Tag: fallen angels

Unmasking UFOs, aliens and demonic deception

By Dan Delzell, Christian Post Contributor Sunday, December 01, 2024

As reported by The Economist earlier this year, “UFOs are Going Mainstream.” Believe it or not, 20 million people in the United States claim to have seen a UFO, and four million claim to have been abducted by aliens. So, what in the world is going on here? Are UFOs and “aliens” real?

Before attempting to answer this paranormal question, first consider an easier question: Are fallen angels (demons) and holy angels real? Yes indeed, as Scripture makes abundantly clear. And if UFOs and aliens are demonic manifestations, as many Christians believe, we would expect to find some clues in the Bible. 

Once when Jesus encountered two demon-possessed men, the demons shouted, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” (Matthew 8:29) Demons instantly become terrified once Jesus arrives on the scene.

So, what about “alien abductions” today? How do these traumatic experiences compare to demonic encounters in the New Testament? And most importantly, do today’s harrowing “alien” episodes abruptly cease when the name of Jesus is introduced into the equation?

Gary Bates has researched this issue for over 25 years. As a best-selling author on the matter who also has an award-winning movie on “aliens” and UFOs, Gary said, “There are over 400 cases that I am aware of where these abductions have been halted by people calling on the name of Jesus Christ … the instant His name was called, it stopped.”

Christians of course are not surprised that the name of Jesus stops things like nightmares and other frightening phenomena, including “alien” ordeals. (See my 2011 CP op-ed, “How to Say ‘No’ to Nightmares.”) Since we are not alone in the universe, we do at times cross paths with angels and demons. 

As Gary stated, “The Bible has always talked about another dimension. And we’ve had visitors from that dimension, and they’re called angels. Good ones, bad ones … God’s angels always bring a message that is consistent with what we read in God’s Word. The bad guys…are there to deceive and deflect and to take people’s eyes away from the Creator.”

As supernatural beings originally created by God to serve as holy angels, demons are fallen angels who rebelled against God and went the way of Lucifer. Demons are highly intelligent and also skilled impersonators. These shapeshifters can appear at your bedside as your deceased relative, or show up during a seance. They can also impersonate the mother of our Lord through various apparitions of Mary. And when people take part in certain New Age practices, demons even pretend to be “Jesus” the “ascended master.” And yes, demons can take on an alien appearance, or even the shape of a UFO. 

Demons want humans to interact with them in order to draw people into the spiritual clutches of the occult. If you open a wrong door in the spiritual realm, demons will come through it to trick you, oppress you and lead you away from the one door that leads to everlasting life in Paradise. Jesus said, “I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9). 

Interestingly, many “alien” abductees are told they were chosen because they are special and are needed to spread the message of their “alien” abductors. An obsession with UFOs and “aliens” can even become a substitute religion. For example, the Heaven’s Gate cult was a UFO religion that produced mass suicides by its members in 1997.

While demons distract and disorient people in order to lead them further and further away from Christ, God’s holy angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). Angels and demons are invisible to the human eye, unless of course they choose to visibly appear, such as when two holy angels appeared at Christ’s empty tomb. They asked Mary, “Woman, why are you crying?” (John 20:13)

Demons fear the risen Savior because the Messiah “triumphed over them by the cross,” (Colossians 2:15) and “was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4). The fate of every demon is sealed, just like the fate of their master, Satan. 

The Apostle John wrote, “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). And this is why “Satan is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short” (Revelation 12:12).

UFOs and “aliens” are merely one way the devil and his demons seek to distract people from accepting the good news of the Gospel (see John 3:16). Some people become so mesmerized by UFOs and “aliens” that they actually start pursuing mysterious phenomena. It is a seductive doorway into the occult.

Dr. Hugh Ross is an astrophysicist who points to “a connection between occult involvement and UFO encounters.” Christian UFO investigator David Wimbish agrees. He has “engaged in significant research into the UFO phenomenon, and has suggested that not only can the occult lead one to have a UFO encounter, but interest in UFOs can also actually draw one into the occult.” 

