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Transcript 562A — Have You Really Studied the Subject of UFO's?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello. I heard you speak the other night with reference to flying saucers. The impression I got was that you think that it's somewhat of a highly unlikely manifestation, as far as extra-terrestrials are concerned. Was I correct?
HC: Yes, you are correct. I'm very convinced there are no flying saucers.
CALLER: Okay. What I wanted to know is, have you studied the subject, or have you read much of the evidence concerning this subject, like the Condo report, for example, which covers many of the UFO sightings?
HC: I haven't read in detail about this. I do know this, that nobody has ever found a nut or a bolt from one of these flying saucers, so-called flying saucers. Nobody has ever really taken a valid photograph of one. But aside from that, I do read the Bible. And the Bible tells us something about this universe. Now the whole phenomenon of flying saucers is spawned by the fact that scientists have been saying now for a long time that this world is billions of years old, and it has developed by the process of evolution. And since our sun has nine planets, I believe, going around it, and since there are billions upon billions of other suns in the universe, certainly many of them must have planets around them.
And since presumably one of the planets going around our sun developed through the billions of years so that it was able to produce life, as has occurred here on earth, certainly by any laws of probability at all there must be many other planets some place out there that have produced life. And if there is life out there, then certainly the odds are that some of that life could be far more intelligent than our life, or could have progresses far faster scientifically than our planet has, and therefore it is logical to assume that there might be visitations from out there to this planet earth.
Now this I believe is the foundation, the thinking that has produced this whole phenomenon of flying saucers. And when scientists of note, scientists who write in some of the most prestigious scientific magazines of the world today, write about the possibility of life out there, then certainly it is logical, it is not abnormal at all, to contemplate the visitation of that life to this planet.
However, when we read the Bible, we find that all of this kind of speculation is absolutely impossible. The Bible indicates that this earth is about 13,000 years old, and the universe is no older than the earth. The Bible details for us in Genesis 1 that the stars and the sun and the moon were created on the 4th day. And it details the fact that the whole universe therefore was created in 6 days. And from the language of the Bible we know that they were 6 days 24 hours in length, about 13,000 years ago.
Secondly, the Bible indicates that the whole universe came under the curse of sin, and when Christ comes again on the last day, which could happen in the next decade or two, if we're that close to the end of time (and I really believe that we are), then the Bible indicates that the universe also will be destroyed. The elements will burn with fervent heat. Now therefore the Bible indicates that the universe, all those stars out there, have a life expanse equal to the earth, or about 13,000 years. And nowhere in the Bible does God intimate or suggest that any life was created out there.
As a matter of fact, after spending literally millions of dollars in space exploration, even sending men to the moon, to try to prove or find some evidence that there is life out there, thus far scientists have not found the slightest, not even the slightest suggestion of life out in deep space, because there is none. Nowhere is this suggested in the Bible. And so you can listen to these scientists, and all that they say sounds very fine and very plausible and very possible. But the Bible says no, it's an impossibility. It just doesn't fly at all.
And so when people talk about flying saucers or visitors from outer space, I say no, that's impossible because there is no life out there. And so then, knowing that our minds are as tricky as they are when you watch a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat, you know the rabbit wasn't in the hat, but you saw him pull it out of the hat. And so your mind and your eyes aren't doing very well right at that point. You are seeing things and believing things that you know could not have happened. And so the same is true with any area where we begin to really devote our attention and become obsessed with it. We're going to begin to see things and believe things that really are not true.
CALLER: I agree with you completely on that, and I also believe, as you say, that the scientists try to make things sound very attractive and very convincing. I believe that's especially true where they say that the universe was created by what the scientists call the "big bang." I'm sure you've heard that. I disagree with that, because I believe God did create the universe. With reference to our universe, it's true that it would be as old as this planet. But there are also other universes beyond this universe.
