Monday 24 October 2011

A Klingon Christ?

What means this Nicene Creed, P'tahk?
It's a question that has surely bothered many of us.  How many sleepless nights have you spent worrying whether Jesus died to save all sentient species, or just the human population of planet Terra.

What about Klingons, Romulans and Vulcans?  Is Mr. Spock able to enter the pearly gates? Has God incarnated himself separately in gigs on all possible worlds - a kind of universal road show?

Okay, so Spock and co. are fictional creations, but the multiverse is - it seems - a pretty big place, and ETs are likely to be out there somewhere, right?

It's nice to see a heavyweight theologian tackle the big question.  Professor Christian Weidemann is on the case. May the Force be with him.

It makes a nice change from the usual stuff German theologians concern themselves with.  Read about it yourself in Britain's Daily Mail.

12 comments:

  1. Scripture said the Messiah died once for all. Done. I wondered about that as a lad in the Lutheran Church and made up my own mind then that Extraterrestrials already had salvation.

    The problem as I see it, though, is getting them the message. How do we ask them, "Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior, and accepted him into your hearts?".

    For those of us in the United States concerned with Aliens, we can start with Canadians.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Then there is the complicated matter of the Holyday Calendar in remote galaxies scattered across the universe: What if they have no moon or what if they have multiple moons? What if the moon circles the planet twice a day?

    We have difficulty enough with churches deciding when the New Moon is, think how complicated it gets for Extraterrestial Aliens!

    It's bad enough that the Fall Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated in the Spring in Australia -- what about seasons on other planets which may have unimaginable configurations? What if there is no early barley harvest? What if they've never heard of barley? What if they don't have hearing and communicate in other ways? How can they have faith without the hearing of the Word?

    Perhaps some End Time Apostle here can give them pragmatic answers to problems we can't even understand. It seems likely they would without understanding one thing about the world of which they speak, just as they do today.

    And who knows?

    Some of these Extraterrestrial Aliens may bring the final Armagedon those same End Time Apostles so sigh and cry for.

    ReplyDelete
  3. One wonders what the standards of clean and unclean meats for saved sentients might be on planets in distant galaxies where biology is completely different?

    While we are at it, how will artificial sentient life forms be viewed by the religious? Will they have a savior who died for them, if they have free will? Can androids be redeemed from sin?

    Never happen?

    Never be sure about that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Extraterrestrials? What about all the other people who didn't descend from Adam and Eve right here on Terra?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey, whatever is out there is all part of God's creation. If indeed we humans are spiritual beings having a physical experience or adventure, then it makes sense that God could have various hologramatic stages on which his children get to experience those adventures.

    God is multifaceted, but His character remains the same. In the WCG, we did not understand that. We were taught that His basic approach and each of His edicts and covenants remained a constant, each rolling into the next improved one with little or no modification. That was a severe anthropomorphic limitation of God, and the sheer illogic of it fomented either intense false belief in some, or disbelief and disillusionment in others. There are those who believe that God is simply HWA on steroids. Not true!

    BB

    ReplyDelete
  6. This reminds me of the old Larry Norman song "UFO". The lyrics went:
    "and if there's life on other planets
    then I'm sure that He must know
    and He's been there once already
    and has died to save their souls"

    I guess the implication is that Jesus is 100% God and 100% human and 100% klingon and ... etc

    ReplyDelete
  7. What about the people on Terra Nova who went back in time 20 million years?

    Pre Old Testament Christians?

    ReplyDelete
  8. In NZ Terra Nova is on the new season schedule for TV3, though I'm not sure exactly when its due to go to air. Am hoping it lives up to the hype.

    ReplyDelete
  9. >>For those of us in the United States concerned with Aliens, we can start with Canadians.<<

    Dougie, Dougie, Dougie. Have you been smoking the funny cigarettes again, or just rereading The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch?

    >>it makes sense that God could have various hologramatic stages<<

    OK, maybe Bob is the one reading too much science fiction.

    >>There are those who believe that God is simply HWA on steroids.<<

    Unfortunately, this is correct. Fortunately (for the Church) these people were never converted in the first place, and continue to
    demonstrate their bad fruits in the present. (IMNSHO.)

    Example? A recent sermon from the follower of a retired minister, whose "reign on Earth" is to style himself after Moses (as opposed to, say, James or Peter or Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John...) wherein said follower used the gut-clenching phrase (I do not jest)

    "Herbert Armstrong ... our Father in Jesus Christ."

    Wrong Father, doofuses. But these people also think we are only up to the times of the Chronicles and the books of the Kings, in prophecy. Clearly they have not read far enough ahead in the Book!

    >>In NZ Terra Nova is on the new season schedule for TV3, though I'm not sure exactly when its due to go to air. Am hoping it lives up to the hype.<<

    It doesn't. It sucks, I'm sorry to say. Not to mention the great gaping scientific, plot, and just general logic holes that the first 10 minutes contained....I switched it off, after that. YMMV.

    As for the "burning" question of the moment, how small must this German fellow's false Christ be, that He has to be re-sacrificed on every single inhabited planet?!?!?

    Then again, the Communion-drinkers believe they are re-sacrificing Christ every time they drink His blood....Which, in the first place, isn't clean, and in the second place, didn't their favourite Apostle Paul, have something to say, about NOT "crucifying Christ afresh?" And, the third objection (unholy trinity FTW), requiring a "re-sacrifice" of Christ as Communion does, negates the "once for all, and God really does mean ALL here, people" assertion in the Book itself.

    Finally, I cannot believe you people sucked me in to getting a GMail account again. I loathe you all. (Said with love. But not the smarmy kind.) :-P

    PH the un-PC

    ReplyDelete
  10. Terra Nova's pretty good...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Larry,

    I'm sorry to say, your taste in science fiction is atrocious. :-) Pick up a book!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yes, Terra Nova is kind of hokie, but entertaining. BTW, I read at least one book a week, sometimes more.

    ReplyDelete