Dr. Ron Rhodes writes, “Many UFO investigators have followed a path that has taken them directly into the world of the occult. They believe they are rediscovering ancient spiritual truths and uncovering new realities about the universe … it has led many to experiment with astral projection, to believe in reincarnation, etc.” 

Jacques Vallee, a well-known (secular) French UFO researcher says, “The phenomena reported by (UFO) witnesses involve poltergeist effects, levitation, psychic control, healing, and out-of-body experiences. Vallee has personally investigated countless UFO sightings. His comments are based on years of firsthand experience.”

Negative consequences and dark side effects occur whenever demons interact with humans, even if the devious impersonators initially tell you they want to help you. This diabolical charade is one way they gain access into the lives of unsuspecting victims. Don’t forget that their master “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).

Thankfully, there is a way to effectively counter and overcome every type of demonic deception. Repent of your sins, receive Jesus as your Savior, (see John 1:12) and then walk closely with Him. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). 

UFOs, aliens, demons and the devil himself have no power over Jesus Christ. You see, if you are a follower of Christ, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). 

Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska. 

Source: Christian Post-December 1, 2024

Praying to the Departed Conjures Fallen Angels

When a quarterback throws a pass in a football game, he is obviously trying to get the ball to one of his teammates. It is never his intention for a player on the opposing team to intercept it, but sometimes that is exactly what happens. The quarterback meant well, but the result of his pass ended up benefiting the other team.

Likewise, many well-meaning religious people throw various “prayer passes” in hopes of gaining spiritual assistance. Among these religious people are of course a number of Christians. Some of them have been taught to only “throw the ball” to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These believers pray only to God Himself. Others have been taught that it is acceptable and even beneficial to pray to certain saints in heaven who are thought to be able to intercede on our behalf and grant us assistance.

So what is going on here? What really happens with prayers to the departed that are prayed everyday by religious people all over the world? Simply put, some prayers which are assumed to be prayers of “intercession” are in reality prayers of “interception.” That is, these prayers do not reach the intended “receiver.” Instead, they are intercepted by fallen angels. One of the many activities of evil spirits is to encourage religious people to pray to “dead” believers. The Bible does not encourage such a thing, but instead warns against it.

“But wait,” someone may say. “Believers in heaven are not dead, but alive.” True, and thankfully so. Their earthly body died, but their spirit is alive in heaven and will be granted a perfect heavenly body at the end of time. (see 1 Cor. 15:42-53) So yes, they are not really dead. But that doesn’t mean they hear our prayers, or provide even the slightest bit of assistance in answer to our prayers, regardless of how noble their lives may have been while on earth.

God doesn’t use saints in heaven to bless saints on earth. Instead, God utilizes His holy angels to minister to His children on earth. (see Hebrews 1:14) God would have told us in His Word if He wanted us praying to angels, or praying to believers who have gone before us into heaven. We have a much better mediator, “the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5) He is fully God, and fully Man. And He is more than able to hear millions of prayers at the same time from Christians all over the world, and to provide exactly what we need in answer to them.

So should I pray to the Father, or to the Son, or to the Holy Spirit? Actually, yes. Christians can pray to each of them individually, but you can also pray to them together as One. They are three Persons in One God. So just pray to God. And while it’s fine to thank Him for the faithfulness of believers who have gone before us, there is simply no good reason to pray to those saints. That sort of thing will only invite “our opponents” in the spiritual realm to come alongside us in our prayers. Those wicked angels are attracted anytime they see that they can “pick off a pass” from one of God’s children. They are drawn in anytime religious practices which are contrary to Scripture get carried out by anyone.

Always remember this about religion. Fallen angels want people to carry out religious activities, just so long as those activities don’t please the Lord and draw on His power. False religious practices are just as dangerous, if not more so, than living life with no religious practices. The counterfeit activity keeps the person from even thinking about his need for the genuine practice. It would be similar to using counterfeit money, but not knowing the bills are counterfeit. In that situation, why would I try to get genuine bills if I thought the bills I was already using are the real thing? Spiritual counterfeits, like financial counterfeits, always provide a dangerous and false sense of security.

