They must have rented District-9 for movie night at the Vatican, because now the Pope’s senior scientific advisor wants to welcome aliens into the church:
The senior Vatican scientist, Brother Guy Consolmagno, said that he would be delighted if we encountered intelligent aliens and would be happy to baptise them.
His pronouncement opens up the possibility of space missionaries heading out to the stars to convert aliens to Christianity.
“God is bigger than just humanity. God is also the god of angels.”
He said the characteristics synonymous with having a soul – intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions may not be unique to humans.
“Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul,’ he said.
While I would personally love to see Jabba the Hutt baptized, it’s never going to happen. In fact, I can say with absolute certainty that we will never discover intelligent aliens (at least not with souls that can be saved).
How can I be so sure? Let’s walk through a few relevant Scripture passages:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
By him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:16-17)
Everything in our universe and every universe was created through Jesus. And everything was created for him, to bring glory to his name and demonstrate his sovereign control. Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper said it this way:
When Jesus looks at his universe from his exalted throne at the right hand of the Father, and he sees the great galaxies whirling in space, the planets and the people upon this planet, and the minute details of our individual lives, there is nothing that he sees anywhere of which he cannot say, “Mine.”
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:20-21)
Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)
God was never born in the likeness of a wookie or a klingon. He became a human so he could die for humans. Contradicting Brother Consolmagno, Hebrews says this:
For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:16-18)
And when Jesus was “made like his brothers,” it was a permanent decision. Hebrews 7:3 says he will be our high priest forever, which means he will be human forever. He will never take on the form of any other species on any other planet.
Which makes the incarnation of Christ all the more mind-blowing. Since the birth of Jesus, God is not just your creator, he’s also your brother. And that will never change.