Steven Spielberg released his latest movie, “Disclosure Day.” It completes his trilogy of extraterrestrial exploits including “Close Encounters” (1977) and “E.T.” (1982). It discloses his personal belief that, “We are not the only intelligent civilization in the universe.” He asks, “What does this do to the fundamental beliefs that many of us have? Is God our God only on this planet?”
Spielberg is clever. His movies are entertaining because they reflect basic human urges. This movie probes the desire for purpose, the need to learn from history, and the drive to be “in the know.”
One of Spielberg’s characters says, “The only way to know your purpose is to go back to where it all began.” How true, if you mean “In the beginning, God created.” In pitching the movie, Spielberg said, “It will remind us…that there is something bigger out there than just ourselves.” But it’s not intelligent aliens, but God who sets the context of our lives and gives us purpose. We are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
Spielberg said, “This is a story about us up against the most extraordinary event in human history,” i.e., the fictional disclosure of the evidence of aliens, hidden in Roswell since 1947. No doubt we should learn from history. Fiction aside, the most extraordinary, hopeful, and life-changing event in human history is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God “has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:3-4).
The human drive to be “in the know” can obscure truth when it doesn’t confirm what you already believe. One character in the film says, “The human race cannot accept what we know” (about aliens). Spielberg commented, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of this turned out to be true…to know all of this is true?” The thing is, you can know what is true. You can know “God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:2-3).
Billy Graham believed the presence of extraterrestrials changes nothing about Christianity’s fundamental beliefs. “I can find nothing that would change our essential faith in the gospel if we did discover life on other planets,” he wrote. “Our Bible is clearly designed for this particular planet with its particular problem of man’s sin.” In other words, the Bible is the full disclosure of what you need to know about God’s creation, the human condition, and eternal life. Embrace the truth and this will be your own disclosure day.