Do some Christians fall prey to unbiblical and unhealthy spiritual practices? Of course. It happens all the time, not only by praying to the departed, but in an assortment of other mystical and magical practices which tend to creep into both Protestant and Catholic traditions. For example, some believers in certain churches have been taught to “sow a seed” of financial giving in order to receive whatever answer to prayer they desire. In essence, rub the bottle and make the genie appear. I don’t think so. It’s fanaticism, plain and simple. Appealing yes, but beneficial no. Just like prayers to the departed, this practice only draws in the participation of the opposing team in the spiritual realm. The Holy Spirit will never be found in such gimmicks by spiritual leaders, who are actually just religious hucksters.

For whatever reason, praying to the departed is equally appealing to many religious people. It energizes folks who do it. They get drawn deeper and deeper into it. Before they know it, they are hooked. But it was not God who led them to start praying to the departed. God never leads anyone to do such a thing.

If any saint who has gone before us is able to compete even slightly in your heart and mind with your focus on the Lord, then the opposing team has accomplished a victory of sorts on the “playing field” of your soul. One of their biggest goals when it comes to religious people, including Christians, is to tempt us to view something or someone other than God as a means of receiving blessings from heaven. If Jesus is not our “all in all,” we will fall for counterfeit methods of being spiritual and attaining grace.

In reality, no one has ever received even a tiny bit of God’s grace or blessing by praying to departed saints. Every one of those “prayer passes” has been intercepted by the other team. That doesn’t seem to stop many people from calling that same legalistic play over and over again. Such is life in the realm of religious fanaticism whenever Protestants or Catholics take their eyes off Christ alone, and utilize magical methods in hopes of achieving spiritual victories.

Prayers to the departed never reach St. Paul, or St. Augustine, or the mother of our Lord, or the brother of our Lord, or St. Francis of Assisi, or any other saint. All those prayers do is attract fallen angels into the spiritual atmosphere around your soul. Those angels hover over anyone who chooses to pray to the dead. It opens a spiritual door through which those angels enter your space. If you have prayed such prayers, simply talk to the Lord about it and ask Him to close any doors you have opened out of ignorance. And choose to be wise from this day forward by only praying to God, but never again to departed saints.

Remember, there is another team on the spiritual playing field and they have an intense hatred for Jesus Christ, and an equally intense fear of Him. After all, He defeated them at the cross. (see Colossians 2:15) These spiritual forces (evil angels) will try just about anything to convince you to seek blessings through someone other than Christ, or in addition to Christ. They can even increase your spiritual feelings and sensations when you do things that invite their participation. Part of the deception is that it makes you feel like you are connecting with those departed saints. Evil spirits can definitely give you a “spiritual buzz” and a real new age experience. That is one reason to never trust feelings, but only trust Jesus as you rely upon God’s objective Word rather than man’s subjective emotions.

How does all of this sound to you? Even if you are not yet totally convinced that praying to departed saints is dangerous, would you be willing to stop doing it “just in case” you are wrong? Or are you already hooked on that magical practice? If so, it’s time to recognize how this religious addiction only leads to interceptions, but never to God-pleasing intercession.

It’s also time to get back to the huddle (God’s Word) and call a new play. You have a receiver on your team who will never allow even one of your passes to Him to be intercepted, and His name is Jesus. If I were you, I would call His number every time. That is the safe play for every Christian.

Come to think of it, why would a Christian even think about throwing to another receiver, even if that man or woman did have a prominent role in Christian history? So what? Don’t start praying to him or her just because God used that person in a special way. No one, and I mean no one, can provide intercession between you and the Father other than Jesus Christ. Believers have access to the Father only because of what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. If you attempt to add or subtract to Christ’s work at Calvary, you miss out on eternal salvation. (see Galatians 3:1-14)

If God wanted His children praying to departed saints, He would have certainly told us so in His Word. That is God’s love letter to His family. He would not have left out something that important. By not placing it in the Bible, but instead warning believers about trying to communicate with the dead, God has made it clear how He feels about His children praying to the departed.

