Disclosure Day or Deception Day? A Biblical Look at the UFO Film

With a Subtitle: Exposing the demonic deception behind Spielberg's new film about extraterrestrial life.

A brief Excerpt: Spielberg's new UFO film opens the same day the Pentagon releases declassified files, selling humanity a counterfeit gospel of cosmic enlightenment. A Biblical look at what it is really teaching.

The Author is: Debra Hodges

Editor’s note – Few cultural currents are moving faster right now than the push to treat extraterrestrial life as settled fact, and Hollywood is glad to supply the imagery. Debra Hodges takes Spielberg’s latest film and asks the question a Biblical worldview forces on us: not merely whether it is true, but what it is training us to believe about God, about ourselves, and about where our hope comes from. We run this piece because discernment is not paranoia. It is loving the truth enough to weigh the story we are being sold against Scripture.

Introduction

Spoiler alert! If you haven’t seen this movie yet and you want to, you may want to skip this article, because I’m going to talk about several scenes in it. Spielberg’s new film, released to the public the same day that the Pentagon released a new set of declassified UFO files, is meant to capitalize on public interest and suggest that humanity is on the verge of “first contact.” The declassified material offers no proof of alien life or craft, but leaves it to the public to make up their own minds about extraterrestrial life. [1]

Background

The movie capitalizes on modern society’s UFO anxiety and some people’s suspicions that aliens and their craft have been discovered, and the government has been hiding this evidence for decades. The movie suggests that aliens seeded life on Earth and emphasizes how this knowledge would affect people’s faith and humanity’s place in the universe. It also includes scenes where a man and a woman are shown remembering when aliens abducted them as children and imparted advanced knowledge to them. The young girl develops an extreme capacity for empathy, and the young boy gains an extreme knowledge of mathematics, which Hugo (the main character’s spiritual guide and protector) describes as “the language of the universe.”

An Old Lie Repackaged as Truth Disclosed

The movie suggests that these advanced aliens desire to give humanity this advanced knowledge to usher in a new age of enlightenment and enable people to be like gods. What does this sound like to you? To me, it echoes the same lie the serpent told Eve in the garden, “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). The film subtly suggests, through science fiction, that the Creator of the universe can be replaced by aliens with godlike powers.

Christians have known for centuries that we are not alone in the universe. The entire Bible speaks of another realm existing, replete with spiritual beings who, like humans, have free will to choose good or evil. Many Christians believe that aliens are actually demons doing Satan’s bidding, who are doing a good job of perpetrating this deception. For more proof of this, please see my article “Aliens or Demons?”

Editor’s note – Notice how old the new idea is. The promise that hidden knowledge will let us become gods is the serpent’s pitch in Genesis 3, merely dressed in chrome and starlight. Every counterfeit gospel eventually circles back to that first lie, because the enemy has never had any newer material.

Interstellar Travel Is Not Routine

In several scenes, you see footage of crashed alien spaceships and live aliens, making it seem like interstellar travel is as routine as taking the subway to work. But real science makes it clear that the vast distances between stars make reaching them impossible. Research shows that the fastest rockets we have can probably reach up to 150,000 miles per hour. At that speed, it would take astronauts about 72,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to our sun. [2] Science fiction writers imagine we could reach the stars via wormholes, but there’s no scientific proof that they exist or that travel through them would be possible. [3] Humanity’s longing for space exploration may simply be a manifestation of our longing to be with our Creator, because as the Bible says:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Editor’s note – Debra’s point about the ache for the stars is worth sitting with. The longing is real; the destination is misread. We were made for our Creator, and no rocket closes that distance. Ecclesiastes names it plainly: He has set eternity in our hearts.

Unidentified Does Not Mean Alien

For years now, no verified proof of alien spacecraft or extraterrestrial beings has been produced. Recently released declassified information about UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) only shows that these sightings are unidentified, not extraterrestrial. This film attempts to exploit these government disclosures to persuade people that aliens have already contacted humanity. This film may stir people up to think we’re missing out on advanced knowledge due to a supposed intentional cover-up of the evidence.

In reality, the supernatural is real because God is real. So what is behind all these reports of alien encounters and abductions? The Bible explains that demonic beings can deceive humanity by appearing as higher beings offering forbidden knowledge.

For Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

This film glorifies the idea that it’s the aliens’ job to enlighten humanity with a counterfeit gospel of cosmic knowledge and evolution. That’s why Jesus said, See to it that no one deceives you (Matthew 24:4). And that’s why Paul warned us not to let the gospel of Christ be replaced with another gospel.

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed (Galatians 1:6-9).

Editor’s note – The warning that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light is not a relic of a less sophisticated age. A message of cosmic enlightenment that quietly removes the cross is exactly the kind of bright, appealing deception Paul had in mind. Test every spirit, however luminous it appears.

Conclusion

Disclosure Day is full of action, visually stimulating, and emotionally stirring, but it’s definitely spiritually misleading. It feeds people’s egos by giving them hope for the betterment of mankind through extraterrestrial beings rather than the true source of light and truth, Jesus Christ. People need to see that the truth about mankind and its future has already been disclosed to us; the Bible records this disclosure from cover to cover. In it, God revealed the truth about Himself, about us, and about His plan of redemption to secure our eternal destiny. Aliens have not and never will save us. Our salvation has already come in the person of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World (John 8:12).

References

1. Pentagon begins releasing new files on UFOs and says people can “make up their own minds.” (2026, May 8). PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/pentagon-begins-releasing-new-files-on-ufos-and-says-people-can-make-up-their-own-minds
2. StenBlog. (2024, December 4). How long would it take to get to the nearest star? | Sten’s Space Blog. https://sten.astronomycafe.net/how-long-would-it-take-to-get-to-the-nearest-star/
3. News. (2024, October 15). Interstellar Space Travel: But why not dream? Mind Matters. https://mindmatters.ai/2024/06/interstellar-space-travel-but-why-not-dream/

A Word from the Editor
Disclosure is the right word and the wrong day. God has already disclosed Himself, fully and finally, in His Son. The Light of the World has come, and no counterfeit light from the sky can improve on Him. If you find yourself drawn to stories of beings who arrive to rescue and enlighten humanity, take it as a signpost rather than a destination: the longing is true, and it already has a name. Scripture calls Him the true Light who gives light to everyone (John 1:9).