RELIGIOUS CLOSE ENCOUNTERS [10c]
The Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. In the Judeo-Christian Bible – as found in the Book of Exodus – Moses receives the Ten Commandments from God after disappearing on Mount Sinai for a period of 40 days and 40 nights. When the prophet returns to his people, his appearance has drastically changed.
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“It’s very interesting. He had been around this God for so long, his face was glowing and he had to literally cover himself because people were afraid of him because he had changed, his countenance had changed so much.” – Patrick Cooke (Founder, The Bible UFO Connection) |
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“Basically his people recognize him but also see that he has physically changed, and so, this is very interesting because, if you were to take it from a biblical perspective, you would think that an encounter with God is something nice, something phenomenal, but not that it has physical effects. In the case of the Moses encounter, what you have is something very physical, something very specific, suggestive that what happened to him is a very physical encounter with a deity. An extraterrestrial being rather than what we would generally classify as divine.” – Philip Coppens |
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“If we look at it from the context of today’s alien abduction stories, you know, was God coming down from the sky actually a UFO descending? Was he taken aboard, abducted onto a UFO, and held for I think, you know, if we look at it in that context, we’ve got what sounds like a classic abduction.” – Nick Redfern (Author, Memoirs of a Monster Hunter), |
Could the biblical accounts of Enoch and Moses suggest an extraterrestrial agenda one where alien beings communicate messages of peace and harmony with humans?
Northeast Syria. The Khabur River. According to the Hebrew Bible, it was here, in the 6th-century BC, that divine beings descended from heaven and made contact with a 30-year-old Hebrew priest named Ezekiel.
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“Ezekiel was by the river Chebar and he said a great whirlwind came toward him. He described it as a fire enfolding itself, and out of the fire was the color of amber, which is the Hebrew word which means “polished specter of metal,” which implies that it’s metallic, and that it’s spinning and it lands in front of him, right directly in front of him, and suddenly, out of this whirlwind come four creatures.” – Patrick Cooke (Founder, The Bible UFO Connection) |
In the Bible, the prophet Ezekiel calls these spiritual beings cherubims and describes them as having four faces, four wings, and skin that shone like polished bronze.
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“Ezekiel says that he was taken up into the sky and taken to different places where he could see different things. And then he was told some of the future things that were going to come.” – Rev. Barry H. Downing |
But what, in fact, was the mysterious object that touched down in front of Ezekiel and lifted him up to the sky? And who were the strange beings that emerged and shared a vision of the future with the prophet?
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“He described it was the likeness of a man, but they seem to have different faces on them of different animals, and some people have interpreted that as perhaps even like a space suit. You know, imagine the helmet, oxygen mask, that kind of thing. Could he have been actually seeing something that was a face but didn’t look like a face normally looks?” – Nick Redfern (Author, Memoirs of a Monster Hunter), |
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“He’s got the best description of a UFO that’s anywhere in the Bible because he basically says that the thing looked like a wheel within a wheel, kind of a classic flying saucer description.” – Rev. Barry H. Downing |
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“It’s basically the account of a guy who has been abducted, who has been told certain things, and who is then returned to the place of origin. It would be what we today would describe as an abduction account.” – Philip Coppens |
Could it be that the prophet Ezekiel’s account of a heavenly close encounter might have been something else perhaps one not involving heavenly beings but visitors of another, interplanetary nature? If so, what might this suggest about other biblical accounts of similarly strange encounters?
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“In the book of Jonah, there is a character that was called by God to do a mission, but he didn’t want to do it. He tried to travel away from his destiny. God intervened. He brought a storm. The sailors grew afraid and they threw him overboard. He was swallowed up by a great fish. He was in the belly for three days and three nights and finally coughed up on the shore.” – Jonathan Young, Ph.D. |
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“The story of Jonah and the whale, where Jonah had this transformatory experience in my opinion, it was some type of a submarine or some type of a craft, and what’s even more fascinating is that, in the apocryphic texts, we can read that the skin and the ribs of that whale were made of shiny bronze. What Jonah described was, in fact, some type of a mechanical apparatus.” – Giorgio A. Tsoukalos |
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“He is swallowed by a big fish and lives in the belly of the fish for three days. This doesn’t seem very probable, and we do know that modern UFOs do go in the water as well as in the air. They seem to be able to go anywhere they want, so the idea that a UFO might have swallowed up Jonah instead of a fish it makes sense.” – Rev. Barry H. Downing |
Do the Old Testament stories of Ezekiel and Jonah actually offer proof of extraterrestrial contact with technically advanced but relatively harmless entities? And if so, then what are we to make of similar accounts of humans who are physically abducted and taken to other dimensions? Ancient Astronaut Theorists believe the answers can be found by taking a closer look at the tale of Muhammad and his encounter with an angelic being.