There are saints, and then there is Jesus. There is intercession, and then there are interceptions. Don’t “throw your prayers” where the enemy can pick them off. It is nothing less than spiritual deception to believe that any receiver other than Jesus can actually catch those prayers, and answer them.

Draw near to God with confidence through faith in the blood of Jesus, and resist any temptation you may feel to dabble with a magic formula that involves praying to the departed. While such superstitious prayers will likely increase your spiritual sensations as a result of the presence of fallen angels, it will do nothing to bring you God’s grace or blessing. Do not be deceived just because it happens to be a spiritual activity. There are actually a number of religious practices which attempt contact with dead people, and all of them are extremely dangerous to your soul.

Just because an activity is “spiritual” doesn’t make it beneficial. If that were the case, every religion would lead to God and to heaven. Those other religions are Christ-less. Only Jesus is priceless. You can place full confidence in this approach to prayer because it comes right out of God’s playbook. It’s no wonder the angelic dark side has worked so cleverly over the centuries to seduce religious people to offer prayers to created beings rather than praying only to the Creator Himself.

Dan Delzell is the pastor of Wellspring Lutheran Church in Papillion, Neb. He is a regular contributor to The Christian Post.

Does Mary command Catholic mystics and angels to obey her?

Maria of Agreda was a 17th-century Franciscan nun and spiritual writer. She claimed that private messages were dictated to her by Mary, the humble and “highly favored” (Luke 1:28) mother of our Lord. As a noted mystic of her era, Maria’s best known single work is The Mystical City of God, consisting of eight books.

Endorsed by many renowned Popes, including Pius IX and Pius X, “no other Catholic work has received as much analysis and approval by Church authorities.” The Vatican Secretary of State issued a statement in 1999 assuring Catholics that The Mystical City of God contains no errors of faith or morals.  

Maria was initially reluctant to transcribe the transcendental messages she was receiving. She felt “most unworthy,” and yet somehow, she “resolved and attempted to write of divine and supernatural things” (Introduction, #1). Maria even sought Mary’s assistance:

“I fled in this affliction to our Queen and Lady as to my only refuge in all troubles, and after I had manifested to her my way of life and my desires, she deigned to answer me in these sweetest of words:

‘My daughter, console thyself and do not be disturbed in thy heart on account of this labor; prepare thyself for it and I will be thy Mother and Superior, whom thou shalt obey; and the same I will be to thy subjects. In all thy temptations and troubles, thou shalt take refuge with me, confer about them with me, and take the advice, which I will give thee in all things. Obey me, and I will favor thee and will continue to be attentive to thy affliction.’” (Introduction, #7).

The Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament, and yet never once instructed believers to converse with Mary, pray to her, or obey her. Nevertheless, Maria was convinced that she was in regular dialogue with Mary and with various angels. In her passionate zeal to obey Mary, Maria sought greater revelations. She prayed, “Speak therefore, O Lady, that thy servant may hear with an ardent desire to obey thee” (Introduction, #13).

Maria described a time “the Queen stood near by … and said to me: ‘My daughter; I desire that thou be my disciple and my companion, and I will be thy Teacher; but remember that thou must obey me courageously.’” (The Conception, Chapter 1, #7).

Maria’s response was emphatic. “I prostrated myself before the throne of the King and Queen of the universe and I offered to obey her in all things” (The Conception, Chapter 1, #7).

Does God want Catholics to become Mary’s disciples? According to Maria, even angels must obey Mary. “The holy angels obeyed their Queen and, visible only to her, stood in attendance” (Chapter 22, #762). 