HC: Now when you say that there are universes beyond this universe, the Bible speaks only about the universe. And when they are looking out into deep space, they see just an unending number of stars out there. That is the universe. Now when you say there are universes beyond this universe, where do you read that in the Bible? Or where can you get that from?
CALLER: I'm not quoting that from the Bible.
HC: All right. But you see, when scientists say there are universes beyond universes (although I've never heard that expression quite that way), all they're saying is that no matter how far they peer out into space they find the evidence of God's creation. And God can just as easily (because God is God) speak and there are billions of molecules or atoms or electrons or protons in a drop of water as He speak and create billions of star clusters out in space. But it's all the same universe, you see.
CALLER: It's all the same universe, that's true. Now as far as the stars are concerned, I want to bring up a really interesting case. This is about a New Hampshire couple, Barney and Betty Hill. Now some people say, "Oh yes, I've heard that name before." And some may say, "Who are they?" Barney and Betty Hill were enroute home from some friends' place, and they were abducted, or taken aboard this craft, this alien craft from wherever. Now what makes the story so conclusive, or you might say, so indisputable, is the events that happened on the craft. They were brought into what they described as an examining room. They were both put on what they thought were like large operating tables, and they were examined, physically. Some were taking skin scrapings, bits of hair, and they were put into little plastic bags and put aside. And later one of the aliens was showing Mrs. Hill a map aboard the craft.
Now why I'm saying this is so conclusive is this. In 1963, under hypnotic suggestion (they had gone to a psychiatrist because they were having deep-rooted problems, physically and mentally, and they were going through deep depressions at this time; they couldn't understand what was happening to them, because when they left they were told that they would not remember anything that happened to them at all, so at this time they were seeing a psychiatrist so they could understand what was going on, like I said, there were a lot of deep-rooted anxieties, and there were also a few hours of time that had been missed, they couldn't understand where this time had gone), so in 1963, under hypnotic suggestion, Betty Hill drew from memory the map shown to her aboard the space craft. The astronomers became fascinated, for what if the map corresponded to a pattern of real stars from an alien viewpoint?
Now the astronomers reasoned that the majority of star systems likely to have life-supporting planets were located in the obscure southern constellation of Verticular. Yet three stars in the cluster were unknown until 1969. No astronomers on earth knew their position in 1963. But that same year Betty Hill drew a map which contained these undiscovered stars. The astronomers at Ohio State University requested that a computer put them in the correct position, out beyond the incredible double star system of Zatar Verticular I and Zatar Verticular II, which is 220 trillion miles, 37 light years away from earth, looking towards our sun. Now what is really fascinating is that the computer duplicated, with virtually no variations, the map of Betty Hill.
HC: You see, first of all we've got to decide, what is the authority? And the Bible is the authority. And the Bible absolutely negates any possibility of life in deep space. That is an impossibility.
Number two, we must remember that there is a spirit world. And it is possible that Satan can mix up these things. You know, when people talk about ESP, when they talk about occult activity of one kind or another, Satan is always at the bottom of it, because he is the prince of the powers of the air. And so he can confuse situations and make men believe this or believe that. And of course secular psychiatrists or secular scientists don't recognize Satan. They have no idea about these things.
It's very significant to me that a lot of people who are involved in flying saucers and unidentified flying objects also look upon this to a high degree as some kind of a religious experience. Or it becomes very close to a religious experience in one way or another. And it could well be that Satan capitalizes on this and helps to confuse the issue.
But regardless of whatever report you might read, you must remember that if you trust what somebody has written, first of all you don't know who the reporter is, you don't know whether he's exaggerating, you don't know whether he's given you absolutely all the truth. The fact is, he doesn't know all the truth. No one does. And yet it can be written in a very plausible fashion. But I for one would pay absolutely no attention to it. I know that that is an impossibility.
