Bible Passages Reminiscent of Advanced Technology & UFOs

I recently stumbled upon a few interesting text passages in the Book of Revelation that, IMO, sound awefully familiar when reading them with today's understanding of technology.

I selected four passages, for each of which I offer an alternative modern-day interpretation. This, however, requires that we temporarily ignore the spiritual meaning that bible scholars associate with the text. I also inserted some non-biblical images in order to stimulate our imagination. So here we go:

1. Servant John's Vision of Christ

"On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet (...) I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.

The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead."

Could this be the description of a close encounter? John says he was "in the spirit", a term also found in the Book of Ezekiel which seems to describe a spacecraft in much detail (see here). Or is John perhaps even confronted with a holographic display inside the spirit/craft and hearing transmission artifacts & noise (his voice was like the sound of rushing waters)?

A very peculiar description and it's hard to imagine all this being meant symbolically. But let's move on to the next passage ...

2. The Throne in Heaven

"After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle."

Is this the description of a rendezvous aboard a spacecraft in orbit with John witnessing something like a 'staged' council that gathered especially for him? Note that he again says: "At once I was in the spirit (aerial vehicle?)". How can you be 'inside' the spirit if it wasn't a craft of some sort?

3. A City Descending From Heaven

"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates (...) The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.

The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst."

Could this describe an aerial transport (via the spirit) incl. the descent & atmospheric entry of a larger spacecraft?

4. The Voice of God

"From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire."

Could this passage describe loudspeaker & radio transmissions (eg. from orbit to Earth), received via so-called "Cherubim", a generic biblical description for all sorts of 'devices' that were difficult to interpret at the time? Could this also point to an amplified voice from 'out of the fire' or craft?

_______

I think that the above passages are quite consistent with what Ezekiel described in his encounter with the "glory of the Lord", which Joseph Blumrich and Erich v. Däniken also found to be reminiscent of space age technology. Whatever the case: personally, I think it's not inconceivable that the people of the time may have witnessed the powers and wonders of a very sophisticated and advanced civilization that visited the Earth.

Thanks for reading up to here & I very much look forward to your thoughts on this ...


DISCLAIMER: The images used in this thread are thumbnail-sized images from the web that are likely to qualify as fair-use when used with reduced resolution.

You wonder if the bible is about spaceships and aliens, I wonder from the opposite perspective. Are aliens and spaceships a counterfeit of the bible.

It depends what we believe in, where we stand, what we see.

I go to church every week, and I am still open-minded enough to think that some of the bible may be inspired by visitations by advanced races. Look at how stupid people are today, and imagine how naive people must have been a couple of millennia ago.

originally posted by: ScientiaFortisDefendit
I go to church every week, and I am still open-minded enough to think that some of the bible may be inspired by visitations by advanced races. Look at how stupid people are today, and imagine how naive people must have been a couple of millennia ago.

Or alternately, is the human race getting lazier fatter and dumber, maybe the human race is de-evolving

I think we are just projecting our current paradigm and culture on to the bible and history itself.

Whether it's biblical passages, Egyptian writings or even old English literature, we tend to take their words/writings and interpret it to mean something relevant to us today.

originally posted by: borntowatch

originally posted by: ScientiaFortisDefendit
I go to church every week, and I am still open-minded enough to think that some of the bible may be inspired by visitations by advanced races. Look at how stupid people are today, and imagine how naive people must have been a couple of millennia ago.

Or alternately, is the human race getting lazier fatter and dumber, maybe the human race is de-evolving

There is plenty of evidence to back up that argument. As for the Bible/UFO thing, I think either you believe it is possible or don't. There's no way to prove anything either way at this point.

This isn't a personal attack so don't take it the wrong way, but there was nothing about the passages you quoted that sounded anything remotely like advanced technology. It sounded exactly as it was portrayed, like someone describing a heavenly kingdom decorated with gold and jewels and encountering an omnipotent being that was so glorious he couldn't think of a clearer way to describe him.

Also, your interpretation of being in the Spirit is completely flawed. If you don't know what being in the Holy Spirit means, you need to do some more research. It should have been the easiest thing out of those passages to decipher.

originally posted by: borntowatch
You wonder if the bible is about spaceships and aliens, I wonder from the opposite perspective. Are aliens and spaceships a counterfeit of the bible.

It depends what we believe in, where we stand, what we see.