The 17th-century French Roman Catholic priest, Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort, explained: “Mary has the authority over the angels and the blessed in Heaven … God has made her Queen of Heaven and Earth, leader of his armies, keeper of his treasure, dispenser of his graces, mediatrix on behalf of men, destroyer of his enemies …”  

Scripture knows nothing of such fanciful superstitions.

In reality, it was extremely unwise for Maria to pursue conversations with angels. She described “consulting about my doubts with the holy princes and angels, whom the Most High had appointed to direct this work of writing the history of our Queen” (Introduction, #8). “On many other occasions the prince Saint Michael informed me …” (#9). 

Consulting with angels, including one claiming to be Michael the archangel, invites spiritual deception. New Agers often consult with angels. The problem is that fallen angels are skilled at pretending to be someone else, while insisting they have nothing but good intentions. Once they gain a person’s trust, these deceptive angels direct people to place their full confidence in anyone but Christ and his sacrificial death on the cross.

After much dialogue with her invisible spirit guides, Maria expressed her supreme confidence in Mary. She wrote, “In thy hands do I place my salvation, O Mistress and Queen! Do thou take charge of it to the end; for thy desires are holy and powerful on account of the merits of thy most holy Son” (Chapter 19, #311).

The Holy Spirit has never led anyone to place their salvation in the hands of Mary. Such misplaced confidence can stem from conversations with entities who pretend to be holy angels or saints in Heaven. The Apostle John wrote, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). 

Maria dearly wanted her fellow Spaniards to become fully devoted to Mary. She wrote, “would that all thy inhabitants unite in a burning devotion to the most holy Mary! How greatly would thy glory then shine forth! How much wouldst thou be enlightened! How valiantly wouldst thou then be protected and defended by this Queen” (Chapter 19, #306).

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John recorded many words of the Savior. Jesus never once directed his followers to rely upon Mary for assistance or protection. And in Jesus’ seven letters to seven churches in the Book of Revelation, there is not a single reference to Mary. Instead, Jesus addressed matters pertaining to salvation and genuine discipleship, as I explained in my 2014 CP op-ed, “What Would Jesus Say to Churches Today?” 

In comparing The Mystical City of God to Scripture, one points to Mary, and the other to Jesus. 

Did Mary dictate private messages to Maria, or was it a fallen angel claiming to be Mary who convinced Maria to willingly become a medium? It is not uncommon for a medium to go into a trance, “varying from light to deep, permitting spirits to control their mind.” “Throughout the 1620s Maria would repeatedly lapse into deep trances.” “The young Franciscan remained motionless and insensible for two or three hours. The ecstasy came along with levitation. She was elevated from the floor …”

Anthony William is known as the “Medical Medium.” He said, “Give the angels your true consent, and they will intervene.” As one psychic and metaphysical teacher stated: “You need to come from a place of open-heartedness, you need to be willing to ask…you need to be willing to receive the energies that will begin flowing to you.”

If a fallen angel deceived Maria of Agreda, how many other dictated messages or apparitions of Mary have also come from fallen angels? And what about devout Catholics who love Jesus, yet remain enthralled and enchanted by superstitions about Mary, even though such tales are found nowhere in Holy Scripture? Spiritual discernment is needed to see through the fog.

(I addressed a related topic 10 years ago in a CP op-ed titled, “Praying to the Departed Conjures Up Fallen Angels.”)

Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska. 

UFOs, Hyperspace and The Unseen Realm

Years ago I remember talking to a man who was concerned about the environmental future of planet Earth. He was an intelligent, highly educated medical research doctor, and a firm atheist. His “hope” for humanity rested in the colonization of space. He seriously suggested that the planet Mars could be made to support life by exploding nuclear bombs at its poles, breaking up the ice detected there, and somehow creating a life-supporting environment!

This was his faith – his faith, in spite of the fact that the Martian atmosphere consists almost entirely of carbon dioxide and is very thin. Atmospheric pressure is 5,000 times less than that of the Earth’s. Temperatures are much too cold, averaging more than 58 degrees Fahrenheit below zero!

