As enjoyable and pleasant as like-minded people can be, it is good to have people in our lives which look at life from a different perspective. I have grown to value differences more as I progress through life: instead of assuming differences due to ignorance, threatening, or a liability, a variety of viewpoints helps us to see the limitations of our view and thus works to expand our thoughts to unfamiliar arenas.
The late C.S. Lewis was asked in an interview by a Mr. Wirt: "Do you think there will be wide-spread travel in space?" I found his answer interesting, partially because he did not bother to deal with the question directly at all. He said, "I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness, and establish a new colonialism. I can't bear to think of it. Bit if we on earth were to get right with God, of course, all would be changed. Once we find ourselves spiritually awakened, we can go to outer space and take the good things with us. That is quite a different matter." (Lewis, C. S., and Walter Hooper. God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014. Page 295)
Instead of a "yes" or "no", Lewis asserted it would be a terrible thing for human beings to make contact with inhabited planets because we would corrupt them. Hollywood films tend to present alien species as intelligent, vicious, violent, or malevolent to human beings or our planet. The science fiction genre is packed with fearful and destructive powers of alien beings, and man's wit and will to live often prevails against all odds. To me it seems the assertion of Lewis is far more believable and true than space alien horror flicks. When an area of the world is relatively desolate - apart from man and his polluting, trampling, and littering ways - we call it "pristine." God created this world pristine teeming with life, and man due to sin has corrupted it. Wherever people are there will be certain power struggles, government, politics, laws, pollution, and waste. Going "back to nature" wouldn't bode well for nature if too many people did.
Some are worried aliens might come to earth to make us their lobotomised slaves, but the prime concern of C.S. Lewis was if we were to contact others, we would bring our sin to them. He did include a caveat: if we on earth were to be right with God, it would be another matter. The glorious truth is man can get right today with God and become His ambassador to our fellow men. I think a lot of people would rather have a visitor from outer space than a chat with a born-again follower of Jesus Christ, and that is why it is important us Christians are walking obediently with Him. Having been filled with the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus, by God's grace through our lives they can catch a glimpse of God's glory shining through.
We don't need to go into the heavens to discover a secret message from God, for He has spoken freely and openly. Moses said to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 30:11-16, "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15 "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess."
God made a covenant of Law with the children of Israel, and He has trumped the first with a new covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ. Having died on the cross and rising from the dead, Jesus calls all people to new life through faith in Him. He does not offer us a plot of land on earth given by lot but an everlasting home in heaven and an abundant life now. People make great sacrifices to discover truth, and Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life who has come to us and made Himself known. Colossians 2:9-10 says of Jesus, "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." 2 Corinthians 2:14 says of Christ's followers, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." Following Christ is the place of triumph wherever He leads us - not of our conquest or subduing of foes - but of thanksgiving and rejoicing in all Jesus has accomplished and His victory.
The late C.S. Lewis was asked in an interview by a Mr. Wirt: "Do you think there will be wide-spread travel in space?" I found his answer interesting, partially because he did not bother to deal with the question directly at all. He said, "I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness, and establish a new colonialism. I can't bear to think of it. Bit if we on earth were to get right with God, of course, all would be changed. Once we find ourselves spiritually awakened, we can go to outer space and take the good things with us. That is quite a different matter." (Lewis, C. S., and Walter Hooper. God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014. Page 295)
Instead of a "yes" or "no", Lewis asserted it would be a terrible thing for human beings to make contact with inhabited planets because we would corrupt them. Hollywood films tend to present alien species as intelligent, vicious, violent, or malevolent to human beings or our planet. The science fiction genre is packed with fearful and destructive powers of alien beings, and man's wit and will to live often prevails against all odds. To me it seems the assertion of Lewis is far more believable and true than space alien horror flicks. When an area of the world is relatively desolate - apart from man and his polluting, trampling, and littering ways - we call it "pristine." God created this world pristine teeming with life, and man due to sin has corrupted it. Wherever people are there will be certain power struggles, government, politics, laws, pollution, and waste. Going "back to nature" wouldn't bode well for nature if too many people did.
Some are worried aliens might come to earth to make us their lobotomised slaves, but the prime concern of C.S. Lewis was if we were to contact others, we would bring our sin to them. He did include a caveat: if we on earth were to be right with God, it would be another matter. The glorious truth is man can get right today with God and become His ambassador to our fellow men. I think a lot of people would rather have a visitor from outer space than a chat with a born-again follower of Jesus Christ, and that is why it is important us Christians are walking obediently with Him. Having been filled with the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus, by God's grace through our lives they can catch a glimpse of God's glory shining through.
We don't need to go into the heavens to discover a secret message from God, for He has spoken freely and openly. Moses said to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 30:11-16, "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15 "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess."
God made a covenant of Law with the children of Israel, and He has trumped the first with a new covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ. Having died on the cross and rising from the dead, Jesus calls all people to new life through faith in Him. He does not offer us a plot of land on earth given by lot but an everlasting home in heaven and an abundant life now. People make great sacrifices to discover truth, and Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life who has come to us and made Himself known. Colossians 2:9-10 says of Jesus, "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." 2 Corinthians 2:14 says of Christ's followers, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." Following Christ is the place of triumph wherever He leads us - not of our conquest or subduing of foes - but of thanksgiving and rejoicing in all Jesus has accomplished and His victory.
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