Apart from 'belief', which is of course everybody's own business, I do wonder about the terminology used to describe these events. If one adds in the biblical wonders and other accounts about the "glory of the lord" (and what it could do), then I think sufficiently advanced technology could have achieved most of the bizarre feats described in the bible. Always provided, of course, that all of that isn't just based on symbolism.

So what it comes down to (for me, at least), is this: for a very long time, nobody would have thought that biblical stories could be interpreted in a literal way at all. But with the dawn of technological progress, we suddenly realize that a lot of it could make sense, when looking at things in the light of superior cultural-technological influence (by ET or whomever).

... IMO the stories about travelling in "the spirit" from A to B just to receive new orders from the lord make much more sense like that. Not to mention abduction-like scenarios, where prophets fall to the ground when seeing the 'glory of the lord', then finding themselves - upon awakening - inside the spirit!

originally posted by: MadhatterTheGreat
This isn't a personal attack so don't take it the wrong way, but there was nothing about the passages you quoted that sounded anything remotely like advanced technology. It sounded exactly as it was portrayed, like someone describing a heavenly kingdom decorated with gold and jewels and encountering an omnipotent being that was so glorious he couldn't think of a clearer way to describe him.

Also, your interpretation of being in the Spirit is completely flawed. If you don't know what being in the Holy Spirit means, you need to do some more research. It should have been the easiest thing out of those passages to decipher.

No worries, I posted this in order to get a discussion going, so any comment is welcome. As for the phrase you referred to, it's really strange that John also mentions the following:

"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high (...)"

In the two books I mentioned, this phrase is often related to changing location / flying from A to B etc. Although, I do acknowledge that there is a symbolic meaning to 'the holy spirit' as well. But that's probably a different story ...

Revelation is one of the latest books to become part of the bible, and its widely agreed to be heavily symbolic. Plus, it concerns things that are going to happen in the future, not records of the past. So, it seems like the last place in the bible where you should look for historical accounts of anything.

a reply to: jeep3r

I agree that there are many references in old scripture that could pertain to advanced technology.

I've always wondered what "Manna" was and came from. It fed the Jews for forty years whilst fleeing Egypt and travelling through the desert. It miraculously appeared each day and fed thousands. If memory serves me correctly it had something to do with the Arc that they were carrying.

originally posted by: conundrummer
Revelation is one of the latest books to become part of the bible, and its widely agreed to be heavily symbolic. Plus, it concerns things that are going to happen in the future, not records of the past. So, it seems like the last place in the bible where you should look for historical accounts of anything.

Well, that's one part of the story. The other is this: why should someone have a voice like the sound of rushing waters? Or: why should the appearance of the "spirit" or the "glory of the lord" usually coincide with the sound of a trumpet as well as thundering, light and smoke (eg. like on Mount Sinai)?

Those are pretty good indicators that something else might have been going on back then. To me, those descriptions are simply "too specific" and we might be able to interpret some of that differently today. Just my $0.02 ...

originally posted by: jeep3r
why should someone have a voice like the sound of rushing waters?

possibilities:
-because the sound of rushing waters had symbolic significance
-a psychedelically inspired reason
-to illustrate that the sound was natural and powerful and unlike that of a man

Another question: why should a voice like the sound of rushing waters suggest a technological/extraterrestrial explanation?

Or: why should the appearance of the "spirit" or the "glory of the lord" usually coincide with the sound of a trumpet as well as thundering, light and smoke (eg. like on Mount Sinai)?

-See above possibilities
-because in a world where there was a "religious marketplace", a deity with all the bells and whistles may be more appealing to simple folk

What about trumpets, thunder and smoke suggests an ET/technological explanation?

Those are pretty good indicators that something else might have been going on back then. To me, those descriptions are simply "too specific" and we might be able to interpret some of that differently today. Just my $0.02 ...

If I were looking for such unnatural events in the bible, Revelation is the last place I'd look. IMHO its the most poisoned well of the bible. I think the magical flying death horses and multi-headed hydra beast chapter of the bible is more wishful thinking than any sort of historical account. Even the tense its written in suggests it was never meant to be a historical account.

