High Strangeness and a Christian Response

High strangeness is, undoubtedly, highly intriguing. Stories about UFOs, Mothman, Bigfoot, and so on, are incredibly captivating for many. Countless “reality” shows have been dedicated to documenting the findings and stories of those who claim to have witnessed these highly strange phenomena.

To some extent, it seems that high strangeness has existed for a long time. For example, the Bible tells of how the disciples, terrified in the middle of a raging storm, were shocked to see Jesus walking upon the water, believing Him instead to have been a ghost (Matt. 14:26-31). Later, in the book of Acts, the Lord miraculously frees Peter from his prison and, when he returns to the disciples who had been praying for his release, the girl (Rhoda) at the door mistakes Peter for either his guardian angel or his ghost (Acts 12:13-25).

We even encounter the witch of Endor in 1 Samuel 28, who conjured up the spirit of Samuel the prophet for Saul the king. The Bible also warns us against practicing divination, witchery, wizardry, necromancy, and consultation with familiar spirits (Deut. 18:10-11). And, as early as Genesis 6, the Bible speaks of Nephilim, giants, and heroes of renown.

Not only is high strangeness ancient; it appears, frankly, to be Biblical.

The question, however, is what are Christians in the twenty-first century supposed to think about these things? There is a danger, on one side, to totally ignore them and, in a scientific and snooty sort of way, to balk at those who pay attention to such things as ignoramuses and doofuses. On the other hand, there is a danger of becoming obsessed with the strange and fantastical that we either neglect the great doctrines of salvation, open ourselves to great wickedness and evil or totally get our eyes off Christ.

So, again, how should Christians respond to high strangeness? There are four acknowledgments we should make.

Though this seems obvious, it must be stated at the forefront. We are children of the Enlightenment far more than we realize. We often scoff at the supernatural and spiritual, believing ourselves to be so sophisticated that we could never believe in such childish fantasies.

The problem, however, is that there are historical cases, documented evidence, and the Bible itself that point us to the reality of the supernatural and the unseen realm. As the saying goes: truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

One brief proof to note is this: God would have little reason to explicitly warn His people, time and again, to not practice wizardry and witchery if it were not something that people practiced. In fact, the story of the witch of Endor somehow conjuring up something is proof enough that there is an unseen realm that we understand little of.

Consider also how the Apostle Paul spends a good deal of his time in Ephesians 6, which is by reminding us that our warfare as Christians is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual principalities (Eph. 6:12). In 1 Corinthians 10:20, Paul tells  Christians that, though idols are not true gods at all, those who sacrifice to them actually sacrifice to demons. And remarkably,  despite that the Gospels contain numerous examples of Jesus casting out demons, many of us live our Christian lives as if demons do not exist nor influence people.

Even still, the fact is that the unseen realm is real, and, at the very least, some of the high strangeness that we encounter in this world is a peeling back of the veil into this unseen realm.  be equipped to fight the good fight of faith well, we must be aware of that realm’s existence.

I have often been concerned that Christians today have effectively become Gnostics. That is to say, many Christians think only in terms of the spiritual, totally neglecting the good of this physical world that God created for us to inhabit. While it is true that to be spiritually minded is life, while to be carnally minded is death (Rom. 8:6), God has also created us to be both flesh and blood. Both the physical and the spiritual do matter.

However, when it comes to the supernatural, we sometimes like to pretend that such things either do not exist or are only figments from the far-distant past. We love to talk about Heaven and streets of gold, but when it comes to talk of the supernatural invading the natural, we are far more hesitant to speak.

Yet, we cannot hope to don The Full Armor of God, withstand the attacks of the evil one, or tear down spiritual strongholds with The Gospel if we fail to acknowledge the spiritual war in which we are engaged which takes place in the unseen realm - a realm that is every bit as real as this physical world we see. We need to know our enemy, and Satan is as crafty as they come.

Deuteronomy 29:29 offers us a great reminder that we do not know everything. Secret things belong to God, but those things that He has revealed are ours to search and find out.

The truth is this: most of us cannot definitively explain why so many people claim to see Bigfoot or that UFOs are flying overhead, or give some signs of demonic activity. Surely some of these things are false, but, knowing what we know of Scripture, we cannot dismiss and discount these highly strange phenomena as being false. Some of them are real.

Simply because we do not and cannot know everything, there are many times when we must simply entrust ourselves to our faithful God. It would be easy, perhaps, to turn back the clock to the fifteenth century and jump at every shadow that crosses our path in the woods or startle at every bump in the night, but Luther’s A Mighty Fortress is Our God reminds us of the great truth that, though we may not understand all the attacks and ploys of the evil one, our God is faithful and strong to save.

God is our mighty fortress in whom we can take refuge.

In Acts 14:17, we are told that God, “did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.” God has given us many bountiful blessings to attest to His own existence and power in the world. Yet, like all good things, bountiful blessings may, at times, take our eyes from Christ so that we rejoice more in the gifts than we do in The Gift Giver.

Highly strange phenomena are a lot like this. I love stories of divine providence at work on battlefields, and hearing stories of how incredibly strange things happened that caused the tides of war to shift in favor of the winning side. Often, these stories clearly reveal that God is still at work, actively ordaining all that comes to pass in this world. Such events should cause us to praise The Lord.

But the danger is clear, too. We can become so obsessed with the phenomena that we fail to recognize the goodness and glory of God. We can lose sight of Christ as we focus on the phenomena, and we can effectively end up worshiping the phenomena in place of God.

We must never forget 2 Peter 2:19, “...by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” We must not be overcome by these highly strange phenomena, but must instead understand them for what they are: proof that the supernatural, unseen realm exists, and, though we do not know everything, we can trust in God to defend us and fight for us in the spiritual war in which we are engaged.

JACOB TANNER
1689 Federalism | Post Millennialism
Jacob Tanner serves as the pastor of Christ Keystone Church located in Middleburg, PA. He lives with his wife, Kayla, and they are parents to two sons, Josiah and Owen. Jacob earned his M.Div from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2023 and has also authored several books.