Alien Missionaries
by Jody L. Apple

In recent days we have been overrun with reports about "life on Mars." If you just "tuned in," you might think Orson Welles was alive again re-running his famous "War of The Worlds" radio broadcast. But, no, that's not what's going on.

A couple of years ago a meteorite, allegedly originating from Mars, struck the earth. After analyzing the chemical structure of the meteorite, some scientists have opined that it contains evidence that demonstrates "life" existed in the distant past on that planet. Others, to say the least, think the conclusion is quite independent of the evidence, but that never stopped a good headline or two from being made along the way.

I thought I heard a lot of far-fetched ideas about the matter over the last few weeks, but then I read an article in the Delaware County Daily Times religious section recently. Tony Campolo, a popular religious speaker, instructor at Eastern College in St. Davids, PA, and friend of the President of The United States, said: "There's a cosmic dimension to salvation. There's a cosmic design. It just may be that Earth is a place where the most important drama of the salvation story was acted out, but the salvation of God extends far beyond the limitations of our minds."

What does Mr. Campolo mean? Is God working out matters of salvation somewhere else in His creation? That's what it sounds like, doesn't it?

The article also quotes David Byers, executive director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Science and Human Values as saying "I remember, when I was about 10 or 12, thinking if I ever ran into an alien, my first question would be: 'Who's Jesus,' and see what they said." Mr. Byers also said that we might have a lot to learn from aliens if we discovered that they were from an "unfallen, an angelic race." I suppose God's written revelation given for the purpose of telling us who Jesus was, and what God's plan is, is insufficient to do the job.

Wild ideas? Not wild enough? How about this? Speaking of Mr. Campolo's imagination, the article states: "Indulging his own imagination, Campolo said he could envision a scenario where God - tired of the mess human beings had created in this world - would send beings from another planet to help people learn to love one another. 'We've always looked at ourselves as people sending out missionaries,' Campolos said. 'Maybe we need to receive a few at this point in history.' "

God, "tired of the mess human beings had created in this world" during Noah's day, did not send aliens to straighten everything out. He did, however, let Noah, a preacher of righteousness, tell the world what God wanted. He also sent Jonah to Nineveh, Isaiah to Judah and Micaiah to Israel, but I suppose he could have sent aliens instead.

I don't know what Bible Tony Campolo uses, but I'm pretty sure that there exists not one hint of it saying that God ever thought of, let alone planned, to send alien missionaries to tell mankind about the message of redemption that is through, and in, Christ.

I do read, however, where early Christians preached the word (Acts 8:4; 11:19) and where Timothy was taught to train others to teach (2 Timothy 2:2). But, maybe we need aliens to help us out...after all, the job's not being done as well as it should be.

Let's stop praying for workers for the harvest (Mt 9:37-38), and start praying for aliens to start revealing God's will instead instead.