But evolution predicts that life has occurred throughout the Universe “accidentally”, with many different routes toward the culmination of intelligent life. The different imaginations of intelligent life, evolving through different chemistries along different paths – such as those found in the science fiction of Star Wars – should be evident all around us.

This medical research doctor wanted something to hope for other than the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course, there is no personal hope in his scenario, only a collective hope that mankind would be able to continue “evolving” on another planet.

Because of our pride and determined resistance to our Maker, mankind tries to hope for anything that makes us humans the hero. We search for anything that makes no mention of sin and the moral justice required by a Holy God. If human life had somehow been planted on Earth by visiting space aliens in time past, there would be no standard of morality which an all-knowing Creator would require of His “image-bearers”. This absence of accountability to our Creator is the attraction – and temptation – which evolution presents, including the outgrowth idea of space-aliens as “seeding” life on Earth and “guiding” mankind through the “wise men” of history.

Evolution does away with a Creator. At best, there are only “lesser gods” – much like ourselves – that could be “extraterrestrial”. They would be members of the space-time Universe further along the evolutionary ladder in their evolved planetary systems.

Currently this summer, a report is being issued by the U.S. government on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs, aka UFOs). The report includes decades of “incidents” reported by the U.S. military, noting that many are not of American origin.

But the report does not rule out foreign or extraterrestrial origins. So, its conclusions become another incentive for national security, and for more global government!

“We must defend ourselves against another Cold War-type threat of hypersonic weapons that may be able to go in and out of extra-dimensional space” – “hyperspace”, as the science fiction of Star Wars popularized. “Who knows? Extra-terrestrial life may be spying on us, and it might be unfriendly!” There are, indeed, so many things to fear and obsess about if we don’t know the Lord and keep looking to Him!

Hyperspace, in theory, is a set of extra dimensions beyond the three spatial dimensions that we experience daily. These extra dimensions are presumably able to connect distant points in real space and allow for faster-than-light speeds across the Universe. In the Star Wars movies, the characters would cross into “hyperspace drive” to travel quickly in their spacecraft. It’s pure science fiction – just like space aliens.

But the idea of “extra dimensions” carries an important biblical truth: “Interdimensional entities” are a reality! They are beings which can cross from one set of dimensions to another. The Bible – throughout its pages – speaks of angels, fallen angels, demons and the Spirit of God as moving between the four-dimensional time-space continuum (the physical world we live in) and a spiritual dimension that is unseen and unlimited by the space-time Universe.

For example, in Genesis 6 we are told how fallen angels interacted with mankind (inter-dimensionally) to bring a thorough corruption which helped lead to the Great Flood of Noah. Jude, the epistles of Peter, and the apocryphal books of Enoch elaborate on this. Psalm 82 discusses how God stands in a congregation where “He judgeth among the gods (elohim)”, who are being rebuked for ruling with corruption.

These are arguably the “principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6) which, in the study of angels, are power-player beings over the nations in collusion with Satan. This corruption of the nations, of course, led to the fact that God had to select and train His own people-group through the believing Abraham and his descendants (Deuteronomy 32). All of this supernaturalism made sense to the Hebrew worldview and writers of the Bible. But it is more difficult for modern man to be comfortable with – enlightened and limited as we are by a worldview of materialist science.

Implications for “space aliens” ala Star Wars, thus, have a basis for truth in the supernatural/spiritual reality of the God of the Bible. Satan and his fallen-angels hierarchy would like to cater to our sin nature and deceive mankind with misplaced hopes, fears, and false philosophies – thwarting the purposes of God in drawing a special people to Himself.

But our great Creator wants us to be forever united with Jesus Christ and the rest of the saints now and in eternal communion and glory – able not only to “travel safely through hyperspace” but to enjoy the heavenly blessings that He “has prepared for them that love him.” Such blessings are so wonderful that they are beyond what we can possibly imagine! This is truly a hope worth having! — Creation Moments