Not that you were just drawing from Revelation. It seems to me that the reason there are anomalies of a supernatural nature in the bible is because its an inherently supernatural book. If it were simply a history book where no otherworldly stuff happened, it wouldn't be a holy book. It contains fantastic things because its purpose is to tell us about fantastic things. To support its thesis of a supernatural omnipotent God who's got a chosen team called the Israelites and is planning on changing the Earth at a time in the future, you kinda have to put some supernatural stuff in there to support your case.

originally posted by: flammadraco
a reply to: jeep3r

I agree that there are many references in old scripture that could pertain to advanced technology.

I've always wondered what "Manna" was and came from. It fed the Jews for forty years whilst fleeing Egypt and travelling through the desert. It miraculously appeared each day and fed thousands. If memory serves me correctly it had something to do with the Arc that they were carrying.

No, Manna means bread. Not sure what you are thinking of, but that's bread. 'Manna from heaven' means blessed bread. Not really something you need to invoke ET for.

originally posted by: conundrummer

 

Another question: why should a voice like the sound of rushing waters suggest a technological/extraterrestrial explanation? What about trumpets, thunder and smoke suggests an ET/technological explanation?

You must have missed that part of the OP. The sound of rushing waters (as described when someone speaks) could well be interpreted as transmission noise or effects of voice amplification/broadcast etc. The arrival and/or appearance of the glory/spirit of the lord is oftentimes accompanied by flashes of light, the sound of a trumpet, thunder and smoke ... certain propulsion systems or engines produce similar results.

And another question: Why should the "spirit of the lord", upon its arrival, fill the temple area with clouds/smoke and produce a sound like the tumult of an army (and again: rushing waters) in Ezekiel 1 and 10, for instance? The technological explanation of flying devices present during that time fits some of the descriptions and comparisons quite well, IMO.

a reply to: uncommitted

Sorry but your wrong....

In the Hebrew bible, manna is described twice: once in Exodus 16:1-36 with the full narrative surrounding it, and once again in Numbers 11:1-9 as a part of a separate narrative. In the description in the Book of Exodus, manna is described as being "a fine, flake-like thing" like the frost on the ground.[1] It is described in the Book of Numbers as arriving with the dew during the night;[2] Exodus adds that manna was comparable to hoarfrost in size,[1] similarly had to be collected before it was melted by the heat of the sun,[3] and was white like coriander seed in color.[4]

en.m.wikipedia.org...

Or literally translated to mean "What is that".

Was used to make bread though but the actual Manna was something else and the Jews were given instruction on how to collect it each day and prepare it.

a reply to: jeep3r

Good post and I do believe the Bible was inspired by an Advanced Civilization. Here's a good link from a site called The Bible UFO Connection

The Bible speaks about clouds and these clouds travel quickly across the sky. These clouds even took Moses up into the cloud and took him into the mountains.

Exodus - 24:18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

The Lord Descends in a cloud.

Exodus -34:5 And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord

The children of Israel followed this cloud.

Exodus - 9:17 And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.

The Lord led the children of Israel in a cloud that they could also see at night.

Psalms - 78:14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.

The Lord rides on a swift cloud.

Isaiah - 19:1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

There was even missing time when the cloud appeared during the transfiguration on the mount.

Luke - 9:34 While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud.

35 And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.

36 And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.

They entered the cloud and a voice came out of the cloud and when the voice past it was just Jesus standing there.

I also think that when Christ returns it will be mistaken as an alien invasion.

Matthew - 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Matthew - 26:64Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Revelation - 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

I think these clouds are what we call U.F.O.'s today. There's even more at the Bible-U.F.O. Connection.

There's descriptions of modern crafts in the Bible and things like thermodynamics. What you have to do is look at it from the perspective of the Ancients. They were seeing modern technology and trying to describe it in the language of the day.

So you got clouds that hovered, chariots of fire or locust with breastplates of iron and wings that sound like chariots of many horses running to battle(was John seeing helicopters and modern warfare in his vision?).

Great thread S+F

originally posted by: neoholographic
a reply to: jeep3r

 

Good post and I do believe the Bible was inspired by an Advanced Civilization. Here's a good link from a site called:
The Bible UFO Connection

Interesting links & quotes, thanks. I think those texts contain a plethora of similiraties to modern-day ufo reports. It's not just the detailed description of a functional quadrocopter by Ezekiel way ahead of his time, but also the many similar descriptions of what happens whenever "the spirit" shows up in different parts of the bible. Thanks again for adding those snippets ...

A lot of the themes of this thread were addressed in the TV Show "Ancient Aliens". I recommend this to anyone who has not already seen it. I found it very educational and interesting.