And there are many clever writers today who are able to write in such a way that you can hardly know where truth is any longer. But that's why it's so wonderful to have the Bible, because with the Bible we have the framework of truth. And any time you start reading some science fiction of this nature, and you discover that it's going outside of that framework of truth established by the Bible, then you know you're being taken. You're either being taken by Satan, who is spinning a lie in somebody's life through some kind of occult activity, or you're being taken just by the normal deceitfulness of man. Or you're being taken by your own mind, because your own mind is not clearly seeing things.
But the Bible always is the framework. It is the authority, and the Bible would have to say no, that whole story is absolutely implausible. There is no life out in deep space. There was not that kind of a contact made. That's an impossibility. And I'll buy the Bible any day. I'll accept the Bible's authority any day over against what I read in somebody's magazine, or what testimony somebody's giving on a TV program, or whatever.
CALLER: To tell you the truth now, if it came down to a thing of what truth I would accept, I'd accept the Bible first, before anything else.
HC: All right. Then what you should do is very carefully read the Bible again and again and again, and spend a lot less time reading this other thing. In fact, I've learned this in my life. Many years ago, when I was really working very very hard on this matter of signs and wonders, and some of the other gospels that were developing so very rapidly in the world in our day, I read a lot of material of this nature, books dealing with the occult in one way or another. And I finally began to discover that this was a very unwise thing to do. And I no longer read any of this at all. I will have nothing at all to do with it. As far as anything that deals with the occult or supernatural activity, the only book I want to read is the Bible, because unfortunately, when you read that kind of material, ultimately you are eulogizing Satan. You are giving credit to him. And he dotes on that kind of attention. And the focal point is moved away from Christ.
Now the marvellous thing about reading the Bible is that there God clearly puts on display the nature of Satan, what he is and what he can do, and so on. And yet He shows him forth in the context that is the proper context, as a defeated foe, with Jesus Christ being the one who receives all the honor and the glory. And therefore, if you're at all interested in any kind of this wild speculation, stick with the Bible, and don't read that other material. All it'll do is clutter your mind with a lot of things that are worthless.
CALLER: The way I feel about it, I don't intend to lose sight of what I have come to. In other words, I won't get carried away with it. But as you said about reading this, this was not something that was written by a writer. This is a true story of a couple. Now I saw the woman on a TV show.
HC: But you have to remember that people, for the attention they receive, or because they are self-deceived, what you're really saying is, you saw someone on a "talk" show who was talking about an experience they had, and you would believe that rather than the Bible. No, you're not saying that. You said, I'd rather believe the Bible. But the fact is, where the rubber meets the road, that when you face the question, the woman on TV or the Bible, you're ready to buy what the woman says on TV. And frankly, if I heard that same thing on TV, I'd say, nonsense. I don't buy it. I don't believe it. I don't know what happened to her, but I don't believe it, because it's contrary to the Bible. And I don't accept it for a moment.
There are all kinds of people, you see, who are self-deceived. And I just don't want to be conned by anybody. I trust the Bible. When I read it in the Bible, then I know that I've got really solid ground, and nobody can deceive me.
CALLER: I understand that, but the only reason I say that this case stands out above all is not so much because of what she said, but only because of the fact that in the map that she drew she...
HC: You see, you're still listening to what she said and what others are saying. And so you still have to face the question. Are you going to believe this whole yarn because it is so plausible and because it has so much authority, and because of this and because of that and the other thing? Or are you going to believe the Bible? And if you're ready to believe this other because they've taken you in, fine. That's your privilege to do, but then you're not believing the Bible in my judgment.
If the Bible says that this universe is 13,000 years old and that it's going to be destroyed by fire on the last day, and God has made no provision for the salvation, nor has He discussed anybody out there, then I know there is no life out there. And so any time somebody comes to me, regardless of how authentic it may appear, or regardless of the proofs they may offer, I'll say no, that isn't possible. I may not know why it's not possible, I may not be able to put my finger on where they are self-deceived, but I know that on the bottom line it is not true. It absolutely is not true, because it does not agree with the scriptural evidence. The Bible is my authority.
And that's the way we have to go through life, if we're going to let the Bible be our authority.