  •  As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two.

#3: Ezekiel’s Vision

  • Ezekiel 1
  • I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, 5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. 8 Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four of them had faces and wings, 9 and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.

#4: The Magis’ Star

  • Matthew 2:1-12
  • After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

#5: The Angels on the Ground (after Jesus Ascended in the Air)

  • Acts 1:9-11
  • After [Jesus] said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

I don’t want to be irreverent and refer to Jesus as a UFO (and again, it would be an IFO, since we know who and what it is). But you could call angels, which are also called messengers, one could call them “Ouranian Spirit Beings.” This name would fit not because they are from the planet Uranus, but from heaven, which is Ouranos (οὐρανός) in the Greek. They are spirit beings because they are sentient beings like us, reflecting the image of God as we do with reason, but unlike us in that they might be able to take on physical form, but their standard nature and essence is spirit, whereas humans are spirit and body. Whereas Jesus goes ‘up,’ they are standing on the ground next to the Apostles, reminding them of their job to go into all the world to preach the gospel. (Notice that Act’s author Luke depicts Jesus as that same God Yahweh in the Old Testament, the God of the pillar of cloud in #1 above.)