600 BC. The ancient city of Mecca. Historical Islamic accounts in the Hadith say that Muhammad, the last great prophet, was sent by God to unite the Arabian Peninsula tribes under a single religion of Islam. Before forming Islam, Muhammad is said to have retreated to a mountain cave where he received a series of revelations from God.
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“Muhammad would take a period of time each year to reflect and pray in a cave in the mountains nearby. During one of these retreats, the angel Gabriel came to him and had a prophecy for him and was his guide throughout his ministry.” – Jonathan Young, Ph.D. |
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“The angel Gabriel is somebody who is known in the Old Testament. He makes appearances there. He also announces the birth of Jesus and John the Baptist in a Christian context. Now, when it comes to Muhammad, we’re seeing that this angel is, all of a sudden, far more important.” – Philip Coppens |
According to Muslim legend, Muhammad formed an intense relationship with Gabriel. During one of Muhammad’s retreats, Gabriel is said to have given the prophet the complete text to the Koran.
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“In the case of Muhammad, what we’re seeing is he stays with him for 23 years. He reveals the Koran to him. And it really, once again, shows you that there are these messengers of the gods, these entities who come to us human beings and say, ‘You are chosen. If you’re willing to listen to us and work with us, we will actually teach you information about the divine.’” – Philip Coppens |
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“Now, the angel said to Muhammad, “I will take you with me.” And they fly over the earth. He sees the whole planet. They circle the Earth. And then the angel brings Muhammad back to the cave. They were surrounding the Earth very, very quick, because it probably took one, one and a half minute, the whole surrounding around the Earth.” – Erich von Däniken (Author, Chariots of the Gods?) |
Is it possible, as some Ancient Astronaut Theorists believe, that Muhammad was repeatedly taken and seeded with information over time in a series of extraterrestrial abductions? Researchers point to one particular interaction between Gabriel and Muhammad, when the prophet flees the holy city of Mecca in the direction of Jerusalem.
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“The angel Gabriel came to Mohammad with a creature, a winged horse, the Buraq, who was able to fly him to Jerusalem some distance. It was called “the farthest mosque.” And they meditated there for a time. And then, after some time of visit there, he went to heaven and was able to visit with the prophets, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and then with Yahweh, Allah, God himself, and get insights and inspiration, then came back from the heavens to Jerusalem and back from Jerusalem to Mecca, completely inspired for his further teachings.” – Jonathan Young, Ph.D. |
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“It is said that he goes from Mecca to Jerusalem in a single night. This is a physical impossibility. It simply cannot be. Now, rather than take this allegorically, if we take it literally, we’re actually given the tools and the explanation as to why this might have been possible. We’re actually told that he did this with the help of the angel Gabriel.” – Philip Coppens |
Might this tale describe a physical abduction in which Muhammad is taken to other dimensions, including heaven, by the angel Gabriel? Could there be more to this than a misinterpreted account? Ancient Astronaut Theorists say the answer is yes and claim that evidence is found in mysterious disappearances documented in an area of the Atlantic Ocean known as the Bermuda Triangle.
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References:
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[10a] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.9 – Strange Abductions. [DVD Footage: Introduction]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [10b] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.9 – Strange Abductions. [DVD Footage: Close Encounters of the 4th-Kind]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [10c] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.9 – Strange Abductions. [DVD Footage: Religious Close Encounters]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [10d] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.9 – Strange Abductions. [DVD Footage: Bermuda Triangle]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [10e] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.9 – Strange Abductions. [DVD Footage: CE-5’s: Psychic Abductions]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. [10f] Prometheus Entertainment. (2013). Ancient Aliens: 5.9 – Strange Abductions. [DVD Footage: Alien Agenda]. Los Angeles, CA: A&E Networks, LLC / History™. |
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