scripture007

Dear Gramps, I teach the Young Single Adults in Sunday School. Last week, a nanny from Norway asked about Ezekiel 1:4 and whether he saw a UFO. It states “And I looked, and, behold a whirlwind came out the north, a great cloud and a fire unfolding itself, and a brightness was about it ...” Ezekiel goes on to describe a strange craft descending from the sky, noting its resemblance to a spinning wheel and mentioning that it is piloted by a powerful looking being. What is the Church's take on whether Ezekiel was visiting by beings in a UFO? Thank you, Brad Thomson

Dear Brad,

UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object. Since the object described in Ezekiel, Chapter 1, is given only the most cursory description there, and a description of a similar object is found nowhere else, it must by definition be classed as a UFO.

However, I would be very hesitant to compare it with the UFO’s that we hear about today. In the first place, although the description in Ezekiel is fragmentary, it bears no similarity to descriptions of modern UFO’s. It may be more fruitful to focus on the descriptions of the beings associated with the “whirlwind [that] came out of the north.” Apparently both angelic beings and the Lord appeared to Ezekiel on this occasion. It would be an interesting exercise for you to look up all the footnotes in Chapter 1 that refer to the beings described in the chapter. I think you would then have a much more complete picture of what Ezekiel was describing.

Gramps